Fun fact: Mothes and nocturnal bugs don't actively seek light, light messes with their locational systems, causing them to be trapped by it, as they'd use sunlight or moonlight to get around.
If there were humans or some other equivalent filling the role of “eldritch gods” in this universe, I could easily see these “false suns” (artificial lights) as marking the borders around eldritch lands (ie human dwellings) , places where it’s as bright as midday despite being midnight, where it’s easy to lose your bearings and run/fly in circles, where what looks like delicious food is actually poison in disguise (ie bug traps). And when the insect inhabitants accidentally look directly into the false suns, they can’t help but be drawn to it like with the Mesmer Fish in Subnautica, its siren song calling them closer and closer, until they either die from exhaustion while circling it, or are incinerated upon touching it.
If there were humans or some other equivalent filling the role of "eldritch beings" in this universe, I could easily see these "false suns" (artificial lights) as marking the borders around eldrich lands (ie human buildings) , places where it's as bright as midday despite being midnight, where it's easy to lose your bearings and run/fly in circles, where what looks like delicious food is actually toxins in disguise (ie bug traps). And when the insect inhabitants accidentally look directly into the false suns, they can't help but be drawn into the light like with the Mesmer Fish in Subnautica, its siren song calling them closer and closer, until they either expire from exhaustion while circling it, or are incinerated upon touching it. I'd imagine cockroaches and other creatures "native"/accustomed to living in these accursed lands would learn to instinctually avoid the light at all costs, averting their eyes whenever they need to risk walking outside of the shadows, lest they also fall prey. (So I guess a mix of Birdbox and Skyline?)
If there were humans or some other equivalent filling the role of "eldritch beings" in this universe, I could easily see these "false suns" (artificial lights) as marking the borders around eldrich lands (ie human buildings) , places where it's as bright as midday despite being midnight, where it's easy to lose your bearings and run/fly in circles, where what looks like delicious food is actually toxins in disguise (ie bug traps).
2) And when the insect inhabitants accidentally look directly into the false suns, they can't help but be drawn into the light like with the Mesmer Fish in Subnautica, its siren song calling them closer and closer, until they either expire from exhaustion while circling it, or are incinerated upon touching it.
3) I'd imagine cockroaches and other creatures "native"/accustomed to living in these accursed lands would learn to instinctually avoid the light at all costs, averting their eyes whenever they need to risk walking outside of the shadows, lest they also fall prey. (So I guess a mix of Birdbox and Skyline?)
I love this so much! Fun Fact about moths and other flying insects: The sporadic flight with artificial lights is due to one of the many instinctual behaviors of flight called Transverse Orientation. Whatever direction the light is so will their backs point, which results in dive bombing/sporadic flight around artificial light due to how close the source is.
The graphic novel (/webcomic?) Scurry features sapient mice (& other animals) in a newly-postapocalyptic world. In fact, I think Overly Sarcastic Productions made a whole video on “small rodent in a big world” stories.
I feel like speculative biology would fit perfectly into this format, then again, it might already have heavy elements of speculative biology, or it could be opposed to it.
Can't believe that I never saw this until now. Awesome work! I'm curious though, how big are the arthropod folks? Are they the same size as their realworld counterparts? Or are they human sized? I might have missed if that was mentioned in the video. If they are the size of real-world insects, then that could open up some interesting differences between how they experience the physics effecting their world. A fall from almost (maybe any) height would be survivable, an easy way to escape a threat like a fire in a burning building. Water is more clingy and deadly, but still just as vital to survival. Plenty of other things too that I probably just can't think of off the top of my head.
It's wonderful you bring up that idea, because we also take some of those ideas into account! We address some of them in our lore shorts- here's the one about gravity: ru-vid.com-h4Itn0Is54
Great stuff. World building has been the defining trait that separates media I enjoy from that which leaves me feeling ambivalent. It’s also caused me to take far longer on my fiction projects than I’d like, at times, but I’d rather put one good thing out there than 100 things I don’t find interesting.
Question about the Bagworm / moth and pupation in general If a bug can choose not to pupate/undergo metamorphosis- Would they mean they are basically a child forever? How do they stop the process of metamorphosis? I see it kind of like human aging, even though we are sentient and conscious- We cannot stop the natural process of aging (right now.) Although we have theories on how to stop aging, how would that translate to this world? What are the social.. Implications of this, stopping metamorphosis? As stated before, would bugs like bugworms who refuse this be treated as immature, childish, or a bit weird? Or would they be treated with respect, or looked up to with awe. Some bugs may actually have a benefit to stopping metamorphosis, a species of ants (leafcutter ants I believe) live in the trees and make nests out of leaves, sticks, etc- They use their own larva as a living glue stick. So stopping metamorphosis could allow them to have lots of glue
Excellent question! (And a very late response, sorry about that) So we kind of asked the same question- what are the consequences, both biologically and culturally, of halting one's own metamorphosis? There is a certain degree of creative liberty that we've taken, and we'll start by saying that while these fantasy races are scientifically inspired and informed by their real world counterparts, we also want to present them as more than just ants, termites, bees, butterflies and so on. We imagine that they are several evolutionary steps ahead of those predecessors, giving us a certain degree of creative freedom to say that the Ra (caterpillars) are simply biologically incapable of metamorphosis unless provided with special conditions, which are, on the fantasy side of it, that we imagine that specially prepared leaves must be wrapped around the Ra, and Ro mages must enchant and tend to the cocoons in order to metamorphize the inhabitants into Ro. That is our answer to the "how" As far as what people think of them, the social distinction between young and old is not as clearly defined in Sekuta cultures as it is in our world. For many cultures, the young exhibit just as much insight as any older individual. Especially in Ro culture, it is not always experience that is valued, but also perspective. Younger, fresher perspectives are valued in equal measure when it comes to problem solving. So Ra are not necessarily looked down on because of their age. They are, however, more concerned with your attitude toward respecting tradition when it comes to training in magical arts, as the power they wield can be dangerous and should be handled by responsible individuals. In a similar train of thought, the Queens of each of the eusocial nations have long known the types of foods they can consume to augment and bolster their broods to exhibit different morphologies for different purposes in the colony. Through this knowledge, there were many wars that were fought using soldier castes that were bred specifically for war. However, in the current time of peace within their world, the raising of war broods is outlawed, and soldier castes are not common to find unless bred for the defense of their home. Partaking of these Forbidden Feasts is seen as a disregard for the gift of life, valuing the creation of a soul for it's ability alone to suffer and to cause suffering.
I love seeing your creative process, and I think you've struck a perfect balanse between representing the real life appearance and aspects of the insects and making them more relatable and appealing. Great work as always! (Also I can't belive I've never realized what the Het's search of enlightment is inspired by xD)
Very interesting xenofiction idea, I must say. And very inspiring. Some day I wish to write something similar, altho on what theme and in what way is still something to figure out.
@@tascharahernandez5867 But since they can already communicate with each other via words/pheromones/ writing, wouldn't "dances for giving directions" be rendered redundant? 🤔 I was thinking more along the lines of 40k's Harlequin troops that tell the millions-years-long history of their ppl (including/especially the Great Fall) during their traveling performances. In this case, a combination of symbolic dance movements, costumes, and timed pheromone bursts would be able to tell a lot of detail that mere visuals or narration alone couldn't.
@UGNAvalon People use their hands while talking to enhance their speech so this culture can dance for the same purpose. Dance could also be used for nonverbal members to communicate or used for moments when verbal communication could be dangerous.
"Scientifically Informed Fantasy" is just science fantasy, my favorite subgenre to be honest. We have forums about this already, nothing new... but quite rare for sure;
@@taiko1237 You are bending the definition. Science Fantasy is about the mix of sci-fi with fantasy aspects. Like Numenera, where there are "Wizards", but they are just users of really old tech, but kinda fantastical tech. Other type of expression of sci-fantasy is a world where there is magic in a way, but they use scientifical explanations, like mass effect with the whole negative mass fast travel (but they concedes part of it with the whole psionics aspect).
@@gabrielamaralpassos9537 I know I'm late to reply, but I'd actually argue that what we're trying to do is pretty distinct against most of what is presented as science fantasy. Most science fantasy I've come across presents itself as sci-fi aesthetic with fantasy elements included- Star Wars being the obvious player in the room. When you see scientific elements in most fantasy, you would usually still identify the core of it as fantasy, but the science element of it is often a superficial or aesthetic only. I feel that our approach is more built upon the premise of scientific concepts being the foundation from which we build and extrapolate into our fantasy concepts and cultures, not creating fantastical sciences to justify how we present our world. And this isn't to say that any of these methods for world building are better than any other. We just wanted to share how we view our process.
@@WorldOfColony First of all, I do not intend to offend, but scarecrows really get on my nerves. Your approach of bending the definition of Sci-Fantasy and then claiming to create something distinct is... strange, almost disrespectful. Your work doesn't seem to have the distinct qualities of something like Pantheon or Gideon the Ninth. It feels more like a disregard for the genre of Science Fantasy rather than an actual innovation. With all due respect, you are not pioneering something new. As a lover of Science Fantasy, I often encounter people trying to dismiss the genre by calling it just fantasy or sci-fi with swords (like you making Sci-Fantasy like it is Fantasy masked as Sci-Fi), or everything in between. If you don't want your work to be called Science Fantasy, that's fine, but it seems you're misrepresenting the genre to appear as though you've created something entirely new... but you didn't.
This was one of the best videos I’ve seen on this platform in a long time. Your creative process and mission statement really resonate with me and I must give you your duly deserved props for it!
I love Ants. They are the closest to human civilization in our real world, when it comes to the animal kingdom. I like to refer to them as mini Greeks, playing war and civilizations. So it’s fun when people do story telling and world building like this video. 😁
13:40 Look into the science behind the reason why Moths and stuff get attached to lights like that. Apparently from what I've heard, it happens because they have an organ on their back or something, that actually orients them so that the light is above the back. It's like in nature, the sun would be above them, and it orients them. I don't know if that's helpful or what, but look into it, it's cool
13:48 Fun fact, moths and many nocturnal insects having this seeming attraction for light is not actually a result of choice. Insects have a self righting reflex that positions their back up towards the light of the sky, normally coming from the moon and stars, but with an artificial light now right next to them, they struggle to escape essentially an orbit caused by their reflex constantly facing their backside to the lamp in circles.
Idk if it has been said but insects smell with their antenna. Also for hearing since they don't have ears, they can sense vibrations in the air with antenna, small hairs on their bodies or both.
The worldbuilding itself is really fun and you do sound passionate about it. Just a shame that the presentation outside of the worldbuilding comes off as really snobby and self indulgent
Not sure if doing "Hollow Knight, but, like, totally more scientific guys!!" is the big grand opening you want for your group focusing on original worldbuilding.
The work of Kenkou Cross constitutes a grand variant of monster ecology in a twisting world similar to this hither but more to another vector of direction. Diddo, you ll̲i̲k̲e̲ly 𝓲𝓽inerate enjoyment, y34H?
Thank you for letting us know! We recently had to make a new server and haven't caught all the places we might have missed as we updated the link. Hope to see you there! discord.gg/CBf2fAmgxj
We never claimed it was scientifically accurate. It is *fantasy* that is scientifically informed. Sorry to hear our project is not to your taste. Thank you for watching our video, though!
@@WorldOfColony I think that that is a false characterization. It sets an expectation that this is a work of speculative biology when you say things like "scientifically informed". What you're doing can be described as 'mystical', 'whimsical', 'fantastic', or 'imaginative'... but it's not really scientific. It looks like Hollow Knight fanfic and that's ok... but you really should be upfront about the 'Rats of NIMH', "What if bugs were just like you and me" setup for this. I was seriously expecting hard science fiction based on your (unnecessarily long and overly self important) studio introduction.
It isn't about what your project is. It's about what you say your project is. "Scientifically informed" attracts a certain audience and it's annoying to see a billboard advertising herbal tea but arrive to find that what's actually for sale is sugary coffee drinks. People like sugary coffee drinks... but the sign said something else. Maybe try to attract people to the project who would actually be interested in a soft sci-fi/fantasy worldbuilding project that doesn't rely on verisimilitude with reality. There are tons of fans of that.
I mean, while the butterflies & moths have psionic powers (fantasy), the delicate process of metamorphosis, and their unique mode of flying (scientifically informed), also play major roles in the fictional culture surrounding them.
@@UGNAvalon that's like saying that Lord of the rings is scientifically informed because Aragorn walks with prostrate bipedalism and was born and underwent puberty. If being derivative of things that science has explained is the bar, then every piece of fantasy media is "scientifically informed" isn't it? Don't you think the bar should be a little higher? What about 'Expedition' by Wayne Barlow or the neanderthal parallax, or Jurassic Park (the book not the shitty movies)... The choice of the words "scientifically informed fantasy" directly implies speculative biology and magic X powers really devalues that. Also, "ants could be like farmers and big beetles could be like tractors or dump trucks!" Is really uneducated low hanging fruit... What you have in this project is "what if human society as seen in a fairytale was bugs" in the most obvious and cartoonish way possible. Not a sincere exploration of developing sentience for arthropods. It's furry fandom for invertebrates... Again, all that is fine but advertise it that way.
The world seems very interesting and i support you in creating this unique tabletop rpg. However : -I had to watch the video in 1,25 speed. -Stop saying how incredible your world is : show it. You keep saying how original and unique it is and then only show a few precise example of things that can be found in your world. That is not world building. No interaction between any of the ppl in your world, no explanation on any of the ppl except the moth who "hide in the shadows" (i thought you guys were the answer to lazy worldbuilding) It looks great but the bragging wasn't necessary
@@lucaricciardi8253 ... How do you think other artists and creators make things? Every single artist and creator you see anywhere is inspired by the world around them. Ask any one of them about what their process is, and the first thing they will tell you is they go looking to be inspired. We are inspired by the nature around us. All arts are extrapolations and fantastical interpretations of reality.
@@lucaricciardi8253 And yet Lovecraft used visual imagery of sea creatures to describe many of the eldritch creatures. He described them as beings that, were one to behold them, one would go mad, much as many other accounts of supposed encounters with verious deities throughout history are described, as well as using old sailors' accounts of encountering sea monsters as inspiration for how one would respond to seeing the monsters in his mythology. He was inspired like any other artist. Lovecraft himself even expressed some of the other creators who inspired him, including Lord Dunsany (The Gods of Pegana), Edgar Allan Poe, and probably most importantly, Arthur Machen and Robert W. Chambers, both of whom Lovecraft borrowed and incorporated their works into his own mythology. It is the nature of creation to build upon that which is already present in the creator's lives. There's an old saying that says "You write what you know." That saying breaches beyond just writing. What we know is the foundation upon which our imagination builds upon and expands into our own creations. All artists understand this.
