#erid phm

[abbasnails-art]

(detailed pages for all organisms under the cut)

I got bit by the speculative biology bug after reading Project Hail Mary and have spent the past two months trying to imagine the critters that live on Erid!

Or at least that's how it started out...In order to design creatures, I decided I needed to work backwards with info in Mr. Weir's Erid lore doc to come up with organisms and systems that could've plausibly* led to the evolution of Eridians from an Astrophage seeding event. So what had started as a character design exercise turned into me spending nights puzzling how the initial airborne life of Erid would deal with high parasite loads, or which circumstances would lead to the evolution of steam-powered muscles.

So now, two months later, I present: a possible evolutionary history of life on Erid, a general map of the elevation/depth of the planet's ecosystems, and a handful of critters that would belong to the suggested clades! I could yap forever about these guys and other evolutionary possibilities, but I think for now I'll stick with this. Maybe I'll revisit and design some more critters in the future!

Huge thanks to @lenasai for being a sounding board and being patient while I complained again and again about trying to evolve muscles...you're a real one <3

*i'm a field biologist/ecologist by training, not a chemist or a physicist, so i can't vouch for if any of this is possible...just here for fun :)

[anonymouslyrambo]

Finally caved and made myself a eridian oc :p

This is Dino! (They are based off of a marra mamba tiger eye with mookaite crystals down their back)They are an artist and they mostly make 3-d objects that represent other eridians sound waves (kinda like a portrait) and became obsessed with the concept of colour when grace comes to erid and now they regularly show grace their sculptures to see what colour they are and what colour mean symbolically (grace had to do some research into that lol) and Dino is currently attempting to make art that reads well for both eridians and grace but their in the trail and error part rn

They are also up on my art fight!

Art Fight

An art gifting game

[burntoutpopcorn]

thoughts on end of phm (particularly on grace ending up on erid vs earth)

loved the ending, thought it was perfect etc

like the ending but vaguely wish he had gone to earth for satisfaction or other

wish grace had gone to earth (not abandon rocky but just some other ending)

no preference either way

other

Voting ended onJul 13

[nightmarearian]

glass eridian anyone?

[i-have-n0-idea-what-im-d0ing]

I'm like 99% this has been done already but I wanted to contribute just a little bit to the fun because I love reading them so much!

Template by @justcakethanks and thank you for this silly group of guys!!

[videnrambles]

Thinking about an AU where Erid is just another station in the quiet rapture and they’re kinda just sitting on the sideline watching Eden and the COI fight like “damn yall need to chill tf out”

[affectionatealbatross]

this may be my liking for Torturing the Characters speaking but can people give grace the eridian version of a common cold and since his body isn’t used to alien germs he gets really sick. thank you

[sparrow-in-boots]

still thinking about how Eridians are apex predators in their home planet. that's like if tigers or eagles or bears became the dominant species. humans became capable hunters but we're still prey omnivores.

i wonder what level of omnivores Eridians are, or if they are obligate carnivores. omnivores would make sense, higher adaptability due to varying diet, and in the books Rocky is described to eat meat and some other ration type. so yeah, omnivores, but how much?

do they need to eat plants to assist with digestion, kind of like how cats and dogs do? did they develop grain and maze tolerance over time like humans developed (some) lactose tolerance past infancy?

we also know they have longer digestion periods than humans, not unlike predators that eat larger meals after hunts and then may go a while until another meal. how much of a strain is livestock rearing and raising for them and their society? how would that function?