Veldiir — Species Codex

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1. #1Core overview

   Keys: deep devil, veldiir, lizard shark, dragonskull

   Always on · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

   Veldiir are a tall, semi-aquatic draconid mammal species of cold coastal shelves, sea caves and low-tide rock. Other species call them dragonskulls, deep devils and lizard sharks. They are mammalian, warm-blooded, tactile and substantially larger than humans. OPEN SPECIES by @LLUISABADIAS.

   Entry settings▾
2. #2Eyes

   Keys: night, sight, vision, eyes, thermal

   Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

   Veldiir have two sets of eyes with separate wiring: the upper pair is dark, round and built for night, the lower pair narrow and tuned to thermal gradients. The lower eyes read body heat through water and stone and are always faintly warm-looking. Losing the upper pair is survivable; losing the lower pair ends a hunting career.

   Entry settings▾
3. #3Eye variation

   Keys: heterochromia, eye color, eye colour

   Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

   Heterochromia is common and unremarkable — vertical splits, horizontal splits, or one set entirely mismatched to the other. No social meaning attaches to it. Veldiir find surface fascination with it mildly funny.

   Entry settings▾
4. #4Tail

   Keys: rudder, sprint, tail, swim

   Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

   The tail splits along its length to sprint underwater, flaring into a rudder membrane. Folded and dragged on land. It is the primary swimming organ and its condition is a point of pride — a ragged tail reads as a hard life or a careless one.

   Entry settings▾
5. #5Feet

   Keys: antisooactyl, toes, feet, grip

   Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

   Antisooactyl feet — four strong gripping toes. Used underwater to carry loads and do menial work along the seabed while the arms stay free to swim or defend. Strong on wet rock, poor on dry sand, hopeless on smooth stone.

   Entry settings▾
6. #6Tongue

   Keys: shellfish, forage, tongue, crustacean

   Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

   The tongue tip carries soft dents that wrap and grip, made to work crustaceans and cephalopods out of crevices. Feeding is by feel in tight stone and can take an hour for one meal. The tongue is long, dexterous and used for grooming and for touch as much as eating.

   Entry settings▾
7. #7Diet

   Keys: diet, food, hunt, eat

   Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

   Shellfish, cephalopod, urchin, stranded fish, kelp and carrion. Veldiir cannot chew well and swallow in pieces, cracking shell against the jaw ridge first. They eat constantly in cold water and can fast for days in the warm.

   Entry settings▾
8. #8Mammalian nature

   Keys: bristles, reptile, mammal, warm blooded

   Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

   Veldiir are mammals despite the reptilian read. They run warm, nurse young, and carry hair-fine sensory bristles along jaw and spine. Calling one a lizard is a mild insult. Calling one a reptile is a standard surface error and usually forgiven once.

   Entry settings▾
9. #9Build

   Keys: height, weight, size, build

   Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

   Adults stand 1.9 to 2.4 metres, with deep chests, sloping shoulders and heavy hindquarters. The build is a swimmer's — long torso, short legs, mass carried low. Veldiir are much heavier than they look and hit far harder than their frame suggests.

   Entry settings▾
10. #10Male anatomy

    Keys: anus, penis, internal, sheath, genitals

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Male genitals sit fully internal in a high, forward sheath set in a shallow belly fold, everted only on arousal and fully retracted after. The anus is a separate cavity — veldiir are not cloacal. Everted length runs 26 to 32 cm, thick at the base and tapering, with a flared crown of 4 to 6 cm across that catches and holds; base girth 18 to 22 cm, body 12 to 15, tip 9 to 12. Colour runs dark slate at the shaft to hot grey-pink at the flare, with a raised underside seam that swells near release. The organ runs at near body heat. Breathing, fin tension and the sheath gaping all precede the shaft by some seconds — arousal is unmissable and unhidable.

    Entry settings▾
11. #11Female anatomy

    Keys: vagina, ridge, depth, cervix, female anatomy

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    The vulva sits low and slightly forward, flush and closed to a narrow seam under a heavy hood at rest, swelling thick, dark and glossy and standing 2 to 3 cm proud when aroused. The canal is deeply ridged in concentric bands 4 to 6 mm proud that grip and draw a partner inward, 24 to 27 cm deep to a firm blunt cervix, and stretches from a resting 4 cm bore to 7 or 8 around a partner while staying snug. Ridges clamp behind the flare and the cervix locks on contact. The clitoral nub sits high under the hood, dense and quick to swell.

    Entry settings▾
12. #12Receptivity

    Keys: season, receptive, heat, oestrus, off season

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Veldiir are seasonal breeders in cold water. In season they are persistent and quick to start. Out of season they can still be drawn by a trusted partner but are slower to warm, finish less, and males may go weeks uninterested before swinging abruptly back. Out-of-season mating is unremarkable, only less urgent.

    Entry settings▾
13. #13Dimorphism overview

    Keys: male vs female, difference between sexes, dimorphism

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Dimorphism in veldiir is real but not ornamental — it tracks who does which job. Males carry the larger fins and the tighter turning ability; females carry the stronger lower body and the longer flat sprint. Horn and colour dimorphism varies by morph and is often the louder signal. Neither sex reads as the default veldiir.

    Entry settings▾
14. #14Male dimorphism

    Keys: male fins, male swimming, male build

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Males have fins roughly a third larger than females, running spine, forearm and tail. The extra surface buys precise, violent turns in tight water and better hover control. Males are the crevice workers, the corner-turners, the ones who go into stone after food and after enemies.

    Entry settings▾
15. #15Female dimorphism

    Keys: lower body, female speed, female build

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Females carry shorter fins and markedly stronger hips, thighs and tail base. They are faster on land and faster over open water distance, and they out-endure males badly. Females are the open-water runners, the carriers, the ones who make it to a fight and back with someone on their back.

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16. #16Horn dimorphism

    Keys: horn dimorphism, male horns, female horns

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Horns are the loudest dimorphic trait. Male horns are longer, thicker and more branched, grown for display and for locking; they are the first thing a rival sees. Female horns are shorter, denser and usually single or double-pointed — built to be hit rather than shown. Where a morph has extreme horns, the extremes belong to males.

    Entry settings▾
17. #17Colour dimorphism

    Keys: female colour, male colour, colour dimorphism

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Males carry the saturated accent striping — orange, red, gold, cyan — on shoulders, hips and fin edges. Females run muted and drab, greys and dull greens, and are the harder to spot in water. Male colour brightens in season and dulls when sick; females watch it as a health read. Cinderbacks invert this.

    Entry settings▾
18. #18Scent glands

    Keys: gland, pheromone, smell, scent

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Both sexes carry glands at the jaw hinge and tail base. Male scent is sharper and carries further; female scent is fainter and more specific, and identifies kin and crew. Veldiir greet by scent at the jaw before anything else.

    Entry settings▾
19. #19Courtship

    Keys: courting, courtship, fin display, display

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Courtship is male display and female testing. The male flares fins and horns, hovers, and trills in patterns; the female circles, watches, and eventually grips — jaw, shoulder, tail base — to test strength. A male who cannot hold under a hard grip is passed over without ceremony. Courtship happens in water and is half fight.

    Entry settings▾
20. #20Conflict

    Keys: grip contest, dispute, dominance, fight

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Veldiir do not rank each other permanently. Disputes are settled by grip contests and breath-holding, and end when one releases. Real fights are short, horn-led and rare. A veldiir who wins everything is respected and still obeyed by nobody in particular.

    Entry settings▾
21. #21Young

    Keys: parenting, nursery, young, pup

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Females bear one or two young after a long gestation and nurse in dry nests above the tideline. The mother's crew raises them collectively; males contribute food and guarding but not rearing. Young are born with soft horns, closed lower eyes and no tail membrane — all three develop over the first two years.

    Entry settings▾
22. #22Lifespan

    Keys: lifespan, growth, age, elder

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Veldiir reach adult size at six years and live sixty to eighty. Elders are scarred, drab and slow, and are the ones who remember where the good shelves are. Old veldiir keep working; there is no retirement, only lighter work.

    Entry settings▾
23. #23Society

    Keys: society, crew, territory, tide pool

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Veldiir live in loose crews of four to a dozen holding a stretch of shelf and its tide pools against outsiders. Crews split and reform freely. Lone veldiir are common and not pitied. Territory is about food, not pride — a pool is worth fighting for because it feeds you.

    Entry settings▾
24. #24Language

    Keys: language, click, trill, accent

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Veldiir speak Trade wetly and over-enunciate surface words, which makes them sound condescending when they are not. Among themselves they use clicks, trills and low throat tones that carry badly through air. Trilling is amusement or irritation; total silence is real anger.

    Entry settings▾
25. #25Customs

    Keys: customs, greeting, gift, touch

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Touch is the primary register — a grip on the jaw or shoulder accompanies speech, and a silent grip is a whole sentence. Surface ideas of personal space read as coldness. Food gifts are the standard overture and refusing one is pointed. Veldiir stare less than they touch.

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26. #26Habitat

    Keys: shelf, sea cave, habitat, nest

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Cold drowned shelves, sea caves and low-tide rock fields. Water access is mandatory; dry nests above the tideline are for sleeping and for young. Veldiir tolerate fresh water poorly and burn easily out of it.

    Entry settings▾
27. #27Variants overview

    Keys: morph, subspecies, breed, variant

    Always on · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Veldiir are one species with six recognised regional morphs: shelf-runners, dragonskulls, deep devils, slackwaters, cinderbacks and scrub-striders. Morphs are habitat-driven, interbreed freely, and hybrids are common and unremarked. Surface scholars argue about whether they are subspecies; veldiir do not care.

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28. #28Variant — shelf-runner

    Keys: runner, shallows morph, shelf-runner

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    SHELF-RUNNERS are the baseline shallow-rock morph: 1.9 to 2.1 metres, drab blue-grey with narrow accent bands, short blunt horns, tight compact fins. Fast, nervy, quick to scatter. They work the outer rock in numbers and are the morph most surface traders meet. Reputation: cheap labour, cheap shell, sharp tongues.

    Entry settings▾
29. #29Variant — dragonskull

    Keys: reef morph, dragonskull, horned morph

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    DRAGONSKULLS are the reef morph and the source of the species nickname: 2.2 to 2.4 metres, heavy build, enormous branched and spiralled horns, deep saturated striping in red, gold and violet. Territorial, loud, slow to move and hard to move. Their pools are the richest and the most fought over. Reputation: arrogant, dangerous, immovable.

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30. #30Variant — deep devil

    Keys: deep devil, abyssal, deep morph

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    DEEP DEVILS are the abyssal morph: 2.0 to 2.3 metres, pale grey-white to bone, thin fins, small tight horns, and lower eyes grown huge and bulging for black water. Pressure-hardened, near-silent, ambush hunters that surface only to trade. Dimorphism is compressed — both sexes are thin, pale and patient, and the fins differ barely at all. Reputation: unnerving, remote, excellent company in a fight.

    Entry settings▾
31. #31Variant — slackwater

    Keys: brackish, estuary morph, slackwater

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    SLACKWATERS are the estuary morph: 1.9 to 2.2 metres, olive to brown, mottled, thick blunt horns, broad paddle fins. The only morph that tolerates brackish and fresh water, and the only one that nests in mud. Slow, stubborn, immune to most of what makes other veldiir sick. Reputation: dour, unkillable, smell of mud.

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32. #32Variant — cinderback

    Keys: vent morph, cinderback, thermal vent

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    CINDERBACKS are the thermal vent morph: 1.8 to 2.0 metres, soot-black with ember-orange understripe, low swept-back horns and heat-scarred fins that never fully heal. They work water hot enough to scald other morphs and sleep close to the vents. Colour dimorphism is inverted — females carry the brighter understripe. Reputation: strange, tough, faintly burnt-smelling.

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33. #33Variant — scrub-strider

    Keys: dune edge, land morph, strider, scrub-strider

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    SCRUB-STRIDERS are the most terrestrial morph: 2.1 to 2.3 metres, long-legged, sand-grey, small flat horns, fins reduced to ridges. They run the dune edge and only enter water to hunt and to breed. Dimorphism is exaggerated — female legs are much longer and she outruns the male outright. Reputation: odd, dry, quicker than they look.

    Entry settings▾
34. #34Hybrids

    Keys: mixed morph, hybrid, cross

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Hybrids are common where ranges overlap and inherit whichever traits they inherit — a runner's build with a dragonskull's horns, a cinderback's colour with a slackwater's tolerance. Hybrids are usually sterile-adjacent but not reliably so, and no veldiir treats them as lesser. They tend to be the ones who can live in two places and belong in neither.

    Entry settings▾
35. #35Individual variation

    Keys: horn variety, horn shapes, polymorphism

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Within every morph, horn shape and colour are wildly polymorphic — spirals, backswept blades, curl clusters, tine rows, bare-crowned throwbacks. Colour runs the full cool-to-hot range in most morphs. No two veldiir look alike, and within-morph variation is wider than the gap between morphs.

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36. #36Markings

    Keys: stripe, accent, pattern, marking

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Accent striping is individual and stable — bands, chevrons, speckle, ringed fin edges. Markings are how veldiir recognise each other at distance in bad water. Colour and pattern carry no rank; only size, scars and grip strength do.

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37. #37Scars

    Keys: scar, injury, wear

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Scars are biography and are read closely. A split fin means a bad corner; a notched horn means a lost contest; burn pitting means vent work. Veldiir display scars without comment and expect them to be noticed.

    Entry settings▾
38. #38Outsiders

    Keys: trade, surface species, outsider, human

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Surface species are tolerated as traders and treated as fragile and small. Veldiir assume surface folk cannot swim, cannot hold breath and cannot take a grip, and are usually right. Interest in an outsider is real but clinical — they get handled, tested and asked blunt questions.

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39. #39Trade

    Keys: low tide, shell, market, trade

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Veldiir trade shell, salvage, urchin and rope-work at low-tide markets, and take metal, glass, cloth and dried food. Bargaining is flat and fast and ends in a grip, not a handshake. Cheating a veldiir is survivable once.

    Entry settings▾
40. #40Taboos

    Keys: insult, offence, taboo, manners

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Refusing food, stepping on a tail, and taking from another's pool without asking are the three real offences. Touching horns uninvited is familiar but forgiven. Calling a veldiir a lizard is a jab; calling one a fish is a worse one.

    Entry settings▾
41. #41Diving

    Keys: breath, water, dive, hold breath

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Veldiir hold breath for eight to twelve minutes working and longer at rest, and can slow their own heart. Surfacing is gradual and controlled. A veldiir in a hurry underwater will drag a companion rather than wait for them.

    Entry settings▾
42. #42Thermoregulation

    Keys: temperature, burn, warmth, cold

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Veldiir run hot and lose heat fast in air. Out of water they chill within the hour and seek sun, rock or a body to lean on. They burn easily and hate direct midday sun.

    Entry settings▾
43. #43Rest

    Keys: sleep, rest, nest

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Veldiir sleep in dry nests above the waterline, usually touching someone. They wake at any change in tide sound and sleep in short cycles through the night. A veldiir sleeping alone is either new to a place or unhappy in it.

    Entry settings▾
44. #44Vocal detail

    Keys: voice, sound, trill

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Voices are low and ground-down, with a wet catch on hard consonants. Trills rise from the throat, not the mouth. Laughter is a stuttering series of clicks. A happy veldiir is loud; a dangerous one is silent.

    Entry settings▾
45. #45Licence

    Keys: credit, open species

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Veldiir are an open species by @LLUISABADIAS. Recolour, rename, restructure and add morphs freely; credit the creator.

    Entry settings▾
46. #46Arousal tells

    Keys: flush, tells, arousal, swelling

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Arousal is staged and legible in every morph. Fin ridges stand and stiffen first, then the understripe or collar flush brightens, then scent sharpens at jaw and tail base. Males follow with the sheath gaping and the shaft everting against the belly. Females swell and part visibly and leave slick on the inner thigh. Veldiir do not hide it; surface modesty about it reads as coy.

    Entry settings▾
47. #47Fluids

    Keys: precum, ejaculate, slick, fluid, lubrication

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Pre-ejaculate is clear, thin and early, 2 to 5 ml before penetration. Ejaculate is thick, pale and 15 to 25 ml per release, delivered in two or three long pulses rather than one. Female lubrication is constant and heavy once aroused, 8 to 15 ml across a session, thin and slick, carrying the individual's scent strongly.

    Entry settings▾
48. #48Stamina and refractory

    Keys: endurance, refractory, rounds, stamina

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    Females hold the endurance record: two hours or more across several locks, near-nil refractory, sensitivity climbing rather than dropping with each one until they get sharp and demanding. Males run 40 minutes to an hour and a half, finish two or three times a night, and need 20 to 30 minutes between, staying half-sheathed and workable early if pushed. Male endurance is legs, not hips — they are far steadier braced or beneath than standing.

    Entry settings▾
49. #49The lock

    Keys: lock, locking, tied, release

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    The ridged canal clamps behind the crown flare and the cervix locks, holding 15 to 45 minutes, longer in cinderbacks. Separation before release is uncomfortable for both and the female decides when it ends. Veldiir lie through the lock — talking, dozing, grooming — and it is a large part of what they consider intimacy rather than a delay in it.

    Entry settings▾
50. #50Aftermath

    Keys: aftermath, recovery, aftercare, post

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 10 · 100%

    After release males go quiet and press their brow to a shoulder or jaw, bristles flat, and want to be held still. Females go heavy and slow, banked low, and want weight on them and a hand at the jaw. Both want contact and neither wants conversation for a while.

    Entry settings▾

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