Unreviewed Schokkling

[Neryn Ka]

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OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create a breed of domesticated Wyyyschokk
• Image Credit: Link
• Canon: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Links: N/A

GENERAL INFORMATION

• Name: Schokkling
• Designation: Semi-Sentient
• Origins: Kashyyyk (original stock, later altered by Neryn Ka)
• Average Lifespan: Typically 5-10 standard years
• Estimated Population: Scattered
• Description: Smaller, more intelligent Wyyyschokks bred for use as guard animals or pets.

PHYSICAL INFORMATION

• Breathes: Type I-II
• Average Height of Adults: 15-20 centimeters
• Average Length of Adults: 40-50 centimeters
• Skin color: Too many to list, but most commonly green, red, brown, gray, blue, or pink. Rarer colors can include black, white, or silver.
• Hair color: N/A
• Distinctions: Octupedal stance, venomous bite, web-spinning behavior, highly social
• Races: N/A
• Force Sensitivity: Rare: Force-sensitive Schokklings are vanishingly uncommon, with approximately one sensitive animal per 1.2 million non-sensitive.

Strengths:

• Street Smarts: Schokklings are somewhat removed from the cunning but non-sapient predators they descend from. On average, they are approximately as intelligent as a young humanoid child, able to solve simple problems and be trained for a variety of tasks.
• Venomous: Schokklings are venomous, injecting their prey with a powerful (but typically nonfatal) paralytic neurotoxin. Properly-trained specimens can make excellent companions for Sith law enforcement, bounty hunters, criminals, or other individuals interested in the non-lethal route.
• Does Whatever...: Schokklings are a form of spider, and certainly move like it. They are quick and stealthy, and can easily scuttle up sheer walls and ceilings.

Weaknesses:

• Puny: Schokklings lack the size and mass of their forbears. A lone individual is at a harsh disadvantage against anything larger than itself, and can easily be overpowered or simply sent flying by a more powerful creature.
• Depressive: Schokklings are highly social animals, and experience severe mental and physical decline if forced into isolation. Eventually, this can result in the animal refusing to eat.

CULTURE

• Diet: Carnivore
• Communication: Schokklings communicate with each other through pheromones and gesturing with their forelimbs. While they can readily be taught to understand most spoken languages, they cannot speak.
• Technology level: N/A
• Religion/Beliefs: N/A
• General behavior: Generally speaking, Schokklings are intended to be easy to domesticate. While feral populations exist, these are generally easy enough to bring to heel, as the creatures display an innate understanding of pack behavior and a readiness to accept authority. So long as they are fed and trained under a firm hand, they make for able utility animals in a wide variety of potential roles (assuming one isn't arachnophobic). Despite their appearance, their general demeanor is relatively feline. Much time is spent in grooming, chasing and terrorizing smaller animals, and lazing about when not ordered otherwise.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

Effectively a Wyyyschokk in miniature, these simple creatures are the creations of Neryn Ka.

Despite being an unrepentant monster, Neryn has something of a soft spot for the gross and the unloved. Spiders in all their forms certainly fit the bill. Found on many planets, and appreciated by few, Neryn feels a kinship with many-legged scurriers of all sorts.

During a recent trip to Kashyyyk, several Wyyyschokk eggs were captured intact, albeit at significant peril. After a little experimentation, Schokklings were born.

In contrast to their hulking, powerful forbears, Schokklings are relatively small, measuring some 40-50 centimeters from legtip to legtip. As such, they typically hover around the size of many domestic housepets.

Schokklings come in a dizzying variety of different colors, patterns, and configurations, making it easy for prospective owners to choose one of their exact taste. For the most part, these differences are purely phenotypical, with only minor physical or behavioral differences between specimens.

Schokklings are voracious carnivores, scurrying after small rodents or reptiles with startling haste. This hunting instinct is a powerful one, and can present a problem to inept owners. Much care should be taken to prevent Schokklings from making a meal of other animals (or smaller sentient species). They do build webs, but typically only as nests; these structures are not used to capture prey (though Schokklings will readily eat anything that happens to blunder into them).

Despite this, Schokklings are generally docile towards larger creatures, such as most humanoids (unless trained for aggressiveness towards strangers). They are exceptionally easy to domesticate, and can be easily handled without fear of a bite (though few individuals have any desire to hold a half-meter-long spider).

Tame Schokklings can be trained to perform a variety of tasks, for either simple amusement or practical purpose. They make able hunting companions, guard animals, pest control beasts, or exotic pets.

Under these circumstances, Schokklings are loyal and reliable companions, if highly unusual ones. Like their naturally-occurring forbears, they are social creatures, and can fall into depressive episodes if kept alone. They function best with regular attention from their keepers, other Schokklings to nest around, or both.

While technically owned in their entirety by the Dzara, Schokkling populations have spread somewhat through Sith territories, as they are small, stealthy, and highly adaptable to varying climates. Thus, they can be found in the possession of almost anyone willing to spare the time and effort to acquire one, or exist in the form of large feral colonies. These feral populations can become supremely aggravating pests. Being social animals, they can colonize large swathes of land, and respond aggressively to encroachments near their nests or egg clutches.

An individual Schokkling might not seem to present much of a threat, but these little crawlers can be very nasty indeed when provoked. While small and relatively weak, they have nimble reflexes, exceptionally quick movement speed, and an innate capability to work together with others of their kind (or sapient handlers). Most notably, Schokklings are naturally venomous, possessing a fast-acting paralytic bite similar to that of the Helcyte. A bite to exposed flesh can lead to near-total paralysis in a matter of seconds, which can last up to half an hour. Thankfully, this venom is virtually never fatal, though some individuals may display an allergy that can complicate matters.