#slugcats are mustelids

[dopscratch]

My Slugcat Designs

gaze upon the glory of my slugcats, i have gone full mollusk :)

feel free to use with credit! also show me if you do hahaha

fun design details/headcanons under the break

edit: find out why they're all tubemammals instead of felines here

All of them are mostly Smooth Creatures, no fur in sight. Also all of their limbs can be retracted into their bodies because slug. They each have a maximum of 3 fingers and 2 toes, though some have none at all. They are all toothless and instead possess radulae. Some have beaks and some don't, but I haven't decided which ones. The hunter is the only one with a confirmed beak. Beaks are all dark in color.

Monk is Tall because I said so. Lonk. Also I noticed its tentacles are slightly larger than survivors. Also I like the tall little sibling thing because it's funny to me.

Survivor is very average all around. Maybe slightly on the short side.

Hunter is squid. That is all (Not really). Hunter is an absolute beast and I really liked the idea of rotating colossal squid hooks instead of claws. Also squid worked really well for its long legs form :) Edit: As its rot progresses, its orangey color fades (read: parts of its skin start peeling off) and it becomes pinker like its ingame sprite until it becomes that sickly pink of Hunter Long Legs!

I thought the Spanish Dancer really invoked the tattered ribbons of the explosion spears. Also I know it's an aquatic slug and Artificer is terrible in water but I think the flailing to swim around really fits it haha. Also its a skunk because of the whole chemical weapon theme.

Gourmand is an absolute unit. It is very round. I don't have much else to say about it.

I love axolotls but they're overrated, so instead of having the gills of everyone's favorite neotenic Mexican salamander, Rivulet is an octopus. It can use the pink tentacles around its face to hide its big silly eyes if its scared. It can also stretch them out to look bigger. the space in between is webbed, just like in an octopus, though the webbing is not always visible when the tentacles are folded back or in a relaxed position. It has suckers on the back edges and can twist the tentacles around if it wants to use them to grab or hold something near its face. Its arms and legs can extend to great lengths but they cannot support Rivulet on land very well so they usually stay short then (or will only push it up a short height). A siphon on its underside lets it move faster underwater and it may spray water with it playfully.

Spearmaster is also very long like Monk. The spears are pulled from underneath the shell rather than straight out of the tail.

Saint is a sea sheep, complete with the silly closely placed eyes. Its "tongue" is just a tentacle. Also it's short. And a raccoon because I just felt like it fits.

Nightcat is a scaly-foot gastropod because I said so. I think that since it's a pretty mysterious creature it can get a pretty mysterious feature, though with a generally basic silhouette.

Enot/Inv/???/whatever you wanna call it is just cuttlefish. A wild, crazy creature whose colors, shape, number of arms, and texture are never consistent. It is dense and will not float well. Usually its tentacles and limbs have a bit of a curl to the ends.

I think a flamboyant cuttlefish was perfect for its design, and I chose a yellow mongoose because a) silly creature and b) it's not actually a mustelid so it kinda fits how incredibly weird this guy is.

and that is all, hope you enjoy my slugcats.

[thunder-opossum]

Slugcats but their anatomy is based on different mustelids part 1

We got Monk and Survivor: based on ferrets. Hunter: a pine marten, Watcher: a weasel

[tenspontaneite]

Still figuring out how I want to draw slugcats, but I'm definitely going for Weird Mustelid vibes now. Have some Survivor 🙏

[derpferret]

Scug anatomy

A friend of mine *really* wanted me to draw some slugcats. I said OK but only on my own terms: I’m a ludimancer after ahummm?! Hummmmuhmmpffff??! (I guess that may count as a (very) late Octransfur entry? x'3)

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[ressioo]

do u have any tips on drawing slugcats ? :3c you dont need to reply to this if u dont wanna!!

Hm. Pretty difficult for me to give any solid tips because i don't really have much of a Process, but i cant try!

I used to draw cats A Bunch so obviously thats been reflected in how i draw my slugcats. I do try to reference animals like viverrids and mustelids for the most part though. I typically reference genets! They have the same vibe to me

Pretty important to me that slugcats have very large eyes and thick tails that drag along the ground. Think those things specifically drive home that im looking at a slugcat

Here's what my typical scug looks like. As you can see they are pretty much just a long worm with legs and ears stapled on. Big eyes. Small ears. Short snout. You can work off of this very easily. Add fur, fat, make them longer or shorter, etc etc

I know that slugs are supposed to be plantigrade but i prefer to draw mine digitigrade. Just easier for me like that

I have a lot of variation when it comes to face shape specifically. Don't have to stick to the typical short snout. I like to reference wolverines when drawing arti's face. Meanwhile my saint just gets fuckim borzoi treatment or something. I dunno, they're weird. Very much pushing it when it comes to being a creature that looks like a slugcat, but they manage i think.

Guess that's it?? Im not good at these lmao. Id do much better explaining design choices for specific slugs, i actually put thought into that lmao. Hope this suffices tho

[equipment-manifest]

Curated list of Rain World analysis I like

The Benefactors (aka the Ancients) comrade-slugcat's theory about the scale of Ancient Urban dragonpropaganda on popular misconceptions about the Benefactors' culture flickering-nightfall attempts to determine the size of the Benefactors relative to in-game environments using evidence from the Watcher DLC ikayblythe's speculative biology kociamieta's notes on Benefactor character design pocket-goat, morebagels, prismsoup, and opashoo discuss the usage of "Benefactors" and "Ancients" in reference to the cultures of Rain World sluglore explains the purpose the Benefactors built the Iterators to serve

Character analysis eliias-bouchard on NSH's portrayal ikayblythe on Pebbles' age and motivations pocket-goat's thoughts about Moon in the context of the Saint campaign shkika on Moon and Pebbles' relationship shkika on whether Moon and Pebbles are siblings skybristle's and my own thoughts on the decay of Moon's organic parts

General speculative biology chaotic-minds-think-alike's interpretation of lizards dragonpropaganda on the relationship of purposed organisms to ingame fauna flickering-nightfall's interpretation of the reproductive strategies and social structures of various species in the game iteratorsex and dragonpropaganda discuss the origin of wormgrass and its role in the ecosystem sluglore on the intelligence of Slugcats and the experience of playing Rain World for the first time

Iterator anatomy bonniesband's exposition on the Rot as a type of cancer copepods and myself on whether parts of post-collapse Moon beyond the puppet could be conscious copepods on viewing iterators as more than the puppet delta-orionis' method for estimating the height of Iterator cans delta-orionis and myself discuss the meaning of the terms "Recursive Transform Array" and "Abstract Convergence Manifold" mebis-art-dump and I discuss the axon-like coral stems and other internal biota of Iterator superstructures my theory about how an Iterator's memories are stored and why Moon doesn't forget anything when she loses a neuron orangedoorhingeinstorage and kayjaypax on movable components in the memory conflux and adjacent systems skybristle's and my own thoughts on the decay of moon's organic parts

Iterator puppet anatomy aluminum-angels' interpretation bitsbug's puppet interpretation copepods' mechanical interpretation: moon & pebbles / post-collapse moon flickering-nightfall's journey to understand the puppet arm: part 1 / part 2 flickering-nightfall on the "umbilical" ikayblythe's arthropoidal interpretation: overview / endoskeletons / "skin" joowee-feftynn observes that puppets can't walk spotsupstuff on the relationship between puppet and can trashiiplant's ragdoll interpretation yellowsnacc's "jello-covered skeleton" interpretation

Natural philosophy a video illustrating the shared lore of the Watcher and Hunter campaigns by mebis-rain-world-corner bitsbug and ikayblythe discuss the age of the ecosystem dragonpropaganda explains why igneous rocks don't exist in Rain World and discusses the implications with delta-orionis grunckle's notes on what we know about the cosmology of Rain World ikayblythe's speculative geology of the surface and void sea

Slugcat anatomy arrayydee's slugcat design artihunter's take on the fur/slime question coprolite-posting's interpretation dopscratch's mollusk/mustelid interpretation kelocitta on the ecological implications of Rivulet's external gills honey-marrow's interpretation of Spearmaster's anatomy

Themes and storytelling bitsbug draws a comparison between Rain World's Cycle and the real-world Water Cycle comrade-slugcat and myself on themes of inevitability and futility in Monk & Survivor's campaigns dragonpropaganda on how Rain World's level design is based on the idea of civilizations successively building upon each others' ruins grunckle's theory relating ascension, void worms, and voidspawn together through the idea of qualia grunckle's illustration of the parallels between the iterators and void worms and some connections to Gnosticism nyuuronfly and vodens on the relationship between Rain World's lore and gameplay and the experience of a blind playthrough seventeendeer on the thematic significance of ascension and the player's agency in choosing it sick-ada's theory that the final cutscene in the Void sea leads back to the start of each vanilla campaign sluglore on the intelligence of Slugcats and the experience of playing Rain World for the first time Miscellaneous delta-orionis discusses the purpose of karma gates with batwards-running flecks-of-stardust's theory that (in vanilla) the Chimney Canopy pearl was created by Five Pebbles mebis-reblogs' animation of one of the harvester machines from Farm Arrays in action monkmain on the illustration for Stolen Enlightenment my theory on the meaning of "HR_LAYERS_OF_REALITY" my timeline of architecture on the surface rw-me elaborates on the canonicity of Downpour shkika on the distances between members of the local group shkika, flecks-of-stardust, and fluffybunny35 discuss why it rains in Shaded Citadel soaricarus, flickering-nightfall, and myself on why Seven Red Suns is probably not a member of the "local group" yunnifo discusses Rivulet ending projections

[the-real-rain-world-confessions]

slugcats resemble bears and seals more than they resemble rodents and cats and mustelids. i am dying on this hill

.

[rain-world-headcanons]

slugcats are more like mustelids than rodents

-

[cordycepsbian]

we see mustelid-based slugcats a lot and we like mustelids as much as the next guy but we think it makes more sense for slugcats to be based on a feliform mammal. so here's our million dollar idea: mongoose slugcats

[dieselpvnk]

Is your Enot capable of being visceral during combat? They don't really seem like it tbh lol they seem more "uwu cutesy" /lh

they rip and tear, the obly slugcat besides artificer to be able to maul !! like a mustelid, looks cute, but a viscious hunter

[dopscratch]

slugcat psa

slugcats are more slug than cat and the cat refers to polecats

yes i will be taking questions and no you cannot change my mind

pretty much every slugcat feature is an ACTUAL REAL FEATURE ON MOLLUSCS

intelligence? cephalopods.

spearmaster? gypsobelum (love darts) (edit: chitinous darts some slugs and snails produce and shoot at others as a mating ritual)

rivulet? aquatic molluscs galore (sea snails, sea slugs, cephalopods)

saint?? fur?? HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A SEA BUNNY OR A SEA SHEEP??

also can CATS have long prehensile tongues?? no. can molluscs have long prehensile tentacles?? YES!!

ALSO slugs come in all of the colors

AND also polecats polecats and other mustelids you CANNOT tell me slugcats are not built like mustelids they are LONG with LITTLE BABY ARMS and are usually PLANTIGRADE (pay attention to their feet!! in this image they're all standing on their full foot rather than their toes! check other offical art too- they're only going up on their toes in action poses and when they're mid-stride when their foot leaves the ground!)

therefore, the name slugcat is slug + polecat and they are mostly slug while built like a tubemammal and you cannot convince me otherwise

[amerricanartwork]

A non-serious, but fun little elaboration on my previous headcanon about slugcats being primarily mustelids: slugcats with real mustelid patterns! Apparently people were doing the same thing a while ago using real cat patterns, so I wanted to try my own spin on it and see how it would look! Plus it was nice to practice more dynamic poses with these guys, especially quadruped ones.

Sorry I haven't posted as much as I meant to; this took a LOT longer than I expected. But I think the result is pretty cute, and I honestly enjoyed realizing the similar color patterns in all these animals!

Which one is your favorite? I think I like the black-footed ferret best!

Also, non-patterned alt below:

[thunder-opossum]

Slugcats but their anatomy is based on different mustelids part 2

Gourmand is a european badger, Artificer and her pups are wolverines. I made their patterns closer to the species's coat this time.

[mizzyislost]

decided to try out drawing @dopscratch's slugcat designs,,,,

big fan of these guys anyone who gives slugcats different animal traits has my utmost admiration, particularly with mustelids. we need more of those i think,,,,,

[derpferret]

Unfortunate encounter

Continuing my studies on slug cats. Interesting, it appears this species is semi-aquatic, so I obviously turned into a-owwwowow! What are you?! Keep that beak away from me!! O_o;

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[marguerite-pizza]

rain world art dump. sorry guys they got me

also made a little headcanon chart and it’s gonna be under the cut

I rlly like thinking of the slugcats as those like. Inbetween mammals. yknow like you can’t really tell where they fall :3c mostly mustelids

survivor - European polecat + Doris odhneri

- standard ferret thing

monk - mink + Doris montereyensis

- it was funny

- i thought having both surv and monk as similar slugs was neat

hunter - american badger + Okenia rosacea

- badgers are mean but also protective

gourmand - raccoon + Doriopsilla albopunctata

- c’mon it’s so fitting

- also that slug is called a “white spotted sea goddess” and I thought that was rlly funny

spearmaster - marbled polecat + Edmundsella pedata

- just something abt them

rivulet - sea otter + Hypselodoris bennetti

- bffr

- I was actually rlly surprised there was a sea slug that fit rivulet so nicely

saint - fisher cat + Costasiella kuroshimae

- they just look the same to me

- I’m a slugcat fur denier he is WET and SLIMY

artificer - tasmanian devil + Aplysia californica

- also speaks for itself

- California sea hares are so ugly I love them <3