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shadowxamyweek · 27 days

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Is Shadow being immortal canon? I thought it was just a generally accepted headcanon by the fandom

...Yes?

The pause and questionmark are not directed at you, they are directed at Sega.

I confess, I'm a bit of a stickler for what lore I consider canon. If it's in the games, it's canon to me. If it's anything outside of the games, including the game manuals themselves... then it's not.

I have such a narrow-bracket view of the story and these characters due to two things:

1: There seems to be a disconnect between the different 'branches' of the Sonic Franchise. There's the Shadow we see in games, there's the Shadow we see in marketing and social media (like Twitter Takeover), There's the Shadow we see in IDW, and then there is the Shadow we see Sega write about in character profiles like on Sonic Chanel and the official Sonic the Hedgehog website. This exists with all the characters to a degree, but I feel Shadow presents an egregious case of it. 2: Sega has a tendency to retcon things or change their language or act like stuff didn't happen and... I don't like it XD But they can't change games that have already been published and played. As such, to me, in-game dialog/play/story/etc is the crowning jewel of truth within the Sonic story.

But that these are *my* paramaters. They do not have to be *your* parameters.

So while there hasn't been any mention of immortality *in game*, there has been plenty *outside* of it. Lots of different official Sega sources say Shadow is 'immortal', but no examples or specifications have been provided in game. There's also plenty of times the whole 'immortality' portion is omitted. Most noticeably, it's not mentioned in the Sonic Channel character profile, nor the character profile provided on the official Sonic the Hedgehog website. At best, it is mentioned intermittently in game manuals and external sources.

(And I know we see Shadow in stasis in 06- I'm aware- but I'll also point out we don't know *when* he went into stasis. Furthermore, I cannot help but wonder if, much like Black Doom in SHtH, Mephiles took a portion of truth and twisted it to scare Shadow. (Also, like.... Shadow was under such heavy security when GUN put him down for an ice nap the first time. Why would they just leave him out and about like was shown in 06? I doubt the truth of what Mephiles shows Shadow.))

I actually reached out to @squid-in-a-party-hat, @fyeahsonicthehedgehog (x), and @forgottensonicfacts (x), as well as some friends of mine like @shadamyheadcanons for help collecting information to provide you with as well-rounded answer/opinion as I can. In fact, Squid has a video on this very subject XD They do a great job of weaving together all the different types of canon (comic, anime, social media, etc) so if that's how you prefer to operate, I really, really recommend them.

Anyway, Here are some game manual examples in chronological order.

SA2 (2001):

Sonic Heros (2003):

And...I want to take a moment to show something interesting between the original Japanese and the English translation. The japanese translation says 'unaging and undying' which gives us narrower guidelines, but the Heros profile is the only time I've seen that.

Shadow the Hedgehog (2005):

Which OUT OF ALL OF THEM you'd think it would be mentioned in his title game but like... *gestures*

Sonic 06 (2006):

Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games (2020):

Then there are these online examples, stemming from both Sonic Chanel and the Sonic the Hedgehog Website. They are both officially owned and operated by Sega/Sonic Team. Note they don't mention his age or the immortality at all.

Sonic Chanel, 2007:

Sonic Chanel, 2010:

Sonic Chanel, 2022:

This is the character profile put up on the Sonic the Hedgehog website 2024, separate from Sonic Channel but still official.

(In talking to @forgottensonicfacts- I had asked about times Shadow had been called 'ageless' or '50.' Turns out the 'ageless' bit was written in a Scholastic's book and, so far as anyone has found.. there is no official mention of Shadow being listed as '50 years old.' I had been so sure it had been officially listed at one point in time. Really glad to be wrong on that one, frankly, because that would have been daft XD)

So this is what we have about Shadow's 'immortality' that has been put out by Sega themselves. Not the comics, not the media team, just Sega/Sonic Team.

Now... this is where I pick apart that word 'Immortal' and broaden the scope a bit.

Not to be 'that bastard,' but I popped on to the Oxford Dictionary just to get a concrete definition for you and they define the adjective use of the word as being, "living forever; never dying or decaying."

1- Shadow's already almost died. He *would* have died were it not for Eggman saving his sorry ass. We know this. It's a whole-ass plot point in his story because it's due to this he ends up with amnesia.

2- Even though Gerald was tinkering with immortality, that doesn't mean he succeeded. We also don't know how that immortality would look/work/act like.

3- In Sonic Battle (for Gameboy), several of the characters have a healing ability. Shadow is one of them. However, Shadow's healing ability is one of if not *the worst in the game.* Also, in the story itself, he get shot and is down for the count *for a while*.

4- We have not seen any of the characters physically change in game save for the big age up/design shift that happened when Sonic went 3d in Adventure. As such, we cannot personally test/see whether or not Shadow goes through any changes at all, be them aging or just changes to their body.

So... all in all... I feel this leaves a huge amount of room for interpretation.

Maybe Shadow isn't immortal after all. Nothing spectacular, it's just that portion of the Ultimate Life Form project didn't succeed.

Maybe the 'immortality' is his healing factor, and it needs to willfully be employed. As such, if Shadow WANTS to age, they need to intentionally and willfully allow themselves to do so by NOT employing the healing factor.

Maybe the 'immortality', being the healing factor, can wear down/slow down over time, especially due to overuse.

Maybe Shadow can live forever barring any really traumatic physical harm, but their body will physically change over time.

Maybe Shadow is immortal like how Oxford puts it, but there is a way to stop that perminantly if they so choose (like genetic therapy).

Maybe Shadow is immortal in the sense that they will never physically age, grow, or change. Ever.

Truthfully, that's pretty cool! Like, this gives people a lot of stuff to work with and play around with, compare notes, talk- that's the fun part of fandom! And no singular person is right! @shadamyheadcanons has this one that's fun. I personally like the idea that Shadow's 'immortality' wears down over time and gets weird, causing their Black Arms genetics to kick off (like a third eye ooooough gimmie gimmie gimmie.)

I don't know if this was the answer you were looking for. Perhaps I've just confused things further- I've been known to do that XD

Ultimately, what I'm trying to say is- it's whatever you want it to be, and nobody can stop you <3 So go have fun!

#shadow the hedgehog #shth #sonic #sega #anon #ask #op rambles #lore #thoughts #I'm sorry it took so long to get back to you #There's been a lot going on- but I really wanted to give you as well rounded an answer as I possibly could

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bethanythebogwitch · 8 months

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@fishyfishyfishtimes, I noticed you like mermaids and enjoyed my fish Digimon post, so you may be interested in mermaid Digimon.

The OG is Mermaimon and I really like that she's (I'm saying she but whether or not Digimon have genders depends on which setting is being used) also a pirate. The lore says she uses her beautiful singing voice to lure people in and rob them. She also carries an anchor as a weapon and is not afraid to give someone a thrashing.

Mermaimon is the OG mermaid in the sense that she debuted first, but in lore the OG is AncientMermaimon. She is one of the Warrior 10, a group of ancient Digimon from the beginning of the Digital World. The Warrior 10 are dead, having long ago died to stop Lucemon (as in Lucifer) from destroying the Digital World. While the Warrior 10 are long dead, their data went onto spawn many species of other Digimon. AncientMermaimon specifically is the ancestor of all aquatic Digimon. She was effectively a goddess of the sea, able to control the weather and with enough power to sink entire islands. While I like the original Mermaimon's design more for its pirate theme, AncientMermaimon also has a great design.

The only merman in Digimon is Neptunemon. As the name suggests, he is based on the Neptune, roman god of the sea. He is also part of a group, the Olympos XII, who are also based on the Olympian gods. They collectively rule a portion of the Digital World that is on a private server called Iliad. He is the absolute ruler of the oceans on the Iliad server. I really like his samurai-inspired armor and the trident made of shark heads.

While that's all the proper mermaids, I have some honorable mentions in that they still fill the aquatic creature/girl archetype. The first is Ranamon, who has a direct connection to AncientMermaimon from above. In the anime Digimon Frontier, which introduced the Warrior 10, it is established that their spirits, each representative of an element, survived their death and can be taken up and used by others. While half the spirits are taken by the heroes, the other half are corrupted into evil. The good spirits are fire, light, ice, wind, and thunder while the corrupted spirits are steel, water, wood, earth, and darkness (later redeemed). Ranamon and her evolution are the corrupted spirit of water. The only spirit that we saw both the pure and corrupted versions of was darkness and I think that's a big missed opportunity. Ranamon is easily my favorite of the spirits, which is largely due to the english dub making her a classic mean girl with a southern accent. Her name comes from the Spanish word for frog.

Ranamon's evolution is Calamaramon, who is deliberately designed to be a darker version of a mermaid. Instead of a fish tail, she has an entire upside-down squid for a lower body. She's also supposed to be a sea witch and has a major temper. Oddly enough, she's one of the only spirt Digimon from Frontier that has shown up in other series. In the Digimon Adventure reboot she shows up as a major threat and in Digimon Ghost Game she's a monster of the week that's only a villain due to a misunderstanding. In approve given her role in Frontier basically boiled down to a joke about her being uglier than Ranamon.

Last of the honorable mentions is the entire Jellymon evolution line: Jellymon to TeslaJellymon to Thetismon, to Amphimon. They're pretty recent recent Digimon, having been designed for the most recent anime, Digimon Ghost Game, where she's one of the main characters. She is also easily the biggest little shit in the franchise. I really like the jellyfish meets human design of the line. I also suspect Amphimon wearing a full-body dive suit is a deliberate subversion of the trend of feminine Digimon having sexy designs.

Jellymon

TeslaJellymon

Testismon

Amphimon

#Digimon #mermaid #mermaid digimon #mermaimon #ancientmermaimon #neptunemon #ranamon #calamaramon #jellymon #teslajellymon #thestismon #amphimon

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honey-minded-hivemind · 2 months

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🍷The Heir of Evil🐉 AU fans have decided, and...

🍷The Heir of Evil🐉 AU Reader will be an IceWing!!

I have a few headcanons for them, and a a bit of backstory and lore planned, too😊 Let's dive in:

• ❄IceWing!🍷Heir of Evil!🐉 Reader is the grandchild or great-grandchild to the wicked IceWing queen, specifically the one who put the tribe into multiple wars and skirmishes and tried to take over the dragon world. Reader isn't like her (they're not an irredeemable monster who hurts others for fun)

• Heir! Reader wears jewelry that is mostly silver or black, but loves any sort of colorful gemstones or charms...

• Heir! Reader only wears the pieces of jewelry that are necessary; they don't want to waste the tribe's treasure on frivolous items, and if the jewelry appeals to other tribes, then it might make Reader and the IceWings seem more appealing, like they're dragons, too...

• Heir! Reader is good with algebra, dragon biology, and creative writing...

• Heir! Reader is torn between what the two sides of their kingdom wants: to stay unscheming and try to foster peace, hoping other tribes will leave them alone and not hurt them further... or to amass enough power and treasure that they can wage a war against the other tribes, or at least the IceWing hybrids who some view as traitors...

• Heir! Reader's necklace they were told to never take off is enchanted, but they don't know that. The necklace hides something about them, which is why their vanished/dead parent gave it to them...

• Heir! Reader has had to stop a coup for their throne/title at age four (about 12 year old in WoF dragon years), which led to them earning the respect of the remaining advisors and generals of their late parent/late family, as well as the respect of the few nobles left and the different IceWing villages...

• Heir! Reader's hatching day is a mystery, as no one ever saw their egg, nor them, when they were first hatched, save for their deceased parent and a late ally of their's...

• Heir! Reader has an army of pet foxes, all of which are (diet) platonic yandere for them (they're all so cute and cuddly and fluffy-!)

• Heir! Reader, unlike most IceWings, enjoys trying cooked meats and exotic dishes from other tribes and kingdoms...

• Heir! Reader prefers to sleep with a fur blanket, not because they're cold (they're an IceWing), but because they like the soft fur and fuzzy texture...

• Heir! Reader is an aromantic-asexual...

• Heir! Reader enjoys traditonal IceWing foods such as fresh salmon with lemon juice, thinly-sliced caribou strips, puffin and moss salad, kalimari (squid), bear jerkey, ox ribs seasoned lightly with moss, seal meat marinated in ginger/lemon/honey, as well as ice cream, frozen berry slush, and lemon-flavored shaved ice...

• Heir! Reader likes traditional dishes from other kingdoms such as: MudWing's Diamond Delta Gumbo, SandWing's Cinnamon Milk and Roasted Lizard Kebabs, SkyWing's Charred+Barbecued Eagle Wings, SeaWing's Thousand Scales Thousand Fish Sushi, RainWing's Mango-Orange Juice, NightWing's Smoked Boarchops, HiveWing's Honey-roasted Shrimp, SilkWing's Loaded Baked and Sweet Potatoes, and LeafWing's Planter's Pie...

• Heir! Reader sometimes wears a small, spiked tailband on the end of their tail, nestled above where their spikes are...

• Heir! Reader enjoys sunrises, and writes new poems and hymns for their tribe to sing at their Gifts of the Ice Dragon Festival...

• Heir! Reader enjoys old literature, especially comedies...

(I will make another post about Heir! Reader facts, but dealing with IceWing culture)

(I wonder what their name could/should/would be?)

#honeycomb thoughts #platonic yandere marvel #yandere platonic marvel #platonic yandere marvel x reader #platonic yandere xmen #yandere x-men #platonic yandere #platonic yandere x reader #platonic yandere xmen evolution #🐉wings of fire au #🍷the heir of evil🐉 au #platonic yandere xmen evolution au #yandere platonic xmen

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thefirstknife · 1 year

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Kraken Mare

And ANOTHER thing, from TWAB:

And we’re not kidding when we say we’re going under the sea…here’s a glimpse of one of the places you’ll be headed in Season of the Deep:

There will be actual underwater sections! That makes me insane right away.

Also, this is a Golden Age facility. Why is it at the bottom of the ocean? Or in some sort of a cave? Well, we don't know, but we do know that they were investigating Titan's ocean(s) back in the Golden Age. Perfect time to talk about it!

I cannot recommend Last Days on Kraken Mare enough as a lore book, as it's not only relevant right now, but it's one of the only true and direct accounts of the Collapse starting and the devastation it brought. Last two pages deal with a scientist who was doing research on life in the ocean.

In The Water Sun, Part I, the scientist Maury Yamashita is diving to open a pen with creatures he calls swarmers in order to save them as the Collapse is starting. They were native to Titan and, from the way he talks, we know they weren't originally in the place where their cage is at.

Sorry, Mia, he thinks. It has to be worth my life, or I'm worth more than them, and I know I'm not. I put them there. It's my job to let them out.

He's always loved the stupid little swarmers.

When Titan gets pulled and released from the gravity attack, it causes a massive disturbance not just on the methane sea, but also in the ice shelf and subsurface ocean; yes, Titan has another, non-methane ocean under the surface:

"The tidal pull. The ghost mass. It just… left. The moon is collapsing back to spheroid shape. I'm detecting primary waves in the subsurface ocean—it's a quake. It's a quake! Maury, get away from the substructure! Get clear!"

Maury imagines 60-plus meters of bulging moon, Titan's mass hauled up into a teardrop pointed at the sky—suddenly released. Smashing and scraping and grinding back into equilibrium. Cracks in the ice spewing plumes of water and ammonia. Continent-sized shelves slamming and rebounding and calving like bergs. The whole vast inner ocean sloshing back into its shape.

Maury gets tossed and tumbled in the methane ocean and has a fear that, with the ice cracking, he will fall over "into the abyss," meaning through the ice shelf:

"The swarmers," he says, and he jettisons his buoyancy tanks. Without that lift he is so much denser than the bad water around him that he plunges like a skydiver toward the cross brace below, where the swarmer pen is anchored. Titan's gravity may be gentle, but even gentle acceleration adds up. He hits hard, and the spinmetal surface blasts the air out of his lungs. He gasps and gags. Scrabbles for purchase before he slides off and falls into the abyss. He's going over—no! No! He is not going over! He will not fall!

In Part II, Maury saves himself with his hi-tech suit and finally reaches his swarmers. He gives us a description!

The swarmers seethe and pulsate in the perforated plastic sac. Not Titan's highest life, nor its lowest, they hive across the icy sea-bottom in enormous braided patterns that speak to Maury of intelligence. Not individually—not even at the hive level—but some kind of vast concert, conducted, perhaps, by leviathans down beneath the ice shell, communicating across the barrier by magnetic whisper that the swarmers receive via organic SQUIDs. An ecology spanning methane life and water-ammonia life. Why? How?

This is so cool! Not only does he describe the creatures, he also tells us that there's also life under the ice shelf and he calls that life "leviathans." This also means that there are probably ways to go through the ice which allowed them to study those creatures beneath the ice shelf. Maybe caves? Maybe the Golden Age facility is beneath the ice shelf. Not entirely likely, but still! Maury's theory is that the swarmers are somehow connected to those leviathans beneath the ice and that all life on Titan is a connected ecology of lifeforms that live in wastly different biomes.

These creatures predate the Traveler's arrival, which we know from the writing of Clovis Bray who specified that Titan, Europa and Enceladus were never terraformed:

Did the Traveler bypass Europa and Titan and Enceladus out of respect for their native life?

Or was it afraid to touch the things pulsating below the ice?

This is interesting now in context of the information that an "enemy of the Witness" is on Titan. Did the Traveler bypass the life or has that life always been a part of the Traveler as enemies of the being that seeks to destroy it? Or is it something more specific, like the Leviathan from the Fundament? Vibrating to find out.

Maury thinks about how he brought the swarmers up from the bottom and that he can't bear to see them all die because he captured them so he hurries to open their pen. Once he does, they all skitter back to the bottom.

The polymer shreds and the swarmers scatter, their tiny bodies siphoning liquid methane as they pump down and away. Safe. Safe.

And then:

The quake hits.

A hundred and fifty meters below, the icy basis of Kraken Mare rolls like liquid. The arcologies answer the low geological wail with a cacophony of groans and shrieks, joints flexing, tethers snapping taut, substructures soaking up unthinkable mechanical energy, trying to keep anything from—

Breaking.

Maury falls to the bottom from the blast and gets told to move it back up because the wave is coming. An ice shelf completely collapsed into Kraken Mare and the wave is going to be catastrophic and he has to reach the surface. Which he does! He manages not only to reach the surface, but also to fly out of the water with really cool Golden Age tech suit:

He makes it to the surface. He's up there in plenty of time. He can even see Dome 1, still intact, though a lot of the surrounding rigging is damaged. One of the creepy Exo soldiers stands outside, beckoning to him with a laser dazzle, guiding him in.

Maury opens his suit wings to their full membranous span. A single mighty stroke of paramuscle cups the air and hauls him up out of the sea. He's aloft! Titan air is thick, and Titan gravity is light, and like a huge bat he can fly. He puts his head down and starts building altitude, headed towards the beckoning Exo.

Alas, it's not enough. What follows is one of the best descriptions of just how utterly cataclysmic the situation was:

First, he sees the supercarrier, tragically buoyant, tragically light, built for seas with gentle one-meter tides but now riding the greatest wave Titan has ever seen, directly into Dome 2's crippled understructure. In 152 kilopascals of air pressure, the pandemonium sound of the collision has the gut-mulching power of a rocket booster.

The entire arcology collapses down onto the ship, into the sea.

Then he blinks past the devastation and recognizes the sheer scale, the utter speed, the complete imminence of that unthinkable methane wave coming down at him.

"Oh, man," he says.

This is easily in my top 5 lore books in all of Destiny. Honestly read the whole Last Days on Kraken Mare. But this final bit is so good. It's incredibly good. It was the first direct description of the type of devastation brought on by the Collapse and how incredibly impossible it is to survive it. No weapons fired, no armies involved, nothing. The moon was just squashed and then released, and gravity did the rest. Nothing short of immediately leaving the planet can help you.

It was also the first unambiguous proof that what happened on the Fundament was because of the Darkness. Last Days on Kraken Mare released in Season of Undying which was the first season of Shadowkeep. We'll wait for The Witch Queen to see the Witness admitting that it caused the God Wave of the Fundament and blamed it on the Traveler to deceive the Hive siblings, but Last Days on Kraken Mare was our first direct indication about it, as well as insight into how it's done. Our own God Wave that started the Collapse.

It's very cool that two celestial bodies with some sort of underwater leviathans linked to the Traveler were hit by cataclysmic waves to destroy them. I guess, it's the easiest thing to do to a water planet like that, but still an interesting parallel, especially now that we're very specifically going to be looking for a creature that's apparently personally an "enemy of the Witness." This lore book also confirms that the existence of some massive creatures in Titan's oceans predates the arrival of the Traveler.

So much text about that one picture, but to see a Golden Age facility at the bottom of the ocean is such a sight. I'm hoping for more Golden Age information in the next season and more about the research that went down on Titan, especially research into its life forms.

Interestingly enough, there was another important research being done on Titan, though it wasn't about Titan. But this research was the subject of the rest of the lore book and has relevance to the Collapse, as well as Ishtar and Braytech. The scientist in question was Shanice Pell who fled to Titan to build an interstellar probe. She wanted to send it to explore the universe outside of the solar system.

Both Ishtar and Braytech were interfering with her work so she went to Titan which was independent. Did Ishtar and Braytech interfere because they were also doing research on interstellar space and travel? Did they want to stop someone independent from learning more, especially about the strange anomalies in space that seemed to be coming over?

Very likely, because Shanice's probe discovered the anomaly as well. Initial data from the probe made no sense, obviously because it's paracausal, the anomaly being the Black Fleet. She continued to research and figured something is off and when she figured it out (as much as she could, we aren't sure how close she came to understanding it), she decided that her data must get out. Unfortunately, this is where Last Days on Kraken Mare happen; Shanice was being evacuated, but her evacuation was intercepted by Braytech Exos who came to aprehend her and stop her from publicising her research. She boarded the evacuation shuttle which was then shot down by Rasputin's warsat to stop her escape.

Ultimately, she died in vain. This was literally at the start of the Collapse so even if she had escaped, her data wouldn't have done much. There was no way to stop or survive the Collapse at this point. Her data may have alerted the people at the end, but nothing could've been done with it.

But it's super interesting how many stories are converging on Titan, especially now that we know more about Ishtar and Braytech and their involvement with predictive AIs, exodus projects and all the other stuff they did which ultimately led to Neomuna.

It's also been brought to my attention that the author of Last Days on Kraken Mare, Seth Dickinson, previously said that he wrote three times as much content about Titan. Titan was apparently supposed to be relevant in Forsaken, but there was not enough time in the existing crunch to get it done so it never got implemented. But he wrote a lot about it, and a third of his writing got implemented as Last Days on Kraken Mare in Shadowkeep. I'm sincerely hoping we'll see the rest of his writing about Titan in Season of the Deep. His comment:

It was supposed to be Titan content back in Forsaken but there wasn't enough time during crunch to get it all localized and hooked up. Even the chapters available in Shadowkeep are only about a third of the whole thing.

I'm looking at Bungie with the biggest eyes and hoping the rest gets released.

ONE MORE thing before we go and it's just a nice little detail about Last Days on Kraken Mare as a lore book; its "chapters" are named after various eschatological beliefs of different cultures aka beliefs about various ends of the world. Namely, The Sixth Seal from the Biblical Revelation; Tenth Avatar and Kalki's Burning Sword are from Hindu beliefs of Kalki being the Tenth Avatar of Vishnu who will appear to end the world; and the name of the final two chapters, The Water Sun, is from the Aztec myth of the Five Suns, or eras, in which each era ends with some sort of a catastrophe. The Fourth Sun (also known as Water Sun) ends with a great flood.

#destiny 2 #season of the deep #titan #lore vibing #long post #listen. i've been re-reading this lore book for the past 4 years to live vicariously through it with the lack of titan content #getting something. ANYTHING. about titan now is a personal gift to me in particular. i've wanted it since vanilla #to know they had stuff planned but had to scrap it is so painful to me. and then they never had time to go back to it #perhaps this is the content that was supposed to drop + obviously updated stuff that's relevant to us now #i'm getting dangerously overhyped for this but i can't help it #fave planet fave vibes fave apocalyptic story. so so so so glad it's returning and that we're getting so (hehe) deep into it #we'll see titan's ocean..... man.

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saintirulan · 1 month

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things from today i loved #2 (warning this got super long!) 🌸🌸🌸:

- so like. im still so unbearably jet lagged and i actually lost the entire morning (and the second day of orientation along with it) but everyone was again so kind and helpful and i actually wasn't even the only one. it's so cool to be surrounded by such amazing supportive people at all times im starry eyed 🥹

- i met up with the people from the other days and they are so lovely and we're becoming fast friends and then i also met new people! and like. i met this GORGEOUS STUNNING UNWORLDY PRETTY girl and the first thing she tells me is. have i seen you anywhere already. do you model??? and i was like. wdym 😳😳😳😳 blushing blushing blushing i can't even take selfies. and she was like. omg i really thought you were a model you should consider it!!! and i was like. :000 girl what. and she gave me the best compliment of my life i think. she looks me over and goes. you have such pretty features. you should consider modelling trust me im a art history major i know what im talking about. and like. 😳😳😳😳😳😳 i MELTED. also she told me she'll be my professional photographer. im still shell shocked by this whole interaction but yea!!!!!! making gorgeous stunning friends!!!!!

- we headed out to ueno park to see the sakura blossoms and we were such a big group it was super nice <33 the sakura flowers were indescribably pretty. i don't think i can put it into words so have some pics!!!

- i also got to visit the temple inside the park and i made an offer and got a fortune along with it. and i got a great one <333 it was very fitting for me at this stage of my life and im also very happy i got to keep it (if you get a bad one, it's better to tie it in a dedicated place at the temple to release the bad fortune) <33 so yea let's hope this blessing is true 🥹💖

- we then split up a bit because we were struggling to find a place that could fit all 16 of us so me and my friend from italy took a group of 9 to the kaitenzushi restaurant from the other day and i got to try out new things!! I got glue soup as insistently recommended by my friend and it was actually really good!! don't ask me what it is im still trying to figure it out lol. then i got an eel nigiri and it was. SO TASTY it was slightly dipped in sweet soy sauce and it was *mwah* perfection. I also got tuna&scallion gunkan and whole squid nigiri & salmon with mayo nigiri & matcha ice cream at the end. all the while getting to know amazing people <3

- we were all then super full and kinda sleepy so we decided to head back and yea that was my day! meeting my japanese buddy tomorrow and im excited <333 giving you a kiss on the forehead if you read all this mwah mwah you get my lore and scraps from my journal 💖

#this is pretty long but yea. my diary <333 #mwah mwah if you managed to read it all love you besties 💖💖💖#irene.🇯🇵

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melancholicwriteaholic · 11 months

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The Game’s Lore: “...And so the final surviving humans crash landed back on the destroyed Earth they meant to escape, luckily landing within a deep but habitable cavern with a vast sea. The scientists discovered, deep within the sea, a curious glass projected a blue sky! They took this miraculous, sky mimicking glass, and covered the entire ceiling of the vast cavern into a fascimile of the sky they once lived under.

...But this would be humanity’s final undoing. The scientists did not understand that the miraculous glass they found was not merely mimicking the beautiful blue sky, but was truly reflecting humanity’s greatest collective yearning back upon them. So because of the decisions of the scientists, generations upon generations of the last humans grew up surrounded from above by a vast sky that they could never have again.

Desperate to live under a true sky once more they one day built a rocket that they hoped would propel them out of the underground toward the surface, where they dreamed the REAL sky was waiting. But it was not to be, as the rocket failed to launch, catastrophically exploding and wiping out all human life in the cavern. So ends the tale of the last humans.

Deep within the sea of the caverns, however, the aquatic creatures survived. And as the cavern’s glass shattered from the final apocalypse small shards fell into the lake.

The small creatures of the sea were surrounded by bits of blue and white, images of a clear wonderful sky, and soon they too began to dream and yearn. The final dreams of humanity was inherited by the oceans.

The Game’s Present: WHICH OF THESE FLAVORS OF ICE CREAM ARE THE BEST? THE POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF ALL SQUID-KIND HINGES ON YOUR CHOICE! :D

#spoilers #splatoon #splatoon spoilers #splatoon 3 spoilers #splatoon 3 #splatoon lore #Nintendo

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dragonfire2lm · 4 months

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Right so, been fangirling over the Emperor for a while, and once I got over the initial "People don't like this character and I feel like I'm doing something wrong for just liking said character" mood from seeing one too many Emperor hater posts inbetween the fanart, i decided to go all-in on the squid brainrot.

Time to add to the Emperor/Tav ship content. This is Lilowyn, in-game she's a silver dragonborn, silver dragon draconic bloodline sorcerer, an ice build that is surprisingly fun. Technically, Lilowyn is an OC, not just a Tav, since I gave her a backstory and lore set before the game for the fanfic I want to write, however since she plays the role of group leader in her story and in-game she's a Tav, I count her as being a Tav for the sake of the ship tag.

The first image is a shitty little concept art I drew in MS Paint, this what I envision her head and tail to actually look like, since I imagined her with more frills than just the ones on the sides of her head.

The second is her canon camp outfit, elegant robes and gladiatorial sandals dyed boreal blue (please ignore the half-illithid features, I always use tadpoles on my run because 1. they fun, and 2. I am an Emperor fan, of course I'm gonna use the tadpoles).

The third image is the closest I could get to how I wanted her to look in-game when I first started a run dedicated to an ice build.

And fourth is just a screenshot of her and her squid husband, because they look cute together and I took way too many screenshots of that scene lol. (again, please ignore Lilowyn's use of the astral tadpole)

All screenshots were taken on the PS5, and transferred to the laptop. I am a console player trying my hardest to interact with what might be a primarily PC fanbase so...

I'm currently working on a fanfic for her, and I have a lore doc written up for her backstory. My plan is to get most of (hopefully all of) the fanfic done, post it on AO3, then do a post here on tumblr that is the lore for Lilowyn.

#the emperor bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #tav x emperor #bg3 the emperor #bg3 dragonborn #bg3 tav

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nintendoteuthis · 2 years

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An Overly Comprehensive Revision of Splatoon's History and Lore

In this extremely long post, I set out to put together a rewrite of Splatoon's backstory and lore. Tying together pieces of lore from all three games, the goal here is to arrange a cohesive (and more scientifically plausible) narrative to serve as a backstory to the Splatoon we all know and love. Alterna, Inkling evolution, Mr. Grizz, the Great Turf War, Judd, Tartar - all of it is incorporated here in some form.

Disclaimer: THIS IS NOT CANON. Although it incorporates a lot of official lore, the end result is effectively headcanon/fix fic. It contradicts the official lore in several places; you don't need to bring that up in the notes. This is not intended to be "better" than the canon lore, this is just stuff that I personally think would be cool. Maybe you will too.

Since this post ended up going well over 4,500 words, I'm putting it behind a Keep Reading for your dashboard's sake. But please give it all a read!

Log 1: Eve of Destruction

We start our timeline in the not-too-distant future, perhaps in the late 22nd century.

The fall of humanity was not quick or painless. Nor was there a singular cause - rather, humanity's demise was multifaceted. Human overharvesting had put a major strain on ecosystems. Shortages of certain vital resources like oil and water fueled the outbreak of multiple nuclear wars. Nuclear fallout made large tracts of land almost uninhabitable. Global warming had been building up for the past couple hundred years, wearing away at glaciers worldwide and slowly raising sea levels. And during World War V, a stray nuclear warhead hit Antarctica, melting far more ice than would naturally. These raised sea levels by over 15 meters, flooding many coastal cities.

To make things worse, an unprecedented geological disaster would soon strike. With no warning, the Toba supervolcano in Sumatra, which had nearly driven humanity to extinction during the Ice Age, erupted again with a violence not seen since the invention of agriculture. This eruption exacerbated the worst effects of both the climate change and the nuclear war. This combination of blows would ultimately lead to an extinction event the likes of which had not been seen for over 65 million years.

[Editor's note: Toba erupted 74,000 years ago, and there's genetic evidence for an extreme reduction in human populations around that time. I feel it would be fitting if the same volcano that may have shaped humanity as we know it would also be the one to destroy it.]

In the face of these disasters, human civilization tried its best to survive. But as the surface of the Earth became more and more uninhabitable, it became clear that staying here was not a viable option. What remained of the international community put aside old rivalries and came together for the greater good, and soon two initiatives were simultaneously launched to try and preserve humanity elsewhere.

Log 2: Time We Left This World Today

One major player in these decisions was biotechnology extraordinaire Prometheus Manning. A professor at a prestigious university, he made waves in the biology community for developing an "uplifting" process. Building on developments in gene therapy and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, Manning developed a plasmid of DNA that, when entered into an animal's cells, could make it intelligent and biologically immortal. This process was proven viable with the uplifting of his pet cat, Judd, who became an international celebrity in the waning days of human civilization. An optimist even in the face of a collapsing planet, Manning thought that humanity could find ways to pass their legacy forward into the future. He believed that everyone, from humans to the lowliest squid, was a part of something bigger than themselves. He acted as a consultant in both initiatives.

[Editor's note: Yeah, I didn't forget about this guy!]

I shall make a minor digression here. As these projects got Manning thinking more about the conservation of humanity's knowledge, he began to worry that even these would not be enough. He was eventually driven to bioengineer an organism - a biological computer, if you will - to store it. DNA is perhaps the most reliable form of long-term data storage, the only risk being the occasional mutation. The resulting organism, an uplifted slime mold nicknamed Tartar, had a gargantuan amount of knowledge - texts, data, images, sounds, even DNA of other organisms - encoded into its genome. While the two grand initiatives would preserve the planet's species and civilizations, this lowly amoebozoan would preserve the planet's knowledge, even long after humans were gone. Perhaps, he hoped, it would even be able to transmit this knowledge to the next intelligent species.

[Editor's note: I still like my old "Commander Tartar is alive and also the ooze" headcanon, and I think it works really well with the rest of the stuff here, so I'm keeping it.]

Manning opted to partake in neither of the preservation initiatives. Instead, he decided to send himself, Judd, and Tartar into ColdSleep, a patented form of extremely long-term cryogenic freezing, one that could theoretically last millennia. He was hopeful that, eventually, all three would wake, on a planet that had recovered.

[Editor's note: The Art of Splatoon and the Alterna Logs both use the phrase "cold sleep" to refer to cryogenic freezing. Let's roll with that.]

The first of the two preservation initiatives was the Ark Polaris. A spacecraft loaded with samples of Earth's biosphere, it was designed and launched with the intent of finding another planet to live on. Many specimens of animals, plants, and fungi were sent into ColdSleep for the duration of the journey. Of all the individual organisms loaded on the Ark, perhaps the most influential would end up be Bear #03 - an uplifted grizzly bear, nicknamed "Mr. Grizz". But nobody knew that at the time, as he lay in ColdSleep.

The second was a closed underground environment in which human civilization could survive until the Apocalypse had ended. Alterna was the name given to this underground stronghold, planned and designed by the greatest scientific minds left. Located in a geologically stable inland area, the outer walls of Alterna were fortified to be as durable as possible as possible, to withstand anything that could be thrown at it. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, flooding, nuclear bombs - all of it could be shielded. Inside, a closed ecological system kept the air and water stocked with oxygen and carbon dioxide. As most of the land surface was dedicated to human activities, most of Alterna's food came from the waters, which were richly stocked with representatives of whatever marine life was still alive (and some cloned representatives of some that weren't). There, a small fraction of humanity could survive, prosper, and continue innovation and progress as best it could.

[Editor's note: Most extinction events hit marine life just as bad as land life, oftentimes even worse. Ergo, I doubt that the sea life around Alterna would be quite as flourishing as they were before the Apocalypse. I think it was stocked by humans as a food source. Also, I'm not sure that Alterna would be built beneath the crater of a volcano. You'd think that a long-term safe haven would want to be built in an area UNlikely to have disastrous geological activity.]

Log 3: When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around

The society of Alterna was led by scientists; having finally learned from their mistakes, the remaining humans opted to let the most intelligent and idealistic minds lead them forward. Technological innovation continued underground. Massive 3D printing operations were implemented to recreate some artifacts from the surface. The Omniscient Recording Computer of Alterna (O.R.C.A.) was developed to log all the data, history, and records that would be produced as a result. And eventually, they would even learn how to recreate the sky.

"Liquid crystals" was actually a euphemism. The screens lining the internal walls of Alterna are alive. Chromatophores, if arranged in a layer like in the squid of a skin, can effectively create a surface that changes color in response to neural input. The bioengineers of Alterna realized that, if the color-changing ability of squids could be harnessed, it could be used to produce images from thoughts.

[Editor's note: I highly doubt that liquid crystals were developed from squid bodily fluids. If you're going to figure out how to get images from thoughts using squids, the most obvious way to do so would be harnessing the functionality of chromatophores. That's one argument in favor of making the "crystals" into something biological, engineered from chromatophores, but not the only one...]

Thus, a new organism was designed. A biologically immortal human cell line was used as the base, and modified with DNA from many other organisms - squids, of course, but also bits of DNA from yeasts, algae, slime molds, bacteria, and Manning's uplift plasmid. The result was a single-celled organism that could, when grown in a mat, change color in response to electrical signals. Mats of these organisms, which for the rest of this post I'm calling "crystalloids", were grown and then installed into screens. When backlit, the colors of these crystalloids can be seen as on any other screen. If these screens were hooked up to the human nervous system, they could project any image that they could think of. A screen that could read minds.

[Editor's note: Immortal cell lines are a real thing! They're usually derived from cancer cells, which do not age and so can keep dividing indefinitely. They're often used in biomedical research.]

Eventually neural interfaces were implanted in all the residents of Alterna. Their collective thoughts, memories, desires, were collected, processed by O.R.C.A. and fed to the crystalloids lined in the screens - and it resulted in beautiful blue skies. For the first time in 25 years, the residents of Alterna could see the sky once again.

Log 4: Epitaph

The years passed prosperously. But man grew proud. As generations grew, living their lives entirely in the safety of Alterna, the apocalypse began to fade from living memory. The new generation of leaders became ambitious. They wished to see the world beyond Alterna. This led to the construction of a rocket, in which they would escape the confines of Alterna and get a look at the Earth.

Despite the warnings of Alterna's elders, the rocket neared its launch date. And then disaster struck. As in the Nedelin catastrophe so many years earlier, the rocket boosters were ignited prematurely. Alterna had been fortified against shock from the outside, but nothing could protect it from something happening on the inside. The resulting explosion not only killed hundreds of personnel, but it effectively created a self-contained earthquake. Many Alternan structures collapsed, and the screens forming the Alternan "sky" were shaken loose, raining down metal and broken glass upon humanity's last stronghold. Those few who escaped the carnage ended up unable to support themselves with whatever remained; the systems that kept Alterna functioning had become irreparably broken. In the wreckage they scraped out a living, until they too died out. Humans finally went extinct, with both a bang and a whimper.

As the screens forming the Alternan "sky" broke, the mats of crystalloids fell apart, and the individual organisms tumbled into the waters below. And there they persisted. In order to avoid needing to feed the screens, they had been engineered with chemosynthetic abilities, added to their genome from bacteria. Thus they could produce their own food using chemicals in their environment. The biologically immortal nature of the base cell line not only meant that the screens never had to be replaced, but it also meant they could reproduce indefinitely. And so they survived, and continued to propagate themselves in the waters below.

The lights were off in Alterna, but the compound was not breached. The outer walls - built to withstand volcanism, tectonic activity, nuclear war - proved to be extremely durable. Impenetrable by anything larger than gaseous molecules, Alterna soon became a closed ecological system. Once Alterna's energy source failed, the screens went dark. With no light, the base of the Alterna food chain died out, and with it most of the marine life. But the few organisms that could live without light, those that could make food using chemosynthesis and those that preyed upon them, continued to survive in this environment.

So there the crystalloids stayed for thousands, even millions of years.

Log 5: Echoes

Meanwhile on the surface, life proved resilient. Adaptable disaster taxa - weeds, pests, and generalists - were the first to take take over the ruined land, now scrubbed of almost all traces of human existence. It took millions of years for life to rebound and reach its former levels of diversity, but that it did. And so life continued evolving for millions of years. The continents continued the movements they followed for millions of years. The climate warmed and cooled naturally. Organisms came and went. More minor extinction events occurred. Mammals, the dominant class of animals, saw their time as rulers of the planet come to a close. Consult this video for one possible way this could play out.

Eventually, after over 100 million years, enough niches on land had become vacant, their former inhabitants having gone extinct, to encourage new groups of animals to fill them. Perhaps cephalopods, one of the taxa that survived the extinction, could make the leap...

After miraculously persisting on the scales of geologic time, Alterna's outer walls were eventually compromised by the sheer force of the earth. The seal lasted far longer than initially anticipated, but eventually something cracked. Perhaps an inland sea had flooded the continent and eroded the surrounding rock around Alterna, leaving it exposed. In any case, it became possible to enter and leave Alterna. So the descendants of the crystalloids escaped, and eventually made it into the surrounding waters.

It has now been many millions of years since the apocalypse that wiped out humanity, and the oceans were thriving once again. The crystalloids, being microscopic and unicellular, were barely noticed by the life in these seas. They soon filled the seas around Alterna, but as it turned out, one of the most comfortable environments for them was inside organisms. The crystalloids formed commensal relationships with many species of marine life: living inside the host, causing neither benefit nor detriment to them.

And then something happened.

Log 6: Into the Light

Many of these marine organisms started picking up DNA from the crystalloids. This is a process known as horizontal gene transfer, and it happens in nature with surprising frequency. In animals, this DNA could be picked up through gametes, or from parasites or other organisms living inside the body. In any case, that's what happened here - DNA was passed to the host animals. Even after hundreds of thousands of generations, parts of the crystalloids' initial cocktail of DNA was conserved. Remarkably, DNA from Prometheus Manning's uplift plasmid and even human DNA from the base cell line had survived over the aeons. And it is these fragments that were introduced into the genomes of the marine life. Although it wasn't much, the combination of these two genetic influences, when expressed in the marine organisms, was enough to spur the development of high intelligence, pulmonary breathing, the the move to land in a wide variety of species. Some of them even gained a more anthropomorphic body plan from the human DNA. In a way, they were all uplifted, just like Judd.

[Editor's note: Rapid evolution/mutation COULD happen in response to abiotic factors, like radiation, pollution, maybe even liquid crystals. But it'd be impossible to guarantee that different organisms would mutate in the same way. The only way that you could guarantee multiple organisms evolve along the same path is with genes. That's why the screens are alive - to facilitate DNA transfer.

As a side note, evolution is not goal-oriented. It is an act of random mutations being selected for and against, as a result of what increases reproductive success. So the move to land being "driven" by feelings inherited from humans... rubbed me the wrong way. The parallel expression of genes would eliminate the implied "motivation", while still providing a tangible influence originating from humans.]

As all these newly sophont species of marine life crawled onto land, they found out they weren't the first ones there. As it turns out, the entire time cephalopods had been evolving naturally down a similar path. These cephalopods, the ancestors of the modern Inkling and Octoling, had separately colonized the land and evolved intelligence. Thus, they have numerous differences from all the other sophonts. Instead of having a singular anthropomorphic form, they have two separate forms. One of these forms, the "swim form", reflects the what their ancestors were like, and the manner in which they crawl on land is as a result different from everything else. Their ink-based physiologies and transformation ability are new evolutionary innovations; these probably can't have been picked up from Alterna, or else they'd be far more widespread. Numerous other details of their evolution also made them stand out from all the other species. That's why Inklings and Octolings had the "fresh vibes" that allowed them to become the apex species; their evolution had more natural influence.

This isn't to say that they didn't feel some influence from Alterna, though. The ancestors of Inklings and Octolings did come into contact with DNA from the crystalloids, but that had very little influence on them. There was no uplifting to be done - by this time they had already developed intelligence, were living on land full-time, and even evolved the ability to transform. Instead, the only crystalloid DNA taken in were tiny fragments of the human DNA, and all it did was make their terrestrial form a little more superficially humanoid. Perhaps this is related to the cephalopod ability to edit genes before they are expressed: maybe the rest of the incoming crystalloid DNA was snipped away before it was taken into the genome.

[Editor's note: As well as the above-mentioned differences from the other marine life, I have a few other reasons for separating Inkling/Octoling evolution. First, this is my way of reconciling Splatoon 1-era lore on Inkling evolution with what the Alterna Logs tell us about the marine life as a whole. Second, I have a lot of evolution headcanons for Inklings and Octolings that I don't want to jettison. Third, I think it would be funny if the most humanoid-looking species (well, half of the time) were the only ones NOT uplifted.

As for what happened to Inklings/Octolings: I'm basically saying that their humanoid forms naturally evolved looking "xeno", and all the Alterna DNA did was push them to what they look like ingame.]

(Now you may ask, if Inklings and Octolings were not uplifted the same way as the rest of the marine life, what would a cephalopod that did get uplifted look like? Well, consider the nautiluses. Like all of the other marine life, they resemble an anthropomorphic "adaptation" of their ancestor. Their limbs are more clearly derived from nautilus tentacles. Gnarly Eddy's "arms" aren't even attached to the rest of the tentacles he's using as limbs)

(Honestly it would probably look like Octodad.)

As a side note, Salmonids evolved completely naturally. They seem to have a biological immunity to taking up the Alterna DNA, and thus saw none of the uplifting the other marine life experienced. Instead, they're going down yet another evolutionary path towards life on land; they're roughly at the Tiktaalik stage. Thus, Salmonids retain a much closer link to the water and have a very different form of intelligence from everything else.

Back on topic. As these newly-sophont marine species spread across the globe, inhabiting every environment from temperate rainforest to tropical desert, distinct cultures and ways of life developed. But predominant above them all were the cephalopods. Indeed, most of these species soon melded into the dominant Inkling culture, most notably jellyfish. Inklings had soon become the dominant species on the planet.

Log 7: Ebb & Flow

One day, three curious compartments began eroding out of a wall of mudstone. Unbeknownst to the now society-forming marine life, these were ColdSleep chambers, sent into cryostasis eons prior by Prometheus Manning and buried, perfectly preserved, under rising seas. Unfortunately, Manning's ColdSleep chamber had become compromised before burial - he died peacefully in his dormancy. By the time that Inklings discovered these chambers, the one containing Tartar had long since cracked, and it had escaped. But one remained intact. When it was opened, out came Judd - now the last mammal living on earth. The uplifting process, millennia spent in ColdSleep, and the intricacies of the feline brain mean that this intelligent cat had picked up a new ability - telepathy. The local cephalopods soon realized the value of this cat's brain. Judd soon became the arbiter of victory in the activity that would eventually become the modern Turf War. This event became commemorated as Year 0 on the Mollusc Era calendar.

Tartar, the intelligent blob that had slunk out of the now-open ColdSleep chamber, moved forward with its prime directive: pass on its knowledge to the next intelligent species. According to its observations, the smartest species present on the planet were the cephalopods - the Inklings and Octolings. But although initially pleased with their candidacy as a successor to humanity, as it watched their culture and civilization developed, Tartar developed a deep loathing for them. How could such an intelligent species be so focused on such superficial matters? Perhaps Tartar's view of humanity was skewed by its hard-working, forward-thinking creator. Spurned by these developments and thousands of years of loneliness, it developed a new objective: create its own intelligent life. To do this, it would need to collect DNA from a wide variety of organisms. After a long, long period of planning, Tartar eventually moved into a network of subterranean caverns - which became the Deepsea Metro - and from there developed its plan, taking the guise of an old telephone to avoid suspicion. It would convert the Metro to its own testing grounds, designed to select the most viable marine organisms. It would then blend them up and absorb their DNA into itself, taking whatever the best pieces were. Eventually, he'd have a complete genome, from which it could spawn a new super-organism...

Log 8: Muck Warfare

As Tartar developed its plans, life for the marine organisms continued blissfully unaware. Over the centuries, the Inklings and Octolings learned how to develop weapons with which to fire the ink their bodies produced. Zapfish were domesticated as a source of electricity. The salvation of the Splatlands from a great flood became commemorated in local folklore, which gave great importance to three prominent families: the Shark, Moray, and Manta Clans. Mass Salmonid migrations (known as the Big Run) came roughly every 70 years, wreaking havoc on cephalopod settlements that happened to be in the way. Major cities were established: Inkopolis, Splatsville, New Sardine, Tailfin City. And Judd oversaw this all.

[Editor's note: These events are all based on Sunken Scrolls.]

In roughly 1914 ME (Mollusc Era), border disputes arose between the rival states of Inkadia and Octaria, exacerbated by a massive flood that devastated a lot of Octarian territory. This strained their formerly-amicable relationships; in particular, the leader of the Octarians, DJ Octavio, sought to take Inkadia's resources by force to replace what was lost in the disaster. The resulting military conflict became known as the Great Turf War, and it was ugly. Though the Octarians had the upper hand at first, the Inkadian military, lead by Second Lieutenant Craig Cuttlefish and the Squidbeak Splatoon, proved victorious in the end. The Octarians were driven to a rocky "wasteland" to the north of Inkadia, scarred by flooding and warfare. As the surface of this region was not an ideal place to live, many Octarians moved to underground settlements, accessible through a series of pipes and kettles. Because racism did not go extinct with humanity, most Octolings were expelled from Inkopolis, explaining their rarity there. The Splatlands, meanwhile, remained a neutral party; hence, Splatsville has a longer history as an integrated city.

[Editor's note: Sea level rise couldn't happen fast enough to cause a war to rapidly break out. A huge flood - perhaps something like a glacial lake outburst flood - seems like a more likely explanation. It would explain why Octo Valley is surrounded by water, yet is seemingly inland.]

Log 9: Ever Further

One day, not too long after the Great Turf War, a curious object fell from the sky, crash-landing in Salmonid territory. Though these fish wouldn't know it, this was the Ark Polaris, the ambitious biological preservation initiative launched by humans millions of years ago. Near the edge of the solar system, its navigation system had become damaged, and after running out of fuel it drifted aimlessly in space for millions of years. By chance, it eventually floated back into the pull of Earth's gravity, and from there slowly careened to impact. The only survivor of the crash was Bear #03 - Mr. Grizz. He came to a terrible realization - he was on Earth, alright, but one ruled by marine life. And he was, as far as he knew, the only mammal left on this planet of the squids.

In his search for other surviving mammals, he came across the ruins of Alterna. It was a dark, corroded, and partially collapsed wasteland, but a few things still remained - including some of the crystalloids. With knowledge and skill developed over years and years of being alone with his thoughts, Mr. Grizz repaired Alterna's facilities and began researching the crystalloids. Upon discovering their potential for horizontal gene transfer, and spurred by his extreme loneliness, he had an idea. An awful idea. Mr. Grizz got a wonderful, awful idea.

He could use these to make more mammals.

Mr. Grizz further engineered the crystalloids, splicing in his own DNA. The result was a pathogenic organism, one that could induce the development of hair in any organism that touched it. This became known as "Fuzzy Ooze". Again, it moves, indicating that it's alive. You know how the Fuzzy Ooze is multicolored? That's what remains of the crystalloids' color-changing ability, gone haywire after Grizz's experimentation. Some Octarians that lost their way acted as test subjects, and as Mr. Grizz hoped, the gene transfer worked successfully - they grew hair.

[Editor's note: Again, it makes the most sense if the ooze makes you hairy through DNA. More support for it, and the Alterna "liquid crystals", being living things.]

(A quick side note: Remember above how I said that Salmonids were immune to the Alterna DNA that uplifted the other marine life? Because the Fuzzy Ooze was engineered from the crystalloids, Salmonids are also immune to the Fuzzy Ooze's hair genes. Hence why New Agent 3's Smallfry can eat Fuzzy Ooze and be completely unaffected, but if they touch it themselves they grow hair.)

But Mr. Grizz couldn't proceed far at first. In order to make the process actually feasible on a large scale, it would require require golden eggs, the fertilized eggs of Salmonids. Golden eggs served as both a power source and a conduit for the development of Fuzzy Ooze (and he also though they tasted good). Though he first acquired these by hunting Salmonids himself, he eventually settled upon a better idea. He could have others do the dirty work. Thus, he started paying locals to go into Salmonid territory and collect Golden Eggs for him, with the excuses of harvesting food and keeping Inkling society safe keeping regulators off his back. Grizzco Industries, as this business was known, became a wildly successful venture. The destruction caused by a previous Big Run had instilled an anti-Salmonid sentiment in much of the populace, and the average Inkling couldn't resist some extra cash. And so he sat back and watched the profit roll in...

So there remained three surviving organisms from the time of humans. Judd lived among the Inklings, providing wisdom and judgement. Tartar lurked in the depths of the Deepsea Metro, actively furthering its plans. And Mr. Grizz remained hiding in plain sight, biding his time.

(Lil Judd does not count as a survivor; he was cloned in the Mollusc Era from Judd's ColdSleep chamber, which Manning had retrofitted before sealing. This would ensure that, in case he didn't make it, Judd wouldn't get lonely when he woke up.)

Log 10: Fresh Start

And this is where we set our scene. After decades of neglect and DJ Octavio's poor leadership, the power grid within Octaria finally began to give out. Pressed to find an energy source, Octavio made a rash decision - steal the Great Zapfish providing a large amount of Inkopolis's power. This action caught the attention of the until-then-retired Craig Cuttlefish. Remembering his history fighting the Octarians, and after a complete lack of action from the authorities, he set out to form an independent vigilante group to invade Octarian territory and recover the Zapfish. He called it the New Squidbeak Splatoon - and one of the recruits was an adventurous youth from Inkopolis. Thus sets off the events of Octo Valley, and from there Octo Canyon, Octo Expansion, and Return of the Mammalians.

I hope you enjoyed this all! I'm happy to talk about anything mentioned (or not mentioned) above.

#splatoon #splatoon 2 #splatoon 3 #splatoon headcanon #splatoon theory #my headcanons #oc

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gay-artificer · 9 months

Note

curious about your thoughts on how lizard heads are able to emit light and pulsate the way they do. based on my (limited) knowledge i thought they would have chromatophores or smth similar on their heads which would allow their heads to flash colours and would be controlled via muscle contraction (which is why their heads lose colour when they die). that's just my take on it, but was curious to know your thoughts?

also, as a side note, is it alright if i include some of your theories/thoughts in the creature section of a rw lore document i'm writing? will give full credit of course!

Answering the second part first: Yeah go ahead! I don't mind at all

Now for the actual question: Lizards are very interesting because while controlled bioluminescence isn't uncommon, they have a few interesting quirks. Namely that it extends into the frills of the lizard, and persists even into the Saint ice age where lizards grow out either fur or feathers as adaptation against the cold. So we have something here that needs to be at least a little more flexible than we normally see! (or at least give a healthy amount of fictional flexibility) So that fur or feathers can have similar properties. Luckily, the game does give us an easy out of insanely diverse genetic modification, so saying 'they messed with it enough to do this and its still in the genes' works well enough. The rest of this is under the cut because its long! I'm not kidding. And obligatory note that I'm not an expert in the field of specialized skin cells.

So, Chromatophores, which I'm sure your thinking of in terms of animals like octopus and squid, are color focused- They don't actually emit any light on their own, although you can get an illusion of such in particularly flashy displays like you might see in a cuttlefish (Which often actively manipulate light reflection, but its not self-produced). Lizards in RW actually glow from their heads (as you can see in environments like shaded citadel or mole lizard flashes) so we at least have more than just something like chromatophores, which could control the presence of color through contraction (the 'on and off' switch') like you said. This method however would be complicated by the saint age of lizards with fur and feathers due to those mechanisms being skin based... which takes up the spot the feathers and fur would develop.

Now, in theory, you could work around this by creating 'bald spots' on the lizard where the glowing parts go instead and fur and whatnot that develops around that. But the in game models at least somewhat suggest the glow effect applies to the fur/feathers/frills as equally as the skin sections. So... interesting critter here depending on how true to the models you are!

The next question to that would probably be "are there any furred/feathered animals with bioluminescence" which the answer is... not really. We have animals in that group that fluoresce- which means that when exposed to certain types of light (usually UV) parts of the animal absorbs it and re-emit it back rather than just reflect, which results in a similar glow effect. Bioluminescence, in contrast, refers to self-produced light. They're similar, but fluorescence relies more on the environment since the light effect isn't produced by the organism itself, but rather an interaction. I would argue the RW lizards seem much closer to true bioluminescence, which means they have a self-produced chemical process going on.

(Theres also phosphorescence, which is mechanically closer to fluorescence, but due to the method by which its achieved the glow can exist after the light has been removed. This would be most glow in the dark toys that 'recharge' from being in light in the day. Interestingly... this is probably what the new lizard plushies do- so those particular lizards are phosphorescent!

The real question then, is what method of bioluminescence do lizards use, and how do they control it. Truthfully, control isn't that difficult- Some organisms, such as the flashlight fish, have small pockets of bioluminescent bacteria that are simply covered by things like specialized skin flaps. But often it just requires a form of cell signaling or internal regulation to stop and start the processes. We think fireflies do this by limiting oxygenation of the chemical fluids they use. Honestly a lot of the stuff isn't well known! Something else interesting about the lizards is that the glow is isolated (mechanically at least) to the head area, the rest of the colorful spots on the body in terms of in-game behavior are non-glowing. That actually makes things way easier in terms of control, especially since the body features are the most variable. The only exception to this is cyan lizards, who also have the glowing effect in their side spots- which are another consistent feature. The head also isn't strictly just 'on' or 'off' in terms of color- they have a third, which is a flash of white when the lizard is struck or injured. Given the means by which it shows up, we could guess that it might be a side effect of some sort of shock or damage interfering with the means by which the lizard controls its signalling. Of course, since the head flashing could easily be a means of communication, it could also be an intentional signal used for telling other lizards that its hurt and doesn't want to fight.

It terms of production though, there is really two possibilities- Either the lizards self produce and 'ignite' chemicals or enzymes that produce light or they have a symbiotic relationship with organisms like bacteria that do. I like to think its bacteria! Mostly because I don't think it would be too impossible to wacky genetics your way into those bacteria also being present in specialized frills in hollow chambers. We do also already have grounds for special bacteria/host interactions through Artificer- who's explosive saliva is a result of caustic bacteria in the garbage wastes. So if anything, we do know that the Ancients messed around with microbial symbiosis in organisms, and I could certainly see them making use of bioluminescence for a number of reasons (Because its cool).

Of course, its not impossible that lizards have self produced light and their skull has specialized cells for it, especially since the Ancients seemed to love doing... absolutely whatever they wanted with animal genetics. But microbial symbiosis is a big part of a lot of things. Being full of bacteria is the means by which we can even properly digest food! This is a long answer that covers a whole lot of random science, but its fun and interesting (to me at least). The real question is what does eating a neuron fly do to the slugcat that makes them glow...

#ask #rain world #rw bioposting

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iced-squid · 9 months

Text

An introduction to the characters of my (incomplete) story, The Chaos Magnet:

(I collaged together a mishmash of old art to make this. It's not very elegant but oh well.)

The Chaos Magnet is urban fantasy, with a magic weapons system (because I had very specific media fixations back when I was a teenager). Two secret organizations have been waging a centuries-long war to gather magic weaponry and find the Pandemonium Machine. Wyn Halford, the leader of the organization formerly known as “The Confederation of Angels,” is desperate to end the war. As he sets his plans into motion, he recruits his nemesis’s daughter and is dealt much more than he reckoned for.

I wrote the first draft almost a decade ago and edited it religiously, but I’ve currently uprooted the whole story and I’m rewriting it. If my art skills ever get better, I’ll make a webcomic.

This post mostly explains my characters’ relationships to each other. I made this diagram to make it easier—

—just kidding. This diagram is insane and confusing. I did it for the joke, but in retrospect, I spent a little too much time on it.

It's going to get reallllllllll long, so I'll break down their dynamics/background below the cut.

The main POV characters are Glade Gideon, Wyn Halford, and Arch D'Auvay.

Glade Gideon is the daughter of Henry Gideon (the main villain, a.k.a. Wyn Halford's nemesis). She's a runaway drifting from place to place until Wyn sends Arch to "recruit" her. She is kidnapped to the organization headquarters and forced to join the war against her father. Though she doesn't like her father, she holds resentment towards Wyn for kidnapping her. She befriends Arch despite his role in carrying out the orders because it is clear he lacks autonomy—plus, he's fun to annoy.

Arch is not amused with the new addition to headquarters or with the incessant interruptions to his reading time, but it has been long since he had consistent conversation. He is not willing to admit he likes the company, or that he likes seeing Wyn suffer the annoyances wrought by the new recruit.

Wyn deeply regrets recruiting Glade because she is a menace. She spikes his coffee with a new condiment every week and interrupts his paperwork process, asking him inane questions. He did not sign up for babysitting his enemy's daughter. Hoping she would prove to be of some use, he has Arch and Layla train her as he makes preparations to dismantle Henry Gideon's organization for good.

Extra:

Glade is convinced she can snap Wyn like the twig he is (if he didn't have magic powers of course). If only she knew the phrase "I want that twink obliterated." She would have so much fun.

Arch secretly partakes in the "condiment of the week" prank with zest. But he's so deadpan, Glade can't tell.

Wyn likes the pranks. At least, most of the time. He loves a break from the monotony of his work and the chance to be melodramatic.

The slightly older characters with intertwining fates who are all doomed by the narrative: Eno Vallerium, Layla Adderley, and Wyn Halford.

Eno's dead. But as far as the narrative is concerned, she's alive and well. Prior to her death, an seer told her the year she would die, so it came as no surprise to her. Knowing she would cease to be, she made every effort to stamp out her feelings for Layla. But she was not very successful. They have a few good months before her timely death. Eno is also well aware of Wyn and Layla's mutual feelings for each other, so they encourage it.

Layla was recruited into the organization when she was fourteen by Wyn, who had already been ambitiously running the organization for two years. She worked for Henry Gideon and was an utter slaughter machine, so Wyn saw her as valuable. In her youth, she followed excitement and ambition—motivations Wyn exploited. Unfortunately, with age and Eno's influence, her lust for murder has waned. It turns out, a quiet life is much better than a life of endless bloodshed.

Wyn was drawn to Layla's ruthlessness and ambition because it mirrored his own. They bicker often in their youth, usually with Eno on standby ensuring it won't devolve into a fight. Wyn and Layla both defend Eno fiercely, especially knowing her eventual fate. They don't know when they develop feelings for each other, but after Eno's death, they are determined to hang onto each other forever. Their relationship is a secret because they fear it will be exploited by the enemy.

Extra:

As of The Chaos Magnet, Layla and Wyn are engaged with rings inscribed with a commemoration to Eno.

Wyn has consistent morals and values he abides by, but Layla is genuinely a terrible person until she matures. She spends a lot of her life in a "frozen time" state, so she has a lot of time to think. They get on the same wavelength eventually and spend their free time chilling on a couch.

They're all just very tired.

These guys grew up together in the organization headquarters. Eno basically parented Eric, Arch, and Wyn. Wyn takes care of Arch and Eric when he grows older, but he also gradually becomes more distant, especially after the responsibilities of leadership are thrust upon him at the green age of thirteen.

Wyn and Arch were orphaned in the same night. Before dying, Wyn’s parents ensured they would make a safe trip to the headquarters, despite having retired from the organization because they didn't agree with the politics.

Eric and Eno were practically kidnapped for the organization’s needs. Eno doesn’t even know their own birth name.

They all grew up alongside each other, but the weight of responsibility divided them. Eno and Wyn learned to shoulder the burden of knowledge so Eric and Arch could live as carefree as they possibly could. Of course, they couldn’t escape from the organization’s work.

Arch and Eric were inseparable, training and spending every waking moment together. If one of them got sick, the other would not escape the illness either. This would have probably continued forever, if Eric didn’t get beaten to a bloody pulp on a mission. The last time Arch sees Eric is when his maimed body is swept up by a helmeted stranger on an enemy motorbike. He’s twelve when he blames himself for what happened.

Wyn is too busy with work to provide consistent emotional support and Eno tries her best, but she is contending with her own fate, which was coming for her in less than a year.

As a result, Arch spends all his teen years stewing in guilt and loneliness, with nothing but his books.

Extra:

Layla’s there too, but she’s horrendous at dealing with people’s emotions. She tries, but she’s not good at it. The most she can do is hold a box of tissues.

Clem shows up eventually, but she’d rather die than deal with touchy feely stuff.

I had no idea what to label these guys, but here they are: Eric Florentine, Arch, Glade, and Clem. They're the younger of the main cast.

Glade meets Arch and Clem her first day of being kidnapped. Clem is the resident healer who is mysterious and aloof, but as far as Glade is concerned, she has not wronged her, so she likes her presence. Plus, for a person prone to small injuries, having a magic healer around is handy.

They all meet Eric when he shows up at the doorstep with a potentially fatal wound. Arch has been sure he was dead for six years, but Eric is very much alive, and he has been made into an experimental subject for Henry Gideon's people. He's been on the run after he made an attempt to steal something important from Gideon. He's a charismatic dude, and he dislikes Wyn, so Glade automatically considers him a friend.

Clem likes to stay out of the drama and emotional bits of other people's lives as much as she can. She heals people, and that's it. Out the gang, she likes Arch the most, since she considers him the most normal one. He's quiet and doesn't stir up trouble (at least, until Glade's influence and Eric's reappearance).

Extra:

Clem is secretly bothered by the fact she can't take Layla in a fair fight. She respects Layla the most though.

Glade is usually only annoying when she is with Arch and Wyn. She's much more chill when conversing with both Eric and Clem because she admires them.

Wyn has known Eric was alive for four years. He never told Arch on account of the promise he made to Eric.

They're all a hot mess. It's a miracle Clem can stay out of it at all.

It gets a lot more complicated, but this is the simplified, spoiler-free version.

If you've read all of this...well I don't know, I guess I owe you a small sliver of my soul. Here, I'll put it on a fancy gilded plate for you.

#an iced squid's lore #my poor little ocs #i'll wring them until they got no more blood left #artists on tumblr #writblr

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