Xekohym

Physical Description

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Xekohym, also known as crabtaurs, mudcrabs, or mirecrabs, are People that resemble huge crabs with bulky, round torsos.perched on top of four double-jointed legs. They are covered in a layered mesh of chitinous plating which acts as their exoskeleton, their armor, and their camouflage. This shell is normally colored shades of brown and gray, though moss and algae will grow on it and add green. Xekohym stand as tall as a man and as wide as two, and have a hunchback posture due to the large, single-plate shell that covers their back and the top of their heads. This shell also helps them to resemble boulders when they're hiding, and helps them weigh almost as much as them as well.

Xekohym have four arms, of which two are usually larger than the others. In general, xekohym will use their larger limbs for things requiring brute strength such as self defense and hunting, and use their smaller limbs for tasks requiring more finesse. Their faces and eyes are inhuman and impossible to read for emotion, but to get around this, xekohym normally have glowy color-changing patches on their bodies that they can reveal to more easily show how they're feeling. As such, it's still difficult for anyone who's not either a crab or experienced with crabs to understand what the hell they're feeling, but if you spend enough time around them chances are you can figure it out. They have soft, scratchy voices, and are unable to raise them beyond a conversational volume. They have a language of clicks, squeaks, and chirps similar to that of glospikers, but can manage common speech with some effort. Speaking that way at length is difficult for them, and often they will speak very laconically to lessen the effort. One curious fact about them is that they can mimic noises remarkably well.

Biology

Reproduction

Xekohym are hermaphroditic, and though they will generally end up preferring to take on one role in the mating process, if they need to they will perform the other. Normally, xekohym search each other out in the springtime to perform this duty, and if two crabs meet up that find each other acceptable, they will mate. After mating, the crab in the female role will lay one to two eggs and the two will guard them and care for them until they hatch, at which time they will remain with one of the two parents until they're large enough to fend for themselves.

Self-fertilization is rare and difficult to achieve, and only done in the most desperate of situations.

Diet

Xekohym are opportunistic omnivores, meaning they'll eat almost anything they can get their claws on. There are few creatures in the Mire as large or strong as them, and so they have a diet of various reptiles, mammals, birds, and fish as well as tubers, flowers, fruits, and insects. Due to their large size and lack of speed, xekohym mostly employ ambushes and traps to catch prey, which their camouflage helps with. They have no qualms about eating humans or even other xekohym, as to them food is food and there is no reason to let it go to waste, but they tend to only eat other sapient beings as carrion and not prey, and usually only if there's nothing else around.

Magic and Abilities

Magic

Xekohym have a strong attunement and mastery over the element of earth which helps them traverse the muddy, treacherous terrain of their home despite their weight and size, as well as helps them to hide in that terrain and form it as they please. In addition, they can regenerate lost limbs, and they are able to shape their own bodies over time, which allows them to adapt to changing conditions in the environment with ease. Some examples of changes they are able to make include choosing whether their arms end in claws, hands, or other forms, making their armor thicker or lighter, and covering themselves in spines. The more experienced a xekohym is with their magic, the more complex and drastic the changes they're able to make.

Physical Abilities

Xekohym are monstrously strong, and have little trouble finding enough strength to do anything, from crushing bones to digging through several feet of mud in seconds. However, their size and weight causes them to be quite slow. Outside of their mud-filled home with its rough terrain, a human could easily outrun a xekohym, who would only be able to match their speed for a few seconds. The chitinous shell of a xekohym protects it from most threats, and if armored well enough it can withstand gunshots. Due to their strength and durability as well as their ugliness and their location, xekohym are not a popular choice as targets for slavers, who would rather not risk getting chopped in half or crushed to death after getting stuck in the mud for little profit.

Culture

Xekohym are solitary creatures who do not seek out companionship, though they are usually not averse to it if it comes to them. After their forest was destroyed and without the guidance and binding presence of their spirit and two of their three mortal leaders, many of them scattered, and much of their previous culture was forgotten. There are still a few that remember what they lost, but these individuals are few and far between, and by their nature do not speak of it very often. Today, most xekohym are simply concerned with keeping their territory's ecosystem running smoothly and acting as guardians for it, and have a simple and pragmatic view of the world.

Xekohym worship Space as their main deity, and the Sun and Moon alongside it. They acknowledge and respect the others, but don't focus on worshipping them as much as their main three.

Before the Fall

Deep in the Mire, the ruins of flat-topped pyramids, small stretches of masterfully crafted stone pathways sinking into the muck, and massive pillars with strange and intricate carvings can be found -- the remnants of a once great civilization. In its prime, the Mire was not the impassable, bandit-infested wasteland it is today, but a peaceful and well-protected land that the Xekohym allowed pilgrims and those who wanted to exchange knowledge to travel through. It was common for glospiker living in the mountains to the west of the Mire to visit due to the close bonds the two species built over the years, and likewise it was common for the pathways and pyramids to be decorated by things woven from spider silk.

Xekohym believed that the best way to worship the gods was to learn about and explore their creation, especially by studying biology, physics, mathematics, and astronomy. Many of their pyramids were located in prime stargazing spots, with others built on the rare patches of stable ground, and others in locations with historical significance for the xekohym. The xekohym would record their history and their knowledge on the walls, ceilings, and floors of their pyramids, mixing art and scientific formulae. Most of the pyramids were held above the mud by the magic of their keepers, and have since sunk into the earth, sometimes disappearing completely. They would also record things on large, tall stelae that stuck out of the ground and could be seen from far distances. These would mostly be placed at points along the pathways in between pyramids and other landmarks.

The xekohym themselves tried to live up to three virtues: Strength, Knowledge, and Balance. When her children spread too far from her forest for her to guide, their spirit would choose three individual xekohym that embodied each of these virtues and have them guide the people of the Mire in her stead. Often this was a lifetime position, but it wasn't unheard of for those chosen to step down if they felt they could no longer embody their virtue. The three virtues and their importance in xekohym culture were formed out of the origin story of the xekohym: the first three xekohym each had their own strengths, and covered each others' weaknesses. In homage to these three, each new chosen took on the name of their respective ancestor's virtue. Strength was named Ezekiel, Knowledge was named Azazel, and Balance was named Massiel.

When the forest spirit of the xekohym was killed through the treachery of a human that had claimed to come in peace, and the People living there came under attack by the human's compatriots, the three chosen tried to repel them. Massiel pled for mercy, but was killed when she tried to reason with the invaders. Azazel tried to trick the humans, and saved a great number of their kin, but disappeared in the chaos. Ezekiel fought back, and succeeded in destroying many of his enemies, but it was a hollow victory. His two companions were dead and missing, as were many of his people, and the spirit as well. The forest fell into ruin, and though he tried to hold his people together, without the help and support of his two counterparts, he could not. After this betrayal, the xekohym fell into a long and slow decline, as most older xekohym lost hope and chose to die with their spirit, and younger ones lacked the guidance of their spirit and two of the three chosen.

Quetzal

The quetzal sekir living in the Mire differ from other sekir not only biologically, but culturally. Quetzal are intertwined closely enough with the xekohym that where you see one, you usually will see the other. In the modern day, quetzal sekir live alongside the xekohym, defending their territory and keeping it safe, but in the past, quetzal sekir worked alongside the xekohym as hunters, trackers, guides along the winding paths through the treacherous Mire, and interpreters and intermediaries between the xekohym and other species. It was common for a quetzal and a xekohym to form a personal bond and work together, but this sort of relationship has become less common as conditions in the Mire have deteroriated.