"Shades of Gray" Artwork

[BolianAuthor]

Hi, all...

A while ago, my good friend Atolm did some artwork for my Shades of Gray story, which I have started re-posting in the fanfic forum. Anyway, just for the heck of it, I wanted to post some artwork relating to the story, his included. Images are accompanied by short descriptions.

First up is the planet itself, Orvan. The Orvani System is what we call the Zeta Reticuli System, which is a binary system. Orvan orbits Zeta Reticuli B. The planet was made/rendered by Ramiel.

Next up are the Orvani themselves. The story opens with a flashback to prehistoric Orvan, where we see a very primitive Orvani... just at the stage where the species was becoming more than a mere animal. The prehistoric Orvani was designed/drawn by Atolm.

Last for today is the "Leviathan"... the Orvan equivalent of a whale. The Leviathan was designed/drawn by Atolm.

More to follow soon, if the response is positive enough, lol.

- BolianAdmiral

 

[Starfury]

Wow, pretty cool! I love the Leviathan design sketches.

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

Thanks! Here is another... one of the few large mammalian life forms on Orvan (most dominant life forms on Orvan evolved from an insect form of life), the "Bounder", a large marsupial that inhabits the desert regions of Orvan. The Bounder was designed/drawn by Atolm.

 

[TOS Purist]

Pretty cool!! Where'd you get the graphic for Orvan?

Oh, and the Orvani scare the shit out of me.

 

[CuttingEdge100]

Bolian Admiral,

I'm just wondering a couple of things. Firstly, why would the planet have no tectonics, have a supercontinent, and possess no ice?

Secondly, why would the Orvani would be so much shorter than us (~1.53 meters)? An average human male is around 1.75 to 1.78 meters, an average female 1.63 to 1.68 meters. As it would seem, their planet is the same size as earth, and presumably the same mass, so the same gravity.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Pretty cool!! Where'd you get the graphic for Orvan?

Oh, and the Orvani scare the shit out of me.

^

Thanks! The Orvan planet was made/rendered for me, by Ramiel. And aye, I was deathly afraid of the "grays" for most of my childhood. Now look at me... I've embraced them to the point where I'm telling their story, lol.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Bolian Admiral,

I'm just wondering a couple of things. Firstly, why would the planet have no tectonics, have a supercontinent, and possess no ice?

Secondly, why would the Orvani would be so much shorter than us (~1.53 meters)? An average human male is around 1.75 to 1.78 meters, an average female 1.63 to 1.68 meters. As it would seem, their planet is the same size as earth, and presumably the same mass, so the same gravity.

Not all planets may have plate tectonics, as decribed in the article linked to below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics#Plate_tectonics_on_other_planets

And yes, it is said that many worlds may have it, especially worlds with a lot of water. If that be the case, then it could be the advanced age of the planet that has caused such activity to subside to almost nothing.

The supercontinent is just my preference. As for ice... the planet is just close enough to the main star that it simply never gets cold enough for water or anything ice-producing to freeze. It has never snowed on Orvan.

The Orvani's height is actually a step up from what the established figure is for the "grays" in UFO-ology... the consensus has them at between 3 and 4 feet tall. I used the 3 foot figure for the prehistoric Orvani, and increased the size to 5 feet for the modern Orvani, which I think makes it easier for humans to interact with them in the story.

And yes, Orvan is pretty much a copy of Earth, save for the lack of ice... it is hotter, and the days are longer. Orvan has no moon, so the Orvani's large eyes provide them with excellent vision at night, and their deep black color provides protection from the harsher UV rays from their sun.

On Earth, the dominant forms of life evolved from mammals... on Orvan, it was an insect form of life that gave rise to the Orvani and the other dominant forms of life on the planet.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Here is the ever-notorious Orvani saucer. The saucers are only used within the confines of a galaxy, as they do not have the long trans-galactic range of the massive Orvani motherships.

The saucer is about the size of a large warehouse, and is four decks high. There are no windows on the saucer, nor are there any external sources of light. The entire saucer looks as if it is made out of some form of brilliant brushed metal, like aluminum or nickel, though the actual material or composite is unknown to Earth science.

The entire exterior hull of the craft is embedded with a micro-fine hex mesh, which is nearly invisible to the naked human eye, but is visible upon extremely close inspection of the hull, under certain lighting conditions. Under certain lighting conditions, this hex mesh material appears iridescent. The entire hex mesh structure appears to be molecular-bonded to the fabric of the hull material, embedded within the metal or composite itself.

The Orvani saucers are capable of FTL travel via a chronospatial propulsion system. A saucer can travel from Orvan to Earth in roughly two Earth weeks. The Orvani saucer was designed by me.

 

[Kaiser]

Awesome stuff

my only crit is a planet with no Plate tectonics should technially end up like Mars.

 

[BK613]

^ well, it's an alien planet with its own developmental history, and as long as BA is sensible, which it certainly looks like he is, then what ever he comes up with will probably be fine.

OTOH, planets should not be much older than their parent star...unless there is a story reason why.

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

Ah... well, the Zeta Reticuli stars are slightly older than Sol... so I figured the age would fit. Both stars are the same spectral class as Sol, and Zeta Reticuli B is virtually identical, though it is slightly bigger, and more luminous. But both Zeta Reticuli A and B are yellow G-type stars.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Thanks again, for all the kind feedback so far... as well as the questions! Basically, what I am trying to do with Shades of Gray, is take all the major elements of UFO lore, and integrate them all into a story that makes as much sense as possible. And in terms of worldbuilding, I want to do what RDM did with nuBSG... I want to take the concept of the "grays" and their world seriously. For instance, the saucers...

In most of UFO lore, the "flying saucer" of pop culture is usually not only decked out in zippy-whirly-doo Christmas lights, but is usually unrealistically small. Even a species physically smaller than us would be unbearably cramped in a flying saucer no larger than a chicken coop... especially on a journey across galactic distances. So, I wanted to take the basic elements of the typical UFO saucer, and expand upon it to make it real. Something the size of a large warehouse would be enough for a small craft on such long voyages, without making the crew feel too confined. It also gives realistic amounts of room for FTL equipment, computer cores, or whatever.

And their world... in much of sci-fi... a lot of alien worlds are very general... if not dull gray or a desert world, they are globally simplistic, in that you have an entire forest world, ocean world, desert world, etc... I think not. I wanted to show a REAL world... a world where a life form evolved, along with an entire natural ecosystem that includes a wide-ranging and lavish bestiary and fauna, just like Earth. Orvan is not just some cookie-cutter alien planet where somehow a species of hyper-advanced aliens live in gleaming cities. No. Orvan is a REAL world, in-universe, where evolution occurred... as with man, the Orvani began as simple animals, and grew and learned. Before they could fly, they had to learn to crawl, and then to walk. They have a history. They made mistakes, faced famine, and fought wars. But they overcame, learned, and grew. Nothing is perfect, the Orvani included. That's why the story is called "Shades of Gray"... to show the many multitudes of facets to these beings... they are not just cookie-cutter UFO's. Consider this analogy, pertaining to our perception of the "grays", when it comes to the issue of alien abduction...

Most who have been abducted claim that the "grays" are pure evil, and that they have no soul. Well, I would argue against that, and stipulate that we are not seeing them as they really are, and here is why...

What must a lab animal feel about humans? I'm sure many feel that the human scientists in charge of them have no soul or feeling, but such may not be the case, for at the end of the day, that human scientist leaves the lab, and goes home, to a wife, children, or whatever. He is the scientist because it is his job. But he is not just the scientist. There is more to the man, and there is a much greater world beyond the confines of the lab. But the abductee cannot see beyond the lab, and sees the "grays" as the scientists only... cold, calculating, and without emotion.

 

[publiusr]

Good points. You know, in all the discussions about Star Trek vs Star Wars and what not--I have often struggled to rank where I might rank flying saucers. There is that part of me that feels they are backwards not as nice as the TOS Ent (a souped up saucer). The saucers on Bab 5 were just another type of ship, as the pirate species from Clone Wars

--and then, there is that part of me that finds saucers more advanced--no need for nacelles.Like the First Ones ships. Same with the tech. Gort looks old fashioned next to the Terminator, and yet, there is a part of me that would rank him ahead of the terminator--no joints....seamless.


So how would you rank the greys. Godlike, or just a species of the week? BTW, it might be nice to have stations around the galaxy that produce fields, and the saucer is attached to them, like a figure on a foos ball game, riding unseen forces, then wobbling along sublight from zone to zone.