Linella
| Linella | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Fauna | |
| Official Name | Linella |
| Common Nicknames | Larazzra Fish, Searubber Guppies |
| Classification | Fish |
| Habitat | Various waters |
| Domesticated | No |
| Current Status | Common |
Linellas are unique fish that excrete long, shiny, and elastic threads known as Elastan Thread when they try to flee from a predator to cause said predator to become entangled. The Ovirran Varran hunt these Linella primarily to help them in the creation of Elastan, a popular fabric usually black or dark blue which can shine if decorated with Silver thread. Its most prized property is that it is skin-fitting, usually woven smaller than the body and then stretching around the form of the person wearing it. This makes it lightweight and frictionless, while still warm to the skin or fur. Ovirran usually dress in Elastan because of cultural tradition and because this fabric does not need to be removed when swimming and thus, the Linella is essential to their lifestyle and world fashion trends in several Cultures. In addition, the Ovirran usually eat the fish after the threads have been expelled from them.
History
Linellas have existed in the seas in and around Daen for millennia, dating back to The Awakening of the Altalar and the eventual formation of their Allorn Empire. But it was not they who first noticed or made use of the creatures, but the Ovirran Varran. Details of this era are relatively unknown, and also to what extent if at all the Ovirran existed within the ancient Varran Race, known as the Javarindar. Regardless of the truth, over the coming centuries as the Varran spread across Daen either fleeing slavery at the hands of the Altalar, or by traveling with their masters, the Ovirran came into contact with the fish and rapidly grew enamored with the creature. Perhaps they appreciated its defense mechanism that so often disgusted and irritated Altalar who caught the creatures in nets, or perhaps they saw the glint of future value in the creatures. Regardless of the truth, by 500 BC, the Ovirran were recorded to possess a unique material sought after by many coastal Altalar (who would eventually morph into the modern Fin’ullen Altalar). Known as Elastan, in the wake of the Cataclysm and the fall of the Allorn Empire, the Ovirran would introduce the substance that could be formed from the fish’s body to the Ailor. As a result, the Regalian Empire rapidly contracted a number of Ovirran settlements to help them produce the substance as a highly useful good for the military complex, but also to trade it to the Altalar who still wanted it. As a result, Linella populations have been on a slow decline for decades. While they are still very populous, the Varran who tend to hunt them have noticed that with every passing year, the swimming patterns of the schools slip ever further from Ovirran and fishing territory, and into deeper water, while simultaneously, the vast hordes that their ancestors engaged with have slowly begun to fade. However, the animal has gained a respite in recent years as with the enormous conflict that has plagued Daen and the Bone Horror Crisis, many Ovirran are either dead or focused on far more important tasks for survival. But how long this break will last is anybody’s guess.
Physical Appearance
Linella are strangely shaped saltwater fish reaching anywhere from half a foot to four feet long with a wide variety of weights due to their unique bodies. Their heads are narrow, with a small mouth at the top of their faces, with a pair of large, pale blue eyes set behind them. The creature’s gills appear as a pale, small line low on the body usually three to five inches behind the eyes. Behind the gills sit the fish’s fins, one pair of semi-translucent pectoral fins near the center of each side, and a smaller pair of pelvic fins on the bottom of the body. Following this, on the top and the bottom of the fish are the dorsal and anal fins, similarly semi-translucent to the rest of the fish. Wrapping up the body is its tailfin which, uniquely when compared to other species, is not of the same membranous material as the other fins and is instead solid, with a square shape.
However, the animal’s most unique traits are tied into the “excretion glands” found on either side of its body. These small translucent lines appear like gills to the unaware and extend over the body of the animal back to just before its dorsal fin ends. When the fish is threatened or scared enough, it will expunge over half of its body weight in Elastan Threads packed into its body that coincidentally give it its coloration of black and blue. There is a prominent black stripe that runs from the tip of the animal’s nose all the way back to its dorsal fine where it covers much of the surface before looping around in a “U” shape and existing over the area that the anal fin exists. The rest of the animal is colored blue, with a paler coloration toward the front before rapidly darkening toward the rear. These colorations though, as a result of the Elastan Threads that exists within the animal, as once the creature’s Threads have been forced from its body, it generally has a translucent appearance, though one of the colors usually remains as that is the natural color the animal will always possess. These Threads can be regenerated by an individual Linella, but it takes months.
Diversity
Linella have no obvious external differences between the genders, but their bodies are uniquely constructed. Only half the coloration of their bodies are real in over 90% of their species, with the animal either being translucent and black or translucent and blue. However, around 10% of the species is entirely transparent, and upon expelling their internal threading, are pale and translucent with all of the color sucked out of them. In this state, their excretion glands are very obvious as pale white lines, and their internal organs can also be seen.
Life Span and Development
Linella are laid in spawning grounds as several dozen cloudy eggs smaller than peas, which are then wrapped in some of the Linella’s Elastan Thread, as a shroud of sorts that largely protects the eggs from predators, so long as the Thread is wrapped correctly. After a month, the baby Linella emerges and swims for the nearest sources of food. Over the course of three years, they will mature into their full size, and start to grow Elastan Threads within their bodies at the six-month mark when their bodies leave adolescence. From here, the species groups up into vast schools largely based on their spawning grounds, and swim across the coastlines of Daen in a ceaseless pattern forward and backward. They can live up to five years.
Mental Overview
Linellas are fairly dull creatures without much complex thought in their existence. They mindlessly feed on various forms of plantlife, but when young, they are also known as cleaning fish, serving a vital role in the ocean community. However, after they grow in size past their first six months, they cease their cleaning role. Beyond this, the aforementioned single unique feature of the animal, their defensive reflex of emptying their bodies of the unique elastic thread they produce, is notable and well known. They do this when they are absolutely terrified, which can happen when they are hunted and feel they are about to be eaten, or when they are suddenly frightened. However, they also show a degree of caring it seems for their youth, wrapping them in one of their Elastan Threads. Others though suspect this is a mindless mechanism of reproduction, and simply an effort to ensure the survival of the species.
Territory and Groupings
Linella exist in schools of up to 500 members, who swim in ceaseless migratory patterns, returning to a set spawning ground every year in the autumn to reproduce. These patterns have slowly changed over the last several centuries as the fish have slowly started to avoid Ovirran communities, but this progress has been stalled to the apparent vanishing of most major threats from the Race. Additionally, Ovirran awareness of the issue and Regalian influence has seen some of the few remaining settlements create simple spawning pools in tidal areas to instead harvest the Threads without as much disruption to the wild schools.
Trivia
- Ovirran hunt Linella in squads, and act somewhat like dolphins in that they circle a group of Linella but rather than feast on the fish immediately, they press the animals in close and closer to the point the fish release their Elastan Thread. At this point, they are then captured by a unique netting system, and their threading is hauled to the water’s surface
- Elastan has become popular among the Regalian elite thanks to its black and blue coloration, and ability to conform well to an individual’s body, representing various tenants of Imperial Culture.
| Accreditation | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||