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| Umbriel; A tiny world basks in the warm red glow of a dying sun. | |||||||||
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| Topic Started: Nov 26 2014, 06:12 PM (8,966 Views) | |||||||||
| Picrodus | Nov 26 2014, 06:12 PM Post #1 | ||||||||
:Ominous Wind:
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Three billion years in the future the sun has swelled up as a red giant to the orbit of Earth and nothing is left of the inner systems former glory. The once lush planet Earth now a burnt cinder orbiting only about 13 million miles from the sun. However there is still a shelter in the solar system where life has taken hold. However because of the red sun's massive and super heated form, this haven no longer exists in the inner system but the outer system. Towards the end of the age of humanity 3 billion years ago the humans set up ark ships that which were in fact glorified seed banks meant to seed the many future water worlds of the outer solar system in hopes that in the far future they would wake and colonize these worlds. These ships blasted off from Earth off towards many targets in the outer solar system where they would bury themselves in the primordial wasteland of the planet/moon that was their target and await the time when the shipboard sensors detected an atmosphere suitable for life to inhabit. Although feeble atmospheres did form on a few worlds of the outer solar system, only one ark stood the test of time and remained functioning throughout the eons. As can be expected from technology. Who expects 100% efficiency from machines especially ones that are now billions of years old. The ark that stood the test of time was one located on Umbriel, a moon of Uranus. Umbriel by this point had formed a feeble atmosphere with oxygen, and useful amounts of carbon dioxide due to large deposits in the ice and primordial outgassing, as well as a few other trace elements. Its loss of atmosphere was also almost negligible due to its orbit lying within the gargantuan magnetosphere of its parent. The Ark ships carried two components. One component, or the first stage, was to release seeds of trees, plants, and crops kept fresh by the ship when enough carbon dioxide was found to be present. After the plants were released they would work to create a sustained biosphere and with that a stable atmosphere and eventually produce enough oxygen for animals and humans to be released from the ark as stage two. Sadly, (or not depending on your view) there was never enough oxygen/atmospheric pressure for stage two to be initiated. Because of this life on Umbriel has not turned out the way the terrans expected. Here the plants took a very shocking turn in evolution. Now Umbriel is a world dominated by a new type of creature. Umbriel is a rather cold world with the climate being retained at about 50° fahrenheit at the most and -30° at the least. Because of this, of the plants released only the hardier mountain dwelling species survived. With the most successful being Conifers, it is no surprise that they gave rise to the new creatures. The Planimals. Umbriel rolls on its side through the universe due to it orbiting on the equatorial plain of a planet with a 97 degree axial tilt. Its poles alternating between 40 years of day and 40 years of night. The trees and plants, to escape either extreme, would follow the terminator by developing movement or risk death. The development of locomotion was the first step towards becoming Umbral animals. And many plants did die in the early stages of colonization. However this terminator was extremely forgiving, taking 40 years to switch from pole to pole. Plant seeding occured 500 million years ago when Umbriel was still warming. The current date is 3 billion years hence. The earliest divergent Conifers developed locomotion by dragging themselves along by their roots which remained underground. They were the first plants to do so though other groups later followed suit and broke the barrier into becoming more than plants, they were planimals. Similar locomotion can be seen in today's primitive monopedal fur trees. When the humans created these Arks they imagined that they would wake up to beautiful worlds prime for colonization ripe with crops to upstart civilization once again. Unfortunately a less than useful species took the dominant role...and on a world colder than they had expected.... Welcome to Umbriel the Conifer moon!
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 My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |||||||||
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| Picrodus | Jul 30 2015, 03:41 PM Post #16 | ||
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:Ominous Wind:
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The Ramballtree Height: Up to 27 feet. This animal is odd in that it is sessile early in life and mobile as a fully fledged adult. It resides on a tiny peninsula jutting off of the Minepan tundra into the Sea of Umbralu. They grow their body up from the ground yet their head cone stays close to the ground. This creature is anchored by roots underground where it garners much of its nutrients. However, though it is sessile in the beginning of its life, it can move the whole body back and forth and side to side to shake the snow from its body and maximize photosynthesis. The upper body is rather thick as it stores fatty substance to last the tree on its long ride across the night side. This organism is actually on the border of sapience. They evolved from a non-sessile basal form and as such already had animalistic intelligence. But when the ancestral form was somehow marooned in this barren waste it went to extremes to survive. They are very intelligent and rather than degrading intelligence when they became sessile, interestingly enough, they went in the other direction and actually evolved simple, abstract thought and some form of higher communication to keep themselves occupied. Their branches on their upper body only grow on one side because of the direction of the strong winds. Their actual form is rather comical in that it resembles a humanoid kicking a ball. One branch wraps around the back of the trunk and resembles a second leg. It is where the reproductive cones hang. They may also use their restricted movement to reach out to other individuals in their grove and engage in physical stimulus. Including sexual relations. However, this is only a very prolonged growing stage. Individuals who have reached the age of 16 Earth years have been known to release their roots. However instead of death these individuals are actually freed. The roll like their ancestral tumble trees across the open tundra. Given the chance at freedom for the first time. These individuals gather in roving bands conversing joyously and subsisting off of photosynthesis alone. The strong winds of the Minepan tundra, unbridled by obstructing forces, blow these lucky individuals across the open plains. Never to be seen again. |
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |||
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| Picrodus | Sep 22 2015, 11:20 PM Post #17 | ||
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The Doldrum Tree A long trek south across the plains of Albreich brings about a haunting and doleful sight. Long before reaching the Finnish Southwestern forest lies a mostly flat plain covered by dry grasses in which the Doldrum trees make their home. These sessile giants grow far from one another. With each only being visible from another as a dark smuge on the near horizon. They grow to massive sizes reaching heights of up to 130 feet. They communicate by positioning their leaves in a way that the endless gale can whistle through, producing the haunting sounds that can be heard for miles. Though not very intelligent, they are very capable of producing amazing acoustics that would stand up the hairs on anyone's neck. Their form is somewhat saddening. Their branches form what looks like an endlessly tormented face bowing to the might of the winds. Causing their longer branches to all grow in one direction. When a fertilized cone falls from the parent, it tumbles across the plains until it is stopped by an outcropping where it plants its roots. Where it will spend the next few hundred years, assuming conditions are right. These animals are not social at all and an unlucky infant will not be able to grow if this outcropping happens to be the trunk of an adult Doldrum. Once the infant starts to take root, the adult will do everything in its power to crush its lesser with its swaying bulk. The bone-chilling howls of the Doldrum trees are territorial calls. They keep this animal occupied throughout its sessile life. It is no wonder their calls are so haunting and their form so anguished. For it is forced to subsist on nothing but ground nutrients as it pushes against the unabated winds in these barren and haunted lands. |
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |||
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| Picrodus | Sep 28 2015, 02:51 PM Post #18 | ||
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:Ominous Wind:
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Needs Renovation: There is no way the Ark could perform beyond its primary function. |
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |||
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| Picrodus | Feb 20 2016, 12:59 AM Post #19 | ||
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The Mahrkorwood Height: Up to 77 Feet A relative of the Ramballtree; Individuals who have reached the age of 17.7 Earth years and the height of at least 60 feet have been known to release their roots. This marks the end of their infancy. The adolescent will fall into the ocean (much like a fallen tree) of which their grove is not too far. Here they will be truly free for the first time. They will use their corkscrew shaped branches, shaped by the unbridled wind, which will help them to corkscrew at the surface of the water at speeds of up to 17 mph when speed is desired, the rest of the time they simply drift. Their gargantuan form is much too buoyant to sink and they float atop the ocean like driftwood. This they do headfirst. (Remember that the headcone of this species is located at where we would consider to be the "foot" region of a normal being.) They can, however, make short dives before their buoyancy drags them back to the surface. For this reason they have evolved eyes much larger than most other species on Umbriel in order to see into the murky depths of the sea. They are able to grow their brains further by consuming meat of different species which they do by ramming headfirst into a prey item with their pointy cone. Where their head lodges like a burr on the body and absorbs the nutrients through its roots. Adolescents will form groves of up to 7 or 8 co-ed individuals who will learn to hunt together similar to carnivorous cetaceans. They later form pairs mated for life who break away from the group and when the female is fertilized, much like a pinniped and unlike a cetacean, she will beach herself ashore (to return to the ocean she must wait for the tide to return) to deposit the baby cone who will then start the process of these unique organisms over again. She is neither a pinniped, cetacean, or tree. She is uniquely a Mahrkorwood. |
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |||
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| Picrodus | Feb 22 2016, 08:14 PM Post #20 | ||
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A Year on Uranus Conceivably, it would be difficult for most to imagine a day on Uranus; Even myself. So I took the time to understand through visual imagery illustrated by myself that I have provided for you in the form of these two pictures. The above image demonstrates a typical Uranian year and how the orbital mechanics will affect a place like Umbriel. A Day to Be Remembered  The sun circles in a counterclockwise motion as it travels ever so slowly from South to North across the sky while a harem of Zebra Fur Trees encroach on a beached Mahrkorwood carcass. The second image above factors into account the year on Uranus and the orbit of Umbriel itself where the above image takes place. Because of the retrograde nature of Uranus and its moons due to its severe axial tilt, (In all reality however, the moons should technically be considered prograde in regard to their primary, but are considered retrograde in the grand scheme of the Solar System.) coupled with the fact that the planet itself slowly pivots in a general Eastward direction during its orbit; The sun (as pictured above illustrated with the pink arrows) will slowly circle in a counterclockwise direction in the sky in a period that takes approximately 99 hours. The red directional arrow illustrates the fact that although the Sun will eventually set, it will take a period of 42 years to make its way across the sky from horizon to horizon, circling all the way. Not setting until the one of the two equinoxes in the primary’s 84 year orbit. The red arrow also signifies the direction of the Sun moving across the sky from South to North due to all the factors mentioned above combined. The nature of the axial tilt + the eastward pivot of the planet will cause this peculiar South to North phenomena. |
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |||
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| Victorbrine | Feb 23 2016, 04:03 AM Post #21 | ||
Adult
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“There's a tree," Starflight said, jumping to his feet. "In the forest." "No way," Glory said. "A tree in the forest?” "Ce corps qui s'appelait et qui s'appelle encore le saint empire romain n'était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire." -Voltaire "So if you wake up in the morning and it's a particularly beautiful day you'll know we made it." -Capa "One of those capsules hit a wing." Victor said. "Had to do an emergency landing." He pointed to a crumpled plane a couple dozen meters behind him and shrugged. "Not my most elegant landing." -me in Flisch's story "Spec Evo: Void Entry" (Act 3) "but by rule 34 of the multiverse, if it exists, there’s a world full of it." -Tet "I must ask you to leave now." -Everyone (not realy though) in Flisch's story "Spec Evo: Void Entry" Projects Status My Blog (SE Blog) Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyBzYPIsLp0uHoPtT6ZEyww | |||
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| Picrodus | Feb 25 2016, 02:41 AM Post #22 | ||
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:Ominous Wind:
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"Fleshing" Things Out: Early Movement For the Earliest of trees, the use of Guard Cells in movement was the only option. It is theoretically possible that during the stages of a sapling, the tree could retain the guard cells on its stem rather than undergoing lignification (turning into wood) as it grew to adulthood and it is therefore believed that this is how self-locomotion probably came about. The advantages of such phenomena are such: The guard cells, although normally only used for open and closure of the stomata are the one pseudo-muscle substance that could possibly propagate into a more advanced configuration. Gymnosperms, the group to which all Umbral life ultimately radiated (Conifers in General) from over billions of years, would usually undergo lignification in the stomata of their stem in progression to adulthood as stated above. Although, to provide structural support for the tree, they had to lignificate to some degree. The inner trunk undergoes lignification fully while retaining a semblance of flexibility while the outer layers never develop through the process and remain a type of stomata. The continual circling overhead of the sun as it passes slowly across the sky stimulates the guard cells to contract at certain times where the light levels become lower when the sun is lower on the horizon. Since there is more atmosphere to pass through at its lowest point of counterclockwise circling, less light reaches the cells causing them to contract as light levels drop and the use of CO2 in photosynthesis decreases. A sort of 99 hour pseudo-day if you will. Over time as the trees have learned that they must move to follow the sun and escape the ever encroaching darkness, that the best way to do so was to use thousands of modified guard cells interlinked with each other as with their stoma, flexing and contracting together as the sun dictates. In this way, following the circling of the sun, the trees that move of their own volition are ever so slow as the movement of the sun dictates when they can loosen and contract their bodies. Movement becomes meticulous and well thought out, and a brain is needed as a result. And as such, a tiny world seems ever so much bigger. |
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |||
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| Beetleboy | Feb 25 2016, 05:24 AM Post #23 | ||
neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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This project is absolutely amazing. | ||
| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |||
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| Picrodus | Feb 25 2016, 12:08 PM Post #24 | ||
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:Ominous Wind:
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Thank you. I am striving to be as plausible as I can in this scenario. | ||
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |||
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| Beetleboy | Feb 25 2016, 12:17 PM Post #25 | ||
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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You're doing a really good job, trust me. |
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| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |||
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| Picrodus | Feb 28 2016, 07:34 PM Post #26 | ||
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:Ominous Wind:
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The Troll
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |||
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| Picrodus | Mar 5 2016, 02:51 AM Post #27 | ||
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“Fleshing” Things Out: Bauplan Basics and Organ Structure It must be difficult to try and comprehend an organism so highly derived that it becomes virtually alien to us. Here is a cutaway in the hopes that it will explain. Over the course of many hundreds of eons, the animals of Umbriel have been forced to adapt, become more animal than plant, or become extinct. |
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |||
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| Dapper Man | Mar 5 2016, 02:53 AM Post #28 | ||
* I am fed up with dis wuurld *
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Liking this project so far. Does it take place on Uranus's moon? | ||
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Speculative Evolution: Manitou; The Needle in the Haystack. | |||
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| Victorbrine | Mar 5 2016, 03:17 AM Post #29 | ||
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Yes. It's Umbriel. @Picrodus, will you add also Uranus's other moons like Ariel, Titania... Edited by Victorbrine, Mar 5 2016, 03:17 AM.
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“There's a tree," Starflight said, jumping to his feet. "In the forest." "No way," Glory said. "A tree in the forest?” "Ce corps qui s'appelait et qui s'appelle encore le saint empire romain n'était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire." -Voltaire "So if you wake up in the morning and it's a particularly beautiful day you'll know we made it." -Capa "One of those capsules hit a wing." Victor said. "Had to do an emergency landing." He pointed to a crumpled plane a couple dozen meters behind him and shrugged. "Not my most elegant landing." -me in Flisch's story "Spec Evo: Void Entry" (Act 3) "but by rule 34 of the multiverse, if it exists, there’s a world full of it." -Tet "I must ask you to leave now." -Everyone (not realy though) in Flisch's story "Spec Evo: Void Entry" Projects Status My Blog (SE Blog) Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyBzYPIsLp0uHoPtT6ZEyww | |||
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| Picrodus | Mar 5 2016, 03:36 AM Post #30 | ||
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:Ominous Wind:
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We shall see, there is always room for expansion. But for now, going into great detail on the various species of Umbriel, their internal workings, and the complex world in which they have found themselves will remain my primary goal. | ||
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My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter." | |||
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