Terallans

The **Terallans** are a species of intelligent birdlike creatures, born from the world of Teralla in the Verda System, within the Ring of The Silky Way. Terallans are mostly known for their cooperative, pacifistic, and fair attitude, which has allowed them to unite many species in their region of the galaxy.

Compared to other species, Terallans are quite smart and mentally resilient, which has led many of them to be scientists. Many species attempted to invade them on the assumption that they would be total pushovers due to their peaceful nature, however they will still defend themselves with astonishing ferocity. A notable example of this was when the Tyran Empire attempted to invade their primary nation, the Verdan Federation. The Empire was much more powerful than the Federation at the time, and almost destroyed the Verda System itself, but they managed to enlist the help of several species in the region to develop a coalition to drive back the empire.

Over many millennia, Terallan subspecies have originated, the descendants of the colonists of strange worlds, genetically engineered to live in their environments without support.

## Appearance

Terallans are not the most colorful birds in the galaxy, with hues of dark green, brown, and black to blend in with the grasslands of their home planet. There is little difference between male and female coloration. Chicks are even less appealing large dirty brown downy fluffballs, resembling the detritus that accumulates at the base of living grasses. Terallans from more northern and southern latitudes where snow is common have thicker coats that change season to season and have larger, feathered feet.

## Biology

### Respiratory System

The respiratory system of the Terallans is very simple, consisting of a set of lungs which are fed oxygenated air through the mouth or nose. After extracting oxygen and expelling CO2 from the body, deoxygenated air is blown back out.

### Digestive System

Terallans need to eat quite a lot of food to sustain regular flight on a higher-mass world. To facilitate this, Terallans have evolved the capability to swallow quite large animals, such as the long, thick snakes common in their ancestral home biomes.

The Terallan stomach is relatively simple, a stretchy bag that produces powerful acid to digest its contents. It has quite a high capacity, and early burial practices involved filling the stomach of the deceased with huge amounts of food so they wouldn't be hungry in the afterlife or something.

After the stomach's contents are fully digested, they are passed through a really long wrapped up tube, the intestine. This absorbs all the nutrients and water in the liquified soup before it's voided.

### Nervous System

Being intelligent species, Terallans have rather large brains. Due to fast reflexes required for a large flying creature, Terallans have evolved to have incredibly fast nerve impulses to be able to reach the other end of the body in a reasonable timeframe.

#### Senses

Terallans have six main sensory inputs: vision, scent, taste, hearing, touch, and a thing called "proprioception". The first five work about how one would expect, the only difference being that the Terallan visual spectrum is significantly wider than, say, Humans. Proprioception, the sense of things happening within the body, is much sharper than in most life-forms. For example, a pregnant Terallan could acutely feel everything their unborn children are doing in the womb. No one's entirely sure why this sense evolved to be so sharp.

### Reproductive System

They reproduce ovoviviparously, which means that the eggs are inside the mother's womb up until a few days after hatching. This means that the eggs do not require hard shells. Terallans almost invariably give birth to six children, with lower numbers being extremely rare and usually involving one fetus absorbing another early in gestation or outright eating it later on. Higher numbers are also very rare. The Terallan gestation period is approximately 1.5 standard years long, though there is some variation either way.

The Terallan pregnancy is widely known for being incredibly annoying to the mother. In the later stages, her stomach has become so distended that her size is upwards of 150 percent larger and she is incapable of flight. Terallan females have natural painkillers which kick in during the birthing process partly because of this.

## Behavior

Terallans display nestbuilding traits, and are natural weavers, often constructing things out of grasses and reeds. Both individuals of a mated pair build their own nest, and they form strictly monogamous pairs, usually for life. The female will find herself in the nest more often, as the later stages of Terallan pregnancy effectively grounds her, leaving her mate to look after her.

When hunting, they follow their prey on the ground after locating it’s. general area from the air, they track it down and use their legs to kick it to death. They then either swallow it it on the ground right then, or later – after the rise of civilization – take it back to their village to cook it.

## Culture

### Religion

Millennia ago, there were hundreds of religions across Teralla (as well as small offworld colonies towards the end of this period. However, a period known as, variously, the Second Renaissance or the Birth of Reason caused a rapid decline in the practices of these religions, and today most of the population is almost entirely atheistic.