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Ramau Anatomy - External Aspects
The Ramau are a canine archetype of species that are naturally fairly lean and muscular, with a middle-ground between thin and thick fur which is colored in shades of brown, gray, cream or gold. Though overweight does occur in the higher ranks of society, most Ramau take great care in maintaining a pristine physical appearance and it is therefore rare to find discrepancies out in the open.
The typical Ramau's height ranges from between 1.56m (5.11 feet) to 2.08m (6.82 feet) tall and though dwarfism and giantism does occur, it is extremely rare.
Ramau cubs are born with one tail initially, but a second tail begins to appear during their early teens and continues to grow until they reach adulthood, at which point both tails will be at identical lengths. It's not uncommon to see small variations in tail lengths.
Their tails are fairly long and somewhat fluffy although like with rest of the species, they are lean and seldom fluff out beyond twice the breadth of a human arm. The tip of the tails are almost always in a darker shade than their base fur colour
Ramau have long, caracal-like ears with furry tufts at their tips and with protective fluff growling in light amounts down along the top, hiding the inside of their ears much like a curtain would hide a window. This hair is very light and even the slightest breeze will make it sway and dance in the wind. Ramau lack sensitivity in their ears so this doesn't bother them in the least. When a Ramau is in a docile and/or neutral state, their ears are facing backwards, and they only stand upright if they are negatively agitated.
Ramau ears are a sign of status; the bigger a Ramau's ears, the more likely is it that this Ramau will obtain a high esteem within the Ramau society.
A Ramau's face is their most uniquely identifying feature. They have soft and somewhat round faces with a slim and elongated muzzle. They have a typical canine nose which and a somewhat thinner and longer tongue, but they differ from most canines in that they have very sharp, cat-like teeth and an equally cat-like roughness to their tongues.
Their eyes have very common and repeating traits among the species. They have white eyeballs and their irises are coloured in one or two of the following: purple, gold, blue, teal, hazel, silver, yellow, black and red. Like most canines, they have round pupils with one known exception who possessed oval cat-like pupils.
The most flexible aspect of a Ramau is his paws and feet. There are equally many Ramau with more animal-like hands, feet and digitgrade lower legs as there are those with human-like hands, feet and legs. In the more animal-like Ramau, their hands and feet tend to look more feline than canine. They also lack a digit on their lower legs.
Ramau are rarely observed to have any form of exceptional physical prowess, though this is suspected to be the result of their high magic dependence.
Ramau Anatomy - Internal Aspects
Internally, Ramaus resemble most other canine species, with small variations in size and shape of their organs. Ramau muscles have a shortage of satellite fibers which seems to be the limiting factor on how physically strong a Ramau can get. Their bones also show signs of very little to no stress hardening, which could be innate of the species or due to a life lacking in physical exertion due to their reliance on magic and the Ramaus preference for leisure.
Notable organs that the Ramaus possess are the heart, with four chambers like on most mammals, two lungs (with accompanying trachea), one liver, one stomach (with accompanying esophagus), two distinct intestinal tracts (small intestines and large intestines), pancreas, spleen, gallbladder, kidneys, urinary bladder, two eyes, brain, cerebellum, circulatory system, nervous system, tendons and ligaments and cartilage all akin to that of other canine species.
Male Ramaus possess a penis invariably alike to those of other canine species, and two testicles, the latter which show noticeable signs of functional atrophy although the physical size does not seem diminished. This atrophy can be attributed to the effects of excessive exposure to free-floating mana, present in the Ramau environment, caused by the devices they build and imbue with magic to do their bidding. As such, male Ramau sperm becomes nonviable. Males possess well-developed prostate glands and other glands associated with the production of sexual fluids.
Female Ramaus appear to display human-like, 'slit' vulvas, canine-like, 'spade' vulvas, and variations in shape between both types, likely due to a mutation at some point early on the development of the race and then subsequent interbreeding that produced hybrid forms. It's noted that Lismorean Ramaus have shown a majority of the 'spade' type, while Ramanastrean Ramaus seem to have both types evenly distributed among their population. Female ramaus possess sensitive clitoris, and Gräfenberg internal organ (known as G-spot). A Ramau womb is small in proportion to the size of the individual and to those of other canine species, and the ovaries show similar functional atrophy as the male's testicles, with low rate of viability for the eggs. Although Ramaus are reported to be able to live over a thousand years, they have a very limited number of eggs, giving the females of the species a functioning breeding range of approximately 30 years.
Both males and females are easy to stimulate into sexual arousal, and their predisposition to sexual encounters seems to be an inherent attribute of the race, that is emphasized by their social acceptance of such prompt and casual encounters. It's hereby theorized however that their almost excessive affinity for sex contributes to their low fertility rates, as the males already scarce viable sperm isn't given time to mature and build up to numbers that would increase the odds of fertilizing a female.
It has been observed that the correct combination of fertility potions can temporarily improve the Ramau ability for procreation.
Lismorean Ramaus, reportedly due to divine intervention, do not have problems with procreation among themselves. It's also noted that the variant known as Second Sons Ramaus also have no problems but their ability to breed includes even the notoriously difficult-to-fertilize Ramanastrean Ramaus, which points to a potentially supernatural aspect to their fertility. However, until a specimen can be studied, that remains in the realm of conjecture.
Ramau Anatomy - Magical Aspects
Ramaus possess innate ability for magic which is derived from their spiritual force, and like most creatures capable of commanding arcane forces, their physical bodies are naturally interlaced with magic, forming a power pool from which they can draw from (extremely powerful Ramaus can draw power beyond that which their physical beings can accommodate). However, unlike every other magical being or thing observed, Ramau magic isn't based on the energy type commonly known as 'mana'. The ramau spiritual entity by nature uses a different energy identified as 'arkana', not naturally present in our world. Arkana and mana are interchangeable however the exchange rate is extremely inefficient and nonequivalent: It takes 1000 parts of mana to produce 0.1 parts of arkana, and the latter doesn't convert into mana easily or proportionally, with 10 parts of arkana needed to produce 1 part of mana.
The Ramau spiritual energy is the only known thing that can produce arkana, however this magic type does not exist in free-flowing form as mana, it only exists for the moment that is being converted into mana to be used in this world.
This exchange which has to occur for Ramaus to cast magic would indicate that Ramaus are in fact much more powerful than believed, but most of their magic is spent converting from one type to the other. In a dimension where arkana exists as the free-flowing dominant form of magic, it's estimated that Ramaus would be several orders of magnitude more powerful in their magical prowess.
Arkana characteristics have been observed in all Ramau hybrids that originate from the direct breeding between a Ramau and another species. However, derivative species such as Fenramaus and Foxramaus possess no traces of arkana, indicating this attribute might have been removed or not compatible with the processes that created those species, with the exceptions of the branch of Foxramaus originating from the Feyrn Teren during her stay in Lismore as Edhel Valentine's wife and the offspring of the then Foxramau demon Ausar and the Ramau Khazim.
