The Vatakuec

Komodo_dragon_01tfk.jpg Information

 * Biological Name: Varanus Foenus


 * Common Name: Vatakuec


 * Average Height: 7ft 4in


 * Average Weight: 550lbs

The Vatakuec (Varanus Foenus) is a large, bipedal reptile found primarily in the eastern part of the milky way. Its rise to power has been put down to an over-sized brain and opposable thumbs.
 * Average Lifespan: 120 Terran Years

An adult Vatakuec is typically seven feet tall, with a broad, wedge-shaped snout, a thick neck and tail. Its scales are course and roughly circular, knitting together like a badly fitted suit of chainmail.

Its wide mouth is lined with razor-sharp teeth, each one tapering to a needle point. These are perfectly adapted for sawing through thick hide and ripping off chunks of flesh. Along with this, a Vatakuec's mouth is a breeding ground for a massive variety of lethal bacteria, which are incubated in the saliva, and forced into any wounds caused. This allows them to hunt large game more intelligently, leaving a small bite, which will later get infected and cause the animal to sicken and die, making an easy kill for the Vatakuec.

Tipping the three fingers of each hand are inch-long hooked talons, designed to peel back skin, and deftly cut flesh away from the bone. The pattern is repeated on the toes, however the inner toe of each foot supports a much larger claw, which is often used to hamstring fast prey at close range.

One of its more astonishing characteristics, apart from its intelligence and cunning, is its sheer brutality. An adult male Vatakuec will happily hunt well after it has eaten its fill, simply to revel in the slaughter. It is speculated that this is another factor that contributed to the development of tribal civilization.

Ecology
The Vatakuec developed in hot, arid deserts, and are very much at home in this environment. Their principle habitats would be around oasis and foot-hills, the soft ground and elevation making an ideal home for their burrows. Even under the hot sun, a Vatakuec can sprint up to 20 miles an hour, and keep this up for a long period of time.

For shelter, a group of Vatakuec dig a large burrow out of a group of sand-dunes, creating a small network of tunnels, shored up with animal bones or stray bits of timber. This practice continued well into the development of the species as a civilized culture, as being underground was cooler than being stuck in the 50-degree heat of midday Vata.

Diet
Since their inception as a species, the Vatakuec have lived off a diet of raw meat, taken from whatever they can get their claws on. For the majority of their existance, they have fed off larger predatory lizards like the Ceryr, using group tactics to bring down the larger and more dangerous game.

They often feed on carrion, waiting for a larger predator to finish gorging on the carcass before sweeping in and carrying it off.

They will also ambush live prey with a stealthy approach. When suitable prey arrives near a Vatakuec's ambush site, it will suddenly charge at the animal and go for the underside or the throatIt is able to locate its prey using its keen sense of smell, which can locate a dead or dying animal from a range of up to 9.5 km

Regional Variation
There are three main variants of Vatakuec across Vata.
 * Varanus Horribilus: They are slightly larger than the average Vatakuec, with olive-green scales covered in narrow black stripes. A Horribilus is generally more aggressive and blood-thirsty, preffering to attack head-on rather than stalking it stealthily.
 * Varanus Mortis: This genus tends to be very small for a Vatakuec, topping out at six-feet. They also have a higher proportion of albinos. On average, they have larger brains, and tend to make more use of basic tools like spears and axes.
 * Varanus Byrrus: The Byrrus have one mutation that makes them genuinely terrifying. One in ten births develop blood red scales. As they are often over six inches taller than the average, the appearence of a blood red giant lizard will often scare off any prey.

Evolutionary History
For such an old species, scientists have discovered nothing that hints at something that came before the blood-thirsty bipedal predators. Many people suggest that the Vatakuec were developed as a race of super-soldiers, that got out of control and wiped out their creators.