A Species Documented @riakhou - Tumblr Blog

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This blog is dedicated to storing knowledge about a species called riakhou (and maybe some other species too). This is a Xenobiology / Xenopsychology blog run like a journal documenting the species. The blog is very much under construction and a bit messy but feel free to lurk around.

ALSO PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS. ASKBOX IS OPEN! We love questions on this blog!

Art made by @wish-upon-a-firework

TAG DIRECTORY UNDER THE CUT:

#riakhou #gileñavu #silkin

silvercrane14

Shout out to characters who want to be used. Shout out to characters who are so desperate to be worth something that they'll endure anything. Shout out to characters who build their entire self worth around being useful, being a tool. Shout out to characters who don't care how they are treated, as long as someone pays them any attention at all

#some trait to give to my mech pilots!

hard-times-paramore

Rock OC slider

ilikesallydonovan

The annoying thing when you can communicate (almost) equally well in two languages is that you often run into a situation where you could put something very snappily in one language but need twice as many words in the other.

happydivorce

sports rpf authors note on ao3 saying "if this fic is about you or someone you know this is not for you. please leave by clicking this link" and the link in question is to a comprehensive guide on why golf should be abolished forever

kvothes

a good thread

elumish

I agree with all of this. But! I think it is also important to recognize that there are subgenres where it is significantly harder to find certain things, and it's actively unhelpful to readers to pretend that you can just find whatever type of book you want to read if you just know how to look for it, especially if you are sticking to trad publishing.

It is possible to find both sapphic SFF and M/M fantasy. It is significantly harder to find, say, aro urban fantasy. Or trans romantic suspense. Or intersex mystery.

A lot of the advice above only really works for trad published or popular books and for identities/subgenres/content that aren't too niche.

So here's some advice if the advice above isn't working for you (either because you can't find books with what you want or because the books you are finding don't end up being the vibe you want), from someone who reads a few hundred books a year:

Find websites or lists dedicated to the specific thing you are looking for. They will generally have more variety and will post you to examples that don't show up in regular rec lists. (ex: aro book recs, ace book recs, intersex #ownvoices database, sapphic books). Goodreads lists can (sometimes) also be your friend.

Get comfortable reading self-published and small press books. Trad publishing has its blind spots.

Check Reddit for recommendations

Start figuring out what it is specifically that you like and then start making your searches more specific. This can be subgenre (if you want urban fantasy, you're rarely going to find it just searching "fantasy"), tropes, plot devices, vibes, etc.

Look at the "readers also bought" on Goodreads/Amazon, similar books on Storygraph, etc. if you read a book you like. Even if you don't end up reading the one you click on, it can show you similar authors (similar to looking at the blurb on a cover), especially because far fewer books have blurbs now.

Check out the Literature Map for similar authors.

Question for my fellow worldbuilders!

Please feel free to answer in reblogs or replies.

How do you define your sophonts? Where does 'smart animal' (or smart plant / fungus / sth else) end and 'sophont' begin for you?

I am asking namely because in quite a few lists of traits i've seen self-recognition listed as one of the 'mandatory' traits for an organism to be classified as a sophont. And that got me. Thinking.

I have a species i haven't properly introduced yet (i plan on doing that through Nonàmiv's comic). But i realized that despite the fact they are spacefaring, they'd fail some of the criteria that some of those lists have. (they don't have a concept of 'self', most notably, and would fail the mirror test).

I have explored some of those questions in riakhou ancestors' story. Where the species that domesticated and genetically modified them failed to see them as sapient, as they relied on sight as the main signifier that defined ability of higher thought, and riakhou ancestors were blind cave dwellers.

But I’m curious about what your worlds / stories do with it. Is there a line? If so, where? Or is it more complex or case-by-case basis?

#spec bio #speculative biology #xenobiology #spec evo #speculative evolution #sophont #sophonts

riakhou

Okay I’m not set on their design yet but I have some lore regarding gileñavu cooking!

I think I’m somewhat close to finishing their design though. Might take between a week and like. 5 months lol.

Letting the people decide!

Release the lore now!!

I’d rather wait until you have gileñavu designs to go with the lore.

Voting ended onMay 30

riakhou

The People Have Spoken!!

Okay okay okay SO!!

Some little Gileñavu trivia for you lot!

Gileñavu are sophonts hailing from l’Noua, a planet within the same solar system as the human homeworld. l’Noua used to have more land, but since the planet warmed up and the glaciers melted almost all of its land is now underwater.

The name ‘Gileñavu’ means ‘people who travel with the currents’.

The shells on the backs of Gileñavu are actually parasites. It is estimated that around 95% of Gileñavu population has those parasites. There are isolated polar pods, where the infection is absent.

The parasitic shells reproduce similarly to Marmorkrebs, in that. The offspring is a genetic clone of its parent. Gileñavu calves are infected in the womb and are born with a soft, translucent shell on their backs. The shells grow with their hosts and gradually harden and become more opaque.

Separation of a Gileñavu calf and their shell is possible within the first weeks of the calf’s life but it’s not advised, as the shell penetrates their flesh and attaches into the spine. The shell will die without the host and the separation will leave the host paralyzed.

The polar pods have Horror Stories about the rest of the Gileñavu population and their parasitic shells.

kaizsche

PROJECT HAIL MARY (2026) dir. Phil Lord, Chris Miller

mechanicx

Thinking about media that is so bad, so, so bad. But it has a couple good elements.

This kind of media made me want to create my own things. Bc I was sure I could do it better.

I’m not sure if I’m doing it better. But that’s all the more motivation to keep improving.

#at least no matter how bad it is it’s better than ai

ur-favorite-fishgirl

if you vote me for president i vow to make everything the ocean again. no more land only ocean. this will solve all of our problems and replace them with new, far more interesting problems

#this canonically happened on l’Noua

butch-pilot

I really love the idea of sentient mechs because of all the unique relationships they have with their pilots. You can have mechs that refuse to let their pilot go because they love them so much, mechs that sacrifice themselves to make sure their pilot lives, or even mechs that hate the atrocities their pilot is forcing them to commit and will happily turn on them if given the chance. My favourite is a mech who remembers all their past pilots and has vowed not to make the same mistakes with the new one.