If Humans were Hunters. | Speculative Evolution in the Dragonslayer Codex |
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- Short form video today! A follow up to my previous, so please watch that for more context regarding this one! Enjoy.
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Twitter: sawyerleeart
Insta: sawyerleeart
Patreon: www.Patreon.com/Sleeart
Also, to clarify, *I know humans hunt* in the video I convey how they hunt with their bodies rather than tools like spears. It’s also alliterative 😉
also, chimps who eat way more meat then any other prim ape are hunters
All good man, ya gotta do what ya gotta do, good video btw
Sigh.......
*Slams the backspace key*
@@ObsidianDragon7030 lmao
Fair enough
Something about predatory and giant hominids are much more terrifying to me than deadly dragons. Probably something to do with a unique familiarity to them.
That's the reason I find chimpanzees so horrifying
Humans are already predatory hominids
@@JcoleMc we're not giant tho, nor are we pure hunter/carnivore
@@slimetank394 No we're better Humans are Omni predators we eat everything and nothing hunts us
Bears,tigers,lions,hyenas,cougars@@JcoleMc
I’m just imagining a strangler chocking a dragon like Homer Simpson and Bart
Fr
Lol
LOL
Big fan of animals who's method of prey capture is alon the lines of "me when I GET YOU" memes
The idea of a strangler giant staring at you from the distance, then suddenly starts running towards you and before you can run he grabs your chest and starts to crush you to death is just haunting
one thing i hate about the "predatory ape" trope is that they always just turn them into generic big cats with big claws and big teeth not really having anything special
these actually are far from thsi actually evolving from a larger primate group of the giants and being less of just giga cats and more grapples using their actual own style of hunting prey
Well cat-like body plan evolved many independently among many unrelated clades.
Rajang
The fact that is just chokes out dragons is so so smart and really cool!
Thanks! Felt suitably metal for a critter with big arms
Thanks for spoiling us with two videos back to back
had to!
@@sawyerleeart😊
Carnivorous primates would indeed be concerning. Dealing with chimpanzees going ape on a human is bad enough. Much less what amounts to a giant carnivorous gorilla on crack that literally eats dragons. XD
Also just wanted to say, huge fan of the Dragon Slayer Codex. :D I love the variety of dragons,animals and cultures in the setting. Especially the trash eating dragon and the fisher dragon that can also electrocute things.
Hell yeah dude I’m glad you like my work!
I like that the giants have robust legs to account for supporting their large size. Nice touch.
Good eye!
@@sawyerleeart Good eye for detail yourself. Gold star ✨️
So, a fire resistant hominid that's several times larger than a mandril, a man-eating carnivore, hands that can pop your head like a balloon and can hunt in groups. That's absolutely terrifying. Considering these thing live on steppes, seeing one of these appear from behind a hill would be horrifying. I imagine they can run real fast so if it sees you and you can't hide in small caves they can't get to, you're likely dead within a minute if you don't have a dragon to fly away on. Granted you may have a chance of escaping with a mount hound, if they are fast enough.
They have a frightening knack for appearing and disappearing along the slopes of hills! And indeed the safest way to travel is on dragonback
I like how you gave yourself the "rule" of the Strangler not having claws as a primate, (when adding claws is the default go-to when designing predators,) which then lead to a very unique and memorable hunting technique. Restrictions can be a great seed for creativity, this is a really cool concept.
The background audio in this video was really grating unfortunately. I had to resist the urge to click off as that animal breathing/growling noise kept overpowering your voice over, (the content I actually wanted to hear.)
Limits are the best part of creativity! And noted, listening back its much too loud
what I find really cool about this sort of world is that its really not that far off from what our ancient ancestors had to survive. there are plenty of caves that were once home to massive birds or predators that were riddled with hominid skeletons. imagine trying to survive a bird attack, but said bird has like a 12 foot wingspan, and also there's more than one bird... make it bigger and add fire and boom, tiny dragon. anyways, love this kind of stuff, this was awesome!
Yes!! The mystique of the ancient real world was a huge inspiration for this project, which asks what it would be like to live in a similar world dialed up to 10
Imagine getting isekaied to this world with the protagonist assuming its generic western medieval fantasy land with dragons? My condolences to the isekai protagonist.
Imagine this *_thing_* is the first thing they come across.
@concept5631 Honestly any human from our world would be at a huge disadvantage here unless they have cheat powers. The 'humans' here are descended from giants and are evolutionary stronger, tougher, and more resilient. There's no magic to even the odds either. So yeah... whether the protagonist encounters monsters or hostile people they are in for a nightmare.
@@TheMysticGauntlet The only advantage we'd have is *_maybe_* intelligence but I don't know exactly how smart the predators are
@concept5631
Umm... have you watched the other videos of this channel? This one is part of a shared world and setting. There are other 'humans' here that are just as smart as us, probably even smarter in some ways. They have underground cities, advanced armor, dragon hunting giant dogs as well as domesticated dragons themselves, flamethrowers, etc.
So yeah... Unless the protagonist encounters friendly people immediately, which again is rare in this world as most people he or she would likely encounter on the traveling road only want something in return as mentioned in another video.... then the protagonist is in for a really bad time. If they meet friendlies, then maybe the protagonist could pull off a tech uplift scenario provided they have all that modern knowledge from Earth. But that's a big maybe.
@@TheMysticGauntlet This is literally the first video of his I've come upon.
An ape that hunts by crushing it's prey is terrifying. Nice work!
This is beautiful!!! You don't often see people in spec evo mentioning humans with the exception of all tomorrows. This was a fantastic presentation!
Thank you so much! Means a lot
Beautiful is not the primary adjective this beast bring to mind, but hey that's just me
That t h i n g looks so disturbing
(It’s the proportions)
Great vid
Thanks man!
My only critique of this fictional branch of evolution is that if hominids have working hands and opposable thumbs, and have large brains, its inevitable that they will use tools. Primates in real life do it all the time, and chimps have actually progressed to the stone age in our real world. If you want to give them hands and opposable thumbs, you will also have to realistically shrink their brains and dumb them down, because otherwise it wont make sense why a rather intelligent species wont use tools to make their survival easier. Otherwise, 10/10 video ❤
Being able to use tools doesn't mean being able to create tools..... name 5 people in your life that know how to shape rocks into knives, even tho modern humans are smarter they have no idea how to make the tools they need on a daily basis, not even the most primitive versions of those tools.
It has nothing to do with just being intelligent or being able to use tools... it has everything to do with being able to teach your children how to use tools.
Hence why even though for most of humanity men were bigger and stronger and meaner and more athletic and needed to be the most intelligent ones because they are the providers.... women evolved to be just as intelligent if not more socially intelligent than men because women need to teach their children how to spend 8 hours a day making 3 rock knives. You also see it in spiders and scorpions where females are incredibly intelligent social wise because they need to teach their offsprings.
look at art for example, it took millenia for art to develop to a point that looks not ridiculous, because a few gifted guys where born, and then from there, all it took was a few teachers to spread the newly discovered art techniques... but you might argue it takes different kinds of intelligence to teach, to learn and to discover new things.
if primitive humans were smart enough to make tools and use them but not smart enough to teach, then you'd have the same primordial predators you see in the videos
@Ceisri Whether most people know how to make tools or not doesn't discredit the fact that in the face of survival or death, a species will be forced to figure out how to make those tools and there's a big incentive to teach how to make those tools to their descendants. Of course, I don't know how to work obsidian into a spearhead, but someone else will eventually, through trial and error, figure it out for themselves, and then the cycle of invention continues. It's inevitable a smart species with hands uses tools, because if they don't... they die 🤷♂️ That alone ensures they'll figure it out, one way or another.
@@Ceisri Tool usage doesn't necessarily equate to crafting. Tool usage can be as simple as using a rock to break something open, or a stick to poke at something deep in a hole. I don't think it would be unreasonable to imagine a giant sharpening a stick with its teeth to stab something (which has been observed in chimpanzees).
Why make tools when you dont need them it has all the things it need without them and since necessity is the mother of invention then no need no invention
@lincolngravemann682 Thats the problem, they *do* need them. Because they'll eventually notice that hunting with tools like a spear or a bow or sling is easier and safer than hunting with their arms and legs and teeth. Evolution favors survival, so it's inevitable that the ones who die less using tools will make the whole species end up using tools.
This entire universe would be FIRE converted into an RPG game, the variety and creativity and detail of the designs and behaviours, damn!
I've said for ages that baboons terrify me. The _instant_ I saw this, I muttered "Great, it's a giant baboon."
I'd start looking at these sideways if they came within line-of-sight to my Undercity. *"Proactive defense"* I believe is the appropriate term.
*EDIT:* _Gilded Whisperwurm_ soon please.
Human sits in his house of Mammoth bones- "you better get used to a world with predatory primates, you're in one!"
Watching this is getting back into my httyd obsession, I loved learning about different dragons and how dangerous they were when I was kid along with dinosaurs as well
Glad to stoke the imagination!
Ok somenthing to consider :
Using an air chocke , crushing the windpipe , requires more force and is slower than squeezing the blood vessels in the neck :
Crushing the windpipe prevents oxygen from coming in the lunghs and then prevents it from reaching the organs ,
Squeezing the neck vessels directly prevents oxygen from reaching the brain , knocking out humans at least rather quickly ...
So i figure clever older giants may get better in this chocking mechanic than younger stronger ones ,
Also using legs and arms to fully wrap around the prey could be a viable strategy for a flexible ape ,
I am sort of imagining almost jiu jitsu like movments , wich in humans are aided by our limbs being able to swivel around with a great degree of freedom
This comment made me really self conscius because i sound like joe rogan
This reminds me of the terrifying dinopithecus, a giant murder baboon that existed along side our prehistoric human ancestors.
Your worldbuilding is just so amazing. I never even thought of other animals evolving alongside dragons. Usually when i think of a world with dragons, it’s a regular world with regular animals and just simply has dragons in it. But your project is amazing. I never even thought of having Giants evolve from human ancestors before. I love the diversity of your giants too. I think the Strangler is probably my favorite. Could you make a video talking about the other giants? Usually in other world buildings projects, the mammals don’t get a lot of love, but here they definitely do.
Amazing work man, please keep it up.
Means a lot man thanks! And yes o have a giant video listed as one of my next!
I love how you world built human civilizations like giant ant hills, it would be awesome to see what the day in the life of a normal person would be like in each major faction of the world
Great idea
I Love this big strangling land shark ape! Was a great experience helping out with the creation of him during the stream!
One of, if not my favorite takes on carnivorous apes in Spec-evo 👀, and it using strangling as a method of hunting rather than typical claws is really unique!
@@MoistyMosasaur it is really badass!!
This is just Rajang without the lightning Super Saiyan powers, but it's still terrifyingly awesome. You've earned a new subscriber, mate.
This takes your world to a whole other level the fact that there's a spec evo project IN a spec evo project is kinda crazy and very unique and I can't wait to see how you executed the concept
LOL thanks! Glad you like
Honestly, seeing the face of the Strangler Giant walk around the corner, as you're just minding your own business... might be enough to forget all about the dragons in the area. At least for a little while at least.
Two videos in two days? Im in heaven
...and above the trees, we can take a look at a very quick creature, the Red Racer. This dragon, as a trade for its speed, comes in a very weak build, which in the current situation might not come in handy. That's because between the foliage, unseen, hides the star of the show, the Strangler Giant. This giant ape is a dangerous threat to all creatures on the ecosystem due to it's intelligence, speed and raw strength, dragons are no exception.
Hungry, the ape hears the wing flaps of the clueless dragon and prepares for a lethal strike. It climbs up the tree remaining just a few branches under the top. As soon as the dragon closes the distance, the ape takes a ran up and jumps into the dragon, latching to it's neck with both hands. The dragon strugles and tries to throw the ape from it's back, to no avail. The dragon cannot maintain flight and they both fall on the trees. The ape forces the dragon to get hit in the head, causing a concussion and ending it's life. Today the ape wins and the magnificent dragons are reminded that they too are mortal.
Thank you for reading through my documentary.
Great read!
Mr. Lee, I have to thank you for drawing my sleep paralysis demon for everyone else to see. Amazing job
The next cristmas/birthday coming after this releases, imma have to ask for it man. Speculative evolution, good worldbuilding, and making it so dragons aren’t the only awsome thing in a dragon infested setting, I can’t wait for this to (hopefully) become a book someday. This stuff is crazy!
Thanks man! Working on it to be a book as soon as I can!
@@sawyerleeart yippee! *confetti explosion*
Raptors like eagles usually eat what they can and leave avoiding danger, if we implement this on Dragons i think they would leave the carcasses so their wings won't get damaged.
Which would make an abundance of scavanger, something like Allosaurus is plausible but a bear like scavenger is more likely.
One thing that makes speculative fiction/evolution enjoyable to me, is good artwork. Bad artwork just ruins the experience for me. Your artwork is both unique and enjoyable.
One more!!? YESSS
did it in a single night!
Cool take on the predatory ape/hominid Trop with a more elegant and fleet-footed build, can't wait to see what other strange creatures inhabit this world.
Truly bizarre yet horrific creature.
The problem with creating a physically hunting hominid in any setting is always gonna be that every hominid has high mechanical intelligence and is prone to tool usage regardless of anatomy. I'd typically start with something more like a baboon to avoid the near inevitable evolutionary pit of snowballing tool complexity that ends in humans being wizards.
Going a different direction though, if the giants had similar agility to these things, as well as high tool usage, they could become equally mentally and physically dangerous and turn into super predators akin to dragons. Something mirroring the Yautja (predators) of comics.
Sawyer: (*posts a new vid 2 days after his last one*)
Me: "You're back already?!"
Hope one day a dook is published with all the drawings
It will!
@@sawyerleeart the I will buy It when they day comes same with monstergarden
Ive always love the concept of a hyper-carnivore hominids or great apes. Id love to see a video on any of the other hominids in your world. I particularly like the design of the cave-thing that you've created.
I like the idea of this subspecies of giant being a troll analogue.
NO WAY WE GET TWO VIDEOS BACK TO BACK!!!! SAWYER YOU ARE A LEGEND!!!
My pleasure!
I'm glad they were their own video, they're very very cool!
As always, your art and designs rule~!
There's something just weirdly interesting about carnivorous apes.
Yay new upload!!
Me envisioning the kind of man I want to be:
Dude, you have wonderful creativity, congratulations👏
Uncanny valley came to life, that's how i would describe it. It just feels wrong, like, it's not a critic! But that just feels like something that is so, so creepy, like some instintic tells that you should not be near that!
Haha thanks! That’s definitely the goal
Keenan and Sawyer upload on the same day???? The spec evo gods have blessed us.
Keenan uploaded? *cartoon running sounds*
LOL love Keenan
Well now that you mentioned big cat I’d love to see your take on them. Maybe some Mustelidae or Flying Squirrel/Air borne mammal influence with pheromones that the peppermen harvest or extract
This is cool asf. Please don't stop your pursuit of the epic and fascinating world of fantasy world building. Love the realism mixed with the weird. Creepy in the best way possible. Also, make a dnd or pathfinder book some day. I'm sure there'd be an audience for it!
I hope to continue to provide!!
This world is bizarre and terrifying and I love it.
I've always thought about the perspective of whales/dolphins on killer whales. Imagine living with the knowledge that there are predators out there that look so similar and posses the same level of intelligence as you.
Rajang?
Very beautiful art. The giants are very intriguing. A very pleasant passion project here. Enjoyed it
Aye means a lot man
Another great video Sawyer! I really love how you’ve incorporated both speciation and convergent evolution into this and I’ve always really liked the concept of carnivorous apes, even if it isn't the most plausible in real life.
I gotta say I didn't expect the predatory apes to be cheetah/hyena analogs. I thought they'd either ambush their prey or be endurance runners like humans (but killing with fangs instead of spears). Also I'm surprised you didn't make them nocturnal (mammals in the domain of large reptiles and all). I'm not complaining though. If anything these details make your take on the trope even more creative
Predatory-primate-trope lets go! It just is not a complete spec-evo-project without crazy, carnivorous apes or monkeys... Now we just need everything to become rats, squids starting a civillisation and birds transforming into dinosarurs, to get all checkpoints full!
But now without joking: This is a cool creature. Not so much nightmare fuel like the other subteranean one (i do not know if i am allowed to say the name because of spoilers?), but still a very cool addition to your world. I love especially how you worked with the fact, that there needs an open niche to evolve another predator, and the idea with the chocking-strategy is also great - and quite honestly a bit funny!
Also another thing: The evolution of the quality of your videos is insane!
Hell yeah man! Had to give the mean monkey trope a shot. And no worries, cave-thing is not a spoiler since I posted it! Glad you liked the bit about needing open niches, I try to stay informed on that as to avoid a project crawling with too many predators
@@sawyerleeart That is good to hear! I have seen many settings being a bit to much overcrowded with predators... Predators and more predators everywhere. Ah, and of course the little population of herbivores in an gigantic sea of carnivores are just passive chunks of meat. Such thinks do not ruin a story or world in my opinion dirrectly (as long as they are not the center) but they break a bit the immersion...
Can you do a future video on Giants? I really like to know more about them
totally
@@sawyerleeart HYPE!
I'm definitely going to craft this beast in figurine form. The strangler Giant is way too cool!!
If we were an RPG character, our main stat would be endurance.
We are, by animal standards, hellishly undying and unrelenting terrors, these Terminator-esque nightmares that just DO. NOT. STOP
So ancestrally we are persistence hunters. That is, our main tactic for catching prey without fancy weapons was to just run them down, especially in our way-back home of the African desert. You can still see it, all over the human body.
We are nearly hairless. This lack of insulation means better heat dissipation. We have a ton of sweat glands, next to other mammals. Again, heat dissipation. Another one is our two-legged gait - walking for us is technically just a series of controlled falls. We let gravity do half the work, and as a result use up fewer resources and generate less heat (quadrupeds, on the other hand, have to do more work with more legs).
I mean, imagine being a more-or-less gazelle of half a million years ago. You're eating, doing your thing, when this predator arrives, so you run off. Now most predators, they'll only chase for a short distance and then call it a day (watch cats, for instance). But this one... here he is again. So you run. He returns. You run again. He returns. You're getting hot - you have to stop and pant to lose heat, but he just keeps jogging. You run. He keeps coming. You're tired - you're fast, but not for very long, and this stretches your limits.
Eventually you just lay there, exhausted and heat-stunned, and this ludicrous hairless monkey just jogs on over and kills you.
That's our claws, our sharp teeth, even without our technology and tool-making. We simply don't stop.
-vauld13rev OP, burialgoods for making it a video and dubbing.
Burialgoods rocks
What you said is full of flaws. First and foremost, there is not much evidence that ancient humans were universally endurance runners. The famous human vs horse marathon was only won twice by a human in 40 years. This is a success rate too small to be an efficient method of hunting.
Secondly, there is not much evidence we humans are the best at endurance running. We have high level stamina when compared to most other mammals, true. But birds beat us. They just do. Flighless birds like the ostrich are just better long distance runners then humans can possibly be.
Third, you completely ignored our actual main stat. Intelligence. We are the smartest animal on the planet. Not the stronger, fastest, or the one iwth the best stamina.
Damn, this one really catches me by surprise. I'm really becoming fond of these bizarre and deadly "predatory hominids" from your world (the others being the mancatcher and the cave thing)
This is a really cool concept, and art to match!
It is interesting to note that there really are predatory apes in the form of chimpanzees. So it’s not such an unbelievable trope after all.
Nice job dude 😎 love to see the speculative homminids
slap a state block on everything and some good story writing, and voilà a complete campaign module for DnD XD
That’s one of my goals!
So this is a titan baboon.
A video delving into the evolution and adaptive radiation in giants would be interesting
I really want to see a more in depth look at some of the species of hagwyrm or the predatory tenrecs. Those two groups In particular are super interesting. Or the holdtaker and summit keeper
I’m a huge fan of spec evolution
Yesss we going Attack On Titan with this one!!
I love this series so entertaining!!
Randomly came across your channel through my algorithm but I’ve been watching all of your videos. Keep up this great and detailed work!
Hell yeah welcome!
2 vids in 2 days? oh we eatin good
edit:
that thing is terrifying.
Wow.. This is the last thing i would expect to see in the Dragon Slayer Codex.
Been a viewer since your first video and I gotta be frank, you're *really swinging* for the fences here. It's been a remarkable watch.
Thanks man! Thanks also for sticking with me!
Man after Man: Fantasy Edition.
Oh... it wasn't the Ashen Hagwyrm...
But I loved it anyway
he'll get his turn! I put this forward as a sequel to the previous vid
I just love the dragon designs and worldbuilding like god dam, the creativity. I adore ur work. Favourite has to be the wailing bishop.
Sheesh! I sure would hate to come across one of those things at night in the fields.
i would also hate to come across a regular modern human i dont know at night in a field
You should consider getting your setting made into a module/book for DnD. People would eat that up. Been playing a long time and make DnD content for my games a lot, this is the kinda stuff people like, the fantasy - real world science blend.
Man I’d help make the book 😅
Or even just a monster manual, converted into dnd stat blocks.
That ape is terrifying I can imagine it running…..
I love your videos, this is a new giant and it's very unique and even scary. This giant seems to be the only one that doesn't stand on to legs and looks like a baboon to me but like more creepy. One more thing this part of the world has some roles that have been flipped. Humans and dragons work together against giants as you said ironic.
Please lower the volume of the animal sounds... They are blowing out my phones speaker at the volume needed to hear you
Giant angry Homers?
Someone get these giants some donuts!
This creativity is amazing! 😂
My god this is brilliant. Man eating giants slain by dragon riders in self defense,. THE SOUND DESIGN. I want to commit all of your videos to an imperishable quartz data sphere
Haha thank you so much!
growing up in a rural village in south east asia according to our native stories, "aswang" or blood sucking flying humanoids are evolve humans just like vampires. maybe they are a new species & they could also interbreed with modern humans
Reminds me of the premise of Blindsight: the idea being that Vampires were an actual species of hominid that preyed on Homo sapiens in prehistoric times. They were physically and mentally superior- and could enter suspended animation for years at a time to let their food source replenish- but were wiped out upon our discovery that their keen vision had a flaw:
Perceiving perfect right angles would cause them to have seizures, much like epilepsy being triggered by flashing colors.
@@championsoftheice Ohh kinda like our local vampire here, they avoid the day time too, they are also able to shapeshift, our grandparents told usthat this creatures are beautiful during the day, u can able to tell that their aswang if you saw that ur reflection in their eyes inverted. it means their not human.
@@knightshade6232 Woah,.... like their eyes are concave or something?
@@chinmayjoshi3592 no they look normal but your reflection is inverted if you look closely at them.
Your art and designs are SO beautiful
Means a lot!
Are they the only big predators in this region?
Please never give this up. This reminds me greatly of reading the "Practical Guide" series on Dungeons and Dragons (despite never actually playing), and I suspect that it will be important to some tech savvy Skibidi Toilet kid that doesn't want to fuck with books but still wants to engage with fantasy.
Oh no steppe giant im stuck in a subterranean hive city
Laughed like an idiot
The CANKLES on those giants bro! Astronomic.
Been a big fan of your work since Curious Archive made a video about it. Glad i found your channel!
I want a story in this world. Like i would watch or read something besides the biology
Excellent! Part of my plans include novels that take place here
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY
@@sawyerleeart I still have the space reserved on my bookshelf, dude.
I planned on taking the Old *World of Darkness* tabletop system to this.
It's one of the easiest to convert, and makes combat *"Go! And one of you is **_already_** dead..."*
Fitting.
@@sawyerleearti would buy all of your books
Well... that thing is positively upsetting, now isn't it?
This shit is awesome, the art is evocative and the vision behind it is evident in your work; may your work be enjoyed by millions
draconic human apes thats badass