#not easy to translate that kind of ethereal translucency of deep sea creatures in the usual style seen here lol

[dailyicarus]

DAY 12

can't forget about mermay !!

[fouquesartcorner]

Species ref: Aikaya

Aikaya [p: Aikayan]

[An aquatic species whose known for their more elegant appearance, biofusion technology, and they share a common myth as those of the Immortal Jellyfish.]

Inspiration: Didn't want to go full Mermaid, but still wanted to play with an aquatic species. Naiads and Sirens became my inspirational source. Though later Mermaids’ lore and the Immortal Jellyfish came next. Background: The Aikaya were once a mammalian species and technologically advanced at the time. When their world began to flood due to a phenomenon which accelerated melting of glaciers, and as their land masses began to flood they began to invest in under water habitats. This led to their scientists tinkering with a way to accelerate and control their evolution by enabling them to inherit aquatic features to survive both on land and sea. Eventually it reached a point where they could survive in deep ocean environments and transition to the surface at will. They’ve also managed to evolve so that they experience extremely slow cell death that it would almost appear they don't experience it at all or degeneration that goes on as they get older--meaning that that they wouldn’t really show signs of aging(which is the slow desaturation of their coloration), they’d just reach their adult growth and then look that way for a very long time. Thus leading to the misconception that they are immortal. General Appearances: They're humanoid with digigrade legs and webbed feet. A pair of gills lining their ribs and the base of their necks, used for breathing since they do not have noses on their face. There is little dimorphism since females do not have breasts, where as the females have flowy fins while the males have spinal fins. Markings are typically naturally seen like spots and stripes. So if there were swirls or runes, it's typically tattoos and not natural markings. Typical fashion for Aikayan would be would appear like that of body suits, with cut outs to allow their gills to breath freely. They would add draping fabric as tail coats, cloaks, skirts, or shawls to accent their bodysuits.

Egkhili: [Common Aikayan/Ribbon Tails] Inspiration: Eels, tadpoles Notable traits for their appearances: They are generally the more commonly seen Aikayan. Known for their tails being flatten like those of eels with ribbon like fins, being as long or short, like those of tadpoles. Extra Notes: Egkhili (based on the Greek word egkhelys for Eel).

Flocarus/Flocarii:  [Floral Fins] Inspiration: Flowers, jellyfishes Notable traits for their appearances: Notably known more for their females, whose fins grow and form in such a way that appears floral in shape and that of jellyfishes. Males lack the floral formation, but their fins tend to be flowing just as their female counterparts due to having thinner spines in their fins. Extra Notes: Name derived from Flo (from flower), Car (from caritate, or splendor), and Us (from angelus).

Aequozoa: [Luminous Fins] Inspiration: Angler fish, Squid, Bio-luminescence fishes Notable traits for their appearances: These Aikayan are better known for their natural bioluminescence, appearing in their eyes, markings and barbs that grow along their fins. Extra Notes: Name derived from Aequo from Aequorea Victoria (Crystal Jellyfish) and Zoa from hydrozoa, which is the crystal jellyfish’s category of jellyfish. Also mild inspiration from squids for how the females' tail fans out.

Dermenos: [Spiny Armor] Inspiration: Seahorses, Succulents, Trilobites Notable traits for their appearances: These Aikayan are the biggest of their species, are known for the armor that lines their body, being plating or segmented armored plating. Due to the plating, they rarely have markings that their brethren carry, though it's not impossible for them to have them. Extra Notes: Name derived from Derm from derma, Greek word for skin and Enos from thorakismenos, Greek word for armored. Female fins can sometimes be seen similar to those of succulents versus the more elegant floral appearing fins that the Flocarii tend to sport.

Fomoar: [Ghosts/Spectre] Inspiration: See-thru fishes, ghosts, frosted Nudibranch, This Fish Notable traits for their appearances: They're rarer to see due to how they live in seclusion and in deeper waters. Due to that, their eyes are darker while their skin are very light, so light you don't normally see markings on them. However, what you would note is that their flesh is translucent to the point if you happen to show a light on them, you might be able to see a faint reflection of their skeletal structure under their flesh, which earned them the nickname "Ghosts." Their fins, unlike the others, are transparent. Extra Notes: Name derived from Fo from Foteinos (Greek word for luminous), Ma from Pnevmatikos (Greek word for ghostly), and Or from Omorfia (Greek word for beauty). Their appearance were inspired from the Frosted Nudibranch. Also doubt you can see their organs, due to the how quickly they'd swim off or how far off they are, just saying.

Other Misc Notes: - Singular name for Aikaya is Aikaya. Plural and species possessive name is Aikayan. Group of Aikayan is a cluster(not school lol) - While a lot aren’t religious, they can still be spiritual. They would believe in The Goddesses, Aikaya deities presiding over the idealization of life, death, nature, etc. Their key Goddess is The Mother, who’s equivalent to mother nature, a giver of life to all things. But due to the rise in technological advancement, they referred to the Goddess and less so by that point not mainly would reference their beliefs as much. - Aikaya young automatically know how to swim once entering the water, as it is a natural feeling to them. They spend most of their youth in the water, developing the muscles and skills to navigate through the water. They also start out bald and their tail fins do look like that of a tadpole, but is very small– nubby tailed– before it grows out to what it’d normally be as an adult. - Due to spending a lot of of time in the water, when it’s time for Aikaya youth decide it’s time to explore land, it takes them since they’re essentially toddlers learning how to balance on their digigrade legs and learning to walk. - They also have the extra sense to understand sound waves, since on their homeworld they coexisted with another species that spoke in soundwaves(like whales and such) that echoed through the water. They can understand and translate, even when all what others would hear is the ethereal moans and thrilling of said species/creature. (Des) And that would imply, if there were whales left on Earth, they would find communicating with them fairly easy.  - They can survive outside the water, but generally would rather keep hydrated as much as possible. When more dehydrated, it shows by how dull their skin is. - When they die, their skin essentially turns grey and their fins kind of dry out(think dried flowers) - While they do heal quickly, they cannot regrow limbs. So if their leg was cut off, the leg will not grow back at all. - I imagine like fishes there’s less fat on them and more muscle(since when holding even a small fish they’re difficult to hold due to their muscles) even if they’re still squishy to an extent.  - Also since less fat, they do not have sagging flesh-- like breasts on mammals. It'll drag in the water.  - (Des) As technologically advanced as they are, signs of Aikayan tech is very rare. If one finds some it’d be within an Aikayan cluster, where they have the means and numbers to collaborate to build something for themselves– IF they have an Aikaya engineer or scientist to even do that. Otherwise it’d be less likely. Their technological advancement is usually in bioengineering and dual purpose techs– almost transformative and adaptive techs with mult-purposes.

Aikayan, their concept, and art © me Names are thanks to RiskellionGamble on DA They are also a species that are not open for random people to make all willy nilly just because. They are also not a species I intend to make as one of those closed species peeps can buy rights to make either. Too much work to over see that and junk. The only peeps who are free to make characters off of these are friends of mine who I’ve drawn Aikayan for or those who talk to me enough to not need permission, or those who have characters of them within Cosmos Descended or Solar Winds– two stories by two friends of mine. Do not repost, edit, trace, or steal. Reblog is fine.