Alien Creature Design

Done for my character design class. We had to come up with an alien environment and a creature to go in it. Mine is a volcanic environment on another planet.

Here's the world description document that goes with it. I decided to do mine in the form of a journal.

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From the audio diary of Dr. Nikolai Skhivovsky, PHD:


January 25th, 2077

The Hephaestus Project has been an overwhelming success. It is two years, seven months, and twenty-three days since the original facilities were completed. The accelerated growth stimulator released in the atmosphere has caused transplanted flora to cycle through hundreds of generations in record time, and now I believe it has contributed to a stable environment. It is time for the second phase.

February 12th, 2077

This morning began the second phase of the Hephaestus Project. We are slightly behind schedule. There were some problems acquiring the required specimens. Evidently rumors have reached activist groups; our transport vehicles were sabotaged despite security measures. Fortunately we had prepared for resistance, and backup carriers were dispatched to transport the fauna species to the location. Subjects were sedated for the process due to speculation of increased anxiety. Increase in heart rate suggests strain on the body of some subjects. However, once released into the test site, all subjects seemed to retain normal vitals. Presence of oxygen is as we hoped.

June 2nd, 2077

Subjects have responded well to the simulated ecosystem. Deer species will need to be replaced due to a miscalculation in flora substance analysis, but so far no other animals have suffered ill effects from the environment. Natural selection has already been seen in this brief time. We are pleased with this result, and in the coming week the accelerated growth stimulator will be released back into the atmosphere.

October 22nd, 2077

Things are… not as we expected. Though the alien environment has taken on its own form and adequately simulates the ecosystems of a South American rainforest, an African grassland, a North American coniferous forest, and an Asian marshflat, fauna subjects have evolved as if they were influenced by one master environment – a volcanic environment. Furthermore, the latest generations of the animals are becoming far more specialized than we theorized. They are no longer fulfilling the roles they inhabit in our current ecosystems. While some degree of specialization was expected, subjects seem to be over-specializing. This is perhaps most seen in the rhinoceros species. Or… what were once rhinoceros species. Biological data shows that the creatures are still genetically consistent, but there are few similarities beyond that.

November 14th, 2077

The environment has now completely rejected our simulated ecosystems. Though years of research showed no evidence of active volcanoes or even plate movement in the area, the accelerated growth simulator has evidently affected the planet’s core, as well, shifting the plates to form chambers for magma to accumulate. In less than a month, volcanoes have begun to grow and erupt, killing a large portion of the plant species. Remarkably though, most animal species were already adapted to this volcanic environment, as though they were able to sense the changes in the planet and reacted accordingly. The former rhinoceros species shows the most complete transition into what zoologists have come to commonly call the Lava Sifter, a creature perfectly adapted to its rapidly changing environment.

March 4th, 2078

It has been over three years since the realization of this project, and over twenty since its initial conception. And now I regret ever letting my ideas become reality. Against my wishes, our facility decided to accept ‘volunteers’ from high-security prisons around the country. Subjects were flown to the shuttle launch site, quarantined, and then transported to the Hephaestus test site over an intergalactic period of seven days. The accelerated growth simulator was shut off at the introduction of the humans, and yet the plants and animals continue to grow and evolve at a rapid rate. But the humans of course could not adapt. And the specialized creatures formed by the environment had little trouble in disposing of them.


I have released a toxic substance into the atmosphere that will end the Hephaestus Project. I suspect I will similarly be disposed of once my superiors learn of this treachery. They believe the project is their only hope for the continued survival of mankind. But if allowed to live on… I believe it will only hasten the elimination of the human race. It is ironic. And yet perhaps… so very predictable.