With apologies... this text first appeared in FA, my main account. It has been edited swiftly, and may still have errors. :embarrassed:
I chiefly pay artists to create images for me, with the understanding I re-post it on sites like FA. Since the artist retains the copyright, this site will have little posted save for "work for hire" jobs where the copyrights have been released to me, or of course I have created the content myself. I did create the character of Unktehila but not most artistic renditions of him.I invented him, had every hand in his conception, directed his development, but that is as far as my creative input went. His visual design is a culmination of contributions made by artists too many and varied to list here. PLEASE read the descriptions under the image! I often give original artist names, links, even write amusing anecdotes or stories about the characters underneath them. You lose out on the aesthetics of the whole image by skipping over this data.
I am NOT a Native American speaker. I simply studied the language and owned a dictionary years ago. I learned the word for "Dinosaur" was "uŋkčéǧila tȟáŋka" so I sort of interpreted the spelling a bit as "Unktehila," which sort of caught on. Apparently, even a popular videogame title even used this spelling as one of its creatures/NPCs/playable characters! The first word actually refers to a large, mythical monster, perhaps a water monster. Definitely a prehistoric creature of some kind. It is (likely) based upon the fossilized remains found in the Badlands and otherwhere in Lakota territory.
I studied Native American history and language in a public library. I've found the Sioux seem to have a wonderful mythic tradition, rich in symbolism and mysticism. One such spirit is that of a monstrous reptile, apparently dangerous, possibly evil, called uŋkčéǧila, which I think may have been a word for a Dinosaur, Dragon or nightmare creature. I think if a Lakota ever met an Iksar and saw the magics they could wield, the term would fit them well.
The Iksar [WikiFur] is a videogame character species from Sony Online Entertainment, in their EverQuest game series.
Most of the content here is of an adult nature, with some general audience material. Designs are imitated in a parodic fashion, often known as "Rule 34" in Internet parlance. Be advised.
Videogame characters tend to have lame names, so when I was naming characters for EverQuest, I chose Unktehila, which definitely was unique across all servers. Even to this day I think there are extremely few uses of the name. There are other videogames which now use this moniker, I've discovered - so my research into Lakota language isn't that esoteric. Game developers are discovering the beauty and exotic nature of the language. I definitely see more and more of its use for Tauren names in World of Warcraft... by developers, for NPCs...
The name Bear Paws is a personal one, given to me by a woman who was about 1/32nd blood Kiowa, but actually understood their beliefs, taught by another Native American. She was the one who gave me the nickname, and I've not felt like abandoning it since. I've even adopted a legal name change where my middle name became Bear (not no other part of my name sounds stereotypical of Native American).
So aside from Native American history and Lakota language, my interests include old tech (retro back to the Altair days); Star Trek; some horror genre; reading fantasy & SF; some gaming - WoW, D3, Steam, iOS; I do write weird fiction that is posted here; oh and I'm not a musclefur IRL, sorry. :-p
Background Character Information: Unktehila In short, he's fan art, commissioned to be a re-imagining of a MMORPG Online character/avatar that has sort-of the EverQuest (games Copyrighted by Sony Online Gaming) looks, only much sexier. For copyright reasons, an exact screen representation steps into a nasty boundary of proprietary laws, by which in order for me to claim ownership of the image of the character, it has to be 51% or more different than it appears in game. This is indeed the case.
The coloring is actually inspired from a coloring choice you can make, if you tweak color palette settings just so. The head fin again is something possible. The muscularity, heck no. The forked tongue, no. And on and on. On-screen characters (afaik) cannot be seen in a state of undress less than being half naked with some knee-length baggy grey burlap trousers on. (NSFW example: Imagine this Todex work with his pants on. That's the biggest state of undress - topless lizard - normally possible, and almost exactly those garments!) So Unk's clothing and its contours (when present) definitely fall well outside Sony's graphical representations.
