#eldritch ecology

[possumcollege]

popular mechanics used to posthole on main

[kobbers]

Rathalaugust 2023 (catchup) day 21: Fulgur Anjanath

I combined my love of Anjanath chilling with its sail up with the apparent lore that the babies are fully feathered (before they lose much of it as adults).

[dungeonofthedragon]

Blind Date with a TTRPG

Inspired by Blind Date with a Book, here's a post to help you find your new favourite ttrpg. Click on a link that draws you in to 'unwrap' the ttrpg- you might be surprised by what you find!

All of these ttrpgs cost $10 USD or less. Free and PWYW titles are marked with an asterisk, to ensure you can find a great game no matter your budget.

Anime Inspired- Optimistic- Friendship

Supernatural- Pacifist- Shapeshifter *

Eldritch- Ocean- Doom

Celestial- Knights- Devotion *

Comedic- Investigative- Supernatural

Exploration- Fantasy- Secrets

Science Fantasy- Ecological- Dangerous *

Dystopian- Hopeful- Friendship

Urban Fantasy- Factions- Dramatic *

Alternate History- Oracular- Investigative *

Heroic- Magical- Cats

Sports- Competitive- Outer Space *

Dystopian- Eldritch- Transformation

Bittersweet- Peaceful- Travel *

Regency- Mecha- Comedy *

Monster Hunters- Curses- Magic *

Insects- Travel- Nature *

Vampires- Demons- Cyberpunk

Healing- Monsters- Friendship *

Outlaws- Magic- Adventure

Renaissance- Anti-Colonial- Magic *

Urban- Wizards- Trading Cards

Adventure- Rabbits- Dangerous

[t6fs]

May I ask, what is the Scrimshander's deal? What is it doing in London?

The easy answer is that the Scrimshander is in London because it fell in and can't get out.

The complicated answer is that the Scrimshander is a spacetime traveller who does not control what space and time it travels to, partially annihilated by an eldritch horror, easily killed but unable to die or dream properly, fed by the fear of the inevitable end and a hunger that will never be satisfied. It roams the rooftops and breaks into people's homes to help them, ensuring it will be noticed, but on a personal level rather than a societal one, and slowly picks away at its ambitions.

The meta answer is that almost 6 years ago, I decided to make one character I'd play in everything, and for shits and giggles, there would be no AUs allowed; everything was to be canon. I built the Scrimshander, slowly, over the years, and gave it a curse: if it dies, or is not perceived for too long, it vanishes and falls into a new universe. I maintaun a timeline of places its been, starting with its home setting, and cateloguing its nonlinear meandering through spacetime and letting its experiences change it. I find this incredibly fun and rewarding, and have over the years built a home culture, ecology, and even a conlang, and I have used it in multiple settings. London is the last place it will ever go before it finally chances its way back home, and is annihilated for good.

The Poet is there, too. The Poet lives in the Scrimshander's memory, and has since forgotten his name. Since the Scrimshander cannot dream, the Poet dreams for it. The Poet cannot speak, cannot lie, and can only write in haiku. The Poet may escape, one day.

[smolbluegoblin]

alright, Burrow's End conspiracy theories time!

what we learned is that the Blue is affecting everything in a radius around the "Second Sun" located at the grey rectangle rock - most likely a human structure as depicted on the DM screen. The "non-bears" Ava described are most likely vehicles, since (like the bear) they move around carrying smaller creatures inside and kicking up dust while doing so. The creatures described by Thorn look like humans with gas masks and hazmat suits on.

(which, might I add, is so fucking cool because seeing humans through another creature's eyes really is an eldritch horror experience, Lovecraft move over we have @quiddie now)

Two things jumps out to me straight away: the Meadow and the dust storm.

The Meadow was full of blue flowers, but also seems like it was protected by electricity somehow (the lighting coming from the earth). Was it electric fences ? A force field ? Why would humans protect flowers ?

Now, the dust storm is weird. Sure, a truck (or multiples) can kick off a lot of dust, but not enough to kill MOST OF THE STOATS in the Red Warren. The damages it dealt means it was more than dust in there, and when Viola remembered the dust cloud from the end of Episode 1, Aabria added something about it being kicked off "on purpose". Was the purpose to get rid of the stoats? To empty out the forest of threats like the parasited bear ?

Another detail I saw in Episode 3 is when Izzy asked if she was able to read English, Aabria confirmed the humans language isn't English because she "doesn't want the events to be able to be attached to a real place". So the events probably are inspired by multiple real life events but she wanted to be cool about it and have creative liberty and not tie it to a specific setting and have people in the comments calling out inaccuracies the whole time (which... fair)

Finally, with next week's teaser and Viola's vision of seeing her kids in a grey smooth stole burrow, we can assume that the facility has been abandoned by humans and reclaimed by stoats. All of that is speculative since the next episode isn't out yet though.

With all of this new info, here's my theory:

The Blue is the consequence of a human-made thing that went out of hands. Is it radiation? Pollution? Something else? Don't know yet. But it's airborne and has affected an entire perimeter around the facility and the creatures within it.

Humans don't seem to approach the Blue without hazmat suits, and protect the area with electricity, either to keep stuff from coming into the area, or to avoid affected creatures to leave the area. (the Meadow was described as far south in relation of the second sun so it might be around the border of the area ?)

A recent expedition into the polluted area kicked off a lot of dust, and the concentration of Blue killed the weaker stoats: elders and children. It might also be a gas that was spread by humans to quell the number of animals in the area, because they know they've been affected (sapience, mutations) and want a clear path to go back into the area without much threat.

The epicenter of the Blue, the facility, since it was deserted, has been used by stoats because the Blue gives them powers; it made them intelligent, capable of some sort of magic, so why not go closer to the source of their power ?

The whole situation makes me think of some ecological disasters - Chernobyl being front and center - with these mutations and invisible force/enemy. Maybe the zone was evacuated of human presence for a long time, leaving the stoats to develop their society (irl stoats are very territorial and don't like to share quarters after all). But maybe they're coming back and menacing the family with their presence and activities. Maybe the stoats were an experiment that escaped when the Blue happened ? Maybe they were just affected by it the most out of all animals for some reason ?

I mean, I can spin theories all I want, but at the end of the day these stoats have invented a writing system so it might be all for nothing and Aabria is a mastermind operating beyond the scope of our minds

[dionysus-complex]

man not to vaguepost or come off as humorless but something about that post about Las Vegas I've seen a few times on my dash that's like "Las Vegas is an eldritch horror in the middle of hundreds of square miles of empty lifeless desert with no real suburbs, just scorpions and sand in every direction" rubs me the wrong way because like...it's simply not the case. Vegas sits in the shadow of Nuvagantu (Mount Charleston), the site of the Southern Paiute creation myth, which is a temperate sky island in the Mojave that supports extensive conifer forests. and the Mojave isn't empty or lifeless either - one of the largest Joshua tree woodlands in existence sits just south of Vegas in the Avi Kwa Ame/Spirit Mountain area, which just gained protection as a national monument last year precisely because of its ecological diversity and its religious importance to the Yuman peoples. the Las Vegas valley itself is so named because of its natural springs and meadows and the valley has been inhabited by people for over 10,000 years and specifically by Paiute people since at least 700 CE. (also, I'm not sure where the "Vegas has barely any suburbs" thing is coming from because the whole valley is filled with them??)

anyways I'm begging people to consider that there are real things at stake when we characterize desert ecosystems as wastelands and the whole "Vegas is a city that shouldn't exist"/"why would anybody live there" thing slides real quickly toward ecofascism - it's a city that has a long history of economic exploitation through its association with the gaming industry, sure, but it's also a lot of people's home that they care deeply about and make art about

[wanderingnork]

Gith Deep Dive: Top Ten Weirdest Lore From Dragon Magazine

Dragon was a magazine published from 1976 to 2013, first by TSR (the origin company of D&D), then Paizo (now best known for Pathfinder), and finally Wizards of the Coast. It was replaced in 2015 by Dragon+, which ran until 2022. The magazine published short fiction and comics, adventures and maps, reviews, advice, artwork, and more. Whole adventure lines (like Age of Worms or Scales of War) were published through the magazine, never as hard-copy books. Its famous "Ecology of..." line provided in-depth bestiary looks at various iconic monsters. The mind flayer ecology article is even narrated by a githyanki! It introduced magic items, class mechanics, and more--some of which have become staples of the wider tabletop RPG community.

Dragon ran for 430 issues and Dragon+ added another 41 on top of that. 47 issues of the original run featured the githyanki heavily, and 4 of Dragon+ did. On my neocities gith resources page, you can see all of them. They often appeared on encounter or class tables (as a PC race particularly suited for a particular paragon path or prestige class), but those I haven't included.

What's presented here is what I think are the ten weirdest, wildest, most surprising pieces of gith lore out of Dragon (and Dragon+). Enjoy.

(Note: I use Astral Plane and Astral Sea based on edition--it was Astral Plane up until 4th Edition when it switched to Astral Sea.)

(Further note: I sincerely apologize on behalf of the original writers for the way some of the original articles are written. There's often thoughtless language, nasty biases, and other questionable content. Trust me, it gives me the ick too.)

-

10: #93 – "Pronunciation Guide: An informal index of the right things to say", p.26

So...that's not actually how the article titled is spelled, but I hate how they did it so, so much. "Ay pronunseeAYshun gyd." Thanks, but no thanks.

This is more of a meta-weirdness than anything else. According to this article, "githyanki" is pronounced "gith-yan-kee," with emphasis on "yan." Cool, fine. "Githzerai," on the other hand, which we mostly pronounce as "gith-zer-eye" now (with emphasis on "eye"), is said to be pronounced "gith-zer-ee" (with emphasis on "gith"). You can spot this pronunciation listed on the Forgotten Realms wiki article, but in Baldur's Gate 3 it's quite clearly pronounced the former.

How times change.

9: #408 - Bazaar of the Bizarre: Treasures of the Elemental Chaos, p.29

The artifact suite "Xenda-Dran's Array" offers players a chance to wear the gear of a long-dead slaad assassin in the service of the slaad lord Ygorl. Apparently, eons ago, the slaad ran into the enlightened githzerai master Liricosa (detailed in The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos, p.148). Liricosa's power is such that he either killed the slaad easily...or his transcendent nature turned a slaad, the embodiment of chaos, into a being of law.

8: #390 – Power Play: Divine: Dead Gods, p.46-47

Deep in the Elemental Chaos floats the petrified body of the long-dead god Haramathur. Eons ago, this god sacrificed himself to seal away a powerful primordial. Now a githzerai monastery has been carved directly out of the god's body. The githzerai who live there call themselves the "Disciples of Stone" and may actually be able to communicate with stone itself. Good luck getting there to meet them, though: the body is surrounded by a maelstrom of volcanic energy.

7: #287 – Creatures of the Chaos Spire, p.74

An eldritch fortress known as Gnythagak, shaped by use of psionic power, is now known as the Chaos Spire. It was taken from the illithids by a combined force of githyanki and githzerai. Afterwards, the githyanki occupied the fortress, and the githzerai responded with an army. Tens of thousands died on both sides in the massive battle. In the end, the githzerai channeled the raw matter of the plane of Limbo directly into the heart of Gnythagak, resulting in an interplanar explosion and the transformation of the fortress into a migratory pocket-plane of its own.

The wild part about this isn't the battle. It's that the githyanki and githzerai worked together at such a scale for such a massive undertaking. That's pretty damn exceptional, and a demonstration of just how much both sides hate mind flayers.

6: #245 – Mindstalkers, p.36-43

This article covers an order of dwarves who develop psionic powers in order to hunt illithids. They learned from a githyanki who, in gratitude for being rescued from illithid clutches before he could become dinner, taught his dwarven rescuers psionic skill. The githyanki even brought ore from an Astral godmote to the dwarves so they could forge special weapons to fight mind flayers. These "caradhakers" adopt githyanki hairstyles and ornamentation alongside their typical clan fashions (and, of course, beards).

Githyanki aren't normally quite this open or friendly with other species. But, much like the incident with the Chaos Spire, hatred of illithids overrides everything.

5: #101 – Creature Catalog III, Thendar, p.54

Appearing ONLY in this single brief article, the thendar are a strange, humanoid Astral species who travel the planes gathering knowledge. They live for thousands of years and are peaceful sages.

The githyanki hate them. Probably just because they're nice...?

4: #159 – Voidjammers!

HOOOO BOY OKAY THIS IS THE DISTURBING ONE BUCKLE THE FUCK UP

So a thousand years or so ago, this archmage named Peregrin got bored with Material Plane adventures and moved to the Astral Plane with intent to literally form a planar taxi service. His adventures could probably fill a book, but the point for this post: the githyanki fucking hate this guy. First for intruding on the Astral Plane, then because this guy went on a rampage through the githyanki forces to confront Vlaakith *face to face* and demand she stop attacking his ships.

Apparently she was "less powerful" than she is now.

The githyanki left Peregrin's taxi service alone, for the most part, but they're still nursing one hell of a grudge. As they should. See, most of the ships are powered by extracted mind flayer brains, lobotomized to remove personality and retain psionic power for propulsion. So, so fucking disturbing, but the githyanki would probably approve of that. What they would not approve of is that it's rumored that Peregrin's personal flagship is powered by a pair of githyanki brains.

And, if it wouldn't make the whole species angry enough to find a way to kill him, Peregrin is openly stated to think powering his whole fleet with githyanki brains is a good idea.

In Dragon #166, a reader sent in a letter discussing how nightmarish this is and how much they disapprove. I find myself agreeing.

3: #419 – Winning Races: Bladelings

This article introduces the "bladelings" as a playable race for 4th Edition. Fancy, edgy (ha), violent, growing literal razor blades out of their bodies like scales, the bladelings were originally mortal human worshipers of Bane. When they won his favor, Bane fused them with their weapons forever. You know. As you do.

And then there's this one random throwaway line on page 23: "A few dissidents claim that they were actually from the same racial stock that would eventually give rise to the githyanki and githzerai."

E X C U S E ? ? ?

No elaboration is ever given. Guess we just get to live with this!

2: #381 – "The Foundling," Mike Resnick, p.18-23

Right. I highly recommend you read this one yourself for maximum impact. Here's the Internet Archive link.

In brief...a young githzerai woman (all of 22 years old) loses her infant child. A year later, she discovers an orphaned githyanki baby. And, well...

"It wasn’t its fault that it was born of the githyanki. It needed care, and love, and shelter, and she had all three to give."

Despite the scorn of her kin, the young woman decides to raise the baby as her own. For one of them, the scorn eventually turns to hate, and so begins a series of attacks by increasingly powerful monsters on mother and child as they travel far and wide to escape their enemies. After four years, things finally come to a head. At which point...well. I really, REALLY don't want to spoil the ending.

Let's just say that the githzerai responsible for the attacks is about to have a really, really bad day.

NUMBER ONE WEIRDEST: #355 – Ecology of the Devourer, p.58-63

This article covers the nightmarish devourer, a form of undead that devours souls. How they're created has changed over the years (nowadays they're fiends, not undead), but this article is from D&D 3.5, where they were very much undead. They drive someone to the brink of death, then drag the person's soul inside their ribcage and torture it for power.

According to this article, the devourers originated with the githyanki.

During the reign of Vlaakith 156--the predecessor of the current Vlaakith--a scheming general decided to avoid getting his soul eaten. Because apparently the previous Vlaakith was also a soul-eating lich! His attempt went wrong and his rebellion was crushed. Their souls were taken from them and locked away, their bodies thrown into the Astral Plane.

Unfortunately for Vlaakith and the githyanki in Tu'narath, the general's body was reanimated by energy from the Negative Energy Plane. He brought back his most loyal followers as the same kind of undead, all of them starving for their missing souls, and they launched a second attack on Tu'narath. Many, many githyanki died in the unexpected attack. Vlaakith and the undead general finally fought face to face over the bodies of their followers. History's not clear on who won, but at some point in the chaos the current Vlaakith--number 157--took the throne. She's ruled unchallenged for a thousand years and the githyanki have hated and feared the devourers ever since.

That's...so much to unpack. Multiple Vlaakiths were liches? This is a long-running tradition? According to the article, the exact dates of a Vlaakith's reign are obscured, so exactly how long does each one rule? Just how LONG have the githyanki been around?

Oh, and the icing on the cake: in the modern day, some githzerai monasteries employ elder devourers as monastery guards. In return for aid, the githzerai search for the devourers' original missing essence. In the meantime, they feed the devourers the souls of captured githyanki.

The githzerai are not the good guys.

-

On deck for next time: the githyanki of 4th Edition D&D!

[ominoose]

Kane kept the journal? Could you elaborate?

Absolutely! Spoilers for the Annihilation book below.

Its important to note the book centers more around Lena, the biologist, and her relationship with Kane. In the book, their marriage is on the rocks. She has trouble letting him and anyone truly in, so used to just being self sufficient with her own head. Kane stubbornly wants in. Lena's an introvert, Kane's an extrovert. He calls her his "ghost bird".

She struggles to properly let him in, he struggles to properly accept her as she is.

He leaves Area X partially because he hopes maybe it would save his marriage, either prove to himself she did need him or she didn't. He wanted her to beg him to stay.

Tldr she doesn't truly open up to him, hides her heart away and their marriage struggles and now he's in alien eldritch weird place in a military operation keeping a mandatory journal.

And he addresses almost every entry to her. Because he intended to come back alive and share it with her. The journal was full of crude biological observations, something he had no interest or education in, but she lived for.

"A description in the margin of a tidal pool", "A length observation of the atypical use of an outcropping of oysters at low tide", "Photographs of the tidal pools were placed carefully in a sleeve in the back. Placed carefully, too, were pressed wildflowers, a slender seed pod, a few unusual leaves."

It becomes clear that when he gets there, it's almost like he comes to an acceptance of her. He's glad to take what she gives, she's enough as she is.

"Seeing all of this, experiencing all of it, even when it's bad, I wish you were here. I wish we had volunteered together. I would have understood you better here, on the trek north. We wouldn't have needed to say anything if you didn't want to. It wouldn't have bothered me. Not at all. And we wouldn't have turned back. We would have kept going until we couldn't turn back.

Tldr x2, he struggled so much with pushing to get into her head and heart, pushing her to let him in and in the end, in a hellscape that warped the human mind he found acceptance for her and solidified his love for her. In a horrible experience he pressed flowers and took notes on ecology he was bored by because he knew it meant the world to her. She never expressed words like love, and now he was meeting her halfway through this journal.

[wardenwyrd]

Writeblr Introduction

Dotted in secret stars and whispered moons lies The Warden O' Wyrd; too bright smiles and sharp eyes linger on her skin, miasma orbiting their visage. When dusk's hands sweep fluttering eyes closed her shackles, in turn, loosen.

Greetings and welcome all, I am Wardenwyrd - connoisseur of messy queers, the freaky & occult, and all things speculative fiction! I am freshly new to Writeblr and am keen to dig my claws so fellow denizens of Writeblr interact if you enjoy my vibes < 3

Open to ask and tag games !

◈What I write ◈

Anything and absolutely everything speculative, weird horror, all shapes and forms of queerness, and a metric ton of worldbuilding.

Genres: Fantasy (Low, high, dark, fairy tale-esque, etc), Sci-Fi, Paranormal, Romance, Horror, Mystery

Fantastical, often ethereal and treacherous worlds flavoured with flowery prose

Queer, neurodivergent, and disabled characters and themes. All kinds of diversity really. Always looking to broaden and grow my noggin' with wisdom

Gender queer characters. An UNBELIEVABLE amount of dyed hair and pronounces.

Body horror: elegant body horror; gross, grimy body horror; wonderfully queer body horror 'til I burst at the seams; all sorts. Twisting of the body into something other than human as a form of beauty my beloved < 3 < 3

Characters who desperately need therapy (That would be my fault)

Rich settings and worlds. Give me intricate magic systems !!! give me ecology that could be shown in a nature documentary !!!

🌔About Me 🌒

Goblin in my (late) teens. I've been writing for a whiiiile but started really getting into it about half a decade ago. I will ravenously consume all forms of creative media.

⭐Likes ⭐

Favourite colour: Purple my beloved Favourite band: Mili (I'm so normal about them) Favourite genre/s: Gothic lit, Fantasy, Horror romance, whimsical fairies Fav insect: Moths/Butterflies

Stats:

Creative writing college student

Panromantic Ace | Queering my gender to the max

English (Regrettably)

Autism kreachure

Revolving door of hyperfixations on science-y stuff

Purple hair (Not beating the stereotype allegations)

WIPs

[Note: I am very bad at deciding on WIP names]

Prisma

My surreal fantasy WIP comprised of a collection of different stories linked by a unifying setting.

Colour-Coded to the max. Each central story focuses on a character assigned a colour, differing in tone, POV, and focus. Main three are purple, blue, and red.

Literal becomes figurative, and figurative literal

Charms and incantations of old swirl in from afar, weaving our hands together with something much deeper than flesh – a curious sentiment oozing from the recesses of Damsel’s cloak as the feeling of moss and stone wove through my veins; cold and refreshing.

◉

‘What absurdity’, The Arbiter would think to himself. After all, those carmine red eyes of his delve into the primaeval madness: in their muddy depths lies the shivering madness - Fear. From fear is the knowledge wrenched from uncertainty and bloodshot eyes. Dread is the light; tugging on world-weary watchers. 

Sort of portal fantasy, sort of not. The stories in this WIP span across many eras and places, yet often find themselves connecting and mingling. Incredibly queer.

Main characters:

MC of Red, Jack Pronouns: He/Him Bnuuy ass trans Victorian boy. Pasty and WILL combust in the sun. Autism creature. He gets a himbo bf and sick asf t-surgery scars as a treat &lt; 3 Character Playlist

MC of Blue, Hel Pronouns: Any/All seemingly innocent girl but remove the innocent and girl part. Kind of an eldritch horror after a character arc but like, that's the good ending. So old surnames weren't a thing in the era they're from. Character Playlist

MC of Purple, Dorothea Pronouns: She/They Gatekeep, Gaslight, Girlboss. Autistic adhd precocious mess who WILL make it your problem. Genuinely manipulative but has great hair so it's fine. Character Playlist

Other notable mentions

[Note: I will elaborate on all of these later]

Witch WIP

My beloved blorbos < 3 Once I figure out how to frame and present it in a more refined way I like I shall be posting about this.

Personal & Cultural struggle within a fantasy context | Disability & Identity as a main theme | Aroace protagonist and Queerplatonic relationship | Magic inspired by folklore and myth | Found family

Low Fantasy setting in a somewhat alternate earth

Sprawling magic system

Conventional fantasy groups but with a spin: revamping those vibes

Witches aren't just funny flying women but genuinely inhuman creatures with spicy shit going on

Demons and angels but: demon is the colloquial term for a class of magical beasts characterised by dense essence, not like hell demons. Angels are living algorithms born from patterns and don't have an actual association to any gods.

MC Playlists:

Branwen | Ingram

Five Steps From Hell

Biblically Accurate Angelic-Flavoured paranormal apocalypse

Autistic MC

More horror oriented than action

Lots of vibes.

MC becoming something not very human, but they're more worried that they aren't worried too much about it

I've got some dastardly plans for this one. Vibes and atmosphere whilst the world falls apart and neurodivergence is a great combo.

[nocountryforiguanodon]

Wet Woodward Wednesday Welcome one and all to Woodward Wednesdays, where we celebrate the works of Alice B. Woodward, possibly the earliest female paleoartist to restore a wide range taxa in works of undeniable artistic - not just scientific - merit. Today I'll walk you through Paleozoic underwater scenes she drew for Evolution in the Past (1912).

The first one depicts the Cambrian, and any modern lover of paleoart is probably going to ask what exactly is Cambrian about it? Where are the big stars of Burgess Shale from Anomalocaris to Hallucigenia to Pab the Snab a.k.a. Opabinia? They simply weren't known well enough: that big jelly may actually be the mouth of Peytoia, a radiodont related to Anomalocaris, which got misidentified as a jellyfish at one point:

It's unfortunate we didn't get to see any lobopods from Woodward. At least there are many other periods to cover like Ordovician:

It's hard to avoid wondering if people thought of Ordovician as the peaceful period of life, or even the boring one, with the most exciting things being graceful crinoids swaying in the waves and trilobites scittering on the sea floor. No terrifying sea scorpions or eldritch Orthoceras to haunt your nightmares.

I'm jumping right past Silurian and into Devonian, because that scene was already covered in an earlier Woodward Wednesday. Fish predictably make their first appearance (as earlier vertebrates had barely been discovered yet) in the form of placoderms and ostracoderms. There's even an ammonoid crawling on the sea floor next to Drepanaspis looking curiously like a Devonian roomba. Then again, that probably describes the feeding ecology of Drepanaspis pretty well.

The Permian marine life scene feels almost daring now, a century later. Just a bunch of regular fish and molluscs having a nice day in the sea, no rake toothed reptilians or rotary saw sharkoids or even the humble Hybodus to be seen. The temptation to make the illustrations more thrilling was surely a thing back then as much as it is now, but our standards have shifted. Aquariums were still a relatively new thing and hadn't quite made their big break into households, so these lifelike undersea scenes may have been far more exciting for an early 20th century reader. Curiously, Evolution in the Past does not include any Carboniferous scenes illustrated by Alice Woodward. Why this is, I cannot tell. If you know of other sources of Carboniferous life depicted by her in some sources, please let me know.

[soylent-crocodile]

Stag Dragon (Monster)

(model by Safari ltd)

(My partner is really into animal toy collecting; they particularly like dinosaurs, but exposure to Safari has since got me exposed to their dragon line. Which has some genuinely cool, interesting design!

Anyway, a long-term theme you'll see in this blog is Cool Mounts, quadrupedal Large creatures that can be ridden by creatures of various levels. This one, I imagine, is perfect for a druid or ranger in a forest's hour of need.)

CR11 CG Large Dragon (Air)

Dazzling creatures of the forest, stag dragons are rarely seen by humanoids, preferring invisibility or the guise of a fey shape to keep themselves hidden. They are herbivores, browsing on high foliage and fast-growing ferns, although they are deliberately careful not to overgraze in any one tree or spot.

Stag dragons are guardians of the local ecology of their region. They monitor the wellbeing of their undergrowth, of the deer they run with, and the many small creatures from insects to songbirds that live in their home. They tend to allow forage and subsistence hunting, understanding humanoids as part of the ecology, but do not permit civilization's encroach.

In times of crisis, stag dragons are known to take valorous and trustworthy heroes as riders, although this agreement typically lasts as long as the danger.

This beautiful creature is clearly draconic in nature, but its graceful legs and branching horns call to mind a noble stag.

Misc- CR11 CG Large Dragon (Air) HD13 Init:+11 Senses: Perception:+17, Darkvision 60ft, Blindsense 60ft Stats- Str:28(+9) Dex:25(+7) Con:18(+4) Int:15(+2) Wis:16(+3) Cha:20(+5) BAB:+13/+8/+3 Space:10ft Reach:5ft Defense- HP:136(13d12+52) AC:27(-1 Size, +7 Dexterity, +6 Natural, +5 Deflection) Fort:+12 Ref:+15 Will:+13 CMD:40 Resist: Immunity: Acid, Dragon Traits, Slow Weakness: Special Defenses: SR24, DR5/cold iron, Eldritch Grace Offense- Gore +19(3d6+9 plus Illumination), Tail +19(2d6+9), 2 Hooves +17(1d8+5) CMB:+23 Speed:50ft Special Attacks: Breath Weapon (13d6 damage plus illumination, 60ft line, Will DC20 for half, useable every 1d4 rounds) Feats- Multiattack, Improved Initiative, Power Attack (-4/+8), Iron Will, Run, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Sunder Skills- Acrobatics +11, Climb +14, Diplomacy +14, Escape Artist +18, Heal +10, Intimidate +15, Knowledge (geography) +6, Knowledge (local) +6, Knowledge (nature) +11, Perception +17, Sense Motive +17, Stealth +21, Survival +17, Swim +14 Spell-like Abilities-  Freedom of Movement /constant Invisibility, Plant Growth /at-will Greenmist 3/day Special Qualities- Change Shape (A single fey form, Fey Form I) Ecology- Environment- Forests (Temperate) Languages- Common, Draconic, Sylvan, Elvan Organization- Solitary Treasure- None Special Abilities- Breath Weapon- A stag dragon’s breath weapon is a blast of searing light. A creature that fails its save against is blinded for 1 round; all creatures hit are then subject to the stag dragon’s illumination. The breath weapon also destroys all fog it hits, although most magical fogs will return a round after being dispersed. Eldritch Grace- A stag dragon gets a deflection bonus to AC equal to its charisma modifier. Illumination- A creature dealt damage by a stag dragon’s horns or breath weapon must make a DC23 Will save or be illuminated for 1 hour. A creature illuminated this way glows with silvery light; they take a -20 circumstance penalty to Stealth checks against seeing creatures and cannot benefit from concealment, even if invisible.

[antisocialbunnysims]

Just sharing some of my favorite shots from my new machinima I uploaded a few days ago. I would love if you checked it out! It took me over a month to film and edit it, and I also did the voiceovers and composed the music myself. It involves a mysterious lab, a down-on-her-luck firefighter, and a cowplant as an ancient-eldritch-god-type horror. My inspiration included: Jeff Vandermeer books, David Lynch, the Alien movies, Resident Evil, and this lot by Zarathustra. Watch it here! It's ep 11 of season 2 of my story series, there's a very brief summary under the cut if you are intrigued and want to watch but don't know the plot. And let me know what you think! :)

basic plot summary: my terrible sim Nolan is level 10 of the ecological guru career. His butler called the fire department for no reason in episode 10, and the firefighter Opal Jalowitz yelled at Nolan and fined him when she arrived to no fire. Then he rolled the want to drink her. I've never had a cowplant before and wanted to take advantage of this horrible want. He enlists the help of his longtime frenemy Blanche the evil witch, and promises to pay her 10 grand which she desperately needs. This episode follows Opal the firefighter as Nolan and Blanche's plan unfolds. Nolan's wife who is having an affair with his super buff bodyguard also makes a brief appearance. Hope you enjoy!

[floofgryph]

hi so i saw you asked for questions about your oc (https://www.tumblr.com/floofgryph/747524146760712192?source=share) and since u have asked abt mine im no u carding you >:D

-would!! he accept a hug!! mayhaps friendship?? i ask this for literally every oc lmfao

-whats in his sketchbook? like the recent stuff :3

-ditto but for the journal

-would he ever like- publish the stuff he writes? or like is that already something hes done? howd it go?

(sorry if its not much its 10 minutes past midnight rn im not tired but brain no no wanna work but i wanted to do smth nice :D)

(also if u wanna know how i think crossover interaction would go hey im happy to write in another ask for that too -v-)

To answer your questions in order...

He doesn’t mind hugs, but will either politely or rudely decline if someone gives off extremely bad vibes.

The sketches consist of landscapes outside and inside of Homeworld, Marilou, eldritch monstrosities, his strangest dreams or worst nightmares, and animals that grab his attention. The recent stuff in his sketchbook are ideas for future acrylic and gouache paintings. They consist of two landscapes, one of Marilou, three of his nightmares, and five random monster designs.

He’ll only publish work that he feels proud of, personally believing that it should be shared with others in order to garner attention and make them feel inspired. The only times that he won’t publish his work is when they feel uninspiring and mediocre, don’t have a satisfying ending, or are too personal to share. So far, the only work he has published is a collection of poetry and an ecological dystopian. They weren't the most successful, but it raked in some money...

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

Ludinus is a complete fucking dumbass. If Predathos is a natural predator of the gods and Predathos is smart enough to communicate with him, then it knows that its main food source taps out at 20 gods. It’ll need to farm more to continue eating, and where do you get more gods? People. It’s difficult and it’s labor and magic-intensive but if Predathos wants to keep eating that’s where it’ll go, and with the gods gone there is absolutely nothing keeping it from setting up little god-farms with the rest of humanity to feed their new eldritch lord. How would they fight back? They gave it their protectors.

Even assuming that isn’t Predathos’ intent, an invasive species wiping out a keystone species without sufficient time to evolve a new candidate for the abandoned niche is a recipe for ecological devastation. If Predathos is allowed to roam free, the magical ecosystem of Exandria would be completely unable to cope with it and the loss of magic from such an upheaval would be a hurricane next to the Calamity’s thunderstorm.

[keepmeinmind-01]

i have the strongest craving to write some weird eldritch ecological horror newttina content but it’s all vibes alone

[original-character-championship]

@serethespider's aubrey propaganda post #3: worldbuilding and species info

(heyy so i know i said i'd put worldbuilding and backstory here but i forgot how much information this is so i'm splitting it up XD anyway-)

do you like cool aliens? do you like dimension travel? do you like telepaths? do you like unconventional ecologies? if you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be interested in learning about worldwalkers!

worldwalkers (no in-universe name) are what happens when you give me too much creative power slightly eldritch dimension-hopping telepaths who basically exist as massive (as in, warehouse-sized) ever-shifting manifestations of pure thought, tethered to a body that lets them interact with the physical world. they're also overpowered. for example, in my original scifi universe, telepaths are ranked on a scale from D to A, with A being the highest-power class.

worldwalkers are class S. or they would be, if anyone really knew they existed.

...maybe i should back up and start from the beginning.

a baby worldwalker's life begins when their parent shapes them a body and drops them off with a surrogate family of whatever the dominant species happens to be. and for the first 100 years or so, things are mostly normal. sure, they don't age physically past young adulthood, and they're constantly emitting an aoe charm effect that makes people want to take care of them and that they're unaware of and can't conciously control, but overall they aren't too different from any other member of their assumed species.

and then the first molt happens.

see, worldwalkers have about 4 life stages, each marked by a kind of ascension or metamorphosis. their mental 'bodies' become too small for their growing powers and crack open and fall away to reveal a new, bigger, stronger form. like a shake shedding its skin, except in this case the skin is their mind.

it's not exactly a fun experience.

especially the first time, which along with more refined powers that they can actually control, also dumps the knowledge of what they are and the memories of their ancestors into their head all at once. i wonder how aubrey reacted to this happening to them?

anyway, this second stage lasts about 500-600 years, and is considered the 'adolescent' stage. their telepathy and the size of their true form grow throughout, until they've become too big for their 'skin' again. aubrey is at the very tail end of this right now.

the third stage of life is marked by another molt and marks both full maturity and the above-mentioned class-of-its-own level of telepathic power. this stage can last indefinitely if the worldwalker in question doesn't have kids.

if they do decide to have kids, they can deliberately trigger their fourth and final, incredibly short, stage of life. in this stage, their powers grow enough to cross the boundary between thought and reality and they become god-damn reality benders and use this power to open portals to other dimensions and yeet their children across the interdimensional interstate to their new adoptive homes, forming them physical bodies as they do so.

this process also fucking kills them.

the amount of sheer power a fourth-stage worldwalker has is too much for their fragile physical bodies to handle, and they burn away as their mental forms expand and expand and expand until they, too, reach their limits and explode. a worldwalker dies like a supernova.

and the cycle begins anew, in a new world, with a new body.

tl;dr aubrey miller is an elder god k thx bye

coming next: MEMES