Conlang Random Thread

[WeepingElf]

Yep. The compromise I'm willing to go with is, so to speak, moderately humanlike aliens. As in bipedal / similar social structure / humanoid in the widest sense of the word. Which I think is not unrealistic. Actually, the more I think about it, the more Starfish Aliens (as they say on TV Tropes) feel unsatisfying.

Humans are an oddity, us being bipedal and having an erect posture. So at least you'd need some evolutionary explanation for "moderately humanlike aliens". I still haven't fully worked-out "my" conaliens, but they too are humanoid.


JAL

Yep (and there I need to figure something out) but bipedality makes sense for a technological species: you need to free the hands.
Birds are bipedal though (but it's an idea I already used!)

One possible solution is to start with a body plan with six or more legs, so you can convert the first pair of legs into hands without having to put the body on end. Or evolve manipulators from something else than legs entirely, such as mouth organs (like insect mandibles or a set of circumoral tentacles).

[jal]

Yep (and there I need to figure something out) but bipedality makes sense for a technological species: you need to free the hands. Birds are bipedal though (but it's an idea I already used!)

And birds lack good fingers. You could have some bipedal species with other appendages for manipulating of course, maybe intricate mouth parts like some spiders have. But it'll quickly go the way of the "alien" aliens rather than humanoids.


JAL

[AwfullyAmateur]

I have conaliens (my Sodemeresh) who are essentially humans that evolved from large, predatory clams.

[jal]

I have conaliens (my Sodemeresh) who are essentially humans that evolved from large, predatory clams.

I'd like to see the evolution of that :D


JAL

[Raphael]

I have conaliens (my Sodemeresh) who are essentially humans that evolved from large, predatory clams.

Now I wonder how the Sodemeresh version of "March of Progress" looks like.



Edit: jal beat me to it!

[AwfullyAmateur]

Some notes from awhile ago:

Haemocyanin instead of hemoglobin (so blue blood)
Poor eyesight in their main eyes (which can range in pupil size from ‘almost entirely pupil with a thin ring of color’ to ‘pupil barely exists’ depending on light levels)’, as these are largely vestigial.
Tiny clam-like ‘pinhole eyes’ all over the skin allowing for 360 degree ‘vision’. This also, however, acts like the sense of touch, giving them greater awareness of environment than many humans.
Excellent sense of smell which helped detect prey (ambush predators)
Sharp backwards facing fangs like some snakes, to grip prey.
As for their hearing, their actual earholes are covered over by skin so everything sounds a bit more muddled, but otherwise it’s pretty good.