#theukon-dos

[iamthekaijuking]

I've previously talked about how Arkveld's ability to absorb elements is likely driven by the dragon element, effectively being an advanced form of Dragonblight. But something that occurred to me more recently is that Arkveld's chainblades as a whole may be a direct adaption to deal with how hostile dragon energy can be to a monster's body.

Dragon Energy being stored on the edge of the wings means that it's being kept away from vital organs. And if any part of the chainblades get damaged or start malfunctioning, the injured portion of the wing can easily be sheared off before it starts harming the Arkveld, if not escalating into a condition similar to Savage 'Jho or Crimson Glow Valstrax.

As well as this, monsters like Deviljho and Nakarkos may suggest that producing the dragon element has an extreme demand on a monster's metabolism. So Arkveld being able to get most of it's dragon element via direct conversion from other monsters would dramatically reduce the amount of food it needs to eat relative to the amount of power it has access too.

If the chainblades' existence is a direct result of Arkveld's dragon element, then that might even give us a real good idea of how they evolved in the first place.

The family starts with a species of Dragon-capable flying wyvern that produces most of it's element in their wings. The cells responsible for producing the dragon element migrate further out and eventually form a separate structure on the wing entirely, similar to the blades Rey Dau uses to gather Fulgarite on it's wings. Once this occurs, the population rapidly selects for larger and larger wing-blades due to such blades being both more powerful and safer for the Arkveld with them. At the same time, evolution also begins favoring Arkveld whos blades prioritize storing dragon energy over producing it, as the inherit reactivity of the Dragon Element means that some Arkveld begin ending fights with more energy than they started with.

Eventually, the ability for the Proto-Arkveld's dragon producing wing-blades to steal energy directly proves so effective that evolution begins selecting for the ability specifically. The species begins to favor prey items with high elemental affinity over more energetically neutral species, the wing blades continue to grow and eventually become more flexible to maximize the amount of surface area they can make contact with, eventually becoming the Chainblades seen on the revived species. And if I'm right about the original species being able to reproduce asexually, then this would have been around where that adaption occurred, as the benefits of genetic diversity no longer outweighed the comparatively minimal energy demand needed for Arkveld to maintain a dragon-boosted immune system strong enough to offset most of the disease risk parthenogenesis can cause.

This is a very interesting theory. Arkveld moving its dragon production away from its torso to minimize the risk of other organs would make sense, and it hadn’t occurred to me that it absorbing elements is similar to how dragonblight works.

I’m going to have a lot to add to my phylogenetic tree docs.

[evtraininguniversity]

Can you elaborate on the Dreams vs. Reality thing? It sounds interesting.

I'd be more than delighted to yeah! So, this whole discussion is more based on my personal long-standing musings about the Boxed Theme of Gen 5. For those who are familiar with my Cardinal Rose series (although I will quickly preface that this isn't a fic related discussion), you guys know that I just do not like Truth vs Ideals because in what world do those two concepts act as foils to one another. When I think of the opposition to Truth, my mind goes to Lies not... Ideals of all things. When I think of the opposite of Ideals, I think of Cynicism/Realism.

Truth vs Ideals just stands out in a way that (to me) is superbly clunky. Like yeah, we have the Sky vs the Sea, Water vs Land, Time vs Space, Life vs Death, Sun vs Moon, Sword (offense) vs Shield (defense), Past vs Future. All of these are natural conclusions to what opposes the other! Truth vs Ideals just doesn't hit that same thematic framing that the other games do, and yes, I know the point is that the world is not as Black and White as people insist it is, it's more of a muddied grey, I think that same point could have been made with Reality vs Dreams.

Reality vs Dreams isn't even that big of a shift I would argue. The truth of a situation is the reality of it. Someone's ideal is very much their dream. Not only that but Reality vs Dreams is already a present concept within the games itself! In the post-game of BW2, Elesa says, "A model always has to make other people's dreams a reality without losing sight of herself. It's similar for Trainers and Pokémon." She says something similar in BW, "A model's job is to make someone else's vision look like a reality. It's interesting but it's not easy..." but the BW2 version stands out to me way more.

Not only that, but BW is known for one specific feature: Entralink. You literally can access the Dream World in the games, and are able to take items and catch Pokemon from it and bring it back out to Reality. So already with the alternative concept presented we have this middle ground that BW's story wanted to explore.

As for Kyurem's position in this Reality vs Dreams trio, I mentioned in the comments that I personally support it representing the idea of Deconstruction. Not only because it is literally a deconstructed husk of the Original Dragon, but also because it acts as a proper third to the situation. When you deconstruct reality, by questioning it, things become more dreamlike. When you deconstruct a dream, by questioning it, you ground it in reality.

[avidcollectorofdust]

Question: if the twink gets a Zonai-themed redesign in your AU, does Fi get one aswell?

I double-checked your piece with Zelda and Fi, and it looked like she might have had a Zonai crest? But it was hard to tell.

She does! The one with her and zelda was the first comic I posted, so I just made up a simple alteration on the spot, vs the ones with ghirahim where I designed his outfit in more detail before putting him in the comic. I should probably give her a better redesign sometime lol

[drenched-in-sunlight]

*Looks at all your AC6 art*

My bisexual ass could never be an AC Pilot on Rubicon.

tbh i feel u .......... it's like im putting all of my types into these characters like damn .... *image of man with hands behind his back staring at the beach here*

[pollyannawog]

I found your Kieranpon fic today. And I just wanted to let you know it was fantastic! I hope things end up alright for the poor lad. But they always got to get worse before it gets better, huh?

Awww thank you!!! Yeah… things will turn out okay, but it’s uh. Definitely going to get worse. Haha

[ghostypetrainer]

@theukon-dos replied to your post “remember months ago, when I made this post about a...”:

SPACE type? Ain't that just Fairy?

​nope, it's Space type! What's the fun of having a character who can time travel in the Pokemon universe if they don't bring home a Pokemon with a type that doesn't even exist yet?

[iamthekaijuking]

Out of curiosity, are there any ecosystems/biomes you'd like to see in Monster Hunter that aren't the usual set?

Personally, I'd kill for a salt flats biome that fills the same role in game progression as the volcanic regions usually do. Bonus points if the apex is a bird wyvern inspired by Flamingos.

I think I’ve answered a similar question before but map ideas are always fun even if I’m not good at it.

I’d like to see a salt flat or a mountain plateau, or even cave system. Frontier actually has the latter two covered somewhat so I’d like to see those in mainline.

I’d really like water combat to come back because then we could have a bunch of weirder places. Like a coral reef, a tectonic shelf and canyon, or hydrothermal vent or whale fall.

[iamthekaijuking]

Gureadomosu strikes me as a bottom dweller. It's trowel like chin would be effective at digging through mud and sediment to hunt for crustaceans and other food sources beneath the muck. And it's ability to store vast amounts of water may primarily serve as a kind of ballast, allowing the Gureadomosu to control it's buoyancy while conserving energy.

This may also explain it's ability to propel itself. While the idea of Gureadomosu being the ancestor to the Gravios family may be absurd, it may still be a living fossil similar to the God Wyverns. And if it evolved in a world of giant-er giants, then being able to escape from potential predators with extreme prejudice would have been extremely valuable.

Hmm maybe, although as a gravios relative it probably isn’t eating meat as an adult, and even the juvenile basarios doesn’t eat meat all the time. Gurea probably still eats rocks, and that diet plus its heavily mineralized hide should be plenty of ballast. The propulsion may help underwater, but on land I still refuse to believe something that massive can just jet around and double jump via water jets.

I will add the bottom dweller water propulsion to the doc though.