Oh you pretty thing
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To add to the wildlife of Kattada
- Image Credit: DeviantArt
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: N/A
- Name: Kattadan Pelagic Serpent
- Designation: Semi-Sentient
- Origins: Kattada
- Average Lifespan: 300-350 years
- Estimated Population: Planetary
- Description: The Pelagic Serpent is a large predator found on Kattada. Operating in small schools of three to five serpents, these beasts hunt many different prey on Kattada, with their favored being the Hardback. Agile through the water, with very hard scales, the schools will hunt, as a unit, sometimes working to patrol their region of the Kattadan oceans with other schools, all under the protection of a large Alpha. They have been known to hunt with tooth and claw, with older Alphas capable of discharging electrical impulses to stun and harm prey. It has been known for Alphas to attack one another for dominance.
- Breathes: Aquatic
- Average Height of Adults: Serpent
- Average Length of Adults: 5 meters with Alphas reaching upwards of 20 meters
- Skin color: Silvers, blues, seafoam greens
- Hair color: None
- Distinctions: Similar to sea serpents of many other worlds, the Pelagic Serpent has small arms, with a primary purpose to dig into the fleshy aspects of prey to prevent them from moving away. Large teeth that are a mixture of sharp and blunted, designed for rending flesh from all manner of aquatic prey.
- Races: N/A
- Force Sensitivity: Non-Sensitive
- Evolved as an ocean predator, said to be the apex of the Kattadan Sea
- Strong jaws and large teeth
- Alphas are capable of electrical discharge to stun prey and foes
- Aquatic only
- Not an intelligent species
- The eyes and under the small arms are vulnerable locations
- Small arms do not provide a wide range of motion.
- Diet: Carnivores
- Communication: N/A
- Technology level: N/A
- Religion/Beliefs: N/A
- General behavior: As an aquatic species, the Pelagic Serpent is known for living among the waves. Venturing into the shallows of Kattada for easy prey of large, slow moving pelagic fish, the Serpent tends to keep to the deeper waters, however not normally found in depths which lose the light of Kattada's sun. Egg born, the family structure is an oddity. They swim in schools, however this seems more for protection and coordination of a hunt, similar to cetacea from other worlds. The school is not made of a family unit, but it is not to say that siblings or parents/children do not end up in the same school or same territory. Eggs are laid, they are fertilized, and the serpents begin a life of climbing a hierarchy from there, with many from one clutch dying due to preadolescent cannibalism. As they grow, and survive in the shallow reefs, they make their way out to deeper waters during adolescence where they begin to enter the pecking order. As a serpent ages, they continue to grow, they become more competitive, hunting larger prey and working to extend their own range, which puts them in conflict with others, resulting in fights which leave few to make the jump to Alpha status.
A natural species of Kattada, the Serpent has lived in harmony with the world as its apex predator. Mostly self regulating, the early visitors to Kattada realized that the scales were protected against not only the waters of the sea, not allowing for growth, but they did not conduct electrical current, which, as the galaxy tends to fall into chaos. The locals of Kattada enforced strict hunting rituals on the Serpents to off worlders. The smaller serpents make better personal armor. At times, however, an Alpha would be taken down without such pretense. Alphas have been known to attack fishing vessels, and essentially trap islands away from the sea, each of these Alphas have been given names over the years, including Wavebreaker and Chaosbringer. Hunters from Kattada, including now, Blue Coral Divers, and even Jedi have taken up the call to fight these rogue Alphas.
