Topaz Tane

Topaz Tanes were, by what we can tell from the precious few fossil remains, and relying mostly on mythology and a few archaelogical discoveries of agent artworks, titanic creatures, likely the biggest of the Tane family. They did not have wings, could not fly, and given how they are depicted were apex predators, however that is not their only method of nutrition. Though precious few fossils have ever been found of this species, one find included part of the ribcage and the fossilized contents of its stomach. Within these contents were bones that would likely have belonged to large burrowing creatures, as well as perhaps a bone that seems from a wing, likely of some large bird like animal. However beyond that there was something unique. A significant amount of silicates, that is broken down mineral salts and what looked to be half digested rocks and minerals, including a small hunk of half fossilized and half corroded iron ore.

From this it is inferred that Topaz Tanes were perhaps equal parts predator and mineralist, that is a species who finds nutrition via the consumption of non-organic materials, but from the very earth and stone itself, able to break down and process rocks and minerals and ores for nutritional value. This is exceedingly rare in nature but not unheard of after the Sundering and the mutative taint of the Void washed over the world, seeing the arrival of mutative offshoots like Oozes, Rust Eaters and the Stone-Nosed Wombat. However this is the first evidence of such a trait before the Sundering, implying perhaps that it is not a mutation at all, but a rare evolutionary path that requires specific traits and environmental pressures.

We have found but one tooth we think is from Topaz Tane and its diamond like cross-section and robust design, being an incisor, does lend itself to this hypothesis, as does the fossil's composition, showing not just bone as we know it, but seemingly a higher iron content than bones should have. It is theorized that perhaps their skeletons were slightly ferric, which would explain why they do not preserve well, and would explain the slight 'rusting' tone that many of the fossilized remains seem to take. This then also feeds into the hypothesis about how they would affect the ability of flight with their mere presence, perhaps exerting their own localized magnetic field of sorts, a secondary localized 'gravity' that has to be overcome. This of course is all conjecture and we will likely never know for sure.

Like all Tanes, given we have direct or secondary fossil evidence to support it from specimens of every species but Topaz and Diamond Tanes, we presume they would have had a Magmis-Verin, that startling artery that would run from the bottom jaw, down the neck and chest to a third 'lung' sort of organ where manna would be processed into whatever the substance that would be required for their breath weapon would be. We have little to no evidence to be sure what their breath weapon might have been however they must have had one, the odds they did not given every other species we know of did, are astronomically unlikely.

We have only ever recovered or discovered what we can presume are eggshells from hatched eggs, and though likely somewhat similar to other Tanes, we simply lack the understanding of how Topaz Tanes would have reproduced. We do not have any evidence of predation on juveniles, however nor do we have any evidence, ancient artwork and relics or fossils, that they engaged in any sort of child rearing behavior either.

We would not even begin to attempt to chart the average or general life spans of Topaz Tanes with such an incomplete fossil record to work from. We simply lack the necessary data to do so. It is presumed they would go through the same stages of progression as other Tanes, that is the Hatchling to Great Wyrm model that seems loosely referenced in some archaeological finds, however for this species in specific we simply could not begin to estimate the age ranges and for each category, nor even a broad age range that might encompass its likely maximum. It is presumed to be less than Amethyst Tanes and more than Ruby Tanes but that is still a notably massive range.

Perhaps the most well understood aspect in regards to Topaz Tanes is their home habitats. Fossils and mythology both point to rocky, highland types of terrain and likely around and in most mountain ranges that exist today, lending some amount of credence to their storied ties to the birth of mountain ranges. Of course we do not truly know the extent or limits of what Tanes might have been capable of at their oldest and most powerful, given they are supposedly, even according to the remnants of the Faei artifacts and bits of writing ever discovered, the first children of Creation, whatever that might mean.

However presumedly this was less a direct manipulation and more similar to something we have observed in artworks and adjacent fossil evidence does seem to support the theory, that their presence over time in the same area might encourage environmental change. That is the generally accepted theory.

It is at this point assumed they would have once been the dominant apex predator and fauna in any mountain range on Valerick, likely in small numbers, claiming exceedingly wide ranges of territory, though again knowledge is exceedingly limited.

Like all Tanes it is presumed, given they were top tier predators, that the senses of a Topaz Tane were excellent. Uniquely, from part of a skull that was found, they seem to have a unique structure to their orbital bones, the gap for where optic nerves and the eye would be housed is not fully laid out as one might expect. The leading theory, given these were likely equal parts subterranean animals, despite their massive size, given all artifacts of artwork do depict them as such, is that this was for something akin to how the mutation within those with the Touch of Arcanis functions. They have, in examinations of individuals whom donate their body to science, only recently been discovered to have a similar strangeness to their orbital structure, and their optic nerves and have extra tissue and nerves that presumedly allow them to see through and into the Aether. It is believed all Tanes would have possessed such a feature, however in Topaz Tanes it is believed at current that perhaps they had a similar adaptation to see in heat patterns, or to see without the need of the reflections of light, though this again is heavy conjecture.

It is also presumed, from the structure of two foot bone fossils that we have and how both robust, and uniquely shaped they are, almost similarly in some ways to burrowing animals like a mole or badger, that Topaz Tanes perhaps had a sensitivity to the movement of earth and stone, a tremor-sense, for want of a better term for it.