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Description
So! After a long while without submitting anything besides my practice pic during friday I made a follow up to [link] detailing another important setting. The opposite of the rainforest, the Lacertan desert, dry arid and filled with a lot less kaiju to worry about! While the Rainforest is important for history, I used the desert to show at least a little more on the cultural aspect of Teratodis. As it veers from straight-up Kaiju fiction to becoming more of a story of a world where "sci-fi" becomes reality, I took it upon myself to showcase one of the cultures featured in my kaijuverse. Filling in for the post-apocalyptic nomad, are the Desertfolk, taking any scraps they can find in the desert and trying to survive the harshness of the desert.

Also, introducing a new Kaiju to the mix, Carnifex. Named after Roman executioners, his role is meant to be a literal executioner of organisms. If he wants something, he'll kill it. He's also the largest of the kaiju roster so far at over 600 feet. More detail is in the below description!

As always a word of caution to those that don't like reading long descriptions
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The Lacertan Desert

Aliases: The Byzantine Desert, Sandpit of Traitors

Location: Gaea, Western Hempishere, Lacerta.

The Lacertan Desert is a dry, arid place, and one of Lacerta’s more inhospitable places, though ironically less than the lush-but monster infested rainforest. Reason being is that desert wildlife is sparsely populated, and desert kaiju is far few in between. Most of the time the only thing people have to fear is the variety of insects and other arthropods, and even then they’re rare. Located in the center of the continent, it’s hard to find water here outside of an oasis or river (of which, there’s only one, narrow sliver).
When the desert was first discovered by U.S. colonists there was much wonder about this dry patch o’ land. Its rocks were red, and littered everywhere. One moment there are dunes, and the next, a field of rock. However, beneath the desert sands were gold, silver, iron and other metals, both Earth found and completely native to Gaea. This easy access to raw material gave the United States major clout in this New World, a much needed one after the world has been economically and environmentally damaged by “The Big One”. Roads and Mining towns began to pop up, though the dunes made it very difficult, but the income gained was more than worth it.

From here on the desert would be synonymous with betrayal. 15 years later, an uprising sprung, under the belief that the people were independent enough to carve a new nation of their own, when in reality it was more about wealthy businessmen keeping workers powerless in the region and keeping the profit for their own means. They were summarily crushed in 6 months’ time and tried for treason solidifying US presence in the desert and Lacerta as a whole. The disbanded fighters soon sought out life in the desert itself, travelling in small communities. Their descendants were named “Desertfolk” as the years passed by.
This uprising, known as the “The Clementine Attack” named after its leader, John Clements was not the last act of betrayal the desert would face. Assassinations, underground criminals, smuggling, violent mobs and political gambling became commonplace. A mineral-rich landscape breeds rivalries between nations, people, government and social classes. It was given the name “Byzantine Desert”, for its long list of treachery.

By the time the Great Rebellions began, rebel forces exploited the use of the desert’s shifting sands and began a guerilla war against government forces. However, they were unexpectedly defeated under the hands of the Desertfolk, tired of being associated with their treacherous forefathers and wanted to show off their patriotism. These same desertfolk would help the military all the way after the Mutation Event that created the kaiju, as they know the local wildlife and landscape best.
Since the aftermath of the mutation event, the desert became home to massive, Crab-like relatives of scorpions (pictured above) simply known as… Cab-crabs. “Cabbies” as they’re so named were common sights in the desert, disguised as stones in the sand, and could eat anything. Now they’re the mainly used for transport by the Desertfolk, as horses mostly get eaten and civilian vehicles tends to break down by the sudden appearances of stones when the dunes pass by. They can travel in all terrain and are actually capable of protecting themselves via stingers.

The largest organism in the desert is “Carnifex”, an enormous and powerful kaiju that stands 600ft at the shoulder, making him one of the largest creatures in all of Lacerta, and the tallest predatory animal in the continent. A mutant variant of the Goliath Sailed Lizard, the largest predatory animal in the desert, he is the symbol of caution in the desert. He picks and chooses what to kill and eat and where to look whenever he feels like. Whenever he has his sights on potential prey, it always ends in death. One day he can be completely oblivious to human presence, another day, attempt to destroy an entire city and eat whatever he can find there. To the Desertfolk, he is both a curse and a blessing. Carnifex travels to areas where there is water, he’ll try to dig his way to a freshwater well under the ground with his massive arms, and whenever he finds prey, that means instant meat that could feed a family for weeks. At the same time, if he even seems to take interest in you, you run, fast because literally nothing escapes his wrath, hence his name.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here I tried to create a "shifting sands" effect, and I took quite a bit of reference for it. I still lack the ability to create suitable backgrounds in my opinion, but overall it actually looks pretty good! It's almost my first time trying to really "paint" using a tablet, though I still need a LOT of improvement. The "Painted" parts are the background and the Cabby-crab.

Again, constructive criticism is more than welcomed!

Description
So! After a long while without submitting anything besides my practice pic during friday I made a follow up to [link] detailing another important setting. The opposite of the rainforest, the Lacertan desert, dry arid and filled with a lot less kaiju to worry about! While the Rainforest is important for history, I used the desert to show at least a little more on the cultural aspect of Teratodis. As it veers from straight-up Kaiju fiction to becoming more of a story of a world where "sci-fi" becomes reality, I took it upon myself to showcase one of the cultures featured in my kaijuverse. Filling in for the post-apocalyptic nomad, are the Desertfolk, taking any scraps they can find in the desert and trying to survive the harshness of the desert.

Also, introducing a new Kaiju to the mix, Carnifex. Named after Roman executioners, his role is meant to be a literal executioner of organisms. If he wants something, he'll kill it. He's also the largest of the kaiju roster so far at over 600 feet. More detail is in the below description!

As always a word of caution to those that don't like reading long descriptions
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Lacertan Desert

Aliases: The Byzantine Desert, Sandpit of Traitors

Location: Gaea, Western Hempishere, Lacerta.

The Lacertan Desert is a dry, arid place, and one of Lacerta’s more inhospitable places, though ironically less than the lush-but monster infested rainforest. Reason being is that desert wildlife is sparsely populated, and desert kaiju is far few in between. Most of the time the only thing people have to fear is the variety of insects and other arthropods, and even then they’re rare. Located in the center of the continent, it’s hard to find water here outside of an oasis or river (of which, there’s only one, narrow sliver).
When the desert was first discovered by U.S. colonists there was much wonder about this dry patch o’ land. Its rocks were red, and littered everywhere. One moment there are dunes, and the next, a field of rock. However, beneath the desert sands were gold, silver, iron and other metals, both Earth found and completely native to Gaea. This easy access to raw material gave the United States major clout in this New World, a much needed one after the world has been economically and environmentally damaged by “The Big One”. Roads and Mining towns began to pop up, though the dunes made it very difficult, but the income gained was more than worth it.

From here on the desert would be synonymous with betrayal. 15 years later, an uprising sprung, under the belief that the people were independent enough to carve a new nation of their own, when in reality it was more about wealthy businessmen keeping workers powerless in the region and keeping the profit for their own means. They were summarily crushed in 6 months’ time and tried for treason solidifying US presence in the desert and Lacerta as a whole. The disbanded fighters soon sought out life in the desert itself, travelling in small communities. Their descendants were named “Desertfolk” as the years passed by.
This uprising, known as the “The Clementine Attack” named after its leader, John Clements was not the last act of betrayal the desert would face. Assassinations, underground criminals, smuggling, violent mobs and political gambling became commonplace. A mineral-rich landscape breeds rivalries between nations, people, government and social classes. It was given the name “Byzantine Desert”, for its long list of treachery.

By the time the Great Rebellions began, rebel forces exploited the use of the desert’s shifting sands and began a guerilla war against government forces. However, they were unexpectedly defeated under the hands of the Desertfolk, tired of being associated with their treacherous forefathers and wanted to show off their patriotism. These same desertfolk would help the military all the way after the Mutation Event that created the kaiju, as they know the local wildlife and landscape best.
Since the aftermath of the mutation event, the desert became home to massive, Crab-like relatives of scorpions (pictured above) simply known as… Cab-crabs. “Cabbies” as they’re so named were common sights in the desert, disguised as stones in the sand, and could eat anything. Now they’re the mainly used for transport by the Desertfolk, as horses mostly get eaten and civilian vehicles tends to break down by the sudden appearances of stones when the dunes pass by. They can travel in all terrain and are actually capable of protecting themselves via stingers.

The largest organism in the desert is “Carnifex”, an enormous and powerful kaiju that stands 600ft at the shoulder, making him one of the largest creatures in all of Lacerta, and the tallest predatory animal in the continent. A mutant variant of the Goliath Sailed Lizard, the largest predatory animal in the desert, he is the symbol of caution in the desert. He picks and chooses what to kill and eat and where to look whenever he feels like. Whenever he has his sights on potential prey, it always ends in death. One day he can be completely oblivious to human presence, another day, attempt to destroy an entire city and eat whatever he can find there. To the Desertfolk, he is both a curse and a blessing. Carnifex travels to areas where there is water, he’ll try to dig his way to a freshwater well under the ground with his massive arms, and whenever he finds prey, that means instant meat that could feed a family for weeks. At the same time, if he even seems to take interest in you, you run, fast because literally nothing escapes his wrath, hence his name.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here I tried to create a "shifting sands" effect, and I took quite a bit of reference for it. I still lack the ability to create suitable backgrounds in my opinion, but overall it actually looks pretty good! It's almost my first time trying to really "paint" using a tablet, though I still need a LOT of improvement. The "Painted" parts are the background and the Cabby-crab.

Again, constructive criticism is more than welcomed!