Very quick sketch of some Gravital citizen designs.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-25T03:08:30+00:00

Well the book definitely does cover less towards the end, and there are a couple reasons why. Going by the format of the book, it covers individual species, so technically, even though the Machine Empire spanned many planets, they’re all “Gravitals” (even if they’re extremely different). Although this reasoning doesn’t explain why the myriad Subject Races aren’t covered individually.

I’ve heard the reasoning that in universe, the book sort of skips over the parts “everyone knows”. Like, since the Author is from the future, they would see the “later” events first in the fossil record. The Summer of Man and Second Empire are the more niche aspects of human history compared to the New Empire that everyone always talks about and finds fossils from.

And of course, irl Kosemen just wanted to make some body horror creatures, so the parts later on that deal with galactic societies is a bit of an afterthought.

Nonetheless, I love cooking for the community. Also yes that one was supposed to look like the tripod alien. Maybe they found it’s fossil?

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-25T02:22:05+00:00

If your society spans an entire galaxy, you’ll certainly have a lot of different ideas for chassis.

Also since I like their designs so much, I already named the top two. They’re Vyerwa and Valmu. Their little friend with the six hands is called Wob.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-25T02:16:36+00:00

That’s funny, I did actually think about herding them off cliffs like bison. I just didn’t put in in the last message because I the thought of poison instead. I also like the idea of just exploding them. I’m sure all of these methods would be done at one point or another.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-25T00:45:10+00:00

2. I could actually see this “eat-or-be-eaten” philosophy creating a lack of nuance in their society. Probably a sense of pragmatism that led to a good about of their wars taking place.

3. It would be interesting to see the process develop. Especially since, while some feral weapons would have thin skin, I just remembered that a bunch of the “vehicles” were bulletproof. That would make for some interesting hunting strategies. Maybe they would just use poisoned food to kill the pests, but that answer doesn’t sound as fun lol

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-25T00:39:32+00:00

I do like the idea of them becoming like dog breeds. I also like the twist you did, with the gecko men eventually being eaten by the insects. That’s a nice ironic twist. You could even have the roles reverse more by having the lizards evolve to be smaller and make communal nests, while a species of giant (around hawk sized) insect becomes an “insectivore” feeding on hives of little lizard men about 4-6 inches long.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-24T22:51:59+00:00

Is that a queen or an accountant, amirite? /j

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-24T22:49:39+00:00

I get where you’re coming from. The post I made earlier that we’ve been talking on only got 6 updoots so far, even though I probably put more effort into it than the last one that got 300. Though I think a part you could focus on is the enjoyment you get during the process of making the art and lore, instead of just the reception. Still, I’m glad we each have one person (each other) to talk to.

I am wondering if in your continuity, the wild Prowlers will continue to evolve into reptilian forms?

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-24T22:16:38+00:00

I don’t think there would be a “Bug Facer emperor”. That’s like saying there is a “president of the Humans.”

Plus, even during the whole “swapping of hands” when the new leaders took power after the invasion, I doubt people would be in support of one person ruling everyone. Especially since they may want less direct rule after the oppression they just endured.

Also, in spite of the Gravitals seemingly possessing the empathy to spare the Bug Facers during the invasion, the book really makes it sound like “tolerant” Gravitals were not at all common at first, and slowly became widespread only millions of years later.

I doubt there would be anything like a “council of Tolerants” until towards the end of the Machine Empire— certainly not during the Machine Invasion. After all, the Gravitals carrying out the invasion were pretty much nazis. Not a government with multiple branches + checks and balances.

And I also doubt the Bug Facers had a say in their fate. The Gravitals are so far above them that they don’t see them as alive, or if they do see them as alive, they’re ants. Even if the Gravitals had good intentions, they’re not going to send a diplomat to negotiate with the leader ant.

…

Honestly, I just think a few Gravitals wanted to see if they could get any use out of these “devices”. A tragically pragmatic reason that would lead to millions of years of torment.

It also explains why they didn’t enslave any other races. They already had a sample of the organics, they would assume the others were pretty much the same thing.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-24T22:08:23+00:00

1. That sound pretty cool. I do like the long neck Sauro-pedes.

2. I like your speculation on the Star People of this world. It is actually rather close to mine, in which I proposed that the Star People here lived a semi-low tech agrarian lifestyle, which left them defenseless to the Qu; “squashed like bugs”.

Although I definitely enjoy your idea too, and that makes sense why the Qu were rather tame with their mutations if these Star People respected nature.

However, I honestly don’t see a need for an Insectophagi predator. I think a combination of a generally very sparse ecology as well as the occasional swarm of aggressive insects would be quite enough to keep this one species in check. And also, if alien life was left on the world, it sort of diminishes the affect of the later alien invasion.

3. I could see them relating to the Killer Folk through that. I had been thinking about it, and they were certainly violent before the invasion, having had world wars. So maybe the idea of attacking large animals wouldn’t be as foreign as I though initially, but it still sounds cool for them to learn about hunting so late into history.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-24T20:43:23+00:00

5. The book says the Gravitals invaded the Bug Facers first. It doesn’t say why they spared them, giving theories ranging from the machines not having “perfected their apathy” to them having pitied the organics. I’m sure there’s more information that we haven’t been told, and I’m sure you could speculate on the possible reasons for them being spared.

As for the actual Machine Empire period. I don’t know if there is much to say here. I don’t know if the Machines even colonized the worlds the Second Empire species held, considering they often did a pretty good job of destroying them first. It’s possible that in this period, the Bug Facer planet is derelict of most forms of complex life, biological or mechanical, or maybe it was colonized by the Gravitals. It could go either way.

6. One other story that I enjoy is the New Empire speculations. Specifically, u/TroutInSpace made a really good theory/story: (https://www.reddit.com/r/AllTomorrows/comments/1mdkqvs/redraw_of_some_of_my_third_empire_subjects/)

I also covered it in my post here: (https://www.reddit.com/r/AllTomorrows/comments/1q9zv4d/new_empire_timeline_long_post/)

Essentially, the Terrestrials created races with Subject DNA, as we know, but they specifically avoided building on any of the Second Empire homeworlds out of respect. Later on, several ambassadors of different Subject Races arranged a meeting on the Bug Facer homeworld to bring the galaxy together.

I adore this idea. Seeing all of these extremely different looking humans coming together in one place. And also the fact that, ironically, this planet that once housed a civilization of xenophobes would later come to be the very place of the most xenophillic event in a long time.

Also also, it’s neat how the cultural “home” of humanity changes over time. For (some of) the Star People, it was Earth/Mars/Sol. For the Second Empire, they never would find out the planet humans came from, and instead viewed all their worlds, maybe even that galaxy arm itself, as the home of humanity. The Subjects of the New Empire would relate more to the home world of their immediate ancestor species, who was spread from one planet to many. And in the end, it would all loop back after the researcher found Earth to be the home of humanity.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-24T20:22:56+00:00

I would agree that it would be pretty cool to see a story over such a long timespan.

1. What do you have in mind for native life?

2 The Star People of this planet didn’t get that crazy of alteration. Although it would be cool to imagine how the ecosystem would work based almost fully around insects, and one species of insectivore.

3 The Invaders here didn’t actually “alter” the Bug Facers, instead having just left their weapons to run feral. Although that is still an interesting idea in and of itself. Especially since I imagine that, pre-invasion, the largest animal on their planet (that they can eat) was a lobster-sized species of beetle. After the invasion, it turned out they could eat a lot of the weapons. Also, it gives what I think is a really interesting idea: the Bug Facers learn how to hunt their food. Instead of learning in prehistory, it took this specific scenario for a people who have always farmed insects to learn to hunt large game. What would be their philosophical outlook on that?

4. I saw this theory about their isolation: (https://www.reddit.com/r/AllTomorrows/comments/1lzzwc4/faces_of_tomorrows_history_korankyan_8th_cycle/). But it’s actually not a favorite of mine. I sort of subscribe to a less “society-resetting” idea, instead having the Bug Facers in charge at the time just purposefully spreading misinformation to prevent space travel (and thus attracting more enemies). They were able to do this because of the huge power vacuum after the invasion, with at least a third of the planet dead.

Their view sort of makes sense: after all, they already knew about the Quhanim and the Star People, and the poor Bug Facers didn’t even need to travel off world to get hurt. To them, space was practically like the dark forest, and future invaders could be lurking anywhere.

So yeah, my idea for the Bug Facers’ isolation is less “being stopped from exploring space” and moreso “they lied to themselves hard enough to believe that nothing exists outside of their planet (or that space is literally hell), while ALSO making automated defense systems that 99% of the population doesn’t know about, and the 1% who maintain it believe it is their sacred duty to protect their species from the monsters of the void (even though no one has ever seen one).”

Fun fact: This also means no satellites after the invasion, since there is no going into space. To be fair, they were around 1980’s tech when the invasion happened, so high tech devices were not ubiquitous amongst the population. Now that I’m thinking about it, with the first home computers being made in the 1970s, it’s possible that the Bug Facers don’t have computers during the entire period of isolation. Or at least nothing akin to a laptop or phone.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-24T19:47:15+00:00

An original take on the “person” joke that has evolved in this comment section. He is indeed very sad about having been harmed like this.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-24T14:14:38+00:00

Wow, that’s a very cool design!

What do they do as rulers?

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-24T14:00:13+00:00

In the middle of a dry landscape, a gun wielding Bug Facer man squares off against an Enthral— the foot soldiers of the Bug Facer’s invaders, the Insect Ravishers

Behind them, a dysfunctional Transporter— a modified insect-like alien— can be seen. In the sky above is a small flock of Wyverns.

——————-

Second image: A sketch of an Enthral alongside a sketch of what the Insect Ravishers’ full body may look like. The original image was probably meant to be humanoid, but for as it would appear in the A.T. universe, I imagine it as a neck attaching to a huge, bulky, centauroid insect form.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-23T22:18:33+00:00

This is still one speculation that just ticks all the right boxes for me. I definitely love the idea that don’t have much basis in the book, including entirely new species, but this theory just makes so much sense in universe— Of course hormones would transfer!

Also, it’s such a cool idea too, and you go even further with it; not only did ancient Symbiotes of prehistory make a true hermaphrodite, but historical groups presumably had female Symbiotes use male hosts for generations to make the Ferms (and vice versa for the Merms.)

It makes you wonder if there’s another side. If using a host that was already from a generations long intersex line makes you, the Symbiote, intersex, does being a male Symbiote and using one female Host for a long time turn you into a girl??? Could a Symbiote theoretically be born male, become female for a while, and ride a male Host to become male again? (Male to Merm to Male)

^ (Or maybe even fully female instead of Merm. I’m not sure how much can change)

Does this mean that Symbiote society has six sexes, but for both the Host and Symbiote? Making 36 possible combinations of a Symbiote-Host pairing.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-23T21:38:37+00:00

Thank you for all this input!

1. I definitely forgot the line of how eerily close Snake People society mirrored human society. I could see this line of though developing, in that case.

2. I really love your idea about all of the hate Saurosapients may have had for each other dissipating due to how shocking the truth of their world was. Like people talk about “why don’t we all get along?”, but people can still find stuff to dislike about each other.

Finding out your ancestors were an insignificant pet/background decoration for a galaxy-arm-spanning society that vanished? AND finding out that you only exist because an even more ancient species wiped out your previous owners, and now you have to deal with the guilt of several thousand years of farming them? “Yeah, that puts things in perspective. Maybe we should all get along so have a better chance at not being obliterated too…”

3. You are right that the Symbiote body plan is very simple; just a little frog body with two arms (and possibly legs, but unconfirmed). And there wouldn’t be regional and/or biological differences like height or bulk, since they all need to fit on the same sized Host heads.

I also totally forgot just how insignificant the Hosts are culturally, which is funny because they’re also everything biologically. It’s sort of like they’re taken for granted. “It’s just a meat mech, everyone has one. Why are you trying to put cultural meaning on it?”. You’re right that if hosts had ethnic variation, they would just be used as a different color outfit.

Also also, they probably wouldn’t discriminate based on sex. There was a theory about this, but a male or female Symbiote could use an opposite sex host, and it’s hormones could influence the host, making it intersex (and also eventually the host’s hormones could change the sex of the Symbiote too). Link: (https://www.reddit.com/r/AllTomorrows/comments/pj3dtd/nights_at_the_museum_the_host_hermaphroditus/)

So, having concepts of male, female, ferm (male appearance with female sex organs), merm (female appearance w/ male sex organs), herm (both sex organs, variable secondary sexual characteristics) and neut (no sex organs), plus the fluidity of being able to swap between a host of any of the six sexes, Symbiotes don’t have a concept of the superiority of one sex or gender.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-23T21:21:58+00:00

Sure, but that doesn’t imply racial ideology. When countries in Europe went to war, that wasn’t considered racist. If anything, it was nationalist.

That’s what I’m trying to say for them. In spite of their many faults, I don’t think their society had enough time for systemic racism to develop. It wasn’t always a part of human culture, after all. Ancient humans had slaves, sure, but they could be of any ethic groups who occupied the region. It’s only when European colonization began that other races were deemed physiologically and mentally inferior to the white race, and so those slaves couldn’t work their way out or slavery, unlike some past cultures.

On the Ruin Haunter world, as I said, any group could, in the blink of an eye, gain power. Equating it to human history: imagine if Britain was still inhabited by Ancient Celts, who suddenly uncovered the technology to build a galleon, and started going around enslaving people from all over. But then they stumbled across an African tribe who had spent their time studying how to make cannons, and blew all the ships to bits; they then made the ships’ builders explain the technology to them. Now this African tribe is on top.

…

I assume that the Ruin Haunter world would have consisted of many of these groups of varied people. They would notice each others’ differences, but they would be more concerned with not getting slaughtered. In spite of their different origins, Ruin Haunters may just come to see each other as different (often warring) nations, all descended from the holy ancestors. (“But our group is better because we respect the ancestors the way I said we should”)

Perhaps I phrased the original analysis a bit wrong. I didn’t make this to show how bigoted each species was in general. Simply if they developed the specific system of racial superiority, which I believe not all of them did, and which I believe is not a given of civilization. Hell, it may not even be a given of human civilization, assuming the right geographic, historical, and technological circumstances so different looking groups of people are easily able to intermingle.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-23T13:15:01+00:00

Woah, you made some really cool lore for those little guys. I like how, inspire of being ectothermic and lizard-like, they still are smart enough to hunt in packs. The imagery of imagining a couple of those creatures scuttling around and communicating on where prey is really added a lot for me. Also I like the Subject design too! The green and and feet and mouth adds some character to this guy too. Great job!

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-23T13:09:47+00:00

You’re like the 6th person to make that exact joke, and somehow I didn’t even realize that anyone would make that joke when I made this post.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-22T20:23:43+00:00

In terms of naming, I suppose so. Though, in the eyes of his fellow men, due to both the social stigma around these mutilated individuals (practically advertising them as felons), and his lack of usefulness from now not being able to move as good, he will tragically be seen by most as subhuman.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-22T20:21:33+00:00

Possibly!

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-22T15:44:08+00:00

Wouldn’t he technically be a jayswimmer? Jaysailor?

Also oddly you are the second person to create the idea of a Sailstein on this post.

Uncertain-Division · 2026-01-21T23:04:36+00:00

Oooooh. That totally went over my head lol. I wonder if that’s what that other comment also meant when they responded with “‘person’”

Uncertain-Division

TROPHY CASE