#the world of Kalandakar

[ikrutt]

The Incident, 2024

Adreas and Ma-Vireva go on a date.

[ikrutt]

Betrayal!, 2023

Virak joins the party, develops trust issues.

Moskuans have two spoken languages, Groundtalk and Overspeech. Groundtalk is long-distance communication in the infrasound range. Overspeech is regular spoken language for everyday conversation.

Adreas cannot hear Groundtalk, but understands Overspeech just fine.

[ikrutt]

Naked Adreas I did for last year's Art Fight ref. It includes a couple of typos that I can't be arsed to fix.

Read more about Adreas' species here.

[ikrutt]

Historians, 2024

Ma-Vireva and a slightly more grown up Virak hang out and get excited over a book or something. Nerds!

[ikrutt]

You've told us a bit about Moskuans, but what about Adreas' species? Can you tell us something about them? I love everything you've shown of your world and concepts!

Adreas' species are called tenel, or Tenelik if you're talking about them as a people.

Tenel are adapted to arid environments and mostly live in small, close-knit communities close to plains and mountain ranges. Their native range has many large predators, so they're known as a hardy and crafty people.

There has been significant diaspora throughout history, so you'll also find them in mixed-species communities in the lowland and coastal regions. When in mixed company, they readily adopt the dominant culture, sometimes to the detriment of their own.

Tenel in Fadesi society will take on basically any kind of work. They're small of stature and quite hard working. They also require less food and can subsist on only a fraction of fresh water of the average Fadesi. Very useful traits for shipping and long distance transportation.

Fadesi consider the Tenelik way of life to be a bit primitive. Despite the average tenel showing great aptitude in fields of navigation, mathematics and astrology.

It is said that a tenel can always find their way back Home. Here is a sailor and navigator named Jarva.

Tenel prefer going in the buff, but will submit to a bare minimum of coverings in "polite" society. Adreas is regarded by other Tenelik as a bit of an eccentric for his tailored clothing. Adreas is also unusual in other ways, being both uncommonly tall and outrageously cranky for a tenel.

Young tenel are adorable and sometimes adopted as mascots of sorts by Fadesi. However, as hatchlings they're covered in fluff that hide a multitude of quills. Petting is ill-advised!

They bathe like this.

[ikrutt]

Why do fadesi have them big ol' snoots?

Both Tenel (Adreas) and Moskuans (Morkant) have been revamped since I created them in my teens, but I never got around to the Fadesi, somwhow.

Maybe I read Bone and liked the shape of the protagonists so much I wanted to incorporate it into my own work? Or perhaps I'm simply too lazy to focus on them right now.

The more spec bio-y I go with the universe, the harder it is to justify. And yet I've let them stay that way.

Here is some ancient (08/09) Fadesi art of a set of characters not included in the Jar-Lorego storyline:

Pat and Ellis with their fathers. I drew them all the other day to see if their designs felt different to me, and no, not really:

[ikrutt]

Dance your worries away!

[ikrutt]

Academia is such a bloody business! Although, Adreas never expected quite this level of bloodshed.

[ikrutt]

Do you have any cultural/historical influences you draw on when worldbuilding?

This is a great question, and I'm afraid I can't point towards anything too specific. There are two main reasons for this:

The worldbuilding for Kalandakar exist mainly so I can do humorous drawings that reflect my own experiences with, for example, academia. Albeit in a roundabout and cartoony manner.

I wish for the concepts to be broad strokes and not inspired too closely by any one historical epoch or event. Mostly because I don't trust myself to write historical analogues with the nuance and sensetivity this deserves.

The backdrop of the Jar-Lorego storyline deals with topics such as classism, social inequality, colonialism and the clash of cultures at different levels of technological advancement. I haven't touched too closely upon this, but one of my goals is to write the meeting between stand-ins for indeginous cultures and colonial powers that doesn't result in assimilation or genocide.

My main goal, however, is still to develop these characters and their world, and just... see what happens.

Fadesi science and technology in the region is approximately at the level of Medieval Islam. I.e. Ma-Vireva would have access to steel, hydraulics and indoor plumbing, paper and bookbinding, sophisticated mathematics, navigation and astronomy, as well as a fledgling medical field with herbal drugs and rudimentary surgery. As of yet, there is no germ theory, steam power, electricity or firearms.

To kick of the storyline (Adreas being dumped in the desert), I have drawn inspiration from African trypanosomiasis throughout history. As well as the "white spot" phenomenon on 19th century maps.

See, unbeknownst to Adreas, there is a mysterious disease preventing the Fadesi from advancing into the Jar-Lorego, one which doesn't seem to affect the other two sophonts. After several research missions fail horribly (i.e. everyone dies), they send a Tenel and a Moskuan as a last ditch effort and/or for shits and giggles.

Regardless of the outcome, the university considers this a a win-win; either they'll be rid of the thorn in their side that is Adreas, or they'll have more information on the vast and unexplored desert. That is until Adreas starts putting together the pieces of the greater circumstances, and realize he can utilize this against the Fadesi to benefit Tenel and Moskuan society.

[ikrutt]

Morkant is just taking the piss.

[ikrutt]

#faceyourart2022

[ikrutt]

tfw you’re homesick but only have a twerp for company

[ikrutt]

Being forced to protect a complete stranger in an inhospitable desert, is severe punishment for a social butterfly like Morkant. Adreas is very difficult to work with on account of his personality. He also manages to almost die on a weekly basis. So, during the first season of field work, they both have enough with getting through each day with their hides intact.

Nobody expects Morkant to then volunteer as a guide for a second season. Not because of Adreas’ company, mind, but because of his growing (and very secret) interest in research. The second season being more organized yields more interesting results, which only encourages Morkant. The work being more predictable also frees up some time for various other activities.

(Moskuans are highly social and have a mating system which includes sexual camaraderie among young males. They are pretty xenophobic, however,  and think interspecies relations in general are difficult. But, eh, any port in a storm.)

Adreas does not know what to think when Morkan first starts making advances, due to Morkant’s strict no-touching-no-riding-no-treating-me-like-a-pack-animal policy during the first year. But he rolls with it. For some reason, this is also when he stops smoking.

[ikrutt]

Adreas was only trying to help by offering some friendly advice and his personal opinion. Calm down, sweetie, no reason to get hysterical.

[ikrutt]

Adreas is not convinced. He might not understand her language, but Eldest's sleazy car salesman aura transcends language, planets and historical epochs.

[ikrutt]

The joyful academic surveys his work.

Adreas and Morkant’s first field probe would turn out to be a task of sisyphean proportions. Not only is one burned-out researcher and one local guide doing the work of ten specialists. They also have to set up base, order and assemble equipment, and negotiate supply deals with local tradesmen so they don’t starve while on missions in uncharted territories. 

At least there is funding!

While Morkant’s knowledge of desert living would come in handy, and even save Adreas’ life on a couple of occasions. He fails to predict just how much the simplest of things –such as insect bites and sand, everywhere– would hamper Adreas’ daily functioning. He got at least one disease nobody’s ever heard of before, and rashes in places one would rather not mention.

Needless to say, very little actual science was done during this first season. For most of it, Adreas would subsist almost entirely on stimulants and gallows’ humour while up on his Brooding Rock. He picks up healthier habits in subsequent seasons, to Morkant’s great relief.