I am nearing the end of my current series of posts about the planet Gurx, but I still have a bunch of drawings of animals from that world, so here’s one last post of them just to use them up:

Sooashoo

Sooashoo are related to Twooay, but are not eusocial like them. Instead, these are solitary animals who only come together when it is time to mate. During their lives they travel far and wide, but they are driven to return to their place of birth when it comes time to mate, resulting in mass migrations to certain points in Gurx’s oceans that attract the attention of many predators.

Gudiv

Gudiv are ubiquitous across Grux, and have been for long enough that they are enshrined in the myth and idiom of Strondovarian culture. Gudiv primarily prey on corpses, and breed in them as well, so Strondos consider them signs of death and a metaphor for one being forgotten as time goes on. As such, they’re not popular.

Bweggel

Bweggel are cave-dwelling creatures that are completely sightless and rely on overdeveloped Rel that allow them to hear, smell, and even feel the slightest of air movement in the pitch dark environments. Bweggel grow to be about 30cm tall on average and have a gecko-like ability to climb walls. They tend to live near the openings of caves or near underground streams, which are locations where they might find small Vootuph to prey upon.

Gethaihiti

A small Vootuph species that live in the grasslands, Gethaihiti are notable for a mating ritual in which the two interested parties impregnate one another and then fight to the death so only the strongest of the two will get to raise the next generation. Strondovarians consider this to be highly humorous, since no matter how “strong” the resulting generations are, Gethaihiti are still just little bugs.

Emoaisa

A massive form of seagoing Lapaouger, the Emoaisa are ambush predators that hang out near watering holes waiting for some unsuspecting land creature to come by for a drink. The Emoaisa’s forelimbs are adapted into strong grasping appendages that pull their prey into a set of barbs and clamp down, making it nearly impossible for the victim to struggle free before being drowned. They have been known to, on occasion, make the mistake of attacking some piece of Strondo technology like a boat or a robot, which doesn’t end well for anyone.

Iveakkia

A pretty standard Glounaph species, Iveakkia are large and live in massive flocks (though their numbers are much lower now than they were before the Strondovarians industrialized the planet). Iveakkia mate for life and put more care into raising their offspring than most other Glounaph. They are extremely clever and have been observed using tools.

The Strondovarians have plenty of kinds of vehicles, including wheeled ones, flying craft, and boats. We’d recognize all of that here on Earth. But one of the most popular kinds of conveyance on planet Gurx are what we’d call “Mechs” (and they’d call “Strenyacav”). You know the ones: armoured machines that are like big robots with a living pilot. Strondos love those.

One element of Strondovarian technology, relevant not just to the mechs, but all electronics and machines designed by Strondo culture: it’s all designed to be modular and universally compatible. Parts and components can be salvaged and reused with easy. And planned obsolescence would make designers into pariahs. All this, combined with the generally lackadaisical Strondovarian attitude toward possession of material goods, has resulted in a culture of mech pilots that have their own unique custom designs, but don’t specifically own their own mechs. When they need a mech, they’ll grab the nearest available one and quickly modify it to match their preferences. Often this is done simply by bringing the mechs into large hangars that perform the customization based on the pilot’s profile as it is registered in the Knowledge Bank. In a way, this makes mechs the largest reactive devices a Strondo is likely to use.

This is a pretty standard Personal Mech as one might find being used by security forces. Designed for a single pilot, they can probably fit a single passenger if they’re not specced so heavily that there’s no room left. In addition to security or combat, single-pilot mechs will often be adapted to roles such as construction or exploration of dangerous areas.

The standard design of a Personal Mech is made to emulate the exoskeletal Vootuph species found on the planet Gurx, and as such will occasionally be referred to by the names of such species if the resemblance is enough that the Strondos find the comparison funny.

This second example has a body plan much more like that of a Strondovarian, and is much more massive in physical size, standing as they do around 50 metres tall on average. While they’re often designed so that a single Strondo can pilot them, to operate one of these to the full extent of its potential usually requires two or three pilots working together in the cockpit.

These massive machines have peaceful uses, they have much more room for transportation of passengers for example, but they are generally designed for combat. On planet Gurx, it is now rare for combat of this sort to be necessary, but every city has several such mechs waiting for a day when gigantic fighting machines may be needed.

All of my Superman Thoughts posts are arbitrary ideas and niche beliefs about characters I don’t own and about which my opinions don’t actually matter, but usually I can defend my beliefs well enough. Not so this time. This time it’s really just an idea I had and liked:

Jon Kent should be a psychiatrist.

Jon is the child of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. In the comics that DC is publishing now, he has grown and taken on the role of Superman for Earth. In spite of certain elements of what they’ve done with him (they’ve tied him intimately to the Batman characters since the beginning, and you know I don’t like that) I like Jon a lot.

Jon is a good chance to do things with Superman that are different from Clark. They’re positioning him as a more “activist” superhero than his father and the only problem I have there is that Clark should also be seen that way. Right now they’re exploring his sexuality. He’s Bi, as I always said I’d want to write Clark, except I would never have been willing to split up Lois and Clark to explore it. With Jon you can. But one aspect I’ve not seen covered at all and which would give us a real place to play up his differences from his father is his occupation. What does Jon want to do with his life outside of superheroing?

Well, as I said above, I think he should go into psychiatry. He could become a Superman for Mental Health, as it were. When Marvel’s superhero psychiatrist, Doc Samson is written to my liking, he’s the type who still has to get into superfights and stuff, but he does it with the intent to help the person he’s fighting. He cares deeply about deescalating and talking. Obviously one doesn’t need to be a psychiatrist to do those things (when Clark is written well, it’s true of him), but doing it as a profession is different.

With Clark, investigative journalism is the perfect choice. It’s a story engine that lets him seek out the corruption in society and find ways to help people. With Jon, psychiatry could be the same thing. It just fits, and it’s different from his father.

I know I have no way of getting this to happen, but I’ve now put it on the Internet and that’s a start. If Jon ends up a reporter like his parents, they’ve failed the character.