Codex: Divrani
Name: Divrani (singular and plural)
Sexes: Male and Female. Females become similar to hermaphrodites when bonded with a radglow plant.
Height: Divrani are short compared to most other Phaedran races, with both sexes standing between 4' 10" and 5' 5".
Hair: Naturally bald. Once bonded, divrani grow a thick pate of slender, styleable flowering vines from their scalps. Usually green, but browns, whites, and blue-green colors are not uncommon.
Skin: Divrani skin is naturally made up of body-wide soft, supple scales similar to those of an ovir. Upon bonding with a radglow plant, their skin becomes much smoother and covered with a thin gloss of oil. It takes on a very latex-like quality, and the divrani’s tactile sensation increases dramatically.
Ears: Small, reptilian ear-holes. Usually hidden beneath the hair.
Eyes: Divrani eyes are large, and usually colored red, blue, or green.
Horns: Divrani of both sexes have small, rounded horns growing from the top of their heads. These can range in size from an inch or two to almost half a foot in length.
Feet & Legs: Divrani legs are large and reptilian in shape, with broad, flat paws tipped with three claws.
Tails: Long and thick reptilian tails that taper down to slender points. Divrani tails, once bonded, are especially smooth and oily compared to the rest of their skin.
Appearance
Divrani are a race of small, often heavyset or overly voluptuous reptiles native to the oceanic coastlands once common on Phaedra II. At birth, the species is covered with pink, blue, or green scales, with flat, noseless faces bear a pair of raised vertical nose-slits and covered ear-holes. They are bald, with small horns and large, clawed digits; especially of the feet, which they use to navigate difficult and often wet or muddy terrain. Males are naturally slight and somewhat effeminate, difficult to tell from females of the race save for their general lack of breasts. They have reptilian phalluses, with bulbous knot-like bases and ending with a tapered tip. Their phalluses are relatively small for their size, but the knots are extremely thick, nearly as much so as a divrani’s fist. Females have correspondingly large, highly lubricated vaginas and overly wide hips meant to both accommodate the males’ thick sex as well as the large eggs their copulation results in.
However, a divrani’s appearance generally changes drastically early in their life, when they become bonded to the plants called “radglow.” The plants have developed a unique relationship with the divrani since the Glass War, with seedling radglows able to infest young divrani and bond to their nervous system. This changes the appearance of the host in several ways, as described below.
Radglow Bonding
Shortly after a newborn divrani hatches, its parents will seek out or produce a seedling radglow plant - a native species to Phaedra II’s stayglo lake that adapted a way to filter out radiation it intakes. By bonding the plant to themselves, the divrani have found a way to naturally protect themselves from harmful radiation without needing help from the nukas or other more technologically advanced factions.
The bonding has several effects on the developing divrani. The most obvious is the system of flowering vines that quickly grow from their head, allowing the symbiote plant to photosynthesize. Over time, the plant will cause the host’s scales to fuse into a single, fleshy carapace which secretes a fragrant, slick oil. Both sexes can develop lengthy prehensile vines, growing from the hands, shoulders, or even back, which the host controls as extra sets of limbs both for utility, defense, and sexual contact.
Females (and more rarely, males) will develop large breasts wherein the radglow plant stores nutrient-rich nectar, and the flesh at their tips will split open and flower, creating a pair of petal-lined nipples that secrete it for other divrani to eat if need be, as well as to entice other species with its extraordinarily sweet scent and honeysuckle taste.
In addition to the nipple-like growths, bonded divrani begin to secrete an extremely potent sexual pheromone once they reach maturity. This comes primarily from the oil on their skin, but also from the individual’s sex-organs, where the concentration is much more potent. The host is immune to the pheromone cloud’s effects, but other divrani and offworlders alike are not. The cloud causes intense arousal and suggestibility in those it affects, allowing the divrani to easily overwhelm others in order to help their symbiote plant reproduce.
While the divrani’s reproduction is unchanged after bonding, the plant’s reproductive systems causes an intense mutation in the host. Members of both sexes grow a phallus-like organ above their natural sexes. Near the age of sexual maturity in the host, this organ has grown into a large, pulsating, constantly-leaking “lotus”: similar in shape to a pinecone, but made up of soft, wet petals growing from a single semi-hard root. The lotus-phallus does not have a traditional urethra, but rather ejactulates outwards from thousands of small slits between the petals. According to early research, these organs are constantly producing an over-abundance of the symbiote’s seed, which leaks out at the slightest touch or hint of arousal.
Reproduction (Radglow)
When a divrani subdues a female of another species through its pheromone seduction, it will usually attempt to breed the victim with this additional phallus. Penetration is difficult and messy due to the organ’s pliability and leakage, but fertilization is highly likely due to the sheer output of plant seed. Due to their parasitic, mutagenic nature, the radglow is able to fertilize nearly any species known. Rather than produce a hybrid offspring, however, it uses the female’s egg as a catalyst to create a seed of its own - such offspring are always radglow seedlings.
A radglow “pregnancy” takes about two weeks to complete, growing to a little bigger than a human fist within the female’s womb. During this time, the hosts’ vagina will become much more wet, similar to a divrani, to help ease the seed’s passing. Once the term of pregnancy has come to completion, the female will deliver the seedling much as if it were an egg or infant of her own race. The seedling is helpless for the first hour or so as its first roots and first petals fill out, after which it can either be planted or bonded in order to facilitate growth.
Reproduction (Divrani)
When a female and male divrani meet, their mutual pheromone clouds will often render both incredibly aroused and eager to breed. Reproduction between bonded divrani is effectively identical, with the male inserting his non-floral penis into the female’s vagina and, when nearing climax, using his bulbous base to tie them together to ensure insemination. Female divrani are fertile year round, though they do enter twice-yearly “heat” cycles of increased fertility and libido, typically lasting two weeks each.
Normal pregnancy results in a single over-large egg being formed in the female’s womb, growing to melon size in the course of about four weeks. At this stage, the female will experience a dramatic increase in vaginal wetness and sensitivity. Orgasm virtually always ensues during the egg-laying, after which the female rapidly recovers her mobility - though increased wetness is usually permanent. The egg must be tended to for an additional two weeks, whereupon it will hatch into an infant divrani. Infants are largely helpless, feeding primarily on the mother’s nectar and soft food until its teeth come in.
Divrani reach maturity after about two standard years, and can live for up to eighty naturally.
Male divrani likely can breed with off-worlders and other native females, though in these instances the bonded plant will usually attempt to spread its seed instead. No research is yet available regarding divrani-offworlder pregnancies, though rumors from nuka females indicate that such couplings do indeed result in their laying eggs. Similarly, male hyraxi claim that they are able to cause female divrani to produce live offspring.
History & Society
Divrani are a naturally solitary species, and there are few to no records of their having possessed a social structure of note before the Glass War. It appears they were simple hunter-gatherers living on the coastlands, well removed from the larger nuka and hyraxi settlements. At best, records indicate hyraxi commonly took divrani as slaves in pre-industrial times, apparently quite taken with the way the females grew heavy with eggs.
Post Glass War, divrani are not much changed in terms of social structure, remaining isolated individuals. However, the instinctual need to help their symbiote plant breed, as well as the protection afforded by their aromatic aura, has made most divrani much more extroverted and promiscuous. They seek out mates of other races with growing regularity, and are much more likely to attempt to trade with other races (typically trading their nectar for tools or more exotic food).
Unfortunately, the breeding instinct of some individuals is elevated to the point that the divrani simply won’t take “no” for an answer, and attempt to force themselves on those strong enough to resist simply giving in to their aroma. This behavior has made them dangerous to off-world explorers.
Technology
Divrani were primitive before the Glass War and remain so now, with little technology of their own. Some learn to use weapons or tech from other native races, especially nukas, but as the divrani have no organized society, and their lusty aroma makes extended contact with others difficult at best, they have little hope of self-advancement. Confederate sources indicate that Uplifting existing members of the race will be very difficult, as will integrating them into society, unless they are separated from the radglow plant.