Ryknix

Ryknix

Appearance

Ryknix are a bat-like species that have very little to do with bats outside of their shape and the ability to echo locate. Ryknix do not use calcified bones but instead have more in common with crustaceans and insects in that they use various forms of something similar to chitin for bones, skin, and fur.

Their coloration comes from metal complexes in their fur. These complexes are responsible for shuttling and sequestering otherwise toxic levels of ions such as copper, nickel, and iron. Ryknix raised away from Rykna have white fur with black markings.

Space faring ryknix are sometimes called ghost ryknix because of their white fur. Blue and green ryknix dominate Rykna, their colors coming from copper and nickel in their food and water. Near the planet's equator lies a more lush and brutal region where iron is most prevalent, and this results in blood red or rusty colored ryknix that are known for their strength and their brutality, traits needed for survival in that band.

Ryknix possess a series of dots on their back that that glow with blue-green luminescence. These spots are an evolutionary adaptation that helps protect them from predation on the ground. These glowing spots mimic the pattern of heat and light that belongs of one of the largest predators on the planet, and when a ryknix has their back to some would-be attacker, they can often be fooled into thinking there is something deadly in front of them. The spots on a ryknix always glow unless they are extremely ill or dead. The particular details of the glow spots and their temperature range also let ryknix identify each other.

Ryknix bones and teeth are black, and this can be quite intimidating to some. They also have silvery eyes with no obvious features. These eyes see in terms of infrared down in the region that could be called heat vision. They often have to augment this with echolocation, but between the two they have a great deal of awareness of their surroundings.

Ryknix have only one pair of digits for gripping anything on their wings and so they tend to use their prehensile feet for most other tasks

Anatomy

Digestive adaptations

Ryknix digestion consists of a primary, neutral pH stomach containing a handful of enzymes and natural detergents, After this stomach, the reduced slurry moves through and acidified spiral valve structure before ending in a basic intestine. This allows ryknix to extract a great deal of nutrition from their meals, but it also means that wandering ryknix away from their homeworld can run into trouble with bones.

Cardiovascular

Ryknix have partially redundant heart structures that allow them to sustain injury and failure in up to a third of the simple subunits of their heart before they become too weak to survive hunting and being hunted. Their lung structure is bird-like in that air flows only one way through it by means of air sacks and valves. This also helps to lighten their bodies, and like many flying creatures, she is light for her size.

Ryknix use a copper based oxygen carrier which gives them a blue hued blood and also means that when they blush, they blush blue and not red or pink. This shows most in their wings and their ears. Regardless of coat color, this color will show inside the ears and to a lesser extent in their wing membranes.

Reproductive

Ryknix females have a bifurcated uterus, and twins are the most common birth among ryknix, but only about seventy percent of offspring survive to adulthood with predation being the major cause of death. Ryknix become sexually mature after fifteen to eighteen years of age, but a typical ryknix can fly after one year and cam begin to hunt in packs after five years.

Vision

As mentioned earlier, Ryknix see in far-infrared. This is an adaptation to their somewhat cool and almost completely dark world where visible light is the exception. Ryknix going off-world require eye protection or they tend to be blinded by most common light sources and conditions. Their vision operates on difference rather than absolute light color which allows them to discriminate what they see despite background from the environment and their own bodies.

Vocalization

Unlike in mammals, the airway and the esophagus do not cross in Ryknix but instead remain parallel to each other. Because of this, swallowing does not cut off their breathing, and a specialized muscle flap controls the ability to breath through their mouths. Because the default airflow is through the nose and not the mouth, this makes speech in the way mammals are used to difficult. Ryknix instead have a vibrating membrane in their airway a little higher up than where mammals have vocal cords. This surface provides vibration in the back of the throat that projects intro the mouth where it is made into sounds most are used to in speech. Ryknix vocalizations range from normal speech ranges all the way up to high speed click trains that they use for echolocation in places of low visibility, especially cold undergrounds locations they favor as homes. The click sounds for echolocation can still be made and used without the need of their mouths, and this allows them to navigate and make off with dinner at one time.

Ecology

Rykna is a volcanic world filled with soot fueled heavily on a sulfur based energy pool rather than by sunlight and photosynthesis. High altitude clouds block out most visible light while the create heat through absorption of light that greenhouse gases then trap. Life on Rykna begins with small microorganisms and fungi that serve as the primary carbon source for upper trophic levels. Plants are generally carnivorous or symbiotic with some other species, and predator / prey dynamics are tightly controlled.

Ryknix are symbiotic with several fungal species. When ryknix ingest the fungus, they awaken the spores which are then spread through feces elsewhere in one case, while the red ryknix have paired with a plant that produces a high energy sap that makes them prized, and the habit of ryknix fighting for them helps spread pollen from on plant to another.

Ryknix are preyed upon by a number of medium size predators, but they otherwise sit close to the top of the food chain with one exception. A beast that translates roughly to Grave Beetle is the very same one that the ryknix spot pattern is derived. The beetle hatchlings are the primary food of most ryknix, and the beetles are the primary predator of the ryknix. Between the two, the populations are very well balanced, at least in the modern era. The term Grave Beetle comes from the habit of the ryknix to bring their dead to the nesting sites of the beetles. In doing so, they return the borrowed flesh back to the beetles and make the beetles their graves.

History

History of Technology and Magic

The Ryknix are a species that nearly went extinct twice. The first event occurred as technology permitted the expansion of the ryknix up to the point where armed conflicts over territory became common. To further complicate this, some ryknix developed, or perhaps simply discovered, unusual abilities that could be called spell-like. The conflict eventually caused a collapse of food production and massive die offs due to famine that plunged Rykna into a dark age.

The dark age selected for many of the more unusual ryknix. The word is not pronounceable but does translate to 'whitw wings.' These white wings were primarily healers, and this once again allowed the ryknix to expand to the point of inducing famine, a state complicated by the ability of the white wings to defy death to some extent. This time, the world suffered a spiritual collapse until such time that the white wings passed a noble law. The path of those who bear the power and those that would take the powers of old must leave this world behind for the good of those who follow. Those who are destined to leave are generally allowed to bear young first to leave behind their legacy.

Ghost Ryknix

As a direct consequence of the noble decree, huge projects began in an effort to exhume, rebuild, and eventually remove all old technology from Rykna. The first of these were great vessels placed in orbit around Rykna, and these grew into great colony ships and space stations. Far above Rykna, they were no longer a threat to the delicate ecology of their homeworld. The Ryknix that lived their lost their color and metallic scent. earning them the nickname of ghosts. Ghosts serve one of the most important jobs in preserving Rykna: defense from the outside and trail blazing to new worlds where their kind might wander safely. Oddly, though they still exist, few if any White Wings can be found among the Ghosts. To leave Rykna of your own will to become a Ghost in the name of her protection is generally considered honorable and one way.

Gate Jumpers

One thing Ghosts produce on their travels are jump beacons. These beacons signal that a location is safe to enter, and it makes a one-way portal to the destination with no way back. These gates are a second means, also honorable, that ryknix might leave their world. Gate jumps are quiet affairs, and they can be completed far faster than joining the Ghosts, which unfortunately means they are also the favored means of white wings and others undesirable groups might flee before they or their family name is tarnished.