#Spearmaster is easily

[kcdodger]

"To love, is to know when to let go. Even parts of yourself." I haven't actually done any Rainworld fanart yet, and this is pretty basic (but, more complex than I originally intended - I just had to color the little guy, I love him so much.) but I figured... Why not? Inspiration hit. It may not be a lot. But it means something to me.

[sparkdoesart]

Uhh day,, 10?

Worm grass!!!!!

Getting to the next ones soon!!!

[thehappiestgolucky]

I was trying to find some simple fun things to doodle and my friend basically suggested I doodle the current special interests together and that’s how the sluggies have been splooned and i’m,,,,really liking it actually sksksksksks

i’m gonna design the rest. maybe even have this as a dumbass au. it’s not the first time i’ve mixed franchises together that don’t make sense (stares at a moth in hisui)

[tropicalcontinental]

[north-winds1]

what's your favourite scug?:3

It's changed a lot since I first played downpour. Originally it was artificer but now it's between gourmand and spearmaster.

If we're talking about before downpour then it's probably monk, it's nice to just look at the environments with no threat sometimes.

I love playing as gourmand the movement and ability are very fun to mess around with. Being able to kill certain things without a weapon is also very useful.

Spearmaster's also very fun to just go hunting for creatures with or for expeditions.

[ask-suns-pup]

how long do you think it will take to get to five pebbles?

Seven Red Suns will be unavailable for asks for the rest of the cycle.

[cephalofrog]

been playing rain world and thinking about saint again recently

full rain world spoilers below

I hate the "saint is the triple affirmative" interpretation. hate even more how it appears to have become the accepted truth in the fandom

first off, my dislike for this interpretation is not logical. it isn't something I can be convinced out of using canon evidence, because my reason for not interpreting the story this way is not evidence-based, it's because I don't find it to be a satisfying conclusion to the entire story of rain world.

but here's some rambling about logical reasons why it doesn't make sense anyway

if saint was created as the triple affirmative by sliver, that makes them extremely old - they came into existence LONG before spearmaster's campaign even started. if they came into existence with the purpose of ascending iterators, they sure took a long time to ascend any iterators - like okay, travel time and whatever, but you'd think they'd get at least one or two more before all the iterator comms break down entirely post-spearmaster. SM and hunter managed to get from SRS and NSH to the pebbs/moon area pretty quickly.

they also have fur, which seems to be an adaptation for the cold judging by the lizards in the campaign, despite the world not being cold at the point at which they were created. this could be easily explained by sliver just being very forward-thinking, but...

if sliver created saint, their entire triple affirmative thing comes across as incredibly thoughtless, which imo contrasts with sliver being forward-thinking enough to make saint immune to cold. like they finally created the magical rat that will ascend them all but didn't even think to send out a message beforehand like "hey guys I'm trying something new if I send out the triple affirmative and die right after this it worked and you should be visited by a flying green dude with an ascension beam at some point in the future"

there's also the thing of... wait so how does this whole iterator ascension work again? cause saint's timeline loops. after they ascend, they end up back in sky islands, with the iterators back where they were. this could be explained by "later playthrough loops aren't canon and pebbs and moon are ascended if you got em" but there's literally a specific gameplay mechanic - carrying stuff in your stomach between campaigns - meant to make it clear that the campaign is a loop.

anyway. the real reason I hate the theory isn't related to any of this - it's that it absolutely destroys pebbles and moon's story, thematically speaking.

sliver of straw's triple affirmative/death is a random event that could mean basically anything. the futility pebbles felt around trying to solve the great problem caused him to assign meaning to sliver's death that wasn't necessarily there - they found the solution, and it was self-destruction. that's what they were trying to tell everyone. it wasn't a random event, the triple affirmative was real. one of the bugs in the maze found the way out, and he's going to prove it to everyone by following them and escaping.

and that's what leads to the events of the main story. this random event - this horrible tragedy, the death of someone who seemed to mean so much to so many people - was assigned meaning by someone desperate to prove that his entire existence, and the existences of everyone around him, are not futile. the ancients created the iterators without knowing whether the answer to the great problem could ever be found, and this is the result of that.

a nihilistic, hopeless person, abandoned by his creators to work forever on an unsolvable problem, assigns meaning to a random tragedy, and tunnel visions on what he has to believe is what he's been looking for - because it is an unimaginable understatement to say that the alternative would be worse than death. and then, in his self-destructive desperation, he kills his sibling* and dooms himself to the slowest, most painful death imaginable. this is the legacy of the ancients' dead society, the result of all of their stupid ideals and obsession with karmic perfection. (*as far as he knows)

but saint being the triple affirmative undermines all of that. not only does it make sliver's death less of a tragedy and more of a noble sacrifice - like yeah, sure, they were loved, but solving the great problem was far more important - but it also makes pebbles look less desperate and more just kinda stupid. like you thought that the solution was self-destruction? nah, it's a magical flying rat. in this version of the story, pebbles wasn't striving for something that didn't exist, he was just not smart enough to figure out the real solution.

even outside of canon evidence, that sucks. it causes pebbles' story to go from being about how you should value the people around you over the impossible striving that life always seems to expect from you or you're gonna end up hurting them and yourself to how you should just be smarter to find the right solution to all of your problems.

anyway as for my own interpretation of saint, I think that the campaign is just a representation of what it's like to be an echo. reliving the moments that led up to your failed ascension over and over, reaching maximum karma and gaining superpowers because you're just that karmically pure - you are a saint, after all - and then letting your ego consume you at the crucial moment of ascension, over and over again, cycling into infinity. (I don't think they actually had superpowers prior to ascending, I just think that they kinda thought of themselves so highly that they thought they should have those powers.) then contrast this with the world as the age of the iterators and the rain finally ends, and you have an unchanging echo reliving the same few cycles over and over contrasted with a world that is, at last, changing and moving on.

yeah it doesn't make sense with the joint iterator dialogue in rubicon (at least, the final line doesn't make sense). I don't care. it's what makes me happy as an interpretation. you can pry my morally dubious hypocritical ego-driven saint from my cold dead hands

[sugarr-moon]

in celebration of my AU slugcar lineup for the 3rd time lets go!

individuals + slugcat bios below cut

Survivor(or viv)

pronouns: any/all

an anxious, paranoid slugcat whos a nervous wreck most of the time. after their fall, their experiences lead them to be much more cautious and wary. they usually need another slugcat to accompany them whenever leaving the safety of their home, and has an irrational fear of being alone.

Monk

any/all pronouns

an optimistic, light-hearted slugcat with an introverted personality. they prefer to spend their time with their lizards rather than anyone else— besides their close friends. they’re under gourmands mentorship and guidance to become a colony healer and inventor. they have a unique tact for being able to bloom karma flowers where they please.

Hunter

any/all pronouns

a skilled fighter and adventurer. the second in command to gourmand, they’re typically indifferent and logical. with the help of monk, NSH, and gourmand, their rot has became much less of a problem, no longer being lethal. however, it still gets in the ways of their duties at points. hunter is headstrong, stoic and skilled— and a much valued member of the colony.

Gourmand(or gourm)

any/all

the up-beat and welcoming chieftain of their colony, gourmand always looks out for others. protective of their home and family, they’re somewhat hesitant to strangers and intruders. they are working on teaching the members of their colony on how to invent and forage. they’re also somewhat of a therapist, always willing to be a shoulder to lean on if anyone needs it. they’re quite stressed with this workpile, but hunter has been a great help.

Artificer(or arti)

any/all pronouns

artificer is aggressive and anti-social. most slugcats stray away from them due to their bad temper and explosive mood(pun intended). underneath the surface though, they do have good intentions. they’re very protective of the ones they love, and do care for the colony. they have a waryness to talk about their past, and a strange aggression towards scavengers. they have a soft spot for the colonys pups, and doesn’t mind looking after them.

Rivulet(or riv)

any/all

energetic, charismatic and curious. they enjoy rambling and sharing anything they find with their friends. their curiosity though sometimes gets them into trouble, and they’re quite reckless. one of the people they’re closest too, though, is of course looks to the moon, someone they consider a mentor figure. they enjoy playing light hearted pranks, and they’re usually seen around artificer— despite their contrasting personalities.

Spearmaster(or spears)

any/all

a messenger on a journey from seven red suns, they’re from an incredibly far away land. they used to be close with rivulet and hunter, before eventually having to return home. they do miss their friends, but they know that where they truly belong is with their iterator.

Saint

any/all

cold, withdrawn and somewhat egotistical. they don’t like interacting with anyone much. though, monk, someone they’d consider their pupil, does have fascinating abilities they think could help on their mission. they’re extremely devoted to attunement, and believe that any act of attachment is vile. though, their latest mistake though, has somewhat sent that world view spiralling…

Nightcat(or cosmo)

any/all

a strange, silent slugcat. they never really speak with anyone besides survivor and gourmand. they’re interested in constellations and charting them. they’re scared easily, and prefer the sound of silence. the third eye on their head belongs to that of an overseer, which can project images, which is helpful to their star charting.

i cant put enots here bc tumblr is bullying me but enjoy!

[ask-the-splitmind-au]

(Seeing as I had a least a few people's interest in this, I made an askblog! Dw they're not hard for me to make)

The Splitmind AU has an askbox! Everyone give a warm welcome to the seven stars of the show!

Artificer

-She/Her

-Five Pebbles lives in her head

-Aggressive and Prickly lil gal

-She's tried to ascend once and almost discovered echohood

-Dating the scavenger chieftain

Hunter

-She/Him

-No Significant Harassment is doing significant harassment

-Sorta chill, but passionate

-Sig cured the rot before he put his consciousness in her

-Dating Inv

Spearmaster

-They/Them

-Seven Red Suns is existing

-Tired, Anxious, and can be Snappy at times

-Suns is regretting making their messenger so weird

Rivulet

-She/Her

-Looks to the Moon vibes in her mind

-Hyperactive and easily excitable, also emotional

-Prone to anxiety, actually

-She's actually the one who saved Arti and Febbles from being echo'd

Saint

-He/It's

-Sliver of Straw is being a problem

-Really relaxed, but somehow also the most distant mf you will meet

-Constantly fighting Sliver in his mind because she's mildly evil

-So far, has ascended twice (Saint is stuck in a loop, not echoing, though it does gain echo attributes when he tries)

Saint is temporarily unavailable for asks.

Sliver of Straw is temporarily available for asks.

Ranger

-He/Him

-Unparalleled Innocence is his 'imaginary friend'

-For being as young as he is, he's actually pretty mature and cool-headed

-Survivor and Monk's little sibling, though he hasn't seen them after the day he lost them.

-Artificer has basically adopted him

Gourmand

-He/Him

-Grey Wind and him get along really well

-CHONKY BOI (Wind does not like being so heavy and slow)

-Knows that Sliver is in Saint's mind, doesn't feel the need to mention it

-Sorta crushing on Saint, it used to be a definite one but since Saint's been so distant he's re-evaluating his choices.

[copepods]

thinkin about spearmaster... i imagine them as a super fucked up beast with a ton of health problems. not out of malice on suns account but because of 1) exclusively liquid diet and 2) a pearl half the size of their head wedged in their chest. i think that their organs (eg heart and lungs) are a lot smaller than normal to make room for the pearl.. which means they tend to get out of breath really easily and faint a lot. also they're probably malnourished because having to do all that workout just for a little Lizard Soup is probably not getting them a ton of calories in the long run. like living inside suns' superstructure is probably fine for them, there's plenty of neurons to eat without straining themself too much, but i dont think this thing is built for living in the wild long term

[nonbunary-does-arts]

OUTDATED DESIGNS!

My anthro Scugs!! + Enot/Inv/???

I'll leave design and personality notesnotes under the read more!! :D Hope ya'll like my takes on the scuggies hehe.

MONK - (He/They)

Monk is known for being kind and willing to jump after their loved ones, so I decided to sort of make it look like they're the last scug that would do that. He's very family-oriented.

His more closed-off appearance is purposeful, I view Monk as a scug that takes a bit to come out of his shell.

He's very cute and gets very flustered pretty easily when someone compliments him.

His clothes were made by Gourmand.

SURVIVOR - (They/Them)

The glaringly obvious prosthetic leg is also on purpose. Survivor's fall was very bad, and it resulted in their leg becoming infected to the point it needed to be amputated, from the ankle down.

They're actually dating a scavenger, and that scavenger is the one who was there for them through the procedure, and even had a hand in crafting the new leg. It's modeled after a scavenger leg.

Their folded ear is due to a bite from a lizard that tore off a good chunk, leaving it floppy.

HUNTER - (It/They/She)

The scar on their throat has left them a selective mute. It doesn't mind all that much.

Its clothes were made by No Significant Harassment, for ease of letting other Iterator Messengers, if they were to ever happen upon her, to know who she was created by.

It's very no-nonsense, and takes its job very seriously. When not assigned a task, they're often seen pacing back and forth, or hunting.

GOURMAND - (He/They/She)

I knew from the get go I wanted him to be BIG.

The pearls around his neck were gifts from scavengers. They wear them with pride and have in fact made pearl necklaces and bracelets for the scavengers as well.

She's the motherly matriarch of the scug population in the outer expanse, and teaches them all what she knows.

ARTIFICER - (She/It)

YEEEEEEEHAW

She's SO fucking pissed off it's not even funny.

She refuses to leave the metropolis, even after chasing out the scavengers. She was unlucky in her attempt to kill the scavenger chief, as he ran off as soon as she started trying to kill him.

It's been so long she doesn't even recognize her own species anymore, killing with no remorse.

SPEARMASTER - (They/It)

No bottom jaw, and only their upper canines developed.

Often seen exploring around, often with Hunter when it's time to hunt.

RIVULET - (Anything)

This scug wears nothing but a swimming suit and not even he knows why. It just likes it.

It's actually almost as tall as spearmaster, lanky legs are good for running after all.

They talk FAST, often needing to be reminded to slow down a bit so the others can hear her.

Somehow always wet regardless of the environment.

SAINT - (He/Him)

GRANDPA.

I knew I wanted him to look extremely fuzzy.

His coat was crafted using a raindeer's wool, and it's helped keep him warm in the event of a blizzard.

I also wanted to make it look like he has many old man secrets under that coat. Tell us your secrets old man.

The beard was a must. I needed to give him a beard.

ENOT/INV/??? - (He/Him)

Yeah this dude it just a being that the gods want dead.

No matter what way anyone faces, his snout will never be front-facing.

He speaks in 2000's scene, and can somehow say emojis as well.

LOVESICK. AS. FUCK.

Will often attempt to match the hobby of a scug of the day he's crushing on.

Kind of a dick to Monk tbh. Surv has kicked his ass about it.

[raining-its-pouring]

I’ve been thinking and I’m pretty sure moon never gets the full story of why she died (unless Pebbles tells her offscreen post-Riv campaign?)

Like we know that Spearmaster also gave Pebbles the first pearl due to his dialogue, and that Moon hadn’t seen them until their second delivery with the red pearl. Which makes sense, Suns didn’t give them the mark on purpose so Spearmaster could more easily bypass iterator attention on their way to Pebbles.

Pebbles and Suns secrecy on top of Moon’s unwillingness to confront Pebbles about things means I’m pretty sure she’s blindsided when it all starts. And I doubt Pebbles was forthcoming with information at that point, given what we know of their communications at that time.

She does read (and reformat) the extracted red pearl when you bring it to her, but when Pebbles reads it right after extraction it doesn’t elaborate on exactly what happened. Just that Suns blames themself for it in part. So that’s all the information she’s given before she collapses.

After she collapses, you can get her to read the gold pearl and she’ll sort of put two and two together, but given her anterograde amnesia I don’t know how long she keeps that knowledge.

I just think it’s interesting that she never knows the extent of Suns’ part to play in her downfall. I genuinely wonder how she’d react.

[ghostplasmas]

Spear master moment

I really love the idea of Spearmaster having markings or tattoos that are either similar or inspired by Suns' markings. I wanted to also draw them in clothes, but I couldn't get it to work. I don't think starting off my redesign/design series with the most Human Looking Freak™ of the bunch was a good idea but whatever FUFNSJ

I also think that spearmaster would be muscular- not super beefy like you'd think for Arti or Gourmond, but more athletic. They're definitely not malnourished- they can easily store enough food to save for a whole other cycle- plus they're getting a LOT of protein from their hunts :33

(+ the original sketch and doodles under the cut)

Ignore the awful legs, It was 8 am and I was very sleepy

[its-rat-time-babey]

Slugcat Biology Headcanons:

Slugcats are just as intelligent as Scavengers, but developed intelligence later so their society is a bit less developed.

Slugcats have very short bristle-like fur that’s similar in texture to the bristles of a pipe cleaner. They also have a thin layer of slime covering them. Both of these things come from their origins as organisms meant to clean pipes.

By the time of the saint, Slugcats have evolved to have much longer fur to withstand the cold and still produce that thin layer of slime, which helps a bit with insulation.

The Gourmand’s ability to craft isn’t unique to them. All slugcats can craft things, but it’s a learned skill.

Slugcat colonies usually have a group of assigned crafters, who have the jobs of crafting supplies for the colony, repairing and expanding the colony den and generally taking care of things around the den, along with teaching new crafters how to do their jobs. They’re vital parts of the colony and tend to be rather high up leadership-wise.

The Gourmand was one of their colony’s crafters prior to being sent on their scouting mission. They’re also the grandparent of the Survivor and Monk.

Slugcat colours are genetic, with red being a very recessive gene that isn’t very common, hence why red slugpups are so rare and why neither of the Artificer’s children are red even though their mother is.

However at the same time, Slugcat genes can be passed on for a very long time without ever showing themselves. A slugcat born from a blue parent and a black parent could be coloured green because one of their great grandparents was green and the gene passed itself down through multiple generations without ever showing itself.

Slugcats are modified and used by Iterators for two main reasons: they’re extremely intelligent and can understand and follow commands, and they’re extremely stable genetically, so they can be very easily modified and changed without anything going wrong.

Slugcats are unique genetically because they’re extremely genetically stable. It’s very rare that modifying a slugcat’s genes will ever make them unable to reproduce or suffer from genetic disorders, so it’s very easy to modify them without any issues showing up.

The Hunter is an exception. They have their own version of the rot because the laboratory they were made in (and by extension No Significant Harassment in general) was also infected by the rot. No Significant Harassment’s rot isn’t as bad as Five Pebbles, but it’s still the rot.

However, when you combine slugcat’s extreme genetic stability with things like the fact that slugcat genes be passed on through several generations while still remaining dormant, you get an interesting effect. Slugcats are EXTREMELY diverse because Iterators will modify one slugcat for a specific purpose, that slugcat will reproduce, and the genes of that slugcat will end up passing on through multiple generations, surfacing at random times with random slugcats being born with the same modifications that their Iterator-created ancestor had, only for their children to usually lack those modifications or be born with completely different ones because a different slugcat in their family tree was made by an Iterator.

Genetic modifications can also sometimes mix and match by showing up at the same time, resulting in Slugcats with multiple different modifications or even completely new modifications that are fusions of multiple modifications.

The Artificer, Saint, and Rivulet are all descendants of Iterator-Created Slugcats, which is where the Artificer got her ability to produce explosive saliva, the Saint got their long tongue (the whole karma thing is completely separate), and the Rivulet got their increased lung capacity and speed. There are also a number of Slugcats still out there by the time of the Saint that have the Spearmaster’s abilities, being very distant descendants of them.

[exceedboundaries]

Probably one of the first things I've made for Apricity: two iterator OCS and a slugcat OC! Hidden Dreamer and Fourth Tide Dreaming are a few months old, while Rain on Dawn Glass is newer and from when I actually started thinking about the AU. Both are part of a local group somewhat adjacent to the canon group's, and they're both slight oddities when it comes to, well, being iterators.

Fourth Tide Dreaming and Rivulet are both connected within this AU; while Tide is a companion to Dreamer, Rivulet is a slugcat from Tide's original community with a thirst for adventure that Dreamer set out towards Unparalleled Innocence's can upon request.

Read more below; they're all characters near and dear to my heart. (Especially Tide!)

Hidden Dreamer (or Youngest Dreamer, which was their original name), is the youngest iterator of any known in the broader region. They were created as a last minute replacement for their can after its previous iterator, First Spring Risen, severely malfunctioned and had to be decommissioned. Dreamer's ancients loved them dearly in the short time they had with them.

They're still considered young by many iterators who know of them, barely set in the ways that other iterators had many cycles to develop. They spend less time on what their fellow iterators do and spends more time on understanding the flora and fauna--mostly fauna--of the world, as well as on their companion, Fourth Tide Dreaming. They're easily excitable and chatty, and prone to loneliness. The string of colored pearls around their body in this form makes up just a piece of their treasured collection and catalog of information and messages.

Fourth Tide Dreaming, a slugcat that stumbled into HD's can, eventually became their companion. Their internals have been severely modified since then, mostly synthetic with effort put into longevity of life and survivability. Tide needs little food to survive and is slipperier than most predators expect--and more durable to match--which has often made them the messenger of choice whenever communications are slipping. They're also from Rivulet's original community, as mentioned above!

Rain on Dawn Glass is perhaps one of the tallest iterators of the lot, and one from the last normal generation of iterators. Her can is specialized towards communications, and as the greatest hub of its kind in the area, connects many local groups and regions of iterators together. Her can serves as the basis for most forums and points of connection between iterators today, as the most polished communications hub of the ancients, and most of her duties revolve around its maintenance.

She's a busy iterator, as her body effectively routes all current communications to recipients. She's used to being ignored for who she is in favor of what she can do for others, although it grates on her, and it's most often just her local group that talks to her as an actual person. She has a fond spot for Dreamer--perhaps something more--because Dreamer has never treated her with any distance or unthinking manner.

Dreamer and Rain's local group has utilized the iterator-off-the-string technology to band together to maintain Rain's can, which often leaves them dealing with nearby local groups to source ever-scarcer and ever-particular materials. They have a small contract with SRS to obtain specific compounds that Spearmaster helps retrieve.

[gay-artificer]

Perhaps my most controversial take is that Saint might not be a slugcat.

If we consider Survivor (and to a lesser extent Monk and even Hunter) as the quintessential example of a slugcat, we have the basis for what actually counts as one. From there we have to look at the deviants from basic form and determine how severe they deviate- which I think all others but Saint don't go to far. Spearmaster- Modified organism using a slugcat base. Stretching the definition of a normal slugcat here maybe, but more or less still resembles the rest of the group minus the obvious. Definitely not considered a member of the same species though. Artificer- Minus the weird explosion bacteria, it is a normal slugcat in terms of form Gourmand- Literally just fat and strong. Perfectly normal fella. Rivulet- Okay this is where we get interesting. Rivulet is both the first to deviate notably from the basic slugcat in terms of readable physical traits, and is also set further in the timeline. An evolutionary split from what a 'slugcat' is fully possible. However, their actual traits are rather minute. Rivulets main trait is the presence of external gills, suggesting an aquatic adaption. However in real world examples of external gills they are mostly a development of species that already had gills in some form in either their lifecycle or biology. The most obvious inspiration for rivulet's design is likely the axolotl, which is a salamander that has neotenic (juvenile) traits due to never metamorphosing. If you force metamorphosis, an axolotl looks like a normal salamander

Gills or gill-like structures can also be internal or land-modified- Spiders for example have book lungs, which are likely evolved from book gills (whereas in human evolution our gills did not evolve into lungs, and gills instead 'turned into' parts of our skull and ears) you can also have lungs and gills, as seen with certain species of lungfish. It seems perfectly reasonable to guess that the slugcat- either currently or historically- made use of a gill or gill-like system- which would set rivulet up for either a reemergence of the trait or as an alternative evolutionary path. I could easily see the rivulet 'type' of slugcat existing alongside the normal species, just isolated to coastal and other floodzones- or as one of several independent cases of the external gill trait emerging. Complicating things further- Sea slugs make use of gills in several forms, while (most) land slugs have lost their gills and created a simple lung out a hollow cavity. There is also at least one slug that completely lacks both lungs and gills and breathes entirely through their skin. Lots of variety there within a group. What we can confirm though is that at minimum- slugcats do have a nose. However the presence of the nostrils alone doesn't tell us the fine details; Frogs also have nostrils and make heavy use of them for the vast majority of their breathing, but also have permeable skin that also allows for oxygen exchange (particularly while under water). So its complicated. All this is a very complicated way of say that there's no real indication that rivulet is all that particularly unique compared to the basic slugcat, minus the gills- which are something that could be a perfectly normal trait to develop without getting too far from the traits that make a slugcat a slugcat. It would be, at minimum, its own species though. Genus you could argue about. And then we get to Saint. Saint is ages forward in the timeline for our 'basic' slugcat, to the point where even lizards have heavily shifted their evolutionary patterns and there have been notable extinctions within the window the game provides. Saint itself has a very notable deviation: Very obvious long fur (or at least, something convincingly playing the role of fur). While furry slugcats (whether that be more cat-like or fine fur like a seal) is popular in fanon works, official art has an obvious smoothness to it more indicative of bare skin (Although the quality of this skin, such as if its more mammalian or amphibian, etc- is unknown)

While the type of skin could heavily change how big of a deal this is (it would be a lot easier to develop and lose fur with the structure of mammalian skin than amphibian skin; and if we are being technical mammals are the only thing that can truly develop fur/hair) It does at least mark the development of a trait that seemingly took several generations to acquire, at least on par with the development of a fur or fur-like trait in all surviving species of 'lizards' It does seem to intend to mirror, to a degree, the evolution of mammals. Which begs the question... can you really call Saint a slugcat? When you think about what survivor is, and how removed Saint is from them in both physical features and time period... would the term be appropriate? And to be specific, its technically incorrect to say things evolve "into" other things- they split and grow into distinct things (and sometimes all but one dies off in the process). Evolutionary history is difficult to chart for a number or reasons, and its extremely complicated- but when we say something like "snakes evolved from lizards" what it really means is that at some point there was a group of something we agreed were lizards, and then something within that group began to change into something with its own distinct features and traits until we gave it a new name. In the lizard and snakes example, snakes are technically lizards. Just lizards with very specific traits we don't consider lizard traits. But you also have examples like mantodea (Mantises) and Blattodea (Roaches and Termites).

A some point there was something that was neither mantis nor roach (the roachoids, which despite being more roach-like than mantis-like we don't consider them proper roaches), that split into things that would go on to form the basis of those groups (and then termites would split from there, making termites technically a type of roach). And for the rest of history humans would argue constantly about what to do with this mess So really the question is what do we consider a slugcat, and is Saint part of an evolutionary lineage that 'slugcat' applies fully across, or does Saint mark a split into something else, that would technically go alongside "true" slugcats under a wider net. Slugcat definitely isn't a singular species and I lean towards genus but could see an argument for family or order. Lets do DNA analysis on pixels and find out they are actually a type of lantern mouse