Skiver

Skivers are New Eden’s great wildlife mystery. Sightings of these oversized shrimp were first recorded ten years ago, along the coastline of the Yucatan Peninsula. What little we know about the Skiver tells us, definitively, that they are native to Earth. Additionally, their genetic makeup shows no sign of contact with the Melding, lending credence to the hypothesis that the Skiver is a previously-undiscovered species of life.

The accepted theory is that Skivers are native to Earth’s oceans, where they had been hunted by a larger predator. It is believed that this predator was either endangered or completely rendered extinct during the Nine Year Winter, allowing the population of the Skiver to explode. Because of their unparalleled reproduction rate – a female can lay upwards of 100,000 eggs at a time – the Skiver was able to rapidly repopulate. However, with a lack of a single predator to keep their population in check, their numbers continued to grow. Eventually they outgrew their natural habitat and began to spread across the ocean and towards land.

Although they have expanded well beyond their natural habitat, Skivers continue to find new ways to keep out of sight of potential predators. Being forced to move beyond their natural environment, the Skiver has been shown to be a highly adaptable creature. One commonality in their environmental selections is that each one gives the Skiver a prime defense against potential predators. This includes underwater coves, hollow rocks, and buried in sand. It’s also theorized that some Skivers will even hide inside the carcasses of larger beasts, or even inside living organisms.

A single Skiver is known to be highly skittish, often fleeing from creatures half its size. When in numbers, however, these creatures are fiercely aggressive and highly opportunistic. Only leaving the relative safety of their ocean habitat to hunt, groups of Skivers will swarm older or weaker prey. The Skiver’s bite injects their enemy with a small dosage of neurotoxin which, while not especially dangerous in a single dosage, can quickly become fatal when applied via multiple bites. Skivers are also excellent jumpers, able to leap high into the air and drive passing Storm Kestrel, Culex, and other airborne creatures to the ground, where the rest of the swarm can quickly overwhelm it.

The best defense against a swarm of Skivers is a solid offense. Keep moving, and attack from a distance.