Salazzarine

Salazzarines are a species created by Cirr that originally appeared in Infiltration and has subsequently appeared in several other quests such as Venji (half appearance), Fish, Hugs Quest, and most notably The Cage, a sequel of sorts to Infiltration. They have also appeared as the guards in a game development project by Cirr, Aphelion Incident. Between Infiltration and subsequent quests, they underwent a redesign, mostly led by Typo, and Cirr now considers him something of a co-creator.

Anatomy

General

The original salazzarine design

Typo's redesign

A modern salazzarine

Salazzarine have four legs portruding outwards from their abdomen. They consist of two short segments and a long segment that ends in a point. They have two pairs of limbs on their thorax that follow the same structure, though the second pair is all but vestigial. Their heads end in a serrated mouth, with no distinct teeth. At the back of their heads is any number of varying protrusions, which vary by individual in size, shape, and number (This is the easiest way to tell individuals apart). Salazzarine are able to rather easily regenerate lost tissue to the point where given time they can regrow entire limbs. Also notably, salazzarine are extremely flexible, especially in the spine, and can bend it up to 90 degrees backward and at least 180 degrees forward.

Skin

Salazzarine blades

Despite having a distinctly arthropod-like appearance, salazzarine do not have exoskeletons, instead relying on a rather standard endoskeleton. Their bodies are covered with small, almost invisible fibers that give their skin a peachlike texture. These fibers weave together in certain areas to make the skin extremely rigid or sharp. This allows them to walk on the points of their feet comfortably. The most notable use of these fibers is in the arms, or blades. Unlike most of the fibers, salazzarine have direct conscious control over the fibers in their forearms and can make the inner edge of them sharp at will, as a natural weapon. These fibers may be able to function as setae, allowing the salazzarine to grip objects in a manner that doesn't involve awkwardly clutching objects between their arms. It has also been considered that this would make clothes very uncomfortable, accounting for their "naked alien syndrome".

Reproductive (because this is important on tgchan)

Salazzarine female genitals

A salazzarine (left) giving birth with her mate present

Salazzarine have a fractal genital structure, which results in a womb similar to a lung structure. The male copulative organ is internal when unaroused but expands to a treelike structure during intercourse to impregnate all of the eggs released. Salazzarine reproduce front to front, locking all of their limbs around each other in a hug. Salazzarine give live birth to a large amount of tiny larvae in a specially prepared pool. The parents feel no parental instincts towards them, however, until later, because until then all but a few, usually just one, of the larvae are killed and eaten by each other (Note: during the era of the Reeklid empire, this process was subverted to allow almost all larvae to survive, leading to a population explosion to be used as soldiers). Larvae must remain within water until after the first pupation, and after that are considered adolescent children. At the end of their childhood they pupate a second time to become adults. This process is sometimes traumatizing, because they spend several months unable to move and fully conscious, and occasionally die during it.

Mutation

A common beneficial mutation

Likely as a side effect of the regenerative abilities, salazzarine have a very high mutation rate. As there is a huge selection pressure as larvae and during pupations, beneficial mutations occur relatively frequently. Depending on the culture of the time period, mutants can be anything from heralded to enlisted as special agents to imprisoned. The most common mutation observed has been the presence of fully formed midlimbs, seen in both the main character of Cage and his cellmate, as well as the main character of Fish. The protagonists of Infiltration were selected for their beneficial mutations, and thus have especially unique ones of a binary vascular structure and a higher-performing brain in Woryeh, and eyes that can see in extremely low light and a sense of the anatomy of others in Zyeryh.

Culture

(uh this is harder than biology i'm a scientist not a sociologist cirr or maybe typo should probably do it)

Names

Salazzarine names almost always consist of two or three distinct syllables. Among friends and family they are often affectionately abbreviated to the first syllable. The syllables are usually quite short, and tend to follow a certain tonal pattern rich with sharp intonations and very often containing 'z' sounds. Cirr named all of the salazzarines in Aphelion Incident, and thus the guard data is a good place to get an understanding of naming conventions. Notably, the guard data contains one individual named Zuhnuffuh whose name deviates significantly from the naming conventions in that it is soft and dampened sounding from the repeated 'uh' sounds. He is shown to be embarrassed about his name because of this, and was likely made fun of because of it.

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