Sophont - Blog Posts

I have a name for this species now, they're called the Heriheri! This is Mitra, he's a different subspecies to Watama but they're both pretty similar. He is wearing a necklace of seed pods because they rattle, and that's useful since his job is feeding/sacrificing people to the Mother of the Deep, which is a massive blind cave creature a bit like an olm (she recognises the rattling sound and knows not to eat him). The long spines on his head can move, and he wiggles them about to show different emotions. They fall off every year and he grows new soft ones. Also, don't be fooled by Mitra's cute exterior and the fact that he's only about the size of a dog, this guy is Evil.

[click for better quality :)]

My horrible son, Watama. He is a sophont living in a series of caves in a big colony along with other creatures of his species (not sure what I will call them yet) and technically he is a subtroglophile since his species has to leave the caves to get food etc (they are omnivores but eat lots of bugs. Yummy). His species is nocturnal, hence the big sad wet eyes. Also his species usually wears clothes of some sort since it's quite cold where they live, I just haven't drawn them yet. Watama is a male, but like the Kerilone who he is distantly related to, when he reaches a certain age and body fat percentage, he'll become a female, and get a lot larger and more sedentary, and lose the red pigmentation around his chest spiracles. This won't happen for him for a long while though, since he's pretty skinny for a whatever-he-is, although you can't tell because of his thick layer of plumulaceous feathers. He is quite a drab example of his species, but they aren't generally super colourful anyway - there's not much point if you live in a dark cave.

Hakiri!! I haven't drawn any birdpeople in almost a year, it's nice to get back to them. The helmet design is subject to change, though - I might make it a little more Spartan in style. :-)

Rilicai in the rain. Inspired by how rainy it is where I live at the moment. Rain is pretty common where she lives as well, but she doesn’t normally go to the forest - most of her species live in or on mountains.

Four Kerilone outfits for various occasions. Dyes are not very common and quite hard to make, so most everyday clothes are undyed as in the winter outfit. However, red and blue dye - red from a plant, blue from various shellfish - are available. Kerilone courting takes place in the summer. The Kerilone are protandrous hermaphrodites, which means they all hatch male and gain the ability to become female upon reaching maturity. Females are larger than males, with darker colouring, and are less agile but stronger than males. Every year in winter the Kerilone shed their summer coats and grow new, white and fluffy winter coats (not shown in the picture), as well as losing their sexual characteristics as well as their ability to reproduce - the winters are very harsh, so all of their energy is needed simply to survive. After the winter, young adults can become either male or female: they have a modicum of choice in the matter, but it is largely down to environmental influences. However, as they age they lose the ability to become male and remain female for the rest of their lives. Like most Earth species they do not go through a menopause, however the average amount of chicks a Kerilone will rear in their lifetime is only about ten.

So... My first actual post on this account! This is Rilicai, a Kerilone (race of vaguely equine sophonts) that I've been designing recently. She lives on a swampy planet orbiting a M-Class star.