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Cloister — Creature concept - Hieronaut
Published: 2011-11-02 19:40:51 +0000 UTC; Views: 23565; Favourites: 717; Downloads: 807
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I feel like this would be very quite as it walked. Eerily so.
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Amazing, really impressive detail, fantastic work.
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a giant mutant sea monkey! I really like how it manages to have an earthly look, while also having an other-worldly aspect
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I don't think these sort of sea monkeys would be in stock long if they were sold in stores. 
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You can be sure that I would be one of the first people to get one 
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Great piece of work.
Thanks for sharing...
Featured in Inspirations at hangaroundtheweb.com
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You asked what kind of creature this might be. I would suggest it could be an amphibia like creature that lives in caves, maybe watercaves under the sea.
Anyway, it looks kind of interessting. You really seem to have a great imagination. Good work!!!
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"the holy"(hiero) + "naus"(ship)"nautes"(sailor). so this sort of needs to be plausible, if you stick with the - admittedly rather cool - name. So, the name could either be attributed to it by observers (i.e. humans and other sentient races) or it needs to describe its function within its own society. Any number of reasons could be plausible here, e.g. the travelling patterns on its birthing or dying places (much like a pilrgrimage, and hence the "hiero" part of the name) or some sailors first witnessing the luminous birthing grounds (as in, for example, it spreads its young-egg in a sand bank which becomes bio-luminous due to any number of plausible reasons) near a place identified as holy and hence the name sticking ever since, albeit rather mistakenly. Or it could be a social function (more on this later).
so, its obviously aquatic, about 50' long judging from the relative size of the dentures and the biological structure plausibility of its body, and it evidently exhibits characteristics of adverse marine biological groups (like lobster-carapace, tentacles, multiple eyes, shark-like fins, anemone-like luminous appendages, etc). So, based on this appearance and its name, it could be something like this: an organism birthed in great numbers in a weak anemone-like form (the luminous sand banks of birth etc) and gently "herded" by its parent to gradually consume and imprint other forms of aquatic life, perhaps even land-based as well), as it is some sort of creature that absorbs and utilizes genetic advantages from diverse life-groups (an overplayed trope, but a good one if done well). So, the "parent", like the one depicted here, are the ones who actually managed to survive this "quest" so to speak, of absorbing traits and defeating antagonistic creatures, and thus managed to evolve into something formidable. Playing the game flow ( [link] ) would absolutely get the idea of consuming-evolving in you head. So, in a sense, this "congregation" of younglings, this veritable flock of lesser creatures guided by a greater one of their own race could be interpreted as some sort of holy-guidance-towards-evolution arrangement, and thus the name "hieronaut" becomes applicable. It could be known because of someone of this species once acquiring characteristics of speaking mammals (i.e. humans) and emerging into the world (possibly in a relatively small island society) as some sort of "propher" for its racial evolution. You can really go anywhere you want after a while, the chaining of ideas carries you on. So, that, i hope it helps. And, dude, mind if i steal this for my campaign 
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Many thanks for the highly detailed suggestions and thoughts about the creature. Interesting ideas.
I have now posted the creature and a description of it at the blog: [link]
I hope it still deserves its name.
Thanks, Urielflame!
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If I could be one as to make a suggestion for a description...
Based upon your description you already posted, this beasty would be a marine animal, likely very large - ranging in size between about ten feet tall to at least almost Godzilla-like in height. Based upon the color of the landcape I'd have to say that its marine origins lie somewhere beneath the arctic. It would be a large and hungry carnivore whose metabolism means that it doesn't have to eat very often but will be forced to ravage the surrounding countryside once every set period of time in order to get the proper nutrients it needs. Its fins on its back could be used either for attracting a mate or to intimidate rivals in its territory due to its need to feed over a wide area. Its tentacles could be used for grasping prey and pulling it into its mouth as its tremendous arms could likely do little in the way of feeding save for crushing food into a gooey paste...
That sound good? By the way, this is a great picture. I love the color scheme - it matches the marine theme very well.
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Thanks a lot for the suggestion. Aquatic..arctic. Sure!
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OMG !!! a dungeon boss XD!! I like so much !! wonder work
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Wow, where do you get all ideas from anyway! This looks really interesting. Large underwater monster with tentacly thingies on it's... tail. 
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I get them from.... Oz? I don't know where ideas come from. Everywhere I suppose?
There is now a full description of the creature at [link]
Thanks!
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*lol* 
Awesome!
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Many big monsters around... I enjoy the Mist!
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Do you mind if I ask: are you self-taught, and do you know of any useful resources for learning techniques in digital painting? 
Someday I'd love to put my ideas into fantastic illustrations like these. They're always good fun to look it!
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4 years in a traditional art school. The web is abundant with tutorials. Check out the blogs of digital artists. Many share their techniques.
Good luck and thank you!
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Okay, thanks for the advice!
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[link] This dude does a lot of sick digital painting tutorials well more like a "making of" nonetheless helpful.
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Oh gosh, thank you so so much!
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It looks fantastic!! Although it's pretty clearly an enormous aquatic creature, I could also see it swooping through the air, or at least leaping out of the water and soaring over a ship full of potential victims!
And are those tendrils on its tail something like a jellyfish's? Maybe it can paralyze it's prey or poison them with them.
Anyways, it's fascinating. I can't wait to see what it turns into!
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Aguatic indeed! A description is now added to the rpg-creatures blog.
Thanks for the suggestions!
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A marine beast that dwells in the deepest trenches of the black abyss of unknown oceans, a sign of the end of the world in some religions when it rises from the depths to feed every 50 years.
^ I just brainstormed that.
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You are partially right. Thanks!
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I like a lot of what you do its all so cool!
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