Carliro posts
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Of Sea And Sun: The Nations of the South Pole
Welp, wish me luck (or not).***An Introduction I SupposeCirca 15,000 years BCE, humans made landfall on Kerguelen.These people were related to the South African indigenous complex sometimes called "KhoiSan". These seperated from the rest of humanity relatively early on, around 260-150 thousand years ago, and enjoyed once dominion over the birthlands of mankind until the much latter Bantu expansions. One of the now gone cultures within this complex foraged along the coastlines of South Africa, initially picking on seal and penguin coloni...
Multituberculate Earth: Meniscoessids
https://multituberculateearth.wordpress.com/2022/03/30/meniscoessidae-the-disgraced-ones/
Writing Green
<figure></figure>Magic: The Gathering is pretty unique in that its game mechanics produced an exceptionally useful writing tool.The color pie essentially breaks down the core components of character motivations and methods and explicitly frames these features as not necessarily good or evil. For example an antagonist can be motivated by peace or use order; this would make them White aligned whereas other fantasy works would just make the “light” faction/whatever always good. A Blue character can be a nerd or a jock; perfection is in the eye...
Multituberculate Earth: Oligocene map
Oligocene map (adapted from Ron Blakey). Red marks the Pan-Arctic/Laurasian faunal unit, dominated by microcosmodontids, eucosmodontids, lambdopsalids, adalatheriids, and sudamericids, with relictual flightless kogaionids and ptilodontoideans and perhaps meniscoessids; lime marks the Afro-Arabian faunal unit, dominated by galulatheriids, boffiids, afroptilodontoideans and kogaionids; green marks the Malagasy faunal unit, dominated by kogaionids, afroptilodontoideans, boffiids, sudamericids and adalatheriids; burgundy marks the Caribbean faunal ...
Multituberculate Earth: Eocene Map
Eocene map (adapted from Ron Blakey). Red marks the North American faunal province, dominated by ptilodontoideans, microcosmodontids, eucosmodontids, ferugliotheriids, taeniolabidids, lambdopsalids and adalatheriids; orange marks the European faunal province, dominated by taeniolabidids, ferugliotheriids, boffiids, ptilodontoideans, eucosmodontids, microcosmodontids and galulatheriids; burgundy marks the Balkanatolian faunal province, dominated by kogaionids, meniscoessids and galulatheriids; lime marks the Afro-Arabian faunal province, dominat...
Multituberculate Earth: Paleocene map
Palaeocene map (adapted from Ron Blakey). Red marks the North American faunal province, dominated by ptilodontoideans, microcosmodontids, eucosmodontids, taeniolabidids, meniscoessids, ferugliotheriids and relictual therians; gold marks the Antarctic faunal province dominated by dryolestoids, sudamericids, greniodontids, ferugliotheriids, monotremes and a few northern immigrants like ptilodontoideans; yellow marks the Afro-Arabian faunal province dominated by galulatheriids and kogaionids with perhaps relictual therians; green marks the Indo-Ma...
Multituberculate Earth: Green (and white) Antarctica
https://multituberculateearth.wordpress.com/2022/06/12/green-and-white-antarctica/
Prehistoric Planet episode ranking
<figure></figure>So Prehistoric Planet is out and about. As predicted, it is the most scientifically accurate and visually stunning dinosaur documentary done to date. There’s honestly not much to add that hasn’t been said before, though I will note how I like how the animals are “perfect but not perfect”. They’re not skinwrapped, but not embubbled as some pop paleoart depictions go either. The crew has maintained an amazing attention to detail on how real life animals works, and as such were it not for the CGI frame pacing I could eas...
Have you heard the tragedy of rounded wingtips the wise?
<figure>Pterosaur wing diagram by Federico Benzan. This was on Wikipedia’s pterosaur page for the longest time… until someone noted them paddle-shaped wingtips….</figure>Recently a controversy (which I’m using the broadest definition of the term since this hasn’t actually caused any significant drama) revolving around the maxim that pterosaurs have rounded wingtips has erupted on twitter. World renowed paleontologist and actually-legitimate cryptozoologist Darren Naish has noted that there has been an emphasis on “rounded wingtips...
Connection
The world exists in a continuum, from past to present and beyond.My roots are plunged into the past, into the land, into the flesh, into the blood and into the soul.So many have come before me, be them people, great beasts or ancient trees, their marks shaping the soil where my roots ground themselves.I want my roots to be blood vessels, to touch and connect to all those to came before.Knowledge leads to love, and my love for those who came before is sparked whenever I see their handiwork.Every animal, every culture, I want to understand, to fe...
Multituberculate Saberteeth
https://multituberculateearth.wordpress.com/2022/05/20/multituberculate-saberteeth/
Return to Ulgrotha: Balance
In which I exercise more of the post-mending Ulgroth worldbuilding.***Laira was a simple faerie.A bit of sunshine, a warm welcome and the sound of rivulet waters echoing across the creek was enough to please her. Many of her kin lost themselves in Court politics, and that was fine. She wasn't a good argumentator nor ambitious enough to even try. She'd much rather do her duty out in the fields, watching over farmers and their children, keeping an eye out for danger and blessing the Summer harvests.She yawned, laying lazily on a branch on...
Return to Ulgrotha: Mana
Remember how old canon had interesting things to say like how mana apparently travels from the base of the skull? Good times.Also the Ulgrotha guide said the minotaurs were based on Aboriginal Australian cultures so have some Kamilaroi-inspired things.***Guway sat at the tavern, patiently watching the drops from his mug slide down.His mind tended to wander off to weird places when he was bored. As a child he sometimes mixed ingredients within soup coolamons, much to the amusement of the medicine-woman of his tribe and much to the horror of his ...
Return to Ulgrotha: Flesh
The cages rattled, wood hitting wood a sound more unsettling than the lightning roaring in the night sky, the pitiless splashes the carriage's collective hooves as they punched and marred the bog expanse, the murderous howls echoing through the hills all the way to the snowy peaks of the Koskun. The captives wailed and cried, begging still for Serra and her angels to set them free, a cacaphony almost as blood curling as the rattling.With each stop, one voice was removed from the choir, and eventually the rattling had no rival.He, no older t...
Return to Ulgrotha announcement
I've been thinking about a hypothetical return to my favourite MTG set, and I think I'm going to commit to it.I'll write a story that WOTC has confidently stated they will never write.I hope to eventually convert this into a visual novel, I already have an artist potentially interested in doing the sprites. But I'm nothing if not impatient, and I want a trial run, so while I accumulate resources this will be my first take.The Homelands await.
Musings on docodonts, monotremes and others
<figure>Borealestes serendipitus by Panciroli et al 2021.</figure>I always think about Mesozoic synapsids. If you don’t then fuck off to a Spinosaurus video or something. Anyways, three things in particular have been in my mind for a while: Apparently the traditional layout of mammalian evolution is out of whack. The highly specialised cranial anatomies of monotremes and allotheres apparently make their placement extremely hard, and as such relations among the various groups are rendered tenuous. Apparently “australosphenidans” have only ...
List of reasons why multituberculates were not competitively excluded by rodents
<figure>List of multie skulls by Adams et al 2019.</figure>You might have figured something is happening, something evil. So allow me to distract you with this article not at all related to that.Why multituberculates were not replaced by rodents: The last unambiguous multies, ptilodontoideans like Ectypodus, were generalists (Ostrander 1984). This goes against principles of competitive exclusion in which only specialised forms remain. Compare for example monotremes and marsupials, the highly specialised former possibly outcompeted by the latter...
Echo Fanfic: At the lake's edge
A bird girl's story at Echo's edge, centuries before the mines were opened. (Note's: Jenna ending allusion that most of Echo was underwater. Also MC's name is Zapotec because indigenous peoples in the southwest traded with Mesoamericans)***Xena stared at the water, black with orange tinges as the sun set.She wasn't supposed to be here. It was an awful place, covered by water as to contain the evil within. The mountains looked like jagged spines and claws, as it tearing at the sky and the dying sun, as if some remnant of the ...
Notes for an Enantiornithes spec project
Due to the extremely erratic and unpredictable Enantiornithes phylogeny a full project probably ain't gonna be possible in the immediate future. Still, here's some ideas I decided to go with:- Basic layout similar to that of The Speculative Dinosaur Project, with Avisauridae, a clade analogous to the Enabaptiformes (descending from Lectavis), a clade analogous to the Gondwanaviformes (descending from Elsornis), a clade analogous to the Twitiaviformes (descending from Yuornis) and a clade analogous to the Allospiziformes (descending from...
Compendium of Enantiornithean Late Cretaceous Jaws
<figure>Adamantina Formation enantiornithean jaw from Wu et al 2021.</figure>I still remember the Mirarce paper and its authors’ decisions to depict the eponymous bird with a toothless beak. This decision was based on an assumption that, by the Late Cretaceous, most Enantiornithes had lost their teeth, concurrent with increased speciations towards powered flight and large sizes.Yet, in recent years it has become increasingly clear that there was no “end goal” for the evolution of toothlessness in birds, with many taxa remaining toothed un...
Tuwai Evolution Ecologies
Lots of “what if Pokemon were real animals” speculative essays, might as well do one for temtem.Tuwai itselfGiven its small size and long tail, I’m overall assuming an ecology similar to its real life inspiration, the toucans and the closely related barbets. Perhaps a bit more of a ground-foraging granivore given its more parrot-like beak and seeming lack of perching digits in its feet.TukaiWith long wings adapted for soaring, a seabird-like ecology seems reasonable, even implied by the luma which seems like a mish-mash of seabird coloura...
Diagram for my greatest creation
Been a while since I did one of these: https://multituberculateearth.wordpress.com/2022/03/30/flying-mammals/
A Tale of Two Steels (Lorwyn/Phyrexia)
Thus did the invaders come, tearing through the wind with marrow lights. The Aurora passed like a tide, but cut it was, and oblivious it was to them as well.Flame burst like a flaring sun, leaving ashes like burnt corpses. This happened outside of him, but also on the inside, for the tides were fickle and maddening. One moment the warmth of the hearth made him loving, one moment the emptiness made him weep and the only cure was warm blood in the near-fireless husk, whispering to him promises of love in the fading heat.The strangers made many pr...
Lands of Fire first itteration complete
https://mullerornis.itch.io/lands-of-fire/devlog/343511/first-itteration-complete
Ahacte
In the Flynn route we get a tiny tidbit on Echo's indigenous history, and how little Sydney thought they had treasures. Here we explore this.***Sydney looked at Jenna, across their lunchtable. He felt nervous; nominally friends, she had rejected any attempts in the past to be besties, and while she had less venom to say when he hooked up with TJ she still was only courteous in a passive-aggressive way. No "shoot the shit with the boys" with her. Overall, she was rather private person, as while she hang out she also made it clear she...
Birthday part 4: Gift
"Oh my goodness, what happened?" TJ's mom asked, half-concerned and half-amused.As the two stood i the porch, its clear by the ruffled fur and scent that they had a tryst in the car, though at least they were presentable. TJ looked pretty embarassed but happy; it was Sydney who seemed atypically meek, since standing like that if front of your bf's mother is bound to be mortifying."Well, by your silence I guess it goes without saying you should be more careful" TJ's mother said, trying to sound judgemental but barely ...
Lands of Fire: "penultimate" update
https://mullerornis.itch.io/lands-of-fire/devlog/335527/penultimate-update
Gondwanatheres of the Oligocene
https://sites.google.com/view/allotheria/gondwanatheres-of-the-oligocene
Lands of Fire future updates
https://mullerornis.itch.io/lands-of-fire/devlog/334188/future-updates
Temtem types and the MTG color pie
<figure></figure>People have done it for Pokemon types so why not?Since there are twelve types I like to think that each color (plus colorless) has a type. You're free to disagree, particularly since the types don't always match the elements in MTG colors.NeutralSeeing as it is the closest thing to a type-less temtem I think it fits in Colorless just fine. You can also make an argument for White instead (since Neutral temtem live in savannahs, the type is represented by the literal color white and White tends to be the normie color anyw...
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