Slitherkin

It may have been.... oh.... maybe. 50 or so years since the discovery of the first specimen. More famous in a far-off museum than with the locals not so far off from where it happened. People have known for the longest while; of the giant jars sticking halfway out the soft marshy ground. And every year when the ground thaws, the jars shift and hardly anyone paid much attention.
Till a gaggle of children leaping from one pot to another finally broke off a lid; and in fell a terrified child face to face with a dead legend. Apparently; fitted inside, tail first; the head sat in what must have been quite snugly at the center. Its tail coiling about itself in a style reminiscent of our own mosaics. One can envision a sort-of dance the corpse handlers might have done with the deceased, in order to position it properly inside the stone jar.
It is here now; in a museum far away from its home. Stretched out on a specially carved pedestal for all to see. Skull crashed from when the child fell. Named Picong, the specimen seems to have a larger than normal head, broad torso, two arms, a rib cage that continued over it's hip and larger than average vertebrae that continued in its predictable snake-like form, from the neck to a tail tip.

Basic Information

Anatomy

From the skeletal structures found in the stone jars half buried in the Wilds. It can be determined that from the 400-800 vertebra, and as many ribs, the Kin were incredibly muscular. Legends say that violate tides twisted and pulled at the Kins' legs to give them their serpentine halfs, and skeletal reconstructions do reveal vestiges of hind legs and hipbones.

Genetics and Reproduction

Assumed to be similar to large snakes

Growth Rate & Stages

Unknown

Ecology and Habitats

It would, of course, be forever unknown to us what it was like so many millennia ago. But as we have continuously compared the Kin to snakes, we can assume that they too would have preferred marshy in their current state.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Widely believed to be carnivorous

Biological Cycle

For this part, we can only speculate. Again, living specimens stand in substitute. Reptiles, amphibians and current human reactions (to be thorough) are tested under conditions we think we might expect. Obviously, the environmental changes had wiped them out, but it may have been a grueling slog; as their physiology would have slowed in a futile attempt to out last the coming cold. Not at all unlike some frogs and snakes who survive in the Cold Swamp today.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Unspecified

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Grave robbers have been caught trying to raid the Jars for the Kin bones inside for supposed aphrodisiac potions

Facial characteristics

Depicted as humanoid

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Uncertain, but their last retreat is storied to be the area known locally as the 'Wet Wilds'

Average Intelligence

Unknown; but they ritually buried their dead in huge stone jars, so we can expect that they understood the concept of death

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Zoologist have long suspected that normal snakes, big ad small, do possess some extrasensory perception, so it can stand to reason that the Kin might also. Although, just as much reasoning can be put forward against this notation given the Kin's human roots.

Civilization and Culture

History

The serpentine Kin, born from the peoples who found a measure of safety from the divine torrents (but not totally), were believed to be the remnants what remained of a long gone era. But until fairly recently, there was never any physical proof of their existence. And, honestly, no one was looking for it. Not out of fear of what might be found, but out of disbelief that the Kin were anything but a story.

Common Myths and Legends

Much like all times before and since, the Gods have made and remade men as often as they have made and remade the sun. With the dying of the Yellow Sun; Chalchiuhtlicue, the Jade Lady, was raised to the White Sun to take Tezcatlipoca's place. And in her honor, the new men were shaped from seaside jade and they flourished. But as before; when a sun dies, calamity strikes the earth be it fire, wind or quakes. For the end of the White Sun Era; there was flood so volatile, it turned the jade men into snakes who continue on sliding on their bellies.

EXTINCT

Origin/Ancestry

Humans from the W.S. era

Lifespan

Assumed the same as a human ~50 yrs

Average Height

Insufficient and variable measurements

Average Weight

Estimation suggest 200-500 stones

Average Length

Longest found skeleton measured (6-8 meters)

Average Physique

Uncertain

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Often depicted with a green or black hue