Name: Banikans (singular: Banikan)
Also known as: Balikari, Panicons, Vlithans, Panicattacks
Average Height: 400cm (not including horns)
Average Weight: 300kg
Basic Description: Banikans are large, furry beings, best known for the pair of massive, metre-long, pitch black horns that grow from the back of their skulls. They are incredibly muscular, with powerful back legs and slim front arms. Their tails are also thick and muscular, acting almost like a third leg. They have two claws and a thumb on their hands and two claws on their toes. Their long jaws are filled with rows of black teeth. Male and female Banikans alike have a large, fleshy pouch on their stomachs, in which they keep their babies.
The colouration of a Banikan varies based on where they grow up, with Banikans living in warmer climates having browns and reds, desert-living Banikans having yellow fur and those living in colder regions tend to have blue or green fur. Baby Banikans tend to have a pale grey fur which changes colour as they age.
All Banikans have black tails, alongside a black strip that runs up their backs. Stripes, zigzags or other patterns will come off the black stripe. Banikans also have black, triangular markings around their eyes.
The eyes of a Banikan are always red, and look like a single, red ball with no distinguishable iris.
Abilities and Powers: Banikans are monstrously powerful beings, capable of running or hopping huge distances, leaping 10m from a standing position and are known to withstand low calibre gunshots. They can heal from injuries at insanely fast speeds, and can mend broken bones within days.
Most worryingly, Banikans appear to be able to use some kind of magic, based on a small number of elements. These elements are believed to be Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Lightning, Ice, and Jungle, although Light and Shadow are also rumoured to exist. Magic using these abilities tends to involve the ability to create and fire energy balls made of these elements, the ability to create shields using these elements and resistances against their more dangerous aspects.
Habitat: Banikans are capable of living in a wide array of different environments, and will grow extra fur or lose extra fur as needed. Being warm-blooded, they don’t require sunlight to keep themselves warm and can survive even in arctic climates.
The majority of Banikans will build basic shelters near each other, and will share an open fireplace, where they boil water and occasionally cook food. Group homes built into the side of large hills or mountains or inside large cave systems are common, as they provide extra shelter during cold winters.
Diet: Banikans are voracious carnivores, and consume vast amounts of meat every day. On the worlds where Banikans live, they are the top of their food chain, and hunt massive mammoth-like beings known as Yiyantes. Other, smaller prey involve deer, horse-like alogans and aggelads, a common bovine creature native to the same worlds as the Banikans.
If desperate, a Banikan will scavenge for meat, but they tend to ignore rotten flesh in favour for freshly killed prey.
Banikans in dry areas will chew on roots for extra nutrients and water.
Breeding: Banikans tend to mate once a year, generally in Spring. Baby Banikans (often called Jennies) are born utterly helpless, without teeth or horns. When they are born, they are delicately placed inside the mother’s pouch, where they will feed on milk from teats inside the mother’s pouch. Jennies will remain in the pouch for seven months, until their horns and claws start growing in.
As a Jenny’s horns grow, it will stop feeding on milk and sit with its head sticking out of the mother’s pouch. It will occasionally begin to wander around on its own after a year, and will spend time in the pouches of both parents.
At the age of 3, a Banikan is considered old enough to not need a pouch any more. Young Banikans will begin to hunt smaller prey on their own, or learn to hunt larger prey with their adults.
Banikans are considered adults at the age of 10, and will begin to seek mates at the age of 16. Many Banikans will remain in relationships for about five years, although some Banikans may mate for life.
Single Male Banikans become aggressive towards mating season, and after mating, will settle down. In Spring, expectant female Banikans become so aggressive that they will kill any non-Banikan they see.
Hierarchies: Banikans spend most of their lives living among other Banikans in the form of tribes. A tribe is generally ruled by an alpha male and female, called the Ita and Ioda. The title of Ita and Ioda are given to the strongest Banikans in a tribe, and power grabs are common in younger tribes, or when an Ita or Ioda dies. A collection of the eldest female Banikans of a tribe work closely with the Ita and Ioda, offering advice and assistance when needed. These elders, known as the Ipsila, offer advice and assistance, but also decide on victors when Banikans challenge each other for the right to rule over a tribe.
The Itas and Iodas of many a tribe will come together once a year, meeting at local landmarks to discuss territorial changes, hunting tactics, the use of magic and anything else that troubles them. Itas and Iodas of similar elemental magics will meet up more regularly to discuss any potential threats.
Technologies: Despite being present on multiple planets and being feared across the universe, Banikan technology is incredibly primitive. They have no interplanetary transportation and little machinery in general, instead relying on their magic and their huge strength and stamina to get jobs done.
Society: Banikans are social beings, but only among each other. They will happily care for sick or injured brethren, and will support any Banikan who requests assistance. Banikans tend to be attracted to Banikans of the same element, and will prioritize those most familar to them over strangers.
Banikans do not like other races, and will act aggressively to any beings that they believe to be a threat. This makes it incredibly difficult to negotiate with them.
Religion: The Banikans are the only species to actively worship the Thantophor, praying regularly to the God of Death before every hunt. Every tribe will have an alter with some sort of carving or statue of the Thantophor, and the brains of any beast a Banikan slaughters are placed inside a pot of boiling water in front of the alter. Offerings of bones, scraped clean and carved into delicate statues, are left regularly at sites around a tribe’s territory, said to bring good luck for future hunts.
Trinkets, made out of bone and polished stones, are made in a Banikan’s free time and are blessed by a tribe’s Ipsila. These trinkets are given to pregnant females and young Banikans to give them strength and protect them from the Thantophor’s darker side.
Economy: Banikans have no known economy, but a few Banikans will happily trade rare flora and fauna for shiny gems and trinkets. If an individual Banikan needs something, they will work towards it or trade and barter with other Banikans.