Island Turtle

The island turtles were a species of gargantuan turtles that lived during the time of darkness. It is believed that these turtles were ancient islands given life by the Lightborn before they descended from the Celestial Realm, as a reward for surviving the wrath of the spirit of the ocean.
Island turtles could be as large as Solstice Island of the Polar Islands. Two distinct variants existed, one with the anatomy of a sea turtle, but the head and tail of a lung dragon, and another with the anatomy of a land tortoise, but the head of an element-born dragon, specifically like those of Earth- and Flame-born dragons. Only the center area of the lung turtle's shell would be above water, while the entirety of an element-turtle's shell would be dry, due to them being tall enough to walk on somewhat-shallow seabeds and swimming with it exposed, unlike the diving of a lung turtle. Island turtles have been known by many names. They were called Tartugas by the Wingbeat Empire, and Zaratans by the Snow elves.
It is unknown how the island turtles went extinct, but there are several theories. The most widely supported theory is that the spirit of the land did not like how the turtles were not of land, sea or sky, since they carried life on their backs but moved around the world’s waterways. Because they led a life between land and sea, the land spirit cursed them to lay not eggs bu stones, and therefore doomed them to extinction.

The fossils of these island turtles are very rare, as both variants are extraordinarily hard to find. The lung turtle’s bones & shells are heavy, leading them to sink down to the bottom of the ocean & seas. The element-turtle’s bodies seem to have reverted into stone and earth, and appear as regular islands. Recently, the Island of Crestos off the coast of Ravai has proven to be the remains of a great element-turtle. Named ‘Eldest of East’ by ancient dwarven inscriptions carved into the shell around the head, this turtle is the largest of its species ever found. The largest lung-turtle found was a beast as large as the Atideen basin, discovered due north of Linus Island of the Kracon archipelago. Named ‘Anxin’, quiet heart in Kracese, the great turtle lived during the reign of the Wingbeat Empire, and before the eruption of Mt. Imrannoris. It’s bones sit at the bottom of a great impact crater, thought to have formerly been Anxin’s nest.