Yetiant

Drone : 1’6 (Length) 1’3 (Height)

Queen : 10’6 (Length) 4’0 (Height)

Drone : 65 lbs

Queen : 2600 lbs

Drone : 3 Years

Queen : 200-500 Years

In local mountain myth no beast is more confused than the Yetiant. It is believed that a Mon who had dwelled further north moved to the mountains to escape the biting insects which fed upon him while he slept. The trickery of Cherog saw this and through his magic created insects that could dwell in the frigid landscape. The Yetiants were born to torment and bring ruin. Though the legitimacy of this folk-legend is often disputed by academics, the damage Yetiants can cause cannot be written off as merely a story. Indeed, the Yetiants have served as a threat to all south-dwelling residents- becoming an icy thorn in all walks of life.

#### Physiology and Anatomy

The Yetiants are keenly adapted to dwell with the harsh cold. Their needle-like fuzz and thick flexible exoskeleton provide them the weather resistance needed to survive in even the most polar of regions. Yetiant cannot survive outside of the southern biomes as they will quickly overheat. Their flexible exoskeleton lets them flatten and contort to fit into crevasses or avoid the impact of blunt force trauma- their thick exoskeleton expanding to absorb the shock. Their fuzzy coat is lined with a series of barbs which are razor-sharp to the touch. Having a barb embedded in one's skin isn’t ideal as removing it will cause a deeper wound to form. Oil and cloth must be used to safely remove a Yetiant barb.

Besides defenses mentioned, the Yetiant are also equipped with a number of attributes to assist in assault. Though slow moving, Yetiant possesses the ability to climb up walls and ceilings. They have a set of sheering mandibles that could reliably sever a finger from a hand or maintain a sturdy grip. Finally, a Yetiant has a stinger. Their venom isn’t too strong but will irritate eyes and ears. After repeated stings the venom can be debilitating, but even humans can resist at least a few before being severely impacted.

Yetiant can communicate via a series of pheromonal signals. Though crude, these signals can: mark areas of interest, chart paths for others to follow, and alert other Yetiant to potential dangers. Though these scents are imperceptible to most, Cimexians and Lycanothropes are able to detect them via an earthly, pine-like scent.

#### Variants

The Yetiant previously described was thought to be the only variant of Yetiant for some period of time but strangely in the rise of activity in the tundra region, three new variants have been documented. For this reason, the aforementioned description corresponds with the new classification of “Yetiant Worker” opposed to the previous definition of Yetiant. What follows is the brief description of these new variant’s changes in morphology and if it isn’t mentioned consider it the same as regular Yetiants.

**· Yetiant Majors** are a guard caste of the Yetiant colony. Though they lack the stingers of their worker counterparts, their heads and mandibles are far larger. Majors are able to bite down with forces strong enough to break bone and sever flesh. They grow to considerably larger sizes than workers, becoming more heavily set to maximize their role’s capacity. They instinctively protect the nest from danger and may be used as combatants against rival colonies or obstacles.

**· Yetiant Drones** are considered the only known male type of Yetiant recorded as all documented cases of Yetiant workers appear to be female. Generally smaller than their worker sisters, the Yeitant drone seems to be the reverse of their sisters. Shrunken and hallowed limbs make the Yetiant Drone lighter than most workers, with a strong gust of air capable of knocking them aside with their feeble bodies. This has allowed this rank of Yetiant the ability to retain their wings which now grow from their thorax to allow for powered flight. While clumsy this allows the Drones to fly vast distances, usually carried by the winds in search of new spots to nest. Upon succeeding in this male yetiant drones will expire as they lack any form of mouthparts, while the rarer females will persist into their secondary form:

**· Yetiant Queens *(Staff Only)*** are the final stage of Yetiant drones, maturing and losing their wings as they adapt to their new nest lifestyle. They grow in size as their bodies adapt towards production of other Yetiants. They are the sole producers of a Yetiant colony and may foster the entire population of their respective regions. Due to the production of young they are capable of producing and the rarity of female drones there may be as few as a couple queens on the entire continent, constantly waging war with one another in a bitter state of competition. Yetiant queens lack many of the defenses their workers have, lacking a stinger in the wake of their metamorphosis, instead relying on more complex pheromones which allows them to command their underlings with surprising accuracy, developing a primitive form of higher intelligence. Under the command of the Yetiant queen the workers express a state of higher cognitive ability, capable of problem solving and primitive tool-use.

#### Psychology

Unemotive and unintelligent, the Yetiant is driven only by its need to survive and feed, holding no compassion or empathy for its fellow beings. Yetiant do not feel on a moral level as morality is completely incomprehensible to them, only working off weighing up the losses and gains of any situation. Yetiants behave as a unit rather than individuals, lacking much in the ways of self preservation as they throw themselves at their prey. Behaving on this joint effort and acting as one, they barely react to their brethren losses, only after achieving victory do they truly stop. Relentless in their tirades against the Shaedak and other fauna of the tundra, they may only cease hostility when the risk is too high for the reward.

Yetiant prove to be impossible to domesticate as they tend to be quite aggressive towards sapient races. The only allegiance that these creatures have is to their queen, an unmoving loyalty only ended by the end of the worker itself.