#precursor subnautica

[domineeriv]

SUBNAUTICA BELOW ZERO SPOILERS!

Finished Subnautica: Below Zero, had to draw some fanart because I think this lad is cool.

Tidbits:

I draw with keyboard and mouse.

Estimated time spent on the art is around 36 hours.

I don't know how to draw backgrounds at all.

The original size of this artwork was 7200 x 10800, but as it was too big I downsized it 50%.

This was the first artwork I've done in this style, as I usually experiment with styles. Also the largest artwork I've done in my life.

Shading is off because I don't know how to shade.

AL-AN my beloved

[junk-jester]

"If I am the last of my kind, I will experience the sorrow of ten thousand souls dimming."

"And if they survived?"

"With you, I am ready to face whatever awaits."

This one's been in the backlog for quite a while, but it's been worth it.

Here's the Sigmatrix's DNA sample of an Architect from Subnautica: Below Zero, dubbed "Psyquine".

Profile can be found [Here].

[alexriesart]

This was my very first attempts at a Subnautica Precursor.

[bytewire]

AL-AN on the surface of sector zero

[sad-catbrick]

I zone out for FIVE MINUTES and I get possessed by the spirit of an alien

[puppetmaster13u]

DP X DC X Subnautica

Where the Justice League (mostly focusing on the Superfam or Batfam or Flashfam) are large leviathan-esque creatures living on Planet 4546B. Maybe they can change forms due to Precursor experimentation, maybe not. Those with young hang out around the shallows more than the others, what with most of them being large super or specialized predators.

Enter Danny Fenton, interning on the Aurora when the ship is shot down by the Quarantine Enforcement Platform. Oh sure he probably would have tried to stop the destruction and help, but his ghost powers are a bit on the fritz and a well-meaning worker pushes him into one of the last life pods seeing as he's a child.

Now the leviathans may not know what a ship is exactly, but they can definitely understand that in most cases things technology = precursors. As far as they understand, a metal deathtrap not unlike the old labs or caches fell alongside several metallic eggs, with the emerging hatchlings misshapen and not living long.

But then there's the egg that landed in the shallows, which at first they thought was empty. But a hatchling- much smaller than the previous ones- emerges, a day later than the rest, but they're alive even if their swimming is all wobbly! It's so tiny, and obviously hatched too early with the strange split tail and how it keeps swimming to the surface for air, and they have to protect it! Now if only the little hatchling would answer their calls and not dart into hiding spots whenever they approach...

Honestly this is up to the writer lol, but I like to think that Danny's ghost form, when he finally manages to achieve it again, goes a little naga-esque. Almost like a sea snake instead of just a whispy ghost tail, which while better for swimming doesn't help his freak out over most ghost powers still not working.

Danny is just trying to survive man, maybe find other survivors, turn off this big alien gun, stop creating frost crystals when he sneezes, the usual. He doesn't need giant humanoid-esque leviathan-sized sea creatures poking around!

[architect-lumicent]

So you guys remember that old ass meme I drew? yeah I redrew it with Di-Gi sdjgha

[cynautica]

i remembered i can just make stuff up (stream sketches + scrapped designs)

uhhhh quick fire for the second image from left to right juvenile vessel - old world cable maintenance - artistic diplomat vessel

Headcanons below the cut:

(Im not kidding word counter marked this as a 5 minute reading time open at your own risk)

While the sentiment of the architect network as "a thousand strings in a melody, not one louder than the rest" is a poetic interpretation of the network, it is not necessarily reflective of the precursors society as a whole.

At its peak, the species span billions of planets with billions on billions of individuals, all with their own degrees of autonomy and divergence. If each architect is equal in its power, than it is equal in its power to choose. Even if the soul of an architect, its very essence and its personality, is designed so perfectly that its primary desire is the perpetuation of order and advancement (two inherently divergent concepts), faults occur. Breakages occur. Pockets, cultural subsets, faded transmissions, and any other element of lost insight be it archaic or modern, lends itself to the impossibility of an entirely homogeneous society.

Whether a hive minded society reflects the only means to perfection is debatable, but its important to remember that our main portal in to the precursor world is Al-an, a known prodigy born and raised in to a society that has done nothing but benefit him. His view of his people is intrinsically skewed. He has never had a reason to see beyond the propaganda, nor question his directives. They have never once failed him.

But what of the little guys? The constructed failures so to speak. Those destined to be cast in to the bowels of poisonous cobalt mines and those who's birth purpose is to be irradiated and isolated for the greater good of the collective. Those who's genes prompted sub-standard intelligence who will never be seen as truly important. Their needs must be cast aside by design for the greater good of the collective. By design they must be ignored, their thoughts not relevant to the forwarding of progress.

Because there is true power disparity there is a true hierarchy.

Aware of this, the precursors devised a system of checks and balances to ensure that scientific progress remains at the forefront, rather than the accumulation of power by any individual.

As with all things though, power inevitably seeks to maintain and grow like a cancer.

One such exertion of power comes in the form of a "hive master". These unique individuals require precise expensive machinery in order to be produced, and as such are very rare. The vessels they require are likewise uniquely suited to only these hive masters and their unique ability to sway the voices and personality of any individual connected to the network. They themselves are invisible, completely undetectable except in physical form. Their unique telepathic abilities only work when paired with these vessels. They have no voice nor will of their own and are said to represent architect society on its most basal level.

Given their difficult to produce nature established personalities are very often used in place of new seed combinations. Personalities most suited for repurposing as a hive master include those who are most senior, intelligent, and aligned wholly with societal goals.

They are typically only found on heavily populated planets with more than a few thousand individuals. There they go undetected, like the sound of wind lost in a sea of voices, whose squall directs its very rampage. They are also enlisted for many unique duties on populous planets, such as the refactoring of corrupted individuals and silencing cultural sub-sets.

The average architect probably isn't even aware of the existence of a hive master unless their profession lies in the refactoring and diplomatic processes.

Despite the cultural drive for a monotonous and orderly society, artistic expression is common and encouraged in some sects. All architects possess the desire to express themselves, similarly to humans. Some do this simply with their inbuilt biolights that vary naturally with the individual, while others (less commonly) modify their vessel or design new and unique ones for themselves.

A vessel after all is a costly investment you cant just change like the season, its built to last you a couple thousand years. It's only natural that some seek to don something unique.

This behavior is sometimes detested by more traditional architects, but is not universally frowned upon.

Diplomats are actually encouraged to take on more artistically designed vessels. Often with their respective species' artistic values in mind. They've found greater success with alliances when they don't look like massive sticks in the mud.

Subsets of culture also at times develop unique vessels. Such as an order-over-progress movement that developed on the fringes of the network and preferred pie-bald esque vessels. Alternatively in the past as wars waged between the architects the opposing sides often don differing forms to show their allegiances. In more recent history, a wave of white-clad vigilantes advocated for a complete reset of the old-world collective.

Aside from artistic and affiliation vessels, mainstream precursor society also used a series of varying vessels to reflect personal occupation. Some of the most notable included the warrior vessel, who by design met the largest accommodations of standard architecture for the purposes of intimidation and physical altercations. Al-an's vessel likewise is very common as a heavier-built variant meant to face harsh outer worlds such as 4546B. On base, more light and energy efficient vessels make the dominant force where defense isn't a huge priority.

Microvessels such as those seen above in grey are fairly uncommon despite their energy efficiency. They are most efficient on old world planets that have been in development for hundreds of thousands of years, where the march of time means that not all builders past and present were on the same wavelength and as such small and precise forms mean that construction can be completed with minimal risk to crowded infrastructure.

Another unique and uncommon vessel is that of a juvenile grow-out vessel. These are seldom customized beyond survival needs, and are designed to acclimate a freshly generated architect to the physical world. Like a living vessel, they grow with the individual starting from broodling all the way until young adulthood. They tend to be a bit clumsy and lack the ability to interface with most technology. Always running a blue biolight, these vessels to not require a lot of energy to function physically. A juvenile architect must prove its maturity before it is allowed to graduate in to an adult vessel. This change-out phase is a diplomatic process and one can sometimes wait many years before being approved in to maturity.

The treatment of a new architect varies quite significantly depending on their birthplace and genotype. High performing juveniles are singled out very quickly for better education. Despite the rarity of surviving children in architect society they are not given much importance. A single broodmother may be the ward of up to fifty broodlings, each of which given little attention in favor of allowing them to develop social skills among themselves. Despite architect's seeming infinite power to control resources, broodling mortality is surprisingly high.

[cyliph]

Was trying to test my skills at designing with a pre-ascendant architect. It didn’t look right until I gave him clothes, now look at him. Look at this absolute microorganism of a scientist

[cameatslemons]

the odyssey and subnautica are narrative parallels. btw

[searsage]

Enemy Mine!AU

An AU where humans are at war with the precursor race, a fude that spured from a misunderstanding and culture shock. [We are going with 'the thing' primise in which they encountered mankind and immediately assumed it was okay to assimilate this unfortunate species into the network and due to the lack of understanding between them and humans this act is repelled with drastic and aggressive force, sparking a galactic wide war where both races fighting like they are five and the other just ate their chocolate twinky.

Many deaths and blood shed later Robin a pilot fighter and ex resercher looking to make her name on the boards ends up flundering on her first real air strike, a slip up that results in her teammates being shot out of the sky and the wing of her fighter jet being blown clean off, with literal seconds of power left in her jet the indignant researcher decides fuck it.

And attempts a suicide maneuver, colliding her jet head first into the enemy vessel, this irrational and unpredictable act earns her a collision but also destroys her jet sending her and the enemy space vessel down into the atmosphere below in a flurry of flames.

But unpredictably the crash landing on the planet below doesn't kill her and she wakes up on a cold alien world with rabidly dwindling oxygen.

Ill prepared and with few resources she's forced to pillage the surrounding crash site and enemy vessel or risk suffocating the planet's atmosphere before Alterra comes to retrieve her.

Unfortunately she quickly finds her nemesis isn't dead either, at least not completely yet, and what she assumes is a dead precursor ends up being far from dead and desperatly looking in need of a new vessel.

Said vessel being Robin.

Who finds out its pretty hard to avoid a centauric alien tank dying or not.

Hours later she wakes to find the architect has set up post in her head and demands she restore his vessel, of course this goes about as well as her suicide attempt..

His indignance is met with a big fat no.

Unfortunately the threat of rapidly dwindling oxygen and the potential yo die trapped within his expired host the two are forced to strike a truce, she'll farry him to a precursor sanctuary where he can rendezvous with his own and he will aid her in accessing the alien oxygen canisters littered throughout the planet's surface, thus providing her the means to survive until Alterra arrivals to survey for any human survivores.

It's convenient but not ideal o either party, however sharing a mind with the alien enemy comes with Its perks.

Assimilation.

And Robin quickly finds herself privy to the truth behind the war.

A truth that could undoubtedly put end to a century long conflict.

However not everyone wants such a profitable war to end, and from precursor warpers hellbent on extracting her brain and liberating the architect hostage trapped within, to Alterra marking her as a ran away turn coat corrupted by the enemy to be killed on sight..

Robin quickly realizes a testy head voice with a superiority complex is the least of her worries.

Inspirations : Enemy mine, enders game some other themes im too drunk to recall.

[unrelatedsideblog]

Subnautica AU in which Sanji and Zoro are stuck on 4546B.

[bedrockfactory]

Horse oc time

[starwrighter]

So like, how did the subnautica bat fam get their human names?

Did Bart give then those names before he passed away?

You know how in below zero we've got Al-An? And it's sorta implied that precursors impacted the development of human language?

I like to think that the batfam renamed themselves, butchering the precursor language out of spite.

[bytewire]

I drew AL-AN resting in a grass field :)

[architect-wa-py]

Ni-Ki, my first architect OC, he is very aggressive>:3

Its commission what I buyed from "tetyogni"(discord)