Bogbeast

Scanderan bogbeast
File:Black Leach.jpg
A painting of a bogbeast.
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Annelida
Class:	Clitellata
Order:	Hirudinida
Family:	Salamandridae
Genus:	Haemadipsidae
Species:	H.Carnivirus
Binomial name
Haemadipsidae Carnivirus Hylfred Görenssen, 1785
File:BogbeastHabitat.png
Habitat

At first glance does the bogbeast look like a harmless but oversized leech like those used by medical men and healing rituals for untold centuries by Scanderan priests and wise men. However the first glance is highly deceiving as the beast have a round mouth filled with razor sharp teeth able to rip flesh from bone but it also have a stinger hidden in it's tail that it can extend and inject a highly dangerous poison able to stun a horsewolf. After a prey have been subdued in this matter do the bogbeasts fall upon their paralysed victim and devours it alive.

However so are the bogbeasts slow on their own and are more than often food for pikes and other carnivorous fish that are able to use their superior speed and agility underwater to devour the slow and fat leeches.

Etymology

The English name comes from the old Scanderan words "myrbest" which in turn comes from urmål "myrrdyr" both meaning a beast or animal from the swamp.

History

The bogbeast itself is dreaded in all of Scandera as a swarm of these can easily take down and kill a human and often have they been connected with black magic and often used in dark rituals. However despite that so are the eggs considered something of a delicates and is often searched for in infested waters even if it is a hard task.

Taxonomy

The bogbeast is often divided into sfart myrbest or black bogbeast and brun myrbest or brown bogbeast as the two races that make up the species. While the black bogbeast often inhabits slow moving waters such as proper swamps and bogs so do the myrbest inhabits larger rivers. The difference between the two is as one can expect the colour of their skin as the black one is pitch black while the brown is dark brown to better help them hide in their natural habitats.

Anatomy and health

File:BogbeastSize.png

Size compared to a human

A bogbeast's closest relative is the common Scanderan leech, however so can a bogbeast also eat flesh as well as blood thanks to a more complex and evolved food processing system. Like other annelids so is the bogbeast a segmented animal that uses it's segments to move around at the bottom of rivers. Like most leeches is the Bogbeast divided into 32 segments and has one brain located between each segment making it a truly rare creature with 32 brains.

Reproduction

The bogbeast is like many other leeches hermaphrodites and during mating season in the middle of autumn in which case both bogbeasts are impregnated by inserting thick spermatophore into one another. Bogbeasts reproduce together with the rest of the swarm choosing mates seemingly at random, after the mating do they lay a large cluster of eggs at the deepest part of the river or swamp they call home where the eggs rests for the winter, protected by the water by the freezing temperatures above. After laying the eggs so do the adult bogbeasts die and often do so around the large cluster of eggs that the swarm birthed. However when spring comes so do the newborn leeches emerge devouring the corpses of their parents before they set out for new pray.

Diet

The bogbeast is a highly predatory animal that eats any animal that wanders too deep into it's bogs and over the years have everything from sheep to large mammoths been found devoured by these animals. However so are their teeth rather frail so the beasts do not attack smaller animals as rats, mice and other smaller creatures that inhabits the swamps are left alone as the bogbeasts do not wish to harm their teeth biting into bone.

The beast is however more than willing to clean bones dry on smaller beasts and the only thing that is found after a bogbeast attack is a white skeleton.

Behaviour

The bogbeast is a highly carnivorous animal that lives in highly co-operative swarms that often hunt together in the waters that they infests.

Life expectancy

A bogbeast lives for just one year, being born when the ice is melting in spring and then do they die after mating in the beginning of winter to fall around the egg cluster to feed the young when they emerges from their eggs come spring.