The Raiken are a warrior race guided by strength and faith. Hailing from Ranil'inas, a world that would be considered inhabitable by most other species, these reptilians are extremely durable creatures. Generally scornful of other races due to pride, the Raiken resort to force before anything else, even when dealing with their own. Their society is divided up between many clans, all of which are united underneath a single banner, an Alliance that is loose at the best of times.

• Raiken Culture
• Raiken History
• Raiken Clans
• Raiken Creation Guide
• Nulsaa Vi Raiken

Raiken are, in effect, walking, dinosaur-like biological tanks that consume large quantities of food and stone. They're extremephiles that evolved on a hellish, tidally locked planet where most creatures suffer from gigantism.

Male Raiken stand 8'4“ to 9'2” and weigh between 2000-3000lbs. Female Raiken stand 8'2“ to 8'10” and weigh between 1850-2850lbs. Their heights are affected somewhat by their ethnic group. Those coming from the volcanic plains tend to be shorter and less bulky than those who come from the mountains.

They are mostly covered by their thick, tooth-like armor plating that grows on their tail, back, chest, and their upper and lower arms and legs. Their joints are covered by flexible alligator-like scales to allow a full range of movement, while providing some protection to the joints. The scales require brushing, washing, and scouring to grow properly and look pretty. The armor plating and scales are reinforced and maintained by consuming metals and rocks.

Raiken have “exotic” skin tones, similar to metal salt-based paint colors due to their fixing of metals into their skin and scale.

Raiken have four digits, with a thumb for grasping. Their digits are long, and have short talons on the end of them.

They have three toes and a “ stabilizing” toe, which faces the opposite direction.

Raiken have a thick, prehensile tail, covered in plated armor, and has various arrangements of spikes on it, the tail ending in a spade. Raiken have sharp teeth in the front, for cutting meat, and flat teeth in the back, for grinding stone.

Biological structures with visible components

The Raiken's natural armor is produced by the body. The armor takes on the appearance and durability of the metals and rocks the Raiken eat. The heavy armor plates are nearly impervious to small arms fire, requiring dedicated anti-armor weapons to damage and/or pierce them. The scales are only resistant to small arms fire.

It comes in as many colors and as a painter's pallet. Colors are based on diet and ethnic grouping, while the patterns are based on genetic, usually clan.

Raiken scales consists of a series of overlapping plates of similar structure to Raiken teeth. They are rooted into bone sockets located under the skin. These are not scales, but are actually called scutes and are common among crocodilian species.

Raiken armor's outermost layer is its 'enamel', made of glassy metals which behave similarly to obsidian.

These glassy metals are fragile, but incredibly hard. Threaded throughout the glassy metals are hundreds of thousands of dendrites per square inch. They allow it to be just ductile and flexible enough to be usable.

The glassy metal enamel flakes and cracks into a sharp serrated surface that can inflict thousands of papercut like scratches on anything that tries to grab a raiken with overly soft skin. They can also be used to grind the flesh off of the poor creature caught between a raiken and a hard surface, much like a cheese grater. The color and actual composition of the glassy depend largely upon which ones the Raiken consumes predominantly.

Under the glassy metaloids is a layer of 'soft' iron (Often metabolically extracted Serpentinium, a greenish colored type of rock found in ultramafic lava flows, which are still common on the Raiken homeworld), reinforced with nanowires of vanadium and other hard metals. These reinforcing wires act much like rebar in concrete.

The core of their teeth and scutes consists of a set of nerves amidst 'soft' tissue, doped with gold or lead to give it resilience.

The scutebed is very important in this process. it's a layer of special bone that's thinly protected by soft tissues, to cushion it from blunt force and to properly shape and grow the enamel. New scales are generated in the scutebed, then the roots of the prior scale are biologically dissolved and it is pushed out.

Raiken frequently shed and grow both teeth and scutes. Though they rarely shed both at the same time. They have been known to produce arts and crafts with the shed teeth or scales. Some Raiken will also save their teeth or scales to eat them in times of crisis as a nutritional supplement. Others will simply discard them.

Their skin is generally reptilian and possess true scales where it is visible (Joints mostly). These true-scales are made from the Raiken equivalent to keratin. They are effectively keratinized patches of skin.

Structures that are not visible from the surface

Raiken bone and cartilage is laced with crystalline structures, such as Feldspar, Ferrite, Corundum, and Titanium oxide. This is a common occurrence in the native creatures of the Raiken homeworld.

The Raiken skeletal system is best described using metallic imagery. Wirey sinews and girder-strong bones. This is largely because of the metal that is intrinsically involved in the Raiken bone building process. Calcium plays a role of course, as does fluoride, but the real strength of the bone are the fibers of metal that are woven around it at the end of puberty, once the Raiken stops growing.

Prior to puberty Raiken skeletal structure contains thin rebars of metal reinforcing their length near the core. During puberty, metal webbing begins to enmesh the outside of the bones to provide additional support. Between this and the growth of the adult armor, a maturing Raiken triples in weight. Prior to puberty, Raiken bones are more fragile and breakable. Broken or cracked bones are common among Raiken youth, especially when they engage in rough play.

The Raiken nervous system functionality is not particularly different from that of other species. As such they possess a similar average reaction speed to most other (Non android) species. However, their nervous system does have a form of self-healing. This greatly speeds recovery when the nerve cells are damaged and can replace nerve cells that are completely destroyed, though it takes longer to do so.

Within all of their nerve cells is a second system of capillaries that are filled with a healing agent. The healing agent is essentially a mix of cells that are dedicated to healing and healing alone. This system of capillaries has no role in oxygen exchange or the carrying of energy. It does possess a 'small' garrison of white blood cells to remove any infection that may result from the wound it heals. Essentially, the Raiken body has its normal healing process, with an extra set to increase the rate of healing. The healing process itself is roughly the same as a human, where the cells close and clot the wound, disinfect it then repair the damage done.

This healing agent is released when the cell it is contained in is damaged. Although it does not heal the damaged area immediately, it greatly speeds the healing process. These capillaries are refilled with healing agent when the body has surplus resources to do so. If the individual is starved for food or water, the body will not produce the healing agent and will begin using it for energy.

Their muscles are made of fibers that twitch faster, more forcefully, and are harder to tear than their human equivalent. Coupled with their far larger mass and size, they are able to compete in many speed and reflex based sports events on par with humans.

However they cannot swim in water and they don't jump very high.

In summary, Raiken consume large amounts of food, ranging from meats to fruits and vegetables, to supply their energy-intensive body. They usually prefer meat over anything else, though they are not strictly carnivorous. They must consume some plant-life to maintain a balanced diet. They also drink large amounts of water, as would be expected from such a large creature, although they are not as reliant on liquids as humans are. Consuming rocks and metals supply their scales and bones with minerals though it is important to note that consuming rocks and metals actually takes energy away from their body, rather than supplying it.

Raiken are capable of eating many other things that aren't normally categorized as food, though the nutritional gain from eating things such as plastic or cardboard is minimal.

The Raiken produce waste like any other biological creature. They defecate anything their body cannot use and their feces contains trace amounts of metal and rock as well.

For their metabolisms to process such metals and crystals, Raiken internal body temperature is a bit higher compared to creatures from less harsh planets. Raiken internal body pressure is also higher, as their planet has a higher average gravity.

Metabolic temperature: Raiken operate at an internal temperature of roughly 40 degrees Celsius (108F)

Blood pressure: Systolic 160–179, Dystolic 90–99

Raiken have a high energy metabolism, but can store nutrients in a hump on their back. A hump as large as a camper's backpack contains about three days' worth of nutrients and water in a heavy exercise environment such as marching in full gear and fighting.

Raiken can get the nutrients they need by gnawing on the bones of prey creatures or the stalks of the rocky local plants. However, when such things are not available, they can eat gravel or small stones as a dietary supplement

The rocks that Raiken prefer are Ultramafic rocks such as Serpentinite and rocks with a high air content such as Pumice and Vulcanite. They also can consume native aluminum and alum (KAl(SO4)2·12(H2O)). They see Rubies, Sapphire, and other forms of Corundum as a special treat, both nutritious and delicious.

Raiken consume metals to maintain and reinforce their skeleton and scales. Various colored metals will affect their scale colors while providing some benefit. They also consume rocks, mostly for grinding their food in their stomach, though they also gain some nutrition from this.

In Summary: Raiken females are fertilized by Raiken males, then lay their eggs in a safe place, allowing them to hatch.

Raiken produce sexually, where the male fertilizes the female. After the female has been fertilized, she will lay her eggs roughly one to two weeks after initial fertilization. The eggs must be kept in a warm, moist place where they will be safe from predators. These eggs take roughly a year to hatch.

Raiken possess 2 sexes. The first sex is male and produces the sperm. The second is female and produces the egg. The male has internal testes and his genitals are contained within a genital slit.

Maturation from egg to hatching is roughly one year. Maturation from hatchling to member of society is about 18-22 years. Clutches generally consist of two to three eggs, though particularly large females may be able to produce more eggs per clutch.

Newly born Raiken cannot take care of themselves and must be cared for and fed by others. Their scales are not well developed and their bones are rather weak, as they lack the metal reinforcements that adult Raiken possess.

By the end of their first year of life, Raiken young should be able to communicate at a basic level and the ability to walk. Their scales are starting to develop, but they are still quite weak.

By ten years old, Raiken young should possess almost fully developed scales and claws. This allows them to hunt small game with no tools.

Around eighteen years of age, Raiken undergo puberty. This is extremely important for two reasons. First, it gives them the ability to reproduce. Second, their bones are slowly reinforced with metal, making their skeletal structure more solid. With their skeletal structure reinforced, their natural armor is allowed to fully harden and develop. Prior to puberty, the Raiken skeleton wouldn't be able to handle the weight. It does have the side-effect of increasing their weight greatly however. While Raiken young are able to swim, after puberty, they are unable to do so.