Concept Race

This is the most interesting section, for in it I tell you the real reason this planet is unique. The year is split into two seasons: The hot season and the cold season, and each has a sea: the hot sea, composed of Nitrophenol, and the cold sea, made of water, like ours.
In the hot season, the planet is at its most lively. At the peak of the season the temperature averages at 200℃. The hot ocean is liquid, and the cold ocean has evaporated, and floats in the air as water vapour. This makes the planet incredibly humid, raising the temperature and making thermosynthesis more effective, promoting the local life. Most life is in the ocean, away from the dangers of the cold season, but I’m focusing life on land. The Nitrophenol is like water on Earth to the planets life, and must be drunk by the occupants for sustenance.
In the cold season, the planet goes into a deep freeze. At the peak of the season the temperature averages at temperatures as low as 40℃. All life is forced into a deep hibernation, as the hot sea freezes at 115℃, and so cannot be drunk. Within a week, the temperature falls below 100℃, and water begins to condense. The sea soon reaches kilometres in depth, rising throughout the season. This is the reason for the lack of life on land - the pressure from the sea becomes intense and convection currents begin to create liquid hurricanes. In a few unfortunate areas the landscape in stripped bare, all life in the area is torn apart, and the landscape is reformed. In other places the currents are less intense, and the local life is just shredded to bits. Usually, though, the organisms’ shells only have to withstand weaker currents, and most life remains intact. This continues until the end of the cold season, as the cold sea evaporates and the hot sea melts, and life resumes.

The Thermovar is a black fungus-like organism which uses thermosynthesis, and drinks Nitrophenol with roots similar to earth plants. It also absorbs metals from the ground, which are common in the area, to be used as reinforcement to their structure. Its main, and only, herbivorous predator (if you call it that), that has survived with a decent population to present is the Varvore. It mates by covering the bottom of the flap things on its underside (see later on, I haven’t mentioned them yet) with asexual spores, which stick to the Varvores. The males of that species are also reproducing at this time, and so travel between the plants and gather more spores from other Thermovars. On contact with each other, the spores become fertilised and lose their stickiness, falling off after a while, the result being that the spores land in an area away from the Thermovars as the Varvores travel between them.
It takes four years for them to grow full size (that’s including time in hibernation, during which it doesn’t grow). When fully grown, they can reach up to 1 meter in hight, but mainly they grow in width, growing as wide as 10 meters. They keep short to absorb heat from near the planet’s surface. They have a shape similar to a mushroom’s when viewed from above, the roots joining in a short stem supporting an umbrella-like disk which doesn’t droop as much as it would otherwise thanks to the reinforcing metals, however it often droops when it reaches a diameter of 4 meters or more, the widest almost touching the floor. On the underside, flaps of whatever it is the Thermovars are made of (with no metal reinforcement, because they don’t need it, so it would be a waste) hang between the stem and tip to provide a greater surface area to absorb heat. To breathe, its roots absorb silicon dioxide from the ground which get exhaled as oxygen from the umbrella-like top.
In the final week before the freezing of the hot sea and the start of the cold season, it sweats out a thick coat of Nitrophenol, which will freeze in the cold season to provide a protective shell against the cold sea currents. On the final day, all internal processes stop - it can’t get a supply of Nitrophenol, get a good supply of heat, or exhale in the cold season so it has to stop all vital processes, make itself a strangely shaped lifeless object, leaving only a tiny spark of life ticking over to reboot itself when the next hot season comes around. In other words, the level of hibernation life has to go into to survive to cold season with no energy source verges on complete death. They die to survive; if they didn’t die to survive, they’d die. Another strange statement is that they can die while dead (by being torn apart by the cold sea).

The Varvore is a dark grey three-legged herbivore with a metal skeletal structure with radial symmetry and, of course, drinks Nitrophenol. It also has the ability to thermosynthesise, but not as effectively as the Thermovar, and more energy is needed for walking, so this isn’t as efficient at providing energy. It gets nutrition from eating the Thermovar, as well as metals, the more malleable ones being used in it’s skin for extra protection in general life, extra defence against the cold sea, and the tougher metals being used for bones. In the first week after the cold season, it reproduces using a sort of reproductive-spitting - the females spray a patch of ground under a Thermovar (which becomes the families ‘nest’) with seed-like eggs, filled with nutrients, and the males smell for them and spray a fertiliser over the same patch, fertilising most of the eggs. When fertilised, the eggs begin weakly thermosynthesising, and use the nutrients to branch out roots which begin soaking up extra nutrients, and eventually attach underground with the Thermovar, from which it can leech everything it needs for the main creature grow, like an umbilical cord to a host parent. The foetus develops on the surface in an embryonic protective bubble until eventually tearing out of the bubble and severing the connection with its roots. By this time the cold season is approaching, so it empties its shell-stock (more on that in a moment) and goes into hibernation.
It takes the Varvore (again including time in hibernation) three years to grow to full size, which also includes the first year in the embryo bubble. When fully grown, they are 30 centimeters high (standing) and around 20 centimeters diameter. They have a body resembling a three legged starfish, the corners of the body extending into legs. The body itself is only about 5 centimeters high. The joint at the top of the metal legs can be put at almost any angle, allowing walking having any one of the legs at the front, as well as agile climbing, and the legs end in a squashed sphere shape, one flattened side joining to the bone with a joint resembling the one at the top of the legs, and the other facing the ground. The soles of the foot-pad things are covered in tiny bone-metal hooks which go through the skin and allow the Varvore to climb the Thermovars. The underside has flaps of skin similar to those on the underside of the plant, but shorter, which are also used for thermosynthesis. Also on the underside, in the middle, is a triangular beak-like mouth, with three jaws, which they can extend to eat the Thermovars, but they have to crouch to reach. They do not have a sense of sight, the lighting level changes too much for eyes to be much use. Instead, they depend on an advanced sense of smell, with a ring of tiny nostril-like smell censors, through which they inhale, around their head. They do not have a sense of hearing, either, the eardrums (or things resembling them) would burst in the cold season under the pressure and currents of the cold sea; but they do not need them, very little communication is needed, and the little they do is using the sense of smell. They do not have a sense of touch, for a similar reason for not having hearing - the experience of hibernation is painful, chunks of their body can get torn off, so any with touch would easily die of pain. It inhales oxygen through a ring of nostril-like things on top, and ‘breathes out’ silicon dioxide by occasionally ‘puking’ it from the beak-like thing.
In the final fortnight before the cold season returns, Varvores become less active and don’t travel as far, conserving Nitrophenol, which gets stored in an internal sack, called the shell-stock. As the final days approach, they stop moving altogether, and begin sweating a thin coat of Nitrophenol from their shell-stock, shrinking slightly as it empties to minimise surface area. This doesn’t protect it as well as the Thermovars’ shell protects them, so the Varvores huddle under their nest Thermovars for protection before becoming inactive. The death rate of Varvores in the cold season is much higher than Thermovars, driving them close to extinction, and it is only using their ability to multiply very quickly and parasitic qualities that they survive.

The evolution of Paliodont

I emerged from Multicellular colony stage as an organism which resembled a mosquito larvae, except with two limb like structures which aided in direction as well as the kinking movement of my species body. At this stage I was in the Pelagic ocean zone. I had to feed on small algae like areas, basically a green goop that I had to swim through for sustenance.

After quite a few generations and deaths of not only starvation but being eaten by huge filter feeders, my larvae had lengthened a fair bit and was much faster. It took a few deaths trying to transition into the shallower oceans as my species was not capable of tolerating the environmental change but eventually I made it. At this stage I found that I was able to reach the ocean floor without dying from the pressure, although it was very dark and nearly impossible to see. The first time I went down I was killed by something on the bottom but I couldn't see what it was.

After a few generations I was able to see much easier, and my critter had developed four large sensory pits (I assumed they were optical) over what had originally been small light sensing areas. I had also developed fins which stretched like bat wings between my limbs and my body. Down on the ocean floor, I noticed that there was virtually limitless supplies of nutritious algae on the ocean floor. By now I was much larger, about the size of a Human hand but my general shape hadn't particularly changed much, I still had the two limbs and kinking movement. I had also developed a spiked tail which aided a lot when fleeing from these shrimp-like predators (Albeit bigger faster and nastier, and generally more demonic than shrimp) as they only hurt themselves when grabbing me from behind.

I noticed something rather peculiar. Sometimes my creature swam much faster than usual. At other times it seemed to struggle to stay fully buoyant, as if something was pulling it up or down. However this was only temporary as my creature seemed to adapt to this force and had a swim bladder like organ which seemed to expand and contract slowly over every hour. Eventually this organ was fully internal as it occasionally got me killed when the shrimp-demons burst it with these new spiked limbs they developed... It seems I'm a main source of prey for them and they adapted those for the sole purpose of debilitating my species. After this organ became internal I noticed a lot less of the shrimp demons around.

I then met what had killed me when I first ventured down. There were huge worm like creatures. except they were plated with thick exoskeletons, kind of like a centipede but they moved like a sea snake, and had crab-like pincers around their mouth which could extend a long way, and acted like palps. They were much faster than I had expected and were able to snatch me up by the front of my species head and down me in one go.

Algae wasn't so common near the surface in this shallower part of the ocean, probably due to the abundance of algae feeders like myself so getting it from the bottom was almost essential. However I noticed that about every hour the ocean floor was much deeper than it was earlier - by about 30 meters, and at this time my species was unable to venture down to it. I guessed it was the tide although my eye-pits were not able to see any land or moons to confirm it.

I think my species reproductive strategy is similar to a moths. In-game, every month or so they all seem to congregate at the top of the ocean at night, when the sea is at its deepest. I am beginning to think this is a reaction to tidal processes, and my creature has a Geo-taxic response to the gravity of the planets moons. So essentially they are going towards the moon like a moth, although responding toa different stimulus. My creatures eye pits are not strong enough to see the moonlight, and most of the predators are gone during the day which makes for great spawning time - it seems to be a random process of releasing sperm and eggs simultaneously - its an asexual creature.

After a few generations of frequent visits to the floor for food and the surface for reproduction, avoiding death from the shrimp-demons above (which now more resembled lobsters with two flipper-like tails) and the centipede-worm-beasts below I was about as big as a rabbit. I had developed a large plate on my head which was very hard - almost like an exoskeleton but it was also supported by an internal bone like structure which made up the rest of my body. The shrimp and worms were obviously causing heavy selection against my softer comrades.

Additionally my species had developed a long trawl like prong in front which really helped guide ocean floor muck containing algae into two scoop like structures which led to an internal filter mouth beneath the plate. The plate acted like a big shovel at times allowing me to hide by burrowing under the muck, saving my skin multiple times from the worm beasts (I think the shrimp demons are extinct now I haven't seen them in a long time :D)

Its been 25 million years since I entered the shallower ocean and I had never actually seen dry land until something utterly devastating happened. Minding my own business, trawling the ocean floor, a huge rumble distorted everything on screen and extremely violent water turbulence buffeted my critter around. I assumed this was an earthquake of some form, but it was immensely powerful. A few seconds later my creature died. Jumping back in I realized I was constantly taking damage. The water level had heated up by 2 degrees and was much more acidic.

I was able to evade most damage luckily by burrowing in the ocean muck. After a couple generations I noticed many new creatures that I had never seen before at all. Or maybe I had. One greatly resembled the worm beast but was vastly different. It seems in this great extinction event many organisms underwent rapid evolution, except for me that is. It wasn't long before I realized that there was a huge Island nearby that I had never noticed. With bad vision I still was able to make out the distinctive cone shape of a volcano, towering above the ocean, although clearly dormant now. While trawling nearby the island I noticed the sea level rapidly declining and before I knew it I was stranded out of the ocean, suffocating, flailing around hopelessly.

The tides on this planet were insane. This intertidal region, which every day or so goes from about 30 meters underwater to 30 meters above water is surprisingly, full of life. Among them are strange flower-like structures, which resembles sea tulips except with hard outer shells, When they are out of the water they open up, absorbing light for sustenance, and when they are underwater they close up, protected by the thick shell. The land here, both above and below water is layered in a bright orange moss/lichen. Isolated rock pools are abundant with small Crustaceous life.

After a single generation my creature had drastically changed. It had developed an extra set of limbs and fins. I assumed this was a chance mutation, or perhaps accelerated by the rapidly changing environment, because at the same time I had developed spike like feet on the end of each limb which when stuck into the ground allowed a slow but guided dragging movement. This extra set of fins however made me slightly slower in the water but my creature was moving in a completely different way, it was now rippling its body like a dolphin rater than the kinking swish it used to move by.

A few generations later and my creature had more or less mastered movement on land, had much better eyesight and could stay out of the water for much longer periods of time. I found that now my species reproduced on land instead of at the top of the ocean. probably to avoid predators. There isn't much life on the island apart from the odd scrub, and orange moss-like stuff. Virtaully no predators so it is a prime breeding ground, and sure enough several generations later and my species can breathe on both land and in water. Its legs fold up neatly when emerging onto land and the fins slide back into crevices. I think this happened because these packs of small, fast, land dwelling shrimp-like raptor-things (in the way they hunt) kept attacking the vulnerable fins when I was on land which led to infection, blood loss and occasionally death.

My creature (Called a Paliodont by the autonamer) still has to feed on oceanic algae under the floor but with the ever growing communities of plant life (Which seem to tolerate being underwater and out of water) I expect that soon my Palidont may move to higher ground, abandoning the cruel tidal ocean forever.

I have played Thrive for a while, and I'm in the middle of the aware stage, but not very close to the awakening stage. Right now, my creature resembles a spiky komodo dragon with webbed, clawed feet and an anteater-like mouth and tongue evolved for eating insects out of arboreal nests filled with small aliens that look like six-legged spiders.
My creature lives in a tidal forest area, so my creature spends high tide in the branches of the trees eating the spiders. However, during low tide, my creature feeds on close relatives of the spiders that look more like sea scorpions that live in similar nests underwater.
Earlier in the game, my creature's hands and feet were more developed for climbing trees, since I didn't notice the "river scorpions" at that point and only hunted the spiders. Now that I know they're there, I wait 'till low tide to get to them, which is much easier than evolving a more adapted respiratory system for larger lung capacities. At low tide, the water's low enough for my creature to swim with its jack-of-all-trades climbing & swimming feet. Plus, it's safer, since these spiky mososaur things swim around during high tide. If I had my creature swim during high tide, they'd come over and eat my creature.
Right now, there's still some danger from the flying pterosaur-dragonflies that swoop down from the sky to grab members of my species. However, they aren't always out there, since the mososaurs primarily feed on their larvae during high tide, reducing the chance of the dragonflies reaching adulthood.
Currently, my creatures have a nice niche in which they have two similar food sources. This should keep them safe, should any natural disasters happen, like a forest fire that wipes out the spiders but not the river scorpions.

On a planet not too dissimilar to ours, there lives a creature which has not yet been named by any sapient species, but I will now decide to call the Litorevenator Oliveriverii (or Litorv for short).


Planet
In the outer reaches of a galaxy on the opposite side of the Virgo Supercluster to the Milky Way, there is a little-known and unimpressive star in the middle of its life. Halfway across the galaxy from any sapient or spacefaring species, this solar system is as ordinary as any other in the universe. Close to the star lie the remnants of a massive rocky planet that tried to form but was pulled apart by its own gravity and that of its star, and now comprises of thousands of asteroids orbiting about as close to the star as Mercury is to the Sun. Beyond that are four rocky planets followed by two gaseous giants, all but one void of life. The fourth rocky planet lies in the star’s goldilocks zone and harbours a rich variety of life with climatic zones very similar to Earth’s. Two moons orbit the planet, one of which is large and close and the other smaller and further away.

Biome
Two massive continents make up most of the landmass on the planet, while a sea surrounds them both and covers around half the surface. On the western shore of a peninsula on one of the great continents lies a vast desert, bordered on two sides by sea and two by rainforest. At the most westerly point of the desert where the peninsula stretches out with sea on all sides lies the biome in which the Litorv can be found. Ragged cliffs and sand dunes give way to ocean almost instantly with no intermediate point. Along this border between the two radically different zones a series of caves populate the sand and cliffs, and it is in these caves that the Litorv lives.

Appearance
Slightly larger than a man, the Litorv walks on two legs, leaving its arms free. A long tail with a leaf-like shape at its end helps stabilise it, while its neck is long and flexible, allowing it to turn halfway around if need be. Two eyes are raised out of its round head on stalks, while its mouth is small but contains large teeth perfectly able to crush bone if the situation ever arose.

Lifestyle
Most Litorvs live in caves for shelter and warmth during the freezing desert nights. They are social and relatively friendly creatures, living in large groups so food can be easily obtained. Fish are their main food source, although tough desert plants and small land animals occasionally slip into their diet. They live like bears, hibernating in winter and sparring bloodlessly for mates. Very rarely do they venture further than a mile into the great desert, although it may be that they have to soon. Everything was going fine until a few years ago, when fish stocks mysteriously began diminishing, most likely due to adverse weather conditions across the sea. Food is now running out, and some Litorvs have been forced to foray deeper into the desert to survive. All that lives there are small invertebrates and dog-sized Ornithomimid-like creatures that run much faster than the Litorvs. So they are faced with a stark decision - stay in their current environment and hope the fish return, or venture into the wild sandy yonder and evolve to be faster and cope with the heat better.