Rudni

The Rudni are a race of humanoid fish. They are known as Praori in the vague legends they appear in on land. Rudni are carnivorous and are generally slightly larger than the average human. They have gills over their ribs and in their cheeks, along with webbed fingers, internal eyelids, head fins, and various types of tails. Child Rudni are known as Rudnik individually and Rudniki as a plural. There is an attempted translation of some Rudnese, although not enough for a full language.

## General information

Depending on the type of tail, Rudni are deemed with different social classes. For example, a Rudnur with a more flamboyant tail, with lots of membrane and colour, would be deemed ‘upper-class’, while a Rudnur with a sleek tail, little membrane, and camouflage-like colouration, would be deemed more suited to be a warrior because they are generally able to swim more quickly.

It’s rare, but some Rudni have a dorsal fin. These Rudni are often elite-ranking warriors, as the dorsal fin gives an increase in mobility and speed, and Rudni cannot be elite-ranking warriors without a dorsal fin. The roles of a Rudnur, such as a warrior or a teacher, are determined by a mixture of four things; the Rudnur’s bloodline, trials they must pass, their tail-type, and whether they have a dorsal fin or not.

Warrior Rudni pride themselves upon their battle scars, as the scars are deemed as proof of the challenges they have faced and conquered. It is fairly common for warrior Rudni to have necklaces of shark or sea monster teeth as a trophy of what they have killed. Some warrior Rudni have specially trained battle dolphins who assist them in battle.

Some Rudni clans have taken a liking to having pets, such as domesticated dolphins, sea stars, and sea cucumbers. Rudni have also found that snails made good cleaners, so they are often kept around the home. Many Rudni enjoy competitive and non-competitive racing  and dolphin racing.  Coral, as it is one of the most abundant and useful resources, is used commonly around homes and in weaponry. Kelp, seaweed, rocks, and sunken ship pieces, are, along with coral, used for buildings and items. Rudni clans vary in type depending on warmer and colder climates, as well as the location they have settled in if they are a settled clan. Some clans are extremely territorial and uncooperative, but most are a friendly society

While Rudni have a large amount of knowledge about various sea creatures, they don’t know much about the creatures on land. They are familiar with human and humanoid anatomy from dealing with corpses in sunken ships, though they know nothing of human culture, and fail to understand the purpose of objects such as candles. They know what pririran [birds] are from seeing them fly over the sea and finding the occasional drowned one. Rudni know little about mammals and reptiles that live on land, as they only have rarely found corpses to learn from. They have decent medical knowledge about diseases that they encounter, but no knowledge of ones that are exclusively on land.

To attract a mate, Rudni, like multiple other fish, perform displays. These displays have quite a variety; rare dorsal fin displays, flashy tail displays, sculpting, or even luminescence. Often, Rudni will help each other attract a mate, as it is beneficial for the species overall.  A Rudnur is deemed an adult when they are 15 years old. They have an average lifespan of 70-120 years, which does not change drastically between subspecies and different climates. Rudnur lay egg clusters of 10-30, subspecies, age, and climate depending. Female Rudni only ovulate when they wish to, meaning that intercourse does not always result in impregnation.

## Sub-species

There are many subspecies of Rudnur, such as; pufferfish Rudni, who inflate their spiky tails when threatened; squid and octopi Rudni, whose tails are often split into tentacle-like appendages and often have the ability to spray ink, as well as being some of the biggest Rudni; Exocoetidae Rudni, who have evolved to have streamlined bodies to leap out of the water and be airborne for a few seconds;  lantern Rudni, who live deeper than most other Rudni and have little ‘lanterns’ attached to their bodies; eel Rudni, who prefer living in caves or large crevices and often coil around an object or being if they feel threatened; lungfish Rudni, who can breathe both under and above water;  mudskipper Rudni, who can breathe through their flesh on land, provided they are sufficiently damp, and have small limbs that function similarly to human legs as well as their tail; crustaceous Rudni, who have four pairs of legs instead of a tail, along with claws. All Rudni subspecies are poisonous; ranging from the equivalent of a bee sting to the equivalent of sulphuric acid, meaning that the majority of marine life avoids eating Rudni unless they are particularly desperate or are equipped to deal with the level of toxicity. They also all communicate the same way; with a variety of deeply-pitched, lengthy sounds, similar to that of a dolphin or whale’s.

## Weaponry

Rudni weaponry often consists of spears made from coral handles and sharp rocks or shells. They also have cone-shell whips, which are made of the proboscis from a cone shell. As well as that, they have water tanks that allow them to go above water for short amounts of time, as they don’t have to deal with pressurisation and depressurisation like humans must.

## Deities

Rudni have their own societal beliefs, as they know little of the Valriean gods and Creators. According to Rudnur legends the deities are: Ciretheil, the god of invertebrates, Etaer, the goddess of vertebrates, Adraewyn, the goddess of water, Vaviel, the god of land, Elalerin, the goddess of life and death, Ulareldan, the goddess of currents and the tide, Frerraldin, the god of sky orbs [the sun, moon, and stars], Abudia, guardian of the Midnight Zone, Chelared, the god of shifting light [day and night], Vyclya, the goddess of reproduction, Yohar, the god of morality and society, and Agroet, the god of emotions. There is a temple of worship in every major Rudnur society, while smaller ones tend to designate a small area. While it is not compulsory for Rudni to pray to their gods on a frequent basis in any given, it is common for them to thank Ulareldan after a disruption in the tide or currents has passed without death. The amount of worship will depend on how devoted a Rudnur is to their faith.

## Myths and legends

Rudni, of course, have their own myths and legends outside of their deities. Some of their most known legends include the legend of Yajin and Kiphoratuanu. Yajin was a young warrior and Kiphoratuanu a monstrous sea serpent, dubbed ‘The Serpentine Devil’. Mutated by a combination of the volcanic vents and uranium it lived by, it grew to a gigantic size, with horrific fangs to match. As the legend goes, Yajin, who was 23, set out alone to fight the great beast, and he slew it at the cost of his own life, by forcing it into one of the volcanic vents it lived by. Such a feat made him the second most respected warrior Rudnur in Rudni history. An old seawitch [name unknown] retrieved his fallen spear, replacing the spearhead with a tooth from the corpse of Kiphoratuanu, but what happened to the spear after that, is unknown. Rumour has it that Yajin himself guards the spear, though there is no confirmation.

Another is about the tyrant Kaaliri, a Rudnur who created a rebellion, attempting to overthrow all Rudni society to create an empire of her own. She was defeated, along with the rebels who refused to accept defeat, but her cruelty and drive has earned her an infamous name in the Rudni history; even associating a bedtime warning to misbehaving Rudni; the rough translation of which is: “Don’t misbehave, or Kaaliri will come and recruit you,”.

A lesser known legend is about the lanternfish Rudnur, Chirmo, who was the first recorded Rudni to of tamed a dolphin. He is said to of been able to calm even sea serpents, though this has never been accomplished by any since.

Some of their legends, however, do attribute to their deities, such as the legend about the dubbed “Midnight Zone”, where no orb light ever reaches. Abudia, the guardian of the Midnight Zone, is said to wield a mighty battle-axe, the likes of which have never been seen before. It glows with incandescence, a beacon of light in the darkened depths. Many creatures that live in the Midnight Zone have no eyes, relying purely on senses such as smell and touch. Those who do have eyes, often have a bulb, like a lanternfish, or have pupils so accustomed to the darkness, that even a slight amount of light would blind them. The Midnight Zone was created because Abudia was once the guardian of Frerraldin, but the two fought, leading to Abudia banished to a place where she would never see the light of sky orbs again, forcing her to resort to her battle-axe for light. To this day, she is still trapped in the Midnight Zone, unable to leave.

## Language

Ysma = gold

Sala = metals

Tur = silver

Uleit = dolphin

Qolle = racing

Qoll = race

Qolleit = jockey (dolphin racer)

Pririran = bird

Raew = wood

Yavi = demon

Laim = snake

Cyal = king

Cyaled = queen

Aud = eyes

Yod = fish

Au = orb

Weig = less

Mokit = zone

Au-weig Mokit = Orbless Zone

Iuary = high-ranked military female

Iuaro = high-ranked military male

Yual = gods

Ghau = vents

Ghauor = magma

Flaishugi = furry things

-=Flora and fauna=-