Currently A WIP!
Description A. Height/Length: Adult- 7-6.5ft; 9ft in length. Juvenile- 5ft; 7ft in length. Pup/newborn- 2ft; 4ft in length.
1. Dimorphism: Males are typically larger in size compared to females, though there isn't much of a visible difference in size.
B. Head: The best place to start with any description really (after length and weight). Unless your creature has no definable head. Then again this is still a good place to start because you can describe the fact that it has no head.
*a. Shape: The shape of any animals head can be described in many ways. You can use inspiration from anything in the animal kingdom (or in the many creatures of myth and fantasy). Some heads are long and oblong some are broad and blocky some are rounded. This can be anything.
*b. Size: This can be described as large for the animals overall size maybe small for the size or you can describe the head in dimensions (LxWxH) kind of deal. This is the outline so more detail can come with the rough draft.
*c. Nose: this one is fun. What does the nose look like (again I'll state use nature as your inspiration. Give a canid a nose like a hog nosed bat or something) the possibilities are endless!!
*d. Eyes: Are they close together or far apart are they large or small? How deep are they set into the skull? What color are they? What shape are they? There is so much you can do!
*e. Ears: Long? Short? Wide? Thin? Do they have little tufts of fur on the tips or downy feathers on the insides? Nature and fantasy will always be your best friend. Search up creature deviations and look at the ears of all animals whether natural or original creations. All references count.
*f. Mouth: Well I guess this starts with do they even have a mouth? Some creatures (the Andalites of Animorphs) don’t have mouths. If they do have a mouth what kind of mouth. I know it kind of seems a silly question but really there are a lot of mouths out there. It could be a canine muzzle or just a gaping maw like an Otyugh. Is it a beak? Or is it like a crocodile’s craw?
*g. Other features: Are there any other features in the head area? Frills, horns, beards, hair, eyebrows, tusks (though if they are inside the mouth tusks they would go in dentition)
2. Neck: This is pretty self explanatory. It’s the neck the part that sticks your head to your body unless it's a creature that doesn't have a neck like An Ethereal Marauder which not only has no neck it has no definable head. A neck is not necessary, but remember a neck is what gives a creature its ability to look around without having to turn its whole body.
*a. Size: this can be described in actual measurements like the head or simply described as long or short. Take into account the over all length of the creature when deciding the length of neck. It doesn't have to be properly proportionate, but it does have to work for the creature. The catoblepas is a prime example of how disproportionate can go wrong for the creature's every day life.
*b. Shape: Well is the neck thin or thick lumpy or smooth
*c. Other features: any spikes, frills, gills, ect on the neck?
3. Torso/abdomen: The main body of your creature. This is going to have to be worked out with the kind of life you want your creature to live.
*a Size how long is the body itself? Does it take up much of the overall length? Most commonly the body will make up most of the length but some creatures the body is a smaller part take an iguana for example. Most of its length is its tail.
*b. Shape: lumpy or disproportionate maybe? Properly proportioned? Remember the body has to match the other parts you filled in or at least work well with them.
*c. Build: Is it muscular or lithe or fat?
*d. Other features: any spikes or frills down the back? what about armor? or quills maybe? anything?
4. Arms/legs: First things first with arms/legs is how many? is it bipedal a quadruped or maybe it's got 6 8 or 10 limbs? Maybe it's got an odd number of limbs or no limbs at all? just remember to match the number of limbs with how you set up the body.
*a. Size: you can have a lot of limbs on a short body, but the limbs won't be able to be very big.
*b. Shape: Are they long or short thick or thin how many joints do they have?
*c. Digits: how many fingers and toes? opposable thumbs?
*d. Claws: Describe their claws. You can describe anything from length to color to serrations.
*e. Other features: Same as any other time I ask for other features.
6. Tail: This is a bone of contention with some artists when it comes to any creature. Remember the tail is another limb not some squiggly line hanging off your creatures butt. even in fantasy the tail must fit a purpose or it will just get in the way. think of these purposes when thinking of your creatures tail: Weapon (Iguanas or Ankylosaurus) Rudder (Otter, Cheetah) Balance (dragons, dinosaurs, rats, mice, monkeys) Grip (Rats, monkeys, possums ect) Communication (anything with a tail Cats communicate contentment or irritation dogs raise their tail when showing aggression, Skunks lift their tail to show they are ready to spray.) Do not be afraid to combine any of those details as well. A tail can use one or all of these uses
*a. Size: Again take the creatures length into account. Creatures with prehensile (grippy tails) will usually have longer tails.
*b. Shape is it stubby is it thin is it thick? pretty simple. Just take into account it's uses.
*c. Other features: same thing as above. take into account the uses with this. If it is a weapon maybe it has a club on the end (Ankylosaurus) or maybe it splits into a scissors like appendage at the tip (Dragon heart) or maybe it has a large stinger (Wyverns and pseudodragons) Get references from everywhere! Have fun with the details!
7. Flesh: The thing that covers our creatures and protects them from the elements.
*a. Type: do they have soft easily damaged epidermis like humans or thick soft hide like elephants. Do they have fur? long or short? Thick or thin? Feathers maybe? Do they have soft skin covered in armored plates like armadillos or Pangolin? Maybe spikes or quills like an echidna or porcupine (did you know porcupines float?) there are endless possibilities. You can even mix two types. I've seen dragons that have a mix of smooth skin, scales, AND feathers. its all about how you describe it that decides whether it will be ascetically pleasing or not.
*b. Coloration: This is blatantly obvious, but I will explain in some details. First off get a line art of anything or make a drawing (does not have to be perfect jsut something to show what your creature looks like so you can color it) I usually use one of the free for use ones I have linked below jsut so I have something to color. Then color it to your hearts content. You don't have to be any kind of expert or anything just decide your colors and go from there. how to decide your colors is the difficult part. Take into account your creatures habitat, and life style, breed, ect. Look at nature and see. there are so many natural ascetically pleasing color combos it isn't even funny. There are few other ways to do colors for your creature. Using complementary colors is the first way. basically pick a color and then it's complementary color will be across the color wheel from your chosen color. now this sounds bad especially when you look at a color wheel. it would usually look like these colors would not work well together, but its all about how you place them on the creature. You can also work in a color family using several colors of the same types (yellow-greens, greens, and blue-greens as an example) then threes Chroma contrast. Use neutral colors and put in one chromatic color that will pop against neutral colors. There’s color patterns. Organic and inorganic. Organic patterns are those you see in nature (Tiger, Zebra, Trigger fish) then there are those patterns that you don't see in nature (See the links below in comments for examples). There is also the use of color gradients. this can be done by graduating the colors towards the extremities or creating blended spots of contrasting color. somewhat like the chroma contrast, but using complementing colors. Several of these methods can be used together for pleasing or unpleasing results. (unpleasing result: Sparkle creature with wild colors and that don't at all fit together with the wildest inorganic patterns like stars patched all over ect. examples? search sparkle dogs.
* Main colors:
* Accent Colors:
* Dimorphism: Same as listed above. Do the males look different from females? Cardinal males are Bright red while females are brown with orange beaks, Lions have manes while lionesses do not ect.
8. Reproductive: This is the external and internal genitalia. this can be described a variety of ways. look at nature and some created creatures for different examples. Create your creatures with the pregnancies the female will endure, unless you have a seahorse male in mind. Also think of how they will mate when thinking of placement. Take a look at my Fell Drakes for an example. Also you can think about things like do they have multiple uteruses (rabbits hares and some sharks).
*a. Male:
*b. Female:
9. Internal:
*a. Dentition: How many teeth do they have? Do they have teeth? There is a link below showing the dentition of several creatures as well as a link to the wiki on dentition to help with the exact number of each type of teeth. Are they herbivores teeth or are they all sharp as blades like the T-rex. Again use nature to your advantage.
*b. Saliva: all creatures have different amounts of saliva. Some just enough to keep the mouth wet (birds). Some enough to drown a man (St. Bernard) Some have poisonous saliva (Komodo dragon) some have healing saliva (Bandersnatch). Some even have some interesting saliva like my Draco Jadewing her saliva dehydrates the water out of anything it touches.
*c. Digestive: How many stomachs do they have? Some creatures have more than one (a cow has 4). how does their digestive tract go. this is also where you explain the elimination process (how they expel waste). This in and of itself is different between different creatures. You know how it happens with humans cats and dogs. did you know that Reptiles don't exactly urinate? They give off urates urine solids so that they lose as little water as possible in the process. The dragons of pern don't urinate at all. They simply defecate through the tip of their tail.
*d. Lungs: This is a fun one. there are many ways animals breath. There’s your typical mammal set up. There’s Avian lung set up which is set up very odd with a kind of air sac system that keeps air flowing through the lungs while the bird is flying. There are also Gills. Gills don't just have to be on fish or aquatic creatures.
*e. Circulatory: How many hearts. What is their body temperature. Heck at what temperature do they suffer from hypothermia or hyperthermia. What color is their blood. If you can you could even come up with what makes their blood that color (Pern dragons blood is green is based with Copper and Human blood is red and based mostly with Iron). I'm not sure if that truly has any scientific backing (McCaffrey was not well known for her scientific knowledge.) but it seems somewhat reasonable.
*f. Nervous: the brain works and all of that.
*g. Skeletal: Simple and sweet. how do their bones fit together. it is the basic composition of the creatures body. If your creature is an insectoid then it'll possibly have an exoskeleton. If it's got a turtle like shell then its backbone would more than likely be apart of the shell unless the shell is a separate entity from the animal (like hermit crabs)
*h. Special: Anything else about your creature not covered above.
Behavior
A. Abilities:
1. Intelligence The intelligence of a creature is not just whether they have human intelligence or not. A creature can have not an ounce of human intelligence and still be considered highly intelligent. Now is where you have to leave behind your speciocentric thoughts (no not a real word but it’s adapted from the word Ethnocentric which means to think of your ethnicity as better than others. Same concept works with the human species thinking they are better than all animals) and look at every creature as being just as an equal to humans so that you can judge your creatures intelligence that way. Think of it as a mark from 1-10 with humans being 5 average and work from there. Even a creature smarter than a human might still be just an animal and live by instinct alone. It’s just an animal that can outsmart a human while living by instinct alone.
2. Basic: in this section you list the natural abilities your creature has. These abilities are sight, smell, touch, audible, climbing, flying, digging, ect. There are many natural abilities that your creatures can have and still be considered an amazing creature. A shark can scent a drop of blood in the sea from over two miles away. An elephant can send out a low frequency call to its herd from miles away. A polar bear can scent a seal under three feet of pack ice and break through said ice. A sea turtle can return to the beach of it’s birth after only having been there once. An sperm whale can hold it’s breath for up to an hour (though I suppose that would belong in the second on repertory but it is still an interesting ability) Dolphins have the ability to shut off half their brain so they can sleep and still breath.
3. Special: in this section you will list the special abilities of our creature such as breath weapons, 6th sense abilities, psionic abilities, and other extraordinary abilities that don’t belong in the basic abilities section. For example, the horned lizard can shoot blood from it’s eyes. The skunks can shoot a foul smelling musk from it’s anal glands, and color change in chameleons and octopi.
B. Communication: This is how your creatures communicate with one another and with other creatures in the world around them. Both body language and vocals can be used by a creature to get their point across.
1.Body language: This is the physical language a creature uses to describe how it’s feeling. Wolves bare their teeth in aggression or fear Skunks perform hand stands and raise their tail before spraying. Elephants spread their ears. There is a lot of body language that can be used from overt displays to something as simple as flipping their ears down.
2. Vocalizations: this is the sounds the creature makes. Most creatures make some sound or other. Some sounds are only made when the creature is in danger (a rabbits scream) some are made on a regular basis (the clicking and squealing of a dolphin). Some creatures have a complex set of sounds that they use in place of language (dolphins, chimps, blink dogs ect.)
C. Social
1. Organization how do your creatures gather? Do they live a solitary life or one with a mate or a pack? How common or uncommon is it to see your creature with others of it’s kind? When thinking of each part of organization think of how common uncommon or rare it is to find your creature in each grouping. For example My fell drake. It is rare to find a single fell drake alone. Usually it’ll be an individual who has lots it’s mate. It’s more common to find pairs of fell drakes, but most common to find families or groups of males. A family is always referred to as just that while a group of males is usually known as a Rove. You don’t have to give a group of your creature a name, but instead use one of the common names used (herd, flock, gaggle, pod, mob, murder, gang, pack ect.)
*a. Single
*b. Pair
*c. group (include what a group of them is called)
2. Hierarchy: what is the ranking system within your creatures group if they live in a group. One example is wolves. Wolves have a system that goes; Alpha pair Beta Pair, Subordinates (all other adults), Juveniles (those over a year, but have not reached adult hood yet), pups (any member of the pack under 1 year old), Omega(s) Within the pack there is a separate male hierarchy and female hierarchy and though the alphas are the only ones to breed sometimes the alpha female will choose to mate with the beta male instead. Choosing of den sites and what litters to have is her role while his is to lead hunts (that every member of the pack helps with unless they are babysitting pups) another example is the meerkat. They live in gangs lead by a single dominant pair who are the sole breeders. While her daughters will breed usually the alpha female will kill any pups that she did not birth. While the group is technically run by the pair it’s mostly run by the female. Males who wish to breed must leave and “rove” while females must home their mother decides not to kill their young because no other group will accept a roving female.
D. Territorial behaviors: These consist of any behaviors having to do with territory obviously. Usually predators are the ones who take a set territory and actively defend it (this is not a rule however). Usually they are defending their territory against others of their own species and the scent markers aim to deter those of their own kind. There are, however, species that mark specifically against another predator. Lions and hyenas are two of them. These two predators mark their territory with markers that not only warn others of their own kind, but also mark against each other. Often though creatures will have no set territory and just defend their den, but wander the area for food.
1. Territory size: this can range for every creature, though one must also take into account the size of the creature. A pack of wolves can hold a huge territory 33-6,272km. A gang of meerkats however hold a territory that is only around 2 square kilometers. A group of meerkats trying to hold 6,000 kilometers would die simply trying to scent mark it all and would constantly be on the move where as wolves are always on the move unless the alpha female has pups in den.
2. Territory markers: how do they mark their territory. Some animals use scent glands. Some use dung or urine. Some use scratch markers or other such methods. Others use a combination of the above listed.
3. Territory Defense: how do they defend their territory. How aggressive are they against intruders. Wolves tend to kill intruders. Others will try and ward off intruders with a display. Meerkats will first scope out their intruders as they themselves are beign scoped out. Then one group or the other will perform a war dance and the other group will war dance in kind. After that each side has a chance to respond in attack. An invading group is almost always attacked at that point though in some cases the invading party just made a simple wrong turn and the other side will see the error and simply send them packing.
E. Denning and sheltering does your creature have a set den or do they weather the elements the best they can.
1. Type: there are many den types from dug dens, to dens simply using an uninhabited cave or maybe hollow tree trunk. They could build a nest, or a form of a lean-to.
2. Size: take into account the creatures size, and if there is more than one when you think of a den size. Do they prefer close dens that make them feel cozy? Do they prefer medium sized dens that give them a bit of space to move around, but still have a small opening to deter enemies? Do they prefer a large den with plenty of room to move as well as room for treasures or food or what have you? For example.; D&D dragon’s lairs will always be huge compared to the dragon’s size. This is because they hoard food and treasure in their lair. Where as some creatures may have a small den that doesn’t allow for much movement, but plenty of rooms and bolt holes to escape the den if predators enter.
3.location where do they locate their den in their territory? Some prefer to have one den that they return to while others will have many dens within an area they they will use at different times of the year.
F. Activity: at which point of the day are they active the most? Are they Diurnal (day time creatures) Nocturnal (night time creatures) Crepuscular (active at dusk and dawn the most)
Diet
A. Type: Herbivore (eats only plants), Carnivore (eats only meat), insectivore (eats only insects), omnivore (combination of some or all of the above listed) The others are pretty straight forward, but omnivore may not be. Humans are omnivores. We eat everything. Dogs are omnivores, they eat meats and some certain veggies as well as (in some cases) bugs. Some omnivores are categorized into only two groups. Such as my Lopphores. Lopphores only eat insects and mosses.
1. Common food items: what food items do your animals most commonly go after? What are their favorites? Can they only eat a certain type?
2. Uncommon items: what do your creatures go after if they can’t catch their preferred game? This commonly does not apply to most herbivores as most will eat anything or can only eat a certain plant such as koalas which can only eat eucalyptus leaves.
B. Feeding/hunting methods: whether they are hunting veggies or meat hunting for food is hunting for food. How do they go about finding their food? Predators will have more details about their hunting because all predators have a strategy. Herbivores tend to mostly browse or dig for their food. Same for insectivores.
Breeding
A. Season: what season do they breed? Wet? Dry? Fall? summer? Spring? winter? Do they even have a season? (guinea pigs mate all year round and go into heat every 16 days)
B. Mating habits: how often do they mate? Not just how many times a year, but how often in a life time maybe. One species I have only mates once every 50 years. Hatori only gather once every 20 years. While some creatures mate all year round and have litter after litter like rats or rabbits. This is also where you describe any displays or rituals your creature performs. Whether the pair pmates for life or seperates, how often they mate before separating. You can also talk about which parent cares for the young if they do separate. Take into account their organization and hierarchy when deciding on this as well.
C. reproduction: above you should have already described your creatures genitals internally and externally. If not you can still do it here. Just take into account what type of reproduction they go through. You can also describe the different stages of the whole process in great detail (such as the stages of pregnancy and such)
4. Histotrophic viviparity (Live birthing, but young get nutrients through intrauterine cannibalism) This is most common in sharks. The nurse shark may have 10 at the beginning of a pregnancy by the end she’ll have only two because the young eat each other until there is only one left in each uterus.
*a. Gestation: Same as above (I know I seem to repeat myself lol)
*b. Birth: Same as above.
*c. Growth: Repeating agian
*d. Maturity: yep you know this one too.
A. LifeSpan: how long do they live? You can add captive and wild lifespans if you'd like. Some creatures live longer in the wild than in captivity and vise versa.
History
A. Enemies and competitors: Enemies are creatures that do not usually get along with your creature. Lions and hyenas are enemies. Lions and water buffalo are enemies (water buffalo will actually hunt down and kill lion cubs if they find out a lioness has her cubs stashed nearby). Any predator is the enemy of an herbivore. Competitors are creatures that compete with your creature for food. Again with the lions and the hyenas. Predators are generally in competition with one another while most herbivores tend to live side by side with no problem.
B. Domestication: Can your creature be domesticated? How easy or hard? How are they captured and trained? What is their general temperment in captivity?
Species analysis layout credited to sethian-motzart
