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Description
A pair of kuokios is slowly sailing down the one of countless branches of the great River, illuminating its banks with their flamboyant bioluminescent marks. Despite their impressive size, mighty ship-beasts look almost harmless as they drift motionless, only slightly waving their flippers... if we forget about long venomous tentacles swaying beneath.
____

Well, definitely not the best of Mex`s paintings (and that river is too small!), but it has some really atmospheric lighting. X)
And now for serious.
Ambarra is Mexanik`s worldbuiding project that I`m (sometimes) contributing to and now trying to promote here.

A long time ago, in a galaxy unknown and unreachable for humans, one of the planets was populated by creatures known as the Masters. Almost nothing is known about their appearance, their culture, and their origin, as well as their sudden vanishing - the only thing we know for sure is that their technology was amazingly advanced.
We know they domesticated various animals, creating many new breeds via selection, but avoiding genetic engineering for unknown reason.
Among these domesticated creatures was a species of surprisingly intelligent amphibians - the Jadong. And when they were left alone in desolated cities, their intelligence allowed them to survive without their patrons and eventually reclaim this world as theirs only... or not?

"Umbarrah" is the name of all known world... which is actually restricted a territory the size of an average European country, where the delta of enormous River is located. Bordered by the mountains to the north, sea to the south, desert to west, and swamps to the east, it`s covered in dense jungle (with savannah separating it from the desert). Having hot and humid climate, it`s populated by amphibious creatures of all shapes and sizes, weird multi-eyed insectoids, and ship-like aquatic animals. It`s a rich, vibrant tropical land, but also deadly and unforgiving.
It may apper strange, however, that Jadong never tried to colonize outer world. Although it`s obvious that a desert and cold mountains are pretty difficult for amphibians to cross, there are still swamps. Yes, they look good, but those who ventured there never came back, and probably not because they liked outer world so much. No, the reason of their disappearance is well-known, and the truth is terrifying. Every Jadong knows: out there be monsters.

* * *
UPD: there was some trouble with translation of names/denominations. Jadongs (as all vertebrates in this world) have quite unusual vocal apparatus, a loudspeaker-like organ that consists of a set of membranes operated by special oscillating muscles. Thus, their speech is more like music and is really hard to convey with any human language. We do have standartized Russian versions of their names for convenience, of course, but me and Mexanik disagreed on how to translate them to English. For example: Umbarrah/Ambarra (originally Амбарра), quokyo/kuokio (куокио), grunkh/granh (гранх). My versions sound closer to Russian originals, but are written more differently. His versions sound more differently, but he says it`s just as planned.
Mexanik insists that I use his versions, even if I don`t like them, so I`ll do it since now. Because come on, that`s not even my problem - he`s the author! Actually, a lot of them aren`t bad at all.

Description
A pair of kuokios is slowly sailing down the one of countless branches of the great River, illuminating its banks with their flamboyant bioluminescent marks. Despite their impressive size, mighty ship-beasts look almost harmless as they drift motionless, only slightly waving their flippers... if we forget about long venomous tentacles swaying beneath.
____

Well, definitely not the best of Mex`s paintings (and that river is too small!), but it has some really atmospheric lighting. X)
And now for serious.
Ambarra is Mexanik`s worldbuiding project that I`m (sometimes) contributing to and now trying to promote here.

A long time ago, in a galaxy unknown and unreachable for humans, one of the planets was populated by creatures known as the Masters. Almost nothing is known about their appearance, their culture, and their origin, as well as their sudden vanishing - the only thing we know for sure is that their technology was amazingly advanced.
We know they domesticated various animals, creating many new breeds via selection, but avoiding genetic engineering for unknown reason.
Among these domesticated creatures was a species of surprisingly intelligent amphibians - the Jadong. And when they were left alone in desolated cities, their intelligence allowed them to survive without their patrons and eventually reclaim this world as theirs only... or not?

"Umbarrah" is the name of all known world... which is actually restricted a territory the size of an average European country, where the delta of enormous River is located. Bordered by the mountains to the north, sea to the south, desert to west, and swamps to the east, it`s covered in dense jungle (with savannah separating it from the desert). Having hot and humid climate, it`s populated by amphibious creatures of all shapes and sizes, weird multi-eyed insectoids, and ship-like aquatic animals. It`s a rich, vibrant tropical land, but also deadly and unforgiving.
It may apper strange, however, that Jadong never tried to colonize outer world. Although it`s obvious that a desert and cold mountains are pretty difficult for amphibians to cross, there are still swamps. Yes, they look good, but those who ventured there never came back, and probably not because they liked outer world so much. No, the reason of their disappearance is well-known, and the truth is terrifying. Every Jadong knows: out there be monsters.

* * *
UPD: there was some trouble with translation of names/denominations. Jadongs (as all vertebrates in this world) have quite unusual vocal apparatus, a loudspeaker-like organ that consists of a set of membranes operated by special oscillating muscles. Thus, their speech is more like music and is really hard to convey with any human language. We do have standartized Russian versions of their names for convenience, of course, but me and Mexanik disagreed on how to translate them to English. For example: Umbarrah/Ambarra (originally Амбарра), quokyo/kuokio (куокио), grunkh/granh (гранх). My versions sound closer to Russian originals, but are written more differently. His versions sound more differently, but he says it`s just as planned.
Mexanik insists that I use his versions, even if I don`t like them, so I`ll do it since now. Because come on, that`s not even my problem - he`s the author! Actually, a lot of them aren`t bad at all.