Intelligent life has evolved on Ryl Madol and it is not pleasant. Since some of the very first voyages of discovery, a species of reptile-like creatures has been encountered on occasion, but it is just as hostile as the rest of the island. These creatures, Uromanus yigi, have never shown interest in making friendly contact with humans and instead try to kill most of them on sight. No definitive settlement of theirs has ever been identified. In their attacks on unsuspecting stalkers they often seem to crawl out from the jungle’s thicket or the dark crevasses of the ancient ruins. Based on some accounts, it seems possible that they house deep beneath the earth in the many tunnels, caves and catacombs that wind their way through the island’s underground.
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| A Headtaker, donning the skull of an unidentified synapsid and surrounded by its latest trophies. |
The common names that have been given to them are “Headtakers” or “Decapitators” because they seem very fond of beheading other man and beast alike and using their heads as decoration. Almost always they are seen wearing skulls as helmets or other ornaments.
Biology and Origins
As studying them in life has proven extremely difficult, most of what we know about the Headtakers’ biology has come from dead specimens. The most striking feature of the Headtakers is that they completely lack any hindlimbs. Unlike whales or snakes they do not even have vestigial bones attesting to their former existence. Instead of legs, they use their long arms to walk. These end in raptorial “feet” with four clawed digits, in addition to which they also have a large sickle claw not unlike a dromaeosaur. By themselves the “feet” are quite dextrous and can be used to hold and manipulate objects, but for finer and more practical tasks the Headtakers instead use their long chameleon-tail, almost like a tentacle.
Their heads are quite large, holding a roughly human-sized brain. Their jaws are edentulous, having only a sharp-edged beak. The tongue is mobile and the larynx inside the throat complex, probably allowing the Headtakers some degree of verbal communication. On top of the snout were found receptor-pits for infrared-vision, similar to some snakes.
What exactly the Headtakers evolved from has been a surprisingly difficult question. At first glance, their scaly skin makes some type of reptile the most obvious. As the back of their anapsid skull lacks any fenestrae, an affinity with the Parareptilia has been suggested in the past, putting the headtakers close to bolosaurs, pareiasaurs and perhaps even turtles. However, the body of at least one pregnant female has been dissected, which revealed unlaid eggs inside the abdomen. The eggs were soft and gelatinous, like a frog’s spawn. This suggests that the headtakers actually reproduce like amphibians, perhaps rearing their tadpoles in unseen underground spawning pools. If true, this means their origin must lie outside Amniota, most likely inside the Reptiliomorpha like so many other of the “reptilian” creatures on Ryl Madol. A few of the more serpentine “microsaurs”, a polyphyletic group made up of lepospondyls and other stem-amniotes, have been suggested as possible ancestors.
The only genetic study done so far has not recovered any satisfying results that favour either the true reptile or basal reptiliomorph origin. A minor caveat the authors added to their paper is that if some additional traits are taken into account, the genome of Uromanus may actually suggest an origin outside the Tetrapoda, them having instead independently evolved out of a sarcopterygian more closely related to the Dipnoi (lungfish). These results have been heavily criticized due to the methodology that was used. The issue may never be resolved until their tadpoles are found and studied.
Material Culture
Headtakers are capable tool users, using flint and even obsidian to craft tools and dangerous weapons. From afar they have been observed fishing using harpoons. Pitfall traps have also been encountered on occasion, leading to many stalkers’ deaths. If these traps exist to hunt animals or to specifically kill humans is not known. Bows or slings are unknown, the main throwing weapons are long obsidian-tipped spears and javelins, which they can throw with enough force to pin an unsuspecting adventurer to a tree.
Fire and how to make it is known to them. Many lost explorers have wandered towards smoke columns emanating from the forests and hills, thinking they found a human encampment, only to find an empty hearth over which one of their headless crewmembers has been roasted.
They wear no clothing, perhaps having no need for it with their scaly hides in this warm climate. But they do wear ornaments, most prominently bones and skulls of other animals. Across the island can be found stakes and even totem poles adorned with cut-off heads, including those of humans.
Perhaps due to the proclivity of collecting and presenting trophies, the Headtakers seem to have a form of hunting culture, perhaps hunting as a form of ritual or perhaps even leisure. As a consequence they seem to have at least some form of code. During ambushes of stalkers or research-camps, people that are encountered without weapons or otherwise vulnerable are usually left unharmed, while the skulls of those that defend themselves are gleefully collected. This may be a form of mercy… or perhaps unarmed humans simply make for boring prey.
Apart from this, virtually nothing else is known about the culture of these beings, except for one disturbing account, which is soon detailed. As already discussed, it remains unclear in what way they may be related to the vanished culture from which the island’s ruins originate, though they certainly know their layout well and may even use them as dwellings.
The Sacrifice
In February 1928, a single man holding onto a piece of wood was fished out of the waters off Sumatra, barely alive. His name was Eliah Hansen. His account is the only one we have of what may be going on deep below Ryl Madol. He was a Danish sailor aboard the Dutch fishing vessel Sara, which that month crashed into a Rylian reef during a storm at night. With the lifeboats, all the sailors were able to evacuate onto the island, but there they were almost immediately ambushed by the Headtakers.
Surprisingly, the Headtakers did not kill them immediately, but instead captured them and tied their limbs together with ropes. The sailors were then each carried off deep into the jungle, until reaching the foot of a black step-pyramid. Through a gate, they were carried deeper into the labyrinthine catacombs until reaching what must have been some kind of underground settlement.
Hansen’s account of what happened in there is horrific. Several of his crewmembers were beheaded immediately with a toothblade-axe on a rock altar that had been stained red with the blood of previous victims. He observed juvenile Headtakers playing with the heads, while the adults ripped out their teeth, perhaps to use as jewelry. A few other crewmembers were flayed alive after being tied up to poles. When they screamed too much from the torture, their skulls were simply bashed in with clubs, the Headtakers seeming merely annoyed by the noise.
The rest of the crew, including Hansen, were carried deeper into the chambers, until reaching the ledge of a vast grotto, its bottom filled by a deep, dark lake. There they were put into a cage made of large rib bones. A dark ritual commenced. Fires were lit and large, hollowed-out tree-trunks were erected, against which the headtakers banged their clubs, producing a rhythmic drum tune. This primitive music was accompanied by rattle instruments. In snake-like voices, the Headtakers began to sing in a language unknown to man, which endlessly echoed through the cave. One of the sailors was then seized and dragged out of the cage, to then be strapped onto a wooden mechanism. This crane lowered the poor sailor over the lake and as the drumming of the logs grew louder, the serpentmen began to repeatedly chant what appeared to be a name: “Yig! Yig! Yig! Yig!”
What happened then, Hansen was very apprehensive to tell. He himself instinctually averted his eyes, but the other sailors saw it and subsequently lost their sanity. Some indescribable horror, which he thinks was the “god” of the Decapitators, must have emerged out of the lake. When the chanting and the drumming was over, the sailor on the crane was gone. This continued for the following days, until only Hansen and another crewmember were left.
When it was their turn, Hansen managed to break off one of the bones of the cage and the two secretly sneaked out while most of the Headtakers were asleep. Unfortunately, they accidentally alerted some guards, leading to the impalement of the remaining crewmember. Only Hansen himself managed to escape the labyrinth and ran towards the coast. Only finding a log of wood for himself, he swum out to sea, thinking that drowning was better than dying at the hands of these creatures. That he was later found by another fishing vessel was rather miraculous, as is the fact that he seemed to have had some natural resistance to the toxic effects of the Rylian spores.
Later that same year, Hansen was
found dead in an inn in Antwerpen. With
him went any further chance of getting to know more about the Headtakers’
underground rituals. The cause of death was an obsidian dagger impaled through his heart. The murderer remains unknown.
