: Subject:

: Merse

: Specifications:

: - None

: Sources:

: Cryptum

: Details:

: The merse were a strange aquatic creature, bred by the Librarian to guard
: Djamonkin Crater on ancient Earth, where the Didact was exiled in his
: first Cryptum. Said to resemble fleshy lily pads, they were carnivorous,
: possessing long black teeth, and a territorial behavior likely to scare
: away any wishing to cross the waters they inhabit. Fortunately, merse are
: also effortlessly fooled into various behaviors, as they communicate with
: one another through an easily replicated form of song. The Ur-Didact has
: stated that he was never fond of merse, even though his wife raised them
: in the gardens of their home.

So as I've mentioned, I've only just read Cryptum. Somewhere along the line, possibly where Greg Bear mentions the "glistening" pieces that wash ashore after merse wars, I got in my head they were black and shiny like a seal. My imagination also falsely remembered tentacles, so my first merse creation looked like this:

I had imagined it had somewhat of a squid beak and mouth in the middle of the tentacles.

But then I went and looked in the book again and saw that what was described was quite different. What I didn't have time to include in the drawings were the "grey-purple fans", which I imagined to be like the underside of a mushroom or in another version the teeth were on the ends of bony "arms" with webbing in-between like the wings of a bat.

I also didn't get to do the mouth, which I still have underneath in this version.

The flower-stalk is a sensory organ that has light-sensitive "eyes". Not only does Bornsteller refer to them as flowers, so does one of the little guys, from a completely different planet, so I assume they've got some kind of feature that looks like a flower. I chose the lilly, since he says they look like lillies from his mother's pond.

The bottom of the stalk in this is like a bulbous seaweed, where it attaches to the ground, and the creature is transparent like a jellyfish, which Bornsteller also compares it to, so you can see it's intestines through it's flesh. I also took artistic license and added some wispy tentacles that it uses like fingertips, to tell where something is. I imagine it accidentally eats them sometimes, but that's ok they grow back!

I had a lot of fun making this - - I could have kept going forever! ;)

I also have a vision of the arches, but who knows if I'll ever get to it...