Zaimuth

Characteristics

Lava vetehi can swim in temperatures up to 1200°C, usually to avoid pursuers, but their habitat generally ranges from 700-800°C. They cannot breathe in lava, and identify the upper limit they can tolerate by the pressure against their gills. As an adaptation to their volcanic habitat, lava vetehi constantly expunge heat, which leaves them completely defenseless to cold; they can venture into tropical waters (~30°C) if necessary, but must stay near the surface or risk hypothermic shock. Most experience a blunted response to temperature, which makes lava vetehi especially vulnerable to hypothermia: reduced sensation and dulled senses are also common, in part because they are rarely used.

Lava vetehi scales are ridiculously durable by necessity, as a vetehi with their raw flesh exposed to the lava will almost instantly perish. Instead of steadily molting like common vetehi do, the new scutes push the older ones outwards but leave them intact, so that lava vetehi grow thicker with age, like a tree; the oldest of their kind can rival their deep-sea cousins in bulk if not length, sacrificing assimilation for invulnerability. Blades and pointed weapons just glance off; bullets will pit the skin, but any gaps are quickly crowded out by the remaining scales. It’s easier to crush a lava vetehi to death than puncture their hide, and most deaths occur when they are lured away from the lava.

Compared to the nominate race, lava vetehi have wider and deeper gills, which they can close when out of water (which is most of the time, since they’re swimming in lava) much like their sand-dwelling kin. Their gills have hard filaments that filter out volcanic ash and other pollutants, which are plated due to their vulnerable position. Though lava vetehi have a robust respiratory system compared to the common species, they often need to surface for air to get enough oxygen (as oxygen stores are consumed more rapidly at warm temperatures) much like whales or dolphins do. They prefer to bask on cooling magma rather than submerge to sleep, and as their prey is usually terrestrial their speed is secondary only to sand vetehi on land.

In addition to their back fins, Zaimuth's scaled lower half is uniformly studded with poisonous needles around 10cm (4in) long which point in the direction of their tail, lying flat and invisible in the gaps between scutes. While Zaimuth cannot extend the spines at will, anyone who tries to grab hold of them, especially if they're thrashing wildly, will inevitably be pricked. The needles contain a potent neurotoxin, which causes involuntary tremor, paralysis and death within a few hours if not immediately treated. The lethal dose is ~0.5mg for a adult man if injected, slightly higher if ingested: it is also heat-stable, and does not reduce in toxicity when cooked. At any rate, Zaimuth's flesh is still deadly enough that no baseline human can survive the mouthful necessary to turn them into a vetehi. All individuals of the Kyan lineage share this toxicity, which makes them desirable mates for those vetehi who care about species purity.

Zaimuth retains a few subtle lava vetehi characteristics in their human form: besides being resistant to most toxins, they can tolerate temperatures up to 500°C for brief periods of time and handle red fire without getting burned. The most obvious thing that sets Zaimuth apart from most people is that they run bird-hot, with a core temperature of 43°C (110°F) by default — they are mesothermic, being most active in temperatures at or over 38°C (100°F), and will quickly enter a state of torpor (which can be deadly if prolonged) in climates below 20°C (68°F), roughly 10°C below the average human. Other than their temperature, Zaimuth is a fairly typical human: dark-haired and brown-eyed, with no trace of scaling on their pale skin.

Relations