Cabinan Fauna

Cabinas past and present climate has given rise to many diverse forms of life, some of which are listed in this compendium.

The Varrjac
These small amphibian beings live in the coldest parts of Cabina. Since they are cold-blooded they spend their whole lives close to the warm pools of geysers. They are frog-like in size and stature but there are thin skin membranes between their forearms and torsos that they use as flippers for propulsion in water. Varrjac are omnivores, surviving mostly on the small shrubs that grow in these parts and microfauna that lives in the warm pools.

When it is time for Varrjac to lay their eggs, they retreat into these pools. Due to the warm water, the eggs do not have to be incubated by the parents. But because of the flourishing fauna in the volcanic puddles, the egg’s shells have to be extremely robust. After about 2 weeks of incubation, the babies are ready to hatch. Most of them however are not strong enough to pierce the shell, only managing to break out their forearms. Instinctively, they use their flippers to pull themselves towards the pool’s center. There they wait until the force of the geyser’s next eruption breaks their shells and propels them out of the water and into the air. Here their flippers double as wings, on which they sail to the next puddle, where they find a mate and spend the rest of their lives.

Bumbumast
Bumbumasts are flying insects that played a vital role in Cabina flora pollination and were at times kept by the Cah-Binn for the honey- and wax-like substances they’d produce. The Bumbumasts naturally exhibit three distinct phases of behavior: solitary, colonial, and swarming. In the past, Cah-Binn biologists were able to determine that two main factors determine the switch between these phases: population and hunger. The Bumbumast brain produces two distinct neurotransmitters, Stophamine and Glinenephoc. Production of the first is triggered by the detection of the pheromones of other Bumbumasts, and increases the more Bumbumasts are detected in this manner. Production of the latter is triggered by lack of food, and increases as the Bumbumast approaches starvation.

When Stophamine levels are low, the Bumbumast exhibits its solitary behavior. It will make a small lair for itself, usually by chewing its way into the wood of a tree, and spend its days foraging in the surrounding area. If it meets another Bumbumast, it may attempt to mate with them after which both will proceed to lay eggs in their own lairs (Bumbumasts are hermaphrodites). In this phase, the Glinenephoc levels determine how far the Bumbumast will travel from its lair on its daily forages. As Bumbumasts have only limited navigation abilities, the further one travels from its lair the greater the risk it will not be able to find its way back.

When Stophamine levels are high, and Glinenephoc levels are low, meaning there are many Bumbumasts in an area with plentiful food, it triggers the colonial phase. Bumbumasts will become gregarious and join together to build great colonies. Through observation and experimentation, Cah-Binn biologists concluded that the only limit to the size of these colonies was their food supply. In controlled environments, hives were able to grow to populations of millions of Bumbumasts without any significant decline in their rate of growth.

When Stophamine levels are high, and Glinenephoc levels are also high, meaning the hive has either grown too large or exhausted all nearby food supplies, the third phase is triggered: swarming. The Bumbumasts remain gregarious, but now the hive becomes a nomadic swarm. Bumbumast swarms spread themselves out across the region around their hive, devouring any plant life in their path. The height of activity of Bumbumasts in the swarm phase correlates to the height of their Glinenephoc levels, meaning those Bumbumasts in the swarm who are able to find food become temporarily less active. Through this process, the swarm over time splits and breaks up as sated Bumbumasts are left behind by their still hungry brethren. The survivors then either coalesce to build new hives, if there are enough Bumbumasts in one area, or go into the solitary phase. The final result of this process is that the swarm disperses itself out over hundreds or thousands of acres surrounding the location of its original hive, spreading the hive's gene pool across the land.

Adult Bumbumasts tend to be around 4 millimetres (0.16 in) long. They don’t have stingers, but their mouths are able to bite down so hard that their jaws gets stuck, and Bumbumasts stuck in such a position will literally decapitate themselves trying to pull loose. In the colony phase, they will use this bite as a defensive mechanism, and hundreds of Bumbumasts will sacrifice themselves to protect the hive. Thankfully, this defensive mechanism doesn’t trigger easily. Proximity is not enough, the hive must be physically damaged for the Bumbumast to feel under threat. However people are advised to keep their distance from Bumbumast hives all the same. As if a person were to trip and accidentally fall into a hive, breaking its outer walls, the resulting attack can easily turn fatal if the victim does not receive proper medical care soon after. In the swarming phase, Bumbumasts are more aggressive, but as they are herbivores they will normally ignore other animals in favor of whatever flora is unlucky enough to be in the swarm’s path.

Bumbumasts became extinct as part of the total ecosystem collapse following the Blood Eagle’s bombardments. But due to their importance for the pollination of several key species of native Cabina flora, they were among the first species reintroduced by biosphere restoration projects. The dangers of Bumbumast swarming behavior were well known, and advanced surveillance and control methods were instigated in restored areas to prevent calamitous swarms hitting human or Cah-Binn populated areas. However, these control methods have proved only a mixed success. While Cah-Binn and human biologists are generally able to prevent Bumbumast swarms from targeting the settlements at the center of most restoration projects, the Bumbumast proved to react to the wasteland outside of these projects with new and unexpected behavior. Rather than avoid the wasteland entirely, as expected, Bumbumast swarms instead gather in even larger numbers, before heading straight into the wasteland.

Even Cah-Binn biologists have been fascinated by this hereto unknown behavior, and have speculated that it is the result of some ancient part of the Bumbumast genetic code, and that this behavior allowed the species to spread across the planet in times when the polar ice caps covered even more of the planet than they have in living memory. They have called this new behavior the ur-swarm phase.

However, as fascinating a discovery as it has been, this behavior has proved highly problematic as well. After several days of finding nothing in their path but more wasteland, these Bubumast ur-swarms begin to starve, and after a few more days begin to die as the swarm collapses. However, in the days leading up to final starvation the Bubumasts become aggressively ravenous. The ravenous Bumbumasts will bite through anything short of a vac suit, and any person caught unprepared by a ravenous ur-swarm is in mortal danger.

The one bright side is that if someone has gotten themselves lost in the wasteland, the appearance of an ur-swarm signals that they are no more than a week out from a nearby settlement. Provided they can survive the encounter, that is.