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QuazarShark β Lulop Daycare
Published: 2012-06-17 13:37:11 +0000 UTC; Views: 795; Favourites: 20; Downloads: 10
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Description
I don't think I've put the Lulopolian's latest design anywhere on the web, so here it is. From their ridiculously humanoid gawky origins they've now come much further design-wise, and are more like some kind of mix between cetaceans, squid, and turtles. Many of the internal anatomy has stayed the same, I've just redesigned them to actually make SENSE as an aquatic race.Lulops are a very non-contact race. They have a large personal space bubble and generally avoid touching each other. This adult lulop (who would be blue) is surrounded by a group of kids (who would be bright colours such as orange, yellow, and purple). In human terms, this level of closeness would be equivalent to having kids riding on your legs and piggy-backing.
The kids are not all the offspring of this adult. In lulopolian society there is mostly a kind of crΓͺche arrangement between neighbours with children. A single lulop pair takes care of all the kids in a certain area for 24 hours-ish, and on the next afternoon one of their neighbours does. Workplaces work together with the community and lulops on child duty are not expected to go to work on those days. This lulop is probably taking the kids to school.
If you look closely you'll notice that the lowest kid is actually upside-down. Lulopolians are able to swim upside-down almost as easily as right side up, and in adult lulops they can even switch their counter-shading with their changeable ringspots, making them dark on their belly and light on their back. A lulop would swim upside-down when observing anything above them, as due to the placement of their eyes it's difficult for them to look upwards. Young lulops who haven't turned blue yet don't have very well developed ringspots, and how spotty they are is a rough indication of age.
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Comments: 13
This is really cool. I love their design, and how much thought you have put into them.
What do they use the claws on their fins for? They look like they would be good for clinging to a surface, like the undersea cliffs you mentioned.
Do they have protective plates on their back?
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Thank you very much!
Yeah they're clingy claws, used to wedge the pectoral fins in place. Although you can't see it very well here, they do have arm-like appendages with delicate digits, but to wedge themselves in place on a vertical or near-vertical surface the fins are used because those claws don't bend and don't get tired.
The "plates" on the back are actually the gill covers, but yeah! They do have a much thicker skin on the back than on their bellies, for logical reasons. It's not scutes or shell of any kind though, just toughened skin with a bit more internal structure than the rest.
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I hadn't heard about their arm-like-appendages before. That sounds like it would allow them to build, and make things? What is their culture and society like?
Oh, cool! I love how well you have worked out their design now. I haven't seen their original, but it seems like you know everything about how they work.
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Yes, they build things. In fact, they're one of the highest advanced of all races in their area of space. xD
Here's a picture of a lulop hand: [link]
They're most famous for their advanced genetics and anything related to the combination of biology and technology. They're also the leading (by a long way) exporter of robotics and advanced mechanics of any kind. Here are some robots of lulop design: [link] (Cosmos has changed his appearance himself since he was created so he's no longer a very good example). They don't share a lot of their tech though, like their ship technology (which is all designed for a water planet anyway), and they're super snobbish and xenophobic.
Another way they are famous is that their theories on economics, pedagogy, and just general organisational things work so well that they are used by many other planets, particularly the educational structure which has become the dominant one in their area of space.
I don't know everything at all, there are still a lot of uncertain areas! I just know an awful lot of trivia about them because they've been around so long. Here is a version 2.0 Lulop [link] for comparison. This is still better than how they were originally drawn, eurgh! xD
Sorry for link and info spam.
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Their robotics look very fluid. Do they mine the metals and ores themselves? They don't look like they are very well adapted for it, but then, I'm sure there are many others they could trade with as well and I don't know how much is exposed in the ocean already. They could probably filter metals out of the water too, if their ocean is like ours and they have a way to separate the minerals out.
In their area of space? Do they have space travel too?
Don't apologize! I love hearing about this kind of thing. Thank you for the links, I am having a lot of fun going through your drawings and what you have written about your characters.
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Ehh that's one of the areas where I'm still a bit wobbly on how that works with the resources and whatnot. I know there are a lot of types of "plant" that function by other means than photosynthesis, so it's possible there are some that store and grow with metals/other stuff? Idk man. Whatever they're doing now it's probably very advanced, but how they started out into the realms of technology and stuff is a very good question that I haven't answered yet.
Yes they have space travel, though they are a rare sight offworld because although they can stay an hour or so out of water, that's about it. And also to them all other aliens are inferiour and/or dangerous savages. Their ships are filled with water which of course makes it difficult for aliens to travel in them unless they're also aquatic, and in the collection of worlds this headworld belongs to, so far there aren't any other aquatic or amphibious sapient species.
aaaa you're welcome!
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I think that gold is made into pure nuggets by bacteria (?) that live in the ocean. And there certainly are a lot of plants that live near deep-sea vents which I think live off of iron and a few other ores. I don't see any reason why a plant couldn't be processing metals and depositing them as pure nuggets or rocks or something. If they are around some kind of vent like that, maybe it could also have given them a heat source for them to melt the metal with if they don't have one already?
their space travel sounds like it would be complicated. It sounds like their space travel would only have fueled their xenophobia.
I'm sorry if I am digging at this too much, I just love your stuff and don't know when I am supposed to stop. 
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Whooo sense making! They definitely look properly aquatic now, I couldn't see them anywhere else!
I'm interested, what is that texture at the underside of their horns? Like... The gaps.
Also I'd love to see them colored. Are they spots much different than the rest of them?
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The spots are a darker, duller blue than the surrounding skin of an average lulopolian. There are racial variations where their skin is as dark as or even darker than the spots, but the spots are special chromatic organs and all lulops have them in nearly the same colour. On the colourful youngsters they're also blue, but because the skin is usually a different colour the spots look greyish or brownish.
The openings under the horns are the gill spiracles. Heheh well spotted. Lulops don't breathe through their mouth unless they are exerted (they pant, basically). The spiracles (technically they aren't spiracles because they can't close) also play a part in hearing, as they pick up vibrations in the water very well. The reasons lulops evolved to use the less efficient horn inlets rather than the mouth is some of the same reasons why benthic-sitting shark and rays have: Primitive lulopolians clung to the sides of undersea cliffs in colonies, and relied on camouflage and staying still for defense. The horns provided a means to breathe without any conspicuous movement and also with minimal water disturbance. The gill outlets are on their backs.
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Ah yeah. Thanks!
Ahahahaha. *gloats* And cool! I can definitely see the ray-type ancestry. Wonderful props to your new species science. I can still remember what the original lulops looked like (I'm pretty sure) and PHEW have times changed!
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Hee hee! Oh wow, don't let them hear you say that. xD
They're really xenophobic and don't trust aliens at all. They also have contempt for them. Their technology is one of the most advanced of all races though, and they sell a lot of their robotics and genetic tech.
For obvious reasons it's very hard for other, land-dwelling races to live in their society.
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:T I still want to pet it !
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