#nummorro

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Along the same lines as the page of Blurbys from last week, here’s a bunch of K’hyurbhis! Tried to represent a fairly wide variety of shapes and sizes, as well as a few different skin tones (unlike Blurbys which are almost always pale, K’hyurbhis can have various shades of tan or grayish skin in addition to white) and varying patterns of spikes and face-markings.  The face markings may be mistaken for tattoos, but they are in fact natural, and no two K’hyurbhis have exactly the same markings (which is why disguising one’s identity as a K’hyurbhi involves wearing either cloth or armor to cover them up enough that nobody can recognize them.) And of course, members of a few of the eight K’hyurbhi tribes are present here.  There’s definitely representatives of the Hoi, Zambuzl, Umpupu, Blubberwukk, and Dondu on this page, and possibly Herbhi, along with a bunch that could be either tribeless K’hyurbhis or members of several different tribes that just don’t stick out as “obviously [insert tribe here]” at a glance.

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“Underwater pollinator.”  Now there’s a phrase I haven’t heard before!

I guess it’s not super surprising that such a thing would exist considering how widespread the “bug (and other small critter) movements help pollinate plants“ thing seems to be, but still a possibility I’d never thought about before.  Always interesting to find out neat little things like this.

(If I ever end up going into more depth about Nummorro’s ocean life, I should definitely make it so that some species of water-centipedes act as pollinators of ocean/lake plants that they swim through and hide among.  Maybe their flipper-legs brush against the plants and pick up pollen/spores/etc. as they pass like how pollen sticks to the legs of bees and such, and then it gets rained down on other plants whenever they swim a bit faster and dislodge the bits?)

Happy Pollinator week to the Baltic Isopod, the first underwater pollinator discovered by science! Lab studies imply that their activities help pollinate seagrass and macroalgea. Is there anything isopods can't do?

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30 years later, I still draw Numnums sometimes. Yes, I originally made them up in 1993! Or maybe it was 1994? Eh, close enough to 30 years either way.

Of course, older versions of them looked... a bit different from how they look these days.  1993-1997 era Numnums didn’t have legs, tails, or the feather plumes that I draw them with now -- they were legless vague bitey-things that bounced around on their butts to move.

Somewhere in the range of 1997, I drew Numnums with their orange scaly bird legs for the first time, with the first appearance of these legged Numnums being the story that Bok’s Expedition was based on.

And then for some reason, somewhere in the 1999-2000ish range I brought back legless Numnums.  While also keeping the leggy ones around.  At first they’d just kind of... both show up in games and comics and such together with no explanation as to why some had legs and some didn’t, but a couple years into high school I ended up going with the explanation that the legged Numnums were descendants of a group that had left Nummorro for a while and lived on another planet (also mentioned as a cause for Numnums growing legs in the old Bok’s Expedition story) while the legless ones had never made that trip.

In 2008, the legless Numnums were ditched for good -- though Numnums with short legs appeared in one unfinished game around this time period.  They were intended to be a replacement for the old “legless” Numnums, having to scuttle close to the ground or hop rather than being able to go into a full speed ostrich-like run the way their longer-legged relatives can.  Short-legged Numnums haven’t made another appearance since then, but maybe they’ll return someday.

In 2009, Numnums started to be drawn with feather plumes and were finally described as being dinosaur-type birds (after gradually accumulating more and more bird-like features over the previous decade or so until it finally became obvious that yep, they must be birds.)  They also gained their tails somewhere around this time, though at first they were usually pretty short and stubby.

By 2011 or so, I was consistently drawing Numnums with longer tails and visible nostrils... so they were pretty close to their current design!  No major changes since then, just minor touch-ups and extra details (such as the idea that male Numnums have extra long feather plumes, while the females’ plumes are generally shorter, similar to how sexual dimorphism goes in many bird species.)

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Randomly drew some Blurbys using my colored pens recently.  No pencil sketch first this time, just straight in with black pen and then bringing in the colored pens to finish them up afterward.

Was aiming for a variety of different shapes and sizes, with both male and female adult Blurbys, some shorter/wider/fatter ones, some taller ones, and even some round little kids.

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One of many creatures originating from my 5th grade year.

I can’t remember if it was me or my younger sibling who originally came up with the name “gangaleen,” but I definitely drew them a fair amount during 5th and 6th grade... and then they just suddenly vanished from my drawings after that, so like many of my creations from the elementary school years they never really got a place in the “updated to make some amount of sense” version of the First Nherbi that I started putting together in middle school and high school.

I’m honestly not sure where gangaleens were intended to live back then -- there was a mention of a place called “Gangaleen Grotto,” but it was unclear what planet this was meant to be located on.  Nummorro? Brijetoo? Gumakia? Their own planet separate from all of these?  Or maybe “Gangaleen Grotto” was not even a proper name, just a name for any grotto populated by gangaleens.  Along the lines of calling a place the “Gator Pit” -- it’s not the only pit with gators in it.

Originally they were only meant to have four legs, but the drawings of them from back then were in that little-kid style that makes it look like all of a creature’s features (legs, eyes, etc.) are on the same side of the body -- so I figured “well, why not make them actually have eight legs?”  They were originally drawn with big bushy “angry eyebrows,” which I switched into some sort of scale frills or feathers or something to get the same sort of look without... literally having big bushy angry eyebrows.  The shockwave-roar thing one of them is doing was based on something similar in one of only two surviving gangaleen drawings from back then.  I’m not sure exactly what kind of creature gangaleens are. Reptiles? Dinosaur-type birds? Weird amphibians?? Something else...?

I don’t think I ever drew them with color variations back then (always blue)... but then, I probably only ever drew them in color a few times to begin with, so who knows if my 11-year-old self had really intended them to always be dark blue or if I just didn’t draw them long enough for other variations to turn up.

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I posted 249 times in 2022

That's 129 more posts than 2021!

124 posts created (50%)

125 posts reblogged (50%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@forgetthetimetravel

@spidermilkshake

@shiftythrifting

@secondbeatsongs

@onenicebugperday

I tagged 135 of my posts in 2022

Only 46% of my posts had no tags

#drawings - 69 posts

#pen - 65 posts

#silly - 34 posts

#inktober - 27 posts

#creatures - 22 posts

#pencil - 18 posts

#nummorro - 15 posts

#aliens - 13 posts

#monsters - 12 posts

#cats - 9 posts

Longest Tag: 134 characters

#loud fuzzy sonic music with very dry dull news coverage occasionally butting in for like 2 or 3 words before going back to sonic music

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Tonight my roommate suggested that I should draw “catfish that are actually both cats and fish.”  So I filled up a page with them!

...And also a cat-jellyfish which is not actually a fish... but, eh.

11 notes - Posted February 3, 2022

#4

Random silly drawing idea that I had toward the tail-end of my COVID recovery, which I just got around to drawing.

Monkey D. Goofy.

11 notes - Posted November 23, 2022

#3

BE NOT AFRAID

Inktober prompt for October 4th was “Scallop.”

As it turns out, scallops have lots and lots of eyes.  So this idea pretty much immediately came to mind when I first saw what the 4th word on the list was, even before I drew the first three. 😅

16 notes - Posted October 6, 2022

#2

Inktober prompt for October 15th was “Armadillo.”

It’s been a while since I’ve drawn an armadillo, also known as a Tactical Assault Possum.

This is definitely the first one I’ve drawn where it actually had visible fur and this much detail on the shell... though not the first one I’ve drawn that was wielding a sword.

27 notes - Posted October 16, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

It’s that time again.  Happy Piccolo Day!

844 notes - Posted May 9, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[fnrrfygmschnish]

This one took a while! I had the Nudda (Nummorrian shark) drawn and written up since last week, then did the Kiji the other day, the Tahrass (Rock Bug) yesterday, and the Pugger just now. Also, I think this might be the first time I've ever drawn Tahrass/Rock Bugs without any kind of rocky shell attached.

The practice of raising other creatures purely to slaughter them for food later does not exist on Nummorro -- if there’s a Khurbyish word that even loosely corresponds to humans’ concept of “livestock” it would probably translate to something like “food-slave,” which should give you an idea of how they would feel about that kind of thing.  K’hyurbhis, Blurbys, and especially Numnums see nothing wrong with eating other creatures, of course... it’s just that whole “treating them as if their sole purpose in life is to be our food someday” thing that creeps them out.  The K’hyurbhi practice of raising Kiji as mounts and companions (and occasionally eating some of their eggs) is about as close as anyone on Nummorro gets to that, and it’s... well, not very close at all.

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Finally got another one of these done!

The “Fat Cat” is known as humeso’oo (hoo-MEH-soh-ooh) in Khurbyish, which roughly translates to “fat hunter” -- there isn’t a Khyurbyish word that exactly matches “cat,” for obvious reasons.  The English name probably is the result of either Nummorrian travelers to Earth noticing that some of the creatures we call “cats” resemble humeso’oo, or a human that ended up on Nummorro somehow calling them that (most likely Christy Telamora who found herself accidentally transported to the continent of Ummiboro after tampering with a warp portal, as it’s extremely rare for humans to end up on Nummorro.)  The woolly northern species is also called narrmeso’oo (”snow hunter.”)

The land-squids’ Khurbyish name is borron (bor-rohn -- rhymes with “alone,” not “moron” or “boron”), which is probably a shortened form of an older name, maybe even one derived from Ancient Khurbyish or the old Nummian language.  Borron in modern Khurbyish could translate as “ten tentacles,” but since Nummorrian squids only have six limbs it seems unlikely that this was the actual origin of the name.

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Randomly got hit with a bit of inspiration to work on my language stuff today.  So now there's this page!

First column of each half is the standard Khurbyish version of the letter.  Next one over is the Brijuo version, used to write Khurbyish by the Burijeoo -- it was formerly the alphabet of their own ancient language, which has mostly fallen into disuse.  And then finally there’s the Ancient Khurbyish version.

You can probably tell that some of the modern Khurbyish letters (and even some of the Brijuo ones!) are based on the Ancient Khurbyish version.  In cases where a modern Khurbyish letter is drastically different from the Ancient Khurbyish, it most likely was borrowed from the Nummian language instead -- modern Khurbyish is basically a blend of Nummian and Ancient Khurbyish.

The little green letters outside the columns are how the letter is pronounced, according to the "International Phonetic Alphabet."  Red letters indicate Brijuo pronunciation, in the two cases where it differs from the standard.

There’s a few little quirks in pronunciation/spelling here and there, but if I start typing it all up now I’ll get carried away and next thing I know it’ll be 2 hours later and I’ll have accidentally typed up the entire pile of spelling/grammar/etc. rules for my made-up alien language on here. 😅

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A species of burrowing swamp worms (the name “Parupoo” literally means “swamp worm” in the Khurbyish language) that can be found on every major continent on the planet Nummorro.

Parupoos are usually very dark in color (ranging from various hues of medium gray all the way to pitch black) aside from their glowing yellow eyes.  They have twelve flipper-like appendages that help them swim and burrow through water, mud, or even soil easily and quietly.  When they surface, usually only half of their body at most actually emerges, the rest remaining safely hidden to prevent any damage to these appendages.  When completely submerged, there’s barely any sign of their presence.

"Pooko” (poo as a shortened form of “Parupoo,” ko meaning “ball” in Khurbyish) refers to a glob of mud or other material which is mixed with the Parupoo’s saliva and other fluids, hardening into a dense and durable stone.  Parupoos use these as weapons, spitting them up and then flinging them at perceived threats using their tails.  A direct hit can knock an adult Numnum unconscious.  If you’re a human without above-normal strength or powers and somehow find yourself visiting Nummorro, I advise that you avoid areas populated by Parupoos, as a pooko to the head would most likely be instantly lethal even with protective gear and blows to other parts of the body can easily shatter bone or cause severe internal damage.

Though intelligent and capable of speech, they have little contact with other Nummorrian species and not much is known of their society or culture.  Parupoos rarely open their mouths in front of others, especially members of other species.  They seem to have a tradition of ventriloquism -- most adult Parupoos are able to speak clearly without visibly moving their mouths, and some seem to be treated as outcasts due to being unwilling or unable to do so.

Several species of Parupoos exist.  A larger swamp-dwelling variety is known as the Hamparupoo (which simply means ”big Parupoo” in Khurbyish), and can reach lengths of over twenty feet.  These larger Parupoos tend to be more solitary than most and seem less inclined toward the strange tradition of not showing their open mouths to anyone.  On the far northern continent of Narr, there is a variety called the Narupoo (”snow worm”) which is pure white in color for better camouflage against the snow.  They are a bit stronger physically (to aid them in burrowing through frozen ground and breaking through layers of ice) and better adapted to very cold weather, but they are incapable of producing a pooko like their swamp-dwelling relatives can due to the composition of their bodily fluids changing over time.

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Finally got around to finishing, inking, and scanning this one.

It’s the second page of my attempts at fleshing out the types of weapons used by Nummorrian species a bit more -- starting with the K’hyurbhis.

K’hyurbhi (pronounced “kuh-HYUR-bee”) society is divided into eight tribes, many of which have their own signature weapons.  Of course, there’s also a significant portion of K’hyurbhis who don’t belong to any of the tribes or who are tied to more than one (usually through parents from two different tribes.)  So, you’d expect there’d be a decent variety of weapons among them, right?

Even back in my elementary school years, the early K’hyurbhis usually used at least a few different weapons – spears or short swords and sometimes shields, with some (those who later developed into the Hoi tribe) having a strong affinity for a trident-like weapon called the Shicker – so it wasn’t quite oversimplified to the point of “all dwarves have axes, all elves have bows” even back then.

But watching videos on lesser-known weapons occasionally got me thinking about how there could be a lot more variety.  Rather than just “spear, sword, Shicker,” I started thinking that there should probably be more than one version of each.  Maybe one of each for every K’hyurbhi tribe, plus extras with no specific association.

The first page covered most of the polearms (particularly those that were some variation on a spear), this page is... everything else, pretty much! Swords, axes, a variety of bludgeoning weapons, knives, and a couple of oddballs.

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Inktober prompt for October 18th was “Scrape.”

This one had me wondering what the heck I was going to draw at first, but then I got the idea of Upchukk being very much unbothered by an injury that some people might consider to be a bit more serious than just a scratch or scrape.  After that it wasn’t long before this whole scene of Upchukk standing among a pile of unconscious K’hyurbhi bandits after smacking them around a bit with his walking stick.  And, so his commentary on the one minor injury he took in the fight makes sense, there’s a random Blurby lady looking worried by it.

Blurbys in general are very tough (thick skin, dense layers of both blubber and muscle, a body shape with very few glaring weak points, and absolutely insane strength by human standards all contribute to this), and Upchukk even at his lowest point is tougher than your typical Blurby!  If these guys had any idea who they were dealing with then they’d have to be idiots to target him.  Maybe the random Blurby lady was who they were trying to rob and Upchukk just happened to be close enough to notice it happening?

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Inktober prompt for October 12th was "Forget." Upchukk has some past experiences that he'd rather not remember. This one is the reason why I’m a couple days behind on these -- it took a while to be ready to scan because I attempted to do some shading on Upchukk himself and it went horribly wrong, which discouraged me from drawing much for a day or so.  Thanks to a combination of Wite-Out and digital editing, however, I was able to fix it up!

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Now up to a whopping seven of these pages of Nummorrian species.

As of this drawing, I’ve finally decided where a Roton’s mouth is (the “line” below the eye is not just black face markings, it’s also their mouth! though it’s hard to tell until they open it) and finally made Chomp Fish “officially” a Nummorrian species rather than just being some vague fish thing I’ve drawn a few times and had show up in a game once or twice.

Of course, since they show up in the sewers and underground streams in Alleghany Hell School, that means they’re one of several examples of Nummorrian wildlife that has accidentally ended up on Earth.  I doubt anyone intentionally plucked 5-6 foot long blind cave fish out of their natural habitat and moved them into the sewer system of a high school in middle-of-nowhere Virginia, so I’m going to guess that naturally-occurring warp rifts opening up in one place or the other (which the fish swam through, probably because they picked them up as a strong electromagnetic field and thought “maybe I can eat that!”) are to blame.

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Finally got the third in the series of Nummorrian wildlife drawings (and descriptions) finished up and scanned in.

It’s not mentioned on the page here (...not in English at least), but the Khurbyish name of the centipede-fly is “Fasukti.”  The name’s basically a combination of “Fasu” (means sky when used as a noun, means fly when used as a verb) and “Yikti” which means centipede, as mentioned on the page.  So “centipede-fly” feels like a decent enough translation while also matching how humans tend to name bugs (anything with wings can be a “something-fly,” even if it’s not even remotely close to actual flies.)

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Another page of Nummorrian wildlife, this time including a plant! I’m not sure if I’ll include any of the “ordinary” (not-moving) plants in these, though I do have a half-dozen or so of them made up... but any other mobile or carnivorous plants (there’s at least one or two more of those) will get pictures in this series eventually.