And the original Ilunabar (When it was a merchant republic instead of a goddess)

Name: Heraktati (single: Herakt)
Lifespan: 20 – 30 years
Description:
First off, Heraktati are carnivores and thus constantly hunt. They operate in packs lead by an alpha. Their main purpose is to track down weak, sick or too old animals and kill them. The packs constantly move, going in the direction of the setting sun. They sleep a maximum of 5 hours, merely to rest their muscles. They don’t dream, and are driven by a constant insatiable blood thirst. Weak Heraktati are unable to stay with the pack, and thus quickly die. Even fresh born younglings are expected to keep up with the fast paced pack.

To maintain a certain population, pack mentality is highly encouraged. While even alone a Herakt can be very dangerous, no-one in their right mind should take on a pack. However, it is entirely possible that the pack grows too big. Reathos designed them so that at a certain size, the pack’s younglings will start challenging the older Alpha and other older Heraktati. The resulting infighting will shrink the pack back to a more manageable size.

Appearance:
Heraktati are hexdruped beings. They are about the size of a pony. With short, black fur all over their bodies. Their powerful, muscular hind legs allow them to jump up to 3 times their own height. As well as to keep up a certain running speed. At the end of the foot there is a very sharp claw. Used to make deep gapping wounds. Heraktati have 2 pair of front legs. The first pair, closest to the hind legs are often used to keep balance during running. These legs have small but very sharp claws. Though they don’t often use them, except for when a target is big enough to jump it. The second pair of front legs, the ones most in front, look just like the first one except that their toes are almost completely claws. While running next a fleeing prey, they use these claws to cut op wide spots of skin.

They have a next which is about 2 feet long. The back along the spine is extremely though and muscular But there are ‘breathing’ holes here. When running these holes open up, allow carbon dioxide to escape. When biting, they breathe through these breathing holes, so they don’t have to release the bite for lack of breathe.

Their head is slim and long. They have no nose, 2 pair of eyes, 1 pair of ears and one big mouth. Down their throat is their smell-sense. It’s far less accurate then with most species but can detect blood and even sickness from miles away. They use it mostly to get the general direction. The first pair is open during the night. Their eyes have a lot more rod than cone cells. Allowing them to track motion easier through the dark and seeing shapes better. The second pair is used when there is plenty of light. For starters the retina can shrink to a much smaller size and in this eye there are more cones. Allowing for a rather broad spectrum of colors (not as broad as humans). Their ears mostly function to detect what they can’t see. In other words, it’s to warn them form attacks from behind. Heraktati are very visual based hunters.

Now for their mouth. They have 2 sets of jaws. The first, outer jaw (and set of teeth) is mostly made to hook up against their pray. The teeth are curved, thus anchoring themselves into the flesh. The second, separate jaw is mostly used to start eating from the animal. The muscles inside are not be underestimated. They are specifically made to crunch bone and get to the internal organs as fast as possible.

Heraktati inject a powerful poison with the first bite they deliver. They mostly depend on the animal exhausting itself. By making it bleed heavily from the first few delivered wounds. The poison injected is an Anticoagulants and a mixture of thyroid hormones, making the heart beat faster.

Purpose: They systematically cross the world, constantly killing the weak, the old and the sick to make place for the young and better. Making sure that any creature has a natural predator. Forcing it to either evolve and improve or be hunted to extinction.