*sees a scientific article*
*immediately makes a fandom correlation*

Origami Around

Product Placement

blake kathryn
official daine visual archive

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Claire Keane
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𓃗

if i look back, i am lost
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YOU ARE THE REASON

izzy's playlists!
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Andulka
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me

★
we're not kids anymore.
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸

bliss lane

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seen from Indonesia
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seen from Ecuador
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seen from India
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@shiftylookingspacecows
*sees a scientific article*
*immediately makes a fandom correlation*
Bovine Bastard takes advantage of gamer during their bathroom break
This is my new squad.
Moody lighting
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Closeup of the head
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Headcanon: elcor are to space cows what mermaids are to humans. Extremely attractive and alluring, with mesmerizing/seductive voices, the ability to move with ease through a difficult and foreign environment, and one fewer set of limbs
Beneath the Ontarom sky
In the distance
Musings on Space Cow Intelligence
In my previous text posts, I have concluded that the Protheans likely recognized the space cows as an intelligent species. But how intelligent are they, really?
This question is difficult to answer, mostly because all of the space cow behavior that we are able to see in-game is very limited -- pretty much only grazing behavior is observed. There is, however, one individual whose intelligence is clearly manifested by their abnormal behavior: the Shifty Looking Cow, on Ontarom, who achieved infamy by pilfering Shepard’s credits when they were looking away.
The significance of this act lies the in the fact that we are discussing the Mass Effect universe, wherein economic transactions occur by means of the universal ‘credit’ rather than material alternatives such as dollars or bills. So operating as a pickpocket requires not just a quick hand and nimble fingers, but the ability to infiltrate digital systems remotely. There is no way that the Shifty Looking Cow could rob Shepard of credits without at least some computer skills. Remember: the player never actually sees the Shifty Looking Cow in action, as triggering the pickpocket effect requires that the camera be turned away from them. We are therefore unable to see any discreet devices they might be using in order to conduct the theft.
It is also worth considering, however, that the space cows could possibly be so advanced technologically that they are capable of performing certain functions invisibly, with subdermal, neural, or telekinetic implants or the like. After all, we know that they associated with the Protheans around 50 kya, but were not exterminated by the Reapers (including in the most recent one, meaning that they were not simply at a primitive level of development previously), showing that if they possess any high level of technological advancement they were able to conceal it from the Reapers.
So what can be extrapolated from their lack of conspicuous technology? There are two possibilities: one, they maintain a completely naturalistic lifestyle that does not make use of technology, or two, they maintain a facade of being simple-minded animals but maintain some form of technological knowledge secretly. In my opinion the behavior of the Shifty Looking Cow is evidence for the latter hypothesis being right.
If this hypothesis is indeed correct, our perspective of their behavior changes somewhat. For it is fairly probable that they actively maintain a ruse of being simple animals -- those herds of docile grazers on Ontarom and elsewhere are watching us with secret cunning. Behind their dark, soulful eyes, a hidden wisdom remains unknown. This does, however, force us to consider why space cows do not seem to react when one of their own is killed. This could be a bizarre idiosyncrasy of their planet’s biosphere -- perhaps animals there happen to trend lower with regards to empathy, or perhaps a relative lack of a pain response, or at least a dullness thereof, reduces their fear of death. Alternatively, however, it might be that the space cows prioritize maintaining their secret above all else, and live to a code that ensures that individual deaths go unavenged so that they remain, as a whole, safe from unwanted attention.
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Speculations about Space Cow History
As discussed in my previous text post about space cow ecology, it is likely that space cows are in fact an intelligent species. However, they appear to maintain a naturalistic way of life that does not make use of technology, and we have yet to observe direct evidence of linguistic ability. So what can be deduced about their history? Note: all information is derived from the wiki.
In order to make any such deductions, let us first try to deduce the identity of the space cow homeworld by analyzing the conditions of the planets which they inhabit: Ontarom, Nodacrux, Chasca, and Aite. Fascinatingly, two of these planets, Ontarom and Aite, possess close-proximity downspiraling satellites, although Aite’s is much closer to impact (within several hundred years). As one of the planets they inhabit, Chasca, is known to have a Prothean pyramid, it is possible that their interplanetary dispersal was effected by the Protheans, who might have recognized their intelligence and assisted in their travel through space. But when choosing new planets to colonize, it would not have made sense for the space cows to ask the Protheans to move them to an obviously doomed planet, making it likely that either Ontarom or Aite is their homeworld. However, Ontarom’s impact event could be impending in only geological terms, whilst Aite’s is going to occur within only several hundred years -- perhaps the Protheans offered to relocate some space cows to Ontarom temporarily, understanding that they would evacuate them when the time came. One possible reason for space cow settlement on Ontarom is the fact that Ontarom possesses two satellites, like Aite -- perhaps the colonists-to-be desired to retain a sky with two moons over their heads in their prospective new home.
The probability that Aite is the space cow homeworld has several interesting ramifications. Firstly, Aite is a very diverse planet geologically, with habitats ranging from deserts to jungles to tundra. However, the other planets which they currently inhabit seem to be characterized mostly by vast grasslands, even if other biomes exist, such as the shallow seas of Nodacrux. So this seems to add more credibility to the idea that the space cows were transported by the Protheans to worlds whose dominant habitat type suited their lifestyle.
Secondly, Aite is unusual amongst terrestrial planets in possessing a large ring system. Where else do we see a rocky world with a ring system? Chasca has one. Below is a quote from the wiki:
“Chasca's ring is unique. It appears to be, for lack of a better term, a massive piece of alien "installation art." The rings are made of small pieces of synthetic material, and are almost invisible from space. From the ground, they catch and scatter the light of Matano in picturesque ways. It is not known who created the ring or when.”
It seems most likely that the Protheans created this ring system, if they were in fact the ones who transported the space cows. The reasoning behind such a monumental undertaking is not clear to us today, but it seems most obvious that they would do so as a means of replicating the sky conditions to which the newly-displaced space cows, having just fled their doomed homeworld, were most used to. The picturesque scattering patterns of the ring system might have additional, obscure uses, however, perhaps relating to some form of communication between these two species or maybe it served to represent some calendrical or ritual system in space cow culture.
It is worth noting that the only Prothean pyramid known to exist on a space cow planet is found on Chasca, the same planet with the ring system. It is therefore possible that it serves as a monument to the friendship between these species, making it heartwarming that one can still find space cows in close proximity to it today.
└Uncharted worlds: Chasca.
Maroon Sea. Matano. Chasca.
Chasca
Found a settlement. Everyone is a husk. wtf