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SkarmorySilver — Smoktober Day 7: Stollwurm
#chimeria #dragon #dragons #smoktober #stollwurm #tatzelwurm
Published: 2019-10-07 17:09:35 +0000 UTC; Views: 7314; Favourites: 172; Downloads: 15
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Description
Day 5: Stollwurm - A Western dragon with hindlimbs but no forelimbs.Wyrm/Ogre: Bergwurm
Height: 25-30 feet tall
Length: 90 feet long
Weight: Up to 20 tons
Setting: Fantasy
Danger Rating: 9/10
Attacks & Abilities: Brute strength, armored hide, bite, stomp, tail whip, leaping pounce, acid spit, scent tracking, deafening roar
The Banibjarg Mountains, encompassing the northeastern nations of Thuleheim and Lugosilvania, comprise some of the tallest mountains in Occidens, although some other peaks elsewhere in Chimeria exceed them in maximum altitude. While many terrible beasts prowl the forested foothills and snow-capped jagged summits alike, the dragons are both the most notorious and, from an outward glance, the most inexplicable - this being a largely boreal climate, it would be extraordinarily difficult for a cold-blooded reptile to even survive here. The internal fire of dragons however is nothing if not persistent, and while somewhat less common than mammalian and avian fauna due to the latter having a better-adapted metabolism and more active lifestyles, the ones native to these mountains get by thanks to a different strategy altogether: sheer size, aggression, and brute strength.
The bergwurm is one of the largest non-volant dragons known in this area, and indeed one of the largest in Chimeria as a whole. Resembling a freakish hybrid of retro-carnosaur, alligator, and giant monitor lizard, its body plan vaguely resembles that of a theropod dinosaur or retrosaur with a spine that can assume either a diagonal tail-dragging pose or a largely horizontal one but with the relatively short, compact torso and the long, thick, counterbalancing tail slanting downwards a bit in a sort of slouch. The forelimbs have all but vanished, with only vestigial little spur-like claws remaining, but the hind limbs are enormous, heavily built, and equipped with digitigrade feet that sport three splayed walking toes ending in massive curved eagle-like talons and two vestigial dewclaws on each heel. The upper surface of the beast is a dark olive green in color and studded with bony plates, spikes, and scutes like a crocodilian, including a row of dark green plates, each with a light gray bladed plate like a shark's fin, running down the midline of the spine, which sports a muscular ridge over the torso and the base of the somewhat upwards-curved bull neck, packed with enough muscle to swing its massive head around with unexpected speed and force. Finally, the head itself, able to devour an entire oxcart in one enormous bite, resembles a mix of alligator and Gila monster in shape with the massive powerful jaws of a tyrannosaur, with a row of tall hornlets over each pronounced brow ridge, a similar series of spikes on the "chin" and along each side of the back of the lower jaw, and relatively small, bright red eyes with vertical slits for pupils. The gigantic maw has a broad, forked tongue, beaded lizard style, but much more concerning are the many, many rows of fangs emerging from the gums like those of a sand tiger shark, but with an almost rounded cross-section and of course a much greater size - the largest of these can grow as long as a man's leg, with thumbnail-sized serrations for leaving grievous flesh wounds as the bergwurm punches its teeth through any and all organic matter it can fit in its mouth.
Lacking wings, fire breath, or indeed any explicit magical abilities, the bergwurm makes up for it with raw power, tenacity, and an appetite that can devastate an entire town in less than a day. Just one of these terrible creatures has the strength of a whole herd of pachyhemoths, able to obliterate almost any manmade barrier simply by walking through it as though it were a plywood picket fence, and it is equally skilled at tracking prey thanks to its acute vision, incredible sense of smell, and the directional scent tracking afforded by its bifrucated tongue. Worse yet, it can digest any organic matter it swallows, and even some inorganic matter, thanks to its extremely caustic digestive juices and even venom that acts similarly; the inside of its gullet is lined with glands secreting an alkalai-rich mucus that keeps its acidic spit from hurting itself, which most things unlucky enough to end up in its maw don't have. If sufficiently pressed it can even spray its venom like a perfume spritzer the size of a small house, creating a toxic, rancid fog that can kill off entire swaths of plant and animal life. Alternatively, its massive lungs, the better to extract as much oxygen as possible from the thin high-altitude atmosphere, allow it to emit a terrifying roar that can be heard for miles and can blow back even unsecured objects as large as carriages at close range.
Because it lives in the harsh mountain climates and rugged peaks of the Banibjarg range, the bergwurm needs its massive claws and muscular legs to scale the steep slopes without incident, a must for pursuing fresh meat in its home field. Able to keep its footing even on broken terrain, it has a ruthless tenacity that the God of the Hunt would be proud of - the scarcity of suitable prey in its natural range means it pursues every potential victim (sapient or otherwise) as though it would be its last meal, refusing to give up until either it or its prize is dead. Even its own kind aren't safe - eggs are laid in the summer in the relatively warmer forested foothills and then abandoned without a second thought, as adults will snap up any juveniles within reach, and females have been known to make a post-coital dinner out of their mates out of sheer desperation in leaner times. In general, though, bergwurms primarily target meagafaunal prey such as pachyhemoths, caprachs, rasseltingers, or even other dragons like hyrndoorms they chance across.
In spite of its incredible power, the bergwurm's conservation status is quite poor, even though its habitat is remote enough that encounters with it in the wild are mercifully uncommon. That said, truly desperate individuals have been known to invade inhabited villages and wreack absolute havoc, scooping up screaming townsfolk and livestock alike. Any juveniles encountered even in their natural habitat are often killed on sight, both by sapients and natural competitors such as panthrirs, which an adult bergwurm may also consider as snacks if other game isn't available. Even naturalists who have studied these titanic flesh-eaters regard them as a dire threat - one such professional cited the threat level of a mature bergwurm as being on par with a bull pachyhemoth in rut, a comparison which is exceedingly rare even in biological academia. That said, the importance of bergwurms in the Banibjarg ecosystem should not be understated - they are the only predator durable and persistent enough to take on the largest prey in their native range and win, thus keeping their numbers under control. So the current and arguably safest advice from the various wildlife departments throughout northeastern Occidens is that if even a juvenile bergwurm sets up camp near your town or village, it is best to leave immediately - in no small part because all attempts to get rid of such a pest have ended in dismal failure... along with the extraordinarily gruesome deaths of everyone involved except the pest itself.
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Thought I'd try a little something special for today's entry. This is a sort of sneak peek at the Chimeria project that my good friend Lediblock2 and I are collaborating on, which he has previewed before as well. The description for this dragon is ludicrously long, but I absolutely love how both it and the design turned out, so nyeh~! I also plan to finish up the primer for Chimeria as a whole once I've completed Smoktober, including the locations, mythos, and the 20 monster categories which we've combined pairs of to come up with the 400 hybrid monsters for this little project. So keep an eye on my gallery and your deviantWatch for when that time comes to pass!
Special thanks to TyrantisTerror on Tumblr for the prompts for this Smoktober art challenge! The link to the challenge is here:
tyrantisterror.tumblr.com/post…
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Comments: 14
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
so is dis the evolved form of Deviljho or a true sub-variant 'ere im confused and love the design X3
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh no no, this isn't a Monster Hunter fan-species - it's an original species of creature inspired by Deviljho! Perhaps I should've changed up some of the elements of the design so it stands out more in its own right, though. Hindsight is 20/20, I guess.
Incidentally, I did make an actual Monster Hunter fan-species for this challenge as well:
👍: 1 ⏩: 1
lol, i see, and that is an interesting design though looking at (the elder wyvern) it i immediately thought leviathan and/or brute wyvern mhmm whats wyvern X then?
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Could you please describe some of the other species mentioned offhandedly in the description? (pachyhemoth, caprach, rasseltinger, and hyrndoorm)
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
- Megafauna/Megafauna - Pachyhemoth: A colossal grazer based on the Biblical Behemoth, combining woolly rhinoceros, mammoth, entelodont, uintathere, armadillo, ground sloth, and even ankylosaur into one gigantic super-herbivore bristling with horns and tusks, covered in both bony dermal armor and thick fur, and so massive that not even the fiercest of predators dare to attack it.
- Megafauna/Giant Spider - Caprach: Huge multi-eyed, eight-legged spider-goat, a common cave-dwelling livestock creature. Said to be the mount of the gods in some myths, a nod not only to Sleipnir’s role in Norse myth but also to how Thor’s chariot was pulled by goats.
- Megafauna/ROUS - Rasseltinger: Giant megafaunal jackalope with a bison-like build and Megaloceros-esque antlers on a rabbit-like head. Originally native to a futuristic world, descended from a genetic experiment with the intent of creating a wild game beast to fill the void left by the extinction of many large wild animals that were overhunted by humans.
- Wyrm/Megafauna - Hyrndoorm: Huge blubbery linnorm with walrus tusks and rhinoceros’ horns that lives in cold northern seas, based on how a wooly rhino skull was thought to be from a dragon. It preys on shoals of fish via suction-feeding, but may venture to freshwater or even on land in tundra biomes to find carrion as well; its horns and tusks are primarily used for defense from even larger sea monsters.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Whoa, Deviljho, the years have NOT been kind! The Killer Croc look suits ya, though.
👍: 2 ⏩: 0
Deviljho was the first thing that came to my mind, especially the head. Well done otherwise, especially on the lore part !
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"Of course I'm always angry, when you know a T-rex can pick up things easier than you, wouldn't you be?"
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I'm just gonna leave this here....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sYBGF…
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yep, Deviljho was one of the major design inspirations - the notes for the Chimeria monsters even cite the concept for this big lug as being primarily Deviljho-inspired! Other design influences include Sharptooth from the original Land Before Time film, the Vastatosaurus rex from King Kong '05, the Gourmand from Dougal Dixon's The New Dinosaurs, and a bit of the supersized Carnotaurus from Disney's Dinosaur for good measure.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
you think Ultraman will be rebooted to look like this?
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