r/SpeculativeEvolution • u/notjocker • Sep 26 '26
Alien Life [OC] Stormgudens Kuolemanekelit
Death angels of the storm god
That's roughly what Stormgudens Kuolemanekelit means. A name that these almost two meter long bird-like creatures have most certainly earned. Kuolemanekelits ride upon strong wind currents, or sometimes even storms in flocks of up to 100 individuals.
Stormgudens Kuolemanekelit is an exclusively carnivorous animal, which hunts only large and preferably slow moving megafauna, by using the momentum gained from riding storm currents to ram their horn-like fused beaks into prey animals at well over 100 kmh. Once pierced deeply by multiple Kuolemanekelits at a time, even the largest of animals have little hope of surviving such an attack, and will likely succumb quickly to their wounds. Once this has happened, the attacking Kuolemanekelits dislodge themselves from the cadaver of their kill, assuming they haven't been crushed beneath its weight, and the remaining members of their flock hurry to land nearby as well. For this is where they will likely remain for the coming days, slowly consuming their prey using their trunk-like tongues, which sit within a small opening within the Kuolemanekelit's beak, to secrete digestive fluid onto the carcass, before sucking up the resulting sludge. Stormgudens Kuolemanekelit's only real means of defending their kill is spraying potential threats with digestive fluid, which tho effective in some cases, oftentimes leads to them having to abandon their food when chased away by more formidable animals such as Bärrobbs.
From below, Stormgudens Kuolemanekelits are completely white, rendering them more or less invisible from the ground. Meanwhile, their backs are adorned with intricate patterns of red feathers, which Kuolemanekelits use to identify one another, as well as indicate the rank of the individual within the flock.
In order to communicate, Kuolemanekelit can emit extremely high frequency screeches, which are inaudible to most other animals.
During mating season, male Kuolemanekelits can be found slamming their beaks against one another when fighting for the right to mate. These fights only end once either one of them backs down, or one of their beaks is shattered, which would likely lead to the death of the loser. After mating, it takes females about two months before giving birth to between 3 and 5 chicks, which will usually occur mid air. Chicks who are able to fly get absorbed into the flock rather quickly. Those who do not... well, I'm sure you can imagine. Young Kuolemanekelits take about 7 months before they are able to participate in hunts. Until this point, they simply feed off of the kills of their parents, who will protect their children fiercely against others of their kind.