The Fangback is a species of land-dwelling apex-predator who call the harsh planet of Petrichor their original home. They are the largest extant predator of their Family, with exception of the rare Dyrfang. They have been used as a colony-substitute for filling the apex-predator role. The Fangback is a pack-based predator, and notably quite intelligent, so much so that it is believed that had humanity not intervened, the Fangback could have become a sentient race. The Fangback is universally identified by boney armor protecting their spine and head, and powerful jaws. Depending on the breed, they may live to be fifty years old, with some having been found at seventy years old and the Dyrback having been found in the wild at over one hundred years of age.
Table of Contents
Evolution and Subspecies
Pavonian Fangback
Adapted for colonization as a domestic livestock shepherd and protector, first genetically modified for the planet of Pavonis.
Ridgeback
Adapted by colonists on Petrichor as a domestic house pet. The Ridgeback lacks the spines of its ancestors.
Labyrisian Fangback
Adapted for colonization as an apex predator to balance the ecosystem of Libraria.
Dyrfang
A natural subspecies of the Fangback, the Dyrfang is a rarer and larger version of the Fangback. It is extremely solitary and will attack humans on sight.
Physical Characteristics
Build
The Fangback is normally characterized by a head that is, from an overhead view, spearhead-like. The plate-like boney armor that covers the spine of the slender fangback normally terminates in a series of sharp spines used for self-defense. These spines can be used to determine the age of the fangback; most species start with between five and twelve blade-like spines upon reaching adulthood, and each year after molting the top-layer of armor, an additional spine is added from the layer that used to cover the tail of the beast.
From a side view, the fangback has an ax-like face, with a boney-snout ridge between the eyes that is mirrored beneath the mouth, giving the fangback its characteristic ax-head look. These ridges contain sensory organs, allowing the fangback to locate prey in nearly any environment, often from a great distance or through obfuscation. In most species this cartilage and bone-armor extends over most of the body, protecting the fangback from others of its species, and making it difficult to kill. These ax-heads are often used in non-lethal mating competitions to ram other fangbacks.
The jaw of the fangback is powerful enough to crush the armor of other fangbacks. Considered by some to be horrifying, the outer layer of the jaw’s bone forms the first and second rows of saw-like teeth, which are meant to puncture, with additional rows inside used for both gripping and shredding prey. As few preys of the fangback have armor that would necessitate such powerful jaws, it is thought that the fangback’s ancestors may have killed each other in more violent mating rituals, or the fangback may have driven a major food source to extinction in the past 10,000 years. The back end of the jaw is used to crush bone, a vital resource of sustenance for the fangback.
The remainder of the body of the fangback resembles that of a tall, slender canine with four powerful legs, each having three manipulatable toes terminating in 2-5cm claws, with one extra-long opposable sickle-claw, often used to grip prey. The Pavonian Fangback and Dyrfang also have extra large dewclaws that act to shield the backs of the legs.
The muscle of the fangback is incredibly powerful, as necessitated by needing to move at great speeds with the armor they have.
Size
The smallest of adult fangbacks are usually found at about 90kg, much of their weight is found in their study bone structure, armor, and powerful muscle. Those growing to thirty to fifty-years old may be found at 400kg and a full three meters in length, with the Dyrfang growing as long as six meters and 1100kg. The smaller Ridgeback rarely grows as long as two meters, with most reaching full maturity at one-meter in length.
Behavioral Characteristics
Intelligence
While often considered to be incredibly violent, the fangback is also capable of performing mathematics, much like its wolf counterparts of Earth. The fangback is a very fast learner, owing to the domestication of the Ridgeback species of the Fangback, which is a more docile, yet still volatile breed. They have been found to imitate sounds of other creatures, though find it difficult to imitate non-indigenous species.
Fangbacks are able to communicate and pass down knowledge, as has been demonstrated by fangback packs shying away from humans, having never interacted with them, and have been compared in intelligence to that of a seven-year-old human child, or being slightly more intelligent than the common raven. They have been noted to engage in play, even in adulthood, and can make complex decisions and are extremely curious.
Mating
The mating rituals of the fangback are considered docile for such a powerful apex predator. The male fangback competes for the right to mate by ramming opposing fangbacks with its sturdy axehead, many relenting after short, high-speed engagements. More violent males may go so far as to rip one or more spines from the opposing fangback, which usually signals the end of the engagement. Fangbacks are monogamous for the season and some couples may choose to remain together over several years in spite of success or loss during mating competitions.
Lineage Hunting
Fangback pups do recognize their parents, but freely play with pups from other litters, and fangbacks readily care for other pups from their own packs, protecting them as fiercely as their own. Pups are often taught tasks by fangbacks only a few years older than themselves, as well as their parents, and many packs divide up hunting tasks based on age, with one “party-leader” being senior to the other fangbacks, overseeing and coordinating their hunting parties. As these hunting packs grow together, they will often learn independently how to hunt progressively larger game, new tactics for which have been shown to spread vertically among age-groups.
Pack Splitting
Fangback packs will often split by family-groups, rather than age-groups when their pack grows beyond thirty in number. The two packs drive far from each other to prevent hunting the same lands, and they maintain the memory of each other for decades to come, which has lead to “kingdoms” of fangbacks that will support each other in rare pack-feuds, and recently split packs will often inter-mate.
The family-line splits are commonly believed to help maintain education of the younger fangbacks, but it has been observed that, if several fangbacks offend older or younger fangbacks, the split may happen laterally, dividing a pack by age-group instead of family split. These packs often have trouble surviving, as other fangback packs see them as volatile and dangerous. However, lateral-split packs are often extremely insular and loyal to one another. Those that have succeeded in surviving long enough to bear a full lineage often dominate a region.
Lifestyle
While the fangback can sustainably operate on as little as six hours of sleep, they are frequently found basking on sun-warmed rocks and sleeping for ten to twelve hours a day. This conserves their energy, which they can release in powerful bursts while hunting. At least one member of a pack is on guard at all times while other members sleep. When sleeping at night, fangbacks frequent dens made from felled trees or caves. Some species of fangback have been known to dig their own holes.
Diet and Enemies
The fangback has few natural predators and is technically an omnivore, but is carnivorous in nature and can survive entirely on meat.
Relationship with Humans
The fangback was first found in 2610 by colonists settling on Petrichor, who nearly drove the local populations to extinction, but once the fangbacks began to show fear of humans, the colonists began conservation efforts, and a daring few souls even tried to tame the beasts to little avail.
While initially dangerous to early colonists on Petrichor, fangback packs quickly learned that humans were lethal, and most certainly were not prey. Ever since, most fangbacks have been scared of humans, though daring young fangbacks may venture into human territory.
Once humanity had been reunited, fangbacks were found to be an ideal apex land predator for nearby colony worlds that had required terraforming and establishment of an ecosystem. As such, the fangback became a commonly known animal with the region of the Threshold, its ax-head appearance giving rise to many Thresholder aesthetics.
WILDFIRES
Fangbacks grew to love the taste of cooked meat, and quickly learned from hunting parties on Petrichor the mechanism by which meat is cooked. Fangbacks, with relatively good armor to prevent serious burns, soon began to daringly steal burning logs and sticks from camp-fires to attempt to build their own bonfires for cooking meat, lacking the mental faculties required to start fires of their own.
Unfortunately, these fangbacks also lacked the mental capacity to prevent the fire from spreading, and wildfires broke out in many areas of Petrichor near colony towns, nearly bad enough to end the colonies themselves. The common thunderstorms of the area managed to put out the fires, and more strict rules were placed on hunting parties.
DOMESTICATION
The first domesticated fangback was born artificially in 2691 as an experiment into improving colonization of the planet Petrichor, but with genetic modification, fangbacks soon became a replacement for household dogs, of which there were few. Once made docile, they became a popular pet for their resilience, intelligence, and the mixture of dog and cat-like qualities. They remain difficult pets to maintain, as they can be fiercely loyal, and young fangbacks have been known to attack friends of the pet owner before they have learned more intricacies of human mannerisms. Formal training for fangbacks is required on most worlds, and breeding them is often banned.