Of Scales and Tails

 

I may have mentioned this before, but I've never paid as much attention to those non-Norn creatures as I think I should have. So, today, for some reason, I woke up this morning and said "Yeah, I want to do a Grendel-based world".

And so, I entered the Banshee Ark.

It goes without saying that the Banshee Ark is really a beautiful series of metarooms, first of all. A lot of care went into these rooms (you can check them and their creators out here!), and they really feel full of life. Gorgeous backgrounds and scenery, and tons of little critters, insects and fish scuttling and flying about really make this series of rooms shine. I think the scenery and environment in Creatures games is at its finest when there are lots of different kinds of critters and plants filling the space.

I was thinking about what I wanted to do for something new and different, and decided some casual Grendel-raising in the Banshee Ark's environment might just be the way to go!

I started out with four Pearlescent Grendels (which are gorgeous, by the way!) in the Grendel Meso, two Dustdevil Grendels in the Desert Hideout, and two Berry Grendels in the Jungle Hideout. I wasn't able to find much information on the Berry Grendels, I'm not sure where I got them from - but I did find Berry Ettins, which were described as being similar to Desert Ettins and simply tinted in color, so perhaps these Berry Grendels are just tinted Jungle Grendels. 

Grendels are a funny bunch, that's for sure. On the right side of the Grendel Meso, I placed some sparsely-growing Popapple patches, and while they frightened the Grendels at first, some of them (like Anise Prescription here) went from being scared to being angry! They were mad enough that they would begin to stand in place and perform the Angry Creature Dance, as is tradition. 

I think, somehow, I can relate to getting angry when you find out that something that frightened you wasn't actually so scary.

Exploration of new breeds aside, I've always been really fond of the Dustdevil Grendels. They have a really cute, unique and quirky look that I think really makes them stand out, although admittedly I've been having trouble getting mine to breed. There's probably something I'm missing, but for now, Dryer Mango and Bulky Jungle here seem pretty comfortable just chilling in the Desert Hideout and being cute.

There's not much more to say for now, although I'm going to continue to play this world and see what kinds of unique experiences raising Grendels can bring, but I wanted to show this one last picture I took. I think it's a really good one. The Grendel egg, which has an odd texture - it looks like the shell is really thick, don't you think? - sitting below the hanging light, seemingly nestled into these little slimy slug-looking critters... it's a uniquely Grendel aesthetic that I think I'd like to see more of in my worlds in the future.

I think that there might be some good stories to explore in the future, in places maybe a little darker and more overgrown than the usual Norn dwellings...