Bats of Aelyria

Bats are perhaps the strangest and most numerous animal on Telath. One of the only flying mammals, a rarity in its own right, the bat also defines itself by its adaptability, acute senses, and abundant speciation. Often misunderstood, they are usually met with fear or hostility. Yet the bat is one of nature’s toughest survivors and only through learning about them is the fog of ignorance lifted and a healthy respect and fascination formed.


Symbols and Aspects

The Night
Bats are almost always associated with the night or subterranean darkness. Night is a time of mystery, of the witching hour, and obscuring shadows that keep secrets and hide danger. Some see bats as the protectors of these mysteries and containing the wisdom therein, others consider them one of the dangers.

Disease
Bats are often vectors for many diseases, including rabies and deadly viruses, because of their high mobility, broad distribution and social nature. Many species also have a high tolerance for harboring pathogens and often do not contract the disease while infected. Because of this, many consider bats a sacred animal of the plague queen Haya. Whether or not this is true is something to ask the dark priests.

Death
Bats, because of their frightening appearance and nocturnal nature, are often associated with the equally feared occurrence of death. It is unclear if Jalat holds them in any sort of esteem, but the parallel between death and bats is one of the most popular.

Undeath
Many in Aelyria adhere to the idea some bats are the altered forms of undead. Still others insist them creatures of the underworld because they emerge from caves. They see bats as unnatural and terrifying, the staples of the undeath.

Perception
Not all aspects of the bat are negative. Select groups appreciate the amazing sensitivity of the bat, an animal with some of the keenest senses of sight, smell, touch and hearing. They see the bat as a symbol of perception, a skill honed by many, whether guards keeping the watch, historians seeking the truth, thieves scouring for traps, politicians keeping a step ahead of rivals, or writers striving for perspicuity.

Rebirth
One of the most positive views of the bat are from those who equate it with rebirth. The idea stems from many bat traits, perhaps most vividly in the image of a bat flying out of a dark cave. Flight is often seen as a representation of the soul’s ascension, and ascending from a dark cave often relates to escaping death and the underworld.


General Physical Appearance
Bats are generally reviled because of their grotesque visages, often consisting of pug noses, beady eyes, fangs, and oversized ears. They are usually rather small, some even mice-sized, but larger frugivores and choice carnivores can grow up to two feet with wing spans over five feet. All bats grow hair, some in the form of a collar while others are completely covered with fur. Their wings act as forelegs and are tipped with small claws, frugivores having an extra claw on their second toe.

Bat wings are thin, highly flexible and contain bones similar to a human hand. Because of this, bats can maneuver much more quickly and precisely than birds. The wings are also extremely sensitive, allowing a bat to detect changes in the airflow and even help them detect prey.


General Characteristics
Bats are generally nocturnal. Most migrate for the winter, but select species go into torpor or hibernate in caves through the colder months. Some bats are solitary creatures, but the majority are very social and live in colonies that could number over a million bats. Bats emit a variety of screeches, some audible to humans, others only perceptible to races with heightened hearing.

The highest-pitched sounds a bat makes are those used for echolocation. Insectivorous and carnivorous bats emit calls and listen for the reflected echoes to interpret their environment. Frugivores instead rely on their heightened senses of sight and smell to navigate and hunt.

Mother bats gestate one pup an era and give live birth. It takes several cycles for a pup’s wings to develop strength enough for flight. Until then, pups are nursed or else left in the safety of the roost (though some pups are carried around, clinging to their mother’s collars). Mothers often collect in nursery roosts where many pups are born, but even in a crowd of millions each mother is able to pick out her own child. Females are the sole caregiver and there is no lasting partnership with males.

Insectivorous and carnivorous bats mature in about six to eight cycles, while frugivorous bats take about four patterns. Bats are sexually mature at two eras and can live for over twenty.


SPEICES INDEX

Aelyrian bats are primarily classified by what they eat, whether fruit, insects or animals.

Frugivores
These bats are a tropical or warm-climate species that feed on fruit and flower nectar. Unlike their cousins, frugivores rely on their senses of sight and smell to hunt and navigate. They are responsible for the majority of tropical pollination and seed dispersal. They include:

Ariosi Flying Fox
Eunesian Monkey-face
Arakmati Harpy
Laurylian Hammerhead
Sherian Tube-nose


Insectivores
The most numerous of the three subdivisions, insectivores comprise 70% of the bat population. These tend to be the smallest variety of bat, but there are always exceptions. As their name implies, they live off insects and include:

Maevwing
Dolwoodian Gravelthroat
Arium Haze Bat
Centripaxian Hollow-face
Abestatian Leatherhaunts


Carnivores
The rarest of bats, carnivores either feed on small birds and mammals or the blood of larger prey. Often feared, in reality most carnivorous bats shy from humanoid contact and almost always seek less-threatening prey. However, there are exceptions. The carnivores include:

Orc-snout Bat
Wooly Bat
Manyfang
Vampire Bat


DESCRIPTION OF SPEICIES

Frugivores

Ariosi Flying Fox
This bat is so named for its striking resemblance to a fox with wings, minus the big bushy tail and legs of course. They grow to be quite large, around two feet high with a five foot wing span. They feast off the endless bounty of passion fruits in southern Eunesia. Because of their proximity to Arios, flying foxes are often taken as familiars or magician’s pets.

Eunesian Monkey-face
This large bat grows to about one-and-a-half feet tall with a three-foot wingspan. It’s named for its facial resemblance to a chimpanzee and the primal way in which it stoops when perched. Monkey-faces possess oversized claws used for climbing various trees and ledges to reach the sweetest fruits and berries. They are largely known to be a curious breed, perhaps the most sociable of all bats, and show little fear toward humanoids unless given reason.

Arakmati Harpy
A truly gross-looking creature, even for a bat, its face makes the weak-willed turn away. They can grow to be over two feet with a wingspan of five feet. These bats are so named for their overdeveloped mammary glands, which give them the unnerving appearance of flying demon women. Arakmati harpies scour the deserts in the cool of night and roost in oases by day, eating whatever sweet vegetation they can forage. They are a hated species by most Arakmatians and usually killed on sight, making them elusive in places where people normally travel.

Laurylian Hammerhead (Head-bangers)
One of the smaller frugivores, the hammerhead is so named for its broad, flat head and small, horizontal ears. Its tiny, black eyes are on either side of its abnormal skull, and without echolocation it’s forced to thrash its head when flying to see its terrain. This has also earned them the name head-bangers. They enjoy the wild fruits and berries in the many valleys of Lauryl and have become a delicacy for traveling Kemites.

Sherian Tube-nose
The Tube-nose actually has quite a pug snout, but its lips protrude in such a way as to appear a long nose. Tube-noses also have the longest tongue of any mammal when considering the ratio of body to tongue. Their body is barely five inches, but their tongues are a whopping four, almost their entire body length. These bats need such long tongues to drink nectar from the myriad of flowers sprinkled across the semi-tropical forests of lower Sherian. They tend to fan out across large portions of Sherian forest by night, like low-hanging clouds, and once a year migrate over Narim, a sight that attracts large crowds.

Insectivores

Maevwing
Exclusive to the Maevwood, these bats measure only twelve inches but possess a four-foot wingspan, making them look much like animated wings in the darkness. They use these massive wings to not only fly but also to catch insects like a membranous net, which they lick clean later. They are very aggressive, despite their small size and overall fragility, and will attack any who get too close to their roost by crash-landing into whatever breathing holes they echolocate. Considering these bats flock in the thousands, enough diving maevwings have been known to smother victims.

Dolwoodian Gravelthroat
The gravelthroat is an extremely hearty bat covered in coarse, black fur with glowing yellow eyes. Their name comes from the deep, guttural bark they release when panicked. One bark is enough to startle a person, but in larger numbers gravelthroats have been known to make a deafening clamor enough to frighten away bears, rupture eardrums, and even throw off the echolocation of other bat species. Gravelthroats don’t get very big, around six inches with a one foot wingspan, but they make up for their bite with their oversized bark.

Arium Haze Bat
The haze bat is one of the rarest of its kind, a solitary hunter. Its pigmented a light gray, even silver when wet. It lurks in the mists, fogs and salty hazes off the coasts near Arium where most prey can’t see it. The haze bat primarily dines on flies and insects blown out from inland winds, but has been known to eat baby crabs when food is scarce. They are one of the largest insectivores, two feet with a three-foot wingspan, and have to be to contend with sea gulls and other predatory sea birds. They are incredibly shy and very rarely seen. Those lucky enough to spot one are marked by good fortune, or so the sea dogs tell.

Centripaxian Hollow-face
Hollow-faces are ruddy bats that make their home in the mountains near Riparia. They’re attracted to the volcanic heat that emanates from the region and often roost in extinct lava tunnels and warm pockets. Their faces resemble these volcanic tunnels, with craggy foreheads, cavernous nostrils and eye wells so deep it almost seems they don’t have eyes at all. They grow around eight inches long with a two-foot wingspan. Hollow-faces are known as one of the gentlest and most maternal of bats, nursing even the sick and injured of their species in specialized infirmary roosts. They’ve been known to successfully rear premature pups and set broken wing bones.

Abestatian Leatherhaunts
Also known as the brown bat, leatherhaunts are most numerous in Prime, particularly its urban sprawls. Leatherhaunts are rampant in the upper reaches of Castle Stoneleigh, the belfries and attics of Abestat and across the fields and rooftops of Candaceburg. They are a harmless species, feeding on bothersome insects, and have been received surprisingly well by the humanoids who share their homes with the bats. That’s not to say people don’t try to get rid of them, but leatherhaunts, true to their name, always seem to return to haunt their chosen dark corners again. Leatherhaunts range from eight inches to one foot, with around a two to three foot wingspan.

Carnivores

Orc-snouts
A territorial and aggressive species, the orc-snout is a stout, heavy bat that likes to bully. They grow around two feet, with broad barrel chests, and muscular wings only three feet in diameter. While they could sustain themselves on blood alone, they tend to completely gorge on meals of small birds, lizards, frogs, and fish, eating meat and even bone. They plague the foothills outside Orkon and any woods therein. Some have even taken up residence in the sewers beneath the city, where they feast on rats and water bugs. They make feisty pets and are often used in underground bat fights where orcs gamble on their favorite snout.

Wooly Bat
One of the largest bats in Aelyria, the wooly bat can grow up to four feet with a six-foot wingspan. They’re a shaggy breed, hair draping their wings and over their eyes. Wooly bats are dark sepia at birth, which gradually fades to white as they age. Wooly bats live longer than normal bats, some reaching up to forty years old. Their fangs are more like tusks and their claws overdeveloped into talons. They are most-seen in Jaedaxia during the infamous eight months of winter, but can be found in any cold climbs. Wooly bats possess a savage daring and often take on large game, including fawns and similar-sized mammals. They’ve also been known to feed on children.

Manyfang
Of all bats, Manyfang are the most aggressive and brutal. They grow to about one foot in height with a three-foot wingspan, naked and hairless besides a dark tuft behind the neck. Their eyes burn like fires and their ears are serrated. Their mouths are the real horror show, filled with not two fangs, but dozens, jutting out like so many curved needles. Manyfang don’t just drink blood, they drink all the blood, extracting vitae in torrents until the victim is lifeless and cold. These bats experience bloodlust, thrashing about the blood of their kills and driving each other into frenzies. Thankfully these little monsters are cannibalistic and one community will only number in the dozens, but even twelve Manyfang can devastate as many humanoids unprepared for an attack. Manyfang are so sensitive to light, even a momentary exposure permanently blinds them and seers their pale, putrid flesh. As such, they live exclusively underground and tend to roost near the outskirts of subterranean cities like Vortex and Herozzal.

Aelyrian Vampire Bat
Vampire bats have no set location across the empire and can be found almost anywhere given a warm season, from the temperate heartlands to the hot south, and as long as it’s dark. Vampire bats are cannibalistic and drink the blood of other bats, even each other if food becomes scarce enough. That’s not to say they won’t choose a lazy herd if it suits them. These bats have been known to feed off of immobile humans as well, but largely stick to easier meals. They’re often marked by their black furry bodies, beady red eyes, and unusually long fangs. They’ve been known to range all sizes, from barely six inches to two feet with five inch or five-foot wingspans.

*Dire Bats
In very, very rare instances, any of the aforementioned bats have been known to occur at an alarmingly increased size, maybe three to five times the species’ normal proportions. These creatures either become the alpha bat or are driven out, possibly even slain, by their smaller brethren.


ADDENDUM
*The bats of Aelyria are not always limited by the laws of nature, as one uncanny breed can attest, the Giant Vampire Bat or Desmodus.

*Guano (odorless bat droppings) makes excellent fertilizer. Guano harvesting was an ancient practice of the Kemites before their migration to Lauryl. With Kemite guidance, however, guano harvesting is now becoming more common in Laurylian communities with large hammerhead populations.

*Rodenti are extremely offended when anyone refers to a bat as a “rodenti-with-wings”.