the Esferan Mythos

A collection of the beasts and gods of Esfera.

[paintedsandscales]

Another partially-finished ref sheet, Oto and her trusty mount. I think I’m finally getting a way to colour eyes that I like, too.

[paintedsandscales]

Have a thing, even if it technically isn’t done yet. I’m so damn proud of that yellow beardie-wolf-dragon, he looks so gooood! Not so much the grey one, screwed p and put things on the same layer when I had planned ahead to recolour bits to test… BUT OH WELL, they still turned out good.

[worldbuildingquestions]

“What behaviors and emotional expressions does the culture in your world pressure people toexaggerate or suppress?”

For example, suppressing the urge to cry when sad or in pain because others think that shows you are tough, or exaggerating cheerfulness to be polite. What expressions of emotion are encouraged or curtailed to create the expected image in this fictional culture?

[esferanmythos]

Unicorns: Ear expressions are pretty important. It’s considered polite to sniff each other’s neck/head area in greeting, but try not to be rude if some one stinks!

Kelpies: They’re all about power, but it’s easy for a Kelpie to hurt some one, so they try to restrain their anger as much as possible (it can be easy to rile up a Kelpie). A good tribe leader keeps their anger in check at every tooth and often appears to have disinterest at everything, even though this is opposite the truth.

Fossegrim: For Fossegrim, behaviors tend to be a mix of Kelpie and Unicorn ideals.

Paradise Hounds: Paradise Hounds are taught at a young age to not “beg” for things-- puppy-dog eyes are a huge no-no and very improper for young ladies and gentlemen! They also have to keep that deer-in-the-headlights-look in check, and watch out for where their wings are going when they’re puffing up. They pretty much try to take up as little horizontal space as possible.

Barghest: Puppy-dog eyes aren't as big a deal here as they are to the PH, but they’re still pretty annoying. Most Braghest have stubbly tails, so tail-wagging isn’t seen as much of a problem. They do have to keep from becoming distracted, though.

Aurochonians: Bowing is an important gesture used for many things in their society. They’re also much about going slow, as trying to move fast can cause anything from tangled hair to tangled horns and broken tea pots.

Lutras: How high their tail is raised often signals mood, as well as wing position in flying types. Gifts are usually presented in greeting, especially when entering another’s home. A lack of a gift when visiting can often signify something is amiss with the visitor.

[worldbuildingquestions]

“What is your fictional species’ strongest sense? Are their other senses weaker, since they rely on that one so much?“

Humans for example have very good eyesight and weak sense of smell. Other animals have placed more emphasis on hearing or smell instead. What senses a species relies on will have a big effect on how they behave and what kind of societies they build.

[esferanmythos]

Unicorns: Their vision and sense of smell. Hearing is good, too, but vision and smell is important to their botany-based life-style.

Kelpies: Their sense of taste is amazing, and by extension so is their sense of smell. Their eyesight is okay, but they’re better at feeling vibrations in the ground, air and water. They prefer hand-to-hand combat over any long-range weaponry due to this.

Fossegrim: Being a cross between the Unicorns and Kelpies, they’re pretty mixed up with what they’re strongest in. Most have an amazing sense of smell, but it becomes troublesome when you can smell a Guardian barn from 10 miles away.

Paradise Hounds: Eyesight is super important to them as a flying animal, but their hearing is usually muffled by either wind or their long fur. They've also got a great sense of balance.

Barghest: Smell and hearing is extremely important, especially for the hunters. Blacksmiths can become blind of all sense due to this, though, and it is not uncommon to see many blacksmiths wearing nose masks and ear plugs to diminish their chances of a short career.

Aurochonians: Hearing and balance are their most important senses up in the mountains. On good-weather days their smell is great, but they often wear scarves to ward of the freezing mountain winds.

Lutras: Eyesight and smell are important in the jungles. They enjoy brightly coloured flowers and good fruit.

[esferanmythos]

if a "common tongue" is to be made, it'll mix aurochonian, lutran, tigrean, avian, fossegrim, and barghest. theyre the most common races.

and lemurian is kind of like latin

[sandscales]

Clothing is something important I haven’t tought of seriously until now. In the past, I figured there were plenty of areas that had what is “casual clothing” like in America. There’s a lot of factory-made clothing, but the vast majority of Esfera isn’t advanced enough to bother with factories,…

[sandscales]

Redesigning the Eddanians, a sentient reace that lives in the Tierran area. Their art and architecture is influenced from the Aztec and Mayan cultures. They revere their gods highly. Males tend to be very large and bulky, and not very good with their hands, while females are the opposite. Males also tend to be slightly dull when compared to the females in intelligence, but the race as a whole is pretty smart. They use their antlers to lift heavy stone spheres in competitions.

[sandscales]

Kelpies are omnivorous. have front teeth fleet for cutting, mid-teeth sharp for tearing meat, fangs for combat, back teeth flat for chewing. mid and front teeth will often regrow if pulled, new ones will growth and push out old after some time. back teeth renew only a few times in a lifetime….

[paintedsandscales]

Redesigns of the siblings Kal and Estella. Kal’s redesign is kinda old by a few months, but I don’t bother scanning anything anymore because my paper has to be JUST a few millimeters bigger than my scanner can scan, so shhh. And Estella… She just keeps getting whiter and whiter, doesn’t she? Story times.

Estella sorta has piebald-ism, or at least looks like she does due to a volcanic eruption catching her and Kal when they were younger. He carried her to safety, but hot ash was close on their heels, yadda yadda, she gets hit by some and it catches her eyes and that’s how she became blind, heat burned her skin in patches on her back and face causing extreme stress making the hair grow back white, and her left horn is lighter and a little gnarly now. (Which it doesn’t look, because that was an after-thought as I was colouring…)

[esferanmythos]

Lutras adaptive body types

Desert Lutras are almost hairless. Similar with bat Lutras.

Mountain Lutras look very draconic, their bodies are more "vertical" then wide. Tails are thinner and more likely to have dragon spikes.

Certain tribes of jungle Lutras are more feline in appearance.

Regular Lutras are regular.

[esferanmythos]

karkadians

KARKADONS- AFRICAN UNICORNS- "wooly rhinos"

families pas down the horns of ancestors of high magic as goblets to protecty from poisons

[esferanmythos]

[ocean god- S]

High God of the South. He is a giant male leafy sea dragon. Takes on some mammalian female anatomy, a fertility god.

http://sandscales.tumblr.com/post/26883503630/the-southern-god-of-esfera-and-its-not-a-female

[esferanmythos]

The [Lutra's] Cunning

Long ago the [Lutras] were not as colourful and oddly ornamented as they are today. They were a simple but smart race of otter-people, living by the oceans, lakes, and rivers hunting fish. One day a [Lutran] girl was out in the forest collecting plants for her village, when she happened upon a large and hungry bear. It gave chase to her, but she ran and was just barely able to keep ahead of it. Dias just so happened to be looking down on his daughter that day, as she cried out to him for a way to escape. He granted her the claws of a jaguar and the tail of a monkey so that she may lose her aggressor in the boughs of the forest. And so she climbed into the trees and soon lost the bear. Returning home safely, she spread word through her village of the gift the god blessed her with.

Word spread to the other villages, and it happened one day that another [Lutra] was walking through the moutains to tell the tale in an untouched hamlet, when he was attacked by a mountain leopard. He too ran and ran from his aggressor, but could not escape. But Dias looked down upon him as well, granting him the nimbleness of the ram- but in Dias's haste to save his son, he also granted the goat's magnificent horns and thick fur. The son escaped the cat, and had a new miracle to tell the villages.

Some time passed as the tales were told, and one cunning [Lutra] decided he wanted a blessing as well. So he travelled to the canyons in search of his doom, with hopes that it would be false. He wandered the canyons for days until he found a lion with appetite enough to chase him, and so the race began. Dias once more looked down upon his child and noted his peril as he was chased to the edge of a cliff. However, Noches also watched out this evening, looking over her lover's shoulder as the son was granted the wings of the falcon. But she saw through the [Lutra's] ploy, having watched him the past nights, and had her own plan. She granted him immortality, but cursed him to be like stone when in water. Attempting to jump across the canyon with his new wings, he instead plummetted into the river below as he knew not how to fly. He sank to the bottom like a stone and was washed out to sea, but he could not drown, and so spent the rest of his days at the bottom of the ocean.

However, it must be noted that if this tale is true, there is no explaination as to how [Lutras] gained their wings as there is no record of the first winged [Lutra].

[sandscales]

This is Mille Fleur. He’s a Tarasque. But not just any Tarasque. He’s one of those special, extremely majikal Tarasque. He’s actually a god, in fact. He’s also mislabelled as a “unicorn” because of the horn on his head, his very lean, deer-like figure, and affinity for flora and fauna. Called the “Unicorn of Mille Fleur”, he resides in Terresde Bonebons, which has its own folk-name of the “Slumbering Woods”. There are many myths about Mille, some being that he steals away children, uses sad music as a lure, will marry people that wander into his domain during the full moon, or him being hypnotized into taking the form of a beautiful maiden up for marriage. Some speculative powers are that he can calm even the most upset of souls with his gaze, his sweet breath can bring back the dead or vice-versa, and his scales can control the will of even the greatest of gods.

[sandscales]

Paradise Hounds are a race of dog-creatures with antlers/horns and wings. Dog species and wing/horn-combos are usually a bloodline type of thing, though random things can crop up from time to time. I think they live in the ~Endland-ish area. London and what-not, sort-of-Victorian. They’re a...

[sandscales]

This a beast that falls under the “dragon” category. It’s based on a Uromastyx, stands a few feet taller then 6ft (full grown and when on four feet), completely herbivorous (except when hatchling). They’re not always used as burdener beasts, but do fit the role perfectly due to their hardiness and strength. Extremely gentle, they rarely threaten to bite, but watch out if they start swinging their tail. Not sure yet if they will have a breath attack. They are considered a “sacred animal” in some areas, and killing one in those areas is a crime punishable by death. These cultures often have ceremonies and burial grounds specifically for these creatures. They have incredibly long life spans and mate for life, but several pairs may form a small herd. A female can produce a small clutch of eggs once or twice every several years, and will bury the eggs partially in the sand near an oasis where she (and sometimes her mate and/or herd) will keep watch over them until they hatch. Hatchlings will often stay with the mother (and/or herd) for several months to a year, after which they are completely self-sufficient. These beasts are so gentle that they have been known to “adopt” towns, wandering in one day and staying for many years, allowing townspeople to use them for burden and the children to play with them.

[esferanmythos]

[sandscales]

The [Lutras] are a race of otter-like people on Esfera.They may or may not have others traits such as horns and wings, which, alongside colours, are inherited traits.

Horn types very from family to family, even region to region with some, and mimic most other horned animals. They grow at...