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Description
This is a VERY LONG post covering two unique species of Gorgaias, the Beithir (left) and the Boggun (right). Both are denizens of the mudmoor (click this link for more details about this unique biome, and to understand what some words like mudslime, slimeland and mudome mean).

Both Beithir and Boggun are descendants of fossorial animals; in the mudmoor environment that is composed of what is essentially a load of wet, soft earth and containing regions of lower oxygen quality, those kinds of species may have had an advantage in colonizing the biome first. Alternatively, it could just be that they were the among the first vertebrates to colonize the area, or even that they just found random success here.

Beithir are descendants of an amphisbaenian, possibly of the genus Monopeltis. The slimelands that are the principal feature of the mudmoor biome were easy for a highly skilled burrower like the reptile to traverse through and in time some of its descendants practically swim through it, using specialized sharp-edged snouts to cut through the pudding-like earth. The Beithir adapted to a predatory role, becoming quite large (up to 3 meters) and using its snout as a weapon. Beithir can equally carve their way through the underside of mudomes as they can swimming through slimeland as they search for various small vertebrates to eat. They are blind and no longer have eyes, but the nose and specialized ridges on the back act as a heat sensor, detecting warm-blooded prey from many meters away. One such prey frequently targeted is the Boggun.

Boggun descend from the Naked Mole-Rat. The Mole-Rats are some of the strangest mammals alive due to their ghastly appearance and even more so their eusocial societies, the only mammals to have such a structure. For whatever reason, not many descendants of the Naked Mole-Rat are known to have survived into the current era of Gorgaias, but one notable species that did is the Boggun. This grotesque creature retains a similar eusocial family structure as its ancestor, with some modifications.

All Boggun castes share certain features in common. The skin is completely hairless and covered in wrinkly folds that secrete an oily substance which helps keep dirt, mudslime and other substances off the skin when "swimming" and also helps prevent heat loss. While eyes are present, they are tiny and colorless, the species thus is essentially blind. Instead, it uses tendrils on its nose formed from specialized whiskers that can sense its environment, similar to a Star-Nosed Mole. With the slimy soil structure of the mudmoor, the Boggun almost swims through the environment and thus its limbs have developed a more flipper-like quality to them, at least by the hind legs (though they are not as specialized as true flippers). Boggun are fully herbivorous.

CASTES:

1. Worker Boggun are small, somewhere between a rat and a rabbit in size. They are sterile and can be male or female. They assist in maintaining the colony den built under mudomes, gathering food, and assisting the queen and princesses in grooming and moving around the offspring. Some workers directly gather food for the royal castes, and these workers are slightly larger than the others and had larger mouths, perhaps an adaptation for being able to bring back more food, though the difference is not great enough for them to be considered their own caste. Boggun workers feed mainly on mosses and lichens, but will also consume other fungus and plant matter.

2. The drone caste of Boggun society are known as knights. They are always male and are much large than workers, about the size of a badger. Knights keep watch of the colony using their extremely sensitive tendrils (proportionally larger than those of workers) to sense enemies. The upper inscisors have developed to form a massive tusk, while a pair of smaller tusks formed from premolars jut out from the side of the face. A Boggun knight can give major problems to any invading Beithir it finds, though with swift animals that are not blind, its best defense is using its size and appearance to intimidate them. Boggun knights do not depend on the colony for food and instead feed on certain species of mudslime. They are selective in which species to eat and will wade through the vast stretches of slimeland in search of their favored meal. Knights are technically not sterile and will mate with queens if she releases a special pheremone. If no knight is present in a colony, a queen can turn a male worker into one, thus also making him fertile. Normally, one offspring a year (out of up to 600) will naturally develop into a knight. Knights are known to sometimes enter a different colony they were born into and mate with their queens. Normally, Boggun inbreed like their ancestors, but this ocassional occurrence likely maintains some genetic diversity within the species.

3. Boggun queens are the only females that can reproduce. They are similar in length to knights, but far heavier. Massive amounts of fat are used as energy to feed and produce more offspring. A queen will give birth to nearly 100 offspring in a litter, each the size of a kidney bean. They can produce a litter every 7 weeks, making them among the most prolific reproducers of all mammals. Queens rely on workers to feed them and subsequently they have much reduced tendrils and can barely move.

4. Another caste (not pictured) is the princess. These are special daughters of the queen (never more than five at a time) that cannot reproduce when under her pheromones, but can lactate and thus help rear the young. They are smaller than the queen and knight, but much larger than the workers. They are less fat and have more functional tendrils than their mother, though they are fairly sedentary and are still fed by workers. If the colony gets too big, their mother dies, or they somehow get separated from their mother, a princess can morph into a queen after she mates for the first time and will then form her own colony. Usually once a new queen emerges, the workers gruesomely kill any sisters still in the colony.

Description
This is a VERY LONG post covering two unique species of Gorgaias, the Beithir (left) and the Boggun (right). Both are denizens of the mudmoor (click this link for more details about this unique biome, and to understand what some words like mudslime, slimeland and mudome mean).

Both Beithir and Boggun are descendants of fossorial animals; in the mudmoor environment that is composed of what is essentially a load of wet, soft earth and containing regions of lower oxygen quality, those kinds of species may have had an advantage in colonizing the biome first. Alternatively, it could just be that they were the among the first vertebrates to colonize the area, or even that they just found random success here.

Beithir are descendants of an amphisbaenian, possibly of the genus Monopeltis. The slimelands that are the principal feature of the mudmoor biome were easy for a highly skilled burrower like the reptile to traverse through and in time some of its descendants practically swim through it, using specialized sharp-edged snouts to cut through the pudding-like earth. The Beithir adapted to a predatory role, becoming quite large (up to 3 meters) and using its snout as a weapon. Beithir can equally carve their way through the underside of mudomes as they can swimming through slimeland as they search for various small vertebrates to eat. They are blind and no longer have eyes, but the nose and specialized ridges on the back act as a heat sensor, detecting warm-blooded prey from many meters away. One such prey frequently targeted is the Boggun.

Boggun descend from the Naked Mole-Rat. The Mole-Rats are some of the strangest mammals alive due to their ghastly appearance and even more so their eusocial societies, the only mammals to have such a structure. For whatever reason, not many descendants of the Naked Mole-Rat are known to have survived into the current era of Gorgaias, but one notable species that did is the Boggun. This grotesque creature retains a similar eusocial family structure as its ancestor, with some modifications.

All Boggun castes share certain features in common. The skin is completely hairless and covered in wrinkly folds that secrete an oily substance which helps keep dirt, mudslime and other substances off the skin when "swimming" and also helps prevent heat loss. While eyes are present, they are tiny and colorless, the species thus is essentially blind. Instead, it uses tendrils on its nose formed from specialized whiskers that can sense its environment, similar to a Star-Nosed Mole. With the slimy soil structure of the mudmoor, the Boggun almost swims through the environment and thus its limbs have developed a more flipper-like quality to them, at least by the hind legs (though they are not as specialized as true flippers). Boggun are fully herbivorous.

CASTES:

1. Worker Boggun are small, somewhere between a rat and a rabbit in size. They are sterile and can be male or female. They assist in maintaining the colony den built under mudomes, gathering food, and assisting the queen and princesses in grooming and moving around the offspring. Some workers directly gather food for the royal castes, and these workers are slightly larger than the others and had larger mouths, perhaps an adaptation for being able to bring back more food, though the difference is not great enough for them to be considered their own caste. Boggun workers feed mainly on mosses and lichens, but will also consume other fungus and plant matter.

2. The drone caste of Boggun society are known as knights. They are always male and are much large than workers, about the size of a badger. Knights keep watch of the colony using their extremely sensitive tendrils (proportionally larger than those of workers) to sense enemies. The upper inscisors have developed to form a massive tusk, while a pair of smaller tusks formed from premolars jut out from the side of the face. A Boggun knight can give major problems to any invading Beithir it finds, though with swift animals that are not blind, its best defense is using its size and appearance to intimidate them. Boggun knights do not depend on the colony for food and instead feed on certain species of mudslime. They are selective in which species to eat and will wade through the vast stretches of slimeland in search of their favored meal. Knights are technically not sterile and will mate with queens if she releases a special pheremone. If no knight is present in a colony, a queen can turn a male worker into one, thus also making him fertile. Normally, one offspring a year (out of up to 600) will naturally develop into a knight. Knights are known to sometimes enter a different colony they were born into and mate with their queens. Normally, Boggun inbreed like their ancestors, but this ocassional occurrence likely maintains some genetic diversity within the species.

3. Boggun queens are the only females that can reproduce. They are similar in length to knights, but far heavier. Massive amounts of fat are used as energy to feed and produce more offspring. A queen will give birth to nearly 100 offspring in a litter, each the size of a kidney bean. They can produce a litter every 7 weeks, making them among the most prolific reproducers of all mammals. Queens rely on workers to feed them and subsequently they have much reduced tendrils and can barely move.

4. Another caste (not pictured) is the princess. These are special daughters of the queen (never more than five at a time) that cannot reproduce when under her pheromones, but can lactate and thus help rear the young. They are smaller than the queen and knight, but much larger than the workers. They are less fat and have more functional tendrils than their mother, though they are fairly sedentary and are still fed by workers. If the colony gets too big, their mother dies, or they somehow get separated from their mother, a princess can morph into a queen after she mates for the first time and will then form her own colony. Usually once a new queen emerges, the workers gruesomely kill any sisters still in the colony.