The Slashrim Sovalok
LEGO by: Justin R. "Saber-Scorpion" Stebbins

And now we reach the final stage of the Slashrim life... the Sovalok, known to most Humans as the Pseudodragon. When Slashrim reach this stage, their body and head have become so heavy that the are forced to travel on all fours at all times. But with this great size comes immense strength and respect.

Well, perhaps not so much respect as we Humans would see it. The Slashrim continue to use even their oldest of kin as vehicles of war, strapping Mahlok-built war platforms like howdahs onto their backs. Since few Slashrim ever reach this great age, those that do are heavily armored for protection, so that the Mahlok can make the most use of them in war.

We Humans may see this as ill treatment of an elder, but the Mahlok see it as quite the opposite. They all look forward to the day that they will carry the great power and responsibility of the Sovalok. To become a might Pseudodragon is a Slashrim soldier's greatest dream. The Sovalok's deafening roar awakens the fighting spirit in all Slashrim, and evokes fear in the hearts of their enemies.
And yes, the head design for this creation was taken largely from the LEGO Creator set with the green dragon.

In case you didn't notice, I heavily decaled my Slashrim Sovalok. Don't like it? Well, I'd say "bite me," but there's a Sovalok listening, and they say they can still understand words sometimes. By the way, yes, the weird alien writing on the howdah does say something. All of the writing on the Sovalok's decals is written in the Mahlok language I've been working on. The word on either side of the main howdah platforms is "Kachnoak," the name of the individual that is being ridden. You may think there are too few letters on the decal to spell "Kachnoak," but that's because the Mahlok language has a single later for the "ch" sound. They also have two different letters for the long and short a.

The writing on this storage box says "gej," which is Slashrim slang for "food," sort of like the Human word "grub." The contents contained therein are mostly cans of the hearty Slashrim soup called Poj-Poj by Humans. By the way, see the Slashrim guy's sword? That's the great thing about Knights Kingdom swords: they're customizable. They're fat and stupid looking, so there's plenty of stuff to cut and you don't really mind losing the original thing. They're also made of this bendy plastic that's very easy to cut with a pocket knife.

A little more trivia about the language: all vowels are marked with a dot somewhere on the letter, and all "capital letters" are marked with two dots, such as the first letter in Kachnoak's name. If you're wondering about all of the glowing red and orange markings and lights on the black armor plating, well, that's just how Mahlok vehicles look. You'll see more of it later when I beef up their army some more.

A Mahlok Priest of Helexith surveys the underside of their living walker, the Sovalok. The Mahlok take surprisingly good care of the Sovalok, keeping them in proper health and tending to their wounds and injuries. But they really only see it as mechanical maintenance on a machine of war. After all, the Sovalok has the power to even fight walkers and win.

In the howdah are the control panels for the great beast. Those controls used for steering send electrical signals into the Sovalok's head to instruct him on which way to go, and how fast. There are also controls for the various parts of the machines that the Sovalok wears... such as the missile racks mounted on the small "wings" jutting from the sides.

Some Sovalok are equipped with different kinds of howdahs, including large, rotating turrets. Most of the howdahs add more protection to the Sovalok than is visible to the naked eye, because they often are equipped to project energy shielding over most of the creature's body. With all this protection and firepower, a Sovalok is a match for any mechanical Human walker.

This is NOT something you ever want to see.

Forward, the Slashrim horde! This is even more something you do NOT ever want to see. Seeing this would mean that the Helexith Coalition is invading a homeworld near you!

So far, Human kind has yet to face the Slashrim horde at its full potential. During the Xenocide War on Terra Nova, we faced only the Slashrim who were already present on the planet. Perhaps the majority of the Helexith army was off fighting other battles on other worlds. Perhaps the Mahlok feared that sending the majority of their army to the by then heavily Human-populated planet Terra Nova would be suicide. And perhaps they are now biding their time, waiting for the right moment to get their revenge and retake what was once largely theirs. Mahlok have long memories... and even longer lives.

And here we see the Slashrim horde invading some world full of extremely primitive and stupid, furry little primate creatures. You'll have to pardon my ridiculously cheap and cartoony blood effects... I just hate these despicable little furballs that much.

Very seldom have the Mahlok and Slashrim ever lost a war when fighting together. The Achmer were able to defend their territory from Helexith invasion millennia ago... and the Sarran succeeded in doing the same. But both of them only achieved "victory" after a sizeable loss of territory... and loss of life, of course.

Sovalok jaws are strong and tough enough to rend metal from metal... but they always prefer the tasty crunch of living flesh. Before you ask, yes, the Slashrim are occasionally cannibals. But the Mahlok are constantly at work to discourage the practice, so most Slashrim now consider it an affront to Helexith to eat one's own kind... or one's allies, naturally.

Since my monitor just keeps getting bigger, you'll find that this desktop wallpaper image is at a resolution of 1680x1050... Sorry for you non-widescreeners out there. You'll just have to live with either a stretched image or the letterbox copy.

And finally, here's some ex post facto concept art. Yes, I drew this *after* building the LEGO version. So I guess it's not really concept art, is it? Heh heh... nope.