Thresher

Large, carnivorous creatures found throughout most of New Eden, Threshers are a very real threat to both the indigenous life in their habitat, and to the curious adventurers roaming the forests and countryside. These beasts are aggressive and extremely intelligent, and while larger threshers are almost always solitary, smaller ones can at times be found roaming in small packs. Regardless of their size or numbers, threshers are more than capable of overwhelming or overpowering the largest of beasts roaming the world.

Although each subspecies of thresher exhibits different physical traits, all are built to be a dominant predator. Due to the variety of threshers in the wild, those who are confronted by one (or many) must consider several factors. Some have razor-sharp claws that are capable of tearing through a brontodon’s thick leathery hide, while others can use their powerful jaws to snap the bones of its prey or bend the reinforced steel of a battleframe. Some of the larger threshers use their tails as blunt instruments, striking enemies or knocking them back several meters with a powerful sweeping attack. These traits make threshers, no matter their type, a danger to anyone caught unprepared.

Certain subspecies of threshers have exhibited traits of a hierarchal structure within their pack, with a clearly-defined alpha leading their group. Larger threshers forego any form of group dynamic and, at times, have shown traces of competition between each other. In rare instances, threshers will lash out at each other over the carcass of fallen prey – though these clashes rarely result in death or injury above surface cuts.

Threshers are a result of FAD, or Forced Accelerated Devolution. In the time before the Melding, a group of researchers had begun working to isolate the latent genetic properties of certain types of fauna. When the Arclight crashed and the Melding spread across the globe, the team was forced to scramble in order to escape. During their evacuation, a containment leak triggered an explosion that spread various chemicals in the air, contaminating birds fleeing from the blast area and the approaching Melding. In the days and weeks that followed, many birds died from their contact with the chemicals, while the larger and stronger birds underwent the accelerated devolution. This explains why there is so much variety in thresher subspecies.