The Teretosi
The teretosi are the native species of Reinao. Born in a land of chaos, the teretosi are constantly testing their fortune. While seemingly jovial and carefree, the teretosi's immense speed and supernatural luck are all that keep this hardy species from the edge of disaster.
Biology
The teretosi are lean, well-muscled creatures. With a long, skinny torso and six powerful legs, the teretosi are incredibly agile creatures. They are the fastest intalli species, capable of hitting speeds of up to 50 mph (80 km/h), albeit for only a short period of time. They possess long, sharp declaws on their front paws which are used for dispatching prey. Their second set of legs are typically folded up against their bodies and are normally used for climbing or grappling opponents. While typically obscured by fur, all teretosi possess small pouches on their abdomen for carrying young.
They have long, sensitive ears and a strong sense of smell. They have incredible long-distance and night vision but struggle with objects that are up-close. Teretosi lack upper canine teeth and instead have sharp keratinous growths reminiscent of reptilian beaks. This allows them incredible grip and accompanies a powerful bite force. While patternless at birth, teretosi develop bioluminescent stripes in adolescence. They can illuminate individual stripes at will and control their brightness. These stripes are often used for communication, combat, or just as a light source.
Teretosi possess venomous spines that trail down their chin, neck, back, and tail. These spines are typically flexible and soft to the touch. However, when a teretosi is threatened, these spines grow rigid with venom. When injected, this venom causes extreme pain and paralysis, with symptoms possibly lasting for hours depending on the amount of dosage. If injected near the heart, teretosi venom can easily be fatal. Teretosi are resistant but not immune to the venom of other individuals.
Abilities
Luck of the Draw
While native to a land of disaster, teretosi are rarely found among the casualties. Their survival is owed to their gift of supernatural luck, allowing teretosi to escape perilous disasters and survive fatal scenarios. While all teretosi have the luck to survive a natural disaster, some seem to possess luck in other facets of life. While rare, some individuals may find extreme luck in combat, gambling, and other risky situations.
Ecology and Behavior
Reproduction and Life Cycle
Teretosi have holder-giver reproduction with holders giving birth to live young. Mature teretosi are induced ovulators and may reproduce at any point in the year. Teretosi pregnancies are extremely short and are often less than a month long.
Teretosi courtship traditionally revolves around food. It's often said that the way to a teretosi's heart is through the stomach- and the tastier the meal, the better. Courting teretosi will often spend months honing their cooking skills in order to impress their partner. Regardless, homemade meal is deeply endearing to a teretosi no matter the quality. Catching and gifting prey for cooking is also deeply appreciated.
Teretosi are typically very lax with their romantic relationships. It's common for a teretosi to still be casual with a partner(s) they've known for decades. While a tad more modest than the optera, the teretosi have a very casual view on sex and will engage in sexual activity quite flippantly.
With their casual attitudes toward sex and remarkably short gestation periods, its quite common for teretosi to not realize they're pregnant until they have given birth. Thankfully, labor in teretosi almost always concludes within an hour and is often only accompanied with moderate cramping. Newborn teretosi are remarkably underdeveloped and are smaller than the dewclaw of a mature adult. A single litter may consist of up to six joeys.
Joeys are considered to non-sentient in their first few months of life and are often culled and consumed if unwanted. Birth control is rarely used by teretosi.
Immediately after birth, newborn teretosi will climb into the pouch of their birthing parent. Both holders and givers possess pouches and can produce milk. Joeys grow at an unbelievable rate and a litter may outgrow their parent's pouch within a matter of months. As a result, some teretosi may split up their litters between multiple pouches shortly after birth.
Teretosi are typically raised with multiple guardians, whether it be their parents, family members, or family friends. Joeys grow a deep attachment to whoever nursed them in the pouch and are often closer to their pouch parent than they are their biological parents.
Most litters will outgrow the pouch within six to eight months, after which their parents will only be able to carry one joey at a time. By two years old, most litters are weaned off milk, with even individual joeys being too large to fit within the pouch.
Young teretosi are hyperactive and competitive. Littermates will compete with each other over just about anything and will quickly begin a mock brawl if a competition is considered unfair. Joeys love to race each other and regularly engage in play fights, often attempting to drag in the adults around them into the competition as well. Thankfully, their energy comes at a cost; joeys may spend up to 16 hours a day asleep.
While their boundless energy can be amusing, that same impulsivity can be a peril in their native highlands. Novice hunters may find themselves plummeting to their deaths in pursuit of prey, and even the most experienced rangers of the mountains may find themself in the midst of the disasters which plague Reinao. Thus, immense care is put into educating joeys about the dangers of life. Joeys are taught about death from a young age and are raised to respect it.
Starting at around eight years old, teretosi are traditionally brought along for risky tasks such as hunts or territory skirmishes. While kept away from the actual danger, they are encouraged to watch in order to grasp important hunting and battle skills. In present day, especially in urban areas, this tradition has evolved into joeys simply joining their parents on the job.
In adolescence, teretosi become increasingly restless and independent. By 16 years old, teretosi are expected to and are capable of catching and preparing their own (albeit small) prey. By the time they've reached adulthood, teretosi are more than happy to leave their homes. However, the majority rarely disperse far.
Teretosi are considered adults at 18 years old. While their life expectancy sits just above 90 years, their lifespan peaks at 140.
Social Structure
Teretosi traditionally live in large familial territories that are split up by various small packs. Upon maturity, teretosi will often loosely disperse around their home territory, creating large swaths of land all belonging to the same family. These packs are typically friendly towards others in the same territory and will share important information about the land upon greeting. Cooperative hunting between packs is quite common, especially when prey is in abundance.
In contrast, unrelated packs regularly come into conflict on the edges of prime territories. It's not uncommon for a small skirmish between two packs to evolve into a full on war between two families, with dozens of teretosi coming to the defense of their relatives and their greater territory.
In spite of tradition, some teretosi are known to be lone wolves. It's become far more common in recent centuries for teretosi to strike out from their families and never return, instead engaging in a largely antisocial and nomadic lifestyle. This has resulted in a large amount of teretosi who have absolutely no connection to traditional pack life. Packless teretosi are more common in urban and interspecies areas. These teretosi may travel in small family groups but rarely maintain a single consistent territory.
Diet
Teretosi are carnivorous and are remarkably efficient pursuit predators. They will happily hunt and consume a wide variety of prey, but most specialized in hunting large ungulates. Despite their large size, teretosi are remarkably stealthy and can stalk prey in complete silence. They will hunt cooperatively when given the opportunity and can take down remarkably large prey with ease. They will use their long, curved dewclaws to kill and disembowel prey.
Teretosi cuisine largely centers around high protein and fatty food. With large game meat as the centerpiece, meals will often include bugs, eggs, bones, blood, offal, and other animal byproducts as sides. While teretosi can handle the consumption of raw meat, prey any larger than a rat is always prepared in one way or another. Meat is typically roasted, smoked, or fried. Immense care is put into the preparation of food, with a large emphasis put on seasoning. Teretosi cuisine is infamous for its strong flavors and often overwhelming amounts of salt and spice.
While their digestive systems are built for meat, teretosi can and will use plant matter when possible. Nuts, tubers, seeds, and other grains are regularly processed into dough to supplement larger meals. Teretosi will often turn to carb heavy diets during times of poor prey yields, allowing them filling meals when otherwise impossible, albeit at the cost of extremely poor nutrition.
A dish popular among teretosi is the Poor Man's Marmot, otherwise known as the pika bun, a baked good with heavily spiced meat stuffing shaped to resemble a rodent. The Poor Man's Marmot is traditionally sliced open with a dewclaw, with only the stuffing consumed and bread discarded. However, during times of famine, teretosi would often resort to consumption of the entire pika bun, leading to increased bread quality and decreased meat quantity. In present day, discourse on the correct way to consume a pika bun is still abundant, especially in interspecies spaces.
Hybrids
While not particularly rare, teretosi hybrids could hardly be called common either. The month long pregnancies that teretosi experience would be easily considered a miscarriage in most other intalli. The most successful teretosi hybrids are from species with shorter pregnancies. Even if not carried by a teretosi, hybrids are often born prematurely and may suffer from various severe health issues. Hybrid joeys are typically only considered to be safe after they've survived their first month of life.
Past infancy, teretosi hybrids are quite healthy but may have hybrid-typical fertility issues. Teretosi typically have the most success interbreeding with optera and beluki.
Psychology and Culture
Ideals and Instincts
Despite their reverence of death, teretosi are naturally inclined towards risky behavior. The urge to test one's luck has led many teretosi, especially adolescents, towards unfortunate hobbies. Gambling is extremely popular among teretosi in all its forms, whether they're wagering a single coin or their entire life savings. Some individuals are directly drawn to danger, all too willing to risk their life just for the gamble. Despite its ubiquity, this behavior is often looked down upon as being foolish.
Customs and Traditions
Rather than attempt to domesticate or farm their wild prey, teretosi packs engage in active land stewardship and take immense care in maintaining the ecology of their territories. As a result, teretosi have often found themselves in conflict with the encroachment of other intalli species, especially wyrir.
Trivia
A teretosi's spines can shake against each other to create a loud rattling sound. This behavior is typically unintentional and occurs most often during moments of immense joy or fear. The spines on their tail create the loudest rattle.
The average teretosi has extremely dense but short fur. However, an uncommon mutation has led to a small subsection of teretosi to grow far more fur than usual. These especially hairy individuals are most commonly found in the most northern regions of Reinao and require constant maintenance to keep their fur in check.
The teretosi were created in October 2022.