I am very curious about what you said regarding the headcanons of Optocsā culture! If it is comfortable to share more of these, along with Onus headcanons, or even all of them, it would be greatly appreciated!
SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG TO ANSWER I WAS GATHERING MY INFO credits to @helmador for creating the Optoc stuff with me šš„š„Ā
Taken from the official art book the Optoc homeworld is Zandaria and is under rule of the Terran Empire. Zandaria is a very distinct planet within the Empire because unlike the rest of the planets out there Zandaria isnāt actually an organic planet. Itās much like the literal Treasure Planet (Flintās Trove) itself as itās a biomechanical planet created by the ancient Forefathers. Itās a pretty unique piece of Forefathers technology because most of the biomechanical planets out there donāt have life aside from plants (Flintās Trove as an example because all it has is plants and those big mushroom tree things) so the fact that it evolved animal life at that INTELLIGENT animal life (Optocs) was pretty groundbreaking.
We havenāt drawn anything yet but a lot of our inspo for Zandaria and the Optocs comes from the game Rain World!! Zandaria would a lot like the Rain World environments:
Similar to RW, Zandaria is basically overgrown machinery type of thingā¦ but less post-apocalyptic because the Forefathers intentionally created the planet. Florafauna-wise Zandaria is a thick overgrown jungle rainforest with heavy rains and bad storms/monsoon seasons. All animals on this planet evolved to either slither (easier to traverse the wet metallic land and squeeze through all the nooks and crannies of the planetās metal systems) or fly (long distances like albatross).
Now the Optocs themselves:
The Optocs are the most culturally linked species with the Forefathers. By the time Optocs gained human intelligence the Forefathers had been gone for millions of years but the native Zandarian religions are deeply rooted in Forefather existence and the Zandarian language and writing system is based on Forefather ruins (like how we see on TP). They were able to interpret the Forefather symbols through a series of Rosetta Stone sort of things called the Auspicious Tablets (or the āRoyjin Etzā in Zandarian) making them the first species to ever translate Forefather ruins.
Optocs are also very linked to a specific species of ancient serpent on Zandaria. They are mentioned multiple times on Zandarian Forefather ruins and are called āNagaā. Naga are basically giant dragon-serpent things with bones made out of copper and a horn on their face made of gold. Theyāre the biggest creatures on Zandaria and the oldest surviving species on the planet (they were around alongside the Forefathers and Naga also have a life span of about 800 years). They look a lot like real Naga (from Cambodian and Indian culture because we based Optoc/Zandarian culture off of those):
(Imagine these things but like 700 feet long)
The Nagas are said to be created by the Forefathers themselves because they lack calcium bones and such and have metal inside of them but this hasnāt been proven. The Naga are very important animals in Optoc culture and are primarily tamed for royalty reasons. Theyāre used both as animal mounts (like horses) because their size allows them to slither quickly through water and jungle/metal and are sort of as a rite of passage for royal heirs because taming one basically proves you have enough strength to keep things under control. With how Naga age they are usually passed down to heirs over the generation being newly tamed each time- itās a whole thing. Because of how unique and culturally distinct the Naga are theyāre one of the only protected species in the Terran Empire (killing them is illegal).
Society:
Pre-colonization (100-200 years before the Terrans came) Optocs were in a sort of theocratic semi-medieval type of society. There was a monarch that held centralized power basically that sort of deal itās very reminiscent of Indian Sultans from the 1300s.
Optocs have lots of class inequality. Luckily for them, sexism and gender roles were never an issue because Optocs are hermaphrodites/dual-sex and had no concept of opposite sex or gender until the humans came. A lot of their issues stemmed from classism especially the divide in their appearances. Thereās two races of Optocs that being Mire and Ornate Optocs. Mire Optocs are Optocs native to the inland marshy/jungle regions, pretty much all the canon Optocs including Onus are Mire Optocs this race in general favors terrestrial land slugs. Ornate Optocs are their cool sea slug nudibranch brothers and they are native to the coastal regions and river deltas. Creds to Helmador for drawing them:
Beauty standards for the Optocs are pretty strong as features from both races are āwithin standardā which causes appearances to be highly valued in this society. Mire Optocs normally have spots and patterns on their bodies which is what is considered in standard from them, and the Ornate Optocs have ceratas (back things/whiskers) and bright colors which is their standard, if you have both these feature you are beauti-fal
The Optocs were colonized by the Terrans specifically the Russians really early on in the Terran Empireās existence (which is why all the Optocs have Russian accents). Optocs got the Americas treatment in a way basically Russian is the current official language of Zandaria now with Zandarian itself being a minority language. There was a ton of cultural syncretism between the Russians and Zandarians though especially through architecture (imagine most of the buildings in Zandaria looking like a mix of St Basilās Cathedral and the Taj Mahal). Clothing-wise there is slight influence but obviously Russia is very cold weather while Zandaria is moist and warm so the clothing had its own unique evolution. The Russians brought gender roles with them to Optoc society but honestly the Optocs think that theyāre really redundant and pointless and they only choose to identify with them for work spaces and other social interactions.
Unfortunately overtime Zandaria is getting considerably gentrified both literally and culturallyā¦ The Russian standards they live by take up a bunch of their originally code and their entire monarchy system has basically been reduced to a governed type of role so that a viceroy can watch over the planet instead in affiliation to the Terran Empire (at least the viceroy is an Optoc). The amount of Forefather stuff and distinct metallic creatures brought a lot of historians and archaeologists to Zandaria because thereās barely any available information about the Forefathers and the idea of an entire species being culturally linked to them is an insane perspective. Despite gentrification through this stuff Zandaria is still one of the most protected planets in the Empire because of its link to the Forefathers and animals.
āāā
This is base Optoc stuff!! Thereās more but I donāt wanna make this a million words long šš I love the Optocs as a species and I love talking about headcanons Iāll literally elaborate on anything!!!
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Itās late; and I feel like dropping some facts about my TP oc.
Commander Vrurik Alan, the Optoc in this post
He didnāt have the best childhood. His father was completely absent and his mom hated him for bearing such a resemblance to his father
Joined the Navy in attempt to find a purpose after his struggle-filled childhood. He was also able to get a comfortable distance away from his mother
He has BPD, but he doesnāt know that, nor does anyone else because in this time period no one really knows about mental anything
Heās VERY good at navigation. He was the Quartermaster most of his enlisted time. Now an officer, others still come to him for the speciality
He wears a microphone/earpiece (as seen in his art and old designs). Itās pretty uncommon considering most ships have speaker systems, but he prefers to wear it so he can talk to other ships and use navigational equipment easily
Heās a really big Optoc. Not only is he a bigger guy, but heās pretty tall compared to the average Optoc. Heās also one of my terrestrial-based Optocs (yes I have sub-species of them) and looks a lot like a Leopard Slug
He smokes and drinks to deal with his mental issues. Does he know itās bad? Yeah. Does he care? Not really
He used to be the Commanding Officer for a Torpedo Boat called RLS Whiplash before he was commissioned as the First Mate for the Starhammer RLS St Bernard
He either hates everything or wants to be close with everyone (hashtag bpd moment)
Prefers to be called by his surname, Alan, because his first name is similar to his motherās name (Vrureva)
