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Description
A note on originality: At the time that I posted this deviation, I believed the creatures were all my original designs. Much later I discovered that the male Pixie is a piece of Brian Froud fanart, copied closely from a sketch published in Good Faeries/Bad Faeries. I did not mean to misrepresent this as my own design, I had merely forgotten its origin in the 8 years since I'd drawn it.

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1/20/08 (composition; dates of individual drawings listed below)

Some of the more commonly-encountered creatures of Dreamtime. Not drawn to scale. See key below.

Abomination: 2002 ~ The biotechnological terrors the Masters (q.v. ) conjure up are dangerous enough, but those created by madmen wishing to be like the Masters are true nightmares.

Breed IX Cows: 6/24/04 (both) ~ These cattle have been genetically engineered to float in the air and to graze on airborne algae, freeing up the grasslands. They are lighter than air due to hydrogen they produce and store in specialized intestine.

Bubble-Grazing Rattlefrog: 12/25/06 ~ Not a true Rattlefrog, since its tongue is blunt and nonpoisonous. It has evolved a facsimile of the Rattlefrog's rattle to fool would-be predators into thinking it is one.

Cadmian Tracker: 3/20/06 ~ Useful if you need to find something.

Cat Person: ca. 2001 ~ Walks like a cat, talks like a person.

Cognizant Stone: 3/2/05 ~ Interplanetary rubble with thought and purpose.

Crawlfish: ca. 2002 ~ The first of the Stargazers' ancestors to venture onto land.

Cubist: 4/24/06 ~ One of an obsolete variety of Remote Viewer (q.v.) that became independent and escaped decommissioning. Putting the Masters' knowledge of chemistry to use, they protect themselves with cubes of gelatinous substances which vary in appearance and properties.

Dark Mushroot: 2006 ~ Light Mushroots are infinitely preferable.

Diplokay: 5/26/03 ~ A relative of the Spikay (q.v. ), the Diplokay is prized for its soft, white underbelly.

Fornacian Semi-Corporeal: 3/05 ~ Semi-corporeal beings who inhabit the dwarf galaxy of Fornax.

Fuzzy: 3/2/05 ~ A zoofungoid that has to die in order to reproduce. Fuzzies (called "Whooids" by the erudite) explode if hit or squeezed hard enough, releasing thousands of spores into the air. Cf. "The Fuzzies."

Grooøg: ca. 2004 ~ Different shapes and arrangements of limbs and organs among Grooøgs are as common as different colors of hair and eyes are among humans. This makes individual Grooøgs better and worse at different occupations, and their culture has evolved accordingly. Note that most Grooøg limbs take the form of tentacles invisibly retracted when not in use. Pronounced "GREW-ug."

J-Fish: 4/24/06 ~ Curious cartilaginous fish with an electromagnetic sense.

Jllagöth: ca. 2002 ~ The greatest enemies of the T'in T'aa (Masters), and as ill-disposed to mankind as the hyperintelligent cephalopods. The Jllagössen dare to call themselves "the Masters," and are sometimes referred to as such by others, causing confusion. Legend holds that they were once human. Pronounced "ZHLAY-goth" (with "zh" being pronounced the same as the "s" in "Persian").

Lion Puffs: 2/22/06 (left), 3/19/06 (right) ~ I don't know if these creatures exist. But I hear stories...

Magic Sphere: 4/19/06 ~ Part of the complicated life cycle of the Venus Dreamtrap (q.v.).

Mop Thing: 2/22/06 ~ Omnivorous polyommatous gastropod. The Mop Things' level of intelligence, and thus the ethics of using them to dispose of waste, is a hotly-debated topic.

Pech: 1999 ~ Close cousins of Pixies (q.v.), Pechs are larger and more withdrawn. Pronounced the same as "peck."

Pixies: ca. 1999 (both) ~ Small and agile relatives of Elves and Fairies (smaller than the former, larger than the latter). Believed to be attracted to dampness and confusion. Their skin contains chlorophyll, giving it a green hue.

Predatory Rock: ca. 2002 ~ A shell that resembles a rock is the perfect camouflage for this razor-toothed mollusc.

Pygmy Seadragon: 4/24/06 ~ Seadragon nymphs living in small bodies of water grow into this rather benign variety.

Remote Viewer: late 2006 ~ An organic machine that acts as a distant eye for a Master. So efficient that some Masters have done away with their own eyes completely.

Serendipitous Servo Robots: ca. 1999 (left), 3/2/05 (right) ~ Left operative when the ancient spacefarers who built them died unexpectedly, these multipurpose robots have gone completely haywire.

Silicon Phantom: ca. 1/04 ~ The origin, motives, and exact nature of these silicon-based life-forms are not known. They appear and disappear without making contact, and usually without seeming to do anything. The cases where they do act are the most baffling. Possibly related to the phantom dodecahedron phenomenon.

Skitterling: ca. 2002 ~ Kept as pets by A-phoüks; loathed by everyone else.

Space Barnacle: ca. 2004 ~ One of the hazards of space travel.

Tan Goblin: 4/19/06 ~ A clever, if unsophisticated, microhumanoid xerophile.

Teacher: ca. 2003 ~ We owe everything to the Teachers.

Teggren: ca. 2004 ~ Teggren are symbionts of Vornishakks (q.v.).

Terra Dwarf: 6/10/04 ~ One of our mutated descendants in a possible future.

Terror Squid: 3/19/06 ~ Natural enemy of the Wind Fish (q.v.). Like the Wind Fish, most of its body is filled with buoyant gas. The mucus coating its skin, which is also produced in its mouth, contains an enzyme that dissolves flesh.

Venus Dreamtraps: 1/23/06 (left), ca. 2/06 (right) ~ A more or less typical example of Dionaea muscipula in Dreamtime. An uprooted immature specimen is shown at right.

Voracious Orb: ca. 2002 ~ A horrifying monster from one of the evil worlds beyond.

Vornishakk: ca. 2004 ~ Vornishakks are hosts to Teggren (q.v.).

William: 3/19/06 ~ William's a strange one.

Wind Fish: 3/19/06 ~ These celestial grazers grow hundreds of feet long, but most of their body is transparent, and invisible from a distance, making them difficult for predators to spot.

Wingless Fairy: 3/19/06 ~ Fairies without wings strive to imitate their winged counterparts, using feathers, leaves, or scraps of paper to glide on air currents.

Wyrm: 5/26/03 ~ An example of a diverse group of dragons characterized by degenerate limbs and stinger-tipped tails. Pronounced the same as "worm."

Here I am repackaging my back-catalog like some quinquagenarian rock star. These are all drawings I made between my sophomore year of high school and my first year out of college. None of them have been used for deviations or scraps before because they were...

A. Uninspired
B. Poorly executed
C. Very small
D. Some combination of the above

I got the idea that together they would be strong, so I collected every previously unreleased creaturish drawing I considered remotely presentable and owned the rights to, and made this collage on Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0. The Fornacian Semi-Corporeal is something I made on Adobe PhotoDeluxe 4.0 for an Intermedia project, but the rest are straightforward scans, although some were rotated or flipped to make for a better overall composition.

Despite the fact that all these drawings already existed, scanning, cleaning up, and compositing them took over 5 months (time alternated between this and other projects and real-world responsibilities, or course), making this my most labor-intensive and time-consuming deviation to date.

On 1/23/08 I put up the corrected file.

Description
A note on originality: At the time that I posted this deviation, I believed the creatures were all my original designs. Much later I discovered that the male Pixie is a piece of Brian Froud fanart, copied closely from a sketch published in Good Faeries/Bad Faeries. I did not mean to misrepresent this as my own design, I had merely forgotten its origin in the 8 years since I'd drawn it.

------------------

1/20/08 (composition; dates of individual drawings listed below)

Some of the more commonly-encountered creatures of Dreamtime. Not drawn to scale. See key below.

Abomination: 2002 ~ The biotechnological terrors the Masters (q.v. ) conjure up are dangerous enough, but those created by madmen wishing to be like the Masters are true nightmares.

Breed IX Cows: 6/24/04 (both) ~ These cattle have been genetically engineered to float in the air and to graze on airborne algae, freeing up the grasslands. They are lighter than air due to hydrogen they produce and store in specialized intestine.

Bubble-Grazing Rattlefrog: 12/25/06 ~ Not a true Rattlefrog, since its tongue is blunt and nonpoisonous. It has evolved a facsimile of the Rattlefrog's rattle to fool would-be predators into thinking it is one.

Cadmian Tracker: 3/20/06 ~ Useful if you need to find something.

Cat Person: ca. 2001 ~ Walks like a cat, talks like a person.

Cognizant Stone: 3/2/05 ~ Interplanetary rubble with thought and purpose.

Crawlfish: ca. 2002 ~ The first of the Stargazers' ancestors to venture onto land.

Cubist: 4/24/06 ~ One of an obsolete variety of Remote Viewer (q.v.) that became independent and escaped decommissioning. Putting the Masters' knowledge of chemistry to use, they protect themselves with cubes of gelatinous substances which vary in appearance and properties.

Dark Mushroot: 2006 ~ Light Mushroots are infinitely preferable.

Diplokay: 5/26/03 ~ A relative of the Spikay (q.v. ), the Diplokay is prized for its soft, white underbelly.

Fornacian Semi-Corporeal: 3/05 ~ Semi-corporeal beings who inhabit the dwarf galaxy of Fornax.

Fuzzy: 3/2/05 ~ A zoofungoid that has to die in order to reproduce. Fuzzies (called "Whooids" by the erudite) explode if hit or squeezed hard enough, releasing thousands of spores into the air. Cf. "The Fuzzies."

Grooøg: ca. 2004 ~ Different shapes and arrangements of limbs and organs among Grooøgs are as common as different colors of hair and eyes are among humans. This makes individual Grooøgs better and worse at different occupations, and their culture has evolved accordingly. Note that most Grooøg limbs take the form of tentacles invisibly retracted when not in use. Pronounced "GREW-ug."

J-Fish: 4/24/06 ~ Curious cartilaginous fish with an electromagnetic sense.

Jllagöth: ca. 2002 ~ The greatest enemies of the T'in T'aa (Masters), and as ill-disposed to mankind as the hyperintelligent cephalopods. The Jllagössen dare to call themselves "the Masters," and are sometimes referred to as such by others, causing confusion. Legend holds that they were once human. Pronounced "ZHLAY-goth" (with "zh" being pronounced the same as the "s" in "Persian").

Lion Puffs: 2/22/06 (left), 3/19/06 (right) ~ I don't know if these creatures exist. But I hear stories...

Magic Sphere: 4/19/06 ~ Part of the complicated life cycle of the Venus Dreamtrap (q.v.).

Mop Thing: 2/22/06 ~ Omnivorous polyommatous gastropod. The Mop Things' level of intelligence, and thus the ethics of using them to dispose of waste, is a hotly-debated topic.

Pech: 1999 ~ Close cousins of Pixies (q.v.), Pechs are larger and more withdrawn. Pronounced the same as "peck."

Pixies: ca. 1999 (both) ~ Small and agile relatives of Elves and Fairies (smaller than the former, larger than the latter). Believed to be attracted to dampness and confusion. Their skin contains chlorophyll, giving it a green hue.

Predatory Rock: ca. 2002 ~ A shell that resembles a rock is the perfect camouflage for this razor-toothed mollusc.

Pygmy Seadragon: 4/24/06 ~ Seadragon nymphs living in small bodies of water grow into this rather benign variety.

Remote Viewer: late 2006 ~ An organic machine that acts as a distant eye for a Master. So efficient that some Masters have done away with their own eyes completely.

Serendipitous Servo Robots: ca. 1999 (left), 3/2/05 (right) ~ Left operative when the ancient spacefarers who built them died unexpectedly, these multipurpose robots have gone completely haywire.

Silicon Phantom: ca. 1/04 ~ The origin, motives, and exact nature of these silicon-based life-forms are not known. They appear and disappear without making contact, and usually without seeming to do anything. The cases where they do act are the most baffling. Possibly related to the phantom dodecahedron phenomenon.

Skitterling: ca. 2002 ~ Kept as pets by A-phoüks; loathed by everyone else.

Space Barnacle: ca. 2004 ~ One of the hazards of space travel.

Tan Goblin: 4/19/06 ~ A clever, if unsophisticated, microhumanoid xerophile.

Teacher: ca. 2003 ~ We owe everything to the Teachers.

Teggren: ca. 2004 ~ Teggren are symbionts of Vornishakks (q.v.).

Terra Dwarf: 6/10/04 ~ One of our mutated descendants in a possible future.

Terror Squid: 3/19/06 ~ Natural enemy of the Wind Fish (q.v.). Like the Wind Fish, most of its body is filled with buoyant gas. The mucus coating its skin, which is also produced in its mouth, contains an enzyme that dissolves flesh.

Venus Dreamtraps: 1/23/06 (left), ca. 2/06 (right) ~ A more or less typical example of Dionaea muscipula in Dreamtime. An uprooted immature specimen is shown at right.

Voracious Orb: ca. 2002 ~ A horrifying monster from one of the evil worlds beyond.

Vornishakk: ca. 2004 ~ Vornishakks are hosts to Teggren (q.v.).

William: 3/19/06 ~ William's a strange one.

Wind Fish: 3/19/06 ~ These celestial grazers grow hundreds of feet long, but most of their body is transparent, and invisible from a distance, making them difficult for predators to spot.

Wingless Fairy: 3/19/06 ~ Fairies without wings strive to imitate their winged counterparts, using feathers, leaves, or scraps of paper to glide on air currents.

Wyrm: 5/26/03 ~ An example of a diverse group of dragons characterized by degenerate limbs and stinger-tipped tails. Pronounced the same as "worm."

Here I am repackaging my back-catalog like some quinquagenarian rock star. These are all drawings I made between my sophomore year of high school and my first year out of college. None of them have been used for deviations or scraps before because they were...

A. Uninspired
B. Poorly executed
C. Very small
D. Some combination of the above

I got the idea that together they would be strong, so I collected every previously unreleased creaturish drawing I considered remotely presentable and owned the rights to, and made this collage on Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0. The Fornacian Semi-Corporeal is something I made on Adobe PhotoDeluxe 4.0 for an Intermedia project, but the rest are straightforward scans, although some were rotated or flipped to make for a better overall composition.

Despite the fact that all these drawings already existed, scanning, cleaning up, and compositing them took over 5 months (time alternated between this and other projects and real-world responsibilities, or course), making this my most labor-intensive and time-consuming deviation to date.

On 1/23/08 I put up the corrected file.