The Horror in the Darkness
- Intent: Create a Canine (Wolf) Species
- Image Credit: XX
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: N/A
- Name: Dathomirian Night Stalkers or Gasúir Oíche in the Language of the Nardithi Nightsisters
- Designation: Non-sentient
- Origins: Dathomir
- Average Lifespan: Twenty Years
- Estimated Population: Planetary
- Description: At a mere, simple glance, the species looks ordinary outside two great distinctions. The first is the top part of the head, where the skull is exposed. It is unsure how that came to be, but it distinguishes them from other wolf, canine, species. The second is their red eyes, a by-product from their eyes absorbing the light from the moon, granting them nocturnal vision.
- Breathes: Type I
- Average Height of Adults: 1.2 meters (4 feet) - Females, 1 meter (3'5" feet) - Males
- Average Length of Adults: 1.8 meters (6 feet) - Females, 1.5 meters (5 feet) - Males
- Skin color: Underneath their fur, their skin is as black as night.
- Hair color: Predominantly black with white tips on the upper part of their fur.
- Distinctions:
- Males: The males of this species tend to be slightly smaller than their female counter parts, possessing a more defining white on the tips of their fur. The male's paws tend to be smaller, but their claws are longer.
- Females: The females of this species tend to be more aggressive in nature, whilst having bigger paws and longer canine teeth. Thier red eyes are also brighter in color, whilst the middle to end of their tails have a reddish-hue color.
- Races: N/A
- Force Sensitivity: Force Dead
- Venomous Bite: The species harbor salvia glands that contains Hemotoxins that can destroy red-blood cells, disrupt clotting, and cause organ failure, as well as damage tissues. If left untreated, the result from a single bite will lead to death.
- Illusionists: The species has the ability to bend light around them, in this case moonlight, to give them the effect of invisibility. They are not invisible per say, but it takes a trained eye to see them when they are in this state.
- Accelerated Healing: Under the blessing of the moonlight, the species has the ability to heal themselves rapidly; but at the cost of resting. They do not heal during combat, or fighting, but only when allowed to rest and recoup themselves.
- Nocturnal Vision: The species have red eyes, and though it was once believed they could see through an Infared spectrum sight, that is not the case. Thier red eyes absorb the light, hence the red color, from a moon and transfers it in a way that grants them nocturnal vision.
- Birth Ratio: Females can give birth up to six pups; however, the mortality rate of the pup's survival is that only thirty-five percent of the pups born will survive to adulthood.
- Sun Sickness: Sunlight will not kill the species; it does however pose two problems for them. The first, it hampers their ability to see, thus they are literally blinded by the brightness of the sun, though artificial lighting has no effect on them. The second is they grow very weak, lethargic like, and literally have their strength sapped from them, making them easy prey for much bigger predators.
- Overly Aggressive: The species are extremely aggressive, not only to other species but to themselves. In the absence of food, they will attack the weaker of the pack and consume them; essentially giving them a cannibalistic nature. Also, when the Alpha of the pack is challenged and loses, the new Alpha will systematically kill any pups that have been born.
- Diet: Carnivore
- Communication: Communication is through sounds of barking, snarling, and body language.
- Technology level: N/A
- Religion/Beliefs: N/A
- General behavior:
- Nocturnal: The species is exclusively nocturnal. They are born for hunting at night, and thus, are rarely seen in the daylight.
- Procreation: Every Alpha of any given pack is always male, and it's only the Alpha of the pack that is allowed to procreate with the females to produce pups.
- Hunting: The species hunts in packs, mainly by the females of the pack; whilst the males provide security and protection for their counterparts against dangers such as other predators.
- Apex Predators: Though the species is not as formidable in size as some of the other known predators on Dathomir, like the rancor, they are considered a top-tier predator, apex to some regions, for their ability to hunt and fight in numbers. They are very territorial and as such, they will attack any intruder that haphazardly wanders into their domain.
- Family Oriented: Despite the problem with the changing of an Alpha if young pups are around, the packs are extremely family oriented; meaning that the entire pack, males and females alike, assist in raising the young.
The wolf, or canine species, known as the Dathomirian Night Stalkers have been around since the dawn of Dathomir. They are nocturnal pack hunters who are highly aggressive and territorial. Their exact numbers are unknown, but they dominate a few areas on the planet such as The Haunted Lands, The Nardithi Cluster, and the M'un'rior Bog. The species is highly respected by the Nightsister Covens and Clans for their aggressiveness and their ability to work like a pack to bring down bigger prey; even spurring some of the warrior clans to create fighting and hunting tactics based of the night Stalker's style.
Though the species have never been attempted to be tamed, by capturing young pups and breeding them for domestic uses, by the Nightsisters, it was during the Imperial occupation of Dathomir during the galaxy's Imperial Period that the Imperials tried to breed the species for potentially hunting down dissidents, hiding Jedi, or outlaws taking refuge on the planet; or elsewhere if the project was successful. However, the attempts of cultivating the species failed, and any living "experiments" were terminated. It was also decreed that species was a threat to Imperial interests and as such, the species were delegated to a policy of kill-on-sight. The species suffered substantially, coupled with the birth rate of survival, that the species almost went extinct.
In the years following the fall of the Galactic Empire, and the expunging of the Imperials and any Imperial remnants on Dathomir, that the wolves began to make a comeback; and eventually began to flourish once more. Though not all the Nightsister Covens and Clans could agree on any one direction for Dathomir, it was decreed that the Night Stalkers were to be given sanctuary on any occupied territories of the Covens or Clans in order for the wolves to successfully return to Dathomir as a top-tier predator. For all the dangers the Night Stalkers harbored, they were masters of keeping down populations of other fauna that threatened farms or predators that threatened livestock animals. In some areas, the Night Stalkers were the apex predator, keeping much bigger predators at bay, or their numbers down.
Around the time of 356 ABY, the population of the Night Stalkers had exploded, and their numbers began to grow to dangerous proportions. Though the Nightsisters did not believe, as the Imperials did so many hundreds of years ago, that the wolves needed to be culled on a policy of kill-on-site, but it was now practiced policy to kill a Night Stalker, or night Stalkers, if they became to dangerously involved in Nightsister's village life.
Today, the Night Stalkers have placed themselves at the head of the table in terms of Dathomir's Most Dangerous creatures, having a healthy population, and territory they claim as their own. They have only one known rival on Dathomir, the infamous rancor beast.
