I’ve wanted to make a sort of “FFAK SPECIES CHART” for a long time but i always kind of struggled to find a way to present it in a simple format.. as in the FFAK world-- many of the species share traits or are connected/made from another species. With so much crossover, it kind of makes it confusing and circular to describe.
However, we’ve now hit a point in the story where most of the plot/worldbuilding elements have been established or at least mentioned!!! Yipee! So i gave it another shot and i think it was actually much easier than i thought it would be. There’s a few minor things that we still haven’t gotten to-- but basically the range has already been set in stone. There will never be another “species” brought in that is not in SOME way connected to the ones already presented.
The most confusing aspect will be, i suppose, more new mysterious Created species-- or freaky confusing hybrids* like Crimson and Canary that pose a sort of ‘next generation’ evolution. But that is still connected to this base system. I like to think of it as being just.. three major categories that everything else draws from: Humans, Worms, and Aliens.
Even tho hekatons are very influential and are still classified as their own species, separate from worms, they still wouldn’t exist without being made from hydragora king seeds. So in a way, they’re like an evolution from worms. I like to think of Worms/Humans/Aliens as the “primary colors” that everything else draws from!! as they are the start of these species groups. The root of all this variety that have general connected themes that branch out and mesh together.
So If ffak’s species ever feels too vast to comprehend, just know that everything stems from one of these three categories. And in the end, almost all FFAK species still sort of follow the same kind of traits tbh, just with slightly different cosmetic aesthetics or slightly different rules. I generally write them all with very similar kinds of patterns so they all feel like part of the same universe/setting lol.
(*also Cash, who i actually decided to list on the chart-- but i suppose technically i didnt need to as i didnt specifically list any other “hybrid" characters.)
hi i just discovered your webcomic !! i very much love it a lot and i was wondering if yo could maybe clear up the worm's anatomy ? cuz like, one minute they have boobs except its referred to as a he and then it has a dick but its still a queen ? don't get me wrong its insanely cool but if you would be so kind as to enlighten me on the subject it would be very much appreciated !! keep up the good work !!
I’ve been getting a lot of new readers and I think its been a while since i’ve gotten questions about this, so I suppose I don’t mind recirculating some information again. Hopefully i can cover a little bit more of the deeper nuances about worms and their relationship to gender/sex/pronouns that i haven’t talked about before. Its best to keep in mind that pronouns and also body parts (genitals/breasts, ect) arent always indicative of gender or sex. I think this is safe to say this is true for.. even outside of my story.
**SOME SPOILERS BELOW IF YOU HAVENT READ THE ENTIRE COMIC... SORRY I RAMBLED***
Anyway-- In the case of hydragora worms (which ill focus on as they are the ones with the king/queens classifications), their pronouns are not even exactly related to their genders or sex at all! but rather the type of ‘class’ of worm they are. Technically, all worms are able to lay eggs and also fertilize them. there are no “girl” or “boy” worm. Sometimes their rituals with how this process happens are different depending on what kind of worm they are, but they are all able to shape-shift their bodies to look how they want-- well, based on what they eat-- so body parts like boobs and genitals are really just accessories. For some worms, they’re important parts of their body that help make them comfortable, for others they couldnt give a fuck about what is swinging around. it really depends on the individual. Worms can mate without even having any visible genitals just as long as they squirm around in the necessary fun fluids with some sort of .. open.. orifice to absorb it with.... worm sex can be real damn freaky i wont get into it rn.
Back to the pronouns though. What does it mean??? Well, Kings do not actually mean male and Queens do not mean female..Even though we humans generally associate these pronouns/words with male and female! To make it as simple as i can, I try to explain or ask others to think of it like..Kings (he/him) - Typical characteristics: Lazy, Important, Need to be worshipped and protected. Very sexually appealing. Also have mysterious powers. Often have little weird crowns.Queens (she/her) - Characteristics: generally very large, can regenerate, specifically hunt down kings to kill them. Super strong. Generally have cool looking tails for some reason. Very colorful because that is useful for intimidation and showing off how strong they are.Regular worms: want to worship kings + protect them, also desire to become knights. technically speaking-- i would say that the lack of pronouns is the most ‘suitable’ pronoun to describe them. some even casually adopt he/she/they pronouns but usually in the space of interacting with other species. anyway, they’re loyal and subservient. knight worms: the special king-appointed upgrade of regular worms, they often adopt he/him pronouns through this process but it is reflective of their close bond with their king. (the very simple format is thinking the three basic worm genders as LAZY, MURDER and WORSHIP.)
*ok more specific character spoilrs below YOUUUVE BEEN WARNNNED IM WARNING YOOOU ok done warning**
Some worms break from this system and try to reinvent or reinterpret pronouns for their own while still interacting with worm culture/society. A couple examples of worms that do this are Agent Paper and Nail. (although really, its hard to think what worm character in ffak does not do this lol) Paper is a woman wishes to be viewed/treated as a woman by ANY species she interacts with. But! this doesnt mean she identifies as being a queen worm however- even tho she uses she/her pronouns. She just is a female worm. That identity is important to her even if, for a worm, it is far more ‘binary’ way of thinking than worms typically exhibit. Other worms will probably view her as a wanna-be-human or close minded. But just because the majority of worms are very fluid in many aspects of their gender/bodies/identity/sexuality doesn’t mean paper has to conform to this fluidity as well. The idea of a ‘Binary Gender’ for worms is typically very confusing (or an example of someone who is misinformed) to those who understand that worms generally do not adhere to a binary system. Especially for a worm who is NOT trying to disguise themselves as a human and integrate with human society (Aka, like Dylan who mostly interacts with humans and generally tries to remove herself from worm culture/society completely. Dylan does not even WANT to be considered a worm while paper still LOVES being a worm and associating herself with worms. shes just a woman worm. dylan is a woman. just not a worm woman. she will begrudgingly accept she is still technically a worm, but the identity of woman is less important to her and is more just the default of being viewed as a cis lady by humans and dylan is like ‘yeah whatevs’.)Nail is a queen worm, which typically have she/her pronouns, but he goes by he/him pronouns and also is fairly assertive of that. However, this doesnt mean he is a man or wishes to be viewed a ‘Man’ or ‘Male' (specifically) or even as a “King.” its more like... his own interpretation of what he/him means, which is about authority, dominance and most importantly: power. If he would pick a ‘binary gender sort of thing’ (while rolling his eyes bc he thinks its stupid while also thinking its important enough to get annoyed at when people dont respect his pronouns) he would pick being a man and would vehemently reject being viewed as a woman, but in a more deeper level that is not actually how he sees his he/him pronouns as a man thing. (even between being NB/male/female he would still pick man because that just seems ‘direct to the point.’ and satisfying) He also generally rejects the label of Queen worm too, but will begrudgingly or unenthusiastically accept that he is one. He is also considered an ‘odd’ queen because he is very small in stature and generally has muted colors of browns/tans instead of flashy ones. He has been teased at this too that he wasnt QUEEN enough by being so small and puny lmao.
To backtrack a little, As worms integrate with human society, or even hekatons (which that species also mimics a lot of human society), they will often adopt the ideology and system of how pronouns are used. Or at least, will be forced to process how other species will view them based on the shared language of using the same words, despite it meaning many different things... to not only groups of people but also on the individual level. I think thats an important thing to consider that there are many different dynamics, interpretations and journeys interacting all at once and influencing each other and are constantly evolving and branching out. Even the lines between what is a king/queen/other worms really ARE is blurry because its all on a spectrum of.. various physical characteristics and behaviors.
And to go into EVOLUTION and BLURRY LINES... As we can see with a worm like, Jacket for example... while he is specifically NOT a king, he is also more like a unique blend of features from queens/regular worms and also knights. because he WANTS to be a knight he already uses he/him pronouns despite not actually having a king already and hasnt even gone through the specific knighting process. Jacket sees He/him as words that mean total loyalty to the king. Whoever the king is. And if someone were to try to put him in a specific box of queen/king/knight/regular worm they would be unable to place him b/c he is something else unique entirely. and while jacket uses he/him pronouns i think at the core of it he literally does not give a fuck about language at all, or genders, or labels. those are all nonsense things. he relies only on instinct and desire.
Phew. ok I could ramble on and describe every one of my worm characters, but I’ll leave it at there for now. Crimson is even more confusing bc she is a fucking hybrid human/mandragora worm, using a goddamn hydragora body, and has like 2 other clone heart selves and all this other fucking bullshit. i have been writing this for like an hour. lmao
I hope some of this is communicates at least, its a little difficult to orchestrate and articulate all the levels operating here at once in a simple-to-digest manner. the fun thing about ffak at least is that if you dont want to think about this stuff you dont really have to--although id think it enriches the experience a bit.
So does the reproduction focus for Hekatons lead to, um, homophobia?
There’s quite a lot of homophobia, yeah. Sad trombone noise. :( Simon sure came from a community that was largely homophobic which took him a lonnnnnnng time to unpack. He didn’t even realize how much of it he had internalized!!! I think that is why it took him so long to realize he was into knife lmfao. (and that he was also interested in nail, he just rly didnt get it. i dont think he ever realized that he had a huge crush on nail even to this day. oops.) Homophobia in hekaton communities def clashes with worm ones tho. Worms obviously are very fluid with their genders since they do not generally apply to binary constructs. they dont even think of those much rly. they’re dumb and worms are BEYOND such things. And even when they sorta appear that they do apply to the rules, they generally are also attracted to the same things they themselves look like, so they generally appear very gay. they are gay. are straight worms even possible?? i dont know....... that feels almost too difficult to pinpoint what a worm is besides being a worm. and anyway the more a worm tries to be ‘human’ the more they’ll prob adopt the bad opinions on gender and sexuality, lets gesture over to dylan as a wonderful example of Worm With The Anxiety™. so like worms and hekatons will usually get in debates and dislike eachothers opinions on things. Worms also just dislike hekatons b/c they smell bad to them and they cannot eat hekatons. But they will obvs work together w/ them on the war against humans. its a business thing. and when humans are dead they’re ttly gonna fight eachother next, probably. weeds and robots roll their eyes in the corner of the room as everyone forgets they exist. Hekatons generally see worms as freaky sexual deviants and if ur a hekaton that sleeps w/ a worm ur probably gay or desperate or WORSE..a DESPERATE gay. Its generally more socially acceptable to sleep w/ humans b/c thats like, dominating and TTLY WINNING the war. high five my dudes. heh!! pwned!! Pirate hekatons are prob the most vile in this regard. Please do not be a human and come across a pirate ship of hekatons. u do not want that. for real. pirate hekatons are nasty and are the reason hekatons get a bad rep lol. Ofc all above is more in reference to hekaton communities outside of the ghost kingdom. In the ghost kingdom, hekatons r socially more accepted to be bisexual and women especially are generally encouraged to have more than one partner. (however communication and healthy relationships is very important n ppl do not tolerate cheating at all. that is super horrible.) So while homophobia isn’t really as much of a thing there. However, There’s still pretty deep issues w/ transphobia and pushing heks to fulfill + conform certain gender roles. :/ Which is a huge reason why locket actually found it..ummm... refreshing to leave??? even though he got exposed to another culture of intense fucked up issues, he does feel a bit more hope b/c worms sorta seem to get it a little better..? (altho honestly, worms kind of just dont think about these things the same way so it can be just as difficult to talk to them abt it. they dont have patience to understand!!!!! who cares about labels!!!!!!! words r stupid!!! UGH im HUNGRY) Locket’s just......optimistically hopeful ok??????? he rly wants to meet another trans hekaton or trans human or trans ANYTHING for real. besides his evil murder dad, which he doesnt want to relate to but can’t help it cuz who the fuck else is there. hello??? he needs more positive/healthy #lgbtrepresentation in his life. he did not expect homophobia to be a thing, btw, that was a pretty upsetting aspect of leaving home. that kinda rattled him for a bit b/c now he feels very insecure over openly expressing his interest in dudes lol. (he’s pansexual/bisexual for the record.)
what do baby wormies look like. did canary come out a beautiful centipede-taur or was there a legless red worm stage. i am sure youve explained this before but i cant recall
i might have but i am too lazy to dig for the time where i might have so heres some babie wormies!!!!!!!!!!!Canary is a strange hybrid case so I wouldn’t attribute anything abt their conception as typical. It is common for baby worms to adopt features of their parents, but this does not normally show until after the worms have eaten something. at first, all hydragora worms just look like little tiny (usually pale pink, or white/translucent with prominent veins) wormies and then fluffy wormies. then when they go thru their first cocoon/metamorphosis (usually after eating something) thats when they’ll change/evolve their bodies and usually naturally show the qualities they inherited from their parents + also their new prey they ate. (for reference, worms gotta go through this at least once before ever turning into a humanoid-ish stage. so usually its baby -> fluffy wormie -> first metamorph -> new worm form (like baby paper bunny form) -> eat a huyman nyum nyum -> badass epic humanoid form.) (worms also generally have 2 major forms they alternate btwn after they go thru their first cocoon stage. 1 is the “big fluffy aeschylus worm” and the other is more of a “disguise” form) (this obvs is gonna be part of a larger topic at some point but imma save that for later in the comic) (and im sleepy) (zzz) Canary also was a live birth, sorta..like a human child would be-- which is extra freaky and probably no other worm besides crimson was made this way. So canary, without needing to go thru a cocoon stage, was already born with physical qualities of both his parents. if i painted baby canary realistically im sure it would be truly ..nightmareish but just look @ the silly doodle instead and you can get the picture. canary also just naturally got older as time went on, rather than eating things/going thru pod stages. very odd....i wonder if that means ...canary is not done growing...? hmmnn...
Was Dollop made with a King Seed too? Is that why puts that emphasis on 'her King' and 'Fork's King'?
Yeah she was. Delights (Dollop’s species) and the Hekatonkheires were made with a king seed, which are from King Worms, and are both technically classified as a “Created” Species. (Unique Species which first originated from King Worms, which often share some characteristics to worms –but not always.) Most King worms only are born with 1 seed. Very strong ones have 2-3, or at the most– 5. Canary was born with a whopping motherfucking 10 seeds. (Damn!!!!!) The fact that the entire hekaton species was made from one seed should speak volumes about how influential and dangerous they can be. (of course, it also depends heavily on the worm themselves. A weak king=weak seeds. Strength tho isnt always determined by how much u can lift tho mind you) But!! if you’re curious what makes king worms (and canary in particular) so powerful….this is the reason! We will get to learn much much more about King’s Seeds in the future. :) I’m excited!!!!!!!
