Funny Space Thing - Blog Posts

Another human as I put off the dread of having to draw a Formid not in side on perspective

First regular human character

Pretty basic question but ah well- are the faeries aliens? Or seed world organisms that originated from earth?

The faeries, slaters and formids are all aliens, however the slaters are from an ancient seedworld/colony world of a now extinct alien.

Absolutely speedran this one (how the hell are feathers less of a pain in the neck than a front-facing perspective?)

Four months later and I’ve finally finished the next character, and the first non-human.

The flag of the Faerie Revolutionary Alliance, the first of many resistance and revolutionary movements to collaborated with the Allies during the Faerie War to overthrow the Faerie Empire (names are a work in progress, I know that’s a lot of faeries). The war hammer represents what was seen as a “people’s weapon” due to needing little metal, the tree represents the home trees many faeries build/built their civilisations in.

Perspective is pain

Finally finished the most commonly found sophonts on mars (and those with main characters in the comic I’m planning). Gonna finish the character reference sheets now

Some slater anatomy

Respiratory system in blue, digestive system in green, and skeleton in red

Slaters

Common names in English:

Isopods, rolley pollies, webspinners, weavers, long spiders

Binomial name:

Sericutextor Sp. (Silk weavers)

Description:

Slaters are a genus of dodecapodal alien sophonts and were a founding member of the USS.

They posses an exoskeleton composed of a mineralised core covered in a layer of organic polymers, consisting of a tegus and a sternum. The body is divided into four tagma: the head, the neck, the body and the abdomen. The head consists of a single plate and possesses three pairs of eyes, two pairs of antennae, three pairs of external jaws and a pair of cephalic limbs. One pair of antennae act as chemoreceptors, audio receptors and to detect gravity, whilst the other pair bear a semaphore-like structure used in communication. Of the three pairs of external jaws, one pair act as pincers and food manipulators, whilst the other two act as both a seal to the oral cavity and as masticators. An additional pair of heavily derived internal jaws separate the oral cavity from the rest of the digestive tract. Lastly, the cephalic limbs posses two manipulators digits and two specialised for silk production. The neck is divided into three segments, the first segment bearing no limbs and allowing greater flexibility of the head whilst the latter two each possesses a pamprodactyl hand. The body is made up of six segments, each bearing a limb with a anisodactyl foot, with each appendage being able to act as a manipulator, especially those of the front segment, however typically they are relegated to locomotion. Finally, the abdomen is also made up of six segments, with the final segment bearing a pair of spinnerets whilst all other segments are limbless.

The respiratory system is made up of two booklungs within the abdomen and a series of spiracles between each segment, linked by a pair of trachea. The circulatory system is centred around two major hearts, one at the rear of the abdomen and one at the base of the neck.

Slaters are capable of producing organic fibres often referred to as silk,and posses silk glands on their cephalic limbs, their manipulatory limbs and their spinnerets. The most complex silk strands are produced by the cephalic limbs, the spinnerets can produce the most durable silk, and the manipulatory limbs produce the most simple silk. The adhesiveness, tensile strength and other factors of the silk produced can be controlled by the skaters.

Slaters have a bisex system, with the primary differences being in sephamore colours, pheromones and social cues, and whilst there is a slight weighting of mass and colour (males on average being slightly paler and lighter) there is significant overlap. They are also bidirectionally dichogamus, naturally undergoing the process when exposed to certain environmental, social or chemical stimuli. In the modern day many slaters use artificial methods to at least kickstart transition, as this is typically swifter and causes less inconvenience.

Between two and eight eggs are laid within an ootheca weaved from silk similar to that used to package faeces. After about a month, these eggs hatch into small, soft larvae, which grow for two years before their exoskeleton begins to harden, with adulthood being reached at about eighteen years old.

Ancestrally, slaters lived in large, communal burrow networks and above ground structures made from wood, silk and soil. Due to these fossorial habits their fore and ventral eyes are quite shortsighted, with their dorsal eyes providing a wild field of vision but poor depth reception.

The modern genus of slaters is thought to have evolved 2-3 million years ago. Due to their subterranean nature, they gained a familiarity with metallurgy and fossil fuels much earlier in their history than most other sophonts. This lead to a comparatively rapid technological development, allowing them to have the longest continuous spacefaring history of any extant sophont. They were also the founding members of the precursor to the USS after making contact with two other homeworlds before the beginning of the Great War. Following the establishment of communication with terrans and formids and the end of the war, they assisted in the founding of the USS.

Messing around with some words, me and one of the Formid characters called Handra Kisund

Finally finished the most widely used Formid writing system. Be been working on the numbers for months now, and the alphabet for the past couple days.

At some point I’d like to make a conlang for it, but if I did that rn I would genuinely explode

(Also sorry the formatting is a tad shite, this has all been transcribed from a very messy stack of paper)

Finally finished the most widely used Formid writing system. Be been working on the numbers for months now, and the alphabet for the past couple days.

At some point I’d like to make a conlang for it, but if I did that rn I would genuinely explode

(Also sorry the formatting is a tad shite, this has all been transcribed from a very messy stack of paper)

Just need to finish the write up for one more sophont and I’ll have finished all the ones with main character rep, then it’s on to character design

Some faerie anatomy sketches, including a distant ancestor

Faeries

Common names in English:

Kites, gulls, imps

Binomial name:

Fantispiritus Sp. (Fated spirits)

Description:

Faeries are a genus of volant, bipedal hexapods who were the instigators of the Great War and the second alien sophont encountered by Terrans.

They posses a mineralised endoskeleton throughout their body, in addition to a mineralised cranial exoskeleton covered in a layer of organic polymers. They posses a dorsal notochord within a vertebrae-like structure, with a series of overlapping internal plates filling a role similar to the belly ribs of some earth tetrapods. The four thoracic limb bones are derived from two parallel rods of bone, leading to each limb segment possessing two long bones akin to those of the tetrapod radius, ulna, tibia and fibula, with the forelimbs possessing two segments and the hind limbs possessing three segments. Each long bone in the upper segments are connected to the a scapula-like structure with a ball and socket joint, with the two bones for the forelimbs fusing into a disc for increased rotational flexibility. Each limb possesses five fingers, with the outer rear digit bearing a wing in both the fore and hind limbs.

The head possesses a bony crest, a pair of cephalic limbs, two lower jaws fused into a single structure, and two inner jaws. The cephalic limbs posses two main limb segments and the hands possessing four segments.

After being processed in the jaws, food passes down the oesophagus either into a crop-like structure or into a gizzard before continuing on to the stomach. Meanwhile, air enters the parallel respiratory tracts either through external nostrils between the plates of the skull or through internal airways in the roof of the mouth, entering an air sac in the back of the skull before continuing into a pair of lungs within the thorax.

The faerie circulatory system bears general similarities to those of Terran vertebrates and cephalopods, with a heart adjacent to each lung and a larger central heart located between the two longs pumping their haemocyanin blood around their body.

Faeries feel little to no effect from ethanol and some other simple alcohols due to early life of their planet utilising this byproduct of their aerobic respiration as a defence mechanism against other organisms.

Faeries have a bisex system similar to that of Terran vertebrates, with males (tercels) typically being smaller and lighter built, with red skull plates, blue head and eye crests, and red and blue tail veins, whilst females (formels) are typically larger and bulkier, with orange skull plates, purple head and eye crests, and black and lilac tail veins, however there is large individual and population variation.

Between one and five leathery eggs may be laid, which hatch into fuzzy, clumsy eyasm after roughly fifteen Terran weeks. After a year of bulking up, eyasm rapidly develop into volant flaplings, loosing much of their down and becoming much more active and curious. Infancy is considered to end after a year as a flapling, gradually developing both physically and mentally until adulthood, typically considered at sixteen years old.

Ancestrally faeries lived in arboreal communities heavily dependant on a symbiotic xerophyte, with those living in more forested habitats typically living in sprawling, low density and interconnected groups, whilst those in open environments tending to live in high density, isolated communities within stands of trees.

Fantispiritus is generally considered to have evolved three to four million years ago, with the modern species having reached a global distribution by roughly half a million years ago. Shortly after venturing beyond their home solar system, an extremist faction originating on one of their home planet’s moons attempted to seize control over the other faerie factions. Whilst this control was often tenuous over much of the homeworld, it was absolute across the vast majority of faerie space. Following an expansionist policy and a number of attempted coups and civil wars, they came into contact with a lose assemblage of alien sophonts which made up the precursor to the USS. A rapid first strike was carried out that started the Great War, leading to sweeping short term advances and the threatening of multiple homeworlds before forces could be rallied against them. Shortly before the peak of this offensive, accidental contact had been made with the Terrans and formids, opening another front in the war. It has been debated amongst scholars how much this additional front contributed to the collapse of the faerie front lines, however the consensus is that between supply line issues, internal resistance and simple resource disparity, the rapid series of defeats was inevitable, followed by a hard fought offensive that ended with the invasion of the seat of government on the homeworld’s moon. During the following reconstruction period, the faeries joined the USS.

Probably a good idea to make something vaguely resembling a pinned post, so here we go.

Hey, I’m Molly, I like yapping about palaeontology and spec evo, and I’ve got a bunch of projects I’m working on across a few different universes (aka my brain can never focus on getting one thing done so it bounces around like a cricket on caffeine)

A not so empty universe: After a world war, a plague, and general societal collapse, humanity has made it to the stars, and realised that they’re not as alone as they had thought

-Funny space thing (name still a WIP): a slice of life thing about a bunch of university students on mars trying to survive their studies and each other

-Chimera: set at around the same time as FST, a new life-bearing world has been discovered. What’s unusual about it is that the life forms appear to originate from other worlds, including earth and the home worlds some of other sophonts

-Pasodau: set in the far future of this universe, a moon of a gas giant has been terraformed to house a species of lizards and 3 species of birds alongside various amphibians, fish, invertebrates and plants

A world without us: set after the extinction of humanity and the onset of a new glacial period, a community of sophont ravens have settled in the rusted hulk of a battleship on the plains of Doggerland. One of them named Graucraa has a great interest in the history of not on his own species, but the disappeared beings that came before them

Feorrlund: in a distant solar system, and old god known as The Architect brings life from Earth to populate a planet it has terraformed to live alongside life from its own home world. This planet is now home to the forgotten life of earth, magic, and far too many sophonts

Appalachi fae: fresh out of university, Dan Baker-Hewig makes the regrettable choice to sign up as a park ranger in a world where magic is very real and the forests are home to monsters, fae, and old gods, whilst also having to survive the other rangers.

Also the setting for a few short story things I’ve written and might post at some point.

So ye, feel free to ask about any of the projects, and hope y’all enjoy.

Here’s Alyssia’s twin Elliot, the token cishet of the group.

Finished the character sheet for Alyssia, one of the characters in the setting with the formids

Diagrams of formid anatomy. First is external anatomy, red and orange is skeleton, blue is respiratory system and green is digestive system.

Formids

Common names in English:

Formids, skullcrawlers, skullants, nightmares

Binomial name:

Xenosapiens Sp. (Wise aliens)

X. tescacolonus (tundra settler wise aliens)

X. tescaperegrinus (tundra wanderer wise aliens)

X. hesperomons (western mountain wise aliens)

X. orientomons (eastern mountain wise aliens)

X. tescagigans (tundra giant wise aliens)

X. silvagigans (forest giant wise aliens)

X. campusincola (plains dwelling wise aliens)

X. boreasilva (northern forest wise aliens)

X. notosilva (southern forest wise aliens)

X. insula (island wise aliens)

X. hesperosilva (western forest wise aliens)

X. orientosilva (eastern forest wise aliens)

Description:

Formids are a genus of centauric hexapods and were the first alien sophonts encountered by Terrans.

They posses an endoskeleton primarily consisting of sodium chloride, with a pair of vertebrae-like structures each containing a notochord. Each limb girdle is made up of three bones holding the first segment of the limb and attached to the twin spines. Beneath each girdle is a trio of large plates derived from osteoderms, serving as both protection for the organs and structural support. Each limb is made up of four segments, with a ball and socket joint at the base of a single bones followed by two pairs of parallel bones which in turn connect to three wrist bones. Four digits attach to the wrist, with 3 internal bones, four external bones and a claw in each finger. The hands represent the more basal zygodactyl structure of their ancestors, where as the feet have become digitigrade to better support movement on the ground.

The skull is made up of a solid block containing the brain to which 18 jaws are attached. In the digestive system, two ancestral pairs have fused into the dorsal and ventral primary jaws, two pairs evolved into the masticatory jaws used to help break up food and push it down the throat and a pair into molar jaws used to crush and grind food. Food then passes into a stomach within the rib cage of the second limb girdle before passing into an intestine-like absorption structure. The respiratory system is made up of their iconic through-lung with an anterior and posterior air intake and a hind air vent. Taking in air through a nostril on the outside of the dorsal primary jaw it then flows into the olfactory chamber containing the olfactory jaw before being drawn past the anterior valve jaw into the cephalic lung by the diaphragm jaw. It is then pumped primary anterior lung before either being expelled from the posterior air intake through a voice-box like structure or transferred to the secondary anterior lung, where it is drawn into the posterior lung before being expelled from the respiratory vent. The other jaws of the skull are made up by the two pair of eyes, two pairs of eyelids, a pair of structures similar to the mammalian inner ear, a pair of antennae, two pairs of stridulatory jaws and a pair of tridactyl cephalic limbs, with each digit being derived from an ancestral tooth.

Formids have two circulatory systems. The primary circulatory system is pumped by a single heart in the rib cage of the first limb girdle and transports oxygen carrying blood cells, most immune cells, inorganic ions and hormones dissolved in water. The secondary circulatory system is pumped by a trio of hearts in the rib cage of the third limb girdle and transports simple sugars, amino acids, lipids and immune cells dissolved in water.

Formids also posses a series of kidney-like structures in the rib cage of the third limb girdle closely resembling the malpighian tubules of Terran invertabrates whilst a pair of liver-like manufactory organs between the second and third limb girdles.

They are covered in a thin layer of translucent, mildly iridescent keratinous structures analogous to mammalian fur and derived from ancestral osteoderms, allowing the colour of the skin to be seen underneath. This was key in ancestral collumacephala to both allow them to retain heat but also for their chromatophores to be visible through their integument. In formids and their relatives many of these chromatophores have been lost alongside much of their UV vision in a burrowing ancestor, in addition the development of iridescence common in fossorial species. In modern formids functional chromatophores remain solely on the skull where they are used to convey emotions, although the introduction of ink into the vestigial chromatophores of the body has been and continues to be used as a for, of self expression through fluid tattoos, however it is a very delicate process and the tattoos fade as the cells die. Most emphasised in species from the southern continent but common to all formids is the development of a winter coat should below average temperatures be encountered for a long enough period, being shed should the temperatures warm.

Like a majority of cetocnidarians formids are hermaphrodites. Typically a single infant is born from each parent, typically in early spring, clinging to the back where it feeds on a specialised organ developed from the ancestral secondary circulatory system. Born blind and furless, they feed from this organ for roughly half a year before developing fur and being weaned, however they still cling to their parents fur. After another half year of their eyes have opened fully and they under grow a rapid stage of development, being fully capable runners two months, however their brains are still far below adult capacity and are highly instinctual. After another year they undergo a second growth spurt where they rapidly gain cognitive abilities equivalent to a human child. Typical formids are most often considered mature in the modern day by sixteen years old and independent from parents at around twenty, however the tundra species are often a year or two behind their northern relatives and the two giant species may not be considered mature until their early twenties. Despite their neotenic features, Xenosapiens insula has a similar rate of development to its mainland relatives.

Ancestrally formids typically lived in clans made up of immediate family, members from neighbouring clans and wandering individuals. Despite the sedentary nature of many of these communities (the most major exclusion being two tundra species and many clans from the two plains species), these wanderers maintained connections between clans and allowed the spread of genetics and ideas, hence how almost all modern species of Xenosapiens can still produce fertile offspring, although this comparative isolation and long timespan has lead to significantly greater variation than amongst Homo.

Despite having entered space shortly before humanity, Xenosapiens is a much older clade than genus Homo, with some estimates placing their common ancestor as far back as six million years ago, with some modern species existing as far back as two million years ago. For the majority of their history, formids have been isolated to the twin southern continents and some surrounding islands, though a small population of appears to have reached the westernmost island of the shattered continent after their ships got caught in the westerly current upon which they survived for a minimum of several hundred years before seemingly going locally extinct, although reports of shipwrecked sailors and wild men joining later colonies have been thought be some to represent the last of this distinct culture. Throughout their history formids have used a variety of complex tools constructed from wood, stone and bones, independently domesticating a variety of fauna and flora and living as nomads or agricultural communities as slowly trades of raw materials and manufactured goods developed across the continent, only becoming global a short few hundred years before the first formids flung themselves into the stars to land upon their twin moons.

The first sophonts the formids encountered were the Terrans, when two scientific missions to study an unusual solar system encountered each other. Following this formids joined the Terrans (and unknowingly a number of other sophont species) in the Great War, the conclusion of which lead to the formation of the USS (Union of Sophont Species).