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Good question. Kind of curious myself---I'd imagine not many...Who would actually even want to go there?

 

Explorers, exiles, people fleeing justice, people looking for a better life in unexploded territory, traders looking for new markets or new things to sell, prospectors, etcetera

 

The Unknown Regions Sourcebook suggests: Anzati, Chadra-Fan, Ishi Tib, Krevaaki, Nikto, Shistavenan, Sluissi, Squib, Verpine. Of course, anyone who falls into the categories you listed above might go. I have a Twi’lek explorer and a Togorian who escaped from slavery in my story set in the Unknown Region (as well as a Human wildlife biologist).

 

Good points @Gamiel. I suppose I was assuming most 'explorers' or perhaps people who don't know what lives there and who go there are really just asking to be eaten/enslaved by something

 

May I then present some animals from the unknown regions, quoted from the fanon thread.

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Enslaved don't mean that you can't continue your gene line, at least as long there are members of both genders among the slaves.

 

Also @Raissa Baiard if you are interested in possible xenobiology or alternativ wildlife for planets do I have some ideas

 

@Gamiel, sure, if you’ve got anything suitable for a jungle environment. Most of the wildlife I’ve got so far are from the Unknown Regions Sourcebook and their entry on the planet Giaca, I’ve also added a few things like kabomani (tapirs in spaaaace). My wildlife biologist, who specializes in birds, is mostly a supporting character.

 

Jungle enviorment (non-deathworld) and a focus on birds...

First of here is a link to Speculative Evolution Wiki's bird category page, after all why create new when you can copy, their page about Skull Island could also be of interest


Things you may have though of are:
* a group of birds that has evolved in such way that their wings have turned into forelimbs that they use when walking, evolving into shapes similar to mammals or reptiles, if with beaks and covered in feathers.
* feathers can have evolved into protective quills
* since we are dealing with alien birds here so they don't need to have evolved in similar way to our birds, f.ex. no feathers (like Coruscant's hawkbat) or no beak (like the Mrlssi; at least in their original appearance)
* when it comes to jungleworlds so are large insects a classic (going from cat sized to gigantic)


Also, here is something I'm planning to post in the fanon thread that could be an invasive species on Giaca:
"Trogodon
Believed to have been created by Asaatthi bioalchemists as guardians the trogodon are reptilian centauroids with crocodile-like heads, lower bodies and skin. Most of them are semi-sentient at best but has an ambush predator’s patience and cunning, and some of them have been known to use simple weapons (like clubs) and/or lures (like the remains of a previous prey). They are not territorial, at east as long food is a-plenty, so sudden attacks by groups of trogodons are not unknown but they are not pack hunters by nature so there is no teamwork among them.

An intelligent trogodon emerges infrequently and in their natural environment are able to lay traps; fully understand how to use weapons; create simpler weapons and items; work and coordinate with other trogodons (the normal trogodons seem to defer to an intelligent one by instinct and follow its order); communicate with non-trogodons and even trade. Asaatthi often pic up intelligent trogodon when they can find them and use them as bodyguards or have them lead their dim-witted kin in raids against people the asaatthi think are engrossing on their territory. Trogodon raised by asaatthi are better trained in tactics and fully capable in handling technology, even pilot spaceship and are often equipped with more advanced weapons. Some intelligent trogodons can be found among the stars without any asaatthi leading them, they usually work or slave as exotic barbarian mercenaries or bodyguards even if they can be found in other professions – like Braaah the Bard who uses his whole body to play a personal drum set.

Trogodon are coldblooded and prefer to live near fresh- or brackish-water but have no problem with saltwater or even living in areas with little water, as long as the temperature is right, even if they lose much of their natural advantage on dry land. They are carnivores and have no problem eating rotten meat.

Trogodon could be found on all words that was part of the Asaatthi Empire and can still be found on most of them and have also spread to new words."

 

Now, I don't know what you have already established about Giaca but here are some possible world building bunnies that you could use for inspiration, another planet or for just an area:
* The Future is Wild has some far out ideas that could be of use
* only one kind of species group exist, so all animals belong to that one - f.ex. all animals are mammalian-, reptile-, avian-, insect- or other based.
* a classic but cheep way to show that you are in a different world is to have all the animals looking like Earth animals but with six limbs, extra eyes, eye-stalks, and/or similar.
* the vegetation is in an other colour than green.
* the animal-life has no fur, feathers or scales instead the skin is smooth and slightly rubbery, not unlike the skin of a dolphin or whale - probably only possible in areas/worlds with high humidity.
* one or more (if not all) of the world's plants are able to move around
* the animal life is dinosaur-like mammals covered in fur
* mangrove forests grow around all the continents and islands, making them appear much larger then they are from space
* most/all animal life can fly or at lest glide
* most/all animal life is capable of climbing trees
* the animal life lack eyes and instead use echolocation and/or other senses to navigate – many of them have whiskers and/or antennas.
* the plant sap is corrosive

 

Biology check in for world-building bunnies if interested

Why not a mix? Also by 'one group' you are referring to one Earth category? Earth phylogeny is extremely complicated on its own even for one group.

Only if the planet or environment lacks enough light for eyes not to evolve would this make sense. Maybe they have very simple eyes on top of their heads to detect minimal light at least or can detect light somehow else (see hydras, sea urchins)

That's gonna be a big problem for any herbivores who feed on said plants, unless they have defenses.

/end nerdy/complicated/sciency things

 

EDIT: Ops, wrong post

 

* if I understood it right so was much of the animals and some of the plant life on Giaca poisonous - possibly are the Peroenians and/or Shorak on Giaca (and/or other group/s) using those poisons.
- poison users among the people could be something everybody do or something only an elite use.
* my fanon species Lindorm that come from somewhere in the UR and are travelling the galaxy are highly interested in poisons and could therefore be found Giaca
* acid algae that sears the skin can be found over areas of still water
* the picture of we have of Giaca don't have anything that show the size of things, for all we know so could it be that the grass we see is similar in high to elephant grass, or maybe the trees are actually nothing but shrubbery.
* if you want any dangerous plants so do the D&D's Monster Manuals have some that you can use.
* animals that hunt by creating pitfall traps
* just take a look in any larger book about animals and use any strange/unusual/I-did-not-know-that-existed animals as the templates for the more common animals on the world
* you can never go wrong with giant snakes
* hostile, hyper-violent barbarian tribes living isolated outside of the civilized areas - most likely using poisoned weapons


Here are some quotes from the Exalted RPG that could be of inspiration:
* "progress is blocked by a seemingly unending wall of deadfalls, widowmakers and harsh terrain."
* "the ground becomes invisible under the undergrowth and tree roots, and the traveler sees only an endless cathedral of trees, stretching up and down, from zenith to nadir, a holy green perfection of leaves and still air"
* "Barbarian tribes live their lives in the Far East in a world that is bounded by trees, where they never see the sky for leaves or the ground for roots."
* "All areas of the forest are rich in useful plants. Not only do edibles and useful vegetation grow in abundance, but the woods bristle with a wide range of medicinal and recreational herbs. The woods also provide an array of deadly plant toxins, some so lethal as to cause the heart to stop a few seconds after skin contact. Only the most daring explorers or most driven merchants risk the deep woods in search of the rarest plants."

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Because a planet with just one group would be something different.

Of course not, this is SW we are talking about, Earth do not exist in the GFFA.

Or maybe they evolved good enough other senses too ever need to evolve eyes. Or maybe eyes just never evolved, evolution is after all not something predetermined. Or some maybe all the animal life is evolved from some groups of animals that was gensculpted to lack eyes for some reason.

You say that as if that would be considered a problem instead of a feature for the plants.

 

I'm still confused what you mean by 'one group'...but I'm a scientist so I need phylogeny! Birds are reptiles, and mammals come from reptiles so.....OK so one... 'group', ie, mammal-like creatures only? But their diversity would be very high on said planet? I'm just curious about your ideas.

Yes, 'eyes' as we know them don't have to follow any Earth pattern, but if they can detect any kind of light they need some kind of other mechanism. It all depends on environment, really.

Welll....it's not a problem for the plant, if the reason the sap is corrosive is to keep away herbivores. But if ALL the plants have corrosive sap, to me, this makes no sense. There'll be no animal life if nothing can eat them. When I world-build, it's all about the little details we sometimes overlook (I mean...depends how realistic the author wants the story to be...and I guess how nerdy an author is... )

 

EDIT: ops, wrong thread

 

I think the whole: warm-blooded, feathers, beaks, and such makes them something different.

yes but they are not reptiles.

Will answer this later

You seems to assume that the native animal life has not adopted to the sap.

 

I believe that I am following what gizkaspice is trying to say.

There is something called a food chain, which even in the GFFA, you would think that one exists, eg. plants get nutrients from the soil or insects that they catch, lifeforms eat the plants, larger predators eat the plant-eating animals, and so on.

While in Real Life, some plants have corrosive sap, and separately some animals have adapted to working around plant defenses (though I don't know any that have adapted to corrosive sap), if the plant sap in your particular environment is corrosive, what are your fauna supposed to subsist on, in order to live long enough to adapt to this thing that they cannot eat?

Actually, that is an interesting idea for a wild vine. If like with Xenomorphs, "you don't dare kill it", this plant could cover the land mass(es), cutting off light to, and strangling the rest of the flora.

 

I got that. My first comment was more of joke but my other did point out that @gizkaspice seems to be coming at this with the presumption that the herbivores (or at least some of them) has not adapted to the sap and can eat the vegetation with the corrosive sap. Also, not all of the vegetation need to have corrosive sap, maybe only the liana counterpart has it creating a problem for anybody hacking their way though the jungle. And the sap don't need to be super corrosive, just corrosive enough that your machete's edge has gone blunt after a days work or similar.

That is a cool idea.

 

First of: for this concept to really work the world's animals need to be similar to Earth ones (a world with scally, beaked mammalians is strange enough in itself), even if it do needs to be slightly different from Earth counterparts.

Second: I just want to mention that I stole this concept from the RPG article Något mer mellan himmel och jord, Solens nya världar by Anders Blixt and Erik Sieurin where the animal-life on the planet Artemis (which replaces the asteroid belt in the Solar system) is fully mammalian.

Now with that out of the way: this concept would mean that all animal life on a world

What this would mean is that, if we take mammalians as example: that there is no birds, reptiles, amphibians or other (possibly there is fish, depending on how far you want to go with this concept), instead day bats would be ruling the sky; we will have some kind of river seals, large utters or other (river wolverine?) instead of crocodiles (I admit that this concept would not be that notable in colder regions but in tropical ones it more likely would).

For birds it would mean that there is no mammalians, reptiles, amphibians or other (once again so could there be fish), instead we would have something like vortexes instead of whales; large flightless birds would take up the role of grassers, with very long legged and necked examples filling the niche of giraffes; penguin like birds would be found alongside the rivers, functioning like crocodiles or grassing from the river beds; etcetera.

Is this explanation enough or do I need to write more?

 

@Gamiel Thanks, that totally makes sense and I get your line of thinking now. If the author is looking to make the animals similar to Earth animals, I can understand this perspective. To me it doesn't really seem 'alien-enough', but more like an alternative Earth--nothing wrong with that at all for story purposes.

One of my pet peeves in SW though is the concept that just because something is 'avian' or whatever, it absolutely needs to have a beak, feathers, lay eggs, etc. Something can 'look' similar to an avian, but be furry or give live-birth (ovoviviparity is a thing!)--after all it's an alien and its evolution is completely different. But that's where the power of authors can come in to create interesting and unique life forms for their stories

I dunno about that; once you find things like the platypus, echidna,and the pangolin this scally-beaked mammal world better be impressive!

 

True, but I was thinking of the whole animal population, not just some species.

 

@Raissa Baiard here are the Wikipedia links to some speculative documentaries about alien life that might be inspiring for your world building
Natural History of an Alien
Extraterrestrial
Alien Planet

There is also The Future Is Wild which is about possible future life on Earth.

You can find those speculative documentaries on YouTube and I made some searches for some of the planets/creatures presented in those documentaries and you can find them with longer explanation and/or pictures at different wikis.

@gizkaspice might also find them interesting since they tackle the ideas about alien life and its development from a fully scientific (if highly speculative) angle.

 

To add to @Gamiel 's list, I would also recommend the wildlife of star wars: a field guide book and any other alien creature designs by Terryl Whitlatch for inspiration/world building. I admit many of her designs are kind of copy/paste Earth designs, but they emphasize the importance of looking at an animal's environment to understand how it would evolve in response to that. Also..on that note..anything by Dougal Dixon as well, really. After Man: A Zoology of the Future is a good one for some bizarre inspirations and applying that to SW planets.

 

@Raissa Baiard just wondering, have you come up with any culture/s for Peroenians and/or Shorak? If yes, are you willing to share?

It has it own page on Speculative Evolution Wiki - very helpful if you can't get your hands on the book yourself.

 

@Gamiel not too much, since the story takes place on Giaca and I only have one major and one minor character who are Shorak so far (Most of the story takes place in Station 3Z3, where the population is mixed and includes the Twi'lek explorer, the Human biologist and the main character, whose escape pod crashed on the planet. I haven't done anything with the political situation besides what's mentioned in the Unknown Regions RPG guide, and I don't have any ideas for art, architecture, etc. since my characters are living in the wilderness in prefab houses. I do have some very small ideas for a Force tradition for the Shorak that emphasizes the interconnectedness of all life (tentatively called the One). Force sensitive individuals in their tradition tend to manifest as beastwardens who are capable of bonding with other creatures (though these individuals have the potential to do other types of Force talents. They've been mostly ignored by the Jedi since they are so far in the Unknown Regions). However, the Shorak have become fairly secular over the years, so while most Shorak have a nominal reverence for the One, those who claim to be beastwardens are thought to be anywhere from quaintly eccentric to downright crazy.

Of course, you're welcome to check out the story, if you'd like to see how Giaca and the Shorak are developing so far

 

Making them perfect prey for all the mystical threats fount in the UR