Baifa Monü Zhuan
- Intent: To create and flesh out the horses from the Lord of the Horse Lords
- Image Credit: Barsoomia (original image now deleted) edited by Bounce originally. Based on thoats but cleaned for now Dejah and to be just the creature and cleaned up with AI
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
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- Name: Longma
- Designation: Semi-Sentient
- Origins: Atrisia
- Average Lifespan: 60 years
- Estimated Population: Rare
- Description: A creature of serpentine grace atop powerful, terrestrial machinery. Its long, smooth body is supported by four pairs of legs, ending in broad, padded hooves that mute its footfalls. A fine, long tufted tail aids in balance during sprints with a powerful tip for smacking. Their tri-colored eyes are mesmerizing, with pinwheel irises that slowly spin when the creature is calm and spin rapidly during moments of high emotion or Force-sensitivity. Their bellies are covered in thick, almost armor-like scales, protecting vital organs during long runs. The prime breed stands nearly ten feet at the head (3.33m), with a body length of roughly 2m, not including the neck and head.
- Breathes: Type I (optimized for high-oxygen, lower-gravity environments; requires atmospheric assistance in standard galactic conditions)
- Average Height of Adults: 3.33m at the head
- Average Length of Adults: 2m (body) + 1.5m (neck and head) = 3.5m total
- Skin/Hide Color: White, black, brown, slate grey, and in rare domesticated breeds, deep crimson or midnight blue.
- Hair/Feathers: Coarse, bristly mane running from crown to the base of the tail, typically black or white. No feathers.
- Distinctions:
- Males: Larger, more heavily muscled forequarters. Possess a broad, bony crest on the skull and a significantly longer, forked, prehensile tongue used for stripping leaves and during dominance displays. Rarer than females (approx. 1:4 ratio). Wild stallions are solitary, holding vast territories and visiting female-led herds.
- Females: Leaner, more hydrodynamic build. Possess greater cardiorespiratory endurance, allowing for sustained runs up to 48 hours. Their tongues are shorter and less forked. The core of any herd.
- Races (Subspecies): Confined largely to Atrisia's unique biomes, but bred across the Atrisian Commonwealth and exported to discerning collectors and military forces across the galaxy.
- Appearance: Sleek, black, oil-slick hide that is always wet. Its mane and tail are thick, green, and strand-like, like dripping seaweed. Its eyes are a pale, glowing cyan. Its hooves are webbed.
- Environment: Deep lakes, coastal moors, river deltas.
- Altered Force-Tunnel (The Drown-Run): Instead of ignoring terrain, the siren tunnels into any body of water deep enough to submerge its belly. It and its rider emerge up to 500m away in the same body of water. While submerged, the rider is protected by a thin, breathable air envelope.
- Elemental Aspect (The Drowning Glamour): The siren emits a low, subconscious pheromone and Force call that makes sensitive sentients underestimate the danger of the water. A rider with weak mental defenses will feel an irrational urge to dive in, to touch the siren's glowing mane. This is the origin of the "siren drowns its rider" myth.
- Weakness: Must submerge its entire body (including its head) in fresh or salt water for at least 4 hours every standard day. Cannot use its Drown-Run in polluted or chemically treated water.
- Appearance: Hide of cracked, obsidian-black and deep crimson, glowing like cooling lava from the fissures. Its mane and tail look like wispy, semi-corporeal plumes of heat shimmer. Its eyes are smoldering orange.
- Environment: Active lava fields, volcanic calderas, geothermal vents.
- Altered Force-Tunnel (The Fire-Walk): The Magma-Heart tunnels through extreme heat. It and its rider can pass directly over a lava flow, through a burning building.
- Elemental Aspect (The Heat Aura): The Magma-Heart constantly radiates an aura of intense, dry heat (approx. 50°C / 120°F) in a 5m radius. Non-protected beings and equipment suffer heat exhaustion rapidly.
- Weakness: Requires ambient temperatures above 40°C / 104°F to be comfortable. In standard climates, it must wear a thermally insulated coat and will be lethargic and depressed. It is also highly visible to thermal sensors.
- Appearance: Pale grey or white hide, often with dark, jagged "lightning scars" that are actually natural pigmentation patterns. Its mane and tail are made of coarse, hollow hairs that vibrate in the wind, producing a low, eerie hum. Its eyes are bright, electric yellow.
- Environment: High mountain peaks, open plains during thunderstorm season.
- Altered Force-Tunnel (The Zephyr-Step): The Storm-Singer tunnels into the wind current. Altering the envirnonment to allow it to move around and up surfaces.
- Elemental Aspect (The Static Charge): The Storm-Singer passively builds a static electricity charge as it runs. When it achieves a gallop, it can release this charge as a single, non-lethal stunning shock.
- Weakness: Severely disoriented and weakened in still air or vacuum. Its abilities are useless indoors. Constant low-level static discharge makes it difficult to approach or ride without insulated gear.
- Appearance: Drab green to deep brown hide, covered in a symbiotic, living moss. Its mane and tail are thick, woody vines with small leaves. Its eyes are a soft, glowing green. Its hooves are broad and flat, distributing weight perfectly.
- Environment: Primeval forests, jungle undergrowth, tunnel systems.
- Altered Force-Tunnel (The Green-Path): The Moss-Walker tunnels through plant life.
- Elemental Aspect (The Camouflage Aura): The symbiotic moss can shift its color and texture to perfectly match the surrounding flora. The Moss-Walker and rider become effectively invisible to visual and most thermal sensors while stationary.
- Weakness: Requires high humidity and daily sunlight/UV exposure for the moss to survive. In deserts, space stations, or cities, the moss withers, causing the beast intense skin irritation and removing its camouflage ability.
- Force Sensitivity: Very Rare (approx. 1 in 20,000). Manifests as the "Tunneling" ability and the potential for a deep, empathic bond.
- Rarity: Mythical (estimated 1 in every 500,000 births; perhaps only 5-10 in existence at any given time)
- Status: Heavily mythologized; most scholars believe them extinct or allegorical.
- Hide: Pale, almost translucent white or faint lavender-grey, like moonlit marble. In low light, the Ghost Longma appears to fade at the edges, its outline indistinct.
- Mane & Tail: Not hair, but wispy, semi-corporeal tendrils of pale blue or white light that gently drift as if in a current. They leave faint, cold after-images in the air.
- Eyes: Completely white, with no visible iris or pinwheel. When using its abilities, the eyes appear to have fog rolling across them.
- Hooves & Legs: Its eight legs end in hooves that leave no imprint on soft ground and make no sound at all, even on stone.
- Deep caves, catacombs, ancient ruins, abandoned mine shafts, the lowest levels of Atrisian cities.
- They are never found in open daylight. They emerge only at twilight.
- Legends claim a Ghost Longma lair is always adjacent to a major Force nexus often a site of great tragedy or death.
- Instead of tunneling through air or a single element, the Ghost Longma can tunnel with the force (stone, concrete, metal, starship hull plating) for up to 50 meters.
- Critical Limitation: The Ghost Longma cannot phase through living matter (bone, flesh or anything that was once alive and retains organic cellular structure).
- The Ghost Longma constantly radiates an aura of unnatural cold (ambient temperature drops by 20°C / 36°F within a 10m radius). This is not mere temperature it is a Force-cold that seeps through environmental suits and makes droids' servos slow and groan.
- Spectral Stealth: When stationary and in contact with stone or earth, the Ghost Longma can "sink" its aura and physical presence into the ground. It and its rider become invisible to all non-Force-based sensors (motion, thermal, life-form, even visual they appear as a faint shimmer). A Force-sensitive can feel a "cold emptiness" in that spot.
- Light Sensitivity: Direct, bright sunlight (or powerful artificial light equivalent to daylight) causes the Ghost Longma intense pain. Its hide begins to smoke slightly, and it cannot use Stone-Phasing or Spectral Stealth..
- Force-Visible: While invisible to technology, a Ghost Longma is more visible in the Force than a normal Longma. To any Force-sensitive, it glows like a cold, pale lantern. Jedi and Sith can track it easily across a planet.
- Lifespan Drain: Legend claims each Ghost Longma is born from a shatterpoint in the Force.
- Relentless Endurance: The Longma's defining trait. Their slow-twitch muscle fibers and incredibly efficient cardiovascular system allow them to maintain a fast trot for 48-72 hours without rest. They can cover over 1,000km in a standard day-cycle at this pace.
- Silent Tread: The unique combination of padded, segmented hooves and a rolling gait makes them surprisingly quiet. A galloping Longma sounds like a strong wind or distant thunder, not a pounding of hooves.
- The Force-Tunnel (Rare): The signature ability. A Longma strong in the Force can, when achieving a resonant gallop, briefly submerge itself and its rider into the living Force of a planet. This is not hyperspace. To an outside observer, the Longma and rider appear to blur and stride through the air for a few hundred meters, ignoring difficult terrain, water surfaces, or even vertical inclines for a few seconds. They emerge from the "tunnel" at a point within line of sight (max 500m). This is exhausting for the beast and can only be done a handful of times per day.
- Force Dissonance: The Force-Tunnel is a profound connection to the living Force. Void stone, Ysalamiri, or Vong biots create a "blindness" and intense vertigo in affected Longma, making them freeze, stumble, or panic.
- Burst Speed Deficit: They are marathoners, not sprinters. Their top gallop (approx. 80 kph) is respectable, but accelerating to that speed takes time. They are easily outrun over short distances by speeder bikes or true cavalry species.
- Locomotor Defects: Due to their complex octopedal genetics, congenital defects are not uncommon. Monodactyly (fused leg bones) and Tridactyly (split hooves) cause crippling pain and render the animal useless for riding. Reputable breeders cull or provide sanctuary for such individuals.
- Atmospheric Dependence: Their optimized respiratory system struggles in thin, toxic, or high-gravity atmospheres. A Longma deployed on a world like Korriban or a high-gravity mining colony requires a specialized breath mask and will suffer from severe fatigue.
- Diet: Omnivore with a strict herbivorous preference. Grass, moss, fungi, and soft leaves are staples. They require red meat for a specific vitamin K variant only found in animal fat, but intake must be strictly managed. Overconsumption leads to a fatal condition known as "The Red Gallop" (a catastrophic cardiovascular seizure).
- Communication: Complex, non-verbal. A blend of subsonic rumbles (felt through the ground), infrasonic whinnies (felt by riders in their chest), and physical cues (head nudges, tail flicks, ear positioning). A bonded rider develops a low-level Force-empathetic link with a Force-Sensitive Longma, sharing broad emotions (calm, fear, hunger, direction of danger).
- Technology level: Below galactic Standard
- Religion/Beliefs: No major religions, they are highly prized and regarded for their speed and endurance in areas of Atrisia.
- General behavior:
- With People: Docile and curious, but not affectionate. They tolerate handlers and seem to enjoy being brushed. They will not fight unless their rider (if bonded) is directly threatened or they are cornered. Their primary defense is to flee at incredible sustained speed.
- With Each Other: Highly communal. Herds of 20-50 mares and juveniles are led by a single, experienced matriarch. During mating season, stallions fight by rearing onto their four hind legs and striking with their four front legs a devastating, clattering display of power. The loser retreats.
Discovered in the Valley of the Horse Lords a remote area of the eastern continent. The Longma have been bred and shipped, traded and stolen across Atrisia. The horse Lords protecting their finest secrets to the breeding process for centuries while others were around the world. While some can be bred they are often considered lower quality compared to something bred bty the mysterious horselords of Atrisia. The only known time of them leaving the valley was when the queen of the dynasty got the finest riders to form her armored cavalry troops to ride down opposing enemies. The rest of what they have developed and shown, surviving the numerous attacks on the planet and living within the area. The horse Lords regarding them almost like a member of their clans and family... each one uniquely named and usually only ridden by a single person.
Their early discovery came with the first tribes fo the horse lords who had broken up from a larger one. Often regarded as the first and according to their beliefs they were the first warriors on Atrisia... riding from the mountains down to take what they wanted and returning. Later as infantry and soldiers formed with Warlords nearby their riding became legendary for how ferocious it was... with few being able to withstand a charge from them and even less being able to beat their archers. They swept across the eastern continent going from warlord to warlord and raiding them. Most foolish enough to have thick walls but the pride and arrogance to want to face them on the field face to face. They continued to sweep across and were mostly stopped and driven back by the Onyx empress and her forts.
At the fortress of Dusk she willingly infected the villagers with sickness so when the horse lords arrived they would be exposed and infected. As they bunkered down she had her men move in during the night and put in place the wall they had created to surround the town. Sealing them in there and keeping them away as the sickness overtook them and was sure to spread. Once it appeared all of them were dead she had fires set to the town and bodies to purge the infection ensuring the people that she placed there would properly adapt and overcome. Rebuilding and burying the history of what she had done save from oral stories of the horse lords and the keisei who recorded it from her side. Working as a court aid and diplomat from the keisei.
The occupation and centuries, plagues and netherworld rifts proved highly effective in culling a great deal of the population of the Longma and even more so of the few that were able to be bred with a connection to the force. They are so rare and prized the Horse lords are willing to give fortunes and artifacts to anyone who has one and is willing to give it to them. To try and preserve the line fo the species and care for it outside the valley. After the most recent attacks the bulk are kept there to be raised by the horse lords and are considered in some ways an endangered species on Atrisia. Aside from the Jade screamers who largely ride them as a mounted force on the world there is few seen outside the valley.
Continued research, use and exploration of Atrisia with greater documentation and study have revealed different forms of the Longma that are able to be found and used. The ancient Atrisians knowing about them and with the further research they were able to better develop and raise Longma for various means. It would fit with many of the renovations after the battle of Atrisia that saw them going through and applying the structural and infrastructural upgrades that were developed for the cities to many more places. THe Longma's charge with the jade screamers and allied Horse Lords who charged armor units gave them a lot more.
The Atrisian military and cultural units would be able to raise more Lngma's for use across Commonwealth space and colonies. Aiding the people and units.
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