Slotheez Lore!

To first understand more about Slotheez and where they came from, we must first dive a little into the fascinating history of Sloths (and yes, this part is completely, 100% true according to scientists today and all my google research lol).

Sloths are believed to have roamed the earth for around 60 million years. From elephant sized sloths who lived on the ground, moose size swimming sloths, to tiny cat sized sloths living high in trees.

Of the more than 100 sloth species identified, all but six are extinct. The most common sloths being the Brown-throated sloth (Bradypus variegatus), Pale-throated sloth (Bradypus tridactylus), Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus didactylus) and Hoffman’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni). Meanwhile the Maned sloth (Bradypus torquatus) sitting at vulnerable status and the Pygmy three-toed sloth (Bradypus pygmaeus) is critically endangered currently with around only 48 left in existence.

It is believed that today's three-toed sloths are more related to a large family that included ancient elephant-sized sloths, Megalonyx, which lived in North America until about 15,000 years ago, believed to have died out at the end of the last ice age. Meanwhile today's two-toed sloths appear to the be the last survivors of an ancient lineage of giant South American Mylodon, believed to be the last ground sloth to go extinct, less than 10,000 years ago.

Today’s sloths, however, are thought to have avoided the extinctions that wiped out their larger relatives because they ascended into the trees. But what makes their survival even more extraordinary is that the two types of modern sloths – the two-toed and the three-toed sloths – are thought to have adapted to life in the trees entirely independently of each other. Although they can look very similar, their physical differences are signs that two-toed and three-toed sloths found their own ways to adapt to a lifestyle in the trees. They are thought to have last shared a common ground-dwelling ancestor about 30 million years ago, which is around the same time that humans split from baboons on the evolutionary tree. Over that time, the two type of sloths have evolved into the six species that we know and love today.

But unknowingly to scientists and historians a seventh species of sloth also evolved. (Now this bit we may have created and added, but is still 100% true, honestly lol). This amazing hidden, mysterious seventh species, was discovered only recently in a far away magical place, covered in golden plains, towering mountains and enchanting valleys. A land previously full of Elves, Dwarves, Ents, Hobbits, Orcs, Trolls and even Dragons. But somewhere hidden deep amongst all the chaos caused by those who inhabited there, keeping to themselves for their own survival, were the evolved seventh species of Sloth, now known as Slotheez.

This beautiful place, known only in the history books as Middle Earth, a land that has been lost to man for an eternity was discovered accidently by two explorers. A newly married couple (our SlotheezNFT Founders), venturing out on their first adventure together, only to lose their direction, take many wrong turns and travel thousands of miles into the unknown. Leading them to discover a land that was once lost to all. Their discovery has left the world in awe, eager and wanting. But the couple knew if they revealed the location, it would be inundated with tourists, reporters, poachers and anyone who could make the journey. They knew it's peaceful beauty would be disturbed, so they kept the location of Middle Earth a secret, in order to protect this extraordinary place and all the astonishing things that it holds, including the awe-inspiring seventh species of sloth, Slotheez. Seventh species of sloth you say... yes!

On their journey, they came across a perfect landscape, a beautiful waterfall, pouring into the most picturesque, crystal clear lake. So clear, that it looked like a mirror, perfectly reflecting the sky and surrounding scenery. As they sat quietly and admired the view before them, they heard small whispers, not human, not like any animal they knew of, but just sweet little murmurs in the air around them. The breeze softly blowing past them, moving the leaves high in the trees, and if they looked closely with each gush of wind, they would see a set of eyes peering at them. They knew that this was the location they would base their camp, where they would live, learn and love this new species they had discovered. Being animal lovers helped them soon realise they had found a sloth. Their long legs, rounded heads with small ears, their long coarse fur which was often covered in green algae. But these sloths, almost similiar in many ways, had traits that were very different to any other sloths they knew of, plus their location was very obscure for any sloth species. They decided they would call this new species, Slotheez.

They spent months and months of living amongst these beautiful slotheez watching them, studying them, learning about them and even trying to understand them, they discovered more and more differences between the slotheez. The further out from their base location they identified different family groups. Each family had very distinct differences about them, their skin varied from family to family, those who loved closed to the burning volcanoes had skin that seemed to glisten like sweat, others had a metallic sheen to them, there were even some with a golden glow. Yet families they found near the water appeared almost see through, similiar to that of a jellyfish. As they travelled further and deeper into Middle Earth, the families they found appeared more and more surreal, in the darkest caves the slotheez glow, as if they have adapted and evolved to live in the darkness. Those that lived in the forgotten wastelands, where it seems all the things noone cared about had been thrown away. It was almost like a home for all the lost, broken Slotheez who over the centuries has used whatever they found around them to survive. Some looked almost robotic and some you would swear were sewn together like a toy, it was hard to believe they were real.

There are so many more mysteries to be discovered in this magical land, amongst these mythical beautiful Slotheez. What secrets will you find?