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vees-strangeworld-omniverse · 7 months

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ARGONUS INFO: the Elkinets, an "advanced" guide

(NOTE: description copy-pasted from DA where i normally post my works. any context that is missing here on tumblr can be found on my DA [linked here and on pinned post] )

[this is a single image best view if opened in a new tab. the top image was the first formal post about them, before i actually started my argonus worldbuilding series]

[re-uploaded due to original being posted from main]

[tumblr edit: this guide is meant to be a "basic" guide to the elkinets themselves. obviously, because they represent airplanes and airplane-like drones, they come in such a wide variety. also, idk how the formatting is, so excuse any issues and mistakes. i also edited some grammar issues as well. ]

GENERAL BASICS elkinets, on the surface, look like your everyday generic aeromorph, that is a living aircraft with a humanoid shape (a rather "basic" one at that).

they have a clearly defined head, neck, body and tail. they stand on two legs, and the wings act as arms and hands when not used for flight. however, there are some things that separate them from other similar aeromorphs.

-excluding the engines (Later on that), they and the other aeronoids both have an entirely biological existence and an evolutionary background, being highly derived from argonus's early Psittacopasserae birds (parrots and passeriformes) during the late paleocene.

-the legs and feet aren't landing gear, rather they are much like that of birds and theropods, further reflecting on their evolutionary past.

-their skin is soft and leathery, not unlike that of a human's (kinda creepy, but whatever) it is, however, comparably the same thickness as our own.

-their cockpit / canopy / windows are purely aesthetic, having no real function. it is solid in color and made of skin like the rest of the body (they are often called "canopy/window integument")

-they have a skeletal structure not unlike other tetrapod's, alongside organs as well.

-there exist a dwarf / pygmy version of them, which occurs when there is a lack of natural resources.

now that's established some of the basics, we can get into the specifics of it. BODY SYSTEMS being a tetrapod, they have various organ functions, though here are listed some of the important one:

SKELETON: the skeleton of an elkinet is still similar to birds, but there are a few highly-derived parts of it. two major examples are the skull and arms. much of the skin covers the head like it would with the skull. it has lips to cover the "teeth", keeping them lubricated with saliva. these "teeth" aren't actually true teeth despite initial appearances. they are instead tomium (what geese have) that have the same function as canines, premolars and molars, covered in the same material as the beak. their incisors, however, are what's left of the actual beak they once had. both the beak and teeth constantly are growing, and while the process of mastication (chewing/grinding of the teeth) is often enough to keep them trimmed down, proper dental care is still required. the arms are also very derived from the original animal. everything is normal right up to the metacarpals, where we see the metacarpals small and atrophied. the metacarpal isn't completely useless, since it (alongside some cartilage) help anchor down the many muscles that make up the other half of the arm. just like modern birds, the bones are hollow. this allows them to stay relatively light in weight so they can much easily fly, but does raise the risk of injuring those bones. this is especially a problem with older, larger individuals.

MUSCLES: an elkinet's strength varies from aircraft to aircraft, but in any case they are pretty muscular regardless. the area with the most muscles are the half end of their wings. these muscles help move and control the rest of the wings, but more importantly they help manipulate objects. this is, obviously, because they have no fingers, so having those muscles are really useful for delicate task like writing. their legs are also pretty muscular, which is a given since they use them for getting around on the ground as well as taking off and landing. the tail stabilizers, canards and prop blades can also move around. those parts can move in a similar fashion to the wings, though more weaker and are often used as more of displaying emotions.

RESPIRATORY AND CIRCULATORY: while two different body systems, they go hand and hand together. -respiratory- the elkinets have a strong respiratory system. their lungs are large, having various air sacks to help with gas exchange. in addition, elkinets have re-evolves diaphragms. elkinets primarily breath through their nostrils, which can sometimes hide behind the engine intake if said engine is on the face. -circulatory- elkinets have a four-chambered heart, not unlike any other tetrapod. their blood is red, and so is a fresh wound. however, said wound then turns grey during the healing process (unless injury is permanent, then it stays gray). apart from where you'd usually find mass amounts of blood flow, the engines are also a major place for blood to go through, especially if being used in flight. the engines is always loosely connected to both circulatory and respiratory systems. when running, the engines can take in oxygen and puts it into the bloodstream. this is, however, not super effective since it only takes in 1/10 the amount than the lungs.

DIGESTION: contrary to what one may think, elkinets do not consume jet fuel, nor any kind of fuel, rather they eat actual food. elkinest are, for the most part, just as omnivorous as we are. they are capable of consuming both plants and meat, and have been domesticating animals and plants for food for many, many centuries. however, exactly which one they consume the most can vary. for example, larger aircraft may stick to a more vegetarian / vegan diet because plants are far more easier to produce and yield more food than animals. on the otherhand, some places don't have much land for growing crops, so they stick to eating mostly animals. and, of course, we cant forget about the various cultures and what they eat as well. since the elkinets have the tomium to help grind down food, they have de-evolved their gizzards as they serve no real purpose anymore. they do, however, still have a cloaca, the single hole on their butt that used for everything down their (waste + reproduction).

REPRODUCTION: i won't dwell on this too long since i don't like talking about it. all you need to know is that while their cloaca conceals their reproductive parts, they still have the usual reproduction organ that most other tetrapods have. they also lay eggs, like birds

PHYSICAL APPEARANCES & ANATOMY

now we head to the rest of the body and their physical appearances.

HEAD: like said with the skeleton, elkinets have a reduced beak that act as incisors while the tomium act as the rest of the teeth. but apart from that, what else is going on?

-canopy/cockpit: like said in the beginning, the canopy has zero function, at least by our terms. they do, however, serve as identifying features between individuals. the color of it will vary; most of the time it's some shade / hue of blue, but it can also be any color. the canopies' color always stands out from the rest of the rest of the body.

-eyes: eyes are rather human-like in shape, but the general style of them can vary. regardless, elkinets always have a clearly defined pupil and iris. and they come in a wide variety of colors (another way of identifying individuals). in very rare instances with trainer aircraft (particularly ones with separate canopies), the elkinet may have four eyes, much like the other argonian fauna. it's unclear why it's specific to trainer aircraft and not other kinds.

-ears: the one thing that remains consitant with the rest of argonian vertbrates are their ears; they have four earholes, which are covered by a flap of skin akin to an earlobe. they are desgined to protect their hearing durring flight.

-fangs: sometimes the canine part of the tomium can stick out of the mouth. these are usually small and dont create much of an issue.

NECK & BODY all elkinets have a neck, however short they may be. the neck and spine are very flexible, and the neck can turn a near 180 degrees. when standing, the body creates and S-like shape. although they may look top-heavy, they're center of gravity is actually around the pelvic region (Often helped with the tail), so they don't constantly fall over.

ARMS / WINGS the "hand" part of the wing is called the "paw", and in spite of it's shape it is extremely dexterous. alongside the muscles at the wingtips that control the appendage, the paw's underside (their "palms" so to speak) are as soft and sensitive as our fingers. the palms, as well as the underside of the paw in general, are also covered in setae (same stuff some geckos have), which they can control to hold / drop items. this allows them to hold smaller objects without moving much of the wingtip's' muscles. the length of the arm, regardless of aircraft, is always long enough to do basic arm stuff (grab, stretch etc.). they are also never past the neck of the elkinet, and are always directly connected to the body around the chest /abdomen area. in the multiplanes (biplanes, quadplanes, ect), there are no support beams between the wings, and as expected those extra wings will also function as arms.

LEGS AND FEET the legs of the elkinet are directly underneath the wings. although no longer needing to live in the trees like their passeriform relatives, most elkinet feet still are still capable of and used for perching and grabbing onto stuff. with some of the longer-winged aircraft, there comes longer legs to keep the wings from dragging onto the ground. the colors of the legs are always greyish in color, though can have a little tint to them. there are five major feet types when it comes to variations:

-standard anisodactyl: one of the most common leg types, all aircraft can be born with anisodactyl feet. these kinds of feet are not exclusive to one aircraft type, though sometimes they're more rarer in some types of aircraft than other.

-zygodactyl: another very common and non-exclusive feet type, these kinds of feet are more common in the smaller and lighter aircraft, especially in civilian and non-combat aircraft. some elkinets use zygodactyl feet to hold and manipulate objects, much like parrots do with their feet. skiplanes have a unique variation of this foot type that's semi-palmate (partially-webbed).

-dromaeosaurid: heading to the more exclusive kinds of feet, the dromaeosaurid feet (also known as raptor feet) are only seen in the small and medium-sized aircrafts. they are especially common in combat aircraft like bombers and fighters. although tipped with a large talon, rarely is the big toe ever used in combat outside of the military.

-webbed: while these feet are often in the shape of you average palmate (Like ducks and geese), they can also take the form of lobate feet (Like grebes and coots). they are exclusively seen in seaplanes and very rarely in other types. curiously enough, those rare times are often in navy and coast guard aircraft. as expected, these provide better mobility in water.

-carnosaur: of all the feet types, this is the only one that is incapable of perching or grabbing due to a heavily reduced rear toe. these are only found in transport aircraft and no other kinds have them. they are especially common in some of the biggest and heaviest of them.

TAIL beyond with flight, the tail also serves as a balancer to keep elkinets on their two legs. the tail is flexible and capable of moving around. the tail can be used as an indicator of emotions; an example is their tail swaying side to side. this is typically associated with being happy or content. all elkinets have a tailbone and some form of a tail. the twin-boomed aircraft are very interesting, in that their tail is boneless and part of the arm. each boom is separated from each other, allowing them to move independently. when in flight, however, they are held together by setae, same thing on the wingtips. they are limited in movement, however, and are primarily controlled by the base of the boom.

SIZE AND HEIGHTS from nose to tail, a normal elkinet is around the same lengths as their aircraft counterparts. however, that is not always the case; elkinets also have a pygmy version of them. pygmies are half the size of a normal elkinet, and come into the world of two way; being born by pygmy parents (Most common) or being born from a normal elkinet (very rare). the latter occurs when there is a lack of natural resources (water, food, etc.). this has, historically, happened on island and island continents, but in modern time it became prevalent in places of poverty. apart from the size, they're about the same as a normal elkinet. sometimes, especially with some of the smallest aircraft, pygmies can be smaller than humans. with individuals, however, there are some variations in size much like us. some individuals of the same age and kind can vary a little bit. this is especially in females, since they tend to be slightly larger than males.

GENDER DIMOPHISM female and male elkinets look almost identical, though there are some external giveaways to their gender.

-females: females, like said previously, are slightly larger than males. in addition they'll have some much fuller eyelashes, and often have a slightly more curved chest than the males (of which is mostly fat)

-males: the almost opposite, males are slightly smaller, with a flat chest and less full eyelashes (or in my drawing style no eyelashes).

[tumblr edit: later on, i would call males "toms" and females "sheplanes". also, yes, i know, typical "girl vs boy" anthropomorphisation. come complain to me..]

COLORS AND LIVERY contrary to our aircraft, elkients do not have any obvious letters, numbers or symbols as part of their liveries. they only have colors, patterns and markings (seen on last image). at most they'll have markings that very, very vaguely look like said symbols. the closest thing to having those as part of their livery is if it's tatooed on, otherwise it is worn as some form of clothing or accessory. while most of their livery is based on their real-world counterpart, they practically can have any kind of colors and liveries.

GENETICS & HYBRIDS

all elkinets are part of the genus aeros, and because of how closely related different kinds are, there is indeed a possibility to get a hybrid. between different aircraft, hybrids can vary from uncommon to very rare. in all cases, hybrid elkinets are usually a mix-and-match thing, having certain physical attributes greatly resembling one parent than the other, the most common of which is being one parent' species and the other's colors/livery. sometimes, though, other body parts can be taken into account like head, body, tail, engines, etc etc...however, there is more at play than just having the parents be two separate species. see, what comes out depends on the size difference between the parents. usually, the rule of thumb is that the smaller the mother is compared to the father, the more likely it is the baby will be the mother's species. here, i have a set of examples (disclaimer, I'm horrible at percentages):

if the mother's smaller than the father, it's the following statistics: -60%-90% chance of baby being mother's species -30%-5% chance to be father's species -10%-5% chance of baby being hybrid

if father's smaller than the mother, the statistics are swapped: -60%-90% chance of baby being father's species -30%-5% chance of baby being mother's species -10%-5% chance of baby being a hybrid

if both parents are close to or of exact same size, then it's different: -35%-40% chance of baby being father's species -35%-40% chance of baby being mother's species -30%-20% chance of baby being hybrid

of course, this is if the baby is conceived naturally. though, in the more modern age, parents can instead go to specialist to have their baby artificially conceived. the most common way of doing this is having a fertilized egg sit in an artificial "womb" until it developed into a more proper elkinet egg. these artificially conception creates the same chances of what comes out as if the parents were of same size. this method, however, is pretty costly and does require the two parents to go through paperwork and make sure that they're capable of taking care of the child.

ENGINES AND FLIGHT just like real-world aircraft, elkinets are fully capable of flight. however, their flight is pretty different than our aircraft.

ENGINES: the elkinets fly primarily with their engines. the engines are near-identical to our non-living aircraft, having the near same mechanisms and what not, particularly the insides of it (fanblade, compressors, turbines, ect). however, the materials are actually partially-biological, having keratin make up at least 30% of those part. this makes elkinets (alongside all other aeronoids) one of the very few times a biomechanical organism has evolved naturally. another thing that sets the elkinet's engines apart from normal aircraft is how resistant they are. things that would normal damage or strait up ruin an normal engine (water, debris, ect) have little to no effect on the elkinet's. their engines (if on the wings) are also firmly attached to the arms via cartilage, so it would take significant force or trauma for them to come off. however, the insides of the engines are also pretty sensitives, and they definitely would feel debris if it was caught up in there. thankfully the debris usually will comes out by itself with a few start-ups.

FLIGHT IN GENERAL: elkinets take off by having their engines at near-full power and either launching themselves into the air or getting a brief running start. once they've got air, engines go into full power and they fly off. regardless of what aircraft they are or the type of engines they got, all elkinets fly at the subsonic speeds of 200-210 mph (dependent on respective aircraft/engine types). since elkinets have no flaps or speed brakes, they usual stop/slow down by positioning themselves so that they reduce their speed (Much like what birds do when they come to land). elkinets will even deploy reverse thrust if they need to further slow down. like that famous saying from Issacs newton goes "what goes up must come down", and that stays true for the elkinets. for one, flying itself can burn alot of calories, especially if the engines are constantly running. another thing that limits the amount of time in the air is the fact that they have to hold their arms / wings strait out. while they have evolved to hold their arms out for long periods, they cant hold them out forever. in addition to normal flight, all elkinets are capable of gliding as well. and, depending on engine placement, they can also hover in the air even if they aren't vtol aircraft themselves. this, like with birds and the above stated, takes up lots of energy.

DEVELOPENT & LIFE CYCLE like practical any organism, elkinets have a life cycle and different life stages. typically, elkinet on average live for roughly 110-120 years, and have weird developmental stages too. although they reach a certain point where growth is suddenly slowed, elkinets never really stop growing. some of the largest elkinets are also some of the oldest. there are considered five different life stages

EGG (0-3 months): five months after conception's, the mother will give birth to an egg. the egg, while varying in color and sizes depended on species, will always be of the same shape. elkinet eggs are soft and leathery like a lizards, and create their own heat. however the egg must be protected and kept an eye on at all times, should the egg ever hatch or get damaged. the parents can either place the egg in a special nursery, or take the egg wherever they go. the gender of the child can be told two to three weeks prior to hatching via ultrasound.

INFANT (hatchling/hatchlet), 3 months-4 years: when first hatched, the infants eye are closed for the first five days. infants lack the tomnium when first born, an only gain them once two years of age. in the meantime, they are fed bland, pureed food (Not unlike our baby food), or if one to go the all-natural route, pre-chewed food. infant elkinets begin "walking" at age 5-8 months. or, more accurately, hopping. they start by bunny-hopping, that is lopping on all fours not unlike that of a rabbit. eventually, they'll begin to clumsily hop on two legs like a drunk kangaroo, and later at age 3, begin to walk normally. infants, before they're able to start talking, will make various chirps and hisses (which is said to be very much like that of a cheetah cub, caracal or baby racoon). they are also, obviously, incapable of flight since they lack the parts nessisarly to fly.

CHILD (aeroling), 4-14 years: at this age, not only are they talking and eating solid foods, but they've also developed the engine parts that allow them to fly. however, the engine are still very weak; at most they can glide short distances, so they need to exercise them in order to be able to properly developed flight. it's also at this age that they're put into the education system.

TEEN (Middling), 14-27: the midway point from child to adult. at exactly 16-17 they're considered sexually mature, however it is considered that the age of 22 is the appropriate age of consent. at this point, they're fully capable of flight, and at 19 they're considered old enough to work, go to collage or join the military.

ADULT (30-90): at this point, the growth is heavily slowed, but not stopped. apart from that, this is your typical adult stages you'd expect.

ELDERLY (100-130+): the final stages, elkinets begin to loose their flying abilities as their engines begin to weaken. any form of bright colors they had become darker and duller, and their health complications begin to rise. most elkinets will end up with mobility issues and will inevitable be unable to walk. usually these complications strikes larger aircraft earlier than the smaller ones

now, in some freak circumstances an elkinet's growth does not slow down much, if at all. it's very rare, and this most commonly happen in the pygmy elkinets. while this does sound cool, it only leads to a shorter lifespan.

MISC TRIVIA here, i have some various info and facts about the elkinets that don't entirely fit into the different points.

-elkinets, and practically all other aeronoids can survives slightly more hotter /colder temperatures than we do. they've only go into hypothermia (cold) when their body temperature hits 89.6 F, and hyperthermia (hot) when it hits 105.8 F. both those temperatures would kill us humans without immediate help. however they obviously try to avoid those dangers and will stay cool / warm when they can.

-elkinets will also wear clothing and accessories, not just for the above reasons but also for other reasons like vanity or rules and regulations.

-elkinets do indeed have vehicles. not surprisingly, most of them are aerial-base, but there are a plethora of land and water ones too. most of these vehicles, however, don't go as fast as you think. with the flying vehicles, they only go slightly faster than the fastest elkinets, if not the same speed as them. they're primarily used for long-distance travel and heavy transport.

-adult elkinets still do make animalistic noise, though unlike when they're young these noises are more akin to large carnivorans, such as growls, roars, screeches, and yowls. however, the noises aren't part of their actual language, they're more of sounds that display certain emotions.

-while capable of eating thing us humans can eat, there are also some foods they only they're capable of eating. holly berries are a good example, as they've been domesticating them for years for things like pastry filling, candy and rum (which, funny enough, made them less poisonous to humans).

-elkinets prefer to sleep on the bellies as it's more comfortable as apposed to sleeping on their backs

-elkinets usually do not naturally have any armaments to them whatsoever (missiles, guns, ect). those are usually part of armored suites worn by the military.

anyways, that's this post for now.

#argonus #planet argonus #speculative evolution #speculative zoology #speculative biology #anthro #aeromorph #anthro airplane #anthro plane #elkinet #worlbuilding #worldbuilder

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cathartes-aura-shitposting · 10 months

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ARGONUS INFO: the Elkinets, an "advanced" guide

(NOTE: description copy-pasted from DA where i normally post my works. any context that is missing here on tumblr can be found on my DA [linked here and on pinned post] )

[this is a single image best view if opened in a new tab. the top image was the first formal post about them, before i actually started my argonus worldbuilding series]