Feeder Field Classification

The term Feeder is a field classification, not a proven biological category. It refers to mobile organisms repeatedly observed acting in ways that support Xanaras: scouting, hunting, harvesting, reshaping territory, testing defenses, or moving material through occupied regions.

Nobody knows whether the classes below are separate species, specialized organs, life stages, temporary bodies, engineered responses, or several unrelated organisms that An'kor has grouped together because they all arrive with the same catastrophe.

Classification is based on appearance and observed behavior. It is incomplete by design. New forms continue to appear, rare types may be absent from surviving records, and some encounters are too brief or lethal to classify properly.

Aggression describes how readily a type attacks living targets. Danger describes the threat it poses overall. A low-aggression Feeder can still be extremely dangerous if its real function is opening tunnels, marking settlements, or changing the environment.

SKITTERS

Appearance

Small by Feeder standards, usually between the size of a large rat and a hunting dog. Skitters have low, flattened bodies supported by many jointed limbs. Their exact number varies. Most have little obvious symmetry, dark or translucent outer tissue, and several small sensory pits instead of recognizable eyes.

Behavior

Skitters move quickly through ruins, drainage systems, ventilation shafts, caves, rubble, and dense vegetation. They rarely remain still for long. Groups often spread out, disappear into separate routes, and regroup later.

They appear to investigate sound, heat, motion, open doors, machinery, blood, and recently disturbed terrain. Shieldwardens therefore treat sightings as possible reconnaissance rather than random animal movement.

Aggression: Moderate.

Danger: Moderate individually; High in large groups.

Commonly Found

Near the shieldline, in abandoned settlements, ruined infrastructure, tunnels, collapsed buildings, and newly occupied territory.

Unknowns

No one knows how information gathered by Skitters is transmitted, if it is transmitted at all. Destroying a scouting group sometimes appears to provoke later activity in the same area, but the connection is unproven.

RAKERS

Appearance

Rakers are roughly wolf- to horse-sized predators built low in front and high behind. They usually possess four to six major limbs, with the forward pair ending in long hooked blades or hardened claws. The head is narrow and often appears fused directly into the shoulders.

Their mouths are inconsistent. Some specimens have obvious jaws. Others tear prey apart with the forward limbs and reveal no clear feeding organ.

Behavior

Rakers hunt.

They use cover, flank isolated targets, pursue fleeing prey, and frequently attack wounded individuals before healthy ones. Packs have demonstrated enough coordination to drive people toward ambushes or away from defensible ground.

Unlike many Feeders, Rakers commonly continue attacking even when no obvious strategic objective is visible.

Aggression: High.

Danger: High.

Commonly Found

Forests, ruined towns, broken farmland, trenches, ravines, shieldline dead ground, and anywhere with enough terrain to conceal movement.

Unknowns

Whether Rakers actually consume what they kill is unclear. Bodies are often mutilated or dragged away, but recovered remains do not always show signs consistent with feeding.

LANTERNS

Appearance

Lanterns are floating organisms ranging from fist-sized globes to bodies several meters across. A translucent outer membrane surrounds brighter internal structures that pulse, flicker, or change color. Thin tendrils hang beneath many specimens.

They move without visible wings and can remain almost perfectly stationary in open air.

Behavior

Lanterns usually avoid direct combat. They hover above terrain, drift along roads or coastlines, circle structures, and sometimes remain over the same location for hours.

Their lights change in repeating patterns. Shieldwarden reports frequently describe increased Feeder activity after Lantern sightings, particularly when several gather over one location.

For that reason, frontier doctrine treats Lanterns as observers, markers, or signaling organisms even though none of those functions has been proven.

Aggression: Low.

Danger: High.

Commonly Found

Open terrain, rooftops, coastlines, valleys, ruined streets, and areas where the shield boundary is visible.

Unknowns

Lantern light may be communication, sensory activity, heat regulation, bait, or something else entirely. Aquarian and Technobeast attempts to decode the patterns have produced no reliable translation.

BURROWERS

Appearance

Burrowers are massive segmented organisms adapted to moving through earth and stone. Confirmed specimens range from the length of a wagon to structures large enough that observers initially mistook their passage for earthquakes.

The forward body contains rings of hardened plates, teeth-like structures, crushing ridges, or rotating masses of mineralized tissue. No two recovered descriptions agree completely.

Behavior

Burrowers tunnel.

They ignore most nearby creatures unless obstructed and may pass beneath settlements without surfacing. Their tunnels collapse unpredictably, redirect groundwater, sever foundations, expose buried infrastructure, and create routes that other Feeders later use.

A Burrower does not need to attack a fortress to destroy it.

Aggression: Low to Moderate.

Danger: Extreme.

Commonly Found

Mountains, old mining regions, underground infrastructure, dry plains, and deep beneath occupied territory.

Unknowns

Shieldwardens fear Burrowers near the Core more than almost any openly aggressive class. Whether one could tunnel beneath or interact with the shield in ways surface Feeders cannot is unknown.

HARVESTERS

Appearance

Harvesters are tall, multi-limbed organisms with narrow central bodies and several folding appendages capable of gripping, cutting, carrying, or piercing. They vary widely in height, from slightly taller than a person to several times that size.

Many carry organic sacks, cages of hardened tissue, or expandable cavities within their own bodies.

Behavior

Harvesters collect material.

They remove corpses, plants, soil, wood, metal, animal remains, damaged Feeders, and occasionally living captives. They appear selective at times and indiscriminate at others.

Harvesters often avoid healthy armed groups if easier material is available, but become violently efficient when something interferes with what they are carrying.

Aggression: Moderate.

Danger: High.

Commonly Found

Battlefields, ruined settlements, forests, farms, mass graves, industrial sites, and regions recently attacked by other Feeders.

Unknowns

Nobody knows where the collected material goes or what Xanaras does with it. Tracking Harvesters deep into occupied territory has a poor survival record.

WEAVERS

Appearance

Weavers are usually broad, low organisms with many short limbs and long extruding tendrils. Mature individuals are difficult to distinguish from the structures around them because they become partially embedded in walls, soil, trees, ruins, or Xanaras growth.

Some may cease being meaningfully mobile after establishing themselves.

Behavior

Weavers construct or convert.

They spread fibrous tissue across surfaces, seal passages, create membranes, connect alien growths, reinforce occupied structures, and gradually transform ordinary terrain into something biologically integrated.

They rarely pursue fleeing creatures. Instead, they defend established work sites and react violently to fire, cutting, excavation, or attempts to remove new growth.

Aggression: Low unless disturbed.

Danger: High.

Commonly Found

Deep occupied territory, abandoned cities, caves, sewer systems, forests undergoing conversion, and locations held by Xanaras for extended periods.

Unknowns

It is uncertain whether a Weaver is building for Xanaras, becoming part of Xanaras, or both. Some structures attributed to Weavers continue growing after every visible organism nearby has been destroyed.

UNDERTOWS

Appearance

Undertows are aquatic Feeders with long flexible bodies, broad fins or membranes, and very little consistent external anatomy. Some resemble enormous eels. Others are flat enough to disappear against the seafloor. Pale sensory filaments often extend far ahead of the body.

Their size varies dramatically.

Behavior

Undertows hunt through water with sudden bursts of speed. They frequently remain motionless for long periods before attacking from below, behind reefs, or from deep water.

They have damaged Aquarian structures, severed cables, attacked swimming patrols, and followed vessels without immediately striking.

Aquarians warn that surface observers consistently underestimate them because seeing the upper outline of an Undertow says little about how much body remains below.

Aggression: High.

Danger: High to Extreme.

Commonly Found

Occupied seas, flooded ruins, deep trenches, coastal shieldlines, river mouths connected to lost territory, and submerged infrastructure.

Unknowns

Nobody knows whether all aquatic Feeders grouped as Undertows are related. Aquarian scholars strongly suspect several distinct classes are being hidden beneath one battlefield nickname.

CHOIRS

Appearance

Choirs are among the least consistent recognized classes. Most reports describe clusters of upright or crawling bodies joined by cords of tissue, or single organisms containing many throat-like cavities.

They are named for sound, not appearance.

Behavior

Choirs produce layered tones that carry farther than expected and can continue for hours. Close exposure causes nausea, headaches, disorientation, panic, loss of balance, and in some cases temporary auditory hallucinations.

Groups of other Feeders have been observed changing movement shortly after Choir vocalizations.

Whether the sound is a weapon, communication system, navigational signal, or several things at once is unknown.

Aggression: Uncertain.

Danger: High.

Commonly Found

Caverns, ruined urban centers, valleys, enclosed industrial spaces, and locations where multiple Feeder classes are active together.

Unknowns

Stories claiming Choirs can reproduce specific human voices remain unconfirmed. Shieldwardens are ordered not to approach familiar-sounding calls from beyond the shield regardless.

BREAKERS

Appearance

Breakers are siege-scale Feeders. They are enormous, heavily protected, and built differently from one encounter to the next. Common traits include thick layered armor, dense forward limbs, crushing appendages, hardened plates, and bodies capable of surviving concentrated weapon fire.

Some are comparable to large buildings.

Behavior

Breakers attack structures.

Fortifications, gates, shieldline towers, bridges, heavy machinery, walls, and concentrated defensive positions draw their attention. They show little interest in individual prey unless those individuals interfere.

Breakers have been observed repeatedly striking the same protected position long after a normal animal would retreat from injury.

Aggression: Extreme toward obstacles and defenders.

Danger: Extreme.

Commonly Found

Rare near stable sections of the shield. More common during major Feeder assaults, in occupied military regions, or after a defensive position has resisted repeated attacks.

Unknowns

No confirmed Breaker has crossed the shield under normal conditions. Their periodic appearance along the boundary is one reason scholars believe Xanaras actively tests An'kor's defenses rather than merely pressing against them blindly.

WATCHERS

Appearance

Watchers are tall, thin Feeders that can remain motionless for extraordinary periods. Most stand between two and four meters high. They possess few visible defensive structures and often appear fragile compared with other classes.

The upper body commonly contains a fan, crown, dish, or cluster of sensory organs oriented toward whatever the Watcher is observing.

Behavior

Watchers watch.

They stand on distant ridges, ruined towers, exposed streets, or the far side of the shield and remain there for hours or days. Most withdraw when approached. Some do not react even when attacked.

Shieldwarden records show no consistent immediate consequence to a Watcher sighting. That has not made anyone comfortable.

Several major Feeder movements were preceded by Watchers appearing in the region days earlier.

Aggression: Very Low.

Danger: Unknown; treated as High strategically.

Commonly Found

Near the shield boundary, high ground, rooftops, towers, and open approaches to defended settlements.

Unknowns

It is possible that Watchers are sensory organs more than independent creatures. It is also possible people have invented significance around an organism whose behavior they do not understand. Frontier commanders generally prefer paranoia.

NEEDLERS

Appearance

Needlers are small to medium Feeders covered in narrow spines, tubes, or needle-like projections. Some walk. Others cling to walls or trees. Several recovered specimens contained internal sacs filled with fluids, spores, or microscopic material that degraded rapidly after death.

Behavior

Needlers avoid close combat when possible. When threatened or when prey approaches, they launch spines, droplets, clouds, or hair-thin projectiles over surprising distances.

Symptoms after exposure vary wildly: fever, numbness, tissue inflammation, hallucinations, uncontrolled growth, paralysis, or no immediate effect at all.

Any Needler exposure is treated as biological contamination until proven otherwise.

Aggression: Moderate.

Danger: High.

Commonly Found

Dense vegetation, ruined interiors, Xanaras growth zones, caves, abandoned laboratories, and territory where Weavers are active.

Unknowns

No one knows whether Needler payloads are venom, infection, reproductive material, biological tools, or several unrelated substances. Genevolver researchers want intact specimens. Shieldwarden medics would prefer they stop saying that near patients.

Classification Limits

These classes are practical battlefield language.

Individual Feeders can differ enough that identifying a class does not guarantee behavior. Some organisms appear to change over time. Others possess traits associated with multiple classes. Juvenile forms may look nothing like mature forms, assuming the concept of juvenile even applies.

There are also reports that do not fit any recognized category: moving landscapes, things large enough to appear only on distant horizons, Feeders seen once and never again, organisms that collapse into liquid after death, and shapes visible beneath occupied ground that nobody has seen emerge.

The list should grow only when repeated observation makes a category useful.

The safest assumption remains that An'kor has not seen everything Xanaras can produce.