creatures and critters and characters galore

pyke - i knew i wanted solari to be birdlike (pheonix motif !) but i didnt want them to be flighted so id say the body and general shape is largely inspired by ratites like ostriches and emu. good at running. their tails are pretty ostrich like. in my mind solari used to be able to fly but lost that ability relatively (evolutionarily speaking) recently but they kept those full wings cause theyre still considered 'attractive'. the long colorful feathers around the head are also for show. went through some drafts where the wings and main arms were one and the same/the wings could touch the ground for a quadrupedal posture but nothin stuck so i just went with a pretty normal additional set of arms. it was important for me to keep pykes ability to punch and also smoke a cigarette. i kept a pretty strong star theme too; the facial crest is a five pointed star, its not very shown with pyke but their hands (and kind of their feet) have five digits that splay out like a star (you can see it more with rex), their wings are shaped like a swifts wings cause it reminds me of comet trails, and those longer feathers around the head and tail are like rays or trails. id imagine it as influence from alara along w coloration. the face was a lil tricky to get correct but i think i maintained that solari/elf vibe while still making it alien. the lower mouthparts are actually two separate mandibles cause i thought itd be neat. also since solari and nilari share a common ancestor theyd be pretty similar in build, though nilari would lean more reptilian with scales n shit not feathers and less star motif

rett - i knew aetherons needed to be dense, solid, and hard to move but also have the build for engineering so i opted for that centaurish build; most move with two limbs available for manipulation but they can walk on all six. i think they are surprisingly flexible and well adjusted to functioning in different gravity situations . since aetherons exist in proximity with aether often and can tolerate breathing it i imagine them to be distantly related to aether whales and such, which is where the three eyes comes from. the rocky textures/growths just seemed appropriate. the part on his side that juts out from his clothing i imagine to be part of the respiratory system used for breathing and also releasing controlled jets of air/whatever for zero grav propulsion. you can only see the two big digits on each hand in the drawing but there are smaller more dexterous digits hidden on each hand as well. his jaw also splits in two and i gave him only one cybernetic eye instead of three cause i thought the asymmetry was fun idk. main animal inspos were largely aquatic mammals like whales and otters and seals

ko - i had solid design ideas for every species before i started drawing them in full but i think it was raizo i improvised the most on... they also pull from sea creatures largely because of their storm and electricity associations, electric catfish, frogs, and dunkleosteus come to mind. you can kind of see on ko some gill-like scales along the neck, i like to think they used to be more aquatic or are more aquatic in earlier growth stages. i also knew they had to be Big And Loud And Strong, hence the overall build. they usually walk on all fours but can stand up on their back legs with extra support from their tail, usually for intimidation. theres plating on their chest so they can beat it like drums, and another function of their tail is that they can strike it against their own plated backs or their environment to make thunderous noises. they can also make thundering vocalizations thanks to an optimized respiratory system and an air sac under their chin. the quills are for conducting electricity and grow back pretty easily since they are broken often; i think there are conductive minerals in their plating as well. big ol tusks and horns because of course. they have four eyes with lightning shaped pupils cause i thought it was fun. i think one of the most dangerous things to a raizo, naturally speaking, is another raizo so theyre built to beat each other up. they do have dexterous digits on their hands theyre just folded up and protected when standing or walking. ko can still wield her weapon or ride her motorcycle its just a Big motorcycle. also carving into or painting or otherwise decorating scales/plating is common practice

pixel - glowblins get to keep their sorta humanoid posture because i wanted to keep them primate-like, though they draw more from lemurs than apes. i imagined their home habitat as a bioluminescent forest and glowblins as a species that dwelled largely in the 'trees', so their hands and feet are built for climbing. they have an extra limb joint because why not, and their back set of limbs is longer than the others and resembles tails but has less finesse than the other four limbs. shoes are rare because theyre not comfortable for long and hinder movement. the hair is basically a mane, though some glowblins might have more along their body - i do think pixel shaves some. i also think that glowblin hair is actually colonized by a bunch of symbiotic color changing glowing bacteria, without it glowblin hair is translucent/white. their skin changing color and glowing is all their own though. color changing and glowing helps with communication (and has all those helpful ttrpg effects) since glowblins are a highly social and friendly species. the antennae help with sensing, and the little dots around the eyes are actually eyespots to help with more visual sensing. hidden in the mouth are sorta insectoid folded up mouthparts. pixel also uses makeup that eyeshadow and lipstick is not natural. definitely the most similar to humans out of the rest of the crew ive drawn. other animal inspos include parrots and chameleons

and okay i know you specifically didnt ask about ziggy and i get why. he didnt get all weirded up like the others BUT i still want to explain myself . if you dont want to read just skip this paragraph. all i really did for ziggy was lean more into the 'sophont dinosaur' idea so i took inspo from some of the dinosaurs that walked on both two and four limbs for the posture as well as adding some feathers and making it so the hands have five digits but two of them are thumbs. very iguanodon other than the feathers. also kangaroo inspo a lil. to me most of the alien weirdness for saurians is less in how they look and more in how diverse their features are while still being one species but i couldnt really show that with just ziggy... hes def not an anatomically correct trike though. also i think saurians use their beaks pretty often for manipulation since they cant raise their arms up very far. i probably couldve weirded them up more but i just didnt feel like it maybe one day ill revisit