#uniima baby

[yellosnacc]

Look at what I found while foraging for fruits outside.

Can't believe this is real. What a creature.

At this stage the critter is still covered with thin layers of shedding skin even over its crest and beak. It makes it quite shiny.

You can even see its mouth is starting to turn purple.

someone mentioned me in a reblog of this photo saying it looks like baby uniima, but when I finally got the time to do this the reblog was sadly gone

Smooth Helmeted Iguana (Corytophanes cristatus), family Corytophanidae, Costa Rica

photograph by Hans Hillewaert

[yellos2]

Here's the creature itself. Repost from main.

Evil beast on a tree.

Gaga

Original creature post I took the photo from here

[yellosnacc]

On the left, an older caretaker from some island culture. Sleepy babies get to hold on the adult's piercings. The ones too young get a ride in the basket.

On the right, an egg arch (a reproductive leader) of a coastal culture. The babies on their neck don't have the balance to walk but might not be so sleepy. Unlike the caretaker the arch carries their own children. They make great accessories but being your parent's keychains is also a good exercise, experts say.

Climbing on big uniimas is natural to a baby. Since uniima are evolved to be arboreal, it's better they can climb and grip as soon as possible. Their giant heads make it easy to hold their full weight on their jaws.

Before becoming a parent or a caretaker, one needs to realize they will also become a tree, a mountain, and a hanger.

[yellosnacc]

Okay, 1: I REALLLLY REALLLLY love how uniima FLY as a sport?!?;?; THATS SO COOL???? And such a good use of that Long Finger

2: Do you have more info on Uniima larvae??? I was so fascinated by their larval forms when I found out they were larvae - I could not tell WHAT i was looking at when I first saw them, and I mean that as the highest of compliments, it's such a creative Baby (so minimalist! you literally broke them into their simplest Shape and then made THAT into their larva AUGH)

Thank you so much! I wish to develop the flying stuff a lot more. The culture around it and such. It's considered very modern so traditions around it are very new and taken from other things. Funny guys!

And thank you I do have more info I'm working on it right now to give a fuller answer but the idea actually came from a very silly conversation on Discord about uniima as just a triangle, relating to another artist's work.

@t34-mt then depicted this

It was obvious that the potential of these drawings was immeasurable. So the shape larvae became a reality.

[ntls-24722]

I may be looking too into this, but... is this an extra limb??

Uniima larvae come in large numbers but high mortality rate as these onigiri have to compete to become juveniles even in the egg case.

They start off with an egg wall. Their bodies are still clumbs of cells that slowly fill up the inside of the 'egg', consuming the included nutrients. Once they are ready, the baby grows it's own wall for the first time and 'hatches'.

After this the larvae molts as it grows with a new wall each time. During the whole larval period the shed skin sticks to the white. If adults don't clean them up, you will see multiple torn layers on top of the white, which can cause issues.

The white grows a straw. A somewhat brittle organ compared to that of ancestral larvae but functional enough to pierce under another whites wall (especially in the side seam). The larva actively feeds itself using this, though the food has to be liquid enough to get through the straw. They don't smell or see to search for food and will just wiggle the straw around until they can slurp. These triangles are mostly fat and liquids with other tissues in the center and thowards straw.

When they completely lose the straw (the entrance to it reforms), they start eating with their new mouth. At this point they also start making noise with their nostrils. Adult Uniima are sensitive to this much more than to the visual cuteness of the larva. This is often when adults start claming individuals to raise.

As the creature grows and gains complexity inside its own wall, it's new molts allow for use of more developed parts - anal cavity opens, ear cycles appear, eyes get bigger and closer to the wall surface, "mouth hands" with leathery pads emerge.. and lastly it's whole legs with fingers (often just silhouettes of feet show up rather then whole fingers or they are webbed).

After it's last stage and sufficient amounts of food, the white goes dormant to metamorphosise. This can take a week and less as most juvenile components are already in place.

The larval stages of Uniima can differ in length depending of environment - temperature, humidity, lack of food...

The average time from birth to metamorphosis is around 3 and half earth months.

The images here are not fully up to scale. Most larvae grow more between the stages but it's also not impossible for it to be to scale. I would just consider this larva a runt of the litter.

[yellosnacc]

What about uniima/Fueem’s religion causes them to see Neal as a sloman?

This ask is probably a reaction to this post where I share some of Fueems thoughts if anyone wants to read it.

Here's a post about small aspect of the wider ueemic religion here.

But shrimply! Fueem's regional variant of this faith is pretty close to the one considered the "base" ueemic type. They are a follower of the heads and their rules and are knowledgeable in the ways of soul right.

In more recent years (like 30) the Eye has declared a soul right for every alien (any sophont found in the world so far) with some distinct rules for each but still similar to how uniima souls work.

Because this addition to the base religion is pretty recent, there are many versions of how this works for different people-species but nothing is fully agreed on. There's also the problem of most uniima never seeing a live sloman or knowing their biology/reproduction. So lot of the existing interpretations are based on accounts of a few ueema. Now if those guys weren't good drawers, someone else had to visually interpret their interpretation and welp. The farther from the Heads (the religion central) the weirder looking and weirder working other aliens are in art and literature.

So a recap. When a uniima dies (according to ueema belief) they release a soul. This soul in some way (depending on subculture etc.) gets attached to a person who was close to the dead person. At a point, the soul will jump to a baby at the right point in its development. This baby can be the new child of the soul wearer or just close to them. Usually, the wearer has to meet the "body" at least once. There are a lot more rules and stuff but this is long enough!

So anyway, this is probably what Fueem imagines happened to Neal spiritually.

Making Neal have the soul of once-sloman and thus being one too.

[yellosnacc]

Been keeping this away for long since its a very out of context specific stuff.

These are the Heads - the mostly spiritual leader of the central Foru micro-state collective. Their role is to be a guide for all the leaders (archs) in central Foru and speak for all of them on an international level. They also bless lands and people and generally are well-liked by them. They can make big decisions, but it's ultimately on the archs if they comply (but the pressure is strong).

Every head has a more specialized role, each representing a 'sense' of their one shared soul (hearing, seeing, touch, thought...) and people they are patrons to (the old, the "rich", the leaders, the priests...). Each central Foru micro-state usually has its favorite head that they want to see the most in their community when bringing them news or blessings.

here are closeups

The Heads are the center of a religion practiced in the region. In short - the Heads share one spirit that in ancient times belonged to a priest who misused their power to get to the spirit world and instead became forever stuck in the material world. After many reincarnations, the priest became a wise leader who learned to speak with the spirit world and make final peace between the worlds of spirits and the material.

I would need to go into more religion details to go over that but that can be a separate post. Let's talk about how they get their role.

A 'competition' is held to determine the best leader, most spiritually attuned, most well-thinking, and best-presenting individual. The Heads in position at the time with a few other high-ranking individuals will judge the participants and then make their pick at the choosing ceremony. Luckily there are not too many to choose from, there are many requirements to participate.

However, the one picked isn't one that will become a head, they would be far too old at the time. Instead, they will force their system to make a rare phenomenon happen. This means making more of themselves with cloning (having babies grow out of diploid cells with no need for another person). This is usually achieved when under high amounts of stress and loneliness.

The uniima egg naturally holds 4 larvae but usually only 1-2 develop fully while the rest becomes food for the surviving ones. This clone egg has 4 identical whites (pre-babies) in them that get special care to ensure at least 3 survive. There have been heads with one member before and with 2 and 3, but 4 is a miracle as the bottom corner larva almost never develops enough to hatch. This egg is very lucky.

The identical quadruplets are given to be raised in different environments. These environments will decide what they represent as adults. It will also give them better perspectives of the world, making it easier/more difficult to make big decisions when the time comes.

Additionally, because there are 4 heads this time, a new environment had to be introduced. This environment was that of small communities, minorities, and generally people living in poorer conditions (yes, for the past Heads, war was more important than their people suffering (it's a very central Foru thing)). Unfortunately for The Ear, they are not respected everywhere, and many people assume them to be a fake among their siblings.

You can also see the heads have each their own signature and each Head generation has their own symbol that is recognized outside their writing systems.

[yellosnacc]

Baby slomen (chicks?sloms?slims)

They are born with sharp 'teeth' on their lower jaw to help them leave their meat egg. Once out, they use them to pierce their mother's "crop" to drink. After 14 to 18 months the teeth are gone, and at the same time, the mother's crop stops filling.

The mini sloms are also born blind (but stay that way only for a week). Their eyestalks stay protected with a very thick layer of fat for multiple years.

Being more bottom-heavy than adults, they can already learn to walk in 4 months. Their posture stays raptorial before ages 6 to 8.

Here are also some experimental sketches of adults. Def need a character exploration for uniima, but understandably, slomen are a bit easier to work with, being the human aliens.

[yellosnacc]

-Outdated flora and details-

A small family

The two younger siblings still mostly eat "crop milk" from their parents but are already running around like the wild creatures they are.

Baby uniimas can walk and run a few days after hatching when their eyes are fully grown. Climbing needs a lot more practice so it's better to let them try climbing the parents before anything else.

Both parents take turns and will often compete a lot for their kids' affection (lovingly). Being the less-liked parent is a pain but to feed them you still have to work.

On average, there are two eggs per clutch with a pretty good survival chance for at least one.

bb zoom

[yellosnacc]

-THEY ARE SO OUTDATED, NEED TO REDRAW-

Neal's family

Using thicker lines makes drawing much faster but the lack of detail is killing me-

Baby Neal and his moms. Both Greth and Manice worked on a ship and have been in many fights together among other things. On one of their voyage they found Neal in a terrible state in terrible hands. At the time it would be very rare to find Uniima C in an elven city and so they adopted him, not even knowing what to feed him.

Unfortunatelly, they don't get to raise him for very long.

Greth was a short eared elv skilled with a sword and navigation, Manice is a long eared elv, a good strategist and talker. Greth is long gone (due to her curse) when Neal becomes a proffesor and Manice is old and sick (but if I give Neal a story she will likely have succumbed to the sickness at the point).

[yellosnacc]

-Outdated flora-

Burial (and making sure they stay buried)

Editing this to add lore:

A group of Uniima Cornifers in something of a ritual.

A dead body is being buried high in a tree trunk to be protected from scavengers/plants/other Uniima/types of magic. It's a difficult but traditional approach.

The corpse is tightly wrapped in textile and their tail is relocated over them towards the tree's opening (if it's not possible the tail feathers are cut and put there instead). Feathers of family members are also added.

Additionaly the corpses eyes are shattered and golden bars trap their skull in a position. Which is to make sure that if the area's magic reanimates the body it won't put anyone in danger (it happens only in specific areas but often this is still done just in case).

After the job is done the tree opening is covered in different way based on status, danger and wishes. This one will have cloth over it. Later a hardening liquid might be poured over the cloth.

The dark purple uniima is a priest-like figure who's job is to read texts from a wooden tablet and command the group of workers (light purple) who do all the physical work.

Lastly the uniima in white with a baby is a family member of the buried individual.

Since there's only two family members we can assume more of them had died to a catastrophe or that this buried has high chances of vampirism/reanimating in the vampire specific way and this member was chosen to go.

[yellosnacc]

Uniima larvae come in large numbers but high mortality rate as these onigiri have to compete to become juveniles even in the egg case.

They start off with an egg wall. Their bodies are still clumbs of cells that slowly fill up the inside of the 'egg', consuming the included nutrients. Once they are ready, the baby grows it's own wall for the first time and 'hatches'.

After this the larvae molts as it grows with a new wall each time. During the whole larval period the shed skin sticks to the white. If adults don't clean them up, you will see multiple torn layers on top of the white, which can cause issues.

The white grows a straw. A somewhat brittle organ compared to that of ancestral larvae but functional enough to pierce under another whites wall (especially in the side seam). The larva actively feeds itself using this, though the food has to be liquid enough to get through the straw. They don't smell or see to search for food and will just wiggle the straw around until they can slurp. These triangles are mostly fat and liquids with other tissues in the center and thowards straw.

When they completely lose the straw (the entrance to it reforms), they start eating with their new mouth. At this point they also start making noise with their nostrils. Adult Uniima are sensitive to this much more than to the visual cuteness of the larva. This is often when adults start claming individuals to raise.

As the creature grows and gains complexity inside its own wall, it's new molts allow for use of more developed parts - anal cavity opens, ear cycles appear, eyes get bigger and closer to the wall surface, "mouth hands" with leathery pads emerge.. and lastly it's whole legs with fingers (often just silhouettes of feet show up rather then whole fingers or they are webbed).

After it's last stage and sufficient amounts of food, the white goes dormant to metamorphosise. This can take a week and less as most juvenile components are already in place.

The larval stages of Uniima can differ in length depending of environment - temperature, humidity, lack of food...

The average time from birth to metamorphosis is around 3 and half earth months.

The images here are not fully up to scale. Most larvae grow more between the stages but it's also not impossible for it to be to scale. I would just consider this larva a runt of the litter.

[yellos2]

Yes it's an extra limb! It's internal in juveniles and adults and very small in non adults. Since it's mostly a reproductive organ in sky Uniima (non-humanoid). The hind limbs of Uniima are actually sorta tail limbs. Overall the uniima skeleton is freaky.

Tbh I thibk I need to redo the gender page a little since uniima don't actually have separate sex. Their social structures when it comes to parenting and such is also more socially constructed. Biologically yes, Uniima do not care for kids based on genetics but on survival of larvae. But parenthood comes in many forms. Some communities have dedicated members doing all the parenting and then having the older kids engage in more outside of the "guild" while other communities share care of kids, switching them around or letting them stay with adults who don't mind. And sometimes they simply pick and parent. It's really up to the culture there. Sometimes it matters if the adult's are in partnership and sometimes it really doesn't.

Slomen on the other hand do the same thing 80% of the time in many different cultures.

I think loudness is the deciding factor in cuteness for many but pitch also plays a big role. Sure they can get annoying but to them it's not far as annoying as human baby screaming is to us. But there will always be exceptions.

Yea the head is silly skiny but most of the jaw muscles are at the base of the jaws while uniima don't need much facial muscle really. Tho I'm still pondering few things.

Also thank you sm!

Uniima larvae come in large numbers but high mortality rate as these onigiri have to compete to become juveniles even in the egg case.

They start off with an egg wall. Their bodies are still clumbs of cells that slowly fill up the inside of the 'egg', consuming the included nutrients. Once they are ready, the baby grows it's own wall for the first time and 'hatches'.

After this the larvae molts as it grows with a new wall each time. During the whole larval period the shed skin sticks to the white. If adults don't clean them up, you will see multiple torn layers on top of the white, which can cause issues.

The white grows a straw. A somewhat brittle organ compared to that of ancestral larvae but functional enough to pierce under another whites wall (especially in the side seam). The larva actively feeds itself using this, though the food has to be liquid enough to get through the straw. They don't smell or see to search for food and will just wiggle the straw around until they can slurp. These triangles are mostly fat and liquids with other tissues in the center and thowards straw.

When they completely lose the straw (the entrance to it reforms), they start eating with their new mouth. At this point they also start making noise with their nostrils. Adult Uniima are sensitive to this much more than to the visual cuteness of the larva. This is often when adults start claming individuals to raise.

As the creature grows and gains complexity inside its own wall, it's new molts allow for use of more developed parts - anal cavity opens, ear cycles appear, eyes get bigger and closer to the wall surface, "mouth hands" with leathery pads emerge.. and lastly it's whole legs with fingers (often just silhouettes of feet show up rather then whole fingers or they are webbed).

After it's last stage and sufficient amounts of food, the white goes dormant to metamorphosise. This can take a week and less as most juvenile components are already in place.

The larval stages of Uniima can differ in length depending of environment - temperature, humidity, lack of food...

The average time from birth to metamorphosis is around 3 and half earth months.

The images here are not fully up to scale. Most larvae grow more between the stages but it's also not impossible for it to be to scale. I would just consider this larva a runt of the litter.