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Descended from Skymother’s last ‘unfinished’ project, the ‘Neo rabbitfolk’ – the population of today’s earthen rabbitfolk (referred to as ‘fallen rabbitfolk’ sometimes by occultists) became what they are today after their ancestors expertly survived the Darkest Day… at the cost of extended heavy exposure to divine energy.
Appearance
Due to the ‘beta’ population of neo rabbitfolk they descended from being relatively small, pure earthen rabbitfolk are much less genetically diverse than lunar rabbitfolk, and tend to lose their notable traits when reproducing with another humanform species. Still, this means it’s rather easy to identify them.
Earthen rabbitfolk have long, usually lopped ears – the nature of which is much more flexible than those of the lunar rabbitfolk. Due to this, many individuals style them like one would with hair.
Alongside their ears, earthen rabbitfolk will always have a pair of horns on their head, unlike their ancestors. These can come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and though there have been theories that attempt to link certain horn patterns with certain genetics or behaviors, it does seem to be a bit random.
While neo rabbitfolk have vestigial halo, it appeared to have fully evolved out with earthen rabbitfolk.
Unique to earthen rabbitfolk are their keratinous, long tails with spaded tips. It’s likely these tails were rapidly evolved during the fallout of the Darkest Day to assist with burrowing.
In addition to their horns and tail, the hind legs of earthen rabbitfolk are hooves, as opposed to paws. It’s theorized that because the original neo rabbitfolk population had hooves experimentally, the addition was unstable, and thus spiraled into the various other keratinous features after excessive divine energy exposure.
Biology
Like neo rabbitfolk, earthen rabbitfolk still exhibit many of the ‘small biological improvements’ their ancestor species has. Unlike the more populous and distinguishable lunar rabbitfolk species, earthen rabbitfolk only come in one division that is suited to many environments, as opposed to the original’s split divisions.
One of these ‘improvements’ was the added ability to take on a beastform appearance, which seemed to be a replacement for their predecessor’s head bubbling ability – because while in this form, earthen rabbitfolk are incredibly hardy extremophiles.
While those who succumbed to the overwhelming saturation of energy from the Darkest Day were unaware of this, those who realized this ability burrowed deep in order to wait out the apocalypse.
Though they generally have the same internal function as most other humanform species, there are a few notable standouts. Their lifespans are longer then the preceding rabbitfolk species, and they have an even shorter reproduction cycle – while mortality while young is much higher, balancing out their population, in a way.
They also have a high ‘tolerance’ for substances of various toxicity, notably including alcohol and various street drugs – this is generally attributed to a mass-shift to hedonism during the recovery phase post-Darkest Day building up a herd tolerance in the population.
While they are an omnivorous species, they’ve historically been foragers instead of hunters – much of their protein is actually derived from grubs, which are industrially farmed in modern times.
While they still physically mature at age 18, their longer lifespan increases their general ‘life stage’ brackets by a bit. Young adulthood ends at 175, while 180-375 is considered ‘middle aged’, with anyone older than 400 being ‘elderly’.
The ones who escaped fate
| Other names | Fallen, fallen rabbitfolk, rabbitfolk |
| Codename | UB-Akusagi |
| Lifespan | 500 years |
| Height range | 1'00 (30cm) in beast form 5'00" (121cm) - 7'00" (213cm) in human form |
| Location | Primarily Ultra Dirge |
| Division | Sapient |
| Type | Humanform |
| Shape |  |
Socialization
While earthen rabbitfolk retain the sociable nature of the rabbits that came before them, they're not as prone to detriments that comes with isolation. As such, individuals who live detached from a community are much more common, and are capable of living healthy lives as such.
Additionally, earthen rabbitfolk lack any form of true 'pair bonding', similarly to neo rabbitfolk. While they can obviously form close romantic or platonic pairs just as any humanform species can, a break in these pairs usually doesn't carry the weight a bonded pair would. However, it's notable that due to the extremely high mortality rate of their youth, earthen rabbitfolk tend to be quick about picking up non-blood-related individuals as family members, and accepting these non-blood-related family members as siblings under the right circumstances. This goes for other species as well - as frequently seen in the Ultra Dirge, earthen rabbitfolk will raise blacephalon children often as well.
Abilities
Beast form:
- The beast form is an intended 'improvement' to the bubble ability possessed by lunar rabbitfolk, originally given to neo rabbitfolk. Not relying on a requirement of a piece of neckwear, earthen rabbitfolk can shift into beast form at any time. In this form, they're hardy extremophiles able to survive in almost any circumstance, even in spite of their often cute and cuddly appearances.
- Generally, the limits of this beast form are most evident when physical pressure is applied, i.e. excessive squeezing or being crushed - even still, they're able to bounce right up again like a memory foam toy.
Trivia
- Earthen rabbitfolk generally take no issue with the alternate name of 'fallen rabbitfolk', though many will erroneously assume they do.
- Though it's a vast preference for many earthen rabbitfolk to prefer their humanform forms, those who consider themselves daredevils in some manner may prefer their beast form due to its natural resistance to many of the natural landscape's threats one with a risky lifestyle could encounter.
- After the recent reintroduction of neo rabbitfolk to the surface, cases where the two species have reproduced have seemed to result in an earthen rabbitfolk child with immunity to the common causes in youth mortality. Scientists have been studying this revelation to try and universally solve the overall high youth mortality rate.
Meta commentary
- The building for earthen rabbitfolk is pretty heavy-handedly inspired by the rapid evolution/mutation present in work of nuclear-fallout based fiction.
Notable species members
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Ash
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Though she appears to be a distant lone ranger to many, Ash is a woman with a big heart who values her homeland and her sister’s wellbeing above all else.
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Bonnie
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Haunted by her past as a childhood bully, Bonnie strives to do as much good as she can in the present – while ultimately ignoring confrontation from former peers.
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Dee
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A locally loved bartender, who’s almost an aunt-like figure to all.
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Kalika
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Kalika was always one to believe she’d never be destined for something greater, but sometimes, opportunity quite literally falls on you.
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Lorekeeper
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Lorekeeper is a turbonerd on the history of the Dirge and function of anomalies, and a frequent explorer of the Dirge’s mysterious catacombs.
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Maia
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Being sent to the Lunar Capital as a test subject during its exchange with the Ultra Station, Maia is… quite unusually enthusiastic to partake in mad science.
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Sele
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Once content with recklessly partying her life away, Sele’s life trajectory was thrown for a loop when opportunity fell from the sky above.
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Velvet
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Velvet is kind of pathetic, and not in the cute way – but nonetheless, she yearns for more excitement in her life.
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Yulan
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Prone to illness to the point of never leaving her family’s grand gothic mansion, Yulan still orchestrates the Ultra Dirge with expertise.
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Zoe
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Having failed to make an income with her master’s in psychology through ‘legitimate’ means, Zoe uses her mastery at people reading to take advantage of occultists as a ‘fortune teller’.
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