Art From Dimar with Explanations! :)

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These are various pictures of citizens of Dimar from all timeperiods, with explanations and stories behind each. I'm hoping this will be a fun way to introduce you to some of the strange facets of the Dimar, and some features of the planet and the culture that's evolved there. Pictures are shown with no particular rhyme or reason.

This is a half breed Dimar sitting in front of a barryd. Half breeds are relatively rare in the time when Humans and Arrallins moved to the planet, but become much more common. This fellow is more regular Dimar than Mul (War Breed), but has enough Mul blood to branch his horns. (More on horns than you ever wanted to know coming up...) 

Behind him, a young barryd's twin spires rise, covered in purple blooms that will eventually (25-100 years) create seed pods to become abari (suburbs) or whole new barryds (cities). Barryds are not one kind of plant, but an entire plant AND animal colony. Barryd-living Dimar consider themselves part of the whole plant. They are not separate from it, or living off it. They're as integral a part to the survival of the plant system as the plant itself, and it is integral to their survival as well. The idea of one-ness with the world and nature, and especially a living barryd plant is central to the Dimar philosophy.

This human, who has been cosmetically altered himself, is learning the skills needed to adjust the fur and scale patterns in Dimar through using The Water. The Water is a set of 'active cells' immersed in a rich, sugary solution. They are like helpful viruses. They examine the DNA of whatever creature is in the Water pool and based on this blueprint can repair the injured animal. The technology is advanced enough that Dimar often make adjustments and improvements to their own structures, introducing a new blueprint to the Water, and then immersing a Dimar or animal in it to make the changes. An example of a useful change Dimar made is their Wings. Dimar were originally four legged animals. Wings were added to the species early in the history of the planet and honed to perfection over years of adjusting and use.

Any use of Water to adjust a structure is dangerous, however. Cosmetic changes like fur and scale patterns are the easiest, and any student of the Healing Arts or Engineering Arts usually learns this technique first. This human has just completed a fur color change on this Dimar, and fortunately for both of them, the Dimar is pleased with the result. This Human will probably graduate high in his Telkai (engineering) class, because it's difficult to get blue stripes on a dimar with red and brown coloring already. Colors in fur tend to be from the same family. A green and blue pattern, or green and purple pattern is easier to create in a way that will be stable and recurr year after year in the coat as it sheds. A red and blue pattern, or a purple and yellow pattern, if not done well, will eventually fade out, being dominated by one color or the other. Having a color pattern that's difficult to acheive is a sign of affluence for Dimar, and makes them more attractive to (shallow) members of their species.

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In the first years of Humans coming to Dimar, in order to encourage friendship and cooperation between the two species, humans in the Barryds were roomed with unmated Dimar. This tradition continued throughout Dimar's history of managed housing and housing assignments, and especially at universities and defense training academies. Both Arrallins and Humans get along well with the generally easygoing Dimar species. The Humans and Arrallins find the situation beneficial, because it's akin to having a housemate with a car when you don't own one. Dimar housemates generally don't mind ferrying their wingless firends to various places. Later technological advancements allow Humans and Arrallins to fly independently, but in the early days, 'Air Dimar' was the only way to get around the barryd and some roadless abari areas. All Dimar can fly, so they had no stairs and no roads suitable for landbound creatures in the cities themselves - only in areas where they kept herds of morraks for meat.

The only housing problems arise when shiftless Humans are housed with the fierce and competitive Mul Dimar - the war breed, who will only tolerate an independent and respectable human living with them. Arrallins, as a rule, are industrious, and get along well with the Mul. Most humans living with Mul Dimar just suffer the expense and buy their own wings. Better than having a housemate who constantly complains about what a useless weakling you are just because you didn't happen to be born with wings!

This guy's a good example of the wide variety of colors a Dimar can come in. Originally, Dimar had very few color combinations: white, black, grey, brown, tawny, golden, dark brown, greens and reds. But, they are a species as vain as Humans, and with advanced genetic tinkering, they beautified themselves as much as humans would if they had the technology earlier. Humans and Arrallins, when moving to Dimar, were also quick to save their Nila (money on Dimar) and have all kinds of alterations made to enhance their beauty. Within 50 years of settling on Dimar, Humans and Arrallins with blue, green, purple, rainbow, striped, pinto hair/skin are common. They even pass their coloration on to their children, as it is installed at the DNA level in place of their natural color patterns. In this case, this man's purple marks are not just cosmetic, but mark him as a resident of Aveila island. The two stripes on the forehead this man was lucky to inherit, but other humans sometimes get the stripes tatooed on their foreheads (but not the eyelid as shown here) when joining the Aveilans.

Here's just another version of the same picture.

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Humans and Arrallins, immersed in the powerful field of magnetism can eventually develop the ability to broadcast and receive naturally. To speed the process, many colonists to Dimar save up their money and have Water alterations done to their brains to gain this ability. It's incredibly helpful when dealing with Dimar, who have a spoken language, and have learned English, but prefer to talk in pictures through their psionic abilities.

These three must have one heck of a popular apartment! The female Dimar in the back would be considered a classic Dimar beauty, the Arrallin beta female has one of the most desirable coat marking patterns for their culture (diamond on the forehead) and the human ain't bad either.

The Arrallin shown here is a beta, and the common observer can know this through two main signals: she has no mane, and she has blue eyes. If her tail was visible, it would lack a large tuft. Only Alphas grow the thick silky manes and tail tufts, and always have gold or green-gold eyes. Betas only attain these features if they use the Water for cosmetic alterations, and they have to pay a sumptuary tax to the Alphas of their hive for permission to essentially appear as royalty. The Arrallins have no trouble spotting a true Alpha from a Beta who is cosmetically enhanced because of the chemical communications that link all of them, but for humans and Dimar, it can be downright confusing.

The Dimar has a white undercoat with grey points - dark muzzle, dark grey underbelly, and a black mane. She probably had black horns, and may not have had the blue stripes, and may have had them added via Water later in life.

More on Horns: Many Dimar have twisting spiral, or twisting smooth horns, like this female here. They end in a single point, with no brachiations or branches. Single horns allow the Dimar to interface with ships and warships, but only to drive them. Brachiations are reserved for tactical data or weapons controls, so Dimar that were taken as slaves during the Barryd wars had all their brachiations removed. This allowed them to still move the ships around - it just prevented them from using the weaponry. This is the natural configuration for all Dimar horns - Dimar horns with hook ends or that are bent completely around are a sign that the family has known war, and was part of a conquered family. Since most Dimar breeds hate war, hooked horns are worn with pride, as a sign of survival and strength. Having your horns hooked when your clan doesn't already have hooked horns is never done - it's the same as saying 'I'm a child of a Prisoner Of War (POW)' when you're not!

On the backs of all Dimar, there is a large, furry pouch for carrying Dimar children. However, when a Dimar, like this young female, aren't babysitting, humans and arrallins can use it as a seat. The furry pad that covers the pouch to keep it warm makes a perfect seat for residents who don't have the Nila (money) to buy their own wings. Even in later times, it's difficult for humans to reach the tallest spire rooms of the Barryds without wings, so as a matter of courtesy, any Dimar who's flying up gives rides to Humans or Arrallins who need the service.

A beautiful example of color engineering in action. This shy female is probably not yet used to her new, eye catching pattern. It's similar to what people feel when they make a radical change in hair color. At first, they're shy, but soon, they revel in the new attention.

This Mul male and female human are on fire patrol. Even later in Dimar's history, controlling the horrible fires that crop up all over mainland during the dry season is a big job. Imagine California in summer, times about 100, and you have a Dimar mainland dry season. Mul tend to focus on war studies and have little interest in fire fighting. Because of this, their barryds would often lose all the progress they'd made during the wet season. Dimar population is always kept in balance with the size of their barryd and what it can provide, so Mul numbers remained stable for centuries. Human fire consultants have greatly boosted their effectiveness in protecting the abari regions around the central Mul barryds, removing a natural control to the Mul population. Humans and Arrallins who live at or aid Mul barryds (which could some day rise again to reconquer the planet) take a lot of flack at public gatherings for helping the Mul rise in numbers, but a rational examination of population shows that Mul populations still rise at a much slower rate than other Dimar, which are beginning to become crowded on the smaller islands.

This is a Mul dimar, and judging from his horns, he's a decendant of a noble Mul clan. The more brachiations on the main horns, generally the higher in stature the family is. These brachiations are not for show, however. They're for piloting a warship, and monitoring all the activities of an army. Imagine if you could have tactical information on your army piped to your ship and directly into your mind for analysis! Each brachiation would handle a different division in a Mul's army, or a different function of the flagship. There's more of a story behind this picture, though, than this young male's horns. His partner for a Mirrai festival contest has been injured. The Mirrai is like a trade show for all the Arts and Guilds of Dimar. There are other, smaller festivals, or specialized events, but Mirrai is the equivalent of the World's Fair. Every business, study, art, and science holds shows and contests at the Mirrai. The fairgrounds themselves are as large as some of the smaller barryds on Dimar. Winning a prize or displaying your wares at the Mirrai can make or break your career.

This picture shows some distinctive features of a Dimar - six toes on each hand and foot - not four. Each Dimar has two thumbs, one on either side of the four main fingers. In the case of the hindfeet, the two toes are short and double jointed, and can flip back to become hanging claws. Dimar also have two thumbclaws at the pinnacle of the wings. The wing bones split at the ends to add stability to the edge of the wing. Dimar also have a tail fan, covered in the same wing membrane to give lift to their heavy hips and long tail. Dimar wings don't work via Bernoulli's principal alone. They generate magnetic lift off the planet's magnetic field (The Wind, as the Dimar call it, unlike wind, which is just air movement). This allows them to have great stability in churning air, although not in times of magnetic disturbance. The lifting bodies are distributed through the wing membrane, but can be focused into smaller organs if the Dimar requires the ability to lift other parts of it's body. The lifting bodies are serious energy depletors, so Humans and Arrallins generally don't have them implanted under the skin. Instead, they buy external wings with a separate power storage and input system. That sounds very electronic, but Humans and Arrallins have to feed their wings! The wings are technically alive, but have no central nervous system, but communicate with the spine of the human, sensing muscle and arm movements, OR, if the individual is lucky enough to have psi abilities, it is linked to a portion of their awareness.

This is an arrallakeeni beta female. Beta Arrallins don't breed on their own - they adopt a kit from the alpha breeding pair to raise. Keeni (as they like to call themselves), are hard workers, incredibly adept at mechanical tasks, and dedicated family members.

To find out more about the Arrallin species, click here.

More to come!