Reading Time: 4 minutes

This is, along with the Decrepit One, is the last creature to be documented in 2022 (Earthen Time designation), happy new years organisms.

Sentinels are powerful cyborgs that patrol the great chasms and labyrinths between the sub-realms of Ja’luhhor’Alotha. As lifeforms were not intentionally allowed to traverse the sub-realms of Ja’luhhor’Alotha. The Sentinel’s main purpose is to slaughter any being that exits their sub-realm and attempts to use the forbidden tunnel ways instead of the Great Chasm. Half metal and half flesh, the Sentinels are born from massive clusters of cloning-sacks that grow the flesh and implant the cybernetics.

Biology

Beings of metal and flesh, Sentinels are fundamentally cyborgs. Although they are not born this way, instead they are incubated from fetid pods and are engineered into their mature form in massive factories. As to assist in their fervency in hunting, Sentinels are strictly carnivorous. They are armed with various weapons, including their pointed legs, and their powerful bionic tail. They are also armed with retractable mega-syringes connected to their mechanical limbs, which are used to administer a deadly cocktail of cyanide and dimethylmercury. Sentinels can also deliver a deadly bite, capable of cleaving thick steel into two pieces. If an organism is capable of surviving such a grievous wound, the entire microswarm of pathogens located in a Sentinel’s saliva should do the trick and finish them off.

Additionally, Sentinels also use their tail as a grasping appendage. Although usually in an offensive context, along with their organic secondary manipulation appendages located near the head and neck. Sentinels respirate via pneumostomes on each side of the back. Sentinels are capable of versatile locomotion on all sides of a structure, including ceilings and walls. Despite seemingly lacking ocular organs on the head and other portions of the body, Sentinels can easily navigate their environment without issue. As to how these creatures perceive their surroundings, that is unknown. However, it has been suggested that they may see through their tails or even use a form of electroreception or echolocation.

Sentinels are incapable of death via disease or age, and are generally considered biologically immortal. Sentinels are infested with healing immunal nano-drones that destroy all pathogens and repair any and all damage. As such, Sentinels are also quick to heal from physical damage, even their mechanical are under this effect.

Life Cycle

Sentinels are incubated as larva in enormous cuboidal hollows in vast incubation pillars. When the larva is fully developed, they will be expelled from the pillar and instinctually seek out a nearby modification foundry. Usually with assistance from an adult caretaker, the larva will enter the foundry. Upon which, their organic components may be replaced or upgraded with mechanical ones, and new pieces may be added; hence the namesake, Modification Foundry. For these structures modify the young Sentinels into their pinnacle form.

At this point, the mature Sentinel will either return to the pillar-hives to tend to the younglings or patrol the chasms between Ja’luhhor’Alotha’s sub-realms. It may take many years for these creatures to obtain the skills to hunt and slaughter trespassers on their domain.

Naturally, Sentinels are incapable of dying. Their immune system and mechano-regenerative properties prevent any form of disease or natural ailment to slay them. Indeed, Sentinels must be deliberately slain to be defeated.

Behavior

Sentinels patrol the various mazes and tunnels that connect the sub-realms of Ja’luhhor’Alotha. Their purpose is likely to drive species to use the Great Chasm in place of the tunnel networks. Sentinels are hostile to all lifeforms in sight, with the exception of other Sentinels. In fact, multiple studies have shown that Sentinels can communicate and care for each other. Which possibly suggests a form of sapience or at least the capability to recognize individuals. Sentinels can defend their young, and separate into different tasks to help defend the tunnelwork.

All Sentinels seemingly have superb knowledge of all the different pathways in the labyrinthine tunnel networks. They have been known to take alternate routes to pursue prey and catch up to them quicker. One example of their apparent intelligence is when a Sentinel pursued an Aesoteric expeditionary squad through various maze-like networks. The being used an alternate tunnel which lead directly in front of the fleeing squad, resulting in their deaths.

Sentinels do not seem to eat their kills, instead gathering them and throwing them off of the various cliffs or into the grinders found around the tunnel networks. Instead, Sentinels seem to recharge at charging stations found at their nests, possibly suggesting these creatures are more mechanical than previous thought.