Ganrael
Codex
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Name (Singular & Plural): Ganrael
Sexes: Unisex, though individuals may adopt a gendered appearance.
Height: Varies depending on the assumed shape, which changes with environment. Specimens that far exceed dietary requirements may be much larger than average.
Senses: Capable of 360-degree sight using a diffuse array of photoreceptors, with acute smell and hearing. Most ganrael will affect humanoid facial features in order to appear more familiar and appealing, but these are cosmetic.
Hair: None natively, though individuals may counterfeit it to attract mates.
Skin Color: Green is the most common, followed by blue and yellow. Rarely, specimens of pink or red are seen. Color is determined by trace impurities, and an individual’s color may change in response to environmental factors.
Habitat
Ganrael are native to the deepest cavern level of the planet Myrellion. Most live their lives without visiting the surface, though thanks to the abundance of bioluminescent fungus the ganrael retain the ability to see in light. Ganrael prefer wet, humid areas, particularly those near underground water sources and thermal vents.
Biology & Behavior
Unlike many amorphous creatures, the ganrael are not social or symbiotic and prefer to rely on intimidation or physical force. This evolutionary strategy likely arose with their adaptation of armor. Unlike rahn and galotians, who both maintain a moist, penetrable dermis, ganrael are able to modify their outer layers, hardening them into plating and weapons as durable as tungsten or carbon steel.
According to available field reports and research records provided by Myrellion governments, the ganrael store liquid supersaturated with silicate minerals in specialized organelles inside their cells. When new plating is needed, an enzyme is secreted that ruptures the chamber, allowing the liquid to crystallize rapidly. Other compounds in the destroyed cell function as resins that bond the tiny crystals together into a composite.
Reproduction
Ganrael reproduce similar to Terran prokaryotes, collecting new genetic material and then producing offspring clonally. As a unisex species, any individual is potentially capable of reproduction. When ready to mate, the ganrael seeks out compatible genetic material and absorbs it through the skin, commonly in the form of penetrative sex, which the ganrael enjoy thanks to several erogenous zones that shift responsively to heighten the experience.
A ganrael retains and incorporates a donor’s genetic material into its own after mating, via a poorly-understood process. Eyewitness accounts report that individuals experience euphoria, addiction, and loss of cognitive function during this time, akin to intoxication or narcotic effects. For unknown reasons, no such reaction occurs with conspecifics. Approximately twenty-four hours after assimilation of enough material, the ganrael will enter the reproductive phase, shedding its armor and undergoing rapid cell proliferation. The phase culminates with the ganrael separating into two identical individuals, each carrying the new genetic signature. Ganrael are vulnerable after division, as their new cells contain low mineral levels and create weak plating.
Ganrael may reproduce before assimilating. This has only been observed when an individual with damaged plating receives too much genetic material to contain without its exoskeleton. The ganrael will immediately divide the material between two bodies which both later undergo the reproductive phase. Each clone will assimilate the foreign DNA slightly differently, resulting in two pairs of related but non-identical ganrael.
Ganrael who do not acquire enough DNA from one partner seek another, and when denied access to gametes will collect and use other, non-germ cells. These occurrences should theoretically result in a significant number of triploid and polyploid ganrael. It’s currently unknown how or even if individuals with odd chromosome numbers prevent aneuploidy during reproduction, but theories have been proposed whereby ganrael are unable to divide until their total number of chromosomes are evenly paired, are able to identify and splice compatible donor DNA directly into their own via a hitherto unidentified enzyme, or have some other redundancy that prevents aneuploid cells from resulting in a defective organism. The ‘even pairs’ theory would suggest a sharp increase in the number of chromosomes over time which has not been observed, and has not been widely accepted for this reason.
Culture & Society
Most ganrael are nomadic, moving through the caverns in pursuit of game and mates. There are relatively few ganrael settlements and little in the way of organized civilization. At best, a family unit of a mated pair and their children may stay together until the children are old enough to hunt on their own, at which point the family usually disintegrates. Ganrael are, as a rule, individualists who struggle to work together with other creatures (of their own race or others), which has prevented any sort of organized ganrael society from cropping up over the years.
Silly Mode On
variant with Silly mode turned on.
Name (Singular & Plural): Ganrael
Sexes: Monogendered
Height: 5 to 6 feet. Some exceptional specimens can reach up to eight feet of height, though their dietary requirements to maintain such mass makes such individuals exceedingly rare.
Senses: As goo-type creatures, the Ganrael have very limited perceptive organs. They are capable of 360 degree sight and have acute senses of smell and hearing. Most ganrael, will affect humanoid eyes and ears as part of their limited shapeshifting, in order to appear more familiar and appealing to their mates.
Skin: Ganrael come in a variety of colors, ranging from viridian (the most common), through red, purple, dark blues, and rarely brighter shades of yellow, orange, and pink.
Combat
Unlike many goo creatures, the ganrael are not stealth predators, but prefer to openly challenge their opponents. This shift in tactics compared to similar species is likely based in the ganrael’s unique evolutionary adaptation: armor. Species like the rahn and galotians are completely soft-bodied, constantly keeping their gooey extremities saturated with liquid to maintain their easy range of motion and shape-shifting abilities, with varying levels of penetrable dermises. Ganrael instead have adapted to slowly dry out and harden their outermost layers of goo, which eventually crystallizes into a nearly diamond-hard armor plating around the subject.
This hardened outer armor protects the otherwise vulnerable ganrael inside, allowing it to engage in direct combat against even armed foes, such as the myrmedion who live in the upper caverns above the ganraels’ natural habitat. This crystal armor regenerates quickly with focus and food consumption on the part of the ganrael, and can even be adapted to grow semi-organic weapons for use: many ganrael hunt with crystal daggers, axes, or spears.
Environs Typically Inhabited
Ganrael are natives of Myrellion, specifically the deepest caverns on the planet. Most live their entire lives without ever seeing the surface, though thanks to the abundance of bioluminescent fungus and creatures within the deep caves the ganrael retain their ability to see in low to high lighting. Ganrael prefer wet, humid areas in the caves, particularly those near underground lakes, rivers, and thermal vents.
Reproduction
Ganrael, like most goo creatures, have distinctly non-mammalian reproduction patterns. Though some ganrael will adapt the appearance of one gender or the other, they are fundamentally a mono-gendered race, with any individual capable of bearing children. When a ganrael is ready to mate and bear children, it need only acquire the genetic material of another compatible creature — male or female, semen or any other form of genetic carrier. The genetic material can then be absorbed through the skin (or, more commonly, inserted into the bearer through penetrative sex). Ganrael have several erogenous zones in their natural forms, and usually shift these to more traditional areas when mimicking humanoid shapes so that both the ganrael and its mate can enjoy the proceedings.
Once proper genetic material has been absorbed, the ganrael’s reproductive cycle begins. Over the course of the next 24 hours, the ganrael will begin to divide its cells, with half of the resultant cells carrying the new genetic material mixed with the parents’. The parent ganrael will shed its crystal armor and effectively split in two, resulting in a smaller (some say younger) copy of the parent along with a fully-formed child. Both parent and child are fairly weak for the next few days, requiring some time to gather their energy and eat enough to begin restoring their full size and armor plating. Between “insemination” and the resultant ganrael being fit to hunt again, perhaps a full week has passed.
Culture & Society
Most ganrael are nomadic, moving through the caverns in pursuit of game and mates. There are relatively few ganrael settlements and little in the way of organized civilization. At best, a family unit of a mated pair and their children may stay together until the children are old enough to hunt on their own, at which point the family usually disintegrates. Ganrael are, as a rule, individualists who struggle to work together with other creatures (of their own race or others), which has prevented any sort of organized ganrael society from cropping up over the years.