This rule is simple enough. Don't be a jerk. Treat everyone with respect and kindness. No one is above this rule.
2. Don't excessively "shitpost"
Sometimes a brief post is all that's needed to make a point, or a garbage post can be hilarious depending on the context. But it's pretty clear when it's intentional and when you're just not trying. Making one-word posts that contribute nothing to the thread simply create clutter, and make people unhappy. Don't do it, yo.
3. Keep it SFW
Yes, I know some of you like that kind of stuff, but these forums must be kept reasonably SFW (Safe For Work) - if you think you might get in big trouble looking at something at work, don't post it. This includes:
-Porn
-Excessively suggestive artwork
-Incredibly inappropriate phrasing
Basically, don't be too lewd. Okay? Okay.
4. Images.
When posting images, please don't post absolutely gigantic images/gifs. If you quote an image, cut it out of the post. This just keeps the pages from getting overly long.
Punishments And Penalties
These will be given on a case to case basis depending on the offense caused. Having a set-in-stone "you do this you get x punishment" is easily exploitable.
Hello! You're looking at this, so that must mean you want to become a staff member here. First of all, you need this form:
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Being forum staff is an intensive job, and not something to be taken lightly. Only apply if you truly think you will be able to help.
Greetings! I, as you may or may not know, may not understand, may disbelieve for the horror it shall invoke upon your very soul, am Shaadaris.
I do things! Sometimes. Often. I decided to post things that I do! Hooray. *Throws arms up and waves them side to side with a bored expression.*
So yeah, some of what I post here is probably stuff I've made for the NonSemiserious RP here on these very forums, but I've branched out somewhat.
I am by no means an artist. Anything here that bears a passing resemblance to art is actually not. Much like how life is actually a cat at sea, set out to sail to the edge of the earth in search of the land of the dead... Wait, what?
Um... Here, have the (un)promised things:
Magipunk Banner
I originally started this to see if I could make a version of the logo of a Minecraft server I used to play on.
Eventually I gave up and never completed it, but hey, I'm posting it anyway!
Welcome Back Gif
This was actually made by Intrebute. I added the "Back" and various references to ancient shennanigans from the first few threads on the Starbound Forums.
NOTE: Seriously, if someone wants to make a proper, up to date one, DO SO!
Tariun's Ship
This is a ship I built in Starbound for my character Tariun, who, unfortunately, no longer exists due to shennangians with a Spacetime Gap and the universe ceasing to exist and then un-ceasing to exist.
Agglophtha
An original creature design. I had a far better drawing by hand, and this was done with a mouse in about 5 minutes.
Yeah, it's total crap. GAZE AT IT IN AWE! LET IT BURN INTO YOUR RETINAS!
Yvori Minecraft Skin
Yvori, one of my kind-of-old Original Characters, recreated lovingly in Minecraft.
This is the best skin-work I've ever done, and I haven't been able to replicate the quality since.
Minecraft: The Hall of the Order
Made in one iteration of the Magipunk server (mentioned above) I tried my hand at some architecture with the various mods we have. I made this meeting room far underground, and I'm very pleased with the result! Unfortunately, the server is long since dead, so I don't have a copy to fiddle with anymore.
Magipunk Server Icon: Take Two
After looking back at the first icon I made, I facedesked and decided to try again.
Not a huge improvment, but an improvment nonetheless.
Work In Progress Welcome Gif
I was basically just messing around when I made this. I don't think I ever intended to complete it or get a better font.
(HINT HINT SOMEONE MAKE A WELCOME BACK TO THE NEXUS GIF!!)
Happy Valiween! (WARNING: HIGH CONTRAST FLASHING COLORS!)
A gif I made for halloween, featuring a derpy 'vali image from the old 169 gif (not made by me)!
Brick Plz
I basically added text to an image once again made by another person (I don't quite recall who)
This one was for use when Lokion, everyone's favorite brick, did something plz-worthy.
Unfortunately, when Lokion was still around, he didn't do anything that warranted this beautiful edit.
Shopkeep
The RP-related gifs! Shopkeep, everyone's favorite interspacial once-angel storeowner who usually doesn't even bother accepting currency!
We begin with the variations on him I did. I based Shopkeep's design off of Doc Scratch from Homestuck originally, and he was first used by me to reference a recurring gag in Homestuck (the "shop" flashes. I even put the Elevatorstuck theme in the background when writing his posts.)
Normal. Nothing to see here. Upon closer inspection, I went way overboard with the effects on these first few. When I later had to redo his sprite (see below) I toned them down to reasonable levels.
FREAK OUT!
Teleportation! The crowning power of any superpowerful void being!
I intended to keep him away for longer, but I decided to bring him back early because... I'm sure I had a reason.
Shopkeep: Post-16
These are the images I made for him after his return, with the cool flashy scar! I also toned down the shift and lightning effects a lot. I much prefer this version. Oh, and the scar is darn cool. I was inspired by Ganondorf's scar from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Ezνяαεʟ and ƐƖтєяєανєαη
These two were introduced some time later, and became rather plot-relevant.
A demon who sided with angels, an angel who sided with demons, both are now just souls drifting through the void.
*Samhain was a goofy bad-at-villaining villain who ended up turning into a demigod after linking himself to what is a practically infinite power source. He was also retroactively made a poor bloke by the name of Sheinam who was under demonic possession and really quite violently horrible always.
They lost.
Shopkeep: Revealed!
His identity revealed at last!... This brings up more questions.
Gears of Destiny (AKA the Scribes. Everyone calls the Scribes. The person who named them is very bad at naming things.)
Commonly seen in my signiture some time ago, and somewhat plot-relevant! (These are what Samhain linked himself to.)
>U< (U)
The mysterious otherworldly being who "saved" Eltereavean and Ezvrael when their original universe was destroyed by the Angel/Demon war and a few too many superweapons.
Time travel and plot strangeness seem to revolve around her.
Since the universe has been reset, and even before that, she (and all the other timeline versions of her) died, I think it's safe to spoil now that she was an alternate-timeline Sylrein, who, after being helped by the previous U, found herself connected to the Scribes like Samhain and able to influence timelines while having her telepathy enhanced dramatically. Unfortunately, this cost her her body, and the only thing that remained was a great many of her unusual black eyes, though usually only one was seen.
Eldritch power does crazy things to people.
So here's another avatar I used. The Void Cog, but glitchy! I love glitch-art.
Uilohrih was the alternate-timeline Wrybdeac from the same timeline as the main U. (Confused yet?)
She was cut off from the Scribes, which indirectly power all Ateros, and U brought her to a location with a lot of magical energy in hopes that she would absorb enough to survive. Lo and behold, she did, and was up and running again within a couple hundred years, during which time her black cuboid sleep-mode form was turned into an object of worship.
Found by Aefendiem Wytnner, one of the background Samhain Origin sidestory characters, (yes, I used a lot of weird time travel) she joined with the new name Uilohrih (often shortened to Rih) and became a SWORD OF JUSTICE! She was inspired in her new weapon form by Shopkeep's body Ateros' weird space-portal thing (which I retconed into being an Ateros after the Ateros became a thing, and then had to retcon it further into being a prototype to explain why it didn't have a mind and shot off Scribe Energy in static bursts... There's a reason I've referred to myself as God of Retconning.)
I didn't get into her or the other sidestory characters much, unfortunately, as I was becoming too focused on bringing the Samhain arc, which never did get a conclusion, to a conclusion. There were multiple times when I thought about introducing them, but I had enough temporal flippery already.
Unused Samhain Image
Exactly what it says on the tin. Of course, since I can't draw, he remains sillouetted in a sketchy-looking dark energy aura.
One of the possible conclusions I had for the Samhain arc involved the finishing blow to him being dealt by someone wielding Wrybdeac's rarely-seen Bow form, powered up with a spike of Scribe Energy, some Spiritual Energy (the red stuff Samhain converts Scribe Energy into via Sribawhn to avoid ending up like U) and Electricity, which were going to be the holy trinity of energy or something. If anyone remembers the weird code changes that happend to Wryb when she was hit with a strong electric shock, that was set-up for this. Never happened though because I was stressed, had a breakdown, and cut off all ties to the RP until it was restarted.
An avatar I used for a while, which I based off the red-space design of Rih's blade form.
leet val and sella man episod 1/b]
lvasm was my atempt ata sweet bro and hella jeff ripofff,
i had teh scrips for tree episodes redy but NOEP NO WAY THIS WAs way tOO STIUPID!1
Zerkal Mlakit, Trollian ID: extramundaneAnnihilator, blood color: Olive, psychic abilities: Astral Projection
He THiNKS He iS CooL aND aRTSY BuT He ReaLLY iSN'T;
Astral Projection in use:
And coat/glassesless, when he finally gives up his "artsy" facade:
I tried to make a sketch of him. Unfortunately, I have to use a mouse to draw, and forgot to make the outlines into a seperate layer...
So I decided to just finish it as quick and dirty as possible because screw this I'm not an artist why am I even trying?
Our own Reks saw my sprite when I made it, and decided to do a quick sketch of Zerkal:
Apparently ears were left out in the name of efficiency or forgetfulness, but hey, dat mullet is my hopes and dreams.
So after some time I went back and redid his sprites.
His coat is worse for wear after I gave it some backstory significance:
I changed how his eyes look during Astral Projection because... Well, I didn't like them previously:
It is still visible through his glasses though:
And a young version of him, with coat in better shape:
Briste Poladi, Trollian ID: unbalancedRagnarok, blood color: Violet, psychic abilities: N/A
shE iz sORt ov INsane/!\ but. shes ACTuaLLY surPRIzinglly nice. especiALLy fOR a sEA-dwELLer. BEcauze many of thEM arent.
Kuinin Heixem, Trollian ID: iridescentCalignosity (formerly prismaticTenebrosity – his account was stolen rather unceremoniously), blood color: Burgandy, psychic abilities: Telekinesis
"He's kind of a loenr, and doesn't enjoy the company of others. He has soem serious trust is-ues, and is obses-ed with the oc-ult."
Neither of them were doing too well, and the damage to their souls was beginning to show even more.
Shopkeep was even going to lose his iconic Ateros body, though I never did use that one.
I love the Arkhalis, despite never having been lucky enough to find one.
I wanted to make a hardmode upgrade to it. Feel free to show your support.
Of course, there are like 20 True Arkhalis suggestions now, so mine is buried and dead, but here it is anyway.
Shopkeemotes
Potential submissions for an emote contest if we ever have another.
Once again, I'm no artist, so I hope Shopkeep's charm alone will be enough to win me a spot.
CLICK:TICK
Related to the cog above, this is what my signiture was at the time. Composed of three seperate images, when they synced up I considered it a sign of good... well actually I'm not superstitious, so m'eh. But it was nice when they synced! The click tick was originally supposed to be the sound of turning clockwork. I guess there could be a deeper meaning behind this (and my obsession with clockwork) but I dunno.
I also made a font based off how the letters look in this, which can be found HERE. EDIT: I lied. The font isn't published so you can't access it. If anyone shows interest, I will release it.
Starbound Hotbar Overhaul Suggestion Sprites
I implore you to support this idea. Please. I spent way too long on the sprites.
I go in-depth in the details in my post.
Undertale Gaster Battle Fan Sprites
Yes, I'm in on the Gaster craze. Yes, I made sprites for a fan-battle.
Yes, they're not very good. Yes, I might make said fan battle when an Undertale engine like UNITALE has all the features I want.
IDLE (based off the mysteryman.png which is believed to be Gaster by many)
IDLE 2 / HIT
ANGRY / SERIOUS (meant to mirror Sans' "dark eyes" sprites)
ATTACKING (meant to mirror Sans' "glowy eye" sprites, also based on the changes to mysteryman's sprite when you interact with him)
DEFEATED
SUDDEN LAST-STAND ATTACK!
UPDATE: I'm actually working on THREE sprites for fan-battles right now. This one is outdated, and I probably won't replace it until I have the animated versions done. I in fact won't be posting ANY of them until I deem them ready, to avoid clogging my Imgur account.
Speaking of Undertale, I did a sprite edit of Napstablook for a one-off joke about Ehks being a ghost.
WIP Magic System
I decided to make a magic system that all of my writing works would use. It's taking a while, since there are 13 types of energy to document the uses of, and I keep forgetting to work on it.
the very top (red) clockwise (orange, yellow, etc.):
Pranah (retcon of Spiritual Energy)
Flux
Aether
Qie
Augurine Energy AKA GoD Energy AKA Scribe Energy
Ley
Acascha
Manna
Quintessence
Vii
Oergone Energy
Arkaena
and the center is Khlajm, AKA Primordial Energy
Limbo Wall of Blather Avatar and Signature
Didn't use these very long, though they have to do with my OC Eyrehn Ayotam.
It's supposed to be a visual representation of Eldritch Whispers from Limbo, the very edge of reality.
EBoPIP Crests
Crests meant to represent the Eldritch Beings of Practically Infinite Power, a group of exactly what it says on the tin, except exaggerated on all fronts.
They were named that by the same guy who named the Scribes the "Gears of Destiny" and the edge of reality itself "Limbo".
As stated, he is bad at naming things.
When I made these crests, I had many in mind, though I've decreased the number of them and changed them quite a bit.
Average Schymnil
The Schymnil are a race of shadowy people I started making for Starbound at one point as a test of how modding it works. I barely started the mod.
Anyway, this is an unartistic representation of one. It's hard to tell, but you can make out the outline of its head inside the hood if you up your contrast enough.
Archeon
Remember when I said Eltereavean/Shopkeep was an Angel once, and Ezvrael a Demon?
Well the Archeon were the ones leading the Angels in the war. They were anything but Angels, but the soldiers were oblivious to their possible-malintent, because they were idiots. I mean, this screams "OBVIOUSLY AN ELDRITCH HORROR. RUN."
[/b]
I have also created another Archeon. They come in many shapes and sizes. This one was based more on actual descriptions of angels found in religious texts. They look terrifying... And awesome.
The Derp-Cog
I made this sort of as a jab at my own tendency to use looping gifs of turning cogs as my avatar... I also can use it when feeling like crap, which is often.
The White Cog
I made this avatar to specifically stand out against the dark background of the Nexus. I retired it due to the kind of obvious mysterious movement of the inner cog to the up-right that all my cogs have... Probably something to do with the animation suite I use, or just GIMP being annoying in general.
Esharaa
An original character by yours truly. First off is a small gif of his name I, at the time of posting, have in my signature for no reason in particular.
Now, this took me ages and it still isn't very good, but here's an image of him I drew with a mouse. Tracing was involved for the body, and some other bits, because I can't draw:
A (very, like months and months ago) old version of him, done before he even had a name or backstory. I was going to go with a headless-horseman type thing, and the mask was a later addition (which looks kind of like a Kakuna) that eventually pushed me in the direction I went:
V1 was potentially seizure-inducing so I never even uploaded it. Though for you're viewing displeasure, I have processed and uploaded it. It actually came out being faster than I intended, too, so even more horrible to look at. I suggest not looking at it, or if you do, not for very long:
The No-Man
A piece of lore for a RP I'm in, the No-Man is a demon that goes around making deals with people. Surprisingly, they almost always appear to be fair deals. That doesn't mean they can't end up going horribly wrong.
I'll be using this thread to stick lore and art stuff that isn't present in the official wiki. It's also a place people can ask for clarification on lore elements too or raise points or discuss the existing lore.
While I havn't gone so far as to actually create an entire language, there are some elements we can ascribe to the Avali language system, and some elements of interest.
The Avali language itself used symbols representing discreet phonetics; in this regard it is closer to IPA or Hiragana than it is English. While in principle new latin character represent phonetics, the actual pronunciation of a given combination of letters changes wildly, often without any good reason and words must be learned by rote. By contrast hiragana, IPA and Avali are explicit. A given character has a distinct sound and it's always pronounced that way with few exceptions.
Being sound orientated, the Avali have trouble reading written character. And so their "traditional" form of recorded language takes the form of strings of chimes which correspond to the phonetics of a word, and can be struck to make them resonate. By necessity most Avali words unsurprisingly are short and do not have huge numbers of syllables to make them easier to record. Avali can read back these "chime" recordings quite quickly and efficiently thanks to their ability to break down sounds into their individual sources.
The Avali also possess a written form of the language which shares some visual similarities to Tamriel Draconic, since it was traditionally written the same way, by etching into an ice tablet with a claw, with each character representing the same phonetics as the chimes. Due to their poor eyesight they find it difficult to read and write in the written form quickly, but it nonetheless provided a useful way of recording large volumes of information that was less fragile and mroe practical in some circumstances than the chime recording method.
Modern, digital data recording uses a combination of both models. With labels typically being written in high visibility characters, while OCR-type systems can convert written text into chime sequences, or text-to-speech conversion. Allowing data to be both recorded and replayed quickly and efficiently.
The concept of an advanced, space-faring applying a nomadic, hunter-gatherer strategy seems difficult to resolve. Many people seem to envision them as basically tribals with glowing gadgets which bothers me.
What this actually means in practical terms is Avali tribal units with their specialised functions can roam from planet to planet tapping natural resources with maximum efficiency. When extracting resources on a permanent colony the easy to reach resources rapidly run out and more aggressive extraction processes are needed. While natural wealth can become quickly depleted and more structured farming methods become nessecary. Most of these issues can be avoided by a smaller, highly mobile nomadic group who can move on to greener pastures once they have taken the lowest hanging fruit.
A tribe may have a small fleet of civilian ships equipped with appropriate sensor and drone arrays to study worlds for optimum location.
For example a tribe that specialises in resource extraction maybe sweep worlds with drone swarms to identify terrain features and composition, or asteroid concentrations to locate large, easily extracted quantities of the resource they need. Where they will set up shop and begin the process of extraction, deploying temporary structures if appropriate and move on once extraction becomes less economical.
Hunter tribes use their drones to monitor the local wildlife populations and look for the growth/death cycles; in ecology populations go through periods of growth and then death - herbivores will breed and breed until there is no longer the food to sustain them, causing the population to die back. As herbivore populations grow, predator populations grow with them and they too will die back as their prey dies off.
The Avali in this monitor the cycles of the animals in their biome - predator, herbivore, pretty much everything edible. Once the population reaches the tipping point that mass die-off is inevitable, a hunt will be called with strict quotas in place, and the hunters will "cream off" the surplus population, converting the population surplus into food (and sport). Without the hunter's intervention the animals would've died anyway, and since the hunters are monitorring a very wide range of different species there is invariably at least one species that is available to hunt at any given time ensuring a constant supply of produce without the need for specialised farmland, and being entirely "green" in regards to ecological stability.
There are other renewable resources that can be tapped, in useful quantities while travelling, that would otherwise be useless if you were to try tapping them in-situ, for example anti matter trapped in the Van Allen belts of planets could be collected for fuel. These anti matter stocks replenish over decades, and exist in too small quantities to be useful to permanent colonists, but a nomad fleet could tap the anti matter from every system they pass through, yielding more useful quantities.
Avali all have crest feathers on their head which can grow to considerable length (easily long enough to reach from head to base of their tail) crests can be far more varied in style and variety than human hair, this is thanks to both the relative rigidity of feathers, but also thanks to the multiple stages of growth which feathers exhibit. Understanding how different styles can be achieved means understanding how a feather develops. Some Avali may opt to keep their crest short or remove it entirely but, they're rather the minority, especialy among males who naturally have more striking plumage.
All feathers start out as "pin" feathers, aka blood feathers. These start out as small nubs that quickly grow out into long 'spines' almost like a hedgehor or porcupine; these spines have a good blood supply, and if the feather is snapped it'll bleed profusely (While inconvenient and messy this isn't life threatening. The offending pin can be pulled out at the root and it will cease bleeding shortly thereafter).
As the pin continues to develop the microscopic barbules that will later become the bulk of the feather begins to grow, however during this stage it is still tightly coiled around the pin, and held in place by a fine membrane. Eventually this membrane breaks down, allowing the barbs of the feather to unfurl into a full, classical feather shape; around this time the blood supply to the feather is cut off, and the feather becomes a "dead" structure not unlike human outer skin layer and hair.
The Avali have a number of tricks to exploit this growth process. Laquers can be applied to part or all of a pin feather, to prevent the barbules unfurling. Feathers treated in this way become permanent "spikes" (in appearance only, they're quite soft), only laquering part of the pin, for example leaving the tips to unfurl, creates spikes with fluffy tips.
Fully grown feathers can be cut with scissors to square off or shape the ends of "dry" feathers if desired, adjusting the total length of the feather, or squaring off the crest. Various anti-coagulant agents can be applied to pin feathers to prevent the blood flow being cut off sooner, enabling the pin to grow even longer and the resulting feather fuller than it might naturally do so.
Heat applied to the shaft of a feather cause it to contract and bend permanently, allowing feathers to be "permed" into shape, while bindings (frequently decorative) are often wrapped around the base of feathers to lift or direct them, or sometimes to affix additional feathers to their crest. It goes without saying that feathers can't be braided, but a sort've ponytail can be achieved by binding multiple feathers together at a mid-point so they fan out after the binding.
While it's technically possibly to modify wing feathers in the same way, this is rarely performed as it'd impede the individuals ability to fly.
Feathers are not permanent structures, and typically fall out after a few months and new feathers take a few weeks to mature. So even plucked clean, an Avali will eventually regain their plumage; though this will look quite hilarious due to them being covered in spikey pin feathers; and quite an unpleasantly itchy experience.
Over the months I've noticed a few trends, quirks or misudnerstandings in the art, storytelling and stuff - which while not a big deal (People can RP or draw whatever they damn well please :p), might benefit from some clarification due to misunderstandings, crap source art on my part, or lack of solid explanation.
Feathery arms
This is partially my fault due to a lack of research/clear vision and poor art skills early on in the Avali creation process. The avali don't have "arms with feathers on", rather they have actual, functional wings with opposable digits at the "hand" joint. The feathers on the back of the arm go all the way up the length of the arm, and merge with the feathers at the shoulder blade, while the feathers at the hand can be fully extended, flexed, or even folded up.
Tails
Starbound uses square sprites, and given the limited space I had to raise the tail angle to get it to fit into the limited space. The effect is quite nice and I do quite like how they look raising the tail at a high counterbalance angle, as it enables them to stand more upright. That said, they can LOWER their tail, it's not stuck up there. The tail both a counterbalance to keep them from wobbling over, and also an emotive telltale.
There is also a strong degree of natural variation between tails, some only have a tiny plume, others the plume is large and starts low on the tail. Some plumes are broad, others quite narrow. Some may even be styled in various ways.
Nudity
While it's true the Avali have no meaningful nudity taboo (especially between pack siblings), that doesn't mean they make a habit of walking about naked - if only for practical reasons, walking about naked if a good way to get your feathers messed up, damp if it rains, and you have nowhere to store stuff. Not to mention the age old self concioussness. They might not be embarrased by nudity, but not all Avali like their self image, and aim to augment it with decorative articles of clothing.
Tribes could be best thought as mobile industrial units. Collections of specialist workers and the relevant support staff from specialists, techs and drone operators, down to simple cooks, entertainers and cleaners. (These roles are typically occupied by packs, with several members all having overlapping and related fields of experience. So a single pack might over-see the public cooking, entertaining and social needs for an entire tribe).
Each tribe usually has a specialization in various industries - mining, agriculture, manufacturing etc. and so tends to attract new packs with relevant specialties into the fold. Tribes are then assigned orders, to obtain quotas of specific materials by a certain date and advised where and how they might best fulfill that order, and allocated the resources they need to achieve that.
Tribes therefore typically have large, specialized ships and orbital platforms that can help carry out their work in-situ, or modular constructions that can be rapidly deployed at the new site.
Colonies typically form when two or more tribes find themselves working in the same region for extended periods, and it becomes practical to establish shared infrastructure. Some of these colonies may be temporary affairs, but others may be established long enough that it becomes convenient to station other tribes there too for extended periods; for example, a mining/refining group has a manufacturing group set up shop in the same system so resources can be moved easily to the manufactury. In turn an agricultural tribe sets up to produce the food needed by the other two tribes on their doorstep to minimise logistics.
This is especially true for minor tribes who lack large space-faring ships and are reliant on planetside modular facilities. Where having physical proximity to counterparts reduces the reliance on interstellar logistics slots.
To me and my fellow astrobiologists. The most striking feature of all known intelligent alien races we have encountered, is how similar their biology is.
All are hydroxic-acid based, adapted for a nitrogen/oxygen atmospheres and can even digest the same foods. They are tolerant to a similar range of temperatures, and cursory analysis even suggests a shared DNA template.
This shared DNA occurs at a top-down level, with the sapient species sharing more in common with each other, than their lowest tiers of native fauna. Many of us feel this provides robust evidence of delibrate modification of native life by an unseen 'progenitor' race.
Analysis of samples left over from the conflict with the malefactors on Avalon hundreds of years ago shows DNA consistant with this humanoid template, in addition to matching the description of Humans perfectly.
However, some controversy remains, as their shared DNA template makes it nearly impossible to verify that the attackers were in fact humans, or simply a very similar humanoid from the same template.
<This single-purpose holographic pamphlet appears to have been surreptiously slipped between a couple of data chits>
Ask yourself, what is a predator, and why are the most developed creatures invariably predators too?
A predator, my fellow hunters, understands that the most effective way to obtain the resources to thrive is to take it from the slow witted herbivores, consuming the flesh, full of nutrients that the herbivore has slaved away to create.
Aliens once came to our world, tried to make us their chattel, providing resources for them to consume at our expense. We tore their technology from their cold, dead hands and used it to become their greater in a fashion analogous to predation.
So why is it that now, faced by the galactic community, we have chosen to leash ourselves, to tow the line labouring away for the benefit of all, like a mindless herbivore?
Is it not our destiny to become the apex life form of the galaxy; the other races merely our prey, there to serve as sustenance, providing both technologically and materially to our advancement?
Embrace what it is that has made our species great, our position at the apex of all things.
<This single-purpose holographic pamphlet appears to have been surreptiously slipped between a couple of data chits>
The development of intelligence and society requires plentiful resources. Without plenty society has little time to spare for the arts or philosophy. This simple equation is why it was almost inevitable that a predatory species would be the one to reach sapience.
However, we have grown beyond these simple needs, our technology can provide all the resources we need to thrive, without the need to kill and consume living animals.
Why then, do we persist in doing so?
Some cite tradition, others that is it the natural order of things. But is it not the nature of life to move forward, if life was meant to do things the same way, forever life would never have moved beyond amoeba.
While if we held true to tradition, we would still be walking the deserts, trading baubles and huddled in furs on the edge of the tundras.
Embrace what it is that has made our species great, our ability to change and improve ourselves.
Eiki thrust out her wings, feeling the air take form beneath them, the spiralled filaments of snow grasses disintegrating beneath her footfalls. Closing her eyes it almost felt like she she were flying, walking on clouds.
"If you keep this up you're going to need a nap before we get there.", Eiki flared out her wings a little, braking her sprint until she was level with her packmate. "What's the point in being out here if you arn't going to experience it Rhani. Try it, it's what it's like to feel alive!".
"How can running through a field feel alive, compared to fighting a sky behemoth in a lightning storm?", she drops behind Rhaani and playfully raises his arms. "Easy, you've never done that outside of a Nexus sim, but you can do this right here and now". She pushes him forward with her.
In their wake a figure watches the display as the pair pull away, leaving them standing in the powder, hands on hips in disapproval.
...
"Really now, in the snow?". An ear pops up from the pile of feathers and cloth, scanning around for the source of the voice. "You could at least found the time to put down a blanket", Eiki clambers over the prone form of Rhani and blinks at the cloaked figure.
"I was tired~" she protests weakly, "And who's fault is that?", she looks around for a moment. "Rhani's?", an ear and a clawed finger pop up in protest, "Not guilty". Eiki swats the traitorous ear back down and gives her best nasal whine. "Awww, why have you always got to be such a pick in the ice Khimara".
Her protests are answered with a rollmat on the nose. "Just get some proper rest, I'll keep watch... as usual.", a muffled "Fmanks khimurh" emerges from the rollmat, now worn by Eiki like a hat.
Khimara shakes her head at the scene, pulling her cloak tight over her amused grin. "Dummy..."
The Avalon Medical Safety Advisory would like to remind visitors that while the use of medical nanotechnology is not recommended, exposure to nanites will not result in spontaneous "Avalification" as recently reported in a number of off-world tabloid magazines.
Investigation of reported incidents found the 'converted' individuals to be nothing more than juvenile pranksters seeking to confuse or alarm visitors.
Medical nanite manufacturers would like to remind visiting aliens that improper use of nanotechnology will lead to death or serious injury. Aliens visiting Avali facilities for the purpose of seeking 'transformative' treatment are advised to seek professional psychological help immediatly.
As far back as recorded history goes, our ancestors as well as contemporaries like myself, have sought new and interesting ways to get inebriated, from simple and pleasant fermented spiced piru, to psychoactive agents that are today outlawed due to their destructive effect on the brain.
It's been known to scholars for a long time however that it doesn't end there. Other, non-avaloid species on our homeworld also engage in such behaviour, eating rotten, fermenting fruiting bodies, or chewing psychoactive plants.
What has come as a surprise however is that as we have explored new worlds and encountered new life, invariably, without fail those forms of life have analogous behaviours. For example the humans become inebriated after ingesting ethanol amongst many other compounds.
And, like humans, many other lifeforms on their homeworld also engaged in consumption of rotten plant-matter seeking the same compounds. As we explore deeper we even find completely untouched and alien biologies where, lo and behold, the local wildlife is inebriated on the local fauna!
It would almost appear that the biological imperative of all life, is not in fact reproduction as usually surmised; but simply to the drive to get wasted.
This system is not intended for the Avali setting but rather is an idea for a magic-like system, that is fundamentally compatible with harder sci-fi settings, by a) violating as few laws of physics as possible, and b) relying on actual physical properties, rather than amorphous "magical elements"
The single "violation of physics" that this commit to make it work, is to have a way of "suspending" entropy. In physics when energy is used, it is always converted down into a form that is less accessible than before, and this process happens immediatly. Furthermore, conservation of energy says you cannot destroy or create energy, only change it's form.
In this model, we're going to have a "space magic device" that can buffer energy transfers for a finite duration and allows the user to decide where and when that energy is released.
THis means that our space-wizard could create a ball of fire and hurl it at someone, but now his "energy buffer" has a net negative thermal gradient (it's cold). he now has to make up that energy deficit before the buffer collapses, and the way to do that, is to draw thermal energy out of the environment, into the buffer. He could do this harmlessly by siphoning a couple degrees out of the entire room. But if he's smart, he'll now turn this into an ice spell and draw the thermal energy out of say, his enemy, snap freezing them, or perhaps the floor to create a pool of ice. The same works inr eserve, casting ice magic, just as long as he balances the books by casting a fire spell soon after.
The same principle could be applied to electrical charges, moving ionisation and charges from one palce to another to cause lightning to arc off the target (lightning magic).
You might even consider transferring kinetic energy from one target to another; which can get particularly fun; for example jumping off a cliff, and converting the energy of your fall into a shockwave. Or grabbing the kinetic energy from an incoming bullet, and transferring it into your enemy so the bullet stops, and he gets knocked off his feet. You might even consider taking your gravitational potential and applying it back to yourself in the opposite direction (levitation).
Now I mentioned buffer collapse; to keep things challenging, and to stop people doing cheesy stuff like taking the thermal potential of a star and dumping it into someone's face, to have the buffer degrade faster, the bigger the energy gradient in it. And if you don't balance the books before that collapses, the buffer breaks and the books are balanced out of YOU (snap freezing the user, or catapulting him into low orbit, or exploding an impressive shower of lightning bolts)
The upshot of this casting system is the ONLY violation of physics is the ability to buffer energy types, and move the energy from one object to another. Which means that it interacts normally with hard science (an extremely heavy object won't get moved with a little kinetic energy, armour blocks fireballs just like it would actual flames etc.).
A word of caution, this does not allow you to convert energy types; ie. kinetic energy can't be turned into a fireball. cold can't be turned into lightning etc.
Some examples of spells include:
- Fireballs/Ice blasts
- Heating or cooling objects
- Explosions
- Snap-freezing objects to jam them.
- Lightning magic
- Overloading/charging electrical devices
- EMP
- Kinetic shielding
- Fall protection
- Simulated zero-G
- Accelerated movement
- Boost projectile/melee weapon impact strength.
When creating racial rulesets in RP settings for Avali the biggest thing to emphasise is their teamwork and pack-centric nature and their racial rules should reflect this. They're not exceptionally strong, fast, intelligent, wise, charismatic etc. their strength is their ability to co-operate with their pack to be greater than the sum of the parts. Likewise they should have penalties to reflect that too.
For example, in a D20 system, I might suggest something along these lines as a core racial ability:
Avali base stats:
8 STR 10 DEX 10 CON 8 INT 8 WIS 8 CHA
Quote:Synchronicity:
For each pack member in line of sight (including video conferencing), character gains +1 INT, WIS, CHA
For each pack member in hearing range (including audio-only comms), character gains +0.5 INT, WIS, CHA rounded down.
For a typical pack (5 members), having all of them present, in the flesh grants each of them 12 base INT, WIS, CHA as the pack members engage in information co-processing. But a lone Avali by themself has only 8 INT, WIS, CHA, unless they are in contact with their pack remotely in which case it creeps up to 10 INT, WIS, CHA (Same as a human).
It's also important to remember Avali see in a fundamentally different fashion to humans; they are completely hearring-centric. D20 actually has a rule for this kind've sense type called Blindsight but similar rules could be implemented in other RP models. The key feature is that that optical camoflage like cloaking or hiding behind cover is of limited use, and conditions like blindness do not impede their ability to land hits. But conversely abilities like deafness render them helpless
Hi there! I haven't particularly been following the Avali and Starbound for a while, but I figure I'd make an account and poke my head in to see how the race continues to develop. As for me, there isn't that much to say. I'm not a particularly skilled RPer nor writer, but I do greatly enjoy DnD styled games, particularly Pathfinder when not occupied with Uni and the like. Anyways, I look forward to seeing what shenanigans occur on this forum.
Well I am just here to say, hia... But, I will come and chat every once and a while! If you want to message me just Private Message me and I'll get to you as soon as possible. Anyways, see ya later!
So, the ammount of avali 3D fanart is pretty low i noticed... (the ones that i found to exist are cheep cash grabs on SL)
So, I am a 3D modeling/animation major, So i am gonna attempt the 3D fanart of the avali master race, FOR OPEN SOURCE USE!!!! *Dramatic Lighting.* also i need more portfolio pieces to polish my resume, but that's not the point... though it totally is.
Though this is mostly a place holder form until I get something more concrete set up. will keep yall posted!