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ohyeahben10 · 2 years

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Vulpin Headcanon Lore

For those unaware, Vulpin is the home of Ben’s transformation Wildmutt, a Vulpimancer.

Vulpin is, simply put, hell.

Vulpin has been used as a garbage dumping ground for plants across the Galaxy. Have something that would erode the very surface of a planet? That does to Vulpin.

The planet is so densely polluted that its near entirety is pitch black. Leading to most of its inhabitants losing any need for sight. Whatever creatures manage to survive these conditions must contend with freezing temperatures and poison forests.

The dominant species is the Vulpimancer. Most of the galaxy considers them to be simply minded beasts. However, they are an intelligent species like any Human or Tetramand. They are a social species and stalks of them (meaning a group of them) are incredibly close knit.

Vulpimancers have underground dens in Vulpin’s cave systems. During Vulpin’s brief summer, they will enter a semi-hibernation (comparable to Earth bears). During this season, the planet’s atmosphere becomes congested to an even greater degree. This results in killing the less “strong willed” flora and fauna. This is actually incredibly important for maintaining Vulpin’s fragile ecosystem. Once this ends and the Vulpimancers leave their semi-hibernation, they return to the surface to hunt.

Contrary to popular belief, a healthy adult Vulpimancer does not look like this:

[ID: Two pale blue Vulpimancers from Empty Handed. End ID]

But rather this:

[ID: Ben 10,000’s Wildmutt from OS. End ID]

Even the most adapted Vulpin residents are not immune its effects. Resulting in an identical genetic deformity amongst Vulpimancers. The only reference to a healthy adult is Ben Tennyson’s.

Though their juvenile counterparts deserve their own attention. Young Vulpimancer differ somewhat drastically from adults, the most obvious visual difference is their lack of tail.

Vulpimancer pups (a slang term) are tree climbers, in contrast to the terrestrial adults. They do this to stay out of danger when the group hunts. Pups lack the need for a long tail because of their stout back legs and wide stance. As adults are more active on the ground (and therefore run for greater lengths) they grow out their tail for better balance. Though, technically speaking pups do have a tail, it just has not broken past their skin.

Additionally, pups have quills covering their back and forelegs. It is a common misconception that they are able to shoot these quills. Rather, they simply duck their head, letting their attacker injure themselves.

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding Vulpimancers is “what makes their language untranslatable?”

Well… nothing.

Vulpimancers are intentionally excluded from Universal Translators.

You see, it’s hard to justify the constant poisoning of a planet full of intelligent life. However, a planet full of rapid animals, that is much easier to sell. So if you take away their language, it’s very easy to believe Vulpimancers are more animal that person.

Of course, there are species that would include Vulpimancer language, but you can’t program a translation if the language isn’t properly documented.

(Though it should be noted that Ben isn’t speaking any language as Wildmutt. He could speak it, but he doesn’t actually know it)

Though, Vulpimancer’s aren’t the only sapient species on Vulpin.

One of the others is the Vulpinic Pelarota (also called Vulpinic Tortugans).

Vulpinic Pelarota are a subspecies of the Arburian Pelarota. Unfortunately, due to the destruction of Arburia has left the subspecies with greater numbers than their main counterparts.

The history of how and, more notably, why a small population of Tortugans immigrated to the toxic Vulpin is unknown. The Vulpinic Pelarota are not eager to share, and it’s not clear if even they haven’t lost their history to time.

Tortugans live each day as if the planet could destroy itself the same day. As such they have no need to develop a currency or large scale trading. Instead, they try to divide all available resources throughout their colony.

Vulpinic Pelarota have dark grey skin and their arms duck under their head, positioning their head in front of them. They have lost the shells their ancestors are famous for.

However, the Arburian Pelarota's ability to maneuver around their surroundings in ball form via the short fur on their body, registering shifts in air and motion around, which gives them a form of echolocation with their hearing, is greatly enhanced. Their eyes may have shrunk, but their visibility has not been impaired. Additionally, Vulpinic Pelarota have larger teeth and frontal claws.

They are considered more primitive than the Arburian species. Despite their usual perception, this is only true in their technology level. This is most likely caused by Vulpin's difference in natural resources.

The Tortugans are a very territorial, paranoid society. They live nearly exclusively underground in the planet's cave systems. Rarely, a few may journey to the surface, but they isn't any history of above ground settlements.

They build settlements by finding a large enough area (and one that doesn’t interfere with Vulpimancer territory) and digging out from there. They build stone walls around there home to deter others from entering.

Vulpinic Pelarota hunt mainly aquatic life found in the cave’s river system. They catch these creatures with their long, prehensile tongues.

In theory, Vulpimancers and the Tortugans could be peaceful neighbors. Unfortunately, the latter rarely trusts members of their own species from other colonies, and have no interest in putting the the first foot forward. Or letting the Vulpimancers do it themselves, for the matter.

They exist on “avoid any interaction with each other” terms more-so than hostile ones. Though there is always the accidental meetings that turn violent.

It seemed that Vulpin would never be unified. However, there may still be hope. Thanks to a recent addition to the universe, and Vuplin's third sapient species; the Cerebroian Currmarys.

The free reign dumping on Vulpin from other worlds only grew more chaotic as time passed (and as the planet grew worse). Seeing that Vulpin needs to be organized (so it can continue being a toxic trash dump), the Cerebrocrustaceans stepped in. They are a hyper-intelligent species from Encephalonus IV, a planet from a neighboring system.

The Cerebrocrustaceans decided to create a sentinel work force to monitor and maintain order when when other species wanted to use Vulpin’s dumps.

They were build to be stationed in the semi-industrialized portion of the planet.

Their power source was just as volatile as the planet they were to guard. They run off pure nuclear energy.

The Cerebrocrustaceans would not be satisfied by simply making robots. Not in any way motivated by the Galvan’s creation of the Galvanic Mechamorph, the creators sought to create life. Their AI would bond with the very atomic energy that powered them.

The AI was simple, designed to make them Vulpin’s guards.

However, one Cerebrocrustacean thought: What would be most fitting of a protector? The answer was clear: heroism.

Thus, the Cerebroian Currmarys were born.

Their creators stationed them on Vulpin. They were left so the Cerobrocrustaceans could boast of their accomplishments.

Though, the funny thing about creating a species versus robots.

The species won’t remain in one place. It was only a matter of time before they met the Vulpimancers.

Well, the Currmarys were built to be protectors of Vulpin. That includes all of the planet.

And being built to be heroic meant putting its people first.

The Cerebroian Currmarys abandoned their original purpose. They sought to maintain the balance of Vulpin, for the sake of its inhabitance.

As it turns out, Vulpimancers are quite social to people they don’t consider prey. The two species were quickly able to ally together, regardless of the language barrier.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Tortugans. They did not accept the Currmary as members of Vulpin, rather seeing them as foreign invaders.

Despite the other two species attempts at speaking with the Tortugans, they were both considered enemies and threats. The subspecies still has not budged to this day.

With one species considered merely a beast, another savages, and the third machines, all unable to form proper unity, a peaceful protection of Vulpin does not seem to be in the near future.

However, the Currmary will protect their planet, no matter what it takes.

#ben 10 #ben 10 headcanon #vulpin #vulpimancer #wildmutt #vulpinic pelarota #vulpinic tortugans #arburian pelarota #cannonbolt #atomix #cerebroian currmary #cerebrocrustaceans #ben would probably call his vulpinic pelarota transformation ‘Tunnel Sight’ or something #headcanon

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yo-its-matt · 3 years

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can we have a ben 10 fact about wild mutt specifically because i think the cheeto dog is neat

When they’re older they’re able to shoot the quills on their backs, and tend to grow tails!

There’s also an overlap between Wildmutt and Cannonbolt’s species; the Vulpinic Tortugans are a subspecies of the Arburian Pelarota who live on Vulpin, and they likely looked like this:

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whatudottu · 9 months

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Ayo, bard anon here, have a few more of my epic (non-Ben related) mythology pitches for various species that I may or may not eventually make fanfics for (sorry if this is too rambley BTW, I tend to get carried away with this kind of stuff sometimes):

The Galvans having their very own version of Prometheus in the form of the very first First Thinker, who allegedly stole knowledge itself from a race of terrifying giants that regularly terrorized the prehistoric Galvans and kidnapped them to use as slaves and pets (exactly what alien species these giants were supposed to represent is still heavily debated to this day) and granting it to his people, which they used to become the scientifically and technologically advanced civilization they are today. Pretty much every First Thinker has at least one story about them and their achievements, for that matter. If Azmuth is anything to go by, the Galvans tend to pick rather unique individuals to lead them.

The Cerebrocrustaceans having a similar myth to the Galvans where a legendary trickster stole lightning bolts from the gods and imbued its power into the foreheads of his species so that they couldn’t be reclaimed, created as a way to explain how they’re able to generate electricity from their brains. Despite the Cerebrocrustaceans claiming that the Galvans “stole” the story from them, the two myths seem to have been created completely independent from one another, although there’s still much scholarly debate over which one emerged first.

The Petrosapiens having tales that envision Sugilite as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, having emerged from a gigantic space geode Ra style and sculpted the landscape of Petropia and the first Petrosapiens (who were created in his image) from a cluster of jagged crystal. Sugilite always found it too awkward to correct them about it and basically just rolled with it for eons.

The Vilgaxians naturally having many (extremely white-washed) stories of their great leader, the most popular one being how he was banished at a young age for speaking out against their planet’s cruel tyrant of a ruler, only to return years later to defeat said ruler in the Conqueror’s Challenge and usher in a new age of peace and prosperity for the Chimera Sui Generises (I think that’s the plural for them?). Most bards tend to change the names when telling those stories to non-Vilgaxian planets if they bother to ever tell them at all.

The destruction of the Incurceans’ homeworld being re-envisioned as them majorly pissing off the Gods and getting smited for it a la Atlantis or Troy. In such stories, Azmuth is usually portrayed as an emissary of the gods if not one of the gods in disguise, something that he has gone on record numerous times saying he isn’t a huge fan of, to put it mildly.

Bestie, you want to ramble you've come to the right place! Rambling is all we do here haha!

Oh and I am totally an utter HUGE fan for these little myth snapshots, especially with certain cerebrocrustacean folk complaining that the galvans took their story from them- Even with their similarities (a member of their species stole something from someone powerful and gave it to their people) I like how there's like a difference between the specifics, particularly how the FIRST First Thinker stole knowledge from another species and how it contrasts with a legendary trickster stole lightning from the GODS! Not only are these stories just additional worldbuilding, it's also packed with an additional set of worldbuilding down to political and religious roots.

And I am constantly a Mor'Otesi believer, even if present day it's barren of any people (love me an overgrown planetary wasteland), so anytime Sugilite gets all awkward about being deified I'm all for it! Irrespective of how I view canon I can totally see petrosapien myths about Sugilite being essentially a 'god' if not THE god of Petropia and them in kind, heck maybe a few vocal languages use Sugilite's name as inspiration for godly words lmao- considering how Mor'Otesi was mythologised in of itself, he himself would have probably been on Petropia for a LONG while (doesn't help that my mutants and magic Sugi would need to meditate for forever essentially to record the memories of a planet, so long in fact he might accidentally get overgrown by Petropia itself lmao).

Hehe- from one rambler to another, I would read the absolute fuck out of any worldbuilding fic you may or may write!

#ask #anonymous #galvan #cerebrocrustacean #petrosapien #sugilite #sugilite ben 10 #ben 10 #worldbuilding #you do not understand how hard i am vibrating from these #these are like rotisserie chicken to me- rip and tear and bite and bite and bite and bite!#god these are so fucking good i love these asdkljghlsfkl-!#i love these so fucking much i want to read so many more of these myths!#especially the myths of species i may not think as much headcanons for haha #ough i wanna hear about vulpimancer myths- i want to hear about vulpinic tortugan myths #i wanna know how their myths god added to and changed and developed when the tortugan evolved to be vulpin born neighbours of the vulpimanc #god i want myths around necrofriggian development- i want myths about what loboans see in THEIR night sky #ough there are just so many things!

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whatudottu · 8 months

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The inner struggles of a worldbuilding nerd: “Just because an alien species looks similar to an Earth animal doesn’t mean they’ll function the exact same as them, especially if said species is sapient, and assuming such is pretty biased and Earth-centric” vs. “Haha giving alien species based on Earth animals biology and behaviors similar to their respective animal and exploring how said biology and behaviors might influence their society and culture go brrr”

That's why you go to a mental randomiser and pick the weirdest shit you can and pair it with your selected species; case in point, my talpaedans = armadillos + ants headcanons!

I have certainly fallen into the pitfall of 'base a series of headcanons of alien that resembles an Earth animal USING the animal as a guide' but I am no stranger to making things alien (another I have are orishan = clam + cockroach headcanons). Heck, if I either can't think of an animal or an idea I had for a more animalistic alien may end up treading on bad ground, I pull out a random sociological thing humans have done. I mean I can't think about vulpimancers without thinking about politics, both on Vulpin and outside of it, discussing local matters to international matters to straight up intergalactic matters and the ethics of Null Void imprisonment (you cannot tell me all the vulpimancers in there were even given a trial let alone a fair one).

It's good to start with a base that has happened before - convergent evolution and everything, very good template to work from - and you can pick and mix whatever the heck you want to make your alien, well... alien-! Either you randomise the heck out of it, you have a very specific idea that would help expand the worldbuilding, or you just want to orchestrate how you can logic something out and connect the dots later, it's really fun to just ramble the shit out of alien biology.

#ask #anonymous #xenobiology #worldbuilding #this time without a world directly attached lmao #i was literally thinking about some talpaedan headcanons today- and not just ant stuff #as well as andreas specifically but that would be explained in the post i'd think #petrosapiens my beloved i have made them quite reptilian but also partially buggy (exoskeletal and such)#also have got some cybertronian bug stuff but i'm not the first person to think of bug bots and also they're not animal-based aliens #i also have like a whole political history of vulpin from the introduction of the tortugan up until modern day that i have in dot points #not quite written to be a full ramble post but definitely got the points down ready for rambling #something something really like grabbing animals at random yada yada putting them to aliens that are vastly dissimilar is really fun

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whatudottu · 9 months

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So the anthropologist nerd/loser in me wondered what kind of folklore and mythology various alien cultures in the Ben 10 universe might have (creation myths, folk heroes, ways of explaining natural phenomena that aren’t science-based, etc.) and caused me to come up with possibly the dumbest idea for a Ben 10 OC yet: an alien bard who travels across the galaxy not just to perform but also to collect stories and ballads of great events and heroes from different planets to add to their collection and form new ballads based off of them.

One of their original stories tells the tale of an alien from a far-off planet who attempted to take control of the space-time continuum and was cursed by the gods of his planet for his hubris by being scattered across time and space and sent back to the beginning of the universe, forced to live through its entire history in an endless cycle all while never being able to experience the sweet release of death, only for him to learn how to bend time and space to his will and ascend to godhood himself, leading to an epic battle between him and the gods who had cursed him in the first place. Though they are required by the man who served as the inspiration behind the story to put a disclaimer at the beginning that the story is merely a dramatization and doesn't 100% line up with what actually happened before they can tell it.

Oh totally! With the advent of space travel, especially among the species that have had such for a LONG while, there would most certainly be folktales and mythology abound for newer space travelers to pick up. Like, even with a significant scientific understanding of the happenings of the universe, older facts translate into newer fiction as stories develop by word of mouth (or the equivalent depending on species physiology) by the more bardic types of intergalactic individuals.

Of course, you'd probably have the more librarian types who not only record all these tales but also all the fact that it was inspired by through vigorous fact checking. Me making Sugilite a mutant with a more unique planetary psychometry (accessing the 'memories' of the entire planet) lends to me also making him this librarian of Petropian history, and considering the state of Petropia (aka not revived) he can't particularly afford to spin a few myths of his own. Instead Sugilite would totally have some bardic stories ABOUT him and his 'Library of Alexandria' mutant power, especially with Mor'Otesi being as barren of cystalsapiens as it is.

#ask #anoymous #technically this wasn't about him but i brought it up #sugilite #sugilite ben 10 #ben 10 #even tho galapagus said that his folks sung songs about ben 10's accomplishments i think he's lying #schmooze up to the guy that's CLEARLY important in order to get ben to actually help him and the others #but it's not entirely out of the picture lmao #the entire reason why rook was so excited to meet ben was because of the extranet #heck- ben rook listens to that tokusatsu about ben 10 (if i got that right)#i mean deefus veeblepister is like the most blatant example of 'turning heroes into myth'#even if he was just the main actor of a ben 10 tokusatsu that simian ran #it makes complete sense if there were intergalactic myths that started out as stories based on true events #though it's not quite the same i'm aware that a lot of chinese myths used real people #like the ever famous journey to the west; inspired by the monk Xuanzang's pilgrimage to india #considering that tortugans are advanced enough in space tech to have family species on at least 2 different planets #(that being the pelarotas and the VULPINIC tortugans)#some of the intergalactic myths are modified stories of tortugan historical events #probably to the point that depending on what myth you hear it actually might be tortugan-centric #as opposed to the fault we fall into as human-centric #you might be able to tell when the myth talks about how life on other planets are described tortugan-esque #ben having run into many people try and rip off his story for commercial gain doesn't like it when his story is mythologised #so bards would probably go out of their way to add way too many of their own details so that it doesn't sound the same #which has a problem of being THEIR species-centric take on the hero #it's really fun to imagine

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whatudottu · 2 years

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Going back to my offline roots of designing Ben 10 aliens, I’ve come back to the Vulpinic Tortugans with a burning vengeance-!

Okay maybe ‘vengeance’ is the wrong word- but have an alien design ANYWAY! I wanted to take some elements from Arubian Pelarota AND Vulpimancers because of both the Tortugan family and convergent evolution.

wanted to roll the lad up to see if it works and i think it does, or at least it looks nice- colour-coded limbs and just a little bit of inspiration from Biblaridion’s Alien Biosphere series

#vulpinic tortugan #ben 10 #fanart #character design #alien design #since it’s not TECHNICALLY a fan alien- the lads are already somewhat in the series- just unseen #fun fact: this is the third time i’ve drawn a design for vulpinic tortugans #also fuck- i mispelled vulpinic in the drawing #i think it’s just because i default to saying vulpewnic and have not paid attention to how it’s written #i literally spelt it correctly when typing it- what happened on paper???#anywho- this ain’t my first rodeo with the vts #but those drawing are from the dark ages of me hating uninteresting humanoid alien designs so they’re both full of pettiness #and underdeveloped art skills

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whatudottu · 3 years

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Alright so, today I learnt that Arburian Pelarotas have fur (it’s all the white, though it’s short), so aside from that cursed bit of information, I wanna talk about them, their survival and also in part Vulpinic Tortugans.

So, first off all, let’s acknowledge the obvious. Arburia has been destroyed by The Great One, which would’ve killed anything living on its surface, but unlike humans, surely the Pelarota are aware of interplanetary shenanigans, right? Official word is, the universe is huge and there must be some Arburian Pelarota around still, especially enough that even the worshippers aren’t all that shocked to still see one.

Taking an idea from @omnipedia inspired by one of their recent asks, I believe that, when people realised that the big tick was virtually impossible to defeat (despite the fact that Cannonbolt did just that), they had issued a planetary evacuation. Where did they evac to? Their colonies of course!

But wait, colonies? Let me explain.

In doing at least a little bit of research so I don’t pull an Omniverse and retcon anything, it seems as though Arburian Pelarota’s have been referenced as being Tortugans, demonstrated in a very interesting pop-up panel in Game Over. Now you’ve probably already noted that Vulpinic Tortugans share the common name, and and I’m sure you’re aware, these species are related.

What I’m getting at here is, if there is already a distinction made between Vulpinic and Arburian Tortugans, why not have other strains of family on other colonies? Sure, perhaps each of the species themselves has a different secondary name (a new evolutionary generation you might say), but given the information we have been given, I believe the common ancestor of these colonies were Tortugans.

Moreover, the wiki (at the very least) says that these Vulpinic Tortugans are more ‘primative’ than their Arburian, and assumably other colony, relatives. I wonder, does this actually mean primative, or does this specifically mean that their lives aren’t as pristine and civilised as the colonies, not because they aren’t intelligent, but because Vulpin itself is destructive to rules and it’s people need to adapt and change faster than a city ever could.

Alrighty, let’s walk through what happened.

Tortugans, one of the earliest species to engage in not only space travel, but even space colonisation in the known universe (ironically, the reboot supports this with the state of modern Arburian education), engage on an expedition to expand their territories. Whether it’s out of need for materials, desire for more land under their grasp or out of spite and competition (almost the least likely, but who knows what evolutionary behaviours are lost or gained from generation to generation), they spread out across their solar system.

Colonies with planets of similar biospheres as Arburia (or their original planet, if it weren’t Arburia) would’ve had the most success in adapting to the environment and have settled firmly on their respective planet. However, within this same solar system, Vulpin orbits, and the colonists sent to it had it hard. Maybe they had a mentality that prevented them from turning back, maybe something something colony ship crashed or just generally had no materials to safely maintain, but regardless, they remained Vulpin bound and colony unsuccessful.

Overtime perhaps the Tortugans had perhaps attempted to make friendly with the ancestors of the Vulpimancers. Maybe some had tried and failed to domesticate these ancestors because they too fell under the belief that they were merely animals rather than their own sapient beings with their own culture. Maybe some had succeeded, working to benefit the ancestors so that they may help the stranded Tortugans. With two sapient beings working together, the troubles of the wild lessen and the rewards of cooperation become mutually beneficial.

Remember what seemed to be an off comment about Pelarota fur? Yeah, apparently that’s sensory fur and with that, they can see without eyes. Do you know who else sees without eyes? That’s right, Vulpimancers, baby! Despite the implications that Tortugans are... well, turtles, it doesn’t mean that they are reptiles (it could just very well reference their shells). And that pop-up trivia? Yeah, it described that Tortugans were made to spin, as their shells secrete a chemical that reduces friction.

This means that Vulpinic Tortugans would probably not loose the ability to roll and may perhaps increase the effectiveness of their sensory fur. Who knows, maybe convergent evolution occurs and this sect of Torgans may develop specialised sensory organs as a result of their exposure to the Vulpin environment.

Primitive in this perspective may mean that, while reverting back to more animalistic and wild behaviours, the lost colonists of Vulpin have not lost their intelligence. Whether or not they lose the ability of sight due to the pitch black of Vulpin as new sensory organs increase effectiveness or consists of more rods than cones for nocturnal viewing, the planet of Vulpin was exposed to the concept of written language, the knowledge of the universe and the interplanetary voice that Vulpimancer and earlier generations never much cared for. Of course, the Vulpinic Tortugans were the primary users of the written language, but it’s typically etched or even akin to braille so that the blind Vulpimancers can actually read it, if they so choose to.

It had only been fairly recently that Vulpin has become an interplanetary dumping ground, you know, in the scale of the universe and general planetary lifespan and everything, but while the Vulpimancers are forced to change everything that their ancestors had to be evolved to do, the Vulpinic Tortugans attempt to the best of their efforts to reverse the irreversible. The remnants of their ancestors, the broken colony ship and the failed attempts at civilisation, lay amongst the dump, but knowledge can be found to those who are determined enough to uncover it. Vulpin may never be the world that it once was, but with the help of the long since evolved Tortugans, maybe a better, different future can be made.

When did this become a fanfiction? I don’t know but that last sentence had probably had its effect lessened by this comment so, woop. Anyway, I have quite a few thoughts about Vulpimancers, Vulpin and how they both are viewed in not-so-thinly-veiled racism... speciesism? At the very least xenophobia, but you get me. They’re in the Omnitrix for a reason.

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whatudottu · 3 years

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Just waking up and I have more thoughts about Vulpinic Tortugans (and maybe more about Vulpimancers and Vulpin as a whole I’ll decide in the car).

Alrighty, let’s determine their basic appearance. First of all, how long did it take for the ancient Tortugan colonists to evolve into the Vulpinic Tortugans? Assumably, given the name that they share, that it may only be one generation. In that case, it would be assumed that they have not deviated too far from the Tortugans’ body plan. Given this is most likely the case, we can assume that they still have a similar appearance to Arburian Pelarotas.

However, though their body types may remain similar, it does not mean that they are the same. Pelarota have adapted to live in a largely peaceful and (based on a few reboot info drops) scholarly lifestyle, and therefore may be built to have a relatively relaxed form of movement, i.e. rolling into a ball and travelling in style, whilst calmly preambling when on their own two feet. The environment of Vulpin however may be detrimental to this form of travel.

This could very well mean that Vulpinic Tortugans legs are more suitable for running and may overall have a better body for balancing, rather than the overtly top heavy build of their Arburian cousins. However, since this would only be a generation away from the Tortugans, this does not mean they stop rolling. Sure, I’m far from an expert on both evolution AND effective shapes for speed and momentum, but what this could mean for the Tortugans, with less body mass, could mean a more wheel-like shape they roll into.

So currently we have thinner Pelarotas, presumably with a little more leg and a little less shoulders, but what if we made them a little more different. By comparing names, though this is far from being solid evidence, we can make the presumption that Arburian Pelarotas look a bit more different to Tortugans than their Vulpinic cousins, which will be the basis of my next proposition (dang, whipping out the big words for this one).

So what I’m saying here is, what if the original Tortugans had a distinct head? Maybe, like turtles, it had adapted to retract (in tandem with their ability to roll) and, while the Arburian Pelarotas had evolved to have it as a face on their chest, Vulpinic Tortugans have grown it out into a neck. Why have they done this? Well, being only one generation away from these ancestors, they needed some way to compensate for their lack of sensory specialisation to adapt to the pitch-blackness of Vulpin.

While Pelarotas spent their days in a ball, our Vulpinic friends needed more ways to perceive the world around them. So aside from growing more of their sensory fur, perhaps bundled in scruffs for better manoeuvrability rather than a heavy shag, and nocturnal adapted eyes, perhaps the Vulpinic Tortugans were pushed into evolving a neck that their ancestor nor their safer cousins needed to adapt.

With these changes, now we have thin, bearded and especially necked Pelarotas, if one can make that comparison at all. And though I don’t have much more thoughts on their physical appearance, I do have an idea on how they can once again compensate, now for the decreased level of armour that these Vulpinic Tortugans now possess. Last time that I talked about these aliens, I mentioned something something chemistry secretion that allowed the Arburian Pelarotas to... ROTA-te in their balls, but...

What if that chemical happens to be venomous?

Predatory species, of which I don’t doubt also hunger for Vulpimancers, stumble across this sweet new treat. In the past, these predators most definitely snacked on the delicious new visitors, so surely these little critters would be worth the bite. However, their prey has spotted them, and makes the moves to flee.

The Vulpinic Tortugans, instead of just evolving a toxic chemical that coats them like a poison, may have developed ridged shells. These ridges are strong and durable enough to dig into the... earth? vulpin? dirt of the planet to increase stability and the occasional powered roll, but are also sharp enough to pierce the skin of such predators after a tasty bite. Anyone too slow to escape the relentless pursuit of these hungry hungry animals still have a chance to ward off their hunter and live to ‘see’ another day.

Given how Vulpin is lethal in of itself, simple stinging or burning may not be enough to deter the determinded, so Vulpinic Tortugans may induce paralysis which shall give them enough time to flee.

Seeing how I’ve barely mentioned Vulpimancers and Vulpin, I might not talk about them in this post. However if I talk about our pitch-black planet again, I’ll surely talk more about them. I have just expended my thoughts for the day.

#vulpinic tortugan #xenobiology #xeno #ben 10 #headcanon #ramblings #this may or may not have been sparked from a dream #or the very delirious thoughts of a pre-sleep mind #and before you ask what timezone i’m in #doesn’t matter #i have a horrid sleep cycle #and i wake up whenever my body tells me to #i wanted to say something else but i forgot #mustn’t have been important

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whatudottu · 3 years

Text

Heyo, I’m here to talk about Vulpimancers and Vulpin now, as promised in my last non-reblog post.

So, we’ve already gone into the speculative history of an already rather niche species the Vulpinic Tortugans, but I wanna go over how Vulpimancers adapted to the pitch black.

Already, based on the modern day Vulpimancer, their ancestors probably didn’t have much need for their eyesight, seeming as though they were very much more reliant on their senses and hearing. Why they might not have adapted to have nocturnal based eyes may be due to them not already being nocturnal or, as the wiki says, the planet is completely pitch-black that even if they tried, they wouldn’t have enough light to reflect into their ancient retina.

Therefore, here we have super sensors (definitely a scientific term yes 100%) with dominant scent and sound receptors. But why do Vulpimancers lack defined noses, why do their ears resemble gills. What if somehow these two senses combined?

You know how, if you close your nose and blow your ears burst, and how they’re connected? I have no idea how much of a stretch this is scientifically, but wouldn’t it be neat if that actually happened? Heck, even when sick (at least with the human common cold) their gills seem to gum up and prevent them from sensing anything.

Now how would this work? Well, I don’t know a whole lot about how smelling nor hearing works, but I know at least that smelling accompanies airways and that hearing involves (often times) hair, whether it be hairlike or sensory hair (oh looky, it’s the Vulpinic Tortugans again). And guess what gills are for? That’s right babes! Breathing!

With that said, that does not mean that Vulpimancers spontaneously evolved gills that happened to run down the sides of their neck without ancestral history with something similar. Perhaps Vulpin was always just that little extra deadly before all the garbage being dumped onto it, or maybe it’s got a thicker atmosphere that’s very easy to cloud up with pollution. Thinking that way, maybe the ancestors had already adapted gill-based breathing, but may not have had the same level of sensory receptors that the Vulpimancers had grown to evolve into.

Uh... how do I make a transition. This is how, balantly moving from one topic to the other. I talked a bit about how the Vulpinic Tortugans opened Vulpin to written language and interplanetary interaction. Now, most Vulpimancers couldn’t care less, preferring their lifestyles that their ancestors were used to, even if they have a few more struggles that might not provide an environment with any time to relax, but... a few Vulpimancers may have that curiosity.

Coevolving, the Vulpinic Tortugans and Vulpimancers may understand each other’s spoken language, even Vulpimancers’ have a more suggestive and ‘open to interpretation’ dialect. Wild, if you will. But translating that in a more... structured language would be incredibly difficult because it has to account for inflection. Heck, even speaking it may be difficult because certain noises are exclusive to the Vulpimancer. Vulpinic Tortugans get by with a wilder form of their ancient Tortugan language.

But here’s the thing, Vulpimancers physically can’t form traditional spoken language, having the wrong mouth shape to make the right noises. So, it’s just a two way issue that is barely solved vocally. Vulpimancers may be able to tell what you’re talking about based on your present mood, but then that just leaves them in the dust with nuance. Not a... mega issue (still an issue, but one that’s relatively typical, being a language barrier), this can be ‘solved’ by learning to listen to the language.

Still though, inter-species communication is practically impossible. Practically. See, what if Vulpimancers had sign language?

Sure, they can’t see anything... if it’s printed. You get to see how Vulpimancers ‘sees’, and it’s probably a very sensitive to movement. So, they can probably very visibly see someone talking with their hands. Tortugans may have brought sign language, in some sense, to Vulpin that may have evolved into a complete dialect. Who knows, it may even vaguely resemble the sign language of my previously headcanoned idea of Tortugan colonies (which includes Arburian Pelarotas, even if their language, verbal and sign, may be suffering due to their lower numbers).

The catch? Vulpimancers would have to rely on people knowing sign language, and not only that, but VSL (take a wild guess at what it stands for haha) specifically. The Tortugan colonies have an inherent advantage at learning, it’s a modified version of their own, but... well, even if it’s an accessible language, not many people are taught it. Maybe the colonies are a little more educated on sign language, and I think that Arburia was one of the leading colonies on accessible language (and we all know what happened there) but other planets and systems are just... eh...

Too heavy? I don’t know... maybe I’ve run my mouth (or is it fingers) too long and have let some things slip, but I am partial to Vulpimancers and how they face prejudice... okay maybe that’s way too much and I should stop for a bit and let you breathe.

Would this count as xenophobia?

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