Akris

Akris is a strange world, somewhat similar in climate to Earth but with wildly alien vegetation and wildlife. Much like how we have kingdoms like plants, animals and fungi, Akris was also home to a wide array of crystalline lifeforms, and the more plant-like lifeforms look a lot like Earth corals, having incredibly hard and rigid shells.

It is the home planet of the Akkimari.

It's a very alien world, not exactly comparable to something like Earth, or Elithia.

Current plan is for it to look quite alien, with red grass, pinkish skies, natural pools of Vaash, and plantlife that looks more like coral than Earth plants. It has a lot more toxic areas than many other inhabited planet, but it isn't toxic all around.

Centensian exploration vessel that carried Kel'Chis has, at some point, crashed on the planet. Thousands of years have passed by the time Akkimari found and dug it out.

## Geology

Akris has a varied geology, but in general, it is rockier than Earth and home to more valleys, mountains and oddly-shaped plateaus. The Akkimari definitely have greater need of off-road vehicles than we do on Earth, since there's generally a lot more variation in the terrain.

There are many mountainous regions on Akris, and those often featured oddly shaped formations such as rocky plateaus and sharp, knife-like rocks jutting out of the ground. Akkimari are very much used to using verticality in their settlements.

## Wildlife

Much like how we have animals, plants, fungi etc. here on Earth, Akris is home to various "biological kingdoms" too, and one of those are the crystalline lifeforms of Akris.

A lot of the organisms living there are organic crystalline structures, and "plantlife" resembles coral more than it does Terran plantlife. The likeness to coral is mostly in appearance, Akris "plantlife" is quite different from both Terran plants and Terran coral in how it functions. The crystals on their home planet are organic, and alive: while it's a gross oversimplification, think of them as trees that are even harder and much more rigid. They look nothing like trees though. Still carbon-based lifeforms, but with mostly crystalline structures rather than cellular. They take many shapes, but due to their crystalline nature are generally angular with mostly flat surfaces.

The Akkimari were the only intelligent species on Akris, but the planet is rich in wildlife. Many of the "plants" on Akris (or rather the lifeforms that have the same ecological function as plantlife) look a lot like coral and are incredibly hard, and the planet is home to crystalline lifeforms as well. The Akkimari and many other creatures on the planet are well-adapted to this, having incredibly strong jaws and overall high physical strength. Much of the wildlife features some form of natural armour to defend against predators and environmental hazards both.

The wildlife has organic bodies for the most part - crystalline bodies don't work well when you need to move around a lot - but the creatures there are almost all adapted to eat crystalline lifeforms and have incredibly strong jaws and claws.

Apex predators (besides the Akkimari, who use their intelligence to outmatch the rest just like humans do) an example could be this: a large, muscular creature running on all fours, with a well-armoured body and hard spikes along the length of the back. Like the Akkimari, many creatures on Akris have four eyes for increased field of view, depth perception and ability to see in multiple spectrums. The apex predators of Akris will have such eyes too, giving them incredible situational awareness, and their strength and speed will allow them to take down even armoured prey.

There are some large predators that, like the Krachab, have hard shells. One of my concept thus far is a larger creature with a head similar to the Krachab's body, with pronounced mandibles and a lot of legs.But there are also creatures more similar to the Akkimari, lacking hard shells and instead having hair or fur.

There's a lot of creatures with at least some protection on their backs, which is why the Akkimari spears have that strange-looking blade (it's built to attack targets from underneath by angling the blade). The crooked spear blades are used in two main ways: to crack open armour by using it like a crowbar, or to sweep underneath a creature's unprotected belly (if they don't have armour there) and attack there. This protection is used against predators on land, but also against some of the large flying predators of Akris.

#### Krachab

A creature native to Akris that the Akkimari like to keep as pets. They feed on some of the crystalline lifeforms of Akris, and their extremely hard shells (combined with the fact that they don't have much meat to them) made them unappealing prey to the many predators of Akris. The krachab can retract their limbs and antennae, which essentially turns them into a solid rock. Even if a predator was to break through that armor (which does happen sometimes) there's so little meat underneath that the krachab never became part of any predator's regular diet.

The Krachab have somewhat furry bellies, much like the Akkimari. That's only on their underside though, as the shell that covers most of their bodies is completely hairless.

#### Vaash

Vaash is a type of microorganism native to Akris, the Akkimari homeplanet. Liquid Vaash is water with countless Vaash microorganisms inside: they can't survive for long outside of the water, hence why you always find it as a liquid. Vaash bites into both organic and inorganic matter, and can quickly reproduce. The Akkimari have taken it with them and often grow it on board their ships or in their planetary outposts, but it's only naturally found on their home planet.

There's a few known strains of Vaash - some being slightly better at eating away at specific materials than others - but the vast majority of Vaash used by the Akkimari is of a single strain. There have been experiments with Vaash manipulation, but most ended poorly, or resulted in highly powerful variants that had too many drawbacks to be viable for use on large scales. Highly volatile Vaash might be used for specific cases, though.

There are many Vaash farms! Both on Akris and on board spaceships, Vaash is grown in controlled environments. It's relatively easy to maintain a population of Vaash so long as you know how much to feed to it. Vaash consists of countless tiny micro-organisms suspended in liquid water. Not quite a fungus, nor bacteria - a truly alien lifeform. Protozoans are the closest approximation to what they might be. Akris has unique biological kingdoms after all.

Vaash attack feels like an acid burn, so liquid vaash could be commonly mistaken for a type of acid.

Many creatures on Akris evolved hard shells to resist Vaash to some degree, but they definitely can't swim in it as the plating doesn't cover the entire body (and even the plates get damaged by Vaash, if slowly). There are some creatures (especially very small or even microscopic ones) which have evolved a mutually beneficial relationship with Vaash, though. These creatures have evolved special chemicals which tell the Vaash to ignore them, while also excreting material that the Vaash can feed off. In turn, these creatures benefit from protection by the Vaash. These creatures are often harvested by the Akkimari to create Vaash-resistant lining, although this protection is never perfect.

Vaash can survive in both warm and cold water, but it won't survive freezing or boiling. If one were to freeze Vaash, they'd be able to kill it quite effectively. The water that the Vaash inhabits will freeze, and the Vaash micro-organisms will either burst or get trapped in the ice, starving to death. If they thaw the liquid again after enough time has passed, they'll be left with water and a lot of dead Vaash material.

Boiling is another good way to kill it. When water gets near boiling temperatures, the Vaash will also start to have trouble, so even keeping it just below the boiling point may kill the Vaash over time.

## Trivia

* The Akkimari have tamed quite a few of the creatures there, though they haven't domesticated many species. The dangerous ones usually aren't easily domesticated.
* As for the apex wildlife fight, the ones from Akris would likely come out on top (though getting creatures from all planets together in an environment in which they can all survive may be difficult). Akris is home to incredibly dangerous wildlife that outperforms most of Kadavan's wildlife in killing potential.
* With sufficiently advanced genetic manipulation, one might be able to create a type of Vaash that's no longer reliant on water. However, they'd need to make so many changes that the end result can't really be considered Vaash any more. Vaash's internal processes are dependant on water, and it can only propagate through water as well. To create a land-based Vaash, they'd need to modify internal cell structure and functionality, give it a way to move on land and make a bunch of other changes that change the new strain into something new entirely.
* The crystalline creatures on Akris are carbon-based, just like the Akkimari themselves are. Otherwise, it'd be very difficult for the Akkimari to properly feed on the lifeforms, as their biochemical makeup would be completely different.
* Discriptive form of 'Akris', would be 'Akrisic'.