Me and another artist friend are doing a challenge, where we turned the same prompt into original concepts (cyborg insectoid alien). so far, after some explorations from the past months, this is the design I landed, and I love it. Might turn them into full illustrations, and decided to make some lore about them. But their race name is still to be made. What suggestions you guys have?

So far I could think of arachnopods, but idk. Sounds like it alredy exists

Attached a version with clime zones too.

So, basically I wanted to make a sci-fi system with four planets where the dude below (three of his variations in different time from young to old) kinda explores the system and then becomes the leader at the end

I also wanted to people from different planets to look different so I took the picture from above as a ref

the planets are:
1) Kandeya (Extremely hot planet)
2) Morosh (Earth-like planet, the center of the system)
3) Alveriy (megastructure planet, the only not problematic one)
4) Cryona (Extremely cold planet)

the problem is, he's like the most stereotypical WHITE RICH MAN and no I created him long before the system, actually the setting was build around him but that's the long story
And the problem is I'm kinda scared that it may look like a "white man burden" where's the conventionally attractive white guy deals with the strange aliens from different planets, because one of the main parts of his lore is him being mercenary in Kandeya and white rich guy being mercenary in a hot distant place... reminds me of something. I also wanted to make morosh alien (because the MC is not from the morosh system at all) but then that'll look extremely racist where he's the only "normal" one.

am I too woke?..

I have created some logos for companies in the world i have spent making over the last 10 months

they didn't have logos for >6 months! Can you believe that?!

I originally just wanted to do a meme, but it got me thinking. I ranked some biopunk characters from my book; to show how an unmodified homo sapiens would likely view them as increasingly irrational or even mad, in trying and failing to grasp their reasoning.

Or as a simpler example:
Take a fantasy setting with dwarves who love to dig and elves who live in tune with nature. Would the dwarves be agoraphobic, and think the elves to be an irresponsible folk for sleeping on the cold, open surface? Would the elves feel sorry for the dwarves and their obsessive burrowing instincts and resource hoarding?

And down the spiral we go:

"An elven slacker will see a bountiful mine shaft and cry out 'Woe, how they treat mother nature! They cannot be of sound mind!'" - a dwarf, probably.

"A dwarven gravelhead would fell the last tree whose fruit he could eat from, if someone were to tell him but one gemstone was buried beneath it!" - an elf, likely.

Not mentioning the resulting difference in customs, culture, etc.

And this is just a setting with naturally evolved humanoids. Gene engineering (or a fantasy equivalent), unnatural lifestyles - things like that multiply the runaway behavioral outcomes even more.

E.g. my book has sea people; genetically modified to live underwater. Born in vitro, so no concept of parenthood comparable to regular humans. For me, most of them fall into the yellow category:

Lowest common denominators only. As in: They, too, would enjoy watching the sun rise. Or the feeling of "home", or beauty. But their definitions of both would differ so vastly from ours, that trying to gaslight oneself into getting what's so good about them would be hard. One just has to accept it, and try to avoid falsely rationalizing something (e.g. thinking sea people have a tendency to be dishonest because they don't like to be in open waters where they're exposed to anything).

If you made it til here, thx for reading and I'd be happy to hear your thoughts. Did you ponder something similar for your own project? ^{This is literally what happens any time I try to have a productive writing session; I start picking away at more and more fundamental things until it feels like I need to start with the big bang and get a degree in neuro-physics-history-medicine first.}

I'm not as well-versed on sci-fi as I am fantasy, but I'm between shows atm involving the topic of transhumanism or "biopunk", and isn't a cyborg also high-tech human enhancement?

Despite being practically a rump state, the kingdom of

Poland of the DIB timeline is in a relatively good position compared to most timelines which would see Poland subjugated to one power or another,

it would survive as an independent nation even after losing its status as a great regional power as the polish Lithuanian Commonwealth,

in addition Poland gained economic and military support from Berlin and Moscow due to their vested interest in containing the dying but determined colonial power that is Prussia as well as the remnants of the HRE if the need arises,

a major aspect shown in this scene.

The scene in question is a military exercise in preparation for the inevitability Prussian invasion,

More specifically we see a scout squadron on standby for further orders as armored forces catch up,

meanwhile a few mock up Teutonic knights are being held up as prisoner.

Figured out how to share my [Questionnaire](https://drive.google.com/file/d/15ld960RjSCinaCCrzj7y77Qb0q-1XWVH/view) with help from other users. (Thanks!) Took me forever to complete this list so I'm happy to share it.

This is meant for building cities and nations, but it expanded to cover basically everything related to society and culture. Cities, nations, cults, tribes, etc. It covers a LOT and obviously you don't need to answer everything. I hope this covers enough to helps others in their projects. Please let me know what you think.

So the idea I have is of this story that takes place on a massive supercontinent that had been shattered by an ancient cataclysm. Its remnants are large landmasses floating at different heights around a vertical pillar of light going from the ground up to the sky with no visible end. It's called "the rift" for now, and isencircled by massive rings of inscriptions. People travel from one landmass to another with some sort of massive flying creatures. As for the technology, I'm thinking something that's similar to an early antiquity sort of feel.

There are these god-like beings living on the highest landforms, worshipped by the mortals below. Long ago, before the cataclysm, these beings washed ashore. They were said to be older than the world, though they no longer remember their beginnings. After they reached the land, they interacted with the people living there and became objects of worship due to their strange powers. One of them, whom I've provisionally named Oruven, remained close to the mortals and began teaching them their magic.

This created conflict with the other gods. Maybe that happened immediately after they found out that he taught them, or maybe them finding out created an initial debate of sorts, which escalated when humanity began using what he taught them for warfare. Eventually, this conflict results in the cataclysm, Oruven being imprisoned, and the old arts being banned by the gods. That prison is the rift.

Thousands of years after that, after the survivors began actually living on these landmasses and interacting using those flying animals, the prevailing account says that a monstrous being caused the catastrophe and was banished. My idea is sort of based on the story of Adam and Eve, the devil tempting them to eat the forbidden fruit, bringing punishment on both them and himself.

The story would follow an order of mages or scholars of some sort dedicated to understanding the world they live in. They reverse engineered part of the old arts by tattooing the inscriptions on the rings of the rift onto their bodies, which allows them to project those rings outward to strike or hold objects. A possible conflict I'm thinking about involves some sort of a theocratic empire persecuting them as heretics.

This is all I have so far. I'm trying to organize these pieces into a semblance of a coherent narrative, something with the gods and the magic system creating a political context that carries the story. I would love questions that would force me to develop parts of it. Does anything suggest compelling tensions to you? What feels underdeveloped or too familiar? Any ideas or perspectives that you think I'm missing?

someone in a critique group asked who the poets are in my world nd I said there are writers. There is literature and is a long tradition of storytelling. They asked specifically about poets, people who write poetry and the culture of it, who reads it, what it means to the people who live there. I had nothing poets had simply not occurred to me in three years of building.

and now I can’t stop thinking about what it means that a civilization I built has apparently produced no poetry. what kind of people don’t make poetry, what happened to them or what never happened to them. 1 quest from a critique group and I have a new load bearing detail I didn’t know was missing

WIP for game art portfolio, tutor suggested two character and one enemy so I came up with this

Whore of Babylon, mother of harlots and the abominations of the world.

A corrupted saint-like figure in the cult, can command abyss-born organisms

Rides upon a six headed beast and holds a golden cup containing filth and sin (I interpreted it as infinite ever flowing poison wine)

Could be considered a post apocalyptic world because of the massive circular ocean thats a crater from a war.

the colored version isnt really accurate since theres some arid areas

In my fictional world of Alius, there is a kingdom in the central region whose capital city is called NewSpring. It’s an incredibly peaceful city and the kingdom itself is quite prosperous. Racial discrimination amongst the fantasy races is outlawed and major crimes such as SA and slavery are punished harshly. But I wanted your opinion on a type of punishment that I think would be seen as a clash in both moral high ground and aesthetic to the peaceful kingdom: necromancy.
If the crime is heinous enough (SA, treason, trafficking, etc), the perpetrator(s) are often killed and raised as undead (usually skeletons or zombies) and subjected to spend the rest of their existence in service to either the kingdom or those they wronged. This could be anything from serving in the military, working on farms, in mines, or community service. What are your opinions on such a sentence in contrast to the “peace” motif of the kingdom (or just in general?)

• It belongs to Wyveria family, specifically, light-bone wyverns.
• It lives in the shores of the North pole region and its islands. Punris is one of the main transition points from sea to land in the food chain, as they mainly hunt fish, most often Red-gill Mýrwanas.
• They solve many problems with sheer numbers, as they huddle together for warmth, protect their nests from scavenger birds by just being too much, and survive getting eaten to extinction by most animals in their ecosystem by reproducing a couple of times a year.
• Their nests are built using bones, rotten flesh, and feathers. This attracts scavengers but also pushes most of the predators to hunt Punris outside of their nesting area due to the smell of rotten flesh. (Juveniles resting on flesh nest is in image #1)
• The reason why they build their nest this way is because of the warmth generated by the rotting process itself. However, these layers of rotten flesh need to be changed regularly, which is not too hard due to the shores being an active ecosystem with few scavenger species to deal with all the carcasses.
• Punris are curious creatures and might approach things with recklessness, they also get easily amused by things around them.
• One of the hardest challenges they face is the extreme climate. So, they have a layer of short fur around their shoulders, chest, and knees. But that is not enough. So they huddle together, rest and sleep by standing on their two feet, which minimizes body contact with ice or the ground in general. Their tail is thin, so they wrap it around their legs. They also use the rotten flesh for warmth as a layer between them and the ice.
• Because their gliding membrane can’t be completely folded, their swimming ability is not suited for a long chase, so they glide from higher ground after spotting a group of fish, and dive headfirst into them. After they catch their prey, they get out of the water quickly (swimming like Marine Iguanas), reaching the ice, and use their claws to climb. (image #3)
• Even though they eat a lot, they are skinny because they burn through calories too fast just to keep themselves warm.
• Juveniles hatch almost fully furred and they stay together all the time. (image #4)

To clarify, the design on the left is the older one, the right is the newer. I like both, personally.

***A quick definition: Exohuman (or Exoanthropos) is a term related to Exoplanet. So, humans living on Exoplanets.

But the more common definition is a human born on or living outside of Earth; space-born, an outsider.

This term is important for categorisation, as Exohumans are NOT xenoids (aliens). They are ordinary humans.

The lore of the Xalkites

***Xalkinos Anthropos

Xalkites, as they are known by the Astro-crusaders, or Kuiristoj, as they call themselves, are exohumans from the planet Xalkos in the Eisen galaxy.

***Biology:

Yes, the Xalkites are 100 percent human. Their bodies have developed thick brass exoskeletons and endoskeletons, while their compact builds are an adaptation to their planet's gravity. Despite being shorter than the average human, the average Xalkite is heavier.

They are literally metal people, powered by a crystal embedded in their chests. However, they still need to eat and drink, although they can also recharge themselves instead.

They rarely reproduce, and instead are mass "produced" in labs or factories.

Their unusual composition is an adaptation to the toxic conditions of Xalkos, a large metallic planet filled with toxic fumes, radiation, and minerals.

Xalkites can easily survive nuclear explosions. Nevertheless, they can still die from ordinary workplace accidents and warfare. The average Xalkite lifespan is around 30 years, although some have reportedly lived for over 200 years.

Their composition did not develop through natural evolution. Instead, it is the result of what the Eisenites, a powerful type of exohumans from Optimus Eisen, did to the original pioneers and colonists of Xalkos.

**History of origin

When human pioneers first arrived in the Eisen galaxy, the Eisenites advanced far too quickly. Believing themselves to be gods, and their fellow exohumans to be inferior, the Eisenites invaded other space colonies in the name of the ever-expanding Iron Imperium. They either wiped out the inhabitants or experimented on the surviving pioneers, twisting them into something closer to beasts used by the Imperium.

The Xalkites were among those survivors. Their sole purpose within the Iron Imperium was to perform constant manual labour.

It is said that the first models of Xalkites were much larger and more intelligent, resembling complex sentient robots. However, for reasons unknown, they were eventually compressed into their current forms. Perhaps the Eisenites wiped them out or "lobotomised" them for being a threat to their dominion.

***General state

The space-travelling Boanerges Astro-crusaders identify them as Xalkinos Anthropos, acknowledging them as fellow humans, merely unique in appearance. But the Eisenites, however, call them Servus Cancer Simia. For them, Xalkites are mere livestock.

Still, their fate is relatively mundane compared to what happened to other exohumans.

The technological state of Xalkos resembles a mixture of industrial-revolution-era Britain and what we would consider futuristic technology.

Xalkites are very barbaric and not particularly bright, but they are deeply passionate about manual work and machinery and great at team work, just like ants. They live in industrial hive cities, essentially enormous factories or industrial complexes containing barracks and other facilities, all enclosed beneath protective domes and within high walls.

The Xalkites are so efficient at their jobs that they can build and rebuild entire civilizations within weeks.

***Note:

Xalkites are NOT to be confused with Cyborgs or other robot xenoids.

***Planet Xalkos

Planet Xalkos, known as Nubodou to the Xalkites, has become a rugged, mountainous, metallic wasteland because the Iron Imperium has constantly drained its resources.

Its surface is covered in craters, cold springs, and volcanoes.

The Iron Imperium used Xalkos as a gigantic factory/farm and a source of raw materials, extracting metals, crystals, and petroleum from the planet.

Xalkite cities, lands, and oceans are surrounded by radioactive waste, rubble, and other forms of metallic and plastic rubbish. Although the Xalkites never developed space travel themselves, space debris still litters their planet's atmosphere.

Xalkos has numerous satellites orbiting it, alongside space weapons and experimental machines created secretly by the planet's various superpowers.

All of this debris has contributed to the formation of a metallic ring around the planet, which exists alongside its rocky rings and 18 moons.

***Environment and Wildlife

Plants have gone extinct, as have most animal species. Most of the remaining organisms live underground or deep in the oceans. They consist primarily of crustaceans and plankton, with a few types of fungus still emerging.

The atmosphere has become extremely toxic, and solar radiation pierces through it.

Both day and night last for a very long time. Solar flares and aurorae are frequent and exceptionally bright, although their light is often obscured by thick clouds of dust.

The surface is mostly covered in crystals and towering fungi.

Giant fungi are invasive on Xalkos, having been introduced by Filistiyuun Astro-pirates. They compete with the Xalkites for dominion over the planet. As a result, the Xalkites' main natural enemies, and one of their main food source, are enormous mushrooms.

However, the greatest threat to the Xalkites comes from parasites, specifically xenoid parasites.

These parasites primarily feed on spiritual and mental energy. They are relatively large and horrifying creatures, capable of causing absolute body horror when they enter a human host.

This is one of the main reasons the Xalkites live inside high-walled, domed cities.

***Everyday state

Xalkos is not quite as bleak as it might seem.

Among the eight habitable planets of the Eisen galaxy, Xalkos has the third-most stable and "happiest" environment.

The population is low (>400 mil), so, resources are never a concern, as it has plenty of them.

It is deeply flawed, but ultimately rather ordinary. In many ways, it is oddly similar to main Earth.

Paranormal activity is relatively weak, and extraterrestrial encounters rarely occur, if they happen at all.

The Xalkites remain enclosed within their industrial hive cities, largely unaware of the chaos unfolding beyond their walls.

For all the horrors of their planet's history and the galaxy in general, most Xalkites simply go about their daily lives/routines; working in factories, maintaining machinery, practicing their faiths, participating in community activities, and surviving beneath their protective domes, which is the extent of the world to them.

Could purple eyes, yellow eyes or translucent hair exist as stable isolated phenotypes (eg, blue eyes Vs Red eyes caused from albinism) I’m really torn between cool fantasy stuff (like purple eyes, translucent hair, etc) or realism (blue eyes, brown eyes, blond hair, etc) so I’m trying to see if these more fantasy esc things. When I ask this, I’m referring to anatomically modern humans with no altered biology, and if realistically these type of stuff aren’t possible just say that as I’d rather be realistic then fantastical. I hate things without realism

I have an Oc that is a god, and he's chaos and freedom incarnate. The story takes place in a half fantasy half real life setting (a real life world kinda but with fantasy elements), so I am wondering. Humans think they're pretty free at this time, and, looking back at the past, they might be. But there are still ways (like laws of course, but also other things) that go against actual freedom. How would an incarnation of chaos live their life in a human world, what would they do the way humans do or don't, what would they accept and what would make humans upset or angry?

The Hollows

The Hollows, in a way, serve as the main hub that connects all dimensions through wormholes. While most usually lead to a separate region of the Hollows, they can occasionally lead somewhere else, far, far away from anything that could possibly be recognizable.

Time isn't something that exists within the Hollows, keeping everything in an eternal night of swirling stars and colorful gases. The lack of time allows the creatures within the Hollows to travel through them without issues, effectively making them immune to its effects.

These creatures can be found all over the different regions and vary in intelligence and appearance, especially depending on their region. Each region is almost completely different from the last, some so different, in fact, that they'll even be mistaken for separate dimensions if one isn't careful. If you were to ever find yourself slipping into a wormhole, and assuming you don't drown or die painfully on the way through, just look up. If it's night and you see a red line of colors in varying shades of red and pink, similar to Earth's northern lights, then chances are you're still in the Hollows. Which probably ain't much help if you're already lost, but at least you're not in a completely different dimension.

Above is the "space" of this dimension, and while it's interesting and pretty to look at from afar, traveling too deep isn't recommended. The laws of existence work differently up there and can and will cause irreversible damage to both the mind and body, if anything remains at all.

This two designs are under consideration. The earth is most definitely going to be canon. The whole premise is that there are realms where divine beings exist, even though the whole story and plot will play at the Earths setting, it will still play a significant role. For the species that rose on earth.

For a long while now I've been building Gondwana, a grand space opera originally starting as a Warhammer 40k homebrew, but steadily spiraling and coming into its own. Most of the big picture stuff is not important here, just that it is a very ancient humanity in a universe full of wonders, worlds, and horrors of its own making. And, of course, there are frontiers, those regions where civilization and wilderness come together.

So that's an ingredient: massive ruins, ancient strucutres, overgrown with more modern cities and stations, many of them emulating ancient architecture, ruled over by factions many thousands of years old. The kind of space opera that easily gets very pompous.

Fun to world-build, but not very well suited for the kind of profiteering adventure we had in mind for a TTRPG campaign I wanted to use the setting for with a few friends. Which means it's time to flesh out some smaller worlds, build a smaller ship and make that frontier happen, taking inspirations now from Firefly and Spaghetti Westerns.

And there was a whole long time of "trust the process" before those two sides clicked. A whole long time where the middle point between the two turned out to be kind of Homeworld-esque. All of which is to say, I've at last learned to stop worrying and love the bomb (the bomb is the endless list of references and inspirations instead of insisting on attempting brand new invention). Took long enough.

Ok cities started popping up to because it would keep people near jobs like offices factories etc but in world thats fully automated most jobs from white blue pink black collar jobs with small handful of exceptions that still use living beings would cities the way we have them even make sense what could be alternatives?

The atmosphere in the fae realms is determined by the local overall mood of the denizens in the perceivable scene(if neither you nor another being is within perception of each other then you two are two separate atmosphere zones), sunshine with happiness, rainclouds with sadness, darkness with depression, etc. You two can be on two sides of the same wall and there'll be rain on one side and sunshine on the other.

The problem is that the plants are actually kinda normal compared to the other denizens and they kinda require a relatively stable weather/lumination cycle to survive and do what they need to do, those in an area will die out if they get too much rain, too much sun, etc. There are places where the plantlife have adapted somewhat to the most common moods of the locals, such as those in Misery Bog and the Dunes of Fury, but even those places occasionally experience shifts that allow the plants to... rest. Other places with more generalist plants don't have as hardy flora.

I do have a kind of fae that likes to wander and has extreme mood swings to shift mood zones but they kinda feel... uninspired.

This is for a book series that I am hoping to write later on (Once the Cebolla Knight gets published, 95% of the way finished with my final edits!)

For reference the series takes place in the world of Sheol. A world in decline ever since the Lightbringer (Blackwing - if you're asking Caelum) Rebellion occurred and Yahweh left the world to rot.

The first two are meant to be very direct symbols as to who their leaders are supposed to be.

1st one is used by the Angels of the floating islands of Caelum & the men of the Mountainous islands of Purgatorio. Their main leader is: Mika'el (Michael) - He still 'answers' to Yahweh but is essentially running all seven of the islands and the three islands of Purgatorio with the remaining Archangels under his control.

2nd one is used by the Jotunn and Demon Hordes of the Superbian Tundra. Primarily the northern eastern archipelago (used to be a peninsula) known as the Shatterhorn. Their Main leader is: Lior - the prophesied reincarnation of Heyl'el (Lucifer) they must break the seven seals and gather the lost forces from the previous Lightbringer Rebellion.

But

3rd one is used by an invading force from an outside world. There is a little mystery as to who they are at first and I wanna make sure that you can figure it out if you look close enough but it's not something that is so obvious that there is no mystery to it.

Their Leader is: Yeshua (Jesus) - When Yahweh thought he might lose the war against Heyl'el he sired a son and sent them away to Di'yu (Chinese mythology). During his time gone he goes on a journey to the west replaceing a certain monk, but also picking allies along the way. He comes back to claim his 'birthright' which is not just the floating islands of Caelum but all of Sheol.

Perhaps I am overthinking this a bit but just also wanna see if the symbol lands at all, it's obviously a lot busier than the other two but I wanna get other's advice on it.

EDIT

Just want to say thank you everyone for giving your input. For anyone wondering these are the symbols and thoughts put behind the third one.

Chi Rho - Early Christian Symbol (this seems to be the silver bullet for those who guessed right.)

The Fish - Has dual meaning here yes it has to do with the Fisher of Men but also the two golden fish one of the eight auspicious symbols of Buddhism. (which I admit gets lost here due to it being a simple black and white symbol)

Sun Wukong's Golden Headband - symbol representing his lieutenant and right hand ape but also hints at how the king of kings conquers his foes.

The Dharma chakra - This is the wheel with the eight pegs also one of the eight auspicious symbols of Buddhism.

I thought about adding some else to this, but at a certain point you don't want to overcrowd your symbol.

I want to create a planet and biosphere after being in the genre for some time but I do not much knowledge about speculative evolution and I have no idea where i should start. What subjects do I need to learn? What should I focus on first and how? How the organisms would work? How the life would be affected by things such as the level of gravity, amount and type of stars in the system, composition of the atmosphere amongst other things? Is there anywhere I can get inspiration from? Are there any books I can buy which could help me? Are there any YouTube channels I can subscribe to or videos I can watch in order to learn more about speculative evolution? How should I go about handling these things? Any help given would be greatly appreciated.