Monkilli

**Monkilli** (*sing*. monkilla), alternatively known as **demon monkeys**, **monkes**, **mankiller apes**, and a great variety of other names, are a diverse species of sapient ape- and monkey-like humanoids. They were created by the life goddess Tonta for the express purpose of exterminating humans, though over the centuries many have drifted from this for various reasons and have formed many diverse and differing cultures and adopted a plethora of religions and ways of life.

## Biology

### Anatomy & Physiology

While monkilli sub-species can differ greatly, their physiology is closely homologous to corresponding aspects in humans and their non-sapient ancestors. The monkiilli body consists of the legs, the torso, the arms, the neck, and the head. They are bipedal, boast opposable thumbs and prehensile feet, and are sexually dimorphic - though the extent of dimorphism depends on the sub-species. Monkey-derived sub-species exhibit prehensile external tails while ape-derived ones do not. While all monkilli are bipeds, their long arms mean they are capable of quadrupedal travel - they are usually able to exhibit great bursts of speed, especially over rough terrain, when travelling quadrupedally. Despite being good sprinters, and though capable of maintaining good speeds over short- and mid-distances, monkilli are generally not effective endurance runners. While they are physically adapted to climbing, a monkilli who does not make use of this ability or train it up will not be as effective or fast a climber as they could be. Monkilli, unlike humans, tend to exhibit fur all over their bodies, with the exception of the face, and colours range from black to red to beige, amongst others. This fur tends to get thicker and darker with age. Some species showcase menopause, though the great majority do not. Monkilli, notably, are physically incapable of making the same vocalisations as humans and so it is impossible for them to speak human languages.

### Diet

Generally speaking, monkilli are omnivorous and can consume whatever is made available to them, including uncooked vegetation and meats.

## Sub-species

There are eleven monkilli sub-species, ranging in size and appearance. Interbreeding between similarly sized sub-species is possible, as well as between humans and monkilli of a similar size, but it tends to produce barren offspring.

### Gorilla Monkilli - Giri(s)

Monkilli derived from gorillas. They are covered in course black hair of varying thicknesses depending on individual, with the exception of the face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. They are the largest of the monkilli after the orus, with males coming at an average 6'2 and females at 5'7. Male arm span averages at 8'7 to 9'9 while that of females is smaller. Adult males boast silver hair on their backs reaching to the hips, and are for this reason known as silverbacks. Both males and females tend to have a reddish patch of hair on their forehead. Giris are at least 6 times stronger than the average human. Giris are naturally adapted towards terrestrial locomotion, capable of walking and running bipedally. They are also able to do so quadrupedally, and this offers particular advantages over rough terrain. The average giri's lifespan, assuming a healthy lifestyle, is 60 years.

Unlike chamus, giris tend towards rather strong family units, with the bond between a silverback and his mate or mates forming the strongest of all bonds - akin in intensity, perhaps, to the parental bond in humans. This is primarily because giris tend to see the parental relationship, and that between siblings, as a temporary one defined by a particular period in a parent or child's life, while that between mates is unto death.

Giri gestation lasts 8.5 months and giri newborns are vulnerable and dependent on their mothers, who are their primary caregivers. By virtue of the natural dependence of children on their mothers, fathers are not active in caring for the young, though they do eventually play a role in socialising them to other youngsters and, particularly when it comes to male children, educating them on traditional male duties and responsibilities. Father are also expected to actively protect their mates and children against even the slightest insults, whether from within our without the family unit - a giri who is incapable of doing this breaches the sacred bond with his mates. The relationship between parents and children continues to be strong until children reach puberty at 10-11, at which point the child becomes increasingly independent. By sexual maturity at 15-16 giris are more or less independent from their parents and are expected to go about building the more important bond between mates.

### Mandrill Monkilli - Manu(s)

Monkilli derived from mandrills. They have an olive green or dark grey pelage with yellow and black bands and a white belly. Their hairless face has an elongated muzzle with distinctive characteristics, such as a red stripe down the middle and protruding blue ridges on the sides. They also have red nostrils and lips, a yellow beard and white tufts. These colours are more pronounced in dominant adult males, and males tend to have far longer canines than their female counterparts - those of the former reaching up to 3.5 inches. Arm and leg length. Like their non-sapient forebears, manus showcase extreme sexual dimorphism, with males being greater in height and size than females; the average male stands at 5'7 while the average female stands at 4'8. Manus generally exhibit a muscular and compact build, long, thick arms, equally thick but shorter legs, and almost no tail. These features generally mean they are on average stronger even than the similarly sized chamus, and are at least 2.5 times stronger than the average human. While their non-sapient predecessors run and leap through trees, the heavier manus have adapted to climb and brachiate in the manner of apes due to their greater size and more versatile limbs. On the ground they walk and run bipedally, and are also able to do so quadrupedally - which offers particular advantages over rough terrain. A healthy manu can live to an average of 55 years.

Manus tend to organise themselves in highly matrifocal extended families where related females share strong bonds with one another and generally communally share childcaring responsibilities. While the involvement and presence of males in these matrifocal units tends to differ by culture, and as does the strength of female bonds with those who are more distantly related, the matrifocal nature of families tends to be a rather stable constant. The gestation period is 8 months and newborns, born helpless and vulnerable, are generally cared for by all directly related females as well as those more distantly related depending on culture. Female children tend to become swiftly integrated into the extended family unit and firm bonds between them and their relatives are established and reinforced over the course of their childhood and puberty. The childhood experience of males, however, tends to differ vastly by culture.

Male manus reach sexual maturity at 14 years while females reach sexual maturity at 15 years. Adult males exist in two different forms: the brightly coloured dominant males, and the paler and subordinate males. While either can engage in sexual intercourse, only dominant males can sire offspring. Males can only achieve a dominant status through war and combat, with those who are able to gather the greatest number of heads or the greatest loot, or who exemplify their culture's understanding of the warrior, generally coming out dominant. It is also possible to achieve dominance by besting a dominant male in combat - according to culture, these can either be to the death, until first blood is drawn, or is judged by some other metric. These duels can also take on non-combat forms, the with constant being that they are a competition between a dominant and a subordinate for dominance. A dominant male is easily recognisable by the brightening of their facial ridges and the emergence of various colours across their form, and a male who loses their dominant status will lose all colours barring the blue ridges.

### Gigantopithecus Monkilli - Oru(s)

Monkilli derived from gigantopithecuses, a species of giant orangutan. Their bodies are covered in hair, often reddish or orange, and males may develop beards. A rare but harmless mutation can result in an entirely bald head of light red or pink complexion. Mature males also develop large cheek pads called flanges. Orus are the greatest of all monkilli in size, easily twice the size of the average giri. Male orus reach heights of 12' while females average 9'. They tend towards quadrupedal locomotion on the ground, meaning their full height is not immediately obvious. Relative to monkilli such as giris, chamus, and banus, orus are far more arboreal - this despite their great size and weight. Their arms and legs are thick and powerful, and both are quite long unlike some other monkilli sub-species who tend to have shorter legs. Due to their size and arboreality, their most natural environment is heavy jungle with truly enormous trees, the sort that are most common in the Unbroken Woods. In such trees, they are relatively slow but lithe and skilful brachiators, often able to remain suspended while holding on with any of their four limbs. They can also be observed hugging great tree trunks with all arms, able to remain like that for days on end. Despite this preference, orus can be found wherever monkilli exist and have generally been able to adapt to diverse habitats, from mountains to plains and deserts. Their strength is incomparable to that of humans and other monkilli, with the average oru being easily 4 times the strength of a giri or 24 times the strength of a human. Lifespan.

Orus are the most solitary of the monkilli, which may be the reason behind their often intellectual or religious pursuits and status within monkilli communities. Males tend to maintain purely sexual relationships with several females, without expectation that the male will contribute to the care of any offspring. Females, meanwhile, tend to maintain a close bond with their mothers and form relatively small care groups limited to direct kin, analogous to matrifocal families. Male children are expected to leave the care group and find other pursuits on reaching maturity.

Oru gestation lasts 13 months, and like other monkilli newborns are helpless on birth. Development. Males reach sexual maturity at age 15 while females reach sexual maturity at 16 years. While males reach sexual maturity at 15, it is usually many years before they develop flanges. Until they do, their prospects to sire children remain rather low.

### Chimpanzee Monkilli - Chamu(s)

Monkilli derived from chimpanzees. They are covered in course black hair, except for the face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. They are large, robust monkilli, only orus and giris being larger while manus match them in size. The arms of a chamu are longer than its legs, and can reach below the knees. Males tend to be bigger and heavier than their female counterparts, with males averaging heights of 5'6 and females 5'0. An adult male chamu is about 2 times stronger than the average human due to greater muscle mass and particularly due to the higher concentrations of fast-twitch muscle fibres, quick-fatiguing muscles that allow for great bursts of speed and strength. They are adapted for terrestrial and arboreal locomotion (the latter in the form of vertical climbing and brachiation, or swinging from branch to branch and tree to tree). On the ground they walk and run bipedally, and are also able to do so quadrupedally - which offers particular advantages over rough terrain. The average chamu lifespan, assuming a healthy lifestyle, is 70 years.

While chamus are the most aggressive and inherently unruly of monkilli, and have been known to turn on one another and other monkilli, their internal hierarchies generally ensure that all disputes are settled amicably. It is generally the collapse of internal chamu hierarchies (though the exact nature of those hierarchies may differ by culture) that result in outbursts of chaos and violence. Chamus have been known to kill and eat other monkilli when there are hostilities (generally as a warning not to meddle in internal chamu affairs), and females high in the chamu hierarchy have been known to commit cannibalistic infanticide on the offspring of females threatening their position.

Internally, chamus tend to be patriarchal - though matriarchal communities, where females have been able to establish dominance over their male counterparts, are not unheard of. In chamu cultures of the Unbroken Woods, males tend to congregate into kinship coalitions within the broader community. These kinship coalitions generally carry out political manoeuvrings against other coalitions and seek to establish pre-dominance locally, regionally, or on a national scale. The heads of such kinship coalitions are naturally influential and powerful figures. While cultures that broke off from the Unbroken Woods chamus have developed vastly different social systems, such as those built on family units, residues of this early system remain.

Chamu gestation last 8 months and newborn chimps are helpless. For their first month, infants cling to their mother's bellies. Infants are unable to support their own weight for their first two months and need their mothers' support. When they reach five to six months, infants ride on their mothers' backs. They remain in continual contact for the rest of their first year. When they reach two years of age, they are able to move and sit independently, and start moving beyond the arms' reach of their mothers. By four to six years, chimps are weaned and infancy ends, though they do not develop their full mental faculties until age fifteen, which is also generally when they reach sexual maturity. Care for the young is provided mostly by their mothers and the survival and emotional health of the young is primarily dependent on maternal care.

### Bonobo Monkilli - Banu(s)

Monkilli derived from bonobos. They are distinguished from chamus by relatively long legs, pink lips, dark faces, small ears, wise nostrils, a tail-tuft through adulthood, and parted long hair on their heads. Banus also have a slim upper body, narrow shoulders, thin neck, and long legs when compared to the chamu, though their slender arms are still long enough to reach their knees while upright. Adult female banus are slightly smaller than adult males, with the latter averaging 4'4 in height compared to 4'2 in females. While they do no match up to chamus or manus in strength, the average banu remains stronger than a human due, like with chamus, to the high concentration of fast-twitch muscle fibres in their small bodies. Also like chamus, they are naturally adept at bipedal and arboreal forms of locomotion, able to walk and run bipedally and quadrupedally, as well as climb trees and brachiate from branch to branch and tree to tree. Their bipedal walking is generally far more graceful than their chamu counterparts, and banus are generally (and in all ways) more graceful than chamus. Long-lived, they can - if maintaining a healthy lifestyle - live to an average of 80 years.

Banu gestation lasts 9 months and as with other monkilli newborns are vulnerable and highly dependent on their mothers. Males reach sexual maturity at 16 years while females reach it at 17 years. The relationship between a mother and her children, particularly that between a mother and her sons, tends to be extremely close and perhaps reinforces the matriarchal tendencies of banus. Banu families tend to be built around a matriarch and her sons, and in the oldest monkilli cultures fathers are often unknown due to the open and polyamorous nature of relations between banus - the only taboo, as far as sexual relations go, appear to be between parent and child. In these same cultures the matriarchal nature of banu society is reinforced by broad alliances between females - who, unlike with manus for instance, are often unrelated. The female heads of such alliances possess considerable clout and are often able to secure important positions for their sons as a result. Powerful banu males rise with the rise of their mothers and fall swiftly with their deaths. While banus have spread far and wide across the Shard and have assimilated to different cultures and creeds on the way, residues of the matriarchal nature of their old ways yet remain.

### Gibbon Monkilli - Gabu(s)

Monkilli derived from gibbons and are especially agile and skilled climbers. Fur colouration varies from dark to light brown shades, and any shade between black and white. Gabus are the smallest of the ape-derived monkilli and are comparatively gracile in body form, with the average gabu coming at 3'2 in height. The length of gabu arms is on average 1.5 times longer than their legs. Gabus generally exhibit very low sexual dimorphism. While they are disproportionately strong relative to their body size, the average human is easily twice as strong. Their primary mode of locomotion, brachiation, involves swinging from branch to branch at speeds as high as 50 feet per second. Their ball-and-socket wrist joints allow them unmatched speed and accuracy when swinging through trees. Nonetheless, their mode of transportation can lead to hazards when a branch breaks or a hand slips, and the majority of gabus suffer bone fractures one or more times during their lifetimes. They can also make leaps up to 30 feet and walk bipedally with their arms raised for balance, though their average walking speed is slower than that of humans due to the difference in body size. The average lifespan of a healthy gabu is 55 to 60 years.

The basic unit of gabu social organisation is the family, and monogamy is widespread amongst them - though polyandry has also been observed in some cultures. Gabu gestation lasts 7 months on average and newborns are entirely helpless for their first year. While the mother is the primary caregiver, gabu fathers are generally more involved in caring and rearing their offspring than other monkilli fathers. Gabus reach sexual maturity at 14 years. These monkilli are particularly noteworthy for being able to generate loud sounds reaching up to 110 decibels, which can be heard up to a mile away.

### Howler Monkilli - Hiwu(s)

Monkilli derived from howler monkeys. Fur. Size. Arm and leg length. Dimorphism and height. Strength relative to humans. Locomotion - brachiate? On the ground they walk and run bipedally, and are also able to do so quadrupedally - which offers particular advantages over rough terrain. Lifespan.

Gestation period. Helplessness of newborns. Mother-child relationship. Development. Age of sexual maturity.

Their haunting, lion-like howls can reach 140 decibels and can be heard up to 3 miles away.

### Rhesus Monkilli - Ragu(s)

Monkilli derived from rhesus monkeys. Fur. Size. Arm and leg length. Dimorphism and height. Strength relative to humans. Locomotion - brachiate? On the ground they walk and run bipedally, and are also able to do so quadrupedally - which offers particular advantages over rough terrain. Lifespan.

Gestation period. Helplessness of newborns. Mother-child relationship. Development. Age of sexual maturity.

### Capuchin Monkilli - Capu(s)

Monkilli derived from capuchin monkeys. Fur. Size. Arm and leg length. Dimorphism and height. Strength relative to humans. Locomotion - brachiate? On the ground they walk and run bipedally, and are also able to do so quadrupedally - which offers particular advantages over rough terrain. Lifespan.

Gestation period. Helplessness of newborns. Mother-child relationship. Development. Age of sexual maturity.

### Pygmy Monkilli - Miru(s)

Monkilli derived from pygmy marmosets. Fur. Size. Arm and leg length. Dimorphism and height. Strength relative to humans. Locomotion - brachiate? On the ground they walk and run bipedally, and are also able to do so quadrupedally - which offers particular advantages over rough terrain. Lifespan.

Gestation period. Helplessness of newborns. Mother-child relationship. Development. Age of sexual maturity.

### Tamarin Monkilli - Tamu(s)

Monkilli derived from red-handed tamarins. Fur. Size. Arm and leg length. Dimorphism and height. Strength relative to humans. Locomotion - brachiate? On the ground they walk and run bipedally, and are also able to do so quadrupedally - which offers particular advantages over rough terrain. Lifespan.

Gestation period. Helplessness of newborns. Mother-child relationship. Development. Age of sexual maturity.