>Cyr the Destroyer: The First Five<

Elleghasta:

The cyclopean, hypogeal species that form of the Ballastian Empire.

They first evolved in deep caverns on the tidally locked world of Ballasta, safe from the belting radiation of Home Star, before terraforming their planet in an event called the Terraformation.

They are often referred to as Ballastians, however this is an incorrect etymology.

Three morphs: Two sexing genders, male and female, and one non-sexing gender, Clonic.

The physical differences between sexers are relatively minor; females are generally smaller-bodied, longer-necked, possessing brighter coloration with more extravagant flourishes along their jutting column of dorsal spinous processes and more delicate nutrient and respiratory gills than their male counterparts.

All elleghasts possess three tripartite legs, two leading, one trailing, each ending in a sleek, keratinized heel.

They are four-armed: The larger two arms end in powerful three-digit clawed fingers, often referred to as 'primes'.

The other two arms are smaller, delicate, with multi-faceted hands specialized for sign language which are held tight to the chest between the primes.

Ellegasts possess a eloquent organ, the ventrum, a small patch of flesh that luminesces with colorful patterns which serve to depict emotional states and non-verbal communication. They also use this organ for reception of tactile messages, a form of body language initially developed in the Dwelling Caves prior to the Terraformation. Although the ventrum's use in tactile language coevolved with elleghastan biology, it's function as a visual organ was an unintended result of the manipulation of pleiotropic genes targeting visual acuity during the First Great Movement of the Terraformation, in which initial rounds of genetic modifications were made in order to prepare the elleghastan population for the migration to the surface.

In specific, these modifications adapted the Elleghastan retina to absorb the wider range of wavelengths present on the surface, heightening visual acuity and depth of field despite the lack of binocular or trinocular vision.

Clonics are significantly larger than the other two sexing morphs, with some reaching sizes of nearly five-times that of the average male, or six times that of the average female. They reproduce by a specialized form of budding, in which the clone bud grows until it breaks off, and eventually produces a sexing offspring with proper care. They are more sturdy in build, with wider set shoulders, and are generally more muscular.

Clonics are traditionally independent, often shunned, and historically forbidden from forming romantic relationships with even other Clonics.

Male and females reproduce sexually, and can produce any iteration of morphs, although this distribution always skews toward Clonics. Clonics cannot sire Clonics, due to an fatal autosomal allele in 'embryonic' gill development.

Although they have always faced persecution for their differences, in recent history, Clonics were hunted to near 'extinction' in an effort to skew the population towards sexing genders, in an event dubbed the Clonic War, often referred to as the Gendered War. This war was perpetrated by the very same elleghastans that pioneered the later phases of the Terraformation.

The war came to an abrupt end during the First Helitian Invasion, where Clonics proved to be instrumental in successfully defending Ballasta.

During this time, much of early elleghastan history was subsequently erased, including the fact that all of the first elleghastans were themselves Clonic.

Despite fear, hatred, and isolation, Clonics have always made strides in elleghastan civilization, including defending Ballasta in the First and Second Helitian Invasions, as well as in many subsequent interstellar conflicts: they now form the brunt of the Armada's backbone, with many rising to positions of power and prominence, such as Lucide Siloss the Warmonger, and Ballok Parsi, a famed ecogeologist and seismologist that pioneered early studies into Ballasta's geological composition.

CONCEPT ART:
Concept drawings of Cyr, as well as a original concept artwork for Mayna, Eldrid, and Ballok by editor Katie Bolte! Cyr's portrait was done with a mixture of prismacolor pencils, sharpies, POSCA paint markers, and charcoal/graphite!

The rock in the first image is a Television Stone (Ulexite, a fascinating mineral that carry light much like fiberoptic cables do! - Cyr is a Geologist by trade, after all!)

Katie also pictured are some of the iterations of elleghasta anatomy. in particular, figuring out how their tripartite hips work was difficult, as was the overall configuration of the Clonic design. But Katie did an awesome job, especially given the crazy deadlines!

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