Kraken

Even as it reaches from the depths, the knowledge that there are bigger threats out there keeps one from the sheer hopelessness that there is no escape.

For the things of Levis, hiding is a much more colourful thing that the plains of Parnathum, or the ancient lands that once housed Tyr. Even Infernus is more subtle in how it hides its creatures from predators - and the Kraken, despite its size - needs to hide. With bioluminescent patternings along its body to mimic the swathes of glowing coral it burrows into, and the rocky skin to pretend to be the outcrops the coral have formed over, the kraken's greatest defence is its command over the surroundings by BEING the surroundings it wants to exist in.

Young Kraken start small, hiding in the natural holes of the reefs, each year taking the kraken further from the shore as their size makes their need to hide harder and they become the underwater mountains that their younger selves once took refuge in. Large Kraken are so good at this hiding that coral will often grow upon the well fed, guiding ecosystems towards a very lazy mouth.

Basic Information

Anatomy

The Kraken has more in common with a Tyr octopus, with 8 appendages and a thick beaked mouth amongst its arms. Its nervous system contains nearly 1 trillion neurons, over half of them in the nerve chords of their arms, allowing them complex and independant control.

Biological Traits

Unlike the Minas Alis, the Kraken does not attack the vessels of Levis, at most stealing from a crab pot, leaving the Trolls and Demons of the seas alone.

Genetics and Reproduction

Kraken breed by laying strings of external eggs across underwater caves in verticle chains. The 'males' then come along and inseminate the chains, staying close by until the first eggs start to hatch. The young are then left to fend and learn alone. Males will protect their chains of eggs, but larger strings of eggs are possible to be inseminated by multiple males, each highly territorial but also fiercely protective. A predator who tries to feed from a cave containing multiple kraken fathers is in for a world of hurt.

Ecology and Habitats

Kraken are salt water predators,unable to even live in habitats like the Digitos Mangroves and much more comfortable in Oceanus and the regions to the east and south.

Its predators are large fish, sharks, and even the Minas Alis and the giant sea anemones that patrol the oceans. This leads to the very nervous and neurotic behaviour of this often massive cephlapod.

Behaviour

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Kraken are colourblind, instead having a much more fine control in their sight of movement, and in light contrast, designed to see the slightest movement from the air above the surface of the water and the slow calm movements of fish and sharks in the sea below. Their eyes have internal sacs attached (called statocysts) that allow them to know their orientation and angular momentum, and their pupils are always rotated to be parallel to the surface on a calm day.

Kraken taste through the suction cups upon their arms, that they unpucker when not in hiding. They push most of their control of their arms to the neuron clusters in their arm chords, the ability to sense their arms and not attach to their arms left to reflex more than concious thought.

Lifespan

2-8 years (Longest recording 104 years)

Average Height

10m (2m mantle)

Average Weight

500kg

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Brown and black splotches, with beading of bioluminescent blue along the mantle and arms. Pale white underside.