Lyre

'Important note: This species was created with vore in mind so there will be references to it throughout this (both fatal and non-fatal). If you don’t like vore this species doesn’t have to be used for it but please keep this in mind when reading, thank you!' Lyres are a medium sized rodent species, the most widespread and common species in Faria. Before the arrival of humans, lyres would have been considered to be the dominant sapient species since they were previously the most advanced race in Faria. Whether they are still the dominant species or not is a matter of debate.

In spite of being one of the most preyed upon species in Faria, lyres are much more resilient than most would think. Their ability to adapt to nearly any environment and take advantage of what’s available to them has kept this species thriving in the face of the constant threat of being eaten.

Biology
Lyres come in four recognized subspecies largely found in specific continents. While there are many subspecies they have consistent traits that are easy to recognize one by. Most notably they have slender builds, very long necks and a long, thick tail. Average height is between 4’2”-4’7” in males and 4’-4’5” in females. Males and females of all subspecies are sexually dimorphic. They have two hues of colour; one exclusive to a single sex which can be used to identify one from the other easily, some differ more drastically than others. While a lyres appearance is sexually dimorphic, this does not always align with gender identity and a lyre may identify with the opposite or a nonbinary gender.

The best senses lyres have are their vision and hearing, their eyesight is so keen and sharp that even a twitch won’t escape their notice. Hearing is equally as sharp and acute, to the point where it is very tricky to ambush a lyre unless you are completely silent and unnoticed, something only very skilled predators can do. Lyres ears are highly flexible and expressive, allowing them to move them in all directions to listen for danger from their surroundings. Lyre ears are also used to express their mood by habit. A lyres sense of smell slightly surpasses a humans but is bested by other species like anurans and even some varieties of beastkin.

Teeth are like that of a rodent with large front incisors and several molars at the back, as well as small and primary canine teeth near the incisors, further signs of their adaptability. Front incisors are quite sharp on their own and grow constantly. To prevent problems with their teeth developing, lyres keep blocks of softwood around their home to chew on to keep their teeth worn down and healthy. Eating a lot of tough foods or chewing on bone also helps.

Subspecies
Four distinct subspecies of lyres have evolved to adapt to different climates and hazards of nature which has affected their appearance over millions of years of evolution.

Northern lyres
Northern lyres live primarily in Reistein and have the longest fur of all subspecies, ideal for the cold environment. They have very short ears to keep in body heat and large, strong paws to dig through snow and ice, often used to hide from predators or ambush prey. Their naturally light fur colour helps camouflage themselves further in their terrain. This subspecies also packs more muscle than other subspecies and are strong fighters hand to hand.

Males have grey hues of fur with a dark grey streak down the back, females are white/bluish white with a light blue streak down the back.

Villages are usually made out of wood and stone. Ice may be used in regions more sparse in flora, as well as some villages being situated inside of icy caves. The pelts of hunted prey are used to clothe themselves and trap in additional warmth. Northern lyres specialize in the use of spears and other long range weapons as they can be used at a distance and do not damage a pelt enough to make it unusable.

Because of the harsh weather conditions of Reistein, merchants are rarely seen on the snow-trodden paths. Those brave enough to face the cold conditions will often return home with fine pelts, leather, durably crafted spears and most valuably ice, which is often transported by merchant ship with as much work put into keeping it cold as possible. Farther north settlements also trade logs of rare whitewood from whitewood trees, which can only be found in the coldest of climates.

Southern lyres
Southern lyres live primarily in Malina and are short furred and agile, easily able to leap up into treetops in one hop as well as being nimble climbers. They are also highly resistant to a majority of toxins and poisons found in Malina and often make their homes in the highly toxic forests and jungles as natural protection from the outside world. As a result they tend to be a bit secretive and wary of other species coming uninvited into their home.

Males are brown-dark brown with a black crescent above their eyes, females are white with a light purple crescent above their eyes.

Homes are made out of wood and are built to be very tall instead of wide to reduce the need to cut down trees for space, some villages also like to build treehouses. The homes usually have three floors each but some can be taller. Villagers often grow toxic plants they are immune to around the borders of their village for additional protection from outsiders. Because their homes are so toxic, they can only grow crops for farming and any meat is whatever they can hunt in the forest, often small game like birds and small mammals and reptiles.

The only animals they do farm are local bees for their honey with suitable protection. Southshade bee stings, while not poisonous to southern lyres unlike most other species, are still quite painful. Honey and mead made by lyres in Malina often fetches a high price overseas and even in some local mixed settlements, so it's often traded to merchants for supplies they can’t get at home. Honeycomb from Draasil Village is famous in Malina and is popular with lyres and food connoisseurs across the globe, so it fetches a very high price amongst merchants who sell it for its unique colour, flavour and medicinal properties.

Eastern lyres
Eastern lyres live primarily in Sphraga and have the shortest fur of all subspecies. Large, broad ears keep their bodies cool by allowing them to exude as much excess body heat as possible. They are extremely resistant to pain and rarely require aid, able to tough though some of the most severe injuries, even surviving injuries that should immediately kill them for a time. Like their southern cousins, they're highly poison resistant albeit specializing more in being resistant to the venoms of Sphraga's many venomous predators, but eastern lyres take it to another level as some venom can even result in easing pain.

Males are a terracotta red colour with black markings on their eyelids and ears, females are a sandy yellow colour and share the same eye and earmarks as the males.

Ideal homes for eastern lyres are tight, deep canyons or cliff sides in natural or dug out caves, alternatively at the tops of rock formations in tents. This subspecies is well known for specializing in combat and hunting but also surprisingly are skilled artisans; making some of the finest and most colourful clothing and pottery in Sphraga. Pots made by eastern lyres are used for decoration and storage or to carry water home, they are also popular with merchants for trade for how delicately crafted they are. Eastern lyres are also a common source of Sphragan oil for merchants, which fetches very high prices overseas and therefore means merchants have to give their best goods for it.

Dune birds are famously tamed by eastern lyres to travel over longer distances and carry cargo around, as well as to use their running speed to avoid predators the lyres can’t outrun as easily on their own.

Western lyres
Western lyres live primarily in Andor but the seas around it being full of monsters make travelling in and out of Andor dangerous, so this subspecies of lyres are rarely found outside of their home continent. Western lyres existence is debated outside of their home, and in some cases they and/or their home are thought to not exist at all.

They have an average length fur for a temperate climate and have the ability to see as clearly in the dark as they could in the daytime. Their eyes are also able to glow distinctly in their individual eye colour. This has caused western lyres to be nicknamed moon lyres for their higher capability of surviving during nightfall.

Males are yellow with black spots over their eyes and rings on their tail, females are black with white spots over their eyes and white rings on their tail.

While it isn’t commonly known by the rest of the world, western lyres like to live in temperate, well situated locations and build small huts out of cobblestone and thatched or wooden roofs. They are also skilled at metalwork and use this for weapon and tool crafting, their ability to see well in the dark makes mining ore an easier task for them. Weapons and refined Andorite ore are traded to merchants. Because of how rare it is, especially since it’s hard to get it overseas without crossing the Monster's Drink that surrounds Andor, any that makes it out of Andor fetches a high value for its rarity as well as durability and natural sheen.

Hybrid lyres
Hybrid lyres used to be extremely rare to the point of being thought to be mythical in Faria up until the emergence of the city of Laissez Faire in Nowe 200 years ago. Northern lyres are the most common subspecies found in the city since the city sits on the border between Nowe and Reistein. Eastern and southern lyres are also found there so Northern/x hybrids are fairly common. Because of this Laissez Faire holds the highest population of hybrids in the world.

Hybrids carry traits of both parents and have more unusual coat colour/marking combinations from them, usually a mix of normal colours and markings from both of their parents subspecies, though they often have unique markings and colours of their own. Hybrids usually inherit the unique abilities of one parent but rarely can be born with both. Hybrids who come from the same parents may not necessarily have the same markings or colour as each other so their appearances can vary drastically even in siblings. The father's traits are usually more likely to be visually prominent than the mothers but it’s possible for hybrids to physically take more after their mothers.

Western lyre hybrids are the rarest type of hybrid and subspecies due to how rare western lyres are to find outside of Andor already. Rumors of sightings in recent years have been confirmed but many have never seen one with their own eyes.

Behaviour
Lyres live in small villages of their own kind as well as in mixed species settlements like Laissez Faire and Goldenleaf Crossing. A very small handful have moved into The Warren by joining its military/air/navy forces, a feat that isn’t easy for non-human species.

Lyres like to live in the same home with lots of family and close friends as they are close to one another and have a strong sense of community. It’s rare to find any home with less than at least 10 lyres living under the same roof, as often more than one family share a house together. Housing space is delegated so each have their own quarters to call their own and sleep in but all the families eat and engage in activities in a single large room which is used as a kitchen, living room and dining room. Lyres live this way as this allows them to bond more closely with their family and friends, increasing safety in numbers and increasing the chances of their children growing up to have offspring in the future. Large extended families are normal amongst lyres to the extent that a nuclear family home is seen as odd to lyres.

Villages are kept running with farming, craftwork and trade which different lyres will take up. Most villages also have a schoolhouse where the pups of all ages are taught practical skills useful to their village such as reading and writing in Lyran and other local languages, hunting, fishing, foraging and learning to recognize tracks as well as other signs of activity from other species. School is present but not mandatory in lyre settlements. Many parents like to have their children apprentice with them or others in their village to hone skills as well for their future, but some might send children to school so they have more time to spend with friends.

Lyres place a lot of value in creative outlets. They adore creating and appreciating all sorts of art forms like paintings, carvings, clothes/tapestries, writing, music and many others as well. It's important to their culture as it allows for an outlet of personal expression and is typically used to tell a lot of their history and beliefs.

Lyres as Predators
Lyres would not have survived without becoming capable predators themselves in their dog-eat-dog world. Because of their respect for nature they hardly ever eat more than is necessary, nor do they take more than they need from their environment around them.

Lyres are omnivorous but need a healthy amount of meat in their diet. For a live meal they tend to prefer small prey that is easy to swallow and carry around while carrying on with their day. Hunters will kill larger prey to take back to the village to cook and share with everyone to keep up good relations.

For larger/sapient prey, lyres prefer eating live prey for self-defense purpose usually, though it’s not unheard of for a lyre to enjoy hunting live prey for the sole purpose of a meal. Usually it’s easier for lyres in mixed settlements to get away with indulging themselves in a nice, wriggly meal all for themselves without needing to worry about what others think.

Lyres as Prey
If you asked lyres in almost any village how many predators they have to worry about, they wouldn't be able to count them on all their fingers and toes. Many predators in Faria prey upon lyres as they're easy to overpower alone, their small frame means they're easily swallowed by either large predators or very opportunistic ones. Nagas, chimeras, some aghrahn species (mainly rock aghrahns), predatory beastkin, anurans and plenty of non-sapient flora and fauna species have predated on lyres.

Just because they are common prey doesn’t mean they make it easy however. Lyres keen senses, intelligence and adaptability to their environments has kept them around and they are able to protect themselves/others and get to safety again, as well as being cunning and quick-thinking enough to use their environment to their advantage to defend themselves or make a hasty escape.

Lyres are a hardened but humble species, they know they have endured and survived as a species but they never let this go to their heads. While a lyre will fight and struggle to escape their end as much as they can, their deep respect for nature means when their kind are facing death, even if it’s themselves in their final moments, they usually don't feel any fear, seeing it as them playing their role in natures cycle as their gods intended.

Diet
Lyres will readily and happily eat fruits, vegetables, nuts and other such foods eaten fresh or cooked with a meal, they're especially fond of honey and tend to be beekeepers just to get easy access to it. Lyres enjoy having a light amount of alcohol with a meal, typically one glass a day over a conversation as excess drinking is usually seen as improper. Mead and wine are the most popular options as that's what lyres specialize in making, but they can enjoy other typical tavern beverages.

Weaknesses
While lyres are cunning enough to slip through the grasps of predators alone or use their environment to mislead or dissuade predators, they're very prone to their own moral codes getting in the way of the lengths they will go to in order to stay alive in the face of direct combat with a predator. Lyres have a fatal flaw in their approach to survival where they try to be sporting in the balance between predator and prey, seeing their struggles for survival like combat overseen by their gods. Lyres believe their gods wouldn't always approve of them doing anything underhanded in a fight unless it was to protect the life of someone else, so they tend to try to fight predators very cleanly when forced to confront them directly. This of course is almost never reciprocated by their predators who will take advantage of any move they can make to sway the odds in their favour, no matter how underhanded it may be. Whether this is using their size, abilities or in the case of anurans bringing unbridled chaos in the form of a raid backed up by larger numbers, lyres can be easily overpowered by their opponents being more keen to not play by any rules in order to get a meal.

At the moment they have failed to keep out of the grasp of a predator, many larger predators from here will not have difficulty swallowing a lyre as they have such a slim build on average, but their small size makes this even easier for them. The gluttonous nature of an anuran means that even though their archenemies are taller than they are, they would never turn down a chance to eat a "blue-blood" all for themselves and show them what for. An anuran can just about manage walking home with their prize in their stomach with a little help from other members of the swarm.

Spirituality
Lyres are largely a spiritual species. Many lyres believe in The Family, a religion and pantheon of gods that likely was conceptualized by lyres themselves long ago. Lyres believe The Family created and shaped the world around lyres, and that the gods created lyres so they could devote their lives to giving back and tending to Faria. Even if a lyre is not pious to the core, they may passively accept that the gods simply exist and live their lives around tending to nature contentedly.

The lyres way of giving thanks to their gods is to pay respects and give thanks for the gods eternal work through prayer, and it's expected of every lyre to give back to nature as much as possible. Lyres do this by gardening/flower arrangement, beekeeping, planting trees, raising livestock among many other things. Lyres are cautious of never taking more than they need from nature as they believe that excessive greed and wastefulness is a sin in the eyes of the gods.

The most pious of lyres will travel the world alone and spread knowledge and guidance from their gods. They do this by planting trees and seeds in various places and speaking with those interested in listening to stories about the gods, they might also invite passerby's to plant trees/plants with them. These lyres may also leave on pilgrimage to meet each of the embodiments of the Four Children, a journey that many lyres do not return home from due to predation or choosing to remain at a gods embodiment to tend to and worship them.

A yearly festival at the beginning of autumn called The Festival of Gods is held by lyres everywhere, and it's a big occasion for them. The festival lasts for a whole week and even atheist lyres will use it as an excuse to socialize, drink and have a good time. Crops of the year are shared with as many people as possible by serving them fresh or using them to cook meals for a feast, all to celebrate their gods. Foreign delicacies from other continents are used to symbolize their cousins presence and bring all seven gods together. Lyres celebrate with lots of music, singing, dancing, drinking (traditionally mead or wine but ale is acceptable) and plenty of prayer to their gods as well. It’s all done to give thanks to their gods for watching over them and for the bounty nature provides. Lyres don't typically celebrate any other occasion on this scale, especially since hedonism is generally frowned upon in their culture, so this is the one time of year they can really let their hair down and have fun. Mixed settlements use it as an excuse to throw a festival that still carries out the tradition of the huge public feast and drinking in excess as a community.

In a darker turn on their faith, lyres often believe that the anurans are embodiments of the terrors of the dark that once plagued the world due to their preference of living in dark places like caves and the depths of forests, though this can be seen by others as a poor excuse for deeply seeded bigotry. Lyres mourn their dead and hold humble sendoffs. Lyres don't bury their dead in coffins, use preserving wraps or cremate their dead as they believe doing this defies their gods will for all life to give themselves back to Faria upon death. If there is a body to bury, lyres will perform green burials in scattered graves, failing this they create a carving or figure in their likeness to bury, praying for their body and soul to return unhindered to the soil and their gods in the afterlife. Their deep respect for nature and their dead means lyres see it as one of the greatest offenses to unearth their dead, seeing it as sinful to tarnish their loved ones legacy and to interfere with the natural cycle the gods intend for their loved ones to play their part in.

Lyres don’t keep a designated graveyard, they will instead scatter their burials but mark them with flowers. This is actually done in defense against beasts or scavengers to keep them away from their villages. On some occasions, especially beloved members of the community may receive burials in the village.

Overall
Lyres are generally considered a peaceful species, they get along with other species on good terms most of the time. A lack of an aggressive nature helps with this but lyres can be easily provoked into biting back with stern words when they feel they are in danger, or if they, their family or beliefs have been disrespected.

On a common level, many may see lyres as stuck up or stubborn due to their tendency to be sticklers to rules and traditions, but their inclination to help others and work together means they can be counted on and trusted in a pinch, and will not turn tail or ignore others in need their aid. Lyres have not lasted without being wary of predatory species like deceivers, rock aghrahns and chimeras. They do make enemies in spite of their best efforts to be above such things, so there are species they have poor relationships with, though just as easily there can be exceptions on individual basis.

Anurans
Anurans and lyres have hated each other for as long as they can remember, members of both species would scoff at the notion of a time when they once did get along. Anurans are despised by most lyres for their aggressive, rude, possessive and greedy natures which strongly contradict lyres own perception of the right way to live life, as well as believing that anurans embody the evil forces of the dark that want to take back the world from their gods, calling anurans night terrors as a derogatory term in reference to this and their nocturnal nature. In turn, anurans dislike lyres back because lyres push for them to be driven out of mixed settlements, as well as seeing lyres as stuck-up snobs, often calling them blue-bloods in a derogatory manner in reference to the cold attitude towards them. Some anurans think that lyres literally have blue blood, this of course isn't true and is just confusion caused by anurans misunderstanding the term.

Anurans are additionally a threat to lyres as they will eat lyres given the chance, as well as stealing food and tools from them. Incidents of huge swarms overrunning and devouring almost all of the lyres in villages, driving out the rest and taking it over for themselves have occurred in the past as well. Lyres won’t hesitate to defend their homes to the death from anurans if it means keeping everyone else alive.

Humans
Humans aren’t usually a species lyres in the present day worry about as much as they did 200 years ago, but lingering animosity from the past persists from lyres primarily. When humans first arrived on Faria, they went out on missions hunting for raw supplies by whatever means they could, invading and destroying lyre territories in their path. This lead to The Southern War in which many died, especially the lyres as they could do little to nothing against the humans superior technology. While this war only affected the southern lyres, who hate humans the most, the stories told of the war are a cautionary tale in the minds of lyres everywhere. The sacred villages are known to forbid humans from entering just to protect their gods physical embodiments. Lyres are wary of humans for their technology. Many lyres have not yet grasped or understand technology well due to The Warren being extremely controlling over technology leaving its walls and due to them being mistrustful of Earth Tech due to the death it caused centuries ago. Lyres still debate today over what to do with technology or what harm it could cause if they embraced it. Even the rare and working old tech available in Faria is treated with suspicion. Some lyres have taken to learning and using technology, choosing to make the most of it if they've got and reap it's benefits.

Nagas
Nagas are very disliked by lyres simply for being especially terrifying predators to them. A single naga that gets the chance to will happily devour and kidnap multiple residents of a village before being satisfied and can easily overpower a group of warrior lyres trying to fend them off. Lyres are still brave enough to fight them, even alone if it means others can get to safety.

Nagas who try to fit into settlements after moving from the Outer Lands have a hard time doing so. Lyres are so common and widespread that their presence is frequently the reason nagas are driven away. As a means of gaining trust with lyres, nagas will eat other predators/threats to lyres safety to get into their good books. It's common for nagas in mixed settlements to maintain doing in order to ease the tensions their living amongst their prey would create, allowing them to build a decent reputation.

Dromos
Dromos are disliked by many lyres mostly on a principle of beliefs, which feeds into fear and mistrust of the harm the dromos could be capable of inflicting upon them. Lyres are aware from word of mouth that the dromos were created by humans from The Warren with the intention of them being used as super soldiers. This information fuels their distrust of technology, humans and worst of all (in a lyres mind) is seen as a sin of the highest magnitude to take the gods work into mortal hands, believing the dromos' entire existence to be sinful due to being created by mortal hands, as a tool of warfare and conquest no less. The dromos in no way reciprocate this hatred, happy to allow any lyres into the Dromos Settlement if they need of rest and provisions whether they're aware of this one-sided dislike towards them or not.

Treating Each Other
Lyres have a tight knit sense of community and togetherness when it comes to their own species, they will rarely if not never abandon their own. Lyres will also welcome others who have fallen on hard times into their home as they consider it abhorrent that others are left disadvantaged or homeless to the point where they welcome members of other species into their home often if possible.

At night, villages will also light a communal bonfire to ward off some predators and for villagers to relax and enjoy quiet time with friends or by themselves surrounded by others and this helps to cement their bonds further. Lyres avoid doing anything alone as it’s safer for them with being preyed upon quite often. It also helps with keeping their villages running efficiently when they work together and help one another as much as possible.

While lyres do not hold festivals or celebrate occasions outside of The Festival of Gods in an extravagant fashion, they do celebrate smaller occasions like birthdays, new pups being born and other such happy occasions in simple but enjoyable manner. This can be done by having a feast together in their home or celebrating around the communal bonfire every village has.

Atheist lyres
Their rarity likely stems from secretiveness, but it isn't unheard of for lyres to question their faith or believe the gods aren't real. These lyres usually live away from their kind in mixed species towns where their views are respected, tolerated, or at least where they won't be cast out for them. Even the most skeptical of lyres will retain their deep respect for nature. Questioning faith, quietly or otherwise, leads to ostracization from friends, family and neighbours.

Worst of all, if they are too vocal about their lack of faith, or found out to be outright atheist, they may wind up banished and never allowed to return. In the sacred villages it is considered punishable by banishment to so much as question faith. These banished lyres may find refuge in mixed settlements, but many become wanderers who travel the globe seeking out whatever the road ahead leads them to, though life can feel much harder for a lyre with no community to guide them.

Reproduction
At the beginning of winter, female lyres will enter their oestrous cycle, which lasts for only 3 days to 1 week. Partners already mated will either decide to use the opportunity to have more pups or their mate will simply help to relieve their mates desires as best they can to avoid a pregnancy.

Single females are courted by those who are interested in them, often prior to the females coming into their yearly cycle. Prospective partners have the job of impressing a female enough to make themselves seem a desirable mate to her as females have final say on the matter no matter how hard a partner may try. Lyres will keep themselves very clean and dress in the nicest clothes they have, from there they use their skills to bring presents of all sorts to a female. Music performances, dancing, handmade gifts, caught/foraged/cooked favourite foods and just about anything else they can think of will be showered on their desired mate.

If they are successful, the female will happily pair up and mate with a partner they've been swooned by and likely will become pregnant or adopt youngsters in need of parents. Males stick around with their partners to care for them while pregnant as hunting and foraging while pregnant puts to-be mothers at a higher risk of being killed by predators or other dangerous persons lurking outside their home. If a mother-to-be's mate dies, other villagers will help to look after her instead for the 6 months of pregnancy until the pups are ready to be born, and typically beyond this.

Life Cycle
Lyre pups are usually born in twins or triplets. Single pups can occur but this is uncommon and seen as a poor omen on a family's long term future. Lyres believe it means a family line will likely dwindle and die out. It is also uncommon for quadruplets to be born and any number of pups higher than that is rare. Stories of a litter of 11 pups originate in Reistein but no one is certain if this is true.

Lyre pups are born quite small but grow up quickly. The muscles in their ears are underdeveloped at birth so they are lop eared until they reach 2-3 years old, at which point they should perk upright, though sometimes this can happen later. A rare but minor birth defect can result in a lyre having lop ears throughout their lives.

Infant pups are carried on their mothers shoulders and neck, until they eventually get too big and will walk alongside her, though they will squabble over getting to be on their parents shoulders as a persisting babyhood habit. Pups are not allowed to travel outside of the village unless accompanied by adults for their safety. Lyres become teenagers at around 11-13 years and reach adulthood at 18 years old. Lyres have a maximum lifespan of about 70-75 years of age, but they commonly die much earlier than that due to predators getting to them.