Family: Beast-kin
Habitat: Thundering Oaks
Height: 6-8 ft
Lifespan: Unknown (estimated 100-300 years)
Intelligence: Sentient
Diet: Predominantly meat, some plants
Abilities: Enchanted strength, heightened senses, flight, shapeshifting (sometimes), limb regeneration, petrifying venom, toxin resistance

Physical description

Humanoid body, with anthropomorphic animal traits. They have the upper body of a lioness and the lower body of a goat, although some have the upper body of another large cat. Typically they have the horns of a goat as well. A snake serves as its tail. Frequently, they will have leather or feathered wings protruding from their back.

General description

Chimeras in general are artificial creatures. The original chimeras were created in a lab by alchemists. They were capable of reproduction and intelligent thought, the latter of which aided in their eventual escape from containment. While they might not have been the first hybrid creatures created in a lab, they became the name for any patchwork lifeform, thanks to their numbers and resulting infamy.

More recently, sorceress Lilly Smith tried her hand at the field of chimera creation. Her country has always been underpopulated and she has looked to different sources for manpower. Well before Kalena came into her collection, she had invested a lot of time into golems, but they had limited intelligence. Of the different kinds of chimeras she sought to utilize, Lilly’s focus has been nosipho chimeras, who were created with human and elf DNA, among other things. She worked on making them smart enough to adapt to new situations; while they largely lack the capacity for genius-level intellect, they are comparable to the average human. She also programmed in a genetic marker, to make them see her as their alpha to maintain their loyalty, even after several generations.

As standard, the nosipho chimeras are quite strong and durable. They have keen eyes and a sharp nose, allowing them to track their prey. Fortunately, their aggression had been tempered some, to further decrease the possibility of rebellion. Their abilities include wings that make them capable of flight; a snake tail with a literal mind of its own, albeit as a technical extension of their main brain; and venom stored inside the tail that can be willingly discharged at its targets, petrifying them on contact.

They are also highly resilient and do not bleed easily, with many being resistant to gunfire. On top of that, they also have a healing factor, allowing them to quickly stop any resultant bleeding. They are even able to regenerate lost limbs, with missing arms able to be regrown in less than a fortnight. However, doing so does increase their metabolism, requiring them to eat to replace the missing mass. Normally, they wear armor into battle to protect their vital organs, as the healing factor might be too slow to fix them in time.

Lilly has also experimented with giving them beyond-superhuman abilities, a lifelong fascination of hers. While her chimeras are still subject to the roughly 5% birth rate of innate and unique superpowers the rest of Trivium has, they also have certain recessive powers. Often, they develop shapeshifting powers, able to replicate body parts of numerous members of the animal kingdom, such as the legs of a cheetah, the hide of a rhino, the arms of a gorilla, or the eyes of a hawk, just to name a few. Some are able to shift into an anthropomorphic lioness to hide their status as a chimera, and some are even able to morph into humans, while others are only able to retract their wings into their bodies.

Less common are breath attacks, not counting the snake tail spitting venom at foes. This often takes the form of breathing fire, but in rare cases ice or lightning. More recently, Lilly has introduced mana matrices into the mix. Within the bodies of the new generation is a crystal that allows them to use magic without a wand or incantation, in this case mana skin to increase their defensive abilities. However, these crystals are still in the minority of nosipho chimeras, as the older generations will never acquire them and they must still be interbred to spread them out among the others. Modifying the chimeras as a whole is difficult at this stage.

Due in part to Lilly's tastes and the DNA samples of certain species she used, the nosipho chimeras are a one-gender race. They have no trouble bearing the children of their fellow female chimera. However, reproductive functions of the active combatants have been suspended with contraceptive magic to prevent their population from expanding too quickly. This can be reversed at any time.

The exact lifespan of a nosipho chimera is unknown. Examining their bloodwork suggests that they could live for a few hundred years, but given how relatively recent their creation is, none have yet to live for a full century.

It’s been a little while since I've written a species guide. Sorry to those expecting more Omnisuit, but I'm still working on chapter 20. I'm dealing with a few things that have a time limit, so I have to take care of them first. I had wanted to finish it in February for certain reasons.

I had been watching BNA: Brand New Animal on Netflix and was inspired to create these characters. I had pictured them looking something like the lioness from the second episode. Although I failed to come up with an image of her, I did like her look. As you might have guessed, I also gave them Michiru's shape shifting ability. Another source of inspiration was Rose, the chimera girl from Combatants Will be Dispatched, which will be getting an anime soon. Although I went more with an anthropomorphic version of the more classic chimera, giving them just the horns rather than a second head. To balance things a bit, I made shapeshifting an uncommon trait for them, but not so rare that it would be hard to find them.

Some slip ups with the commission. I forgot to specify a cup size, so it got defaulted to D. I had intended for something smaller, C at most. I also should have clarified what I was looking for in armor. I wasn't going for full plate or anything like that, but something lightweight to protect their organs from arrow fire and the like. They can heal pretty quickly, but they can only take so much and the torso needs to be protected more than the limbs. The ears came out a bit on the big side as well. Still for the most part I'm happy with it.

Art by colors by me.

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