Profile
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The 'Suul,' 'Pitchrays' Race Characteristics
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Their History
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The Suul are an aquatic tribe of natives within the Tower, who were thought to have been wiped out after Zahard's execution of the descendants of the Native Ones. Their numbers were nearly completely eradicated, with the only remaining ones residing within the abyss of a sea in the Outer Tower for thousands of years. Over that time, their physiology changed to adapt to their new lifestyle of eternal darkness. From the day they're born, they're taught to master the power of water inherited from their Native One, but to keep it eternally hidden from the eyes of Zahard. The Suul have only begun reappearing in the Tower within the past five thousand years, and they look different enough that they gained a new species name, after the leaders of the tribe falsely claimed they had no name for themselves. The more modern 'Pitchrays' tend to be less cautious than their remaining ancestors, who will not leave the abyss due to their ancient appearance, and freely mingle with the other inhabitants of the Tower.
Modern Pitchrays tend to enjoy leaving their inner fins out to display, while furling their larger ones around their arms and keeping them tucked there with arm warmers, bandages, or whatever else they think is stylish. They enjoy the more liquid areas of the Tower, and are often hired for anything that requires aquatic expertise.
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Physical Characteristics
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Pitchrays are, true to their name, a species within the Tower of humanoids with large fins that resemble those of rays, always with completely black hair and mostly black fins, but rays are not all they resemble. Their most initially obvious feature are the large, double fins on both their head and back. Their is always a small intial fin, which is about one to two inches in height, which sits in front of the far larger second fin, which can reach up to a foot in height. They have smooth, black skin trailing down their back, legs, and arms, excluding their thighs and palms of their hands. They have webbed fingers, with sharp claws on the end of each digit. A row of large gills goes down each side of their ribcage, with an extra slit above each hip bone to push out internal water when they return to land. Their legs are digitigrade, standing on their toes, of which their are five; four they perhc upon, and a fifth slightly higher up the inner side of their feet. Their feet are not the common sort of digitigrade, however; the arch of their feet are more elongated than would usually be proportional, with the gaps between their toes extending up into the arch. Their feet are webbed, and this allows them to use them like flippers in the water, though it makes walking on land awkward.
The 'ray' aspect the Pitchrays are named for happens to be largs flaps of membrane beneath their arms, attached along the back of their arms from their wrist, running slightly below the elbow. There are four membranes in total; two thin ones, half a foot across each, which rest below the shoulder and round off towards their bottoms. With arms extended out to the sides, these flaps would reach down to their knees, alongside the larger flaps. The larger flaps begin immediately beside the smaller ones and reach down just as far, and extend all the way to the wrist. These ray-like fins have many bioluminescent markings along their edgings, which are arranged in beautiful patterns. In the abyss, they were used for signaling and baffling the dangerous shinheuh within, but on land within the Tower, they're primarily just used for display, and are very inconvenient to fit into clothes. Their final large physical characteristic are their large, muscular tails, which end in three soft, rounded 'prongs' connected together with a thin, transluscent membrane. There are multiple other 'prongs' which run down the sides of their tail, all connected to each other via membranes, and they can be extended out to provide a powerful rudder in the water. Below the tail, along its bottom, is a pouch with a natural spear, that can be pierced outwards and pulled back in at will.
Minor features include slitted eyes that can narrow nearly paper-thin, and can expand to cover almost the entire iris. There are also blue flecks of bioluminescence in their eyes.
