Owrtho
2008-07-10, 02:34 AM
Well, this will be long. please excuse errors as this will be the third time I've posted this somewhere and as such will be copying it (might have a few odd things as it was originaly multiple posts). If anyone wants to make mechanics for this feel free. Just make sure to and post them here. Well let me know what you think. Edit: If you want to see the attempt I've made at statting them so far, just skip this post (though it has mediocre pictures of each type and more indepth info about them).
Trillnaths
Fluff
General Info:
**The general name for these creatures is Trillnath (it is not a long i as in tri)(after the fourth & fifth forms) but the first 3 forms usualy go by other names.**These creatures are actualy a clearish gell though they develope an exoskeleton that spreads untill it covers them in their fifth form.**The rank crest that can be seen in the key at the bottom of each picture reffers to markings that show their class.**By class in mean that like termites, their job is determined at birth.**Some become drones, some queens, some sodiers, some guards, some elites(queen's guards).**I am thinking about removing this from their appearence, but it would have no effect on their overall look.
**These creatures are colonial type organisms.**What does this mean? It means that each of their cells is a separate lifeform with its own DNA. **However, the cells are specialized and do require the group.**The key feature of these monsters is their ability to become immune to damage delt to them.**What this means is that if for example a fire spell is used agains them, the next time it is used, they will be more resistant.**Why? This brings us to the immunities in the keys of the pictures.**The trillnath's cells can be immune to any type of damage(elemental like fire acid poisen evil holy etc. but not pysical as in arrows regular fighting and wounding(only ability they cannot be immune to)).**However, it is unlikely for all of their cells to naturaly have any particular immunity.**This means that upon wounding it with one of those damage types, you destroy the ones not immune and increase the percentage of ones immune (upon being hurt remaining cells divide**replace lost cell) this means that if the same type of damage is used repeatedly it can become completely immune.**The reverse of that however is that when a diferent damage type is used there is a chance of lowering its immunity to one of the others (unless that other one is completely immune already) as there is a chance of killing ones that are immune to that damage type while not killing ones immune to the damage type you are using.**So what are the imunities mentioned in the pictures?**When the cells are immune to a specific type of damage they produce a particular enzyme that will gather into a crystaline structure in the body (each type would form its own structure. they would be about fist sized when 30% of the cells were**imune to that type of damage).**These structures will Look reminiscent of the damage type they represent( fire would be red, orange, & yellow and apprear in the general shape of a flame, poisen would look like a green drop of water, etc) and be luminecent in those colors.** These enzymes would constently be broken down, however, keeping it from getting larger or smaller unless the % of cells immune to that damage type changed.**This would mean as it became more immune to fire the fire crystal would get larger while if it became less immune to fire the fire crystal would get smaller.**
Now, there are two ways for them to spread their immunities.**First is that, with the immunities is a structure that looks like a brown sphere and may or may not have black spikes coming off (not actualy spikes but long thin stiff structures about as long as the sphere's radius) called pili.**If these pili are present, the trillnath can initiate a trade of immunities whith another trillnath( it does so by haveing one of the pili extend out of its body into the other's body and conecting it to that ones brown sphere).**This will make their immunities set to the highest ones of each.** If one has all of its immunities lower than the other, those immunities will be increased to be equalt to the others and the immunity it is strongest in to begin with be increased by 10% in the other one. **Also, if the one being traded whith does not have the ability to iniciate trade then it will gain it. **The second way that immunities can be spread is that if one dies and another goes to the corpse, it can gain the immunities in a onesided verion of the previously mentioned method. **This follows the same rules but only the living one gains immunities, while the dead one recieves no benefits.**After this the dead ones corpse is destroyed. **The corpse will be unable to do this after about one and a half minutes of being dead.
Trillnath Rank Crests
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/TrillnathRankCrests.jpg
I have drawn the trillnath rank crests.**They are all shown on a greater trillnath head(except for the pseudocrest wich only occurs on a trillnath tunnel serpents false head so it is shown on one).**The odd lines below each picture are side veiws to see the angle that the crests follow(btw, the queen's is not suposed to be bent).**Also, the lines on the drone's crest are small cracks.**Now to explain the heirarchy of rank crests.
Aside from the pseudo crest, they are in order of rank from lowest to highest.**This means that the average strength and command follows this order.**Thus a soldier can command a drone provided it is not at a higher stage in the trillnath lifecycle.**The jobs also vary.
Drone: mainly maintains tunnels, gathers food, transports objects of interest(such as food or other things that have gained the trillnaths interest).
Soldier: mainly is sent out to fight or invade areas, guards drones outside of caves.
Guard: mainly protects caves, food chambers, hords, sleeping chambers, drones inside caves, etc.
Elite: mainly guards queens and the most important objects/chambers to their trillnath hive.
Queen: mainly reproduces and founds new hives.
Pseudo crest: mainly functions as a Hey, wait a minute its not a real rank, oh well here is what it does.**Functions to confuse creatures behind a trillnath tunnel serpent and works as an eye as well.**The part that works as an eye isthe dimond shaped spot on the middle spike.
While on the topic of trillnath social order, I would like to point explain their interaction with the non trillnath.**A trillnath will veiw most non trillnaths as food or threats.**They can however be bargained with, if difficultly. **Trillnath will never give a creature more than its life in a bargain unless you manage to somehow kill every trillnath queen in the hive (even ones not yet at queen form) and hold the last queen as ransom.**That being very unlikely, most settel for their lives when bargaining.**With this, some live quite well in trillnath territory.**For example, a cattel farmer might regularly give the hive a few cattel to live in their land where very few other preditors.**Or even a small rebel town might live inside of the trillnath hive(caves) itself in exchange for processed metals and mechanical/magical traps or devices.**However such a comunity would be counted as less than slaves by the trillnath and may have difficulty leaving.
There is one mutated trillnath rank.**The rank crest for it looks like that of the drone except flipped horizontaly(you can also look at the fourth symbole down in the leftmost collum of the "Trillnath Symboles" picture).**This rank is often reffered to as unbound trillnaths.**This is because they have higher stealth stats and are immune to all binding magics (such as entangle, petrify, bind, pentagrams, etc.) and seem to be able to elude most physical traps as well (and most anything that might trap them).**They are very rare and are usualy used to invade protected areas of interest and remove the protection so other trillnaths might enter.
Cave setup:
The general form is that there is a key cavern that is large and far away from any entrances into the cave system.**This is the queen chamber.**It is also surounded by a "secure" area of caverns and tunnels through which the eggsacs would be and where no tunnel colapses would be engineared.**The secure area would also follow some key tunnel paths to the exits(though the egg sac would not) so that trillnaths in a weekened state(or mutants) could reach the secure area without fear of tunnel colapses.**Outside the secure area would be a large laberynth of tunnels that would periodicly colapse and be rebuilt to keep the paths from being the same all the time and to make it more difficult to invade.
jobs by form:
The form the trillnath is in also dictates their job in society(to an exent, rank also plays a role in this).**All forms(except queen w/ eggsac) go out to hunt periodicaly.**The larvae and second form will, inside the hive, move through narrow areas, repair tunnels, and enginear their colapse.**The third form will guard the first two while they do so.**The fourth form hunt and bring food back for the ones currently unable to hunt and guard caves and tunnels.**The fifth gorm guard the main caves and tunnels as well as the queen and other important areas.**They also hunt for the queen.**The mutants will patrole the secure area while waiting to grow enough to change into one of the other three forms(occasionaly they guard the queen while doing so but it is a rare occurence).**The flying will usualy be in very large caverns to guard or be in caves near the entrances from high ground(so that they may spot and attack those who might intrude with a lower chance of being caught on the ground.**They are usualy only chosen to be formed in trillnath colonies in mountainous areas).**The aquatic trillnaths guard submerged caves.**The tunnel serpents guard the most important tunnels and caves(for reasons to to be found when I post about it).**They might not leave the caves.
Trillnath Symboles
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/TrillnathSymboles-1.jpg
Trillnaths have an odd way of writing.**It consists of stacking and combining symboles as well as placing them in order with many symboles having multiple meanings.**The chart above show some of the ways each can be translated though other similar words can also be used(an example is the symbole for fighter can also be translated as soldier).**Lets start with the order symboles are writen.**Any peice of writing always begins with an orientation symbole(the top symbole in the left column).**This is because trillnaths will crawl on walls and writ their messages oriented however they are facing so this shows what direction the symboles will point(as they often have different meanings depending on the direction they are facing) with the only exception being the direction symbole(the symbole directly beneth the orientation symbole), sometimes called the trillnath compass, though I will cover its rules next.**After the orientation symbole is placed the next symbole is placed to its lower right and is oriented to it.**Single thoughts or sentances often consist of a single stack of symboles though some are rarely stacked(such as the follow or proceed symbole).**All symboles will continue to spiral counterclockwise outward from the orientation symbole.
As for the exception to the orientation rule, the direction symbole, it is always oriented to the nearest trillnath hive(looking at the above drwying, the central point down is always hive strait, the left point down is always**to hive right and the point up is always to hive left).**What does that mean?**Well, in every trillnath hive there is a main queen(the queen attached to the egg sacs).**She is unable to change the direction of her facing and the hive she belongs to is always oriented to her(an example is that hive left would be the main queens left).**These and up and down are the only directions trillnaths understand(they do not understand left and right or north, south, east, west).**How do they know what the neares hive orientation is? Inside every trillnaths head(in the plate beneath their rank crest) is a hollow bspot filled with a special liquid and a special shard shaped like the direction symbole.**Every trillnath hive sends out a faint energy showing its orientation and like a regular compass orients to magnetic north, this shard orients to that energy always remaining horizontal to the ground and pointing in the nearest hives orientation(some will make "trillnath compasses" by gathering the liquid and the shard and putting them in glass or crystal spheres).**So, if this symbole is always oriented to the hive, how does it tell directions you ask.**Well trillnathes then use the lower, higher, or even symbole by placing it around the direction symbole in the direction they are pointingout compaired to the hives orientation.
There are two other notable symbole types, the bind and unbind symboles, and the bracket symboles(such as the guard, create, destroy, hide, guard against).**The bind an unbind symboles work by:
for the bind symbole, placing the thing or things you are binding or combining in the two top spots, and placing wat they are being bound to or combined to make uder its botom point
and for the unbind symbole placing what is being unbound in the top parts(or what something is being broken apart to make) and what it is being unbound from( or what is being broken apart) under the point.**Neither aditional part need be required, but they are used to clarify the meaning.
As for the bracket symboles, they are actions done to, or reffering to, something.**The thing they are done, or reffering, to is placed between the tow parts.**Thus placing the structure symbole inbetween the guard symbole makes guard structure, or guarder of structure.
Now that the using of symboles is clarified, lets explain some of the points of trillnath language.**Trillnaths see there as being two types of creatures.**similar to self(those that are trillnaths), and others(those that aren't trillnaths).**These can be better defined by adding other symboles, such as the greater symbole(things stronger, bigger, or more plentiful depending on the greater symbole used) or lesser symbole(things weaker, smaller, or less plentiful depending on the lesser symbole used).**As for counting, trillnaths don't do it.**To a trillnath something is eather greater of lesser.**If it is equal to, it counts as greater.**This comes mainly from fighting and how trillnaths refer to odds in a battle.**Trillnaths count an evenly mached foe as being a greater opponent.**When fighting multiple enemies, they compair their colective strength to the colective strength of the enemie to determine which has ther greater force.**This means that if two creatures whos combine strength is half that of a trillnaths fight a trillnath, it would be considered a smaller or lesser force despite having the greater numbers from a humans perspective, yet if something stronger than a trillnath attacked it would be considered a greater force.
Also, on a somewhat random note, trillnaths do not recognize royalty or the like.**The trillnath words and symboles for a trillnath queen, if directly translated are "source of self".**When reffering to a main queen, the creator symbole is added to that making it "creator source of self".**I have also added a trillnath note in the image and its translation beneth it as an example.**Also, the bind and unbind symboles have actual power similar to the way a pentagram does, and it is not unheard of for trillnaths to create minor traps by placing a bind marking on the ground to trap any unwary traveler in the caves who steps into it.**This way of using it is rather weak, but it can be vary powerful when prepared with the cre that is often put into making a pentagram for demon sumoning(the unbind symbole can even be used to break out of a pentagram and the bind symbole can be used to bind something to a particular object(such as binding a demon you sumon to a glass ball so that if you break the ball the demon is destroyed or bannished)).
Note: the stick figure represents an average man's height and the pictures are not all on the same scale.
Larval Form(First Form) - The Chorniktha
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/larvaForm.jpg
This form has not yet grown any exo skeleton though peices can be noticed forming inside its back.**It has a probiscus which is sharp and its main means of attack.**It can be seen easily what its imunities are.**The side veiw of this picture is the most acurate drawing of the eyes which maintain the same shape throughout the different forms.**This form is reletivly weak and often able to easily be killed by regular attacks.**The reason it is not called a Trillnath is because it was originaly thought to be a completly seperate creature unrelated to its other forms.
Second Form - The Kanthilna
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/secondForm.jpg
This form has begun to grow an exoskeleton.**It apears similar to a spine an "ribs" now hold the sides giving added protection against physical attacks.**The jaw has begun to develope and is in 8 peices.**A lower left and lower right that have mostly fused together, a lower front which alows for added griping ability as it is able to open and close on its own, an upper left and upper right that have mostly fused together, and an upper front similar to the lower front.**The top of the head where the crest is has grown a shell for added protection and the eyes are protected byt the exoskeleton in front beneth and above it.**The color of the exoskeleton varies from hive to hive and on a less notable level from creature to creature.**It usualy fights by trying to bite the opponent and stab it with its still existing probiscus.**The reason it is not called a Trillnath is because it was originaly thought to be a completly seperate creature unrelated to its other forms.
Third Form - The Kornick
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/thirdForm.jpg
The creature is now slightly taller than an average human.**The rib like structures from the second form on the fist, third and fifth sections(counting from the section closest to the head to the section farthest from the head) have becomee hollow and extended out to form legs. The Set in the front is most developed having a large sharp blade whith a jagged inner curve alowwing for it to catch swords and othersimilar weapons and posibly disarm its opponent.**The last section has developed a pronanced crack on the back and has almost fused on the botom.**The head is much more developed.**The top plate has mostly fused whith the upper jaw whilethe lower jaw has extended around the eyes to meat the top plate in the back.**Teeth have begun to form but are as yet little to no use in combat and used only for eating.**The probiscus from the first form has developed into an aproximatly 3 foot long prehinsile tongue while maintaining the spike.**The back four legs are commonly used for walking while the It keeps its first section raised.**The first pair of legs are used for fighting, cutting food, carrying, and other forms of work.**In combat it usualy will fight whith its front legs and tongue.**It is now better protected from physical attacks but is still vunerablu along the underbelly.** The reason it is not called a Trillnath is because it was originaly thought to be a completly seperate creature unrelated to its other forms.
Fourth Form - The Trillnath
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/fourthForm.jpg
Fist, this picture's side veiw has some trouble whith proportions.**The head and first pair of leg's claw should be smaller and a more proportionate size for the picture.
In this form the tail has begun to develope though is rather short and not much use in combatdespite the spike at its tip.**The crack that was along the back section in the thrid form has split open as the tail curls underneath it(not over the back like a scorpion).**The exoskeleton has also fused along the bottom of the tail.**The first section of the exoskeleton has now become two section and is almost fused along the front.**The rib like parts of the exoskeleton that were on the second and fouth section in the second form have now developed into legs the same as the back four legs in the third form.**The back four legs from the third form have grown much longer and are about**twice as long as befor.**The claws on the end have developed to match the claws on the front legs of the third form.**The exoskeleton of the main body has almost covered the sides and is touching in a few places along the bottom.**The front pair of legs have developed another section giving them more flexability.**Meanwhile jag closest to the base of the claw on the front pair of legs in the third form has developed into a movable blade making the claw into somewhat of a pincher.**The claws remain flat and sharp though there is a grove along the main part of the claw that the smaller blade can go into making it apear to be a single blade.** The head has become more developed and the sections have mostly fused.**The teath are now long enuf for use in combat while the tongue is now used almost only for eating.**It holds itself in the same pose as the third form.**When in combat it will now usualy fight whith its two front legs and mowth though it occasionaly might use its probiscus.**It is still vunerable along the underbelly and now along the back of th tail(but not the bottom of the tail).**The immunities are now almost completely obscured from veiw by the exoskeleton.
Fifth Form - The Greater Trillnath
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/fifthForm.jpg
I would like to note that while on the other pictures the front veiw showed all the legs this one only shows the first pair because I didn't wat to go through the hassle of drawing the others.**Also the front leg claw in the side veiw is actualy longer, but I didn't have a long enuf page so had to shorten it some for that picture.
This is the final form of the average trillnath( the only forms that comes after are queen and queen whith egg sac which only a select few become).**The back four pairs of legs are now all at the same level of development and are extreamly long.**The claws on the ends of these legs are now of the same type that the front leg claws of the fourth form were.**The head is fully formed and has long sharp teeth(though it nolonger uses them for combat).**The trillnath is now about two and a half times as tall but this is mainly due to legg size and the size of the body(width & height w/out legs) is about the same as the fourth form.**The tail is now about 14 feet in length and the spike has developed into a flat sharp blade.**The back of the tail is now fused though there is still a noticeable line where the crack was.**It holds its tail with a hump that then curls under its body(see picture).**This is because at this stage of the life cycle it stands above most of its prey and this gives it a more effective means of attack than curling the tail over the back.**The underbelly of the trillnath is now fully fused giving it full protection.**Numerous sections have been formed from the plates along the tail that have had the cracks filled whith a more flexable but less durable form of the material making up their exoskeleton.**This material has also been used to protect all other joints.**The front leg claws have now developed small serated spines pointing inward on**the larger part and outward on the smaller part.**It still maintains the grove that the smaller part can fit into.**The front legs are also longer to acomidate for it's height.**In adition, spines have begun to form along the back of the trillnath in two parrellel rows of 4.**These spines are used when the trillnath "mates" whith a queen(a section on the queen and the queen whith eggsac will come soon).**The trillnath still holds itself in the same general pose as the fourth form though is now much taller.**When fighting it usualy tries to stand over its prey and attack whith its tail and front pair of legs.**Though the have been known to fight whith their back legs, the are usualy just used to cage the prey beneath it so it is harder for it to dodge the tail.**It will nolonger attack whith its mouth due to it's height.**It is able to redily climb whith the claws on its legs and when running will use all ten legs(this is also how the fourth and third form ran( in the third forms cas it was only 6 legs) though it is not mentioned in their sections).
Queen Form - The Trillnath Queen
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/queenForm2.jpg
Note: the spikes on the tail do not actualy stick out to the sides as they appear to in the top veiw.**Also, it should be noted that the tail has nine segments(not counting the base and first one which do not grow any spines or other projections) as seen in the side view, the top view has the tail shortened for conveneience.
The queen is the largest of the trillnath.**The front legs are more developed and stronger than befor.**All of the limbs are thicker and the queen is on a larger scale overall than the greater trillnath.**The claws on the 8 rear legs are now of the same kind as the claws on the front pair of legs in the greater trillnath.**The spikes on the back are now much longer( these are refered to as the eggsac spines as they are used to suport the eggsac when it developes).**Two rows of paired spines have developed on the tail whith a hard membrane between them(two in each row per segment).**The crack on the back of the tail is more pronounced but still fused( not visible in the picture).**A single row of spikes have developed along the bottom of the tail(one per segment).**These spikes are mainly defencive(mainly for the defense of the eggsac when it developes) in purpose.**If a queen has eaten enough food and so chooses, she can split the back of her tail along the crack and produce a larvel trillnath befor reclosing the crack.**This does not alow for as much reproduction as an eggsac but can be used to start a colony.****The shape of the head is slightly different(refer to picture) and small jagged spines have developed along the legs(all of which are pointed up the leg).**These spines are used when the queen has developed an egg sac and chooses to be suspended from the ceiling and/or walls( in a method remeniscent of the queen xenomorph in the aliens movie befor it detaches from the eggsac).**The jags alow for beter grip on the wall.**The queen trillnath is much stronger than the other forms but mostly unable to fight when an eggsac is attached(thus the need for guards).**If there is no eggsac, the queen fights in the same maner as the greater trillnath.**The imunities are completely obscured by the exoskeleton in the queen form making it dificult to tell what its strengths and weaknesses are.**The exoskeleton is also strongest in the queen form making it the most resistant of all the trillnath to physical attack.
Trillnath Eggsac Formation
Click here to see diagram (http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/EggSackFormation2.jpg)
This is a quick sketch combine whith photoshop showing the key points of eggsac formation in trillnath.**I general, a greater trillnath mounts a queen(sitting atop the spines on her back), and the queen splits its underbelly whith her tail.**She then splits open the top of her tail and merges her inner ooze with the greater trillnath's ooze.**The legs of the greater attatch onto the spines(except the front pair(on first greater they do attatch) and the third pair which are used to anchor eggsac to a surface) and form spines themselves.**A second greater then attaches to the first greater in the fame proccess.**The prosses fractures the exoskeleton providing places for the larval form to ooze out.**As many greaters as desired can add on making it so that the eggsac can be incredably long(though there are always atleast two).**The number attached is usualy based on the size of the lair.**The queen will often attach to a wall or ceiling after starting an eggsac to alow more room for her attenders.
**In addition to the regular trillnaths, there are also four comon varieties of mutated trillnaths.**
Mutated Base - The Mutated Trillnath
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/mutatedbase.jpg
******** While trillnaths not of the queen rank are unable to change into the queen form after becoming a greater trillnath, there are occasionaly some that try.**These trillnath become mutated trillnath.**A mutated trillnath will be stuck in a form similar to the queen but unsuccesfully there with some other changes as well.**This is due to the fact it lacks a vital chemical that alows it to remain stable in producing its exoskeleton during the formation.**While not hurt by this, the exoskeleton will become weakened and crack in numerous(especialy where joints are/were) places lowering the deffence of the trillnath and manking it easier to injure.
******** It also causes numerous changes in the trillnath's build.**The forlegs first joint becomes twisted such that the limb now bends backwords while the second joint disapears.**The claws o the end of the forlegs have the top part(previously the larger one) shrink down to insignifigence while the bottom one extends into a long thin blade.**This new joint, while less useful for manpulating the environment and crawling on walls, is much more devestating when used for attacking.**This is due to that it now is regularly held back in the position shown in the pic. but when used snaps forward(the second segment rotates out away from the first while the long claw rotates away from the second segment making the claw stay pointed in the same dirction but moving it forward) with enough force to stab through a 2 foot thick peice of steel with ease(and no stress to the exoskeleton).**When attacking like this it almost always attacks with both claws in unison.**The next feature changed is that the probiscus is nolonger able to fully retract and has begun developind sturdy exoskeleton(it has a strip running its length on the top, bottom, and both sides with strips ringing it placed at even intervals along it's length, joints are betwin ringing exoskeleton. picture shows total extended length compaired to body in above vaiw while other veiws show as retracted as it can be).**The probiscus has developed a sharp top and botom edge and is now used often in battle as well as in feeding.
******** The claws on the leges have developed so that the previously main part of the clar is now held up and is useless.**Menwhile the other part is now longer and sharper and used fow walking.**While this has no great effect it makes it harder for the trillnath to crawl on walls slowing it when it does so.**Small spikes have developed along the under belly and bottom of tail like those on the bottom of the queens tail though they are not evenly spaced or in rows as they should be(some are beside each other, some close, some far, etc.).**The 8 spikes on it's back have developed like in the queen, yet they are curved and have moveable joints at their base(though they are rairly moved).**The fins on the tail have likewise developed though the spines are of uneven length and the fin inbetween is rarely corectly formed(there are ocasionaly some extra spines as well).**The blade at the end of the tail has also had some changes.**While the blade did not change too much, a second one has grown beside it forcing it to the side(they are centered).**The trillnath still attackes with its tail in the same manner as queen and greater trillnaths do.**Small jags have developed along the limbs like on the queen, yet they are not all facing the same way as with the queen.**The central spike on the head has also split at the top(in the same manner as the queens).**A mutated trillnath is slightly larger than a trillnath queen and unable to become an eggsac.
******** While the offencive abilities of mutated trillnath are superior to the regular trillnath's, the deffence is weak enough that it is rarely done.**In order to counter the effects of the weakened deffence, the trillnath can attempt to become one of three stabalized forms.**These forms are however specalized to specific environments which, while making them strongest in that environment, severily handicaps them outside of it.**There is allso a low average chance of success.**There is aproximatly 33%(one third) chance that it will be successful, die, or remain the same and be unable to change into that form.**The three forms are the flying trillnath, the aquatic trillnath, and the trillnath tunnel serpent.
Mutated Flying - The Flying Trillnath
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/mutatedflyinga.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/mutatedflyingb.jpg
******** The flying trillnath(sometimes called winged trillnath) is the only trillnath type able to fly.**It does so using two pairs of wings.**The main pair of wings(used for most of the lift and some stearing) is developed from the walking legs(the membrane reaches to the ends of the front two, the end of the middle segment of the one third from the front, and the end of the first segment on the back one).**The membrane is formed not of exoskeleton but the ooze that is their substance.**This is because it is sturdy enough to function as such and more quickly able to be repaired(almost instantly) if damaged(particularly useful if in flight).**It is also a thin enough layer that it causes no pain to the trillnath if it is cut(in much the same way that one can stab a needle through the outermost layers of their skin and not feel a thing).**The Useles claw parts on the first two of the legs converted to wings(see picture) have**become suports for the wing while the back two have completely disapeared.**The spines on the tail have become uniform in decreasing on the first four segments, stick strait off the sides, and stick strate out with joints at their base.**They are also part of the main pair of wings as shown in the picture.**The spines on the last five segments of the tail are stationary, lack membranes, and at angles like on the queen though still on the sides of the tail.**The secondary pair of wings(used mainly for stearing and a little for lift) is developed from the spikes on the back.**They have elongated and deeveloped a membrane(of the same type as the main pair of wings).**their length gets longer from the front ones two the back ones.**The two front ones have a single joint while the back two are about another half as long and have delevoped two joints.
******** The claws on the back of the tail have developed into a long sharp pair of pinchers.**They are used mainly for combat and holding food.**The spikes on the under belly have menwhile grown into 5 large sharp blades(two on each side and one in the middle, see front veiw for clarification on pattern) with limmited movement with numerous smaller blades(a few scatered and one clearly defined central row).**These are one the flying trillnath's main weapons used by diving the prey and pulling up to graze it and slice it in doing so.**The last of the main attacks is using its forlegs in the same manner as a mutated trillnath.**The small slaws from the mutated trillnathhave however moved to the oposite side of the leg and elongated gaining a membrain between it and the leg.**It can be closed and have very little use but can be used for small adjustments in flight.
******** The proboscus in now used only for feeding despite the wicked beak-like spike it has devloped into.**The mouth of the trillnath has fused into position around the proboscus making it apear simmilar to a hawk or other bird of prey's head when the proboscus is full retracted.**The pattern on the proboscus is solid plates that have the joints line curve towords the head where the plate peices running the length were on the mutated trillnath's proboscus were(and curving away from the head where they weren't).**The flying trillnath can feed on food that is on the ground or held beneath it.**It can hold foor in two main ways.**The first is to hold it in the picher on its tail which curves under when it is flying.**The second it to use the pincher on its tail to impail the food on one or more of the blades on its underbelly.
******** While flying, the segments of the two back legs are folded under the wing while the tail is curved under the body.**Despite the flying trillnath's great strength when flying, if caught landed it is all but helpless.**The main wing's legs are shorter as they move from pront pair to back pair and cannot bend as much as a normal trillnath's(the side veiw is inacurate in that reguard).**They are infact spread lice a somewhat low arch when walking making it to low for the trillnath to curve it's tail under for use as a weapon when on the ground.**The trillnath is however two high for it to reach anything shorter then about 9 feet tall with the blades on its underbelly(wich would also lack some of the force they would cary when used while flying).**The forlegs, while still usefull, have a difficult time reaching prey beneth it and not close to the front.**The use of its main wings for walking makes it dificult for it to take off quickly(it takes of by spreading its wings and suporting itself on its forlegs, the nonwing segments of the back two legs, and the blades on its underbelly and then undulating its wings similar to a gold dragon(the secondary wings flap while taking off).**Once in the air it flaps its wings however).**Taking off also makes it more vunerable when already in combat untill it finnishes taking off.**Due to these reasons it is quite easy to kill with a long sword, spear, or other weapon, when one quickly gets under it and it is on the ground.
The side veiw shows it's comon position on the ground(aside from the bend of the legs as above mentioned) while the mini picture shows it flying.**The above veiw shows it with fully spread wings though the leg segments on the back two pairs of legs would most likely be folded under as would the tail if it were flying(as above stated).
Mutated Aquatic - The Aquatic Trillnath
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/mutatedaquatica.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/mutatedaquaticb.jpg
As you can see this one has a permenantly extended proboscus, fins on its forlegs, a fin on its back, one on either side, and on the end of its tail.**The double ark on the side fins membrane is because there is a flexable blade of exoskeleton along the sides of them.**The extended part on the front of the side fins is for its limmited walking when on land and is normly folded under.**The fin on the tail can close as can the fins on the forlegs.**The dimonds on the end of the proboscus are weak eyes that can only sense motion(not color or lighting) and are all around that segment.**The regular eyes remain on the true head and are adapted(not in a way that can be seen) so that they are not effected by distortion from water(both looking through water and in or out of water).
All the veiws are finaly here.**I would like to point out that the front veiw is only missing the ends of the two legs because I ran out of paper.**The side veiw is not covered in spots, those are where the legs and spines that make up the fins come out.**It should be noted that while the large proboscua plate's above veiw large membrane has only two intermediate supports, the side ones have three.**There are many small points on the underbelly but they are not used in combat.**It can pump water into the proboscus between segments(mainly the large ones) in a maner similar to the oposite of what gills do.**It then shoots the water out of the proboscus tip highly presurized to attack prey.**It can also ad a chemical to make the water extreamly cold and freeze as it is sprayed or another to make it extreamly hot and boil.**While almost defencles on land, it is able to somewhat walk.**The last segments of the front pair of legs making the fins(which are folded completely under when swimming) can be**held in the manner shown in the front & side veiw.**The tail is then moved down so that the tips make contact with the ground.**Walking like this is a slow and hazerdous method leaving it in a vulnerable position but it alows it to travel between uncunected bodies of water.**The lines seen on the front of the fins in the fron veiw show where there is an extreemly sharp edge.**These, as well as the sharp edges on the sides of the fins, are used in combat by swimming past prey and grazing them(they are sharp enough to cut full plate like tin foil).**You cannot see the crest rank on the front veiw because you are seeing the bottom of the head, not the top.**All the fins can be closed(the side and dorsal fins fold back) to make in narrow enough to swim through small cracks and chasems in the water.
Mutated Subterranean - The Trillnath Tunnel Serpent
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/mutatedsubterraneana.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/mutatedsubterraneanb.jpg
NOTE: the long ovals in the top and side veiw of the expanded version represent the extensive mesh of limbs seen from front veiw.**The odd lines on the closed version represent these lims closed up.**The mesh of limbs is also just an example layout, not neccesarily the way it a given trillnath tunnel serpent will have it.
The trillnath tunnel serpent is the most common of the mutated trillnaths.**This is because of the many jobs it serves for its collony.**It is the trillnaths scaffolds, their cave repairers, their doors, their most effective guards and trappers.**This is because of the structer it has.**Unlike forms in which the trillnath gets larger, the trillnath tunnel serpent(ill abreviate it tts from now on) is skinier.**This is because of two reasons.**The first is because it must be able to spread its fluid throughout the many limb.**The second is so that it can fit through small crevases that it otherwise could not.
The tts also varies in its larger head(the largness is just on the top plate not the whole thing).**This is because of the tts's fighting style.**It will usualy wait for its prey to turn down a dead end tunnel.**It will then come out of a hole in the wall behind the prey and expand its many spines(the large mesh seen it the bottom front veiw preveosly reffered to as limbs but now being called spines to avoid confustion with the legs) to block the entire tunnel.**It will then slowly advance on the now trapped prey untill they are out of room to run and it can kill them(when it needs to turn around with its spines out it will close the first set and move between the next untill it needs to close that set and will, once its head is even with its false head, extend the front set of spines and continue to have the back half of its body move through the front spines).**Because of this fighting style it hase very durrable armor on the front and back of it(including a larger op of its head that acts somewhat like a sheild).**The spines are also nearly unbreakable and able to lift or withstand thousands of pounds.**This method of development is also the cause of the tts's weakness however.**The needs for armor in the front and a flexable body have weakened the exoskeleton along the body.**Also, the spines are made so that while they can exert great pressure in extending, they don't have enough force to close them likewise(infact a child could easily holds them apart once they are extended.**The extending is also reffering to them being made to not lie flat along the body as in the first set of veiws).**The spines are also rather useless as weapons ase they are made to be sturdy, not to impale things that get close.**These facts combine to make it so that while from the front and back it is nearly invulnerable, when an enemy gets at its sides while it is extended it is unable to reach that enemy or do anything to stop it as it is killed.**This makes it very vulnerable in open areas.**This can bring up the question of why it cant just close its spines(which gives it very strong armor) and take on its snake-like appearence which gives it its name when entering oppen areas and the answer is it can.**However, when it does this it also folds back its legs meaning the only weapost it then has are the tip or its tail and its proposcus.**While this is not that great a limit, it is not the manner in which the tts is used to or designed to fight(for one thing the tip of the tail is ment to be launched forward, not swung about).**
As for the movement when spines are closed, you might notice the small spikes shown on the legs in the spines open picture.**On the spines(though this is not shown) and legs there are small spikes that point up on one side and down on the other.**When the tts moves forward, it can rotate the spines so that these spikes all point backwords and it then will slightly move some spines and legs forward and then back which causes these spikes to dig into the ground around it and alows it to pull itself forward.**When moving backwords it rotates its spines and legs so the side with the spikes facing forwords is towords the outside and then moves in the same manner.**In adition, it also has the ability to launch its priboscusout like a grapling hook when its spines are closed alowing it to pull itsels accross gaps or other obsticles.**
This brings us to its fighting.**The tail is its only true defence from behind, though it has a functioning(if week) eye on its false head.**The majority of its features from the back are more for show than anything else.**The tail is used by having it launch forward like a striking snake.**when the spines are closed it is just swung around like a blade.**from the front the tts fights with its claws like all mutated trillnath when the spines are extended.**It can also use its proboscus which is venomous( infact it is the only naturaly venomous trillnath feature).**When using the proboscus it will shoot it forward as if it were a striking serpent.**This is also used to pull prey in range of the claws.**The venom, while deadly in large amounts, is ment only to slow and perhaps paralize preyso it can more easaly kill it with its claws(though it can kill with a hit to the brain or vital organ).**When the spines are closed it can only use its proboscus so the main features of its attack patern do not work.**This causes it to adopt a more hitan run style aproch unless it is in a tunnel.**Another strategy of attack when in tunnels with its spines closed is for it to go into the cracks above its prey and extend its spines causing the ceiling to colapse(or to go into the floor and drop them into a pit).
The tts also often is used like a scafold when the trillnath are repairing collapsed tunnels.**It will often go into the rubbel and extent its spines to lift it up out of the way while it is secured.**Whe functioning as a door it will coil up in the entrance with its spines closed and its head in the middle and then expand the spines untill it fills the oppening.**It will often have a whole to the side that it can slither into/out of when it is oppening/closing the pathway.
Now, if your read all that, good job.
Owrtho
Trillnaths
Fluff
General Info:
**The general name for these creatures is Trillnath (it is not a long i as in tri)(after the fourth & fifth forms) but the first 3 forms usualy go by other names.**These creatures are actualy a clearish gell though they develope an exoskeleton that spreads untill it covers them in their fifth form.**The rank crest that can be seen in the key at the bottom of each picture reffers to markings that show their class.**By class in mean that like termites, their job is determined at birth.**Some become drones, some queens, some sodiers, some guards, some elites(queen's guards).**I am thinking about removing this from their appearence, but it would have no effect on their overall look.
**These creatures are colonial type organisms.**What does this mean? It means that each of their cells is a separate lifeform with its own DNA. **However, the cells are specialized and do require the group.**The key feature of these monsters is their ability to become immune to damage delt to them.**What this means is that if for example a fire spell is used agains them, the next time it is used, they will be more resistant.**Why? This brings us to the immunities in the keys of the pictures.**The trillnath's cells can be immune to any type of damage(elemental like fire acid poisen evil holy etc. but not pysical as in arrows regular fighting and wounding(only ability they cannot be immune to)).**However, it is unlikely for all of their cells to naturaly have any particular immunity.**This means that upon wounding it with one of those damage types, you destroy the ones not immune and increase the percentage of ones immune (upon being hurt remaining cells divide**replace lost cell) this means that if the same type of damage is used repeatedly it can become completely immune.**The reverse of that however is that when a diferent damage type is used there is a chance of lowering its immunity to one of the others (unless that other one is completely immune already) as there is a chance of killing ones that are immune to that damage type while not killing ones immune to the damage type you are using.**So what are the imunities mentioned in the pictures?**When the cells are immune to a specific type of damage they produce a particular enzyme that will gather into a crystaline structure in the body (each type would form its own structure. they would be about fist sized when 30% of the cells were**imune to that type of damage).**These structures will Look reminiscent of the damage type they represent( fire would be red, orange, & yellow and apprear in the general shape of a flame, poisen would look like a green drop of water, etc) and be luminecent in those colors.** These enzymes would constently be broken down, however, keeping it from getting larger or smaller unless the % of cells immune to that damage type changed.**This would mean as it became more immune to fire the fire crystal would get larger while if it became less immune to fire the fire crystal would get smaller.**
Now, there are two ways for them to spread their immunities.**First is that, with the immunities is a structure that looks like a brown sphere and may or may not have black spikes coming off (not actualy spikes but long thin stiff structures about as long as the sphere's radius) called pili.**If these pili are present, the trillnath can initiate a trade of immunities whith another trillnath( it does so by haveing one of the pili extend out of its body into the other's body and conecting it to that ones brown sphere).**This will make their immunities set to the highest ones of each.** If one has all of its immunities lower than the other, those immunities will be increased to be equalt to the others and the immunity it is strongest in to begin with be increased by 10% in the other one. **Also, if the one being traded whith does not have the ability to iniciate trade then it will gain it. **The second way that immunities can be spread is that if one dies and another goes to the corpse, it can gain the immunities in a onesided verion of the previously mentioned method. **This follows the same rules but only the living one gains immunities, while the dead one recieves no benefits.**After this the dead ones corpse is destroyed. **The corpse will be unable to do this after about one and a half minutes of being dead.
Trillnath Rank Crests
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/TrillnathRankCrests.jpg
I have drawn the trillnath rank crests.**They are all shown on a greater trillnath head(except for the pseudocrest wich only occurs on a trillnath tunnel serpents false head so it is shown on one).**The odd lines below each picture are side veiws to see the angle that the crests follow(btw, the queen's is not suposed to be bent).**Also, the lines on the drone's crest are small cracks.**Now to explain the heirarchy of rank crests.
Aside from the pseudo crest, they are in order of rank from lowest to highest.**This means that the average strength and command follows this order.**Thus a soldier can command a drone provided it is not at a higher stage in the trillnath lifecycle.**The jobs also vary.
Drone: mainly maintains tunnels, gathers food, transports objects of interest(such as food or other things that have gained the trillnaths interest).
Soldier: mainly is sent out to fight or invade areas, guards drones outside of caves.
Guard: mainly protects caves, food chambers, hords, sleeping chambers, drones inside caves, etc.
Elite: mainly guards queens and the most important objects/chambers to their trillnath hive.
Queen: mainly reproduces and founds new hives.
Pseudo crest: mainly functions as a Hey, wait a minute its not a real rank, oh well here is what it does.**Functions to confuse creatures behind a trillnath tunnel serpent and works as an eye as well.**The part that works as an eye isthe dimond shaped spot on the middle spike.
While on the topic of trillnath social order, I would like to point explain their interaction with the non trillnath.**A trillnath will veiw most non trillnaths as food or threats.**They can however be bargained with, if difficultly. **Trillnath will never give a creature more than its life in a bargain unless you manage to somehow kill every trillnath queen in the hive (even ones not yet at queen form) and hold the last queen as ransom.**That being very unlikely, most settel for their lives when bargaining.**With this, some live quite well in trillnath territory.**For example, a cattel farmer might regularly give the hive a few cattel to live in their land where very few other preditors.**Or even a small rebel town might live inside of the trillnath hive(caves) itself in exchange for processed metals and mechanical/magical traps or devices.**However such a comunity would be counted as less than slaves by the trillnath and may have difficulty leaving.
There is one mutated trillnath rank.**The rank crest for it looks like that of the drone except flipped horizontaly(you can also look at the fourth symbole down in the leftmost collum of the "Trillnath Symboles" picture).**This rank is often reffered to as unbound trillnaths.**This is because they have higher stealth stats and are immune to all binding magics (such as entangle, petrify, bind, pentagrams, etc.) and seem to be able to elude most physical traps as well (and most anything that might trap them).**They are very rare and are usualy used to invade protected areas of interest and remove the protection so other trillnaths might enter.
Cave setup:
The general form is that there is a key cavern that is large and far away from any entrances into the cave system.**This is the queen chamber.**It is also surounded by a "secure" area of caverns and tunnels through which the eggsacs would be and where no tunnel colapses would be engineared.**The secure area would also follow some key tunnel paths to the exits(though the egg sac would not) so that trillnaths in a weekened state(or mutants) could reach the secure area without fear of tunnel colapses.**Outside the secure area would be a large laberynth of tunnels that would periodicly colapse and be rebuilt to keep the paths from being the same all the time and to make it more difficult to invade.
jobs by form:
The form the trillnath is in also dictates their job in society(to an exent, rank also plays a role in this).**All forms(except queen w/ eggsac) go out to hunt periodicaly.**The larvae and second form will, inside the hive, move through narrow areas, repair tunnels, and enginear their colapse.**The third form will guard the first two while they do so.**The fourth form hunt and bring food back for the ones currently unable to hunt and guard caves and tunnels.**The fifth gorm guard the main caves and tunnels as well as the queen and other important areas.**They also hunt for the queen.**The mutants will patrole the secure area while waiting to grow enough to change into one of the other three forms(occasionaly they guard the queen while doing so but it is a rare occurence).**The flying will usualy be in very large caverns to guard or be in caves near the entrances from high ground(so that they may spot and attack those who might intrude with a lower chance of being caught on the ground.**They are usualy only chosen to be formed in trillnath colonies in mountainous areas).**The aquatic trillnaths guard submerged caves.**The tunnel serpents guard the most important tunnels and caves(for reasons to to be found when I post about it).**They might not leave the caves.
Trillnath Symboles
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/TrillnathSymboles-1.jpg
Trillnaths have an odd way of writing.**It consists of stacking and combining symboles as well as placing them in order with many symboles having multiple meanings.**The chart above show some of the ways each can be translated though other similar words can also be used(an example is the symbole for fighter can also be translated as soldier).**Lets start with the order symboles are writen.**Any peice of writing always begins with an orientation symbole(the top symbole in the left column).**This is because trillnaths will crawl on walls and writ their messages oriented however they are facing so this shows what direction the symboles will point(as they often have different meanings depending on the direction they are facing) with the only exception being the direction symbole(the symbole directly beneth the orientation symbole), sometimes called the trillnath compass, though I will cover its rules next.**After the orientation symbole is placed the next symbole is placed to its lower right and is oriented to it.**Single thoughts or sentances often consist of a single stack of symboles though some are rarely stacked(such as the follow or proceed symbole).**All symboles will continue to spiral counterclockwise outward from the orientation symbole.
As for the exception to the orientation rule, the direction symbole, it is always oriented to the nearest trillnath hive(looking at the above drwying, the central point down is always hive strait, the left point down is always**to hive right and the point up is always to hive left).**What does that mean?**Well, in every trillnath hive there is a main queen(the queen attached to the egg sacs).**She is unable to change the direction of her facing and the hive she belongs to is always oriented to her(an example is that hive left would be the main queens left).**These and up and down are the only directions trillnaths understand(they do not understand left and right or north, south, east, west).**How do they know what the neares hive orientation is? Inside every trillnaths head(in the plate beneath their rank crest) is a hollow bspot filled with a special liquid and a special shard shaped like the direction symbole.**Every trillnath hive sends out a faint energy showing its orientation and like a regular compass orients to magnetic north, this shard orients to that energy always remaining horizontal to the ground and pointing in the nearest hives orientation(some will make "trillnath compasses" by gathering the liquid and the shard and putting them in glass or crystal spheres).**So, if this symbole is always oriented to the hive, how does it tell directions you ask.**Well trillnathes then use the lower, higher, or even symbole by placing it around the direction symbole in the direction they are pointingout compaired to the hives orientation.
There are two other notable symbole types, the bind and unbind symboles, and the bracket symboles(such as the guard, create, destroy, hide, guard against).**The bind an unbind symboles work by:
for the bind symbole, placing the thing or things you are binding or combining in the two top spots, and placing wat they are being bound to or combined to make uder its botom point
and for the unbind symbole placing what is being unbound in the top parts(or what something is being broken apart to make) and what it is being unbound from( or what is being broken apart) under the point.**Neither aditional part need be required, but they are used to clarify the meaning.
As for the bracket symboles, they are actions done to, or reffering to, something.**The thing they are done, or reffering, to is placed between the tow parts.**Thus placing the structure symbole inbetween the guard symbole makes guard structure, or guarder of structure.
Now that the using of symboles is clarified, lets explain some of the points of trillnath language.**Trillnaths see there as being two types of creatures.**similar to self(those that are trillnaths), and others(those that aren't trillnaths).**These can be better defined by adding other symboles, such as the greater symbole(things stronger, bigger, or more plentiful depending on the greater symbole used) or lesser symbole(things weaker, smaller, or less plentiful depending on the lesser symbole used).**As for counting, trillnaths don't do it.**To a trillnath something is eather greater of lesser.**If it is equal to, it counts as greater.**This comes mainly from fighting and how trillnaths refer to odds in a battle.**Trillnaths count an evenly mached foe as being a greater opponent.**When fighting multiple enemies, they compair their colective strength to the colective strength of the enemie to determine which has ther greater force.**This means that if two creatures whos combine strength is half that of a trillnaths fight a trillnath, it would be considered a smaller or lesser force despite having the greater numbers from a humans perspective, yet if something stronger than a trillnath attacked it would be considered a greater force.
Also, on a somewhat random note, trillnaths do not recognize royalty or the like.**The trillnath words and symboles for a trillnath queen, if directly translated are "source of self".**When reffering to a main queen, the creator symbole is added to that making it "creator source of self".**I have also added a trillnath note in the image and its translation beneth it as an example.**Also, the bind and unbind symboles have actual power similar to the way a pentagram does, and it is not unheard of for trillnaths to create minor traps by placing a bind marking on the ground to trap any unwary traveler in the caves who steps into it.**This way of using it is rather weak, but it can be vary powerful when prepared with the cre that is often put into making a pentagram for demon sumoning(the unbind symbole can even be used to break out of a pentagram and the bind symbole can be used to bind something to a particular object(such as binding a demon you sumon to a glass ball so that if you break the ball the demon is destroyed or bannished)).
Note: the stick figure represents an average man's height and the pictures are not all on the same scale.
Larval Form(First Form) - The Chorniktha
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/larvaForm.jpg
This form has not yet grown any exo skeleton though peices can be noticed forming inside its back.**It has a probiscus which is sharp and its main means of attack.**It can be seen easily what its imunities are.**The side veiw of this picture is the most acurate drawing of the eyes which maintain the same shape throughout the different forms.**This form is reletivly weak and often able to easily be killed by regular attacks.**The reason it is not called a Trillnath is because it was originaly thought to be a completly seperate creature unrelated to its other forms.
Second Form - The Kanthilna
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/secondForm.jpg
This form has begun to grow an exoskeleton.**It apears similar to a spine an "ribs" now hold the sides giving added protection against physical attacks.**The jaw has begun to develope and is in 8 peices.**A lower left and lower right that have mostly fused together, a lower front which alows for added griping ability as it is able to open and close on its own, an upper left and upper right that have mostly fused together, and an upper front similar to the lower front.**The top of the head where the crest is has grown a shell for added protection and the eyes are protected byt the exoskeleton in front beneth and above it.**The color of the exoskeleton varies from hive to hive and on a less notable level from creature to creature.**It usualy fights by trying to bite the opponent and stab it with its still existing probiscus.**The reason it is not called a Trillnath is because it was originaly thought to be a completly seperate creature unrelated to its other forms.
Third Form - The Kornick
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/thirdForm.jpg
The creature is now slightly taller than an average human.**The rib like structures from the second form on the fist, third and fifth sections(counting from the section closest to the head to the section farthest from the head) have becomee hollow and extended out to form legs. The Set in the front is most developed having a large sharp blade whith a jagged inner curve alowwing for it to catch swords and othersimilar weapons and posibly disarm its opponent.**The last section has developed a pronanced crack on the back and has almost fused on the botom.**The head is much more developed.**The top plate has mostly fused whith the upper jaw whilethe lower jaw has extended around the eyes to meat the top plate in the back.**Teeth have begun to form but are as yet little to no use in combat and used only for eating.**The probiscus from the first form has developed into an aproximatly 3 foot long prehinsile tongue while maintaining the spike.**The back four legs are commonly used for walking while the It keeps its first section raised.**The first pair of legs are used for fighting, cutting food, carrying, and other forms of work.**In combat it usualy will fight whith its front legs and tongue.**It is now better protected from physical attacks but is still vunerablu along the underbelly.** The reason it is not called a Trillnath is because it was originaly thought to be a completly seperate creature unrelated to its other forms.
Fourth Form - The Trillnath
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/fourthForm.jpg
Fist, this picture's side veiw has some trouble whith proportions.**The head and first pair of leg's claw should be smaller and a more proportionate size for the picture.
In this form the tail has begun to develope though is rather short and not much use in combatdespite the spike at its tip.**The crack that was along the back section in the thrid form has split open as the tail curls underneath it(not over the back like a scorpion).**The exoskeleton has also fused along the bottom of the tail.**The first section of the exoskeleton has now become two section and is almost fused along the front.**The rib like parts of the exoskeleton that were on the second and fouth section in the second form have now developed into legs the same as the back four legs in the third form.**The back four legs from the third form have grown much longer and are about**twice as long as befor.**The claws on the end have developed to match the claws on the front legs of the third form.**The exoskeleton of the main body has almost covered the sides and is touching in a few places along the bottom.**The front pair of legs have developed another section giving them more flexability.**Meanwhile jag closest to the base of the claw on the front pair of legs in the third form has developed into a movable blade making the claw into somewhat of a pincher.**The claws remain flat and sharp though there is a grove along the main part of the claw that the smaller blade can go into making it apear to be a single blade.** The head has become more developed and the sections have mostly fused.**The teath are now long enuf for use in combat while the tongue is now used almost only for eating.**It holds itself in the same pose as the third form.**When in combat it will now usualy fight whith its two front legs and mowth though it occasionaly might use its probiscus.**It is still vunerable along the underbelly and now along the back of th tail(but not the bottom of the tail).**The immunities are now almost completely obscured from veiw by the exoskeleton.
Fifth Form - The Greater Trillnath
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/fifthForm.jpg
I would like to note that while on the other pictures the front veiw showed all the legs this one only shows the first pair because I didn't wat to go through the hassle of drawing the others.**Also the front leg claw in the side veiw is actualy longer, but I didn't have a long enuf page so had to shorten it some for that picture.
This is the final form of the average trillnath( the only forms that comes after are queen and queen whith egg sac which only a select few become).**The back four pairs of legs are now all at the same level of development and are extreamly long.**The claws on the ends of these legs are now of the same type that the front leg claws of the fourth form were.**The head is fully formed and has long sharp teeth(though it nolonger uses them for combat).**The trillnath is now about two and a half times as tall but this is mainly due to legg size and the size of the body(width & height w/out legs) is about the same as the fourth form.**The tail is now about 14 feet in length and the spike has developed into a flat sharp blade.**The back of the tail is now fused though there is still a noticeable line where the crack was.**It holds its tail with a hump that then curls under its body(see picture).**This is because at this stage of the life cycle it stands above most of its prey and this gives it a more effective means of attack than curling the tail over the back.**The underbelly of the trillnath is now fully fused giving it full protection.**Numerous sections have been formed from the plates along the tail that have had the cracks filled whith a more flexable but less durable form of the material making up their exoskeleton.**This material has also been used to protect all other joints.**The front leg claws have now developed small serated spines pointing inward on**the larger part and outward on the smaller part.**It still maintains the grove that the smaller part can fit into.**The front legs are also longer to acomidate for it's height.**In adition, spines have begun to form along the back of the trillnath in two parrellel rows of 4.**These spines are used when the trillnath "mates" whith a queen(a section on the queen and the queen whith eggsac will come soon).**The trillnath still holds itself in the same general pose as the fourth form though is now much taller.**When fighting it usualy tries to stand over its prey and attack whith its tail and front pair of legs.**Though the have been known to fight whith their back legs, the are usualy just used to cage the prey beneath it so it is harder for it to dodge the tail.**It will nolonger attack whith its mouth due to it's height.**It is able to redily climb whith the claws on its legs and when running will use all ten legs(this is also how the fourth and third form ran( in the third forms cas it was only 6 legs) though it is not mentioned in their sections).
Queen Form - The Trillnath Queen
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/queenForm2.jpg
Note: the spikes on the tail do not actualy stick out to the sides as they appear to in the top veiw.**Also, it should be noted that the tail has nine segments(not counting the base and first one which do not grow any spines or other projections) as seen in the side view, the top view has the tail shortened for conveneience.
The queen is the largest of the trillnath.**The front legs are more developed and stronger than befor.**All of the limbs are thicker and the queen is on a larger scale overall than the greater trillnath.**The claws on the 8 rear legs are now of the same kind as the claws on the front pair of legs in the greater trillnath.**The spikes on the back are now much longer( these are refered to as the eggsac spines as they are used to suport the eggsac when it developes).**Two rows of paired spines have developed on the tail whith a hard membrane between them(two in each row per segment).**The crack on the back of the tail is more pronounced but still fused( not visible in the picture).**A single row of spikes have developed along the bottom of the tail(one per segment).**These spikes are mainly defencive(mainly for the defense of the eggsac when it developes) in purpose.**If a queen has eaten enough food and so chooses, she can split the back of her tail along the crack and produce a larvel trillnath befor reclosing the crack.**This does not alow for as much reproduction as an eggsac but can be used to start a colony.****The shape of the head is slightly different(refer to picture) and small jagged spines have developed along the legs(all of which are pointed up the leg).**These spines are used when the queen has developed an egg sac and chooses to be suspended from the ceiling and/or walls( in a method remeniscent of the queen xenomorph in the aliens movie befor it detaches from the eggsac).**The jags alow for beter grip on the wall.**The queen trillnath is much stronger than the other forms but mostly unable to fight when an eggsac is attached(thus the need for guards).**If there is no eggsac, the queen fights in the same maner as the greater trillnath.**The imunities are completely obscured by the exoskeleton in the queen form making it dificult to tell what its strengths and weaknesses are.**The exoskeleton is also strongest in the queen form making it the most resistant of all the trillnath to physical attack.
Trillnath Eggsac Formation
Click here to see diagram (http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/EggSackFormation2.jpg)
This is a quick sketch combine whith photoshop showing the key points of eggsac formation in trillnath.**I general, a greater trillnath mounts a queen(sitting atop the spines on her back), and the queen splits its underbelly whith her tail.**She then splits open the top of her tail and merges her inner ooze with the greater trillnath's ooze.**The legs of the greater attatch onto the spines(except the front pair(on first greater they do attatch) and the third pair which are used to anchor eggsac to a surface) and form spines themselves.**A second greater then attaches to the first greater in the fame proccess.**The prosses fractures the exoskeleton providing places for the larval form to ooze out.**As many greaters as desired can add on making it so that the eggsac can be incredably long(though there are always atleast two).**The number attached is usualy based on the size of the lair.**The queen will often attach to a wall or ceiling after starting an eggsac to alow more room for her attenders.
**In addition to the regular trillnaths, there are also four comon varieties of mutated trillnaths.**
Mutated Base - The Mutated Trillnath
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/mutatedbase.jpg
******** While trillnaths not of the queen rank are unable to change into the queen form after becoming a greater trillnath, there are occasionaly some that try.**These trillnath become mutated trillnath.**A mutated trillnath will be stuck in a form similar to the queen but unsuccesfully there with some other changes as well.**This is due to the fact it lacks a vital chemical that alows it to remain stable in producing its exoskeleton during the formation.**While not hurt by this, the exoskeleton will become weakened and crack in numerous(especialy where joints are/were) places lowering the deffence of the trillnath and manking it easier to injure.
******** It also causes numerous changes in the trillnath's build.**The forlegs first joint becomes twisted such that the limb now bends backwords while the second joint disapears.**The claws o the end of the forlegs have the top part(previously the larger one) shrink down to insignifigence while the bottom one extends into a long thin blade.**This new joint, while less useful for manpulating the environment and crawling on walls, is much more devestating when used for attacking.**This is due to that it now is regularly held back in the position shown in the pic. but when used snaps forward(the second segment rotates out away from the first while the long claw rotates away from the second segment making the claw stay pointed in the same dirction but moving it forward) with enough force to stab through a 2 foot thick peice of steel with ease(and no stress to the exoskeleton).**When attacking like this it almost always attacks with both claws in unison.**The next feature changed is that the probiscus is nolonger able to fully retract and has begun developind sturdy exoskeleton(it has a strip running its length on the top, bottom, and both sides with strips ringing it placed at even intervals along it's length, joints are betwin ringing exoskeleton. picture shows total extended length compaired to body in above vaiw while other veiws show as retracted as it can be).**The probiscus has developed a sharp top and botom edge and is now used often in battle as well as in feeding.
******** The claws on the leges have developed so that the previously main part of the clar is now held up and is useless.**Menwhile the other part is now longer and sharper and used fow walking.**While this has no great effect it makes it harder for the trillnath to crawl on walls slowing it when it does so.**Small spikes have developed along the under belly and bottom of tail like those on the bottom of the queens tail though they are not evenly spaced or in rows as they should be(some are beside each other, some close, some far, etc.).**The 8 spikes on it's back have developed like in the queen, yet they are curved and have moveable joints at their base(though they are rairly moved).**The fins on the tail have likewise developed though the spines are of uneven length and the fin inbetween is rarely corectly formed(there are ocasionaly some extra spines as well).**The blade at the end of the tail has also had some changes.**While the blade did not change too much, a second one has grown beside it forcing it to the side(they are centered).**The trillnath still attackes with its tail in the same manner as queen and greater trillnaths do.**Small jags have developed along the limbs like on the queen, yet they are not all facing the same way as with the queen.**The central spike on the head has also split at the top(in the same manner as the queens).**A mutated trillnath is slightly larger than a trillnath queen and unable to become an eggsac.
******** While the offencive abilities of mutated trillnath are superior to the regular trillnath's, the deffence is weak enough that it is rarely done.**In order to counter the effects of the weakened deffence, the trillnath can attempt to become one of three stabalized forms.**These forms are however specalized to specific environments which, while making them strongest in that environment, severily handicaps them outside of it.**There is allso a low average chance of success.**There is aproximatly 33%(one third) chance that it will be successful, die, or remain the same and be unable to change into that form.**The three forms are the flying trillnath, the aquatic trillnath, and the trillnath tunnel serpent.
Mutated Flying - The Flying Trillnath
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/mutatedflyinga.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/mutatedflyingb.jpg
******** The flying trillnath(sometimes called winged trillnath) is the only trillnath type able to fly.**It does so using two pairs of wings.**The main pair of wings(used for most of the lift and some stearing) is developed from the walking legs(the membrane reaches to the ends of the front two, the end of the middle segment of the one third from the front, and the end of the first segment on the back one).**The membrane is formed not of exoskeleton but the ooze that is their substance.**This is because it is sturdy enough to function as such and more quickly able to be repaired(almost instantly) if damaged(particularly useful if in flight).**It is also a thin enough layer that it causes no pain to the trillnath if it is cut(in much the same way that one can stab a needle through the outermost layers of their skin and not feel a thing).**The Useles claw parts on the first two of the legs converted to wings(see picture) have**become suports for the wing while the back two have completely disapeared.**The spines on the tail have become uniform in decreasing on the first four segments, stick strait off the sides, and stick strate out with joints at their base.**They are also part of the main pair of wings as shown in the picture.**The spines on the last five segments of the tail are stationary, lack membranes, and at angles like on the queen though still on the sides of the tail.**The secondary pair of wings(used mainly for stearing and a little for lift) is developed from the spikes on the back.**They have elongated and deeveloped a membrane(of the same type as the main pair of wings).**their length gets longer from the front ones two the back ones.**The two front ones have a single joint while the back two are about another half as long and have delevoped two joints.
******** The claws on the back of the tail have developed into a long sharp pair of pinchers.**They are used mainly for combat and holding food.**The spikes on the under belly have menwhile grown into 5 large sharp blades(two on each side and one in the middle, see front veiw for clarification on pattern) with limmited movement with numerous smaller blades(a few scatered and one clearly defined central row).**These are one the flying trillnath's main weapons used by diving the prey and pulling up to graze it and slice it in doing so.**The last of the main attacks is using its forlegs in the same manner as a mutated trillnath.**The small slaws from the mutated trillnathhave however moved to the oposite side of the leg and elongated gaining a membrain between it and the leg.**It can be closed and have very little use but can be used for small adjustments in flight.
******** The proboscus in now used only for feeding despite the wicked beak-like spike it has devloped into.**The mouth of the trillnath has fused into position around the proboscus making it apear simmilar to a hawk or other bird of prey's head when the proboscus is full retracted.**The pattern on the proboscus is solid plates that have the joints line curve towords the head where the plate peices running the length were on the mutated trillnath's proboscus were(and curving away from the head where they weren't).**The flying trillnath can feed on food that is on the ground or held beneath it.**It can hold foor in two main ways.**The first is to hold it in the picher on its tail which curves under when it is flying.**The second it to use the pincher on its tail to impail the food on one or more of the blades on its underbelly.
******** While flying, the segments of the two back legs are folded under the wing while the tail is curved under the body.**Despite the flying trillnath's great strength when flying, if caught landed it is all but helpless.**The main wing's legs are shorter as they move from pront pair to back pair and cannot bend as much as a normal trillnath's(the side veiw is inacurate in that reguard).**They are infact spread lice a somewhat low arch when walking making it to low for the trillnath to curve it's tail under for use as a weapon when on the ground.**The trillnath is however two high for it to reach anything shorter then about 9 feet tall with the blades on its underbelly(wich would also lack some of the force they would cary when used while flying).**The forlegs, while still usefull, have a difficult time reaching prey beneth it and not close to the front.**The use of its main wings for walking makes it dificult for it to take off quickly(it takes of by spreading its wings and suporting itself on its forlegs, the nonwing segments of the back two legs, and the blades on its underbelly and then undulating its wings similar to a gold dragon(the secondary wings flap while taking off).**Once in the air it flaps its wings however).**Taking off also makes it more vunerable when already in combat untill it finnishes taking off.**Due to these reasons it is quite easy to kill with a long sword, spear, or other weapon, when one quickly gets under it and it is on the ground.
The side veiw shows it's comon position on the ground(aside from the bend of the legs as above mentioned) while the mini picture shows it flying.**The above veiw shows it with fully spread wings though the leg segments on the back two pairs of legs would most likely be folded under as would the tail if it were flying(as above stated).
Mutated Aquatic - The Aquatic Trillnath
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/mutatedaquatica.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/mutatedaquaticb.jpg
As you can see this one has a permenantly extended proboscus, fins on its forlegs, a fin on its back, one on either side, and on the end of its tail.**The double ark on the side fins membrane is because there is a flexable blade of exoskeleton along the sides of them.**The extended part on the front of the side fins is for its limmited walking when on land and is normly folded under.**The fin on the tail can close as can the fins on the forlegs.**The dimonds on the end of the proboscus are weak eyes that can only sense motion(not color or lighting) and are all around that segment.**The regular eyes remain on the true head and are adapted(not in a way that can be seen) so that they are not effected by distortion from water(both looking through water and in or out of water).
All the veiws are finaly here.**I would like to point out that the front veiw is only missing the ends of the two legs because I ran out of paper.**The side veiw is not covered in spots, those are where the legs and spines that make up the fins come out.**It should be noted that while the large proboscua plate's above veiw large membrane has only two intermediate supports, the side ones have three.**There are many small points on the underbelly but they are not used in combat.**It can pump water into the proboscus between segments(mainly the large ones) in a maner similar to the oposite of what gills do.**It then shoots the water out of the proboscus tip highly presurized to attack prey.**It can also ad a chemical to make the water extreamly cold and freeze as it is sprayed or another to make it extreamly hot and boil.**While almost defencles on land, it is able to somewhat walk.**The last segments of the front pair of legs making the fins(which are folded completely under when swimming) can be**held in the manner shown in the front & side veiw.**The tail is then moved down so that the tips make contact with the ground.**Walking like this is a slow and hazerdous method leaving it in a vulnerable position but it alows it to travel between uncunected bodies of water.**The lines seen on the front of the fins in the fron veiw show where there is an extreemly sharp edge.**These, as well as the sharp edges on the sides of the fins, are used in combat by swimming past prey and grazing them(they are sharp enough to cut full plate like tin foil).**You cannot see the crest rank on the front veiw because you are seeing the bottom of the head, not the top.**All the fins can be closed(the side and dorsal fins fold back) to make in narrow enough to swim through small cracks and chasems in the water.
Mutated Subterranean - The Trillnath Tunnel Serpent
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/mutatedsubterraneana.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u152/Owrtho/Trillnath/mutatedsubterraneanb.jpg
NOTE: the long ovals in the top and side veiw of the expanded version represent the extensive mesh of limbs seen from front veiw.**The odd lines on the closed version represent these lims closed up.**The mesh of limbs is also just an example layout, not neccesarily the way it a given trillnath tunnel serpent will have it.
The trillnath tunnel serpent is the most common of the mutated trillnaths.**This is because of the many jobs it serves for its collony.**It is the trillnaths scaffolds, their cave repairers, their doors, their most effective guards and trappers.**This is because of the structer it has.**Unlike forms in which the trillnath gets larger, the trillnath tunnel serpent(ill abreviate it tts from now on) is skinier.**This is because of two reasons.**The first is because it must be able to spread its fluid throughout the many limb.**The second is so that it can fit through small crevases that it otherwise could not.
The tts also varies in its larger head(the largness is just on the top plate not the whole thing).**This is because of the tts's fighting style.**It will usualy wait for its prey to turn down a dead end tunnel.**It will then come out of a hole in the wall behind the prey and expand its many spines(the large mesh seen it the bottom front veiw preveosly reffered to as limbs but now being called spines to avoid confustion with the legs) to block the entire tunnel.**It will then slowly advance on the now trapped prey untill they are out of room to run and it can kill them(when it needs to turn around with its spines out it will close the first set and move between the next untill it needs to close that set and will, once its head is even with its false head, extend the front set of spines and continue to have the back half of its body move through the front spines).**Because of this fighting style it hase very durrable armor on the front and back of it(including a larger op of its head that acts somewhat like a sheild).**The spines are also nearly unbreakable and able to lift or withstand thousands of pounds.**This method of development is also the cause of the tts's weakness however.**The needs for armor in the front and a flexable body have weakened the exoskeleton along the body.**Also, the spines are made so that while they can exert great pressure in extending, they don't have enough force to close them likewise(infact a child could easily holds them apart once they are extended.**The extending is also reffering to them being made to not lie flat along the body as in the first set of veiws).**The spines are also rather useless as weapons ase they are made to be sturdy, not to impale things that get close.**These facts combine to make it so that while from the front and back it is nearly invulnerable, when an enemy gets at its sides while it is extended it is unable to reach that enemy or do anything to stop it as it is killed.**This makes it very vulnerable in open areas.**This can bring up the question of why it cant just close its spines(which gives it very strong armor) and take on its snake-like appearence which gives it its name when entering oppen areas and the answer is it can.**However, when it does this it also folds back its legs meaning the only weapost it then has are the tip or its tail and its proposcus.**While this is not that great a limit, it is not the manner in which the tts is used to or designed to fight(for one thing the tip of the tail is ment to be launched forward, not swung about).**
As for the movement when spines are closed, you might notice the small spikes shown on the legs in the spines open picture.**On the spines(though this is not shown) and legs there are small spikes that point up on one side and down on the other.**When the tts moves forward, it can rotate the spines so that these spikes all point backwords and it then will slightly move some spines and legs forward and then back which causes these spikes to dig into the ground around it and alows it to pull itself forward.**When moving backwords it rotates its spines and legs so the side with the spikes facing forwords is towords the outside and then moves in the same manner.**In adition, it also has the ability to launch its priboscusout like a grapling hook when its spines are closed alowing it to pull itsels accross gaps or other obsticles.**
This brings us to its fighting.**The tail is its only true defence from behind, though it has a functioning(if week) eye on its false head.**The majority of its features from the back are more for show than anything else.**The tail is used by having it launch forward like a striking snake.**when the spines are closed it is just swung around like a blade.**from the front the tts fights with its claws like all mutated trillnath when the spines are extended.**It can also use its proboscus which is venomous( infact it is the only naturaly venomous trillnath feature).**When using the proboscus it will shoot it forward as if it were a striking serpent.**This is also used to pull prey in range of the claws.**The venom, while deadly in large amounts, is ment only to slow and perhaps paralize preyso it can more easaly kill it with its claws(though it can kill with a hit to the brain or vital organ).**When the spines are closed it can only use its proboscus so the main features of its attack patern do not work.**This causes it to adopt a more hitan run style aproch unless it is in a tunnel.**Another strategy of attack when in tunnels with its spines closed is for it to go into the cracks above its prey and extend its spines causing the ceiling to colapse(or to go into the floor and drop them into a pit).
The tts also often is used like a scafold when the trillnath are repairing collapsed tunnels.**It will often go into the rubbel and extent its spines to lift it up out of the way while it is secured.**Whe functioning as a door it will coil up in the entrance with its spines closed and its head in the middle and then expand the spines untill it fills the oppening.**It will often have a whole to the side that it can slither into/out of when it is oppening/closing the pathway.
Now, if your read all that, good job.
Owrtho