Post by Reverend Mateus on Mar 27, 2016 15:16:07 GMT -5
>> [GOOGLE DOCS FILE; after shut-down of the forum the most accurate and up-to-date] <<
[-Closed species ; please do not create your own specimen-]
Cambions
Species biography
Definition: Cambion /ˈkæmbiən/: Part-demonic creatures; highly intelligent and highly parasitic; essentially the mortal equivalent to a specific branch of full-blood demons. The latter cannot walk mortal planes without a vessel made of flesh and blood, but if they have offspring whilst among the mortal planes, Cambions are the result.
Cambions are usually 1/4th to 3/4th demon in nature, and are more animalistic and primitive than their full-blood relatives.
They're mortal and not capable of possession.
Physical appearance: Appearance greatly varies depending on the branch of species [see further down: Mutations]. This thread mainly focuses on a specific branch, depicted above. Cambions always show likeness to serpents, and notable is their reptilian appearance and great length. This particular flavour of cambion is characterised by their long, stretched bodies and three sets of limbs, two legs and four arms. They carry the head of a horned python and possess four sets of eyes, as well as elongated nostrils and heat pits by their snout. Their maw is filled with sharp needle-like teeth posessing a very potent venom [see below]. They have two fingers and a thumb on each paw, and various horn-like growths protrude from their body, mainly in the front. Their backs and flanks are lined by a mane, the tip of the tail carries a spade.
Colours and patterns have a great variety too, most often held in brown, red, and cream tones. Hatchlings of a clutch often carry a similar pattern scheme, called a morph. Stripes are very frequent, albeit a wide array of morph patterns is possible.
With age their colour lightens and the pattern gets more complicated with every shed, their horns grow longer and are joined by new growths, and the mane thickens as well.
Upon hatching they are roughly 20cm long, and by the time they mature [Males 13 years | Females 16 years] they usually have grown to a length of 15 metres from snout to tail tip, at which point they stop growing. Lifespan unknown.
Except for genitals and internal organs there is little difference between females and males.
Behaviour: It depends on the specimen and how they were raised, but cambions have a tendency to be malicious and blood-hungry; highly intelligent creatures with a cold and calculating mind. They cannot speak in human tongues, but they have a way of understanding the meaning behind human speech, and responding through body language and their own chattering and screeching sounds ― provided one can interpret such.
During their hatchling age they have a brief cannibalistic phase of a few weeks, and a tendency to eat weaker siblings. In a clutch of three to eight, rarely more than two or three tend to survive, but the remaining siblings form a very strong bond towards each other.
Diet and hunting habits: Carnivorous. They eat everything made of flesh and blood
which they can swallow. Insects and mice as a hatchling, and as their body grows bigger they take on to eating everything unfortunate enough to be caught, preferably swallowed whole.
Venom: A neuro/hemotoxin combination. Upon injection it causes immense local pain, bruising, and spreading limb pain, accompanied by dizziness, sleepiness, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, and similar effects. Bleeding from nose/gums follows as it progresses (due to blood thinning), followed by the eyes, ears, and internal bleeding. Eventually it ends with progressive paralysis of the body resulting in failure of heart and lungs, exitus. Hallucinations are common.
It's slow working but highly potent.
Whether they want to give off venom or not during a bite is a conscious decision.
Reproduction
― vaguely NSFW ; purely biological explanation ―
General: [ Difference genitals ] Cambions are pseudo parthenogenetic, which means that both sexes carry egg cells which do not require fertilisation. To avoid clone genes, these parasitic creatures take on whatever DNA is useful to them, absorbing such through compatible living tissue (the leukocytes to be accurate) of other creatures. The egg cells need to burrow into living tissue in order to grow.― vaguely NSFW ; purely biological explanation ―
Both sexes seek living incubators, from animals to humans both male and female, to carry out their eggs for them. With female hosts the procedure is obvious, with male hosts they tend to go for the belly cavity with the young hatching inside and clawing their way out.
Female cambions: Have the possibility of carrying the eggs out themselves, but they rarely do so because in that case clone genes happen; and because carrying parasitic offspring isn't good for their own bodies either. It's a last minute option if no host is present. So, instead, they prefer to seek living incubators. Females can also put already developed, or semi-developed eggs into other creatures.
Male cambions: Have to seek living incubators to carry out their eggs for them.
Heat: Upon reaching mature age [ Males 13 years | Females 16 years ], they go into heat every three years, most often during spring, lasting from roughly four to eight days. They are only fertile during heat. They get aggressive and very short-tempered during that period, and the only known method of keeping them under control during that time is restrainment; lock and key.
Eggs and incubation: The eggs themselves are almost soft-shelled and shaped a bit different than bird eggs, more flat and longer so they lay on their sides. A clutch usually consists out of three to eight eggs, and the incubation period is 3 months, after which the young hatch. If a parent is present and willing to raise them, they get rather dependent on them due to comfort, if no parent is present they become independent almost right away; even though the survival rates aren't as high. Sometimes the parent seeks out their young after they hatch with the incubator.
Bonding: Bonding towards both siblings and parent starts rather late, for both parent and young. This is due to cannibalistic tendencies, so neither sibling nor parent get too attached to the weaklings of the clutch who will be eaten soon enough. A cambion parent, if present, also doesn't bond with the young until after spending a lot of time with them, because they usually leave them with the incubators or on their own anyway.
Imprinting period takes place within the first 20 weeks of their life. They teeth at 2-3 weeks, with the cannibalistic phase starting as soon as the teeth come in, and bonding kicks in delayed with roughly 4 weeks.
Mutations
― Some possible mutations; different 'family branches' ―
Due to the reproduction specifics described above, there is a great variety in cambions. Since more often than not the genetic makeup of a second generation cambion is not 100% cambion, but rather compatible and useful DNA absorbed through the host, the appearance of the young can subtly to greatly differ from that of the parent. Thus different branches and 'families' of cambions exist, with huge differences in physical appearance. A cambion is classified by nature and origin, not by appearance.
In the cult
During a recent point in the cult timeline, the Reverend found a clutch of four cambion eggs out in the woods, abandoned. Not bearing to just leave them there, he took them into his care for roughly the first six weeks of their life. In the clutch of four, three hatched, of which the two stronger males soon teamed up on and killed the runt of the clutch, a too-small piebald female. To sum it up, two cambions survived.
Because Mateus couldn't exactly care for them every minute of the day, Jeu as a friend of Mat's occasionally babysat the hatchlings. In the end both Jeu and Gabriel adopted one of the critters each, as soon as they were old enough. Jeu named her new pet Azzan, and Gabriel named his Kain, the deceased female runt remains unnamed. Currently both Gabriel's and Jeu's pet cambions are still very young.
Note: Technically the Reverend is distantly related to the hatchlings, considering how cambions belong to the specific species of demon Mateus belongs to, with him being a full-blood and the cambions being half-bloods.
The hatchlings :
[ Left to right: Kain, Azzan, Unnamed runt ]
