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ChatlaninKyr — Ziant
Published: 2017-08-07 21:53:33 +0000 UTC; Views: 1822; Favourites: 21; Downloads: 3
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Description
Redesign of the I.S. universe's main protagonist species, version [whatever]. Your typical alien theropods, only without feathers. Well, in their basic form, at least.Their pre-space history is still under revision, unlikely to be finished anytime soon. That said, details of their modern civilization are mostly settled, I just need to figure out a plausible way for them to come to their current state.
For now, a short description:
The most prominent feature of Ziants' civilization is an unusually wide practice of biological modifications, backed by the global genetic improvement/adaptation program. The depicted appearance is basic for the latest generations, but do not expect more than a half of all Ziant population to actually look like that. Even among that half, though, skin type and coloration can vary quite widely.
Politically, Ziants are the founders of the second largest interspecies alliance in the galaxy. With the philosophy of adapting to other sophonts' thinking, their diplomats are some of the best in existence. In the alliance, Ziants aren't the most economically powerful or the most numerous species, and make fairly moderate contribution into the joined military forces; nevertheless, their diplomatic service has significant influence on political events in the galaxy.
No male/female, since Ziants are usually asexual. Also, the depicted one's height is around one meter (3.3 feet).
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Comments: 33
Only one meter tall? Huh. They probably wouldn't make for very good soldiers, unless they have very good weapons/drone support... or use their bioengineering skills to produce bigger and stronger combat variants.
Not that land-based military would be massively important in an era of space combat.
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Both good weapons, drone support, superior combat exosuits, more drone support, biologically and technologically augmented soldiers... oh, and even more drone support. The example of combat-grade modification is the right Ziant on the top left sketch here , although it is a security guard, not a full-fledged soldier.
> "Not that land-based military would be massively important in an era of space combat."
That's pretty much true.
By the way, using the same logic, some Ziant supremacists (although those are extremely rare) could say that Tsieiuo (in the current redaction 90 cm in length, and 2/5 of it is tail) don't make very good soldiers; Thfs-chthk females (2 meters tall) could say humans don't make very good soldiers; Ranadgs (3.5 meters tall) could say the same about Thfs-chthk females; and, ultimately, Ppuntsavians could say the same about any other sophont species in the Galaxy, because a regular Ppuntsavian soldier is essentially a mobile amphibious fortress the size of Maus tank, equipped with heavy cannon, machineguns, missiles, reactive armor, active countermeasure systems, drone hangar, and full of savvy insects which make good substitute for nanorepair system.
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I'd still assume that, at least for biological species, there's a - somewhat blurred - line between a size that is ideal for combat and a size that becomes unwieldy. Too small and you'll have trouble moving fast across distances or carrying heavy weapons or enough ammunition/energy packs for them, too big and you'll become easy target unable to dodge heavy weapons fire or fit in transport ships or wield enough soldiers to effectively hold captured territory...
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That might have been true for the times when soldiers relied on their own muscle to carry weapons, on their own feet to travel long distances, and on enemy's low accuracy to stay alive. But in an era when smaller sophonts can pilot Giand Death Robots, and bigger sophonts can surround themselves with swarms of drones? Eventually, there's the same wide spectrum of war machines' sizes for all species, the only question is where exactly on that spectrum a war machine can be replaced with a soldier.
Actually, I suppose, if anything affects combat abilities of a particular species uniquely, it's their homeworld's surface gravity. It seems to be easier to adapt to lower gravity than to higher, after all.
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I absolutely love this redesign, Nick!! The Ziants just keep getting more interesting with every redesign! 
They're also rather short, I see.
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Thank you very much, Doug
Well, of course they aren't short, they're average! It's not their fault that they are sometimes surrounded by sophonts of oversized species
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Haha, yes, I suppose short and tall are relative terms in the sense of sophont height
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That's the point, every creature uses itself as a measure for others' size
For now I think that heights from around 60 cm (2 feet) to 1.5 m (4.9 feet) are usually considered average in the setting. Also, primal/natural Ziants definitely were larger, maybe around 5 feet.
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Ooooh! This is neat! Good to see some color! And the shading is ridiculously smooth.. Great job!
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I feel im going t miss there old designs, but this design is more alien and fits the setting more I think
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Thanks
Some of the older versions, like the one on the last sketch page, may still exist as individuals with altered body plan. And I'm fairly sure this isn't the last time I redesign them anyway.
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Welcome~
The redesigning will continue forever!
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Yes! For it is eternal process! Not even my laziness will stop me from redesigning everything over and over again! Someday. Later. Maybe.
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I guess cause my universe is far simpler laziness doesn't really slow me down too much
... I don't know if thats a good thing
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I don't think it's necessarily good or bad thing, it's just a different approach to worldbuilding.
Also, not sure if it is really that much simpler. There seem to be a lot of things going on.
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I actually really like their new design. Their head looks fascinating and still alienated enough to say it's actually extraterrestrial; also I really love the new legs they are crazy! x3
I can imagine them wearing a wild variation of head covering because their new skull form gives a good foundation for such.
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Thank you, I'm glad you like it 
That's a good idea! I imagined them using mainly biomodifications and augmented reality software for self-expression, but headgear can do as well. Not sure I'm good at drawing it, though (well, you know ).
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I think that problem is well-known xD
I also have problems with designing clothes for my aliens. Funny that I can imagine clothes for other peoples design very well.
If you want we could do an art trade in future, only if you are ok with that.
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A common problem indeed
Regarding the last sentence, I've sent a note.
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I always felt that "free for all" genetic manipulation would cause for species to essentially cease to exist, splintering into what would be essentially millions of subspecies, that are sometimes probably can't even create an fertile offspring with each others due to differences in DNA being too great. So I frantically try to find reasons for why it is not widely practiced in my setting)
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That's a good point. I've been considering using the term "clade" instead of "species" for some time for that very reason, and may actually switch to it in the end.
As for subspecies interbreeding, I have a suspicion that the same advanced genetic manipulation technology might be able to solve any possible problems relatively easily. In particular, parents don't need to be able to produce healthy offspring on their own; they can produce embryos of any quality, which will then be turned into perfectly healthy by applying all necessary modifications. It is actually one of those science fiction concepts that are rapidly losing their -fiction part .
All aforementioned, however, doesn't quite apply to Ziants. The way their genetic improvement program is organized allows to avoid reproduction problems completely. I plan to describe it either in their full story once it's finished, or in some other drawing, but I can send a note with details if you're interested.
Regarding other widely self-modifying species of the setting, I'd say most of them use surgical augmentations for personal goals, while population-wide DNA altering takes place only as part of health care programs conducted by goverments (or government-like bodies). That said, there are some cultures that actually practice "genetic anarchy", either intentionally or because of the lack of means of control.
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I so far only stated that it is expensive (like most of the healthcare stuff), unpredictable, considered as potentially dangerous in the future, and therefore overregulated on a legal level like the pharmaceutic field today, plus you'd need an approval for genetic mod of your embryo, and the reason of "cuz cat ears are all the rage now!" will probably not be authorized, the entire process have some strict inspections to ensure that your kids, or their children, or their grand-grand-children would not pay for your careless decision. Because even of you have gene technology for curing the genetic deformations, you could be in a situation of not having money or ability to access it - and suffer. If no drawbacks are detected then you get a green light, but the whole process is so formalized, slow and bureaucratized (quite intentionally) that percentage of radical genetic modifications remains low.
Most of the stuff regarded to health-related problems or relatively tame enhancements (that do not warp the genome too far of what a natural random mutation could do) is granted in almost automatic mode, though, since it is kinda standardized and in a constant demand.
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The question is, why exactly are you trying to avoid genetic diversification of your setting's species? If it is due to the dangers of misuse and possible reproduction problems, then I think limitations are justified. But if you just want all members of the species to have relatively similar appearance in the first place, then I'm afraid taking genetics under control might not be enough. Say, such things as cat ears (or something more practical, like cat claws) hardly need genetic manipulation; they'll rather be purely surgical biomodifications or bionic prostheses, not affecting sophont's reproductive compatibility and offspring in any way.
On the other hand, different jobs may have different rules as to what kind and extent of modifications is allowable. For example, if in Leaving the Cradle you'll mostly depict the crew of the Alliance Expeditionary Fleet, we can expect the amount of decorative self-modifying to be very low to nonexistent.
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Well, to be honest, the main reason is probably because I don't like biopunk settings) Flesh will always be weaker than steel, and most stuff described in works about that is ridiculous, even my rudimentary knowledge of biochemistry is able to shoot their concepts full of holes.
Plus, there's practical reasons, too. This way, if I need seven characters of set species, I can just take basic design and modify it. With rabid genemodding I would've need to invent basically new species for every character, plus any meaningful description of the species would be also impossible to create.
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I see. I mostly agree with you on the "flesh is weaker than steel" argument, and character design issues are understandable. However, there are also some reasons why even with extensive gengineering a species can retain its original appearance for the most part. The most important is probably the fact that everything a civilization produces is initially intended for creatures with a certain physiology. Come to think of it, you'll probably need the whole new type of economy — less focused on mass-production — to supply a diversified post-species clade.
I wonder now, since there are elements of what can be considered biopunk in my setting, have you noticed any blatant misconceptions in it? Also, I think I'm able to create a meaningful description for Ziants eventually; I don't guarantee it'll be a good description, but I'm moderately confident about the "meaningful" part
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Well, I didn't seen any mistakes as so far, but I'm not a biology expert, so don't take my words as an test pass X)
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That's still something, thanks!
By the way, the next time I comment on your drawings, should I switch to English as well?
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Dunno. I sometimes get complains "why everything is in English, cannot understand a thing" from people, but at the same time this site's primary language, and audience, is English...
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Well, I think I'll surrender to globalization then. Can't say it's easier, but the more practice, the better, right? And for one thing, the use of English removes that annoying "ты/вы" problem in conversation.
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This is great! I like that they look a little less humanoid now, while maintaining a bipedal form. The limbs are really interesting too, I'm getting a nice uncanny valley feel.
Also, I don't know if I've mentioned it before? But I love how you handle shading. Your shading is always spot on. It's got a nice soft look, and really makes your drawings feel three dimensional
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Thank you very much!
The limbs structure is one of a few features supposed to differ them from Earth organisms, so I'm glad they give such impression
Well, that's probably because for a long time shading was the only way of drawing for me. I still think it can be improved a bit on this particular drawing, together with some perspective issues, but thank you nevertheless
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