Leviathan Sharks

Leviathan Sharks are a species of subaquatic animals from the planet of Panthalassa. They are amongst the largest animals of the planet, growing up to twenty meters in length and live nomadic lifes, trailing the subaquatic clouds created by volcanic eruptions in the deep sea.

The species is of great cultural and symbolical importance to the Bohon species and occupied a central role for the economies of their nomadic cultures.

Morphology
While their name implies a species comparable to terran fish, Leviathan Sharks are actually closer to molluscoids, possessing no central sceleton and being structured by several ringed muscle structures. Contraction of these muscles pushes water from the front of the body out through the back and propels the entire animal forward.

While swimming in such a way, a Leviathan Shark filters microscopic lifeforms - the zooplankton of the Panthalassan deep sea - from within the water to feed upon it. To this end it possesses several layers of internal barbels.

Habitation
Leviathan Sharks occupy the deep sea of Panthalassa beyond the fertile zones of subaquatic volcanic activity. They follow clouds of minerals from volcanic eroptions which drift through the deep sea and can track down such clouds, volatile ecosystems of their own, over vast distances to feed upon the microscopic lifeforms that inhabit them.

Cultural Importance
The Leviathan Shark is of central importance for many of the nomadic cultures of Bohon on Panthalassa, who follow in the wake of subaquatic clouds, chasing down individual sharks as prey. A single one of these creatures can provide for the needs of a clan of Bohon for a prolonged period of time, both with food and ressources for tools. For most nomadic Bohon the Leviathan Shark is thus a near-mythological creature of great symbolic and cultural importance, featuring prominently in many folk tales and religious myths.