Flora, Fauna, Screwy Felaryan physics, you name it!

Thought I'd throw out some rather complex ideas for Felaryan creatures that've been floating around in my head. Let me know what you think.

Mind Eater
Size: 6 inches (parasite), approx. 10 feet (plant pod)
Threat: High

Mind Eaters are actually two symbiotic organisms. A parasitic worm, and a very Podmaw-esque plant. Mind Eaters have a very complex life cycle, beginning when the fruit of the plant half drops a parasite to the forest floor, coated in a protective droplet of wax. Once it reaches the forest floor, the parasite of the Mind Eater consumes the wax and begins looking for a host. Mind Eater parasites prefer dense undergrowth or shallow water, and will simply attack and swallow tinies that they come across. However, when they come across larger victims, they will attempt to burrow into the victim's body unawares. This is aided by their coating of numbing mucus, which is constantly secreted by their skin and drooling from their mouths, and makes a Mind Eater attack very difficult to detect if you're not aware of it beforehand. Once inside the victim, the Mind Eater parasite will burrow through the body towards the skull. Once there, it devours the brain and take its place, expanding to fill the cranium. The host itself does not die - the nervous functions of the body are taken over by the parasite, which will march its host in a beeline back to the plant it originated from, which will consume it. Mind Eater victims are easy to recognize, as the parasite is not very intelligent and cannot do much more than make the victim walk or swim - the victim will appear very much like a glassy-eyed living zombie. Once a host reaches the origin plant, they are consumed in a fashion identical to the Podmaw. Large predators are advised against picking a Mind Eater - attempting to eat a Mind Eater will introduce hundreds of parasites into the body, resulting in quick zombification. However, since large preds cannot be controlled by the mass of parasites, they merely fall over dead where they are. The seed in the Mind Eater's fruit will then take root in the flesh, eventually growing into a new Mind Eater plant. Fortunately, it is quite easy to recognize Mind Eaters if you know what to look for - a Podmaw will have a healthy coloration and is perfectly still when empty. A Mind Eater's surface is darker, as if sickly, and the surface constantly writhes with the movements of the parasites underneath. In addition, Mind Eaters disgorge a parasite once every hour or so, so hearing the "thump" of the wax-ball as it hits the turf is a tell-tale sign that you're not dealing with an ordinary Podmaw. Fortunately, Mind Eaters are very rare and believed to be nearly extinct.


Keener
Size: 40-50 feet
Threat: Medium

Keeners are cowardly insectoids, appearing similar to a crossbreed between a cricket and a praying mantis. Although large in size, their limbs are weak and their mouths are little more than large fleshy tubes, limiting them to prey of human size or smaller. What makes these insects dangerous their ear-piercing shriek, from which they take their name. When hunting, a Keener will stealthily approach prospective targets, burst from hiding, screech until its victims collapse from the auditory shock, then swallow one or two and flee to digest its meal. If confronted by anything too big to swallow, Keeners will flee as fast as they can leap, stopping only to shriek at its pursuer if they're persistent in chasing. A Keener's shriek is one of the loudest sounds in Felarya, coming in 360 decibels at the source. Instantaneous deafness is almost universal for victims who survive a Keener attack. Keeners are totally deaf and have no sense of smell. They rely totally on their eyesight to hunt, which makes them fairly easy to ambush.


Clokodd
Size: 10 feet
Threat: Low

Inorganic creatures that look like a crossbreed between a rotund man with brass skin and a cuckoo clock, Clokodds are, by themselves, mostly harmless to humans. Clokodds feed on time itself. Anyone in the vicinity of a Clockodd will notice time seems to fly when they're around; this is due to the Clokodd "eating" moments of local time, causing you to never experience those moments. The presence of a Clokodd can cause havoc in a fight, however. You may just realize a naga's behind you, and an instant later find yourself half-digested in her stomach due to a timeskip. Clokodds appear intelligent, but in a very alien way; all attempts at physical communication with one have failed, and mental contact has caused the contacters to go mad from information overload. It's believed that Clokodds are the "janitors" of time itself - they're known to move around without apparent rhyme or reason, and to suddenly cease existing. An attacked Clokodd will not fight back, but will simply vanish from existence entirely if destroyed or swallowed. Clokodds are very rare, but slightly more common in the vicinity of the dimensional gate outside of Ur-Sagol, Miragia forest, and Akaptor Desert, as well as other places of unstable space-time. Rumors among the Akaptor Nomads say that Clokodds are a favorite food of Time Sharks, who are the only creatures capable of preventing them from vanishing after being swallowed.


Timeloom
Size: 5 feet
Threat: Minimal

Clokodd's opposite counterpart, Timelooms are spindly creatures appearing to be made of silver, brass, or bronze, with iron threads strung across their limbs and body to represent "muscles." They move with a stiff gait and produce a constant, irritating ticking noise. Timelooms actually produce time, causing everything in their vicinity to slow down. Strangley enough, those inside the influence of a Timeloom's field of expanded time are totally oblivious to the effect, while it's obvious to everyone outside that they're slowed. This is because, inside the field, one's perception of time is equally slowed. Intelligent predators have tried to take advantage of a Timeloom's ability to slow others, but to no avail - the field of expanded time expands to cover any living thing that attempts to interact with it in any way, only receding once the subject retreats from the Timeloom's influence. It's believed the Timeloom interferes this way deliberately, to prevent those in normal time from causing temporal paradoxes by interacting with those in slowed time. It's not known how, when, what, or even if a Timeloom eats. Like Clokodd, they can be found most often near areas of unstable space-time, and if destroyed or swallowed, they simply cease to exist. Time Sharks are rumored to snack on Timelooms in the Akaptor Desert, as they are the only known creatures who can prevent them from vanishing.

Quote :

Clokodd
Size: 10 feet
Threat: Low

Description&stuff

Something very strange is going on in this basketball game between space-clowns and atomic monsters...

Futurama references aside, I like these a lot. They're appropriately bizarre, yet they fit in just fine with the others. They really spice things up.

Oh, so you caught my vague Futurama reference! Good show. The appearance of the Clokodd was inspired by a monster from Ragnarok Online, and those gold statues of Buddha Budai, also known as the Laughing Buddha.

... idea has struck me!

Squeerg
Size: 1½ feet
Threat: Minimal

Squeergs are curious creatures, resembling nothing so much as furry toads with enlarged brain-cases. Squeergs mostly eat tinies and other small creatures, and have a special fondness for Mind Eater parasites, which are somehow incapable of taking a Squeerg over. Against anything too big to eat, they simply flee and hide. Squeergs would almost be edible, if it weren't for the fact that they can share their pain with their attackers. When harmed, a Squeerg will cry out (this cry is what gives them their name) and flee, only to look back after a few hops at their attacker (much like deers do.) If harmed again by the same attacker, but not killed, they will share the pain they experience with their pursuer. If swallowed, they immediately share the sensation of what it's like to be digested with the one who ate them. These sensations are harmless in the long run - little more than painful illusions with no real injury. However, they can be very disconcerting, and a predator that eats a Squeerg once isn't likely to do so again. Shrinking Squeergs and feeding them live to captives was onced used as a method of torture, but fortunately modern-day laws forbid this practice. Today, they're mainly sought after as pets; a Squeerg can share more than just pain, and a contented Squeerg can make their owner much happier. Hurting someone's pet Squeerg, so that the owner shares the pain, however, is a common prank on Squeerg-owners. This has led to the expression, "Pain in the squeerg" to describe someone or something that is a constant problem for you.

Wow very good ideas here !

I especially loved the keener and two time-based creatures ^_^

*write on list*