A Turtle in the sea?
It's best to leave him be,
you'll catch some pointy hell
If you go messing with his shell.
Spineback Turtle
Splinter - ΛZMΛRÉ
Class - Armored Tank
Size - 250-700 Chickens
Habitat - The Dark Water of ΛZMΛRÉ has a frightening name, but don’t worry. It’s really just an endless abyss into the dark depths of the planet. In the walls of its shallows, Spineback Turtles keep their nests. Turtles are not able to swim deep enough to leave the confines of ΛZMΛRÉ, but sometimes they can be found trading with the Crustaceans or sunning themselves on a rare sunny day in the islands.
Diet - Spineback Turtles eat tremendous amounts of kelp and other seaplants. Usually they can simply grab the vegetation as it floats around the entrance to their cave, but during Neap Tide they must store stockpiles, purchased from the Crustaceans. Turtles can eat meat in a bind, but hunting is incredibly inconvenient and ineffective for them, and they are often killed in the process by a predator after their own meat.
Allies - The Spineback Turtles of ΛZMΛRÉ are allied with the Crustacean people who provide their food, but they also get along very well with the Merfolk who inhabit the underwater metropolis of Poseidar. In fact, the large Turtles fit in quite peacefully with all their many neighbors. Spineback Turtles also recognize their kinship with the Tortisian people from the other side of the world. The two races found immediate common ground, but it is entirely unknown how they have evolved in such vastly different directions.
Enemies - There is one creature that is universally hated and feared by the Spineback Turtles: The dreaded Psychic Seahorse. The tiny maniacs consider the slow-moving and clumsy Turtles to be an easy target for their merciless mind control. The Turtles also hesitate to trust the Umans of the Islands, who have invented special tools of death to get through the Turtle’s armored shell. Summoners from other Splinters are also especially annoyed by these beasts, who repeatedly strike down their best assassins by nothing more than standing in the back. The great spines on the turtles’ backs seem to have a mind of their own, always sensing when there is a melee attack coming and protruding at the ideal moment.
Pastimes - Turtles move incredibly slowly, so it takes them time to do anything. In order to buy their Neap Tide stockpiles of kelp, they must find meager amounts of treasure on the floor of the shallows. This treasure buys their food from the Crustacean kelp Farmers, so this is a very important pastime. Giant Spineback Turtles can always be found combing the floor of the Inner Ocean for the next big score; they are so large that they have been known to drag entire sunken ships to the surface.
History - Spineback Turtles do not keep their own histories. The following is from the Tortisian tradition; it is an excerpt from the Chronicles of Tortia.
The great creator of turtle-kind swims still through the spaces between the stars. Tortia is her name. Her shell brushes galaxies aside with nurturing calm, and her glowing underbelly provides warmth to the furthest reaches of space and time. The great magnitude of Tortia cannot be perceived by the small. We Tortisians are but bits of dust, shaken from the great mother of turtle-kind. One day, Tortia will return to swallow this part of the universe. From that day forward, all creatures will exist as one with her in paradise.
