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Description
Diabolical and unsympathetic to other forms of life as they were, the Qu were nonetheless driven by artistic aspirations as much as - if not more than - any desire for galactic conquest. This drive was what led some Qu artists to experiment with the Colonials, unwittingly foreshadowing this lowly people's Modular descendants.

Forcing the Colonials to retain their intelligence had resulted in the continuing of legends describing what life was like when they had a humanoid form. The persistence of these whispered legends irritated the Qu, who had done their best to put an end to what they thought of as a shameful era. In a mockery of these heretical histories, some Qu artists assembled mats of brick-shaped Colonials into the Qubists, approximations of the human form. These co-operative arrangements could move around, albeit in a parody of the human gait. While this artistic triumph contributed to a golden age of artistry for the Qu, the ways of the Qubists confused the Colonials' oral traditions, eventually obscuring the legends entirely.

Inspired by this experiment, many Qu artists made their own Qubist creatures from Colonials, whereas other Qu were disgusted by the idea of post-humans reasserting even a shadow of their ancient ways - a reaction that many of the Qu artists themselves had hoped to elicit from their audiences. It was an age of lively artistic debate and innovation within Qu creative circles. But endowing some Colonials with the ability to move and collectively form robust structures also laid the foundations for the rise of the Modular People. The Colonials had lost their history, but gained a future.

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This was a 30-minute speed-drawing, made after I had the idea of six Colonials forming a cube and what kind of beings might follow from that kind of assembly. I decided that they would be works of art made by the Qu solely so that I could use the term "qubist". But when expanding on the lore behind it, I think it was well-justified in-universe, as well as just being a silly pun. (Most of my spec evo/bio drawings start off as a joke anyway.)

Description
Diabolical and unsympathetic to other forms of life as they were, the Qu were nonetheless driven by artistic aspirations as much as - if not more than - any desire for galactic conquest. This drive was what led some Qu artists to experiment with the Colonials, unwittingly foreshadowing this lowly people's Modular descendants.

Forcing the Colonials to retain their intelligence had resulted in the continuing of legends describing what life was like when they had a humanoid form. The persistence of these whispered legends irritated the Qu, who had done their best to put an end to what they thought of as a shameful era. In a mockery of these heretical histories, some Qu artists assembled mats of brick-shaped Colonials into the Qubists, approximations of the human form. These co-operative arrangements could move around, albeit in a parody of the human gait. While this artistic triumph contributed to a golden age of artistry for the Qu, the ways of the Qubists confused the Colonials' oral traditions, eventually obscuring the legends entirely.

Inspired by this experiment, many Qu artists made their own Qubist creatures from Colonials, whereas other Qu were disgusted by the idea of post-humans reasserting even a shadow of their ancient ways - a reaction that many of the Qu artists themselves had hoped to elicit from their audiences. It was an age of lively artistic debate and innovation within Qu creative circles. But endowing some Colonials with the ability to move and collectively form robust structures also laid the foundations for the rise of the Modular People. The Colonials had lost their history, but gained a future.

--------

This was a 30-minute speed-drawing, made after I had the idea of six Colonials forming a cube and what kind of beings might follow from that kind of assembly. I decided that they would be works of art made by the Qu solely so that I could use the term "qubist". But when expanding on the lore behind it, I think it was well-justified in-universe, as well as just being a silly pun. (Most of my spec evo/bio drawings start off as a joke anyway.)