Protaean Things

All of Protaea's large animals are archosaurs (reptilian and bird-like creatures) They are usually classified in several categories with common names. These groups are based on their general appearance and behavior and do not reflect biological relationships.

"Dragons" include most crocodile-like animals with short legs and long bodies. Most dragons are good swimmers but a few live mostly on land. Some sea dragons have flippers instead of claws. Dragons vary in length from less than one meter to fifteen meter long monsters weighing as much as fifty tons.

"Lindwyrms" are the most ferocious predators on land. Unlike dragons they walk on their hind legs and have shorter - sometimes extremely small - forearms. Lindwyrms generally attack with their sharp teeth, but some also have deadly claws on their feet, hands or both. Some lindwyrms are small but most are very large and some even weigh in at several tons.

"Wyverns" are the largest flying creatures with long fleshy wings that can span more than 12 meters. The various types of wyverns have a bizzare array of head crests, but they all have long necks and most have long snouts full of sharp teeth. The larger wyverns can often be seen soaring over plains and sea in search of prey or carrion.

"Imps" include all of the smaller relatives of wyverns which also have fleshy wings, but these little hairy monsters have shorter necks and longer, sometimes barbed, tails.

"Goblins" are small or medium sized predators that attack by biting and clawing. Although there are many types of goblins, most of them sport a large claw on each foot used for kicking and leaping attacks against large victims. Because of this strategy even large creatures are wary of goblin stalkers.

Most of the Anthrosuar technology available on Protea is bronze age (comparable to the classical Greek and Roman empires.)

Pulled vehicles like carts and chariots must be pulled by short-tailed or tailless animals like flightless birds. It is more common to carry people and things on the backs of dinosaurs.

Ships in water are usually powered by sails or oars. Sails are usually triangular but some can be converted to a square configuration. While it is possible for ships to be pulled by swimming creatures, or powered by land animals, it isn't very common.

Landships are amphibious vehicles. They are symmetrical boats with multiple hulls. Usually they have two hulls or 1 main hull and several pontoons. On land these vessels are carried on the backs of large dinosaurs. The smallest landships can be carried by a single large ostrich-like dinosaur or a small duckbill dinosaur, the largest landships must be carried by teams of sauropods.

Fuel for light and heat means alchohol, vegetable and animal oils, peat, wood and other fast-growing fuels since the world has no petroleum or other fossil fuels. Grain and fruit alchohol can also be difficult to obtain because it is completely banned throughout Utopia. Alcohol smuggling or "bootlegging" is a very dangerous but profitable business.

Protaea ~ Protaean People ~ Protaean Things