Alienart - Tumblr Posts
Various bugs a acquired by trading
Bugs were traded with
@yellosnacc
@arkelyon
@asterotyto
@shuttlecarrier
Uniiman mount. They are present in almost every region either for travel or silk or both.
Something I forgot to add is their face plate rotates depending on how their body is angled. It's limited in movement but it gives the animal better spacial awareness. They have few eyes spots in their armor too but less sensitive.
More to their biology - while looking like a giant lobster they come from the same "fish" ancestors as Uniima. They belong to a group that kept their 3rd pair of limbs for locomotion, though these limbs are more specilised than the rest (in uniima the 3rd pair is part of their internal organs).
Been keeping this away for long since its a very out of context specific stuff.
These are the Heads - the mostly spiritual leader of the central Foru micro-state collective. Their role is to be a guide for all the leaders (archs) in central Foru and speak for all of them on an international level. They also bless lands and people and generally are well-liked by them. They can make big decisions, but it's ultimately on the archs if they comply (but the pressure is strong).
Every head has a more specialized role, each representing a 'sense' of their one shared soul (hearing, seeing, touch, thought...) and people they are patrons to (the old, the "rich", the leaders, the priests...). Each central Foru micro-state usually has its favorite head that they want to see the most in their community when bringing them news or blessings.
here are closeups
The Heads are the center of a religion practiced in the region. In short - the Heads share one spirit that in ancient times belonged to a priest who misused their power to get to the spirit world and instead became forever stuck in the material world. After many reincarnations, the priest became a wise leader who learned to speak with the spirit world and make final peace between the worlds of spirits and the material.
I would need to go into more religion details to go over that but that can be a separate post. Let's talk about how they get their role.
A 'competition' is held to determine the best leader, most spiritually attuned, most well-thinking, and best-presenting individual. The Heads in position at the time with a few other high-ranking individuals will judge the participants and then make their pick at the choosing ceremony. Luckily there are not too many to choose from, there are many requirements to participate.
However, the one picked isn't one that will become a head, they would be far too old at the time. Instead, they will force their system to make a rare phenomenon happen. This means making more of themselves with cloning (having babies grow out of diploid cells with no need for another person). This is usually achieved when under high amounts of stress and loneliness.
The uniima egg naturally holds 4 larvae but usually only 1-2 develop fully while the rest becomes food for the surviving ones. This clone egg has 4 identical whites (pre-babies) in them that get special care to ensure at least 3 survive. There have been heads with one member before and with 2 and 3, but 4 is a miracle as the bottom corner larva almost never develops enough to hatch. This egg is very lucky.
The identical quadruplets are given to be raised in different environments. These environments will decide what they represent as adults. It will also give them better perspectives of the world, making it easier/more difficult to make big decisions when the time comes.
Additionally, because there are 4 heads this time, a new environment had to be introduced. This environment was that of small communities, minorities, and generally people living in poorer conditions (yes, for the past Heads, war was more important than their people suffering (it's a very central Foru thing)). Unfortunately for The Ear, they are not respected everywhere, and many people assume them to be a fake among their siblings.
You can also see the heads have each their own signature and each Head generation has their own symbol that is recognized outside their writing systems.
Anyway let's add a regular post on the mole stars
Here is the one from the new ref.
There are some updates from the last time you saw them. Their skin is full red and their "tentacles" are gone. Their teeth are inside their skin and not always visible.
They manipulate surroundings with very flexible arm endings that create slight suction between the frill layers. The frills are surprisingly energetic and have the most touchy nerves and many small muscles. The teeth can go very far back into the arm, leaving the mouth flexible (the teeth themselves are flexible-ish).
Star eyesight sucks. On each arm is 4 (sometimes 5) extendable thorns with tiny eyes on top that give the arm a basic sense of space. If they want to focus on something they look with their mouth which has its inside lined with photoreceptive cells. To get a decent image they shape the arm inside into a sphere and change the end diameter.
But this works a lot better underwater, where they only spend their early and partial adult lives. Speaking of early life. Stars are born looking more like jellyfish than a star.
When hatched, they are only 1/4 of their adult version, a single arm swimming around and slowly growing. After this stage, the little jellies start connecting. Most often you get 4 arms but some moles have 3 or 5 (other numbers have a hard time surviving). Once they are joined, their bodily functions are connected, and even their nervous system becomes one. While being sophonts, their brain/s work a lot differently, with their arms being somewhat capable of independent thought.
And a tiny possible living space. But that's just thoughts.
On the left, an older caretaker from some island culture. Sleepy babies get to hold on the adult's piercings. The ones too young get a ride in the basket.
On the right, an egg arch (a reproductive leader) of a coastal culture. The babies on their neck don't have the balance to walk but might not be so sleepy. Unlike the caretaker the arch carries their own children. They make great accessories but being your parent's keychains is also a good exercise, experts say.
Climbing on big uniimas is natural to a baby. Since uniima are evolved to be arboreal, it's better they can climb and grip as soon as possible. Their giant heads make it easy to hold their full weight on their jaws.
Before becoming a parent or a caretaker, one needs to realize they will also become a tree, a mountain, and a hanger.
doodle compilation number idk
sillies
slom animal conceptin
bigger ethnicity difference and. a mecha (def not canon)
fun fact, Neal wanted to be a sloman priest as a teenager.
Also, foru tree thought? idk
the don't-worry-about-it and uuuh, ugly baby
lastly a character. They guide the group on their journey to the "different world". But this is still a WIP. I want to refine their outfit and name (text on the pic is their "first name").
bigger Central religion post
Journey of the lost souls by an unknown pilgrim
A scene from the story of the "crystal Head".
With the help of a "harpy", the great sinner crosses the bridge to the new land as their sea-born crystal body cracks under the weight of a thousand souls.
If they were to fail, the sky may become richer, but the Uniima will end.
This is a bigger central Foru uniima religion post. All the information here is about the central religion's beliefs, not the world's biology or physics.
Now let's get the context for the painting.
To leave the Physical, one must die at a ripe age so that their wisdom can be put to the test. The glowing triangles are the souls of uniima. They resemble a larva/white and are parasite-like in behavior. After a soul is released out of a body by premature death (or created) it holds onto someone (soul-binds) until it's passed into a new body. Soul bonded can be anything with a soul but uniima souls are picky in what they cling onto and usually pick a parental figure, a friend, or pupil. When the soul senses an empty unii-body, it moves in. Twins/triplets are considered 'one-soul' with special powers.
The one depicted to carry this soul mass is the uniiman spiritual leader/s (their historical body and events), sometimes called the Heads, but there's definitely a better name in the native language (slomen and O.s use this name). The Head/s existed for most of the religion's history and is the one to name the 'uniima' (translates "own-one-mind". It's the name of the central people. Because of historical events, it caught on between aliens as the species name). Head/s is immortal because of a "curse" set on them for breaching into the spiritual world thousands of years ago. Since this event, they have been changing bodies and fixing their sins until today. Nowadays, they are considered the wisest, mentally strongest, and morally cleanest soul - an inspiration for everyone (which keeps them in power over Central Foru among other things).
More about the current Heads.
This art comes from an early chapter, only a few hundred years after the creation of people. After the Head dooms the uniima by peaking into the Spiritual, society starts falling faster than it did ever before, finally resulting in the 'death of creature people'. This society was one of constant sin and destruction since no holy parts were remaining (too complicated, let's leave that for another time), so this scene is something of a strange bitter-sweet moment. With both the land and the people gone (yes, land too), the Head is once more reincarnated - being put into a body of melted sand and rock. They collect all the wandering souls unable to ascend and travel to a new land with the help of a half-uniima-half-animal who feels sorry for the people it shares a soul with. This journey is the first major lesson and soul-cleaning of the Head. Now, what is the thing in their jaws?
This motive is common in images with the Head, but it's not very realistic for the time period. These "flesh lists" worn on the lower tongue-hand are a modern-ish invention. People wear these on special occasions. They show all the past lives on a uniima and can get very long in high mortality areas (soul moves until a body reaches the desired age to be final-judged). The significance and uses of these in status get very complicated, but I will keep it simple. A short scarf/list makes one seem strong, with potential, being naturally gifted, and wealthy. A long scarf shows weakness, and a tendency to sin, but also patience, and a wise mind (which in many cases is the most important feature of a person).
In religious art, "scarfs" help mark chapters, but in "Journey of the lost souls" it's to depict the scale of the tragedy.
Lastly, the Heads' stomach. It shows them moving a large "hole" out of their body. This is symbolism for shedding a sin. It's said a mind and body should be able to naturally "regurgitate" any "object" out of their stomach, clean of the evil within it.
Bad nature - sins, bad thoughts (even physical stuff such as poison and drugs), is stored in the stomach. The "hungrier" you are the more evil you have to shed and the more you are controlled by this "evil hunger". Being flagged as a "stomach-thinker" is not calling you a food enjoyer but rather an insane/deranged person. However, some regions consider the stomach the default thinking center (what's a brain?), so it's more like a scale of good to bad stomach.
If anything needs more explaining or isn't explained properly, please inform me in the replies or send me an ask for a dedicated post. Thank you for reading this far <3
(sorry u have to see them undressed)
This is not a final look but let's say there are some small changes to uniima. (There's very little practical change because these were already a thing, it just wasn't visually clear.) The hair has been like this forever but I never drew the bamboo feathers themselves so here they are.
So yeah, different plates/parts of the unii-skin have slightly different functions or store other things. The back of the neck contains many hard roots from which the node hair grows. The skin itself is leathery but flexible. Its biggest strength comes from the roots that function like osteoderms. Hard pieces like this are easier to see in older individuals whose skin is less fatty and more wrapped so they might look somewhat spiky at times.
The neck is another strong armor piece because it needs to protect multiple organs - primarily lungs/part of lungs. But in most individuals, the "roots" inside don't grow outside of the skin.
You can see here that compared to "islanders" (or coastal etc), "centrals" are pretty small and less bulky. One thing is that centrals are more arboreal than many other groups and being heavy makes climbing liiittle harder. Other ethnicities are also not the biggest fans of powered flight but it's getting around. I will talk in more detail and more informatively another time. I still need to do some sloman things. For now, enjoy the plate designing wip.
Have this snack while you consume information. Harvested in the morning.
I just stumbled upon your blog and I think your creatures are so interesting!!
Could you talk a little more about the sexual dimorphism of your bipedal species (Is "Slomen" the right name?), and what the "crop pouch" the females have is that you mentioned in a recent post? And also how the reproductive process works with the "meat egg"? Do the males have an "umbilical cord" like appendage to nurture the meat egg? How does that work?
Okay so.
Sexes/gender
Slomen have two sexes. The females are stereotypically the men of their society and males are stereotypically women. Some cultures have more accepted genders than others. Slomen also apply this inverted human-gender system to animals.
To make reading easier I will use masc and fem for the sexes.
On average, fem slomen are lighter with smaller muscles. They are very noticeable for having big display feathers on their back arms. Few cultures see them as sexual and thus hide them/cut feathers - only allowing fresh parents (they can be used to carry smaller children or the megg) to show them.
Fem slomen also have big air sacks on their chest. These are mostly for personal expression and can be used to signal things like status. With some training, the sloman can also use it in speech. "Lady talk" has many different meanings and uses among cultures.
Deeper within the sack is a food storage organ reduced to only be used during early childcare.
Also, fem often have brighter colors, though limited to browns to yellows with sometimes black or white.
Masc slomen are slightly bigger. They lack long arm feathers and developed air sacks.
On the right side (usually) is a small slit. This is where the "meat egg" leaves the body when fertilized or discarded. If fertilized, the masc sloman's bigger back arms hold it to the body (but cloth "backpacks" are also used).
The megg and other
Sloman are a little complicated when it comes to reproduction. The dedicated organs are in their short necks with transfer happening in their mouth. For most of the year, these organs are hard to feel but at the end of winter, they become active. Until late middle spring to the beginning of summer slomen are more interested in partnering (with many attached traditions). Most cultures have a matriarchal family with one fem (in one generation/partnership) and multiple mascs (who are often not expected to stay for long).
The one fem shares her drops (bigger multicellular seed) with her partners. After a few days the masc slomen have visibly swollen neck side. After that, the meat egg drops out of their neck opening. First, the umbilical stays short, staying close. When its size starts approaching 10cm, it falls to the shoulders and then its growth continues consistently. After all the organs are either used up or reorganized for the baby's shape - right size and weight, it separates from the internal megg wall. The umbilical slowly dies off and the parent stops producing soup.
After a few more days, the baby eats its way out of the remaining megg wall.
By that time the fem sloman already has the "crop pouch" full. Babies use their giant curved tooth to pierce the pouch skin. It heals fast but it takes time to get used to. The pouch content is a lot like the masc sloman's soup.
The unfertilized megg is actually capable of growth even without fertilization as it's a separate haploid organism (just like the drop). But it's rare and unwanted.
Slomen don't have the easiest time reproducing and since it happens basically once a year with a bunch of possible complications, they find large multi-generational families very important. Everyone helps a little with the wave of children. Also yes, twins can happen but it's usually lethal for at least one.
I know this hasn't been very detailed but I hope it explains a bit. I didn't want to go deep into reproduction in case it would be too icky. At some point I will show general vertebrate reproduction (on the sloman continent), with some Kula context likely.
Uniima larvae come in large numbers but high mortality rate as these onigiri have to compete to become juveniles even in the egg case.
They start off with an egg wall. Their bodies are still clumbs of cells that slowly fill up the inside of the 'egg', consuming the included nutrients. Once they are ready, the baby grows it's own wall for the first time and 'hatches'.
After this the larvae molts as it grows with a new wall each time. During the whole larval period the shed skin sticks to the white. If adults don't clean them up, you will see multiple torn layers on top of the white, which can cause issues.
The white grows a straw. A somewhat brittle organ compared to that of ancestral larvae but functional enough to pierce under another whites wall (especially in the side seam). The larva actively feeds itself using this, though the food has to be liquid enough to get through the straw. They don't smell or see to search for food and will just wiggle the straw around until they can slurp. These triangles are mostly fat and liquids with other tissues in the center and thowards straw.
When they completely lose the straw (the entrance to it reforms), they start eating with their new mouth. At this point they also start making noise with their nostrils. Adult Uniima are sensitive to this much more than to the visual cuteness of the larva. This is often when adults start claming individuals to raise.
As the creature grows and gains complexity inside its own wall, it's new molts allow for use of more developed parts - anal cavity opens, ear cycles appear, eyes get bigger and closer to the wall surface, "mouth hands" with leathery pads emerge.. and lastly it's whole legs with fingers (often just silhouettes of feet show up rather then whole fingers or they are webbed).
After it's last stage and sufficient amounts of food, the white goes dormant to metamorphosise. This can take a week and less as most juvenile components are already in place.
The larval stages of Uniima can differ in length depending of environment - temperature, humidity, lack of food...
The average time from birth to metamorphosis is around 3 and half earth months.
The images here are not fully up to scale. Most larvae grow more between the stages but it's also not impossible for it to be to scale. I would just consider this larva a runt of the litter.
It feels good to be drawing digitally again! I’m going to pace myself more so I won’t have consistent burn outs.
I’ve been wanting to draw this character for a long time because she has such a cool and complex design! I hope you like it!
Have some of these two lovelies 😌
First one is my Indominus OC and the second one is that one Xenomorph that got caught it that net in the first AlienVSPredator movie shshshs
Still practicing the comic ish style woo woo
________
•My Instagram is: @/jeni.x_
My side of the art trade with @aaaaagaronia and their character Morphine!!
I really had fun drawing this one, helped me practice more with the Xenomorph body and the posing! I really hope you like it 🌻✨
Inktober Day 3:
Creature
Hi I am not dead. Here have a stitch I sketch for me friend Harvey at the teen youth club.
Thane WIP! Hope you like it. Currently playing Mass Effect and this man stole my heart 😍🥲
Finished Thane Krios!
I'ma name her alieen she's a demon or alien I haven't decided yet that feeds on human flesh
