[✓] [Creature Rewrite] The Tortung

[salamanderfantasy 1340]

 

The Tortung

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Origins

As are many creatures found within this world, the origins of the tortung are uncertain. 

One story tells of the earliest mages, within a home atop a very large rock. One forming obelisks of magical focus, more and more, concentrating into this exact rock – until the home began to spring to life. Cupboards shutting and closing, fireplace lighting itself, faces of paintings moving – until the rock itself found legs, a tail, and a head. The first tortung.

Others point to similarities in that of flora within the Fae realm– those which latch onto person, body and soul. Of fae flora rooted so deeply within an animal, they could never be separated.

As with all creatures but the mundane, the truth is rarely ever known.

In spite of this, one thing is known. The tortung is something born of magic.

 

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Physiology and Behaviour

 

 

The word ‘Tortung’ encompasses several species of creature, including those tortoise-like, but also those akin to turtles or terrapins. 

The majority of tortungs are vastly, vastly, larger than their mundane relatives, though they remain slow-moving. Curiously, tortungs bear a small, localized ecosystem of flora grown upon their shells, ranging from moss and fungi,  to trees of large size. These physically embed within the living tissue of the shell, roots intertwining with nerve and capillary.

Though this symbiotic relationship of flora and fauna is certainly magical in its origin, the tortung itself is magically inert. 

The shell of the tortung is of a rock-like strength, though much less brittle. The act of tortung farming – that is, farming on a tortung – is rarely practised. But to those skilled in agriculture, it is possible. 

The health of a tortung is intrinsically tied to the health of its flora. Though smaller plants can be harvested and pruned, removing an excessive amount of vegetation will be life-threatening. The tortung does not die immediately, and can be nursed back to health by treating its wounds, nurturing remaining flora, and transplanting new plants onto the shell. 

 

If reaching a large enough size, a tortung may support a garden, or even dwelling, without stress. Those domesticated grow comfortable to being handled and ridden, or carrying cargo, and can be trained to follow simple commands to come, halt, and follow. 

Receiving nutrition from their plant growth, tortungs are comfortable to rest in a single location for years at a time. More active tortungs require more feeding. Their diet matches many mundane testudines – a temperate tortung grazes on grass and leafy greens, a tropical tortung partakes in a fruit-rich diet, an aquatic turtle-tortung hunts fish and crustacean, for instance. 

 

The meat of a tortung is tough, and difficult to harvest. However, as with turtles and tortoises, it is sometimes eaten. Those who do so note the meat almost marinated with the flavours of the plantlife the tortung had hosted in life. The bone-plate ribs and keratin scutes which build the shell are also occasionally used for bone weapons and armours, household tools, or for ritual garments. 

 

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Size Variation

Independent of species and symbiotic ecosystem, a tortung may also vary in the size they reach at adulthood. Once maturing to egg-laying age, a tortung will no longer grow – however, it cannot be predicted what the final size will be. Tortungs of the same family line may reach a similar final size, but outliers are possible.

 

The size of a tortung can be described in three ranges.

Spoiler

Minute Tortungs

The smallest size range of tortungs, and also the most common, growing no larger than a travelling cart, or small boat. They may also be found in the sizes of mundane testudines. 

Being the most common, wild-collected eggs or wild-caught tortungs almost always grow to this size range, and no greater.

• MAX SIZE: 5x5x5 blocks, not including plantlife. 
• Their shells cannot be built on, though they may carry small objects, and small people.
• A ‘first-generation’  player owned tortung can only ever be this size. This is to encourage roleplay, rather than using tortungs for aesthetic value in builds only, and the rarity of larger sizes. 

 

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Modest Tortungs

The middle-size range of tortungs, these reach no larger than the size of a dining room. These creatures are more commonly used as slow-travelling pack animals for bulk-carrying, as well as mobile garden plots

• MAX SIZE: 15 x 15 x 15 blocks, not including tall plantlife.
• Their shells cannot support buildings, though they may carry several people, as well as cargo. 

 

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Monumental Tortungs

The upper-range of known tortungs, reaching the size of a hill, or family house. At these larger sizes, sporting a robust shell – structures may be carefully built atop them. 

However, sinking support beams for the structures into the shell of these tortungs would prove fatal, limiting structures to moderately lightweight and short. Reaching this size is rare among tortungs.  

• MAX SIZE: 15 x 15 x 15 blocks.
• Can be built upon in the form of cottages and shacks. Large, heavy stone forts, without sinking support beams, would be too unstable to build.
• Only a ‘second-generation’ (e.i, laid from an egg by a previously owned tortung) player-owned tortung can reach this size. This is to encourage people to roleplay with the tortung, rather than only use them for the aesthetic. 
• An egg or tortung obtained from another player’s tortung counts as ‘second generation’

Spoiler

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. . . .Mountainous Tortungs?

Something only ever seen in legend – a tortung grand enough to carry cities, mountains, countries. And according to some, even the entire world. Surely, only a thing of myth. Or, perhaps not. 

• MAX SIZE: UNLIMITED.
• ST EVENT ONLY.
• GOD HELP YOU.

 

 

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Life Cycle

Though able to remain dormant for upwards of a century, once the process of developing beings, a tortung egg will hatch within two years.

A tortung reaches maturity simply when it stops growing. This depends on its final size range. At the point of maturity, they begin laying eggs.

Spoiler

• Miniscule – 4 Years
• Modest – 8 Years
• Monumental – 12 Years

 

Reproduction among tortungs can occur asexually, and spontaneously. Eggs are laid rarely, and never within the five year period after laying previously. 

Clutches number between one and three. These eggs have a thick, almost stone-like shell. Though they may remain dormant for a period after laying, once placed into a nest of ideal conditions, the embryo will develop over a period of two years before hatching. 

An ‘ideal’ nest is sheltered, in warm to temperate conditions, and in an area of high biodiversity – near multiple examples of the local plantlife. 

These floras develop on and root into the soft shell of the hatchling tortung before it hardens. A tortung hatched in a desert may bear a shell of cacti and succulents, a marsh-dwelling tortung a back of algae and lillypads, for example. 

A turtle-tortung may not bear tortoise-tortung offspring, and vice-versa.

Once reaching maturity, tortungs have been known to live near indefinitely. While the smallest individuals have been known to share lifespans similar to mundane testudines, between 50-200 years, even they frequently far surpass this. There are rumours of the largest tortungs living to numbers in the thousands.

 

 

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General Redlines

 

• Tortungs have no combat applications. Should combat begin, the tortung hides within its shell. For the duration of combat, it is to be treated the same as a boulder of normal rock would be, and even then, can provide no advantage to combat. 
• Although having magical origins, they are magically inert.
• Any material gathered, plant-matter, crops, bone, meat, will be entirely mundane in nature– the same as would be harvested from normal plants or animal, aside from scale and taste. 
• The bones and scutes of a tortung do not retain their extreme strength in death, again – they are as strong as the bone or keratin of a similarly sized animal. 
• For purposes of lore, the plants grown on a tortung interacts with magic/other lore in the same way as a mundane plant would, and the tortung as an animal would. This includes both magically/alchemically damaging, and healing, the tortung. 
• Tortungs eggs are player-signed items, and do not require ST approval, nor do tortung-builds (provided lore is followed) 
• Tortungs are slow-moving. At their fastest, they match the walking speed of a descendant

 

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References:

Original lore:

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/210145-%E2%9C%93-creature-lore-the-tortung/ 

Art Piece from: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtHjNRI1wpo

Builds by: me :-) 

THE WORD TESTUDINE: means the catch-all genus of both tortoises and turtles, here referring to the ones that exist IRL (and is easier to write than ‘tortoise and turtle’). 

THE WORD TORTUNG: refers to the fantasy, part-plant testudines of LOTC lore, both turtle-based and tortoise-based. 

 

 

 

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Spoiler

 

“Sal, why are you rewriting minor creature lore” 
 

Because I wanted to and I like testudines. 

 

I do a LOT of tortung focused roleplay as of lately. And while doing so, I came to realise that the tortung redlines aren’t very player-friendly.

 

Age is one. I know several tortoises IRL who are older than than the tortung max; I HAVE a tortoise who will live about 4x that long. There’s better roleplay potential in being able to pass down an heirloom tortung or having one live alongside an elf for hundreds of years than one that’s gone in less than half a year. 

 

The movement rules as well – rebuilding the tortungs in increments or bothering mods to copy/paste them daily would waste time. Tortungs are strictly non-combat, so movement speed rules aren’t necessary. We can trust people to not tokyo drift their tortungs at top speeds.

I then ended up re-writing the whole lorepiece.

 

The original lore is GOOD, it’s simple, it doesn’t need complicating, I just elaborated on what was there because I like spec-bio.

 

On the backstory though, I thought the current one might confuse some people on if tortungs count as voidal creatures. A lot of other people have also noted their aesthetic and general function is fitting of a fae-related origin. And so, like many creatures on LOTC which have a magical origin, I gave it that good ole Ambiguity.

 

I also added in a few redlines which mean that in order to have a house on a giant tortoise, a person does have to do Some Roleplay First. This is to prevent concerns that hundreds of giant tortungs will appear and then  never get roleplayed with, and to encourage seeking out other people IRP about tortungs.
 

 

 

I dedicate this rewrite to:

 

 Cappor for writing the lore in the first place, Aesopian for that tortung architect I take on world tours, WHOEVER it was who gave me the a tortung in the first place because I have FORGOTTEN, and my son-boy made of shell Pterold Pterrance. 

 

 

Now go forth and tortung.

 

[Gnomeh 470]

They look like they give people the power of bending the elements

 

[Islamadon 9158]

This Lore has been accepted. Moved to Implemented Lore, it will be sorted to it's appropriate category soon. Please note that if this is playable lore, such as a magic or CA, you will need to write a guide for this piece. You will be contacted regarding the guide (or implementation if it isn’t needed) shortly.