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| | | The Platian "Land" Octopus |  |
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PhoenixRhapsody
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 |  Subject: The Platian "Land" Octopus Sat Sep 29, 2012 7:39 am | |
| The Platian "Land" Octopus HabitatThe "land" octopus is found anywhere there is water. Contradictory to its name, the "land" octopus does not live its whole life on dry land. In fact, only the adults live on dry land. This is due to a metamorphosis in the anatomy that will be discussed below. From spawnlings to young adults, they live only in slow moving waters. This allows them to be in many places across Aeria. The most common places to see them are in the jungles of Sarkun, but they are not exclusive to that locale. Mountain springs are the highest they can be found, so long as there is moving water. Life Cycle- Humble Beginnings:
The beginning stages of the life of a land octopus are humble. The octopi are both sexual and asexual creatures that spawn eggs and spermatazoa at the same time, in little sacs within their bodies. They remain eggs for a month before hatching with an average of two thousand siblings. While 95% of the siblings will not survive the next portion of life, the other five percent will thrive. They are released from the sac into a slow moving body of water, where the adult leaves them to fend for themselves. This begins the next stage of life.
- Adolescent:
As "adolescents," the octopi are very vulnerable to being eaten by fish and other water-dwelling creatures. Their bodies are about the size of the head of a pin to 18 mm across and are very soft. Many will attempt to hide amongst rocks to survive, using the newly developing camoflauge to mask their presence. This works for a time, but ultimately they are forced to leave for food. For the octopi at this stage, finding the next meal is almost as likely to cause their ends as not eating, as many fish enjoy devouring the easy meal. Their intelligence at this stage is on par with the fish of their habitats.
- Young Adults:
Having gained some size, ranging from 18 mm to 5 cm, these are the five percent that survived. Their epidermal layer has become tougher and is capable of mimicking any color they can see. The intelligence, while debated amongst the few that study them, is roughly equal to that of a rodent. They can make burrows made from debris floating in the streams, similar to that of a trap spider, to hide in between meals. They will fill it with all the things they like, whether is is a certain color or shape, until they go into their coccoon to become full adults.
- Adulthood:
Each land octopus lives its life in the water until it goes through a metamorphosis into its land traveling form. Slightly harder than wet cardboard after thirty seconds of soaking, the coccoon envelops the young adult to keep it safe until it has changed. The most important of these changes it the introduction of a special set of glands that develop in the epidermis of the octopus. The glands intake oxygen from the surroundings directly, allowing it to breath in or out of water. The second most important change is the addition of a proboscis, a long straw-like tube that is attached to the mouth of the octopus. This is where the important symbiotic feeding will be taking place, as the feeding habits of the creature change entirely. As an adult, each octopus is a symbiotic hematovore. That is to say, it feeds off the urea found in the blood of many land-dwelling animals.
Diet- Spawn to Young Adult:
In the first three stages of life, the octopi will feed entirely off decaying animal matter. This means all the scraps left behind by the other fish are what compose their diets. This is somewhat seen in their adulthood because they have always seemed to consume the waste of the other animals. They are not particular about what waste they eat, so long as it is digestible. Their immune systems are so close to invincible, that the only disease capable of killing them is the blight. They will also feed on their own damaged limbs if one is lost to injury and they survive.
- After Metamorhosis; Adulthood:
As adults on land, the octopus will latch on to an animal in its sleep. These are usually large mammals, as they tend to live longest. They feed by inserting a proboscis into an area with optimum blood flow, such as the great saphenous vein, and begins filtering the urea out of the blood. It can consume enough urea and waste from a human blood stream to stop a poison from killing, but the octopus will drain the waste it cannot consume from the outside of its body at regular intervals.
Symbiosis- Pros/cons for the host:
Pros:- Increased healing factor throughout the body, increasing the speed of repair to nearly a tenth of the speed of a troll's.
- Cleaned blood, making all but the fastest acting poisons rendered ineffective.
- Octopus is intelligent enough to be trained.
Cons:- Leaks waste outside of the body that causes a rotting corpse smell.
- Night-blindness.
- Takes at least a week before the effects can be seen, as the various enzymes build up in the system.
- Very difficult to remove without injury or death*.
* The octopus has barbs instead of suction cups and has to release willingly or the barbs with remain in the flesh. Additionally, enzymes in the blood that protect the host from disease weaken the natural immune system and must remain in the blood or the host will likely die of infection.
- Pros/cons for the octopus:
Pros:- Has a nearly unlimited source of urea to consume.
Cons:
Last edited by PhoenixRhapsody on Thu Oct 04, 2012 9:49 am; edited 3 times in total | |
|  | | Venom OPS
Administrator
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| | Subject: Re: The Platian "Land" Octopus Sat Sep 29, 2012 7:54 am | |
| Not that my opinion matters on lore based matters, but this is a very interesting concept. I feel it can fit in the lore without a doubt, but its capabilities are a bit tricky.
The healing factor is certainly powerful, and outweighs the cons I believe. Besides that, all is well. | |
| | | | PhoenixRhapsody
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| | Subject: Re: The Platian "Land" Octopus Sat Sep 29, 2012 8:08 am | |
| - Venom OPS wrote:
- The healing factor is certainly powerful, and outweighs the cons I believe. Besides that, all is well.
Let's take a look at the kind of places you are likely to see one. - On a troll.
- On a bear.
- On a moose.
- On a wild horse.
- Large animals aside from these are also included.
Simply said, the likelyhood of finding one that likes people is low. If someone found one, it would likely not take the human as a host unless it was starving. They may be common, but I would think they would be less likely to be used for their symbiotic advantage because of the sheer gross factor. It may not be impossible, but it would be unlikely. I am willing to look at more cons if some can be thought of, but I will leave it as is for now. | |
| | | | Munroe
Tryhard
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Join date : 2012-02-06
| | Subject: Re: The Platian "Land" Octopus Sat Sep 29, 2012 9:31 am | |
| Seems okay to me. Can the healing factor regenerate lost limbs or broken bones? | |
| | | | PhoenixRhapsody
Vengaboy
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| | Subject: Re: The Platian "Land" Octopus Sat Sep 29, 2012 10:06 am | |
| - Munroe wrote:
- Seems okay to me. Can the healing factor regenerate lost limbs or broken bones?
Lost limbs, no. It would help a tad for broken bones. Maybe a week less than normal for repair. | |
| | | | PhoenixRhapsody
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| | Subject: Re: The Platian "Land" Octopus Mon Oct 01, 2012 2:35 pm | |
| Need any suggestions y'all can come up with. | |
| | | | Dominator046
Senior Wizard
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| | Subject: Re: The Platian "Land" Octopus Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:50 am | |
| - PhoenixRhapsody wrote:
- Need any suggestions y'all can come up with.
This is just a shot in the dark, and I am not a biology whiz so you'll need to do the learning/reasoning here, but how about more long-standing/further passive effective ramifications? Such as loss of fertility, or perhaps something like colorblindness? You have to remember, way back in medieval times, not all nations of common folk bathed often; in fact the 'bad air' referred to the air through the common-districts of towns because they were so rank; a slightly more rank person, who may already have that smell on them, doesn't seem entirely appetizing as a negative factor. Something else, for the sake of roleplaying, maybe there's a short window where someone who's been attacked by one of these parasites can find help? Maybe the barbed hook-like appendages extend and work into the person slowly; so there is a short amount of time where a decision could be made on whether or not to allow there to be symbiosis This is just my opinion, I think it adds a little more depth, and that much more self-loathing for someone who hasn't noticed the octopus on their back. Wouldn't really affect animals though, since I imagine it would take articulated thumb-based grasping, and a bit of a pull to dislodge the octopus; whereas simple shaking would be insufficient. | |
| | | | PhoenixRhapsody
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| | Subject: Re: The Platian "Land" Octopus Thu Oct 04, 2012 2:07 pm | |
|
I have taken the color-blindness idea into consideration and added night-blindness instead. As far as the smell factor, I have added that the smell is of rotting corpses. People don't want to smell like corpses, so people will not let the creature latch onto them, generally speaking. There are always exceptions though.
In addition to the smell and sight change, the effects have to build up over the course of a week, so you generally won't see this as one of those immediate fixes. If the new host puts it on and is seconds away from death, they will likely die. If they put it on for a week and remove it for a day, they should have the effects for at least a day before the octopus is really necessary again.
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| | | | PhoenixRhapsody
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| | Subject: Re: The Platian "Land" Octopus Tue Oct 16, 2012 7:31 am | |
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| | | | Venom OPS
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| | Subject: Re: The Platian "Land" Octopus Tue Oct 16, 2012 7:43 am | |
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| | | | thorogoodd
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| | Subject: Re: The Platian "Land" Octopus Tue Oct 16, 2012 7:44 am | |
| Since when was Venom's name blue? | |
| | | | PhoenixRhapsody
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| | Subject: Re: The Platian "Land" Octopus Tue Oct 16, 2012 7:45 am | |
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| | | | Venom OPS
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| | Subject: Re: The Platian "Land" Octopus Tue Oct 16, 2012 8:22 am | |
| Azul in this mutha fucka. | |
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