Codex: Behemoths
These claws mean death.
Name: Behemoth (singular), Behemoths (plural)
Sexes: Male, female, and hermaphrodite.
Height: Male behemoths range from around fourteen feet at their smallest to nearly twenty in extreme cases, with most falling between sixteen and seventeen feet. Females range between nine and twelve feet tall on average, with examples very far above or below that being rare. Hermaphrodites fall in-between, but tend to be closer to male sizes than female.
Appearance and Features
Dreadscale Behemoths — or just behemoths, for short — are a race of large, heavily armored, lizard-like creatures, mostly reminiscent of ancient, inaccurate renditions of Terran dinosaurs.
They have long, wide snouts and large, powerful teeth. Two large horns, covered in thick scales, protrude from the back of their heads, arching over their skulls and pointing forward to be used as weapons or to lock against each other in smaller contests of strength. While they have a single tongue, it has a significant forked shape and they have a limited ability to control each fork individually. Lastly, their eyes have round pupils and large and complex-patterned irises that draw attention away from their black scleras.
Females and herms have narrower, sleeker faces and smaller horns compared to males, while herms are generally on par with males.
Large, craggy scales cover most of their bodies, being the thickest at their backs but absent at their chest, stomachs, crotches and inner thighs. A variety of spikes also protrude across their bodies, mainly from their backs, along the spine. The exact make-up varies heavily depending on sex but share common traits regardless. Males have craggier, thicker scales and more prominent spikes in the usual areas, as well as more spikes found across their body. Females have smoother scales and smaller spikes, while hermaphrodites vary between the two, often being closer to males than females. Scales range in color from dull shades of brown and green to metallic tones resembling gold, brass, and iron.
Despite being unarmored and soft to the touch, behemoth skin is still very durable, able to withstand a significant amount of punishment without taking real damage. In most cases, their skin color is the same as their scales, only a few shades lighter. Heavy activity and a high average body temperature mean that their skin is almost always coated in a glossy sheen of sweat.
The spikes along their bodies also have some very unique properties, especially the ones that trail the spine. They are organically-formed, psychoactive crystals that closely resemble gemstones, the most common kinds being onyx, jade, citrine or amethyst, but others have been reported as well. These spikes work as a catalyst for the species’ psychic powers and also serve to condense radiation. The interaction between these energy types remains unclear, but it’s safe to assume that it is what allows behemoths to survive in a radiation-heavy habitat. As a behemoth takes in radiation from the surrounding environment, the spikes glow brighter and brighter, taking on a light glow that diminishes quickly as their radiation levels decrease. Broken or damaged spikes will repair themselves over time.
Many rushers have taken to calling behemoths ‘kaiju’, thanks to their resemblance to certain creatures from movies of the genre. Though they’re not the size of an apartment building, most male and herm behemoths are taller than a one-story house.
Society and Reproduction
Behemoths have very little in the way of an organized society. By all appearances, they’re hunter-gatherers that live largely independently or in small familial groups. A few reports of organized villages have come out, all claiming them to be in extremely high radiation zones and fiercely guarded. As such, there’s little proof of these, making their validity questionable. The species didn’t originally place much importance on spoken languages, though exposure to more developed races has given them a rudimentary proficiency with common tongues. They prefer communicating through a mix of vocalization and telepathy, using guttural sounds or curt, direct language to punctuate their feelings.
Behemoth mating rituals typically begin with a contest of strength. A male or herm will find a female to woo and then seek a worthy opponent to best. Typically, this ends up being another behemoth, but Rushers have also become a prime target for these duels in recent years, thanks to the technologically-advanced weapons they tend to carry.
If victorious, the pair will mate until both are satisfied. If they lose, they either split up or the female is taken by the victorious party. Herms will almost always attempt to satisfy their ‘male’ urges first and foremost before seeking a partner to impregnate them. Pairings between herms often involve the two fighting each other for the dominant position, even if both will become impregnated by the end regardless.
Pairings usually last until the children born reach adolescence, at which point many pairings dissolve to seek other mates. Some pairings are romantic in nature, lasting for many mating cycles or even for life if the two love each other enough. Monogamous pairings are the most common, but pairings with multiple partners are somewhat frequent. Herms are most commonly involved in these due to their dual-sexed nature, but males have also been known to take multiple pure female partners at once.
All sexes of behemoth are equipped with dual genitals, two dicks and/or two vaginas to match, stacked vertically. Each vagina connects to a separate womb capable of bearing and carrying young. Herms are just as capable of carrying young as females, but produce less children on average, with females carrying upwards of three babies per womb while herms generally only have a single child per womb.
All behemoths have two rows of breasts or pectorals. Despite being lizard-like in appearance, behemoths give live births and thus have nipples and produce milk to feed their offspring. Even males are capable of producing milk in order to help feed their clutches.
Genital size among males and herms varies heavily depending on if they’re in mating season. Out of season, or after they’ve sated their urges, their cocks and balls remain contained within a (still very large) scaled sheath, protected from harm or exposure until they’re needed. Sizes increase when in season, causing them to spill out of their sheaths and remain out until sated. When fully engorged, both hit lengths upwards of five feet long while their balls have a volume ranging from eight to fifteen gallons each. The immense size of their testes isn’t just for show as each one feeds an individual cock.
Color-wise, behemoth phalluses are usually a similar color to their skin, only much darker, with black also being a common color. Each penis features a trio of medial rings in its midsection, each ring lined with supple yet pointy-looking nubs that lend them the appearance of spiked collars. These rings help to pleasure a partner’s erotic zones and inflate during orgasm to form a pseudo knot, which locks into the females’ ribbed tunnels.
Female passages are notably stretchy, able to easily accommodate their partners, even in cases where they decide to focus on one hole at a time. This trait is thanks to a striking similarity between their vaginal secretions and commercial elasticizing oils. Once an U.G.C. outpost is established in the region, corporations’ biotech departments and research institutes are expected to demonstrate keen interest.
Behemoths, however, are a surprisingly intelligent species in spite of their appearance and customs. Thanks to their telepathic abilities, they can easily share experiences with each other and, in some cases, are capable of picking up small pieces of knowledge from an outsider’s brain once the other party has ‘warmed up’ to them — especially after a few rounds of mutually-fulfilling sexual activity. For this reason, it’s impossible to predict how the species might be influenced by their recent encounters with rushers.
Psychic Abilities
In addition to their sheer physical power, behemoths also possess inherent psychic powers. It’s been observed that as their spikes glow brighter, containing higher levels of radiation, their powers grow stronger in response, causing many to believe that these powers may be caused by, or at least heavily influenced, by exposure to radiation in their natural habitat. This view is bolstered by reports of behemoths’ ability to control radiation within and emanating from their own body, semi-confirmed by analysis showing radiation levels fluctuating in impossible ways around them.
The most obvious use for these powers is for communication, allowing behemoths to non-verbally convey feelings and emotions between each other. This ability is limited in the sense that they have trouble communicating more complex ideas, especially to non-behemoths who don’t resonate as well with them. It has been documented, however, that sexual contact and especially exposure to fluids such as cum and saliva causes accelerated, targeted resonation between behemoths, and even between behemoths and other species. It allows them to understand and learn outsider languages very quickly and gauge opponent worthiness by sensing fear levels, with higher levels of resonation allowing tantric sharing of physical sensations and even a small degree of mind melding. This level of psionic resonance is, in all observed cases, limited to brief periods, usually at the height of sexual activity.
Behemoths also have the ability to significantly increase the size of their non-behemoth partner’s genitals. The exact mechanism of this isn’t well understood, but it seems to stem from the combination of their psychic abilities and controlled radiation.