Right: First up the Listener Temple I've already described. Next: A 'Hellmouth' (note: I don't like that name, can anyone suggest a better one?') These barely mobilecreatures live in the Dark Canyon and use their lgihts to impersonate a range of different things. From simple glowing moss, to the wave patterns of glow-grass, to swarms of lumis flies; anything that will attract somthign for it to snare and eat. The tentacles have poison barbs, that can kill even a full grown Carac (six feet long and weighs more than a human). If they sense something too dangerous approaching, their lights can impersonate the warning signals of other dangerous predators. As they grow their diet changes to whatever is suitble for their size. Jenaari: These sentient beings were the first inhabitents of Kendara canyon, before eventually being driven out. A few remain in the caves, but by the late period most are scattered across Aeolus They are aggressive and sometimes launch raiding parties, but for the msot part they keep to theselves. Finally, a Sallaran: These surface creatures burrow underground for shelter during storms and emerge en mass during lulls. They use the winds to roll alone, raising their 'sails' to do so. They eat net-grass, but will occasionally scavenge other food, even carrion. Behemoth(thing Hym posted) to come later. ***** the other thing is a characte rconcept of sorts: Adrian Winger orginated from a steampunk-esque world where either a) he or his friend invent a teleporter, or b) they find a magical teleporter(that they don't know what it is) that takes him to Aeolus. He then uses it to travel around Aeolus(including through time) and he writes down stuff that will be the individual stories. Some of which involve him, and others are tales he's heard of. I sorta prefer the magic idea to the tech one as it makes it a little less Doctor Whoish, but even them I'm not quite happy with introducing someone form a seperate, more Earth-like world. I think it works because it gives the reader a more familiar viewpoint, but at the same time I sorta feel it might take away some of the uniqueness of it. Og course he could be from an Aeolan civilisation but that doesn't seem to work as well to me.
Sorry for the really bad pictures. At long last, the Behemoth: As hym said, this scrunches up and digs into the gorund during storms. It's fairly solitary, so the big sails are mostly used to spot each other in the distance(useful for mating), but also they wave them around a little so they know which way to turn to avoid being picked up by the wind. Fossran(unsure of name): Another surface creature, these are branacle/mushroom/jellyfish/insect/things. They float on the air for a while, close their chutes and drop to the gorund. Then they curl up their body and use their hoods to crawl to a suitable spot. Then they stick the body in the gorund and leech water and minerals out of it like a plant. They come in many different species with different sizes and colourations. Often they'll blow into canyons, and most of them just sort of drift around for a bit, then end up staying put or crawling a little. Some are more adapted to this, they're better at walking and absorbing minerals, since they can't move to a new place, and are often less colourfull and better camouflaged. Locals will collect and eat them, seperating out the body, stem, and hood, cooking them seperatly. They taste quite nice, thoguh msot species are quite small so the body is more seed sized. Also at long last: COLOUR! *** Character wise, if Adrian Winger is used it should be a magical artifact, I'm thinking either a wristband/bracelt thing that he can't take off, or a green crystal that he needs to keep hold of. He definately shouldn't have control over where it takes him(maybe getting some idea later), and possibly not even when - it could be taking him to places for a reason and only leaves when he's done, or it could be a specific time period between each - though that seems a little slidery. For the most part the plots should be seperate, however there will be an era he visits at least twice if not several times. We can have a millitary leader in an early story try to take the device at the end but he zaps out fo there, but then later returns to the same era and he can be a recurring villain. There could also be a love interest there? I'm thinking this would be late middle period(as in nearing the end of the middle), when the canyons and cutlures are starting to mingle. Anotyher thing about the device: there should be some implication that it was made by the Singers, making it unique(or very nearly) as the only other thing they left behind would be their towers and the temple. I doin't think Winger should be from modern Earth, as that's too cliched, I kinda wanted a victorean explorer theme, but with more knowledge of any sciency stuff, so I think a slightly steampunky verse should be good. This world wouldn't need to be mentioned much, or even at all, especially if we give him soem reason not to particularly want to return - maybe few people really liked him there anyway, and he enjoys the exploring?
here you go http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/227/3/7/space_squid_be_here_by_entropy_6-d46phz5.jpg
No idea if this is fitting, but I'd done a handful of drawings of alien life (mostly plants) for my daughter. This is one of the few animals I did. I called it a Viper Worm. Excuse the picture quality, it's a photo, not a scan.
I have more, but Deviantart is being pissy about uploads this morning. Here's another though. This one, obviously, a plant.
I'll start catalogue these into the following catagories: Sentient Races 'Canyonic' animals Topside animals Plants Machines Topside Vehicles Buildings Landscapes Cults and Religions Weaponry Miscellaeneous
I may have missed it, but it might be worth putting a planetary description in one post. Planet size, climate ranges, etc... and then narrow the focus (seems that the main part of the art is focused on one canyon on the planet?). Also,a history of the planet from discovery to now. How populated is, it. Is it colonized heavily or just in teh infancy exploration phase? This way art can be tailored to the right environment.
Most of the art here is focused on one canyon only because I did most of it. The idea of the canyons means that anyone can come upw ith just about anything and it will still have a place to go even if it doesn't fit with the stuff that came before.
Ok, there was a shared world thread that explained things. I'm going to spend 10 mins looking for it. Ifr I can't find it, I'll try to remember what we agreed. I remember most of it I think, I just want to be sure.
A Description of the Planet Aeolus I'll repost this in the OP. Ignore the magic paragraph if you want. I think this allows people to do their own thing. Some landscape/buildings up in OP too, I'll catalogue the rest later.
I'm not sure, but I think it was deleted. Lost during a server crash or something like that if I remember correctly. EDIT: nvm, found it in the Spacebattles deviant art group thread. I'm going to start contributing to this thread again, hopefully soon once midterms are over.
Even ignoring it as actual "magic", one could still do a report on indigenous religions. The magic just being the ritual part. EDIT: I'm also a bit confused. There's myriad sentient humanoid species on the planet. Some of which near industrial revolution in tech. And species 100km away they may have no contact with? Is there some reason for this startling, glaring lack of mobility? By the time of the industrial revolution humans could be found on nearly every continent on Earth (Antartica excepting, though we had explored parts of it), in vastly harsher climates than on this planet.
If the canyons aren't connected then the only way to reach the next one is by travelling those 100km over the surface. If you're lucky there's a gentle breeze. If you're unlucky you're talking winds nearly five times stronger than those you'd find in a major hurricane. Obviously its not that bad all the time but even when its only slightly bad its still not something you'd want to do unless you have to. Even if you can do it its usually not worth it. And most aren't very good at predicting when the winds will change. It's much easir just to travel through the canyons, since most have at least soem connection to others. That said there are things on the surface. so far we have: - The Raopha, who have a map of the wind currents and live in flying cities. - The people who built the rolling Globe cities, now extinct. - The Tembellic Ascendency sent a smalla rmy on a three day march oevr the surface to flank the next canyon. This is considered insane, especiallyf or their level of tech. - Whoever built the Ivory Towers. These thigns are ridiculously strong. - Hemblis weed, Sallarans, Behemoths and Fossran are examples of wildlife adapted to the winds. There may be a couple of others I've forgotten. And to be fair the 100 km is probably an extreme case. As a rule the world is split into Early, Middle and Late periods (Which can each also be split into early, middle and late!). By the late period most civilisations are in Industrial Revolution or beyond (and some are probably nicely future tech by the Late-Late).
A fair few Aeolian civilizations live in splendid isolation or only coming into contact with other civilizations in connecting canyons (which can be extensive). Travel on the surface is risky (imagine it like ocean travel before the 15th century - possible but only tried when the rewards outwiegh the risks). Even those civilzations that live on the surface in part do not come into contact with other civilzations too often, perhaps once or twice a century (per individual civilization) depending on prevailing wind patterns and chance. Travelling through the canyons can be difficult, partly due to hostile natives/lifeforms, sometime due to geography: such as in pinchpoints where the walls may be less than a foot wide. Plus, not many civs will have developed explosives, especially as that can have unfortunate consequences in tight narrow spaces. It was designed this way so that various contributors would be able to develope their own civilization/life/customs without having to go through commitee stages constantly to see what was 'canon' and to prevent competitive civ wankery (though contributors are welcome to work together to form 'relationships' between civs). The only canon is that there is no space travel or free roaming planet wide civilzation.
Ahhh, gotcha. The seeing the surface as travelling during the age of sail makes sense. So there is connections, just tenuous ones if you're not in the same canyon. More details on the above? An ancient tower of alien design would make a good bit of art.
The Ivory Towers are relics left behind by an unkown civilisation. They are tall structures that can not only resist the wind, they utilise it. The towers are designed such that when the wind blows through them, they produce music. The music is almost constant and ever changing, only falling quiet during the lulls, and no two towers sounds quite the same. The towers are immensly durable and on occasion at night ghostly blue lights can be seen dancing around the peaks. The Order of Listeners believe that the twoers were built by their gods, The Singers, to allow us to commune with them, and that the the music the voice of the gods. Listener monks travel all over Aeolus recording the sounds(though only later period monks record the actual sounds, most write down the music). Some claim to be able to interpret some of the music. The Listener monks have made their home in the only other Singer relic so far found. A massive temple located in one of the more northern (and often snowbound) canyons. The great hall of this temple has been designed so that the slightest noise, even footsteps, will reverberate around the walls, producing music. These sounds are directed at the source of the original sound. As you walk you will hear music but someone twenty feet away will hear almost nothing. The exception is a podium at the end of the hall. Sounds produced there will reverberate throughout the entire hall.
Holocene came up with the idea of towers that make music, I expanded on the backstory and came up with the Listeners. You can add to it if you want.
Oh B5, do you have a higher quality photo of the Raopha glider you posted previously? I'm drawing something up and would like to include that in the picture as well.
I just draw rally. I can do some story things but I'm really more artist than writer. So maybe I'll just do a few quick drawings of the towers, etc... Or just draw other things, and let better writers come up with stories for them
http://www.deviantart.com/download/265250899/raopha_sailship_by_fennius-d4dx8wj.jpg Best I've got. The wings face backwards(and point forwards). Bit counter intuitive at first but remember the winds will be coming from behind it, so to provide lift the wings would be the opposite from what you would use in powered flight.
