The Common Fraggle

The Common Fraggle

Petrosaurus fraggalus

First described c. 

Biology: Fraggles are a subterranean species, usually living their entire lives in large natural caverns which have been substantially expanded by either themselves or by members of the two species they are most closely related to, the far larger Gorgs and the much smaller Doozers (more about their association with these species below). These primates (their family seems to be distantly related to lemurs) are covered with fine hair, though they also tend to have larger tufts around the neck and head, manes that are carefully coiffed and dyed to relate their status, gender, and personal preferences, Their tails are highly opposable, much like those of Old World monkeys, though they are more frequently used in display than work - usually these are adored with tail-wigs.

Their primary sources of food are, on the one hand, radishes and "Doozer sticks" - Doozer excrement which has been molded using their saliva (Doozers principally consume fungal and insect matter, farmed within their cavern homes and then reformulate their feces to use as building materials, similar in many regards to the building techniques of termites, bees, and leaf ants).  Fraggles rarely barter or pay for these goods - rather, they typically raid Gorg (where their radish supplies are usually acquired) and Doozer settlements in a kleptoeconomic relationship reminiscent of Central Asian steppe peoples relationship with Chinese polities in the pre-modern world.

Fraggles are regarded as having a genuine symbiotic relationship with a semi-sentient, unrelated species known to them as ditzies, a bio-luminescent species which are particularly attracted to Fraggle music (see more on this below).  They therefore serve as the principle source of light for Fraggles while Fraggles believe that ditzies acquire their sustenance from converting sound vibrations into chemical energy, a side product of which is their bio-luminescence.

Geography: Fraggles are native to the area in and around Fraggle Rock, located in southern Ontario, though there are believed to be colonies throughout southern Canada and the upper midwestern United States. They often build under or near human settlements which they regard as both fascinating and potentially useful sources of finished goods to steal.

Polity-Economy-Society: Fraggles have very limited political institutional development, largely because their economy is almost entirely based upon raiding meaning that adventurism and military prowess are essentially the only measures of success and basis for political leadership.  They typically generate very little original property, this being highly mobile and disposable - usually limited to certain tools, clothing (though they will often raid human and Gorg homes for these as well), and their highly prized musical instruments.

In terms of art, Fraggles are particularly known for their music which is diverse, complex, and often haunting - one musicologist described it as "lamaistic chants twining with classical European folk music and 20th century African-American spirituals."  Indeed, other than adventurism for the sake of adventurism and medical skills essentially no other activity carries similar weight in Fraggle society.

The Common Werewolf

The Common Werewolf

Homo sapiens lycanthropus

First definitively described by Petronius c. 61 AD

Biology: Technically speaking the werewolf is not a unique species, but rather a subspecies of mainline humanity capable of readily producing reproductively healthy (non-sterile) young with other H. sapiens.  Due to the fact that werewolves are the subject of substantial structural and institutional discrimination most are highly suspicious of any attempt to scientifically and medically examine them for distinguishing morphological differences - unsurprising since mainline humans, in many contexts, are likely to use these differences as a basis for further exploitation.  Several things can be said for certain, however.  First, werewolves are profoundly affected by tidal perturbations and the cycle of the moon - while the moon is likely not the cause of these changes, but rather a synchronizing mechanism that synchronizes predictable cyclic hormonal changes, there is strong evidence that werewolves universally undergo an unavoidable transformation into their wolf-like state during the full moon stage (though only at night, for reasons that are as of yet unclear.

Also, werewolves are generally no more or less intelligent, strong, or violent than other humans,  but during their obligatory wolf state their hormonal perturbations cause them to to experience radical increases in strength and violent tendencies, apparently declining language intelligence but increasing spatial intelligence, and a much greater propensity for carnivorous appetites.

Werewolves show an acute allergy to silver in all its forms, including silver nitrates.  Under no circumstances should they be exposed internally to any form of silver.  If a werewolf has so been exposed or injured immediately contact your local emergency medical providers and/or poison control center.

The origin of lycanthropy are a subject of some debate.  Three major camps exist.  One, largely discounted by modern science, is that werewolfism is a curse that is contracted through making contracts with supernatural evil forces or inexplicable behaviors (e.g. drinking water from a wolf's paw print), or through the bite of an existing werewolf (see accounts of Wilfred Glendon's travels in Tibet, Larry Talbot's in Wales, and George Sands, David Kessler and Remus Lupin's respective experiences in England; also see the journalistic reports of Karen White from California). A second camp asserts that werewolfism is the product of viral infection causing the liberation of genetic material that remains largely recessive in most humans, possibly harking back to early mammals or proto-mammals - this would explain the need for an exchange of fluids, usually through a bite, that many scholars insist precedes lycanthropy in many instances - in this instance biting remains the key cause but supernatural pretenses are lost (see research in particular on the Corvinus virus and consider the earlier cases mentioned within that context).  Finally, some scholars believe werewolfism is merely a genetic condition that is passed through normal reproductive means from parent(s) to children (see particularly the case of the Howard family of Beacontown, California).

Geography: Werewolves are globally distributed, possibly as a result of the European diaspora that began in the early modern period.  There is great debate over where werewolves first emerged, however - lycanthropy was reported in the Mediterranean basin as early the Greek dark ages (around the 13th Century BCE).

Polity-Economy-Society:  Werewolves are humans and, by and large, spend most of their time interacting with other humans in entirely normal ways according to the societies in which they live, respectively.  That said there have been instances where werewolves have isolated themselves from mainline humans, particularly during periods of extreme persecution or conflict with other humans or human-derived subspecies (e.g. vampires).  Generally these isolate groups are referred to by social scientists as "covens."

Decapoidian

The Decapoidian

Decapodus terriblis

First described c. 23rd Century CE 

Biology: Decapoidians are difficult to describe in terms which are fully analogous to any earth species.  Their life-cycle consists of 11 major stages of increasing complexity, resulting in their becoming clearly more analogous to crustaceans, mollusks, and amphibians. Growth and development seems to be principally accomplished through molting and molting occurs not only between stages but within certain stages (particularly their fully sentient adult stage). They seem to begin life as cold-blooded creatures but as they grow larger and more mature they become more clearly warm-blooded, though whether their endothermy is true warm-bloodedness or more a product of their size is a matter of some debate.

Reproduction among decapoidians is a classic spawning model - males display on carefully constructed nests attempting to sway a female.  The display is not merely behavioral but also is clearly physiological, involving the release of sexual hormones that increase strength and aggressiveness while also triggering the decapoidian male's breeding crest to unfurl for display (and an artificial increase in apparent size).  If a female is induced to breed the couple enter the water and the two genders release there respective reproductive jellies - upon fertilization the new organisms settle on sturdy rocks and the first stage of decapoidian existance begins, essentially a coral or sponge analog stage.  Upon successfully mating decapoidians die, leaving their progeny to fend for themselves throughout their pre-sentient lives.

Decapoidians are incredibly adaptable creatures.  They are able to process oxygen from fresh and salt waters and from free air and are absolutely omnivorious able to eat virtually any living matter using common organic chemicals, including those in a state of extreme decomposition, though their preference is for sea-life.  They are often quite intelligent, but their atypical biomorphology leads them to have difficulty comprehending non-decapoidian biologies.  They are able to replace most of their organs and to live for long periods of time without them, the result in part of their organs being frequently duplicated and of many of their organs duplicating other organs functions.  They are immensely strong and their claws are capable of both handling tools and snapping through metal, the result of mono-molecular edgings that behave differently at different angles of interaction.  Their shells, while removable, are also incredibly strong and cushioning.

Decapoidians are a pearl producing species, a side effect of their bodies' efforts to process dirt or sand consumed while eating other matter. They also produce ink in the event of extreme emotions, a classical defense mechanism similar to those employed by many species of mollusk on Earth.

Astro-Geography: The Decapoidians are the dominant species of the world Decapoid 10, a habitable moon of the Decapoid system which itself has a satellite.  This world is covered with vast oceans, punctuated by semi-permanent islands which are sandy and crushed by the world's huge tides, a product of complex gravitational relationship between Decapoid 10, the gas giant it orbits, and the assortment of other moons in the system.

Polity-Economy-Society: Decapoidians are a highly dispersed species, having immigrated throughout the Milky Way galaxy, including Earth, and have taken on political and economic roles of every description in their adopted homes.  The political system of Decapoid 10, however, is an elected imperial system, essentially a more populist form of the medieval Holy Roman Empire, while its economy seems to share much in common with state-directed forms of capitalism found in mid-Twentieth Century Europe and Latin America or contemporary China.  Mating seems to only occur on Decapoid 10 meaning that emigrants still must return to their homeworld if they hope to achieve biological success.

Given that decapoidians die upon mating celibacy is essential in all political and religious leadership positions, often causing the lines between the two to blur.

While decapoidians usually resolve their disputes through ordered and institutionalized mechanisms they sometimes withdraw to a traditional form of combat known as Claw-Plach, essentially a form of stylized trial by combat in which classical weapons are allowed, though decapoids, armed as they are with vicious claws, sometimes opt for simple claw-to-claw combat.

The Common Snork

The Common Snork

Caposnorkus ichthyosapiens

First described c. 1643 by a Captain Ortega of the Spanish Royal Navy

Biology: These living fossils, like their closest living relatives the Common Smurfs, are actually highly archaic mammals who share common ancestors with the only other living hive species of mammals, naked mole-rats.  Typically a given polity has only one or two "queens" and one or two "kings" - the former being the mother of all drones of the polity and principle religious leader and the latter being the biological father and principle politico-military leader.  As mammals they must breath free oxygen at least once an hour, but they typically build their hives around underwater caches of oxygen, often fed by undersea plants - also their highly evolved respiratory systems or "snorks" allow them to avoid breaking the surface openly, protecting them for avian predators.

There are two known subspecies of the Common Snork, the saltwater C. ichthyosapiens solus and the freshwater C. ichthyosapiens aquatio.

Snorks vary in color substantially - this variation is typically based upon their specific occupation which exposes them to distinct water temperatures, pressures, and impurities to which they are highly susceptible.  They are largely hairless, but apparently certain conditions lead them to develop manes (similar to humans and felines), though biologists have as of yet failed to explain the origins thereof.

Geography: Snorks are native to the waters of and off of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean; they typically refer to their home waters as "Snorkland" and to all non-Snork lands and waters, including the air above those waters, as "outer space."

Polity-Economy-Society: Snorks use a minimally formalized political system in which the democratic proclivities that govern day-to-day matters are frequently overwhelmed by seniority and respect which are believed to result in a hierarchy (very limited) of the breeding-rulers (Governors) and the working masses.  Personal property exists but seems to be limited to services and goods - in apparent imitation of human beings (who Snorks have had limited contact with at least since the time of the European colonization of the Americas, though possibly before) Snorks have adopted the use of garments as well as symbolic currency (mollusk shells, specifically, reminiscent of the use of cowries in the Americas among native American political-economies). Snorks have also successfully domesticated several species of fish and mollusk and the near-sentient close relative of the Snorks, the Snorkosaurus (Snorkosaurus snorkus).  Their level of technological development is fairly contemporary with those of European humans, probably reflecting substantial borrowing and/or trade. Snorks seem to speak a variant of the English language, perhaps a result of later trade and technology dealings with English and Iberian merchants and sailors - there is no clear archaeological or historical evidence that native Americans had significant dealings with the Snorks, however this remains a point of contention in the academic community.