Eve Whitby

Earth’s Elysium

A survival guide to Planet DA 2109 c


3,000 years pass in the blink of an eye.


You stand on the edge of humanity. In the Mothership, a place where life wasn't meant to linger on.


1764 Anno Tenebrae.


Earth is long dead.


Humanity as we know it is gone. Homo omnis is all that remains. They still clutch onto the identity of being Terran despite 60 generations having never set foot on her soil.


Planet DA 2109 c is the sole hope for the dwindling Terran race…

Project Elysium is an artistic endeavour in its first year that is aiming to create a science fiction world of my own imagination.


Whether confused or curious, the last section of this page features a glossary where all creatures, places and cultural names are explained in detail.

Art

Click the artwork to view the title and dimensions.

The Red Waste. | 1170mm x 870mm, acrylic paint on canvas.

This is what terrans named the Red Waste. A red-rocked, craggy, cold desert of ELysium. A xh-ae peelherd ( Peel is a collective term for crabs ) and her denling. The adult is watching over her peel of Red crabs with her bladed staff. Xenoflora and xenofungi from left to right are fleshwraps, monoliths, idiot’s thirst, and a yet to be named xenoflora that is omnivorous ( pink, top right ). Xeno fauna from left to right are dustbugs, the nervous snuffler, Red crabs, and skyray,

Illustration

Click the artwork to view the title and dimensions.

The Journey. | A5, marker and ink pen on card.

A female xh'ae travelling through the Red Waste of Elysium, a cold dessert made of craggy red rock with few fungal diversity and fewer still water sources. Xenofauna from left to right are the male Great Plains star angel and star Angel sucker, a group of Wasteland striders (background, small), mouse mites (foreground, small) banded skyrays, dustbugs, and the ghastly gripper attacking their reflection.

Twice-mother Tales. | A4, watercolour, marker, and ink pen on paper.

An illustration of a storytelling between a twice-mother and a denling in the twice-mother’s burrow-home after dinner. Twice-father is popping up from behind the curtains leading from the eating hall with scroll in tongue-claw. The tale in question is the twice-mother telling the story of how she saw a flesh-beast’s ship (thought to be a star) fall from the sky as she was peelherding her Red crabs (unseen).

Father, Priestess, Warrior. | A3, marker and ink pen on card.

A scene depicting the many types of people living within the Red Waste. These people include, from left to right, a father and his nestling, a priestess with her paddle-shaped flag, two denlings, and a warrior. Above the priestess' head is a mythical star angel that has one sunken eye, and four wings and four mouths and tongues in an even appearance. This mythical creature originates from the Red Waste and symbolises continuity despite all odds, and especially in times of hardship and suffering. In the distance again, as seen in The Journey, is the Pillar of the Earth. There is whiskerberry, little monoliths, and idiot's thirst in the foreground. Note also, the spaceship on the top right, and in which the warrior xh-ae is looking up at. This piece was just as much to experiment with the diversity of xh-ae clothing, how to show expression, and xh-ae skin and hair colour. Note how the priestess is trying to smile at the viewer in the human way. For, in xh-ae culture baring teeth is seen as aggressive, threating, or insulting ( e.g. I want to bite you, I will bite you, or I would bite you but you are not worth my time ).

Sculptures

Female Xh-ae Alien Head

The initial concept i made out of a palm size of clay

A GIF I made to show some of the process

Me in my uni studio space, painting the head sculpture, with The Red Waste painting on the wall.

Head-on (pun intended) of the sculpture.

3/4 position of the sculpture.

Back of the sculpture.

This was my first time creating a clay artwork, let alone a whole head, however it was both a stressful and intriguing process. The sculpture was going to have facial hair, however I both could not fathom how to do it, and I wanted to show the structure of the face without distraction. I truly want to make more sculptures in the future, especially a male xh-ae head, to compare this sculpture to.


The sculpture was made with a tin foil and thick wire armature on a wooden base, off-cuts of clay from the university (brand unknown, and self-drying), acrylic paint, and thin wire.

Sketchbook Pages

Because I love sharing my initial ideas & how much this project has grown!

My initial concepts of the Xh-ae as adult and child, as well as doodles and notes of xenoflora ideas.

A main drawing of a female xh’ae from the Red Waste concept, alongside a height-accurate futuristic human (Homo omnis) and, in the upper right corner, the budding idea of how the xh’ae look from egg to denling.

A main drawing of a male xh’ae from the Red Waste concept, alongside a height comparison of Elysium xenofauna and a 6ft human.

An A5 painting made in response to being tasked in making an artwork in only an hour. It was made on an old, painted piece of board and acrylic, showing a mother and toddler xh-ae.

A visual graph on how xh-ae gender and puberty are interlinked – with xh-ae being born gynandromorph from an egg-like structure, only becoming physically female, male, or intersex (rare, although more common that humans, due to the distinct sexual dimorphism between genders, with approximately 10% of Elysium’s population fitting into the “between” stages of physically male and female) through puberty. Inspired by Lucy Cooke’s book, Bitch: On the Female Species, which opened my eyes to the diversity of animals and how it could aid me in establishing my alien species.

Examples of flags found within the Red Waste’s different communities.

My first xenofauna drawings, highlighting how I combine notes and illustration in my sketchbook behind the scenes to create my world of Elysium. (Also, highlighting how much things have changed) Featuring the Wasteland Strider (both male (top) and female (bottom)) and the initial idea for the Ghastly Gripper (bottom right).

An unused concept idea for a Spearcrown (female on the left male on the right), from the same family as the Wasteland strider but from a different country altogether. May be changed in the future.

A concept of arrowheads having subspecies,

akin to tigers and lions being in the felidae family. Also, I am still debating on if this family of xenofauna can be tamed if raised from hatchlings. Because who doesn’t want sci-fi dragons?

A fight between four alien creatures. An arrowhead (large, blue form) biting down on a Greater Plains star-angel, which is caught between grabbing a skyray, which is grabbing a dustbug (tiny, orange form).

My annotated page of the fauna and fungi of the Red Waste. The hybrid of text and drawing was an alternative to having the drawing on one page and the information on the other. Contains (from left to right) male Greater Plains star angel, dustbugs, fleshwrap, mouse mites, ghastly gripper, blind devil, nervous sniffler, and an unused, unnamed xenofauna (bottom right, green).

Glossary

Information here will be added to and changed where fit.


"(T)" : meaning that the word originates from the terran language (indetermined)

"(X)" : meaning that the word originates from xh'ae culture overall

"(RW)" : meaning that the word originates from the Red Waste language (indetermined)

Xenofauna

Dracospiculum (Spike-dragon, Latin), Ghastly gripper (T) : A carnivorous hunter and scavenger of the Red Waste that is named both in Latin and the universal Terran language for their primary limbs having one distinct large claw on each paw. Xh-ii use ghastly grippers on their paddle-flags to symbolise communities that want to be know as fierce as this xenofauna.


Elephanti Coccineum (Scarlet elephant, Latin), Scarlet elephant (T), Wasteland strider (RW) : A massive xenofauna that uses its six, bulky legs to trudge over the crags and crevices of the Red Waste. This species has an extreme sexual dimorphism. This had terran xenobiologists initially confused at the constant, inter-species relationship happening across the desert between the massive, six-legged female and the bipedal and four-armed male that hop instead of lumber over the craggy terrain of the Red Waste. Male Wasteland striders have developed a small, skittish nature opposite to the female of their species as an evolutionary trait to ensure the next generation – for in where females are endurance champions, males carry their young securely to their abdomen and can run thrice as fast as xh-ii.


Elysius angelus (Elysian angel, Latin), Sky angel (T) : A species of unusual creatures that fly with both their four paddle-shaped wings and the floating organ located on the top of their head. Sky angels are transparent, with their organs being able to be seen through. They have six limbs like the majority of life on Elysium. However, their last pair of arms are tucked away in their mouth – kept hidden, only to spring out and clamp onto both fungi or predator. This Angelusidae family's most studied xenofauna is the largest of this species and the wrongly-named, the Caelum Rex (King of the Sky, Latin). Caelum Rex females are those that reach the size of whales, not the males of the species – for they do grow throughout their long life-spans, however xh-ii have never recorded a male that has ever reached a third of their life-long mate's size. Angelusidae are a vast family, and wherever their is sky, there are sky angels. (See Sky angel sucker)


Hipposome Stelloris ( Horse-body star-mouth, Latin), Star-centaurs (T), Xh-ae (Plural: Xh-ii) (the People, RW) : The species of sapient aliens that inhabit almost all of Elysium either through stationary cities or nomadic caravans. Their status as an intelligent and social species is kept a secret by N.E.C.T.A.R, the founder of Project Elysium, for Elysium is too much of a treasure (for one, Elysium air is breathable to terrans) that destroying sapient alien species and their home planet poses no dissuasion. Those on the Mothership know nothing of the xh-ii being sentient and think of them as an animal, just like an arrowhead or Wasteland strider. It is only those who escape N.E.C.T.A.R's propaganda and see xh-ii for themselves that can possibly see these aliens as intelligent as them, if not more-so. Confidential N.E.C.T.A.R files locked away have described the xh-ae as "an over-friendly species that linger in an under-developed age of a pseudo late medieval era".


Homo Omnis (all-man, Latin), Terran (an inhabitant of Old Earth) : Humans have long since evolved from Homo Sapiens. For one, their eyes are larger and further apart, their pinky fingers are more than half the length of their ring fingers, and their body hair is decreased by 30%.


Nanomus (Dwarf-mouse, Latin), Mouse-mite (T) : A small, furred fungivore native to solely the Red Waste that has two distinct, outward-curling tails. They are the length of an average hand's length (including tails' length) and are often trained and kept as scouting-creatures by Red Waste xh-ii traversing endless deserts (excluding when journeying to the Pillar of the Earth, for it is easy to pin-point for it's size) for the Mouse-mite's ability to hear both predator clicking and the rare lapping of water from an oasis.


Novimelis (Strange-badger, Latin), Nervous snuffler (T) : An rarely seen, burrowing xenofauna with a habit to flee even from fellow fungivores, even those of it's same species. Their numbers are severely dwindling outside of the Red Waste due to not having a strong sexual drive. Despite having strong, long claws for digging, the nervous sniffler truly earnt their terran-given name by curling it's arms to their front and retreating from most unusual noises, smells, and sights.


Pteropastinaca (Flying-stingray, Latin), Skyray (T) : An arms-length (excluding tail) long insectivore that are widespread throughout the Red Waste in flocks. Their marking colours range from light blue to black, however they always are cream to white.


Sagittacephalotherium (Arrow-head-beast, Latin), Sagittatherium (abbr.), Arrowhead (T) : A large, flying, carnivorous creature of the Red Waste that is named by Terrans for their distinctly shaped, streamlined skull. Their family (Sagittatheriumidae) has two species known to Terrans. The species first discovered and for which the xenofauna family was named after, the Red Waste Arrowhead, and their smaller, beach-side cousins, the Amplexortherium (to embrace-beast, Latin), otherwise known as the Cliff-clinger. The Sagittatheriumidae is unique in it's diversity, for Arrowheads are nocturnal, migratory and willing to eat any flesh, even their own mate or offspring if the need comes. Meanwhile, Cliff-clingers are diurnal and stationary, making their forever-nests in caves dug out of their claws and made on cliff-sides. Cliff-clingers are picky and only eat small beach-dwelling creatures, making them no threat to xh-ii or Terrans. The only similarity found between these two "cousins" is that they are both solitary creatures unless in breeding and brooding season.


Sugeroangelus (Angel sucker, Latin), Star angel sucker (T) : A small, see-through, flying creature that is a distant relative of star Angels. Star angel suckers have weak tongues and are naturally slow flying, so they rely on Star Angels to eat xenofungi first ( to make it able for the sucker's jaws to eat through the soft fungal innards ) and to escape their natural predators ( by attaching themselves to star angels by a painless, unfelt bite ).


Saxocancrorum Magnus (Great rocky crustacean, Latin), Red Crab (T) : These bulky, armoured xenofauna come in various breeds. Red crabs are the only large, flightless fungivore that live in the Red Waste. The xh-ae keep them for their meat, as terrans used to do with cattle. Historically, Red crabs are red to camouflage from predators, however xh-ae have bred them into many different colours so that when peelherding these "crabs" can be seen. Red crabs are also a "distant cousin" of star angels, for they have a small, dormant floating organ inside the top of their bodies. Some xh-ae harvest this organ, as it can be an alcoholic additive or a potent painkiller ( or toxin ) depending on how much is taken.


Vellaopsis (Fluff-appearance, Latin), Dustbugs (T) : A fist-sized, four-winged psuedo-insect that span the whole of Elysium where there are flesh and fungi to scavenge from. Their scientific name Terrans gave them is due to looking fluffy despite their covering not being fur but thin, fine feathers. Dustbugs are one of the few creatures to have a common mutation that makes one eye significantly bigger than the other, making it look like they only have one eye, for the other (always the left) is undeveloped and kept tucked under their feathers. It is worthy to note that Dustbugs born without the mutation and have two developed eyes exhibit signs of being unbalanced.


Vesnasaurua (Vesna's-lizard, Latin), Blind Devil (T) : A cat-sized scaled xenofauna that live in burrows made from the fresh cracks made into the Red Waste's tough soil. Their eyes do not develop beyond the mid-point of gestation, making their eyes underdeveloped under their skin. This species' spiked appearance earnt it the title of devil amongst Terrans, although this fungivore species is entirely harmless to anything not fungi or an abandoned burrow. Blind devils wake and rest at awkward hours and have piercing cries at the slightest inconvenience, and because of this they are often relocated if they make their burrows in xh-ae settlements. To the Red Waste xh-ae, calling someone this species ( xh-ae-given name indetermined ) is calling someone whiny or difficult to manage.

Xenoflora & Xenofungi


Captionem flavam (Yellow deception, Latin), Fungus-snare (T), Fleshwrap (RW) : This fungus can range from centimetres to many metres in span. They are mainly insectivores and their main prey is the dustbugs that get trapped in their irregular webbing. Terrans wanted to name the fungi something to do with cheese due to it's yellow, holed, appearance, although N.E.C.T.A.R did not allow this, for they did not want terrans to think this fungi that could digest skyrays and male Wasteland striders should be named in humour.


Flos Putridus (Rotten flower, Latin), Swellfruit (T), Whiskerberry (RW) : A xenoflora that grows only in the Red Waste. It's fruit is purple with peculiar, whiskler-like tufts coming from it. If this xenoflora's whisker is touched, even briefly, the fruit will swell with toxins it administers to it's own flesh, before the fruit falls to the ground and explodes. When carefully harvested and the whiskers are burnt off, the fruit is safe to eat. Whiskerberries are bitter yet succulent. An odd taste for an odd plant.


Gigantolith (Giant stone, Latin) (T), The Pillar of the Earth (RW) : The tallest feature in the Red Waste, it is a monolith xenofungi that can be seen from countries away as a needle in the horizon. It is heralded as a religious place and where life began to the natives of the Red Waste. Nomadic communities of the Red Waste desert make sure to pause at the base of the monolith yearly to lighten their spirit. Other surrounding countries call it "the watcher" and "the staff" in their tongue, and view the Pillar as a guardian and overseer. Apocalyptic xh-ae tales originating from the Red Waste tell of the Pillar of the Earth crumbling into a spore-dust when time itself ends.


Monolithos (One stone, Latin), Monolith (T) : A species of Red Waste xenofungi that comes in colours of light yellow to dark green. They grow skyward once great in size, although some fungi grow twisted due to the fierce winds. Because of their ability to grow endlessly and endure, they are multi-purposeful to the Red Waste xh-ii. Monolith fungi is used as fire-food, weaponry, arts, dinnerware, toys, etc. The tallest feature in the Red Waste is a monolith. (See The Pillar of the Earth)

Xh-ae Cultural Terms

Denling (X) : A period of a xh-ae’s life that is simplified as the Terran equivalent of early childhood years. This stage is named for the xh-ae needing regular interaction with other children in social dens (Terran equivalent of nursery school) led by elders. Denlings range from the Elysium years of 5 to 10~, with there being no fully-set ending point to this part of a xh-ae’s life, taking into consideration every individual’s differing neurological abilities. Where some may leave denling status at 8, another may leave at 15. (See nestling and stumbler.)


Nestling (X) : A period of a xh-ae’s life that occurs once their egg has finished it’s incubation period and a xh-ae is born from it. Nestlings are blind from birth until approximately two weeks pass, when the eyes begin to open and protrude from their sockets into retractable eyestalks.


Twice-parent, twice-mother (X) : A xh-ae term for a grandparent if it was directly translated from universal xh-ae language. Xh-ae households are often consisting of a twice-mother’s family, her children, and her twice-nestlings. Twice-mothers are called what they are because they often are a second parent to nestlings and help raise them just as much as their own mother.

Places & Communities

Elysium, "Our Elysium", Project Elysium (T), Planet DA 2109 c : The nickname N.E.C.T.A.R gave to the planet Planet DA 2109 c that they "discovered". It is named after the place of paradise in Greek and Roman mythology where immortal heroes went upon death. This planet rotates around two suns, one significantly smaller than the other. Since 1752AT terrans have colonised a small island on Elysium for their colonisation project, creating it with equal parts robot grease (expensive, subservient) and monitored convicts' sweat (cheap, disloyal).


N.E.C.T.A.R. , National Exoplanetary Colonization Technologies Agency for Research (T) : A mega corporation on the Mothership of terrans, They will always put "humanity" first. Even if the canon fodder is terrans. Even if the canon fodder is a whole, vibrant society of aliens that are as equally as sapient as terrans.