Corrvine

Corrvine are a new species of omnivorous floating animal capable of existing in a wide multitude of different climates, temperatures, and biomes. Their origin is one of relative mystery, aside from the known fact that their creator, Archmage Hrungnir (along with a couple associates, Miyuki and Aisyah's Cohort, Carolynne), had brought them to life in the name of his goddess, Shelyn. They fit a wide variety of niches, thanks to their environmental durability and omnivorous diet, and can be found as wild colonies, as domesticated cattle used for their furs, meats, and tentacles, as dedicated mounts for adventurers, or even as large domesticated pets, due to their naturally gregarious and peaceful predisposition.

They are very sleepy animals that, when not eating, sunbathing, or playing, spend anywhere from fifty percent to eighty percent if their days asleep and dreaming. Since they have few natural predators due to their size, numbers, and sheer skill and maneuverability during flight, they don't tend to be very cautious and will fall asleep wherever they happen to be, even if there are clear signs of civilization nearby. This is, in fact, how most terrestrial species make contact with the floating cows, as it is far from uncommon to wander across open fields and happen upon large balls of fur tangled together.

### Reproduction

Corrvine are unusual in that they don't follow traditional animal breeding patterns. No corrvine appears to be male or female, nor do corrvine reproduce asexually. Instead, each corrvine goes through a process known as 'Accumulation'. The fur of Corrvine is extremely soft, but is also part of their chemo-receptors that help them perceive their surrpundings. The receptors within their hairs serve a dual purpose; that is, they acquire biological and geological imprints of their surroundings, storing that information over the course of their lives. In this respect, they act very similar to bees that acquire pollen from wildflowers, building up information over time.

When corrvine come into contact with each other, they exchange information through contact with their chemo-receptors, allowing them to build up a diverse portfolio of information. Combined with the information acquired from their diets, consequently stored in their inner layers of fatty tissue, they are able to acquire enough diverse genetic information over the course of their lives to assemble an entirely new line of progeny on their own without outside assistance.

Once a corrvine has accumulated enough information, they enter the mext stage of their lives, known as 'Adventuring'. This is when they leave the comforts of their colony and take off on their own (often into space), entering a pilgrimage that may last for years, millenia, or eons depending on their eventual arrival time to their destination. For the majority of their adventure, unless otherwose roused to attention with external stimuli, they enter a hibernative state that essentially puts them into stasis. Only once they are able to perceive a distinct change in their immediate environment do they awaken, ready to enter the third and final phase of their reproductive cycle.

The final part of a corrvine's reproductive cycle is known as 'Pollination', where they seed their environment with a new future colony. During this stage of their lives, the corrvine rapidly lose weight as their fat and muscle are consumed in order to form spherical pods on the exterior of their bodies. These pods are the rough equivalent to wombs or egg shells, beginning as small as a marble, eventually growing to large proportions the size of barrels by the end of their development. Once these pods are ready to be seeded, the corrvine parent detaches dozens of these pods from their bodies, losing all of their fur in the process in order to provide an extra protective outer layer to the pods that will eventually become the colorful, bioluminescent fur of the podlings. The parent corrvine, now hairless, protects its podlings until they mature, growing tentacles and mouths of their own. The parent corrvine usually doesn't live much longer after this point, dying in a peaceful sleep, its corpse providing extra nutrients for the baby corrvine to feast upon once they're mature enough to achieve mobility.

### Diet

While Corrvine are capable of becoming apex predators within their ecosystems, they don't express any real desire to gorge themselves upon large quantities of meat. Their unusually powerful digestive acids, coupled with their chainsaw-like drilling teeth and muscular jaws allow corrvine to consume objects and materials normally considered non-edibles, such as stone, dirt, wood, metals, and other hard substances. In fact, the majority of a corrvine's diet consists of rock and dirt, with maybe ten percent of their dietary intake dedicated to biological matter, such as plants and animals.

Most unusually, corrvine seem to avoid eating humanoid-shaped animals, and prefer to chase down and consume quadrupedal animals such as bovine, ungulates, or behemoth. Only when overtly threatened do they fight back against humanoid targets, and even then they try not to use their powerful mouths to engage with their assailants.

When living in aquatic or underground environments, corrvine seem to be far less picky about what food they can acquire, and will spend more of their time on hunting prey, especially as a colony.
When working together as a colony, corrvine are capable of felling larger and more dangerous beasts than themselves, although is is quite rare for them to do so unless repeatedly provoked, such as by mighty dragons. Even so, their natural predilection towards peaceful, docile natures lends more towards escape and flight than to devour and fight.

When grazing, corrvine typically dig large trenches in the ground. Unintentionally, they leave behind large artistic symbols, similar to crop circles, which may on occasion become preserved artistic landmarks of local communities. Sometimes, however, such grazing occurs across farmlands not meant for grazing; domesticated corrvine suffer such problems for farmers, but wild colonies can become something of a detriment to any farmland they encounter. If caught, they can be trained to avoid such areas in the future, but otherwise they have to be chased away, lest farmer's yields become drastically lower those years when corrvine come to graze.

### Buying Corrvine

Corrvine are not nearly widespread enough by year 10 in the Age of Might to be able to be purchased from available vendors. The only known place from which to purchase them is the business known as the Monster Ranch, owned and operated by the Archmage Hrungnir. Coincidence?

### For Players

Since the creation of corrvine as a species, Hrungnir has observed a number of podlings fail to grow naturally like the rest of their colony. For whatever reason, these little fluff balls remain tiny, and seem perfect for bonding to wizards as potential Familiars. Additionally, for those looking to acquire a corrvine as a mount, it is possible, though difficult, requiring the Monstrous Mount Feat (Or its alternative feats, Monstrous Companion or Beast Speaker), as well as Monstrous Mount Mastery when seeking to unlock the corrvine's more savage features.