Grizzat

ECOLOGY

Environment tropical forests
Organization solitary, group (2–6), or nest (7–12)

This creature evolved from the need to survive harsh extremes, short brief seasons requiring rapid growth, an urgency to living, and a life cycle that spawns multitudes in the hope that the strongest few survive. They begin their life as part of a swarm of young bursting forth from subterranean egg chambers. Once born, the swarm moves off like a plague of locust, devouring everything in its path.

After just seven days, the stronger members of the swarm have grown to adulthood. Growing from a thumb sized insect to a two-foot tall, 10-pound adult, they group with fellow adults in small numbers, detaching themselves from their birthing swarm to become a nesting group.

Nesting groups seek appropriate clearings, to maximize their exposure to the warmth of the sun, and preferably with soft earth into which they burrow and hollow out their egg chamber. This creates a termite mound above ground per adult in the nesting group. The mound is both hollow and tall, its intent is to be the exit for the newly hatched swarm, releasing the swarm high into the air and so avoiding ground predators at the moment of birth.

As the oldest surviving creature from the shattering of the world, they have become a threat to the survival of all other species. Due to their prolific reproductive cycle, the intelligent species actively hunt these nests in order to exterminate this threat.