Zyren's Brainstorms

Overthinking? Yes i always do.

Walking Volcano. Species: Cliff Volcano, River Volcano.
Name: Cliff Volcano

The Cliff Volcano looks like a dark orange volcano with multiple claw like legs underneath it that is uses to anchor itself in the cliff it sits on. The volcano part is actually a hardened shell with multiple tentacles stuck inside it which is only released when prey is approaching. It also has several small cracks in the shell which it uses to filter out sounds in the water. At the top of the “hole” sits the round mouth with countless of lined up sharp teeth. If the Volcano is walking to a new home it has a sort of bag containing all the vulnerable parts like; the heart, lungs and stomach. It breathes through the shell. The older a Walking Volcano is the bigger size and more tentacles it has.

It lives in the Topazial Sea and Shimmering Sea. it’s usually spotted on Cliffs and other rocky materials as long as it’s not on the surface or seabottom. It digs into cliffs/rocks using its sharp claw-like legs to create a hole where it can bury it’s softer parts that are otherwise hanging underneaths it’s body while it’s running around. Sometimes if there already is a hole in the Cliff/rock it uses it instead of making a new one.

The Walking volcano isn’t known to feed very often (around once a month) but once it does it hunts like this: The volcano first listens for sounds in the water if something is coming close, if something appears and the volcano is hungry it releases the tentacles that are hold in place by a bone connected to a muscle. (Think catapult). The tentacles surrounds the prey and tries to lock themselves. If it succeeds it the attempts to drag the prey towards it. The success of this depends on several factors. First: the size of the prey, Secondly: the sturdiness of the cliff/rock it’s connected to and Third: the strength/age of the Volcano. Once the prey is successfully drawn next to the Volcano it releases two hidden teeth at the top of the shell, these teeth are filled with a poison that both paralyzes and makes the prey fall asleep. Once the volcano doesn’t feel any more muscle twitches from the prey (feeling by the tentacles) it begins to eat. It’s poison is amongst the same type as the estuarine mermaids and a large Volcano have no problem with consuming one.

Since the Cliff Volcano is depending heavily on cliff and rocks it would be devastating for it if the cliff were to break. So if it hears any cracks while it feels quakes moving through the rock, it will immediately retract its tentacles and it’s body that is stuck inside the cliff/rock and proceed to walk away from it’s home to find another cliff/rock to sit on. The Walking volcano doesn’t have a brain and act upon instinct therefor it sometimes run into the problem of catching something larger than it can haul making it lose a tentacle or two. Sometimes it even get pulled off the cliff. It can only move along the bottom so if it were to be flipped upside down it can’t do anything to flip itself and is an easy prey for other things.

The Volcano is a Hermaphrodite and it both lay egg and fertilizes them. They only reproduce every fifth year but once it does it lays around forty to fifty eggs. Once the eggs are laid it moves from it’s home and travels somewhere else.

How to save yourself once caught: Be fast and hit the rock/cliff next to it hard so it cracks up before the volcano poisons you. The larger you are the longer it takes for the poison to spread.


Name: River Volcano.

The River Volcano is generally the same as the Cliff volcano but it has some differences.

The first one is that River volcanoes doesn’t grow as large as Cliff volcano. While a very large Cliff Volcano will be able to eat almost anything the River Volcano at it’s largest will only be able to eat something around a normal lengthed human.

The second one is that the River volcano doesn’t rely on sounds but instead on an eye that is located just above the teeth. This eye is shut closed once it begins pull in the prey.

The last one is that the River volcano has a partnership with a smaller creature. The smaller creature is allowed to reside inside the shell for protection and clears the volcano of things like parasites. This smaller creature lights up when it becomes dark providing light for the volcano.

I'll do a real entry for the smaller creature at a later date since it's still in the making.
Pictures will arrive on a later date since i've forgotten how to use my drawing tablet correctly :/.

Well, I'm gonna have to be critical of this one. For one, the formatting completely breaks it. It looks too much like it was in some sort of format, less like it's a prose entry.

If this anemone depends on a stable cliff face for nesting, why does it not have the ability to tell apart false alarms from occassions where the cliff face breaks off for real? It can hear inside the water, after all- so it should be able to know something's not quite right. That is, unless it is intended to never eat anything that has the ability to grab and throw rocks underwater. Which is understandable, most fish can't throw rocks.

I always appreciate critics ^^

To be honest i have no idea of how to present an idea since i have not done it before. Can you give me some help on how to do it better? Are you think of a text that is more flowing forward witout stagnation? like someone is telling someone about it.

It’s ability to hear in the water was one of the last things i added to it and i failed to see that it was colliding with it’s self defence, Thanks for pointing it out. I’ll have a look at it.

Fixed the problem with it's Self-Defence and did and attempt on fixing the format.

Well it's a niffty idea! A creature that mimics a volcano/thermal vent is a visually unusual concept. Though I'm inquisitive as to if it uses biilumanicense to produce a glow? Does it have an elevated body tempreture? Also is a living rock or just a mimic with a rocky shell?

felarya_refugee wrote:

Well it's a niffty idea! A creature that mimics a volcano/thermal vent is a visually unusual concept. Though I'm inquisitive as to if it uses biilumanicense to produce a glow? Does it have an elevated body tempreture? Also is a living rock or just a mimic with a rocky shell?

Sorry for the very late reply, my pc had a bit of a breakdown.

None of the known species are producing a glow on their own, the River volcano is only able to glow because it has a "partnership" with a minor organism. i haven't given a thought about it's body temperature but i was thinking something around the same as a Sea Anemone. It's not a living rock and just has an extremely hard shell.