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AmnioticOef — Treader
by-nc-nd
Published: 2012-09-12 04:16:08 +0000 UTC; Views: 1617; Favourites: 22; Downloads: 3
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Description
The seed-egg un-ascends—the birth matter strewn. Five bundles strewn—the bundle of our mothers, the bundle of outstretched hand, bundle of our daughter, bundle of inward hand, bundle of /-_##^*\|]}--/__/~~! ‘_.Great land-sensation, the mothers are not suffered to walk. A low _)=_ for the first bundle, for the third. The second bundle is smokey, diffused: no longer out-reached, no longer in-reached.
The mothers are diffused. They */-_#!^/\\
Half-treaders, package scattered. Backwards, reaching with the inward hand, on smooth hills, again gathering the :{}|. Returning to shore on smooth hills, bringing the birth matter from the cloudy shallows again.
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A bad photograph, unfortunately.
Some planning: [link]
My gallery: [link]
Comments and criticism welcome!
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Comments: 21
It is an impressive piece and quite alien, moreso because of the mystique that it inspires, giving us no clue as to what it may be; its arms are coated in scale yet flabby folds line its sides, the grooves and openings along the 'body' do not let you distinguish what is face, nose or mouth (or even birth orifice). Its posture seems almost fetal or symbolic, like a hooded stranger pondering his fate, daring you to come closer.
From a biological perspective, I'm having difficulty imagining how this thing survives in the wild if it has no technology. Can it lift those treads from the ground? If not, the arms seem too short to be useful, given that the treads will block their reach - I can't see it climbing up trees or fighting with another in close corners - and its mounts must be built even more compactly than it is. Perhaps archery is their main means of combat: range is diminished by the high gravity but arrows hit with the same punch.
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Did I make the eyes insufficiently obvious? I genuinely want to know, because it sounds like you may be interpreting the design differently from how I intended.
These guys have roman-level tech, coming from a neolithic nadir. So they've always had defense against predators. The short arms are for fine tasks, while the treads (which can't really be lifted off the ground) do heavy work.
The gravity on their planet is extremely high, and a fall from 20 feet (the tallest trees) would squash a human just as flat as they are--so climbing and leaping is out of the question.
Interesting points about combat. Archery sounds plausible, as well as stone-slinging. Close-quarter combat will be a slow contest won by the first to rip off their opponent's arms.
I appreciate your interest.
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The slits on the side of the head did not immediately strike me as eyes, but in retrospect I cannot remember what I thought they actually were; this was back when I believed that the "face" was concealed under the hood-like mouth/birth orifice/unknown opening. In truth I consider this ambiguity an accomplishment: aliens should give us a moment of pause.
A civilization of such beings taxes the imagination, but I can see it happening. The main problem I can identify is that the treads get in the way of the finer arms, so unless they can move those to the side so much is placed forever out of reach by their own bodies (although with clever use of tables and desks this may not be as much of a problem). How would they place blocks on top of each other or layer mortar? Perhaps they could weave roofs and place those atop 'hand height' foundations; I'm guessing they're not fans of multistory buildings.
For a similar reason, I'd like to know how they go about fighting in close quarters, particularly what weapons they might use; almost any melee weapon we are familiar with won't be much use to them because they can't pull back their arms, meaning they can't swing or thrust them. This renders spears and all pole arms inoperable (unless you have some means to charge), hammers and blades will have much smaller swinging radius (which equates to reduced lethality; the gravity does not help them because the sapient's muscle power is no different) while the latter can't be used to stab. Perhaps they used clawed gauntlets or even crowbars to flip one another so that they may attack them when prone; given their body shape they can't be too quick to pull themselves back on their treads.
Despite these inquiries, I congratulate you for considering a heavy gravity environment. This probably pervasive condition seems mostly ignored by artists and writers on the web, while flighty low gravity worlds get all the attention (that being said, Zainter is an example of such a world, which makes me quite a hypocrite)...
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Yeah, I´ve seen many ways of alternative locomotion, and this gets the price
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Oh, also I like the suggestion of a sagacious beard around the mouth
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That wasn't intentional, but I love that interpretation.
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Awe
Some
I love the alien cognition apparent in that gibberish.
So if I understand the evolution correctly, this thing evolved from a more-or-less humanoid upright biped. What prompted the evolution to this...recliner form? And how does it move around?
And nice shadows.
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Thanks!
The "gibberish" was inspired by translations of Mayan texts. I figure if the writings of an ancient human civilization are incomprehensible, those of an alien species must be at least as hard to understand.
The idea is that an alien race bit off more than they could chew by trying to colonize a planet with extremely high gravity. They lost their technology (exoskeleton support suits included) and slowly flattened.
It moves around via peristaltic/python-like muscle waves in the large "arms", which drag the body along. I didn't allude to it in any way, but there's a slimy depression in the alien's underside into which a hand-crafted castor ball fits.
Thanks--it turned out a lot shadower than the original drawing because of the lighting when I photographed it.
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>>I figure if the writings of an ancient human civilization are incomprehensible, those of an alien species must be at least as hard to understand.<<
Absolutely!
>>They lost their technology (exoskeleton support suits included) and slowly flattened.
<<
God, that must have sucked.
Hm. How did they survive that time when they didn't have exosuits any more, but didn't have any high-grav adaptations? Let's hope this planet didn't have native predators. (my my, another flassid lump of meat lying gasping on the ground, today must be my birthday!)
>>I didn't allude to it in any way, but there's a slimy depression in the alien's underside into which a hand-crafted castor ball fits.<<
That is glorious.
So these things really are sentient recliners.
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Well, the process of losing exosuits was more gradual than I suggested. The suits got more primitive--computer control nixed, artificial muscle nixed--until they weren't much more than glorified crutches (the only piece of the suit to survive was the aforementioned castor--originally something like a wheeled stool to sit on [link] ).
Remember that the predators aren't a whole lot more mobile than the sophonts, and that the aliens have maintained a low level of technology (spears etc.).
"So these things really are sentient recliners."
Essentially.
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>>originally something like a wheeled stool to sit on<<
ohmygodiwantone!
That's a very sad tale: slowly declining technology over the course of millennia. 
As for predators...that sounds like a challenge!
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"Hm. How did they survive that time when they didn't have exosuits any more, but didn't have any high-grav adaptations? Let's hope this planet didn't have native predators."
Well, some kind of selective pressure is needed... and predation is quite a quick and effective kind
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