Hephaestus - The Metalback Planet
Hephaestus is sometimes joked about, as Hell might be a better name for this blazingly overheated planet. Temperatures here are so high, than human explorers must wear protective suits when venturing afield, and indeed much exploration was done by machines.
Temperatures here range well into those that would scald or burn Earth-animals or plants, yet somehow life prevails. Hephaestus is closer to its yellow sun than Earth is to ours, and gravity is higher. Water exists generally as pools and lakes that can boil and simmer in places, and a misty pall of steam fills the air. It is no surprise that in such a hostile world, life is based around heat resistant metal oxides, mainly Tungsten.
Wolframite and other minerals containing tungsten are common on Hephaestus, and the food chain is based around these minerals. Plants leech metals from the rocks and soil to grow, which are in turn consumed and assimilated by the animals. Even primary and secondary consumers will sometimes eat metal-rich rocks for sustenance.
The plants here are metallic, and metabolise chemicals instead of photosynthesizing. Flora use their root systems to leach minerals and nutrients from the ground with chemical secretions, reproducing by spores when the immediate area is depleted. Forms vary, from dense columns of spongy, interwoven metal fibers, to branching flat metallic “leaves” and silvery hairlike “grass”, some places are covered in a thick tangle of looping wire-like spirals. Most plant life has forms optimal to gathering condensation during the cooler nights. The air is lower in oxygen than Earth, but Hephaestian animals respire using more than one type of gas, to best take advantage of the atmospheric mix of gases.
Hephaestean animals are unusual in the extreme; the dominant group are called “foot-mouths” or “metalbacks”. These creatures are radially symmetrical, with six legs growing from a central turtle-shell-like hip array. Oddly, these legs and feet usually each carry eyes, a brain and a mouth. Some have diverged from this form, sequestering some limbs to be exclusively “heads” and others to be “legs”, resulting in a wide array of physiologies. Not creatures of protein and carbon as would be familiar on Earth; their chemical basis are metallic-oxides. Their bones are made of solid tungsten; their muscles are flexible metallic tubes, their veins course with blood that is a kind of metallic fluid unlike anything on earth. Respiration is achieved via a large lung on the underside that draws in air through orifices along the side. Olfaction is achieved either by tasting the air with the foot-mouth lining, or the lining of the lung. Digestion involves heating food to melting point, as opposed to the processes of acids and enzymes. Reproduction occurs in an unusual way, after fertilisation the female expels its eggs as airborne, spore-like particles. Ones that settle in a nutrient-rich place (like a plant or a suitably metal-rich stone) will leach nutrients from its perch, swelling and hardening as the embryo develops, eventually hatching into a tiny miniature of the adult. All Hephaestian animals are mostly deaf, but are able to sense lower frequencies through the bones of their limbs.
Most invertebrates here resemble tiny, less advanced versions of the large animals, and indeed, it is from a larger one of these that the “metalbacks” arose. Not surprising perhaps that only one main lineage of animal life arose here, where conditions are so hostile.
Hephaestus has, despite euphemisms, earned its name; it is indeed a wondrous forge, to rival those that served Zeus.
Hephaestus is sometimes joked about, as Hell might be a better name for this blazingly overheated planet. Temperatures here are so high, than human explorers must wear protective suits when venturing afield, and indeed much exploration was done by machines.
Temperatures here range well into those that would scald or burn Earth-animals or plants, yet somehow life prevails. Hephaestus is closer to its yellow sun than Earth is to ours, and gravity is higher. Water exists generally as pools and lakes that can boil and simmer in places, and a misty pall of steam fills the air. It is no surprise that in such a hostile world, life is based around heat resistant metal oxides, mainly Tungsten.
Wolframite and other minerals containing tungsten are common on Hephaestus, and the food chain is based around these minerals. Plants leech metals from the rocks and soil to grow, which are in turn consumed and assimilated by the animals. Even primary and secondary consumers will sometimes eat metal-rich rocks for sustenance.
The plants here are metallic, and metabolise chemicals instead of photosynthesizing. Flora use their root systems to leach minerals and nutrients from the ground with chemical secretions, reproducing by spores when the immediate area is depleted. Forms vary, from dense columns of spongy, interwoven metal fibers, to branching flat metallic “leaves” and silvery hairlike “grass”, some places are covered in a thick tangle of looping wire-like spirals. Most plant life has forms optimal to gathering condensation during the cooler nights. The air is lower in oxygen than Earth, but Hephaestian animals respire using more than one type of gas, to best take advantage of the atmospheric mix of gases.
Hephaestean animals are unusual in the extreme; the dominant group are called “foot-mouths” or “metalbacks”. These creatures are radially symmetrical, with six legs growing from a central turtle-shell-like hip array. Oddly, these legs and feet usually each carry eyes, a brain and a mouth. Some have diverged from this form, sequestering some limbs to be exclusively “heads” and others to be “legs”, resulting in a wide array of physiologies. Not creatures of protein and carbon as would be familiar on Earth; their chemical basis are metallic-oxides. Their bones are made of solid tungsten; their muscles are flexible metallic tubes, their veins course with blood that is a kind of metallic fluid unlike anything on earth. Respiration is achieved via a large lung on the underside that draws in air through orifices along the side. Olfaction is achieved either by tasting the air with the foot-mouth lining, or the lining of the lung. Digestion involves heating food to melting point, as opposed to the processes of acids and enzymes. Reproduction occurs in an unusual way, after fertilisation the female expels its eggs as airborne, spore-like particles. Ones that settle in a nutrient-rich place (like a plant or a suitably metal-rich stone) will leach nutrients from its perch, swelling and hardening as the embryo develops, eventually hatching into a tiny miniature of the adult. All Hephaestian animals are mostly deaf, but are able to sense lower frequencies through the bones of their limbs.
Most invertebrates here resemble tiny, less advanced versions of the large animals, and indeed, it is from a larger one of these that the “metalbacks” arose. Not surprising perhaps that only one main lineage of animal life arose here, where conditions are so hostile.
Hephaestus has, despite euphemisms, earned its name; it is indeed a wondrous forge, to rival those that served Zeus.
Faunal Examples -
Great Turtox (Bovichelys oralopus)
Slowly lumbering over the steaming grassy plains, the great turtox has six powerful limbs, all of which serve as a separate head and mouth. About 5 meters in diameter, it is one of the largest Hephaestian animals. It is mostly a grazer, feeding on the silvery, hair like grass of the plains, often eating with all 6 mouths at once. At any sign of a predator, it can lash out with the limb that is closest to the attacker.
Slowly lumbering over the steaming grassy plains, the great turtox has six powerful limbs, all of which serve as a separate head and mouth. About 5 meters in diameter, it is one of the largest Hephaestian animals. It is mostly a grazer, feeding on the silvery, hair like grass of the plains, often eating with all 6 mouths at once. At any sign of a predator, it can lash out with the limb that is closest to the attacker.
Jouster (Gladiocephalus echinochelys)
Jousters have devoted 2 legs on either side to be defensive weapons, long extendable swords that bear toughened eyes. These appendages can keep watch for danger, triangulate the threat, and stave it off if need be. The other 4 legs are for walking and running, and bear chewing mouths to crop its main food, wiry weeds and low shrubs. The shell-like hip array bears spines in case and predator considers attempting to flip them over. Jousters are about 1.8 meters tall.
Jousters have devoted 2 legs on either side to be defensive weapons, long extendable swords that bear toughened eyes. These appendages can keep watch for danger, triangulate the threat, and stave it off if need be. The other 4 legs are for walking and running, and bear chewing mouths to crop its main food, wiry weeds and low shrubs. The shell-like hip array bears spines in case and predator considers attempting to flip them over. Jousters are about 1.8 meters tall.
Jawpig (Unicephalus mandibularis)
Jawpigs are vaguely more familiar to earthlings, because they only have one recognisable head. One leg has become the “front”, forming a head with large eyes and mandibles, while the other 5 are for walking or running, but also bear degenerate mouths that taste the air for promising scents of food. They are omnivores, and constantly search for nutritious food, such as fruiting bodies of metal plants, carrion, invertebrates, eggs or even minerals in the form of rocks or mud. Jawpigs grow to about 1.7 meters long.
Jawpigs are vaguely more familiar to earthlings, because they only have one recognisable head. One leg has become the “front”, forming a head with large eyes and mandibles, while the other 5 are for walking or running, but also bear degenerate mouths that taste the air for promising scents of food. They are omnivores, and constantly search for nutritious food, such as fruiting bodies of metal plants, carrion, invertebrates, eggs or even minerals in the form of rocks or mud. Jawpigs grow to about 1.7 meters long.
Cerberus (Xenocerberus macrognathus)
At about 3 meters long, the Cerberus is the largest and most fearsome Hephaestian predator. Three forward limbs have become fiercely jawed heads with 4 large eyes each, these serve doubly as manipulating arms to subdue prey. The other 3 limbs are powerful striding legs, with no mouth or eyes at all, and a joint configuration resembling Earth animals such as theropod dinosaurs. Cerberus can move faster than any other animal on Hephaestus, though speed is not always required to pursue prey. The greatest threat to any Cerberus is a larger member of its species, cannibalism is common. Favoured prey includes jawpigs, and even immature turtox.
At about 3 meters long, the Cerberus is the largest and most fearsome Hephaestian predator. Three forward limbs have become fiercely jawed heads with 4 large eyes each, these serve doubly as manipulating arms to subdue prey. The other 3 limbs are powerful striding legs, with no mouth or eyes at all, and a joint configuration resembling Earth animals such as theropod dinosaurs. Cerberus can move faster than any other animal on Hephaestus, though speed is not always required to pursue prey. The greatest threat to any Cerberus is a larger member of its species, cannibalism is common. Favoured prey includes jawpigs, and even immature turtox.
Greater Xenochelone (Xenochelone pneumaticus)
Xenochelonians are one of the more common aquatic creatures of Hephaestus. Their convergent resemblance to turtles from Earth is very striking, but it can be deceptive. Unlike sea turtles which must keep from floating too much, xenochelonians must store and regulate extra gas in air pockets to keep them from sinking like a stone. Parts of its skeleton are pneumatic, making the creature comparatively light, and helping to maintain buoyancy. The greater xenochelone is the largest, reaching 3 meters long and feeding mainly on aquatic metal-plants, large “invertebrates” and smaller xenochelonians. They will even eat deposits of minerals that may be exposed along the coastal sea-floor.
Xenochelonians are one of the more common aquatic creatures of Hephaestus. Their convergent resemblance to turtles from Earth is very striking, but it can be deceptive. Unlike sea turtles which must keep from floating too much, xenochelonians must store and regulate extra gas in air pockets to keep them from sinking like a stone. Parts of its skeleton are pneumatic, making the creature comparatively light, and helping to maintain buoyancy. The greater xenochelone is the largest, reaching 3 meters long and feeding mainly on aquatic metal-plants, large “invertebrates” and smaller xenochelonians. They will even eat deposits of minerals that may be exposed along the coastal sea-floor.