How Intelligent Life Evolves (And Why It Probably Looks Human) | Worldbuilding
Episode 18: Fantasy Races
In this video we’ll discuss fantasy races, their expected traits, how they evolve, and what the most important factor is for turning their intelligence into civilisations of their own.
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WORLDBUILDING CORNER: www.worldbuildingcorner.com
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Drawings of the fantasy races created in this video are original content made by Worldbuilding Corner, including the silhouettes used in the thumbnail.
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The subsequent listed images are permitted for use under the following Creative Commons license: creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Bilateral, Radial, Spherical image credit: Charl Hutchings
Australopithecus image credit: Wolfgang Sauber
Tetrapod Fossil image credit: Guérin Nicolas
The subsequent listed images are permitted for use under the following Creative Commons license: creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Brown Bear Standing image credit: Malene Thyssen
Ahuitzotl Crypid image credit: Praying Mantis Man via Cryptid Wiki
Sir, did you just evolve scientifically viable Mindflayers?? (I'm both impressed and Concerned. Those things scare me.)
According to mindflayers the tastiest brains are those that are impressed and concerned.
@@WorldbuildingCorner know that from personal experience, do you?
I'd say based on the description they're literally closer to the Goa'uld from Stargate than the Mindflayers of D&D.
Headcrabs
@@PlatinumSpartan077 Yeerks but outside.
Interesting thing about the relationship between sapience and language and learning; it has been scientifically proven that Cetaceons (whales and dolphins) have language. They don't just make sounds like other animals, but aftual language and even different dialects. We have yet to figure out how to translate cetacean to any human language, but we do know they have their own language. Additionally, we also know that octopi can not only learn how to perform tasks; they can also teach those skills to other octopi. For example, you can teach a dog to sit and roll over, but that dog can not then teach those skills to other dogs. However, if an octopus has learned how to unscrew a cap on a jar to get the food inside; that octopus can subsequently teach that skill to another octopus that hasn't learned it yet. Additionally, scientists have observed octopi building at least 2 cities (on the ocean floor) with rules of behavior they enforce with banishment.
Whale vocalisation is fascinating, it is certainly more complicated than most other animals (besides humans of course). Octopus observational learning was in part an inspiration for them being one of the candidates for sapience in this series. Observational learning is such a huge differentiating factor for intelligence, it's one of the many things that make octopuses so cool!
@Worldbuilding Corner an interesting thing, if you graph the vocalizations of animals, there are 2 distinct graphs that emerge. Those that represent non-language (are random), and those that represent language. All languages, when graphed, have exactly the same graph, whether you are graphing English, French, Yoruba. Aribic, or Cantonese, the graph is identical. Whale and dolphin vocalizations match the language graph, and not the random sounds graph made by all other animals. From this we have scientifically proved that cetations have language. We have even identified multiple destinct whale dialects, though we have not been able to translate whale language (lacking a Rosetta Stone we may never).
@@torfinnzempel6123 recent developments in AI learning may soon bridge this gap
they dont have language. they can communicate, but its not the same thing as language.
Oh dear. I wonder what does that mean for takoyaki, which is a Japanese octopus meatball dish I just recently grew to like 🐙
You could actually have Elves and Dwarves also evolve from the Nota, similar to how Neanderthal, Denisovens, and Florensians all evolved from Sahelenthropus
True! And in a setting where multiple sapient species emerged from the same progenitors, that would make a lot of sense!
i thats a great idea
I imagine it depends on how strong the uncanny valley trait develops in these humans. If it is fairly weak, I could see the multiple species more or less co-existing if resource overlap isn't too large. If they are closer to us though, I see it working very similarly to how humanity went. With humans either hunting the other races to extinction or interbreeding until a new, homogenous species is the dominate primate offshoot.
And Trolls could be a descendant race of Dwarf/Elf hybrids that traveled north due to discrimination
I think something of this kind is hinted at in Eragon with both dwarves and urgal (equivalent of orcs) having the same number of toes
Dinosaur-like bipeds already have an excellent adaptation to expend far less energy when standing: Their tail. The only benefit of an upright stance from a biomechanical standpoint is that it makes it easier to balance a top heavy body on hind limbs located at one end of said body. But a heavy tail already fulfills that function. Dinosaur (and Callidus) hind limbs are much closer to the creature's center, removing the reason to evolve an upright stance. Such a raptorial stance is even more efficient than our upright stance because the tail and torso act as a balance rod, requiring less energy to keep balanced. Some birds even sleep standing. I haven't seen many humans able to pull that off. But it's not just more efficent when standing still, but especially in motion. Meaning, a raptorial stance allows for much greater speeds and stability at those speeds than our upright stance. Even modern birds without long tails still retain the horizontal body orientation with only one noteable exception: Penguins. Their aquatic lifestlye benefited their legs to be closer to the rear end of their bodies, resulting in an upright stance to be beneficial on land. The stance also doesn't impact sapience at all. The front limbs are just as free as ours, and a long neck solves any height advantage a humanoid body might have. So, no, their posture becoming humanoid doesn't make much sense from an evolutionary standpoint. The only reason for it would be an anthropocentric preference. Which is a completely valid reason.
14:35 One little nitpick: Having a large, thick tail to counterbalance the front of the body works just as well as an erect back. If it worked for very large hunters like T. rex, I don't see why a convergence on a human-like body plan would be necessary. In response to a similar, earlier concept for intelligent humanoid dinosaurs, an artist named C. M. Kosemen came up with an intelligent species that conserves a dinosaur-like bodyplan called Avisapiens saurotheos. Since KZhead doesn't like links very much, just searching up "C. M. Kosemen Dinosauroids" and clicking the first page suffices.
Thank you for mentioning that, this guy is just making a bunch of furries
@@riaanjacobs5471 I think the bear people are fine but yeah those silarins could be more feathered and more dinosaur-like. In my fantasy setting, I have humans living alongside more alien sapiences. The lore is IT IS LITERALLY EARTH, humans are slightly altered and have a greater diversity of unique physical characteristics like domesticated breeds of dogs because aliens fucked around with humans way too much (kinda like the Qu from All Tommorows). The difference here between the posthumans of all tommorow and the posthumans of my setting is generally my posthumans are very recognizably human, more akin to fantasy races like elves, orcs, and dwarves all in but name. As for the other sapiences, some are anthropromorphic beasts I have small marsupials that function similarly to goblins, giant bipedal owlbears, and feathered dragonborn like reptilians. Then I have more alien things like four armed reptilian insectoid giants with four sets of mammary glands, insectoid centaurs, and shapeshifting cnidarians from a parallel dimension that are responsible for the domestication and brutal colonialization of humanity. Magic is just a series of ancient terran coding languages that control a nanomachine network and is the primary reason as to the hostile take over of the cnidarians. THEY wanted a piece of that sweet magical booty but they were unable to decipher it due to the fact that well written language is a completely alien concept to the hive-mind cnidarians. It took them quite a bit but they used force and fear tactics to motivate some humans into manipulating it for them. With the Cnidarians mostly gone after the uprising, and the terran empire being shattered into a thousand pieces, humans along with the other wayward ultra and extraterrestrials are stranded on this world in medieval squalor. Ancient tech and nanotechnology is indistinguishable from magic, The Cnidarians are seen as demons whilst ancient robots are basically guardian angels. Alot of the prehistoric depicitons of the first gods and demons were inspired by the shapes and contours of ancient terran constructs and cnidarians. Later they'd take a less abstract appearance in exchange for things more relatable to their respective species.
@@derpherp1810 great concept
Personally, I disagree with the Silarin becoming *that* much of a hominoid "lizard-man" species. Cephalization ≠ Hominization
Absolutely, if we're being strict with evolution then the raptor-like creatures the Silarin were in their earlier evolutionary history were probably already upright 'enough' for manipulating limbs to appropriately interact with their environment, and probably wouldn't need to stand exactly like humans do.
Re: it probably looks human? I think this is largely going to be true if the initial seed is a long-limbed quadrupedal terrestrial or arborial mammal that adapts to use its forelimbs as manipulators, especially one which lacks a heavy balancing tail. However, it's far less clear what happens if the initial seed is something very different. If for example the body segments or limb count are different, or if it has a reptilian side-to side spine, only some things will converge, and some definitely won't. If monitor lizards develop sentience, it is rather unlikely they would look like us. Maybe more like us than they do now, but not like us. Corvids, parrots, and otters have developed pretty extensive tool-using intelligence, but do not take on a human bodyplan. Nor is there any indication that they would do so if they began to make greater use of more complex tools along the lines of great apes. A corvid which uses hammer and anvil or ties knots need not lose its wings or tail and convert to having hands. Instead, it would likely evolve a more stable leg setup and a more effective manipulatory beak. Perhaps even a manipulatory tongue. But would overall remain vaguely Corvid-shaped and would near certainly make whatever compromises needed to retain flight, even if that limits intelligence or tool use. An otter which makes increased use of tools would likely remain mostly aquatic and retain its relatively short limbs and long twisty spine. It might even make its spine longer and twistier to more easily access and manipulate objects. It seems decidedly unlikely though that it would evolve into a terrestrial upright longlegged biped, even if it developed things like fire.
I fully agree with this. It just doesn't make sense that virtually every animal would become a slightly spicy human as a byproduct of intelligence.
I don't see parrots or crows forging metals or buiding spaceships, so they aren't good examples for sapient species
@@rommdan2716 Number 1 they aren't sapient, they are sentient which is why they don't "forge metals or build spaceships". Number 2 crows and parrots are some of the most intelligent lifeforms on the planet, so there is no need to doubt them, many scientists and researchers have already stated that most of the Corvid genus is in the equivalent of the stone age for us humans. Number 3 your comment is just stupid, like read your comment back to yourself and explain how it makes sense, like really, you are really claiming parrots and crows are not intelligent because they cant build rockets? Even though the ENTIRE scientific community would agree that parrots and crows are extremely intelligent. My goodness i've lost faith in humanity at this point. if even 10% of people are as stupid as you, humanity will be extinct in the next 35 years. good day sir.
Just start with a hexapod ancestor instead of a tetrapod. A hexapod could evolve the first or second pair of limbs into wings for flight, leaving two pairs that could begin as locomotion with the pair nearest the head later adapting more for prey capture and food manipulation, leading to tool use without the loss of wings. Of course, it's highly unlikely that two separate lineages of vertebrate differentiated by the number of limbs would co-evolve long enough for both to produce mammalian, avian and reptilian analogues. You'd likely have to make a clear break with all avians being hexapods. One option would be to have amphibians, reptiles and birds be hexapods but have the mammals lose a pair of limbs along the way for some reason, but then what evolutionary pressure would make only one pair of limbs unnecessary? I have a humanoid species with two arms and two legs that descended from a hexapod species. They didn't lose the third pair of limbs but their limbs only evolved with two digits. When they were just walking and running around on all sixes that wasn't a problem, but when their ancestors began living in trees it was difficult to grip without an opposable thumb so they began to use the front two pairs together, using two paws at a time to grip branches keeping their hindlimbs for walking. Over time this led to greater and greater coordination of the forelimbs on either side of the body until evolution combined them into a single pair of four-fingered limbs with two opposable thumbs, sort of how the fingers in bird wings gradually fused together from the separate fingers of archaeopteryx.
For any non-standard form, it would evolve into a crab, obviously :D
I could easily see Na'qwuil going on to selectively breed certain creatures to optimally function as their hosts, almost like having livestock species to act as their perfect bodies depending on their specialization in society. Maybe they would even try to develop hosts that can survive without a brain so they can switch between host species more freely. I've also got to wonder what role technology would have in all this once they invent robotics capable of reading neuron signals. All very interesting stuff. I can't wait to see how you develop it!
Or lending/renting hosts so when one of them is done with the task they needed the host for they can pass it to another, so they keep it alive in turn, saving on the loss of ressource that would be letting it die out.
More likely they would develop horror-esque bio-tech.
@@ckl9390 Probably. But that would be far latter in their history.
This is definitely a fun part of the process. Interested in seeing how these creatures develop over time.
Agreed, this is one of my (and probably most peoples) favorite parts of worldbuilding. Having fantasy races and building their cultures and civilizations is what really draws me in!
Wtf, I've been binging all these videos and only just realized how many subscribers and likes you get. This channel feels more like a 500k type of world building channel, and definitely deserves more than what it has.
(by 500k I mean the high echelons of world building KZhead, the likes of other high their channels)
I would argue an upright posture would force silarins to sacrifice their speed, which would be too costly for plains hunting obligate carnivores, and they'd gain all the spinal and joint problems that come from humanoid bipedalism. If anything becoming more ostrich-like would be the most likely direction, albeit with bigger heads/thicker necks and arms replacing wings. I'd also argue the competition with the silarins would keep the nota off out of the savannahs and from ever developing the human biped physiology, instead retaining more climbing related adaptations. They'd probably end up as weird hairless almost human monkey people, like shaved chimps but with people faces. I do think the na'qwuil turning to parasitism to overcome the whole no bones issue is a really cool idea though.
For my own worldbuilding, I have chosen to stick to merpeople, humans, elves, gobelins and dwarves. They are all competing for ressources, but humans have the edge. However, certain places have reached a certain equilibrium. In moutains, usually the humans would save for themselves the verdant lower parts for agriculture of plants such as wheat, buckwheat, pea and/or rice, raising cattles such as pigs, sheeps, goats or bovines. Dwarves require more calories than humans, however, they are much more capable of surviving altitudes due to having a larger ribcage allowing for more powerful diaphragm and lungs, which is great to live in area with less oxygen. They would be perfect to live in the boreal forests closer to the mountain top living off of hoarding animals such as sheep and goats, use crevices to cultivate mushrooms in large quantities cultivate certain coniferous species for sap, vitamin-C rich needles, oily seeds and wood. Another factor is that dwarfs would have rather small kidneys for a large bladder, able to rapidely eliminate excess fresh water from their system. Their physiology is also well-adapted for the cold, and thus they would share the alpine tundra with elves. Elves get cold easily and are quite frail, however, their hollow bones, flight and the fact they are fungivorous (with resistance to ergotamine) make their survival in the alpine tundra far easier. Similar domains such as tundra would also share a similarity. Lands of the undead and evil spirits would also push for cohabitations of elves, humans and dwarves on the same plot of land. Humans found the undead political lines, however, they are mostly a single necromancer controlling an army of undead and to perform their dark rituals, kill most unfortuante fellow human beings who happened to get on their wrong sides. Dwarves and elves have both evolved to cohabitate and cope with evil spirit troubles and the various unpredictable dangers they pose. However, the decomposition fluid encourage the formation of fertile soil, thus leading the two sapient humanoid species to willingly cohabitate with the humans who created those spaces.
That's a very solid lineup of species, you can't really go wrong with them. You've got a reality interesting and unique take on each of them though! I love the attention to details that affect things like their agriculture (which I plan on covering in an upcoming video). Very cool!
Hey! I'm a Predatory, Land Dwelling, Bilaterian too! What a coincidence ;) Great job! I just discovered this video, I'm looking forward to starting from the beginning!
I just checked and so am I! Haha I'm glad you enjoyed the video, hope you enjoy the rest, more to come soon!
Re: visual communication reduces capacity for language? I somewhat disagree. Humans and cephalopods make extensive use of direct and indirect visual communication. It is not that hard to imagine sign language, dancing, or bioluminescence used for a significant part of culture transmission.
You know, when I was creating sapient species for my setting a few years ago, I went through the exact same thought process and got very simmilar results. I put creatures simmilar to your Silarin (I called mine Skyrann), but I did not go as far as making their posture completely human-like, as well as I did not make their tails vestigial, which resulted in more angled posture, especially when running. I also gave them sparse feathers, but also made them grow thick coats of them during the mating season, when males are blue-violet with peacock-like feathers both on the tail ends and on heads, while the females are just brownish. I also changed their skin colour range to brown - dark red, as they were evolving under a stable red dwarf star, so vegetation had different colours and it simply helped them hide.
Re: octopodes lacking strength? I don't think this is a terribly big problem. Tentacles are as, if not more, muscular then limbs. Squids are capable of using their tentacles to form wings even at a perfect cantilever and despite having an atrociously high wing loading. They even migrate more efficiently using repeated ballistic or aerodynamic flights than swimming. The bigger problem is gonna be lack of rigidity or inherent stability rather than lack of strength. A cephalopod probably can't take an upright body posture. Even one strong enough to fly.
Show me how an octopus can forge metals underwater and we'll see that
Bones amplify muscle strength. Your tongue is technically the strongest muscle in your body, but since it has no bones, it's not gonna lift your groceries for you.
@@rommdan2716 It could first evolve into a land-squid, I guess.
it would take a while, but i don’t see why they couldn’t simply create a partially-above water forge and use extended reaching sticks to put their metal in there, or even naturally figure out that you can form a waterless space that could serve as a combustion area
Weird nitpick, but didn't we lose our fur because we evolved to be endurance hunters, not cause of fire? we sweat, which is why we lost our fur, as it impeded our cooling system. Am I wrong?
No, you're correct. That's one hypothesis anyway. AFAIK, our use of fire has never been posited as a reason for the reduction of hair.
The bear men make sense, but the already bipedal lizards had long balancing tails and therefore no reason to go through the semi-dysfunctional process of becoming vertically oriented to the point of developing chronic back pain
I disagree about a therapod-like body plan converging towards upright posture. Those tails are vital to the way they move. While there are counterexamples like some of the therizinosaurs, as well as penguins, none of them are fast running endurance-oriented creatures of the open planes. Meanwhile, the animals that move in a similar way to what is suggested seem to conserve or even reinvent the theropod bodyplan. Ratites and terror birds keep a horizontal spine and just have long upright necks. Terrorbirds are notable here because they have an enormous skull and heavy axe-like beak which suggests that a large braincase would be fine from a structural standpoint on a neck like that. I also wish if using their hands as manipulators is likely. This would be highly unnatural for a theropod. It is far more likely their their mouth or feet or more likely, both would be used. All examples of tool-using theropods fit this model, and even before birds, the front limbs tended to be inflexible and wing-like. Not possible to pronate, and generally better suited to display or aerodynamic functionality. So I think the horizontal spine and long, relatively stiff tail would probably be there to stay, and the limb anatomy and use would heavily favor the use of the jaw and legs as manipulators, not the arms.
incidentally, there is one group of theropods which might have had suitable limb anatomy. Spinosaurs. But to say they were not running on the open plains after their prey is a huge understatement. Instead they were likely to be found in water perhaps 90% of the time, and likely could not move bipedally.
There are some adjustments I'd make (because I'm a biologist) to these alien species - particularly the one based on an octopus. Octopuses actually have very strong arms, which are very adept at grabbing, holding and manipulating objects. And just try to remove an octopus from something it's suckered on to - it's well-nigh impossible. They can open jars, and are well known for removing crabs from crab traps, as well as being able to reach into all kinds of crevices, grab something, then pull it - hiding inside coral formations offers little protection from an octopus! Also, if the alien octopus was similar to an Earth one it would have a (rather vicious) beak and neither a larynx nor a syrinx (which is what birds use). So it wouldn't be able to speak unless that particular trait was changed. Just some thoughts from a biologist's perspective. I still love your work though!
One thing I do want to specify is that birds do something weird, but definitely still function within this system. They are tetrapods, but two of their limbs are utilized for flight. So they only have two limbs (their legs) with functional digits. For birds that are specialized for perching on branches (as opposed to ones which run, like ostriches), these digits can squeeze and grasp. So their manipulating limbs are *also* their locomotive (when on the ground) limbs, and are solely manipulative limbs when flying. Alongside this, they adapted their mouths to be really good manipulative tools, as they have really complex neck muscles which allow for great dexterity. In combination with their feet, this trifecta of manipulation has interesting positives and drawbacks. Looking at corvids, they use their feet and beaks to complexly break down food items. For manipulating material, they use their feet and bodyweight as anchors while they adjust items with their beaks. They can even pull a hanging object up with their beak, gradually trapping the slackened string under their feet to make sure it doesn't fall back down. Ravens often pass items that they are carrying between their feet and their beaks as they are flying around... we don't know why, but because they are such complex/technical fliers, my guess is that they're modifying their weight distribution for different maneuvers. And corvids are clumsy (as they scavengers that are more generalized for many tasks) when compared to parrots! Parrots can move their top and bottom jaws indepentantly from one another, which allows insane dexterity! Their feet are also more hand like, as they spend way less time on the ground than crows, so they are really good at item manipulation. Basically, please be creative with how your organism is shaped! Keep in mind the fun complexities and challenges that exist based on design benefits and limitations! The rules laid out in the video are great, so follow them most definitely! But also don't be afraid to put a fun twist on the rules. Off the top of my head, I can imagine a highly intelligent species of bird that has a specialized break, and has the ability to stand on one leg for long periods of time, such that it can use one foot and its beak in tandem. That, or one that can comfortably sit and make both feet available for use :)
The drawings you used for the reptile, bear, a humans look a lot like hero forge models. Personally I think the bears would have more of a rectangular or round torso due to the fat they need to survive in such cold environments rather then the small human like waist tapering up to a jacked chest and shoulder region. I also think the lizard people look a bit too human as well, I just don’t know enough to put my finger on it.
Those are most certainly Heroforge models
They lizard people should be covered in feathers as a result of being descended from birds (or the feathers are extremely small like what happened to most hair on humans but then they still should not be scaly)
Well i'm not complaining... These bear people tingles my furry senses sumthin fierce
I like your take on cephalopods. I reached back to their shell-dwelling ancestors to make them viable on land. Like a crab, they encase their limbs in shells to make them rigid. As consciousness developed, they started manipulating how their shells grew, for function and for art.
Humans are my neck pain and agony as a world builder. They are everywhere, even when I WISH to not have them completely or to remove them completely from the worlds I have created. In the end, having to force myself to include humans in my worlds has left nothing but frustrations and dissatisfactions. In every RPG that I have had the misfortune to GM, there is never a lack of someone who necessarily wants to have a human character in one of my worlds...Only to end up playing a clone of an existing character. I don't know... I just don't want to see humans in my fictional worlds... I have enough of seeing them daily in the real world and looking in the mirror.
- Can I play a human? - Sorry, but no Come on man, you are supposed to have fun too!
Yeah, as RommDan alluded to, you don't need to feel forced to include humans in your setting. One of my friends made an entire world where the premise is that not only humans, but all the standard fantasy races don't exist, instead he's created completely new and unique species. It's not against the law lol
Wouldn't the octopi seek a permanent host, though? What started as a parasitic relationship turning into a symbiotic one, with the octopi evolving the nervous system and the host species evolving the physical attributes.
Stumbled aceoss this video earlier today, and was so intrigued by this world and the amount of thought put into it that I paused and binged the entire series up to here before continuing. A subscriber well earned, sir.
I've never liked that "We relate to /care more about very human-ish characters!" Maybe it's just 'cause I'm autistic but I care way more about, say, a moderately anthropomorphized jumping spider than a human or elf character.
Non-humanised characters can still be very cool! The setting for such creatures would likely be quite different to what most viewers would be familiar with, but that can sometimes add to the appeal of the world :)
Same.
Same. To me, humans are boring and overused, and I _far_ prefer nonhuman sentient/sapient species. There's plenty of examples of nonhuman characters in fictional works that audiences have widely connected with, regardless of their species or outward appearance. Ajani from Magic the Gathering is the most prominent recent example for me - he's a lion person, but myself and so many other people that have gotten into the lore connected with him and were devastated when he was, shall we say, converted to the dark side against his will. Same with Tamiyo - she's a rabbit-like Moonfolk, whom I and others also connected with and was also similarly converted. The key is to make interesting and relatable _characters and personalities._ They don't have to be human, you just have to have individuals that people can connect to.
Yeah, it's probably because of the autism.
There is a point we inspect zoo bring out a lot. Evolution prefers to adapt existing things rather than create new ones because it's limited to the base blueprint it's working with and the greater the change the more energy it requires. Since gradual changes can result in considerable changes over time and take less energy for the creature gradual changes tend to result in new things being adapted from old things rather than things being created from scratch.
You have an amazing, simple but informative set of videos for worldbuilding that should have more views not just to support your channel but to help other worldbuilders in their projects.
you just explained the evolution of the D&D illithids to some degree.
Illithids are one of my favourite monsters in DnD! They are so alien, I feel they work as villains so well.
@@WorldbuildingCorner Back close to 15years ago at my last rpg shop, we got burnt out on different style of play for D&D along with Star Wars. So I put up the ideal of me GMing stone age chimpanzee just surviving everyday primate life. 3e multiclassing rogue/ranger/fighter. maybe barbarian for rage issues. Long story short after dealing with sand/earth/purple worms as being normal as lions were. One chimpanzee got a leech/worm in his ear on a coastal sea cove brine pool, and mutated into a mind flayer illthid. Everyone was shocked and thrill I had them start out on the illthid home world. The world went from forced evolution of development sorcerer vs psionics Dark Sun style campaign or chimpanzee development into an orc like branch and a human one right along the illthid war/feeding on them. Till the group psionic elder brains Time Jump/Gate into the pass bring back greater psionic knowledge to dominate the past. The world is a multiple time paradox location. b.) With WotC 3e rules on skill rank checks we mixed Spelljammer into Star Wars and had the Gith or illthids attack a star destroyer like the Vong or had Vader face off against illthid psionic assault. In our Star Wars campaigns illthid assaults are relived as flash backs & fake outs. PCs start game with 1d6 temporary damage to all stats and lost of memory. illthid capture a ship, psionic probe and torture the crew, take genetic samples from them for later cloning and genetic engineering " livestock". Then let the crew go to study from a distance as a lab rat experiment. Run a few games after wards as fake outs or mental psionic connections to their clones, .. or are they the clone ? Matrix. ( Which sometimes pizzes off some of the players thinking they won't get any Xp or full Xp what they just went through.) Roll for Wild Talents and 2d4 bonus psionic class levels. I normal have prewritten Level adjustments with powers they can quick play then swap out for another clone as handouts. 2.) In AD&D illthid basic had the spell level 13th-level wizard due to the 7th-level spell Planeshift. So instead of being a 9d4+3hp N/PC is can be regarded as a 5d8 monster. We had more than a few players thumb their noses at DM gate keepers back during the late 1990's by having their wizard Charm & Dominate Person the party had Polymorph themselves into an illthid. The newer players in their twenties were more incline into PCing monsters than the thirty year olds did. 3.) Soap opera fast pace 20min mini game. Played with stander playing card deck. Wizard goes into town, gets a place, and then have to bribe the thief guild protection money to keep from getting rob. Along with the town's guard. Everyone draws an index card to see which PC they be running and at the end each player pulls 1d6 cards of their secret ID. Be it normal wizard, illthid, demon, devil, wererat or other ?
YESSSSS!!!! Finally this video is here!!! Words can't say how much i love your channel, Matthew You deserve more viewers
Thank you! Glad you are enjoying the channel so far, lots more to come :)
Worldbuilding made easy : A deity made them that way.
This is absolutely a viable worldbuilding strategy, and arguably one of the more interesting ones if the gods themselves are interesting. Then I imagine you're looking at what the deity's motivations are for creating the race, which adds a really cool layer to worldbuilding!
@@WorldbuildingCorner Slaves, soldiers, wanting to be loved and worship, desire to create sapient beings, boredom... Many possibilities !
One thing about loosing fur in humans, we not only lost fur because of fire, but because we can sweat. This allows us to cool out body while running, even in great heat of a savannah. Other crratures with fur overheat and get exhausted way before humans tire, which gave us an advantage while hunting.
For your plains runners, there is no need for them to become upright standing. Having a tail to balance yourself while already being bipedal is more energetically efficient than what we humans have. We are only upright standing because we *didn't* have tails to balance with when we were freeing up our hands. Our endurance is so good, not because we are upright, but because we can sweat, which cools us actively while we are running. That is also why we lost our fur, to facilitate sweating. It's very likely that those lizard guys would remain horizontal, but have upright heads :). Maybe their feathers would have an oily substance which, when flared out, allowed for really good heat exchange with the air, or something. The bears are more accurate, as they also have no tails. Our pelvises became really small to support our uprightness (with women needing the smallest possible hips that are just large enough to manage giving birth). Though, their female's breasts wouldn't likely be in the same spot as humans. Grizzlies for example have 6 teats, with four on their chests, and two just above their groin. Furthermore, you need to account for the reason that human women look the way they do when designing the sexual features of this bear species. Pimates are hugely attracted to rear ends. Mandrills, baboons, chimps, and many other primates have sexual selection pressures to have eye catching butts. For mandrills, it's bright colours and prominence through posture. For humans, it's smoothness and jiggliness. Male eyes are really well adapted for seeing micro movements, so women have a lot of fat on their rears, as well as permanently enlarged breasts (which are rather rare in mammals). Bears likely have different hunting specializations than humans, so their eyesight is good at different stuff. They're good at seeing colours for foraging, and movements obscured by water for fishing. Female bears might develop features on their face, teats, and hips to attract males. This might be lighter colours, intricate patterns, or even long and soft, translucent fur which mimics white water rapids. I *REALLY* dig your octopus idea! The concept of an intellectual parasite is incredible, and is a really cool way to spin the anatomical strengths and weaknesses of the species. Very well done, and a really cool way to encourage uniqueness due to physical differences from other animals!! There are all sorts of cultural implications that come from such a different style of life that would be really cool to explore. Super sweet video overall, and I appreciate the effort :)! I know this video is old and this comment likely won't be seen, but I'd be very interested to hear yourthoughts on what I've said above! Thanks for the solid stuff, dude! Keep it up :)
Glad to see your subscriber count increasing with each video. You make good content and deserve a following.
Thank you! Very much appreciated, glad you are enjoying :)
I think the Naquil are less likely to become parasites. Their high brain function and large number of manipulators makes them well suited aquatic organisms and could build an entire subaquatic culture that is focused on secrecy/stealth for survival. A dark forest analogy on a less grand scale.
One thing I wonder is the likelihood of a strictly carnivorous sapient species ever needing to make fire. I feel the main utility of fire for humans is to cook meat and make it safe for us to eat, but since specialized carnivores tend to have more acidic stomachs better at handling rotten meat, they wouldn't need to cook it. I suppose it could still keep them warm at night, but that would only be a priority in cooler climates if they didn't have a thick fur (or feather) covering.
Would be hard for them to develop civilisations on mass scales then
Fire isn't just necessary for food, it's critical for metallurgy! Without fire a species will be effectively stuck in the stone age.
well there are many other advantages to cooking meat or any food really besides just getting rid of harmful pathogens or parasites, in fact disease mitigation is probably the least important reason for why humans cook food, the most important reason is that cooked food essentially predigests food, breaking it down into forms that are far more easily digested allowing for one to extract significantly more nutrition out of every meal than they normally would eating it raw. Even for a purely carnivorous species cooking food should still be useful, not to mention all the other benefits of fire in general besides just cooking
A cold blooded predator might want to make fire to manipulate the temperature around them.
Some have argued that utilisation of fire was actually a kickstarter to intelligence. The very first tool, a burning branch used to start a fire. a) Fire was not just useful re food or warmth ...but for the Hunt. The carnivorous sapients would soon figure out fire could be used to scare away bigger predators & to stampede/coral own prey.
Na'qwuil are a pretty good way of getting Ithilids/Mindflayers. Nice! Not sure I fully agree with the Silarin's final bodyplan. Feels like it's a little too anthropomorphic.
Changing the number of limbs isn't that rare. Snakes, whales, amphisbanians, etc all lost limbs, as did some therapod dinosaurs. Gaining limbs isn't rare either. You just need to look at clades where limb count is heavily tied with body segment count. Limb count isn't a reliable method of identifying relationships between centipedes, millipedes, polychaetes, and isopods. Even caterpillars have pseudo-limbs in addition to their six true limbs, then lose them and grow 4 more limbs (wings) as adults. What is rare is for limb count to increase at a species level or greater in a clade that do not undergo complete metamorphosis and who's limb anatomy is separate from duplicated body segments. I.E. vertebral segments in tetrapods have nothing to do with how many limbs they have. It's still worth noting though that while limb count is unlikely to increase in these species, it's still not impossible. Lizards have evolved wings from their ribs multiple times over. Snakes have evolved to turn their entire body into a wing by modification of their ribs. It is entirely possible that the evolutionary process of limb genesis can reoccur in limbed or limbless organize creating new types of limbs on their body that do not share morphology with their existing ones.
As a biology graduate who studied ecology and is a hobbyist worldbuilder, it's refreshing to find someone who mentions sexual selection in their species evolution. It's a major factor in evolution working in conjunction with (but often to different ends than) natural selection. One thing i did notice though is the presumption that your viviparous species would necessarily give birth from between the hindlegs. While it's common in terrestrial vertebrates for the genitals and excretory systems to be anatomically adjacent, that's just an accident of evolution. As invertebrates show, it's perfectly unremarkable to have your genitals on other parts of the body, even on or near the head, and for them to be unassociated with the excretory systems. I guess it makes sense for vertebrates to have the womb in the abdomen as there's often no parental bone structure restricting the growth of the foetus(es) there and in a quadruped it makes sense carrying them ventrally as a predator is more likely to go for the flanks or back that are more exposed, but evolution could just as easily have put the birth canal under the diaphragm as between the legs. I guess between the legs makes it easier for quadruped mammals, but it's a position that evolved before we left the ocean when fertilisation didn't even occur internally and it's particularly cumbersome for many reptiles and birds to mate because their cloaca is under their tails. Having seen the fight birds and big reptiles have to get everything into the right position for long enough for insemination to occur i dread to think how bad the big dinosaurs must have had it. Had evolution gone slightly different and the birth canal in vertebrates *was* below the diaphragm it might have made things a little easier for birds and reptiles (though big guadruped dinosaurs would still have had problems).
I found this series with the magic system video and thought I'd try to rebuild my draft world with these steps. Now I'm simply ignoring my notes and enjoying your world.
idk why but i really like the juxtaposition of having bear-people and lizard-people, and then horrifying brain squids that require humanoid hosts
As a fan of speculative evolution/biology and as someone that has created dozens of species in his own worldbilding, I wanted to say that I find Your video quite interesting and creative! And it was cool to see another person besides Me coming up with mind parasitic not-illithids. :)
Glad you've found it interesting! Nice to know my creations stand up to the scrutiny/curiosity of fellow creators haha. Stay tuned for lots more with the Na'qwuil, I find them fascinating! (If I do say so myself hehe)
really excited to see where this is going!
I'm excited to build a world for these creatures! Lots of ideas... Glad you're enjoying!
I love how I watched the number of subscribers increase as I binge watch this series over the course of the day
Hope you are enjoying the series! Grateful for the new subs :)
I find settings with both humanoid and non humanoid sapients as the most interesting, as it gives you both the familiar and the alien to work with within the same story. Similar to how the Charr are in Guildwars, and even they are on the more humanoid side. So a little sad to see the raptors develop as humanoid as they did, though I understand the reasoning in the literary sense. And you did at least maintain the Na'qwuil as quite different from the other 3! It does feel like a bit of a drop off cliff though instead of a sliding scale.
I also think a color-based language is possible, and is probably the most common form of a non-audio non-pheromone-based form of communication in science fiction. Though the perilux are definitely too small by known standards of requirements for sapience and so would still be disqualified on that ground. If anything, a limited ability to shape symbols biologically could lead to a very unique written language where the color(s) of a symbol shares as much if not more information than it's shape! This could even be done through a "spoken" langauge that uses body language and movements alongside color to create complexity akin to how tone can affect an audio language.
Damn, now my mind is running afire with this idea. How could the existence of a species that primarily speaks through color and body language interact with traditionally speaking species? Other languages may adopt limited color into some of their writing. The need for colorless writing, like used for clay tablets or when dyes are scarce, would lead to added accents to pre-existing symbols, whether letters or lexigraphic symbols. This would allow a lot more word-transfer in the written language than in the spoken/viewed versions. A dance could literally tell a story, and other species mimicking color-dances may use careful movements of exposed and hidden colored clothing. Perilux may lack complex sound-shaping ability, but they would probably still be able to make limited sounds. So how would they adapt to interacting with other cultures? Adopting common body language symbols in a limited simplified sign language? How would the added language diversity shape not just the species own cultures, but eventually their fellow sapient cultures? There's a lot of interesting speculative biology and sociology here to consider!
One thing I like doing in my world building is remind people that even if ocks dwarfs and elves look human but thy vary much are not. In my world's elves are often powerful cat and raptor like solo hunters with exactly good sciences compared to humans. Acting more like hawks in human form then people.
First of all, liking this channel a lot. It's of course not universally applicable, but I have been able to put this to some use already to reinforce otherwise super unstructured worldbuilding. For this video, while I was obviously curious and generally like the results, there are a couple things I feel I should note or second: 1. In regards to the Silarin: I feel like this is the one that makes the least amount of sense from an evolutionary standpoint, for reasons I also saw in the comments. The Callidus are _already_ bipedal, and if I get this correctly, you also _already_ made them endurance runners. In other words, outside of getting prehensile talons, there isn't much the Silarin needed to change physically, nor do I think they need to become completely upright (rather, a slight hunch could be maintained). Not that human physiology doesn't make sense, it only doesn't because raptors are already good runners. 2. Somewhat related to this, while simian to human evolution makes sense, there is a bit of a hiccup with Nota to human: This evolution would occur in rainforests, where arboreal movement is perfectly viable. Contrast with earth humans or locus Silarin, which _have_ to run because savannahs have a lot less trees, and thus would have reason to improve their running game. Locus humans, by contrast, have no immediate reason to evolve this way, unless maybe you stuff the rainforests full of harpy eagles or some other threats above the ground, so that closer to the ground is the safest place to be. Still, they're humans, and I agree humans are handy to have for reasons you described. 3. The Urakan make a lot of sense. Being bear-based, they grow to permanently adopt bipedalism that they already used in short bursts, rather than changing an already suitable biped form. 4. The Na'qwuil are also logical, but one thing I immediately had to wonder is if strength or manipulation would be their main issue on land, as tentacles are _a lot_ of muscle. Rather, it would be stability due to no bones, as well as lackluster speed on land, which octopi would be able to make up for somewhat through their elaborate camouflage capabilities. I still like the Na'qwuil, but I feel the arguments for why they would struggle are off. Also, I hope they do eventually become less parasitic as their civilization further develops, because having an obvious disregard of other life will cement them as enemies in the eyes of basically every other sapient race, which means they either need to _royally_ compensate for this huge amount of enemies, or die really quick. Writing this down also helped me realize that trying to follow evolution is probably not a great idea in my personal opinion, especially if you're going in a more fantastical direction anyway. It places _huge_ constraints on what you'll be able to do with your sapient creatures, even if we expand beyond the chosen source species in this video. That does not seem desirable unless you need these constraints to get going. I myself don't follow evolution in my process. To be precise, evolution would be possible in my world, but it is typically outpaced by dimensional rifts that create new life (among many other effects).
Very interesting. The octopus things creep me out, but at least they didn't look like Vilgax or Cthulhu lol In my world I developed a species of birds that developed sapience. However, to us they would look like regular animals. I had to give that they kept claws in their wings to allow them to manipulate things. They're also close to crows or parrots in size because I wanted to try and be a bit of a challenge. Humans are in my world too, and I was trying to have that the two species formed a symbiotic relationship with each other
I think Cthulhu-like monsters like mind flayers are awesome in high fantasy settings where there's less care for biology etc. But yeah, for anyone who cares about that, humanoid octopi are unlikely haha. Those sound like interesting creatures you've made!
@@WorldbuildingCorner Thanks for the info, and the compliment
@@DavidGlenn My first and second/last RPG shop 15 years ago ran a cross of WotC 3e D&D/Star Wars Jedi force skill powers in skill ranks. We further blended the system with Whitewolf/World of Darkness(WoD) Mage the Awakening and a touch with Werewolf and Changeling. a.) Parrots/falcons that first hunted lone persons by mimicking the cries of lost hurt infants. Instead of just hunting infants they hunt adults for sport and mimicked mock people's voices and words. After civilization reached a give point of development, the parrot/falcon would do cat calls or .. flirt .. with drunks just to get the adult males to scream in terror. Hawk & eagle types normally were not kept as indoor house pets or song birds due to the 8ft to 12ft wing span. b.) USA South Dakota jack rabbit can pace run at 75mph and up to 90mph depending on watching rabbits racing in and out of highway traffic. 12kilomters per hour/ 8mph. or around 40,000ft in 60 minutes. Break down to a 6second melee round then down to 1/10th sec of hyper human respond reaction time. Point being ... WotC 3e Star Wars rpg Jedi/ force user feats: Burst of Speed x10mv at 3rd-lvl force user, Knight Speed x20 at 7th-lvl, and Master Speed x30 at 13th-lvl. So we had a jack rabbit the size of Yoda that could break the speed of sound barrier. Then cross it up that they could used D&D 9th-lvl spell Gate to create worm holes to other planets. Spellcraft DC:15+spell level. 9 for Gate as base = 24. Spell chain is Blink, Dimensional Door, Teleport, Planeshift, Teleport without Error, and Gate. They can even run along side Star Trek ships at wrap speed. c.) Red Sun Star Wars style rule set campaign. If you ever had a sun burn bad enough to cause your skin to peel, why would you go for a walk on a planet with a yellow star with x2.7 to x5 your home sun energy output. Let alone with a world 1/8th your gravity ? You start to suffer the bends as your blood depressurize. Little did the players knew that they were PCing Superman's Kyrpton species. A moment of surprise dramatic action. Krypton draw their power from the D&D Inner Elemental planes through the Ethereal/Phantom Zone.
@@krispalermo8133 wow that’s interesting
@@DavidGlenn Thank you, at one time I had a few dozen people at a gaming shop to run great games with. WotC 3e D&D when it first came out, we flex the rules where we had a Flying bed that could Planeshift/ Gate into other realities. Little Nemo. Hope you had a good weekend.
You need to be bigger, I'm glad KZhead recommended you.
Note: sea lions do not have fins, they have flippers. Fins are structurally different, and are seen on fish.
The brain of a cephalopod isn't under the mantle. It wraps around the esophagus and then runs down each arm, giving them a number of brains one more than the number of limbs.
Had a giggle when I noticed the Hero Forge models. Awesome.
A big element I try to keep in mind for my (fantasy) worldbuilding is the factors of the world that are wildly different from Earth, or any hypothetical real planet that is likely to exist, the most pressing for most fantasy settings being magic (depending on the system, of course). If there is an ambient magical force on the planet, and animals don't harness it, why not? Why would they not practically all evolve to do so? And if an animal is going to evolve sapience and advance tool-use, and it has access to telekinesis, for example, does it even need a prehensile appendage? If telepathy exists, does spoken language need to exist? Also I appreciate that your setting basically has the Elder Scrolls races: Humans (Humans), Khajiit (Urakan), Argonian (Silarin) and Elves (Na'qwuil).
I just need to point out the absolute insanity that is the fact that the ancestral dinosaur was bipedal… meaning that all quadrupedal dinosaurs *secondarily evolved said quadrupedalism…*
One point: we actually have a lot more hair than you might think. It's just that the width and length of those hairs have reduced drastically in order to make room for our oversized sweat glands. The pest question is another factor, but it's far from the only one.
I never understood why, if given any other option, humans would want to remain human. Being one is HIGHLY inconvenient.
This will be useful, as I'm still building up the biology of my world chronologically. Though I have evolved the first protodragons already. While my world has 3 main sapient creatures, humans, elves, and beastfolk(later falsely referred to as demons in my dream game), there will be many other lesser sapient creatures. The 3 are practically one species, almost like how huskies, chihuahuas, and pitbulls are drastically different, they are all breedable. But through evolution, using mana to supplement growth, and even a process I call magical endosymbiosis, many others will appear.
That squid race & that parasitic skill is basically the Oktigi from Oddworld... thats terrifying
Great video! I can see you getting more in-depth about how the races look. Maybe the Urakan get darker fur in warmer climates with the females wearing decorative corsets, as that's where their nipples would realistically be. Maybe the Na'quil take advantage of their ink and sharp tentacles to tattoo themselves. Humans and Silarin could use plants for cosmetics; just imagine Silarin wearing kohl to protect their eyes from the sun.
Herbivorous creatures can also gain sapience. Take elephants for example. They have culture, and cultural learning. Sheep are intelligent as well. When a species is prey there are two main paths of adaptation leading towards evolution. Getting bigger and more aggressive as to fend off/ intimidate would be predators; or gain intelligence to defeat them. Herbivores also have the benefit of having a more reliable source of food. The need to expend less energy breaking down plant material would drive them towards fire/ cooking.
I disagree that sapient species would have to be Predatory, many highly intelligent species are omnivores or even herbivores. Take elephants for example, they have complex social structures and rituals, use tools, and solve problems set to them by scientists. Even crows have social rituals (have been observed mourning their dead and attacking anything trying to get to the corpse) and are extremely good at problem-solving. There is reasonable evidence that would suggest early hominids might not have even been predators either, since 2 of our closest relatives (bonobos and gorillas) do any hunting (though chimpanzees do hunt). A theory in this regard is we were scavengers at first, stealing meat from kills made by other animals. I would agree we became predators once we had the intelligence to outsmart prey, but that only happened after we mastered fire (I believe the archeological record shows our brains getting bigger at around the same time that we find cooked food in our rubbish piles.) I would also argue that being a predator would in fact make sapience less likely for 3 main reasons: 1. (majority of) predators use some form of physical prowess, rather than intelligence, to take down prey, thus nutrient resources are better spent building muscle rather than brains; 2. predators would struggle to get enough nutrition to support brain development (again human brains growth is correlated with our ability to increase nutrient availability by cooking food); 3. avoiding predation requires more brain power than hunting as to avoid being prey you need keen spacial awareness, constant vigilance, and creative problem solving to use your surrounding to avoid the predator.
Explaining in a highly scientific sounding manner, why the bear-people would absolutely have boobs and big butts is the biggest, yet most accurate excuse for making your furries sexy that I've ever heard xD
Caveat: creatures like the related octopus, squid, and cuttlefish exhibit a degree of both radial and bilateral symmetry, but it could be argued they are more radially symmetric. However, they also evolved along an axis, and have single or paired organs (siphon, eyes, specialized tentacles for breeding). It could be possible for a group of their limbs to be "legs" and a group to be "arms" with not too much reworking. And starfish, radial symmetry, might have something similar. So we need to be careful giving absolutes, because not only could things evolve on Earth, but they might evolve very differently on other planets. Also, from a couple of recent videos on early biology of vertebrates, it might be possible that instead of five fingers/toes, early land animals could have ended up with six or seven per hand/foot (polydactyly is still a thing too.) and even six or eight limbs rather than fou was apparently a possibility from the early animals that moved from sea to land. I can think of at least the aliens in the Footfall novel as having dual prehensile trunks from their heads which I think also had opposable digits at the end of the trunks (it's been too long since I read the book to be sure of how they were designed, elephant-like but at least two or four trunks, then dividing into finger-like digits, I think it was.)
May I copy your homework sir? (Specifically the Na'Quill, I LOVED the concept of parasitic intelligent octopuses) If I ever get to publish anything I'll give proper credits of course
Have you heard of the Portia family of jumping spiders? They can learn, remember, and problem solve. At least Portia Fimbriata if I remember correctly
Did you take the designs of the human m, bear people, and lizard people from hero forge. They are near identical designs. Anyways great work love your videos
In order to implement sirens in my world, I considered that they evolved from the same branch as humans (that would explain their appearances and the ability to develop intelligence as they are outside water). One of these pre-human communities evolved closely related to the water, so they developed aquatic features until one part of these went full siren (just like whales evolved from terrestrial animals). I'm still unsure on how to develop intelligent fairy-like creatures though, mainly due to their tiny heads
I made my Fairies and Fae abt the size of hobbits
The Hero Forge assets are cool.
It was handy to have references that I could move and adjust as needed. I don't have any background or experience with art, so creating the species in this video was a big challenge.
You might find it interesting that a lot of recent research has been done into how cultural development provides selective pressures for genetic enhancements which provide further selective pressures for cultural evolution, ad infinitum.
I did a fanfic of Locus where the the Leonix evolved into the Lejon, arctic catfolk bassically and their language is based of irl swedish
you say a relatable and loveable alien should be humanoid, but i counter with Rocky from Project Hail Mary.
The humanoid bauplan obviously works for a sapient being, but many aspiring worldbuilders take that as an excuse to populate their worlds entirely with various variants of humans. Pointy eared humans, small humans, humans with scales or fur, snake headed humans, and so on. They don't even try to add more outlandish sophonts which is a huge shame. Just copying reality makes for realistic, but often boring worlds. Exploring the consequences a different body plan can have on a civilisation can be a lot of fun and result in truly unique fictional societies. And exploring how two or more vastly different species might live together in the same world or even the same multi-species society is even more interesting.
Lovely video. The concept of cultural evolution and differences between sapience and sentience are new for me. Currently in the process of worldbuilding my races and species but have had some trouble so i would greatly appreciate your input. The guiding concept for my setting is "ancient future" where fantasy tropes and concepts from real life antiquity are used as framing devices for sci-fi fill in regarding details and mechanics. On the topic of races and species, I have two components added to help my worldbuilding. Haplo groups as the progenitors and families of humanity spawned from the hybridization of different human species. + Evolution of life forms beyond earth and experimentation with our genome. = Prehistoric Haplogroups possessing unique mutations as the byproduct of [ x ] compounded upon by evolution and the passage of millions of years The issue im having trouble with is finding a plausable excuse to have beneficial mutations proliferate throughout roughly 16 haplogroups. I want it to be the case where these mutations are unuqie and distinct to each haplo group, that way any races derived from a combination of these haplogroups look cool but realistic. Ive had the idea of using "crash landed alien robots" during the cenozoic period introducing new mutagen sources but im afraid it comes of as cliche. Any tips? Example: Trachonomy is translated as a mutation for a third eye, only effects the women of the haplogroup predominant in the indian subcontinent, allowed for better differentiation between poisonous foods and awareness for predators
Interesting situation! To make sure I've understood properly, you are wanting to create ~16 human cultures with distinctly unique traits (like a third eye) that are for the most part isolated to specific geographical areas that the cultural groups inhabit? An important factor is that while cultural evolution occurs very, very quickly, biological evolution is comparatively extremely slow. We have had very little biological evolution since the first homo sapiens, hundreds of thousands of years ago. Any significant biological differences will need to develop and be cemented long before cultural evolution takes off, though if traits are present by the time civilisation is founded, they can be reasonably expected to remain. This is how we still have variations in bone and facial structures, muscle and fat distributions, and hair and skin colours among different human cultural groups even now that we are globalised. If you want unique traits, then having them develop when the cultural groups of a species are isolated from each other (i.e. still in the stone age) is likely the only 'natural' option. You mentioned in your setting there are extra-terrestrials meddling with human biology though, so any differences can be easily attributed to this. If your traits are more than just minor traits though, like a whole other limb, or scales as skin, or horns etc, then you're pushing the boundaries of what could be considered the same species. A probable outcome of this is that if the two creatures could still produce offspring (which they may not be able to), that offspring would then be sterile, unable to produce further offspring itself. Which means whole races of these hybrids would be unlikely. It is however absolutely possible to force this process (see what humans have done with dogs) though it usually ends up with not so great results (.... see what humans have done with dogs). In theory however, an extra-terrestrial species with advanced understanding of biology could absolutely hand pick selected traits for your 16 species while keeping the genome viable. That understanding however is a little past my own field of knowledge. I hope this has been helpful! Good luck with your project, it sounds fascinating!
@@WorldbuildingCorner thankyou so much for a response. Appreciate the advice and I look forward to any worldbuilding vids
Goauld-like octopus. That will be really interesting 😂
Once again tails would not necessarily only remain coz of sexual selection, but could've co-evolved as part of their protection against bigger dumber Predators, in their Hunting & in Territorial/Mating fights with other Males ...eg tails could have Spike or Hammer Bone or Rattle which they use in hunting, combat or threat/challenge/warning. Also if in some areas their prey lives in top of trees the tail could be prehensile in order to climb/move through trees. You could have different tail types as different sub-species depending on envioronment/biome. The Lizard-Folk of the coast/swamp/river have tail which helps them swim, the Lizard-Folk of the Southern High-Grass Plains have Warning/Stampeder Rattle, the Lizard-Folk of the Forest borders have a tail adapted to climbing, The Lizard-Folk of the Northern Low-Grass Plains have a Hammer Tail to deal with giant Predators/Prey, another group has Spike to kill a certain type of Prey...
Jesus, those bears would be terrifying. Imagine having to do battle with an army of 9 foot tall warriors with double the weight and strength of a human. It would be tough to even beat the females 1 on 1 because they're built like a hairy, female verson of the Rock.
They are likely even stronger than you think. Homo Sapiens possess weaker muscles than other mammals. As in on a chemical level human muscle has less actin. Saves a lot of calories, gives great endurance, and pound per pound less strength.
I doubt I'll get a response here but did anyone else notice his diagrams for the humanoid versions of his races are literally just tracings of the dragon people from Heroforge? Well played, honestly a little jealous I didn't think of it first!
I’ve had a lot of fun in the past coming up with creatures that follow the human body plan but are unique enough to stand on their own. For example, I made a species that possesses an organ in their brain that communicates and receives thoughts via radio waves, but due to it being an involuntary process means that any sapience they have is more or less suppressed by an emergent hive mind. I’m thinking they might’ve been created by a technological race as biological drones, but following their masters’ extinction millions of years ago they’ve more or less adapted to an insect-like existence. I’ve also thought of two-thumbed marsupials that never discovered smelting and pacific man o’war ‘sirens’ that mimic drowning sailors to lure in victims, but I’ve waffled on enough.
8:32 I think scavengers would be more likely to produce sapient creatures, while predators certainly could I just think scavengers have a greater chance of leading to sapience. The reason I believe this is because the humans' Ancestors were scavengers, and well we're the most sapient creature on our planet, and then there are ravens who are the most intelligent species of birds, also scavengers
both are/were omnivores too, the smartest animals (on land) are usually omnivores
The most important trait for a species to cooperate on a large scale is fictional storytelling. It's humans' ability to believe in things that aren't real, like Gods, corporations, nations and money, that allows us to cooperate on a large scale. Yuval Noah Harari writes about this extensively in his book, Sapiens. In other words, storytelling, including world building, is the human superpower which gives us dominance on Earth.
Did you use Hero Forge to make Celebi drawings it's just the forms look kind of familiar
A Few Lizards do live birth so a lizardlike Sapient could have live births & breasts :) Also a key point is that though there are certain lineages on Earth ...nothing is absolutely set in stone. Eg it is possible for a Mammal to lay eggs & then also have babies suckling after hatching eg Platypus. In my world I took the Platypus and extrapolated that to a lizardlike ancestor of my Lizard-Folk. The Traedi lay an egg after three months gestating, then the mother broods the egg for three months, then the hatched baby suckles until teeth come in & it draws first blood by it's bite then that awakens the baby to want chewed meat brought by father and mother.
@@Me-yq1fl Birds are in fact, not Reptiles, they are considered Aves, however, since they are not Mammals, they do not have the glands obvs.
@@GoblinLord Phylogenetically, birds (Aves) are in fact reptiles (Sauropsida/Reptilia), as they are descended from archosaurs (dinosaurs in particular). Crocodiles (also archosaurs) are more closely related to birds than they are to turtles (non-archosaur archosauromorphs) or to lizards, snakes and tuataras (lepidosaurs)!
@@Me-yq1fl The interesting thing is, mammal ancestors evolved milk before therian mammals evolved live birth! Originally, as mammals laid thin parchment eggs, milk was used to humidify the egg and to give it essential elements it needed. Later, it became a food source for babies, but breasts only came later in actual therian mammals! Platypi and echidna (which aren't therians) still lay eggs and don't have breasts - instead, they sweat milk!
Your gauging of brain size only on volume is a flaw. It's partially brain to body ratio, but that ratio is more closely tied to cell numbers not volume or mass. Bird cells tend toward being much smaller, possible because of a small genome, and so more cells can fit into a smaller space. Tool using appendages don't have to be hand, but they do need to do three things; pinch grip, cylindrical grip and spherical/radio grip.
Ok but suppose your intelligent organism evolved from a hoofed biped with a stabilizing tail, wings for display, control when running, and incline running but not true flight, and a prehensile trunk? I think it is much more likely that the trunk and lips and tongue are used as manipulators and not the wings, tail, or feet.
One thing I hate to break to you is that losing fur doesn't reduce the likelihood of parasitism. Humans are affected by a wide variety of parasites including those that would normally only be associated with fur-bearing mammals. What's more, our sweating renders us more vulnerable to certain types of parasites.
So will we see two visomnis intelligent species, one living in waters and another mindflayers? Water-dwelling branch may then discover levitation methods or something else and become a very interesting species maybe slightly similar to beholders (mainly because both would be flying and multi-limbed)
Select your species: Monkey => Human Giant Velociraptor => Silarin Bear => Urakan Octopus => -The unholy offspring of a Dalek and a Mindflayer.- Na'qwuil
"that kind of intelligence won't go on to have plants founding the internet" Do mycorrhizal fungi networks count?
22:27 Kobolds are not even on the list 😢. I love them in dnd, they are smart, cultured, cute little reptiles.
Question: in terms of races, can cuteness overcome the predilection and increased relatability of humanoids?
A lot of people are dogging on Silarin, and I kind of agree, but there is another advantage to being humanoid in their posture, and that’s lifting and throwing things. I’m rusty on speculative evolution, but human bodies, specifically our shoulders and posture, are practically built for lifting things with a lot of weight and throwing things like spears as I said before. So I could see this happening, though imo they still look a bit too human, but as you said before it is kinda stylistic because you are building the world for humans. Anyways, as for the Na Qwuil, I don’t see a way for them to become mind-parasites like that. I just think the evolutionary path to it doesn’t really work out- it’s important to remember that transitional stages need to be successful as well. For the Na Qwuil, they would have likely started their evolutionary journey as true parasites, perhaps digging their specialized tentacles into an animal and using it as a food source. However, parasites have a strong tendency to become simpler, so as not to expend energy. I don’t see a way for Na Qwuil ancestors to simultaneously be parasites and retain any level of sapience.
7:40 Wait, so creatures with six limbs would be like Motaro and not like Goro/Kintaro?
Disagree with a lot of your processes and results. Saying Perilux color language would be less fertile soil than auditory communication for abstract language-why? Signs might not go around corners, but they don’t make a sound, and that might be highly useful for a eusocial prey species, especially under environmental pressure that could select colonies for cleverness. And “brain size threshold”? Have you heard of corvids? Have you met the parrot Alex? Regardless, love the video. It inspires me to go about this in my own way.
Evolve on land? There's evidence that Ancestors diverged not just by leaving Ocean for Land, but in some cases once more leaving land. i.e Dolphins said to have at some point said eff the land, dude it's horrid. I'm going back to Mother Ocean. Als there's a theory about Swamp-Apes too. So in a world of Fantasy that has to be factored in if you want Mer-Folk etc.
If you're referring to the aquatic ape theory (which has since been proven false), there was an entire mockumentary a few years back about the existence of mermaids that was completely centered around the aquatic ape theory and how mermaids were a returned-to-ocean ape species . For 6th grade me, the science was sound enough to convince me for a while (before later learning about the concept of a mocumentary, and realizing Discovery Channel wasn't as scientific as I had thought), and I imagine it *could* actually work in a fictional/alternate world
@@kluevo Well yeah, just coz it ain't true here doesn't mean it couldn't be "true" in another Fantasy World :) ...though I don't think it can be completely disproven here either. The Mermaid aspect of that here on Earth is a red herring but it could well explain the presence of Mermaids/Merfolk on a another world. Of course here on Earth because of Greek Mythology & the Tale of Atlantis the Mermaids/Merfolk are also connected to the Downfall of Atlantis & the Great Flood/The Deluge.
you should have split the monkeys, so not only would you have humans, but you could have tree goblins as well. :P
Could a creature similar to an avian species be able to even develop upper appendages?
Matthew: 9:03 Me: Come on, Na’qwuill! You’re the best!
For my world, I wanted seriously alien aliens. But, my two protagonists are Human. I went back and forth on whether the world should have a Human population. If it doesn't, then Paul and Paula (yes, I named them after a song) are the only human beings in that world. Do I want that? I decided that I needed Humans, because otherwise how can the _femme fatale_ go after Paul, or how can the villain decide he wants Paula for himself? Of course, that opened other doors: the twelve year old (Human) boy crushes on Paula; Paul can (with effort) disguise himself as a native (which he couldn't if ALL the locals are pentaped flying things). Even some of the side characters could get very human plots (maybe the boy, in a few years, meets a girl his own age). So yeah, I've got Humans. I've also got something that looks like a cross between a starfish and a pterodactyl, and other weird stuff, but I've got Humans. Now I need to figure out why they're there.
8:04 I know you said the originators of a sapient species are likelly to be predators and it's true that mammal and bird predators are generally more smart than the counterparts, but this is not even a strong relationship, the smartest group of animals are generally considered to be Primates, consisting with omnivores and herbivores, the smartest birds are crows and parrots, respectivelly omni and herbivores too, you may consider the elephant an exeption but they also have a free prehensile apendage with fine motion control, I know all cetaceans are carnivores, but despite their intellingence, they are kinda stuck with no prehensile limbs and won't harness fire. The hypothesis that sapient species would likelly come from predators makes sense but it's ultimatelly unfounded, the only sapient race on earth comes from omnivores after all, I don't find a refutation on the theory, I just think the pressure of predators being more able to attain sapience is not that big