Naachi

Naachi are humanoid mammals with both fox-like and unique characteristics. They have dark brown skin, white hair and fur, and yellow eyes protected by nictitating membranes. Naachi have fur covering their arms from the elbow down, their legs up to their hips, and on their large fox-like ears and long, fluffy fox-like tails. They have four dark red claws on each hand and a single dark red hoof-like claw on each foot. Both hands and feet have pads, though the pads on the feet are covered by fur. Naachi stand 3 feet tall on average and live for 50-55 years.

Naachi are well adapted for the arid environments of the Great Desert. They do not sweat and produce highly concentrated urine and dry feces. They are also able to produce water metabolically from fat, and between the water already present in the foods they eat and the water they can produce metabolically, do not need to drink as long as they are eating properly.

Naachi are also well adapted for the extreme temperatures of the Great Desert. Their large ears serve to dissipate heat, their fluffy tails can be used as makeshift sun shelters or blankets, and the fur on their feet protect them from the hot sand. Their white hair and fur reflects sunlight, reducing the heat they absorb from the sun, and their dark skin protects them from ultraviolet radiation.

Naachi are eusocial with a reproductive queen caste and a non-reproductive worker caste. Queens and workers are morphologically identical, though can be distinguished by scent and behavior. All naachi are born as workers, with further development into queens determined by circumstance. Naachi colonies typically have a single queen at a time, with the existing queen preventing other workers from becoming queens themselves.

Naachi are unisexual and naachi queens reproduce asexually. As a result, naachi are genetic clones and all of a queen’s children are essentially identical to her. Unlike most mammals, naachi lay eggs, with queens laying a single clutch of 3-6 eggs a year over the course of a week. Naachi eggs are white with red speckles and have a hard outer shell. On average, 1/3rd of all naachi eggs fail to hatch.

Naachi can produce five types of pheromone: four of which are producible by all naachi and one of which can only be produced by queens. All naachi can produce alarm, alert, trail, and nest pheromones, which serve the following purposes.

Alarm pheromones trigger fight-or-flight responses in other naachi and serve to warn other naachi of danger. Alarm pheromones are secreted from the skin and can be produced consciously or unconsciously.

Alert pheromones attract the attention of other naachi and are used to reinforce other attention grabbing behaviors or in conjunction with trail pheromones. Alert pheromones are produced in the cloaca and can be expelled alongside urine or feces.

Trail pheromones mark important locations or landmarks and serves two purposes. On their own, trail pheromones serve as memory aids for the naachi producing them and are largely ignored by other naachi. When combined with alert pheromones, they serve to lead other naachi to particular places or along particular paths. Like alert pheromones, trail pheromones are produced in the cloaca and can be expelled alongside urine or feces.

Nest pheromones mark a naachi colony’s nest and serve to both ward off foreign naachi and guide colony naachi back to their nest. Naachi also use the remnants of nest pheromones to judge how recently a colony site has been in use. Like alert and trail pheromones, nest pheromones are produced in the cloaca and can be expelled alongside urine or feces.

In addition to the four pheromones above, queen naachi can produce queen pheromones. Queen pheromones distinguish queens from workers, suppress queen development in workers, induce affection in workers, and more generally improve the moods of workers. Queen pheromones are produced in the mouth and are present in a queen’s saliva. Naachi queens spread their pheromones to their workers by licking and kissing them, and workers spread their queen’s pheromones amongst themselves in the same way.

Naachi act independently of each other, deciding what to do any any given moment based on their own interests, tolerances, and understandings of their situation. One naachi may clean the nest because they like cleaning, while another may clean because the nest has become too messy, and a third may not clean at all, simply not caring about such things. At no point, however, would a naachi clean because another naachi told them to, nor would a naachi tell another naachi to clean because they themself want cleaning to occur.

Despite their name, queen naachi are not an exception to the above. While queens are rarely shy to express their displeasure, they do not tell their workers what to do, and their workers decide on their own how best to cheer their queen up.