Tiger Wangvin

The seas of Eryobis are full of horrors and monstrosities with faces hard to love. Evolutionary abominations like llamplelgans, creatures that look like squid-scorpion hybrids that turned out to have evolved from polychaetes, are often considered by explorers to be among the most cursed looking creatures to be found on Eryobis.

Looks are one thing, behavior is another.

Fermourodonts easily take the title of the creatures most unfriendly towards humans, given that they go out of their way to destroy our electric equipment and vehicles, while coeaaien tend to get a bad reputation because of their superficial resemblance to sharks.

There are however a few nienktvissen that also often end up high in the rankings of the most horrible creatures to be found on this world. While this is largely based on appearance, there are real life precedents of nienktvis encounters ending up lethal on our side. While this was likely an accidental anomaly that was only caused by poor handling on the explorer's part, there are other nienktvissen that do actually have a taste for human blood. The losqulas are predatory nienktvissen that regularly feed on large prey, which includes us.

But losqulas are not the only type of nienkvis that prey on large, usually live prey. Considered to be reasonably close relatives to the true squidn'ts, these carnivorous nienktvissen are often referred to as wangvins (Zygopterichthyidae). One the first things anyone remotely familiar with nienktvis anatomy will notice are the large "fins" that flare out from below the eyes. These fins are derived from the barbels seen in other nienktvissen and likely serve as stabilizers and lift generators. An adaptation seen in at least two other unrelated kinds of nienktvissen.

The tiger wangvin (Malascellus tigris), known to live in the Riatis Ocean, is a medium sized species that grows between 150-180 cm long. These wangvins, like most others, are predators with long protruding teeth based on large plates that can all move independently. While they look scary, wangvins are significantly less dangerous than losqulas as they tend to be more wary of their surroundings. It is thought that this wariness might be due to them not wanting to risk their cheek fins getting damaged, as it could pose a large hindrance to their hunting and general life. That said, wangvins are known to get aggressive when they detect blood in the water and there are at least a dozens reports of divers getting bitten in the legs or arms by curious wangvins. Our standard diving suits are multi colored with striped limbs to break the silhouette and deter large predators from attacking, but it seems that these striped limbs can appear like separate, smaller prey animals to the wangvins.

These fish tend not to venture too far out to the open ocean and will usually patrol deeper zones of reefs during the day and come up to the surface at night.

 

Brown Richibi

Most nienktvissen possess 6 or 7 gill slits, with the latter seemingly being the ancestral state. There are a handful however that have even less. The richibi's, as they are often referred to, are conodonts that only have 5 gill slits. That is hardly the only strange thing about them however, as these fish are known to possess a far greater number of functional fins than most other nienktvissen do, moving them in a wavelike fashion similar to how the extinct Anomalocarids of Earth are speculated to have done.

Some researchers have suggested that richibi's might not even be actual nienktvissen at all, but rather another kind of conodont that independently evolved a similar style of locomotion by splitting the ancestral caudal fin into a number of finlets. There is however, hardly enough evidence to confirm this theory and there is too little genetic testing on nienktvissen as a whole draw support from.

Richibi's are almost exclusively found swimming in the coastlines and river mouths tropical and subtropical Miesjeta. The brown richibi (Virrateops fulvus) is a species that can be found inhabiting estuaries, deltas and the waters near river mouths in Bloëca. Spending a lot of time in murky waters, this fish has long barbels with which it can detect food and foe when visibility becomes too low.

It is thought to feed predominantly on plant matter and mollusks, but too little about its lifestyle is known to say for sure.

Green Sjaul

Far out in the open ocean is where you can often find the fastest swimming animals. Nowhere to hide, in this watery desert, the only defense for anything that isn't translucent is speed. Fish that live here are often thunniform and carangiform in body shape for hydrodynamic efficiency.

It should therefore be little surprise that nienktvissen, conodonts that do not possess a typical fish like body, are not that common far out in the ocean. There are a number of very large bodied nienktvissen that carve out a living in the open ocean by feeding on plankton or small shoaling crustaceans and fish, but these do not typically frequent the surface.

There is one kind of nienktvis that can be found at high sea, the sjaul. Scientifically known as the genus Cephalopteron (and possibly others), there likely at least a dozen species of sjaul to be found in the oceans of Eryobis. 

These are peculiar looking animals, even for nienktvis standards.

Their bodies are cone shaped and possess four very large fins, behind which a much smaller fin is located. It is thought that the large fins are used for propulsion while the smaller ones provide stability or aid in changing or maintaining direction and stability. In addition, sjauls have another pair of "fins" located on top and below their head. These derive from the ancestral barbels present in most nienktvissen and are likely a feature that sjauls evolved convergentlty with some other unrelated nienktvissen such as vlagops. It is still unclear what exactly these are used for.

The green sjaul (Cephalopteron virens) is a species that can be found cruising the open waters of the Tinjis Ocean in its warmer regions. Here it feeds mostly on free swimming arthropods, small fish and plankton. The tooth elements in the back of its mouth are blunt and rounded, which helps them crush the food that they cannot swallow whole.

Sjauls are a much desired catch for fishermen because of their muscular bodies and crustacean induced flavor. But it is not just fishermen that want to eat sjauls.

Because these fish are quite common and often form shoals of several hundred individuals, they get preyed upon by a wide variety of both marine and aerial predators.

The soft bodies of sjauls make them favorable prey for ritsuara's and other Fermourodonts, which often emply hit and run tactics where they will slice a sjaul in half and come back to eat when it has become incapacitated. 

Blueside Molula

Tropical reefs are home to some of the most colorful and diverse wildlife in the oceans. This is as true for Earth as it is for Eryobis. The Caddis Sea and the shallow waters around the Rubiëran archipelago are home to some of the largest reefs on Eryobis and consequently, are home to some of the most stunning aquatic creatures to be found on this world.

A prime example of this is the blueside molula (Molula cyanopleurus), a splendidly colored species of nienktvis. Named for its outward resemblance to the molas from Earth and given the Latin suffix -ula for its diminutive size. Molulas are quite common in tropical regions all around Eryobis, but Rubiëra appears to be especially rich in molula species, with possibly over a dozen having been observed.

The blueside molula is a quite typical molula species most easily distinguishable by its bright blue side with yellow under-borders and white stripes. Like all molulas, it has evolved four of its barbels into large and flat palps for the purpose of feeding. This adaptation is also seen in cyclopses and it is currently thought that molulas share a fairly recent common ancestor with these creatures.

Like some other molulas, it is a carnivore that feed predominately on small arthropods that live in the reefs. With their palps, they are able to manipulate their food to a great degree and have been observed using them to break the pincers off crustaceans in order to eat them without getting injured.

While we have no evidence supporting the fact, Rubiëran natives claim that molulas are poisonous to eat. It is said they occasionally rub dead molulas on their darts to weaponize their alleged toxins.

Sixgill Vibrissotact

The Vibrissotactus hexanchus, more often known as the sixgill vibrissotact, is a small species of nienktvis native to the coastal regions of eastern Guralta. It is commonly found in algae forests where it perfectly blends in with the vegetation.

Based on stomach contents and the morphology of its teeth, it has been determined that these fish are omnivores, feeding on both algae and invertebrates such as various mollusks, echinoderms and crustaceans. Compared to its relatives Vardichthys and Xegeloichthys, which are also members of the family Vibrissotactidae, the sixgill- is a lot less carnivorous. Due to the fact that sixgills- do not possess the bioluminescent organs that other members of the family possess, it is currently thought that sixgills- and other surface dwelling members are the "standard" for the family, while various lineages have independently colonized the deep sea over time.

Sixgill vibrissotact are territorial animals that passionately defend their own little "gardens" of algae against intruders and small carnivores. Because of this, they are not particularly common and not often consumed by the natives or our explorers. Despite this, they are said to taste quite good, with a decent fat content and sweet buttery taste that reminds of crayfish, which is likely due to the fact these fish consume a lot of crustaceans.

Trichasterops riaticus

In the depths of the Riatis Ocean in the north of Eryobis lives a funny looking creature. Akin to a small black squid with four large fins and six small tentacles tipped with bioluminescent bulbs. But it is no squid, it is in fact a type of nienktvis. 

Known as Trichasterops riaticus, this hand sized little fish is best known for its black, leathery skin and bioluminescent organs on the ends of their flattened barbels. It is theorized that these are used to lure and guide plankton and other prey towards its mouth in a similar manner to the lantern leviathan, of which it is suspected to be a close relative.

Not much is known about its lifestyle because it has never been properly observed in the wild. All we have of it are dead specimens that were trapped on deep lines and fleeting ROV footage often rarely more than a few second long. One thing we can say for sure is that Trichasterops are afraid of light, which could indicate that there are other, possibly larger predators in the abyss of the Riatis that also use bioluminescence to hunt.

 

Horse Headed Squidn't

First discovered on a native fish market in the region of Lotharcan Miesjeta known as Vermilijë, a strange looking fish with a face only a mother could love and teeth that reminded of ancient 20th century caricatures instantly caught the attention of the researchers that saw it. They wished to buy the fish to further study it and, as was and still is pretty common, the salesman scammed the hell out of them. While the researchers that bought the fish have never confirmed the price they paid, it is rumored that they paid with a silver wristwatch or some other precious metal jewelry. What ever they might have traded the fish for, the salesman they bought it from had soon after bought out nearly every fisherman in the town, meaning that the price the researchers paid for the fish equated to several million in local currency.

The fish they bought would later be identified as a horse headed squidn't (Thlipsiodon bucephalus), a fish which is actually quite common in the tropical, subtropical and temperate waters of the Tinjis Ocean.

The peculiar teeth that caught the attention of those researchers are quite unique among nienktvissen due to the fact that they are large, blunt and globular, which is pretty much the opposite of the teeth that most nienktvissen have. These teeth, combined with the stomach content the researchers examined in their overpriced specimen led to the conclusion that horse headed squidn'ts are durophages, specializing in feeding on tough and armored prey.

As later live observations would confirm, the bulk of their diet consists of planktonic and nektonic pectinauts, which in many ways seem to fill ecological roles that the extinct ammonites did back on Earth in the Mesozoic period. Like these prehistoric cephalopods, pectinauts are extremely abundant in the oceans of Eryobis. It is therefore no wonder that creatures such as the Thlipsiodon would specialize in such an common and reliable food source.

Since the horse headed squidn't tends to stay near the surface and does not seem to dive more than a hundred meters below the waves, it has been able to become among the best studied nienktvissen to date.

These fish usually grow between 1 and 1.7 meters in length with a wingspan of roughly 80% that length. They only have two, long whiskers that sprout from the lower jaw. Autopsies have revealed that these barbels essentially serve to detect pressure changes and sound waves in the water. 

The seven gillslits of this fish are peculiar in that the exhausts seem to be angled to various degrees per individual slit. This is very likely evidence that nienktvissen use their gills as a way to steer and change direction. 

While not much is known about the mating habits of this species as yet, what observations have shown is that they exclusively happen at night at around 30 meters or below.

Despite being called the horse headed "squidn't", Thlipsiodon is not a member of the Teuthomorphichthyidae, better known as the "true squidn'ts". Its colloquial name is the result of early explorers giving animals that looked superficially similar the same name for the sake of simplicity.

Thlipsiodon is in fact not even that closely related to the true squidn'ts and rather came from a different lineage that convergently evolved a similar body shape. Unfortunate as it may be for classification, the name seems to have stuck.

Umbral Losqula

For those who have thalassophobia, Eryobis is a very pleasant place to be. While there may not be any true sharks present in the seas of this world, some would argue that the realm beneath the waves of Eryobis harbors creatures that are even more terrifying.

While squidn'ts tend to get a bad reputation because of one tragic incident that very early after the first explorers set to sea, they are typically quite harmless. The same can not be said for another type of nienktvis. 

The Pleuropristidae, commonly known as losqulas by the explorers, are a family of carnivorous nienktvissen that are ranked as being the most predatory among their kind. Most nienktvissen and squid'ts are known to feed on prey smaller than themselves that can be easily swallowed. Losqulas on the other hand, seem to have a preference for prey equally to- or larger than themselves. They often seem to specialize in shredding their prey to bits while its still alive. Their teeth are long, sharp and serrated and with the various tooth elements being able to independently from each other, losqulas excel at mincing their prey and inflicting great blood loss. 

That said, they do not shy away from scavenging and it is not uncommon to see them congregating around the carcass of a large deceased animal.

The umbral losqula (Teutharpax umbrosus) that occurs in the Voûlic Ocean south of Miesjeta is a large member of this family that can grow over 2.5 meters long. One might look at these creatures and presume they are awkward swimmers, but these fish are deceptively fast. With two very large frontal fins and four auxiliary posterior fins, umbral losqulas can reach over 30 km/h in short bursts of speed. This, combined with their inquisitive nature makes them quite a nuisance for divers, who nowadays always need to be armed whenever they go on a dive in the Voûlic Ocean.

Umbral losqulas have been observed often following boats to feed on scraps and to steal the harvest of fishermen and are known to hang around native port cities in the south of Miesjeta, occasionally taking their toll in the form of people, most often children, going for a swim.

What makes these fish so dangerous is the fact that they most often hunt around dusk and dawn when they are the least visible to the eye. While one could be forgiven for thinking losqulas do not come close to shore due to their morphology, these carnivores are very much capable of swimming on their sides to enter water as little as 50 centimeters deep.

Not much is known about the lifestyle of these losqulas. As of yet it is uncertain if they are sedentary, territorial or migrate between feeding grounds. What is known however is that they always seem to stick to the continental shelf and will not be encountered in the deep open ocean.

Lesser Sideray

All along the northern shorelines of tropical Miesjeta, you can find a most peculiar looking creature swimming through the sand. From a glance it resembles a Batomorph from Earth, better known as a ray, but the resemblance is only superficial.

Upon closer inspection the differences become more apparent. One anatomical trait that instantly determines this animal to not be a Batomorph is the fact it has gills on its "upper side". To those less knowledgeable on the anatomy of Batomorphs, there is another trait this Eryobian animal possesses that should make it clear that this no true ray.

The creature has but a singular eye on its entire body, adorned with a pupil possessing three prongs to form a "Y" shape. No vertebrate animal from Earth is known to naturally have such a trait. For this reason, many researchers refer to these ray like creatures as cyclopses. Unfortunately for them, the scientific name of Cylopoida is already taken by a group of copepod crustaceans from Earth. Instead, a name that is often used in addition to cyclops is sideray. There are also many researchers who prefer to refer to these creatures by their scientific name solely, as Monobatopsids.

Further research revealed Monobatopsids to actually not only be related to nienktvissen, but that they are actually very derived members of this group. In hindisight, it should have been quite obvious that siderays are nienktvissen. They share some key characteristics such as the lack of jaws, but presence of well developed plate like tooth elements. The six individual gillslits should also have been a dead giveaway since no other non-conodont animal on Eryobis possesses this trait. The presence of a number of barbels sprouting from the lips is also a strong indicator of their identity as nienktvissen.

So it became clear that cylopses are merely nienktvissen that opted for a demersal lifestyle by laying on their sides, but they are not born this way.

When siderays hatch from their eggs, they are extremely small and are virtually indistinguishable from other, related nienktvis larvae. For their first weeks of life, they develop much like other nienktvissen, gaining their characteristic large fins to propel themselves with and this stage, they possess two eyes, one on each side of the body.

But as they mature, they start changing. They start living closer to the seafloor and begin favoring one side over the other. Whether this is left or right usually differs per species or subfamily. They start living near the substrate and will instinctively hide in the sand. It is at this stage that the eye on the side that faces the seafloor starts atrophying until it is completely resorbed into the body.

Why this happens instead of the migration of the eye like is seen in Pleuronectiformes and Planosolincolans is unclear. One would be forgiven for thinking that the entirely cartilage "skulls" of nienktvissen would make such a migration easier than if the skull was bone.

One of the first aquatic animals to ever be encountered on Eryobis by explorers was the lesser sideray (Rajacyclops minor). This creature can commonly seen inhabiting the shallow coastal waters all along the northern coast of Bloëcan Miesjeta, which is ofcourse where the first landing site and colony were made.

It is a small critter, barely two hands wide and only a few centimeters thick. This makes it perfectly adapted for a life in the sand in waters where few predators can reach it.

Yet this little cyclops is often the largest predator in its sandy environment. It feeds on a plethora of invertebrates such as gastropods, sedentary bivalves, pectinauts, brachiopods and small llamplelgans. 

As with many sideray species, the lesser sideray possesses a three pronged pupil in its singular eye. It is thought that this peculiar shape helps siderays see from multiple angles. An imperative ability for an animal that spends most of its time hidden in the sand.

Common Vlagop

The common vlagop (Veleovoltus communis) is one of several species in the genus Veleovoltus that can be found in the Vyaris Ocean, but as its name suggests it is the most common. 

This small nienktvis often occurs in huge shoals of several thousand strong and undertakes long seasonal migrations between the continents of Miesjeta, Guralta and southern Tlèëa. Curiously, the seasonal behavior of this species is largely restricted to the populations that live north of the equator, while the populations south of the equator tend to be more sedentary. As of yet, no solid explanation for this phenomenon has been offered.

As small and abundant planktivores, these conodonts are near the base of many food-chains where they permanently occur and often become seasonal feasts along their migration route.

Being small than a human hand on average, there is a great many predators that will happily make a meal out of a vlagop.

This includes the native peoples of Eryobis, who often harvest these small fish by the dozens by casting nets. Human explorers and researchers are also no strangers to eating vlagops. These creatures are so common in the Vyaris Ocean that even our colonists are allowed to occasionally catch them.

One characteristic of vlagop that immediately catches one's eye is the "dorsal fin" that goes from the mouth to the second gillslit. This "fin" is actually a membrane that stretches from a single large cartilage reinforced barbel on the upper lip that permanently stands upright.

It is thought that this fin serves to stabilize the vlagop as it swims, although it does appear that there are surprisingly many small muscles attached to this fin, which could indicate that it might also serve as a rudder that works in tandem with the terminal posterior fin.

 

Ægiric Whiskerlure

Five thousand meters below sea-level is hardly a place one would expect to find light.

Yet, when an ROV was sent down into the abyss of the Ægiric Ocean, it countered light.

Not just any light, but reddish orange light. A color that should have no place this deep underwater because most animals that live this deep cannot even perceive this color.

But that was the exact purpose of the creature the light was attached to.

The Ægiric whiskerlure (Xegeloichthys fotophoneus) is a species of nienktvis that is among the few Eryobian deep sea creatures capable of seeing red and orange light, a fact which it exploits to the fullest. By utilizing this "invisible" light, it is able to see its surroundings and prey quite clear, while its prey has no idea it is even there.

Art by BobsicleG

Although this is not actually completely true. The whiskerlure has another tool in its arsenal, one which it uses to lure its prey closer.

As the name might suggest, this abyssal nienktvis has a lure on the end of one of its whiskers. This lure however is far more complex than what is commonly seen in deep sea creatures. 

The lure itself is shaped like a small nienktvis.

This form of predatory mimicry is very rare and was only ever documented in certain squid and snake species from old Earth.

The lure of this species even has small bio photophores to create the illusion of eyes.

This lure, together with its use of "invisible light" make the Ægiric whiskerlure an excellent predator that uses its built-in headlights to spot its prey and then deploys its specialized barbel to lure its prey toward its mouth, where rows upon rows of sharp needle like teeth are waiting.

The Ægiric whiskerlure grows to around 13 centimeters long, making quite a sizable creature this deep below the waves.

 

Night-sky Fish

 Deep down, in the cold dark abyss of the Ægiric Ocean, lives a creature that looks like it should have no place in this mortal universe. 

Skin black as coal, sunken eyes through which no light shines. 
Massive translucent teeth and a face full of barbels that wriggle in every direction.

Yet at the tips of these fleshy whiskers are small bulbs of light.

The skin of this hideous creature soaks up all the light so all that can be seen are ten tiny lights, flickering like stars in the dark of night.

The identity of this monstrosity? 

It is actually just a night-sky fish (Vardichthys devorator), an abyssopelagic nienktvis barely 7 centimeters in length. 

Art by BobsicleG

This animal behaves much like an anglerfish from Earth. It hangs in the water column, waiting for prey to swim by and get attracted by its bioluminescent lures.

Its terrifying teeth serve not to impale or slash, but rather just to trap and make sure prey does not escape from its maw.

As with many other deep sea fish, it has a very flexible stomach that can expand to a great size to encompass a meal.

Not much else is known, for this creature was not observed in its natural habitat. Rather it was pulled to the surface when it became ensnared on a deep line.

Good for us so we can study it, less for it because it died from decompression sickness.

Clade overview: Nienktvissen

The oceans of Eryobis are teeming with life, from worms that look like straight up aliens to scallops that decided they wanted to be fish.

Obviously there are also still vertebrates in the oceans in the form of fish and secondarily aquatic land vertebrates, but there is also another kind of "vertebrate" that lives in these oceans. Conodonts, while completely extinct on Earth for hundreds of millions of years, are still alive and thriving in the Eryobian seas.

Genetic testing suggests there were at least seven different conodont lineages to survive the mass extinction known as the World Scarring. 

As they always were, many of the still living conodonts are small, eel-like inconspicuous creatures. But there is one order that stands out, being among the most recognizable animals on Eryobis: the Teuthomorphichthyes. 

Better known as the nienktvissen, squidn'ts or "murder-molas", after one terrible incident, these conodonts are some of the most objectively easily identifiable creatures in the oceans. 

Nearly all of them swim not by undulating as most condonts would, but by flapping their very large dorsal and ventral fins, which were modified from the ancestral caudal fin. This gives them a style of swimming akin to the Molidae of Earth, which is ofcourse where the nickname "murder-mola" comes from. The majority of nienktvissen also possess from five to seven gill-slits and numerous long whiskers and tendrils near the mouth, which serve all kinds of purposes from feeding to steering.

Another common characteristic is their tooth elements which are often plate like and tend to stick out.

The hypothetical ancestor of the Nienktvissen

Nienktvissen are incredibly diverse and can be found in every ocean, sea and even in some freshwater habitats. They range in size from just a few centimeters long to gigantic oceanic cruisers like the lantern leviathan with its ten meter wingspan. There are even some forms which have evolved to live close to- and in the sediment, adapting to live on their sides like flounders and Planosolincolans. Unlike these true fish however, such nienktvissen have instead lost the eye that would permanently face down, essentially becoming cylcopean. 

Some examples of living nienktvissen

Despite their incredible diversity and richness in species, nienktvissen are notoriously difficult to classify among themselves. The terms "nienktvis" and "squidn't" were often interchangeable for early explorers, but recently it was established that squidn'ts are a type of nienktvis, specifically those within the Teuthomorphichthyidae, which are the true squidn'ts. But because of the interchangeability of the names in the early days of exploration, there is a lot of animals called "nienktvis" that should be classified as a "true squidn't" and vice verse a lot of "squidn'ts" that are outside Teutomorphichthyidae and are thus nienktvissen or "false squidn'ts". 

The fact that genetic testing has also yielded little result so far does not help with classifying them either. So while species and genera can be placed within families, those families can often not really be placed within a larger group.

Lantern Leviathan

“…huh what’s that?”
“Holy f*ck”
“Oh my god”
“Would you look at that… holy…”
- radio recording of divers in submersible [REDACTED]

Their reactions are understandable. It’s not every day when you’re deep in the open ocean in a tiny submersible that you accidentally stumble upon a, as of yet, undiscovered titan of a fish. Luckily for them, this is the Lantern Leviathan (Charonichthys lucifer), a gentle giant that feeds exclusively on zooplankton and other small free swimming animals.

With its fins spanning over 10 meters in length and weighing multiple metric tons, this is by far the largest nienktvis alive, one of the biggest marine animals on Eryobis and possibly the most massive conodont that has ever lived.

While nowadays these leviathans live in the upper water column, peacefully filtering food with their gills, their bioluminescent organs reveal that their ancestors did not share this pacifism.
Typically speaking, the only other nienktvissen with bioluminescent organs are bathypelagic predators. Using bulbs on the ends of their whiskers to attract prey and glowing teeth/ gums to guide food to the mouth.
While it seems the giants have kept this strategy, they now use it for a less bloody purpose than their demon toothed deep sea cousins.

Opal-eyed Squidn't

"...When we first set sail to collect and catalog marine fauna in the seas of Eryobis, we had no idea what to expect. After many days of catching, analyzing and observing, we captured many species of fish, crustaceans and even some marine insects, but we were surprised to find that there were no cephalopods among our catches. Which was... weird, actually.
Genetics gave revealed that most species on Eryobis diverged from their Terran relatives somewhere in the early Jurassic and we know for a fact that there were cephalopods swimming around in that time."

"On the last day of our expedition, just as dusk began to fall and we were about to leave, I saw something in the deep. The silhouettes of conical shaped creatures with two big fins on one end and multiple appendages on the other. Could this be? A squid at last? And even though they appeared to be swimming in the wrong direction, I figured anything was possible keeping in mind what other strange animals live here."

"As by law, anything we saw, we had to collect and catalog, no matter what the cost. But the squids kept their distance while there was still light. So we figured that like with squids on Earth and other colonies, we had the best chance of catching one after dark. We set out our traps and nets, as diving in the dark was a little too scary for us, and waited for one to take the bait..."

"Several hours must have gone by, as it was only after midnight that we finally got one. Instantly awakened from our naps, we started pulling up the net as quickly as possible. It went surprisingly easy, the animal wasn't struggling at all. Full of excitement, we pointed all our lights at the net as it was pulled out of the water. But inside, well, was no squid. It remained still, until the moment a flashlight met its eye. Then all of the sudden the creature started thrashing around and with its razor-sharp teeth, it cut through the net and fell on the deck. Here it began thrashing its body even more violently. As one of our team members tried to subdue it, with a single sideways motion, the creature chopped of his right hand and slit his throat with its teeth.
Blood flowed everywhere, covering the entirety of the deck and as the creature was still jumping around... we had no choice but to kill it. After multiple missed shots, we finally managed to stab it in the eye with a harpoon. As our team member had bled out, his hand separated on the floor, we got the chance to take a better look at this monster."

"It had a smooth skin, no scales at all, yet it was surprisingly thick and leathery. Seven gill slits lined up behind its large eyes. It has two large fins at the back of its body with several finlets in front and behind it.
Lining its mouth were ten whisker-like appendages and then finally, the mouth itself. It was absolutely horrifying to look at. Four huge tooth-plates lined the edge of the mouth, all of them independently movable from one another. Looking inside the mouth was like staring into hell. Many tooth-plates were located in the mouth, several rows of teeth of different shapes and sizes lined its maw like gears in a machine. All were rotatable, most were extendable."

"Later research would point this creature out as a Conodont, a kind of jawless "fish" that went extinct in the late Triassic. So as of yet, no squid have been found on Eryobis..."

Survivors of the World Scarring: Aquatic vertebrates

The devastating mass extinction known as the World Scarring happened around 121 million Eryobian years ago, marking the end of the Bobossic period and subsequently the Prosarmozoic.




Palaeontologists knew for a while that a there had been a massive die off among virtually all organisms at the end of the Kikilian age of the Bobossic period, but weren’t really sure what caused it. The Kikilian-Thyellian boundary is clearly defined as a jet black layer in the rock, but surprisingly there is no iridium to be found here. This ruled out an asteroid impact, but it contains mostly the burned plant material and very little volcanic ash in most places, which means it couldn’t possibly have been formed by volcanic activity. Yet, the layer seems appears in rock formations all over the world and even some marine deposits feature what seems like a burn layer. There is no gradual evolution in deposits from the Kikilian to the Thyellian and animals and plants alike appear to have died rather sudden, which means that whatever caused the extinction happened very quickly. But if asteroid and volcanoes can be ruled out, what could have caused this massive die off?




Scientists started looking for clues and began hypothesising about what might have happened. Some thought it was a big solar storm, others assumed it was a nearby supernova or gamma ray burst. Some thought it was a global fire caused by sudden release of methane in the ground and others thought that a nearby moon came too close to Eryobis and caused tidal forces to burn the surface of the world. There was even a theory that a technologically advanced species caused global warming and climate change as we did back on Earth and perhaps they nuked their world to near extinction. Unfortunately, all of these theories would have left clearer traces if they did in fact happen than what we can actually find.




Then a new theory arose. First thought of by a geologist who was digging in Lotharca and discovered a layer of obsidian that seemed to have been formed at a temperature comparable to the surface of a star and quickly cooled as if exposed to the cold vacuum of space. Curiously, this layer can be found nearly all over Lotharca and even seems to be visible in parts of Rubiëra and appears to line up almost exactly with the Kikilian-Thyellian boundary, be that it seems it cut into Bobossic deposits while Thyellian deposits lie neatly on top. So it appeared that we finally discovered a geological anomaly that correlates with the Kikilian-Thyellian mass extinction, but it only complicated the matter. There is no natural phenomenon that could have literally melted the crust these continents and then let them cool quick enough for this large an amount of glass to form. Besides, there’s no impact sites on that seem to date the same age… or is there?




Turns out there’s a huge nearly straight canyon that runs through the middle of Lotharca. It’s so large in fact that it can clearly seen from space and is one of the most defining features of Eryobis. It appears like a scar on the world and is not surprisingly called the World Scar. Due to its size and shape, we assumed it was the result of tectonic forces ripping the plates in Lotharca apart. A recent scanning of the surface of the world however revealed that Lotharca is pretty much a single solid plate there are no boundaries even near the World Scar. This had led to the formulation of a theory that is equally outlandish as it is horrifying: the Kikilian-Thyellian extinction event was caused by an alien weapon.




While to many it sounded absolutely ridiculous at first, quick came the realisation that this very world we stand on was created by extraterrestrial beings with powers beyond our comprehension. It also wouldn’t be the first time we have encountered the effects of alien technology. On several of our colonised worlds we found traces of ancient civilisations and then ofcourse there’s the screaming case of the alien mega station that has led humanity to many of its current advancements, though its existence has been forgotten by most.




Then came the question: why? Why was an ancient super weapon fired against Eryobis? The answer that most seem to agree on, is that it wasn’t. Instead, they propose the projectile was once shot in an ancient battle fought by forgotten civilisations in an unknown part of the galaxy. The projectile could have travelled countless years through the emptiness of space before it eventually came to Eryobis by accident. The formation of the World Scar suggests the projectile merely scraped the surface of the world, but still managed to cause a mass extinction that is only rivalled by the Permian-Triassic extinction of Earth in severity, except far more sudden. The amount of energy this projectile must have carried is most likely incomprehensible to us humans. While we ourselves do not possess such weaponry, the projectile that caused the World Scarring would have been fired out of a “planet killer”, a weapon with enough power to vaporise the crusts of planets or outright destroy them.




We can see this in the soil turned glass found all over Lotharca and parts of Rubiëra. The projectile sliced through the atmosphere and likely formed a huge hole over the impact that exposed the molten surface to the coldness of space for just a moment. The impact vaporised the entire top 200-500 meters of water in a 500 kilometer radius and might have even set the atmosphere itself ablaze, sending a burning shockwave around the globe that would have consumed all organic matter in an apocalyptic inferno. Nearly all life on the surface of Eryobis seems to have been killed off almost instantly.

Recent studies have shown that the aftermath of World Scarring would have been far more destructive than previously thought. All the water that was vaporised in the impact would have rained down and caused deluges of biblical scale as soon as the atmosphere cooled down again, which further explains why there were so ridiculously few animal species on land that made it through.

And while we previously thought that the oceans had been mostly spared save for the surface waters, new evidence suggests that the extinction would have been just bad, if not even worse in the oceans as it was on land. We knew that all surface waters evaporated instantly when the projectile struck killing of most life in the photic zone and all freshwater organisms, but the aftermath would have been even worse. The removal of the at least the top 100 meters of surface waters around the world would have disrupted and destroyed all major currents. And while the rest of the water would not have been vaporised, it would’ve boiling hot for another 100 or so meters down, killing all that lived there. On top of that, the massive displacement of so much water created a vacuum and pulled waters towards Lotharca from all around the world. Deep sea environments would have been completely destroyed as incredible suction forced pulled them from the depths. Then there were the deluges on land, whose water would was not as salty as the sea but carried massive amounts of debris, further causing turmoil in oceans around the world.




If what our simulations suggest actually happened, it’s a miracle anything survived at all. To test the theory, researchers went out and started comparing the genetic material of fish alive today. What they found was horrific. They discovered that all fish alive on Eryobis today can be traced back to a mere 20-ish ancestors that made it through the World Scarring Event. It’s terrifying to think that out of what must have been over 20.000-30.000 fish species in late Kikilian, only an approximate 20 survived, truly showing how devastating the extinction really was.

With this in mind, archeologists went looking for fish fossils from the early Thyellian and indeed, they found 19 clearly distinct genera that appear after the World Scarring.

1-7. Seven of these survivors were Conodonts. Known mostly from their tooth remains, but they were apparently so abundant in the Thyellian that we have more than a few soft tissue fossils of them. They were all quite small and not much is known about them, all we know is that one of them would give rise to the highly successful “murder-molas” known as Nienktvissen.

8. A small species of Seiomourid coelacanth of the Mawsoniid lineage. Curiously, it appears to belong to the genus Tompouzia, which was already known from Kikilian aged rocks. This makes it so far the only surviving creature with fossil records before AND after the World Scarring. Tompouzia typically measured between 10 and 20 centimetres in length and would’ve fed on crustaceans and molluscs most likely.

9. One single species of flattacanth survived the World Scarring: the Onychepizon micrurus. Its pectoral and pelvic fins were small and sported one large claw-like spike that was likely used to dig and cling onto the seafloor. Its tail was small and narrow and it likely swam with its large dorsal and anal fins. It measured roughly 30 centimetres in length.

10. The only true bunnyfish other than flattacanths to make it through was the Lagoselache durus. A small bunnyfish with a shark-like heterocercal tail that would have most likely fed on small invertebrates. Like all bunnyfish and their flattacanth relatives, they come from the Mawsoniid lineage. It grew between 40 and 50 centimetres in length.

11. There were two types of Baculopterygian coelacanths of the Latimeriid lineage to make it through the World Scarring. The most abundant of these was Truemderia tridorsalis, a small fish that grew to about 16 centimeters long. Like all Baculichthyes, it used its pelvic fins as claspers and intromittent organs.

12. The second Baculopterygian was the far larger Serragingivus primivaeus, a predatory fish that might have been the largest animal to survive the World Scarring. Measuring a whopping 90 centimetres long, it would have been the apex predator of the Thyellian oceans. It had a row of teeth in the middle of its upper jaw that were somewhat reminiscent of Eugeneodonts and like them, it probably would’ve hunted mostly soft bodied animals like Conodonts and small fish.

13. A small (yet unnamed) species of Rokanizid coelacanth of the Latimeriid lineage. It was the only Rokanizid to survive due to its deepwater habitat and durophagous habits, unlike most Rokanizids which were herbivores in shallower waters. It measured between 30 and 40 centimetres long.

14. One of the strangest animals to survive the World Scarring was Xenornithogyrinus mirabilis. This animal could best be described as “a fish, but with extra steps”. This creature was a the larval form of “pectoral-fin-first” Octopodichthyian Volichthyiiformes (flish). The ancestors of X. Mirabilis were flying animals that laid their eggs and lived their early lives in water. This variety however, apparently chose to stay in the water. What’s unclear however, is whether Xenornithogyrinus became neotenic before, or after the World Scarring, as no evidence of similar creatures exists from the Bobossic. It was very small, most measuring under 10 centimetres in length.

15. The only non-Octopodichthyian spiderfish to make it through the extinction was the Tetrapodichthyian spiderfish Ericionaris natans. This spiderfish measured about 5 centimetres long and would have had a similar legspan. From its pectoral fins sprang long tendrils, their function is still unknown.

16. A basal Holostean with uncertain affinities, this small fish would have been a bottom feeder that felt the sediment with its barbels, searching for worms. This fish was called Naglimmia diouros and measured between 10 and 15 centimetres long.

17. Another small basal Holostean fish was Pleurolepion labroides. This fish measured around 10 centimetres long and would have lived near the seafloor, feeding on mollusks,

18. Probably the most abundant fish of the early Thyellian was the Paleoeryoscopelus macrolepidotus. A small and basal Diplorachopteran that is thought to have somewhat resembled lanternfish. The frequency in which their fossils are found suggests they formed great shoals. They measured between 8 and 18 centimetres long.

19. Another kind of Diplorachopteran, but much more advanced. This was Pinnansium dimorphis, a predatory fish that showcased distinct sexual dimorphism. The males had a distinct spine on their first dorsal fin that curved forwards, had a long gonopodium on their anal fin and measured 50 centimetres long on average. The females lacked the spine on the first dorsal fin, had no gonopodium and measured 60 centimetres long on average. The large spine of the males likely served as display organ and may have been used by the females to hold onto during mating. They would have preyed mostly on smaller fish.