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Description
Very abundant in forests and wetlands of Sonata
Earthbinders are semi-aquatic annelids (ringed worms), living in large swarm of 150 - 1000 individuals. They are carnivorous but also more than ready to consume corpses.
The typical hunting strategy is to follow much larger but not too dangerous animals (the larger the swarm, the bigger the prey they choose) underground. They wait until the target moves slowly enough, then the whole swarm bursts out of the ground together, targeting the limbs of the prey and just hold at it until the prey collapses for the whole swarm to finish it up. They have a mild paralyzing venom, but multiple bites at the same time can immobilize the prey of appropriate size in less than a minute. A single earth binder isn't too dangerous, but get caught by a swarm of a few hundreds is almost a sure death for normal people.
Sometimes, you may see a person sitting on the soft mud, shallow water or wet forest floor, looking numb. The locals call such mishaps "earthbound". Don't try to rescue them, because you can't see how many more earthbinders are underneath.
They are also opportunistic, consuming small animals get caught on their path and even dead earthbinders.
Their body is divided into 3 major parts: the head and first few dozen segments (15-30%) is armored (sometimes they are mistaken for athropods), the main trunk that is soft and smooth, and the tail with hooks (less than 15% total length) to anchor into the ground. The armored segments are very sturdy as the preys may try to bite, attack with claws or trample on. But the armored section can't contract or expand, so the speed at which an earthbinder can burst out of or withdraw into the ground depend completely on the softer backward part of the body, this section is also almost entirely responsible for locomotion, that's why it's so much longer than the armored part or the spiny tail. This part is always underground to be safe, only the armored part reach out to attack.
Annually, during the rain season, they return to rivers and lakes to reproduce. They mate and lay thousands of eggs in shallow water, the eggs hatch after a month. The larvae are aquatic and hunt alone, have long, fin-like hairs on the sides to swim. They spend 2-3 years to mature and it's during the mating season that large terrestrial swarms gather on the shores, young adults also leave water and join the swarms, their chetae (hairs) would have diminished weeks earlier. Despite being terrestrial, they need very moist and soft grounds, such as marshes, muddy shores, thick rotten vegetation,... very few swarms even remain aquatic and retain the chetae found in juveniles.
By the time they leave the water, a young adult is about 3 feet (1m) long, with the head and the first 15 segments (30% body length) covered in a chitinous armor. By this time, they don't join big hunts as it's too dangerous for them. The average hunting adults is 2.5 meter long with over 20 armored segments (50cm, 20% total body length). Really old adults can have up to 30 armored segments (70cm) and be as long as 4 meters.

Description
Very abundant in forests and wetlands of Sonata
Earthbinders are semi-aquatic annelids (ringed worms), living in large swarm of 150 - 1000 individuals. They are carnivorous but also more than ready to consume corpses.
The typical hunting strategy is to follow much larger but not too dangerous animals (the larger the swarm, the bigger the prey they choose) underground. They wait until the target moves slowly enough, then the whole swarm bursts out of the ground together, targeting the limbs of the prey and just hold at it until the prey collapses for the whole swarm to finish it up. They have a mild paralyzing venom, but multiple bites at the same time can immobilize the prey of appropriate size in less than a minute. A single earth binder isn't too dangerous, but get caught by a swarm of a few hundreds is almost a sure death for normal people.
Sometimes, you may see a person sitting on the soft mud, shallow water or wet forest floor, looking numb. The locals call such mishaps "earthbound". Don't try to rescue them, because you can't see how many more earthbinders are underneath.
They are also opportunistic, consuming small animals get caught on their path and even dead earthbinders.
Their body is divided into 3 major parts: the head and first few dozen segments (15-30%) is armored (sometimes they are mistaken for athropods), the main trunk that is soft and smooth, and the tail with hooks (less than 15% total length) to anchor into the ground. The armored segments are very sturdy as the preys may try to bite, attack with claws or trample on. But the armored section can't contract or expand, so the speed at which an earthbinder can burst out of or withdraw into the ground depend completely on the softer backward part of the body, this section is also almost entirely responsible for locomotion, that's why it's so much longer than the armored part or the spiny tail. This part is always underground to be safe, only the armored part reach out to attack.
Annually, during the rain season, they return to rivers and lakes to reproduce. They mate and lay thousands of eggs in shallow water, the eggs hatch after a month. The larvae are aquatic and hunt alone, have long, fin-like hairs on the sides to swim. They spend 2-3 years to mature and it's during the mating season that large terrestrial swarms gather on the shores, young adults also leave water and join the swarms, their chetae (hairs) would have diminished weeks earlier. Despite being terrestrial, they need very moist and soft grounds, such as marshes, muddy shores, thick rotten vegetation,... very few swarms even remain aquatic and retain the chetae found in juveniles.
By the time they leave the water, a young adult is about 3 feet (1m) long, with the head and the first 15 segments (30% body length) covered in a chitinous armor. By this time, they don't join big hunts as it's too dangerous for them. The average hunting adults is 2.5 meter long with over 20 armored segments (50cm, 20% total body length). Really old adults can have up to 30 armored segments (70cm) and be as long as 4 meters.