ginkgoals

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holy shit

the website telling us if steam is down IS DOWN

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Concept art for Brutal, ancient god of shapeshifting and the first were-beast, grandfather of all werewolves.

Many years ago, before mankind could read or write, there was a forested glen considered holy and sacred by the prophets of the day.

Brutal was a hunter and a trapper, who had entered the glen chasing quarry, and struck down and killed a wild animal with an arrow there. The prophets discovered his trespassing while he was skinning the animal.

In a rage, they punished him for defiling the glen by skinning him alive, and hanging his skin to dry as he had with the animal.

Brutal did not die.

The hunter, delirious from pain, made his way back to his hut, and pulled the hanging skins of animals down to cover himself. This preserved his life, and as the skins became a part of him his body began to change to fill its many forms.

The glen is now a barren ruin, strewn with the shredded remains of the prophets, the animals and anything and anyone else foolish enough to stand witness to the carnage.

The holy glen is now ruled by a new god.

A god of shapeshifting.

A god of the hunt.

A god of revenge.

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The cycle of the Avatar begins anew.

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I think what I love most about mythology is that the “Trickster God/Spirit” is an archetypical character found in almost every body of folklore. It’s like “Oh, here’s our God of the Sun, our God of the Sea, our God of Fertility, and our God of Being A Wretched Little Gremlin Who Causes Problems On Purpose”

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There used to be a lot of activities that took place around a populated area like a village or town, which you would encounter before you reached the town itself. Most of those crafts have either been eliminated in the developed world or now take place out of view on private land, and so modern authors don't think of them when creating fantasy worlds or writing historical fiction. I think that sprinkling those in could both enrich the worlds you're writing in and, potentially, add useful plot devices.

For example, your travelers might know that they're near civilization when they start finding trees in the woods that have been tapped, for pitch or for sap. They might find a forester's trap line and trace it back to his hut to get medical care. Maybe they retrace the passage of a peasant and his pig out hunting for truffles. If they're coming along a coast, maybe your travelers come across the pools where sea water is dried down to salt, or the furnaces where bog iron ore is smelted.

Maybe they see a column of smoke and follow it to the house-sized kilns of a potter's yard where men work making bricks or roof tiles. From miles away they could smell the unmistakeable odor of pine sap being rendered down into pitch, and follow that to a village. Or they hear the flute playing of a shepherd boy whiling away the hours in the high pasture.

They could find the clearing where the charcoal burners recently broke down an earth kiln, and follow the hoof prints and drag marks of their horse and sledge as they hauled the charcoal back to civilization. Or follow the sound of metal on stone to a quarry or gravel pit. Maybe they know they're nearly to town when they come across a clay bank with signs of recent clay gathering.

Of course around every town and city there will be farms, more densely packed the closer you are. But don't just think of fields of grains or vegetables. Think of managed woodlands, like maybe trees coppiced-- cut and then regrown--to customize the shape or size of the branches. Cows being grazed in a communal green. Waiting as a huge flock of ducks is driven across the road. Orchards in bloom.

If they're approaching by road, there will be things best done out of town. The threshing floor where grain is beaten with flails or run through crushing wheels to separate the grain from its casing, and then winnowed, using the wind to carry away the chaff. Laundresses working in the river, their linens bleaching on the grass at the drying yard. The stench of the tanners, barred from town for stinking so badly. The rushing wheel-race and great creaking wheel of the flour mill.

If it's a larger town, there might be a livestock market outside the gates, with goats milling in woven willow pens or chickens in wooden cages. Or a line of horses for the wealthier buyer or your desperate travelers. There might be a red light district, escaping the regulations of the city proper, or plain old slums. More industrial yards, like the yards where fabric is dyed (these might also smell quite bad, like rotting plant material, or urine).

There are so many things that preindustrial people did and would find familiar that we just don't know about now. So much of life was lived out in the open for anyone to see. Make your world busy and loud and colorful!

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Big, big fan of when things are covered in moss or ivy. I just think it's neat.

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Pastures

Inked traditionally -> colored digitally

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🕸️🎶

✦ Print - X

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Another interesting fact about chevrotains is that, while all ruminants are thought to be descended from small, forest-dwelling omnivorous animals, the only living ruminant to keep a regularly omnivorous diet is the water chevrotain (Hyemoschus aquaticus)! They mostly consume plant matter, but also eat insects and small crustaceans and will even consume dead fish and carrion whenever the opportunity arises.

Pictures by @barnatakats and @inaturalistorg on Instagram

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most of what I'm doing lately is human OCs, so I'm thinking about committing to an actual spec bio side project...

(these guys are people, to be clear. they will have clothes and language and society. it is just going to take me a bit to get there)

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wof adopt batch

Primarily made to show off the anatomy changes to the tribes in my au

All my changes are mainly extra flair changes more than overhaul. Tusks, snake rattles, and other more animal inspo add ons. Another note is that not all dragons in the au have changed from their og counterparts. Only some have changed. Like the skywings only those who have settled further up the mountain have dawned a more wyvern build. Those below still look pretty classic. There's also regional variants especially with the icewings.

One day ill have to make a big ol master post of my au stuff cause the lore is far different than the anatomy changes. Such as no tree wars, beetlewings are alive, and knights are a thing.

Well if you are interested in offering on any of them head to my toyhouse

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Beetle bird

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Underutilize idea in speculative evolution work is making hypocarnivorous/primarily plant eating apex predators.

Probably less likely to evolve, but it has happened before.

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I've been in the warrior cats fandom for a couple of years and now I finally made fanart :3c

I started with ravenpaw because he's one of my favorites heh..… anyways these are a bit old now c':

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a Lord and his Princes

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The honesty is so funny to me. The Warriors Wiki has no idea what the hell happened to Mudsplash either

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reptilian or dinosaurian interpretations of Susie Deltarune are cool I think but to me she has only ever read as an anthropomorphic dinocephalian therapsid

like you see it right???

(Jonkeria art by Gabriel Ugueto)