Side-species suggestion for starry--knight's LoC, discussed on Discord!
Fate yet undecided, need to be reviewed by starry--knight!
Fate yet undecided, need to be reviewed by starry--knight!
Species: Siccant - means "Drain". Based of a Hyena, a Leech, and a Faceless Alien ideas.
Biology: Siccants are eerie carrion-eaters - if "eating" can even be applied to someone without a mouth - dwelling in the wastes of Graveyard. They are faceless, agile smooth-skinned predators with paws ending in a flat surface. The surface can become sticky at will, allowing them to easily run and traverse various terrian. They're around half the size of a Lion of Cosmos, and a single siccant is no threat to one.
They are feeding on their prey's life energy and element by rubbing their face against the carcass, or rarely, against a living prey when hunting. They are scavangers primary, but might attack a lone lion wandering around their hunting party, and can be dangerous for lions when in big group. When they attack and touch their muzzle on the prey, it sticks to prey's body with the help of special slime, secreted on their faces through pores. The slime is rather sticky, and often the only way to make a siccant let go is to kill it.
They dont show visible gender demorphism but their society is speculated to be strictly matriarchal clans. They have coherent thoughts (as per research of Telepathy element lions), however they do not communicate verbally among their species or out of it, and their mindset is simple, resolved against animalistic survival and loyalty to the clan. There can be no willing alliance between a siccant and any other creature, however, they can be mind-controlled. They coordinate their clans with the use of sounds emitted through gill-like holes on the sides of their heads; sound revebrates through special chamber located inside the ridge on their backs. That sound is very eerie and resembles maniacal laughter; it does not form anything similar to words, just simple signals.
They build dens - called "hives" - from rock and soil, sticking it with special secreting slime. Hives have very small entrances so only cub would fit inside, and nobody would let one go in, so it's not known how it's organised, except that it's probably very slimy and disgusting. Siccant whelps are born entirely black and gain color as they drain life off various creatures, despite them being blind and unable to tell colors. Adult siccants can be colored variously as a mix of everything they've succumbed through their lives, but the colors are often dark/dulled. Despite seemingly able to drain "element" from a lion, they cannot use any of it.
In general, siccant is a common pest around Graveyard area, rarely met outside of it, and never ventures to heavy lion-inhabited territories. They are regarded to as a medium annoyance by adults and are used as cub spooky stories' boogeyman, lionesses scaring their babies from venturing out alone that a siccant will come and steal them.
