Sand Snake

Sand snakes have a noticeably high circumference to length ratio, primarily due to the strong muscles they use to burrow through the sand and the large water storage organ which runs the length of their body. The scales of a sand snake flare outwards from its body helping move more sand with each motion than would otherwise be possible. The rostral scale overhangs the mouth, helping to burrow and preventing sand from entering the digestive tract.

Sand snakes reproduce sexually and are oviparous. In another departure from the behavior of most snakes, they have communal nesting habits. There are only a handful of sand snake nesting areas, and each one is used by thousands of sand snakes. Perhaps because of this, sand snakes will not eat the eggs of their own kind, even in the face of starvation. There are in fact well-documented cases of sand snakes finding abandoned eggs and bringing them back to the nest to hatch.

A newly born sand snake will average four meters in length and will almost invariably break ten meters by the end of its first decade. Once it has reached a length of around fifty meters it slows down significantly. The largest sand snake on record is Bertram, royal pet and protector of the Sultana Kaatima el-Matin, who was last measured at three hundred ninety four meters in length. It should be noted, however, that he's had over a thousand years to reach that size and lived on a decadent diet for most of it; most researchers agree that it is highly unlikely any sand snake could reach that size in the wild.   The Altayih tell stories of sand snakes over a kilometer long, but no evidence has been provided. In the unlikely case that such creatures do exist, they are likely only found so deep in the Eternal Desert that they will never be encountered by anyone other than the Altayih.

The sand snake can become quite comfortable in any warm desert, though they can only be expected to reach their full size in the very largest, such as the Eternal Desert and the Dust. The creatures are thought of as a good omen by desert dwelling peoples, and for good reason: their tendency to defecate only near oases directly contributes to the health and growth of the local flora. Apart from this, the only noticeable permanent impact the snakes leave on their environment is that few other large predators can compete.

Sand snakes are omnivores, but their primary food source is the bones of animals that have succumb to the harsh environments they inhabit.

Sand snakes molt like any other snake, first very frequently while they are in their early life and then much less so when they are older and grow more slowly. They have been known to hibernate for extended periods, though the exact causes that determine when this occurs are as yet unknown.

Sand snakes have a very close and communal social structure when near their nesting sites, but nearly always become solitary creatures as they age and require ever larger territory. They still have a much more involved and drawn out courtship ritual than most reptiles, and appear to return to the same mate year after year in a large number of cases.

The Altayih tame sand snakes to use in conjunction with their Kurasheer for transportation. Once the passengers have boarded, the domesticated sand snake simply swallows the vehicle and stores it in its enormous water carrying bladder. The kurasheer is designed to allow twelve hours of air for twenty passengers, but this is a result of foresightedness on the part of the Altayih: it would take a great degree of skill to successfully fit twenty people into the kurasheer's passenger compartment, and they never travel for more than eight hours at a time unless in great need.   This relationship has proven invaluable to both parties. The snakes provide transportation across the harsh desert and protection from the elements, while the Altayih keep their snakes clean, preventing many common diseases, and fulfill social needs that wild sand snakes have a hard time fulfilling due to the size of the territory they must claim to keep themselves fed.   Though a remarkably forthcoming people, the Altayih do jealously guard the secrets of the adolescence ritual to bond with the great snakes. According to the Sultana, records indicate that her ancestors simply found the egg, and by raising him from a newborn have never had any issues with Bertram. Attempts to replicate this experience have been universally unsuccessful.

Sand snakes have surprisingly expressive faces, the extra muscles used to help dig can convey quite a lot if the observer has learned to read the snakes or, as is the case with the snakes of the Altayih and with Bertram, the snake has learned to express more humanly.

Due to the travels of the Altayih, sand snakes can be found in very nearly every hot desert on the planet. However, they only have wild populations large enough to maintain genetic diversity in the Eternal Desert, the Shifting Sands, and the Dust.

Sand snakes have an unusually high intelligence for non-draconic lizards, and are far more social than is typical as well. Recent studies have suggested that sand snakes are at least as intelligent as dogs, with many researchers and the entirety of tha Altayih culture insisting that they are much more intelligent.

Sand snakes are blind, though they have black eye spots which can detect light. Sand snakes do have very sensitive tongues which can taste and smell, but they are strange for snakes in that the work is primarily done by their nostrils. They have adapted to their sand-covered lifestyle by shifting priority there, which allowed them to stay buried beneath the sand, clearing channels to allow their nostrils access to air with their breath. Between the two organs, their sense of smell is nearly unrivaled among land-dwelling animals.