#functions of bones in the skeletal system

[raccoonfallsharder]

i love that this conversation is ongoing ♡♡♡

to begin: i think, in the scan, we are looking at a combination of cybernetic systems (pink), skeletal systems (blue), and major internal (soft tissue) organs (yellow). however, i don’t think the colors differentiate between original biological material, mechanical/internal prosthetics, or genetically-manipulated/surgically-altered biological components.

as you noticed, cybernetic systems are mostly along rocket’s spine — probably just because it’s connected directly to his central nervous system — and our left (rocket’s right). i suspect the emphasis on the right side is just in deference to rocket’s more dominant side. if he uses those limbs more, they may need more cybernetic support/intervention. (they may also augment his strength — so he can lift his heavy guns with his right arm and make those wild vertical leaps with that right foot/knee leading). it looks like cybernetics are also embedded in and beneath the visible portions of his prosthetic collarbone and through his chest (it might just be this shot, but they do not appear aligned with his prosthetic ribs). that said, it’s possible that cybernetics are threaded through his entire system in finer, less dense tendrils that we (the audience) just don’t have a clear view of.

some of the blue skeletal system and yellow soft-tissue systems probably are original biological material — bones altered by osteotomies, and musculature (which we can’t see) manipulated through surgical means. but that doesn’t account for everything (his pelvis is does not appear to be surgically altered and it would absolutely need to be for him to walk like that; same with his feet/calcaneum/legs. like you pointed out, there has almost certainly been some genetic manipulation to account for not only the size of his brain but also the way that it works, in terms of self-awareness, abstract thinking, etc. genetic manipulation also likely accounts for his muscle mass as well — cybernetics alone won’t account for the actual bodily structural support that a raccoon would need to wield something like a laser cannon. additionally, i feel confident that some of rocket’s bones have been fully replaced for similar reasons (and also to just reduce the likelihood of future damage to the high evolutionary’s toys — especially if he’s seeing how much physical stress they can tolerate)

similarly, i think some (maybe all?) of rocket’s major internal soft-tissue organs have been replaced. there’s no way a raccoon heart (or probably any natural heart) holds up to the level of abuse rocket has experienced (specifically, multiple major surgeries without anesthesia) without suffering several severe cardiac incidents. (sidenote: imagine how many stress-ulcers rocket would have if he had his own biological stomach. if not from halfworld, certainly from raising groot).

i feel like the kill-switch is embedded in the cybernetics in rocket’s CNS and linked to the replaced/altered major organs in his torso.

an ao3 friend informed me a while ago that the mcu vol2 sourcebook described rocket as having teeth strong enough to chew through metal, which implies increased jaw strength and tooth durability. similarly, the same friend cited interviews with gunn and various art books to note that “the port at his mid-spine and the ones at his scapula have been confirmed to be spinal uplink port and cybernetic upgrade ports […] they're not just left there by the HE for shits'n'giggles. they have a purpose even though we're never shown how they operate vis-a-vis to rocket's cybernetics and whether he actually needed them to 'function' normally once the proper firmware had been installed.” which is all to say that i’m sure there’s a behind-the-scenes manual somewhere that outlines everything gunn had intended for rocket’s physical makeup.

sidenote: I’m pretty sure somewhere in this conversation some brilliant soul pointed out rocket would have major medical trauma/definitely not be trying to take himself to doctors. hard agree + anyone providing him with major medical care would also probably have to be a very brilliant engineer, depending on which body part they were treating.

finally (sorry, i am perpetually longwinded) i suspect that rocket’s hands are representative of the rest of him: a combination of physical surgeries, genetic manipulation, mechanical prosthetics, and finer threads of cybernetics. if only for poetic reasons, you know? raccoon-hands are so important. touch is how rocket gathers and filters most of his information — more than sight or sound or smell or taste, touch is how he experiences reality.

so it makes sense to me that his hands contain a summary of his body’s trauma, while still being so much more.

Been thinking about Rocket’s cybernetics lately, and how he probably has to make adjustments to his clothes so that nothing abrasive rubs up against the metal in his back. I imagine that all of his jumpsuits probably have extra padding back there. I wonder how they affect him in different temperatures too, like if they ache more in the cold. Or do they ever get hot? Some clothes I have with metal buttons heat up in the sun and it feels hot to the touch. Since the implants are metal would the same thing happen? Also would he avoid lying down on his back because it would put pressure on them? I feel like they probably hurt him pretty often, but it’s something that he’s lived with for so long that he almost pays no mind to it unless he gets a particularly bad flare up. 

I can’t remember now if we see it on the Nova Corps body scan or not, but are the visible implants more surface level or are they actually connected directly to his skeleton/muscles? I’m guessing the back implants are part of how his skeleton was rebuilt to stand upright and how his spine’s shape was changed and his shoulders were broadened. 

I headcanon that he’s had to perform maintenance on his cybernetics, including self-surgery. I was talking about this with someone else on Tumblr a while ago and the one thing we ran into is the issue of the kill switch. If changes were to be made to his cybernetics it would undoubtedly set it off, so what we came up with is that while Rocket was unable to deactivate the switch he was able to temporarily stall it, allowing him to do the work he needed, albeit under a very limited time frame. 

[claxonmedicalcodinginstitute]

"🦴 Skeletal System Explained | Functions & Structure in 60 Seconds!"

Discover the amazing structure of the human skeletal system! 🦴 Learn about the bones, joints, and their vital role in supporting movement and protecting organs. Perfect for quick learning! ✅ Watch now and boost your anatomy knowledge. #SkeletalSystem #HumanBody #Anatomy #Biology

[dodgeballstuckonthegymceiling]

I just thought it would be funny having him fill out several notebooks with things about your body. Canonically, he has made guidebooks on the other neighbors. So why not you?

If you like my work, please consider commissioning me or leaving a tip on Ko-fi (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

Frank learning about human biology

★ Frank had no clue what he was getting into. All he did was ask why you need to drink water after helping him with his garden. An innocent question. Two hours later and he's hardly scratched the surface. "So, your body loses water through sweat? And you need to replace it? Hm, okay, but what if there's no water?"

★ When you tell him that there's bones inside you, he thinks about Barnaby. Specifically, about how he likes chewing on them. As you explain how the skeletal system works, Frank continues writing. Trying his best to not think about the stinky mutt.

★ The more you explain, the more worried he becomes. Especially after you mention how wisdom teeth serve no purpose but can hurt you. He stopped writing mid-sentence to look at you. "Excuse me? Did I hear that right?"

★ He compares you to the creatures he knows best. "Your circulatory system functions similarly to some arthropods, but it's much less efficient. They use spiracles and tracheal tubes instead of lungs. Also, why do you need two of those?"

★ Frank’s eyes light up the moment you mention humans have a scientific name. When you tell him the name, Homo sapiens, Frank repeats it aloud before writing it in his notebook. Putting your name right next to it.

★ After realizing just how breakable you are, Frank starts reminding you to drink water, rest properly and keep a safe distance from anything that could hurt you. He also advises against telling Barnaby there's bones inside of you.

[howtofightwrite]

perhaps an odd/specific question, but if a character got shot through the hand at very close range without access to medical care (apocalypse) how serious would that injury be? would it be possible to bandage/treat it without medical knowledge?

So, there's a couple factors here that could have a meaningful impact. However, on the question of how serious, this depends on your definition. If you're asking, “is this life threatening?” The answer is yes, but probably not for the reason you're thinking of. If you're asking, “will this cause significant changes to what the character can do,” then, again, the answer is yes.

The chances of bleeding to death from a gunshot wound to the hand aren't especially high, if the wound is properly bandaged, and the victim can stop bleeding. That last part isn't guaranteed, but unless there's some contributing factor (like a history of alcoholism), if they can stop the bleeding, that won't be what kills them.

What might kill them is bacterial infection. Contrary to popular belief (and, even contrary to what I've said in the past), bullets do not burn hot enough to sterilize the bullet. Meaning the bullet can be a vector for bacterial infection (of course, the bandage, and any debris forced into the body by the gunshot, are more likely to become vectors.) In a post-apocalyptic setting, without access to medical treatment, a bacterial infection can absolutely kill you.

Of course, improper bandage hygiene can also result in an infection, days after the original gunshot wound occurred. In a post-apocalyptic environment, you really do not want to ignore open wounds.

On the non-lethal side of the question, they're never going to be able to use that hand again. At least, it's not going to be the same, ever again. How bad it is will depend on what they were hit with. But, in most circumstances, a gunshot to the hand will break bones in the hand. In many cases the bullet can even eject bone fragments from the hand.

Without medical treatment, broken bones in the palm of the hand can permanently impair its use, but when you're ejecting critical portions of the hand's structure, yeah, that's not going to work right without those bits. When you look at most of your skeletal structure, your bones basically create a kind of intricate pulley system. Depending on what's damaged, destroyed, or ejected, that might mean that some fingers are still functional, or it could create a situation where they're unable to use their fingers at all. In some cases (such as with a shotgun), you might even eject enough material that the hand itself is completely unsalvageable.

So, the short version is, it might not kill your character, but that hand is going to be very seriously messed up, and it will probably, permanently change their life, and might still kill them later.

-Starke

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[stealingyourbones]

I didn’t know that pisiform removal was a thing. Thanks for leading me down a rabbit hole of case study papers and surgery videos.

The Hyoid bone is fully free floating and not connected to any other bone, while the pisiform bone rests on top of the triquetrum bone akin to a kneecap, it acts as a joint with the triquetrum and helps in preventing the triquetrum from dislocating itself. It’s funky like that. (For those not knowing where the that is, it’s at the lowest part of the wrist at the pinkie side of the hand)

Not only does it just keep parts of your bones in place, it’s also connected to a few other things!! (You didn’t ask for this but but I now wish to share knowledge so bare with me)

It’s connected to a muscle that lets you curl in the lowest joint of your pinkie where your hand meets your palm.

It’s also connected to the transverse carpal ligament. The ligament stretches from the far side of your pinkie to the far side of your thumb. It creates what the cool kids call the Carpal Tunnel. It lays overtop a shit ton of tendons that move the rest of your fingers and the beloathed median nerve. (Making a lil tunnel between your bones n ligament!) If your median nerve is pinched by this muscle, you experience the joys of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Last thing it’s connected to is a very thin forearm muscle that assists in moving your wrist up n down and side to side!

All in all, it adds a bunch of stability to the outside of your wrist!

That was a bit of a ramble but yeah! That sucker do be connected to a bunch of things. Not only to another bone but a bunch of other ligaments and muscles :D

What’s your favorite bone?

Ooooo i have to go with the Hyoid bone. It’s located in your neck and it’s the only bone not connected to another bone! It’s got muscle, ligaments, and tissues that hold it in place instead! Gotta love me unique bone structures :)

[flutterby-bog]

Some additional headcanon notes nobody asked for, but this time in an overanalyzed format:

Scars

He's got a few scars on his face and a slightly crooked jaw from when it got broken when Bog was still a teen. The same group of goblins that did this had shattered his mother's horns in an attempt at taking the throne by force. These scars and battle damage are all that remain of those goblins.

Height

It's subtle, but Bog's torso segments can extend and retract due to a vestigial adaptation which insects use for breathing. Since he does not have an insectoid respiratory system this has only ever been used for changing his height for any reason. As demonstrated below:

A tall Bog is a confident Bog. When he's insecure he will shrink (either by hunching or drawing himself inward). The difference changes his height substantially. Even at his shortest, at least while standing upright, Bog still towers over Fairies.

Respiratory System

Bog has a large pair of fairy-like lungs inside his chest cavity, perfect for flying with such a heavily weighted body and belting out extended notes for long periods of time. His chest has additional segments that evolved over several molts to allow for efficient contraction/expansion of said lungs.

Vascular System

Has red blood, and a similar pulse to a Fairy, though the pulse is slower and a little louder. His normal level of blood pressure also sits higher than a fairy's. This leads to occasionally related headaches but otherwise does not seem to affect Bog's health.

Skeletal and Muscular System

Has a fusion of both internal and external skeletal systems throughout his body with exception of his torso, which is primarily exoskeleton, and his head, neck, hands, and feet, which lack exoskeletal plating.

His muscles do exist, but they are mostly on the inside of the exoskeletal parts. They are only visible in exposed areas like the underside of his forearms, where his legs connect to his torso, and his neck.

Along his lower legs and his jaw Bog has spurs of bone that sticks out. For insectoids these spines function as tactile receptors and additional grip. For Bog, these are just sensitive and drive Marianne wild for some reason he can't exactly fathom.

Motor Control

Bog has a lot more voluntary control over his body than a Fairy does. His feet are basically another pair of hands with an extended heel and are only slightly less dexterous than his hands. If he wanted to play the piano with his feet, he could easily... If he ever wanted to learn piano, anyway.

He also has individual control over his wings and various segments of his body, especially the ones that are along his shoulders that look like natural pauldrons. Bog likes to flex those in particular to make himself look more intimidating.

Sight

Bog's able to see more in the violet and UV spectrum than a Fairy can. Also exceptional night vision. Take Marianne's wings for example...

Normal Fairy Vision sees visible light.

Bog's Vision - This is what he was seeing the whole time. Well, at night anyway. When the sun came up he got the UV spectrum on her wings too and well, he was already a goner anyway.

Smell

That big nose of his isn't just for show. He's got a powerful sense of smell, which is why he will habitually breathe through his mouth sometimes or he just would get overwhelmed with the amount of scents nearby. Especially if he has to visit the Fairy Kingdom in Spring. Way too many flowers and perfumes.

Diet

Pretty much the same diet as a fairy except he eats meat in addition to the fruits and plants that a fairy can ingest. Does not enjoy overly sweet flavors like honey as much as Marianne does. Prefers spicy. The exception is tea. He very much enjoys tea.

Insectoid Related Habits/Instincts/Misc

Grooming. He'll dust off his wings frequently by running his arm against them.

Damaged wings. His wings are permanently damaged from being attacked. He will never get new ones.

Molts. He molts far less now but when he was younger he would frequently molt.

Puberty. Did not always have wings. Did not have a cocoon stage but over a period of several molts started growing his wings.

Betrayed emotions. If you know how to read his body language, you can look past the grumpy face. When he's nervous, his wings will pulse in successively. When uncomfortable/embarrassed/anxious he will get very fidgety. When angry, involuntarily rattles (ch-ch-ch-ch noise) his wings and shoulder segments. His expression might look "angry" when he's actually not. Sometimes it's just a mask (unless he's rattling then for peat's sake, Thang, get out of the way! You should know better by now...)

Jumpy. Loud noises/vibrations/quick movements will startle Bog, causing him to involuntarily flinch/jump fairly easily. Beware his fast reflexes, though. Just because you make him jump doesn't mean you got the jump on him.

Goblin Related Habits/Instincts/Misc

Dominant posturing. Goblins in general have a very strict social pecking order. The strongest lead and just because Bog's father was King of the Dark Forest doesn't mean he got the throne by birthright. In the Dark Forest you have to earn the respect of your people. And that means if a goblin wanted to usurp Bog, they could definitely try. It wouldn't end well for them, though.

Oh, somewhat related to the above, but Marianne's sucker punch may have initially ticked him off, because technically that was a challenge. His initial move was going for a big "F-you" with his staff, but you know why he went back a second time? To show off. Because he found it hot.

Protective drive. Goblins are pack creatures and fiercely loyal, and this includes Bog even in a position of leadership. Sure he might smack Thang around because the little moron irritated him, but the moment someone from the outside starts smacking Thang around it's over for them. Bog's little put-put swing on Thang is nothing compared to the heavy golf swing he'll do on the idiot who tries to mess with his goblins. (The mushrooms got the full golf swing but trust, they are fine. Bog knows what will/wont hurt someone.)

Fairy Related Habits/Instincts/Misc

Singing/Music Magic. Fairies have magic that can turn any stick, light source, or noise into music while they are in the vicinity. Bog prefers a different kind of music than most fairies seem to enjoy, but he still possesses this magic nonetheless. Goblins do not usually sing, but they'll play instruments or do some back-up vocals for the fun of it.

Heart on the sleeve. This is a weakness Bog actively goes out of his way to suppress, but he really is a romantic deep down, as most Fairies have a tendency to be. Sure-sure he says he hates love, but then has a soft spot for Dawn's boutonniere gift that he can't quite explain. It's the fairy in you, Bog. It's okay.

Blooming Magic. Bog can touch a fern and make it unfurl, same as Marianne can. He can also make sure venus fly traps get the nutrients they need even if he snaps them shut just to walk on them for absolutely no reason other than showing off for Marianne. The magic fairies use to bloom flowers basically is just giving the plant nutrients it needs and speeding up the blooming process.

[rohvee]

Wip Wednesday 🖤

The beach was covered in lines.

Viktor carefully picked his way between them, stepping over curves and angles etched into the damp sand.

He’d carved them himself with fingers and driftwood. Physiology notes, skeletal diagrams, theoretical taxonomies. Phylogenetic trees branched out beside rough sketches of anatomy—cross-sections, speculative muscle structures, membrane layers.

There were sketches of shell structures, analyses of predatory behaviors, and rough equations attempting to quantify the bioluminescent pulses he’d observed. Small circles labeled with guesses at internal organs, arrows connecting them to potential functions, notes on chiral particle absorption, theories on reproduction cycles.

A chaotic mind map of a foreign ecosystem, sprawling out like the nervous system of some massive, long-dead leviathan.

It annoyed him when the tides crept in, licking clean parts of his work. He’d had to redraw sections more than once, tracing his own thoughts backward to recover what had been washed away.

It made him wish for something more permanent. Perhaps he could make paper from the grass—but then what would he write with? Maybe a giant squid would wash up, and he could harvest its ink. Or perhaps some other creature here would serve a similar purpose. Could a fish bone make a workable pen?

His thoughts were interrupted when a flash of pink caught his eye. He reached out, cupping his hands to catch a cryptobiote flitting by. He carefully pinched it between his fingers, just enough pressure to keep it still without harming it. It wriggled against his grip as he counted its tarsomeres, searched for unique features. Its minuscule, beady eyes blinked up at him.

He felt an odd tug in his chest as he looked at it, a flicker of something he couldn’t quite place.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

⚕️Severe Trauma Protocol for Gallifreyans

For use on Gallifreyans and Time Lords only. Always seek your human advice from human health providers.

📖 Understanding Severe Trauma in Gallifreyans

Gallifreyan resilience is remarkable, but severe trauma remains a critical emergency. Due to their unique skeletal, circulatory, and nervous system structures, injuries can escalate rapidly if not addressed correctly. The Severe Trauma Protocol (STP) ensures structured assessment, stabilisation, and intervention while minimising complications unique to Gallifreyan physiology.

Key Considerations:

✔️ Higher risk of compartment syndrome due to denser circulatory & nerve networks.

✔️ Medullary 'motorway' injuries can cause rapid internal bleeding and respiratory complications.

✔️ Regeneration is NOT a first-line treatment—attempting to regenerate under unstable conditions can worsen injuries or lead to catastrophic failure.

✔️ Certain pain management techniques are unique to Gallifreyans, requiring a tailored approach.

✔️ Neurological injuries pose additional risks due to psionic function interplay—telepathic overload can complicate neurological assessments.

💥Pain Management in Severe Trauma

Gallifreyans possess unique methods of pain regulation, including nerve manipulation and endorphin control, but these techniques are limited for severe trauma. While minor injuries can be self-regulated, major trauma requires external analgesics and medical intervention.

📌 Pain Management Protocol:

Mild Pain: Paracetamol (2g every 4-6 hours).

Moderate Pain: Codeine (60-120mg every 4-6 hours) or tramadol (100-200mg every 6 hours).

Severe Pain: Morphine (10-20mg every 4 hours) or controlled healing coma.

Aspirin is NEVER to be used—severe anaphylaxis risk.

Emergency nerve block techniques may be considered for limb trauma and extreme pain cases.

🛑 Types of Severe Trauma & Immediate Management

1️⃣ Blunt Force Trauma

💥 Includes: Falls from height, vehicle impacts, physical combat. ⚠️ Risks: Internal bleeding, compartment syndrome, rib fractures, head trauma. 📌 Management:

Stabilise the spine and monitor for hidden fractures—Gallifreyan skin absorbs impact well, masking underlying skeletal damage.

Check for medullary bleeding—dark, thickened blood suggests severe internal trauma.

Administer fluids cautiously to avoid vascular overload.

Check for signs of latent telepathic shock—high-impact trauma can disrupt psionic pathways.

2️⃣ Penetrating Trauma

💥 Includes: Stab wounds, impalements, projectile injuries. ⚠️ Risks: Organ damage, haemorrhage, high infection risk. 📌 Management:

DO NOT remove deeply embedded objects—stabilise the object to prevent worsening of bleeding. It will work its way out on its own.

Use biological sealants for deep tissue damage—Gallifreyan wound healing can be accelerated with proper treatment.

Monitor for asynchronous heart activity—penetrating trauma may affect cardiac function.

Consider nerve suppression techniques to reduce excessive pain response.

3️⃣ Skeletal Trauma & Fractures

💥 Includes: Long bone fractures, spinal trauma, cranial injuries. ⚠️ Risks: Disrupted nerve function, prolonged healing, structural instability. 📌 Management:

Immobilise fractures immediately—Gallifreyan bones heal quickly but improperly if not set correctly.

Monitor for nerve damage—fractures near the shoulder nerve cluster can cause severe pain and paralysis.

Apply regenerative stabilisation techniques cautiously—improper healing may result in malformations.

Assess psionic coherence in cases of cranial trauma—brain injuries may induce temporary psionic instability.

4️⃣ Severe Burns & Radiation Exposure

💥 Includes: Plasma burns, time-radiation exposure, chemical burns. ⚠️ Risks: Tissue necrosis, hyperartronosis, systemic failure. 📌 Management:

Flush with sterile solution—time-energy burns require specialised decontamination.

Monitor for artron overload symptoms—increased energy absorption can trigger metabolic instability.

Assess psionic damage—radiation burns may disrupt telepathic function.

Consider metabolic stabilisation agents to counteract time-energy exposure.

5️⃣ Neurological Trauma & Psionic Overload

💥 Includes: Head trauma, telepathic shock, spinal cord injury. ⚠️ Risks: Psionic shutdown, memory fragmentation, neural instability. 📌 Management:

Assess consciousness WITHOUT relying on psionic input—young Gallifreyans may give false AVPTU results.

Monitor for telepathic seizures—spinal damage can cause neurological and psionic disruption.

Immobilise suspected spinal injuries—movement can cause irreversible psionic dysfunction.

Use psionic dampeners where needed to reduce neural overload.

📌 Key Points to Remember

Monitor metabolic changes post-stabilisation—Gallifreyan trauma can cause delayed systemic responses.

Use regeneration as a LAST RESORT—only if the patient is fully stabilised to prevent worsening injuries.

Assess psionic faculties in cases of prolonged unconsciousness—cognitive dysfunction may not always be physiological.

Medical Guides

These are all practical guides to assessing and treating a Gallifreyan in an emergency.

⚕️💕Gallifreyan CPR

⚕️👽Gallifreyan Assessment Scoring System (GASS)

⚕️👽ABCDE Assessment

⚕️⚠️Sepsis Emergency Response (SER)

⚕️⚠️Severe Trauma Protocol

⚕️🌡️Gallifreyan Thermoregulation and Emergency Response

⚕️🔮Psionic Emergency Pathways

⚕️✨Post-Regeneration Management

⚕️💤Gallifreyan Healing Coma Management

⚕️🩸Interpreting Gallifreyan Bloodwork

⚕️👶Gallifreyan Paediatric Emergencies

⚕️🧠Managing Gallifreyan Neurological Trauma

Any orange text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →📢Announcements |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts → Features:⭐Guest Posts | 🍜Chomp Chomp with Myishu →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[legendguard]

Made as part of an ongoing project of mine, called "Pterraforming", featuring an alternate Earth (dubbed "Pterearth") where the K-T extinction event was less severe. Not all that original, I know, but really it's an excuse to work on a group of Pteranodon descendants that survived to become the dominant pterosaurs, and, in the case of the water, the dominant tetrapods; The Archopterans

This is a rework of my Pteroviathans, the largest of the "seawing" pterosaurs ever to exist, and the largest animal ever to live on Pterearth. While (on average) they tend to be shorter than blue whales, they are much heavier, and are built like literal submarines. They fill a similar niche to the blue whale, but are a bit more ornery and able to eat things a blue whale could never dream of. Pteroviathans are part of the "crown" seawings (pterocetaceans), which are the most advanced forms that have evolved. They all share a melon formed from modified salt glands, highly specialized flippers and bones, and a unique respiratory system that allows them to change their buoyancy similar to the chambers within the hull of a sub. They also possess an unusual tissue, derived from skeletal muscle tissue, that essentially acts like fat, but for storing oxygen. This allows them to so saturate their body with oxygen that they can stay submerged for hours!

Another interesting adaptation is the transformation of their pycnofibers that actually mirrors the evolution of teeth. The body pycnofibers are formed into "psuedodenticals", which are convergent and function to the dermal denticles of sharks. In the pterocetaceans, these pycnofibers have actually worked their way into the mouth, forming new "teeth" made of keratin. In "baleen" forms these "teeth" are similar to the flight feathers of birds, whereas in "toothed" forms they mimic both cetacean and shark teeth, depending on the species.

The hearing is especially advanced in pterocetaceans, being extremely hypertropied to the point some species have gone completely blind! Multiple gel-like structures on the jaw and on the forehead (the "melon" mentioned earlier) help both amplify outgoing sound while also helping to focus sound towards the ear, which like whales are internal. The entire jaw is formed into the auditory system, having special sound amplifying properties and having a radar-dish like shape in the back that helps funnel sound. This allows them to hunt for food and watch for predators in a near 360 degree range, even in the dark, while also not needing to put extra resources into reinforcing the eyes for underwater life.

Seawings, as a group, have near total dominion over aquatic tetrapod niches on Pterearth, the only other fully marine animals they share the water with being turtles and snakes. No other group has fully returned to the water. They simply can't. There's no room for them. Seawings were the first animals to return to the sea after the K-T mass extinction event, being able to revert to a more pelagic lifestyle by reactivating genes that laid dormant in the ancestral protoarchopteran. This allowed them to fully return to the sea when mammals were still only becoming semiaquatic on Earth, giving them a head start. This, combined with the young's ability to fly (which allows them to spread far and wide, into bodies of water not otherwise accessible by swimming or walking alone) and the ability to give live birth, meant that they took the waters by storm, and once they were in, they blocked anything else from following the same path. So on Pterearth, the pterosaurs rule the sea completely.

So the only competition they had was from each other.

Today, the pterocetaceans are the most widespread and speciated group of seawings, their advanced features allowing them an edge over their competing relatives. Over 200 species are known, ranging from passive filter feeders, to lunge feeders, to grazers, to carnivores that hunt fish, other seawings, and even pelagic birds and pterosaurs. In the north and far south, there are even psuedocrocodiles that pick up where their cold blooded contemporaries cannot survive. They are, in essence, kings among kings. And the mighty pteroviathan is the highest of all.

[skeleton-png]

Am I cool yet…

Made an OVERLORD character sheet for Vin.

Originally, their username was going to be "PlaceHolder" and a fitting japanese equivalent, but I stumbled upon something I could play with. ほねゃらら (Honeyarara) is my poor attempt at Japanese wordplay... comprised of ほね (hone) meaning "bone" and ほにゃらら (honyarara) which is a filler word like "something or other". Tried my best to localize it afterward.

Lots of extra information:

Concept

Vin's is a skeletal shadowcrafter and illusionist. It's a surprisingly decent roleplay build. I imagine their function is pretty support oriented since their classes aren't really made for combat.

OVERLORD's system is heavily based on D&D 3.5 edition, so I did some research and made assumptions to help fill in the blanks. There's so little known on illusionists (and nothing at all for classes on manipulating darkness or negative energy)...

Thus, nearly all of Vin's racial and job classes are custom ones.

Racial Classes

• Skeleton Mage: 15

• Shade Lich: 10

• Umbra Mortis: 5

Inspired by various mentions of shadow liches throughout D&D, Vin is a type of shade lich, which specializes in shadow magic. Umbra Mortis is Latin for "shadow of death."

Ainz mentioned he knew no Overlords that specialized in illusions due to the race's necromantic focus, so this allows Vin to stay a skeletal undead and pursue a different magic specialty.

Job Classes

• Illusionist: 15

• High Illusionist: 10

• World Veil: 5

• Shadowcrafter: 10

• Sable Hand: 5

• Penumbrous: 5 (Rare Shadow + Illusion?)

The Shadowcrafter class I looked at has 'spell focus (illusions)' listed as a requirement, so l have it branching from the Illusionist class. I also saw quite of bit of info about using shadowcrafting and illusion together to make illusions more potent/effective, so l made a special class for that as well.

There seemed to be a big theme around being "in between" — between life and death (undead), light and dark (shadow), fantasy and reality (illusion?). Penumbrous means between light and dark, but it also means unclear or uncertain.

Vin is also neither man or woman, so that's another thing lol

[illuminatedquill]

Story Summary: Preparing for their imminent departure from Peridea, MORGAN ELSBETH arrives at the personal quarters of GRAND ADMIRAL THRAWN to give him an update - only to find the Imperial warlord deeply immersed in the study of a subject that has captured his attention: SABINE WREN.

Happy belated birthday to @jedi-nurse and @dreams-are-paper-thin! I haven't forgotten the Florida man and Camp Rock slander on our Discord server and promise that the next one will be full of pain and misery. Buckle up. I'm coming for you two.

"Enter."

At the spoken command, the doors slid open with a barely perceptible hiss as Morgan Elsbeth stepped into the private quarters of Grand Admiral Thrawn. It was somewhat of a miracle really, considering the Chimaera's state, that the doors worked at all; the once formidable Star Destroyer had taken a vicious beating on its voyage to another galaxy, courtesy of those wretched star whales. Thrawn and what remained of his crew had gone to great lengths to keep his ship flying, patching over all the damages with whatever could be spared, salvaged, or harvested from their new home - which wasn't much, looking at the desolate waste of Peridea.

Large areas of the ship were simply unusable or shut down to either conserve power or because it was rendered uninhabitable because of machinery stripped down to the bare bones of the ship to keep other vital systems functional. The ship's outer hull appeared skeletal in some places, the inner framework peeking through exposed sections like a rib cage. To Morgan, it served to give Thrawn's personal flagship a meaner, ragged edge; like the face of some giant, undead bird of myth that continued to haunt the skies of Peridea. The Grand Admiral had prioritized function over everything else - except, it seemed, when it came to his personal quarters.

But, then again, the Imperial warlord was the only reason for the continued survival of his crew - and, if luck held their way, the survival of the Empire. It made sense that no expense was spared to ensure his room was exempt from the draconian rules that kept the rest of the Chimaera up and running.

Once inside, Morgan felt as though she were in another ship entirely, fresh from the Imperial shipyards.

It was immaculate, to say the least. Grandiose, but not in the way most Imperials would associate with the word.

To those unfamiliar with the Grand Admiral, they would remark that it seemed spartan and minimalistic, at least in comparison to some of the other offices they had seen. Most Imperial officers had been to the Emperor's Palace; seen his lavish displays of wealth and power and artifacts from the Old Republic days. Morgan had found such exhibits to be boastful, and she could rarely hide her distaste on the few occasions she visited the Palace.

Thrawn's personal suite provided a far more different experience than the Emperor's. Everything inside was chosen and placed with the utmost thought for efficiency and functionality. Handmade furniture, art, and decor - not the usual Imperial standard - that were token "gifts" from conquered worlds, each one with a personal wealth of artistry and history native to each culture. It felt almost more like someone's personal living room, rather than the office of an Imperial Grand Admiral. A huge library of data cards and printed history books, all from a hundred different worlds, spanned an entire wall on both sides of the room. In the center, a lowered sitting area within a rounded enclosure, complete with a miniature command table set in the center.

Behind this enclosure was the Grand Admiral's work desk with three different viewscreens all around it, each displaying a dozen different datapoints of information flitting across each screen. Morgan could see Thrawn sitting there now, his eyes taking each new update with ease; the alien's mind was a strange and wondrous machine, capable of absorbing vast amounts of data seemingly like the process of osmosis. It would normally take a full dedicated team of analysts a solid week to work through and make sense of the amount of data that Thrawn consumed in an hour.

Where the Emperor took trophies of his victories, so did Thrawn - in that sort of thinking, the two were similar. But the nature of their prizes was different; Thrawn boasted his fierce intellect, versus Palpatine's lust for power. His trophies, so to speak, was knowledge of his enemies: their history, their culture, their very souls. The Grand Admiral prized knowledge over everything else and the cold, logical rationale to use it as an effective weapon against all those who would dare stand in his way.

Were it not for the Jedi Ezra Bridger's duplicitous tactics during the Siege of Lothal, Thrawn's presence during the main Imperial-Rebellion conflict could have changed the outcome of the war. Morgan was sure of that, at least. The Empire's loss of its greatest tactician forced the Imperial navy to rely on ever-increasing brute force and an over-reliance on superweapons, such as the failed Death Stars.

But the Jedi and their mysterious ways had an irritating ability to defy logic and reason. She knew that first-hand - as did the Grand Admiral. It was not a mistake he would repeat again, underestimating a Jedi and their connection to the cosmic phenomenon they worshipped known as the Force. It was why he had struck a deal with the Great Mothers - who then reached out to her. The witches were familiar with Jedi and their tactics. They would make formidable allies and be an effective deterrence to Jedi sorcery when Thrawn returned to make war against the New Republic.

Morgan felt pride swell inside her chest at the thought; the rise of her people once again, with Grand Admiral Thrawn leading the resurgence of a new Empire. Everything she had sacrificed for, so close at hand.

All because of me, she thought, feeling a little smug. And no one else.

Approaching the desk, the Grand Admiral looked up from his personal computer to greet her. "Lady Elsbeth," he said. "How may I be of service?"

She handed him a data-pad, containing all the latest updates. "The latest numbers, Grand Admiral," she said. "Everything is going according to your wishes."

Thrawn's red eyes flicked through the data-pad's rolling screen of information, not missing a single line. She knew what he was reading; the loading of their cargo was almost complete. Soon they would be ready to be leave this wretched planet and head home to begin the great work of restoring what had been lost -

Thrawn sighed.

Morgan frowned. "Is there something wrong?" she asked, suddenly aware of the Grand Admiral's strange mood.

Smiling faintly, he set down the data-pad and replied, "It has nothing to do with you, rest assured. The work you have accomplished is tremendous and must be commended."

Some of the tension went out of Morgan's shoulders at that statement. Thrawn was no Vader, but he did not tolerate incompetency among his subordinates. "Thank you. Then is there something else, Grand Admiral?"

The warlord pressed a button on his computer. The viewscreens surrounding his desk lit up with a series of images. Morgan peered at the visuals scrolling across the screens, arching a befuddled eyebrow at the Grand Admiral.

"Sabine Wren?" she asked. Different images of the Mandalorian were displayed on the viewscreens, showing the young woman at different stages of her life - a myriad of Sabine Wrens, with different armor styles, hair styles, and colorful looks, all up to her current outfit. But the constant throughline throughout the Mandalorian's life was the fierce look of defiance burning in her eyes and the mischievous ever-present smirk.

Thrawn nodded. "Indeed. She has proven to be quite . . . vexing, of late."

Now Morgan was surprised. Very little confused the Grand Admiral - she would never have suspected that the Mandalorian would prove to be one of those things.

"How so?"

He stood up smoothly from his desk and walked over to one of the images of Sabine Wren that was displayed. "Tell me, Morgan," he murmured, pointing at the image - Wren's present-day look. "What is missing from this version of Wren that the others have?"

Morgan wandered over, staring intently at the image of current day Sabine Wren. She took her time, studying the details of the armor until sure that it had been memorized. The Grand Admiral watched her closely, his face unreadable. Morgan did not want to disappoint him; he expected his subordinates, carefully chosen, to keep up with his line of thinking, no matter how winding or ambitious it appeared.

She moved to the other images of Wren, studying the Mandalorian's appearance in each of them - in her mind, she was analyzing, comparing, and contrasting, finding the similarities and, more importantly, the differences between them and the present outfit.

Finally, she turned towards the expectant Thrawn, certain of the answer she had. "Yes?" he prompted, calmly waiting her response.

She cleared her throat, ignoring the sudden spike of nervousness that threatened to scramble her words. Speaking to Thrawn at times was more nerve-wracking than giving a speech to an audience of thousands.

With a (thankfully) steady hand, she pointed at the images of the younger Wren, one after the other - more specifically, she pointed at the peculiar symbol emblazoned on the upper portion of the Mandalorian's chest armor.

The very same symbol that was missing from the current iteration of Wren's armor.

"This - bird symbol, Grand Admiral," she said. "That is what's missing from Wren's current armor."

Those red eyes glowed with approval. She felt a thrill of satisfaction at seeing it. "Well observed," he replied. "The symbol is that of Wren's own design: her unique take on a Mandalorian creature of myth, the Starbird."

"it looks like the New Republic symbol," Morgan started to remark - and then winced.

Thrawn's look of approval vanished and was replaced instantly with an icy stare. "There is no New Republic, Morgan," he said quietly. "There is simply the Rebellion and their false government that has been propped up for far too long."

She swallowed. "My apologies," she murmured. "I misspoke."

"No," said Thrawn flatly. "You didn't."

For a moment, black terror spiked within her - and then he suddenly smiled reassuringly. The menace in those red eyes receded, like the fading afterglow of an explosion.

"You needn't worry," he said. "It is a mistake that we will soon rectify once we return to our home galaxy."

Relief flooded through her. "Thank you," she said gratefully.

He acknowledged her gratitude with a dismissive wave, turning back to the viewscreen. "So," he said, "Wren's custom starbird is missing from her current armor. Why is that?"

Morgan was still reeling from Thrawn's sudden change in mood. More questions, she bemoaned in her head.

"Erm - I'm not sure, Grand Admiral," she admitted. "There was a change, I suppose. Something in her personal life. I know her family died on Mandalore shortly before the war ended."

The Imperial warlord smiled faintly at her. "You're more correct than you know, Morgan," he said seriously. He cocked his head at her, his red eyes flashing with something approximating curiosity. She felt like an insect being studied by clinical, detached eyes.

"Yes?" she asked, feeling wary of his next question.

"Have you ever been in love, Lady Elsbeth?"

She went slack jawed at the question. Never in a hundred years would she have ever anticipated Grand Admiral Thrawn asking her a question like that. Never.

After taking a few moments to regain her composure, she finally stammered a response. "I - er - well, not really," she admitted, a faint blush coming to her cheeks. "There was one brief dalliance I had in my youth on Dathomir but . . . I'm not sure it would qualify as being in love."

Thrawn motioned at her to continue. Morgan felt the blush coming on more strongly now, forcing herself to dig deeper into old memories that had lain long buried. At least the Grand Admiral had the care to not call her out on her embarrassment, she thought. Or, more likely, he simply did not care.

"It was a short-lived fling," she recalled. "There was a girl in my village - her name was Dalia - that I was sweet on. I made her candles that gave off her favorite flowery scent. Every night, before going to bed, she would light the candle and place it in her window. I was downwind from her home - I could smell the fragrance on the evening breeze and knew that she was thinking of me."

"You did not love her?" asked Thrawn.

"I . . . it's complicated for me to explain," Morgan said. "We were young. What we felt for each other could be written off as the passions of youth . . . or it could have been love, yes, thinking about it now. I honestly don't know."

"She must have been extraordinary," noted Thrawn. "For someone like you to have liked her so strongly. The memory you have of her is still strong, after so many years."

"Yes . . . " Despite the many years that had passed since she had last thought of Dalia, the memories resurfaced without much struggle now. Like flowers that had been waiting to bloom at the slightest touch of daylight. The image of Dalia burst forth so clearly now; a young woman, tall and wiry with muscle, with an explosion of freckles across her face and long, flowing raven-black hair that poured like a river down her shoulders. Her eyes were the color of moss, and her laughter was bright and vivid. Even now, Morgan could still hear it ringing in her eyes, prompting a wistful smile to crease her face.

"She was extraordinary. No one could notch a bow like her in our entire clan. Dalia could shoot an arrow through twelve axes cleanly."

"What happened to her?"

A darkness fell upon the bright memories then, like a funeral shroud. Images sparked through her mind; the endless metallic crunching footsteps of droids, the sharp, barking sounds of blaster fire, and a sickly green fog that smothered the landscape. Her sisters, screaming and dying at the hands of a mechanical monster.

"The Separatists came," Morgan whispered bitterly. "Dalia was the first to stand against them."

"And the first to fall," Thrawn said.

"Yes." With a herculean effort, Morgan shook herself free of the accursed memories. "Why are you asking me this, Grand Admiral?" she asked, her tone frank but just a few shades shy of being accusatory. She had not enjoyed that trip down memory lane.

As if sensing her annoyance, Thrawn held up his hands in a placating gesture. "A few more minutes of your time," he explained. "All will be clear soon enough."

He walked back to his desk and slid open a drawer, pulling something out from him. With surprising swiftness, he tossed the unknown object to Morgan; she caught it deftly, her reflexes kicking in. She ran an inquisitive thumb over the unknown object - a roughly carved wooden medallion with a familiar symbol painted on it in fading colors.

Morgan looked up at Thrawn. "Is this - ?"

"Taken from a raid on an abandoned village once inhabited strange crab-like creatures that call this wretched planet their home," the Grand Admiral elaborated. "I had a squad of troopers investigate one of these places, searching for resources some time ago. They returned with nothing much of value - save for this trinket."

Morgan studied the strange medallion more. "The symbol looks like the Rebellion's. Crude."

"Your initial assessment is understandable, but incorrect. I believe it was made by the Jedi Ezra Bridger, during his extended stay here."

"Why?" asked Morgan. "If the symbol is not the Rebellion's, then what - "

Her eyes widened with understanding. Thrawn nodded, his red eyes flashing. "Indeed. The Rebellion symbol was not widely in use during Bridger's time. This one is something similar - some sources would say was the inspiration for the Rebellion's version later on."

Wren's Starbird. "The missing starbird," said Morgan. "There's a kind of poetry that he had it, all this time."

"Yes," said Thrawn. He sounded almost . . . impressed. "I do love the poetry of it all. It's almost mythical how these two wound up together after so long and against such impossible odds."

He pointed at the pictures displayed on the viewscreen of the younger Sabine Wren. "Note the location of the starbird in each of these armors."

Morgan moved closer to see. "It's . . . upper left side of her chest. Where her heart is."

She blinked. Where her heart is . . .

Bridger had it all this time. Her heart.

The Jedi took it with him when he left.

"And it is now absent in her current design," Thrawn murmured.

Now it was starting to make sense. "You asked me about love," said Morgan, turning to stare at the Grand Admiral.

"I wanted you to have context for why Wren is so surprising to me this time around," Thrawn explained. "It is better for you to understand what drove her so far - and why."

He gestured at the images of Sabine Wren. "You see, Lady Elsbeth, I know Wren and her motley crew of rebels very well. Before my untimely expulsion from our home galaxy, they were a constant thorn in my side. Ultimately, their bonds and the Jedi's abominable connection to the Force are what led to my defeat at Lothal."

His voice was measured but there was no mistaking the undercurrent of barely restrained rage coursing underneath his words. Something in the pinched look around his eyes gave away the seething anger boiling underneath the Grand Admiral's stoic exterior. It was like watching magma flow through deep cracks in a planet's crust.

Volatile, thought Morgan. I must tread carefully here.

"And something was different about her this time," he continued. "I even said so to her face; she utterly confused me with her actions. Much had been sacrificed to allow the Spectres to triumph over me. But her recent actions on the planet Seatos threaten to undo all of it. Our little reunion revealed something to me - something unfathomable."

"She was in love," Morgan concluded. "With Ezra Bridger."

"A strength more unknowable and more unpredictable than the Jedi's cosmic abilities," Thrawn sighed, shaking his head. He glanced at her. "If there was a way to save Dalia on the night she died from Separatist forces, would you do it?"

Morgan thought about it. "Yes," she said. "I would."

"Even if the cost came at the undoing of all your life's work?" asked Thrawn.

She recoiled - and felt a mild pang of shame at doing so. I'm sorry, Dalia. You are long dead. I owe you no fealty.

"Of course not," she retorted. "Never at such a high cost."

The Grand Admiral threw up his hands in dismay. "You see? Unfathomable. Unknowable. Unpredictable. We both understand that. Yet Wren, with so much at stake, chose war over the hard-won peace."

He swiped the images of Sabine Wren aside on the viewscreen to reveal a new one - this one more recent. The image was hazy, flickering with distortion; the equipment used to take the snapshot was not up to date and in need of repair it seemed. But the figures in the photo were unmistakable: Wren, in the Peridea landscape surrounded by unfamiliar dome-like structures, hugging an older Ezra Bridger, garbed in strange robes.

Their embrace was achingly close, their figures locked together in a way that screamed an intimate familiarity that went beyond friendship. Morgan felt an uncomfortable sense that she was intruding on something confidential, that should only be seen and experienced by Bridger and Wren.

She inhaled sharply. "She found him."

"Yes," Thrawn said simply. "She did. I thought him long dead, truth be told."

Morgan glanced at him, expecting the Imperial warlord's face to be stormy, full of loathing at this reunion between two of his mortal enemies - but she was surprised to see only grim amusement there.

He caught her look. "Have you heard the story about 'The Starbird and the Void Dragon'?"

She blinked, taken aback by another about turn in his questions. "Erm - no," she confessed. "Should I?"

"It's an obscure fairytale from the early days of Mandalore," explained Thrawn. He resumed his gaze at the stolen picture of Wren and Bridger's embrace.

"Once, there was a starbird that travelled far and wide, searching for a companion. It found one on a distant world - Lothal."

Morgan's eyebrows rocketed up her forehead in shock. Lothal was the home world of Ezra Bridger. She stared at the picture of the Mandalorian and the Jedi. Forces of destiny, she thought.

"Yes," said Thrawn, seeing her expression. "A curious coincidence, so it would seem. Or perhaps, tidings of something far more mysterious. The starbird fell in love with the world and its only inhabitants at the time: the loth wolves. One of them grew especially close to the starbird and, at last, the mythical bird rejoiced in finally finding a companion to call its own."

"What happened then?" Morgan asked, wondering where this was going.

Thrawn waved his hand for dramatic effect. She found it amusing that the Grand Admiral was playing up the fairytale so much . . . not that she would ever tell him.

"After a time, a void dragon with red eyes fell from the stars. It burned a path through Lothal's skies. The leader - the starbird's beloved friend - led a pack to fight against the new threat, which sought to plunder the planet's forests - home to the loth wolves - of all its treasures to add to the dragon's hoard."

Thrawn's red eyes glowed with fervor as he continued the tale. Even Morgan was beginning to get enraptured in the story.

"The battle lasted many days and sundered the land and sky. Finally, the only combatants remaining were the starbird's companion wolf and the void dragon itself. The great beast had been beaten, it knew, having taken many grievous blows - but it was filled with spite and fury. In a final, desperate move it took the starbird's friend deep into the heart of Lothal's forest and bade it to follow them to save its friend. The loth wolf begged its friend not to do so, for it knew that in doing so, their forest home would burn from the starbird's presence."

The Imperial warlord left the story there, letting the silence sit thicker and thicker between them. Finally, Morgan asked, desperate to know: "Were they reunited? The starbird and it's loth wolf?"

Thrawn stared at the image of Wren and Bridger for a long moment. Then he said, without drama, "Yes. They were reunited."

"How? Did the starbird trick the dragon?"

"No," he replied softly. "It burned the forest down."

He pivoted to her then, his stance rigid, red eyes flashing with authority. "I want our exit strategy accelerated by an hour. No excuses. See it done, Lady Elsbeth."

Morgan was aghast. Running the numbers in her head, what the Grand Admiral was asking was not unreasonable but seemed . . .

Was he afraid?

"I don't understand the point of this whole exercise," she said, frustrated. "Wren being reunited with Bridger worries you?"

"It does," said the Imperial warlord. "And it should worry you, too. It all connects. Everything we have talked about in the past several minutes."

"It's just a story," she said, confused. "A fairy-tale."

Thrawn looked at her coldly. "Perhaps. But the accomplishments of Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger are very real, Morgan Elsbeth. Generations from now, some would even say they sound like a myth. Sabine Wren has lived up to her symbol of the Starbird in ways that are immensely worrisome. Remember the story."

Understanding dawned on her in that moment. "The starbird burned the forest down. Wren gave up the map to find you - "

" - in exchange for a small, miniscule chance at finding her lost Jedi," finished Thrawn. "She helped me. Despite knowing all it would cost her - and the people she fought alongside back in our home galaxy."

"My mercenaries will handle them," Morgan argued. "They are more than capable."

"Your faith in them is misplaced," Thrawn replied in an icy tone. "But they will be useful in slowing them down long enough for us to make our escape."

He glared at her. She wilted under the full force of his anger, restrained as it was.

"Wren has already burned one forest down to find her Jedi. And now she has her prize. We are all that stands in her way to get him home. I will not risk our plan so close to fruition at the whims of fate."

Morgan pursed her lips - but bowed in deference to him. "As you wish, Grand Admiral," she said.

"Thank you," he replied.

On the way out, she couldn't help herself and paused at the door. Thrawn noted her pause. "What is it?" he asked, sounding impatient.

"You know it's just a fairy-tale, right?" she asked. "It's not real."

The Imperial warlord shook his head. "I'm afraid it is very real, Lady Elsbeth," he said.

"How do you know?"

He stared at her, his red eyes glowing like embers. "Because there are no more forests on Lothal," he said quietly. "They do not grow there anymore. And the loth wolves howl to the night sky in remembrance of their lost home, forced to roam the endless plains and fields."

Morgan nodded. "I see."

Later, it occurred to her what about that whole conversation disturbed her so much. When Thrawn studied his adversary, he always found a way to exploit a revealed weakness. He was never afraid of the foes he faced afterwards.

But this time . . . this time, he had studied the enemy.

And yet, the fear remained.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Hi! I just stumbled upon your blog because I was trying to do research for my oc because I only just started thinking more about the anatomy aspect. My character has one feathered wing (I’m thinking maybe a high speed wing?) and one wing that is more like a bat. Do you think that works or would flight be lopsided or completely impossible?

okay, that's a fun concept! They're going to need some pretty interesting anatomy to make it functional. As long as the wings are the same size and shape, most people probably won't think about whether or not it works, but bat and bird wings do move differently!

Birds have a keel bone at the center of their ribs, while bats do not. birds also have different wing musculature than bats. here are the muscle arrangements I use on my own designs for bat-wing and bird-wing humanoids:

(image description: simple anatomy sketches of a bat person and a bird person, with the wing and arm torso muscles color-coded. the biggest difference is the way the wing muscles are arranged, with the bat wing muscles looking very similar to human pectoral and deltoid muscles, while on the bird wings one muscle goes over the bird wing shoulder like a pulley system. end description.)

see, birds have a weird thing going on with their muscles. To pull the wing down, they have the expected pectoral muscle attached to the front side of the "upper arm". but then to pull the wing up, instead of using their back muscles they just use another chest muscle! it attaches to the back of the "upper arm" and then loops over the shoulder to connect at the front. Weird!

And here's a really cool illustration I found to compare bat and bird skeletons, it's on an article about their different flight evolutions.

(image description: a skeletal diagram arranged in a way that makes it look like a split bird and bat chimera, surrounded by shapes that compare different bones. end description.)

source:

here's a video about bat flight, which also has more source links in its description to other videos about bird flight and more bat flight videos:

here's another that's just one slow-motion bat flight:

some pet birds in slow motion:

and here's a comparison video about the differences between bird and bat wing structures:

the most essential difference is that bats have way more flexible wings due to the fact that it's just a really large hand with multiple fingers. But bird wings rely more on stiff feathers and do not have several jointed digits spread into their wings. as a result, bat wings are also heavier than bird wings, in comparison to their overall body mass.

so if you're going for realism here at all, this character will be pretty lopsided in flight, and their skeletal and muscle systems are going to need some unique adaptations. Like do you want to give them a keel, like a bird has? where will the bird wing muscles attach if they don't have a keel? Tail or no tail? Birds need a tail partly because their wings don't have the same flexibility as bat wings, so it's a useful rudder for steering. If they have a tail, is it also half feathers and half membrane? How far down does the bat wing membrane go on their body? etc.

I won't say it's a bad idea, but it may be an idea that works better with the fantasy hand wave than something that could be feasibly explained through anatomy. Not all fantasy ideas work when you try to put a grounded bit of science into them! And that's because it's fantasy. I myself love a grounded fantasy that has some level of believable science worked into it, obviously, but that doesn't mean I think all of it needs to be scientifically believable. That's what scifi is for!

[claxonmedicalcodinginstitute]

"🦴 Skeletal System Explained | Functions & Structure in 60 Seconds!"

Discover the amazing structure of the human skeletal system! 🦴 Learn about the bones, joints, and their vital role in supporting movement and protecting organs. Perfect for quick learning! ✅ Watch now and boost your anatomy knowledge. #SkeletalSystem #HumanBody #Anatomy #Biology

[bethanythebogwitch]

The human evolutionary lineage

A lot of people misunderstand evolution. Evolution works by incrementally adding on new changes to existing gene pools through natural selection. A common misconception is that when a new organism evolves, it stops being what its ancestors were. This isn't the case. Instead, each new clade that evolves is the sum of its ancestors adaptations plus a new adaptation (and sometimes that new adaptation is the loss of an older adaptation). Clades are categories of life that are distinct from each other and when new features appear, scientists can name a new clade that is the sum of all previous clades plus the new feature. The Linnean taxonomy sustem with the ranks Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species is an older system of showing how clades nest and branch that isn't used by taxonomists anymore because 7 categories is not anywhere near enough to fully classify how many clades an organism is in. By following the evolution of clades an organism belongs to, you can see the different steps of its development into what it is now. I want to do that to humans. This isn't a 100% comprehensive list of clades or a comprehensive overview of human evolution.

You are in the clade Eukaryota because your cells have a membrane-bound nucleus that stores the DNA.

You are an Ophisthokont because the most basal form of you cells have a single flagella that pushes the cell forward. Many of your cells no longer fit this trait, but the sperm cell, one of the most basal cells, still retains this feature.

You are in the clade Holozoa because your cells cannot produce their own food.

You are in the clade Choanozoa because you are made of multiple cells with different functions working together.

You are an animal (The clade name is either called Animalia or Metazoa depending on who you ask) because you have an internal digestive cavity and must digest other living or recently living organisms to survive.

You are in the clade Eumetazoa (true animals) because your cells are organized into tissues and germ layers.

You are in the clade Bilateria because you are bilaterally symmetrical during embryonic development (and afterwards too, except for a few features).

You are in the clade Nephrozoa because your digestive tract starts with a mouth on one end and ends with an anus on the other end. Be glad you don't have to poop put of the same hole you use to eat.

You are a Duterostome because when you are an embryo, the first opening to form become the anus, when then opens a cavity through the embryo and out the other side to form the mouth. This means that once upon a time, you were nothing but a disembodied asshole.

You are a Chordate because you have a spinal nerve cord that runs down the back and (at least during embryo development) a notochord, pharyngeal slits, and a tail that emerges after the anus.

You are in the clade Olfactores because you have nostrils.

You are a Craniate because you have a brain enclosed in a skull.

You are a vertebrate because your spinal cord is enclosed in a skeletal sheathe that is divided into vertebrae.

You are a Gnathostome because you have a hinged jaw. These jaws started out as modified gill arches.

You are in the clade Osteichthyes (bony fish) because your skeleton is made of bone.

You are in the clade Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish) because you have muscular limbs supported by bones and lungs.

You are in the clade Rhipidistia because you have two symmetrical lungs.

You are a Tetrapodomorph because your shoulder articulates in a ball and socket joint.

You are a member of the clade Elpistostegalia because you have a shoulder girdle and do not have a dorsal fin.

You are in the clade Stegocephalia because your limbs have wrists and end in digits instead of fins, and because your spine is connected to your pelvis.

You are a Tetrapod because you have four limbs and skeleton adaptations that let you live on land permanently.

You are a Reptiliomorph because of the number of joints in your fingers and toes and because, barring accident or mutation, you have five digits per limb. You also have waterproof skin. Reptiliomorph means reptile-shaped, but you are not a reptile. The Reptiliomorphs predate true reptiles, which are on a different lineage than you.

You are an Amniote because you reproduce internally with a phallus (giving or receiving) instead of a female releasing eggs and the male then fertilizing them. The egg you came from was also encased in a sac of amniotic fluid.

You are a Synapsid because your ancestors had a single pair of holes in the skull called temporal fenestra. Humans no longer have this hole, but you can still feel the outline of where it was on the sides of your head. The Sauropsids, which would eventually include reptiles, are the sisters of the Synapsids.

You are a Eupelycosaur because your teeth are not all the same size.

You are a Sphenaconodont because your jaw can move side to side and forward and back instead of just opening and closing like a door. This grants you the ability to chew.

You are a Therapsid because you have the ability to shiver to warm up your body.

You are a Eutherapsid because your body is sustained at a temperature warmer than your environment.

You are a Neotherpasid because your legs are held under your body instead of being splayed out to the sides and because you have a spine the moved better forward and back instead of side to side.

You are a Theriodont because you have differentiated types of teeth including canine teeth in the front of your jaw. You also have a chamber in your nose for mucous membranes and 7 vertebrae in your neck.

You are a Eutheriodont because you have a secondary palate in your mouth that separates it from the nasal cavity. This means you can chew and breathe at the same time.

You are a Cynodont because your mandible is all one bone instead of multiple bones. The other bones that used to be part of the jaw are tiny remnants at the back. These bones would eventually evolve into the inner ear bones many clades later. You also have a heel on the back of your feet.

You are an Epicynodont because the teeth in the side of your jaw are differentiated into multiple types instead of all being the same shape.

You are a Eucynodont because you also do not have a parietal eye and because you do not have abdominal ribs, which allows for the presence of a diaphragm.

You are in the clade Prozostrodontia because your molars have two roots and are coated in enamel.

You are a Mammaliamoform because you were born toothless and grow only two sets of teeth in your life: baby teeth and adult teeth. Mammaliaform means "mammal-shaped" but they aren't mammals yet. There are still a few traits that need to evolve before true mammals showed up on the scene.

You are in the clade Mammalia because of the way your jaw articulated with the rest of the skull.

You are a Theriomorph because you have external ears instead of just holes in the sides of your head. The ancestors of the Monotreme and Platypus would have branched off somewhere around here because they don't have external ears.

You are a Trechnothere because of modifications in the elbow, scapula, and heel that help you move better.

You are a Cladothere because your ear canal goes through a coil instead of being a straight line.

You are in the clade Zatheria because you have nipples. Prior to theis, mammals had to sweat milk out of their pores for their young to lap up. Platypus and Echidnas still do this.

You are in the clade Tribosphenida because you or someone you know has a vagina and anus that are separate holes instead of being combined into a cloaca. Platypus and Echidnas still have a cloaca.

You are a Therian because you were born live instead of in an egg. Placental mammals and marsupials diverge at this point.

You are Eutherian because you were attached to a placenta while in utero.

You are a Placentalian because you do not have an epipubic bone. This allos babies to be born larger and more developed. You would think this would be the clade where placentas appear, but nope.

You are in the clade Boreoeutheria because you or someone you know has external testicles enclosed in a scrotum.

You are a Euarchontoglire. This clade has been established based on genetic rather than morphology. It divides into two groups: the Euarchontids and the Glires. You are on the Euarchontid side. The Glire side includes rodents.

You are a Primatomorph because you have adaptations like binocular vision and better balance that allow for life in the trees. These adaptations evolved independently in multiple lineages, a phenomenon called convergent evolution.

You are a primate because your eye sockets are fully enclosed by bone and you have opposable thumbs.

You are a Haplorrhine because your nose is dry rather than kept wet with mucus like a dog's.

You are in the clade Anthropoidea, sometimes called Simiiformes, because you do not have sensory whiskers but you do have color vision, breasts on the pectoral muscles, and you or someone you know has a naked penis that is not retracted into a sheathe. This is the clade for monkeys. Despite what you may have heard, you are a monkey.

You are in the clade Catarrhini, old world monkeys, because your nostrils face down instead of sideways, flat fingernails instead of claws, and tails that are diminished or gone all together.

You are in the clade Hominoidea, apes, because you have no tail and your shoulders can do a full rotation.

You are in the clade Hominidae, great apes, because you have fingerprints and the same structure you your eyes and ears as the other great apes.

You are a Hominine because you walk upright on the ground instead of knuckle-walking.

You are in the genus Homo, a human, because you have a large skull cavity allowing for a large brain that grants the ability to create complex languages, tools, and philosophy. Other human species include Home erectus (which may be our ancestors), Homo floresiensis (who only got about half as tall as we do as the result of island dwarfism), and Homo neanderthalensis (the Neanderthals, a cousin species to us which was closely related to us to allow for interbreeding. The majority of people alive today who are of European descent have some Neanderthal DNA in them).

Finally, you are in the species Homo sapiens, who originated in sub-Saharan Africa and spread throughout Eurasia in multiple successive waves of migration (some of which went back into Africa), before spreading out to the Americas and Oceania. Some populations interbred with other human species like the Neanderthals and Denisovans and even though those lineages are extinct, their DNA lives on in their modern human descendants. We have the most developed prefrontal cortexes of any ape, allowing for a greater degree of creativity and innovation that likely allowed us to out-compete all the other human species and innovate technology and philosophy to a greater degree than any human species.

[eyesofaspens]

augggghhhhh THE STERNUM IS IN FRONT OF THE RIBCAGE THE SKULL IS SCIENTIFICALLY CALLED THE CRANIUM THE PELVIS BONES ARE COMMONLY CALLED THE HIPS THE FEMUR IS LOCATED IN THE THIGH IT IS THE LARGEST BONE IN THE BODY BABIES START WITH AROUND 300 BONES BUT THEY FORM TOGETHER INTO 206 AS THEY GROW OLDER THE HUMERUS IS THE UPPER ARM BONE THE JAW’S REAL NAME IS THE MANDIBLE THE LIVER MAKES AN ENZYME CALLED BILE AND EITHER GALLBLADDER OR PANCREAS STORES IT I CANT REMEMBER THE TRACHEA IS THE WINDPIPE BUT THE ESOPHAGUS HAS THE SAME NAME THE HUMAN BODY HAS TO WORK TOGETHER TO MAINTAIN HOMEOSTASIS WHIVH BASICALLY MEANS THE BODY IS FUNCTIONING WELL AND TAKEN CARE OF

sorry chat i gave into the voices i love the human body

thank you i dreamt about the skeletal system

[sifu-kisu]

The secret of Xingyiquan standing practice: stretching the tendons and bones, and the internal energy of Dantian

Ma Yisong's Traditional Internal Xingyiquan

The Xingyiquan practice system consists of Zhuanggong, Wuxingquan, Twelvexingquan and actual combat confrontation. Zhuanggong is a relatively static practice of internal alchemy. Zhuangzhuang includes practicing six forces, stretching tendons and bones, and Dantian internal energy. Eight methods and Wuxingquan are to find five kinds of strength, and Twelvexingquan is to imitate the inspiration of animals. The six forces are found in Zhuangfa, the eight methods are the movement laws of forces, and the twelvexing are the movement forms of forces (imitating animals). The key to getting started with Xingyiquan is how to find the six-sided forces from Zhuanggong. Finding the six-sided forces will find the fist strength (Zhuangjin), and you will understand the difference between practicing internal boxing and doing exercises. The secret to finding the fist strength is to stretch the tendons and bones in the body and form internal energy.

1. The connotation of Xingyiquan's stretching of muscles and bones and Dantian internal energy, mainly explaining stretching of muscles and bones.

1. The difference between internal and external tendon stretching and bone pulling

The tendon and bone stretching in Xingyiquan is different from the tendon stretching in leg stretching, splits, lower back bending, etc., which is done by bending and deforming the limbs in a large range, fast rhythm, and mechanically. It is done in a relatively static (peristaltic) standing state, through the training of inner vision and breathing, and the stirring of internal energy, so that the tendons expand and the bones are propped up. It is like an "open" umbrella, with tendons like keels, bones like umbrella handles, and skin like raincoats. The bones are stretched and the tendons are propped up, and the bones and flesh are separated. The stretching force is the internal force of Dantian, which is the superior martial arts that martial artists dream of - internal strength.

2. The state of stretching the tendons and bones in Xingyiquan

Practicing stretching the muscles and bones requires "loose but not slack, tight but not stiff", neither "slack" nor "stiff" is too much, because if it is "slack" it can only push forward, and if it is "stiff" it can only retract. They have only one-way movement space and lack changes. The half-stretched state leaves ample room for maneuver, and they can be retracted or stretched, advanced or retreated, and they can be sent and received freely.

3. The relationship between bones, muscle fibers and tendons during the state of stretching and bone pulling in the body

The main objects of Xingyiquan's internal muscle stretching and bone pulling training are bones and skeletal muscles. Skeletal muscles are mainly composed of muscle fibers and tendons (tendons and connective tissue in the muscle), and there are abundant nerve tissues and blood vessels distributed in the muscle fibers and tendons. The function of muscle fibers is to generate tension through contraction, while tendons and bones play a role in regulation, support and elasticity. Muscle fibers must be supported and connected by tendons in order for muscles to attach to bones and exert their motor functions.

Xingyiquan Zhuanggong is manifested as "tight tendons and loose flesh" under reasonable support of bones; that is, stretching tendons, pulling open the gaps between bone joints (stretching bone joint tendons), and muscle fibers are relatively relaxed. Only when muscle fibers are relatively relaxed, creating conditions for their own contraction and the stirring of qi and blood, can they be ready to go and have uninterrupted explosive power; so relaxing muscle fibers is the difficulty and core of internal cultivation of tendon support and bone pulling. In martial arts training, internal qi is stirred, tendons are tight to produce expansion, and loose flesh produces explosive power. The health station is drying wet clothes (muscle fibers) on the clothes rack (tendons and bones). The magic of "wet clothes" lies in the reasonable strengthening of gravity, not too heavy or too light, just right; then, under the pretext of bright sunshine and gentle breeze, the "clothes" move with the wind, feeling relaxed and happy. Under the condition of relatively relaxed muscle fibers, the struggle between bones and flesh, between tendons and flesh, and between tendons and bones is realized.

2. The practice method of stretching the tendons and bones in Xingyiquan

The "six-sided overall round force" of Xingyiquan is the core of practicing Yiquan, which is composed of three pairs of contradictory forces: upper and lower forces, front and back forces, and left and right forces. How to adjust your "intention" in the standing practice to form the above three pairs of forces and make the three pairs of forces coordinate and form a unified system is the key to learning Xingyiquan.

(I) Xingyiquan's Realization of the Six-sided Force Formation System in Zhuanggong

The predecessors of Xingyiquan emphasized that "parts plus parts do not equal the whole."

(1) Xingyiquan three-body posture. Guided by the mind, the body naturally forms, with five fingers grasping the ground, feet parallel and apart, shoulder-width apart, knees inward, forward and upward, hips wrapped inward, buttocks sitting down and upward, chest in and back straightened, empty and energetic, shoulders supporting elbows horizontally, ten fingers slightly bent, eyes looking forward, etc., and the strength of the support state; the complex and trivial requirements of standing still are achieved in one step. This is the best state for half squat jump, and it is also the state with the greatest weight on the body.

(2) The three-body standing posture: the upper and lower forces are mainly formed by sitting down and lifting up, with the chest and back pulled in; the front and back forces are mainly formed by grasping the ground with five toes and pushing forward with both knees; the left and right forces are mainly formed by bending the knees inward. The upper limbs are supported horizontally and embraced vertically, leading inside and connecting outside. The horizontal support generates front and back forces and left and right forces, and the vertical embrace generates up and down forces, which strengthens the six-sided forces. The body is a unified whole. Each group of forces is the result of the joint action of all postures, but there is a distinction between dominant and auxiliary. The above movement breakdown can help practitioners grasp the key points and learn to adjust the balance of the six-sided forces.

(II) Xingyiquan constructs a system of stretching tendons and bones in the body during standing practice

Step 1. Stand in the three-body posture to build a longitudinal internal muscle and bone stretching system. In the standing posture, first build the three-arch power-competing system of the spine arch, arm arch, and leg arch. Hold the chest and stretch the back, focus on the coccyx and Baihui, connect the spine to form a spine arch; pull the shoulders and elbows horizontally, bend the ten fingers slightly, focus on the fingertips and shoulders to form an arm arch; position the knees (inward and forward), wrap the hips inward, lift the buttocks and sit down, focus on the five toes grasping the ground, connect the legs to form a leg arch.

Notes on cultivation:

1. Xingyiquan's intention is at the force end: the formation of each bow is composed of two contradictory forces, and the intention is at the force end (the end points of fingers, toes, top of the head and coccyx). The position of the intention directly affects the effect of stretching the tendons and bones. For example, for the arm bow, if the intention is at the elbow, the wrist and finger joints cannot be relaxed and stretched; if the intention is at the wrist, the finger joints lose their function; if the intention is at the force end, the arm and fingers gradually extend, the bow becomes longer and longer, each joint is fully relaxed, and at the same time, the local force in the body is prevented from hurting the body.

2. The intention of the bow back should not be too heavy: The bow back is like a thin rubber band, which is easy to break and needs to be carefully cared for. If the intention is heavy, the qi will stagnate, and the spirit will not be empty, which will harm the body. Many practitioners are controlled by their intentions. What Yiquan practices is kung fu and physical health, not "intentions". The intention is just a boat to cross the river. After crossing the river, you have to abandon the boat. At the beginning, the intention is heavy, and the more you practice, the lighter it will be. When the intention is gone, kung fu will be practiced.

3. Xingyiquan's force ends can be combined arbitrarily to form various "bow" round systems: starting from the basic three bows, the force ends can be combined arbitrarily to form a round force system. When one end point moves, the other end points must be adjusted accordingly, and the outer three combinations are completed.

4. The spinal arch of Xingyiquan is the core of practice

To cultivate the spinal arch, we need to change the original physiological curvature of the spine. People are used to holding their heads high, chests straight, and hips up. The spine is in its original state, with two major curvatures formed at the head and chest and waist and hips. These are two major obstacles to cultivating the spinal arch. We need to loosen the spine segment by segment to form a spinal arch, while avoiding bending the abdomen, turning the pelvis, and holding the breath. It is extremely difficult to loosen each segment of the spine, and it is also a secret of each martial art. People who can loosen the segments one by one can basically do it, rarely encounter opponents, and live a healthy and long life.

3. The health-preserving significance of Xingyiquan's internal tendon and bone stretching and the formation of Dantian internal qi

Stretching the muscles and bones and activating the internal energy in Dantian are effective methods for cultivating both sex and life.

1. Adjust your posture and breathing. Life is composed of tangible substances (skin, muscles, bones, internal organs, etc.) and intangible qi. The existence of qi makes tangible substances have the life characteristics of metabolism. Qi drives blood along the internal pipes to transport nutrients to various tissues and cells, clean up garbage, and prolong life. Healthy babies are full of qi and blood, like a baby with qi rushing, because during infancy, the muscles and bones are flexible and elastic, which can completely open the pipes in the body that transport nutrients, and the qi and blood flow smoothly. With age, bones and muscles gradually age, stiffen, and atrophy, squeezing the pipes that transport nutrients, making the pipes narrower, and some pipes are even blocked. When most of the pipes are blocked, life is over. Practicing stretching muscles and pulling bones and Dantian internal qi, through the effects of "supporting" and "pulling" forces and Dantian internal qi, gradually activates the meridians, dredges the pipes, makes the qi and blood flow smoothly, nourishes the internal organs, and then makes life full of vitality and prolongs life. This is the best practice method to effectively return to the "baby state".

2. Adjust the mind. Practicing the stretching of the muscles and bones and the internal energy of the Dantian is the Taoist way of Dan, and the value lies in "Tao follows nature". In real life, many people's thoughts and behaviors violate the laws of nature. Fighting for fame and fortune, intrigue, smoking, drinking, overeating, staying up late and other behaviors accelerate the aging of the body. In the process of practice, in order to improve the power, the practitioner must overcome all kinds of physical discomfort and abnormal painful reactions, which requires the correct method and extraordinary perseverance, determination and persistence; this will force the practitioner to calm down, think deeply about society and himself, reflect on his previous work style and life habits, change unnatural thoughts and behaviors, and gradually put the body and mind on the right track of healthy development to prolong life.