Dilnefa

Dilnefa

(Creature)

Environment

Tarrinette

Source: Solar Strike, pg(s). 47

Dilnefas are a species of enormous fire whale-like creatures that live within the [[star] Tarrinette in the Songbird Nebula.

Appearance

Dilnefas are several miles long, mostly cylindrical creatures with eight massive fins, long snouts and tails with four flippers.

Ecology

Dilnefas live in generation-spanning families and spend most of their lives travelling deep within Tarrinette. Every 20 years, they migrate to the surface to bear young, resulting in massive solar flares. They are generally docile but sometimes fight over territory, especially during migrations. They seem to value territory by the amount of radiation present, suggesting they can subsist themselves on radiation. Dilnefas live for around 400 years and mourn their dead. Due to their size, no one has tried to remove a dilnefa from Tarrinette, and most agree that doing so would kill them.

Society

Residents of Probellis, the habitable planet nearest to Tarrinette, have developed remote-controlled drones to lure the dilnefas where the solar flares they cause will shoot off harmlessly into space. Through trial and error, researchers find the lights and pulses that attract the dilnefas. These drones substantially reduce the dangers to Probellis, although effects to the dilnefa mating cycle have yet to be recorded.

Creatures from the Plane of Fire view Tarrinette as a tourist destination and build luxury resorts along the dilnefas' migration path. Some brave tourists go on dives to swim with them. Dilnefas are not aggressive unless divers go near their young, but sometimes become interested in equipment and vehicles, and can injure smaller creatures and damage submersibles without realising due to their massive size. The drones that redirect the dilnefas have affected the profit of some of these resorts, whose owners sometimes sabotage the drones. In turn, researchers from Probellis are unaware of this interference and are developing more substantial drones. Efreeti xenobiologists have voiced concerns over the impact of this escalation on the unique and peaceful dilnefas, and some have begun to involve the Xenowardens, making all involved parties nervous.