The Art of World-Building: Coviello's Alienated Religions

            Last week I began my series on the art of world-building: a project focused on promoting world-building artists outside of mainstream speculative fiction who have inspired me. World-building has inherent value to the fan of fantasy or science fiction, and much of it is overlooked because it isn’t attached to a commercial product that can reach a mass audience. There are a variety of artists creating fascinating worlds on the internet, many of which I have connected with on Deviant Art. The second artist I want to explore is the art of Vincent Coviello, otherwise known by V4m2c4. Specifically, I want to focus on his Earth Religions Beyond the Milky Way series.

            This series brings together two of my favorite topics: aliens and religion. While aliens are iconic to science fiction, religion is a topic often looked down upon by the genre, if not overlooked entirely. But for all the technological and scientific progress that has been made within modern history, religion remains a dominating and inspiring aspect of contemporary culture. Though religion may often appear threatened by such progress and adopt of hostile disposition towards it, religions nevertheless endure and some even incorporate rational calculation and scientific consensus into their theologies. Projecting this dynamic into the speculative future imagined by science fiction, and it is entirely possible, if not probable, that we will take our religions with us to distant stars. They may even be the inspiration to the faithful to make the journey, if only to convert sentient alien life on planets beyond our solar system.

            This is the basis of Vincent’s series: imagining the intersection of alien biology and culture with religious conversion to the Terran cults of the space colonists they encounter. Each artwork is a juxtaposition of familiar religious inconography with alien biologies radically divergent from the conformting familiarity of our own humanity. This accentuates the alien quality, the absolute and transcendent otherness, of the religious imagination itself. Religions imagine the impossible as not merely possible, but as eschatologically inevitable; believing devoutly in what much of fantasy postulates for mere creative entertainment. Thus the project appears to be not merely a projection of human religions onto aliens but also, and more crucially, displays the strangeness within religion itself. These are alien interpretations of our terrestrial theologies but they also reveal how alien our own theological ideologies are to our humanity. Do not the strongly religious among our own species show patterns of thought often utterly alien to those outside of their community? The adoption of human religions among alien species is an argument that not only humanizes the alien but also de-humanizes theology, making it transcend association with any finite species and opening itself up to the infinite possibilities inherent in the divine. 

Below is an image of each imagined race and their adopted religion, with a brief synopsis and a link included to the original material. Thus far he has only imagined Christian, Buddhist and Islamic alien communities, but I hope that he will return to the project and imagine other combinations of religious and alien culture. Please check out the rest of his amazing artwork, much of which I expect to return to in the future. And yes, Vincent is the same artist I was fortunate enough to be able to commission to provide the amazing new header graphic for my blog: a critical debate between an eldritch being, a fantastic fae, and an alien creature. This not only captures the eclectic interests and critical perspective of my blog but also displays Vincent’s range of skill as an artist appealing to the speculative fiction community.

Kristraseen

"Christianity and Jesus became a fertility based faith and deity. When a female is with child she will be marked with the Ichthys emblem, signifying her transition to Dominas. When the male child is born he is deemed the “Christ child.” . She will be considered the mother of god and will reign with her son along side the clergical court. With the death of her son she will return to a lay position, though always seen as blessed. Jesus’ crucifixion mirrors the male child’s sacrifice. While prized and revered throughout his short life the male’s sole purpose is to repopulate the Kristraseen race with a fresh strain of offspring. Though rare, multiple sons have been born during a birthing cycle. If the case, the other sons will be considered apostles and will also populate along side the god son. A single female can reproduce more than one male throughout her life and if so she will become part of the permanent clergical court and will advise the new king and mother. While the bible is considered the holy book, only the clergical court and reigning family has access. While the Kristraseen bible has many similarities to the earth bible, a lot of stories are deemed unnecessary and invaluable to the race."

Coshum 

"Coshum by nature are hermaphrodites, a fact originally unknown to the Islamic leaders and Imans. Yet once a method of gender identification and classification was established, all be it inaccurate, “males” were sent to learn from Imans. When missionaries began enforcing strict gender rules, roles, codes and conducts there was a great deal of confusion. Categorized male Coshum would next day be exhibiting what was believed to be female roles and mannerisms. Once completely understood, Islamic law was eager to rectify the believed to be impure behavior. This free wielding sexuality was deemed an abomination and was strictly prohibited by force. While many did comply to identifying with a singular gender a “third gender” did appear. This third gender continued to practice the indigenous ideologies and hermaphroditeism. Most third genders still play a vital role in society as they are the only ones equip with indigenous knowledge, such as medicine. Worshipping towards Mecca was established quite early and the problem of accurately facing Mecca was rectified through the celestial astrolabe. This piece of machinery is capable of locating Mecca across the galaxy, pin pointing the exact location of devotion. Many devotees also use shrapnel from the original ship, the ship that brought Islam, as a religious artifact used during worship."

Kamadhatu 

“Biologically “immortal” Kamadhatu’s have a 4-stage metamorphosis. The last, ending in death or rebirth, is the Chrysalis stage (the Birthing coffin). A natural part of the life cycle, the dying Kamadhatu will produce a thick shell, where it will decompose and if healthy enough will reconstitute and “rebirth” with in 2 weeks of its chrysalis formation. Once a natural process it is now reliant on technological models, at least for those living in the industrialized world, to undergo a possible rebirth. (Traditional belief states that those who have more to accomplish will be rebirthed and will reincarnate in the specific stage based on the individuals conviction and the cosmic and biological forces that dictate it)…Buddhism came unbeknownst when Chinese embargoes took fleet to create trading agreements, so many different Buddhist sects and teachings were fragmented and loosely translated into a homogenized Buddhism. Buddhism was considered a fad religion in most of the industrialized world, practiced loosely, superficially and secularly as mysterious religion from the stars. Yet in the rural parts of the planet Buddhist teaching has been absorbed and incorporated quite seamlessly into the remnants of the indigenous religion. Many Buddhist teachers, leaders and even the Dali lama consider the Kamadhatu to be celestial Devas spoken of in Buddhist cosmology. The oldest of the Kamadhatu, most reincarnated, are seen as bodhisattvas constantly reincarnating to teach and enlighten.”

Jian Naodai

"It was the Catholic belief of transubstantiation of the Eucharist, which sparked the initial resistance. A religion founded on the teachings of a risen from the dead man god who’s followers ate his ‘flesh and blood’ was taken with great horror and touched upon racial taboos of Partaking of flesh and necromancy. This piece of information harkened to the indigenous belief shared across all tribes of the luwongne. Christianity became synonymous with the belief in these necromantic lords. Luwongne are believed to be plague bringing, carnivorous, reanimated bodies of Jian Naodai and are able to summon the dead and other forces as its army. They are believed to convert living followers promising them power and riches. It is not entirely know whether or not the supernatural aspects of the Luwongne stems from any truth.  As Luwongne do in fact exist. They are typically rogue warlords and are a possible threat to Jian Nodai tribes. Many in fact came to use Christian iconography and see Jesus as a necromantic deity. This sparked hysteria across the planet similar to the witch craze that plague earth’s history. Human inhabitants of the planet, regardless of faith, were regularly attacked believed to be Luwongne henchmen. Churches and other human built infrastructures are regularly attacked and destroyed. Fellow Jian Naodai who became devote or suspected to be Christian are ritually sacrificed to tar pits."

The Art of World-Building: Kosemen's Snaiad

For those who follow this blog or who have read some of my recent posts, they will recognize that I am a member of Deviant Art and I use the site to post some of my world-building ideas associated with my speculative fiction interests and writing. There are so many artists on Deviant Art who have been an inspiration for my own attempts at world-building and my conception of the possibilities open to speculative fiction. For all the interest that fans of speculative fiction have in world-building, it is rarely appreciated outside of its implementation in works of literature, film or video-games. World-building in itself seems undervalued as an art-form, as do the artists responsible for it. For that reason, I have decided to begin the “Art of World-Building” series, wherein I promote the world-building projects of artists who I feel have contributed something interesting and inspiring to the genre of speculative fiction and whose works deserve wider recognition in the fan community. With that said, I wish to introduce the first world-building project I was inspired by: Snaiad. 

     

          Snaiad is a science-fiction world-building project created by artist the brilliant Turkish artist C.M. Kosemen, otherwise known as Nemo Ramjet on Deviant Art. Snaiad is the name of “one of humanity’s first off-world colonies” founded by “hopeful colonists arriving from the war-wearing Mediterranean”. Snaiad is a world twice as old as our own home-world of Terra, but is very young to its human colonists with “scarely three hundred years” separating the “initial landing and their new-found peace in those precious few cities” founded on the planet. The history of Snaiad begins with life's conception 8 billion years ago, taking another 3 billion years for the first multi-cellular life forms to appear. Within another billion years the planet experienced a radiation of complex life, followed by a mass extinction thereof. Following this another cataclysm extinguished the majority of life on the planet and resulted in the originals of almost all modern plant and animal life. The ancestors of modern pseudo-vertebrates evolved during this period of re-diversification, resembling Terran sea cucumbers. From there life evolves, diversifies and goes extinct in patterns unique to Snaiad, giving rise to the life that humans will discover in the near future when the finally colonize the planet.   

200 years into the future and planetary warfare and resource conflicts have driven development in biotechnology, nanotechnology and metallurgy while life is first detected on planets beyond our solar system. 50 years later and economic and social progress have allowed the colonization of the Moon and Mars with colony ships sent on missions to planets outside of our solar system. During this period Snaiad is discovered by telescope. Over the next 200 or so years advances are made in suspended animation and nano-manufacturing, replacing the need for colonization by generation ships. Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and Israel unite together in efforts to colonize Snaiad and launch their first probes to the planet. Soon after “Sleeper” colony ships are sent to Snaiad. After successfully landing on the planet, the colonists awaken from their suspended animation and utilize nanotechnology to biologically manufacture the “Firstborn” generation utilizing stored ova and sperm. For the next 100 years, madness and depression among the artificially-born Firstborn generation complicate efforts at widespread colonization of Snaiad. The surviving Sleepers intervene and “invent the first Snaiadi religions as a means of social control” including such imaginative and mysterious cults as “Dicephalism, Nerdism, Jethjanism, Neo-Sabbatean sects and Snaiadi animal worship.” Soon after the first naturally conceived generation of colonists is born on the planet and colonization efforts begin in earnest.

Colonists initiate the “Arbophobe Wars” against the indigineous life forms and establish cities and nano-rail using nano-technology. At this time a Sleeper nano-technologist named Moiz Mavrokordatos secedes from the colonial government, changes his name to Sabbatai Sevi and identifies himself as the Messiah of Snaiad. Thousands of colonists follow his authority. The cult create a new nano-technology city named “Memograd” in remote Notor. Following this they begin construction of a star-ship fleet and weapons with the intention of leaving Snaiad in order to conquer Earth. This act of rebellion results in a short war between the Mavrokordite cultists and Neo-Mediteranean colonists, ending with the destruction of the starship fleet and the disappearance of “Sabbatai Sevi”. At the end of the war extreme measures are taken to ensure that another manic abuse of advanced technology does not occur. Knowledge of nano-technology and star-ship systems are ceremoniously destroyed and nano-technology is limited to use in food production, mining and medicine. Standards of living improve and the population of Snaiad stabilizes at 15 million colonists with an average lifespan of 250 years. An elite community of Sleepers, kept alive due to “now forbidden nanotech immortality, silently dictates population control and environmental management policies.”   

The planet Snaiad hosts a variety of ecosystems, some similar to those on Terra and others entirely unique to the alien environment of Snaiad. Deserts, forest, jungles and tundras are all familiar to the human colonists to Terra, excluding the alien flora and fauna inhabiting them. Unique to Snaiad are the Neomediterranean maquis, erthrophyte scrubland, sproglands, and pinnacle ranges. The maquis comprises “water-retaining, heat-resistant plants growing along warm seashores” specific to the Neomediteranean and Orolandic Aegean. The erthrophyte scrublands are a “steppe-like growth of Red-plant” pseudo-grass covering both seaside plains and islands. Sproglands are named after sprog itself: a “spongy, hole-ridden, landscape-blanketing vegetative growth”. Sprog not only provides sustenance for herbivores but is also home to smaller organisms that use it for shelter. Unique to the Pansavannah region of Vesterna is sprog grasslands where there is a “presence of grass-like filamentous plants that carpet the uppermost layer” of the sprog. Finally, there are the pinnacle ranges. These are plains dotted with “reef-like collections of symbiotic plants” bonded together to create massive pinnacles.

Snaiadi life-forms are deceptively alien insofar as they superficially resemble Terran vertebrates, especially dinosaurs, but are radically different once their anatomy is explored in detail. The most extreme divergence is that their genitals are contained in what we would identify as their head. While this body part is involved in the capturing of prey, it is the lower secondary head which is actually involved in the consumption of food. In complex vertebrates, young develop within a uterus within the female’s chest cavity and are birthed by the mother literally vomiting out the infant. In species with simpler or smaller heads, the infants disturbingly “slash their way out” using “specially developed womb-beaks.” Thankfully for the mother the injuries involved in such a birth are superficial and heal rapidly. Other species carry eggs or birth less developed young that resemble worms, which only later metamorphose into a form resembling an adult. For males the space occupied by female reproductive system is “occupied with a wide variety of specular penises, and/or display organs”.  

Snaiadi skeletons resemble wood more than they do bone because they are comprised of a “modified hydrocarbon composite” rather than calcium. This not only gives the skeleton a coloration of brown, black or green but also means that it burns easily when heated. An implication of this is that the fossil record of Snaiad is far more incomplete than that of Terra. The musculature of Snaiadi vertebrates are hydraulic in nature and are derived from “the water-vascular system of the sea cucumber-like” ancestors. As their muscles expand, bones push against one another, thereby moving them. These muscles come in a variety of sizes and are partitioned within self-sealing segments which are “resistant to puncture, and prevent the whole system from failing if a single lobe is disabled”. As vertebrates sleep the majority of their hydraulic fluid migrates to internal reservoirs which “help clean and replenish the hydraulic lymph supply, and also helps accommodate volume change in the entire system”. The bizarre consequence of this is that awakening vertebrates appear to “have thinner limbs and fatter bodies, as it takes a while for the fluid to fill up the limps and the spine”. While Snaiadi animals may breathe in oxygen and release carbon dioxide, they do so using nostrils located under their armpits or the tops of the body. These nostrils also contain their vocal cords which always vocalize in “stereo, from two separate sets of vocal cords on either side of the body” giving their songs “an enchanting, otherworldly effect on human listeners”.  

The deeper one goes into Snaiadi anatomy, the more alien and mysterious it becomes. The nervous system of Snaiadi vertebrates are a “fusion of stringy, impulse-transmitting” nerve fibers and “network of nodes and vessels containing a salty, slightly acidic fluid”. The vertebrate brain is actually two distinct organs which operate in unison. One is a dense formation of fibrous nerves similar to Terran vertebrate brains while the other is a disturbing structure known as a “worm basket”. As its name suggests, the organ is a “sac filled with an extremely convoluted bundle of microscopic tubules” within which millions of glands reside. The organ actually squirms when vertebrates engage in intellectually demanding activity or are dreaming while also being involved in the recording of memories, modulating the rest of the nervous system, and regulating growth and metabolism. The eyes of Snaiadi animals, if they possess them, are small “silicate lenses with no liquid inside” which are annually shed to clear up vision and are augmented by surrounding heat receptors. Hearing is primarily “accomplished by sensing vibrations in a compact bone-in-bone structure” under the arm-pits and secondarily by a hearing organs which “exist under the front footpads” of some vertebrate groups. The wide variety of Snaiadi animals, some of which I have put on display in this essay, can be explored here. I sincerely hope that the project continues to expand in the near future as it has been a huge inspiration to me.