made a really big poster about whale falls for uni this semester. enjoy

call that dragon’s den

W h a l e f a l l

C.W: Whale corpses

When a whale carcass floats down to the ocean floor in the abyssal zone, it creates an ecosystem called a 'whalefall', where a variety of deep marine life can live and be sustained for over 50 years.

This ecosystem has 4 stages:

Mobile Scavengers Stage

The first stage is when scavengers from around the plain gather to feast on the whales flesh - Typically by hagfish and sleeper sharks - until there is just bone.

This stage can last for months or up to 1.5 years.

Enrichment Opportunists Stage

This stage is when smaller scavengers - such as octopuses, crustaceans and molluscs - gather around the whale looking for tissue and bits of carcass left over from the first stage. This is also when osedax (boneworms) arrive and comsume the community of bacteria that eat the bone lipids.

This stage can last months or up to 5 years.

Sulfophilic Stage

In this stage the majority of scavengers have left and in its place are the boneworms and the community of chemosynthetic bacteria that break down the lipids in the bones and produces sulphide that can be consumed by other organisms like worms or shrimp.

This stage can last over 50 years.

Reef Stage

The final stage is when all the consumable material have been exhausted and the leftover bone creates a hard surface for abyssal filter feeders to latch onto. A 'reef' of sorts.

Whalefalls are one of many essential food-falls that sustain life at the bottom of the ocean, and are p cool i think anyway im done w my autism rant goodbye

FINAL PRINT DESIGN (hopefully released tomorrow)

oh god i'm so tired i had a sleep-debt nap today and spent a FUCKLOAD of time cutting cardboard in order to get packaging materials but

here we go

for those unfamiliar, this is a poem i wrote for the sideblog, you can find it here

whale fall artwork by Armando Veve

The ongoing impact of Brexit is like a political whalefall.

Except instead of the dead remains of a blue whale, it’s the bloated, swollen, fat carcass of some infernal creature not fit for this world, leaking oil and excrement, irradiated into oblivion, occasionally belching smoke, constantly pouring out blood-soaked disease ridden currency, setting rivers on fire and polluting the fuck out of the entire surrounding area leaving it irreparably damaged and riddled with disease for generations.

With NO ecological or scientific benefit whatsoever.

Hazmat crews trying to manage the contamination and contain it. And so on.

Faller (Monster)

(ISOPOD by Anastasia Berseneva)

CR9 TN Medium Monstrous Humanoid HD12

(As the name may suggest, these were built from the ground up as an terrestrial whalefall specialists, with the various giant beasties of pathfinder substituting for whales. I actually used fallers as a placeholder name but got attached to it, so here they are! They're up there in CR so that a caravan of five of them puts up a genuine threat for someone who might fight an Adult Red Dragon.

Also I don't love this art for fallers, but it was the most buggy of the bipedal isopods i could find.)

Fallers are wandering nomads who specialize in feeding on the carcasses of great beasts, such as giants, dragons, and large dinosaurs. They live in family groups of up to a dozen individuals and have no leader, employing an anarchic decision making process that may see these groups splitting and reforming as different individuals take different paths. A faller caravan’s lifestyle consists of divining the location to various monster falls and then traveling, possibly hundreds of miles, to such a banquet. Upon reaching such a corpse, they will claim it, defend it, and slowly harvest and feed off it until such a time as it grows thin and they must move on to fresher falls. It’s noteworthy that, due to their powerful innate divination magic, a group of fallers may set camp for a death before it occurs. Generally, these divinations hold true, and fallers find a warm corpse at their destination, but twists of fate are not unheard of, and fallers are generally prepared for battle if need be. Fallers are frequently seen ushering giant flies, which serve as a combination of pet and mount, enabling them to engage flying enemies and scout high-up or hard to reach places. These flys are surprisingly docile and loyal in a faller’s hands. 

Fallers are known to come into conflict with adventuring parties over the spoils of the latter’s conflicts; adventurers regularly stake claim to the loot and parts of a particularly dangerous foe, but fallers consider themselves owed the rewards of such a struggle, and practically speaking, are often unable to relocate to a new corpse before the threat of starvation looms. Unfortunately for many adventurers, fallers are trained combatants, and a particularly undiplomatic group of them may spell doom for an adventuring party soon after a proud triumph. Finally, fallers have been known to come into conflict with the cultures dragons and similar great beings surround themselves with; claiming the corpse of a lone dinosaur is one thing, but disassembling and eating a corpse may be less welcome when it’s the corpse of an important leader or respected member of a community. For this reason, cultures led by dragons frequently adopt a kill-on-sight principle for fallers, and kobolds in particular are known to litter a faller’s anticipated path with the most lethal and cruel traps they can manage. 

Despite this, faller’s oracular abilities are also known to a few peoples, and some cultures seek out such beings to ask questions, sometimes deliberately luring them by killing a large animal. Fallers are a practical and isolationist type, however, and must be provided some benefit to expend their divining abilities; especially since such abilities are necessary for their way of life.

Fallers' endonym is a series of rasps and hisses unpronounceable to the average mammal or reptile.

This hunched over biped has a hard, segmented shell on its back, a number of segmented limbs, and large black eyes.

Misc- CR9 TN Medium Monstrous Humanoid HD12 Init:+4 Senses: Perception:+22 Scent, Darkvision 60ft Stats- Str:22(+6) Dex:19(+4) Con:23(+6) Int:15(+2) Wis:24(+7) Cha:16(+3) BAB:+12/+7/+2 Space:5ft Reach:5ft Defense- HP:138(12d10+54) AC:24(+4 Dex, +2 Armor, +8 Natural) Fort:+12 Ref:+12 Will:+15 CMD:38 Resist: Acid 10, Cold 10 Immunity: Disease Special Defenses: DR2/Bludgeoning Offense- mwk Glaive +19/+14/+9(1d10+9/x3) or Net +18(Entangle, 10ft) or 2 Claw +16(1d6+6 plus trip) CMB:+18 (+2 Racial bonus to trip) Speed:30ft Special Attacks: Studied Target +3 (Attack, Damage, Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, Survival; Move or Swift Action) Feats- Great Fortitude, Endurance, Point-Blank Shot, Vital Strike, Power Attack (-4/+8), Quick Draw Skills- Climb +15, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +14, Knowledge (Geography) +14, Knowledge (Nature) +14, Perception +22, Ride +13, Survival +22 Spell-like Abilities- (Caster Level 11, Concentration +14) Augury, Invisibility Purge, Sanctify Corpse 3/day Dispel Magic, Find the Path 1/day Divination 1/week Special Qualities- Ferocity Ecology- Environment- Any Languages- Faller Organization- Pair (2), Caravan (4-6 Fallers, 0-3 Giant Horseflies) Treasure- Standard Special Abilities- Studied Target (Ex)- A faller may use the Studied Target ability as a 10th level Slayer.

I'm probably not going in this specific direction with this specific character anymore, but it would be a shame to let it rot in my WIPs

a tattoo design commission for @whalefallogist !!!

I'm not that attractive but I like to think I'm beautiful in the same way that a whalefall is beautiful. I'm a lovely little interconnected system full of interesting things, but I'm still when you really get down to it, just a rotting corpse.

Sorry I meant carrion, not corpse, carrion.

Carcass if you're nasty.

Nepenthes: Whalefall

Whalefall wednesday

Aquatic nonhumans who's down to enjoy some whalefall that just dropped,no worries the bill is on me

Source: heartjarpad

Source: x

LOL! I love Jared and Gen's title: Bookworms!

I hope all who attended the event enjoyed the discussion!