Twine Encyclopaedia: Hellhound

Hellhounds are black doglike creatures with red eyes. They are associated with demons and found almost exclusively in Hades. They are intelligent.

Hellhounds are fleet and have keen senses. Like demons, they speak demonic language. They are entirely fireproof - specifically, heatproof and noncombustible. Some hellhounds can learn to cast fire spells. Other than that, they have no special abilities.

Hellhounds are a created species designed by a group of demons (all believed dead by the Twine Wars timeline). Each hellhound will form a mindbond to one demon at a young age.

1. Appearance

2. Abilities

: 2.1. Howl

3. Species history

4. Breeding

5. Teeth

6. Name and pedigree

7. Notable hellhounds

1. Appearance

A hellhound is a black dog with fiery non-luminous red eyes. They may be any size from labrador retriever up to grizzly bear. Size is generally proportional to strength and power, but not to intelligence. Fur is almost invariably short; ears are pointed, never floppy; tails are straight and seldom plumed.

After these basics, there are many possible mutations. A hellhound may be born with a third eye, or a snake's tail, or even three heads (the famous Cerberus being the only example of that particular mutation).

These mutations are nothing like mutation in DNA; each one was programmed in specifically (see Species History), and when a puppy is conceived there is a small probability it will show just one of the possible mutations.

2. Abilities

Hellhounds are, to all intents, heatproof and fireproof: they will not burn, their tissues won't be damaged by fire, their body chemistry isn't affected however much their core temperature rises, and so on. This includes combustion caused by magic. They can survive being frozen solid, though will lose consciousness.

Hellhounds speak and understand demonic language and also normal dog communication.

Their senses, agility and stamina are on par with normal hunting and coursing dogs, taking the hellhound's size into account, with one exception: they see in colour (though a skewed range, because their corneas are red).

They cannot shapeshift or have their shape altered by demonic methods.

2.1. Howl

A hellhound's hunting howl (not baying, cf himmelhunde) is supernaturally terrifying. It is described as causing terror in "mortals", which can be taken to mean roughly anything other than mosts kinds of demons, most angels and fullblown deities - it particularly includes ghosts and anything dead or undead, those being hellhounds' intended prey.

Hellhound howling tends to set up odd echoes that heighten the effect and make the sound seem louder. In enclosed spaces the effect can be awesome enough to make rational thought flee, while in wide open spaces the sound carries over great distances.

3. Species history

As intimated above, hellhounds were created by a group of ancient demons, none of which is thought to have survived until the Twine Wars era. This means, taking into account demons' uncommunicative nature, that there are no demons left who will admit to remembering where hellhounds come from.

Hellhounds were created from normal dogs imported into hell. After a selective breeding project was abandoned -- demons are very impatient -- a group of geneticists combined dog DNA with demon genetic material.

Carbon-based lifeforms' genetic material is nothing whatsoever like demon DNA. Manipulating other lifeforms' genes is an extremely advanced skill. Combining one with the other is ludicrously difficult.

Against flabberghastingly huge odds, viable lifeforms were eventually created through this process. They were mentally unstable and had various other problems, some of which were ironed out. The stability issue was eventually glossed over by introducing a characteristic that forces each hound to bind to a demon in a subordinate role. This suited the purposes of the designers, who wanted wonderful (and, above all, obedient) pet/companion/bodyguards.

Hellhound mindbonds are built on the standard demonic system, but skewed. For more detail see Mindbond (Demon).

4. Breeding

Hellhounds reproduce quite like normal dogs. This was a deliberate feature and originally intended for keeping track of new births.

Hellhounds are not romantics. Hellbitches come into season about once a year, for a few days. (This generally makes them even more irritable than usual.) The female will select her mate more or less at random, usually with a growled "Hey you". Mating takes place with much snarling and biting, after which the female forgets about the male pretty much immediately.

Approximately one mating in three results in pregnancy; hellhounds are not very fertile, probably because of all the genetic tampering (see Species History). The gestation period is around five months. Normally only one puppy is born; on rare occasions there may be twins. A hellbitch can't physically carry more than two pups to term.

The pup's eyes are open by the time it is born, and it can stand within minutes. Pups are generally weaned and ready to leave their mother by the age of two months. Usually a hellbitch will not breed again for one or two menstrual cycles. Hellhounds are not naturally maternal.

Although they are weaned early, hellpuppies have a relatively long childhood. They take about six years (by human standards) to reach adolescence, although their brains develop more quickly, and it'll be four more years before they are physically mature. It takes a while for body to catch up with mind. This too could be seen as genetic-engineering negligence.

5. Teeth

(to be reorganised later)

: "What do you do for teeth?" [asked Suitov]
"Whatcha mean? I've got some."
"Indeed, and they look brand new. You told me you were thirty. Don't they wear down?"
"Of course, as long as I chew enough things," said [the hellhound].
"And if you don't?" Suitov asked, with a glance down at him.
"Then they overgrow and I start to look scary," said the large, black, red-eyed dog. [1]

6. Name and pedigree

Hellhound names are a sort of mini-pedigree, in the format Hellhoundname by-Fathername-out-of-Mothername. An example would be Chokedamp by-Pepper-out-of-Shriker.

They can be abbreviated, as in Chokedamp Pepper-Shriker. This is a matter of preference but can irk some hellhounds, especially ones proud of their lineage.

Hellhounds with braggable lineage may include grandsires' names, or even great-grandsires', as in Chokedamp sired by Pepper-by-Barkley-Brandog-Bau-out-of-Rhymni-Siaw-Brath daughter of Shriker-by-Morty-Big Grim-Giver-out-of-Hellgast-Nuby-Zayin Alpha Release. Beyond this, it gets silly and you need brackets.

Hellhound pedigrees are represented in Twine in table layout, with the female ancestor always below the male. The unbroken female line is considered most important, such that reading the very bottom name of each column gives the hellhound's most braggable lineage.

paternal grandfather

father

paternal grandmother

Hellhound

maternal grandfather

mother

maternal grandmother

		paternal grandfather
	father
		paternal grandmother
Hellhound
		maternal grandfather
	mother
		maternal grandmother