What does an anakore look like?

[Iota]

This is what the helpfile says, but it doesn't give me a really good idea.

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Anakore                                                            (General)

  Also known as Dune Stalkers in some parts of the world, these silent
hunters are explosively dangerous, keeping almost exclusively to the deep,
loose sands found in certain Zalanthan expanses. Large burrowing beasts,
roughly the length of a human, they spend most of their lives buried
beneath the sands, using their compact and powerful bodies to travel
'submerged.' They are known to creep up beneath their prey (up to and
including victims the size of a sunback lizard) and launch themselves
upwards, latching on with their claws and dragging the hapless victim into
the smothering sands where they quickly finish and devour them. Many hunters
suspect anakore track their prey via vibrations carried through the sands,
and most nomads have different ways of trying to avoid them...or hunt them
in turn.  Anakore are valued for the sharp claws that they use to maul their
prey.



I'm imagining they look like dusty alligators or something.

[Dalmeth]

Anakore use claws, not teeth, to grab their prey so the natural assumption is that they have long, grasping arms.  Their skull can be worn as a helmet, so it's something like the rounded shape of a human skull.  Last I noticed, they had several rows of sharp teeth.

[Dan]

Yep, vaguely humanoid in appearance too. Creepy bastards.

[Dalmeth]

They aren't called Dune Freaks for nothing.

[John]

I have no idea because I've never lived long enough to type "look anakore"

[FiveDisgruntledMonkeysWit]

For some reason, I always picture pale, hooked tentacles reaching up out of the sand and slashing your tendons.
That's probably not accurate, but you have to admit it's pretty dang cool.

[Rhyden]

They have beady eyes.

Honestly, I've always pictured them as huge, slender hedgehogs with bone claws for hands...

[slipshod]

Imagine a de-evolved, hunchbacked half-giant.  They are huge, humanoid, stooped, with big claws, little beady eyes and sand-colored bodies.

[Winterless]

For some reason, I always picture pale, hooked tentacles reaching up out of the sand and slashing your tendons.
That's probably not accurate, but you have to admit it's pretty dang cool.

What I imagine is very similar.

[Folker]

You're imagining a scene from the movie, guys. I forget the name of it, but it's made out of a superb story of human and some lizard alien getting abandoned on a planet and eventually ... bringing a child of theirs to adulthood. Mmm, yeah.

By the way, are you sure Anakore is huge? I do believe it's smaller in height then a desert elf at least. It's vaguely humanoid in shape, but it's not so large as a half giant. Huge claws, beady eyes, extremely agile and cunning creature. It's like an atavistic delf.

[Marauder Moe]

Hmmm...


From here: http://www.siltskimmer.net/arts.html

[Pale Horse]

You're imagining a scene from the movie, guys. I forget the name of it, but it's made out of a superb story of human and some lizard alien getting abandoned on a planet and eventually ... bringing a child of theirs to adulthood. Mmm, yeah.

By the way, are you sure Anakore is huge? I do believe it's smaller in height then a desert elf at least. It's vaguely humanoid in shape, but it's not so large as a half giant. Huge claws, beady eyes, extremely agile and cunning creature. It's like an atavistic delf.

The movie you're thinking of is called "Enemy Mine" and the lizard person is from a race called the "Drak".

I've always thought of the anakore as looking similar to the D&D Ankheg, just without as many legs and more stream lined.

[spawnloser]

They DON'T look like an ankheg, which is a bug.  They look humanoid.

[LauraMars]

I always thought they looked like a badger.

[Vessol]

I always picture it as a like sand wish with claws that swims under the ground or whatever they do and pops out of the ground. Has a head like Alien too(from Alien The Movie that is).

[Tisiphone]

I'm rather certain they really aren't -that- humanoid. I've seen their IG desc, and I don't want to say much more for fear of giving away IC information, even stuff as basically useless as this.

[Socko]

I always thought they had like a triangular head. A wedge head. That's how I always picture the anakore skull helmets. Either that, or a kind of upward-flaring head like HR Giger Aliens. Just a weird thing with fangy teeth and heavy mole claws.

It's really hard to pin-point what something really looks like through text.

[Fathi]

I totally revived like a years-old thread to find you all this picture.

From a Dark Sun art page (it's geocities so I'm transhosting it onto imageshack for the inevitable bandwidth cap):

http://www.geocities.com/tticd/anakore.html



Not official by any means, and we could even elaborate that Dark Sun anakore and Arm anakore could be completely different, but I like it.

[Rhyden]

That's what I think a gith looks like but a little bit thinner.

[spawnloser]

Damnit, I'm going to have to break out my old DarkSun stuff and scan in any official pics from the original, which the Arm one is based off of.

[psionic fungus]

It's described as being HUMANOID (it's in the description) with a wedge shaped head, beady-eyes, a dosal ridge, and claw-like hands.

I kind of imagined it being more dwarf-sized... But I dunno.  Sometimes when I've actually taken the time to go back and read the description of something scary I just ran away from I am seriously -shocked- at how different it is described than what I had pictured.  Also, there are the times that have been -appalled- at how lacking and UNDESCRIPTIVE the description was.  Like, seriously.  It's a large brown animal, with four legs?  Is that like a bison or a lion? Perhaps a moose or a giant gerbil? Sometimes there's just no help...

[Grey Area]

Here's a rough pencil I did a couple of months ago when my character had cause to meet an anakore.



Humanoid figure, armoured wedge skull, beady eyes, shovel claws, sensitive dorsal strip. The main inaccuracy, as I discovered later when I examined the skull, is that anakore teeth are long, curved and relatively blunt, as opposed to small and sharp like I drew them.

[Vox]

Grey Area, please do more pictures of Zalanthan wildlife...

You rock mate!

Did you design your signature gurth as well?

[naatok]

If there are any old-timers (other than myself) who remember the 'original' Saturday Night Live.  An Anakore looks precisely like the 'Land Shark' in that sketch from SNL.

"Candy gram"
"Um, I don't believe you."
"Telegram"
"No, now I'm sure I don't..."
"Land Shark"
"Oh Bill!  I knew it was you!"
*opens the door and is devoured amid screams of horror*

*chuckle*

[Melkor]

Landshark- "Telegram!"

Lady- "uhm, No thank you"

Landshark- "Candygram!"

Lady- "No thank you... I dont believe you"

Landshark- "Uhm... Unisef man?"

Lady- "Oh, well okay" *opens door*

LANDSHARK


Ah, the good old days of SNL