Character designs from nature - pt. 1.

I've always been so impressed by creatures that seem altogether different, here are two creatures I'm using as the foundation for the Skywheel storyline.

1. Frilled Shark.

Because the first part of the story is a flood narrative, there has to be an underwater being, and the oldest known shark on earth is perhaps the best inspiration for it. Just think of this one as being much larger, by about three football fields in length, with glowing eyes. Also, think of Jonah. In the story it is known as the Sea Wurm. Its quite awful that these ancient fish are dying off, as many of them are turning up far from their deep sea habitat.



2. Neon Rainbow Jellyfish.

Also in keeping with the flood narrative, I went to this amazing jellyfish for inspiration. In the story, a select few members of the tribe are deep sea divers that harvest the iridescent ink from these creatures, they're about the size of a family van. I call them Coddle Squid, next to the Frilled Shark, they are the oldest creatures on the planet Adona, and like the Sea Wurm, they are sentient, or at least their ink is...

Clever crows and intelligent wheat.

This has been floating around the internet for a while, but I thought I'd post it here. Its one of those lessons that keeps coming back to me as I write about human / animal relationships in my story and the supposedly inherent hierarchies authors' (perhaps unknowingly) put in their stories.

I would never expect an animal to communicate in human terms, that's expecting a bit too much and assuming a bit too much. But dialogue occurs nonetheless, and not just with animals. I once heard someone say the most intelligent species are the different grains, after all they've convinced humans and other animals to spread them around the earth, as well they've created a desire in humans to alter their growing conditions (environmentally, biologically and genetically) to make life easier for them.