Worldbuilding Wednesdays: The Breath of Life, Part Two

Welcome to Worldbuilding Wednesdays!  Every Wednesday, we spend what is probably far too much time walking through our worldbuilding process.  This week, we'll be presenting the next intelligent species for our world, what we've been referring to as the "furry."

Fair warning:  we're still not changing the name.

What We Have So Far

Furries are a species unique to the world we've been building, so unlike humans, we can't simply summarize what we have so far as "like on Earth, with these changes."  Instead, we're going to gather up all of the bits and pieces we've written about them so far:

Furries are creatures of the fog-belt hyperforests.  They live relatively high in the trees, at least high enough that falling is an issue.  They're gliders, but gliding isn't their primary mode of locomotion; they mostly climb and run along branches, with their gliding flaps used to increase the mobility of their leaps.  They possess gripping pads, climbing claws, and water-shedding fur.  They're nocturnal, they're tool users, but their sense of range is used more for gauging jumps than throwing things.  Rope is a common friend of theirs.  They're not as big as humans, but they are human-ish in height (and lighter than they look).  Furries are "cute" by human standards, and have features in common with raccoons, otters, and squirrels, but they are upper-tier predators who operate in packs.  They're omnivorous, with a diet primarily of meat, nuts, and fruits.  They're quiet ambush predators.

That's actually quite a bit!  Let's see about turning that into a profile like we did last week with the humans.

Furries:  A Profile

Creatures who originated in the upper reaches of the fog-belt hyperforests, furries have spread over time and can now be found almost anywhere on the planet.  The spread originally occurred in spurts, with furries initially "leaping" from forest to forest, but as they have adapted to terrestrial life, their population has expanded enormously.  Still, due to the time spent in different isolated biomes, furries are more biologically diverse than nu humans, and come in several "breeds."

  Physical Description.  A typical furry is between 1.2 and 1.4 meters in height, covered in short dense fur with dark colorations, mainly shades of brown and red.  Many furries have splashes of white coloration, especially on their faces, and certain breeds may have patterned markings, such as stripes, rings, or "masks."  Regardless of size or color, the primary body of a furry tends to be long and supple, with shorter limbs compared to a human of the same overall size.  All furries possess tails, with the average tail length being approximately 1/10 of the overall body length.  Each of their four limbs ends in rough, padded "paws," equipped with small but sharp claws and opposable thumbs, even on the "feet," though the digits on the "hands" are more dexterous.  Last but certainly not least, all furries have flexible skin flaps that stretch between the limbs.  The relative size of the skin flaps varies between the breeds, with the largest flaps extending just past the hands and feet and even attaching to the tail, and the smallest (seen most commonly on the terrestrial breeds) extending only as far as the knees and elbows.

Pictured:  An arboreal breed of furry, with large gliding flaps, a partial attachment to the tail, and "mask" markings on the face.

  A nocturnal species, furries uniformly have large, dark eyes, and facial whiskers allow them to move confidently even in complete darkness.  Large, agile ears adorn the top of their heads, and sensitive noses rest at the end of a blunt snout.  Though their other senses are sharp, furries are primarily visual predators, owing in large part to their hunting habits.

  Behavior.  Furries move and hunt in packs.  A typical pack will consist of a polyamorous group of adults and their mutual children, although larger "bands" of multiple packs will regularly be found occupying the same territory.  As the children reach adulthood, they tend to be traded to other packs or to separate and form packs of their own.

  Adapted to moving quickly in short bursts, furries can move equally well on two or four limbs, though their fastest method of movement is to leap; a furry can cover dozens of meters in a single bound, and can extend that distance with their gliding flaps.  The gliding flaps are primarily used to control their leaps, allowing a furry to change direction in midair and make incredibly precise jumps.  When not jumping, a furry can climb or run with equal speed.  They most often run on four limbs when they need to carefully control their direction, such as when running along a narrow branch.  They will otherwise run on two legs, allowing them to make use of their upper limbs to manipulate ropes.

  Furries are masterful rope makers and users, often using ropes to better control their leaps or to tie back their flaps and make walking, running, and manipulation of tools easier.  Furries are taught to make and use rope from the moment they learn how to walk, and it is exceedingly rare to see a furry without several loops of rope somewhere on their person.

  When hunting, furries are ambush predators.  Their markings allow them to blend into foliage and dappled shadows, which gives them time to gauge their distance to their prey.  Furries will approach from multiple, sometimes unusual directions, even hanging from upper branches as they prepare to strike.  Hunting alone, they will attempt to land directly on their prey.  In packs, they will do the same for smaller prey, with the others serving to cut off the prey animal's paths of escape; for larger prey, they will each target a different part of the animal, since one of the few things a furry doesn't have is an easy method to instantly kill a larger animal.

  Furries prefer meat but are omnivorous and will subsist on nuts and fruits when no prey is available.  A furry pack's territory is often delineated by caches of such foods that they store for easy access.  Against particularly aggressive predators, this auxiliary food also serves as a defensive weapon; more than one would-be furry killer has been driven off by hurled smashfruits.

  Furries are social and gregarious creatures, though not terribly loud.  When they encounter other packs, they tend to cuddle more than fight, and it's not unheard of for the adults to greet each other with sex.  Any child born to an individual is considered the child of the pack as a whole, so accidental parentage is not an issue for furries.

  Environment.  Furries are comfortable in any sort of weather but prefer cover to open terrain.  As such, they are most often found in the forests of their origin, as well as areas of thicker growth and mountainous terrain.  Surprisingly for creatures so light, they aren't skilled swimmers and tend to avoid areas of open water.

Conclusion

We have now completed two descriptions of intelligent species.  Next week, we'll cover the final intelligent species, the scalies.  We still won't be changing the names, though.  There's a reason for that, we swear. 

We just won't be talking about it any time soon.