Sheepie

Hi, I moved my project // Worldbuilder and speculative evolution enthusiast // Insecture and maybe more~

[derangedsheep]

Oh low res grub, how I understand you.

[derangedsheep]

Soldier

I’m trying a different format for this.

Like all ants in the colony, soldiers are hatched by a caretaker, but instead of continuously living with their caretaker after pupating the young soldier will be sent to grow accustomed to the soldiers life immediately. They spend the rest of their lives protecting the colony, from a young soldier defending farm roaches or aphid logs, to elders being front line of defense for the Queen and Shaman.

Appearance

This is the first physical change seen when it comes to the colony, Soldiers anatomy being primed for taking harsh blows and terrain adaptation. They still poses similar features to Worker’s but their bodies are well adapted to be quadrupedal although they can be bipedal in close proximity to a target or to appear more threatening. Their second pair of limbs are much larger than any ant’s in the colony, this is because of high muscle density, their chitin also doesn’t stop growing in the second pair of limbs and makes these limbs akin to bone when it comes to hardness. Their antennae are also different, more or less used to read specific pheromones and commune secretly, they can be tucked back against their head in the midst of battle or soldiers who are assigned with Caretaker‘s have them removed as a sort of “oath of secrecy”.

Childhood

Soldiers are born just as any ant in the colony, starting off in an egg which is tougher than the rest and slowly growing until they are ready to hatch. Gestation usually takes longer, their siblings being nested before them, their caretaker parent keeping them in an incubator and not moving them unless necessary. It’s a big ordeal if a caretaker produces more than two soldiers in a clutch, the child getting the Shaman’s official blessing after all of them hatch.

First pupation- A year after hatching the soldier grub will pupate, turning from a grub into a hatchling. This is the age they’re moved from their caretakers care and given to a soldier mother, that is if the catetaker doesn’t have a soldier who is assigned to them, in which she would be a co-parent. This differs depending on the colony.

Second Pupation- Depending on their rate of growth under the care of their parent, hatchlings will pupate for around two months, during that time they are moved back to their caretaker parent as such vulnerability is considered to be something only a parent is allowed to witness. Once the now “freed” soldier breaks its cocoon it will spend some time getting used to its changed body before being sent to train to become a soldier, the qualifications being few but notable. The education of the language of mouth, the ability to easily transition from bipedalism to quadrupedal, and the basic strength to raise an ironstone above their heads.

Third pupation- By this time they are entering their adult years, having molted several times and grown into the visage we are accustomed to, big and intimidating. Their relationship with their caregiver is based on their stationing and the way they were raised but most make it a point to visit at least during their hatch time and celebrate with their siblings and parent(s).

Soldiers went through a lot of revisions and this is the one I landed on just before I started posting about Insecture so I don’t have many sketches with their current designs, lmk if you want to see the previous designs anyway.

[bornulhuu]

Creatures of U'mhaha. A damp, swamp world colonized by the Arikra. The Arikra who stay here long adapted longer limbs. The planet's native fauna are six limbed mammalians often with vertical mouths.

[derangedsheep]

Got my new tablet just in time for my first artfight lesgo! I could also post more.. mayhaps perchanceably.

[renal03421]

The clip studio is very hard

[valdevia]

Making Found Footage Pride Flags to scare the TERFs and bigots!!

[valdevia]

More of them!

[valdevia]

A few more!

Pride Month PSA: these images are all free to use! I always get asked around this time of year so I thought I'd make it clear in writing! Feel free to download, post them around, make them into profile pics, banners etc.

Go wild, and happy Pride!

[derangedsheep]

Worker

Workers are mostly females unless a colony is long established and not nomadic, even then male Workers tend to the Queen more often than their female counterparts. Workers are hunters, farmers, medics, and of course tenders to the Queens and Shamans, anything that requires physical labor will be dominated by workers. Their chitin is thicker than Cakertakers especially around their joints which are also longer in comparison, letting them be more mobile and less fragile. They can take a quadrupedal stance for climbing steep surfaces or to move just a bit faster, their second pair of arms resting lower on their torso, this movement isn’t something they can do consistently throughout the day so their default positioning is bipedal. As larvae the only way to know the difference between a worker and a caretaker is (outside of pheromones) their singular ocelli in the middle of their heads when freshly hatched or pseudo-limbs which start as little nubs and develop as they molt, they are very active and tend to participate in playful wrestling with siblings which is why Caretakers will pray to the EverQueen for more than one Worker otherwise they’ll have to endure being the target of nibbling. Workers have the most dramatic variations out of the other ants, their beauty standards revolve around how big and soft their necks are, how short their antennae are, and (in certain colonies) if their gaster (abdomen) can hold a certain amount of sap.

Workers, on average, reach 7’4 and taller. They tend to develop close relationships with Soldiers since Soldiers need pheromone translators or need help hunting something far too large. Workers are many which means they die more commonly, most that go on expeditions or long hunting trips have to report back to their Caretaker upon returning, there is a deep respect that comes with taking care of not only the colony but also their family or “Aosar̊”.

They look so crunchy

[derangedsheep]

Not trying to spam too many projects on this account but had to post this cutie

Leviathan, former Prince of Envy, current God of the ocean.

[echo-trox]

Finished artworks of neo Tetrox so far. I'm loving this new design!

The design isn't 100% finalized, but I think it's close enough. Why am I still calling them the "Tetrox?" I just really like the name, it's simple and unique. Speaking of cool names, I think I'm gonna move my username up by one phonetic alphabet letter, from "Delta Trox" to "Echo Trox!" I hope that isn't a taboo here on Tumblr. I just like "E" better than "D," and also I can line up all the letters, 4 and 4.

[derangedsheep]

Here’s a height chart

I’ve been so distracted by work and Tomodachi life.

Largest to smallest

Sub-Soldier

Worker

Caretaker

I wanted to post before the end of this month but y’all will get more about these goobers, I swear! <3

[derangedsheep]

Okay, I need to post something before I get stuck in the drafts =3=‘

Introducing the first role within the Rihwa society

Caretakers

Caretakers are male by human standards, their jobs being to fertilize eggs and tend to larvae. They are likened to male seahorses, after mating with the Queen (or Shaman’s, we’ll get into that at another time) eggs are transferred into the repurposed thorax which works as an incubator until the eggs have grown to a substantial size. A Caretaker will raise thousands of larvae in his lifetime, most of which being other Caretakers and Workers, with a slim number of Soldiers. They form a tight bond with their children, going almost nowhere without them, until they’ve reached their adult pupation stage which varies from each ant. A Caretaker without children are considered cursed in some way. To the colony, their only purpose is to bare and raise larvae, these Caretakers are often shunned or treated as a different species entirely which is more common among traditional colonies.

Caretakers are the smallest in the colony, being 6’0 ft (182 cm) on average with those raised in the higher level farmlands being even smaller. Their tasks outside of raising Larvae are often working alongside Workers, making utilities out of clay or dried grass, being hunting scouts and hunting smaller creatures, working at markets, caring for orphaned Larvae, and much more depending on the colony.

They’re just little silly guys!

Some of these are before the redesign, ignore in consistencies

[luxudus]

SPIRES OF THE SEA

Sunbeam, perched atop Viola, soar across the Rain pelted ocean. The air is wet and salty as water and mist intermingle in the wake of a freshly rained summer morning. They are in a small break of a Rainstorm, and the rain's mist is giving way to the wider sky. Clouds billow over the horizon, the storm's anvil rests up above, and the natural skylight shimmers in the sea and the glistening feather-scales of the Kee duo. And in the midst of it all are the spires, towering over the sea and the storm. Reaching into the heavens and beyond. Silent reminders of why the world is running on borrowed time.

This was part of a big "secret santa" event in a discord server I'm in. Where I and a bunch of other artists secretly made gift art for eachother. My piece was done for @nineslugs and their project Sea of Spires. This took me a hot minute to complete. As I started working on this on and off at the beginning of February. And is partly the reason I made all those ref sheets back in January. Hope you all enjoy :)

[milkydraws8]

The Kree-Skrull Stalemate is arguably the most influential organized conflict in the history of life.

It remains, to this day, unparalleled in scale, length, and ubiquity.

The behemoth empires trample carelessly across entire galaxies in epoch-spanning wars and false ceasefires.

So engrossed by the sheer scale of their war, they fail to recognize how it feeds into and is fed by their constant balkanization and cultural stagnation. Historians, analysts, and philosophers alike all consider this to be as important to maintaining this oddly balanced and prolonged battle for extinction.

The Shi'ar rose to power in a bloody coup. A Skrull victory in an intrasystemic war left their masters severed from the Supreme Intelligence and supply chain. Within generations, the feathered natives of the planet rebelled against the diminished Kree colonists; outnumbering the aliens a hundred to one.

The culture born from this victory spawned strong xenophobic and paranoiac tendencies among the Shi'ar that remain active to this day.

The Brood infested vulnerable sun-starved Skrullworlds. Cut off from their source of energy and woefully unprepared for the mysterious new lifeforms that descended upon their cities and towns like nightmarish plagues, the Skrulls were little more than fuel or nesting within one rotation of the planet.

The Brood would soon turn their ravenous hunger to other planets, tasting victory and defeat in equal measure.

Far-flung Xandar enjoyed the peace and security afforded to them by fate.

While other systems served as battleground, collateral damage, conscripts, or some combination of the three, Xandar went through the expansions and contractions of civilizational development.

Tinkering briefly on the edge of collapse, Xandar finally burst out through incomprehensible distances to her neighbors by way of 'Nova Gates'.

These trans-dimensional relays brought interstellar travel from the realm of theory to practice. No longer sputtering along with crude sub-light explosions or convoluted exploitation of the strong-weak forces, Xandar and her neighbors ushered in a new Golden Age.

Within centuries, Xandar had become the galaxy's most frequented, advanced, and diverse system. Her Nova Corps oversaw the safe transit of trillions of ships a year, maintained Nova Gates, and even supported the development of weapons capable of deterring Skrull or Kree interference in their affairs. Ages passed as Xandar stockpiled and grew and loved, thankful to be spared the attentions of the eternally warring Kree and Skrulls.

When the Xandarian World Mind went live, the Kree finally turned an accusing eye on the pristine paradise.

[derangedsheep]

I’m the worlds #1 ant appreciator btw

[ijustreallylikeants]

Are you sure?

[derangedsheep]

Oh no

[yellosnacc]

An old story

Approximately 23 years ago, a young man of uniimic biology is taken in by the court to serve in the coven. As he is taught the high ways, he is told about an event of the recent past, described as old.

Not even 6 years earlier, the nation of Ciwa had a stable relationship with a sky uniima collective from the southern islands, giving them an open gateway to the ueema and the rest of the central land.

This relationship was greatly weakened after one of many intercontinental trips taken by the two species, when one of the uniima envoys was lost in Kuiqua, the political and religious capital of Upli'ta-kaw (Ciwa).

Death is not considered a rarity for those traveling to alien lands, where one can easily get poisoned by local sources or badly kept rations. It was automatically assumed the uniima would have died. However, it would be quite unlikely for an alien body to come unnoticed.

After long conversations, messages, and threats, the ciwans had failed to give the collective information about their lost envoy. It's unclear how the parley ended, but the uniima withdrew from Ciwa in relative peace and with a lot of gifts.

Only a few know the whole scale of what happened to the delegation member. But most had heard the old complaints about lack of knowledge, the lack of an upper hand on alien biology. How unreliable aliens are with information. Or how they must have been vivisecting slomen for years. Be it an accident, an intent, or a misstep, nowadays every court member would be against it.

Neal has grown to think in similar ways. But it's not as effortless for him.

------------------------

It's easy to think that nobody would notice one of many visitors disappearing with the lack of oversight and the distance between the political bodies. The slomen had sent many more than the uniima would usually send; they would barely read the loss records, and they didn't ask for the bodies to be brought back unless it came to a higher caste member. Anyone would have been terribly decomposing on the long journey. On the other hand, the uniima sent trained individuals, and read all taken back from the trip. The tension from a war was still palpable to them; many had lived in those times, while most slomen were a new generation. The communication that was taken back about the envoy made it clear that things went wrong. One of their colleagues also said the envoy had a bad relationship with the locals, but never trailed off alone. The last time they would see them, it was after an argument about alien emotions, or the lack thereof. When they met with the slomen, they had acted as if they didn't even know the person. Acting like they couldn't tell them apart, how they don't remember how many came. "It was ridiculous!"

[derangedsheep]

A sketch before I start lore posting. This world has two sophont species, one natural and the other invasive, both evolving alongside each other.

[t34-mt]

2026 - Catamaran Naron WIPS, first image has NT spelling error and I don't care. Mech design is to be desired, will be redrawn to make more sense mechanically later. But the idea is here

Ss14/Catamaran naron Arachnid spec bio. Figured how I want their body plan to be. They're small on average and can only sprint for a few seconds, blue blood means they have copper protein which isn't great for oxygenation of the blood, but they counter it with two hearts and breathing system that let's them constantly inhale when skittering.

Getting silk out of their body requires external help, it's a social interaction because their body plan does not let them harvest it themselves.

Fancy ss14/catamaran naron Vox. They have a lump of skin/lip with fat attached from the upper beak's mouth. Serves no purpose but to look fancy socially. The fatter the better and more healthy. Can be pierced for extra fancy points. If you pinch it it's just squishy.