Cenyi culture reference

The cenya are a humanoid species. They walk upright in a bipedal fashion, and they have dexterous hands which are excellent for manipulating all sorts of instruments. That, more or less, is where the similarities with human beings end.

The easiest and possibly most succinct way of describing the cenya is as anthropomorphic dragons – and, really, that’s where I drew my inspiration from. They are scaly and have large claws (though the claws on their hands are smaller and not nearly as sharp); they have long tails, snouts, and two vaguely S-shaped horns protruding from the back of their heads. They have a pair of bat-like wings, too, and are capable of flight, though they are not very good at it. The average cenyi stands approximately 1.9 metres (6′ 4″) tall.

The scales are green, typically, but the exact colour varies between proper dark(ish) green and green with hints of yellow or even red. Cenya with a tint of blue in their scales are often considered particularly beautiful and exotic.

Above the shoulders

Cenya’s necks are fairly long and slender, at least compared to humans. They connect to the back of the head, rather than at the base of the skull (as is the case with humans), giving their necks a distinct S-like shape when held normally. It also enables them to look straight ahead when flying. Speaking of looking, the eyes are technically on the sides of their heads, but are sort of rotated forward, allowing for excellent binocular vision with a wide range, not entirely unlike horses. They are, however, set in fairly deep sockets, with a prominent ridge above each eye, like the eyebrows of a human. There are no eyelashes; however, cenya do have nictitating membranes, which they can actively control.

The cenya have expressive faces: they have prehensile lips and tongues, allowing for languages that sound eerily human-like, and with plenty of muscles in the face, they can muster a range of facial expressions. They have fairly large nostrils, which they can flare open if they need to scent something properly. A substantial nasal cavity inside the snout provides them with a sense of smell a thousand times better than that of a human.

Finally, every cenyi has a mane, which begins on the top of the head and runs down along the back of the neck, down to the wing shoulders. There is no logical reason for this particular feature; it exists purely for sexual selection (cf. the tailfeathers of a peacock), though it is present in both sexes. Manes are usually goldenrod in colour, but some are practially white while others are much closer to brown. Really dark browns and blacks do not occur, at least not naturally.

Everything else – below the shoulders

The legs are so-called digitigrade: they walk on their toes, like many non-human animals, and not on their heels, like humans do. In fact, they don’t actually technically have heels. Unlike humans, whose plantigrade legs allow them to rest a lot of their weight on the skeleton, cenyi legs are highly dependent on muscles. The tendons are very strong, and the muscles in both thigh and calf are powerful and large (at least compared to humans), not unlike the muscles of a dromaeosaur.

The abdomen tends to be fairly strong as well, since it has to support a lot of their weight when flying; the abs and the back muscles are responsible for keeping the cenyi straight through the air, especially at lower speeds.

The tail, too, is muscular and highly flexible.

The arms, by contrast, are not nearly as muscular. They may not be weak per se, but some arm and especially shoulder strength had to be sacrificed for flight muscles. Speaking of which, in order to be able to support the entire wing structure and the enormous strain of beating wings, the cenya have fairly large muscles around the shoulders and chest. They also have big lungs, which function as a kind of cooling system during flight (as well as providing oxygen to their blood through breathing, of course).

The cenya have three fingers on each hand, plus opposing thumbs (one on each hand). The feet have three toes, and a dewclaw which is held approximately 5 cm (2 inches) off the ground.

With the width of their hips and the breadth of their shoulders, many cenya would likely give a human the impression that they have relatively narrow waists and are generally slender. This is not far from the truth.

Sexes and sexual dimorphism

Just like humans, the cenya have the two sexes male and female. In terms of genitalia, the cenya’s sexes are very similar to those of most mammals: females have vaginas, males have penises.

The cenya have internal genitalia, cleverly hidden among the large scales that run along their fronts, and located between the legs, much like lizards on Earth. Even the testes are entirely internal; they do not become even slightly visible even during arousal.

Other than the actual sexes themselves, there are very few physical differences between male and female cenya. Females tend to have slightly shorter snouts (and perhaps paradoxically a better sense of smell) than males do, and they have wider hips so they can lay eggs (for they are oviparous) with slightly less discomfort. There are no substantial differences in muscular tissue, but in general, males tend to have slightly broader shoulders while females have stronger legs.

Cenya are not mammals and do not breastfeed their young. As such, females have no breasts; and there is not a single cenyi with nipples.