Inhabitants of Antaros
Detailed information about the different kinds of beings that inhabit Antaros.Foxes (Antronalas)
Look
Foxes usually have red fur with shadings that can reach from bright red to rusty brown. The front of a fox is generally white to some extent, as is the tip of the tail. Parts of the arms, legs and ears are usually white, too, but can also be black or red.
A fox is generally between 150 and 170 cm (approx. 4.9 to 5.8 feet) tall and has a lean and athletic (but not necessarily musculuous) body. The ears of a fox are large and triangular, its muzzle is narrow and pointed, the tail long and bushy.
The hind legs of a fox are close to those of an Earth fox, though stronger. The front legs are formed like arms and hands. Every finger tip has a small, black, non-retractable claw which is sharp and pointed and bent downwards.
The eye color usually ranges from yellow to amber to brown or green. Other colors, blue for instance, usually don't show up. (Except for arctic foxes, they can have blue eyes.)
There are several different kinds of foxes. Their race is split into three, the Krinalas (red fox) which can be found virtually everywhere, the Treonalas (grey fox) which lives in colder regions, and the Jerinalas (polar fox) which only lives in polar regions, as the name says.
Society
Foxes are in general tolerant and modest beings. They only rarely travel around and prefer being settled. Only few of them ever move far away from their home during their lives.
They have many traditions which they care for and attach importance to.
Most foxes live in tribes. The members of such a tribe don't need to be related to each other, a tribe is simply a comunity of foxes, living in a village. Usually such a village wears the same name as the tribe does.
Foxes that live in cities only rarely keep traditions and don't live in tribes. Thus they are being looked at with dismay by village foxes. City foxes on the other side consider village foxes as primitive and unrestrained. The reason for this is that village foxes generally don't wear clothes, but city foxes do.
Religion
Foxes believe in a goddess named Avarra, who created the world and the universe. Avarra is it who grants the foxes their lives and who gives them strength and hope in hard times. Moreover, Avarra is the keeper of the paradise, as well as hell. However, in case one speaks about Avarra in relation to hell or death, she is referred to as the Dark Mother.
The foxes consider the paradise a vast forest landscape that looks much like Anvael. Thus many believe Avarra had formed this land into an image of the paradise.
Hell, on the other side, is an icey landscape that is so cold that the look of it alone causes the soul to freeze solid. Even the trees are made out of ice there.
Foxes in battle
Although a fox will rather try to solve a problem with words than force, it doesn't mean he shunns away from a fight if there is no other posibility. Foxes are generally not overly strong, but fast and agile. Although one or two hits can usually knock out a fox, it is hard to hit an experienced fighter.
Their weapon of choice is the Catran, a two-part weapon that consists of a sharp, short blade and a staff, which is used to block or at least divert strikes. The technique, using both parts independent of each other, is difficult to learn but gives them an advantage in battle that should not be underestimated.
Traditions
One of the most typical fox traditions is to sharpen the claws before going on a long and possibly dangerous journey. Although they're not as long as those of cats, they can still cause dangerous wounds.
It is also considered impolite to wear weapons inside of an inhabited house.
Here and there it is also still tradition to lay the table for more people than will be present during a meal. This is done in case of unexpected visitors.
Once there also was the tradition of wearing clothes when travelling, but this tradition has disappeared.
Love, relationship and mating habits
If a fox falls in love and this love is returned, it is likely that the partners will bond and remain loyal for their entire life. A bonding is done if the knot at the base of the reynard's penis enters the vixen's vagina. The result is that both are tied together for some time until the knot swells off. This bonding equalls a marriage and is just as binding.
For foxes there are two kinds of sex. In the first case, the knot does not enter the vagina, which is usually done with whores. In this case the sex is not binding and both partners can experience several orgasms.
In the second case it happens, tieing the lovers together. Usually the sex in this case doesn't last long and leads to a single, but much more intensive climax. After this, both tend to be tired and worn out.
Fox sex is passionate but usually gentle and rarely wild.
The afterplay is generally the reynard licking the throat and muzzle of the vixen. Although foxes have sex over the whole year, a vixen is only fertile once a year, which can be noticed by a change of smell and an increased libido on her side. This period lasts between one and two weeks and is fix, although it differs from vixen to vixen.
Wolves (Antrokemin)
Look
The fur of a wolf is generally grey and can have all shadings from white to almost black. The front tends to be brighter than the back. Wolves are generally between 170 cm and 200 cm (5.5 to 6.6 feet) tall and of muscular build. Their ears resemble those of foxes but are smaller. Their muzzles do, too, but are wider. Their tails are shorter and less bushy.
Their claws are less sharp and shorter than those of foxes.
The eye color of a wolf usually ranges from yellow to bright blue.
Society
Wolves tend to be nomadic and roam about in gangs (up to ten members) or packs (more than ten members). In case a wolf pair decides to found a family, however, they usually become settled.
Wolf gangs or packs have a leader, the alpha, who orders where the group goes and who does what. Members of a group can challenge their alpha. In case the challenger wins, he's the new alpha.
Wolves tend to wear simple clothing, its color showing their rank within the group. The darker the fabric, the lower the rank. An exception is the shamane, most packs have one and he or she works as healer and in spiritual areas, and the Renakemin, a wolf who is able to feel and manipulate the magic flow. While the shamane usually wears red or green clothing, the Renakemin wears white or blue.
Religion
Wolves believe in the existence of two gods, the White God Humar and the Black God Eremar. Humar is the god of day and life, manifested in the sun, while Eremar is the god of night and death, manifested in the moon. Thus wolves believe that it is just as bad being born during the night as dying during the day.
Wolves in battle
During battle, wolves rely on their strength and dexterity. In close combat they are just as dangerous opponents with and without weapons and over distances, they uses slings and throwing knives.
Their weapon of choice is the claw sword, a clup-like weapon with a sharp, bent tip.
Traditions
There are barely any traditions that wolves keep to. There tend to be some traditions within larger packs, but they differ from pack to pack.
The fact that they are generally without a real home gave the wolves the wrong reputation of being barbarians, leading a vagabond's life. The only real tradition is that males, once they reach a certain age, are allowed to leave the pack in order to form one of their own. In this age, their drives are very strong and it may happen that several males form a gang, raiding travellers. They normally take their belongings and sell them in order to afford prostitutes, but sometimes they also rape the people they catch. Either way is a disgrace to their society, and the general punishment for rape is castration.
Love, relationship and mating habits
Other than the wolves on the human world, members of lower rank within a group, too, are allowed to mate. Although wolves only rarely engage in lasting relationships, it happens. In case two wolves want to bond, the alpha (of both, in case they belong to different groups) has to allow it.
Although a once formed bond between wolves generally lasts for their entire life, they're not as monogamous as foxes. Affairs are not unusual and are accepted. However, in case the wolf impregnates a bitch or the bitch becomes pregnant from another male, it is considered a breach and will be punished.
Wolves tend to be wild and rough lovers that often mate for hours.
A bitch is fertile twice a year, the periods differing from bitch to bitch.
Cats (Antroijar)
Look
The fur of cats can have all kinds of patterns in all possible earth colors. Their front is often white or bright but that's not necessary. Their tail is long and thin and exceptionally flexible.
Depending on the race, cats can be between 150 and 250 cm (3.9 to 8.2 feet) tall. Their body shape ranges from wiry to stocky to athletic to musculous. Their ears are usually small, their muzzles wide and short.
Cats spurt sharp, long, extendable claws.
Their eyes can be of all kind of colors, shades of green being most common. Yellow, amber and blue are possible as well, but less common.
Society
Cats are the most manifold species on Antaros.
General cats (160-180 cm or 5.2-5.9 feet) tend to live in villages and are separated into different castes, as there are hunters, fishers, farmers, craftsmen, constructors and priests/scholars. Which caste one belongs depends on the family, though one is free to change the caste. One's caste is shown by a necklace, red is for hunter, green for farmer, yellow for craftsman, brown for constructor, blue for fisher and white for priest.
Lynxes (150-170 cm or 4.9-5.8 feet) tend to live alone or in small groups in forests. Their huts are usually constructed around trees or beneath their branches. They don't have much contact with the outer world and barely trade. Sometimes they also live in villages. If so, they, too, are separated into castes, but their caste system is more open.
Predator cats, e. g. tigers, panthers and cheetahs (170-200 cm or 5.8-5.8 feet) usually roam about alone or in pairs. Pairs are generally a cat and a tomcat, though that isn't necessary.
Lions (200-250 cm or 6.5 to 8.2 feet) tend to live in small packs that consist of one male (pasha) and a so-called harem, usually formed by two to five lion females. Their community works mostly like that of lions on the human world.
Rumor has it that cats tend to not like water. That's nonsense, the rumor is based on the fact that most cats live far off larger water areas.
In case cats wear clothes, they tend to be very simple. Generally it is a loin cloth, consisting of two cloths, covering front and back, and a stripe of fabric, partially covering the female breasts. However, cats generally only wear clothing if they go on a journey.
Religion
Cats believe in a nameless goddess that equals the human god.
Cats in battle
Depending on their race, cats fight different styles, usually, however, their fighting technique bases on speed.
Their weapons of choice are their claws which can work like ten short daggers.
Some cats also use two short, sharp knives, known as Chiss.
Traditions
Cats prefer traditional lives, which is why only few cats can be found in cities. For tradition, they refuse luxury, which is why their villages tend to be simple and without decoration. Thus they are wrongly considered primitive by city dwellers.
Love, relationship and mating habits
Cat love doesn't base on emotions but pheromones. As soon as a cat reaches maturity, her body starts producing pheromones. These attract tomcats who want to prove their worthiness. The cat then selects the one she considers best and mates with him. Such a bonding remains, although it doesn't base on love but passion.
It is believed that cats can't really fall in love, but this is not true. The difference is that cats usually don't follow this emotion. Lions are different, here the females stay with a male they consider worthy. In case the male looses a battle against another male, the females will most probably follow the winner.
Cats are generally fertile the whole year, but can decide if they want to be pregnant or not.
Cat sex tends to be wild and passionate and it is not unusual that lovers wear scratching and biting marks.
Very typical is the "love bite". Cats have a spot at the base of their shoulders that is almost insensitive to pain. Most cats instinctively bite this spot when their climax approaches. This can cause severe damage if the partner is not a cat, thus relationships between cats and other Antros are rare.
Cats rarely display their emotions in front of strangers, which causes cultural misunderstandings between them and canines. While cats consider the display of emotions as weak, canines, especially foxes, consider it suspicious of one covers these emotions.
Fennecs (Incanalas)
Look
Fennecs are smaller than common foxes but have larger ears. Their fur is sand-colored.
Culture:
No-one really knows if Fennecs do exist or not. They're mostly parts of rumors and legends, said to live in the deepest hearts of the deserts, where no-one capable of rational thought would dare to travel. No-one really knows how they can survive there, but it is said that they know tremendous sub-terran caves filled with fresh water. And it is also said that they live in alike caves. The insides of these caves are said to contain landscapes of unknown beauty, which the Fennecs crafted and cultivated over hundrets of generations, using the sub-terran water reservoirs.
Religion:
Rumor has it that the Fennecs once had a polytheistic religion but their gods disappeared one after another, until only one remained. Anubis, a black jackal who watches over them. It is said that Anubis is the last god that appears in physical form if summoned. And it is also said that Anubis grants any wish he is asked for, but a wish costs and his prices are very high..
Dragons (Drakones)
There are legends about humanoid dragons called Drakones, though not much information is available about them. None of them has been seen in a thousand years, though rumor has it that some of them still live in the legendary lands.
However, reports about sightings become less and less, leading to the conclusion that either their species is dying or they completely isolate themselves.
A Drakones' bite is venomous and normally kills instantly.
Wyrms (Wingless Dragons)
The Dracones tend to refuse to accept the Wyrms as real dragons and they generally don't treat them as equals. Other than Dracones, Wyrms are androgynous, cold-blooded creatures that do not possess any external genitalia.
They live in tribes, generally within the tropical and subtrobical climatic zones. Sometimes they raid careless travellers, but normally they're harmless if left alone.
Like Dracones, Wyrms are venomous, but their venom works slowly, constantly weakening the body until the victim dies.
Another typical difference between Drakones and Wyrms is the tail spade, which Drakones possess and Wyrms do not.
Others
There are other kinds of Antros, i. e. dogs, otters and ferrets, but because they are relatively rare and only found in certain countries, they don't have a specified name. They generally either live together with other Antros or form small communities of their own, for instance on islands.
Elves
Elves are no Antros, but equal the Elves from Human legends. They are split into Forest Elves, High Elves and Night Elves (basically they're like the Elves from WarCraft III).
The Elves were destroyed by Undeads thousands of years ago. However, artefacts and ruins of their civilization can still be found all over Antaros.
Satyrs
Satyrs are foul creatures that live in the forest near the Plaque Lands. They are what remains from the original Elves.
Constantly driven by their extreme libido, Satyrs capture everone who is unlucky enough to encounter them and rape them until they die, sometimes even longer.
If Satyrs encounter a mintleaf plant, they defile it, drenching it in their urine. Everyone who drinks the morning dew now either gets turned into a Satyr or dies a most painful death.