Okay. So. @zod-off this may be a bigger yap than I first intended it to be but-
Hasty late-night essay about baby nautolan headcanons under the cut: (and free nautolan baby doodles at the bottom!)
As we all know, nautolans are semi-aquatic oviparous mammals. The growth of breast tissue seems to suggest that they do have nipples contrarily to the other oviparous mammals we know of.
(I did not define if as genitals they had four-headed penises like echidnae or cloacas with hidden genitalia inside like platypuses but I'm sharing these very specific informations about the only two known oviparous mammals for the perverts (affectionate) who want free headcanons)
Now, in legends canon, nautolans spend two years chilling as tadpoles underwater, before growing limbs to become a fully-fledged humanoid toddler. And even then, they still spend a little more time underwater because their muscles are a little too weak to support them on land properly
BUT I want to draw fucked up freakish amphibian newborns so here's MY take on nautolan babies' development:
Underwater growth vs land growth:
As semi-aquatic creatures, nautolans have the ability to survive both on land and underwater. However, for baby nautolans to develop right, they require a strictly underwater environment from after the egg hatches to the end of their second to third year.
The first reason being that they come out of the egg without any way to breathe on land, and the second being that even out of the tadpole stage, the mortality rate is higher when they are taken out of the water before having developped a higher bone density (second year of development, see below). And if you need a third reason, they develop numerous problems later in life if they do manage to survive: nautolans who grew up on land have a higher risk of articulations hurting and being hard to use as they grow older, a higher risk of developping bone structure and muscle mass issues, a higher chance to develop heart and lungs problems, and without fail, lower sensitivity in their tendrils, and troubles with the underwater motion that they should have learned as newborns. It takes years for a nautolan who grew up on land to get a full reeducation to underwater motion, and very few of them get the sensitivity back in their tendrils.
A nautolan baby is usually forced to develop on land because of slavery. As soon as they're out of the tadpole stage, they are either put in an underwater work camp, or straight on land. Getting a baby out of its underwater environment a few months in its development has a lower mortality rate, but a higher chance of causing issues to the bone structure.
Some parents raising their child on land have tried to develop alternatives to help lessen the risk of their offspring developing life-threatening issues later in life, like always keeping a source of water close by to keep their child in as much as possible, making them drink more water, etc. If it does make a change, it is only a small one, as statistics tend to show that these practices as wishful thinking at best.
Mobility:
The nautolan babies develop mobility faster than human babies.
In their underwater development, they are already able to easily move around a few weeks out of their tadpole stage, and get more and more agile every month. They become casual swimmers by the end of their first year, so the next one can be about developping communication through speech and their tendrils while practicing swimming a bit better.
They develop the bone density necessary to go on land by their second year, after which they learn how to move on land. They are very disgracious at first, but learn how to walk faster than human babies, as they have already developped a little more understanding of their own bodies and agility. It takes them a few months to waddle away like little toddlers, and their growth continues as normal. By age 3-4, a nautolan's mobility on land is indistinguishable from a human's if it has had enough opportunity to develop its land mobility.
Learning to walk on land is considered an important part of growth, as, the later a nautolan infant learns how to be on land, the harder it will be for them to pick it up.
If they were forced on land after the tadpole stage, they will stay weak newborns for six whole months, their body focusing on creating a better bone density to survive the surface, and suddenly go through all the on-land human-like baby developments at record speed, sitting barely a few weeks after learning to raise their head, and being able to stumble around on their feet with ease by their first year, if not earlier. This accelerated growth is the reason for a lot of the problems most of them develop in their articulations, bone structure, or muscle mass.
Tendrils:
In underwater nautolan babies, tendrils grow in the first few months and develop at a steady pace. The speed of that growth can vary, until puberty: after then, the tendrils grow less than one centimeter per year in average.
In land nautolan babies, tendrils struggle to grow until the second year of development. Once they really start to grow, they sometimes do so at a much slower pace than they should, or a much faster one, causing nautolans growing up on land to have shorter or longer tresses in adulthood. Puberty seems to stabilize their growth as well, thankfully, to a similar pace of a little less than a centimeter per year.
One day, one day i'll make a more comprehensive document about all of this. Maybe even illustrate it if I have the time haha
And because conclusions are hard, instead, have doodles of my OC's baby daughter for who he learns how to swim for so she can have a normal development:
And she's not ugly enough yet.
(I. I have more, but I'll post them in a separate post because it's more about her than nautolan babies in general)
But seriously, this was so much fun to write. Thank you so much for asking me about this :)
Sooo I've been procrastinating my pieces to work on my refs for Artfight soon! Hurray!
You can find the full Artfight profile of this character over here! :)
Will start on Sarh'el's for sure next week (I CAN FINALLY DRAW HIPS WITH HER GIMME GIMME GIMME) but I don't think I'll have the time to do the 7 others :( They're all my babies but alas, I have limited time and energy.
Ignore my png cutout of the saberstaff it don't bite
My girlfriends and I decided you ain't invited to the wedding, fuck off
Day I didn't count of me not knowing how to edit the pics of my trad drawings
Quick doodle of my smuggler, Risha, and Akaavi, the power throuple they are! Usually Akaavi's the one being clinged to but yk. THAT face could only fit the smuggler.
Loosely inspired by
Naelly ended up in the pirate queen ending which is pretty funny considering Risha's soon gonna be queen and Akaavi is technically her own clan leader. Their wedding would be a political nightmare
Biggest piece I have done I think ever. Been putting off posting it because I kept going "But I need to add so and so" but... I think they're as good as I can make them right now
These are my girls everyone please be nice to them.
These are my two worst swtor legacy characters, I need to smash them with a hammer and look at the broken pieces through a microscope. My hypocrite son and mean daughter, slaughterers of millions. I should make them fight.
Very random context in every single doodle. They do not all have the right proportions or look the best, but I wanted to post them because i'm proud anyways so post them I shall
A quick one, but my swtor trooper is having a normal one about having to sacrifice his situationship/blooming romance to save hundreds while she's actively begging for her life.
Rant and bonus doodle under the cut
Ignore that I forgor his tattoos and scars and how RUSHED the armor, Aric and the technician are- I was drawing as fast as my thoughts allowed me to
But yeah. I had the idea of discovering the trooper run through a character who'd be a young boy full of ideals and hope, and uh. Being put at the head of an elite troop at 19 with all the terrible responsibilities that come with it? No matter how good you end up at leading said troop that's NOT a good idea.
Aric would realistically be awkward because that's technically his boss before his friend and he certainly wouldnt go for the hug, but the internet and my imagination are beautiful places where i can do whatever i want
Cyaka, my SWTOR Sith Inquisitor, featuring his Jedi Consular colleague (a friend's oc). She ends up in a cute slowburn with Lana while Cyaka and Theron have a weird sexual tension super fast, hence the last image. Everyone mentioned has a weird relationship with intimacy so this is FUN.
I love making ocs guys this is so fucking fun, Zinnia here has me in a chokehold since I made her so why not start with a very hard pose and ambitious accessories and wings to give her right
Here's my fanart for a very small piece of media because Leonhart's human form PISSES ME OFF. Not really. But like at least give him SOME hair on his face. I didn't put that much on him so he doesn't seem that old compared to Salifie and GIVE MY MAN DARKER SKIN !!!
I'm still not satisfied, i think he deserves more hair and more darker skin but at least it's something yk
I might make another one where Salifie cuts his hair if there are some Sacrificial princess and the king of beasts fans out there.
It's not a perfect manga/anime but it's my guilty favourite leave me alone
I just researched about the anime and learned that SALIFI IS SUPPOSEDLY MID-TEEN IN THE BEGINNING OF THE ANIME/MANGA ???
So uh. I do not condone this piece of media and will no longer draw anything related to it unless i find informations contradicting this. If anything consider what i drew an au where they are both in their twenties or equivalent. Fuck :( I'm so sad i really liked that piece of media but this disgusts me. I cannot look at the series the same way ever again
I'm trying to console myself with how they said that he was too young to reign at the beginning of the series so he's ? Hopefully supposed to be an equivalent to a teen ? ;-; But yeah not taking any risks
Here's my fanart for a very small piece of media because Leonhart's human form PISSES ME OFF. Not really. But like at least give him SOME hair on his face. I didn't put that much on him so he doesn't seem that old compared to Salifie and GIVE MY MAN DARKER SKIN !!!
I'm still not satisfied, i think he deserves more hair and more darker skin but at least it's something yk
I might make another one where Salifie cuts his hair if there are some Sacrificial princess and the king of beasts fans out there.
It's not a perfect manga/anime but it's my guilty favourite leave me alone
snowghoul
kaledo-art
germansingergirl