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Morning Routine (Sketchtember 2024 - Day 8)

[Hollow Hearts]

Ismaire:

This is Samak and Cole again, although you'll notice that just in the few days since the last HH post, Casting Director Choi has changed their designs a bit, lol.

Being a honey rancher is not an easy job by any means, and this alien desert doesn't provide any easy conditions. But sometimes there are cool moments, like when you get to pet the giant fluffy bees and wake them up for the morning. (Getting covered in their scent puts the rest of the bees at ease so you can go harvest the produce. Also, it's fun~)

-Partially outdated-

Because food is very celebratory, here's bit of what uniima eat

They are evolved to mostly eat fruits but can process other plant matter and even meat.

Because of their lack of teeth, food is done to be mushy, liquidy or very tender (bones are decorative or crushed into powder).

Popular is jelly made with grounded svut root, usually prepared and served in a box. Uniima also make many types of plant milk but the best material is from the mitucha plant, they make "cheese" and "jogurt" from these.

Meat is consumed rarely (in most cultures) and is usually connected to an event

- for instance the One-animal meal which can be prepared in different ways but all parts are usually prepared the same way. Uniima families are often very large but even a two person group can celebrate (halfing a small animal). It is also consumed in business related matters. (Different Uniima have different opinions on what family means and no Uniima family is fully blood related, having members that would be considered friends in elven culture.)

This is a singular tradition but it's popular in all meat eating Uniima cultures so it's here.

Here's some closeups

I love your concept of the e-eua, the headless Uniima! I was wondering, bc they’re called “gods”, do other Uniima revere them? Maybe bc they survived such an injury? Do the e-eua eventually die?

-VERY OUTDATED-

Thank you!

Okay I will try to put it simple

Any livng organism can become a god with enough magic exposition. It's also dangerous to get close to a god since they emit it. They can only be killed with enough magic (basically impossible for big ones).

E-eua is only a single small god who's being visted by their family/partner simirarly to visiting a grave. However, if they were to be around for long enough peoples perception of E-eua would likely change with their size and magic influence. But this can take hundreds/thousands of years.

With size and power, gods start building up attention of the magic "industry", after that comes a "religion". The followers are those who will use the god's blood for their family member's magic transfer, sometimes being loyal to one god for generations to come.

The gods are usually not involved in the process by other means than blood sharing since they aren't conscious. But rarely their minds change and those will comunicate through feelings and often have a connection to their follower's magic use in some way.

Different gods can even have different magical focus. If it was veeeryy simplified lets say one is better at photon control and one at absorbing energy.

But again, being powerful to a point of creating full on illusions and fireballs is an extreme rarity even with the largest of gods.

closeups

*Outdated*

Hi there, I have a really bad art lock today and I'm having a very hate-hate relationship with clip studio and rendering/coloring. Anyone has any tips for brushes or brush settings that won't make me feel like I'm actively fighting the program? Never felt this angry with sai or rebelle.

To that here is the sketch I destroyed today because I wanted colors 😑.

As context, it's a lazily designed Foru Uniima ll - living in a society with uniima c and sharing the same social norms.

This isnt a redesign of Uniima lls, this is just an individual with different traits.

-Outdated flora, rest is good-

Some basic coverage on wood

Some zoom-ins since it's probably unreadable at that scale

Thinking about mostly og (non-humanoid) O. architecture. Tho gotabic (and similar) style is even more popular in humanoid O. regions.

In cities, everything is overly big for practicality or the opposite of practicality. The wall is a home for thousands of Ifey while also being a defense structure. While the hub is a home for a single O with no other functions. (well that says more about the society). The trend of making them very tall came from their popular use as beacons.

Cities have a building for almost everything while towns use a building for multiple functions (the simple ifey town house also works as a small water collector and storage.

On average, the bigger the population, the larger everything is.

For more ifey context click here

Welcome to a long one.

The Ciwan empire is the fastest-growing sloman power ever since the war of continents and the first to discover a form of gunpowder (thanks to their enemies being uniima lls who have been using it long before).

But even with that advantage (among slomen), the Ciwan armies are iconic for a different reason. That being the Kuiqua-trained units that Sun-cutters come from.

These units have traditionally existed for hundreds of years but are slowly just becoming a symbol for show because of the political and battling changes in the world. However, you will still see them from time to time ripping people to pieces.

Just like the majority of sloman military groups the unit relies on intense teamwork, they need constant communication and preplanned routes to deal with the opposing strategy.

The simplified average scene might look something like this:

In one unit of 30 members, three strikers (Sun-cutters) make a plan with their scholars and commanding Fire-catchers (Seconds leaders). After getting to the war zone they wait for their window in which some members spy or communicate with deeper army spies. When they know their target and best strategy they get in. The strikers use hand gestures, clicks, or whistles to save energy while the Seconds forward the orders to the rest with "ground's" (war language), wooden whistles see more use in very large units. Many times, however, often just seeing the movement of the sun-cutters is enough for the whole group to act.

Strikers will sometimes wait behind their heavies (Beasts) if their force isn't necessary (units can be as few as 5 members or as many as 50, the two extremes work very differently). Once the situation calls for it, they bullet their targets, often stabbing talons first and tearing muscles in a swift motion. This may happen multiple times as other unit members engage in direct battle with the target/s or disarm them with specialized tools. Kuiqua units both kill and capture, having healing supplies on their heavies if they need to make sure their target doesn't bleed out (or their own soldiers).

All members of the Kuiquan unit are priests of different levels but all are priests of the dead (ones that speak for their ancestors rather than gods). It's believed lands conquered with these soldiers present will flourish with life. Many former battlegrounds have turned into gardens and crop fields (hopefully they don't keep this up when landmines are invented).

To the image. What you see is a small variety of soldiers. Beasts and fire-catchers have other names and features in their armor that they are known for based on all their roles that can often switch between fights. Only Sun-cutters truly have one name.

Fire-catchers are also sometimes strikers in training and may move up if they prove themselves. Though, more often Sun-cutters rise from the ranks of regular taloned soldiers with enough talent.

-

As mentioned in the image, Sun-cutters tend to be very prideful. Their helmets are an impractical mess that pushes their ears forward. A Ciwan Sloman's ears are very important to them and if they are damaged it's a career-ending event. Still, almost no strikers bind their ears, not wanting to be shamed for cowardness.

an ex-striker

here is the whole picture if you prefer it big

Btw, Kuiqua is the city Neal lives in. He has met or been arranged to meet these units multiple times since Neal himself is stuck classified as a fancy soldier. They are also not uncommon around temples, small talk is required.

Thank you for reading this far! Next I must answer the questions of biology. This has taken me 50 000 years.