The worldsee

  🦎 The Empire of Scales: The Fauna & Insects of the 3x Socotra Welcome back to The Worldsee . In our previous explorations, we mapped the extreme, fractured geography and the bizarre, alien-like flora of a Socotra Island expanded to three times its current size. We walked through foggy, vertical oases of acid-secreting shrubs and scorching northern canyons dotted with fleshy, water-gorged bottle trees. Today, we bring this alien micro-continent to life. Because of its extreme isolation, Socotra never had native land mammals (save for bats). In this 3x expanded world, the absence of mammalian predators allowed reptiles, birds, and invertebrates to undergo spectacular, unimpeded evolution. Applying conservative evolutionary principles, let’s explore the armored, toxic, and highly specialized fauna that rules the Empire of Scales. 1. The Phantom of the Fog: The Hajhir Dragon In the real world, Socotra is home to a unique, relatively small endemic chameleon. In the 3x scenario, o...

  🏜️ The Alien Continent: The Geography and Climate of a 3x Socotra Island Welcome back to The Worldsee . In our #IFGeography series, we have manipulated the winds of the Pacific and the bogs of the Subantarctic. Today, we turn our gaze to the Arabian Sea, to an island already famous as the "most alien-looking place on Earth": Socotra. In our reality, Socotra is a harsh, arid fragment of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, broken off from the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. It is a land of limestone plateaus, jagged granite peaks, and bizarre flora. But what if the tectonic rift that separated it was wider and more substantial? Let’s explore a highly realistic speculative scenario: Socotra Island expanded to exactly three times its current size (roughly 11,400 km², similar in size to Jamaica). In this post, we will look purely at the dramatic geography and extreme climate this expansion creates, setting the stage for the bizarre lifeforms we will explore next. 1. The Sky-Pie...