Illyri
The Illyri were a species of aquatic leviathan that inhabited the depths of Mirah's internal oceans. They were a caste-based species, and each colony, known as a chorus, was centralized around a massive, largely sedentary queen that spent most of her life coiled in the heart of her lair near warm thermal vents.
Biology
Illyri were an entirely aquatic species that were adapted to the deepest reaches of Mirah's oceans. They were covered in ornate frills and had proportionally small limbs that allowed them to manipulate tools and other parts of their environment, but the majority of their movement was through the use of their powerful tails, which allowed them to move at great speeds through the water. They had three sets of eyes: one set was capable of seeing in more detail, while the other two were light sensitive and were used to see in different light wavelengths, though due to the abyssal nature of their chosen homes, their eye for detail was not great.
The illyri had bioluminescent nodes along their bodies that their could freely trigger, which allowed them to communicate via light signals in additional to their telepathic network.
Illyri were largely predatory hunters that existed on a diet of other large seagoing prey, though over time queens became symbiotic with the thermal vents of their chosen homes and could supplement their meals with geothermic energy. It was believed this was a large contributor as to why they rarely left their lairs, as they eventually grew to a size where they were fully reliant on this supplemental energy. Illyri queens also had adaptive biology that could be triggered based on their diet, which resulted in mutations that could materialize in their spawn.
Illyri were egg-layers, though only queens were capable of producing eggs, which were woven into large strands to be incubated by thermal vents.
Society
Illyri were largely solitary outside their consorts and their resulting chorus. The conception of a new queen was a rare occurrence due to the apparent ageless nature of queens, and it was widely believe there was only a certain number of illyri queens alive at one time, though the stated number varied considerably. While they were sapient and capable of their own agendas and motivations, many of those motivations were focused on the survival and curating of their chorus. Rare communication with illyri queens implied a wide-spanning, almost religious devotion to the idea of the "Song Beyond Dreaming," a phenomenon that seemed to guide their various agendas through their own interpretations.
Castes
Queen
A full-grown illyri queen was a truly massive creature and the reason the species was denoted as being of the leviathan class. Queens were rarely seen outside their chorus and instead spent most of their lives resting in the heart of their chosen territory where they took care of the eggs that hatched into their expansive brood. Illyri queens were powerful telepaths and could command members of their chorus over long distances, as each member was effectively connected over a complex telepathic network.
Consort
Illyri consorts were unrelated males that served both as attendants to the reigning queen, and the fathers to the resulting brood. The number of consorts a queen had varied based on the individual, though three to five was normally the average. Illyri were known to engage in the cannibalism of their partners, though the process was selective and was normally done near the end of a treasured consort's lifespan: by consuming a consort, an illyri queen could assimilate their being into her own, effectively preserving their presence indefinitely in a final act of love. After the process was complete, the sound of the queen's telepathic voice normally shifted, becoming a blend of her own and her devoured consort's.
This cannibalism was the only way a consort could truly enter the telepathic mind link of the entire brood, and the consumption of a consort was a pivotal moment where he was truly considered one with the brood he had helped to spawn.
Lairsinger
Lairsingers were adult children of the queen that helped in the rearing of young and organizational matters of the chorus. While they normally stayed near their mother, they had the unique ability to serve as telepathic "repeaters" for their queens and could artificially extend the range across which she could communicate. As a result, lairsingers sometimes ventured out with deepstalkers over long hunts, and were present if communication with surface-dwellers was deemed necessary.
Deepstalker
The most numerous of an illyri chorus, the deepstalkers were adult, roving children of the queen that served as hunters, scouts, and protectors of the lair. They normally did not exceed about 30 feet long at their largest, but they were intelligent pack hunters, which meant it was rare only one would be encountered at a time. Unexpected encounters with illyri were typically with deepstalkers, and recorded slayings of this species were also normally of this caste.
Hymns
Hymns were illyri young that were still under the direct care of their queen mother. They were considered casteless, and normally developed into the appropriate caste depending on the roles that were needed.
