#solifugid

[chocolatechipkraken]

Teddy Bear Solifugid

[vgbugs]

Canyon Spider - Guild Wars 2

Well, it's a camel spider, which isn't actually a spider but it's own type of arachnid. These ones like to immobilize you with webs, though the real ones don't have those.

Unfortunately, despite being a cool spider-type enemy in Guild Wars 2, this one is sadly not tameable. Even though the Cave Spider actually uses this one as its icon by mistake. We were robbed! Robbed, I say!

[textless]

[nuclearboi-makes-things]

Attack for @kastimere!

Frand(left) hangs out with Bugger(right) and talks about his life while Darril is out on a side quest.

[bogleech]

LONG POST: (Re)Designing a Solifugid Monster: Step by Step

(Kickstarter crosspost)

Following from my more detailed post about my setting’s human-arthropod hybrids, this was my previous take on the fusion of a human with a Solifugid,or what some people know as a "camel spider." Its design is over sixteen years old now, which I suppose makes it a classic, but all I originally did here was draw a slightly weird camel spider and give it a few humanoid hands. That isn't nearly up to over a decade and a half of my standards evolving, so what we're going to do today is just completely disregard it and reinvent this creature from the ground up, demonstrating every single step I go through to turn a real-world arthropod into a monster design.

FIRST: WHAT ACTUALLY IS EVEN A SOLIFUGID???

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A solifugid is an arachnid sometimes known as a camel spider, sometimes a sun spider, sometimes a "wind scorpion," but isn't really any kind of spider or scorpion. It's actually more related to ticks and mites than anything else!

It's a predator built for extreme speed, both in terms of pursuing and actually eating its prey: not only can it run like lightning, but its chelicerae - the same appendages as a spider's fangs - are built like a pair of gigantic, muscle-packed shears that can shred through a hapless beetle, tarantula or lizard in just seconds.

A solifugid also looks at first like it has ten legs, rather than eight, but the frontmost pair of "legs" are actually its highly elongated palps. These are the same appendages as a scorpion's claws, but the solifugid's palps are covered in sensitive hairs that aid in navigation, and they end in retractable, sticky "suctorial organs" that stick firmly to prey like a chameleon's tongue or a gecko's toes, reeling them straight into that terrifying mouth.

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So the key biological characteristics of a Solifugid are the crushing jaws, impressive running speed, and suction-cup grabbers, all pretty easy and simple to keep in mind, but now what's important to me are its key aesthetic qualities: what do I find most interesting about the way this creature actually looks?

This will be different for everybody, but personally I'm charmed by the animal's big, awkward looking head, the fact that its face is mostly those huge, bulbous mouthparts, and the two absurdly tiny, beady eyes that give an otherwise lethal creature an adorable, timid looking visual personality. Solifugids are as a matter of fact VERY skittish animals, prone to fleeing at the first sign of a larger threat. With all that in mind:

FACE DESIGN

This monster is supposed to be half human, so the first thing I sketch is how I think the head of a Solifugid would look made entirely of human facial features. I already know that isn't what I'm going for, and the horrible Garbage Pail Kid that results is too "creepy," completely losing the original animal's cute streak. Making the chelicerae from teeth and gums, however, was kind of always a given, so I draw some other takes on that, and I like some things about them but not enough that any really stick with me.

So I look at the real creature again, and I actually notice for the first time in my life that when seen from above, the eyes almost protrude beyond the "lip" or "rim" where the chelicerae emerge, and I realize that's been a key part of that cuteness I keep seeing. I just sort of instantly decide to capture this by pulling the "lip" of my monster version up behind its eyes, and it works perfectly! Its eyes now look cute to me! The furrowed rim even gives it a "worried" sort of look, like it's actually cowering within its own jaws. I feel like this is a perfect place to leave the head design just for now, so then we can move on to:

BODY DESIGN

One way I bring out the human aspect in these mashups is by sticking to just four appendages. An obvious route is to keep the sticky grabbers as its arms and hands. This leaves it only two legs, but that just communicates the running speed better than I hoped.

If you remember from earlier though, the suction palps of a camel spider AREN'T legs, but mouth parts attached to the head, and that might be an interesting aspect to consider. Maybe they could even be made of squishy gum flesh, more tentacle-like and emerge from the corners of the monster's jaws?

This would free it up to have four actual legs, which could give it a more arachnid-like stance again...but I find that kind of underwhelming. I like the two-legged runner idea.

A possible solution comes straight from another kind of two-legged predator with a big, giant head and jaws: if we shrink the forelegs down like ancient Carnosauria, we can keep the grabbers as mouthparts, keep it a four-limbed metahuman, and keep it running on just two legs.

I do a few more sketches of this kind of design, and I like something about all of them, but I feel like the head concept still isn't finished. On its own, it still looks just a little too much like the face of "only" a big bug. Where can something "more human" go without interrupting that "perfect" (to me) arrangement of the jaws and eyes? Pretty much only on the rest of the big, round head.

REVISITING THE FACE

After some more miscellaneous doodling I go back to these face sketches, adding pits that resemble a nose hole and eye sockets. At first I think of them as bony, like a skull, but if they're soft and fleshy, the face takes on a more disturbing monster quality that in my opinion still doesn't subtract from the parts I found endearing.

Sketching more heads along these lines, I also consider treating the chelicerae as their own vertebrate skulls, and really want to see how that looks on a completed monster.

So in the next full body sketch, I drop the abdomen and just make the legs a lot larger to balance out the head. Now that the chelicerae are "skulls" with their own "eye sockets," I also try out how it would look if the palps actually emerge from those. It's kind of a neat effect, BUT, now I feel like the design has TOO MANY "weird" factors that just muddle it up.

So I go back through all of these sketches, I pick out the aspects I really find the most appealing - my favorite stance, my favorite jaws, my favorite proportions - and I try to bring those all together for hopefully one last try:

......And everyone will have differing opinions, but for me, this is finally just right! This is the design that reminds me of the real animal in every way I want it to, while looking as much like a freaky, warped humanoid as I also want it to. It looks dangerous and unnatural but it also looks a little shy and uncertain; a chomping, gnashing, bounding, horrible thing to its prey but possibly a big soft coward on the inside. This will most likely be the sketch on which I base its full-color artwork some time in the future, so it now goes in a folder where I keep every satisfactory concept design until they're ready to clean up.

And as a final, extra test of this monster's look, I scribble an extra-simplified cartoon version that demonstrates an entirely different pose. Everything I liked about the design is still evident here, and I even like how its eyes can also be interpreted as buck teeth in its "other" face, which I hadn't considered until now. If you can strip all the fine details from a design and it still doesn’t look like any other you can recall, you should probably keep it! There are some designs I settle on quite a bit faster, even some that I like from the very first sketch, while other designs have gone through several times as many attempts as this one, but there’s always a rationalization I put into every detail, considering both how the creature “works” and the kind of character I want it to convey.

[jordankwalker]

New creatures from the "Solifugid Serengeti"@simonamroy and I are designing! Feast your eyes upon the arthropodial equivalents of a beaver, hippopotamus (equipped with snorkel breathing spiracles), and highly specialized anteater! #creaturesdesign #scifiillustration #speculativeevolution #solifugid #arthropod #arachnid #animalart #aliencreature https://www.instagram.com/p/CPZcbEsj_ob/?utm_medium=tumblr

[cyanocoraxx]

idiot dog bug tries to eat wood and then digs a hole

[dailycharacteroption]

Sunrider (Druid Archetype)

 With the nomadic lifestyle comes its own challenges, such as procuring shelter against the hostile environment, not to mention supplies. Thankfully nature magic is one of many ways to assuage those difficulties.

While desert druids already exist, those who channel the druidic arts while being horseback nomads often instead take on the role of sunriders, mounted druids that are associated with the Al-Zabriti, a loose organization of riders dedicated to protecting the Kelesh Empire.

Outside of the Golarion setting or that organization, however, these druids do well as defenders and providers for any nomadic group, putting their magic to work in the harsh landscape, not to mention caring for the horses and other mounts that are the lifeblood of their culture.

 Given their nature, these druids always bond with a horse or a pony, depending on their size. What’s more, they are never at risk of failure except with the most complex riding tasks, and have learned to accommodate for the weight of their armor while doing so.

While they ride, rough terrain seems to shift aside and stand firm, allowing them and their mounted allies to ride through unimpeded.

They also have great skill when it comes to surviving in the desert, and whether through blessings or advice, they grant similar skill and awareness to allies.

As they grow in power, they also provide blessings to the mounts of allies as well in a wide range, increasing their speed and survivability in greater and more various ways as they master this art.

Focused around buffing mounted allies in a desert setting, this archetype might not see much use outside of a desert-focused game, but it can be a thematic NPC archetype for friends and foes while in such a setting. That being said, I would recommend a ranged support build with your new shortbow proficiency and summoning, since you’ll probably avoid close combat due to wild shape being something the archetype gives up, and consider taking a mix of blasting, control and support. Also, don’t forget to invest in concentration-improving feats, since you are a mounted spellcaster.

 Given the association with Kelesh, consider reading up on Middle Eastern cultures when coming up with a character concept, but as always, be mindful and respectful.

Also, though the archetype specifically lists horses, if you want to step a little further away from the classic “Arabic Horse-Lord” concept, you could substitute other mount-suitable animal companions such as the camel.

  The Mha caravan is well-protected. During the day, their sunrider wards their travel and speeds it along, but at night, they ward them in a different way, for their head druid is in fact a rare entothrope, a were-solifugid capable of ambushing and tearing attackers apart.

 Fierce survivalists, the Kogras orc tribe forgoes the darkness to live in the sun. Though they often act as raiders, they can also be dealt with peacefully when their larder bags are full or when met at an oasis. They defer to their sunriders, wise orcs steeped in desert magic and skilled in the saddle of their riding beasts.

 Not all sunriders ride in deserts of sand. Further north, in bleak tundra, there are sunriders who ride on the back of dogsleds, commanding teams of dogs with a pack leader, and channeling the power of ice.