Don'Rahj

The Don'Rajh are a species of legendary sea serpents. They grow to colossal sizes, outlive most sapient species, and are utterly fearless, ruthless, predatory and intelligent.

They are a creation of LeVentNoir.

Biology
A Don'Rahj is a serpentine sea creature of up to 250 meters length and 25 meters diameter. They can be divided into three main parts; the head, the body, and the tail. Note: all sizes will be given for the largest Don'Rahj.

Head
The most obvious feature of the head is the great, four part maw. The four mandibles can be up to 20 meters in length, and are supported by skeletal bone. On the end of each mandible are a set of 4 steeply inwardly angled fangs, with the largest fang (~5m) closest to the end and the size of the fangs decreasing in size as they go along. These fangs are used to secure a hold on prey, and the mandibles are used to increase the area which it can attack and the size of prey it can hunt.

The mandibles have two joints, one elbow like, and one shoulder like. This allows them to extend directly away from the body, but also allows the Don'Rahj to pull any creature or foodmass caught in the fangs to the lamprey like mouth that sits in the middle of its maw for ingestion. The lower quarter of each mandible is webbed with a cheek like muscle mass to make it easier to direct food to its mouth. The entire maw and mouth area is armoured with specially adapted scales and bone plate which prevent prey from harming it and have allowed the Don'Rahj to charge ships with impunity. The mandibles are shaped such that when closed, the front of a Don'Rahj is highly streamlined, but when open this vast maw directs water, air and prey into it.

The head lacks a true skull unlike the majority of fish or snakes, but rather has a small, highly armoured brain case at the connection between the top of the spine and the maw supports. Due to this, there are a number of interesting adaptations. Don'Rahj have 2 large (~2m diameter) and highly developed eyes, one on each side of its head, for better field of view. These eyes would be a vulnerable point on most creatures, but the Don'Rahj can retract them into its head for protection behind armoured plates or cause them to protrude nearly half their diameter for better field of vision. Instead of standard linear jaw muscles like most species, the mandibles, true mouth and beginning of the oesophagus have sphincter like constricting muscles along this length. This will grind and crush anything which enters the mouth against the many rows of teeth, ensuring even small prey are ready for digestion.

The Don'Rahj uses a wide array of sense organs to detect its prey. It has many combination smell/taste organs both internal to the maw and on the exterior of the head with which it can track prey, especially injured prey. Its eyes are very large, with very strong focus, and a sensitivity range which extends into the infra-red to track the paths of prey in cold oceans, especially at depth. It can orient them to provide near full angle vision, or to focus with binocular vision on prey (as long as the maw is closed). When in the final charge or at high speed or out of the water, it will usually retract its eyes and use other senses. The Don'Rahj do not have singular ears, but a number of sensitive pressure organs along its length providing both excellent audio sensing, as well as highly accurate depth information. Finally, the Don'Rahj, much like sharks, have passive electro-perception to aid detection of prey in waters where smell or vision would be near to useless.

Body
The body is relatively cylindrical at first glance, with a slight ridge running along the spine. This ridge is actually highly developed muscle which pulls the ribs out into a much flatter and broader position, to providing a gliding surface. The skin is actually armoured hide, most often a dark grey / blue for camouflage as much as possible. The skin secretes a mucous which helps lubricate the armoured hide through the water, aiding its speed. The hide of old Don'Rahj will be highly scarred from fights with other Don'Rahj in establishing territory and mating rights.

The four fins are separated into two pairs based on their location and purpose. The dorsal and ventral fins protrude a relatively short distance and travel the length of the creature, merging at the tail which is large (> 30m tall x 60m long) and deeply forked. These fins are used for propulsion at low speeds, as the serpentine motion of the Don'Rahj forces these fins into the water. At high speeds, the body locks tight and the tail does the majority of the propulsion. The pectoral fins emerge just behind the head and are usually tucked tight into the body, extending approximately half to two thirds down the body.

When the Don'Rahj erupt out of the water, they will spread these spiny pectoral fins, giving them a very large gliding surface with which it can create large arcs through flocks of low flying birds or to attack surface prey from an unexpected angle. While it lacks any ability to provide propulsion to itself while out of the water, a Don'Rahj's high sprinting speed of up to 200km/h in the most powerful specimens allow for a very large vertical leap (150m) or an incredibly long distance glide in a shallower arc. This leaping out of the water is also a result of high speed charges against surface prey and is used often in sexual displays.

The main spinal joints allow for greater horizontal motion than vertical, causing the majority motion of the Don'Rahj to be sinuous, as well as causing the vertical tail.

The Don'Rahj have gills, but they are highly adapted, allowing the Don'Rahj to extract oxygen from sufficiently fast flowing air, which results in it using its maw like a jet intake when gliding.

The Don'Rahj have a double stomach digestive system. The first stomach is lined with teeth much like the mouth, and exists to grind all 'food', including plant material such as tree trunks into a fine slurry. The second stomach is highly acidic and filled with digestive enzymes which break down the food for absorption in the intestines. However, its excrement is highly nutritious to smaller organisms, causing the sea floors in Don'Rahj territories to be highly productive.

The Don'Rahj have multiple hearts, which all have a synchronised beat due to a equal length of nervous tissue linking each to the brain. This lets the Don'Rahj have much smaller hearts than a creature its size would require, as well as a much faster heart beat, something which aids its high speed sprints.

Physiology
The conscious actions of the Don'Rahj consist almost entirely of the sourcing and consumption of biomass. They are voracious, instinctive and utterly consumptive eaters who will attack any and all prey it can detect.

Behaviour
The Don'Rahj go through periods of extreme consumption and near hibernation. These have no set duration or frequency, but depend on the food sources available.

During the consumptive period, a Don'rahj will constantly swim looking for animals it can attack. It will assume water surface craft are edible, and attack them as well. Finally, if it spots birds or flying animals while at shallow depth, it will attack them as well. A Don'Rahj will prey on as large an area as it can maintain against other Don'Rahj, and they will fight and prey on each other when they meet outside of the mating frenzy. The patrol for food is not interrupted by sleep and extends from the deepest depths of the ocean right up and over the surface. The list of species preyed upon is basically a list of species over 15cm in length, although the largest Don'Rahj will tend to ignore singular smaller prey.

The attack strategy of the Don'Rahj is simple, it will accelerate from patrolling speed to an incredible sprint, then open its maw as it crashes into or through the target. If the prey is small enough to escape the maw, the Don'Rahj will close it quickly to trap the prey. If they prey is large enough to require a prolonged feeding session, the Don'Rahj will use its fangs to grip the prey while it coils around it. The Don'Rahj will then use repeated actions of its maw to draw more and more of the prey to the true mouth, rending it and consuming it chunk by chunk.

While it is not unknown for a Don'Rahj to enter coastal waters, it is quite infrequent, simply due to the much lower prey density. This renders craft in bays and along coast lines much safer than those crossing open water.

When the Don'Rahj reaches a critical point of prey scarcity, it will find a deep, dark cleft of rock to wrap itself in and enter a dormant state until either provoked, or an indeterminate period of time of at least one year has passed. During this time, nearly all life functions are reduced to a very low level, and energy stores are very slowly consumed to sustain the beast.

Reproduction
When prey is plentiful enough, an occurrence which happens approximately every 6-20 years, the female Don'Rahj will start to emit a pheromone which causes both males and females to seek her, and causes females to release this pheromone in kind. The resulting mass of Don'Rahj can comprise every single adult in the entire ocean, or hemisphere if the currents are strong.

This mating frenzy has three main purposes, competition among males, competition among females, and the actual reproduction. Sexual displays of aggression and strength from both males and females aim to establish power and reproductive worth, while intimidating and forcing away rivals. Displays of equally matched Don'Rahj will usually result in a fight, where both attempt to securely gain a hold on the other with their maw. However, during the mating frenzy they will not kill or eat each other.

When a male and female have established each other to be worthy and driven off any rivals, they will mate, a short affair so they can quickly return to the frenzy. The female will have hundreds of eggs ready to fertilise, and once fertilised, they will grow to about 20cm diameter before being abandoned, one by one as the female returns to her territory after the frenzy.

The frenzy lasts until all the females have been mated with, or much more likely, the food supply has been exhausted. The residual effects of the pheromone allow the Don'Rahj to retreat to their territories in peace, where a hibernation period is triggered. This period allows for the spawn to grow in the absence of adult predators which would otherwise consume all the prey and the young.

The Don'Rahj eggs will grow on the sea floor or wherever they came to land until the Don'Rahj are about a meter long and hatch. Usually they do not encounter another on Don'Rahj egg immediately, but between establishing hatchling territories for themselves at deep depths and other ocean predation there is a very high death rate. Until a young Don'Rahj has grown to an openly predatorial size of approximately 5 meters long after the first year of life, they will stay low to the sea floor and apply ambush tactics rather than the open aggressiveness of the sexually mature adults. Between reaching this open predatory size and maturity, a young Don'Rahj will grow rapidly, but not seek to establish a territory, abandoning any it may have had. It will instead roam far and wide hunting prey and avoiding adults.

Maturity
Don'Rahj enter sexual maturity at a size of about 150 meters length, at an age of about 50 years. Until this point, they have been avoiding the adults and ignoring the pheromones of the mating frenzies. At this length however, their growth rate slows dramatically, with another 200 years being required to reach the 250m length of the largest and oldest specimens. Of the hundreds of eggs spawned, only approximately 4-6 Don'rahj will reach this stage.

Once a Don'Rahj starts going to mating frenzies, it can start to claim a territory and defend it rather than simply passing through those of adults and fleeing if detected. This is the second most dangerous period of a Don'Rahj's life, as it must fight a larger, older and more cunning Don'Rahj, to the death and consumption of the younger if it loses. However, older Don'Rahj may surrender part of their territory if defeated. This is usually the beginning of the end for this Don'Rahj, as unable to hold onto territory it becomes more frequently involved in territorial fights until it is killed.

The territory claimed is established by "The Scream of the Don'Rahj" a dual frequency broadcast with a low frequency (~1hz) carrier as well as a high frequency (~12khz) component. These screams are unique and a useful way of tracking individuals. The volume of the scream depends on the size of the territory claimed, with the largest Don'Rahj emitting screams heard on both sides of an ocean. This scream draws in other Don'Rahj that wish to contest the volume of the scream, the determining factor in the boundary. Upon seeing each other, there is a small chance that a vastly inferior Don'Rahj will simply retreat, but in the majority of cases, a fight will occur, establishing that the loser accepts the winner's scream and territory.

A singular Don'Rahj will scream approximately once every 8-15 days, but if answered in a challenging manner, will continue to scream in a call and response manner allowing both Don'Rahj to meet at approximately the borders of their territories.

Intelligence
Don'Rahj are very intelligent, able to prey on even herd/ schooling animals, as well as sapient sealife. They instinctively know when they are being hunted, and will either attack a weak hunter or flee outright. If feeing a non Don'Rahj hunter, a Don'Rahj will emit a "rallying cry" scream which draws other Don'Rahj, and when a critical mass has been reached, they will turn on the hunters and utterly pursue and devour them, a retaliation and warning against hunting such creatures. This is a residual behaviour from immaturity but serves to deliver large quantities of food to a group if one is hunted. Crying false or failing to catch the hunters will result in the rallied Don'Rahj feeding on the caller.

The intelligence of the Don'Rahj seems to be a response to the highly competitive nature of their life as much as an adaptation to the vastly varying prey and behaviour thereof.

Content Links
The Scream of the Don'Rahj, a fishermans tale for Whimsical Wednesday.