Race Meet the Cerpine

Even bronze-age seems absurd. Leaving aside that metals that are malleable enough not to need heat that would injure the mouth to work would likely be too soft to be useful in most crafts, just consider the broader implications. They manipulated things with their mouths. That means that they would have to engage in forceful headbanging for many crafts. Any artisan would die young of severe brain haemorrhaging. Working electronics orally would be even worse, due to the lack of fine precision and inability to properly see what they're doing. At best, it would take a group effort, and be an absolute chaotic mess...which would still carry the problem of so many bodies writhing about in a confined space being poorly coordinated, imprecise, and still not having proper visibility of the work.

 

Perhaps the Cerpine could possess prehensile tails?

 

NO OFFENSE BUT WE HAVE MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY DRAGONS/LIZZARDS/SNAKE OH MY!

 

I've been waiting for this comment.

This was RELEASED July 27, 2012.
The idea for it and work on it was a month before.

That's before the Florans, and before the offical release of the Apex.
This is the first "Meet the" thread on the entire forum, and was created back when we didn't even know about regular body types.

So. If anything. You should be telling just about everyone else, that they are unoriginal, and they are copying off me.

No wait, you shouldn't. Because people can make 500 reptile races if they want to. Just because one came first or before doesn't mean that it's better or worse than others.

You make a very good point, and for this reason, I had them develop VERY SLOWLY.
I mean, just because you don't have arms and legs doesn't mean that you aren't going to try. They had the brains to build stuff. They probably had to develop complex ways of creating objects, which would be a major pain to do. They did get there, it just took them longer than humans or other races.

Don't ask me to go into detail too much. I can't come up with a solution to everything, because that's like having to re-invent the wheel. Perhaps they made mouth guards, or domesticated animals to do certain jobs for them.

Also, once a single suit had been made, it opens the floodgates for everyone.
And yes, most of the time, it was a group effort.

 

*Shrugs* Yours Is One Of The Best.
And I Never Said It Was A Bad Thing We Have So Many.

 

The problem then would be one of leverage. Since a serpent is all tail, elevating their head would mean reducing the amount of their body that could be used for manipulation, unless they did everything while flat on their bellies, their tails arched over their head, which I cannot imagine would be comfortable, nor that it would afford a useful vantage point. Yes, hypothetically a race could develop "very slowly" as the OP suggests...but they wouldn't. Living things develop the use of tools to do things more easily. By its very nature, though, a serpent would find creating and using tools a greater effort than to simply get by on natural ability. Technology evolves largely out of practicality, and for snakes, any form of technology would be impractical.

 

Sir, I get that you're trying to be realistic here, but this is verging on what I consider "Realism to the point of annoyance". Rather than explain this, I will show a comic that shows it off very well.

You assume that they would not develop tech because it is difficult for them. Take a look at the Novakids. Or the Hylotls. Or the Glitch. Or the Apex. Or the Avains. Or the Florans.
How on earth does a Novakid function without any type of brain or organ? Why on earth did Hylotls evolve in such an unfitting way? Their body is built for underwater survival, and yet they still roam about on land like any other creature. How is it possible for the Glitch to not realize who they are? How does the AI even work?! Why does de-evolution make you SMARTER? That makes no sense at all! How on earth can the avians fly in ships made of wood and clay?! How come the Florans just HAPPEN to be experts on reverse engineering?

I don't like to use the "Oh, it's just a game" excuse. But seriously now. It's just the way they work. Something in their brain makes them want to advance. Something made them who they are. And I'm not going to make a giant flow chart about it, and think about every possiblity in detail.
Kay? Any other questions unrelated to this one?

Oh, and have some teir 2 armor, everyone.

 

On the topic of possible Cerpine head styles, why not something along the lines of sea/feathered serpents?

 

This.

Also mustaches.

 

I'll see if I can add more frill-like stuff.
I tried to add it before, but it's hard to make it look right with pixels.

I may also make that quetzalcoatl armor. Though, it suits an avian more.

 

Actually, the other races are much easier to justify.

• The Novakid's body is more like a single-celled organism, and so likely functions as a giant neural network (which might also explain why they have a case of species-wide ADHD).
• Hylotls may be aquatic, but clearly still have limbs suited to tool use. Aside from that not much information is available about them, but they could easily be amphibians, like frogs.
• The Glitch could fail to realize what they are specifically because of what they are, as they could be inherently programmed not to realize it...which is indeed part of their back-story. Also, in case you were wondering, it's possible to get the same result in organic life through the use of hypnosis.
• The Apex can be hand-waved as "because science", but as it happens, we do have a real-world equivalent to justify this, in the form of selective breeding. They have sacrificed the improvement of physical traits to focus on a higher occurrence of genes related to neural development. It's sort of like what might happen on Earth if only people with a high IQ were allowed to breed.
• Wood can actually be very strong, and our own space craft use "clay" - heat-resistant ceramic tiles, without which they would be unable to survive the process of re-entry.
• Florans just happen to be masters of reverse-engineering because they just happen to be a predatory species with good natural camouflage, one would assume. Being an aggressive hunter with generations of learning to be a cleverer hunter than anything else around, when they would normally be at the bottom of food chain, seems like a pretty good basis for figuring out how to use anything that they can find.

In any case, I think we're going to just have to agree to disagree. You seem to be forgetting that I'm not saying that the race as a whole is bad. Again, I like the design, and both their sprites and the environmental ones. The music is very nice. I think that the culture seems like it would make for a good setting for some interesting adventures, and a good dynamic for the galactic "politics" of the game. The only thing I really object to is their supposed origins. It would make more sense to say that their "gods" came down from "the heavens" long ago, giving their people the gift of reason, giving them the first of their suits, and teaching them the custom of crafting a new suit for each individual as he or she came of age. This would be similar to the myths of other cultures (Egypt especially IIRC) in which gods came down to teach valuable skills.

 

^Best Snake

Also I just realized, Feather mustaches.

 

You must really like moustaches...

 

All of those explanations are far more absurd than snakes wanting to develop things.
To me, it makes sense. Why did humans go to the moon? Because they could. They gained no foreseeable benifit. For the same reason, and to slowly make life easier, the Cerpine developed their own "tech".
And no, I didn't think you were criticizing my entire race. That's why I asked for your opinion on other things.

And then, I hate the idea of some ancient super-race bestowing them tech. It's super cliche and overused IMO.

In other news, 10,000 views!

 

Correct:
____________________________________________________________________________
Dearest Darthkitten

You are probably getting a picture of a snake with a feather mustache.

Sincerely,
Vorco Rot-Gut

 

Have the 4 first tiers of armor here.
They need a power though. I like the idea of Auto-shields or energy absorbtion.

 

Extra mustache shine.

 

What's the likelihood of this becoming a mod post-release? I've been frequenting(read:lurking) the suggestion forums quite a lot lately in some effort to cope with the wait for beta, and I must say I absolutely adore the Cerpine. Best race here by far, I'd say. Just so I can contribute a little, as for racial armour power, I recall a "shed skin" ability from some game I can't quite think of at the moment which made the characters immune to negative status effects like poison and burning, perhaps they could do something like that?

 

If I was to make one criticism/complaint, it would be about the present lack of any female sprites or drawings or depictions of any kind. Also, the game I was thinking of is Pokemon.

 

They carefully designed a prosthetic hand by carving it out of wood using their fangs. They could wear it by slithering inside a hollowed portion and moved the digits by twisting their body, similar to how prosthetic limbs work today. For a few centuries they used that to manipulate objects, until they were able to weave heat resistant plant fibers into gloves to protect the prosthesis from fires used while forging metals. After a few more centuries they had developed more advanced metalworking and were able to construct the body suits that allow them the full range of humanoid interactions with their environment.

Your wheel has been reinvented.