Genta Candidates, Part 4

Greetings to all of the Dreamers!

Today, I present two fascinating potential species of Newhome: the Idivin (Idiva, in common nomenclature) and the Yhara!

Idiva (Idivin)

Slightly north of the equator, in an otherwise-empty swath of the Melt, a huge, oddly regular mountain springs upward from the acid. This island, once called Monument Island, is now named Idivalo in honor of its unusual inhabitants, a large-bodied race of beings who live in a strict genetic caste system. All Idivin (or Idiva, as the Luxa label them) have four hoofed legs and lower bodies similar to some endemic ruminants, but where the neck would normally be, the Idivin have a vaguely humanoid torso with two strong arms, topped with a head similar to an Earth allosaur, giving them a centaur-like appearance. Plate-like growths run down their backs from the top of their heads to their tails, and they sport colorful headcrests. Other details, such as coloration, size, decorative accents, and mental acuity are largely dependent on which genetic caste a particular Idivin is born into: Royal, Overseer, Worker, or Idiot.

Royals have both the largest bodies and brains; males are known as Kings and females as Queens. The only Idivin capable of reproduction, they rule their territories with nearly absolute authority. A Queen can lay a hundred eggs in a single pul (two Earth weeks) during a time of productivity, though she might give birth to only a few Royals in her entire life, making them exceptionally rare. The much more common but still rare Overseer caste is comprised of the Royals’ most favored servants and administrators, while the Worker caste is responsible for law enforcement, key manual labor, and military duties. The smallest and weakest in every respect are the Idiot caste. With tiny crests and brains to match, they are the most populous, much to the chagrin of the Royals, as the Idiots more than live up to their name.

Idiot-caste Idivin tend to be fairly optimistic, but this is their only desirable trait. The stupidity of Idiot-caste Idivin is so great that they are just as likely to be a hindrance as a help in any given endeavor. They tend to see terrible ideas as brilliant and wonderful ideas as incomprehensible, and must be firmly and very explicitly led by a non-Idiot to have any hope of productivity. When an Idiot gets a “bright idea”, other castes either try to crush it immediately or, failing that, run for cover. The question of what to do with the Idiots has loomed large in the species’ history; some have tried killing them at birth (which is now considered immoral and illegal, despite actually having been effective at improving the workings of the Idivin societies in question), others have tried using them as disposable infantry in the species’ many territorial wars between Royals (with sometimes disastrous results), and some have even used them as an emergency food source, and the eating of Idiots under particular circumstances is still practiced at times. Though comically stupid (or infuriatingly, if one is a Royal or Overseer), Idiots do have a small amount of sensitivity, and openly hating or hurting them leads to unrest. One Royal, having offended the local Idiots, offered them a “precious gift”: each Idiot was personally given a handful of dirt as their very own. They were overjoyed, and it is now traditional for Overseers to give Idiots a “precious gift” on behalf of the Royals when an Idiot comes of age. These gifts range from small pebbles to dead leaves to animal excrement, but whatever it is, the gift is treasured by the Idiot, who will consider it their most prized possession for life.

Meanwhile, the Royals spend much of their time warring for prestige and resources. The sun-facing side of the mountain is far more fertile than the shadowed side, and Idivin societies compete fiercely to be “in the light”. Though some impressive strategems have been implemented, they are often foiled by their own Idiots, who seem to have an almost supernatural knack for epically bungling even the most foolproof plans. Middle-class Workers and Overseers, all direct offspring of a Royal, are perfectly loyal to their communities and King/Queen parents, and spend most of their free time either currying favor with the Royals or putting out the (sometimes literal) fires caused by the Idiots.

All Idivin worship a god known as the First, usually depicted as a huge genderless Idivin with six hooved feet and no upper torso or upper arms, giving it a more feral appearance, though the Idivin call it “pure”. Small doctrinal differences in the understanding of the First’s form and will have inspired bloody wars in the past, but despite conflict being common between Idivin communities, the species is careful not to kill Kings or Queens of opposing tribes under most circumstances, as they form the reproductive base of the species. They tend to look down on non-Idivin, and their reincarnationist beliefs teach that being born an Idiot or non-Idivin is a punishment for sins against the First or the community at large. Still, while condescending, the upper-caste Idivin are smart enough to value the technologies of other Gentas. A few Royals are looking to leave the island and spread their species’ dominion elsewhere on the planet. Most other Gentas are not keen to help make this a reality, as a planet flooded by Idiots is distinctly undesirable, but at least one exception exists. The one known Idivin colony outside the island recently met a horrible but strangely hilarious end at the hands of their own Idiots in a tale as old as time to the Idivin people.

Yhara

An encounter with a Yhara would leave most beings terrified. Also known as “labyrinth killers”, “rainbow death”, and “pale enders”, these massive predators lurk in the bowels of the planet, feeding on the enormous malworms which tunnel slowly through the rock, as well as any other creature which becomes lost in the endless maze of caverns beneath the surface. Nearly two meters high (5’) at the shoulder and seven (22’) long, they resemble pale, spidery, six-legged wolves covered in short white fur and sporting long, bare tails. Their faces are featureless, with their eyes, ears, and nostrils no more than shallow pits. A Yhara suddenly attacking from the darkness makes the nightmares of most seem like pleasant dreams.

The most interesting aspect of the Yhara Is their sensory organs. Instead of using the usual instruments of sensation, which have all wasted away to nothing in the pitch darkness and silence of the underworld, they extrude clear, almost-invisible sensory tentacles from the pits along their spine and face. Though the tendrils themselves can’t be clearly seen, they create a multicolored matrix in the light. Once described as a “shimmering rainbow of ghostlight”, it somehow makes the pale, gaunt killers even more frightening to those few who have seen them. The Yhara refer to these tentacles as a “crown”, and when extruded, the Yhara can sense the most complex scents and flavors in great detail and hear sounds miles away. So powerful are their senses when their crowns are fully “bloomed” that it can be uncomfortable or even painful for the Yhara. For this reason, they only extrude their crowns when needed, and at other times, sense their dark world only via touch.

As large predators, the Yhara do not form settled communities, but instead slowly crawl the darkness alone or in pairs. The malworms which they hunt are so massive that even the Yhara can take mouthfuls of their flesh without killing them, and the Yhara are completely immune to the malworms’ acidic mucus. Still, the malworms are not many, and there is no other consistent food source. Yhara can go for months without food, slowly starving in the dark until they scent the coming of prey. When a malworm dies, usually of old age or disease, the Yhara are attracted to the corpse in larger numbers. This outsized banquet is a precious, almost-sacred opportunity for the Yhara.

Yhara culture is largely based on the “Yhar”, their word for the combined corpus of information which they leave behind as they move from one place to another. Their crowns can not only sense flavors and odors but can create them as well, and the scent-trail of a Yhara can contain whole epic stories and deep narratives which they leave behind for others of their kind to consider. Some Yhara feel compelled to become “envoys”, those who travel from territory to territory maintaining and spreading the Yhar informational network. Tho-Yhars, “Scholars of the Yhar” whose senses and memories are keener than the norm, serve as archivists of the Yhar. Interestingly, the Yhara are even more terrified of the surface world than the surface dwellers are of the Yhara; the deluge of light, sound, and scents on the surface overloads their sensory crowns, causing them pain and leaving them nearly helpless.

In the mostly-barren, empty underground, starvation has become the ultimate enemy in Yhara life, and much of their history and culture revolves around avoiding it. Though not highly dogmatic or religious, most Yhara believe in a coming age of plenty, in which all Yhara will abandon their physical bodies and exist in a pure spiritual or informational form within the Yhar itself, a recording preserved in the veins of the planet until the end of time. Yhara who believe this call themselves “The Saved”, and tend to be more open to communication and collaboration with other gentas. Those who reject this idea and pursue the traditional, lonely life of a wandering carnivore are called “Rejectors”, and tend to regard all non-Yhara, and even any vulnerable Yhara who has wandered into their territory uninvited, as food.

Though they are indeed predators and have devoured many hapless beings who have fallen into their domain over the millennia, Yhara are not inimical monsters. It was the Draak who discovered this, as some of the first of the exodus explored the meltcaves and encountered the species. Less intimidated by the Yhara’s sheer size than most smaller gentas and capable of perceiving their richly-colored auras, they attempted to communicate, and discovered a unique people and culture. Alone among gentas, the Draak were able to understand certain elements of the Yhar, and Draak-Kin who spend much of their time deep underground have absorbed many of its stories and ideas, learning more from the Yhara they encounter periodically in exchange for food. In fact, dealings between the two have been so fruitful that the Draak and the Yhara Saved now enjoy a generally friendly relationship, though the rest of the planet continues to see them as living nightmares.

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So close now to the end! I'm ashamed that this process, which I hoped would take perhaps two or three weeks, has taken two months to finish, but finish it shall, and soon! Many thanks to the contributors for their ideas and the community for reading and considering them.

-L