A rare mutation, most common among the temple caste, gives them transparent, almost jelly-like skin. Their channeling tissue is particularly bright and easily visible from the outside.
The tissue core: an artifact the federal Family posesses. It's "planted" out in the lawn. The active end, buried underground, oozes oily, black fluid. This fluid can form itself into flesh, and can be used to treat otherwise deadly injuries. It works great on skin, muscle, and bone, but results on complex structures such as organs are... mixed.
Cross section of a management engine. The part of the ruins that sticks aboveground is like the tip of the iceburg: there's always way more underneath. Management Engines are particularly complicated.
A lizard chef! The food + the hat looks Duhra, but the name ring tells you this lizzer belongs to a Family. It's likely they're a private chef working in Duhr, perhaps part of a Family that does catering.
I'm beginning graduate school soon. I'm gong to be busy(er) than ever before, and I haven't kept my Patreon up to date in months. For these reasons, I think it's in my best interest to close up shop for now.
The extra income from Patreon has saved my butt time and time again, and I'm deeply appreciative of the support I've gotten over the-- now multiple years. It still doesn't seem ...
Lizards were "created," but not from scratch. Their hormones and neurotransmitters were tweaked. They were given channeling organs, a sort of endogenous......organism.....that grows inside embryonic lizards like a tumor. The result was pretty good, but not perfect. A lizard was still absolutely unable to coordinate or communicate with its creators. So the creators needed something that was......
2021-06-15 14:19:59 +0000 UTCView Post
Walking home from the factory, Family lizards are tempted by a nameless food vendor. Buying food from them isn't really forbidden, but it's a small faux pas-- one that Family lizards constantly overlook in the interest of getting their hands on some greasy, tasty street food.
I might-- eventually-- finish or rework this into worldbuilding art. But right now its just an abstract painting of a lizard and some fire. Totally normal things.
After winning fights in the initial advance through the forests, plains, and coastal marshes that surround Duhr, the Federal Family's reaches the city itself.
From the air, Duhr looks like one massive building. Its wooden tenements stretch dozens of stories into the sky, and plunge their roots into the mines, tunnels, and waterworks under the city.
Taking the...
2021-05-27 20:49:06 +0000 UTCView Post
Late in the war, desperate and with dwindling resources, the Federal Family attempts to firebomb Duhr. Almost all of its inhabitants are camped out in the mines so while the death toll is slim and the firebombing is not 100% successful at destroying the city, it's a huge setback for Duhr's reconstruction.
What's considered attractive in various parts of the Shell.
In the temple states, it's ideal to be tall, slim, and blue. The taller, slimmer, and blue-er, the better-- and the temple caste is eugenics-y and weird about it.
Family culture values a warm, healthy glow, and a little bit of pudge. They're not picky about other physical characteristics.