#selecting world

[mournfulroses]

Else Fitzgerald, from "Everything Feels Like the End of The World," publ. in 2022

[egophiliac]

don't think I'm not still deep in the episode 7 brainrot. because OH BOY AM I

(also one more extremely, obnoxiously self-referential thing, I'm -- I'm so sorry)

[flickering-nightfall]

Playing with some ideas mostly regarding gender/reproduction in RW, and slugcat colonies.

Full transcript under the cut!

Creatures in Rain World are typically simultaneous hermaphrodites but require partners to reproduce, with either individual capable of being a genetic donor or carrier. Alongside what we are familiar with, this has lead to interesting reproductive strategies such as rotating donor/carrier roles, or dual/simultaneous genetic swaps.

Rotating donor/carrier roles - A K-selection reproductive strategy. One partner carries the first child, the other partner carries the next child, and so forth. Allows each partner to recover from the demands of childbearing.

Rain Deer aren't quite monogamous, but they tend to choose the same breeding partner whenever mating season rolls around. They serve as a donor one season, then bear and raise a child the next. Calves are raised away from the rain and worm grass, in places that have less food but more safety. Calf wool is softer, not yet gunked up by the dirty rainfall. Their legs are sturdier as children, allowing them to run for cover while the parent wards off threats.

Dual/simultaneous genetic swap - An r-selection reproductive strategy. Parents fulfill the donor and carrier role for each other. The more children you make, the more likely some are to survive!

Multiple batflies lay thousands of eggs in a single "blue fruit." Several eggs congeal and become nutrient paste for the surviving eggs (and for hungry slugcats). Like some plant seeds, batfly eggs that are consumed before pupating can survive passing through the digestive system. Ew.

Ancients also fell under this umbrella. Their genders (and the genders of iterators by extension, who have no sex anyways) could have been determined by a variety of other factors, such as societal role, donor/carrier preference, or simply different categorizations of personal expression.

It's difficult to say how well their common pronouns would translate to ours, but it seems they can translate to an extent, given what Moon and Pebbles use canonically.

Slugcats, like real slugs, can have children with a partner or self-fertilize. Unlike real slugs, they are often known to adopt.

In the case of self-fertilization: children who are born from one parent may display a large amount of genetic diversity despite the circumstances. Maybe slugcats have some sort of... genetic reservoir independent of their own genetic code?

Slugcats live 20-30 years on average... if they manage to reach adulthood. Their mortality rate is sadly rather high, especially in pups. If they were to develop as a civilization, it's likely their lifespan would increase dramatically.

Slugcats in a colony are more likely to have more children, and to successfully rear those children to adulthood, than those who wander alone or in small groups. The safety and stability of a colony cannot be understated.

Colonies either have a set, cycling migration path, or wander continuously. Survivor and Monk's tree home was a nesting site that their colony frequents about once a year. So it's likely that they'll see their family again!

...also, the strength of large colonies are why scavengers are likely to become the dominant species. In the time of Saint's era, continuous migration has become more of a risk, and it has become more difficult to support large populations. Slugcat populations have shrunk back to the more forgiving equatorial zones.

Saint's tongue is pretty unusual and probably unique to them, or to a small population that they hail from. Fur (of varying thickness) is much more common.

Meanwhile, scavengers are bulkier and covered in thicker insulating fur. They:

have seemingly massive populations

have a burgeoning society (the existence of merchants, tolls, bartering, elites and leaders)

are adept at communicating (non-verbally)

manipulate their environment

can build structures (scavenger-made structures were a scrapped idea from Saint's campaign)

can create complex weapons and tools

may have agriculture behind the scenes (unsure if scout parties prioritize exploration or hunting)

I would wager on scavengers developing more quickly than slugcats, but it would be nice if there was a future where both could co-exist.

[despazito]

Yes we founded this hobby in late victorian europe where we divide animals of the same species from around the globe into races and measure them with calipers and put extreme emphasis on blood purity and conformity but WE SWEAR this has zero links to the eugenics movement that was coincidentally happening at the exact same time and place

[faceeeeee]

Twisted time🤸‍♀️

[blorbocedes]

at this point I think at a personal level we need to look at the BDS movement carefully and try to implement it in our lives. your local cafe can make a starbucks quality caramel macchiato without co-signing genocide. learn how to pirate if you wanna watch Disney+ shows. lots of other shoe brands than puma! you've never needed a sodastream water in your life. instead of hungover mcdo beef grease fries, order some delicious latkes. and so on and so forth....... the power of the US dollar, and the euro/pound is quite unparalleled. so use it! make it publicly embarrassing to be seen with these brands, for influencers to advertise it, force their hand until they publicly cut ties with an apartheid regime, or watch their stock price plummet.

[luchaaa]

pull up to the domain in my SWAG-MACHINE MOBILATRON

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 2

[capricoopla]

Ig a cool part of taking up a less process-heavy and more agile, mobile form is that it allows actual physical contact

Yay

Bonus fan symbols that may or may not be important

[estchiyu]

What twist of fate has brought us, to tread upon this land? 🌻☁️

[obsob]

peace n love on th planet cat (all are prints! for ur loves! link )

[mournfulroses]

Franz Kafka, from a diary entry featured in "Kafka: The Tremendous World I Have Inside my Head,"

[brainrot-stitch]

Do yall fw the twink art

[prankprincess123]

Legend of Zelda really heard the "what sort of being chooses an orphaned child/teenager as their chosen one?!?" moral quandary and answered repeatedly with "another orphaned child/teenager" and/or "his best friend who doesn't know who else to ask" and "his soulmate, who is in danger, again, and who's heart breaks every time she has to ask him to fight" and you know what? Those are the only valid answers ever.

[jayrockin]

would vestigial be the best way to describe a chabbit’s wings? Seeing as they were never flight capable to begin with.

That's a great question, because afaik "vestigial" describes an ancestral trait that through evolution, has lost its functionality in a given organism. Chabbits... uh... were not selected for by the usual evolutionary processes, and have polyphyletic ancestors. Describing GMOs with evolutionary terms gets weird fast

[bixels]

I've gotten a ton of asks about this, so I'll answer all of them here (can only tag @imamwolf, sorry anons).

I will be making more worldbuilding comics, especially on the topic of magic and Canterlot. Here's the short of it, though.

Anyone could become a witch or magician (not just unicorn characters), but it takes intense studying, as it's a practice not natural or innate to humans. Some humans are more naturally attuned and gifted to using magic while others find it next to impossible. For example, Trixie desperately wants to be a real magician but for whatever reason can't.

However, there are two types of magic: the studied "standard magic" (spells and hexes and whatnot) and the unorthodox "chaos magic," which are random, uncontrollable outbursts of magic only a few are capable of emitting. Most people with chaos magic don't even realize when they're "using" it. Pinkie and Trixie are unwitting users of chaos magic, which operates on the "only when it's funny" rule. It explains Pinkie Sense and their slapstick moments of surviving falling pianos. Discord is the only one who can control chaos magic.

Anyone can become a witch in practice, but recognition by Canterlot's court must be earned by incredible, selfless feats of magic. Canterlot as a whole is a complete mystery, having been debated on by scholars, scientists, monks, writers, and psychologists throughout human history. From what we know, it's a parallel world that exists on same same planet as Earth. That's why both are affected by the same sun and moon. To cross into Canterlot, one must not only be invited but know the location of specific gateways strung out across Earth. The closest gate to Ponyville is in a wheat field in Kansas.