Nomad



The Nomads came into existence when an offshoot of the savanna roamers resulted in a significantly larger brain, which enabled them to communicate much more complex thoughts to their peers, and this quickly led to sapience. They were also naturally smaller than their ancestors, which helped them survive easier.

They now communicate through two different means: at close range, they will signal one another with their chameleonic skin, while for longer range communication or areas where visual communications are not feasible, they use a "vocal membrane" that is attached to their backs. This produces very deep, low-frequency infrasounds, which most species cannot hear, and which the Nomads themselves pick up due to the sensitive skin of the vocal membrane, itself.

To manipulate objects, their proboscis-trunk has grown significantly longer, and has split at the end into four muscular, prehensile, "tentacle-like" organs. These "split-tentacles" of the males are able to sweat the gametes required for breeding during arousal, and this is used as their primary mating organ, although they still possess their typical breeding style, as well.

They are highly herbivorous, like their ancestors, but do not eat pagodapalm under any circumstances. These they find useful in removing stickyballs off their bodies. Some tribes have actually tried wearing very primitive pagodapalm clothing to help ward off the pesky, sticky flora.

Fire discovery was actually quite easy for them, as they lived near to the Inferno Trees in many instances. This helped keep them warm, but in the early days it led to many a brush fire, and several early tribes were extinguished by their own flames, being unable to escape the fire's quick speeds, especially during the dry seasons.

They seem to exhibit some form of love towards their tribal units, and spend many hours a day socializing with others from their tribe. At the same time, they are extremely territorial to Nomads they do not know, which wholly stems from their large size - they require large amounts of food every day, and must keep on the move to remain healthy. This also means that rival tribes are a threat to their survival, and so warring between the various groups was not far behind. Without any real natural offensive weapons, they began to fashion weaponry out of wood from the various tree-equivalent flora in the area, which they now used to fight off predators and rival families. However, during certain parts of the year if two groups met, they would greet each other warmly and mate, to keep genetic diversity amongst their ranks. This would not ensure they wouldn't kill each other should the two run across each other during harsher times, however.

Nomads mourn their dead, and when one of their own perished, the surviving members of a tribe could usually be found gathered around the body, their colors changed to a dull gray with dark gray or black splotches covering them, emitting long, low tones from their vocal membranes. After a few days, they will search for rocks in the area, which they will try to stack on top of the dead. If they cannot find rocks, they will try to make do with other materials available. They will also chase off scavengers during this time of sorrow.

While they do not eat other creatures, they have begun to fashion extremely primitive 'tent-homes' out of hides of creatures they've killed, mainly of their own predators. These are used to "pin back" certain branches of trees, which they then rest under. Despite this, they will not stay in any one place too long, and they will take their hides with them when they move, leaving no trace of their former occupancy.

Unfortunately, their glorious and miraculous existence was cut far too short by the gamma ray radiation caused by the supernova. Most died nearly instantly. Those were the lucky ones. The very few who had survived somehow suffered a much slower, anguished death; with the majority of their diet now extinct, they became desperate as they slowly starved to death, and many Nomads were killed by others as they attempted to save themselves from starvation. In the end, not one lived. The only lasting testament to their existence was several walls marked by painted proboscis-trunks that a couple of tribes succeeded in making within the nearby Rabid Sandstone Cave. However, over the course of time, these too would prove to not last forever.