Ah.
It isn't bits of Kass that fell off.
It's extra Kass. Bonus Kass!

fuck yeah, that's hot

God that is horrifying, a horrifying biological fax machine

-Antiquities are old and it's unknown who or what made them
-Yinglets are a fairly young species that's still in the process of evolving correctly
- an antiquity is found that converts organic mass into yinglet

Pretty easy hypothesis here: whoever or whatever made antiquities used one to create yinglets (possibly to act as servants). It's unknown whether it worked and only the intelligent ones keep the story alive or if it failed because yinglets are...not very bright and therefore couldn't follow orders.

banisheddragon said:
-Antiquities are old and it's unknown who or what made them
-Yinglets are a fairly young species that's still in the process of evolving correctly
- an antiquity is found that converts organic mass into yinglet

Pretty easy hypothesis here: whoever or whatever made antiquities used one to create yinglets (possibly to act as servants). It's unknown whether it worked and only the intelligent ones keep the story alive or if it failed because yinglets are...not very bright and therefore couldn't follow orders.

I developed that theory as well a while ago after reading the previous entries of the field guide, particularly the early ones. Their sudden appearance, their quick developement, mutation rate, the existence of artefacts that transform organic matter into yinglets... there is definetly a connection. Also it's still open to question why the greater yinglet is so hostile towards the lesser yinglet

elur said:
I developed that theory as well a while ago after reading the previous entries of the field guide, particularly the early ones. Their sudden appearance, their quick developement, mutation rate, the existence of artefacts that transform organic matter into yinglets... there is definetly a connection. Also it's still open to question why the greater yinglet is so hostile towards the lesser yinglet

Probably genetic failure? Maybe whatever deep instinct that yinglets have hates oddities or failed hatchlings. I wondered about the other elders. Each one of them seemed unique compared to other.

bored_hunter9 said:
Probably genetic failure? Maybe whatever deep instinct that yinglets have hates oddities or failed hatchlings. I wondered about the other elders. Each one of them seemed unique compared to other.

The "lesser yinglets" could also be a baseline that the "greater yinglets" were based/made from. I imagine that it would be easier to engineer a race then make one from scratch.

Then again we don't really know the capabilities of the old world in the setting

endor-7th said:
God that is horrifying, a horrifying biological fax machine

Yep.

Insert "because aliens" meme here.

Ah, yinglet making horrors within Ran's comprehension.

Bioweapon for sure. Zhat Zhing is likely an unexploded cluster munition from during the great war that blew them all back to the middle ages. A less tragic weapon than if a thermonuclear or deadly reagent biological weapon was employed, Its a mutagenic weapon and the horrors in the hole bear it out. Its a genetic resequencer weapon.

callista_vavoom said:
Bioweapon for sure. Zhat Zhing is likely an unexploded cluster munition from during the great war that blew them all back to the middle ages. A less tragic weapon than if a thermonuclear or deadly reagent biological weapon was employed, Its a mutagenic weapon and the horrors in the hole bear it out. Its a genetic resequencer weapon.

It's a bit unnerving, imagine if this was used in a war sense. A soldier or two transformed and their identities as their species taken. Imagine an indrel like this, having to deal with being cut-off from their hive. Not to mention, it seems to not only target sentients but instead ANY organic. Imagine if it somehow turned a simple animal into a yinglet, would it still act like one? This weapon is just scary.

callista_vavoom said:
Bioweapon for sure. Zhat Zhing is likely an unexploded cluster munition from during the great war that blew them all back to the middle ages. A less tragic weapon than if a thermonuclear or deadly reagent biological weapon was employed, Its a mutagenic weapon and the horrors in the hole bear it out. Its a genetic resequencer weapon.

That assumes it was meant to be a weapon. Can it be used as one? Sure, but so can just about anything, regardless of its intended purpose.

My hypothesis is that the anomalous substance wasn't intended to be a weapon but a terraforming aid. It's some sort of superscientific (Clarke's Third Law, basically) thing designed to rewrite a pre-existing genetic code into a specific new one. A human is undoubtedly ideal for the purpose (perhaps the first yinglets were transformed human volunteers?), but the substance clearly isn't designed to discriminate between the DNA of humans and subsapient beings, but it can't rework the DNA of subsapient animals correctly, so ends up just deforming and killing them.

Could that be used for destructive and malicious purposes? Definitely. But here's something we need to remember: the instruction manual has been lost for hundreds, even thousands of years. No one knows how to use the stuff correctly anymore.

I just noticed something that's worth noting. Brakka, Narklet, and Narklet's guards are all brown yinglets with yellow eyes. Given the wide variety of yinglet shapes... this seems like not a coincidence.

clawstripe said:
That assumes it was meant to be a weapon. Can it be used as one? Sure, but so can just about anything, regardless of its intended purpose.

My hypothesis is that the anomalous substance wasn't intended to be a weapon but a terraforming aid. It's some sort of superscientific (Clarke's Third Law, basically) thing designed to rewrite a pre-existing genetic code into a specific new one. A human is undoubtedly ideal for the purpose (perhaps the first yinglets were transformed human volunteers?), but the substance clearly isn't designed to discriminate between the DNA of humans and subsapient beings, but it can't rework the DNA of subsapient animals correctly, so ends up just deforming and killing them.

Could that be used for destructive and malicious purposes? Definitely. But here's something we need to remember: the instruction manual has been lost for hundreds, even thousands of years. No one knows how to use the stuff correctly anymore.

A reasonable theory, but this cannot be a naturally occurring substance. The net result across the spectrum of exposed genomes is exactly the same, brown fur, yinglet features, yinglet anatomy. You aren't getting different resequenced organisms you are getting a singular organism regardless of the base genome. This indicates specific intent and intelligent design. This would also explain lesser yinglets as these would be smaller less complicated organisms, like dogs and cats, being exposed to the transmutagen. It would also explain their more bestial and savage natures and primitive non-sapient intellects. Your theory is sound were random organisms the result of exposure, instead of just one no matter the base organism. Of course, we're also discussing a fantasy world in a web-comic, so it could also just be.... *rainbow hand gesture* maaaaaagic.