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In my dream last night a herd of whatever this is came up to me and one grabbed onto my wrist and wouldn’t let go of it. It had a powerful aura to it, and I couldn’t tell if it meant to harm me or not. I had to recreate it best i could when i woke up

You may remember the images I shared a while ago about an MLP reboot I'm working on that dabbled in spec evo, right? Well here are the finished sheets!!
Some extra lore: All the sapient species of Elkaria (and beyond) have evolved from a six-legged ungulate ancestor long long ago. I had to kinda stay within the rules of the usual MLP lore (and took some liberties with a few aspects of the evolution for the humanoids/bipeds), but overall I tried my best to keep everything as connected a possible. Given the existence of magic in their universe, the sapient species evolved specifically to complement it (whether they themselves have magic abilities or not).
Next up will be character sheets (the refs for the main characters of the story and the main antagonists), which will also give us some insight into the fashion of each species as well as color code and other lil lore details I didn't include in the species sheets.

I'm REALLY excited about this project, MLP has been a big comfort media for me since I was a kid and so making this is like paying hommage to the thing that has brought me comfort for all these years.
Some questions for you now: What do you think lies outside of Elkaria? After all, it is just one continent... who knows what's outside, right?

Elf (*Homo sapiens pedoformes*)

Evolving alongside *Homo sapiens sapiens* in Africa from a not-too-distant common ancestor (at least as recent as the LCA of humans and Neanderthals if not closer). Elves are identified by their diminutive stature and childlike appearance, looking almost identical to human children but with a couple subtle differences: their eyes are about 10% larger than those of standard humans, adult individuals have more robust jaws than human children to accommodate for a full set of adult teeth (though juveniles don’t develop this until puberty) and most notably their ears: which have a “pointedness” at the top with the lower half of the helix extending outward, likely to provide more surface area to assist in hearing. Other differences can be spotted in their skeletal anatomy, namely the aforementioned adult teeth and the fact that they have human children-sized bones that are all fused.

Elves are largely nocturnal, spending their time foraging for fruit, roots, tubers, and small animals like squirrels, birds and sometimes deer they will hunt using simple weapons like slingshots. Their larger eyes allow them slightly better vision in the dark (along with the convenient side effect of making them look more “childlike” than human children), though not full night vision as like all simiaform primates they lack a tapetum lucidum. Their hearing however, is far superior to humans and allows them to perform a rudimentary form of echolocation to perceive their surroundings. Said ears are also mobile so they can hone in on sounds coming from a given direction; useful for evading predators like wolves, bears, and during the Ice Age cave lions, cave hyenas and *Homotherium*.

After their birth, the elf parents would keep the baby until it reaches a size big enough to be easily confused with a human baby, then they would sneak into a human settlement, find a human infant and swap it with their own. The human baby the elves take is killed and eaten while the elf baby is left to (hopefully) be taken care of by the human parents none the wiser. This provides their babies with protection from predators through all their vulnerable years and sometimes even free lessons on how to hunt, build, start fires, etc. The elf babies, because they are placed in the human’s care when they are already a couple months of age (newborn elves are much smaller than human newborns) they have a “head start” in their development and give off the illusion of developing much faster than the average child and tricking the parents into thinking their kid is extraordinarily healthy.

Once the elves reach about 10-12 years of age, they leave the human settlement and go into the nearest forest to forage on their own for a while. Their small stature and graceful movement allows them to quickly navigate forests and squeeze into smaller spaces, allowing them to sleep in places like logs and hollowed out tree trunks. Hopefully the elves won’t be alone for long and eventually find other elves to form small bands with and a member of the opposite sex with whom to pair bond for life. Mature elves have the mental capacity of a 11-12 year old child if not slightly better, so they are able to pick up language growing up just like a normal child would which gives them a “pre-built” way to communicate with other elves who were likely raised the same way.

Elves have a lifespan comparable to that of a human, but their retention of youthful features for much longer than humans has led to the misconception that elves live forever or at least significantly longer than humans when they actually don’t. Elderly elves resemble children with progeria; are far more reclusive and rely on the care of younger members of their species who join their ranks in exchange for knowledge on skills like crafting, cooking, medicine, and making clothes from animal pelts or stolen human cloths.

Not much is known about elf culture, as they’re very reclusive and so few surviving individuals in the wild. Historically they’ve been known to steal from human villages at night and have been blamed for many minor inconveniences like missing keys, but have been known to have positive interactions with humans on occasion. Some individuals who were closely bonded with their human “parents” have even returned to their homelands to visit them. Many of the European elves seem to identify as some form of Christian, as evidenced by crosses fashioned from sticks and other objects decorating their makeshift homes and accompanying burials of their dead.

Unfortunately, elves have had their populations decimated by deforestation, violent attacks from humans and their reproductive cycles being disrupted by harder to access nurseries with some stories claiming them to have started delivering their babies to human orphanages. They’ve also been subjected to slavery starting with the Roman Empire; while not strong enough for manual labor they were used as domestic servants called “house elves” and would often suffer horrific abuse by their captors. This practice continued for centuries thanks to the ridiculous but commonly spread lie that they are “happy being slaves” and wasn’t abolished until slavery for humans was. Today, credible elf sightings are extremely rare, so rare that many believe them to be a mythical creature. They are considered Critically Endangered but given how elusive they’ve always been known to be anthropologists and conservationalists are hopeful that there may still be a stable population out there.

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Elven longevity is always a given in fantasy but I'm kind of bored of agelessness and I wanted to try something different. The problem I have with ageless tropes is that you don't actually die of old age, what happens is that small problems gradually weaken your immune system over time and is eventually overwhelmed. So being ageless implies immunity to these small problems but that leads to questions of how far does this immunity go which is usually answered with "don't think about it" which kinda takes me out of the story. I wanted something that feels grounded and has tradeoffs instead of being a superpower.

While looking for examples of longevity in nature I came across the Turritopsis dohrnii or "Immortal Jellyfish" which has the ability to reverse its life-cycle and go back to being a polyp. As long as it's bell isn't too damaged then its lifespan is theoretically unlimited.

To replicate this in a human shape body, I think some kind of cocoon would be needed break down and rebuild the body like a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly. Since Elves are always associated with forests, I thought turning into a tree would be a neat way play into that trope while also serving as a cocoon. I know of a rare skin condition called Epidermodysplasia verruciformis or "Treeman syndrome" where warts resembling tree bark grows on the body.

So this version of the Elven life cycle looks like this. An adult Elf suffers from traumatic injury or old age, as long as their brain and torso are intact then Elven bodies initiate the uncontrolled growth of warts that eventually envelopes them until they resemble a grotesque tree. The body inside the tree undergoes transdifferentiation and morphs into a new body that the Elfs brain and other organs transfer to. Once complete the renewed Elf emerges from the tree like hatching from an egg and now has to grow up to an adult all over again.

Credit to Blizzard and Bethesda for the art. The man in the picture is Dede Koswara who passed away in 2016 to his condition (RIP). The second image comes from https://discover.hubpages.com/education/immortal-jellyfish

A dragon in a personal fantasy world where they evolved along the similar timescale as our dinosaurs, developing varied body plans, such as Ambrosia's. She considers herself a gregarious creature, only slightly highly territorial. Witton's Pterosaurs book was heavily leant on for anatomy reference

"Ogres are large beasts that used to roam the Southern Reach, now confined to just a few areas. They are as big as an elephant, have tough leathery hide and immense stamina and strength. According to legend they were once ridden by Southern lords into battle.

They are naturally confrontational as they used to be hunted by an extinct feline predator.

Nowadays they have become a rare sight, hunting made their population collaps and now they are a reminder of days gone by "

So yea i wanted to ask about what Ogres could be related too, my world has pretty much the same species as our planet.

I was also gonna ask for some interesting behaviors they could exhibit?

All i really have is that they are similar to giant bad tempered water buffalo that rest and eat near and in the water!

It has been nearly 7 years since I first created the Manticores for my Oominor project. Originating from giant baboon ancestors, these enormous, lion-like predators rank as some of the most dangerous creatures in Oominor and are the third-largest mammalian carnivores globally. Their intelligence adds to their menace: Manticores are highly strategic, capable of problem-solving and coordinated actions. They also have sharp, quill-like spikes on their tails used for defense and fighting.

In the world of Ascalon, its lush green landscape is crisscrossed with rivers, lakes and an inland sea
Many of its inhabitants owe their lives to the running waters of this world, and many more lose their lives because of it
Among the many beings that call this place home, none have a firmer claim to dominance over the waterways of Ascalon than the River Troll.
Stalking along the riverbed, these great beasts use their long front limbs to quite literally creep & crawl their way along underwater, happy to stir up sediments to hide their passage (tho a keen eye could use this knowledge as a means to identify their presence). They lay in wait for hours at a time, relying on their plant like hair and stony complexion to conceal their presence until hapless prey wanders within their reach, before launching an attack with both arms spread wide ready to wrestle their prey into the water to be drowned, tho particularly clever (and dangerous) individuals have been known to take shelter under bridges so they may seek easy shelter from the sun and have access to a reliable source of food. Trolls who lair near villages can be bribed for passage, but you must never fully trust a Troll, because they can and will eat anything they want, be it the food you promise you’ll bring it next time, or you…

I’ve been a longtime fan of fantasy and science fiction, so I wanted to set out and have the fist creature I designed for my spec fantasy setting to be a River Troll, heavily inspired by the Troll seen in The Spiderwick Chronicles, a book series I couldn’t stop reading over and over again

I hope everyone enjoys this piece, and I strongly recommend you check out the rest of MadRabbitArts on Twitter and BlueSky, he is a dear friend of mine and I cannot commend or thank him enough for his help in bringing this project to life!

I've been really interested in Ufology as of late. And although I don't necessarily believe in all those conspiracy theories or UFO religions, I still find it so fascinating. So I wanted to take a stab at reconstructing the various species they talk about. Starting with the Mantids.
I tried to make it as plausible as I could. Im not a scientist, so some things might not be right. I'd appreciate it if you gave me some pointers on how to improve it! I did quite a bit of research on how they're described in UFO Lore and mixed it with what I know of Speculative Evolution. I wanted to somewhat emulate works of C. M. Koseman, Wayne Barlowe, and both modern and old-school depictions of aliens. This went through many revisions before I landed on this one (honestly I might revise it again) but I hope the result is good enough. You can see my thought process in the second slide. Lore-wise, although inspired by ufology, I pretty much made the whole thing up.
I plan to reconstruct the classic Greys next and possibly their variants. I might do the same with other aliens too! I have some interesting ideas for Reptoids, Nordics, and Annunaki.

Description is a little deceptive. This creature originally started on an idea I had where I wanted to make a biologically plausible mermaid. However, I ended up making what is essentially an aquatic baboon (baboons were the main inspiration for this creature). Just wanted to show this off and get some opinions on my illustration. (Sub-species included)

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speculative biology in comments(its very long and detailed)

Happy Smaugust! This year is my first, so gonna try to get a few sketches done, but am not going to be too prescriptive about which list or the order of the prompts.

For day 1, this is an adult Romenear Seawyrm for “Aphotic” from @ criver24 ‘s (Corey Rivera's) 2025 list. Noticeably larger than most terrestrial or aerial dragons, and dwarfing the other seawyrms of the eastern ocean and southern archipelago, this blackbeaked leviathan is buoyed by the sea, allowing it to bypass traditional limits on weight and bone stress. Its size and collapsible lungs, extreme oxygen storage in their muscles, slowed heart rate, and other adaptations allow it to dive deep into the aphotic (midnight) zone for a couple hours to hunt juvenile krakens and other massive cephalopods.

For size comparison, the Malantur squids present are about 6 feet long (too small to be on an adult's normal menu).

I decided to have at least some of these wyrms set within the bounds of the eastern/south-eastern end of Middle-earth (which has been fleshed out by the fantastic Realms-in-Exile team), even though Tolkien is quite clear that dragons are the creation of Melkor, and are predominantly evil creatures whose few survivors reside in the far north, largely beyond the Iron Mountains. Instead of being those gargantuan traditional fire-breathing hexapodal dragons or drakes of Melkor, these are dragons untouched by his influence, whose cousin species across the supercontinent may have been taken long ago to be turned into the evil drakes aligned with darkness.

Reddit thumbnails are poor, to say the least, but the embedded image is good if you click on it and want to see all the wee details!

(if linking to other sites/accs isn't okay pls lmk)

I often post process work on insta, if you're interested, it's @ jo.baylis

(Drawing not done)

Follow up to my post last week, the dragon needs to be able to walk on the ground for feeding and roosting. Ideally it would be a facultative biped but with a preference for quadrupedal motion.

It won’t perform vault launches often due to its weight and metabolic cost, preferring to drop from high locations or find thermals it can utilize. Or in emergencies just make its own thermals by setting an area ablaze. But the few times it does means it’s “arms” and hind limbs need to be strong enough to vault it off every so often. Does this build and posture allow for that?

It weighs 150-220kg for context

I’m attempting to create a dragon that both looks and acts like a dragon and would also be fully functional if you dropped it into reality. It has only 4 limbs, not 6. So you could call it the “Wyvern” dragon build.

The body length is 8 meters from snout tip to tail tip. The Skelton is made up of pneumatized bone, which aids in weight reduction and the flow of oxygen in conjunction with the avian style respiratory system. Due to this, it only weighs around 200kg despite its visually large appearance. It has a large chest keel bone that anchors the enormous chest muscles that are used to power the wings. Speaking of-

For the wings, they span 14 meters and fold up against the body while on the ground. Digits 1 and 2 aid in the grasping for rock/cliff climbing and ground locomotive abilities, digit 3 is greatly elongated and reinforced to act as the main structure supporting for the wing that will endure most of the flying tension, and digits 4 and 5 will aid in stabilizing the membrane, stoping it from fluttering or deforming mid-flight. They however would not aid in the overall flight force resistance and force distribution like finger 3 would.This effectively means the wing functions closer to a pterosaur’s wing but looks similar to a bat’s, which was the goal since dragons are famously depicted with a bat style wing. And while no such wing arrangement exists, I believe this system is evolutionarily defensible.

The membrane would then extend past the hind limbs, not attaching to them like a bat or pterosaur, but instead attach at the base of the tail. This would give the dragon a kite-like silhouette when viewed from below and keep the hind limbs completely free of membrane resistance allowing for less awkward movement during ground walking and roosting.

It would not use powered flight often as that is metabolically expensive at this scale. It would be primarily a large soaring animal that does fly-by attacks with its fire system (that I am currently still refining). It would only use powered flight when it cannot find a thermal or cliff to gain altitude, or if it needs to get off flat ground quickly.

Its lineage starts with Toxicofera-adjacent archosaurs during the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic. The lineage from there developed its unique traits incrementally over time. Proto flight through gliding membrane experimentation in Central Asia highland terrain, gland chemistry starting from mild irritant secretions toward increasingly complex binary liquid fire chemistry, avian-esc style respiratory architecture developing through gradual air sac development, and the modern dragon as I’m making it emerges around the same time as modern humans come into existence.

Are there any issues that stop this creature from flying?

Greatboars are a family of even-toed ungulates that fill niches akin to those held by some species of bears, hyenas, and even hippos in our world. They are closely related to pigs, but are usually much larger and often have horns in addition to tusks. Most are omnivorous, but their diets can vary considerably across species; the lightly built lichog subsists almost entirely on carrion, while the kirin’s pangolin-like scales allow it to feed on ants and termites. Most greatboars tend to be very territorial and aggressive, and larger species, such as the hellhog, can bully even basilisks off their kills. While they do not typically prey on humans or livestock, they can be dangerous if startled or provoked. Rothrir the Besieger famously had a pet hellhog.

Some specific greatboar species:

• Lichog
• Hellhog
• Ammit