"In the night of the desert, nothing can be heard... but lo nad behold, a shuffle sounds from a hole, and out pops a head. It looks like a cross between some sort of rodent and a dog, its eyes glow like stars, its ears prick as in becomes alert. The nose wriggles, a quick paced sniffing sound can be heard... and out it darts and a surprising speed, screeching at the being who dared to come so close to its home, with its tail poised and ready to paralyse."
Scorpella are a stoat inspired species, with a slight demon + canine influence. Their tails are long and tipped with a 'sting' that they use in defence, to paralyse the enemy. They tend to use their tail at the last moment, as it will be a few days before they can use the sting again. Paralysis from the sting can be deadly to smaller creatures such as mice and rats, will completely paralyse a cat for a day, and usually paralysises a certain area for a day when humans, or big dogs, are stung. Bigger animals tend to have lesser effect from the venom, besides an irritating tingle, similar to 'pins and needles'. Scorpellas are immune to the venom, so it'll make barely any difference if one scorpella - or they - stings another scorpella.
There is obvious difference between males and females, though males tend to be bigger then females. Females will have a litter of around 4-9 pups, annually; the pups stay with their mum until they are six months - almost fully grown. From there mum, they learn how to forage and hunt.
Scorpella have horns that tend to be for show; sometimes they use their horns to fight. They grow as they get older and more mature, and it's very common for the horns to continue to grow as thay age. So the longer the horns, the older the scorpella could be. Newborns babies have no horns, or little stubs.
Scopella
'Scopio mustella'
90-135cm long
15-25cm high
Omnivore
Mammalian
Max speed of 43kmph
Up to 12 years lifespan
Nocturnal
Scorpella live in warm environments, meaning they are found in plains, savannas, and deserts. During the day, they prefer to sleep in a den, somewhere sheltered and unexposed. They love to stuff their homes with warm, soft materials, and make their home sturdy. Their dens tend to be in the ground, but sometimes they can be found living in tree hollows, under shrubs, and other sheltered areas.
At night, they come out to hunt and forage, eating nuts, berries, vegetables, and meat. They will scavenge and they will hunt - when they hunt, they ambush their sleeping prey.
When it comes to family life, mother and father are only together during mating then seperate, leaving the mother-to-be scorpella to look after her young. Scorpella aren't very social though, and it's only their mate, offspring, or mother that they ever socialise with (until the time comes to depart). Despite this though, females are very good, very protective mothers, and will protect them as best as she can.
They have long bodies and tails, short legs (with the backlegs appearing longer thanks to the 'tucked in' tummy), two ears, a tipped tail, two eyes, and their own unique nose. The default has fine, soft fur, and a lot of tuffing around the start of the tail, the elbows, and the heels. Their claws are long and sharp (used for digging)...
This species must always, always have horns. They come in mane shapes and sizes, but shouldn't be oversized to the point the horns are heavy - so they can't be ridiculous in size.
The tail must always appear tipped; traits can change the look of the tail as long as it's tipped. Overall, the traits can become very creative, but the more traits, the more special/rare they are. A common scorpella looks like the normal ref image, with the default look, and with horns.
List of special traits- Wings (of any kind)
- Elemental traits (e.g. fire tail)
- Multiple eyes/limbs
All traits can be considered special though.
When designing, you can get creative with the traits, but it must keep the original anatomy (long tail and body, short legs, etc.)
Markings and colours can be anything!
If you adopted your scorpella, make sure to follow the rules set on the adopt by the creator (there can be exclusive rules on an adopt, such as whether a redesign is allowed or not etc.)
If you create an adopt, you may sell it on lioden, deviant art, twitter, tumblr, instagram, flight rising, wolvden, etc. as long as the site rules allow it. Please link back here though. You can sell it for virtual or real currency.
Do not claim the species as your own; Don't say you are the creator; Don't say you are the owner; The owner is
Please don't take this species and add it to a species group or something similar. The species remain and stay here. There's no official arpg.
If you have any concerns or questions regarding the species, contact Proximasaur
Scorpella without traits/horns (or markings/colours)
Scorpella with traits/horns, and colours/markings