Great work, it was a toss up between your and Uriak's submissions for me however your ship design clinched it for me as I like it a bit more. The only worry I have is that is there a possibility for issues with wizards of the coast because of the similarity between the sapling and the myr card?

Still in love with those concept

Ok, so I felt inclined to give each other the other submissions a little look and give them each a bit of my time.

Thankfully its a smaller turnout this time with only 9 instead of over 200 otherwise I might have fainted from fatigue. It's excellent to see artists of differing skill and artwork of different quality being submitted for this stage of the competition but most of all, that there is clear differences between designs and we accidentally and out of pure chance, didn't draw the same thing.

So all in all, good job everyone, the turnout is great.

Let me just hop back onto the self promotion thread... 

"In summary my Unfallen:

• Have 5 glowing eyes arranged closely resembling an arch shape or a sprouting seed
• Do not normally posses a mouth since the idea of a mouth is to intake fuel, since I like the idea of "advanced photosynthesis" is at work here, mouths are unnecessary
• Are a combination of living wood, manes/clothes of "leaves" and inorganic materials like stones, gems, metals and structures
• Can grow not only into spaceships and "giant walking buildings" but can also form "conventional vehicles" suited to their role in society
• Are not limited to 2 arms and 2 legs but can have multiple limbs and appendages or a lack thereof, they grow how they pleases
• Appendages can suit different purposes and act as multi-tools or as specific tools, like a kickass biogun or a simple tentacle poker
• Ships are powered by solar sails, like giant flying sycamore seeds, rather than conventional propulsion engines"

Don't be fooled by what other people have said, what i did was be open to where I draw my sources from my life in the self promotion thread a while ago, so its like pointing out the Berserk references in Dark Souls, you cannot help but only see them now. Just because an artist is open to his sources doesn't mean they are stealing and idea, since after all that would be plagiarism.

My idea for the Unfallen in terms of feel was to create a race that conjures emotions of awe, nobility, magnificence, beauty and warmness; they are a race that is imposing yet they are not menacing - normally. They are pacifist diplomats strong of branch yet soft spoken so to speak and old as they are wise. Something I felt that sets them apart is their size, and perhaps difference of size, from the small dexterous trees that measure a few meters in height to powerful giants that tower over the land forcing those of a smaller frame to gaze far up in astonishment. If you are familiar with Ghibli films, think back to Princess Mononoke with the scene where the "Nightwalker" arises from the forest floor, shaking the trees and rising above the treeline; or the many huge "deities" that roam those woods.  Have you ever been to a natural wonder or a monument in real life? It is the feeling I want to convey, when someone gazes sights such as Naigra falls, the Taj Mahal or Mount Kilmanjaro when people look up ancient Unfallen, their military, their "buildings" and ships. A sense of scale that is normally beyond normal expectations.

The concept that an Unfallen can become an interstellar ship made me think, if they are able to do something as advanced as that, then surely there would be Unfallen that would have the capability to fly, grow into a solid construction like a building or maintain a simple role as a bus, especially after contact with other races - where planes, public transport and so on exist. Also, much like ourselves, we coexist with a number of organisms on and in our body so it not such a far stretch to think that other "dumb" flora and fauna would live alongside and IN Unfallen; like birds, species of fungus, strains of plants and other critters - and extension of this is to allow more intelligent life to live INSIDE large Unfallen since they are like walking building complexes if they choose to be.

Something that serves to extend this idea is that inorganic materials would serve purposes that living wood can not, Unfallen manipulation reminds me of tree singing - the art of manipulating trees into shapes obviously in the fantasy setting - essentially creating wooden alloys or shaping and wearing stones, precious stones, metal and so on as decoration or furthered into protection. Since Unfallen can grow into a variety of shapes, since they are able to form ships, I see that it would stand to reason that almost any shape is possible for them but there would be preferred shapes and they would still have a genetic makeup that dictated shared traits or strains - five eyes is shared for example, but is the number 5 important? - but it would come down to aesthetic or practical purpose on number of limbs wanted or needed. Cutting tools, hammering tools and weapons can be formed for use and repaired by the Unfallen them self through self regeneration; so there is a developed body modding trend among them, I expect "clothes" to become even more trendy upon discovering other species than they begin.

In terms of ship design, I referred to seed like shapes or pod shapes to begin with, like a sycamore seed. Each ship is essentially a huge Unfallen that has taken up the honour or privilege of interstellar travel and the ships are cut from the same cloth as their ground dwelling treekin. Solar sails to me, seemed a fantastic choice since I didn't fancy exposing outer foliage like leaves to the extremes of space or entering atmosphere, it seemed a rather silly notion. These sails take up two roles, sustaining the Unfallen, providing a source of power and a means to propulsion. A great net to soak up the stars rays and use it to help push the ship through the void. Its not out of the question that an on-board generator could be found as well for additional power - propulsion and other systems. 

I'll be drawing a little bit or a big bit and Ill post it here, I'm currently doing an interior scene and plan to do a landscape "building" scene after that. 

Thats all for now.