8,347
edits
Bizarre Alien Biology: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
No edit summary |
|||
Line 143:
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''. Let's just say ''almost all'' non-humanoid creatures could be featured here, and half of humanoid ones. Sometimes combined with [[No Biochemical Barriers]], and sometimes you have a goat-sized bug who feeds itself by rusting metal with its antennae.
* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]''
** The Orks in are said to be a mix between flesh and blood beings and fungus. Upon their death they release spores that in turn give birth to Orks and other creatures linked to them (Snotlings and squigs, for instance). Another very alien part in their biology is that ork-species never stop growing. If they get wounded and are allowed to heal, they grow even faster. Normally living organisms have a genetic limit on how big they can be, or they are limited by the environment where they live, but orks and their sub-species can grow infinitely.
** Slaught are composed of worms. Lots of worms.
** Cryptos are greenish gas clouds who can possess people and have limited mind control.
** And then there's wildlife.
*** Nightwing is a critter native to Dusk, shaped like a slug with wings, that attaches and drinks blood like a leech... after it incapacitates the victim with narcotic dust.
*** Void-fluke is sort of vacuum-capable eel who in the wild eat asteroid ores, but they aren't too picky to gnaw on refined metals - like, say, someone's void suit - and became vermin spreading via ships over many systems.
Line 153 ⟶ 159:
* ''[[Star Control]]'' aliens include anything from [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|Blue-Skinned Space Babes]] to living crystals crackling with electrical discharges and innate hyperspace communication capability, to [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[Hive Mind]] chatting in [[Starfish Language]].
* While most of the aliens in [[Deadlock]] are pretty standard [[Space Opera]], the Uva Mosk (think a three-way cross between a shrub, a human, and either an anteater or a turnip) definitely fall into this category.
* Zerg from ''[[Starcraft]]''. Their organ tissues randomly mutate (and, in certain cases, [[You Will Be Assimilated|steal new DNA from a new prey creature]]), and their hyperpowered immune system hunts it down, invoking "survival of the fittest, nature red in tooth and claw" on the genetic level. This allows a piece of formerly dead and rotten Zerg tissue cultured in a laborotory to un-decompose, and evolve 1000,000 times more than humans ever have in the space of ''a week''. Their alpha amino acids have unique "R groups" that allow damaged cells to fuse with protein to repair themselves. It also allows them to [[Played Straight|ignore]] [[No Biochemical Barriers|Biochemical Barriers]] by adapting to be compatible with host organisms. They can reproduce through parasitic fusion, or larvae produced from a building that eats mineral crystals, drinks liquid vespene gas, and is built around six wombs (complete with birth canals), a brain, and a stomach. Their buildings are really self-contained organisms that are based on the genetically programmed nest site architecture of their prey species, and one building is specifically designed to do that ultra-evolution thing ''at an accelerated rate''. They don't need to breathe, and their flesh is dense enough to count as a spacesuit. Their metabolism is so fast that, on top of meat, they eat minerals and drink vespene (which is a mutagen, so that helps things along considerably). The downside to this is that they are very susceptable to radiation poisoning.
** The Protoss are relatively normal biologically in comparison, but that's not saying much in light of the above. They've got digitigrade legs, and [[No Mouth]], which they make up for by being photosynthetic and able to absorb water vapor through the skin. Also, with a bit of training, they can turn [[Psychic Powers|pure rage]] into [[Wrist Blade]]s and cut you to pieces. With a bit ''more'' training, it's either invisibility or climate-altering Psychic Storms.
* In ''[[Metroid]]'', Kraid is a relatively normal looking three-eyed dinosaur—except for those awfully large spikes that constantly shoot out of his belly.
Line 180 ⟶ 186:
** They are technically sexless, though may imitate conventions of species who aren't. It normally takes two individuals to make an "egg", but only due to the amount of secreted substance needed. Once the egg (which looks like a meteor) is formed, DNA samples of ''anything'' can be put inside via openings, and it will naturally create a new viable chimeric being capable of [[shapeshifting]] between hybrid and parents' forms, and usually not sterile, [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2005-03-28 though often asexual]. [[Extra Parent Conception|Any number of sources]] can be used ([http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-09-09 "the current known record... is twelve"]). And need not even have an Uryuom as one of the genetic parents - though it gives some perks, thus an egg itself doesn't pass Uryuom DNA and only acts as a "cross-compilier". Basically, they reproduce via a genetic engineer's wet dream.
** The fun part is that aside of the mechanisms, these functions together make surprising amount of sense biologically. Eggs could be symbiotic organs (much like mitochondria) whose primitive ancestor was stealing pre-evolved ferment sequences. Uryuoms may walk into any biome, domesticate or fend off "interesting" local critters, stick a few drops of blood into eggs, and raise as their own a generation of Greater Chimera already adapted to this environment - not enough of them fertile to be a competition, but enough to reliably keep a symbiotic society. Then they easily maintain communication within and between populations - no matter what vocal apparatus the original species had, a chimera can shapeshift half of the way, Uryuom shifts halfway and syncs the languages in seconds. If you thought [[Hive Caste System]] is too efficient, this cheating beats it twice before breakfast.
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' has sophonts ranging from mostly-humanoids (who also
** Uklakk have two bodies connected by radio link.
**
** Oafa are living hydrogen blimps.
** A lot of fauna in an ancient Oafan habitat adapted to symbiosis with either really weird microbes or runaway Oafan nanobots, that deposit metal on their skeletons/exoskeletons.
== Web Original ==
| |||