What Is Xenofiction?

overslept

Also going to finally make a pinned post for all my stuff:

BOGLEECH - my tumblr blog is named after this website I created around 2002 and still update. Thousands of pages worth of content focusing on creature design as well as real biology. My review of the original Legend of Zelda monsters might be the most straightforward example of my articles. Links to some of the most popular content:

POKEMON REVIEW ARCHIVE: - I rate and review each and every single Pokemon, in Pokedex order, on its merits as a creature design. I also do so as someone whose favorite animals are all parasites.

DIGIMON REVIEW ARCHIVE - same, but more chaotic.

CREEPYPASTA COOKOFF ARCHIVE - for several years I hosted a yearly writing contest before it grew too big for me to keep up with. There are over a thousand user submitted horror, fantasy, sci fi and surrealist stories here emphasizing unconventional, original ideas you seldom see from the "creepypasta" community!

The original "MORTASHEEN" Monster Archive - since the early 2000's I've created and illustrated more than 800 creatures and counting for my own monster-catching world, now set for release as a tabletop RPG setting.

AWFUL HOSPITAL: SERIOUSLY THE WORST EVER (page one): an interactive comedy-horror-sci-fi webcomic I started in 2014 about a medical facility that could maybe be better.

Some of my other internet stuff:

PATREON - constant work makes my patreon updates inconsistent, but the content backlog goes back years with a huge amount of exclusive art and writing. I try to put up new exclusive stuff whenever I can.

ETSY - I design all sorts of original enamel pins like these, plus I sell zero-maintenance terrarium plants (just leave them in a jar!), original books and other things!

COLOR THE ABYSS (available on the above etsy!) - a 30 page educational deep sea coloring book! Includes a few famous favorites like giant isopods and hagfish, but mostly focuses on less popular, often much weirder animals.

UNBELIEVABLE BUGS - also regularly restocked in the etsy store, 30 of the strangest and most surprising arthropods most people have likely never heard of, illustrated by myself and @revretch, written for even the youngest kids to understand (but will likely teach you something new at any age)

My Itch.io and Ko-fi - both sell digital versions of my books, including some creepypasta collections and my first novel, "Return of the Living," about a world of entirely ghosts suddenly dealing with the appearance of ghost-hunting monsters.

TWITCH CHANNEL - I now try to stream something at least monthly, sometimes weekly when possible, from horror games to books and art.

YOUTUBE CHANNEL - archives my twitch streams and other little things.

INSTAGRAM - look at pictures of my huge weird collection of toys and Halloween collectibles

BLUESKY - I'm going to put mainly just updates to my stuff on here. SEE ALSO:

HUMANS-B-GONE - a science fiction animated series by my partner @revretch, about a world of kaiju-size, technologically advanced insects and arachnids to whom vertebrates like us are just pesky little "gubs." Also has a tumblr account @humansbgone

A preamble to the live reading of Hunter’s Moon/The Foxes of Firstdark by Garry Kilworth

As a work within what I’m going to be calling the mythic subgenre of naturalist animal xenofiction (as coined by YouTube user Cardinal West on his excellent video detailing the history of the genre), mythic NAX for short, one of the primary appeals of a book such as Hunter’s Moon/The Foxes of Firstdark should lie in how the author incorporates real biology and behavior of the animals he’s writing about onto the fictional human-like society he’s constructing.

Thus, before we dive into the live reading on the blog, I thought it’d be good for us all to be more aware of actual fox behavior so that we may better appreciate the bits of real animal behavior incorporated into the text and recognize the artistic liberties taken by the author. I’m writing a short distillation of my preliminary research done on the following four webpages:

https://www.nwf.org/educational-resources/wildlife-guide/mammals/red-fox

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/red-fox

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/understand-fox-behaviour/

https://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/animals/article/red-fox-behaviour-the-social-hierarchy

Obviously, as a Warriors fan, I’m not too demanding about biological accuracy in my mythic NAX novels, but I still expect the authors to incorporate it in some way. The Erin Hunter team’s portrayal of a feral cat colony may not be completely accurate but it shows in places they are at least aware of the basics of how they operate.

I’m also not a biologist nor do I have any particular knowledge of foxes, so I’m doing all this preliminary research from scratch. Obviously, I’m not going to go super in depth or go into super academic sources. This is, afterall, being done for fun.

Distillation of my research unde the cut:

Keep reading

Why do the peoples draw mermaids with knee bends in their fishy tails

no fucking way

I have realized that ironically, while the cat is one of the most known and loved animals/pets. The Wildcat still lingers in the shadows and is a very little noticed animal. Especially in the popular media.

We need more wild cat media, not just domestic cats, because those are all I see.

(And I'm referring to the "Felis silvestris", the others at least people can spot them).

And it seems that people have forgotten or do not realize that the cats we know are domestic animals, that have little or nothing to do in nature (I include stray/feral cats, because they are still domestic cats) and that their wild relative/ancestor exists and is still alive.

It's not like with dogs, there are dog media and there are wolf media, people know how to differentiate one from the other. But what about cats, can you locate any popular stories where wild cats are even in the wild (TRULY wild, not feral domesticated ones)?

And it's kind of sad, wild cats deserve to be noticed and recognized. Sadly many of them are in a vulnerable state and are disappearing.

I would like to see a xenofiction story with wild cats living their lives, hunting hares, taking on lynx, living in wild territory, doing things of their species that emphasize how they are different from their domesticated descendants.

Although I doubt that something like this will happen for a long time, it is one of those cases where you just have to say "If I don't do it, no one else will".

Onondaga Nation

Clan Mothers

The Clan Mother is very important in the role of Haudenosaunee culture. When the Peacemaker came to the warring people, it was a woman who f

Haudenosaunee Clan Mothers

The Clan Mother is very important in the role of Haudenosaunee culture. When the Peacemaker came to the warring people, it was a woman who first accepted Peacemaker’s vision of peace. Because of her vision the Peacemaker gave woman important duties in the Haudenosaunee, the Clan Mother

The Clan Mother is a leader not only of her clan, but of the nation as well. The Clan Mother selects their spokesman (Hoyane or Chief) to represent them in council. If their Hoyane doesn’t represent their clan, the Clan Mother has the authority to remove their leader as well after warnings. The Hoyane and the Clan Mother work together to best represent the people of her clan.

Haudenosaunee Confederacy

Family Structure

The family structure of the Haudenosaunee is primarily based on the clan system. Families start with a female ancestor with all those dwelli

Haudenosaunee Traditional Family Structure

The family structure of the Haudenosaunee is primarily based on the clan system. Families start with a female ancestor with all those dwelling in her long house linking back to her. Each family was called the long house family with the Clan Mother as the head. All female descendents including her sisters, her sisters’ daughters, and their daughters would live in the long house their entire lives bringing their husbands to live with them.

Sons stayed in the same house with her until they married and moved into their wife’s house, though they would still be members of their mother’s long house and their loyalty would always go there first. Children all lived in the long house where they were surrounded by their family and could be taught by their elders. Every child was welcomed and cared for by its mother, mother’s sisters and their husbands.

Family structure today is more like the common nuclear family consisting of a mother, father and children. However, the Haudenosaunee still follow the traditional matriarchal structure with clans being passed down through their mother.

Haudenosaunee Confederacy

Current Clan Mothers and Chiefs

Approver: Chief Title Clan Chief (English Name) Clan Mother Dyoninho’ga’we’ Wolf Kenny Jonathan Evelyn Jonathan Gan

Current Clan Mothers and Chiefs

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*raises hand* I think it depends on the Pokemon in question?

Like, if it’s a mainline-game mon of questionable sapience then FUCK NO THAT IS MADE OF DISGUSTING but a lot of the anime mons and all of the Mystery Dungeon mons are of human-level intelligence and able to give consent, so I don’t have any issues if it’s one of them? (PMD2 protagonist/PMD2 partner is cute as hell, for example, and that’s human-turned-into-a-Pokemon/sapient Pokemon)

It’s not any weirder than interspecies relationships between humans and other sci-fi/fantasy races like, I dunno, half the pairings in Mass Effect or Ruto crushing on Ocarina Link.

That said I haven’t seen the Lucario movie so I don’t know if Lucario is intelligent enough to not be squicky, so carry on.