iamthekaijuking

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Flying Wyverns, Wingdrakes and Kin

Tree ended up being very big, making the image blurry as it condensed it. Here you have a link to the Google Drawings, you should be able to zoom in with the manual zoom tool.

Another Monster Hunter Taxonomy. This time the flying wyverns. This was more challenging than the cephalopods not just because of the higher number of monsters, but Flying Wyverns have no real life counterparts to guess from.

The main challenge here was brought from how inconsistent Flying Wyvern anatomy is. In the end, I think I've managed to somewhat figure it out, and I am happy with the divisions in the tree. This one has notes scattered though the different branches to help explain these divisions, focusing mostly on wing anatomy.

I've decided to interpret Flying Wyverns as ancestrally bipedal, with quadrupedal movement being a trait convergently evolved multiple times independently.

Tobi Kadachi here is placed within "Scansoriowyvernia", representing a sister group to flying wyvern that remained gliders and never evolved flight.

Magnamalo's arm blade has been interpreted as a repurposed wing finger, making it a secondarily flightless Flying Wyvern like Akantor, Ukanlos and the Blos. Its placement next to Barioth is explained by the saber teeth and feline-like facial features.

The 2 wyvern rex designs I've seen online have been interpreted as 2 different species, going by the idea that, in the world of Monster Hunter, Wyvern Rex fossils could actually be those of different tigrex-like species, like how early on in paleontology almost all theropods were under the Megalosaurus genus.

As for the non-pseudowyverns: Arkveld gets its own corner, cause it's an anatomical nightmare. The rest have been placed in 1 of 2 groups: Rhabdophoroptera (Rod-bearing wings), who increased wing structural support by developing a variable number of styliforms (This group includes most Wingdrakes); and Maniptera (Hand wings), who instead increased structural support by integrating more of their free fingers into the wing by extending the membrane between them.

Astalos' insect-like wing nerves have been interpreted as branched and fused versions of the "Wing rods" of Polyradioptera. Its placement next to Harpios being explained by the head ornamentation articulated at the base.

Finally, the cave wyverns, Khezu, Gigginox and the Qurio, have been treated as completely unrelated to the other flying wyverns.

I think most other stuff is self-explanatory given the text on the tree. If there's any other doubts, I am happy to reply in the notes.

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It is now occurring to me that the amount of detail I’m putting into the parave wyvern document is much more than the Polypterygia document and will make it seem lacking in comparison and that’s going to bother me

[iamthekaijuking]

Beneath the earth lies monsters

As I’ve been writing my parave wyvern document I wanted a visual for my biomineralization/worldwide cave network theory. Basically I think that a lot of subterranean monsters have dug out a worldwide cave network over hundreds of millions of years, and it supports its own ecosystems. And that the process has brought a ton of minerals to the surface that other animals use to reinforce their skeletons to achieve larger sizes and use to fuel their elemental abilities.

I had Kamen stick a bunch of monsters I think are regular inhabitants of the underground in a big picture, and it turned out great!

She’s great to work with so I recommend commissioning her (and giving her a tip).

Commission for @iamthekaijuking cause my page has been dry for over a year

Commissions are Open, as they've always been

[iamthekaijuking]

Gender is a concept, I do what I want

[iamthekaijuking]

which version of the velciprey/velocidrome do you prefer? The old version with the wing spike hands, or the rise one where the claws are more like hands and have fingers.

I like the colors of fifth gen velociprey more, but not gonna lie the old stupid mittens with spikes was really iconic and better showed how their hands were folded up wings.

[iamthekaijuking]

I think I mighta come up with a plausible explanation for Erzerion within the headcanon that Frontier monsters tend to have their capabilities wildly exaggerated by those who hunt them (I know that sounds stupid but hear me out)

the deal is that perhaps usually, it’s a sexually dimorphic elder where each sex uses a different element for some reason. I’m not sure what circumstances would lead to that adaptation and I don’t think it’s that important here. But maybe at some point, a lone half-and-half gynandromorphic individual (which is an actual thing but very VERY rare) was spotted and eventually successfully slain and processed, and from there the rumor spread that this was its own species and now the original, fairly tame (by elder dragon standards) creature has been largely forgotten about. I don’t know you kinda have to grasp at straws to come up with any explanation for this design that won’t get you laughed out of the room but it’s *something* I guess

I mean the headcanon of Mezeporta hunters exaggerating things is what we work off of here so don’t worry you don’t sound stupid.

The idea of Eruzerion actually being gynandromorphic individuals is a fascinating idea I hadn’t considered… mostly because when writing about it in the Polypterygia document I just wanted to get its section over with.

[iamthekaijuking]

We’re getting stories 3?!

I still haven’t finished touches on my competitive teams in 2 because it got pushed to the back-burner even though I want to complete them

[iamthekaijuking]

follow up for the previous question, which zenith monsters do you consider old individuals and which ones do you consider mutations?

The old individuals I’d say are zenith blagonga, bombardier Bogabadorumu, rathalos, espinas (who might be a bit mutated), gravios (who I think was heavily wounded earlier in its life), Gasurabazura, Inagami, harudomerugu, Midogaron, and akura vuashimu.

The others I would consider mutations. Some have excessive growth in a certain area such as zenith doragyurosu and anorupatisu, others have perhaps malformed shell growth like zenith hermitaur and taikun zamuza, others have something very wrong with how their body developed but kinda lucked out like zenith giaorugu and rukodiora, and others probably have some sort of weird medical condition like zenith barlagual having something wrong with its tooth growth and zenith tigrex possibly having a skin condition.

[iamthekaijuking]

@orphanbane I honestly think it’s kinda cool if a bit iffy because that implies some really weird anatomical stuff. I do know UHC mentioned that they probably only move through the cooler lava which would make sense as not all lava is created equal. Obviously to be able to swim through lava much less walk on it, monsters are going to have to have crazy heat resistant proteins and super dense bodies to be able to submerge. That submerging thing is important because media gets this wrong a lot and treats lava like really hot water when it’s not, it’s liquid rock, so if you fall onto lava you’re not going to sink it’ll be like hitting squishy concrete. Not to mention monsters will have to seal off all the openings in their bodies and they probably need to hold their breath until they actually leave a body of lava.

I actually didn’t know that about the Japanese crocodiles thing and that’s insane, but while I want to be surprised by that I’m kinda not. If a gator can sleep through being sealed in frozen water then of course crocs can live in boiling water nothing can fucking kill the things.

@dinodennis1016 it’s probably a case by case basis. Some like zenith rath and espinas are probably just old and well nourished individuals. Basically peak form among their kind. Others like zenith plesioth and giaorugu are definitely weird freak mutants.

As for the canonicity of frontier… ehhh. I know I include frontier monsters in my phylogenetic trees, mostly because when classifying animals it’s good to have a very large sample size, and if I just used mainline monsters the trees would look very different. But for my own personal thoughts on if frontier takes place in the same universe as mainline… I would say yes.

But with caveats

With that being that hunters from the Mezeporta region are notorious for exaggerating stories of their hunts and probably have more brain damage than the average hunter (I mean the ones that hunt Harudomerugu get exposed to copious amounts of mercury and that will absolutely destroy your brain). And that the shear unprofessionalism of hunters in the region has been a thorn in the side of the various hunters guilds and academies and Mezeporta is just regarded in the same way most Americans look at Florida.

At least that’s my headcanon

[iamthekaijuking]

Finally I’m done with bird wyverns and am now writing the flying wyverns, after over 9,000 words and almost 47,000 characters (excluding spaces)

I can use the species profiles I made for my last incarnation of the tree as templates for this one as opposed to making the profiles from scratch like I had to do with bird wyverns, so comparatively this part should go faster.

My Parave Wyvern Phylogenetic Tree is available for early viewing on my Patreon!

The tree includes over 80 genre and the post has a link to the associated google doc going over the placements, evolution, and biology of each species. You get to view it as I’m working on it!

[iamthekaijuking]

Watched the episode

I was hesitant about Therizirus but seeing it in action changed my mind. I really like how the suit actor hunched over to give it a more horizontal posture and they tried to give the neck an s-shaped curve, even if it very obviously revealed the seams in the suit. They explicitly note that it’s covered in feathers and it even makes turkey noises. Although they do imply it might eat people which would be weird for an herbivorous therizinosaur.

Saburo Oya, Kosei’s landlord, seems way too cool and understanding to be an actual landlord. I do like that he’s a pretty wise man and is willing to be a good mentor to Kosei, giving him a place to stay and work while he tries to find what he wants to do with his life and helping him be a good friend and not feel left out by Sorato/Omega. I wonder if maybe he was in a similar position to Kosei at the same age.

Also I keep forgetting to say this but I love that Japanese commercials just begin with explosions.

[iamthekaijuking]

Oh I forgot to mention but Your Idol has me feeling a bit

So I finally got around to watching kpop demon hunters

First off, great animation. Taking inspiration from older anime and making really good visual gags was fun. I spotted some 2d animation that was used for things like dust and explosion effects as well as painting creases onto character models for some extreme expressions. I love this wave of stylized 3d animation with occasional low frame rates that’s come ever since spiderverse.

Music: It was amazing. I mean that’s expected but it really knocked it out of the park. I love that boybands are bad, because they are.

I love the overarching theme of accepting that you are a flawed person, with demons representing self doubt. And I love that the world was saved not through suppressing your self doubts and flaws like Huntrix was taught, but by acceptance.

I also love the little detail of Huntrix being hunters but the symbol of the Saja Boys is a Lion, a predator.

Also derpy the tiger is my favorite.

[iamthekaijuking]

So I finally got around to watching kpop demon hunters

First off, great animation. Taking inspiration from older anime and making really good visual gags was fun. I spotted some 2d animation that was used for things like dust and explosion effects as well as painting creases onto character models for some extreme expressions. I love this wave of stylized 3d animation with occasional low frame rates that’s come ever since spiderverse.

Music: It was amazing. I mean that’s expected but it really knocked it out of the park. I love that boybands are bad, because they are.

I love the overarching theme of accepting that you are a flawed person, with demons representing self doubt. And I love that the world was saved not through suppressing your self doubts and flaws like Huntrix was taught, but by acceptance.

I also love the little detail of Huntrix being hunters but the symbol of the Saja Boys is a Lion, a predator.

Also derpy the tiger is my favorite.

[iamthekaijuking]

I’ve been wondering, in the wyvern post and in turn the google drive essay about flying wyverns, will arkveld be classified as gmo like zoh Shia or will it be natural or undetermined in classification?

Yes Arkvelds will be a species of feral gmo, with the organism it attempts to reconstruct being a relative of seregios, astalos, and harpios.

I actually made a big post musing about arkveld a week after the release of wilds.

[iamthekaijuking]

I’ve always really wanted to get into Crossout, and I’ve been eyeing it ever since its release 10 years ago, but I just can’t for so many reasons.

It’s primarily pvp and I don’t like pvp that much, the battle passes, the fact it takes forever to get good parts, the community seems full of nasty people, and the few content creators that cover Crossout are either annoying or horribly opinionated.

[iamthekaijuking]

Given how so many Elder Dragons have distinct epidermal abilities that may be to ward off parasitism (Nergigante Spikes, Qurio, etc.) to varying effectiveness, do you think that Elder Dragon Blood is of a very superior quality (nutritionally) than other Polypterygian blood? I imagine that there may be other ectoparasites, particularly of the Neopteran clade, which have a distinct preference for their blood. This might be me wanting more out of just Dracophage Bugs as lore for how other monsters can gain the Dragon Element, as it being an immune response (in theory) yet canonically being gained via the Dragonfell Berries feels weird.

Oh yeah absolutely elder dragon blood has got to be some pretty good stuff as far as blood goes (I mean blood is still mostly water).