projectkarya

[projectkarya]

Psst, lemme fill you in on a little secret....

Karya's hobbits/halflings descend from a creature similar to the European badger:

Smol little goobers? Check

Lives in complex tunnel systems? Sounds like a hobbit hole to me.

Sociable little guys that even allow other species to reside in their burrows? A proper hobbit, of course, knows to properly host their guests, no matter where they are from.

Possessing a varied diet, including things such as bugs, carrion, fruit, cereal grains, and more? They're obviously great connoisseurs that would appreciate multiple kinds of meals in a day.

Already represented in some folklore in some form of anthropomorphic way? All the better, and it fits in the spirit of Project KARYA!

Absolutely charismatic, dapper sweeties? They deserve to develop sophonce and formulate their own, darling cultures.

[projectkarya]

First off, I appreciate how much of you liked the original post I made in regards gnomes on Karya (linked above for those who haven't seen it yet!). I always like letting people in on the creative process for this worldbuilding project, and I hope it gets people interested in future works tied to Project KARYA!

Secondly, while looking into skeletal diagrams, I discovered a completely different species of primates that evolved convergent traits to tarsiers:

Galagos/Bush Babies

And, of course, being an indecisive bastard, I figured I'd let "my fans" help decide for me! So let's put it to a vote....

((reference photos for a galagos, left, and for a tarsier, right))

((reference for a galagos skeleton, left, and for a tarsier skeleton, right))

[projectkarya]

Welcome, new traveler of the Chaos! I know you may have lots of questions. You may not know where you are, you may not know where to go. Allow me, then, to introduce myself; I am Gobb'ola Mawwick, and you've stumbled upon my little study away from home. Where is my home, you ask? Why Karya, of course!

Stay a while, and feel free to peruse my grand library! The answers to your questions can easily be found, just look through the various sections to learn about my homeworld. If you don't see something that is listed, don't hesitate to Ask the Librarian (me!).

Enjoy your stay, traveler, and safe journeys on your future travels through the Chaos!

The Library's Catalogue:

Gobbi's Lessons: Learning the Basics of the Karyic Universe

Episode 1: Origins of the Karyic Universe

Episode 2: Anomalous Particles, Elements, & Effects

Episode 3: The Kezjo-Damothic Star System

Episode 4: Karya's Geological Timespan & Unique Lineages - The Homozoic Era

Episode 5: Karya's Geological Timespan & Unique Lineages - The Hemizoic Era [WIP, coming soon!]

Episode 6: Karya's Geological Timespan & Unique Lineages - The Allozoic Era [TBD]

Episode 7: Karya's Geological Timespan & Unique Lineages - Flora Edition [TBD]

Charts & Diagrams

Celestial Chart of Karya's Night Sky

Representation of the Kezjo-Damothic Star System

Measuring Time On Karya

Maps of Karya, Post-Restructuring: Topography [WIP, coming soon!]

Maps of Karya, Post-Restructuring: Climate [TBD]

Maps of Karya, Post-Restructuring: Geography [TBD]

Maps of Karya, Post-Restructuring: Ocean Circulation [TBD]

Short Works on Flora, Fauna, & Other Karyic Life

Mycophagus: An August Arachnid

Poetry & Literature of Karya

Darkness Hatching: How Night & Day Were Born

[projectkarya]

Sneak peak into Gobbi's Lessons, Episode 5: The Hemizoic Era...

Do you think more species from the Mesozoic Hemizoic era should survive to the modern day on Karya? Leave a comment!!

((context for those who are curious))

[projectkarya]

If anyone has ideas for folklore entities (preferably corporeal ones) that I should give spec evo designs for, please feel free to give suggestions! Especially non-Western/non-mainstream folklore creatures, I really want to try to expand representations of the underrepresented.

Otherwise, I hope you like this idea I had for gnomes in my setting for Project KARYA :3

So I was browsing Reddit, as one does, and good ol' r/SpeculativeEvolution hit me with this post by u/_Soft_Kiwi_:

Which got me to thinking of gnomes in general; in particular, though, interpretations that depict them as assistant workers within the household (e.g. hobgoblins/tomte)...:

...as well as some interpretations of house elves/gnomes that depict them as having tails with tufts on them, e.g. nisse from Netflix's Hilda and I swear I've seen older interpretations as well with tails:

Which, in the spirit of Project KARYA, of course, got me thinking, "what IRL creature could potentially serve as the basis for such a species on Karya?"

Introducing, Tarsiers:

As their own branch of the primate family tree, tarsiers first appeared around 45 million years ago, and fossils of extinct species have been found in regions across Europe, Asia, and even North America. Considering this, it would be easy to make spec evo a lineage that would come to be less dependent on the trees, maybe become more bipedal and saltatorial (movement by hopping), and even have one or two species becoming comfortable with the presence of sophonts to the point of inhabiting their dwellings. They would come to serve as pest control as well as "tidying up" scraps and what would otherwise be considered garbage (either to eat for themselves or to add to nests for decoration purposes).

Will sketch a potential ancestor design and post when it's finished!

[projectkarya]

So I was browsing Reddit, as one does, and good ol' r/SpeculativeEvolution hit me with this post by u/_Soft_Kiwi_:

Which got me to thinking of gnomes in general; in particular, though, interpretations that depict them as assistant workers within the household (e.g. hobgoblins/tomte)...:

...as well as some interpretations of house elves/gnomes that depict them as having tails with tufts on them, e.g. nisse from Netflix's Hilda and I swear I've seen older interpretations as well with tails:

Which, in the spirit of Project KARYA, of course, got me thinking, "what IRL creature could potentially serve as the basis for such a species on Karya?"

Introducing, Tarsiers:

As their own branch of the primate family tree, tarsiers first appeared around 45 million years ago, and fossils of extinct species have been found in regions across Europe, Asia, and even North America. Considering this, it would be easy to make spec evo a lineage that would come to be less dependent on the trees, maybe become more bipedal and saltatorial (movement by hopping), and even have one or two species becoming comfortable with the presence of sophonts to the point of inhabiting their dwellings. They would come to serve as pest control as well as "tidying up" scraps and what would otherwise be considered garbage (either to eat for themselves or to add to nests for decoration purposes).

Will sketch a potential ancestor design and post when it's finished!

[projectkarya]

Darkness Hatching; or, the Origin of Night & Day According to the Mÿurå

Compiled and transliterated by Gobb'ola Mawwick; edited and approved by the Trandelian Soceity of Higher Scholars per DE.6.23a-g and DE.8.77

Foreward: the Mÿurå people are part of the larger Haloa cultural continuum. It is believed that, due to their relatively stable isolation from other Haloan peoples for the last approximately 1300 years, and given the presence of archaeological discoveries attributed to both the Mÿurå and their ancestors, this myth may be considered the "most accurate" in relations to the original story as it was first told among the ancestors of the Haloan culture. As is common with much Mÿuråese storytelling, this tale is composed as a poem, with a distinctive A-B-C-D-C structure; transliterations made attempt to keep as true to the original meaning as possible.

The world so bright in the past,

Populated by teeming peoples,

their tongues mixing in harmony,

stretching between the banks

of the Khamos and the Varponï.

Grand huts on cliffs and shores,

with enchanting banners and lights,

allowing for wondrous food and drink

these served to host all, near and far,

and for different minds to come and think.

Songs exclaimed, clothes exchanged,

many things of interest to witness,

all the while Hamar shone above like a flame,

yet it all turned for the worse

when, in grand Chemå, the Fel Egg came.

Which trader brought it is unknown,

its origins equally bizarre to all,

yet it had an allure about its shell,

forcing all those who saw it to desire it

despite the tolling of Ama's dread bell.

Calming songs turned violent shouts,

pristine clothes turned ragged,

food and drink spilled upon Chemå's streets,

'till in the fray, the Fel Egg dropped,

and cracked beneath the crowd's feet.

From the Fel Egg sprung Darkness,

now realized for the first time by all,

followed by a multitude of fiends,

upon great beasts and strange rafts

they came forth to consume our dreams.

In this new Darkness many would fall,

to blade or one's own Darkness the same,

and for many years there was no harmony,

nothing but despair and destruction between

the banks of the Khamos and the Varponï.

Then one day, Her Majesty of Radiance

came forth to set things right again,

and with great effort set ahead to quell

those infernal burdens that sprang forth

from the Fel Egg's fractured shell.

Yet despite driving back the fiends,

curing the land of its plagues and woes,

Darkness refused to bend or kneel,

so Her Majesty sought out a solution

to even partially being Darkness to heel.

Across the world She flew to its edges,

seeking the purest of materials

to build great sources of radiant light,

in a bid to limit the span of Darkness

to only the depths and to Night.

First, from many a mountain top,

She carved out swathes of rock and dirt,

shaping it with her essence and the Great Spoon,

then set it all to the sky where Darkness dwelt,

to form the Travelers and the celestine Moon.

Yet Darkness still remained too strong,

so Her Majesty, with great resolve,

took her remaining self and cast it high,

and with a great burst of light,

became the radiant Sun up in the Sky.

Finally, Darkness quaked at Her rays,

which burned a multitude of holes

to form in Darkness's side the stars,

forcing Darkness to flee across the heavens,

seeking out unlit lands out afar.

Her Radiance pursued her quarry,

across the sky both her and Darkness fly,

returning in cycles to the land,

neither as powerful together than when alone,

Finally abating the force of Darkness's hand.

Now, we praise Her Radiance as she comes,

keeping the Day alight with her presence,

but when Night comes from the fleeing of Darkness,

we take up torch and flame to light the way,

in hopes for the end of this cycle, we bless.

[projectkarya]

Man I'm really finding my niche here on Tumblr it seems, Project KARYA knocks out almost all of these

The Uqaric Desert, being the region from which Parvahomo sapiens (analagous to dwarves in Project KARYA) originate from, has a long history of cultures that revere the sand-coated, sun-touched lands that they call home (not to mention the origination of mass-produced spider silk thanks to some rather unique oases)

The entirety of the northern supercontinent of Omuros fits this bill. Capping the north pole of Karya and spreading out southwards, the coasts are lowlands while the interior is extremely mountainous with a multitude of isolated cultures spread throughout. Due to its location, the uphill/downhill distinction really does become more prominent and important here than anywhere else.

Oh we've got islands and archipelagos out the wazoo, just take your pick with what kind of environment you're looking for (plenty of tropical options, sure, but we even have regions delving into subtropics, temperate, and even tundra zones)

While not taking specific inspiration from any one culture, one big thing about Project KARYA will be its particular focus on the Age of Reclamation, a time period in which peoples that have just survived a great and terrible cataclysm must rebuild from the very bottom, up. We'll thus be able to eventually see unique forms of architecture develop as new cultures adapt to their new environments, eeking out a new meaning of life in a newly birthed world. Thousands of years will pass by, all the while cultures will grow, diverge, die off, and leave multitudes of evidence for complex societies much as Tiwanaku et al have done.

Once again, the Age of Reclamation will be a time period of peoples from various species forming new civilizations after multiple millennia of just getting back to the basics again. The foundation of city-states will be one of the last moments in the Age of Reclamation, taking place in the last thousand of its 15,000 year duration. Some may even just pull through to last into future ages!

Oh ho ho, my dear lovelies....just wait until you look at the full collection of "extinct-turned-extant" lineages on Karya (check out Episode 4 of Gobbi's Lessons for the first installment in such examples!)

settings I would love to see more in fantasy:

Deserts, but like, positive. Deserts portrayed as beautiful places full of life and wonder. Desert as homeland, desert as a place of beauty and intrinsic value.

Mountains. Andean-style settings where the world is mountainous and the land is organized into altitude zones, where uphill/downhill are more meaningful than east/west

Island archipelagos. We’ve gotten a few in fantasy recently but 1) I want More 2) I want someone to do a Fantasy Kula Ring

Something inspired by Tiwanaku or Chavín de Huántar

Independent city-states. They all are unified by basically the same culture but they are all also politically independent variously at war, making alliances, happily trading, in a trade war, conquered and subordinate to other city-states, founding new city-states, travelling to the central temples of other city-states’ patron gods, etc.

Full of prehistoric animals that never coexisted with humans but they do in this fantasy world because they’re Cool

[projectkarya]

Friendly PSA to fellow writers who love STEM:

Do your best to combat the spread of misinformation and anti-intellectualism by making sure the terminology you use is true to what their definition actually is. For example, "the Scientific Method" is not a religious ideology, yet I've noticed a common misconception (as well as a dogwhistle for many far-right/alt-right individuals, including those in positions of power or influence) is people saying that scientists "absolutely refuse to accept anything that doesn't fit within the scientific method" (looking at you @kmt7878)

What this fails to address is that the Scientific Method isn't something you just call upon to dismiss anything that doesn't fit within a given worldview; it's not a religious dogma. It's a step-by-step method to determine the what/when/where/how of a phenomemon. As a refresher, the steps of Scientific Method is:

Ask an initial question pertinent to the phenomenon

Look up background information on the phenomenon to see if it's been previously researched/discussed

Formulate two hypotheses, one null and one alternative

Design and conduct an experiment to study the phenomenon based around your hypotheses (this can be repeated ad nauseam as necessary)

Draw a conclusion based on your findings

Form a discussion on the implications of your findings, as well as potential for improvement on your own experiment(s) and potential errors/flaws conducted on your part

Publish your findings so that others may have the chance to repeat the process in order to filter out human error via peer review.

If, for instance, you then try and say that a society rigorously adheres to science and following the scientific method, you cannot then say that "they dismiss anything that doesn't fit within the scientific method". Literally everything fits within the scientific method, that's the point of it in the first place, to properly analyze everything around us. Trying to then say that people that supposedly follow the scientific method are thus susceptible to having themselves to being blinded about the world around them is thus unrealistic at best and, at worst, is actively trying to discourage one from thinking critically.

In short, if you're gonna use scientific terminology, actually use it correctly. Otherwise, you're doing a terrible disservice and disrespecting the hard work and diligence put in by those who've done their best to bring understanding of the world around us, by pushing false narratives that serve the interest of anti-intellectuals.

((my major is in Public Health, which, among other things, involves making sure the general population is properly educated and not at risk of being manipulated by academic dishonesty of the sciences. this post is meant to educate, especially for the benefit of @kmn7878 who decided to block me after valid criticism of their works was brought up to them while failing to properly focus on what the criticisms were actually addressing.))

[projectkarya]

So I know that I set the last poll for a full week but that's just because there was no other option that is longer than a day lol; so I am calling the poll here since the lead has been that way pretty strongly since the start:

Looks like people enjoy the thought that Karya's freshwater cephalopods should be most closely related to cuttlefish! I enjoyed this idea myself more than the other two as well, and I've already got ideas on the potential evolutionary pathways needed to be taken for freshwater habitation to be truly achieved. However, as @talesofemeraldisle pointed out, squid may have a better chance based on certain anatomical modifications to survive the transition. While good points were made, something within me says that squid may be too fragile and too specialized for marine lifestyles.

Then, it struck me - in the spirit of Project KARYA, why not simply turn to Earth's fossil records for a sort of compromise? Perhaps there's an extinct cephalopod group that would mix the right elements of both cuttlefish and squid to believably make it through to conquer a multitude of freshwater environments....

INTRODUCING: BELEMNITES

((diagrams thanks to Wikipedia's article on belemnites))

Body structure that would allow for better propulsion modifications, including easily reversing directions? Check.

Rather generalized limbs that would allow for future specialization to fill multiple niches, along with hooks that are badass and useful? Check.

Internal, ossified structure that, along with providing additional protection, would be amazing to see used in a variety of ways across cultures on Karya that would come to revere several species of these cephalopods as important to their way of life? Checkamundo (plus, I feel, an appropriate nod to my lovely PNW and the indigenous cultures here that have historically depended on the various salmon runs)

Plus, belmnites (of the clade Belemnitida, in the red circle) are considered more basal/plesiomorphic than either squids (mostly within clades Loliginidae and Ommastrephidae, in the yellow circle) or cuttlefish (of the clade Sepiidae, in the green circle). It would allow for the resulting modern Karyic clade (which I'm dubbing Osteoteuthidae), I feel, to diversify to a far greater degree than if I tried to have the clade be based on an already extant clade.

[projectkarya]

We've finally done it! The Crown has reached its peak(s)!

The inner-most mountain range of Karya's northern supercontinent is known as the Crown. Ringing the supercontinent like its namesake adornment, these peaks serve as a natural barrier between the outer reaches of Omuros and the rest of Karya, and the vast Frozen Sea that caps the planet's north pole. Many regions of the Crown possess peaks in excess of 30,000 feet, taller than Earth's Everest/Sagarmatha/Qomolangma, and well past the atmosphere's "Death Zone". Almost wholly inaccessible to sophonts prior to the Third Era, the Crown would serve as the dominion for powerful entities that would keep watch over the planet for many, many millenia, working from behind the curtains to maintain its security.

[projectkarya]

Hey, y'all! I know a lot of you have been enjoying my posts on Project KARYA, and so I wanted to include my small number of fans on the worldbuilding process itself with a little vote! Further information below, but TL;DR I wanted to have freshwater cephalopods in my world because none exist IRL, and I want fan input on what you'd prefer to see in this sci-fintasy setting!

This hypothetical cephalopod clade evolved over tens of millions of years in what used to be a saltwater bay that had some river outlets connected to it, producing variably brackish regions.

Over time the bay would find itself cut off from its larger source of salt water, becoming an enclosed salt lake. Continuing inflow from rivers as well as inundation with rain water can cause cycles of increasing and decreasing salinity, putting pressure on those that can tolerate the changes; perhaps during this time we see a lineage develop thicker skin that's better at preventing internal osmotic changes, as well as some internal physiological changes to help retain salt content (perhaps a specialized organ, or change in the cephalopods' gill cellular structure?).

After a while, the salt lake forms an outflow, and slowly the salt content decreases, forcing more pressure on being able to retain salt, probably resulting in even thicker skin and/or more complex kidneys. As the lake forms more currents, more complex ways to effectively move in this changing environment develop. I'm thinking various forms of limb modification/enlargement to perhaps better manipulate the environment, increase the chances of catching prey, or even, in conjunction with a strengthening of the jet propulsion system and of side flaps to become more "wing-like"/better at pushing the animal through the water in conjunction with a stronger jet propulsion and the ability to manipulate body and limb shape to maximize aerodynamics.

After tens of millions of years, the once-saltwater bay now-freshwater lake now has a fairly diverse clade of thick-skinned, strange-armed cephalopods that have occupied various niches within their environment and coming in a variety of shapes and sizes. Maybe, with another few million years, one species will find it's better able to tolerate the more saline waters towards the end of the lake's outlet river, and, perhaps, are capable of finding ways to colonize other areas of fresh water through continual evolutionary cycles of adapting to salinity changes.

[projectkarya]

As I post this my partner is singing the one line from the Hamilton song "Non-Stop" (How do you write like you're running out of time? Write day and night like you're running out of time?), so yeah I wanted to share the sense of the scale I've put into Project KARYA.

Introducing, the Kezjo-Damothic Star System, in all of its glory. Couldn't upload the image itself to Tumblr unfortunately because the file is too damn large lmao

[projectkarya]

A collection of images used to represent the Homozoic era of Karya's geological timeline. Created with MS Paint.

I always fear some of the images I make for the in the Gobbi's Lessons aren't as good of quality than if I posted them separately, so I wanted to post them in full view here!

[projectkarya]

An update on the topography map for Karya! With the first main ridgeline of the Omuric Ranges completed, we now move on to the "Inner Crown", which fully encircles the supercontinent of Omuros and isolates the great Frozen Sea from the rest of the world. We've officially started seeing mountain ranges with maximum elevations in excess of 30,000 feet, well beyond the Death Zone of climbing that we know here on Earth.

It's within these inaccessible, montane regions that one may find hidden secrets of Karya's ancient and darkened past...

[projectkarya]

I'm currently reading through the lessons and I must say that I adore the gentle, storybook quality you've written these lessons it! It's very sweet and cozy.

Thank you! I try and have both slideshows and narrations available, for both quick information on-the-go as well as a more in-depth look at how the universe looks and works (at least from Gobb'ola's perspective)

[projectkarya]

Behold, a meme

((totally didn't put too much effort into this meme on my setting Project KARYA I made quite a while ago, but I hope you enjoy!))