Luisas

The Luisas are a species of intelligent amphibious molluscs which live in the approximate region of the Elvish Sea, the waters around the archipelago of Saveria. They have never been capable of magic, but there are some scholars who to this day assert that their ability to rapidly transfer between extreme differences in environmental pressure is possible through magical means. The Luisas were thought to have been driven to extinction by the Saverians at some time around the late 2nd century BC, but they survivied in hiding and were rediscovered in 1843, when the famous Battle of Faldisa Bank disturbed their waters.

The word Luisa is a corruption of the Luisan word for their own species, *Luiş* (/lyiç/, leu-eeş, alternatively /luwiç/, loo-weeş).

The Luisas are, much like the Weavers, the artificial creation of an exceedingly powerful mage rather than a race which arose naturally. Unlike the Weavers, however, specific details about their creator are known; they were made by the Titan known as Slaaki the Sea-Angel, which possessed a physical appearance much like his creations. According to the traditional myth, Slaaki came across a coral reef whilst wandering the oceans in which he found a nudibranch (sea slug) which looked like himself. Greatly amused and pleased with the discovery, he magically transformed the shape of the creatures and blessed them with intelligence, so birthing the Luisa race. Based on the apperance of the Luisas, the original nudibranch which inspired Slaaki is likely to have been *Hermissenda Crassicornis*, which today can be found in the warm coral reefs around Escaria. Since the Luisas inhabit the waters of the Elvish Sea, it can be assumed that they were either transported to different waters by Slaaki, or that the Elvish Sea was significantly warmer and supported coral reefs during the Age of Titans.

Luisas bear a close resemblance to the Seaguards, creatures which many scholars believe were also created by Slaaki the Sea-Angel.

## Biology

Luisas are an amphibious species; they spend the vast majority of their lives underwater, but must lay their eggs on dry land. As such, they primarily breathe through gills and absorbing oxygen through their skin, but they also have a small set of lungs. To prevent the many issues that come with carrying air inside the lungs, they remain entirely deflated whilst in the water, and so the lungs and airways must be inflated before coming onto land. Luisas achieve this by breaching the surface and taking gulps of air to inflate their airways, then dropping back below the surface, so they can continue to absorb oxygen through their gills. This process is repeated until the lungs are fully inflated and ready to breathe air normally. If the Luisas came onto land immediately without doing this, they would not be able to breathe through their lungs as they are not yet inflated, and would also be unable to breathe through their gills, causing them to asphyxiate.

When a Luisa comes to land to lay their eggs, they are accompanied by the father, who protects the mother whilst she is laying. The eggs are buried in the sand, and both the mother and father remain nearby until the eggs have hatched, which takes approximately three months. Because the permeable skin of Luisas dries out easily, the parents cannot remain on land for this entire period, and they must additionally acquire food - so the parents take it in turns to go out and hunt and gather food in the water whilst the other stays behind to watch the eggs. The parent watching the eggs will guard them as long as possible, but approximately every half-hour they must return to the water for a period of approximately five minutes to refresh their rapidly drying flesh.

Although Luisas lay their eggs on land, the act of reproduction is only ever performed in the water. It is theoretically possible to perform on land, but this is not done, as Luisas are far more manoeuvrable and comfortable in the marine environment.

After hatching, it takes approximately fifteen years for a Luisa to grow to maturity, and they will live on average for 70 years.

## Senses

Luisas have sensitive and proportionally large eyes to peer through the murky depths of the oceans they live in, but vision is not their primary means of sensing their environment, as it has a very short range under the waves even in very clear waters. As such, Luisas developed very keen senses of smell and hearing, and were capable of echolocation by making loud clicking sounds. They also possessed electroreception, like sharks, which not only allowed them to detect disturbances in their own electromagnetic field, but also detect the electromagnetic fields of other organisms.

## Communication

When their lungs are inflated and they are on land, Luisas are capable of speech. Because of the limitations of the shape of their mouths, the range of consonants they can produce is limited, making their language very vowel-heavy. Their own language has developed to accomodate their biological limitations, but they have great difficulty speaking the languages of the hominids, because they typically include a great many sounds which Luisas are incapable of producing.

However, speech is a secondary form of communication to the Luisas; since they spend the vast majority of their lives underwater, they have developed communication methods which do not rely on expelling air. The underwater communication of the Luisas consists of body language and manipulating the vibrant chromatophores which cover the twin tentacles sprouting from their heads, as well as the physical texture of the tentacle. The communication through colour (scientifically termed chromatolinguistics) is both highly complex and very fast, making studying and understanding this "language" an extremely difficult task for other species; the Luisas themselves often struggle to put into words how exactly this light-based language functions, as it functions very differently to spoken or written words. However, the basic fundamentals of the language are now understood by chromatolinguists.

The meaning of a chromatic display is primarily governed by three traits; the shape of the blotch of colour, the hue of the colour, and the location of the blotch on the tentacle. The brightness and saturation of the colour, the texture of the skin where the colour is displayed, as well as the length of time it is displayed for, add additional meaning. In some cases these variables can change the meaning entirely, but in most situations it modifies the meaning of a root concept, acting like inflection in typical languages. Even further variation is introduced by changing the aforementioned traits on a regular cycle, for example by pulsating between two levels of brightness, with the interval between changes, the variable being changed and how much the variable is changed all contributing to additional meaning.

Unlike spoken or written language, chromatic displays do not convey information in a linear sense and do not follow any kind of word order; they convey entire concepts (i.e. what would be sentences or short groups of sentences in typical language) all at once, and they appear to be "read" all at once by onlookers. A particularly fast-paced chromatic conversation between Luisas is a confusing rush of colours to an outside observer, as "sentences" may not be displayed for more than a second before the displayer moves onto the next idea.

### Emotional Displays

In addition to an extremely complex language, the chromatophores are used for involuntary emotional displays which the Luisas cannot control or fake - but these emotional displays are mostly conveyed through the secondary smaller horn-like head tentacles and not the larger primary tentacles, the ones used for communicating the chromatolanguage. These basic displays are understood far better than the chromatolanguage by outside observers. The displays are highly saturated and have extreme brightness (either very bright or very dark) and are displayed across the entirety of the secondary small tentacles as well as the very tips of the primary communicative tentacles. Two emotional displays can also occur at once, with a secondary emotion represented as flashing stripes overlaid atop a base of a primary emotion. There has never been more than two recorded at once, but it is theoretically possible. The following emotional displays are known to occur:

* Pale blue-grey; default state, signifies no particular emotion
* Dark green; signifies hunger
* Turquoise; signifies confusion
* Dark red; signifies rage and/or hatred
* Black; signifies sadness, typically grief, can also signify loneliness
* White; signifies happiness and joy - this colour typically also pulsates, with a faster pulse signifying higher intensity
* Light pink; signifies romantic love (not familial or platonic love, which is typically conveyed as white)
* Light pink with white stripes; displayed during sexual intercourse
* Yellow; signifies strong interest, desire or greed
* Yellow with pink stripes; signifies romantic interest, i.e. attraction, certainly not to be confused with the following display
* Light pink with yellow stripes; signifies lust, i.e. sexual desire
* Dark brown; signifies revulsion or disgust