The Cradle Principle suggests that Yggdrasil’s links depend on the type of life, linking Earthlike worlds with Earthlike life while remaining separate from more Earthlike worlds.
Life on Arunes is remarkably similar to that on Earth, with a mixture of mammal-like, reptile-like and bird-like life filling much of the spotlight. Classes include four-eyed mammalian quadroculi, often large, warm-blooded, reptilian pseudosauria, and mammal-like, amphibian mamamphi.
Komaki are large, ground-based pseudosaurian predators with highly pronounced tusks very similar to the lystrosaurus of Earth. They are extremely agile and powerful, serving as apex predators in the jungles. Tamed and even bred by various nations, their power, agility and endurance make them well suited as courier and war mounts, especially in urban territories and thick forestry where vehicles are impeded.
Sowari are very large, avian pseudosauria. These mountain-and-nexus-dwelling omnivores are capable of carrying several times their body weight, making them excellent sky mounts and light cargo carriers, and so they are well-prized by rural civilians and warriors alike.
Koto are simple pseudosaurian herbivores comparable to Earth’s cattle. While they produce live young and do not lactate, making them useless for both eggs and milk, they are excellent for labor and meat.
Taklo are small quadroculi - about the size of a small canid - with a parietal eye and opposable digits. Overall they resemble a cross between fox, squirrel and lemur. In the wild they are predominantly forest and jungle dwelling, and use their senses and agility to safely navigate both treetops and the forest floor. They are highly social, organizing into families called harems, and naturally fashion and utilize simple tools. They communicate using a variety of vocal and gestural cues, and are even capable of learning to reproduce small amounts of common speech and sign language. Due to their flexibility and intelligence they are prized as social and service companions.
Nemapa are mid-sized, quadrupedal mamamphi. As mamamphi they are capable of breathing both air and water and possess mammary glands similar to mammals. Their fine fur stands out among the class, earning them the nickname “river weasels,” and their high pitched, whale-like song has earned the secondary moniker “siren.” In marine society they serve as swimming and hunting companions, and they are highly capable as lifeguards, able to find swimmers in distress by scent and electrical field, using their teeth or claws to grasp them, and using their powerful hinds and fluked tail to drag them to safety.
Hybrids are creatures comprised of a mixture of plant and animal cells, a product of druidic bioengineering at the hands of the ulowa species. These are separated into two categories: Faunatype hybrids are more distinctly akin to animals, and floratype hybrids are more distinctly plant-like.
Jungi are mid-sized, quadrupedal pseudosaurs developed as a domestic species. Their torsos are covered in mostly insensate succulent leaves that regrow readily when removed. These leaves aid slightly in nutrition and metabolism, but removal will not harm a healthy jung. For reproduction, they lay eggs - sometimes jokingly referred to as true eggplants - and produce a functionally milk-like nectar from a gland hidden behind flap-like structures along the sides.
Tabis are small, rodent-like, quadrupedal quadroculi. Known also as flower-rats thanks to their distinctly floral scent, they were developed by an unknown group of ulowa to cope with life in the sprawls. Due to extreme urbanization, pollution in all forms was abundant, and tabis were designed to handle garbage and toxic gasses. The biological processes of tabis are extremely robust and flexible, yet remarkably alien by comparison to any other form of life on Arunes. When stellar radiation is not available to fuel their powerful photosynthetic process, they will supplement or entirely transition to other forms of energy, including thermal energy and even raw ether, allowing them to thrive under any conditions. Tabis exhibit litter-box behavior, isolating their droppings, generally away from active areas.
Reproduction is by far the tabi’s most bizarre trait, consisting of a secondary biostructure akin to a nest that acts as a kind of external reproductive system. This structure, called a “grove,” is seeded into compost piles formed by tabi droppings and collected refuse well away from possible intruders, often in sewers or landfills. Once developed, these groves produce a substance that breaks down refuse and kills potentially harmful microbes, then bud, flower, and fruit with anywhere from four to seven buds developing. This fruit is produced with or without fertilization and contains a hardy, pit-like egg at the center. Once hatched, the offspring will feed on the rich fruit surrounding its egg. Groves are not permanent structures and will deteriorate after all fruits have hatched or fallen.
Domestic breeds of tabi exist, and unfertilized groves are farmed commercially for their fruit. Tabis are also kept as household pets, prized for their friendliness and odor neutralization. Tabis are often humorously nicknamed “living garbage disposals.”
Oddities are paranormal entities, often developed from an existing species. Oddities occur on many worlds, but like gods and common spirits, their prominence is proportionate to the etheric exploration of the world’s corporeal inhabitants.
A polycaud is any creature whose etheric development is characterized by caudal overgrowth - larger or additional tails - often believed to be caused by profound changes in the spinal neurons. Pinning down the exact cause for tail-related changes has proven difficult, as polydauda from different species tend to exhibit different powers and neurological changes, and no solid set of causes has been established, although it has shown to be a hereditary trait.
Examples of polycauda from Earth include the Japanese kitsune and nekomata, and the Korean kumiho, but taklo and komaki have also been known to develop polycaudal traits.
Due to the altered spatial topography of Arunes, there are areas that trap deceased ghosts in a layer of subspace known colloquially as limbo, preventing them from passing on to an afterlife. It is also possible for heavily attached ghosts to linger without spatial distortions trapping them. These lost souls are generally unable to affect the tangible world or be sensed by its denizens, but through etheric sense a person may gain a kind of “second sight” and particularly strong phantoms may at times be able to expand their influence to move objects with little mass or establish contact with corporeal beings.
Locations where phantoms develop are called phantom valleys and settlements within them are known for establishing a functional relationship between corporeal beings, astrals, phantoms and other oddities.
Wraith are unique entities, perhaps not truly a form of life, but certainly worth caution. These pests exist in subspace as a consequence of the spacetime warping and splintering caused by Gaia during the Collapse. They are known to pursue strong EM radiation and ether, though by more a kind of magnetism than an instinct. Some wraith have been observed to sum up and exhibit more diverse, animalistic behavior, indicating some neurological analog or an emulative imprint of whatever creatures they may feed off of, and it is claimed that on rare occasion wraith may sum up with phantoms - the released yet lingering ghosts of the fallen - to form truly intelligent, sapient, yet parasitic entities.
Wraith extermination is an important job in society, with many police departments implementing specialized extermination branches.
