To go along with the idea of siren-like Mermaids and the possibility of never growing up as a Nautikan; Perhaps, to fully undergo the adolescent changes from mermaid-like creatures into human-legged nautikans you would need to frequently be breathing air. As the nautikans have a natural distain or even fear of mermaids the training of breathing above water would be very strict, particularly for the rich nautikan children, whose parents can afford lessons and permanent nanny care, it would be military-like. This can prove too much for some, they begin to surface less and so don't undergo those changes, or only partially go through them. The children who grow up early are revered as being intelligent, diligent and biologically better than the others. Poorer families who cannot afford nanny-care and whose mother and father have to work, can't care for their children as frequently and teach them to breathe above water, therefore they tend to develop later in life. This later leg development can also lead to these now teens running off, sneaking out etc, then coming into contact with mermaids as they get further from their home. As they can swim better than their legged parents they can't be stopped. This gives the impression that mermaids are misbehaving nautikan children who refused to listen to their parents and grew wild. It also further gives the impression that mermaids chose to be the way they are, because they were too scared or too weak-minded to breathe above water frequently. Which is not true, true mermaids cannot grow legs, but many nautikans believe they can if they had just tried harder as children. The nautikans may also begin to believe in a lot of conspiracy around mermaids. Some thinking that mermaids cannot have their own children as they are all female and so they steal the children of nautikans. Or the later developing nautikans may begin to fall in love with a mermaid and run away to be with them (which pushes parents to make their children grow legs as fast as possible, which can actually lead to a lot of rich children having leg defects as they were made to grow too soon, but the nautikans either hide these defects or are actually proud of them as they are a mark of early maturity).
That second paragraph about belief that mermaids choose to be the way the are sounds almost too real. It's so reminiscent of social darwinism and racial profiling it actually pissed me off lol
So shark mermaid had me thinking of the ningen. A claimed sea monster off the coast of Japan that is basically a whale mermaid and it is horrifying and large
I think that's right, though I wasn't using quite those words to define it. But that might explain why the yellows and blues would have exaggerated over time instead of just a straight dark/light divide. Especially with the less real-world blue shades.
@@mariahpattieworldbuilding4062 I think the dark/light divide would exist but it would be reversed from real life and less strong of a bias over blue/yellow
I absolutely love the Nautikans' view of mermaid reproduction, accurate or not. Despite thinking themselves so superior to mermaids, they see them in sort of a similar way that humans might see the faerie folk, it's fascinating. They look down on them for a lack of things like modern technologies, yet they're terrified mermaids will come up from the depths, seduce and rape their men and disappear into the abyss once more as if they were never even there. The Nautikans might even ascribe them various magical abilities like mindcontrol, or power to shape water, because they can't fathom how any intelligent life could live in the depths of the Abyss without them. It definitely has amazing storytelling potential.
About the Deep Blue Nauticans on the original island, what if it wasn't just a random grouping (there are plenty of ways people can be similar or different from each other that doesn't necessitate a class grouping without some push) but it started with specialization of different trades and whether they preferred salt or fresh water factored into who specialized in what and who spend more time in the water and as different trades began to be considered more prosperous than others, there grew a class difference. It would also be more realistic if there was some variation in opinions even if it wasn't mainstream but allowed to exist as long as it didn't affect the hierarchy in place.
yes, I think that makes sense for how the divide started, then it deepened when the land became overcrowded and the yellow nautikans wanted to hold onto their positions and probably introduced a class or caste system.
What if the wetland nautikans being descendants of the old royalty are the only major faction of the nautikans were the majority still practice polygamy as it was traditional when they were still the kings
My gosh! My gosh! I love the new changes to the Nautikans skin tones and the variety of ethnicities! The unearthly colours and patterns really hammer out the point that they're a fantasy race... and the way you woven these details seamlessly into their history is great! Can't wait to see more!
I know there is a lady-only species of whiptail lizard out there! So it is possible for your mers. Also, if you're thinking about angler fish mers... their males are... interesting. Something to look into, if only for the curiosity of it.
Trouble is a female only species can only clone itself. Doing that would eventually succumb to a disease as they'd be no genetic variation to to survive the event, Kind of like the fungus that destroyed all the bananas in the 70's. so they had to create a new banana but these bananas are also at risk from a disease. The same as potatoes. as technically each variation of spud for example bartlets are all genetically identical because they grow them through potato rather then the seeds of the plant which have genetic variability.
That's the New Mexico whiptail. The state reptile of New Mexico. Another fun fact about them: They still have intercourse thus they also called lesbian lizards.
Hi! Might be just me, but an idea for a video is I would love to hear about their cuisine... I’m not really sure why. Also would love a short video possibly about more of what daily life would look like
the cuisine I can get done eventually. a daily life video would be interesting, but I feel like it's a long way out. still too many elements of the culture left to develop before i could do something like that.
"I wonder about the contents of this Lake Nautikan's Bone Marrow soup. I know this is Bovine neck marrow and bone... but these lake plants seem so different than what I'm used to. Hmmm..." The speaker's loud slurping interrupts the small crowd nearby as she drinks from the ceramic bowl. "This tastes so earthy and ...," She continues. She looks around. Everyone is looking at her. "Oooooh. Sorry! Sorry." The stranger then looks down as her face greys. 'Whooops! Forgot my manners,' Leah thought.
I have watched every single video on this playlist so many times, this species (and the whole world) is so epic and I really wish I could learn more about it
...I was not expecting to see my comment on here. Thanks for the response! Honestly "they were polygamous originally, but became monogamous over time, through contact with humans, and a desire for greater gender-parity" is a great way of explaining monogamy in such a society, and I'm eager to see where you go from here.
Awesome video! I love the inclusion of the different skin tones and ethnicities. I would imagine if the deep blue nauticans were able to control the majority of trade for sea silk and stuff that they would end up becoming very wealthy over time. And if they were the ones to build and maintain the underwater cities, presumably they would also be the ones to maintain it. I would imagine this would give them a great deal of power in the new cities. It could create some interesting tensions between the deep blues and the yellow lake nauticans.
yes, I think it's interesting twist. they were the historically lower class and looked down on, but the mainlanders probably didn't realize how wealthy they were getting and how much their culture was developing. coming back to the ocean would definitely be a turning of the tables.
Hello! I wanted to say that I'm a big fan of your world building on both of your channels. Also, I had an idea for those that don't experience a metamorphises. Instead of it being trauma, maybe it's just a rare mutation that's actually revered. An adult Nautikan who has a tail will likely be better at swimming and thus catching young children whose tail makes them faster swimmers than their two-legged parent. They would essentially be great nannies or daycare workers, especially in older times when there wouldn't be a save dome enviorment for young children. Plus, they could outmaneuver more predators than other adults, allowing them to evacuate with the children and call for help. Sorry if it's rambly, it's late and this has been floating in my head insistently enough that I can't fall asleep, like I should be :-/ I can't wait for more of your content!
Just saying before I even watch the video, Your channel is what inspired me to start writing again and creating new worlds and stories!! so thank you a lot!!!
A set of thoughts: Maybe mermaids have a massive sex imbalance, so that males occur only very infrequently, leading to females simply filling most of the niches of their society. (Sexual ratio imbalance) Maybe mermaids have a similar situation to angler fish, where mating between males and females is life-long and permanently fuses the much smaller male to the female as a psuedo-symbiont. This would result in an "all-female" society. (Extreme sexual dimorphism) Maybe mermaids have a similar situation to seahorses going on, where it's the male that carries and oversees the eggs and young. Females would, at that point, be far more free to explore and roam widely than the males, meaning that males would naturally gravitate towards the "stay-at-home" roles while the females would gravitate towards the more "outward-facing" roles. (Sexual dimorphism feeding cultural norms) Maybe mermaids have a very low degree of outwardly-visible sexual dimorphism, meaning that they simply *look* like they're all female to outsiders. They might even understand a single species of land-dwellers as actually being two separate, albeit closely-related, species which have a closely-intertwined culture. (Minimal sexual dimorphism) Maybe mermaids have a culture wherein males are expected to take and hold a "territory" of sorts, with females being highly nomadic, naturally leading to their being seen far more often by both Nautikans and land-dwellers. (Cultural norms)
Reminds me of a species of horrible anglerfish mermaids I developed. They engage in gladiatorial protogyny: any other female that shows up in their territory is beaten within an inch of her life, then the losers broken body is cradled in the victors many crab arms where she transforms into a parasitic male, slowly degenerating into a gonad that can be discarded if the winner defeats a more challenging opponent. They sing to each other, down there, in the dark; songs of their strength and prowess, of blood and violence and victory. They sing lies and exaggerations and half-truths to scare each other out of their territory, or to lure challengers into their clutches. Through these songs they create constellations of authority; zones of influence exerted by each individual’s ability to threaten those weaker than herself. The constellations are in constant flux depending on anything from dramatic hierarchical duels to a meal eaten There gets to be these huge matriarchs that fill the abyss with whole fascist nations of her daughters, only tolerating them as long as they help hunt whales or dominate other other matriarchs, waiting for one of her squabbling descendants to breed a form that will challenge her supreme genome and become worthy of being one of her gonads (such an ego wouldn’t even consider the alternative)
One question that came up for me is “ why do the women have breast” surely two breast couldn’t feed larger hatches. So how then do the babies get nutrients. Also evolving breast seems to just be in the way underwater for swimming and such. I love how thought provoking these videos are ! Keep up the good work :)
Building on your idea: What if nautican sisters lived together and when 1 sister had eggs and those eggs hatched all of the sister would help feed the children, if a nautican were to be an only child they could only support 2 children giving the other up to adoption or could join a group of sisters or maby there could be a market for nauticans that could feed the children of customers, these nauticans would likely be unmetamorthecised. However, my ideas require that nauticans can always make milk, although maybe the first sibling to have eggs would need to somehow keep making milk until all her children, nices, and nefews had teeth
This is very interesting stuff. I like the idea that the Nautikans can only give birth once in their life time with the change that you made. I also like the racial differences between them. With my lizard folk I'm thinking they will lay one egg at a time but a female can only lay an egg every 5 years but 1-3 children can be born, though over 2 is very rare. With The Jazill after the male hum gives the woman their seed.... they grow saplings in their pouch which after several weeks are planted in a sapling garden. Here I'm thinking males are the ones who only have a seed every few weeks but a female can turn the DNA from 1 seed into several saplings. But not all saplings will grow into children. The Jazill being a plant like species have different races depending on what environment they spent a lot of time in, and the more plant like races will have hair that can change based on season.
Do you mean 1-3 children over their lifetime, or 1-3 from one egg? Because in reptiles actual twins are fairly rare, as oftentimes one twin will hoard the nutrients and starve out the other twin, or there won't be enough nutrients to sustain either twin (do to being divided between two embryos) and they both die as a result. That said, there ARE still cases where both twins survive, though one's usually smaller than the other, and reptile breeders tend to view them as something to celebrate, though the smaller twin may need extra care to help it catch up to the rest of the clutch size wise.
@@Amy_the_Lizard I was thinking 1-3 per egg but I never realized there would be a nutrient issue. Seems like surviving twins will be ultra rare for my Lizard folk making them a unique aspect to their culture. Doing a quick search It seems like most lizards lay around a dozen or two dozen eggs rather than just 1 at a time. I do wonder what the survival rate is in the wild vs a society of lizard people.
@@kairon156 Well, generally speaking lizards that actually raise their young tend to have a lot fewer of them, and have a higher percentage survive into adulthood because of the resources their parents invest in them, so I assume a society of lizard people would see a similar trend in hatchling mortality. They also tend to breed less frequently so you're on the right track there as well, though a lot of them breed more like every 2 or 3 years, but I could see the gap lengthening in the case of lizard people, since the children would probably develop more slowly, and the egg laying process would probably be hard on the female. Since lizard folk would be living in a society, they'd probably have a similar child mortality rate as people with a similar tech level, since the biggest hazard to baby lizards in the wild is predators, which is less of an issue if you live in a village with adult supervision. I'm only familiar with a few lizard species that actually look after their young, but I can give a quick overview of them so you can get an idea of the strategies they use. ^_^ The prehensile tail skink is usually regarded as one of the best parents of all lizards, and they usually only have one baby at a time with the exception of rare twins. They're a live bearing species, and are fairly large when born, so the mother physically can't have very many at a time. She generally carries her baby on her back while traveling, and may receive parenting help from the baby's father or other relatives. Since she may spend up to a year raising her children, they usually only breed once every 2 years at most. Tokay geckos have the strongest bite force of any gecko, and are the 3rd largest gecko species. They often form monogamous pairs where both parents (or single dads, in cases where the parents weren't in a long-term relationship) guard the eggs, then resultant hatchlings. They've been known to attack snakes and other predators much larger than themselves in defense of their children. The female normally lays only 1 or 2 eggs at time, but may lay 3 or more clutches over the course of the year depending on the constitution of the female and resources available. Crocodile skinks are semi-aquatic, and lay a single egg which they coil around during the incubation process to regulate its temperature, then guard the hatchling for the first two weeks of its life. After that, the female will lay another egg and start the process again, doing this up to 6 times over the course of the breeding season. Oh! Rattlesnakes aren't lizards, but they also guard their young and keep them warm for the first 10 days after hatching (after that the babies have to set out to find their own food since their mother can't feed them since snakes swallow food whole and can't really carry it.) They only breed every 3 years at most because the female doesn't eat while pregnant or guarding her young, and has to gain her weight back before she can breed again.
@@Amy_the_Lizard oh yeah, they would have doctors and technology to incubate an egg before it hatches. I really like the different species including the rattlesnake example. I'll have to ponder on what I want my Lizard Folk to be like. Now I'm thinking about every 5 years there can be 1-3 eggs laid by the female. I never gave much thought behind monogamous vs polygamous, so that should be fun to play with. Maybe different tribes/providences will have their own rules. It could also be one of the social reasons this race fight among themselves so much.
This race sounds so interesting! About the underwater sign language, there is this community in The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss called the Adem that communicate their emotions with each other through sign language. Even though the can speak perfectly fine they consider vocalising emotion, and especially singing, to be a very personal thing only reserved for family and close friends. This causes them to be terribly misunderstood by other cultures, who consider them (yes) cold and unfeeling.
A different level of sexual dimorphism would be fun for Nautikan biology! Also the "Water Succubi" potential for those parthenogenic Nautikans is so fun and interesting to think about!
This is exactly what I've been looking for; someone who delves into their thought process for worldbuilding. Not just "do this, & here's a few examples of how people have done it," but rather, "this is what I was going for, this is how I got where I did." Thank you! Very interesting worldbuilding!
Maybe one important type of trade between mainlanders and nautikans could be maps? This would be very useful for both, since the mainlanders (if they are really basicaly human) would have a very hard time mapping the ocean (even with modern tecnology our maps of it aren't perfect) and nautikans wouldn't be able to map the land and civilizations that live above surface and far from water bodies. It could also be seen as a problem by some natikans, that would claim that selling (or trading) maps was dangerous because they need to protect their land by keeping it misterious for the mainlanders, maybe this group would be formed mainly by the older that still remember the war in land and the nobility, oposed maily to the merchants (island nautikans?), that woud benfit a lot from this trades. Just a thought.
this is a bit off topic, but my sister had an idea for the people with the skulls- what if the skulls of beloved lost pets were placed outside of doorways or something to ward off bad spirits?!
I'm glad you have been balancing your channels so well. I found you through historybounding, back when it was all one channel, but I love worldbuilding, and it is so refreshing to hear someone else with the same passion explore a very different set of ideas. Thank you for not ... I don't know, choosing to sever one side of your interests, for the sake of branding? I'm really glad to have two very coherent channels to choose from, instead of one. (Also, hearing you go back and talk about how your ideas have developed since your early videos, while born out of circumstance, actually creates a really interesting dynamic. I think a lot of people get frustrated looking back on the big worldbuilders and the ways they sometimes "flipflop" on things, while failing to recognize what it is to publish in a world that is in a continual state of growth and refinement. These are the people who get frustrated that (to borrow Tolkien as an example) they don't know where Celeborn comes from. As you noted, I think there is a kind of "publishing pressure" that makes people want things nailed down and static before they are released to the world. This format highlights that worldbuilding (like any kind of design) can be in Flux for as long as it is in development, and sometimes even after release into the world.)
I love these concepts and cannot thank you enough for re-inspiring me to return to my world, you are so creative and such a huge inspiration, both in sewing and worldbuilding. I also have a question: I wanted to ask about your world as a planet, as in, its place in whatever version of the universe you have and the rest of the continents on it. This is probably from my love of astronomy but I would really love to hear about how the solar system is structured. Unless I have completely misunderstood you, your world isn't Earth. This means it probably won't have the same planets and structure to the space around it. What I am basically asking is, how similar is this to Earth. How many planets can they see, how many suns do they orbit (if any) and moons. Moons can get interesting. I ask this because this impacted our culture so much, for example, the 7 day week could be derived from the 7 celestial objects that we could see (The Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) in ancient times. Additionally, the zodiac is based on the constellations and as for the cultural impacts of eclipses, moon phases and the planets, how religions, especially ancient ones, revolve around them: I'll let you do your own research. Thanks again ^^
It's not Earth. However, the planet was colonized by humans, so it was as Earth-like as they could find. To me this means similar size, orbit, rotation, atmosphere, etc, but different continents and climates and celestial objects and such. I don't have all of that figured out, but a lot of it. It'll go in future videos about the beginning of history.
One thing that made me think with the multiple children and only once birthing is. What if siblings that haven't had children yet would help the one who has children to manage the larger amounts easier. It would also be good practice for when they themselves have children. A guy who is good with taking care of his nephews and nieces would probs be a very attractive partner, since oh yes, he could take care of our children well". And since older women can't have children anymore, they would naturaly be able to also help their own children with child raising. For example, let's call her Nauti. Nauti's children are old enough to not need her care anymore, so she does her own stuff, grows as a person. And once her children start getting their own kids, let's say daughter Tika, she could take a more permanent role as an extra parent, granny Nauti could potentialy be more important for the childs development since she has some extra life expirience than mommy Tika. Including grandpa's in there somewhere too probably. This could all lead to a very high valuing of elders and then giving them better care once the agey to, OLD old age. And also strong family bonds.
Just to comment on the polygamy aspect of the Nautikans, in most historic cases it was only really done by the elite as (especially in Patriarchy societies) having multiple spouses would become incredibly expensive and only royalty would often have Harams like how we imagen them with Hundreds of women, so it could be pretty easy to explain it away as just something the nobles do without having to go deep into cultural metamorphosis for way it isn't common place and is being fazed out.
Another important thing to note is that polygamy can be as few as one extra spouse. You do need a bit of extra money and space, that's true, but if the extra spouse is pulling their weight, I don't think it would be to big of a problem. However, if the spouse was added purely to have more children, much more money and time would need to be dedicated to the children, and given the importance of lineage and the one opportunity each woman has to have kids, I think that would be the main reason for polygamy. Sorry for the mini rant. I agree with all your points, I just don't think it always has to be super expensive.
Okay so question: you mentioned that the upper class/aristocracy of early nautikans lived on an island. When the apocalypse came, they took heavy casualties and only a small fraction survived. I love this idea, and I have a question regarding it. What factor allowed some of them to survive? Are we talking warrior princesses or end of days bunkers? Did the upper class go out hunting originally as pageantry, and then transfer those skills for use when their infrastructure was destroyed? Is it possible that these same elements that allowed them to survive the apocalypse became tradition for their posterity and would eventually make their descendants more suitable to life in the wetlands? Just some bought, thanks for sharing your hard work with us, I love watching your world take shape!🤍🤎
i don't think it was an actual trait. It's more like: who had time to escape to the sea? those already in the tide zone didn't have far to run. Those a mile inland would be much less likely to make it.
@@mariahpattieworldbuilding4062 Could an event like this possibly alter how the high class nautikans view proximity to large sources of water? Possibly, while they still have a preference of being above water, they are far more strict culturally about staying near large sources of water as a means of safety and escape?
I've been thinking about this for a while after watching one of these, and when you mentioned the river nauticans and that one (i forgot her name) with the webbed-finger gloves. Woudn't the nauticans, as a species that spends a lot of time underwater, have webbed fingers, or at least more webbed than most humans?
That'd interfere with tool use a lot though, and make it hard to do things like pointing or using sign language. Skin can only stretch so much, so for the webbing to accommodate things like pointing, it'd be really saggy between the fingers, which probably would be less effective for swimming. If they were only webbed part-way up the first bone of the finger, that would interfere with tool usage a lot less, but probably wouldn't help swimming much, and would be more of a vestigial thing
@@BonaparteBardithion yeah, i was thinking that the ones that spend more time underwater would have more webbing between their fingers, and the upper-class ones that spend a lot of time on land would have less webbing
maybe a tiny bit might develop in the Deep Blue Nautikans, but I think generally their evolutionary need to use tools would outweigh the need for webbed fingers.
loved you attitude towards the school assignment and blowing off the time limit. to me this is real learning. if you're passionate about something go for it.
All your ideas are great and I love them, minus the conversation part but that's understandable. I like how you went deep in detail in terms of biology and culture. I do have a few questions: 1. What is it like being LGBTQ+ in this world,? How do each race and region see them? 2. What other Races besides the Nautkians, merfolk, and Avians are there, and whether or not are based on any ethnic and racial groups? 3. You mentioned that Some Nautikans still live long, what is the average lifespan for each race (Avians and merfolk including), and how does the age system works? Do they become teenagers or adults at the same rate?
I'm loving your worldbuilder videos, it has a different style and the development is very interesting. I hope that when it's the Enossi's turn, religious fanaticism will be just a hat, a stereotype placed on them, not being a total anymore a part of their society.
I'm not 100% sure without rewatching the video, but I don't think I said it was religious fanaticism. fanaticism can develop around any ideology, religious, political, etc. However, yes, I think it would have calmed a bit by present day. The empire started a hundred years ago with an "the apocalypse is coming, so we must take over the world to ensure maximum survival" ideology, but it's been a century and the world hasn't ended yet, so people probably would have chilled out, and now most people are just reaping the rewards of having successfully taken over.
Regarding sign language, I think Venezuelan sign language could be of interest to you because it developed under similar circumstances to how the Nautikan sign language would have developed (if I understand your timeline correctly, anyway).
hmm, idk what to think about the metamorphosis idea. i don't really like it because many, many kids might not want to grow up and it's as natural as the kids who do want to grow up. a kid sees that he has restrictions and adults decide that, so he wants to grow up to be freer. or a kid sees that he is well taken care of and adults have to do that, thus have responsibilities, so he might not want to grow up. the latter is actually seen in more emotionally mature or gifted kind of kids. so, it's something normal unless it's extreme and could cause a big portion of the population to just stay mermaid-like. anyway i looove this worldbuilding idea, so interesting!
Avians next, oh thank God I've been waiting for more. About the fish that's all female, I was told about a cat that's all female and mates with other breeds, but the chromones always make them pure bred of the mother's race and sex. Sirens were originally bird-women, they had human head and torso but with bird wings for arms and talons for feet. Probably cause songbirds r well known for their singing. Over time, they were described as mermaids cause they lived so close to the sea; and then it was human looking women who's bodies were seductive as their voices were enchanting. So that could b used for the avians for myth and magic. P.S. I read years ago online that before the myth of sirens came, merfolks (both sexes) sat on rock and sang to themselves, but sailors nearby would jump off trying to get the singers but unfortunately drowned. The men tried to reach for the mermaids and sailing women went for the mermen.
Are you sure sirens were originally bird-women? Because I'm pretty sure those are harpies. I have never heard of sirens being of both genders, especially since there's an old sailor superstition that bringing women on a ship is bad luck.
@@isabelbard853 Harpies and original sirens were the same in appearances but 1 differences for each, their looks. Harpies were always ugly and sirens were always beautiful 😻. I said ‘before’ sirens came, it was merpeople/merfolks 🧜🏻♀️ 🧜🏻♂️. The superstition about women on board came after the ancient times, think 🤔 maybe like around 16-1700’s.
@@isabelbard853 Yup. The main difference is sirens sing so their food comes to them, while harpies have to fly around and abduct theirs with their talons
The animals chromosomes changing is an actual thing. My mom breeds heritage turkeys (mostly blue slats), and one of her favorites is called a 'self-blue' (I don't know if this is the actual term or if that's what she uses). It doesn't matter what Tom you breed her to, she will always breed true, meaning as long as the hatching egg came from her, the poult will be a self-blue. I don't know the science behind it, but I do know that's what happens.
The "all-female cat ""breed""" is probably tortoiseshell and/or calico. It's not actually a breed, it's just a color combination. The gene for ginger fur is sex-linked, so toms have one copy of the gene (XY) and mollies have two (XX). For the red gene, you either have it or you don't. Toms only have one X chromosome, so they're either all red or not red. Mollies have two X chromosomes, so if one red gene is activated and the other isn't, that'll form ginger and non-ginger fur, making her be a tortoiseshell! (or a calico if she has enough white that it's patchy instead of mottled) And since tortoiseshell is a base color, *not* a breed, you can find cats of varying breeds with a tortoiseshell color. It can stack with siamese colorpoint to make a colorpoint tortie, you can have a persian tortoiseshell, or a manx tortoiseshell, or a munchkin tortoiseshell. It can even stack with the agouti gene to get a tortoiseshell tabby (also known as "torbie")!
re: asexual mermaids - maybe they could be somewhat like selkies (I think a Celtic myth originally?) where the mermaids can "shed" their skin to go mate on land and then return to the water? Could even play into the mythos of maybe a mermaid mated with a human and didn't return to the water and their child was the first nautikan? And maybe it's only while in heat/able to reproduce or something? Also, does anyone know what island is at 26:26?
"the mythos of maybe a mermaid mated with a human and didn't return to the water and their child was the first nautikan" I wrote a story a few years back that was meant to be a "Little Mermaid" twist and a Nautikan origin story. I ended up going with a completely different origin, but I liked the idea of keeping the story as an in-universe creation myth.
Hi, thanks for sharing your story building ideas! I have a few suggestions for you: 1) Economy. You mentioned the wealthy Nautikans live on the surface while the poorer Nautikans live in the water. I’d like to see a reason for them to want to go to the surface in the first place, and who are qualified enough to go. Was it job opportunities that made them want to pursue material wealth? Trade opportunities with the outsiders? How about education? 2) Class. How do they treat outsiders versus their own kind? It’ll be interesting if there’s some internalized racism amongst some rich Nautikans who see their own people as just “smelly fish people” and the outsiders as people who have it all in terms of riches and fame. Of course, they can’t mate with outsiders, but it would be cool to explore some complex feelings and mentalities here and there. 3) Corruption. When there’s rich vs poor Nautikans, there’s always got to be at least one super-rich super-jerk who wants to exploit their own people for power. They may not be the main villian, though - they’re just there, unfortunately lol. How bad are the class divide? Are working class Nautikans ever allowed to speak up/fight for their rights, whatever that may be? How about crime? What’s illegal to sell/trade in their world? What’s the most valuable export/import and what are they doing to protect/exploit it? And of all the Nautikan people, which group would you categorize as having tension amongst each other than others? And how better are this/these other group(s) compare? 4) Royalty. Who are the royal families? If there’s no royalty in certain groups, what about political parties? What do one group prioritize more than others, and vice versa? How strict are they compared to others? Do they make the rules? Do people vote for their leaders? Are there some Nautikans who are actually excluded from voting? 5) Resource. Are the Nautikans mining something of value that can be shared with the world? Is it some kind of mystical object that can be used in their technologies? What about weapons of mass destruction? Or machines to help their people? Anyways, sorry for all the long text! I hope this helps and I can’t wait to see what you’re about to share in your next video! 😁
This is a cool race (species?) that you've come up with! I've recently stumbled upon your channel and I've actually been working on creating a new fantasy group myself! They're called Axylids and actually happen to be aquatic as well. As the name suggests, they are based on axolotls. Your Worldbuilding series has really helped me develop the biology, culture, transportation, trade, etc. for my Axylids! Again, the Nautikan and the Avians are really cool and I'm looking forward to watching all your worldbuilding videos!
Wow I'm impressed 👏 👏👏 I haven't seen anyone get this deep Into the reproductive systems of creatures of their world...well maybe they do but haven't seen anyone talk about it. I clicked on your video to maybe help inspire me to come up with ideas for fashion and how it changes over time for my world. Kinda having a major artist block. But ended up getting more out of this video.
I love your approach to world building! I can't draw to save my life, but I've taken a similar approach to designing my cultures! Actually you give me a lot to aspire to in my own work, I've been so focused on the histories of my various races that I haven't put much more than superficial thought into their cultural trappings.
I have only watched two of your videos, but I can tell you are putting a lot of thought and effort into these races and characters. A lot of it is very inspiring and creative. Excited to see where this worldbuilding journey takes you.
One thing about the Nautikan sign language :3 Though sign language may be unintuitive to those that speak verbally, sign language is perfectly capable of allowing users to "debate [or] share their feelings" in the same way spoken languages do! Sign languages in many cultures actually promote more of a refined sense of empathy, as many sign languages rely heavily on facial expressions to convey tone and context! Sign languages are often very expressive, containing alot more emotion and bombast on average than is often found in a verbal language :3 the idea that being restricted to sign language underwater would somehow "lessen [a Nautikan's] grip on empathy and humanity" isn't really realistic in how actual sign languages work in relation to verbal languages. the conveyance of tone and the existence of intricate debate is perfectly achievable with sign language! there's many aspects to different signs that allow for context, tone, and detail; there's the specific location of the hands in relation to the body, the shape of one's fingers, the expression one is using while signing, the specific directional movement of one's hands, and the orientation of one's hands (facing up, facing left, etc.) sign language is just as complex and nuanced as verbal languages, and while this isn't to say that you're a bad person or anything for positing it, I believe that the idea that being relegated to only sign language would sap at one's humanity and empathy is kinda harmful.
I am so happy you finally updated. I found you on ur other channel on an old Avain video. I was wondering if you wrote a book about your world because I would love to read it. Anyway hope ur well and will update when ur done on the next video. Can't wait.
you are both helping and making more work for my own stories, its expanding the basic idea I've had. I'm thinking more in-depth of what each species history was and what their importance of what they can give type of things!
keep up the good work, looking forward to seeing more of *your world*, there's lots of intrusive ideas disguised as recommendations with honeyed words floating around
I just had a great idea! What if in the underwater Nautikan city 'Freshwater' would be a derogatory term used in the slang of the lower classes? (meaning something along the lines of 'wimp', 'wuss' and 'weak' in general: "What are you? Some freshwater guppy?", "Scram freshwater" etc.etc.) I mean it makes so much sense! 'Oceanics' and 'Islanders' are adapted to and thrive in the salty sea waters, whilst for 'Lakes' it's the total opposite (so I think submerging should be quite uncomfortable or even borderline painful for them). For this reason the higher classes pushed said groups, save for the wealthy and prestigious Islander families, into manual labour and outside of the dry neighbourhoods in order to hog all the space, also giving them an excuse to look down on them. Of course people were bitter, and as the prissy nobles are the worst, they ridiculed and mocked them in turn, to the point that the term 'being freshwater' itself has gathered negative connotations in modern day language. (discrimination against half-Lakes most likely will also be a thing) Let me hear your thoughts! (I know you world building isn't really meant to reflect or comment on rl issues and society... but in my personal, and admittedly inexperienced opinion I think adding said problems in these different contexts really helps developing the setting to be more complex, nuanced and compelling! (Both for the final result and the creative process as a whole) Plus after all sentient being are still people regardless of the fantasy species, and sometimes people really really suck. And we all love good villains to loathe!)
I love this idea! Especially since it was the Lake Nauticans that commissioned the city and their king runs it, they would already be predisposed to be the ruling class. Some freshwater Nauticans (or more well off saltwater Nauticans) could take it as a point of pride when they are called freshwater despite the connotations, like those people who respond “well yes, I’ve actually got class” to being called a posh wanker or something. I love the idea of a half lake or something “jokingly” getting the nickname “freshie” or something by their peers and feeling the need to prove their ability to swim in the ocean for a long time, despite the discomfort.
In previous videos you've stated before how you want to lean into duality and opposites (such as with the Nautikans and Avians) I think for the underwater city really playing up the social tensions between the lake and island Nautikans (as well as other minor culture groups) could be interesting and kinda realistic for an environment were multiple cultures have been forced together over a short period of time and are left to try and forge a new united Nautikan Identity. Your touched on this a bit but the Island Nautikans could function as the Neuveau riche, leaning heavily into industrialization, capitalisms, democratization, and maybe even more radical amongst them would want to abolish the monarchy? they could also be much more apprehensive about retaking the mainland, with many being apposed to it all together (this could probable be do to their biology as well as the new found power and influence they have gained in Nautikan society due to their technological power) The Old Lake Kingdom elite could almost function like the British aristocracy before WW1 with them in theory having a great deal of power and influence but at this point mostly being a paper tiger as they lost a great deal of wealth from the conquest (I'm guesting that they would have function similar to feudal lords?) and have only been able to maintain their positions due to historic significance, maybe do to this lose of wealth and the island Nautikans growing power intermarriages could start to happen and it could be interesting to expolore that dynamic as the lines between the different groups begin to blur.
Perhaps the mermaid reproduction thing could be the origin of the Nauticans, one mermaid that mated with a human, instead of making ”a clone”, made a half/half aka the first Nautican.
How do the different avian and nautical groups interact? What would cause conflict, and what would they agree on? How do they interact with the human population, and what do they trade for?
Very inspiring! I have always loved world-building and sub-sequent topics, but tend to focus on the actual environment and non-humanoid species. This and other videos of yours have definitely encouraged me to delve deeper into human-like species, fashion and culture!
YESSSS AVIANS SOON I have a question about the different ethnic groups do you believe that as the ethnic groups evolved their fins become different? Not so much when they were all together but as separate groups like the swamplands and river im not sure how to articulate it
good idea. I'd like to flesh out the different groups more, but probably on an individual level from here out. But I also want to do more Avian stuff soon...
This is very interesting and a great way to pass the time. Worldbuilding and other people being passionate about worldbuilding is my thing XD thanks for the video!
All these wonderful videos just make me think "So much lore, not enough space". There's just so much to think of when creating a race let alone a whole world! My tiny brain would explode and wither.
I just want to say that I love your idea of turning different species of birds into avians and different fish into mermaids. The idea of creating human-like cultures and races around animals is so fascinating to me. I'm not a huge animal fanatic, but I do find it cool how animals form their own unique cultures that are different and outlandish in places that humans cannot reside in at the moment. I'd love to see you explore more avian races and your videos make me want to design avian species based on real-life birds! I'm definitely not as good you when it comes to that, though.
If the Nautikans went up in the mountains, and if the mountains are high enough, they will eventually encounter paramos and glaciers, two enviroments that are not the preferred for humans, but they may make a life in the chilling waters of the glacier lakes. Have you thought about a race of Noutikas living very issolated in those cold freezing waters?
For the avian-humanoid race: are you gonna include separate kinds of avians? for example, when an avain originates from jungle/rain forests they are more colorful and parrot-like with a wider language range. I thought that your video on avians was something i was deprived from! after seeing your opinions and ideas about that type of world build, I was flooded with tons upon tons of other ideas for the race. I hope you consider making more videos on the avians and showing other parts of the race like the coastal, forested, and tundra avians.. Thanks for these amazing vids! I love them!
Well the Cultural break down is very interesting and I would love to see how they evolve into a the final product(game setting, novels, ect.) I do have a few suggestions on the biological aspect to look into that could help you narrow down some developmental traits, or even help solidify some of your myth/history lore. You mentioned the Nautikan's developed from Mermaids an asexsual race/species, and your example images keep them in line with a main line view of mermaids. If you haven't already I think you should look into Undine a type of merfolk who had an extreme sexual dimorphism where the females look very much as a typical mermaid while the males would look more like "The thing from the black Lagoon" at their most disturbing depictions or a much more "fishy" male Nautikan like your revisited idea of how the Nautikan's that stayed in the ocean would look. A second point to look at would be the Celtic Faery/Fairy known as a Selkie. They are a race that is strictly female though breed with human males instead of asexually. While being more mammalian in nature as their animalistic aspect is that of a seal they are known to take on a human form by "shedding" their seal coat. While it is depicted as being a literal coat the Selkie wear to take on an animal form it did come to mind when you mentioned the Nautikan children shedding their tail in favor of legs as they grew. I would like to know that these are just thoughts one some aspects that can help shape the Nautikan and should only be taken as a friendly suggestion, not as a demand for change in the concept or even an idea that must be considered. This world is your own to make and I don't wish for you to loose control over your creation to other people just as I would never want people outside my own projects to try and take control away from me.
This video actually solved a problem I was having with a game building project. I decided to do a pre-production project for a game. Hash out everything that would be needed before you actually make the game (partly because I suck at actually making the game, and partly cause I like coming up with game concepts) I decided on three races. The magic welding humans, the dog like Kobolds, and the Magicless, but mighty Arach. Humans, sentient humanoid dogs, and spider-human hybrids (search Arachene) I wanted there to be a unique specialisation system in the game. As you level up and gain xp the Arach and Kobold would "evolve" transforming into more powerful, but specialised variants of their race, whilst humans would develop Foci that shaped how their magic worked (same results, but different method) To explain this I described xp as "absorbed mana" that would cause the flesh to transform. Humans and Kobolds being able to project mana into spells would develop Foci, shaping the natural flow of mana in their bodies. However the Kobold also absorb mana as well (though less effectively than the Arach) And yet I never considered how this mechanic would effect their cultural progression. You see because the physiological changes were the result of mana being absorbed by the flesh and how that occured being a result of actions a person took, a child wouldn't gain these "evolution" benefits. As the dna never changed. The Arach being a created race by the ancient Kobolds haven't been around long enough to have a fully developed culture, as such despite their equivalent technological capabilites their culture is largely primitive. Valuing strength and might and fighting for dominance (and males as due to a genetic quirk they naturally hatch more females than males). The Kobolds on the other hand lost their ancient empire do to a mysterious event known as "The ancients fall", an event the humans barely remember as "the gods punishment". (Mysterious because up until now I wasn't sure how to make it happen) And the humans banished from their mainland empires discover the large island of their coast thanks to some ancient maps that were sequestered away in the Palace records vault. But after taking into account how the Island Kobolds would have developed culturally without interference from the aggressive humans emerging from the equatorial great forests. It all makes sense. To keep this comment short(er) the Island kobolds took advantage of their unique (then) ability to project magic, allowing them to establish themselves enough to argue over cast systems (as magic was what separated them from beasts this was valued highly) they had a long series of wars that ultimately taught them the folly of forcing evolutionary casts (as those that resisted would evolve to be better at it, creating a viscous cycle that benefitted no one). By then they had established dominance and spread to the seas encountering the humans. Who thought the Kobolds lesser as the Mainland Kobolds had been so weak magically and hand been forced to live in primitive tribes in the dangerous "wildlands". Eventually the Kobolds learned that human bones were the greatest known mana conductive material (being ignorant of the equatorial forests) and that if inserted into their bodies they're lifespans would be extended as they were no longer pulling mana from their organs whenever they cast a spell. Eventually the humans who held superior defences began to catch up with Kobold naval tech, inadvertently riling up local sea life (the resulting conflict only serving to make that sea life stronger) leading to resource shortages amongst the Kobold Islands whose elite fought over the dwindling supplies. In their arrogance turning their mighty mana collecting towers on each other, inadvertently destroying their civilisations. The last inadvertently spared total destruction by the humans moving to assault the largest and nearest of the Kobold islands causing the panicked elite to fire into their own harbour creating a tidal wave (amongst other things) so great that the mainland humans assumed they'd wiped themselves out as they lost most of their fleet in the process and couldn't get past the empowered and angry sea life to learn otherwise. Its really great to realise how dumb I was being.
so would skin cancer be a main cause of death for nautikans when they lived on land? because it can be a big big issue for people with very fair skin if they get too many sunburns (especially when they're young) they can develop skin cancer when they get older! something ithought about a lot with humanoid creatures in my world that lived in dark caves and get barely any sunlight.
Lol I keep checking for update like just now and noticed the it only been too week since this video was released 😅 that how much I love your video/content
Just an idea I had for a terrifying sub species of mermaid. Could be dumb, but have you thought about an illusive type that has more octupus/squid like tentacles instead of normal tails. I imagine they would be more illusive, and sneaky when harrasing people in their waters, perhaps being considered more myth than real.
would be cool, and I'd love to see someone else develop tentacle mermaids. I want to leave it thought, because I'm working with octopi and tentacle creatures as part of their mythology, and tentacle mermaids would throw a wrench in that.
There is a mythical creature kind of like that. The cecaelia, which is a half-octopus/squid half-human creature. They can be male, though but it's less common so that could give rise to a species with a much larger number of females rather than males (which would strongly suggest polygamy, or a lot of unpaired women).
I have a friend who was doing some Abyssal merfolk to roleplay during her games. Her biggest problem was how to survive when she had to go to the surface. End up with something like, her body slowly adapts as she ascends, taking hours, and her jelly-like body becomes stiffer and viceversa when going down again. She needed a reason why she can survive extreme pressure.
hey :D I love these videos; they're so entertaining and interesting. two things I noted- since Nautikans have been doing metalwork for so long I'm assuming they were doing metalwork while a majority of the species were still underwater- and I was wondering how they could do this without the use of heat (cause, y'know, water)? especially for their structures and such :) maybe I'm missing something but that just came into my mind. and also!! earlier in the species' lifespan, I was thinking maybe they didn't really use time as much? seeing as they were underwater, the night and day cycles would have been at least less harsh than on land, or even non-existent. so maybe as the Nautikans went onto land they developed a sense of time and such? anyway, thanks so much for these swag videos :)
I love this! I see that I'm a year late to this party but I still want to share a thought. Nautikan reproduction: I don't know how human--like you want them to be when it comes to emotional connection but I can share this bit of pertinent info. Nearly all species be they aquatic mammal or reptile care for their young more the fewer there are. Generally if they lay many eggs that hatch the parent is less likely to have an emotional connection to those young while something that gives birth to one single child is massively invested. These levels of investment is an evolutionary trait. If they have only one child at a time it's imperative to the species to protect every one. If there are many children at once the parent cannot be hugely invested in every single one because there is a much higher likelihood they evolved to bare so many children at once because of a very high mortality rate and the parent can't break down broken hearted at the 1st death because that would likely lead to other loses. It's a harsh truth of evolution and A reason that species don't massively overpopulate. If you wanted to keep some form of multiple births you might need to do something along the lines of having a spawning grounds where Nautikans leave their fertilized eggs and eventually check in to see how many children are left later. It would be a very natural and transnational way of doing things even though it is way outside of human sensibilities. Another option would be to do away with the human monthly cycles. For Nautikans they can have a laying season or require some other sort of specific criteria to reproduce. For example a read a series where Elves could only become fertile with the aid of a pollen from a special magical tree.
Is this for a book you are writing? If so will you be sharing your story one day cause I would totally read a book based on this society you created. It sounds so cool! 😍
I love the world that your building, its wonderfully thought out, and thank you for sharing its evolution. As for the fertility issue, your initial premise isn't as bad as you think. The real world example of an aquatic creature that only reproduce once are salmon (wait for it), and certain species of octopi. The only problem with that, if you really want to go for realism, is usually those species die soon after giving birth. As for overpopulation, I'm guessing you're not accounting for natural population thinning events. Assuming an entire clutch of Nautikan survive to adulthood, they still have to contend with physical injury, predators within the sea that would eat Nautikan (which is a pretty good reason why they expanded towards the mainland), poisonous marine life, the various weather related injuries/ diseases that occur in the regions that they live, and if the competition for mates is as fierce as implied, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of death from Nautikans killing each other over fights for mates, at least in earlier on in their' history, and it might still happen amongst those who don't have the benefit of a matchmaker. Then there is the rearing of the clutch itself, could be potentially fatal, due to the sheer amount of time and energy it would take to keep aquatic eggs alive (in the real world, many species with dedicated parents die of exhaustion/starvation). If they could even get the chance at all, from what you've described your world is frequently in conflict, and I don't imagine that makes for conducive conditions for finding a mate. I think this would go with the cultural theme of Elder Nautikans, especially those who are parents of a hatched clutch being revered, because not only did they survive the competition of finding a mate, and producing a clutch, they managed to survive hatching that clutch, which could be seen as risky at the best of times. Those parents who do die to hatch their clutch can shape the Nautikan attitude in a Spartan way (Spartans only received a headstone if they died in battle or childbirth/ they were viewed as a similar if not same thing). My proposal is that Nautikans who died in attempt to hatch a clutch, be honored by burial near an octopus monument, which in turn could be considered a holy site, maintained by the surviving clutches of the fallen and their families. In this case, the surviving clutches become a priest-like caste within the Nautikan culture, in which dying your clothes with Octopi ink is a clear indicator of honoring fallen parents who died giving them life. In turn this could also bring in the idea of tattoos, as a means to honor the dead, and the Nautikan "priest" being the ones that apply them.
This sorta reminds me of a similar fantasy idea I had been working on in a story called "The Night Prince". Long ago a God of some sort died and fell to the world where their body decomposed and started to become part of the landscape, forming mountains, Islands, caverns, valleys, etc... The injuries they had sustained caused the body to bleed out and their blood to mix into the soil and water causing the Plants, Animals, and People to Mutate in bizarre ways, at first seeming random but then took on more specific qualities based on group behavior. The most common group and considered least powerful are the Beast-folk who have subtle animal-like quality like growing the tails, ears from other mammals. There is also a division between the majority who call themselves Sun-Beast to the minority of Nocturnal Moon-Beasts, this is where the titular character of the series comes from. Next there are Sky-Folk who are smaller flying humans who have reduced in size in favor of having wings. Bird Winged Skyfolk are referred to as Putti and Insect Winged Skyfolk are referred to as Fae. As well as being short they also don't ever really appear fully grown much in the same vein as Axolotls to Salamanders The Mer-Folk were primarily coastal and island based societies who took to the sea and developed fish-like qualities, they also grow larger than the average human. The Forest-Folk became plant-like with skin like bark and some even growing as tall as trees The Earth-Folk are a subterranean people with bodies that seem to be composed of Rock and Gemstone The Wight-Folk dwell in cold remote places like mountains and tundras, they mainly keep to themselves and appear to be undead or some form of quasi-undead like a vampire. The Mountain-folk don't dwell exclusively in mountains like the Wight-folk but are nomadic giants. Their Hierarchy is marked by how many arms they grow, gaining or losing arms based on who they are able to topple. and lastly but not least are the Dragon-Folk. They are Large, Winged, Horned, Clawed, and Tailed Humanoids armored with a coat of scales resembling something like a classic Demon, and most races view them as such, however the Dragon-folk believe they are the pinnacle of the Divine Blood's Creation. They are a Warrior culture who dwell in harsh volcanic terrain and will conduct raids and hunts on the other races believing they have to maintain their superiority by consuming more divine Blood from those who were unworthy of it and sacrafice a majority of their prisoners to the Dragon King believing that if he gets enough divine blood he will ascend and take the place of the fallen god. The Dragon King and his children are also the only ones capable of transforming from Humanoid form into an actual Dragon
Have you thought about birthmarks? I have a few myself and it got me thinking, what if the Nauticans have scale like birthmarks that come after the metamorphose, like an imprint of the scales. And maybe some of the Nauticans have colored birthmarks, think of how chickens and snakes have egg sacs, and how they absorb it, maybe it's like that and it's part of the metamorphose to absorb some of the tail, and the rest of the tail gets shed off, And the birthmark is part of the tail that didn't get absorbed after the shed. Btw I am really enjoying these worldbuilding videos and I can't wait to see more! :)
This was wonderful! I'm working on a novel right now! Still in the worldbuilding phase! I have "mermaids" as well but im going with more of a sea serpent vibe! I have a pinterest board for it & if it's not too much trouble I would love to hear some of your opinions some time! This is because I love your videos and channel!
Hey! I discovered your channel a while ago, and absolutely love the content! I too am trying to create worlds, however they are different from this. I would really like to create artwork based on your world, if that is okay!
I'm under the impression you're referring to the 'Amazon Molly'; they're actually from the USA and Mexico, not south America :) The name comes from the fictional Greek Amazon people, rather than the actual geographic region.
yes, that's in the description box. I didn't remember it when I was writing the script, but I did when I looked up the article again to take screenshots 🤷♀️
Eyy you did a southern hemisphere continent! :O My world that I started in 2017 is also centered on a southern hemisphere continent. I don't know why I did it, perhaps because I was thinking a lot about Chile at the time, perhaps just because it was a way to "shake it up", as we take "north: cold and south: warm" for granted. (Also Ancient Egypt had "upper Egypt" being the south.)
Love your content. It helps me be conscientious in my own world building. Mermaids could be hermaphroditic like other sea creatures like anemone or like clown fish that can change gender. Maybe there is a chemical in the water that keeps their gender from becoming female in certain areas. Those that travel beyond become female. Being a twin I have always found it fascinating the being lumped together and desire to express individuality. Would there be a certain style that a first hatched might wear? Would a communal sense be more common and excepted? Being individualistic or single born make you more likely to be ostracized? Would there be shunning like among the Amish? A test to get back into the collective? Keep up the great work.
just as an idea: Maybe the not growing up thing is more positive. Yes they can't or want comprehand adulthud, but because they basically stay Children they have more fantasy and are better at problem solving. And this ones could be go to peaple if something happens. Kind of a nerdy subcuilture.
man another time we did simular things for our humanoid sea people. the blue undertones for the skin. also a well-developed sign language. though you and i approached the distance thing differently. the neptonians (give me a break i was in middle school) have their underwater language split into two diffrent kinds. distance langage which use leg, hand and fin gestures akin to signals used to direct airplains. its a crude and simple langage. then there is the intamant language which uses mostly hand and facial gestures, it is much more detailed and has way more small variations and dialects, especially if someone is from outside the neptonian empier. this correction video defiantly gave me some more ideas on how to develop some of the details i've been lacking in. so thank you.
To go along with the idea of siren-like Mermaids and the possibility of never growing up as a Nautikan;
Perhaps, to fully undergo the adolescent changes from mermaid-like creatures into human-legged nautikans you would need to frequently be breathing air. As the nautikans have a natural distain or even fear of mermaids the training of breathing above water would be very strict, particularly for the rich nautikan children, whose parents can afford lessons and permanent nanny care, it would be military-like. This can prove too much for some, they begin to surface less and so don't undergo those changes, or only partially go through them.
The children who grow up early are revered as being intelligent, diligent and biologically better than the others. Poorer families who cannot afford nanny-care and whose mother and father have to work, can't care for their children as frequently and teach them to breathe above water, therefore they tend to develop later in life.
This later leg development can also lead to these now teens running off, sneaking out etc, then coming into contact with mermaids as they get further from their home. As they can swim better than their legged parents they can't be stopped. This gives the impression that mermaids are misbehaving nautikan children who refused to listen to their parents and grew wild. It also further gives the impression that mermaids chose to be the way they are, because they were too scared or too weak-minded to breathe above water frequently. Which is not true, true mermaids cannot grow legs, but many nautikans believe they can if they had just tried harder as children.
The nautikans may also begin to believe in a lot of conspiracy around mermaids. Some thinking that mermaids cannot have their own children as they are all female and so they steal the children of nautikans. Or the later developing nautikans may begin to fall in love with a mermaid and run away to be with them (which pushes parents to make their children grow legs as fast as possible, which can actually lead to a lot of rich children having leg defects as they were made to grow too soon, but the nautikans either hide these defects or are actually proud of them as they are a mark of early maturity).
This is quite brilliant stuff.
I want to print this comment and hang it on my wall
That second paragraph about belief that mermaids choose to be the way the are sounds almost too real. It's so reminiscent of social darwinism and racial profiling it actually pissed me off lol
@@petarpavlovic3602 haha yes, it could be very good for storytelling and creating dislikeable or "out of touch"/ignorant characters.
That's brilliant. I aspire to be able to be able to come up with such good world-building ideas as I grow as a writer.
So shark mermaid had me thinking of the ningen.
A claimed sea monster off the coast of Japan that is basically a whale mermaid and it is horrifying and large
Well that was a horrifying google search
In Fiji some of the royal families are considered to be the descendants of where sharks how do I know this my ex-wife is from such a family
Excuse me I just saw what these things look like and I need bleach.
Thanks, if never heard of these, I love them
I love the new skin variance ooh
I think that's right, though I wasn't using quite those words to define it. But that might explain why the yellows and blues would have exaggerated over time instead of just a straight dark/light divide. Especially with the less real-world blue shades.
@@mariahpattieworldbuilding4062 I think the dark/light divide would exist but it would be reversed from real life and less strong of a bias over blue/yellow
I absolutely love the Nautikans' view of mermaid reproduction, accurate or not. Despite thinking themselves so superior to mermaids, they see them in sort of a similar way that humans might see the faerie folk, it's fascinating. They look down on them for a lack of things like modern technologies, yet they're terrified mermaids will come up from the depths, seduce and rape their men and disappear into the abyss once more as if they were never even there. The Nautikans might even ascribe them various magical abilities like mindcontrol, or power to shape water, because they can't fathom how any intelligent life could live in the depths of the Abyss without them. It definitely has amazing storytelling potential.
Smart
Wouldn't the Nautikan have these extra eyelids frogs have to protect there eyes under water
yes, dangit. someone suggested alligator eyelids on instagram, and I meant to add it to the biology video.
@Velvet Dawn sexy winking is done with the transparent eyelids
its called the nitrating membrane
@@CanyonF godamn my sense of humor is shit why did that get me so good ;x;
@@Kr-gr2xv Nictitating*
I'm guessing we've got auto-correct to blame.
About the Deep Blue Nauticans on the original island, what if it wasn't just a random grouping (there are plenty of ways people can be similar or different from each other that doesn't necessitate a class grouping without some push) but it started with specialization of different trades and whether they preferred salt or fresh water factored into who specialized in what and who spend more time in the water and as different trades began to be considered more prosperous than others, there grew a class difference. It would also be more realistic if there was some variation in opinions even if it wasn't mainstream but allowed to exist as long as it didn't affect the hierarchy in place.
yes, I think that makes sense for how the divide started, then it deepened when the land became overcrowded and the yellow nautikans wanted to hold onto their positions and probably introduced a class or caste system.
What if the wetland nautikans being descendants of the old royalty are the only major faction of the nautikans were the majority still practice polygamy as it was traditional when they were still the kings
that's kind of what I was thinking
My gosh! My gosh! I love the new changes to the Nautikans skin tones and the variety of ethnicities! The unearthly colours and patterns really hammer out the point that they're a fantasy race... and the way you woven these details seamlessly into their history is great! Can't wait to see more!
I know there is a lady-only species of whiptail lizard out there! So it is possible for your mers. Also, if you're thinking about angler fish mers... their males are... interesting. Something to look into, if only for the curiosity of it.
Yuck!
Trouble is a female only species can only clone itself. Doing that would eventually succumb to a disease as they'd be no genetic variation to to survive the event, Kind of like the fungus that destroyed all the bananas in the 70's. so they had to create a new banana but these bananas are also at risk from a disease. The same as potatoes. as technically each variation of spud for example bartlets are all genetically identical because they grow them through potato rather then the seeds of the plant which have genetic variability.
@@gabriellockhart not necessarily. Northern Mexico whiptail lizards are exclusively parthenogenic, but recombine their own DNA into new combinations.
That's the New Mexico whiptail. The state reptile of New Mexico. Another fun fact about them: They still have intercourse thus they also called lesbian lizards.
The marble crawfish reproduces by Parthenogenesis (eggs hatching without fertilization).
Hi! Might be just me, but an idea for a video is I would love to hear about their cuisine... I’m not really sure why. Also would love a short video possibly about more of what daily life would look like
the cuisine I can get done eventually. a daily life video would be interesting, but I feel like it's a long way out. still too many elements of the culture left to develop before i could do something like that.
"I wonder about the contents of this Lake Nautikan's Bone Marrow soup.
I know this is Bovine neck marrow and bone... but these lake plants seem so different than what I'm used to. Hmmm..."
The speaker's loud slurping interrupts the small crowd nearby as she drinks from the ceramic bowl.
"This tastes so earthy and ...," She continues. She looks around. Everyone is looking at her.
"Oooooh. Sorry! Sorry." The stranger then looks down as her face greys. 'Whooops! Forgot my manners,' Leah thought.
I have watched every single video on this playlist so many times, this species (and the whole world) is so epic and I really wish I could learn more about it
Me too.
...I was not expecting to see my comment on here. Thanks for the response! Honestly "they were polygamous originally, but became monogamous over time, through contact with humans, and a desire for greater gender-parity" is a great way of explaining monogamy in such a society, and I'm eager to see where you go from here.
Agreed
Awesome video! I love the inclusion of the different skin tones and ethnicities.
I would imagine if the deep blue nauticans were able to control the majority of trade for sea silk and stuff that they would end up becoming very wealthy over time. And if they were the ones to build and maintain the underwater cities, presumably they would also be the ones to maintain it. I would imagine this would give them a great deal of power in the new cities. It could create some interesting tensions between the deep blues and the yellow lake nauticans.
yes, I think it's interesting twist. they were the historically lower class and looked down on, but the mainlanders probably didn't realize how wealthy they were getting and how much their culture was developing. coming back to the ocean would definitely be a turning of the tables.
Hello! I wanted to say that I'm a big fan of your world building on both of your channels.
Also, I had an idea for those that don't experience a metamorphises. Instead of it being trauma, maybe it's just a rare mutation that's actually revered. An adult Nautikan who has a tail will likely be better at swimming and thus catching young children whose tail makes them faster swimmers than their two-legged parent.
They would essentially be great nannies or daycare workers, especially in older times when there wouldn't be a save dome enviorment for young children. Plus, they could outmaneuver more predators than other adults, allowing them to evacuate with the children and call for help.
Sorry if it's rambly, it's late and this has been floating in my head insistently enough that I can't fall asleep, like I should be :-/
I can't wait for more of your content!
Just saying before I even watch the video, Your channel is what inspired me to start writing again and creating new worlds and stories!! so thank you a lot!!!
A set of thoughts:
Maybe mermaids have a massive sex imbalance, so that males occur only very infrequently, leading to females simply filling most of the niches of their society. (Sexual ratio imbalance)
Maybe mermaids have a similar situation to angler fish, where mating between males and females is life-long and permanently fuses the much smaller male to the female as a psuedo-symbiont. This would result in an "all-female" society. (Extreme sexual dimorphism)
Maybe mermaids have a similar situation to seahorses going on, where it's the male that carries and oversees the eggs and young. Females would, at that point, be far more free to explore and roam widely than the males, meaning that males would naturally gravitate towards the "stay-at-home" roles while the females would gravitate towards the more "outward-facing" roles. (Sexual dimorphism feeding cultural norms)
Maybe mermaids have a very low degree of outwardly-visible sexual dimorphism, meaning that they simply *look* like they're all female to outsiders. They might even understand a single species of land-dwellers as actually being two separate, albeit closely-related, species which have a closely-intertwined culture. (Minimal sexual dimorphism)
Maybe mermaids have a culture wherein males are expected to take and hold a "territory" of sorts, with females being highly nomadic, naturally leading to their being seen far more often by both Nautikans and land-dwellers. (Cultural norms)
Reminds me of a species of horrible anglerfish mermaids I developed. They engage in gladiatorial protogyny: any other female that shows up in their territory is beaten within an inch of her life, then the losers broken body is cradled in the victors many crab arms where she transforms into a parasitic male, slowly degenerating into a gonad that can be discarded if the winner defeats a more challenging opponent.
They sing to each other, down there, in the dark; songs of their strength and prowess, of blood and violence and victory. They sing lies and exaggerations and half-truths to scare each other out of their territory, or to lure challengers into their clutches.
Through these songs they create constellations of authority; zones of influence exerted by each individual’s ability to threaten those weaker than herself. The constellations are in constant flux depending on anything from dramatic hierarchical duels to a meal eaten
There gets to be these huge matriarchs that fill the abyss with whole fascist nations of her daughters, only tolerating them as long as they help hunt whales or dominate other other matriarchs, waiting for one of her squabbling descendants to breed a form that will challenge her supreme genome and become worthy of being one of her gonads (such an ego wouldn’t even consider the alternative)
One question that came up for me is “ why do the women have breast” surely two breast couldn’t feed larger hatches. So how then do the babies get nutrients. Also evolving breast seems to just be in the way underwater for swimming and such.
I love how thought provoking these videos are ! Keep up the good work :)
Building on your idea: What if nautican sisters lived together and when 1 sister had eggs and those eggs hatched all of the sister would help feed the children, if a nautican were to be an only child they could only support 2 children giving the other up to adoption or could join a group of sisters or maby there could be a market for nauticans that could feed the children of customers, these nauticans would likely be unmetamorthecised. However, my ideas require that nauticans can always make milk, although maybe the first sibling to have eggs would need to somehow keep making milk until all her children, nices, and nefews had teeth
This is very interesting stuff. I like the idea that the Nautikans can only give birth once in their life time with the change that you made. I also like the racial differences between them.
With my lizard folk I'm thinking they will lay one egg at a time but a female can only lay an egg every 5 years but 1-3 children can be born, though over 2 is very rare.
With The Jazill after the male hum gives the woman their seed.... they grow saplings in their pouch which after several weeks are planted in a sapling garden.
Here I'm thinking males are the ones who only have a seed every few weeks but a female can turn the DNA from 1 seed into several saplings. But not all saplings will grow into children.
The Jazill being a plant like species have different races depending on what environment they spent a lot of time in, and the more plant like races will have hair that can change based on season.
Do you mean 1-3 children over their lifetime, or 1-3 from one egg? Because in reptiles actual twins are fairly rare, as oftentimes one twin will hoard the nutrients and starve out the other twin, or there won't be enough nutrients to sustain either twin (do to being divided between two embryos) and they both die as a result. That said, there ARE still cases where both twins survive, though one's usually smaller than the other, and reptile breeders tend to view them as something to celebrate, though the smaller twin may need extra care to help it catch up to the rest of the clutch size wise.
@@Amy_the_Lizard I was thinking 1-3 per egg but I never realized there would be a nutrient issue.
Seems like surviving twins will be ultra rare for my Lizard folk making them a unique aspect to their culture.
Doing a quick search It seems like most lizards lay around a dozen or two dozen eggs rather than just 1 at a time. I do wonder what the survival rate is in the wild vs a society of lizard people.
@@kairon156 Well, generally speaking lizards that actually raise their young tend to have a lot fewer of them, and have a higher percentage survive into adulthood because of the resources their parents invest in them, so I assume a society of lizard people would see a similar trend in hatchling mortality. They also tend to breed less frequently so you're on the right track there as well, though a lot of them breed more like every 2 or 3 years, but I could see the gap lengthening in the case of lizard people, since the children would probably develop more slowly, and the egg laying process would probably be hard on the female. Since lizard folk would be living in a society, they'd probably have a similar child mortality rate as people with a similar tech level, since the biggest hazard to baby lizards in the wild is predators, which is less of an issue if you live in a village with adult supervision. I'm only familiar with a few lizard species that actually look after their young, but I can give a quick overview of them so you can get an idea of the strategies they use. ^_^
The prehensile tail skink is usually regarded as one of the best parents of all lizards, and they usually only have one baby at a time with the exception of rare twins. They're a live bearing species, and are fairly large when born, so the mother physically can't have very many at a time. She generally carries her baby on her back while traveling, and may receive parenting help from the baby's father or other relatives. Since she may spend up to a year raising her children, they usually only breed once every 2 years at most.
Tokay geckos have the strongest bite force of any gecko, and are the 3rd largest gecko species. They often form monogamous pairs where both parents (or single dads, in cases where the parents weren't in a long-term relationship) guard the eggs, then resultant hatchlings. They've been known to attack snakes and other predators much larger than themselves in defense of their children. The female normally lays only 1 or 2 eggs at time, but may lay 3 or more clutches over the course of the year depending on the constitution of the female and resources available.
Crocodile skinks are semi-aquatic, and lay a single egg which they coil around during the incubation process to regulate its temperature, then guard the hatchling for the first two weeks of its life. After that, the female will lay another egg and start the process again, doing this up to 6 times over the course of the breeding season.
Oh! Rattlesnakes aren't lizards, but they also guard their young and keep them warm for the first 10 days after hatching (after that the babies have to set out to find their own food since their mother can't feed them since snakes swallow food whole and can't really carry it.) They only breed every 3 years at most because the female doesn't eat while pregnant or guarding her young, and has to gain her weight back before she can breed again.
@@Amy_the_Lizard oh yeah, they would have doctors and technology to incubate an egg before it hatches.
I really like the different species including the rattlesnake example. I'll have to ponder on what I want my Lizard Folk to be like. Now I'm thinking about every 5 years there can be 1-3 eggs laid by the female.
I never gave much thought behind monogamous vs polygamous, so that should be fun to play with. Maybe different tribes/providences will have their own rules. It could also be one of the social reasons this race fight among themselves so much.
This race sounds so interesting!
About the underwater sign language, there is this community in The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss called the Adem that communicate their emotions with each other through sign language. Even though the can speak perfectly fine they consider vocalising emotion, and especially singing, to be a very personal thing only reserved for family and close friends.
This causes them to be terribly misunderstood by other cultures, who consider them (yes) cold and unfeeling.
A different level of sexual dimorphism would be fun for Nautikan biology!
Also the "Water Succubi" potential for those parthenogenic Nautikans is so fun and interesting to think about!
Any ideas for that level of sexual dimorphism
Every time you post a video I get more and more hyped about actually reading the story👀 it all just sounds so exciting!
I wholeheartedly agree!
This is exactly what I've been looking for; someone who delves into their thought process for worldbuilding. Not just "do this, & here's a few examples of how people have done it," but rather, "this is what I was going for, this is how I got where I did."
Thank you! Very interesting worldbuilding!
Maybe one important type of trade between mainlanders and nautikans could be maps? This would be very useful for both, since the mainlanders (if they are really basicaly human) would have a very hard time mapping the ocean (even with modern tecnology our maps of it aren't perfect) and nautikans wouldn't be able to map the land and civilizations that live above surface and far from water bodies. It could also be seen as a problem by some natikans, that would claim that selling (or trading) maps was dangerous because they need to protect their land by keeping it misterious for the mainlanders, maybe this group would be formed mainly by the older that still remember the war in land and the nobility, oposed maily to the merchants (island nautikans?), that woud benfit a lot from this trades. Just a thought.
I did not even think about maps
this is a bit off topic, but my sister had an idea for the people with the skulls- what if the skulls of beloved lost pets were placed outside of doorways or something to ward off bad spirits?!
I'm glad you have been balancing your channels so well. I found you through historybounding, back when it was all one channel, but I love worldbuilding, and it is so refreshing to hear someone else with the same passion explore a very different set of ideas. Thank you for not ... I don't know, choosing to sever one side of your interests, for the sake of branding? I'm really glad to have two very coherent channels to choose from, instead of one.
(Also, hearing you go back and talk about how your ideas have developed since your early videos, while born out of circumstance, actually creates a really interesting dynamic. I think a lot of people get frustrated looking back on the big worldbuilders and the ways they sometimes "flipflop" on things, while failing to recognize what it is to publish in a world that is in a continual state of growth and refinement. These are the people who get frustrated that (to borrow Tolkien as an example) they don't know where Celeborn comes from. As you noted, I think there is a kind of "publishing pressure" that makes people want things nailed down and static before they are released to the world. This format highlights that worldbuilding (like any kind of design) can be in Flux for as long as it is in development, and sometimes even after release into the world.)
I love these concepts and cannot thank you enough for re-inspiring me to return to my world, you are so creative and such a huge inspiration, both in sewing and worldbuilding.
I also have a question:
I wanted to ask about your world as a planet, as in, its place in whatever version of the universe you have and the rest of the continents on it. This is probably from my love of astronomy but I would really love to hear about how the solar system is structured. Unless I have completely misunderstood you, your world isn't Earth. This means it probably won't have the same planets and structure to the space around it. What I am basically asking is, how similar is this to Earth. How many planets can they see, how many suns do they orbit (if any) and moons. Moons can get interesting. I ask this because this impacted our culture so much, for example, the 7 day week could be derived from the 7 celestial objects that we could see (The Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) in ancient times. Additionally, the zodiac is based on the constellations and as for the cultural impacts of eclipses, moon phases and the planets, how religions, especially ancient ones, revolve around them: I'll let you do your own research.
Thanks again ^^
It's not Earth. However, the planet was colonized by humans, so it was as Earth-like as they could find. To me this means similar size, orbit, rotation, atmosphere, etc, but different continents and climates and celestial objects and such. I don't have all of that figured out, but a lot of it. It'll go in future videos about the beginning of history.
One thing that made me think with the multiple children and only once birthing is. What if siblings that haven't had children yet would help the one who has children to manage the larger amounts easier. It would also be good practice for when they themselves have children. A guy who is good with taking care of his nephews and nieces would probs be a very attractive partner, since oh yes, he could take care of our children well". And since older women can't have children anymore, they would naturaly be able to also help their own children with child raising. For example, let's call her Nauti. Nauti's children are old enough to not need her care anymore, so she does her own stuff, grows as a person. And once her children start getting their own kids, let's say daughter Tika, she could take a more permanent role as an extra parent, granny Nauti could potentialy be more important for the childs development since she has some extra life expirience than mommy Tika. Including grandpa's in there somewhere too probably. This could all lead to a very high valuing of elders and then giving them better care once the agey to, OLD old age. And also strong family bonds.
Just to comment on the polygamy aspect of the Nautikans, in most historic cases it was only really done by the elite as (especially in Patriarchy societies) having multiple spouses would become incredibly expensive and only royalty would often have Harams like how we imagen them with Hundreds of women, so it could be pretty easy to explain it away as just something the nobles do without having to go deep into cultural metamorphosis for way it isn't common place and is being fazed out.
Another important thing to note is that polygamy can be as few as one extra spouse. You do need a bit of extra money and space, that's true, but if the extra spouse is pulling their weight, I don't think it would be to big of a problem.
However, if the spouse was added purely to have more children, much more money and time would need to be dedicated to the children, and given the importance of lineage and the one opportunity each woman has to have kids, I think that would be the main reason for polygamy.
Sorry for the mini rant. I agree with all your points, I just don't think it always has to be super expensive.
Okay so question: you mentioned that the upper class/aristocracy of early nautikans lived on an island. When the apocalypse came, they took heavy casualties and only a small fraction survived. I love this idea, and I have a question regarding it. What factor allowed some of them to survive? Are we talking warrior princesses or end of days bunkers? Did the upper class go out hunting originally as pageantry, and then transfer those skills for use when their infrastructure was destroyed? Is it possible that these same elements that allowed them to survive the apocalypse became tradition for their posterity and would eventually make their descendants more suitable to life in the wetlands? Just some bought, thanks for sharing your hard work with us, I love watching your world take shape!🤍🤎
i don't think it was an actual trait. It's more like: who had time to escape to the sea? those already in the tide zone didn't have far to run. Those a mile inland would be much less likely to make it.
@@mariahpattieworldbuilding4062 Could an event like this possibly alter how the high class nautikans view proximity to large sources of water? Possibly, while they still have a preference of being above water, they are far more strict culturally about staying near large sources of water as a means of safety and escape?
@@Cliperpal I like your idea
I've been thinking about this for a while after watching one of these, and when you mentioned the river nauticans and that one (i forgot her name) with the webbed-finger gloves. Woudn't the nauticans, as a species that spends a lot of time underwater, have webbed fingers, or at least more webbed than most humans?
That'd interfere with tool use a lot though, and make it hard to do things like pointing or using sign language. Skin can only stretch so much, so for the webbing to accommodate things like pointing, it'd be really saggy between the fingers, which probably would be less effective for swimming. If they were only webbed part-way up the first bone of the finger, that would interfere with tool usage a lot less, but probably wouldn't help swimming much, and would be more of a vestigial thing
@@Amy_the_Lizard
Vestigial webbing would be good for the ocean dwelling Nautikans.
@@BonaparteBardithion yeah, i was thinking that the ones that spend more time underwater would have more webbing between their fingers, and the upper-class ones that spend a lot of time on land would have less webbing
maybe a tiny bit might develop in the Deep Blue Nautikans, but I think generally their evolutionary need to use tools would outweigh the need for webbed fingers.
loved you attitude towards the school assignment and blowing off the time limit. to me this is real learning. if you're passionate about something go for it.
Perfect timing youtube!
This video is wonderful, and I really love how you've thought things out!
All your ideas are great and I love them, minus the conversation part but that's understandable. I like how you went deep in detail in terms of biology and culture. I do have a few questions:
1. What is it like being LGBTQ+ in this world,? How do each race and region see them?
2. What other Races besides the Nautkians, merfolk, and Avians are there, and whether or not are based on any ethnic and racial groups?
3. You mentioned that Some Nautikans still live long, what is the average lifespan for each race (Avians and merfolk including), and how does the age system works? Do they become teenagers or adults at the same rate?
I'm loving your worldbuilder videos, it has a different style and the development is very interesting.
I hope that when it's the Enossi's turn, religious fanaticism will be just a hat, a stereotype placed on them, not being a total anymore a part of their society.
I'm not 100% sure without rewatching the video, but I don't think I said it was religious fanaticism. fanaticism can develop around any ideology, religious, political, etc.
However, yes, I think it would have calmed a bit by present day. The empire started a hundred years ago with an "the apocalypse is coming, so we must take over the world to ensure maximum survival" ideology, but it's been a century and the world hasn't ended yet, so people probably would have chilled out, and now most people are just reaping the rewards of having successfully taken over.
Regarding sign language, I think Venezuelan sign language could be of interest to you because it developed under similar circumstances to how the Nautikan sign language would have developed (if I understand your timeline correctly, anyway).
... underwater?
Great video! So much information and thinking, I love that. It's clearly one of the species most well-defined I have ever seen.
hmm, idk what to think about the metamorphosis idea. i don't really like it because many, many kids might not want to grow up and it's as natural as the kids who do want to grow up. a kid sees that he has restrictions and adults decide that, so he wants to grow up to be freer. or a kid sees that he is well taken care of and adults have to do that, thus have responsibilities, so he might not want to grow up. the latter is actually seen in more emotionally mature or gifted kind of kids. so, it's something normal unless it's extreme and could cause a big portion of the population to just stay mermaid-like. anyway i looove this worldbuilding idea, so interesting!
I think maturity would not have afects on metamorphosis
Avians next, oh thank God I've been waiting for more. About the fish that's all female, I was told about a cat that's all female and mates with other breeds, but the chromones always make them pure bred of the mother's race and sex. Sirens were originally bird-women, they had human head and torso but with bird wings for arms and talons for feet. Probably cause songbirds r well known for their singing. Over time, they were described as mermaids cause they lived so close to the sea; and then it was human looking women who's bodies were seductive as their voices were enchanting. So that could b used for the avians for myth and magic. P.S. I read years ago online that before the myth of sirens came, merfolks (both sexes) sat on rock and sang to themselves, but sailors nearby would jump off trying to get the singers but unfortunately drowned. The men tried to reach for the mermaids and sailing women went for the mermen.
Are you sure sirens were originally bird-women? Because I'm pretty sure those are harpies. I have never heard of sirens being of both genders, especially since there's an old sailor superstition that bringing women on a ship is bad luck.
@@isabelbard853 Harpies and original sirens were the same in appearances but 1 differences for each, their looks. Harpies were always ugly and sirens were always beautiful 😻. I said ‘before’ sirens came, it was merpeople/merfolks 🧜🏻♀️ 🧜🏻♂️. The superstition about women on board came after the ancient times, think 🤔 maybe like around 16-1700’s.
@@isabelbard853 Yup. The main difference is sirens sing so their food comes to them, while harpies have to fly around and abduct theirs with their talons
The animals chromosomes changing is an actual thing. My mom breeds heritage turkeys (mostly blue slats), and one of her favorites is called a 'self-blue' (I don't know if this is the actual term or if that's what she uses). It doesn't matter what Tom you breed her to, she will always breed true, meaning as long as the hatching egg came from her, the poult will be a self-blue. I don't know the science behind it, but I do know that's what happens.
The "all-female cat ""breed""" is probably tortoiseshell and/or calico. It's not actually a breed, it's just a color combination. The gene for ginger fur is sex-linked, so toms have one copy of the gene (XY) and mollies have two (XX). For the red gene, you either have it or you don't. Toms only have one X chromosome, so they're either all red or not red. Mollies have two X chromosomes, so if one red gene is activated and the other isn't, that'll form ginger and non-ginger fur, making her be a tortoiseshell! (or a calico if she has enough white that it's patchy instead of mottled)
And since tortoiseshell is a base color, *not* a breed, you can find cats of varying breeds with a tortoiseshell color. It can stack with siamese colorpoint to make a colorpoint tortie, you can have a persian tortoiseshell, or a manx tortoiseshell, or a munchkin tortoiseshell. It can even stack with the agouti gene to get a tortoiseshell tabby (also known as "torbie")!
re: asexual mermaids - maybe they could be somewhat like selkies (I think a Celtic myth originally?) where the mermaids can "shed" their skin to go mate on land and then return to the water? Could even play into the mythos of maybe a mermaid mated with a human and didn't return to the water and their child was the first nautikan? And maybe it's only while in heat/able to reproduce or something?
Also, does anyone know what island is at 26:26?
"the mythos of maybe a mermaid mated with a human and didn't return to the water and their child was the first nautikan"
I wrote a story a few years back that was meant to be a "Little Mermaid" twist and a Nautikan origin story. I ended up going with a completely different origin, but I liked the idea of keeping the story as an in-universe creation myth.
@mariahpattieworldbuilding4062 what's their origin?
I love this channel, it inspired me to put more work in the cultures of my fantasy races. Thank you!
i dont know how i got here or how yt recommended three of your videos to me but we're here and we're loving it
Hi, thanks for sharing your story building ideas! I have a few suggestions for you:
1) Economy. You mentioned the wealthy Nautikans live on the surface while the poorer Nautikans live in the water. I’d like to see a reason for them to want to go to the surface in the first place, and who are qualified enough to go. Was it job opportunities that made them want to pursue material wealth? Trade opportunities with the outsiders? How about education?
2) Class. How do they treat outsiders versus their own kind? It’ll be interesting if there’s some internalized racism amongst some rich Nautikans who see their own people as just “smelly fish people” and the outsiders as people who have it all in terms of riches and fame. Of course, they can’t mate with outsiders, but it would be cool to explore some complex feelings and mentalities here and there.
3) Corruption. When there’s rich vs poor Nautikans, there’s always got to be at least one super-rich super-jerk who wants to exploit their own people for power. They may not be the main villian, though - they’re just there, unfortunately lol. How bad are the class divide? Are working class Nautikans ever allowed to speak up/fight for their rights, whatever that may be? How about crime? What’s illegal to sell/trade in their world? What’s the most valuable export/import and what are they doing to protect/exploit it? And of all the Nautikan people, which group would you categorize as having tension amongst each other than others? And how better are this/these other group(s) compare?
4) Royalty. Who are the royal families? If there’s no royalty in certain groups, what about political parties? What do one group prioritize more than others, and vice versa? How strict are they compared to others? Do they make the rules? Do people vote for their leaders? Are there some Nautikans who are actually excluded from voting?
5) Resource. Are the Nautikans mining something of value that can be shared with the world? Is it some kind of mystical object that can be used in their technologies? What about weapons of mass destruction? Or machines to help their people?
Anyways, sorry for all the long text! I hope this helps and I can’t wait to see what you’re about to share in your next video! 😁
This is a cool race (species?) that you've come up with! I've recently stumbled upon your channel and I've actually been working on creating a new fantasy group myself! They're called Axylids and actually happen to be aquatic as well. As the name suggests, they are based on axolotls. Your Worldbuilding series has really helped me develop the biology, culture, transportation, trade, etc. for my Axylids! Again, the Nautikan and the Avians are really cool and I'm looking forward to watching all your worldbuilding videos!
Wow I'm impressed 👏 👏👏
I haven't seen anyone get this deep
Into the reproductive systems of creatures of their world...well maybe they do but haven't seen anyone talk about it.
I clicked on your video to maybe help inspire me to come up with ideas for fashion and how it changes over time for my world.
Kinda having a major artist block.
But ended up getting more out of this video.
I love your approach to world building! I can't draw to save my life, but I've taken a similar approach to designing my cultures!
Actually you give me a lot to aspire to in my own work, I've been so focused on the histories of my various races that I haven't put much more than superficial thought into their cultural trappings.
I have only watched two of your videos, but I can tell you are putting a lot of thought and effort into these races and characters. A lot of it is very inspiring and creative. Excited to see where this worldbuilding journey takes you.
One thing about the Nautikan sign language :3
Though sign language may be unintuitive to those that speak verbally, sign language is perfectly capable of allowing users to "debate [or] share their feelings" in the same way spoken languages do! Sign languages in many cultures actually promote more of a refined sense of empathy, as many sign languages rely heavily on facial expressions to convey tone and context! Sign languages are often very expressive, containing alot more emotion and bombast on average than is often found in a verbal language :3
the idea that being restricted to sign language underwater would somehow "lessen [a Nautikan's] grip on empathy and humanity" isn't really realistic in how actual sign languages work in relation to verbal languages. the conveyance of tone and the existence of intricate debate is perfectly achievable with sign language!
there's many aspects to different signs that allow for context, tone, and detail; there's the specific location of the hands in relation to the body, the shape of one's fingers, the expression one is using while signing, the specific directional movement of one's hands, and the orientation of one's hands (facing up, facing left, etc.)
sign language is just as complex and nuanced as verbal languages, and while this isn't to say that you're a bad person or anything for positing it, I believe that the idea that being relegated to only sign language would sap at one's humanity and empathy is kinda harmful.
I am so happy you finally updated. I found you on ur other channel on an old Avain video. I was wondering if you wrote a book about your world because I would love to read it. Anyway hope ur well and will update when ur done on the next video. Can't wait.
working on it :)
Can't wait I hope I will be able to buy it when I comes out. Super excited 😆
you are both helping and making more work for my own stories, its expanding the basic idea I've had. I'm thinking more in-depth of what each species history was and what their importance of what they can give type of things!
keep up the good work, looking forward to seeing more of *your world*, there's lots of intrusive ideas disguised as recommendations with honeyed words floating around
I just had a great idea! What if in the underwater Nautikan city 'Freshwater' would be a derogatory term used in the slang of the lower classes? (meaning something along the lines of 'wimp', 'wuss' and 'weak' in general: "What are you? Some freshwater guppy?", "Scram freshwater" etc.etc.) I mean it makes so much sense! 'Oceanics' and 'Islanders' are adapted to and thrive in the salty sea waters, whilst for 'Lakes' it's the total opposite (so I think submerging should be quite uncomfortable or even borderline painful for them).
For this reason the higher classes pushed said groups, save for the wealthy and prestigious Islander families, into manual labour and outside of the dry neighbourhoods in order to hog all the space, also giving them an excuse to look down on them. Of course people were bitter, and as the prissy nobles are the worst, they ridiculed and mocked them in turn, to the point that the term 'being freshwater' itself has gathered negative connotations in modern day language. (discrimination against half-Lakes most likely will also be a thing)
Let me hear your thoughts!
(I know you world building isn't really meant to reflect or comment on rl issues and society... but in my personal, and admittedly inexperienced opinion I think adding said problems in these different contexts really helps developing the setting to be more complex, nuanced and compelling! (Both for the final result and the creative process as a whole) Plus after all sentient being are still people regardless of the fantasy species, and sometimes people really really suck. And we all love good villains to loathe!)
I love this idea! Especially since it was the Lake Nauticans that commissioned the city and their king runs it, they would already be predisposed to be the ruling class. Some freshwater Nauticans (or more well off saltwater Nauticans) could take it as a point of pride when they are called freshwater despite the connotations, like those people who respond “well yes, I’ve actually got class” to being called a posh wanker or something. I love the idea of a half lake or something “jokingly” getting the nickname “freshie” or something by their peers and feeling the need to prove their ability to swim in the ocean for a long time, despite the discomfort.
You have a fascinating world thank you for sharing it.
Your videos have gotten so much better with each post!
I just can't wait for the next one to become available!!!!
In previous videos you've stated before how you want to lean into duality and opposites (such as with the Nautikans and Avians) I think for the underwater city really playing up the social tensions between the lake and island Nautikans (as well as other minor culture groups) could be interesting and kinda realistic for an environment were multiple cultures have been forced together over a short period of time and are left to try and forge a new united Nautikan Identity.
Your touched on this a bit but the Island Nautikans could function as the Neuveau riche, leaning heavily into industrialization, capitalisms, democratization, and maybe even more radical amongst them would want to abolish the monarchy? they could also be much more apprehensive about retaking the mainland, with many being apposed to it all together (this could probable be do to their biology as well as the new found power and influence they have gained in Nautikan society due to their technological power)
The Old Lake Kingdom elite could almost function like the British aristocracy before WW1 with them in theory having a great deal of power and influence but at this point mostly being a paper tiger as they lost a great deal of wealth from the conquest (I'm guesting that they would have function similar to feudal lords?) and have only been able to maintain their positions due to historic significance, maybe do to this lose of wealth and the island Nautikans growing power intermarriages could start to happen and it could be interesting to expolore that dynamic as the lines between the different groups begin to blur.
You are insanely good at worldbuilding. I have to hand it to you! I love all your nuances about the culture and biology of this race.
Perhaps the mermaid reproduction thing could be the origin of the Nauticans, one mermaid that mated with a human, instead of making ”a clone”, made a half/half aka the first Nautican.
I think it would be more like ocean mermaid+human= river mermaid, river mermaid+human= nautican, although I think it's unlikely
How do the different avian and nautical groups interact? What would cause conflict, and what would they agree on? How do they interact with the human population, and what do they trade for?
Very inspiring! I have always loved world-building and sub-sequent topics, but tend to focus on the actual environment and non-humanoid species. This and other videos of yours have definitely encouraged me to delve deeper into human-like species, fashion and culture!
YESSSS AVIANS SOON
I have a question about the different ethnic groups do you believe that as the ethnic groups evolved their fins become different? Not so much when they were all together but as separate groups like the swamplands and river im not sure how to articulate it
good idea. I'd like to flesh out the different groups more, but probably on an individual level from here out. But I also want to do more Avian stuff soon...
This is very interesting and a great way to pass the time. Worldbuilding and other people being passionate about worldbuilding is my thing XD thanks for the video!
All these wonderful videos just make me think "So much lore, not enough space". There's just so much to think of when creating a race let alone a whole world! My tiny brain would explode and wither.
I was so happy when I saw the notification! This series is super interesting.
thank you for showing your thought process on this
I just want to say that I love your idea of turning different species of birds into avians and different fish into mermaids. The idea of creating human-like cultures and races around animals is so fascinating to me. I'm not a huge animal fanatic, but I do find it cool how animals form their own unique cultures that are different and outlandish in places that humans cannot reside in at the moment. I'd love to see you explore more avian races and your videos make me want to design avian species based on real-life birds! I'm definitely not as good you when it comes to that, though.
Thank you for the upload! Glad to see you, hope you've had good time
Mariah, your videos are such great inspirations to me, I love seeing your content!!! Your world building is so intricate and detailed.☺️
If the Nautikans went up in the mountains, and if the mountains are high enough, they will eventually encounter paramos and glaciers, two enviroments that are not the preferred for humans, but they may make a life in the chilling waters of the glacier lakes. Have you thought about a race of Noutikas living very issolated in those cold freezing waters?
Do Nautikans have any tattoos? I am just wandering.
yes, we talked about that briefly in one of the clothing video updates.
This is so nice to listen to I love the creativity.
For the avian-humanoid race: are you gonna include separate kinds of avians? for example, when an avain originates from jungle/rain forests they are more colorful and parrot-like with a wider language range. I thought that your video on avians was something i was deprived from! after seeing your opinions and ideas about that type of world build, I was flooded with tons upon tons of other ideas for the race. I hope you consider making more videos on the avians and showing other parts of the race like the coastal, forested, and tundra avians.. Thanks for these amazing vids! I love them!
Well the Cultural break down is very interesting and I would love to see how they evolve into a the final product(game setting, novels, ect.) I do have a few suggestions on the biological aspect to look into that could help you narrow down some developmental traits, or even help solidify some of your myth/history lore.
You mentioned the Nautikan's developed from Mermaids an asexsual race/species, and your example images keep them in line with a main line view of mermaids. If you haven't already I think you should look into Undine a type of merfolk who had an extreme sexual dimorphism where the females look very much as a typical mermaid while the males would look more like "The thing from the black Lagoon" at their most disturbing depictions or a much more "fishy" male Nautikan like your revisited idea of how the Nautikan's that stayed in the ocean would look.
A second point to look at would be the Celtic Faery/Fairy known as a Selkie. They are a race that is strictly female though breed with human males instead of asexually. While being more mammalian in nature as their animalistic aspect is that of a seal they are known to take on a human form by "shedding" their seal coat. While it is depicted as being a literal coat the Selkie wear to take on an animal form it did come to mind when you mentioned the Nautikan children shedding their tail in favor of legs as they grew.
I would like to know that these are just thoughts one some aspects that can help shape the Nautikan and should only be taken as a friendly suggestion, not as a demand for change in the concept or even an idea that must be considered. This world is your own to make and I don't wish for you to loose control over your creation to other people just as I would never want people outside my own projects to try and take control away from me.
This video actually solved a problem I was having with a game building project.
I decided to do a pre-production project for a game. Hash out everything that would be needed before you actually make the game (partly because I suck at actually making the game, and partly cause I like coming up with game concepts)
I decided on three races. The magic welding humans, the dog like Kobolds, and the Magicless, but mighty Arach.
Humans, sentient humanoid dogs, and spider-human hybrids (search Arachene)
I wanted there to be a unique specialisation system in the game. As you level up and gain xp the Arach and Kobold would "evolve" transforming into more powerful, but specialised variants of their race, whilst humans would develop Foci that shaped how their magic worked (same results, but different method)
To explain this I described xp as "absorbed mana" that would cause the flesh to transform. Humans and Kobolds being able to project mana into spells would develop Foci, shaping the natural flow of mana in their bodies. However the Kobold also absorb mana as well (though less effectively than the Arach)
And yet I never considered how this mechanic would effect their cultural progression.
You see because the physiological changes were the result of mana being absorbed by the flesh and how that occured being a result of actions a person took, a child wouldn't gain these "evolution" benefits. As the dna never changed.
The Arach being a created race by the ancient Kobolds haven't been around long enough to have a fully developed culture, as such despite their equivalent technological capabilites their culture is largely primitive. Valuing strength and might and fighting for dominance (and males as due to a genetic quirk they naturally hatch more females than males).
The Kobolds on the other hand lost their ancient empire do to a mysterious event known as "The ancients fall", an event the humans barely remember as "the gods punishment".
(Mysterious because up until now I wasn't sure how to make it happen)
And the humans banished from their mainland empires discover the large island of their coast thanks to some ancient maps that were sequestered away in the Palace records vault.
But after taking into account how the Island Kobolds would have developed culturally without interference from the aggressive humans emerging from the equatorial great forests. It all makes sense.
To keep this comment short(er) the Island kobolds took advantage of their unique (then) ability to project magic, allowing them to establish themselves enough to argue over cast systems (as magic was what separated them from beasts this was valued highly) they had a long series of wars that ultimately taught them the folly of forcing evolutionary casts (as those that resisted would evolve to be better at it, creating a viscous cycle that benefitted no one). By then they had established dominance and spread to the seas encountering the humans. Who thought the Kobolds lesser as the Mainland Kobolds had been so weak magically and hand been forced to live in primitive tribes in the dangerous "wildlands".
Eventually the Kobolds learned that human bones were the greatest known mana conductive material (being ignorant of the equatorial forests) and that if inserted into their bodies they're lifespans would be extended as they were no longer pulling mana from their organs whenever they cast a spell.
Eventually the humans who held superior defences began to catch up with Kobold naval tech, inadvertently riling up local sea life (the resulting conflict only serving to make that sea life stronger) leading to resource shortages amongst the Kobold Islands whose elite fought over the dwindling supplies. In their arrogance turning their mighty mana collecting towers on each other, inadvertently destroying their civilisations. The last inadvertently spared total destruction by the humans moving to assault the largest and nearest of the Kobold islands causing the panicked elite to fire into their own harbour creating a tidal wave (amongst other things) so great that the mainland humans assumed they'd wiped themselves out as they lost most of their fleet in the process and couldn't get past the empowered and angry sea life to learn otherwise.
Its really great to realise how dumb I was being.
so would skin cancer be a main cause of death for nautikans when they lived on land? because it can be a big big issue for people with very fair skin if they get too many sunburns (especially when they're young) they can develop skin cancer when they get older!
something ithought about a lot with humanoid creatures in my world that lived in dark caves and get barely any sunlight.
Lol I keep checking for update like just now and noticed the it only been too week since this video was released 😅 that how much I love your video/content
I just found this, world building stuff it’s very interesting does she have books or other material on this other than the videos
working on it :)
i was waiting for a new vid from u. I decided to do world-building on my channel too! thx for the vidss
Just an idea I had for a terrifying sub species of mermaid. Could be dumb, but have you thought about an illusive type that has more octupus/squid like tentacles instead of normal tails. I imagine they would be more illusive, and sneaky when harrasing people in their waters, perhaps being considered more myth than real.
would be cool, and I'd love to see someone else develop tentacle mermaids. I want to leave it thought, because I'm working with octopi and tentacle creatures as part of their mythology, and tentacle mermaids would throw a wrench in that.
There is a mythical creature kind of like that. The cecaelia, which is a half-octopus/squid half-human creature. They can be male, though but it's less common so that could give rise to a species with a much larger number of females rather than males (which would strongly suggest polygamy, or a lot of unpaired women).
I have a friend who was doing some Abyssal merfolk to roleplay during her games. Her biggest problem was how to survive when she had to go to the surface.
End up with something like, her body slowly adapts as she ascends, taking hours, and her jelly-like body becomes stiffer and viceversa when going down again. She needed a reason why she can survive extreme pressure.
8:07 that kinda reminds me of how seawings from wings of fire have flashy glowing scales to communicate
hey :D I love these videos; they're so entertaining and interesting. two things I noted- since Nautikans have been doing metalwork for so long I'm assuming they were doing metalwork while a majority of the species were still underwater- and I was wondering how they could do this without the use of heat (cause, y'know, water)? especially for their structures and such :) maybe I'm missing something but that just came into my mind. and also!! earlier in the species' lifespan, I was thinking maybe they didn't really use time as much? seeing as they were underwater, the night and day cycles would have been at least less harsh than on land, or even non-existent. so maybe as the Nautikans went onto land they developed a sense of time and such? anyway, thanks so much for these swag videos :)
Hey it's fine! As long as you are happy and healthy don't worry to much about constancy!
Vey very true!
I love this! I see that I'm a year late to this party but I still want to share a thought. Nautikan reproduction: I don't know how human--like you want them to be when it comes to emotional connection but I can share this bit of pertinent info. Nearly all species be they aquatic mammal or reptile care for their young more the fewer there are. Generally if they lay many eggs that hatch the parent is less likely to have an emotional connection to those young while something that gives birth to one single child is massively invested. These levels of investment is an evolutionary trait. If they have only one child at a time it's imperative to the species to protect every one. If there are many children at once the parent cannot be hugely invested in every single one because there is a much higher likelihood they evolved to bare so many children at once because of a very high mortality rate and the parent can't break down broken hearted at the 1st death because that would likely lead to other loses. It's a harsh truth of evolution and A reason that species don't massively overpopulate. If you wanted to keep some form of multiple births you might need to do something along the lines of having a spawning grounds where Nautikans leave their fertilized eggs and eventually check in to see how many children are left later. It would be a very natural and transnational way of doing things even though it is way outside of human sensibilities. Another option would be to do away with the human monthly cycles. For Nautikans they can have a laying season or require some other sort of specific criteria to reproduce. For example a read a series where Elves could only become fertile with the aid of a pollen from a special magical tree.
love this channel!! Don't mind when you upload, you have a lot of recommendations to check out as well soo
Is this for a book you are writing? If so will you be sharing your story one day cause I would totally read a book based on this society you created. It sounds so cool! 😍
working on it :)
Thank you for the amazing vid!!!
I love the world that your building, its wonderfully thought out, and thank you for sharing its evolution. As for the fertility issue, your initial premise isn't as bad as you think. The real world example of an aquatic creature that only reproduce once are salmon (wait for it), and certain species of octopi. The only problem with that, if you really want to go for realism, is usually those species die soon after giving birth. As for overpopulation, I'm guessing you're not accounting for natural population thinning events. Assuming an entire clutch of Nautikan survive to adulthood, they still have to contend with physical injury, predators within the sea that would eat Nautikan (which is a pretty good reason why they expanded towards the mainland), poisonous marine life, the various weather related injuries/ diseases that occur in the regions that they live, and if the competition for mates is as fierce as implied, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of death from Nautikans killing each other over fights for mates, at least in earlier on in their' history, and it might still happen amongst those who don't have the benefit of a matchmaker. Then there is the rearing of the clutch itself, could be potentially fatal, due to the sheer amount of time and energy it would take to keep aquatic eggs alive (in the real world, many species with dedicated parents die of exhaustion/starvation). If they could even get the chance at all, from what you've described your world is frequently in conflict, and I don't imagine that makes for conducive conditions for finding a mate.
I think this would go with the cultural theme of Elder Nautikans, especially those who are parents of a hatched clutch being revered, because not only did they survive the competition of finding a mate, and producing a clutch, they managed to survive hatching that clutch, which could be seen as risky at the best of times. Those parents who do die to hatch their clutch can shape the Nautikan attitude in a Spartan way (Spartans only received a headstone if they died in battle or childbirth/ they were viewed as a similar if not same thing). My proposal is that Nautikans who died in attempt to hatch a clutch, be honored by burial near an octopus monument, which in turn could be considered a holy site, maintained by the surviving clutches of the fallen and their families. In this case, the surviving clutches become a priest-like caste within the Nautikan culture, in which dying your clothes with Octopi ink is a clear indicator of honoring fallen parents who died giving them life. In turn this could also bring in the idea of tattoos, as a means to honor the dead, and the Nautikan "priest" being the ones that apply them.
You got a new subscriber, keep up the good work
i love these videos, keep it up
This sorta reminds me of a similar fantasy idea I had been working on in a story called "The Night Prince".
Long ago a God of some sort died and fell to the world where their body decomposed and started to become part of the landscape, forming mountains, Islands, caverns, valleys, etc...
The injuries they had sustained caused the body to bleed out and their blood to mix into the soil and water causing the Plants, Animals, and People to Mutate in bizarre ways, at first seeming random but then took on more specific qualities based on group behavior.
The most common group and considered least powerful are the Beast-folk who have subtle animal-like quality like growing the tails, ears from other mammals. There is also a division between the majority who call themselves Sun-Beast to the minority of Nocturnal Moon-Beasts, this is where the titular character of the series comes from.
Next there are Sky-Folk who are smaller flying humans who have reduced in size in favor of having wings.
Bird Winged Skyfolk are referred to as Putti and Insect Winged Skyfolk are referred to as Fae. As well as being short they also don't ever really appear fully grown much in the same vein as Axolotls to Salamanders
The Mer-Folk were primarily coastal and island based societies who took to the sea and developed fish-like qualities, they also grow larger than the average human.
The Forest-Folk became plant-like with skin like bark and some even growing as tall as trees
The Earth-Folk are a subterranean people with bodies that seem to be composed of Rock and Gemstone
The Wight-Folk dwell in cold remote places like mountains and tundras, they mainly keep to themselves and appear to be undead or some form of quasi-undead like a vampire.
The Mountain-folk don't dwell exclusively in mountains like the Wight-folk but are nomadic giants. Their Hierarchy is marked by how many arms they grow, gaining or losing arms based on who they are able to topple.
and lastly but not least are the Dragon-Folk. They are Large, Winged, Horned, Clawed, and Tailed Humanoids armored with a coat of scales resembling something like a classic Demon, and most races view them as such, however the Dragon-folk believe they are the pinnacle of the Divine Blood's Creation. They are a Warrior culture who dwell in harsh volcanic terrain and will conduct raids and hunts on the other races believing they have to maintain their superiority by consuming more divine Blood from those who were unworthy of it and sacrafice a majority of their prisoners to the Dragon King believing that if he gets enough divine blood he will ascend and take the place of the fallen god. The Dragon King and his children are also the only ones capable of transforming from Humanoid form into an actual Dragon
Have you thought about birthmarks? I have a few myself and it got me thinking, what if the Nauticans have scale like birthmarks that come after the metamorphose, like an imprint of the scales. And maybe some of the Nauticans have colored birthmarks, think of how chickens and snakes have egg sacs, and how they absorb it, maybe it's like that and it's part of the metamorphose to absorb some of the tail, and the rest of the tail gets shed off, And the birthmark is part of the tail that didn't get absorbed after the shed.
Btw I am really enjoying these worldbuilding videos and I can't wait to see more! :)
interesting. I kind of like the idea of random scaly patches leftover and functioning as a sort of birthmark.
@@mariahpattieworldbuilding4062 Cool, I hope you can use that some way in your story! :)
This was wonderful! I'm working on a novel right now! Still in the worldbuilding phase! I have "mermaids" as well but im going with more of a sea serpent vibe! I have a pinterest board for it & if it's not too much trouble I would love to hear some of your opinions some time! This is because I love your videos and channel!
Hey! I discovered your channel a while ago, and absolutely love the content! I too am trying to create worlds, however they are different from this.
I would really like to create artwork based on your world, if that is okay!
I'm under the impression you're referring to the 'Amazon Molly'; they're actually from the USA and Mexico, not south America :)
The name comes from the fictional Greek Amazon people, rather than the actual geographic region.
yes, that's in the description box. I didn't remember it when I was writing the script, but I did when I looked up the article again to take screenshots 🤷♀️
Eyy you did a southern hemisphere continent! :O My world that I started in 2017 is also centered on a southern hemisphere continent. I don't know why I did it, perhaps because I was thinking a lot about Chile at the time, perhaps just because it was a way to "shake it up", as we take "north: cold and south: warm" for granted. (Also Ancient Egypt had "upper Egypt" being the south.)
Love your content. It helps me be conscientious in my own world building. Mermaids could be hermaphroditic like other sea creatures like anemone or like clown fish that can change gender. Maybe there is a chemical in the water that keeps their gender from becoming female in certain areas. Those that travel beyond become female. Being a twin I have always found it fascinating the being lumped together and desire to express individuality. Would there be a certain style that a first hatched might wear? Would a communal sense be more common and excepted? Being individualistic or single born make you more likely to be ostracized? Would there be shunning like among the Amish? A test to get back into the collective? Keep up the great work.
i would love to see you go into depth with the social hierarchy of ALL the races in your world, and how it affects the other races
Idk what Mariah does for a job but from the sounds of it she is living the life
14:42 I loved the girl finding the solution: "it doesn't fit, so open the damn box and make it fit".
just as an idea:
Maybe the not growing up thing is more positive. Yes they can't or want comprehand adulthud, but because they basically stay Children they have more fantasy and are better at problem solving. And this ones could be go to peaple if something happens. Kind of a nerdy subcuilture.
man another time we did simular things for our humanoid sea people.
the blue undertones for the skin. also a well-developed sign language.
though you and i approached the distance thing differently.
the neptonians (give me a break i was in middle school) have their underwater language split into two diffrent kinds. distance langage which use leg, hand and fin gestures akin to signals used to direct airplains. its a crude and simple langage. then there is the intamant language which uses mostly hand and facial gestures, it is much more detailed and has way more small variations and dialects, especially if someone is from outside the neptonian empier.
this correction video defiantly gave me some more ideas on how to develop some of the details i've been lacking in.
so thank you.