Have The Uniima Or Slomen Made Any Mythical Creatures? What Are They Like?

Have the uniima or slomen made any mythical creatures? What are they like?

While there are definitely many different mythological beings in the cultures of both, I really felt like showing the sloman equivalent of a dragon.

These beasts go far in sloman history. They can be even found in their cave paintings, often as 'hunting' targets of prehistoric slomen.

Because of how many cultures have named their own beings and how different they are among these cultures, I will not name them here.

You can encounter them in hundreds of legends/folktales with some regional quarks to each. Sometimes they fly, sometimes they lift mountains and shape the world, sometimes they suck people inside their bodies, teleporting them to strange locations (...), and other times they are simple monsters fought by sloman heroes.

Other places these beings are common in are regional flags, blazons of houses or families, house decor, weaponry, some religious imagery, and naturalist books (many groups believe they are real, same with thousands of other mythical beasts), etc.

Their form is not consistent. The number of "limbs" and "fingers" is an exception. Few cultures even depict them with full vertebrate bodies with the whole 4-limb piece being the creature's head.

Anyway let's add a regular post on the mole stars

Here is the one from the new ref.

There are some updates from the last time you saw them. Their skin is full red and their "tentacles" are gone. Their teeth are inside their skin and not always visible.

They manipulate surroundings with very flexible arm endings that create slight suction between the frill layers. The frills are surprisingly energetic and have the most touchy nerves and many small muscles. The teeth can go very far back into the arm, leaving the mouth flexible (the teeth themselves are flexible-ish).

Star eyesight sucks. On each arm is 4 (sometimes 5) extendable thorns with tiny eyes on top that give the arm a basic sense of space. If they want to focus on something they look with their mouth which has its inside lined with photoreceptive cells. To get a decent image they shape the arm inside into a sphere and change the end diameter.

But this works a lot better underwater, where they only spend their early and partial adult lives. Speaking of early life. Stars are born looking more like jellyfish than a star.

When hatched, they are only 1/4 of their adult version, a single arm swimming around and slowly growing. After this stage, the little jellies start connecting. Most often you get 4 arms but some moles have 3 or 5 (other numbers have a hard time surviving). Once they are joined, their bodily functions are connected, and even their nervous system becomes one. While being sophonts, their brain/s work a lot differently, with their arms being somewhat capable of independent thought.

And a tiny possible living space. But that's just thoughts.

A page of slomen doodles. All from different regions.

I def need to draw my species' ethnicities at some point. Really want to get sloms some silly patterns in their covering. While uniima have different proportions and skin color.

Also, let's use this to ask y'all for requests! Please feel free to request me to draw whatever stuff from my universe you want to see. I will try my best to fulfill your wishes. It can also be asks - biology, worldbuilding related, any

Is heterochromia a common thing in Ifey? Merilin appears to have a brown upper pair and a differently colored lower eye.

As disappointing as it is, I can't answer this. I'm still redesigning the O.s and don't know how much of their past image will stay. They might also end up with different sort of eyes since I'm trying to make all my sophonts have different "seeing system" since eyes are such an important thing in human perception of alien. Or at least to me.

Ah, theme things.

Merilin will loose her human name and her very human clothes. (Since naming like that isn't very realistic even for slomen.

(Neal has an excuse, it's a simple name okaaayy)

the blorbos

This took a while because I wasn't sure about some visuals but I love my blorbos and how they ended up.

For anyone new to my characters, on the left is Neal, the professor of acoustics, sound manipulation, and other physical stuff that people of this time period can't differentiate very well. He lives a simple normal sloman life.

On the right is "bio man" (I still need to come up with names for 80% of my characters even though I have had them for ages). He teaches everything biology-related in a small school in a completely different country. But he would rather travel and discover the nature of the world (which he does with Neal in the story).

If it's not clear, they enjoy each others company (or at least will). This picture is for me to feel warm and to show the different ways they look at the world. It's abstractly set in the future where Neal gets to have a basic fasion sense and more open feelings.

Kula!

A popular domesticated animal of slomen.

Kula are adapted for grassy areas with lots of small prey. In the wild, they either jump after flying or jumping prey or wait at burrows before smashing their prey with their hooves. If the smash isn't enough they hold it to their beak and finish it. Some species are more specialized to wait while others to jump. The domesticated Kula is speculated to be one of the more energetic hunters, mostly interested in 'insects'.

In ancient times wild Kula were attracted to sloman settlements as they would also attract prey with the slomans' food and light. The slomen would soon learn that Kula were not pests since the wild animals were yet to be spoiled by premium meat cuts and preferred fresh moving meat that the slomen didn't want around.

In current times many cultures keep these animals as pest control on farms and in larger houses. They can be commonly seen in underground rooms that serve as food storage but for a healthy mental state, they need time on the sun.

While in the wild they are usually solitary or in small groups, Kula have a complex body language that they use to express their mood and/or needs. This can be very cute and funny, helping them become as loved as they are. Many owners will grow to care deeply for their Kula but some cultures recognize them directly as pets. In the high-ranking societies of these cultures, pet Kula get even rounder. Often a certain trait is popular in a culture, resulting in localised breeds with different shapes and colors.

Some little goober possibilities - not entirely canon

In a few places, Kula are also part of a religion and have their own shrines.