#blightseed

a yotici teenager carrying an egg pouch of their herd’s many garden sharks (one of whom swims nearby, hoping for attention). a small school of larval yotlings instinctively swim under their older relative for protection, while a bed of yotici polyps filterfeeds below.

while most other morphoid pseudovertebrate’s sessile polyps are protected by venom (functionally behaving like anenomes), the polyps of yotici and their kin are defenseless and instead protected by parental care in the form of these carefully maintained gardens. yotici specialized so heavily in this behavior that they are now key ecosystem engineers, with their “gardens” functioning as uniquely sheltered and maintained reefs that provide habitats for thousands of other species- so long as they do not harm their precious polyps or sapient yotici (however, yotlings are generally fair game).

because of this, literal hundreds of organisms have partly or fully domesticated themselves in yotici gardens, most with very little active intervention on the part of the yotici that live there.

garden sharks are a domesticated species of heterodontiform shark, and one of the most important and actively managed domesticated species to yotici. they found a niche feeding on small invertebrates that most commonly threaten yotici polyps and laying their egg pouches in the sheltered gardens. yotici in return have been building special nests for the shark’s eggs for millenia, far more reliably protecting the eggs from predation or being dislodged than the sharks can accomplish on their own.

garden sharks are distinct from their wild ancestors in being heavily neotenous. while their ancestors would only dwell permanently in shallow waters as pups (migrating between shallow and deeper waters seasonally as adults), modern garden sharks have been selected for staying shallow lifelong. this has unintentionally selected for other puplike traits as well, such as their brighter coloration and patterning (often unique to the population of each garden). the shark’s dorsal spines have also been greatly reduced in most domesticated populations.

no yotici culture has ever created any form of currency (universal sharing of resources is a necessity that only breaks down in times of great environmental strife), but the eggs of these sharks are somewhat of an exception. as many gardens have entirely unique color morphs and even breeds, these sharks are often a point of local pride for each herd, and there is great demand for trade. as such many gardens have designated ‘egg-runners’ (often older adults in dispersal phase) who travel between gardens to trade in shark eggs and coordinate breeding projects.

a visiting egg-runner is a cause of great excitement in the gardens, especially for the children most commonly tasked with pet care. one can expect to be regaled by many a youngling who has dragged over their favorite shark to show it off, (look how pretty her stripes are, have you ever seen a prettier shark than her? and yesterday she chased off a mean grouper, even though it was so much bigger than her. youre so lucky to get one of her eggs, maybe it will be a shark almostas pretty as her…)

a selection of the megafaunal birds and rodents endemic to the Red Rock archipelago, homeland of the sole remaining archin (giant sapient bees lol) people.

the descendents of seabirds and castaway rats fill most vertebrate niches, with a few unique families developing here seen nowhere else. two of these translate to “groundbirds” and “hoofrats”, the former being flightless birds with vestigial/absent wings, the latter being large rodents who have developed hooves.

the biggest examples are shown here. descriptions under the cut

(youll notice most of the names here seem very literal- archin language is a visual sign language and thus the unique signs for specific words are either untranslatable into phonetic languages or must be translated literally like such)

left to right:

‘assassin moundbuilder’: large solitary ambush predator groundbirds who kick prey to death with their enlongated middle claws. males build and compete over mounds which females lay their eggs in. there are a few (much smaller) moundbuilder species.

‘birdmouth’:midsized predatory hoofrats whose incisors have taken on a self-sharpening, beaklike shape to better tear open the flesh of its prey. they live in colonies and show great behavioral plasticity depending on the environment- some clans will hunt alone or in loose groups for small prey, some are specialists of large animals. 

’nightwalker’:this one isnt a groundbird at all but a species of heron and a relatively recent addition to the ecosystem. they are nocturnal (likely to minimize competition with comparable birds, mostly diurnal) and hunt both on land and in water, as well as scavenge. they are one of the more dangerous species to archin with the least adaptive fear of their guns, and will occasionally prey on them 

middle: archin (and mrinitialman default human silhouette) for reference. 

‘reinbird’ ‘reined shrieker’: a mid-large omnivorous groundbird that has been widely domesticated as mounts for archin. domestic populations have very long wattles regardless of sex, which may be used or augmented as reins for a rider. 

‘twilight shrieker’: a very large, mostly frugivorous groundbird closely related to the reinbird. its named for its  resemblance to an evening sky (sunset on one end, starry in the others) and the haunting territorial calls of the male.

‘mudleg rat’ the smallest hoofrat, this is an omnivore that fills a similar niche to pigs, and will opportunistically eat almost anything. these are occasionally kept as livestock.

‘maned leaper’: a group of mid-sized highly cursorial hoofrats, who fill a very similar niche to deer. they are a favored prey of birdmouths, and will leap and kick high in the air while fleeing to confuse predators

‘the ground shakes’: a massive herbivorous hoofrat who could be considered somewhat analogous to a hippo. while they are exclusive herbivores, they are very aggressive and can do tremendous damage to archin settlements with their mere presence. a naming taboo has developed as a result- there is no specific sign for this animal and it is referred to in the abstract (in hopes of not attracting them). ‘the ground shakes’ is a common phrase, or occasionally the slightly more specific ‘giant’. 

a mating pair of tyviit harass a pair of bjommri, while a frandir fox picks parasitic crabs, unbothered

species info under the cut (its long lol)

these creatures are native to the ursval islands, a northern region dominated by temperate rainforest and rocky coastlines.

tyviit are part of a family of flightless sea pterosauroids that can be found almost worldwide (though are concentrated in northern latitudes). they occupy a similar niche to penguins, but are far quicker on land and capable of a (somewhat awkward) quadrupedal gait, and can be found far inland and even in fresh water. they congregate in large colonies, nesting near the treeline. they feed almost exclusively on fish, and are extensively hunted by bjommri while out at sea.

this clade is unique among pterosauroids, both for their flightlessness and for the density of their pyncofiber (hair). this incredibly dense coat works alongside a layer of blubber to keep them warm in cool seas.

bjommri and frandir are both part of a small clade of marine mammals exclusively found in northern latitudes. while their exact classification is uncertain, they are believed to derive from early canids who found niches in cool coastal areas. the two are distant cousins, with frandir representing the basal form of this group.

bjommri are large predators, with the biggest individuals weighing in at around 2000 lbs. their (and others of their clade) method of propulsion is unique among marine mammals, bearing more similarity to polycotylid plesiosaurs than the seals they resemble. however, they still haul onto land to rest and breed, where they are slow to the point that their prey can quite easily walk among them.

also unlike seals, they are almost strictly monogamous, forming close-knit pair bonds that can last a lifetime. their fur coloration and spotting is unique to each individual and assists in recognition. while these pairs are generally mates, they may also be siblings or an unrelated same-sex bond, in which case they will mate with other pairs or unattached bachelors. these pairs will coordinate hunts, sometimes even taking down small beaked whales, but mostly consume fish, squid, seabirds, tyviit, and seals.

the frandir fox (or just frandir) (not actually a fox) are opportunistic omnivores, eating fish, mollusks, kelp, seabirds, eggs, berries, and occasionally congregating in loose packs to hunt small seals or young ungulates (though they are typically solitary). they also feed on the parasitic crabs that plague the bjommri, and in turn are tolerated and receive a degree of protection from the bigger beasts. their similar coat colors and close interaction earns them their name, which roughly translates to ‘little cousin’.

the parasitic crabs here have no specific name, but are colloquially referred to as 'sea ticks’. they are opportunistic parasites, feeding predominantly on the blood of semi-aquatic mammals but also sometimes stealing bites from their host’s prey. they are removed from bjommri via social grooming, but their small size, flat shells, and tight grasp make this a difficult task for such a large animal. the delicate teeth of the frandir fox are better suited to this task.

yotici have always felt out of place bc they were just kind of a very loose jumble of different biological concepts i found interesting, without being well integrated into the world’s ecology. here’s an attemptedly final redesign for blightseed’s only sapient aquatic species

TONS of info under the cut (mostly about their reproductive cycles otherwise it would be even longer lol)

BACKGROUND

yotici are members of an ancient subphylum of chordata that is thought to have diverged from a close common ancestor with the earliest vertebrates. (going to un-creatively call this subphylum ‘pseudovertebrates’ for ease). pseudovertebrates have independently developed vertebrae, as well as analogues to skulls/jaws/some other internal structures of vertebrates.

the only surviving branch of pseudovertebrates originate from animals with alternating asexual+sessile and sexual+mobile life phases, somewhat similar to tunicate or jellyfish. however, relatively few species with this trait still exist, with most highly derived modern PVs specializing into one form or the other.

a few random examples of sessile and mobile pseudovertebrates. because of the tremendous physiological differences between sessile and mobile PV phases, they often arent even recognized as belonging to the same phylum, let alone being (relatively) closely related.

“morphoids” (placeholder name lol) are a more basal class which retains the biphasic life cycle of their ancestors, with their sessile phase being referred to as “polyps”. most surviving morphoids either exploit very specific niches in each life phase, or one phase is greatly reduced to exist solely as a reproductive or larval phase.

yotici are considered morphoids. them and their close relatives specialize into investing great care in their sessile phase, building 'nursery’ environments for their polyps to grow in safety.

YOTICI THEMSELVES

yotici are large omnivorous morphoids, and are fully sapient. they feed predominantly on aquatic plants, but also consume mollusks, crustaceans, and corals, and may opportunistically eat other small marine animals.

gardens

yotici are notable for building massive nurseries (word more closely translates to 'gardens’) that can transform entire environments. while their ancestral gardens were restricted to very specific environmental conditions, cognitively modern yotici can tailor their gardens to almost any environment, allowing a much wider inhabitable range for the species and cultural adaptation to different environments.

they are most typically and easily built near the shortline, often in bays or other coastal features that can be blocked off from the rest of the sea. stacks of rocks form the basis of almost every yotici garden, though building materials can also include the bones of whales/other large animals, wood, shipwrecks, etc. these building materials are typically reinforced with living organisms- most often corals or kelp, but sometimes including mangroves, tubeworms, sponges, and the sessile forms of other pseudo-vertebrates.

most gardens have existed for thousands (if not tens of thousands) of years, dutifully maintained by the yotici who temporarily inhabit them. a yotici garden is by necessity a habitat for many other forms of life, doubling as coral reefs or kelp forests. in their ancestral range, yotici are specifically symbiotic with several species of coral, some of whom have been domesticated and artificially selected to make better building materials.

reproduction and 'yotlings’

yotici’s reproductive cycle is incredibly complex. it begins with mass spawning in 'nurseries’, where fertilized eggs seed the seabed and grow into plantlike polyps. these polyps will grow in vast gardens, and wait for ideal water conditions (sometimes taking years) to spawn. when ready to spawn, the 'buds’ are encased in a protective film, and develop into larval yotici (called 'yotlings’).

they heavily invest parental care into their 'gardens’ but very little into their larvae. a garden can spawn thousands if not millions of yotlings, with less than 1% typically surviving to adulthood. yotlings form schools for protection, and typically stay in or near the gardens. reproductive yotici’s stripes are likely a signal to yotlings that this is a safe adult to school around (as non-reproductive adults wander wide ranges and cannot provide even passive protection).

yotlings are not sapient (cognitively are comparable to most schooling fish) and are not treated like children. active investment in their care varies culturally, but at most this is devoted to protecting the overall health of yotling swarms rather than individuals. even in these circumstances, infant mortality is an absolute and less than 1% will typically survive past this larval stage.

around the age of 6-10 years old, healthy yotlings will undergo a growth spurt and begin to develop their shells. their cognitive ability increases dramatically at this time, and they begin to more closely follow adults and learn complex behavior and language. at this point, they are considered children and are protected fiercely, and will be adopted into a pod of adults.

yotici have no concept of bloodline within their own species. young yotici are adopted by entire pods without regard for potential relation. stray and orphaned children are readily adopted. a few cultural groups have more structured adoption practices (ie only adopting children from their own gardens) but this is quite rare.

adult life phases

adult yotici have three major physiological/behavioral phases:

spawning phase- reproductive adults migrate to gardens to breed. they will remain and tend to the gardens until their polyps spawn into yotlings (usually 1-5 years). they passively provide protection for already hatched yotlings at this time.

pod phase- adults will form pods during their time in the gardens, and adopt any children present into the pod. once their set of polyps spawn, pods will depart from the gardens (leaving their own yotlings behind) but still tend to remain in warm, shallow waters. these groups adaptationally exist to care for children, but are also the basic social structure in yotici culture. children stay with their parent pods until they have reached sexual maturity and have experienced at least one cycle with spawning adults (to learn 'gardening’ skills), at which point they may disperse to form new pods (though this varies).

dispersal phase- if a yotici is unable to spawn during their fertile phase for any number of reasons, they will undergo physiological/behavioral changes that allow for them to range far beyond their typical environments on their own. in this phase, they can go for weeks without eating, and are capable of navigating even open ocean. as potentially handy as this is, this is likely a vestigial trait from a pre-sapient past where their 'gardens’ were significantly more vulnerable to environmental changes and would be frequently wiped out (forcing ancestral yotici to search out new sites). while this behavior is adaptationally defunct, it has tremendous cultural importance to many yotici- often induced intentionally for an individual to spend years wandering alone, returning with new knowledge to disseminate among other yotici.

an old yotici taking one of their pods children to learn about the strange and exciting creatures of the land/a fisherman’s child introducing them to cats

compensating for the devastating reality of the moose cavalry not being real by putting it in my worldbuilding setting

The legendary Kip Cali-Kíl, a historical figure and culture hero to the peoples of the central western steppes, here depicted during the Raid of Clan Czekíl as she drives the demigod Great Ram

Kip Cali-Kíl literally means ‘little hawk flea’, which is atypical of normal naming conventions and sounds more like (and possibly was) a nickname given to a feisty child. (kíl means ‘hawk’, you will see this word a lot among central western qilik peoples as hawks tend to be culturally significant.) She is also called ‘Kipcali’ - just ‘little flea’ (often in drinking songs for humorous effects)

She was a real historical figure, though there is very little information on her personal life, and myth and exaggeration has filled in many gaps. She was of a clan whose name has been lost to history (though this clan appears to have cattle egrets as a heraldic animal) and became clanmother as a youth.

The tale itself goes like this:

Clan Czekíl, lead by the proud clanmother Ten Czekíl, was the wealthiest clan on the steppes. Unlike many other clans, they had a semi-permanent settlement, with only their shepherds and herders roaming (and even they did not roam far). This allowed the clan to grow huge, perhaps bloated, and forced them to intrude on other clan’s territory. Both arrogant with numbers and desperate with a hard year and approaching winter, they drove out Cali-Kí’s clan from one of their winter pastures, a deep valley called ‘Valley of the Black Stork’.

Cali-Kíl clan suffered significant losses that winter, and Cali-Kíl took up the mantle of clanmother during this time, with her skill as a livestock raider helping to keep them afloat. She was also a great diplomat, and in this time made alliances with the great clans Lakh and Cze-Tain, and made a deal.

The next autumn, she and all the best riders of her clan and of Lakh and Cze-Tain returned to the valley. They chased off the herders and fought off the warriors, and went about gathering the animals to be stolen. But there was a problem- the reason for the abundance Czekíl’s great herds, a ‘demigod’ ram often called the Great Ram of the Czekíl. 

It was said to have a divine (likely ‘earthbound god’) father and a mortal ram as its mother, and was almost twice the size of a normal ram. It was said to be so aggressive that it would kill any approaching its herd who had not raised it, and its horns had to be ceremonially painted and spurred (as was custom) in deep sleep by a child small enough to climb across it unnoticed. It was said to believe itself master of all the herds, protecting not just the rams but the cattle and sheep and goats, and sometimes attempting to mate with them (to unfortunate effect).

The Great Ram saw the raiders and began its attack, easily scattering their ranks and killing several of their number. Cali-Kíl herself was thrown from her ram and her entire right arm and prized bow crushed with one stomp of its massive hoof. 

It is sometimes said that she cut the ruined limb off on the spot, or quickly skinned a dead cattle to form a sling. Regardless, she managed to continue fighting. Taking a driving-whip from one of her raiders, she leapt atop the great beast. It bucked and spun, wildly trying to remove the rider, but Cali-Kíl is the best rider there was, and even with a ruined limb she gained control of the ram. Using the bite of her claws and the whip, she directed the ram to scatter clan Czekíls warriors and trample any who still resisted, and once victory was clear, drove the beast in a wide arc around two thirds of Czekíl’s herd, and took them all. The number is often cited as 10,000 cattle, 15,000 sheep, 5,000 rams, and 100 goats (though this is very unlikely). Regardless of number, this was a substantial victory, and the spoils were divided between clans Calikíl, Lakh, and Cze-Tain.

This was not the final blow- next, Cali-Kíl is said to have approached clanmother Ten Czekíl personally to hear her surrender. Ten Czekíl was a fierce and powerful warrior, and could have killed little Cali-Kíl on the spot, but accepted a challenge of a game of wits (or a drinking game, depending on the source). Ten Czekíl left this encounter humiliated and/or plastered, and Cali-Kíl left with half of her husbands and ten of her sons (one of which chose not to return and became Cali-Kíl’s main husband).

Thoroughly humbled, Clan Czekíl retreated south away from the steppes. In this new territory, they left nomadism behind almost entirely and became fully agricultural, eventually establishing a kingdom. They would form the contemporary Czekl people (whose name likely changed as local dialects developed, but it’s often joked that kíl (hawk) faded out of humiliation of defeat by a ‘little hawk flea’).

Kip Cali-Kíl’s clan regained their pastures and flourished. They took her name and became Calikíl, and many clans of the steppes call themselves the Calikíl people, as the raid was hardly clan Calikíl’s only impact on the steppes and many owe allegiance to her legacy (though individual clan identity still trumps all else).

There is a humorous tale of the great undertaking of castrating the Ram (after which it was-, supposedly, gentle and tame), though other accounts suggest it was far too wild and was killed, or that it escaped and perhaps still terrorizes lonely parts of the steppe.

There is much ambiguity, and much variation, and much more to the story, but that is most often the conclusion of this tale.

(Additional commentary):

Much is made about her physical attributes, she was said to be unusually tiny (especially for a woman) and to have a very long tail, both of which apparently facilitated her legendary skills as a rider. She’s often described as dancing across the backs of stampeding cattle as if in flight, or gliding across the backs of rams like a snake. 

Her name would be assumed to stem from her size as a childhood nickname, but it may have been bestowed after the raid- Czekíl translates to the effect of ‘cloud hawk’ or ‘hawk in the clouds’, thus, a high flying hawk brought to ground by its flea.

Much fuss is also made about her going to battle naked but for her clan’s girdle and a crowfeather cloak, and of riding with no reins or saddle, but this was a normal custom for warrior-raiders wholly reliant on agility and often leaping from animal to animal. (the cloaks would protect against cold and obscure their silhouette from archers)

Livestock raiding was (and is) a fact of life on the steppes, particularly during lean times. However, it’s heavily ritualized and used to avoid open warfare between clans (though can of course be deadly). It also prevents any one clan from amassing significant wealth over another (unless they adopt a different lifestyle, and most wouldnt give up transhumance for the world).

It’s common practice for a clanmother to have many husbands (sometimes dozens), but only one husband was actually a lover or sire of her children (called a clanfather). The rest are ‘married to the clan’ and take care of children. As with anything, exceptions may occur, but this is the common practice.

The stolen sons and husbands references another set of practices, though it’s uncertain which it’s describing. There is a ritualized form of ‘kidnapping’ a groom (after prior courting) as a show of power and skill, while there is also true abductions of the men of rival clans. In the case of the latter, this is a power play between clans, and the victim is released unharmed after one of his brow feathers is plucked (marking him til he next moults). As with any system, this may be abused, but forced marriages are generally viewed as monstrous and humiliating to the kidnapper, a sign of inadequacy and desperation.

In the case of Kip Cali-Kíl, it’s uncertain which kind of kidnapping these were. Some traditions hold that she and her sisters and clan-sisters had been wooing the men for months before, others hold that the men were truly kidnapped as a final show of victory, and that five husbands and nine sons returned deeply embarassed and short a brow feather.

Either way, one son remained by choice. Herza Czekíl and Kip Cali-Kíl had fallen in love, and Herza was wed to her and became clan-father, also in effect securing further relations between the opposing clans. There are many stories about them, and they are frequent subjects of Czekl romantic poetry.

While Kip Cali-Kíl had an antagonistic relationship with Clan Czekíl, modern Czekl have great love for her. She’s understood as a real historical person, but has been somewhat integrated into a tradition of trickster figures, and is even associated with the god Sek (for this and her perceived androgyny to Czekl sensibilities, being so small). 

The contemporary relation between these groups is largely positive as well (though tensions do arise between herders and farmers in their border territories), and both have strong political ties and have relied on one another during harsh times. 

Each autumn there is a festival in the Valley of Black Storks in her name (though she is a relatively small portion of festivities, as it is mostly a harvest festival to the god Vessk). The Czekl farmers meet Calikíl herders as the latter groups arrive to their winter pastures, and trade livestock, crops, gossip and goods. 

One of the centerpieces of this festival is several tournaments centered around riding skill and herding. The main event is a mock livestock raid, where teams from different clans and families attempt to capture and drive a herd (usually of cattle) from other teams. There are often many winners, as any who can keep their cattle til sundown are deemed their owners, but the team who has secured the most animals will win other prizes (livestock, fine jewelry, etc) and are considered blessed for the year by Vessk. all winners may keep their cattle for the year and are free to breed them, though they must give a third of what they took the following year (not necessarily the same animals, but animals of equivalent value).