Description+Chacteristics:

  Life Nurturers have very short fur which can shift in color on command through a method which needs further investigation. This color shifting ability allows them to more easily blend into their environments and hide when they want to. Their short fur also means that they are able to sweat, vastly increasing their tolerance to heat and thus endurance in hot environments. As well they are able to breathe through their skin while underwater allowing them to remain submerged indefinitely.

  Their short fur however does come with some major downsides including them being more vulnerable to damage than most species. The second downside is that they are the only species of drekmurian which could in theory get a sunburn, though they would need to be on a planet with more concentrated ultraviolet light than Drekmur.

  Interestingly they seem to be able to adapt to colder climates by forming a layer of fat under their skin and growing longer fur. This has allowed them to inhabit the vast majority of climates on Drekmur.

  Life Nurturers are naturally able to breathe out a mist which acts as a sedative which is effective against all as of yet tested native species other than jacka. They typically use this to either render an animal unconscious to check its health or on visitors who get too close to their homes. This sedative tends to wear off after 2-5 hours and seemingly has no major side effects outside of disrupting the subject's sleep cycle temporarily.

  Life Nurturers last ability is their ability to sense how the life in an area around them is doing. They can sense things like how a drekmurian is feeling or how healthy the trees around them are. When there is an overabundance of sentient creatures in an area feeling the emotions of every single one can be overwhelming. This ability is not one which can be switched off making even the idea of living in a group of larger than a handful of people overwhelming. The only exception being groups of Life Singers due to their damping of this ability.

  Preferred Range:

  Life Nurturers can be found nearly everywhere where there is life from the vast sands to the northern jungle. The only places where they are not typically found are the northern wastes and the frozen plains as a result of the lack of plant life as well as the sky scraper mountains’ thin air.

  Culture:

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Life Nurturers do not form or join communities as their ability to sense emotions gets overwhelmed by groups. Instead they will only live with typically zero to three other drekmurians at any time. They will often make their homes in isolated areas surrounded by nature which they often will take on the job of protecting. Either making or buying by proxy any tools or supplies they might need from civilization.

  Their diet typically consists of various plants which they will gather from the environment around them. This makes them the only species of drekmurian which only eats plants, though they are still able to eat meat the vast majority simply choose not to.

  By nature Life Nurturers are very shy and skittish despite being able to sense that those around them don't seek to hurt them. This when paired with their camouflage and sleep mist ability means that many stories exist of someone wandering in the woods, getting suddenly tired and then waking up just outside of the tree line. Some even report feeling like something was watching them as they woke up just to suddenly disappear.

  While in most environments Life Nurturers are reclusive in the northern jungle they are far less so. Either from the constant hostility and death of the northern jungle or just its shere density, Life Nurturers are far less overwhelmed by other drekmurians. They will often even join Jungle Hunter communities where they will often try and maintain the balance of the jungle around them.

  Anomalies:

  One in every twenty Life Nurturers will have the ability to not only sense but manipulate the life around them. They, while able to, almost never use this ability to harm the life around them as they too would feel the pain. Instead they typically use this ability to heal those around them making them some of the best medics on Drekmur. They also will often use this ability to better shape the nature around them to better function together. These individuals are called Life Shapers because they reshape the life around them.

  Notes:

  The first time I encountered a Life Nurture was when they tried to use their sleep mist on me while I was exploring the green sea. She was very confused when instead of falling asleep I excitedly started asking questions. Eventually over the course of the first contact mission I would visit regularly and eventually she was the one who told me much of what I know of Life Nurturers.

  Initially I thought that the Life Nurturers ability to sense emotions was from some interaction between theirs and others' core. But when I learned that they were able to also sense human emotions it proved that it instead was a result of some other mechanism. What exactly that mechanism is I still have no idea but I hope to be able to figure it out next time we meet.

  Right near the end of our mission I and Sky Lafel finally managed, through a combination of CCE’s and brain scanning tech, to create a band which makes the Life Nurturers ability to sense emotion toggleable. While I do not think that even with this invention many if any Life Nurturers will join our crew as there isn’t much not-sentient life onboard I am glad to have been able to at least make it a possibility.