#speculativebiology

[winterarts]

Draconian Creature Design

Draconians are native to Onisona. They are large, bulky reptiles with heavy rock-like scales and osteoderms. They are divided into 4 variants or subspecies:

Stone: the most common and the biggest. They are found pretty much everywhere. They take the colors of sedimentary rocks.

Metal: the second biggest and found in the central mountains. Their scales are sheened with various metals. Their scales take the appearance of igneous rocks.

Clay: the smallest and found in the eastern forests and savahnnas. They are semi arboreal, having a prehensile tail. They are also known as landsharks. They take the colors of various clays and sedimentary rocks.

Geode: the longest and found in the western crystal caves. They are the shiniest and most colorful. They take the colors of metamorphic rocks and crystals grow withing their scales.

[somnaraptor]

Dang, is he really that scary? -------------------------------------------

I AM ALIVE!!! And FINALLY here with page 4! I put a lot of time and love into this page and I really like how it came out! I've got much more lore and pages in the works, so stay tuned! Posting will likely slow as I approach my college move-in date and get settled in, but I do definitely plan to continue posting here and making art throughout my studies! Its just gonna be spotty for a while while my life literally uproots itself 😭😭

P.S There WILL be a way to view higher quality versions of the pages in the future once i work out the details of hosting the comic somewhere!

[somnaraptor]

Page 3 lets goooo!! This thing is actually coming along! Takalik listens to podcasts while he's working, but it seems he was a bit too locked in this time. I wonder what Hendricks wants with him...

Oraselk not only use their lights for honorifics in their langauge, but also emotional expression. Green could indicate discomfort, embarrassment, sadness, or frustration.

Working on names for the comic! Its still in its very early stages lol

[somnaraptor]

I made a size chart for the characters so you can get a sense of how big they are in relation to each other! Nora is 5' 4" (162 cm). Takalik is 7' 2" (218 cm). All other species represent average heights.

I'm not sure why I made the fuzzworm all arched in their original ref lol, makes it kinda hard to measure height but they're officially 25 cm average height laid flat.

[somnaraptor]

Fuzzworms were the fourth species to join the galactic neighborhood. Their planet is overall very cold, just on the edge of their star's habitable zone. A large part of their planet is covered in taiga and tundra.

Because of the extreme cold of their planet, they evolved to spend most of their lives burrowing underground. They have dense, fur-like coats, and are completely blind. They "see" using echolocation and listening/feeling for vibrations like moles. They have specialized organs in their nasal cavity that rub together to produce ultrasonic noise that helps them see, as well as communicate. Their language is mostly ultrasonic, but a few sounds and movements are within human hearing range like stomps and some squeaks.

They use the copper-based metalloprotein hemocyanin for oxygen transport instead of an iron based one like hemoglobin. When in cold environments, their blood is almost clear because oxygen can more easily diffuse into their tissues without a carrier. In warmer environments, they can appear blue-flushed, due to the increased amount of hemocyanin produced, that is blue in color when oxygenated. Fuzzworms can spend extended amounts of time in warmer temperatures, but day after day exposure with no rest period can put strain on their hemocyanin production and be dangerous. Fuzzworm personal quarters must be kept at low temperatures to prevent extended time in heated environments, and the station's overall environment must be below a certain threshold. Sweaters and warm clothing are common near fuzzworm quarters and dormitories.

They are known for constructing extensive underground cities. Their unique habitat needs and skill at constructing living spaces make them great architects and habitat engineers. Their climate-control technology is used across the galactic neighborhood for species with vastly different needs. ------- These species refs are pretty simple, but id like to go into specific aspects of their physiology in the future!

[somnaraptor]

Page 2 done! Oooo Takalik's in troubleee(?). I also uploaded page 1 alongside it again because I changed some things. I'm thinking my goal is to get chapter one done, and if I can do that, then ill start seriously thinking about getting a website and actually making this a full on webcomic. Still needs a name. I'm working on it 😭. There's sooo many worldbuilding things to get done as well, but I'm having fun! I'm kinda jumping the gun a bit by not fleshing some things out before starting to write and draw, but luckily for these first few pages things like the Oraselk written language aren't important yet lol. I was just too excited to start drawing.

[somnaraptor]

Another species for my comic project!(which should probably get a name eventually lmao). The Tusks! Their name is difficult to pronounce and translate into english, so like many species that cant be easily pronounced in English, they get a "nickname", coming from their...well, tusks.

The majority of their home planet is very hot, arid, and dusty. They evolved long eyelashes similar to camels on earth that keep it out of their eyes. They also have a very strong sense of smell, with an open nasal cavity to trap scent molecules while keeping larger dust particles out with specialized cilia. being herbivores, they evolved their strong sense of smell from rooting for tubers in the desert sand.

Their tusks are the only one of their teeth that grows constantly throughout their life and need regular filing. Many drill through their tusks to add jewelry, but it needs to be re-drilled regularly when the tusk grows out and is shaved down. The tusks were originally used in fights of dominance, but not so much anymore. Nowadays, they're more of a fashion statement, though sometimes a heated argument can cause tusks to fly.

They also have a slit below their eyes that holds an air sac that can be inflated for mating or intimidation purposes. It also doubles as a scent gland. And yes, their pupils have a 4 leaf clover-like shape!

There are a few Tusks on the station where Takalik works! They are capable of speaking English without a soundboard. The base is owned by English-speaking humans, so the main language spoken is English.

More worldbuilding coming soon!

[somnaraptor]

The Oraselk home system, Tamaake! Will probably re-upload this image at some point when I get the names of all the planets and the language system down, but I'm really excited to post this because I didn't think it would turn out this good lmao

Ill give you a few facts though! Tamaake is a type K star, about 0.54 times the mass of our sun, sol. Because of this, it has more frequent solar flares that can be damaging to equipment when unprepared. There is a solar probe placed in orbit around the sun that connects to a ground station on planet 1 (like I said, still unnamed lol), that can provide early warning and time to put up shielding.

Planet 2 is the Oraselk homeworld. Their moon is also fully terraformed. They have colonized nearly every part of their solar system they can and then some; their terraforming technology is the most advanced in the galactic neighborhood. Oraselk are typically hesitant to interact with other species, so have gotten comfortable in their own space. That's not to say they don't have galactic territory, but seek less than other species. Still, they defend the territory they do have more fiercely. Their systems are also almost always mostly, if not completely, populated by Oraselk, as compared to other species that typically allow and encourage cohabitation. They can't legally disallow it, but living there would be...intimidating.

An Oraselk homeworld day is 22 earth hours long. Their year is 342 earth days long. They have 11 months, and each week is 11 days. 3 weeks make up a month.

I will get into their writing system in the future, but they write vertically, read top to bottom instead of left to right like in English. Many English sources will turn the text on its side to be read left to right for formatting and design reasons, but the Oraselk council made a huge fuss about this when it was first implemented, seeing it highly disrespectful to their language. It was eventually ruled that the language was required to be written vertically on all official paperwork, but they had no jurisdiction over non-official documents.