The Maulwurfhund, affectionately called a moledog to those who can't speak Volksprache, is a canine-like creature that has been bred and genetically augmented by the Abwehran as a versatile and faithful companion. Expected to have originated in roughly YE 08, it wasn't until YE 39 that a significant amount of them were allowed to be traded and offered to others in the spirit of continued trade.

A 'pureblood' Maulwurfhund is described as a dark-colored beast that stands up to four feet tall, often black or grey with a black or mud-brown mane. It has four total eyes, the front pair lacking an iris or pupil of any kind and instead a singular reflective sclera while the back pair are more traditional and have red iris. A large, black nose on the end of their snout and massive, standing ears make it a very high-profile canine. It has four tusks that grow along the line of its bottom jaw, free of its mouth which houses both powerful canines and grinders to allow it to better eat bugs. A traditionally long, fluffy thick tail can be seen behind it, its back mostly straight.

Despite being a large dog, the Maulwurfhund's defining traits are clearly its iconic, a helmet-like extension of bone that rests between its ears and along its head, thick single digging claws, and a flap-covered blue bioluminescent light within a small bump and hole in its cap.

The Maulwurfhund will also change its appearance based on the gravity its in, as the species was created to be a cute and cuddly dog on Abwehran worlds. On a planet or ship with high gravity, its mane and ears will go flat to its head and neck, while its tail will droop low and drag near the floor. In space or normal gravity for most of the species of the sector, however, the Abwehran sports its iconic “high and alert” ears, mane, and tail.

Maulwurfhund (Moledog)
Originated From Abwehr

While the “purebreed” Maulwurfhund appear very basic, it should be noted that there are as many variations of the species as there are situations one could run into while colonizing or exploring a planet. Winter coats, varying camouflage patterns, and even different light colors and eye configurations allow the Maulwurfhund to be adapted for many walks of life. Its skull cap can grow around its head akin to a helmet, allowing it to better protect itself on worlds where it might walk around in dense forest. The tail can be docked with little to no health issues, and its thick claws can be trimmed or naturally allowed to be worn down. Whiskers can be grown from its multiple spots near its jowels, though these are often kept short or opted out of the gene pool as they can annoy the Maulwurfhund if they grow too long. If one wants, the rims of the Maulwurfhund's ears are numbed considerably, allowing them to be pieced to add trackers, decorations, and various other gadgets. And, finally, its mane can be styled and dyed just like anyone's hair, allowing it to be a stylish creature as much as an efficient one.

The ranges of behavior for most Maulwurfhund is thankfully small, with most of them being extremely tolerant to the most aggressive being only territorial. This means that, when in the wild, the Maulwurfhund only attacks wildlife in its territory or aggressive humanoids. Due to its intelligence as a trained and genetically augmented animal, the creature often performs well in almost every environment both natural, familiar, and alien.

It should be noted that, when one acquires a Maulwurfhund, that the animal actually can understand Volksprache and enjoys being spoken to in its tongue. This is due to a genetic imprint of the language onto its mind, allowing even multiple generations-gone of the hounds to be as simple as walking into the wild and ordering it to heel.

Difficulties raising and keeping a Maulwurfhund, however, are also its strongest points. These large creatures enjoy burrowing and making underground homes, so one should have a large terrarium with enough room to act as an underground doghouse. If one does not have this, they might find the Maulwurfhund will start to claw at the floor of a ship or home, leaving scratches or delivering far worse damage. Their powerful nose also means that any unchecked food will often be pilfered by even the most well-trained of mutts.

One can very quickly deduce the power sense of smell and hearing ability of the Maulwurfhund, even when seeing it on an Abwehran world. Massive ears and a huge nose allow the Maulwurfhund to see and smell through multiple feet of dirt and rock, an original adaptation of the far less impressive species it came from. However, the most impressive addition is by far one of its largest strengths: the bioluminescent light and its rear set of eyes. Originally, the species had near perfect night vision. This was sacrificed, however, in exchange for the addition of a pair of light-sensitive eyes like that of the Nacht Bewohner. These front pairs of eyes, while weaker, are used in unison with a far-ranging, low-intensity blue light. It grants the Maulwurfhund essentially the same abilities of night vision, while also lighting a cave enough for those with basic vision to at least navigate at a basic level. Meanwhile, the addition of larger normal eyes grants it almost perfect vision in standard lighting environments.

Despite its pair of eyes, however, the Maulwurfhund cannot keep all four eyes open at once as it would overload its sensory information. This is often ingrained in the animal through trial-and-error while its a pup, self-teaching itself only to use one pair at a time.

As an opportunist, the Maulwurfhund is an ideal omnivore. In the wild, they will seek out ground-buried insects and vegetables underground and hunt small creatures on the surface. Due to their massive size, strength, and ability to burrow quickly underground, it can effectively chase down or escape anything that might try to harm it and, in most cases, outsmart it.

When owned, however, Maulwurfhund are further flexible by being able to eat just about anything their masters might give them. This can encourage bad health, however, so one should still try to feed the Maulwurfhund roughly the caloric count of around a deer while providing basic vitamins either in a pill or in its water.

As a large canid-like creature, the Maulwurfhund has a fairly long lifespan of around 15 YE. However, they tend to die at around 7-8 YE, as they're kept in the most harsh of environments such as their original worlds. To off-worlders, however, these beasts can be expected to live long fruitful lives. Females can be expected to bear a single litter within 1 YE, often consisting of around 3 Maulwurfpups, over a 4 month pregnancy.

As puppies, Maulwurfhund lack their iconic tusks and claws. However, their little skull-caps and bioluminescent light are all usable from the moment they're born. For this reason, the trio are often boxed off from one another and only brought together to feed, as they'd end up blasting one another in the light unintentionally and risk damaging their sight. After a few days, their eyes open, however, and they begin to learn not to have all four open at once as well as how to control the light.

It takes roughly an entire YE for the pups to reach maturity, often marked by the growth of their first pair of claws and a growth spurt lasting about a month that takes them from small dogs into large dane-like animals. When this happens, the Maulwurfhund can be fully separated from its mother, often put in a marked-off area or in a special terrarium so it can dig and burrow to experiment. This results in often burying itself a few times and having to surge to the surface, but leads to the properly understand its limits when digging. Despite reaching maturity, however, a Maulwurfhund will not seek a mate until the age of 2 YE. This is due to a “grace period”, often providing a single YE for their DNA to be extracted and tampered with to create new Maulwurfhund genetic variants to inject into the eggs of its future puppies.

The Maulwurfhund is considered a domestic animal, even when born into the wild, until five generations has passed. After five generations without intelligent contact, the Maulwurfhund becomes akin to a wolf without the open aggression and hunting of humanoids. This ensures that, even though they might be wild, the species will not attack anything that vaguely resembles the Abwehran (or similar) forms. When one owns a Maulwurfhund, they should expect to need the following!

• A 5x5x5 foot box of packed dirt or a 2x2x2 foot box and a blindfold for their Maulwurfhund (to allow partial burrowing sleeping)
• A book or translator for Abwehran, to allow the user to train their Maulwurfhund with its naturally-trained language.
• Tusk and claw cleaning-care kits, to allow grooming and trimming of them when they reach poor states.
• A treadmill or open space to go on walks once a day

Thanks to their profound ability to dig and provide light, one of the most common reasons to own a Maulwurfhund would be to assist in mining operations or cave-dwelling. However, their large size and fierce biting capabilities also make them a tremendously well-loved guard dog for family homes and rich merchants.

While its augmented physical features are very apparent, its internal ones are not. A powerful immune system and temperature resistant fur coat allows the Maulwurfhund to survive in nearly any environment, above or below ground. Its lungs are powerful enough to store roughly forty-eight hours of air inside it and power through a lack of oxygen for roughly ten minutes.

In YE 07, the Abwehran understood that there was a need for proper critters to handle their many worlds and the needs of their people. A comfort pet that could be useful. A basic concept that brought their attention to dog-like burrowers on Abwehr. These creatures were fairly large, but they lacked any sort of tools to be proper carnivores. For an entire year, the goal of a group of scientists was to provide the Empire with a majestic and capable beast. And for about a year, they failed and produced vastly underwhelming creatures. In YE 08, however, this changed with the addition of their own genetic advances into the creature. It was a process that resulted in a four-eyed powerful beast akin to a Surfacer in might. Its eyes, similar to that of the Nightdwellers, were gifted with a second pair for the surface. A massive growth in size was just a bonus.

For about a single YE, the pet was a fantastic hit with everyone, both as a purebreed and as adorable mutts. Various colors, fur patterns, and even skull cap shapes began to appear. It was easily acknowledge, however, that while the beast was profound, it wasn't capable of going to many other worlds with its many masters. As such, the Abwehran made a decision to bolster its immunity system and begin testing it for various gravity purposes. Some even released them into the wild of colonies over the years in an attempt to let them somewhat evolve and change based on their survival results. And with each success, it became more and more apparent that sharing the large Moledogs would only detract from their own uniqueness and the feeling of a family Maulwurfhund bearing regal pride and status.

So, suffice to say, the Abwehran were content to restrict ownership until YE 39. This was spurred on by a decision that they could use the purchase of mutts to thin the many lines of 'non-desirable' Maulwurfhunds while also helping promote the sense of wonder at the purebreds and the heavily augmented and essentially environmentally perfected variants. The amount of trade from making these mutts a centerpiece of their economic promise, as a result, quickly brought the attention of folks who wanted large, cuddly animals that could guard their cargo and homes.

To acquire a Maulwurfhund, one must first decide on the type.

A purebred cannot be acquired through traditional means, even by the average Abwehran. These are often reserved to old families or powerful members of the government. Purebreds are considered any non-patterned, traditional circle-cap, brown-maned black-furred Maulwurfhund.

Contact the FM of the Abwehran to acquire one today!

A common pick for those with income that would like a Maulwurfhund made to their specifications. These can look anyway but like a purebred, often sporting bizarre colors or environmental patterns. These tend to be sterile when offered to non-Abwehran, as the goal is to try and keep people buying mutts rather than personal-made ones.

Available to someone who is part of a plot within Abwehran space or can contact the FM to arrange a JP to order one!

Often a bit smaller, the mutts of the Maulwurfhund are still large canines. They tend to be bright colored with non-orderly manes, growing far wilder and shaggier coats. Their ears can also be uneven, allowing them to have an almost comical slant to one ear.

Found commonly for sale in systems or empires aligned with or in cooperation with the Abwehran Star Empire.

If you would like to create your own Maulwurfhund for SARP use, you can find its lineart on the site!

Maulwurfhund Line Art Thread

Legix created this article on 2017/07/26 18:21.