Hey /an/, fa/tg/uy here.
I was wondering if anyone on this board could help with a project I'm currently working on, I'm looking to build a Lovecraftian horror that isn't just copy pasted Cthulhu or one of the other Elder gods, tentacles ad nauseum and for that I need some interesting/terrifying creatures to base it off of.
I'm thinking of going for a more brightly colored, shallows theme, something that would dwell at the bottom of an estuary or reef rather than the depths, but obviously putting interesting sea life into google just gives you a dozen pictures of an angler fish and goblin sharks.
Does anyone know of any interesting, colorful sea life to base an eldritch abomination off?
Well the most obvious one would be a mantis shrimp.
Other neat things include sea scorpions, horseshoe crabs, wobbegongs, frogfish, etc.
>>2088462
Update us about it! I'm pretty damn interested.
>>2088462
What kind of dog is that?
>>2088462
the blue ring octopus
>>2088570
Well, so far I'm using the Wobbegong and Frogfish from this post >>2088465 as the basis as well as the Sea slug in the OP. The beast itself is based out of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, so I'm dipping into local creatures that live there.
So far I'm mainly thinking of using the body of a flatworm or Ray as the basis, with the vast wings being made of thin strings of toxic tendrils ala an anemone, headed with a closed core of tentacles around a vast snapping maw, similar to a crown in Tyrian Purple and Bioluminescent Blue. The only problem then being that it looks more like a mass of tentacles than anything else and lacks that personal touch of human-ishness that makes Horrors like this so unnerving usually.
Search for vids of a "basket star"
bobbit worms. pure terror
>>2088585
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVBeX8Yo25g
>>2088657
Twinmold??!
Fellow fa/tg/uy here
Please do this
Wolf snails turn my stomach to knots
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q_aZnfMZ0hs
I have just the thing for you, OP.
The various parasitic barnacles, especially the ones in crabs.
>pic not related
Pic related is a Stargazer. Looks fucked, is venomous, and can cause electrical shocks. You could also add in the "fur" from a Yeti Crab perhaps. Lastly, Parrot Fish have some nasty looking chompers.
>>2088657
This.
>can't die when it's killed