#biorcai

[fatesinker]

This was supposed to be posted ages ago but I procrastinated on it because I couldn't write the nuances in English right, so have this (possibly) terribly written post about snowshoe evolutionary history.

The image above is a bit outdated, and none of these names are permanent for now.

A species of genetically-modified, rodent-like mammal, called a tiomouse, is abandoned on Tiomia. They are the only vertebrates left there, so they find themselves in a world with endless food and no competition. They were herbivores that mainly ate 'grass'.

After 'trees' and predators appear, some browsing tiomice become arboreal and turn into screechers. They were frugivorous animals that usually lived in groups of 20-100 individuals and communicated with each other using high pitched calls.

After ~50 mya, a species of screecher (specifically from the croakape genus) learn that they can use auditory mimicry and their large numbers to scare away small carnivores from their kills. The protein gained from the meat and the teamwork required to execute this theft properly is a massive boost to the species' intelligence. After they become more omnivorous and began to actively hunt, the swarmers appeared.

A population of unusually smart swarmers discover that they can use sticks and stones to hunt more efficiently and process their prey, and in only a few mya turn from mesopredators (trappers) to apex predators (dropwolves). They were named for their hunting strategy of using bait to lure prey into special areas, where a group waited until the right moment to drop down and swarm them.

As the climate cooled and the taiga's range dwindled, some dropwolves were forced to evolve to become good walkers again in order to travel between strands of forest, and some populations of these 'terrestrial dropwolves' evolved to almost entirely lose their arboreality. Although many different clades adopted different hunting strategies, the ancestors of the snowshoes used stones to dig out ditches, shoved sharp sticks into the bottom, and placed layers of moss and grass at the top (punjiwolves).

One of these punjiwolves over-specialized for intelligence, trading off nearly all of their muscular strength and speed for complex groups, extremely efficient traps, and faster ways to transmit information, as well as forming a symbiosis with the ancestors of pobuivai in order to traverse greater distances. These punjiwolves evolved into snowshoes, and they are the most successful and wide-spread species of the punjiwolf genus.

[fatesinker]

The main defining feature of modern snowshoes, one which allowed them to spread across their continent and drive their relatives to extinction, is the domestication of a creature called a 'Pobuivo' (pronounced po-pui-vo), a beaked equine-like mammal.

When northern dropwolves were forced out of the dwindling taiga due to global cooling, the punjiwolf evolved. Instead of dropping sharp sticks onto their prey from the trees, they dug pitfall traps into the ground, using sharpened stones and stakes. They evolved to rely on their social groups and intelligence to survive, being just fast and strong enough to scare their victims into their traps. Although most prey species could not evolve fast enough and were driven to extinction, one equine, the pobuivo, learned how to use the traps to their advantage. At first they stole the punjiwolves' food and drove their own prey into them, but when they exclusively did the latter they were rewarded with meat by the trap-builders. In one region where this happened, the punjiwolves learned to ride the pobuivai and evolved into the modern snowshoe, who did not need to spend any more energy on their muscles and could exclusively focus on their intelligence. This is what allowed them to drive their relatives to extinction and ultimately be the ones to invent agriculture and civilization.

Although snowshoes have domesticated other animals, the most common one is the pobuivo, who have been bred to fulfill roles similar to horses, sheep, cows, and dogs. Even in the industrial age, mechanical vehicles are only used for cargo and public transport.

(A bonus size comparison between a pobuivo, biorco, and a 180~ cm human)

The red flaps on their backs and fat-storing tail are used as a sexual display by the males, and they are displayed by filling them with blood and water. Males are less commonly used, but it is possible to ride the. as long as it is not breeding season.

[fatesinker]

Here are some attempts at imagining what stick-snowshoes and the drawings of a young Bebeleian snowshoe may look like. The last one was made with my left hand. In the second drawing I would have drawn actual letters from the Bebeleian alphabet, but I currently can't access the document that contains all the info about said conlang.

Some notes on how snowshoes express emotions and communicate:

The mobile tusks are used like expressions. Parallel tusks = neutral; Tusks crossed at their base = fearful, submissive; Tusks crossed at half their length = smile; Tusks wide open = angry, aggressive

Stick-snowshoes are drawn with a 'poncho' because that is what is believed to be decent. Females are drawn with a mane that is connected to their poncho, and two lines on each ears. Males are drawn with a mane that is separate from their poncho and have only one line on each ear. (The lines are gendered earrings)

The normal way snowshoes communicate is by having the sides of their torsos face the other snowshoe, while their heads face each other. This makes it easier for both parties to see both their faces and their tails.

A circle on their mane means that their vocal sac is expanded, which in this context is the snowshoe equivalent of crying. (I'll make a post about it later)

If their eyes are in the shape of equal signs, that means they are squinting and protecting themselves against something; If their eyes are simply lines, that means they feel safe and aren't expecting any threats;

[fatesinker]

Here's an alien sophont called 'dodos/dodoes' and a sketch of a snowshoe from my notebook.

The dodos are bipedal, high-speed cursorial animals that have vertical jaws and eyelids. I would have introduced them with a more detailed post but it would have taken too much time.

[fatesinker]

I have just realized that I have never shown what a full body biorco/snowshoe looks like, but I got frustrated making the 'right' drawing so here's two doodles.

The first one is a naked snowshoe from a taiga/tundra race, and the second one is the basic clothing of a male snowshoe from the Bebeleian culture.

Biorcai/Snowshoes are a plantigrade, knuckle-walking sophont from Tiomia. They are descended from a population of genetically-modified basal mammals, who were pests on the 'neoman' settlements of Tiomia before they were abandoned.

They show emotions through the position of their ears, tusks, and tails (and pseudo-tails), and through the erection of hair follicles using their developed arrector pili muscles. I haven't thought much about what expressions they use, although this one is saying something along the lines of "I am alert about something but it is not dangerous".

[fatesinker]

I'm going to change the biorcai's name to 'snowshoes'. The word 'biorco' is from my only snowshoe conlang, Bebeleian, which to snowshoes with modern-day or futuristic level technology, would be the be equivalent of calling us 'homos' or 'homo sapienses' (or 'homines sapientes'). And also because it is extremely unlikely that another species would call them by an old language that they haven't heard about yet.

I will also need to give a proper name to this universe, but I'll have to think about the right name for a while.

[fatesinker]

A while ago I decided that I should post my worldbuilding projects on Tumblr, but didn't really do anything until now, so here's some art to announce it.

Below are some historical figures belonging to the history of my sophont, the biorcai. They're a quadrupedal, knuckle-walking species from Tiomia, and they're the sophont that I'll probably be mostly posting about. The three at the top are Cofaele, Kalawali, Svirnoc, who are allies from an era that is roughly similar to the 19th century, and the one at the bottom is Mrevon, a famous king of an ancient nation of seafaring biorcai. The doodles between them are some symbols for the ground force, air force, and navy that I found in my sketchbook.