Tim Morris' Art and Project Blog

 Hello again, I have come to the end of adding new species to Aion's fauna-and-flora list, I made a hard-limit of 700 which I am sticking to. - For a final threat, and a nice bit of world-building, I will explore a part of Aion that is mostly unknown to even the smartest of its residents, apart from a few select species that came to light by accident. By that I mean the abyss and deep-sea, an area virtually no one on Aion is equipped to explore sufficiently. We can assume that Aion's abyssal fauna is as varied and unique as that on earth, from what little of it has made it to our attention, usually strange forms that may be caught in fishing nets or wash up on the shore.   This extremely unusual variety of hammerhead-shark completely lacks eyes, and seeks prey on the abyssal plain by a combination of scent, and the electro-and-mechano-receptors which cover its crescent face. It measures no longer than 1 meter.   This unusual arthropod dwells upon the abyssal plain and som...

Apart from the prominent non-human races that prevail on Aion, several different species and ethnic groups of man exist there. Not the least of these being ourselves, Homo Sapiens.   The Humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) Modern humans seem to have appeared upon Aion in numerous waves, and originate from numerous portal incursions at different points in history. These groups have mostly remained distinct, though trade does often occur between them. The Cro-magnons The most culturally primitive humans that live upon Aion are 2 different cultures of what are believed to be Cro-magnon Man. One exists in the northern-reaches of the main continent, and its adjacent subcontinents, with the other in the tropics. The northern group has various cultural adaptations to the climate there, which varies from temperate to very cold. It is assumed that many aspects of their culture tend to resemble the earth-borne group from which they arose, which is assumed to be tribes of Cro-magnons in Euro...

Among the civilised human communities of Aion, even across different cultures, one folkloric motif is quite common, and has affected their art, iconography and mythology. That is the subset of fabulous creature known as the Nasobame. The typical mythical Nasobame is something like an elephant, a rat and a rabbit, and is remarkable by its nose. Different Nasobames will have an array of grotesque and misshapen noses, from elephantine trunks, pig snouts or ugly human noses, to multiple ones sometimes with human appendages at the end. Across the different artistic and material cultures of Aion's civilised man, Nasobames are often present in iconography, grimoires and surrealism. The origin of this folklore is considered obscure, but it is believed that seafarers originally brought back stories from far abroad, of strange rabbit-sized verminous mammals with unusual noses. Eventually as exploration and human colonialism continued, it was found that within the far reaches of Champs...