Creature:Aurum/Land phase

Evolutionary History: The Land
The Aurixan ancestor's days in their long-held marine environment and short-term paradise lifestyle were soon to come to an end, however. A third natural disaster occurred, although this was disguised as good local conditions. However, this overly benevolent conditioning was in fact disastrous to much of the local predatory microorganisms, which then led to an ever-increasing population of Aneucts 'jellyfish', whose young were a popular food of the microscopic community. The adult Aneucts, now far overpopulated and exceeding the holding capacity of the large tidal pool, covered the surface, lowering light levels enough for a large population of Diatak to perish. This continued to lead to more and more Aneucts surviving to adulthood, clogging the waterways with the jellied creatures.

The Aneucts ate much of the existing food, and led several species to the brink of starvation, as few creatures in the area had evolved to feed on the Aneucts. Some races, including a few species of small fish, become ferocious and half-crazed, hunting through necessity, and when they couldn't find enough food, they began to use cannibalistic procedures on their own schools. This was a huge threat to the Quadrix (although less of a threat to the Vrennum, who could hide in the sandy seafloor to avoid being eaten by these voracious schools), and in fear of their own survival, they took to the extreme shallows. From here, a significant portion of the species made the move to the beach above, while a smaller number tried to remain in the sea and eke out a living - however after several months, they too abandoned their marine home forever.

It was not too many minutes before the Neomva, who had evolved in recent times into the gliding Neomxa, attempted to come to land, as their favorite prey at this point was the Quadrix. However, they did not correctly anticipate the environment, and as they fell to the beach, they became stuck, and soon suffocated. Those that were close enough to the shorelines generally made it back to their marine environment, where they returned to the koryl reef, feeding on various inhabitants.

Life on the land required immediate changes in lifestyle, and within only several months' time, the original land-goers had already split into two sub-species of Quadrix; the Grendox and the Quirq. While the Quirq adapted to survive on plant sap, the Grendogax stuck true to their hemophagous lifestyle. However, they were still far too slow to catch local creatures successfully, and with few of them who returned to the water to feed returning, they were forced to feed on their Quirqan cousins, a process that would continue to this day. Eventually, the Grendox evolved into a true terrapod, and became the Grendogax, while the Quirq evolved to feed more properly on the local plant life, and became the ____.

In the months since the Quadrixan arrival, the Neomxa had grown primitive lungs, and had grown full-powered flight. Not only this, but they had gained a successful symbiotic relationship with a flying ray species known as the Gargantua Rays, a distant descendant of the Skulker Rays. In one grand entrance, both of these species rose above the surface of the water, and flew into the surrounding forest.

In the ages that came to pass, the Quadrix formed a rivalry of sorts with the Grendogax, and also began to care about their dead, as they tried to keep the local Featherheads away from the carcasses of their fallen comrades. Eventually, the Quadrix gave way to the Therox, while the ____ gave way to a short-necked variety of Quirlax. The Therox had lost their proboscis in preference of a mouth, which they used to feed on local xenosuran Crawlers. However, their curiosity got the better of them, and they soon began to fight the local Clawgrips and Skullbeaks for the xenosurin Rockscales, which floated in on the local tides.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Usable Information
In Chapter 5, the chance soon arose for us to leave our oceanic homes and populate the land, in the form of disaster. This started as an over population of a local species of small jellyfish, and culminated in several races starving to the point of ferocious necessity-hunting. With the threat of so many different species on our hands, several members of our battery fled onto the lands, with the rest of our group finally reaching land several months later.

In that amount of time, the original land-reachers had successfully split into two sub-species -- the Grendon and the Quirlax. These two offshoots soon differentiated themselves from the original Aurix strain, and were no longer related to us. The Neomwa soon came to land as well, following the flight path of a gargantuan flying eagle ray, aptly named the Gargantua Rays. Soon we fled into the surrounding forests, and after a while, finally settled down within the confines of a local mangrove swamp.

Several offshoots popped up into common knowledge during this Chapter, including the Grendon (which became a species of terrestrial carnivorous cephalopod), and Quirlax (which instead became a species of herbivorous reptile) mentioned before, and also including the Screek (a bat-like species of lizard), and the Zrrnigor (an offshoot of the Zrrmzasha species). This was the first chapter where we forewent brain enhancement in lieu of remaining in the creature stage for at least another chapter. During this chapter, we also lost our ancient ways of eating, losing the parasitic lifestyle for one far more suited for carnivorous tendencies, which we now turn towards our cousins, the Grendons.