#scientific fantasy

[dragonthunders01]

Spectember D10: Fantastic Biology

In a universe where space is not an empty place, but filled by a nebulous substance which the inhabitants of earth call “the ether”, life has evolved to adapt there, they do take advantage of the condition of this realm on which planets and objects orbits and theoretically also across star systems. And within these spaces live thrives as wanderers of the ether.

There is a sort of ecosystem of between these spaces which sustains strongly around asteroids, near habitable areas of our solar system, and around pockets of dense matter that the gas giants accumulate in their orbit trajectory, these remain far of the planets but move nearby. Many beings of the different habitable bodies have managed to jump over and colonize other nearby worlds in many cycles of migratory and invasive waves, though for what it matters only few have been able to properly dominate the travel through the ether, remaining as the endless travelers of large distances, observed by the earth astronomers for millennials of different cultures remaining unknown for the limited view of those.

Among the most remarkable in the ancient literature and modern research there are the mostly recognized as the “Aether bullets” or often called popularly as the “Flamboyant Wanderers”, they resemble a mix of a squid and comb jellies they are large, up to 10 to 15 meters in length, the name flamboyant often comes of their strange iridescent coloration that shines when their soft parts are exposed to the light, often visible as multicolor dots in a clear night sky. For the other name, these are referred as bullets for their peculiar way to move across the space, as they do not travel using their fin like appendages, instead they push their bodies using what it seems to be a peculiar system of explosive blasts they generate from the inside of their bodies, which these concentrate internally in a pair of long blade organs that act as combustion chambers.

We are unable to know how this process happened as the only available way to see it happen is by long distance observations, but for inferences of different accounts and analysis of these, they might be combusting large quantities of hydrogen and other combusting gases they blast off from a middle orifice, behind a disk-like structure they extend while their body contract inside the shell, with a conical hat like structure that give it a bullet like shape. When the explosion happens, the disk absorbs the force of the explosion, pushing the body ahead of the direction they took, increasingly these consecutively blasts move the large mass until it reach velocity and move out of the range of view, is considered their travels could last months and even few years depending of the region of space they want to travel.

Is still difficult to catch on these active creatures, as even though humanity has finally archived space travel is barely enough to get close to these unique ether residents, only matter of time and more research will tell us what are their secrets.

[pseuddamntired]

This is the kind of world building I live for

magic system where “dark magic” and “light magic” are literal terms - dark magic consumes photons, making an area around the spell visibly darker, sometimes to an Extreme extent, and light magic releases photons.

because of this most dark mages tend to work in very brightly-lit areas (either artificial light or outside in the daytime) to fuel their spells and wear and use lightly coloured clothes and tools so that they’re easier to see in the dimness their spells create, whereas light mages wear heavy, sometimes leaden robes (depending on the work being done) and the magical equivalent of welding masks to protect themselves from what can be an extreme amount of light, and sometimes other kinds of electromagnet radiation!

needless to say this is incredibly confusing for anyone unfamiliar with the culture

[voidbug]

🦋BUTTERFLY FAIRIES OF THE WORLD🦋 I think at this point I've posted all of my butterfly fairies! I've been working on this thing forever, so I really hope you enjoy it. It's very much a love letter to scientific illustrations of animals, that I used to pour over as a kid! I made prints of this illustration as well, which you can buy on my etsy!

[ovenproofowl]

His Dark Materials is a franchise that tackles so many branches of physics and even creates a universe where the main course of study is experimental theology which is all about identifying and explaining dark matter while also adding dimensions to string theory, the multiverse theory, and the very concept of the human soul. At the same time, it aggressively calls out the problem with the state being controlled by the church, how people are condemned for being different and religious fearmongering stops the chance at growth both on an individual and a societal scale. It’s a franchise where the heroes of the story are two children who aren’t allowed to know the prophecy they’re a part of, who save the world unwittingly simply by doing what they believe to be right. Meanwhile, the person who thought he was the hero all along, the person who rallied an army from multiple universes to FIGHT. GOD. HIMSELF. is ultimately consumed by his own ego and forced to take a back seat when he realises he’s just one tiny piece of a much larger story that’s true heart is his own daugher. The child he abandoned, the child he didn’t know or care to know how to look after. It’s a franchise about finding love even when your biological family abandon you, it’s about looking evil in the eye and seeing your own mother, it’s about good and evil not being black and white but instead a complex and cruel mixture of both. It’s about the two worst people you know banding together at the last second to save their daughter with their final breaths. It’s about exploration and learning how to grow through experience, it’s about kindness being shared across the multiverse, exchanging stories with strangers and saving the whole world by doing something perfectly ordinary and receiving no reward.

Oh, and it’s also a franchise rich with fantasy, with giant talking polar bears, witches and ghosts, angels and daemons, and a mammal-like species from another world that travels exclusively on roller skates. 

And it fucking. rocks.

[markerslinger]

Above and below. Informational posters from the Realm of Kong.

Stuff:

@ markerslinger on bird and insta.

@markerslinger.bsky.social

Become a patron!

Also check out my site here!

[feral-and-chaotic]

Here's the thing.

If a fairy knocked at my door.... I would go and check for black mold, check the last thing I ate and maybe get a new carbon monoxide detector.

If a walrus turned up, the number of mental gymnastics are greater and it's less plausible that I'm hallucinating

[thestuffedalligator]

Debate about the evolutionary history of the common leprechaun (Sutor hibernicus) enters its second century, scholars split on the lines of leprechauns as dwarves (family Montihominidae) or leprechauns as pixies (family Puerihortidae). Genetic analysis reveals that leprechauns are descendants of the Irish hare (Lepus timidus). The chamber of magical phylogenetics explodes in rage.

[stumpmoss]

what a dandy lion!!

a piece to mitigate the (dandy)lion hate, species depicted are the painted lady butterfly, melipotis moth, mining bee and jewel beetle!

[descendinight]

cms - Aysel for @/jimengxi (twitter)

[iguanodont]

Commissioned illustration for @xensilverquill of her original dragon design: the woodland amphithere! If you think it’s neat, I highly recommend checking out this post to learn more about its biology and see the adorable crocheted sculpture this drawing was based on :)

[weirdlookindog]

"Conforted by singular looking being"

John Augustus Knapp (1853-1938) - illustration from John Uri Lloyd's 'Etidorhpa, or, the end of the earth: the strange history of a mysterious being and the account of a remarkable journey', 1895

[oliviaeatworld]

Here’s a thought. Hunter bad batch (that is his full name, yes) has enhanced senses. We assume that means hearing, smell, taste, touch- maybe sight, but that’s more of a Crosshair thing.

BUT we know for sure it includes the ability to feel electromagnetic frequencies. Okay. Hear me out.

EMF reader.

What does EMF stand for? Electromagnetic fields. As far I as I know, these are not the same as electromagnetic frequencies. tomato tomahto

What’s an EMF used for? Detecting ghosts. In ghost hunting shows and games.

Are you picking up what I’m laying down??

I’m thinking: Hunter is a walking ghost detector.

I could be totally wrong. But it’s nice to dream

[cyberpunkplaza]

[morerichka]

They are schon here

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

so interesting thing I'm thinking about currently. the reason I'm leaning toward being OK with the occult-esque imagery of certain details in FMA, but will (sadly) not be reading Dying Inside basically comes down to: Dying Inside is set in the real world, with real-life uses and implications of what's probably witchcraft. FMA is an alternate universe fantasy where the author drew on real-world historical alchemy and "magic circles" (unfortunately including some pentagram type imagery) to create the way the fictional, alternate universe things look. there's a big difference between the two

[liminalfish]

Sketches and stuff from when I played Monster Hunter World. I loved the lore and worldbuilding of the Monster Hunter franchise, but it took some urging to get me to actually play it. I didn’t play anything more advanced than a N64 until 2018 or so, for reasons I could not adequately explain.

But MHW got me immediately. I spent so many hours in the ghillie suit, studying tracks in the sand and shilouettes in the sky. I was a wildlife biologist on a strange planet, making notes and taking pictures. I kept a vague journal of some of my findings and favorite moments, and ended up turning them into real life reference posters. I’ll post those later this week.