It is said faith, steel, and Shindri are the backbone of the military of the Viszudar. In actuality, the Shindri are the backbone of all three, in one way or another. The entire civilization of the People of the Confederated Tribes of the Viszudar is symbiotic with the Shindri. On a cursory glance, one might liken a Shindri to an enormous scorpion, but there are several key differences between the creatures. Minimally, adult Shindri are 12 feet long from mandible to stinger, and weigh around 600 pounds. As Shindri age, they grow larger. The largest recorded size for Shindri measured at 28 feet and 17,000 pounds. They have diaphanous wings capable of carrying themselves, a rider, and heavy equipment. Their bodies are stocky, powerful, and covered in small, flexible, hair-like barbs. They have large heads for a creature of their size, bearing twelve small, compound eyes. Their compound eyes can see quite well in the darkness. Their mouths are developed to not only consume food, but to restrain smaller creatures along with their scythes in order to sting and subdue them before consumption. Compared to their frames, their scythes are small, dexterous, hand-like appendages. They are made of keratin, and grow quickly. Their scythes need to be kept up by their handlers, lest they become overgrown and infected. Their long, prehensile, chitinous tails are topped with a stinger like a scorpion's. The poison it carries consumes the vitality of whomever is unlucky enough to be stung. Shindri have eight stocky, load bearing legs. Outlanders often refer to Shindri as 'cave chimeras'. Once every season, Shindri molt. After a molting, they grow larger and leave behind a large shedding containing chitin. Shindri chitin is used in the manufacture of Viszudar concrete. Their excretions are brewed into a hard glue used to reinforce the platforms and bridges of the Viszudar. As Shindri age, they tend to become stockier and more muscular. Juveniles tend to be long and slender, and the frames of adult Shindri are broad and muscular. Shindri are semi omnivorous. The people of the Viszudar grow a fungus colloquially known as "cave chicken", due to its color and texture. Cave chicken is blended with meats, brinewheat, and fauna of the caves into nutrient paste fed to the Shindri population in the caves, or dried and hardened into cubes for the Brave to take on campaigns. The "Brave" as they are known, are an elite branch of the military of Viszudar. They are directed by the Adjudicator, as all Shindri are bonded to the queen, and thus, to her bonded Adjudicator. Every Brave has life-bonded with a Shindri. Elite shamans and warriors of the people of the Viszudar have learned to form a life-bond with a Shindri. This process is irreversible, and bonds the creatures for life. It is a great risk, and a great honor. To life-bond with the Shindri, the human must ingest a specially prepared venomous cocktail prepared by the shamans. More than half of those who attempt to life-bond perish as a result of the process. The life-bond is quite literally one of mind, body, and soul. The life-bonded humans can communicate telepathically with their life-bonded Shindri, and the Shindri with the life-bonded human. There are characteristic physical changes as well, including an extended lifespan, greater physical prowess, skin the color of green tarnished copper, and bright yellow eyes. If the human dies, the Shindri dies suddenly as well. However, the reverse is not true. Any Brave who loses their Shindri is shamed. It is one of the greatest dishonors any person of the Viszudar may suffer. The Brave is brought to trial before the Adjudicator, and a judgement is passed. If the Adjudicator finds the Brave could have taken actions to prevent the death of the Shindri, the Brave must take a trial of Îsha. Few survive this process. If Adjudicator finds the Brave to have been unable or powerless to prevent the death of their companion, they are lowered down the lift and exiled from the Viszudar. This has given yet another reason for the Braves to be fiercely protective of their Shindri. This process is foundational to Viszudar society and continued survival. Without the symbiosis with the Shindri, the people of the Viszudar would be overwhelmed by the goblins to the west, subjugated and enslaved by the Ishkhar-Yog to the east, or turned into debt serfs by the Glimmerlake dwarves to the north. The stability wrought by men and women life-bonded with Shindri have created the peace the people of the Viszudar needed to create their city, develop their culture, and live their lives. The defacto despot of Viszudar is the High Shaman, the Adjudicator of the Shindri. This title is compound and immutable. Being chosen as Adjudicator by the shamans is both a blessing and a curse. When an Adjudicator of the Shindri dies, a new candidate is selected by the shamans of Viszudar. Each shaman can cast a vote, and whichever shaman is selected is chosen to life-bond with the hive queen of the Shindri. This process is much more likely to be fatal than a normal Shindri life-bond. With that being stated, votes are rarely cast for someone inept or disliked, because of the station they -may- hold. As with any other political matter, it tends to be a nuanced process. The process of becoming Adjudicator of the Shindri almost always kills the human. The success rate for life-bonding is less than five percent. Thus, when an election happens, the people of the Viszudar may nearly empty their pool of shamans, until new shamans are trained and new traditions established. Once the life-bond is successful, the Adjudicator's physical body is nearly helpless. The venom of the queen saps almost all good life of the human. Much like the queen, the Adjudicator is dependent and frail. However, the Adjudicator's mind remains intact. This prospect makes some shamans to be quite secretive at times, lest they garner too much admiration and praise. This is because, reasonably, this is widely considered to be both an important position, an honor without equal, and a personal hell. The Adjudicator and Shindri queen's mind and spirit are one. As the queen of the Shindri is biologically immortal, her mind has blended with every Adjudicator in the history of the Viszudar. This means the new Adjudicator's sentience blends with the queen and every one of his predecessors. Naturally, this brand of sentience leads to drastic personality changes and alien intellect. The Queen of the Shindri and the Adjudicator are housed at the lowest tier of the Viszudar in the Palace of the Adjudicator, with the Queen's Droneguard. The Droneguard are the Queen's personal attendants. A contingent of Droneguards police the streets on witch's moons. Adjudicators are not immortal, like the queens. Their lifespans, similar to the Brave, are extended by one-half. Adjudicators typically live over one hundred years, but not much longer, on average. In a sense, their sentience and knowledge will live as long as the queen will, and their legacy and wisdom will be passed on, quite literally, to their successors. If the adjudicator dies, the hive mother does not, and may bond with another human after a year and a day. Whether this is required or tradition is not clear, but the period is dubbed "the time of mourning", and is often an uncertain and tense time for the people of the Viszudar. The current Adjudicator is named Zozannus. He is one hundred and twenty three years old, and the shamans expect to vote on his successor soon. The life cycle of a Shindri begins in an egg sac. The Shindri queen lays an egg sac once every year, on the summer solstice. The sac is filled with thousands of neonatal Shindri. The albumen of the egg sustains the neonatal creature for a season, then the larva sprout from the sacs and viciously devour each other, until a handful or less survive. The larva will crawl around the caverns, scavenging for food for a time. The larva are carefully tended to by the shamans, who view it as an important and holy practice. Once another season has passed, the larva will burrow into the stone and emerge in a period ranging from two seasons to twenty years. Roughly half of the larva which survive to this stage of development do not survive past it. The individuals which do emerge burrowing through the stone as a juvenile Shindri. Many years and molting later, it develops into an adult. If it were not for the care of the shamans, the Shindri may be extinct as a species, as their life cycle is so tenuous and has such high mortality. Shindri require constant grooming and care, and the people of the Viszudar provide the care and maintenance the species needs to thrive. Shindri naturally live one hundred and fifty to two hundred years on average, but most do not live long enough to experience natural death. A Shindri will die when it becomes too large to adequately respire, and will expire of asphyxiation. The precise maximum size varies by individual.