A few things. With the web going topsy turvy, I’ll start doing some fun public blogs here! Also gonna dust off my Patreon and start using it more, and when I do I’ll make sure to announce that in a blog. There will be a weird intersection of science, funny animal art (okay, fun furry art) and fan art here. I don’t have to keep a fully professional face, but this site and my Patreon are always 100% squeaky clean artwise. Patreon can be PG rated for language, however. This blog will never go there though. The art here MAY have some language. See below. There’s some context. I’ll split it into a different gallery in the personal gallery if I upload it. Or turn the language into hilarious dingbats.
With any luck, with the exception of my old signature (which is the same initial as my middle name BTW), the deadname should be all but scrubbed from the website. If you see an instance of it still lurking, please let me know which image you see it on. I’ll take it and scrub it.
Any websites not in my control I don’t have any control over.
Last year I picked a fight with the former admins of Wookieepedia thinking it was some problematic people in my life doing me a dirty and changing my name (Robin) to my deadname (not Robin) and ended up starting the ball rolling for some new policy changes site-wide for Fandom. Wook still has a ways to go. There are problems on the site. I drew a sweary ewok (there’s the context for above).
Unfortunately some of the folks at the time, both at Wook and the people whom I thought were originally editing my article, latched onto the fact that my deadname exists.
Over the past two years since legally changing my name, I still don’t have my passport done, I found out my bank had five different databases with my name in it, Square refuses to change my account name and I haven’t had the energy to escalate it to a human, I find random things I HAVE NOT changed my name on that I think I have, things I have changed my name on I think I have not.
It’s a mess.
And having been online since the mid 90s on top of that? It’s honestly unrealistic to expect my old name to disappear. I know it won’t. I know I’ll stumble upon it, but I don’t go searching for it like other people do.
Searching for it and using it as a gotcha isn’t cool.
I’m Robin. Like Robin Hood. Like Robin the Frog. Like Robin Williams – the hairiest man on earth and one of my inspirations. They/them or he/him.
And I’m living my very best life right now. In the city. With my microbes.
Hey all! I fiiinaly have the new site up and running. I’m copypasting part of the note from the old site, because it’s still relevant.
From hereon I’ll be going professionally and personally by Robin (They/Them). All of my old stuff will… not say Robin. I’ll fix it eventually. Digging through the Internet also isn’t going to happen because I don’t have control over any of that, but if you see a site that calls me by t’other name, pop them a quick email or send a message to me so I can contact them and see about getting it fixed.
I’m excited to start on this new journey and I hope to have some gender blarg comics about it all eventually.
Thanks for sticking with me!
Update March 2021.
I thought this was clear, but apparently this is not. Do not reference me by my old name. I am not ‘Formerly known as’. I am Robin.
The pandemic and working full time has made it difficult to update everything. If you have time and wish to help, please feel free to go through my gallery, download the art, change old name to robin on both name and email address and pop it in a dropbox. It would help me a ton.
Note to new readers, this is a blog entry from my old website about a species of aliens I designed that are in the Star Wars universe, at least on the Legends side of things. Enjoy! This is not canon, but is a good jump-point for the characters. I did finally meet Teryl and we talked Amarans and it was a delight to close the circle. I have backdated it to its original date for consistency.
I’ve had some people express interest in the Amaran storyline and such. The following is a fairly hastily written description of the Amarans, their traits and their homeworld. This is NOT official (Except for some of the points referring to the relationship with the Naboo) and is not to be taken as canon. Seeing as there is canon lacking, please feel free to use these ideas in your roleplaying game sessions as jump starters and if you like this, please link back to this page.
The Amarans
Physical Appearance
Amarans are small, vulpine aliens, 3.5-4 feet tall. They are digitigrades with long, slender arms and legs and a lithe, sinewy body. Their tails are long and fluffy and serve as a counter balance as they move, making them very agile. An Amaran’s tail is a source of pride, and they are always well groomed. They have four digits on their hands and feet.
Their fur colour ranges from white, to orange to black, with the most common colours being a yellow-orange, grey and white. The usual eye colour for Amarans is black, but green, blue and red eyes are also seen. Their faces are long and slender, lending to their sleek appearances.
Gender dimorphism
Female Amarans are slightly smaller than males, and males have slightly broader shoulders. For the mostpart, they are very similar in size. Females do not have visible mammaries unless they are nursing young. Amarans generally give birth to one pup and they reach adulthood at about 18 standard years.
Characteristics of Amarans
Amarans are, in general, a fairly playful race and are sly and shrewd, making them excellent traders, pilots and con artists. Of course, as with all races, there are variations, but Amarans love nothing more than to trick or play their way through various situations and they enjoy fine food, fine wine and clothes made of the finest materials. Amarans have an uncanny knack for taming beasts, even ferocious ones that are much larger than they are. Some Amarans are force sensitive and have served as Jedi Knights, but an Amaran with the discipline to go through Jedi Training is a very rare beast indeed and Amaran Jedi Knights are seen as curious oddities by their fellow, more playful, bretheren.
Amarans in the galaxy
Amarans are usually found in the galaxy as traders. Their primary trade is on Naboo, where they tame and sell the local wildlife to Gungans, offworlders and the Naboo people. As Naboo is teeming with life, this is very lucrative of them and Naboo is a second home to the Amarans, where they have a settlement on the edges of the swamp. The Amarans are the reason the fierce Bursa of Naboo is not extinct. The Gungans nearly wiped out the species, which is now extinct in the wild, but the Amarans spearheaded a breeding program and have established a Bursa sanctuary well out of the way of any Gungan settlement.
Other than beast tamers, Amarans can be found as pilots, fast-talking con artists, gamblers or just as travelers. Amarans worship the stars and love nothing more than to be among them.
From The Wildlife of Star Wars – Amarans trading on Naboo by Terryl Whitlatch.
Amaran Homeworld and technology
The Amaran homeworld, Amar, is located in Mid rim, near the outer rim – between Naboo and Zhar. It is a world lush with forests, plains and vast bodies of water. It has a climate similar to Naboo, which explains the Amaran love for their sister planet. Like Naboo, Amar is teeming with life which the Amarans manage with great reverence, ensuring that their wildlife trade does not interfere with the balance of the planet. Laws are in place to prevent poaching and poachers, both Amaran or offworlders, are severely punished with fines and imprisonment. Even the Amaran cities, mines and resource collection are constructed and operated as non-invasively as possible. Amarans have tamed many of their local species, such as the Vrrryyyk, a flying reptilian bird like species which Amarans enjoy riding more than they like flying actual spacecraft.
Other than Wildlife and Amaran art, Amaran exports include food, ore, textiles and energy crystals.
Amarans are fairly technologically advanced and had developed limited, and primitive, hyperspace capabilities which lead to them discovering Naboo. After the language barrier was broken, the Naboo and Amarans established trade relations and the exchange of technology, which opened the galaxy up to the Amarans, who have been exploring since.
Amaran Religion
Amarans worship the stars and their moon. An Amaran creation myth is that the moon, Rurrri, was lonely and one day came to the land as a white fox-like creature. He was very lonely and wept through the night. When the sun came up, she took pity on Rurri and she, Surru, came down as a golden Amaran. It is said on Amar that the stars are the children of Rurri and Surru.
Amarans from The Wildlife of Star Wars as drawn by Terryl Whitlatch
With any luck, with the exception of my old signature (which is the same initial as my middle name BTW), the deadname should be all but scrubbed from the website. If you see an instance of it still lurking, please let me know which image you see it on. I’ll take it and scrub it.
The Amarans
