Manderthal

The manderthal is a fantasy creature based off of the neanderthal.

## Origins

As there was another cold snap in the ice age, the humans were well prepared for the change but the neanderthals weren't. As humans may have been weaker overall with poorer eyesight and less physical adaptations to the cold, they used their social connections, artistic thinking, ability to live off of more diverse diets, better balance and the willingness to compromise to survive. The neanderthals however, were quite the opposite. Their heavy set bodies may have made them insanely strong and resistant to cold and their large eyes and noses noses gave them a better sense of smell and better vision as well as being just as intelligent as humans, didn't help with the fact that they tended to be more more stubborn. They were also physically incapable of living like humans because their inner ears were smaller so they could lose their balance more easily added to their heavy set body build didn't allow them to cope with the forests turning into grassy tundras. Because they evolved to be apex predators, they could only eat the same thing dogs could. As a result, a lot of neanderthals died from eating plants were human safe but harmful to neanderthals. The neanderthals also preferred self sufficiency over relying on others even when the latter was the more viable option. They had to either leave, adapt or die. So, most of the neanderthals didn't change and died out. The next faction, they decided specialize on robbing other predators (including humans) of their food and they eventually evolved into the terrifying ice giants. There was a third group that adopted human customs and tried to assimilate but didn't turn out to well. The fourth group however, is what leads to the manderthals. This group decided to travel south where they could survive. The journey south wasn't forgiving though, they had to fight with humans and deal with heat and new environments as well as new prey and drought. This thinned them out and the manderthal came to be. Only whoever could fight, deal with the heat, hunt, build, be creative and keep his balance survive. The 1.5 meter tall neanderthal was gone and he was replaced by the ice giant and the 2 meter tall manderthal. This is how the manderthal came to be.

## Physical Characteristics

We will be working the camparative scale for the stats.

### **Stats**

Strength: 2000

Speed: 480

Intelligence: 500

Creativity: 400

Balance: 350

Heat resistance: 350

Endurance: 400

Memory: 500

Stubbornness: 900

Hight: 200 cm

Weight: 180 Kg

Cold resistance: 2000

Ligament strength: 2100

Bone strength: 2100

Lifespan: 490

### **Physical Appearance**

They are big and hairy. They have more front facing nostrils and are incapable of growing mustaches. Their eyes are larger and higher up in the skull and their jaws are more massive. The back of the skull bulges back more than in a human, the brain is slightly larger, but the additional neurons are in the motor regions of the brain including the cerebellum. They are heavy set and their body hair is a thick woolen coat which they cut shorter to keep cool. Their eyes are either blue, green or gold, never brown and never black. Their large torso is the result of a flared out rib cage.

### **Diet**

They live on a doggy diet. Whatever food a dog can eat they can eat as well. Berlintini I fed his captured manderthal slaves dog food (more about that later).

### **Other**

- Very resistant to salmonella poisoning.

- Increased chance of heatstroke

- They have a booming, nasal high pitched voice (their screams are terrifying)

- These are highly intelligent creatures (about as intelligent as humans with more rational thinking and less creativity) capable of living in and/or running advanced civilizations and making complicated tools. They lack artistic sense and prefer to be more conservative.

### **Human-Manderthal Hybrids**

Manderthals can produce fertile offspring with humans. These hybrids are like super-humans because their strength stands between the two on the comparative scale without the manderthal's balance and heat resistance detriments aka they have some hybrid vigor. They do have their issues though. They aren't usually accepted, they think of themselves as divine beings that are part ape and they need to rid themselves of this ape.They are also prone to various problems such as, increased risk ok getting heart problems after the age of 73 (I mean crazy high, like a 113% increase!), increased chances of allergies to various plants, a 21% chance of getting a special autoimmune condition where the body attack it's own enzymes used for breaking down all sorts of plant based toxins when they can't live off of a doggy diet like manderthals leading to death from food poisoning, deficiencies as well as other problems that can be caused by this condition. Unlike manderthals, they are sensitive to salmonella poisoning like humans.

## Culture and Interaction with Humans

Manderthals and humans look down on each other. Each one thinks they are the superior being and that the other is just a talking ape, i.e an animal. When it comes to laws, they don't consider that killing one of the others is murder because they are animals. They treat each other like ordinary animals for food, labor, transport etc. There are rare cases like the unified kingdom where they manage to put their differences aside and live as different but more or less equal.

### **Panga**

This a valuable secret that manderthals keep to themselves. Panga is essentially keratin plate. They make it using hair, nail clippings, hooves,horns etc. and some secret mysterious chemicals to liquify by seperating the keratin proteins and setting them back together as one cohesive piece that like a large horn or nail. They use this material make everyday objects like shoe soles and even for weapons like bows. They also sell the end product to humans who are willing to buy and use it (it's a pretty cool material and demand is pretty high). Not all manderthals know how to make it and whoever does, will die rather than give it to a non manderthal (that includes hybrids).