#cave dwelling rat snake

[ramenreptiles]

Stinky

[scarletandgreyexotics]

Four cute little O.t. ridleyi hatched about a week ago! 🤗 Love these sassy wigglers!

[nepentheisms]

Eleanor's been enjoying her new bioactive setup. She likes climbing on the branches and logs and snuggling up with the Pothos plant in the corner. My cleanup crew are made up of springtails, powder blue and powder orange isopods, and dwarf white isopods.

[andykilgore]

HOLY SHIT /VPOS

I FUCKING LOVE HER OMG AGGHHHBB

CAVE DWELLING RAT SNAKES I AM SO HAPPY TO ADD YOU TO MY TOP FIVE LIST !!!

[princes-and-problems-au]

Worlds worst friend group lol

just a quick doodle thing that evolved when I wasn’t looking. Meet the four horsemen of the apocalypse, none of them are men <3. They are all gender neutral! Because it’s my world and I make the rules! These are what I call their eldritch/monster forms. From left to right it’s: Famine, Pestilence, Death/Azrael, War.

They do have human forms, I just haven’t gotten around to drawing them lol, and they do have other names but I can't think of any right now. The horsemen aren’t angels, but they aren’t demons either. They’re more like the middlemen, the in between. They will end the world, but only because they are the consequences, not the cause.

They are close with one another, though heavens forbid you encounter more than one at once. Most of them are introverts/ambiverts, except for War, who is obnoxiously extroverted.

A more detailed explanation of their designs, and why I made some choices, under the cut!

We are going left to right, so first it's Famine!

Famine is obviously a very malnourished figure, with their ribs poking out and gaunt face, the reason being obvious. Their lower half is that of an olm, not a snake! A blind, cave dwelling salamander. The reason I chose an olm is because olms can survive ten years without food! That seemed very fitting. Now, onto the holes on their esophagus and stomach/rib area. Those are actually mouths! It might not be obvious in this picture, but you can sort of see the teeth on the bigger one. From the rib hole you can see the intestines and stomachs escaping. This is symbolic of famine never being full. Famine often times holds their stomach in one hand. Sometimes, they also hold a scale in the other since its the symbol they are depicted with the most.

The second is Pestilence. They are by far the least humanoid of the group. I wanted to showcase the fact that illness is a very natural thing, perhaps even the most natural of the four (Other than Death, I guess). They are mainly a chimera mix of a creature. Their neck is not inspired by anything particular, almost like a long furry giraffe neck, their upper legs are bird legs, their midsection is mammalian, but it shows signs of mange. Their lower legs are lizard-like, and they have a rat tail. The only human features Pestilence has is the face and the two hands attached to their neck. The face because I found it to be easier to showcase illness on a human face, and also because its almost like a trap. A lure to distract you from the monstrous body. The hands because the white horseman (Pestilence in this au) is often depicted with a bow. Around them are visible bacteria and viruses.

The third is Death, AKA Azrael! My main little dude. They are by far the most angelic looking, I designed them to be human, but also very obviously not. They have a human body, but not human features like a nose or mouth. Its meant to symbolize how death if prevalent in humanity, but we don't really understand it that much. Its essential in the life cycle, but also reviled and mysterious. Azrael is able to pass as an angel because they technically are in my au. They where made alongside the Princes as one of the oldest beings. Despite the other horsemen having symbols, Death is depicted without one. It does not need a weapon, it just is. (But I give them a scythe anyways because I found it cool, sue me.)

The final one is War. They kicked my ass when I tried coming up with concepts. The other horsemen are all arguably natural concepts, but war is a wholly human creation. It isn't natural. I didn't want to make War just a human person, that wouldn't fit the eldritch horror vibe I had going with the rest of them. So I decided to make War's body a puppet. The human-looking puppet, controlled by this shadowy-void being. The puppet is an empty shell that cannot do anything without the creature controlling it, its backer. War is the creature, not the puppet. I found it very symbolic. I gave the puppet a blind fold, to show it is blind to the intentions of the backer.

Thanks for reading this far! I love questions, and I hope you enjoyed learning about my ocs! Remember to drink water.

[tboykrillin]

[ID (copied from alt text): Sign on a large reptile tank labeled "future home of the cave-dwelling rat snakes". End ID]

local reptile store providing my new favorite mountain goats track title

[brokenbutunbowed]

Been so stressed out the last couple weeks I've been physically falling apart because of it (switching to 3rd shift has not helped). Our barn collapsed last week thanks to the thigh deep snow we'd gotten the week before (it warmed up to lower 30s and started to rain and that made the snow too heavy so... down went our barn). Luckily none of the chickens inside died but it's basically a total loss, and it's half the reason we bought this place. And since there's no electricity out there now, the horse and sheep have helped themselves constantly to walking through the electric fencing. Which had been a constant struggle.

And I just was doing reptile chores and found my baby cave dwelling rat snake, who I've only had a few months, at most, dead. She was my absolute dream snake I've been waiting literal years and years for, and she was the most expensive reptile I've ever bought. Always ate, never showed any signs of any problems. I've already been on the verge of throwing up all week and now I have to go to work feeling twice as worse. I don't even fucking know what to do anymore. The universe is trying to get me to get rid of all my animals this year.

[scalygems]

Estela is ready for spooky-ooky night 🔮🎃

[rainbowsnakes]

Leon has some Sne-KIA furniture too.

More info about these vivs in this post

[dantesinfurno]

gouache snakes! i was super inspired by the gorgeous snakes of @almightyshadowchan and was wanting to do a few studies. the snakes and ref pics are: saturn, parabola, and ozzie!

[collectedsnek]

Cave Dwelling Rat Snake

Othriophis Taeniurus Ridleyi

Habitat: caves and cliffs in Thailand, Chumpon, and bits of Malaysia.

Length: up to 8 feet

Diet: mainly bats and birds and the occasional rat if they're on the ground.

Venom toxicity: none

Cool Facts

They are popular in the pet industry and breeding them is considered fairly easy.

They are cathemeral which means active at random times a day

There is no information on their natural predators in the wild other than perhaps large birds and/or mammals.

[scarletandgreyexotics]

He’s almost 7 ft long, and as sweet as he is lovely! 

Saturn, 2016 Cave-Dwelling Rat snake (Orthriophis t. ridleyi)

[nepentheisms]

Eleanor the snake doing a scope

[wally-franks-stan]

What snake is Grant? Norman? Allison?

Grant is an urban ball python!

Allison is a cave dwelling rat snake

Thomas is a common European adder

[hawberries]

thinking about snakes 24/7

[image is 6 drawings of snakes arranged on a grey background: a cave-dwelling rat snake with little orange sprouts growing from it, a vienamese blue beauty rat snake wearing a tiny flower hat, a white python holding an orchid and with an orange flower on its head, a green rein snake on a branch, an orange corn snake bundled into a ball with a few clovers under it, and a ball python curled in the shape of a heart with a yellow rose on its head.]

[neonir]

LET’S TALK ABOUT THE PLANES PART 3!?

Continuing on, this time we’re looking at:

THE ELEMENTAL PLANES:

Okay so the elemental planes. Seems pretty self explanatory right? Plane of water’s just gunna be a big ocean, plane of air’s gunna be clear skies right?

Well, no. Kind of! But no. See when designing the elemental planes, they had to design them so that adventures could be had there. As a result each plane kind of has to have a biiit of variety. Like, the plane of earth isn’t just solid rock, and has caves and stuff! And the plane of fire isn’t just...y’know...a lot of regular fire. Needless to say however, before one goes to one of these places, you’re probably going to want to have an appropriate form of movement, be it water breathing and swimming, flying, burrowing or “being fire proof and also able to walk”.

In addition to being thematic and fun, the elemental planes have some of the most varied and interesting inhabitants. Each and every one of them is worth involving in your campaign if you can spare the thought.

Each of these places has their own flavour of genie. Genies tend to be kinda...Well, not super nice honestly. Some are nicer than others though. In general The Dao(earth) and Efreeti(fire) are kinda rat bastards, while the Marid(water) and Djinni(air) are more chill.

ELEMENTAL PLANE OF EARTH:

Structure: Despite being, by vast majority, an infinitely spanning ever grinding and shifting mass of various rock, gems, ores and so on, this fairly down to earth plane also features some well grounded caves, tunnel systems, fissures and engineered pockets that allow for creatures without earth glide/burrowing abilities to make their way along.

Inhabitants: Earth elementals, Dao, Xorn, Pech and so on. Dao are earth aligned Genie who are honourable in always returning a favour, and have a respect for craftsmanship, in plans, tools, art and anything else. They’re also typically giant dicks. Xorn are just cool diggy boys who eat rocks and look like living nightmares, please don’t hit these good boys :(

Threats: Well, as in most of the elemental planes, the genies are kinda...Rude. Aside from that however, earth elementals can be cranky if you go marching through their home and also sometimes the air can be less “air” and more “Deadly deadly poison gas”. Watch out for that. Also Basilisks.

Notable things: Seriously I cannot stress this enough: This is prime wizard real estate. Sure the fire plane has more trade you can do, but you just *cannot* beat the elemental plane of earth for security and subtlety. The whole place is also full of wildly valuable gems and metal ores, just be careful it’s not a Xorn’s dinner.

Further reading: Well, the Dao are possibly worth looking into, though like many things in D&D lore, it’s just RIDDLED with unnecessary slavery. Xorn, while extremely cool are pretty simple dudes. Honestly the earth plane’s biggest strength is it’s simplicity.

ELEMENTAL PLANE OF FIRE:

Structure: Okay so this is gunna get funky. But believe it or not, structure wise, this one is the MOST normal. It has ground, rivers, air, the whole kaboodle. ‘cept the ground is made of very dense fire. And the rivers are made of slightly less dense fire. And the air is poison gas and also a little bit of fire as well. Don’t come here, it sucks.

Inhabitants: Okay this is actually why you come here. See the fire genies known as efreeti are the primary inhabitants. (Salamanders and fire elementals live here too, but Salamanders are kinda just nasty fire snake people) They’re kinda egotistical and like to give themselves noble titles and stuff, BUT they are an ingenious bunch that, in spite of being evil dickheads, are really good at business.

Threats: WELL THE WHOLE PLACE IS MADE OF FIRE AND THE AIR IS TOXIC GAS MOST OF THE TIME UNLESS YOU’RE IN THE EFREET CITY AND ALSO FIRE ELEMENTALS AND STUFF SO YEAH. The Brass city is also a scary place to be if you can’t hold your own. Someone might try to just sell you. So long as the efreeti think you’re impressive enough that you would be a threat to fight, you should be safe to trade however.

Notable things: THE BRASS CITY!! This is quite possibly one of the most fascinating things about ALL of the elemental planes. See the efreeti in all their egoism and whatnot decided “Yes, we’re obviously the best place, and should have all the best things, but we really cannot be fucked making it all. Lets just get people to GIVE us the things we want AND pay us lip service.” And so they made the single biggest interplanar bazaar in the multiverse. It’s literally the ultimate black market magic emporium in the setting. It’s also specially enchanted to be HABITABLE to creatures not literally made of fire!!! Good shit!!!

Further reading: Really, just the brass city. Learn about this place. It’s fucking rad.

ELEMENTAL PLANE OF WATER:

Structure: Okay this one’s interesting again. Imagine an infinite ocean with no surface and no seafloor. The pressure is consistently that of maybe a couple of meters deep. There are huge underwater icebergs in some places, enormous three dimensional reefs on floating island sized rocks in others, and currents bearing salty, fresh, murky or boiling waters throughout. It’s a trip.

Inhabitants: Water elementals, Tritons, Nereids, the water genies known as Marids and a vast array of oceany monsters. Marids are...Fun. They’re egotists to the extreme and will respond very, very well to flattery and bribes, as they tell winding tales of their glory. Don’t interrupt them, don’t question the validity of the story. Yes, you DO believe they personally ripped off 6 of Tiamats original 11 heads. You’re very impressed.

Threats: The place is a giant swimming pool with no surface, so...try not to drown. Also keep an eye out for horrible horrible sea monsters and deadly algea that comes in as a wall on the tide. And, again, be respectful of the Marid you’re speaking to and appreciate that so long as you are, he’ll probably be..maybe not nice, but amiable.

Notable things: The variety of creatures that live on this plane truly is quite impressive, Marids share this place with at least two seperate sea dwelling deep creatures that see themselves as on par with, or above the gods, these being the Kraken and Aboleth. (probably avoid both if you can)

Further reading: Honestly both krakens and aboleths are so well developed creature types that you should probably look ‘em both up if you wanna present this place right. Marids are also, as mentioned. Fun.

ELEMENTAL PLANE OF AIR:

Structure: Pretty simple stuff: Endless skies. A few floating islands here and there, approximately the size of an asteroid. pockets of non-air gasses No bottom, no top. Jump off the side on an air ship and wait a few days worth of falling and you might be able to fall past your airship again.

Inhabitants: Honestly more limited than a lot of other places, mostly just the Djinni and air elementals. Djinni are actually nice! Mostly! They’re pretty much the only genie that’s not gunna do bad things to you if you don’t tip toe around them. Also storm and cloud giants occasionally wander about the place, which is kinda neat!

Threats: Mooostly just the fact that if you fall, and can’t fly, you’re a little fucked. Aside from that, air elementals come in a great many forms and some of them can be pretty scary. OH and the giant super duper massive storm of unreasonable doom. Avoid that.

Notable things: Because Djinni are the most friendly, trusting and open of all genie kind, and also most likely to visit the material plane, they’re also the most commonly trapped in bottles and such. If you see a djinni trapped in a bottle, don’t be a dick, let him out. He’d let you out. Be a bro. C’mon.

Further reading: Uhhh, Honestly because they’re nicer, Djinni have less written about them, they’re still worth a look however. The cloud and storm giants are also worth reading into, loooots of juicy lore behind giants.

I will get to the feywilds and shadowfell eventually, I promise.