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Finally - Ifey (species O.)

This is the first stage (not counting a possible larva) in O's life cycle. These are the "gatherers" of their colony which is usually a villiage with one adult O (the parent of the colony). Cities can sometimes have more than one adult.

Ifeys are the lowest ranking members of their society and are expected to do most of the work (farming, building, hunting..). After that are Ee, who take roles in politics, sciece and comanding Ifey. O are the last stage which is sexually mature but only 2% of O.s reach that stage. O mostly do the population managment. (Ifey can do other tasks but for that it's better to move societies).

For their 'humanoid form' - O. are one of the first sentient species who did evolve to use their limbs in more formations but with the rise of Elven race Uniima weren't the only ones pushed into more human forms. In case of O.s, most changes were in their culture.

The O. culture is about "being human". From birth, human form is pushed as the beauty standart (different for O (final stage)). For Ifey to be seen looking non-human by non-Ifey is shamefull. They usually feel more comfortable looking natural with non-humanoids.

Today is doodle day

A little wip comic with Neal and his first ever Uniima c student. They have important questions for him.

The creator of the first metal airplane. They have big dreams for the future but maybe little too ambitious. (they use their hands for many gestures since they work big part with humans for years)

some random classical fantasy dragon

An introduction to Uniima C expressions. They are usually pretty subtle, these being bit exaggerated.

Their main way of emoting is sound. Often not moving a single (visible) muscle when doing it. Evolutionary this is big part due to most Foru predators being overly visual focused.

Take this as quide for this comic of Neal and Fueem.

More to that - Neal (teacher) is trying to be positive and helpful in his human way but is bit uncomfortable with the situation. The expressions he makes are also completely different from a regular Uniima's (Fueem doesn't know that).

Fueem on the other hand wants a specific answer from Neal. They came to study largely because the teacher was Uniima C and now they are disappointed Neal isn't acting like one.

They are trying to be polite but leave angry at the end.

A question about your world in general; why are non-humanoid sentient species compelled/pressured to look human?

It's by no way their choice. Maybe in some ways O.s choose to look more human but it's much more a cultural pressure and biology for them.

For Uniima ll is was sudden mutations in Uniima C and breeding of more humanish traits.

The reason is 100% designer influence since being humanoid doesn't have any special benefit compared to other body types. But why or how it was/is being done is unclear.

A popular theory for the elven people is that designers realized that human body is superior and other species are made to look like them. (this theory is dumb)

Other dumb one is that there's more magic closer to the ground and other species had to "get up" so that the harmful magic didn't hurt them. (many elves refuse to sleep on low beds because of this).

Many Uniima c believe their designer abandoned them to create demons (Uniima ll) that would compete elven.

And O.s think it's the designers deciding on peace and common form.

All of these are wrong. Science still isn't as popular and it will take more time to form a good theory that all classes (poor, nobles, etc.) would believe.

I'm sorry you had to read all that to find out I said nothing 😔

If you don't know much about designers here's a link. It doesn't explain a lot but some stuff. I have yet to make a decent designer post/page. This will hopefully get me to get some 'wiki' up.

And sorry for taking so long to reply

you might also notice I'm not fully decided on the reason

-Outdated flora, rest is good-

Some basic coverage on wood

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

Hello Excited Anon. I thank you for your ask message and many questions. They mean a lot and I will try to answer all your questions with time.

Question 1.: Are the designers aware of the Gods created from the sapient species? Do the Designers have, or could have, any control over Gods? Considering that Designers create magic, does that mean Gods are dependent on Designers to some degree? That Designers can affect Gods to some degree? Even though, from what I understand, every sapient species you've shown so far has had their Designer (and thus controlling creator) die.

Let's say, Designers have the awareness of a plant, a plant evolved to have very complex reactions to its surroundings through chemicals. Except for a designer is not chemicals but a whole world-scale events that it's "programed" to react to. It's relationship to other designer's is the closest thing to awareness.

Magic is considered an extension of the designer's "nervous system" and is shared by beings that have nervous structures similar to those. Other than that they produce "liquid magic".

God's are beings 'changed' by "liquid magic" that better take in the designer's signal (magic). And that, if anything, makes the designer's system grow wider.

If designers were to consciously control gods, it would definitely be easier than with a non-magical being, but it doesn't happen.

God's are dependent on magic to live so they are 100% dependent on Designers. The magic keeps them alive, replacing dead cells and creating new ones instead of the God's body, which is functionaly dead.

Lastly, of all the sentient species shown (3 designers), only 2 should be dead. However, there is no way to prove it as it seems magic is active even without them and getting close to them would be an instant death. But their deaths are big part of uniiman and elven culture.

Second part of Excited Anon's ask

2. Have any sapient species emerged without Designer assistance? Do sapient species emerge without Designer assistance and Designers just sort of manipulate species that gain sapience and do not actively work toward creating species that are specifically sapient? Like, it's just "luck" on the Designers part that they get a sapient species? At least at first?

If there were such cases, they aren't recorded. In current date the planet is far from being fully mapped. People are paranoid and scared of the ocean because it's full of actual 'sea monsters'. The closer to a designer the bigger is the wildlife, being something between gods and animals.

It's possible there are non-designer races but life on the planet is not as old as on Earth and the need to be sentient is not as big without a designer. And in case designers were the ones who created life, these organisms would be related to one or more of the living kingdoms.

Sapience is not by luck. It's a 'goal'. There's a visible push for sentience and conflict on the planet. Having more than one instance of a lost civilization of no known living race. It might be that sentience makes it easier to access magic in a useful conscious way. Beings with higher physical and 'metaphysical' awareness would have better chance surviving.

Or maybe magic is a source of sentience, adding brain power to a fitting base even for people that can't use magic as a tool.

Or if might be both. Or neither.

I'm gatekeeping lot of the information but before I decide how I tell a story, I want to mostly explain things in ways the planet's people would.

Another Excited Anon ask

3. Would killing all of the Designers erase magic from the planet? If not, would magic change in any meaningful way?

Because two of the world's biggest designers should be dead and magic has not changed, it's probably that the bodies alone are enough to transmit. Or at least enough for common use.

Though, since their deaths there hasn't been any new 'world ending' event. There's also less earthquakes and dangers in the waters.

But if we were to kill all, maybe the planet would just be normal. Natural. But with magic? Maybe the magic would disappear with time and leave a regular ecosystem behind in few thousands years.

I should have grouped this one up with a different question. It's short and I'm meanie who doesn't answer.

"The story" time!

Not to disappoint fans of non-humanoids but this human is one of the main characters from 'the story'. He's an elven biologist and teacher (like most scientists these days). He travels a lot.

Once I have more characters done I will post them together with the information on the actual story.

I'm still unsure how human-looking will elven be in the end but they are starting to be off in this world. But they do fill their role well so- If I get an idea I get an idea, if not, then not.

(edit: I don't think people like humans)

-Outdated sloman design-

The true main character of "The story"

As usual, it's Prof. Neal Faulkner.

Since the setting is closer to medieval times than to 20th century it's not common to have a last name and to be a professor is like being a 'king of a field (science or other)'. Faulkner being the younger but more known professor of Sonomagics and Acoustics (out of two). All professors get their title from the current elven king after being nominated by their professor tutor. These tutors pick their disciples and they have the whole continent to pick.

Mr. Faulkner is not only very natural in his field but has had a giant impact on the science world thanks to his help discovering atoms or his own work 'medical use of sound' among others. Sadly it's been many years since his last breakthrough.

In his opinion non of these are really useful anyway without the technology to use all this knowledge /Steam engines are still in their experimental phase but this world will likely start with electricity much much sooner than us/.

Most of Faulkner's work consists of teaching noble heirs how to be annoyingly loud with sound manipulation, mostly unsuccessfuly.

Size comparison

I'm trying to make the magic much more about physic than other stuff so hopefully it wont get boring. Just need to research a lot more.

Why is Prof Faulkner's… head crest(?) far shorter compared to those of other Uniimas?

He doesn't know if it's a birth defect or a very early injury but it's one of those.

The crest is two horn bones fused together at the top, inside is the Uniima's vocal organ and the sound comes from the 4 holes at the front.

His crest is not really shorter, it's kinda just not there, making him physically mute. He can push air from his nostrils but it's no speech. It limits him in few other ways but he's doing fine.

(he also lacks all of his claws but those are definitely injury)

Sorry for using your question to infodump. Enjoy my not-refined-enough anatomy lesson.

Anyway, yea I'm boring as hell. I wanted to keep them very mammalian and very human for story and relatability reasons and for now, they shall stay that way. But tell me what eye colors you like the most.

they are "sloths" instead of apes, that's it, that's the difference

unrelated but I'm thinking of a sci-fi future au where a group of all the races from this planet meets earth humans and earth humans are like "what in the fuck?"

-Outdated words +designs-

I think this is something of a first part of the "magic system" series of guides.

I will be talking more about what it means to be "physically more aware" and manipulate physics and I might borrow Neal for it.

Now, imagine you are a device connected to a supercomputer that can alter reality. You need to be set up to receive its signal but when you are set, you can alter some of it too (while being under its control a little I guess but who cares). To be clear the 'computer' isn't sentient and just follows programming.

For the context of "gods" here's a link to another post

Also, I decided to name the designers with shapes because they are easily understood by any culture. Hope you like △, you will probably see it a bit.

Ignore bad English and skulls I drew for no reason with little thought in them. "Pigeons" are an invasive species of hexapods by the way.

Hey there, these are concepts for Molestars (Starmoles?) - well for now)

Another species of the 4th major designer. At the moment they are not in contact with the other races since their bridge (landmass connecting the continents of sophonts) didn't finish forming and might never do.

But as amphibious creatures I'm sure they can get a boat up once they feel like discovering the rest of the world.

They live on buch of islands with smaller numbers than other races and are also pretty conservative, they might react pretty badly to discovering same-planet aliens.

A battle sketchy

and probably the only drawing so far having all people at once?

This Sloman armor is mostly leather and bronze/iron. Speed is important for this guy and it's not great to be a metal golem if you want to use your legs as an additional weapon.

For the ifey their armor is their main weapon. The two claw-ish things in their mouth are something used for hunting (made of wood or bone) but they aren't strong enough to pierce an opponent. The intended use of this very heavy armor is to get it stuck in someone, even if the wearer doesn't come back.

This uniima's heavy ground armor is made of wood and chainmail. Additionally to that, they also hold 4 weapons. 2 beak blades, 1 double-shield, and something to take out soft eyes probably.

Most societies are still strongly pushing the 'art' of battle. The current conflicts are regional, between countries, cities etc. but they are still very common. They battle for land, resources or due to beliefs or dumb misunderstandings.

There are not as many interspecies wars as they live on separate continents with only the bridges between the continents being shared and fought for.

Luckily for residents it's not too appetizing for rulers to try conquer alien territory when they aren't sure what lives there or what's edible. But there are always exceptions.

Uniiman mount. They are present in almost every region either for travel or silk or both.

Something I forgot to add is their face plate rotates depending on how their body is angled. It's limited in movement but it gives the animal better spacial awareness. They have few eyes spots in their armor too but less sensitive.

More to their biology - while looking like a giant lobster they come from the same "fish" ancestors as Uniima. They belong to a group that kept their 3rd pair of limbs for locomotion, though these limbs are more specilised than the rest (in uniima the 3rd pair is part of their internal organs).

Been keeping this away for long since its a very out of context specific stuff.

These are the Heads - the mostly spiritual leader of the central Foru micro-state collective. Their role is to be a guide for all the leaders (archs) in central Foru and speak for all of them on an international level. They also bless lands and people and generally are well-liked by them. They can make big decisions, but it's ultimately on the archs if they comply (but the pressure is strong).

Every head has a more specialized role, each representing a 'sense' of their one shared soul (hearing, seeing, touch, thought...) and people they are patrons to (the old, the "rich", the leaders, the priests...). Each central Foru micro-state usually has its favorite head that they want to see the most in their community when bringing them news or blessings.

here are closeups

The Heads are the center of a religion practiced in the region. In short - the Heads share one spirit that in ancient times belonged to a priest who misused their power to get to the spirit world and instead became forever stuck in the material world. After many reincarnations, the priest became a wise leader who learned to speak with the spirit world and make final peace between the worlds of spirits and the material.

I would need to go into more religion details to go over that but that can be a separate post. Let's talk about how they get their role.

A 'competition' is held to determine the best leader, most spiritually attuned, most well-thinking, and best-presenting individual. The Heads in position at the time with a few other high-ranking individuals will judge the participants and then make their pick at the choosing ceremony. Luckily there are not too many to choose from, there are many requirements to participate.

However, the one picked isn't one that will become a head, they would be far too old at the time. Instead, they will force their system to make a rare phenomenon happen. This means making more of themselves with cloning (having babies grow out of diploid cells with no need for another person). This is usually achieved when under high amounts of stress and loneliness.

The uniima egg naturally holds 4 larvae but usually only 1-2 develop fully while the rest becomes food for the surviving ones. This clone egg has 4 identical whites (pre-babies) in them that get special care to ensure at least 3 survive. There have been heads with one member before and with 2 and 3, but 4 is a miracle as the bottom corner larva almost never develops enough to hatch. This egg is very lucky.

The identical quadruplets are given to be raised in different environments. These environments will decide what they represent as adults. It will also give them better perspectives of the world, making it easier/more difficult to make big decisions when the time comes.

Additionally, because there are 4 heads this time, a new environment had to be introduced. This environment was that of small communities, minorities, and generally people living in poorer conditions (yes, for the past Heads, war was more important than their people suffering (it's a very central Foru thing)). Unfortunately for The Ear, they are not respected everywhere, and many people assume them to be a fake among their siblings.

You can also see the heads have each their own signature and each Head generation has their own symbol that is recognized outside their writing systems.

Once again a creature from the continent of Slomen. A very primitive but also very specilised critter. 6 to 30 cm long, wet roots up to 45cm.

They live in many aquatic environments but most often you will find them in forest rivers and lakes. Some species have even adapted for life in the sea and could be considered fully aquatic while still air breathing.

Majority of the clade feeds on small animals like invertebrates sometimes parts of plants they can digest. Their hunting strategy is either burst swimming, jumping or just sliding on top of some slow prey.

There were two important species that started life on land, with the leaf ancestor being a smaller, less land specilised of the two. Leafs are one of their earliest evolutionary branches as land vertebrates and have retained many acient features like paw suckers and teeth instead of claws. In bigger vertebrates most of these little teeth were lost and became true claws or fingers (even present on the other land climber ancestor).

They can actually eat with their feet that are still closely connected to their stomach. But it applies only to very small food particles.

The wets are not very culturally significant but some regions do eat them. But the thick mantle isn't very tasty. In some places they symbolise good harvest season.

These little guys are also related to the 'birds' of Elve and I'm sure you can see why.

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

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