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Description
Name: Charypterus
Aliases: Charybdis
Pronounced: (Cah-rip-ter-iss)
Faction: Rogue — Scyllorah & Charypterus
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Classification: Eurypterida / sp?
Length: 1,240 feet
Height: 250 feet (340 feet at full height)
Weight: 1,310 tons

Weaponry / Abilities:

Twin-Pincer Hacksaws:
One of Charypterus’ most defining features is his pair of “mirrored” pincers. These bizarre limbs make for effective “hands” and hunting implements. These heavily serrated appendages are also effective at manhandling and butchering enemy monsters.

Mandibles:
Charypterus’ mouth is complemented by an array of slicing, gripping mandibles. He can maneuver food into his slit-like mouth, as well as lacerate and remove chunks of enemy flesh, especially when the mandibles work in tandem with his head’s rough, abrasive underside.

Bullwhip Tail:
Charypterus’ tail is long, extremely muscular, and flexible, despite it being completely covered by heavy chitinous armor. It is an effective sculling organ, balancing pole, and bludgeoning weapon.

Arthropodic Armor Plating:
Charypterus’ body is shielded by heavy chitinous plates. Clad in one of the heaviest suits of armor on the planet, he is rendered invulnerable from virtually any attack. Thick triangular spines project from numerous points in his armor, giving Charypterus a number of weapons for delivering a quick counterattack.

Amphibious:
Charypterus is a slow but very capable swimmer. Undulating vertically to his destination, and his limbs tucked in to reduce drag, he can reach astounding depths and withstand intense pressures thanks to his heavy armor. Charypterus has two gill banks beneath his head, for filtering O₂ out of liquid water.

Sheer Size:
Thanks to his immense size, Charypterus merely shifting his weight can throw opponents off their feet, allowing his intended blows to literally send foes flying across the battleground.

Invulnerability:
Thanks to his size, muscle, and incredibly thick armor, Charypterus is nearly indestructible.

Steaming Lobster:
Charypterus carries in him a reservoir of seawater that he uses as an internal canteen, keeping his huge innards cooled when he’s away from the sea. The sac can also be heated and pressurized until the water inside turns into steam, which he ejects from pores scattered across his armor. The steam acts as a smokescreen and a scalding weapon all at once, wounding attackers and allowing him to escape or fight back.

Scylla & Charybdis:
Wherever Charypterus can be found, his crafty comrade Scyllorah is never far away. Those who dare bring harm to him when she’s in the vicinity…beware.

Weaknesses:

Heavyweight:
Due to his enormous size, Charypterus is an exceptionally slow mover. Lumbering across the battlefield, he can easily be outmaneuvered on land. He is, however, much faster in water.

Personality:
Charypterus is a textbook stoic. His anatomy doesn’t allow for much in the way of expression, so his emotional state has to be “translated” by his ally Scyllorah. The two kaiju are close allies and more or less inseparable: where one goes, the other follows. It’s believed that without Scyllorah guiding him Charypterus may go wild and become a danger to people, but for now he seems to be safely under control.

Combat Strategy:
Don’t let Charypterus’ stoic nature fool you: he can be very aggressive if he or his ally is threatened. He prefers simple attacks that favor his size and bulk, charging and tackling smaller monsters with slow, massive kicks, tail-whips, and swipes. His armor makes him very difficult to harm, while his steam blasts can push back and blind more persistent threats.

History:
First in 1959 and again in 1964, Russian scientist Andrey Kapitsa identified a large subsurface anomaly in the ice near the Vostok Station, a tiny Soviet observational outpost in the remote Antarctic. Later findings by Kapitsa and other scientists led to the discovery of a massive subglacial lake, approximately 160 miles long, which they later named Lake Vostok. Isolated for millions of years, and warmed from below by consistent geothermal activity, the lake showed promise for sustaining previously unknown lifeforms, perhaps forms more complex than mere extremophile bacteria.

In 1998, the multinational research team at Lake Vostok halted their ice core sampling, leaving three hundred feet of ice sheet between them and the liquid water beneath. Fearing contamination from the Russian’s excessive supplies of Freon and kerosene, the research team quit the site indefinitely in 2000, so the ice could have time to refreeze for later examinations. Considering the lowest temperatures ever observed were recorded at Vostok Station, the process wouldn’t take too long.

--------------------

Deep down, beneath the dark ice, two leviathans stirred. The new, pungent scents and tastes –leaking in from above were…intriguing. And the light! The strange pinholes of light! It was all too tempting to ignore.

They waited in silence, watching from the depths until the sky-noise ceased. They waited more. Nothing. Confident in their privacy, the larger rose to the ice ceiling, the smaller trailing close behind. The larger paused, compound eyes adjusting to the harsh light above the ice, and then struck out where it lay weakest. Shattered ice shards exploding in all directions, the arthropodic titan broke the surface, reached back into the deep and took his partner’s coiling arm, lifting her up into the light.

--------------------------------------------------

Artist's Commentary:
This is DOD’s first and so far only arthropod kaiju, Charypterus. A long way back, I designed a pair of invertebrate kaiju, an orthocone and a eurypterid, for fun and named them rather blandly as “Scylla” and “Charybdis”, respectively. Needless to say, I never had any purpose for them, so they stayed in creative limbo until recently. Since I have no other invertebrate kaiju, I decided to throw them into the mix, with a serious revamp for both in mind. The initial two names I gave them have been so overused for oceanic kaiju it wasn’t even funny, but I got creative and incorporated their old names into their new ones.

Originally, Charypterus was a fairly normal-looking eurypterid kaiju, albeit a spiny one; looking for something more inventive, I threw almost all logic out the window and opted for a pseudo-vertebrate design. Certain details, such as the serrated tail paddle, spiny arms, and four mandibles were carried over from the original design in some form or another. Character-wise, Charypterus was never really invested in that much, although I’ve seen him as Scyllorah’s bodyguard more than anything. The kaiju’s shared origin story is a big tribute to “Beneath The Dark Ice”, a sci-fi/action novel written by Greig Beck; Charypterus is also my personal tribute to the aggregate crustacean kaiju Destoroyah.

Artistic Notes:
— Charypterus has three “toes” per foot; two face forwards in a “V”, and the third faces back.
— Charypterus’ dorsal exoskeleton has three spines per section, with the largest in the middle, and two equally small spines on each side of it. The spines on the neck portion are all identical.
— Charypterus has three small, equally-sized spines along his head; in shape, they’re identical to the spines on his neck sections.
— Charypterus’ arms have nine spines per segment, with a spine on each side and one spine in the center; the spines on the inner side of his arms are smaller than those on the outside. He also has three spines per upper leg segment, and six per lower leg segment, with a spine on each side and one spine in the center for both; the spines on his inner legs are smaller than the outer ones.
— Charypterus has four vestigial limbs per side of his body. They have three joints apiece.
— Charypterus’ pincers are, vaguely speaking, like a “mirrored” version of a normal eurypterid’s pincers. Also, the most accurately drawn pincer design is his left one, not the right.

Description
Name: Charypterus
Aliases: Charybdis
Pronounced: (Cah-rip-ter-iss)
Faction: Rogue — Scyllorah & Charypterus
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Classification: Eurypterida / sp?
Length: 1,240 feet
Height: 250 feet (340 feet at full height)
Weight: 1,310 tons

Weaponry / Abilities:

Twin-Pincer Hacksaws:
One of Charypterus’ most defining features is his pair of “mirrored” pincers. These bizarre limbs make for effective “hands” and hunting implements. These heavily serrated appendages are also effective at manhandling and butchering enemy monsters.

Mandibles:
Charypterus’ mouth is complemented by an array of slicing, gripping mandibles. He can maneuver food into his slit-like mouth, as well as lacerate and remove chunks of enemy flesh, especially when the mandibles work in tandem with his head’s rough, abrasive underside.

Bullwhip Tail:
Charypterus’ tail is long, extremely muscular, and flexible, despite it being completely covered by heavy chitinous armor. It is an effective sculling organ, balancing pole, and bludgeoning weapon.

Arthropodic Armor Plating:
Charypterus’ body is shielded by heavy chitinous plates. Clad in one of the heaviest suits of armor on the planet, he is rendered invulnerable from virtually any attack. Thick triangular spines project from numerous points in his armor, giving Charypterus a number of weapons for delivering a quick counterattack.

Amphibious:
Charypterus is a slow but very capable swimmer. Undulating vertically to his destination, and his limbs tucked in to reduce drag, he can reach astounding depths and withstand intense pressures thanks to his heavy armor. Charypterus has two gill banks beneath his head, for filtering O₂ out of liquid water.

Sheer Size:
Thanks to his immense size, Charypterus merely shifting his weight can throw opponents off their feet, allowing his intended blows to literally send foes flying across the battleground.

Invulnerability:
Thanks to his size, muscle, and incredibly thick armor, Charypterus is nearly indestructible.

Steaming Lobster:
Charypterus carries in him a reservoir of seawater that he uses as an internal canteen, keeping his huge innards cooled when he’s away from the sea. The sac can also be heated and pressurized until the water inside turns into steam, which he ejects from pores scattered across his armor. The steam acts as a smokescreen and a scalding weapon all at once, wounding attackers and allowing him to escape or fight back.

Scylla & Charybdis:
Wherever Charypterus can be found, his crafty comrade Scyllorah is never far away. Those who dare bring harm to him when she’s in the vicinity…beware.

Weaknesses:

Heavyweight:
Due to his enormous size, Charypterus is an exceptionally slow mover. Lumbering across the battlefield, he can easily be outmaneuvered on land. He is, however, much faster in water.

Personality:
Charypterus is a textbook stoic. His anatomy doesn’t allow for much in the way of expression, so his emotional state has to be “translated” by his ally Scyllorah. The two kaiju are close allies and more or less inseparable: where one goes, the other follows. It’s believed that without Scyllorah guiding him Charypterus may go wild and become a danger to people, but for now he seems to be safely under control.

Combat Strategy:
Don’t let Charypterus’ stoic nature fool you: he can be very aggressive if he or his ally is threatened. He prefers simple attacks that favor his size and bulk, charging and tackling smaller monsters with slow, massive kicks, tail-whips, and swipes. His armor makes him very difficult to harm, while his steam blasts can push back and blind more persistent threats.

History:
First in 1959 and again in 1964, Russian scientist Andrey Kapitsa identified a large subsurface anomaly in the ice near the Vostok Station, a tiny Soviet observational outpost in the remote Antarctic. Later findings by Kapitsa and other scientists led to the discovery of a massive subglacial lake, approximately 160 miles long, which they later named Lake Vostok. Isolated for millions of years, and warmed from below by consistent geothermal activity, the lake showed promise for sustaining previously unknown lifeforms, perhaps forms more complex than mere extremophile bacteria.

In 1998, the multinational research team at Lake Vostok halted their ice core sampling, leaving three hundred feet of ice sheet between them and the liquid water beneath. Fearing contamination from the Russian’s excessive supplies of Freon and kerosene, the research team quit the site indefinitely in 2000, so the ice could have time to refreeze for later examinations. Considering the lowest temperatures ever observed were recorded at Vostok Station, the process wouldn’t take too long.

--------------------

Deep down, beneath the dark ice, two leviathans stirred. The new, pungent scents and tastes –leaking in from above were…intriguing. And the light! The strange pinholes of light! It was all too tempting to ignore.

They waited in silence, watching from the depths until the sky-noise ceased. They waited more. Nothing. Confident in their privacy, the larger rose to the ice ceiling, the smaller trailing close behind. The larger paused, compound eyes adjusting to the harsh light above the ice, and then struck out where it lay weakest. Shattered ice shards exploding in all directions, the arthropodic titan broke the surface, reached back into the deep and took his partner’s coiling arm, lifting her up into the light.

--------------------------------------------------

Artist's Commentary:
This is DOD’s first and so far only arthropod kaiju, Charypterus. A long way back, I designed a pair of invertebrate kaiju, an orthocone and a eurypterid, for fun and named them rather blandly as “Scylla” and “Charybdis”, respectively. Needless to say, I never had any purpose for them, so they stayed in creative limbo until recently. Since I have no other invertebrate kaiju, I decided to throw them into the mix, with a serious revamp for both in mind. The initial two names I gave them have been so overused for oceanic kaiju it wasn’t even funny, but I got creative and incorporated their old names into their new ones.

Originally, Charypterus was a fairly normal-looking eurypterid kaiju, albeit a spiny one; looking for something more inventive, I threw almost all logic out the window and opted for a pseudo-vertebrate design. Certain details, such as the serrated tail paddle, spiny arms, and four mandibles were carried over from the original design in some form or another. Character-wise, Charypterus was never really invested in that much, although I’ve seen him as Scyllorah’s bodyguard more than anything. The kaiju’s shared origin story is a big tribute to “Beneath The Dark Ice”, a sci-fi/action novel written by Greig Beck; Charypterus is also my personal tribute to the aggregate crustacean kaiju Destoroyah.

Artistic Notes:
— Charypterus has three “toes” per foot; two face forwards in a “V”, and the third faces back.
— Charypterus’ dorsal exoskeleton has three spines per section, with the largest in the middle, and two equally small spines on each side of it. The spines on the neck portion are all identical.
— Charypterus has three small, equally-sized spines along his head; in shape, they’re identical to the spines on his neck sections.
— Charypterus’ arms have nine spines per segment, with a spine on each side and one spine in the center; the spines on the inner side of his arms are smaller than those on the outside. He also has three spines per upper leg segment, and six per lower leg segment, with a spine on each side and one spine in the center for both; the spines on his inner legs are smaller than the outer ones.
— Charypterus has four vestigial limbs per side of his body. They have three joints apiece.
— Charypterus’ pincers are, vaguely speaking, like a “mirrored” version of a normal eurypterid’s pincers. Also, the most accurately drawn pincer design is his left one, not the right.