#deathworld

[ixylle-d-from-the-stars]

Deathworlders everywhere but in Space

This is sitting in my brain because I haven't seen anyone else do this, but take a second to think about this: There are other deathworlders in space, terrifying ones, huge monster orc things. They are massive and nightmarish and impossibly strong. So thats why humans stand out. Thats how we survive. Human's are terrifying because we aren't built for one biome, one climate or even one planet. We aren't necessarily the strongest or fastest or scariest looking, but we're built to survive fucking everything. What if other deathworlder's are almost always only made to survive in one climate? (similar to some of the most deadly predators on earth currently) All the other deathworlders are terrifying, yes, but the second they step off their planet they're weak. Massive aliens of hulking muscle but their planet's gravity is a lot lower than the standard, so they barely meet the average strength bar whenever they go outside their gravity zone. Aliens that have venomous spikes all over their body and look gnarly as shit but their venom has practically no effect on 99% of discovered intergalactic species. Deathworlders whose planet is the nether from minecraft IRl, but they can't survive in any other temperature for any amount of time because their body just can't handle the cold and regulate their temperate (or, vice versa for tundra species). Aquatic species that are kraken-like nightmares, giant sirens and deadly squid-like beings. But they can't leave their home at all, because theres a very specific chemical makeup of their water that isn't currently found within their life-span distance travel. Deathworlders that genuinely can barely survive off planet and are frail compared to even the most docile prey species whenever they have to travel. Their called deathworlders because going to their planet is certain death, but if they leave they'll be meeting death just as quickly. And then along come humans, and everyones like, oh, another deathworlder, nothing to worry abou- wait. These guys dont seem to loose any of their natural strength off planet... and their fast and strong... and- AND THEY CAN SURVIVE IN PRACTICALLY ANY CLIMATE IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE??? HELLO? Oh and of course their predators. Of course most of their planet is completely uninhabitable for most of us. Mhm, yep. thats fair. Totally Basically, deathworlders are a thing, the more common 'terrifying alien monster' type, but their harmless because they can't survive like everyone else. They can't thrive like humans can. It scares the shit out of everyone for a wholeeeeee while, after all, no one ever expected a deathworlder that doesn't die.

[rollingtovictory]

Deathworlders

It has become a major topic of late that humans could be perceived as an absolutely insane race to the galactic community, assuming that most sapient species evolved on more ‘Paradise Planets’. For instance, humans are insanely good at adapting to different environments and can consume a huge number of things that are poisonous to other species. One of my favorite ideas that I came across recently is that perhaps humans make the ideal search and rescue species due to our ability to track, even untrained humans can often come up with the right ideas when tracking even if we don’t fully understand why.

_________________________________________________

Xelaqua was completely and totally lost, had been for three local days. Xe’d been playing with the other Klitori children around the edge of the forest here on M’Jang, a relatively new colony of the Klitori Union on D’Nik. The moon was a beautiful world, but a dangerous one. Klitori scales could keep most of the radiation from the gas giant they orbit at bay, but they still were advised not to go out after planetrise. 

Xelaqua had been chasing a Zo, a small, brightly colored, winged insectoid being. Being an adolecent, xe could move fairly quickly, but his arms were still short and pudgy, meaning catching the little zo had taken some time and the climbing of a very old tree of some kind. That was when xe’d realized xe was in fact very lost. Xelaqua had roamed for three days now, hiding in the roots of old trees by the river bank or in small caves during the planet day, and trying to find the colony elsewhen. The problem came when a magora, a large predator, had attacked xim. The six eyes and sharp fangs had been all Xelaqua had really seen, as it bit his tail and thrashed him into a tree. 

Xelaqua woke up some hours later, confused and frightend as the planet was overhead. The pain took a moment to set in, but come it did. A broken arm was painful but not too bad, xe had three others after all, but the missing tail was a major issue. Klitori slither along the ground, lacking legs, but with four arms. A Klitor without a tail can’t move very well, as their arms are somewhat weak due to their homeworld’s low gravity. Xelaqua was going to die out here, alone in the forest. It was odd that the magora had decided to only eat xis tail, but that was a mystery for another time. Xelaqua slowly crawled under the roots of the tree, cradling xis broken arm and doing xis best not to look at the stump where xis tail had been. Klitori don’t have the same kind of vascular system we’re used to, so bleeding out isn’t actually an issue. Which is almost unfortunate for the young Xelaqua, as starvation will set in soon. 

Another day passes, Xelaqua only venturing far enough to drink from the small steam. Nothing nearby looks edible, but xe moves so slow that xe can’t go far. Hours later, as Xelaqua sings quietly to ximself in his little hiding hole, xe hears a stange sound. Something almost like someone calling for xim, but the pronunciation was dreadful, something not Klitori at all. While Xelaqua knew not to talk to strangers, this might be xis only hope of survival. Calling out was hard, exhaustion was a major issue, but the sounds drew closer. 

Human. Xelaqua had heard of them. Insane predators, violent, brilliant, and hardy. It was hard to imagine a sapient mammal, but here it was, calling out to others to come. 

“Help need you. Xelaqua you?” Xelaqua almost giggled at the strange way it talked, obviously knowing some words in Klitori Majoris, but not much. Regardless he answered yes as they were lifting him up.

Xelaqua was amazed at the speed at which humans could move. They had set his arm (ouch!), sanitized and wrapped his tail, and given him some food and water from the colony all in less that ten minutes. They moved through the forest in a way Xelaqua had only ever seen on TV shows about predators on death worlds, where the prey might kill you as likely as other predators. Quick, silent, and most frighteningly, hard to see. Xe’d watched the other humans move about around the one carrying xim, a human named Cuthbert, but they seemed to vanish and reappear later. 

Being saved was amazing, getting saved by the galaxies greatest trackers was something else entirely. And they suggested that they might be able to regrow his tale, as reptiles on their world often had the ability. They’d have someone look into it. What an insane world they must live on if regrowing limbs is something that animals can just do. 

[warhammergoldenera]

DEATHWORLD VETERANS ARMY CONCEPT:(Requires Codex Imperial Guard 2003, & Codex Catachans 2000)

ARMY SPECIAL RULES:

*Regiment Doctrines

- Veterans

-Jungle Fighters

- Hardened Fighters

-Special Weapons Squads

- Ogryn Squads

*May swap up to 2 of the above doctrines with the following:

- Die-Hards

- Xenos Fighters

- Special Equipment: Warrior Weapons

*Ambush (Codex Catachans pg.21)

* Oops Sorry Sir! (Codex Catachans pg.3)

UNIT ADDITIONS:

*Devil Squad (Codex Catachans pg.4)

*Deathworld Snipers (Codex Catachans pg.5)

*Booby Traps (Codex Catachans pg.8)

Note: Units replace the Deathworld Veterans special rule with the rules of this list.

UNIT RESTRICTIONS:

*May not take any vehicles except the following:

-Hellhounds

-Basilisks

-Sentinel Squad

(All vehicles except Sentinels must take the Camo netting upgrade)

I always wanted to make a slightly more flavorful DeathWorld list for 4th Ed. So here is a nice little experiment I cooked up

[mayhemmandy]

[renegade-chaos-druid]

Some Pulp style art fun

[rosesbloomingreenland]

I really want an Alien’s POV on Pacific Rim Earth

The Kaiju, as the Earthlings called them, were a known problem. They broke through the dimensional barriers in several worlds. All of those planets had to be evacuated in order for the people on them to survive--all but one. Why would only one world survive these beasts? Because the humans did what no one ever thought to do. 

They fought back. They fought back against impossible odds in ways that the rest of the universe would never have dreamed of. 

And, even more impossible, they won.

Alien: how did you win against the Kaiju?

Humans: We strapped ourselves in giant robots, mind melded together with another pilot (because it kept killing the first people to test them due to the strain), and fist fought them. And then we fuckin’ jumped into the Breach with our biggest, most destructive explosives and blew them the fuck up. 

[metabotulism]

[berseid]

Looking for old post

Hi I'm looking for something I read here on tumblr years ago, basically it was about how aliens invaded us and "won" us, but they are unable to deal with our fauna, the post had gotten really long, with different scenes of the aliens trying to deal with different kinds of animals and losing miserably against them was quite fun, particularly against the bees and geese…

Thank you in advance if you manage to find the post!

[artapir]

Deathworld armor in the jungle, WHERE IT BELONGS.

[feletida]

"This is not that bad place to live. If I do not drown in acid Sea of Ghosts. Or get struck by migrating living lightning. Or fall into chitinous labyrinth and get eaten by telepathic bug." - thought Red Witch.

[silentdude01]

Exploring Plopland, you can find such monoliths and on them someone long ago scratched out these unknown runes, which may have belonged to someone very ancient.

[nopennyallthoughts]

One thing that I am 100% convinced would send an alien into cardiac arrest is sweating.

It sounds stupid but think about it: apart from horses, humans are the only species on earth that can sweat so it's not a far stretch to believe it would be incredibly rare in extraterrestrials as well.

Just imagine, one day the AC in the main engine room is broken and everyone starts panting like crazy because of the heat, but the human? Just keeps working like usual? It's not like they aren't affected by the heat at all, but they aren't breathing quite as hard as the rest and everyone thinks ahh yes, humans must have extreme durability to heat coming from that death planet. And then. The human starts melting?!?? And suddenly everyone is panicking because their human is leaking all sorts of important nutrients, metals and water out of every pore - are they dying? Surely this cannot be normal!

And the human has to explain that, no they are perfectly healthy and yes it is actually just the human body's way of cooling itself down and no they don't think it's "the coolest thing ever!!", wait till it starts to smell!

[what-if-i-just-did]

So, something I learnt the other day. So, you know how dinosaurs supposedly can't see you if you stand still? Well that myth is based on real-life lizards/etc and how eyes in general work. So, once my dad starts infodumping, here comes some other cool information. We, humans, can in fact, also not see something unless it's moving. We fixed this by having our eyes constantly shake. And then our brain compensates for us, so we don't have to have shaky vision.

What if aliens don't have this? Like. What if they find out when one of us was looking at something in the distance, and they walk around this thing that's in front of them, and the alien is confused so they bob their head and oh, there's a thing there, but how did the human know that, and then we explain and they're like, horrified.

Humans are apex predators. They can hunt in packs. They can hunt in pairs. They can hunt on their own. They're persistance predators, which is unheard of. They get stronger when they're mad or scared. They have this thing called 'body language' which acts like a type of hivemind, even if they'll claim it isn't. And. They can see you. When you're not moving. They can still see you. If you ever find yourself in a fight against a human, for whatever reason? Run. Run as fast as you can. And hope, pray if you have a religion, that they won't follow.

[kurara-black-blog]

I just love the "they're more scared of you than you are of them" thing because, yeah, Earth is a Deathworld filled with very dangerous beings, but also everyone in it is scared and would rather not interact with each other unless necessary

Alien: This is a very dangerous animal!

Human: Don't worry, we'll just walk away.

Alien: But it's watching us!

Human: It's hoping we leave already, so we're leaving.

Alien: It... It is?

Human: Yeah, it is more scared of us than we are of it. Let's go before the fight instinct kicks in because then it'll become a dangerous animal

Alien:...

[mercyraph]

Humans are weird

Have yall noticed how we somehow have strange aversions towards lights?? Like maybe not all of us, but we kind of know that if someone is sitting in the dark, you either leave them or join them. Like last night, I walked into class and there was just one guy there and the lights were off so i just sat down, 30 minutes later everyone else was in and the lights were still off. Only turned it on when the professor came in...

So like imagine aliens finding us huddled in a dark room, with our phones and what-nots, silently laughing at something we read, maybe there are other aliens with us who doesn’t really like light but we don't know that cus it's dark and also we didn't bother to check. Then one crewmate just turns on the lights and we all collectively hiss like a vampire or hide like bugs, so they just turn it back off and stumble blindly into the room until they find—feel through whatever they came for and leaves. No one ever mentions it.

[jpitha]

Vocal Mimicry and Ear Worms

Every time the drink machine finished, it played a little song.

It was pretty simple, less than 10 notes, but it was the same song, every time.

It wasn't even that it played the same song every time. It wasn't even that everyone on the ship - except the humans - got a drink from the machine.

The song was catchy.

Peg started it. She just found her self whistling the "drink finished" song one day. "beep beepita beep beep beep beepita beeeeeeep." She couldn't help it.

Then, Kelly picked it up. The song worked its way into her head too. She'd be working at her station and suddenly she'd be struck by an intense need to sing the song.

After about three cycles, every single human on the ship was singing it. Normally, this would be chalked up by the rest of the crew as "just another strange Human thing" but the problem was that it was the 'drink finished' song. Everyone onboard was conditioned to want to go get their drink when the song was done.

The humans could mimic is perfectly.

"beep beepita beep beep beep beepita beeeeeeep."

Captain Flowing River Rapid's feathers fluffed in irritation. Two people on the Command Deck got three quarters of the way out of their seats before they realized what they were doing and sat back down, sheepish. "Desmond! What have I said about mimicing the drink finished melody?"

Desmond ducked his head at the reproach. "Sorry Captain River, I couldn't help it. It's just so catchy."

Captain River clacked his beak. "It wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that you can all mimic the sound so well."

Desmond turned and looked at the Captain. "What? We are? We're singing it, but it doesn't sound exactly like the drink machine."

The Captain pointed at Desmond accusingly. "Don't deny it! You're all singing the song at all times of the cycle! You know that everyone thinks a drink is ready when you do it. You sound exactly like the machine!"

One of the Sefigans who got partially up from their station nods quickly, their antenna bobbing. "Captain River is correct, Des. You all really sound a lot like the drink machine. How are you doing it?"

Desmond shrugged. "I mean, we heard the song, and it gets like, stuck in our heads. Singing it feels like one way to get it out. Plus, it's fun to sing Kel. Fun to make sounds."

Kel's wing covers clack. "Can you mimic other things?"

"I don't know Kel, I don't really think of myself as a mimic. There are others who can do it much better than me. Some humans made a whole career out of it."

"That sounds like a thing I human would do, yes. But what about your Des? Let's see...." Kel looks down at their station. "What about this?"

Kes runs a test for the collision alarm. It's a warbling rising and falling tone."

Des thinks for a second and sings - for him - a pretty close approximation.

Captain River gasps and leans back in his chair. "How do you do that?"

Desmond wails. "It wasn't even that good! I just heard the tones and repeated them."

Kelly entered the Command Deck just then. She was carrying a pad and her overalls looked stained. "Captain River, I've just come to report tha-"

"Kelly! Mimic the collision alarm"

"What? Um.." Kelly makes the same noise."

Now, everyone on the Command Desk gasps. Kelly is taken aback and looks at Desmond. "What's going on Des?"

Desmond sighs. "They say we're all mimics. It started with the drink machine."

"Oh that. I still can't get it out of my head! 'beep beepita beep beep beep beepita beeeeeeep.'"

Kes starts to rise from his seat again and catches himself, and sits back down swearing.