iamthekaijuking

[iamthekaijuking]

I think I might have Mandela affected myself.

If I did promise someone first dibs next time I open comms and I forgot I’m so sorry 😭

I feel like I promised someone first dibs when I reopen commissions but I’m forgetting

I’m not reopening coms btw, I need to make a skull for a vid and my flying wyvern tree, and maybe Xu Wu anatomy. I might take a few coms after that though.

[iamthekaijuking]

I feel like I promised someone first dibs when I reopen commissions but I’m forgetting

I’m not reopening coms btw, I need to make a skull for a vid and my flying wyvern tree, and maybe Xu Wu anatomy. I might take a few coms after that though.

[iamthekaijuking]

Further validation for rotifer Xu, some species like Stephanoceros fimbriatus have modified their corona (the lips around the mouth) into tentacles

There are some anatomical issues that come with rotifers being so small, such as not having a respiratory or circulatory system and instead just having a bunch of cells with no membranes full of plasma. But they’ve been around since at least the Jurassic, and at most the Devonian, so that’s plenty of time to evolve into megafauna. (Also their lifespan is measured in days so that certainly gives them a head start in evolving)

A better look at Xu Wu

So Xu Wu is one of the new cephalopod monsters but after closer examination it might not be a cephalopod and instead something else, but what exactly I don’t know.

Baby Xu and Nu and their eggs for comparison. Xu’s have little butt mouths but are otherwise just nubs with more nubs while Nu actually look like baby/flapjack octopus.

Cross section of Xu’s arm in comparison to a Nu arm and actual octopus arm and starfish arm.

And a look at the mantle, mouth (note that there isn’t a beak), and some kind of indent at the top of the head which could be an oriface? Something else to note is that the underside of the arms can “close” like a starfish and the tentacle tips can basically 3d print blades of hard dry mucus. So yeah Xu Wu looks like an octopus on the outside but under the hood it’s something else.

Meanwhile the only extremely weird thing about Nu anatomy wise is that the mantle is a little small and the siphon points backwards, but we can probably handwave that last one as not the end of the digestive tract being backwards but rather the siphon just kinda loops back 180 degrees. Also you never see under Nu’s mantle in the fight anyways so it’s probably not too terribly important a detail and just something the model designers did to make the job a little easier for the animation department (the cephalopod rig already pushes what the RE engine can do).

Possible explanation for Xu’s oddities hidden below because story spoilers

There could be the possibility that the ancestors of Xu Wu got into some gene editing materials when moving to the ruins of Wyveria to eat their genetically amalgamated homunculi, thus supremely fucking them up.

[iamthekaijuking]

I’m really enjoying my rotifer idea for Xu Wu because rotifers are cool and Xu is cool, so together it’s like double cool

[iamthekaijuking]

So with the models on hand we now know that Xu doesn’t have a beak or siphon.

Xu Wu’s classification is going to bother me forever unless I assign it to at least a *phylum*. Because it’s not a cephalopod.

So fuck it

Megafaunal rotifer

It could even make its chirping and stridulating sounds with a modified mastax, and the special weaponized mucus can be produced by the retrocerebral organ. The bulbous head can just be a massive stomach and the mantle can be a foot that has just become a sack of intestines.

A better look at Xu Wu

So Xu Wu is one of the new cephalopod monsters but after closer examination it might not be a cephalopod and instead something else, but what exactly I don’t know.

Baby Xu and Nu and their eggs for comparison. Xu’s have little butt mouths but are otherwise just nubs with more nubs while Nu actually look like baby/flapjack octopus.

Cross section of Xu’s arm in comparison to a Nu arm and actual octopus arm and starfish arm.

And a look at the mantle, mouth (note that there isn’t a beak), and some kind of indent at the top of the head which could be an oriface? Something else to note is that the underside of the arms can “close” like a starfish and the tentacle tips can basically 3d print blades of hard dry mucus. So yeah Xu Wu looks like an octopus on the outside but under the hood it’s something else.

Meanwhile the only extremely weird thing about Nu anatomy wise is that the mantle is a little small and the siphon points backwards, but we can probably handwave that last one as not the end of the digestive tract being backwards but rather the siphon just kinda loops back 180 degrees. Also you never see under Nu’s mantle in the fight anyways so it’s probably not too terribly important a detail and just something the model designers did to make the job a little easier for the animation department (the cephalopod rig already pushes what the RE engine can do).

Possible explanation for Xu’s oddities hidden below because story spoilers

There could be the possibility that the ancestors of Xu Wu got into some gene editing materials when moving to the ruins of Wyveria to eat their genetically amalgamated homunculi, thus supremely fucking them up.

[iamthekaijuking]

The new blossom festival for wilds… I feel like I’m 16 playing the spring festival in world all over again…

[iamthekaijuking]

The new Polypterygia tree!

Not a whole lot changed outside of species being added. But piscine wyverns finally got a scientific name and Somnacanth has its own family of leviathans. Because this is just building off the last iteration, there is still fanon and recontextualizing and reworking many outlandish traits some of these monsters have and basically giving some of canon/what some of the hunters guild tells us the middle finger for the sake of more interesting theories.

Once again thanks to @mayfly0678 for the name “Polypterygia” and Lizardwizard for the spore theory.

And of course, here’s the almost 20,000 word google doc to go with it.

Now I have to do the same thing with bird and flying wyverns, except I have to make a document from scratch for it… ughhh

[iamthekaijuking]

We literally just found life on another planet and everybody is just like "and?" Life on earth so wild rn we don't even care 💀💀

[iamthekaijuking]

Before I forget today

Let us not forget the reason we celebrate Easter

The Four Wise Ultramen shot sternum lasers into ultraseven’s forehead while stapled to the cross so you could eat chocolate and jellybeans

Be sure to scarf them down before the Easter marsupial encases them in his plastic poops

[iamthekaijuking]

The new Polypterygia tree!

Not a whole lot changed outside of species being added. But piscine wyverns finally got a scientific name and Somnacanth has its own family of leviathans. Because this is just building off the last iteration, there is still fanon and recontextualizing and reworking many outlandish traits some of these monsters have and basically giving some of canon/what some of the hunters guild tells us the middle finger for the sake of more interesting theories.

Once again thanks to @mayfly0678 for the name “Polypterygia” and Lizardwizard for the spore theory.

And of course, here’s the almost 20,000 word google doc to go with it.

Now I have to do the same thing with bird and flying wyverns, except I have to make a document from scratch for it… ughhh

[iamthekaijuking]

If you were to design creatures with 'elemental' abilities in a mostly grounded spec-evo world, do you have an idea of what you would want them to be and/or if what abiotic factors you would add to make them more plausible (like the abundance of minerals in Monhun leading to your biomineralization theory)? Given the seeming acknowledgement of 'Elemental Energy' when it comes to the Inclemencies/Arkveld (according to Erik's dialogue after Arkveld kills Uth Duna), it does feel like the 5 elements of Monster Hunter (Fire, Water, Thunder, Ice, Dragon) are not primarily a game mechanic anymore and are rather immersed into the lore (outside of weapon flavor text). This question would technically apply to ailments as well, but there are so many toxins that run the gamut of most conceivable status effects, from paralysis to psychoactivity, that it probably wouldn't be much of a question.

More biomineralization definitely but I’d play around with where elemental creatures are.

For instance fire or heat creatures I’d not have in volcanic areas because if everything is adapted to a super hot environment then fire isn’t going to hurt them, I’d instead move them to arctic regions where everything is adapted to the cold but have no defense against overheating.

Ice creatures would be moved to tropical regions where there’s plenty of water around to freeze.

Higher trophic level creatures would rely more on brute strength as well with minimal elements or ailments aside from defensive abilities. Large herbivores would get the craziest attacks because they have reason to and can afford strange shit.

[iamthekaijuking]

Where do you think Cephalopods as a monster class can go in the future? Personally smth like pack hunters, jet-propelled fliers, and even inspirations from ancient Cephalopods like Ammonites would be what I’d like to see

Pack hunters and fliers definitely, but if underwater combat comes back then maybe a Cthulhu reference would be cool. I conceptualized one a few days ago after I pitched two monhun game ideas, because my last one (a story focused on the ancient civilization with the flagship being an extinct flying wyvern and the final boss being the EDW) ended up becoming real.

Maybe I’ll illustrate it one day, but no promises. Once I make a promise I become bound to it and it will constantly nag me until I fulfill it years later. I swear monster-creator-12 that I’ll review Fragment I swear Revretch I’ll make Humans B Gone x Guardianverse fanart.

[iamthekaijuking]

Gaslight District goes hard

[iamthekaijuking]

THEYRE AVAILABLE NOW

MORE ARMORED CORE

Be nice if we could get for answer or verdict day but still

[iamthekaijuking]

Given your theory of the Storm Serpents being derived from parasitic ancestors, do you think that large (though not necessarily megafaunal) tetrapod endoparasites are plausible in the Monster Hunter setting? Perhaps as small monsters that (attempt) parasitism of some larger ones during hunts? Such niches tend to quite restricted to invertebrates in our world, but given how the Storm Serpents (seemingly) have bones, I imagine that there could readily be some other derived wyverns or heavily derived amphibians which could manage such a niche. I assume mammals (and most small avian wyverns) are generally not too viable for this, as being endothermic probably ain't best for such a lifestyle. Note: I know that Neopterans exist and would be literally amazing for a parasitic niche in a future game, but I feel that Capcom is far less interested in insect ecology after they made Lala Barina have a distinct Rose-like abdomen and didn't have any Neopterans native to the Scarlet Forest that the Barinas would ambush from stealth via aggressive mimicry. IT WOULD HAVE WORKED SO WELL!!!!!!

Vertebrate endoparasites are almost entirely non tetrapod fish that lodge themselves into an oriface to drink blood. So the wind serpents are sorta outliers in this and by extension some piscine wyverns (both are terrestrial lobe finned fish but they aren’t tetrapods and one is significantly more specialized than the other).

Like you said, amniotes are just too specialized for the task and the only way I can imagine it working for them is if they turn into horrible fetus creatures. Maybe some kind of amphibian might work.

This is of course not counting transmissible cancer.

[iamthekaijuking]

Skull made for the video that was available for early viewing on my Patreon! (Along with the incomplete WIP)

Screenshot references were from @krmoaten-blog as always. We actually hunted a few together to study it more and she got even more screenshots. Like this one of me shoving my gunlance up its ass.

She also was the one to notice the tough spiked palate.

Because of Rompopolo’s bird face I opted to include the full beak on the skull and not go the keratin sheath route I normally do, which meant I needed anatomical reference of bird skulls with the beak on. Luckily I was in no shortage of those as not only do I own a book of skulls with a large chapter just dedicated to birds, but I also have a bird skull of my own. I obtained it from a songbird that died from a storm a few years back, and I had some ants pick it clean for me.

Some of you who have been following for a while may notice that I didn’t use my usual references when designing the rest of the skull. Normally when doing anatomical diagrams for brutes I use either tyrannosaurs, ceratosaurs, or heterodontosaurs. This time however I used parave anatomy like I do for flying and bird wyverns, because I think ’polo might be a basal member of the parave wyvern family, like the new world raptors or windrustler. Rompopolo takes some inspiration from alvarezsaurs, and while ecologically it’s very different in the past it might have been very similar.

Also I really like this monster and its armor.

Rompopolo skull and WIP available for early viewing on my Patreon!

[iamthekaijuking]

All Elders in general are pretty hard to classify as a whole, but what are your thoughts on Ceadeus? It's got a Dunkleosteus face, mammal-like horns and fur, a scaly, reptilian-looking body and a weird three-fluked tail that can move both vertically like a cetacean or horizontally like a fish or reptile.

Also what's up with the whole "their horns grow so big they eventually grow right through their eye socket" thing? The first one we encounter has already lost one eye to its overgrown horn, and the later one (the Goldbeard) has lost BOTH eyes. I suppose at this point hunting them is just a mercy kill like with Chaotic Gore Magala.

Most elders I have as a terrestrial radiation of coelacanths related to piscine wyverns and most leviathans, and Ceadeus I have as related to Mohrans and sky serpents. The family itself I have as part of a larger group that includes Kulve and Lao, but also some hairy members like the Stras. So hair isn’t so unique in the group. I should really try and finish my current version of the tree.

As for the horns and eyes my current line of thinking is that their eyesight isn’t good and they rely on their horns to sense their surroundings when deep diving, kinda like a narwhal tusk. So they kinda just messily overcompensate with their horns and it can bother them when growing.