So, I was reading up on Native American Mythology and read the Navajo Creation Myth where there were worlds with insect people. Because reasons, this compelled me to make humanoid insect MOCs, so I’m starting with the butterfly. I based the design off Greek, Aztec, and Native American culture and named the particular phalanx “Cryptic Steel” because A) It sounded awesome, and B) It seemed to fit because some butterflies can blend in with thier environment, which was another definition for “cryptic” apparently. Even though the MOC is red, white, and as inconspicuous as the French peacetime uniform in WW1, I have decided to circumvent the flaw by using as many fancy words and references as possible and say that the soldiers have technology that activates a camouflage similar to the invisible cloak. The species itself is all female as well, like the Asari, but the entire race inherited the idea to manufacture clones in case any existing person dies in battle and even produce more soldiers, a bit of a dystopian element.
The first MOC is the Peltast, which was a light skirmisher in the ancient world. The MOC, however, is not as lightly armoured as an actual peltast and doesn’t have javelins and a crescent shield. Basically, the Cryptic Peltast is a infantry unit who either infiltrates enemy lines using camouflage or is part of a phalanx and fights in the front lines. Sometimes, these units would scatter and start using magic, as each soldier is trained at least in basic magic.
The second is a Cryptic Hoplite, so it’s like a Peltast but more heavily armored, which isn’t true for the MOC since it’s the same but with gold armor and a feather instead of a spike. A Cryptic Hoplite is a bit stronger with better training in physical and magical combat. It isn’t used for infiltration as much, however it is able to use limited-time camouflage to escape a fight to heal itself before returning to the battle. The design isn’t too different from the Peltast, but it serves as a nice looking alternate version.
I guess i’m the first to comment on this. That’s interesting…
anyway, Nice moc, but i’m not sure what you mean by:[quote=“Toa_Maleko, post:1, topic:24100”]
a feather instead of a spike
[/quote]
because to me it looks like the gold armor is the only difference. I notice though that you have two “Furno XL” heads, meaning I could never recreate the moc because i never buy more than one quantity of a set. My final negative about this moc is that i personally am not sure what its face is supposed to be, because it just seems like a bunch of elements put together.
Onto the positives:
-good articulation
-Uninque
-looks really powerful
-Butterfly influence is visible
Doesn’t really strike me as much as a butterfly at first glance. Maybe having distinct quad wings (two on top and two on the bottom) would work better.
I’m not getting a Navajo vibe from these, I feel like your Hellenic influence went a bit to far, however I do think these two are pretty good. They seem well constructed and look like they could fit in a unit.
While the MOC itself isn’t very representative of Navajo culture, it still has some influence from other Native American tribes. The colors, for example, are the colors of the medicine wheel (red, white, black, yellow, represented as gold more in the Hoplite than the Peltast, who only has a gold spike), has black feet to represent the Blackfeet, who believed butterflies were the bringers of dreams, and has a little influence from Aztec culture (Itzpapalotl, the “obsidian butterfly”, also has wings tipped with blades and is sometimes depicted as a skeletal being). The correlation to Navajo culture is that the MOC’s design, especially with the white armor pieces, is meant to insinuate that the culture of the Cryptic Steel themselves is heavily influenced by elements of souls and skeletons. By dying in battle and being brought back in a similar, artificial body, the entire Butterfly People have considered themselves as skeletons, not only because they have been desensitized to death, but because the mititaristic race represents itself as support and as a shield to allies (endo and exoskeletons). The Navajo Creation Story have mentioned “Mist People”, which I interpreted as souls making their own bodies later in the story (my own interpretation, it could be wrong), which also connects the MOC to Greek culture where a species of butterfly was referred to as “psyche”, the Greek word for soul. Of course, you are free to believe that these are mere excuses as to why Navajo culture led to a butterfly MOC and why the MOC has little Navajo influence (it does seem far-fetched when talking about the Navajo specifically), but I built the MOC with the idea that the Butterfly People were very avid in souls, so much so that military superiors decided to research technology that kept them from passing on and had them return to replicas of the bodies they occupied till death.
Am I the only one who gets a Ghorast plus Krika vibe from this? Also, if I may add, if you should ever make a ‘leader’ for these guys, name it Oberon, after the fairy king of olde.
Awesome build!
I don’t know, while Oberon is king of the fairies and associated with nature, the Butterfly People are militarized, and while they are trying to save a dying, infected world, they manufacture clones and use the world’s remaining energy to summon magic for destruction. I’ll probably name it something made-up like Yushen (Because the Greek word for psyche, Ψυχη, and I apologize for incorrect spelling/translation, looks like Yuxn in the English Alphabet, but for a name, I added an “e” and replaced “x” with “sh”) or Andromeda, like the constellation and the chained princess who, like the butterfly, is associated with beauty.
I also revised both the Cryptic Peltast and Hoplite to make them more unique from each other and more accurate to their Ancient Greek counterparts. The Cryptic Peltast has a different shield, three javelins (two of which can be stored with the shield), a sword, and lighter armor. The Cryptic Hoplite has gold knee armor, a spear, and a round shield with Ekimu’s design.
OH yeah. Andromeda is pretty fitting. Yuxn is a good choice, too. With the added golden armor, I definitely get a Navajo and Aztec vibe. That is a great improvement. It may, however, clash with the white.
No need to apologize, I like the way that they look on this moc. it helps to give that Aztec vibe. But for me and probably some other people on the boards, i don’t ever buy 2 of a set. (the one exception that i have to that rule was the hero factory accessories pack from brain attack, because it was a free promo for buying any hero factory set, and I happened to buy 2 hero factory sets during the promotion.)
