EDIT: Moofius's awesome fan art
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s24/moofius313/patrint3.png
The Patrint
Size: Small(3 to 4 feet tall from the feet to the top of the crown blade)
The Patrint is a highly specialized pet that was first seen in the depths of the Tengel Rainforest. Its crown feather, winglike top arms and prehensile bottom arms are all sharp, serrated, and highly blade-like. All are used as weapons, although the plume is used only in mating ritual tussles. Leading Evelon scientists suppose that the blades evolved to deal with not predators, but the heavy under brush and constricting vines when searching for prey. When repelling predators, a much more efficient method is attack with the long claws on the feet, which work much faster than the powerful scything blades. However, against stronger foes than the normal cheetahs and other rainforest creatures, such as Lucains and Stargoyles, the honed blades are deadly and destructive. While the top two are merely able to swing on the joint that connects them to the body, the bottom two sword arms are moveable and prehensile, as well as flexible to a moderate degree. The serpentine body allows for speed and extreme flexibility, as well the ability to compress down to a head on a stack of blades, leaving the body protected by the biometal. The strange lines one its head, omnipresent in subspecies, are still a mystery, and seem to have no purpose.
The Patrint are reliant on sight in the same way as humans are, but their sense of taste is much worse. However, this can be difficult to determine, since the Patrint's superior sense of smell off-sets this. They also posses extremely sensitive thermoception, able to tell to within ten degrees Fahrenheit the temperature on any part of their body. However, the biometal in their top blades, crown blade, and prehensile blades leaves them with a weak sense of touch and nociception.
Hunting for the Patrint is a simple matter- using their claws, they grasp at prey, and deliver a coup de grace with their crown blades. When harvesting berries and other plants(they are omnivorous), including those that they have grown themselves, they usually use their top blades to slice branches and their prehensile blades to catch and peel the plants.
Patrint kits are born in litters of three- rarely more or less. However, the current mysterious leader was born as an only child. They are born as snake like infants, and during the first few weeks of life the prehensile blades grow. During the age of childhood, defined for Patrints as ages three to ten, the top blades grow. Once maturity is reached, normally at age fifteen, the crown blade grows and the child is accepted as an adult when it reaches its full length at age sixteen.
The Patrint speak most human languages, and write them as well. However, all government and other important documents are written in a strange language using letters that looking very similar to the three jagged lines on their heads.
Society wise, the Patrint rely on an honour bound system of structured fights using the blades on top of their heads. With this method, they select leaders and sub-leaders, who then rule until weeks that take place every three years where they can be unseated. Patrints are so honourable that the system does work, oddly.
The ruling society is ruled as such- a leader, who is challenged every three years, a top tier, who have authority over all but the leader, a second tier that is rather like low level or state government, a third tier which has slight authority over the fifth tier, the fourth tier made up normal citizens, and the fifth tier of people who have joined the society from other tribes or races. Promotion to the first tier and leader are based on ceremony battles with crown blades, and second and third tier promotions are based on normal combat.
From first glance, it seems to be a male dominant species, since the overall ruler and top tier of class is normal male. However, this is due to the male's stronger crown blade- the females tend to dominate the second and third tiers due to their faster prehensile blades. A radical feminist movement had suggested that the top tier competition should be changed to general fighting rather than ceremonial.
Patrints are friendly to human, but have only agreed to be pets recently, and even then only select few (Although far more than could be adopted). It is thought to be associated with a new leader, a mysterious figure born with two crown blades.