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Gremlins

Name: Gremlins
Creator: Turbine
Home Zone: Cage
Project Appearances: Egress
Species Development Thread: Species Development: Gremlins


This article contains brief + simple mentions of reproduction, but is SFW.

Gremlins are quadruped species with an extensive variety of shapes and forms they can take due to their unique method of reproduction. They are native to Cage.

Origin

Gremlins originated in Cage and were created by the god Turbine.

Culture

Gremlins are primarily found in Cage but have distributed to some port towns, coastal settlements, and small islands since finding an egress from Cage. Most locations lack any sort of accommodations due to their recent introduction to the greater Morbit, outside Cage.

Gremlins have no concept of blood relatives, instead of adopting a system of apprenticeships where a young gremlin is selected by a volunteer guardian. They lack a formal education, typically their guardian is meant to impart the necessary skills, though on-the-job mentorship is also common.

Gremlins do not often adopt worship unless raised in a foreign culture, as gremlins traditionally see gods as fellow individuals instead of a separate class.

Physical disabilities are uncommon among gremlins, but those that do possess them are not considered lesser or ostracized by their fellow gremlins.

Gremlins favor remodeled passenger planes as homes and are most comfortable in cockpits and cargo holds.

Gremlins often sleep in a single pile, both as a form of social enrichment and to conserve warmth. Due to their unique method of reproduction, gremlin sleeping quarters normally are only meant to accommodate six individual gremlins. Gremlins who choose sleep quarters separate from others entirely are considered an oddity but are not targetted due to their preference.

Nearly all gremlins have minor innate magical abilities and the lack of them can be fairly debilitating, to the point where it may be considered a disability.

Gremlin teeth aren't as strong as one would expect from a species with their diet, but they can still use them effectively in a fight. It is common to playfully brawl as a means of social interaction and to relieve excess stress, but most brawls end if blood is drawn or bruises develop.

Due to their very recent introduction to the surface, many cultural developments common to surface dwellers have yet to develop in gremlin culture. Examples of this include; visual arts, written arts, and many other fictional works. Though gremlins have developed music, in that they created chant-like tunes to be sung while working, like sea shanties.

Gremlins do, however, have rich knowledge of technology, from having to dismantle and alter the planes that make up Cage.

Appearance

Gremlins usually have wispy, poorly kept fur, and historically were not able to take care of their fur very well, leading to split ends and other hair problems. Gremlin fur patterns seem to have no rhyme or reason for what they can be, ranging from simple spots to small blurry passages from books.

Gremlin morphs take aspects of other species, the most common of those being fur texture and body proportions. Gremlins retain their quadruped body plan regardless of the body plan of the species who's features are integrated.

The typical Gremlin voice sounds like metal scraping together and engine sounds. Because of this many Gremlins are self-conscious about talking in the rest of Morbit where their voices are considered ‘grating’ and ‘noisy’.

All Gremlins have paw pads.

Most Gremlins have tails, and they are fairly instrumental for balancing on their hind legs.

Gremlins range from 9”-3’ for “normal” adult height range.

Biology

Gremlins have skeletons, muscles, nerves, organs, and blood. Gremlins have an assortment of sharp teeth, but their shape and size are dependent on the individual gremlin.

Gremlins are omnivorous, though they are primarily mechani- and metallovorious, as their diet solely exists of items that compose passengerless planes.

Gremlins are a very active species.

Gremlins move around in ways that are largely comparable to house cats, taking advantage of both horizontal and vertical space.

Their paw pads are unusually tough, to better help them walk around in an environment with so much broken glass and sharp metal.

Gremlin pupils are able to change to various symbols in order to emote, although all Gremlins have a single symbol that their eyes default to when they aren’t actively emoting.

Gremlins are semi-bipedal, having the ability to stand on their hind legs but generally only doing so if they need the use of their front paws for something.

The gremlin lifespan of 60 years, although because of their poor living conditions, up until recently it was rare for any gremlin to reach that age.

Life Cycle/Family Structure

Gremlins do not reproduce by normal means, and no one truly knows how it works. When 7 or more gremlins are asleep in the same room there is a small chance that a single newborn gremlin may appear there before anyone wakes up. If any non gremlins are asleep in the room when it happens, the child may take on features of their species and be a morph. A quote from Turbine on this matter is “I just made it magic, I didn’t want to think more about it than that.”

The amount of Gremlins ‘born’ in this way is never more than one, regardless how many Gremlins are in the room in total.

Gremlin kits are often a handful, even more energetic than the average Gremlin and with a penchant for sneaking away to explore.

Gremlin families vary wildly in structure and size, it is often said that if you ask 10 Gremlins what the ideal family is you will get 100 answers.

Gremlins have a difficult time understanding romantic love, and don’t see what makes it different from a very good friendship.

Gremlins until recently didn’t really have a choice to leave their families, as there were only so many fully habitable villages in Cage. Since their egress, gremlins now have the option to branch out and explore beyond Cage.

Genetics

Other than the original Gremlin morph, morphs are all visual 'hybrids' with other species.

'Hybrid' morphs do not share any DNA with the non-Gremlin 'parent,' nor do they inherently share any visual similarities to that 'parent' besides features or aspects which are common to the species as a whole.

Gremlin morphs will sometimes take on special or magical qualities of the species they mimic, such as OBJ headcasings or ruffneck smoke.

All morphs of Gremlin are semibipedal and usually walk on all fours.

Gremlins primarily have feline features, but this is almost always overwritten in morphs by the mimiced species’ features.

Gremlins are fairly resistant to horror radiation, but the first thing that usually gets affected are the Gremlin’s pupils, which may grow, shrink, split, or disappear altogether.

Morphs

Gremlin

Without conventional morphs, all unaltered gremlins are effectively the gremlin morph.They were created by Turbine as the first form of gremlin. They are surprisingly unsuited for the environment of Cage, despite it consisting of their dietary needs, and are not equipped for the aquatic evironment outside of the planes they call home. They are closely associated with Turbine and Cage.

"Normal" Gremlins

Mutated/Modified Gremlins

Gremlins with Features of Other Species