Scorpia (Apexis Scorpiano)

**Scorpia** *Apexis Scorpiano*(Plural: Scorpi, Group Name: a territory)

 Class

## Body

They 'see' via echolocation, similar to bats. Right in front of the lumole pouch is where the holes are. They emit a high pitched shriek from the holes and they get an image from that. They can't sense color from this, only the distances and textures. They can also alter the notes of the shriek and communicate instead of seeing. The normal echolocation pitch is so high most creatures can't hear it. They receive noise through these holes as well.

Above their head is two tubes. One is the air outtake and one is the air intake. The tube goes down, next to the food tube, and the breathing system is along the side of their body.

The tail has plates of armor and at the top of the thick, scorpion like, tail is a barb shaped like a heart (see earlier posts). Its edges are razor sharp. It can use these with a very fine precision. Usually they use them to cut through the grass, but they also use them when cracking the hard and stiff carapace of their prey. A lot of creatures of the steppes have stiff and thin armor covering them with lots of joints.

In fact, the Scorpi all have thin carapace covering their body. Except for a soft underbelly, the Scorpi are coated. They also have the common joints all over their body.

## Territory

Scorpi often live in solitary, but join together to hunt down the larger prey. Although there are many really large creatures on the steppes and a single hunt will last a territory a month, Scorpi are usually considered the most dangerous because of their ability to work in teams. A group of Scorpi will join together to hunt down a large creature, then leave the corpse in the center of their region. The territory will come and eat together every morning, then spend their days building up back up supplies of smaller prey or searching for lumoles. They will also join together to fight off rival territories. Often times, a Scorpi territory will invade another territory's region and kill everyone there to get at their lumoles.

Scorpi live on the Mythenean Steppes.

## Mating

The males search out mates by traveling to other territories and emitting a mating frequency. The female Scorpia may respond by ignoring the male or emitting a challenge frequency. When emitted by one male to another male, this frequency signals a fight to the death. When given by a female to a male, it means that she expects him to bring her gifts of prey. If the female Scorpia is impressed by the males gifts, she will emit her own mating frequency and they will become a pair. They will return to the male's territory's region and they will have a new Scorpia. When young, a Scorpia spends their time around with the female, who will forgo their hunting and lumole searching duties to teach the new Scorpia.

## Lumoles

The pouch on the Scorpis' faces holds their lumole colonies. Their mandibles pull the lumole out of the air and it's squeezed through a small tube, along with regular food. When regular food goes down into the digestive system, the Lumole splits off and bounces around in the pouch.

However Scorpi cannot hold Lumole colonies perfectly. As they tap their strength from the Lumole, they die off at regular periods of time. When they run out, they hunt down new Lumoles.

Orange Lumole colonies are the most commonly ingested by Scorpi. They strengthen them. They also are more determined when tapping from their colonies. The grass becomes thinner and more pliable so they can move better through the thick grass.

Usually before a hunt, they will find larger Lumole colonies and the affects last for longer. Sometimes they ingest their Purple Lumole and it causes them to go a little bit crazy and slash through the grass around them. As long as it takes for the Purple Lumole to absorb, they see shadows and lights more broadly. Their vision is highly detailed when they ingest a Purple Lumole as well.

They almost *never*ingest Red Lumoles, due to the fact that they are usually squished down into the dirt when the Scorpicome by. They can't really tell which color each Lumole is because their echolocation doesn't show colors. When it does, sparks burst occasionally out of the gaps between their armor plates. The sparks hit the grasses and that grass gets a fraction of the Red Lumole's power, in addition to however many Lumoles they've absorbed.

## History

Scorpi have been on Diaemus since the First Age of Wisdom.