Creature:Janeran

The Janerans are a race of highly xenophobic fire creatures with a form of telepathy.

Because Janerans have made no contact with any races (other than The Grox, whom they are apparently allied with), this data is mostly speculative. This data is paraphrased from a report by the.

Anatomy and Physiology
The Janeran is a centauroid creature; it has a humanoid torso set on a four-limbed lower body. One author once described a Janeran as having “the head of a snake, the upper body of a man, the talons of an eagle, the lower body of a great hunting beast, and the tail of a large reptile.”

The anatomical data contained herein is based on the study of several dead specimens collected by the Raptor Empire.

Internal Anatomy
Janerans have two hearts and two pairs of lungs, which increases their combat fitness. How exactly the circulatory system works is unclear, because a Janeran's resting body temperature is above the boiling point of water. All digestive organs are in the lower body. In the upper body where the humanoid's digestive organs would be, the Janeran instead has a large sac-like organ that produces intense heat through chemical reactions. Because of this organ, a Janeran's body temperature is high enough to heat iron to red-hot.

Telepathy
Janerans possess a form of telepathy. They can detect the brain-waves of others and project their own brain-waves using a pair of organs located in the head near the brain. Because of their telepathic capabilities, Janerans rarely speak verbally to one another; they only vocalize to intimidate enemies in combat.

Origin Theories
It is thought that Janerans evolved from regular carbon-based lifeforms (albeit ones that could communicate telepathically), and that a duplication of the Homeobox genes gave them an extra body segment (along with an extra heart and lungs) which increased fitness and led to dominance of the top predator niche. As the planet Selenti underwent volcanism and developed into a very hot world, the Janeran species adapted to the conditions and became beings of fire themselves.

Planet Selenti
Planet Selenti is the Janeran homeworld. An episode of volcanism in the ancient past left it with a thick and very hot atmosphere. Plant life can only be found near the poles; ecosystems elsewhere are supported by extremophile prokaryotes.

Taxonomy
The Janeran skull suggests that it is a diapsid reptile of some sort, but any sort of taxonomy for the Janeran species is tentative because of its extreme divergence from known life forms.


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 * Genus: Janer (Tigress Dragonblade, 2009)
 * Species: Janer infernalis (Tigress Dragonblade, 2009)

Janeran Culture and Society
Janeran society is highly regimented and strict hierarchies are enforced. Under Janeran law, gross insubordination is punishable by immediate death. Janerans have little in the way of leisure time, as they spend most of their time either training for war or performing religious rituals. Their extreme xenophobia drives them to kill any outsiders who attempt to make First Contact.

Janerans have a male-dominated society; they believe that females are unintelligent and have no purpose other than breeding. Female Janerans have no rights whatsoever and are sequestered. All Janerans encountered outside of colonies are males.

Religion
Janerans worship a deity they call Janer, which is known as 'The Hellfire' to all outsiders. Janer directs his followers to conquer other races and fill the universe with flames. Essentially, they wage a War Against All in his name, which has led some followers of Spode to equate Janer with The False God That Will Come. (Shamans, however, reject this interpretation, since they are worshipers of the God That Will Come.)

War
Janerans fight using wrought-iron longspears heated to red-hot by their sheer body heat. Janeran armor is composed of carbon fiber because metal would soften due to their body heat.