Moles

Arcania is home to a remarkable species of sentient moles.

The moles are mammals, are mostly blind and live most of their lives underground.

The Moles have remarkable adaptations. First is the ability to dig through dirt, solid rock and metal veins with specialized claws and acids. Second, is their ability to breathe in low oxygen environments, like underground. Third, and most remarkable, is the ability to digest rocks and metals and make use of them in their own constitution.

Thanks to those adaptations, a Mole can live it's whole life underground without the need of ever having to surface.

The lifespan, intelligence and strength of an individual mole depends heavily on the type of terrain it feeds on. Small colonies that live in shallow terrains live no more than a couple of decades and have the intelligence and capabilities of common wild animals.

Living tissues of moles are inedible to most living creatures as they contain significant amount of whatever material they feed on.

As a colony of moles expand, it become able to dig deeper and feed on harder, stronger materials. Their capabilities increase accordingly.

Eventually, a fully developed colony of Moles might encounter a vein of an extremely hard metal. This trigger a response in the colony, with Moles bringing partially digested high quality material to feed a selected newborn female.

This female feeds only on this high quality metal, growing in size, strength and intelligence. She becomes a Queen and coordinate the work of lower ranked moles to create a new generation that feeds only on higher quality materials.

A mole's ability to digest and feed on metals stem from magic, making the Moles naturally adept. Sentient Moles can gain the ability to wilfully weave magic to a significant degree.

At their peak, Moles can be five meters long, have lifespan of centuries and have intelligence comparable to humans. There are records of Moles developing civilizations and exchanging goods with other races. Their innate ability to dig and refine metals make them desirable trading partners to other races.

Moles hardly care for the outside world, therefore the threat they pose to other races is minimal. On the other hand, attacking a colony of Moles is asking for trouble, as they will defending their territory to the last. Moles use maze like tunnels and controlled landslides to deal with the intruders, they will act as one against any invader, making them a formidable force, if only in defending their digs.

Live and let live. Moles are almost a perfect incarnation of this saying.