Solace

Yeen Fact #627: "Hehehehhoooheehehehe"

Gnoll Archer,

3d print on anycubic m5s pro,

Original stl sculpt by TPK Lab

Sketch for

finished commission for @sleidog

I see a lot of lovely anthro art that is ostensibly of hyenas, but is stylized a lot more after canines.

This is understandable. Most people assume, from the roughly similar appearance and behavior, that hyenas are some sort of caniform. This assumption leads to some unfortunate problems.

There’s an awful lot of hyena art that ends up just being spotted dogs.

Hyenas are actually a feliform carnivore in their own distinct family. And they have some very unique anatomy that, unfortunately, tends to be lost when building from the canine assumption. This is the most noticeable when it comes to spotted hyenas, who have the most distinct look of the four extant species. And which this primer will focus on.

This primer is in part inspired this excellent reference guide by Kenket, and from my own adoration of these weird, beautiful animals. And my desire to see their funky anatomy be better appreciated.

You don’t want your hyena to look like a canine. You want her to look like a hyena. And I reckon there’s three major shapes that make a hyena Hyena shaped.

Ref Sheets for Moth.

He is a "patchkin", a derogative term for folk whose family tree looks like an encyclopedia of native species. Because not all species are equally compatible, patchkin are exceedingly rare, and usually seen as outsiders, regardless of where they go. The few that survive long enough tend to flock together in small villages, mostly inhabiting areas of the world that would be hostile to life.

Moth specifically grew up in the Shattered Plains, an uninhabitable piece of land that was the stage for an arcane war centuries ago. The magical fallout weakened the walls of the world in some places, and now the Plains are constantly invaded by otherworldy armies.

Between Moth's heritage and his childhood in the magical equivalent of a nuclear testing site, his body is somewhat unstable. He learned how to deal with most side effects though, and can now willingly alter some aspects of his physical form. He can turn skin to scales or hair into armor, can grow extra limbs or a tail, and even some rudimentary wings (though they are only for show, he can't figure out how to make feathers)

Aside from the shapeshifting stuff, he is just freakishly strong and heavy, which makes swimming an issue sometimes. Moth is also around 3m // 10ft tall, so he isnt really suited for anything stealthy. He usually avoids cities and large crowds in general for that reason.