This log is about how in the goddamn centaurs breathe and talk. I did animations of this 3 years ago but the anatomy has changed a bit since then. I had to rearrange some pipes in the head. I've been told centaurs look top-heavy while quadrupedal but it's kind of an illusion, since their upper torso is mostly filled with air.
Final reminder to submit any new character questions here for the upcoming AMA.
Transcript
LOG 4.2: Centaur Respiration
The main airway of centaurs is unidirectional. Air enters through the incurrent nostrils on the face, passes into the air sac of the foretorso, goes through the medial valve to the lungs, and finally exits out the excurrent nostrils on the rear torso. The majority of gas exchange happens in the lower air chambers, which have a gill-like, high surface area comb structure. The continuous flow of oxygen through centaur lungs is extremely efficient for powering bursts of speed, but is poorer for moisture and heat retention than the tidal breathing of other sophonts.
Overhead View
Step 1: Medial valve closes. Air enters the air sac and leaves the lungs.
Step 2: Incurrent and excurrent valves close. Air passes from the air sac to the lungs.
Lateral View
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incurrent valve
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trachea
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air sac
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medial valve
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lungs
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excurrent valve
During a rolling sprint, breathing is passively controlled by the abdominal viscera sloshing back and forth with each stride. Angling downward, the guts press into the lungs and push the air out, angling upwards they pull the lungs open and draw air into them.
A running sequence shows a centaur in a hexapodal gallop with synchronized breathing.
Vocal Apparatus
SPEECH is shown emerging from the trunk lips.
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trunk lips
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vocal ridges
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vocal cords
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incurrent nostrils
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nasal valve
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olfactory cells
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diaphragm muscles
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cartilage diaphragm
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vocal lungs
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mouth
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esophagus
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trachea
Centaurs can produce infrasonic hums, rattles, and groans by clenching the valves of the excurrent nostrils, but their main vocal apparatus evolved from an olfactory structure that has been co-opted for language. To speak, centaurs breathe into two large sinuses on the back of their neck, close them off from the main airway, and compress them to push air out through the trunk. It consists of vocal cords set in the skull at the base of the trunk, and muscular ridges inside the trunk towards the lips. The large toothed mouth centaurs eat with is completely unconnected to the respiratory system.
Of the other sophonts, their phonic structure is most similar to a human's, though centaurs struggle with some dental consonants and humans struggle with some centaur voiced nasals. Their vocal character is buzzy and surprisingly high-pitched.
Gillie: (ASL) Both of us can talk while chewing.
Talita: I try not to... it feels rude anyways…
Gillie is grinning smugly. Talita clutches her throat nervously.
36 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 136”
Boxthing
I am suuuuper jealous that centaurs never have to worry about food going down the wrong pipe.
Vinemaple
I don’t think I will ever be able to design alien species to this level of detail and consistency. It’s glorious and I revel in it. FYI, there is a lot more of Jay’s spec bio online if you know where to look.
Divergent Species
That’s the attitude of a quitter. There is no such thing as a talent you cannot learn. You just need to set your mind to it.
fen
a talent you can learn is called a skill
cinna
Man, I love spec bio. I’ve always really admired the thought you put into all these aspects of alien anatomy! I’ve been thinking recently about how we have four nostrils; the excurrent nostrils of bony fish just kinda moved inside the mouth at some point before tetrapods emerged. I think all these little quirks of anatomy and evolution make it so interesting to think about how analagous bodily systems could work. Your solutions are some of the most satisfying to me!
40
Man this comment got me down a massive rabbit hole about nostrils and lungs and stuff. This shit’s so interesting.
Correct me if any of this is wrong but; nostrils only used to be an olfactory structure and lungs (which also existed way before fish crawled onto land) could only be breathed-through via the mouth. The problem with that is it’s really easy for you to block your lungs and choke (it wouldn’t fully kill you, you still had gills, but it would be a pain in the ass), but the fish that had their olfactory outputs lead into their mouth now had 2 backups to breath through.
Oodles
Can centaurs breathe and speak at the same time? The nasal valve is above the trachea so i assume so. Every few breaths would have to be pushed into the sinus but otherwise talking would never wind them.
Oodles
Talking may stop them from being able to SMELL though
Jay Eaton
Correct!
Jay Eaton
Yes. A centaur could be exhausted from exertion and wheezing for air but have relatively unaffected speech.
AnormalADN
Oh I’m noticing, centaurs still have at least one foot on the ground while running at full speed, would that be because they’re too heavy? Would it be tough on their leg joints to jump a lot?
Martin
I dont think theres one foot on the ground in the very first one?
eden
the page that had talita running on the treadmill has a very cool animation of the centuar run cycle in the post below it! they fo have one foot on the ground at all times, it looks like this one was just cropped out.
eden
aaaaaand I just looked at it and realised I have a goldfish brain. sorry!
Apollo235
Can Centaurs inhale through the trunk since it’s an olfactory structure?
Also looking at it here, the distance between the vocal chords and trunk-lips seems to be quite comparable to the distance between a humans vocal chords and mouth, so presumably the lack of sinuses is the thing that makes Centaurs higher pitched?
Jay Eaton
Yeah, they can sniff through the trunk. And also refill the vocal lungs or breathe through it, though the latter would be a bit like a human trying to breathe through a single nostril. Unpleasantly inefficient.
Centaurs are higher pitched because they have smaller vocal chords, less resonant area downwind of the vocal cords than a human pharynx and nasal cavity, and smaller lung capacity/lower airflow than a human. Their setup is more of a piccolo than a clarinet.
Zuorai
My name is Talita. I rebuilt the Runaway. It was difficult to put the pieces together
gooeymander
My name is Gillie. Bip. I want zucchini. Gillie that is my name. Gillie I want another. Gillie
Napkinkat
How do centaurs clear their lungs? Humans cough and hack phlegm up and swallow it when the king mucus gets icky. What’s the centaur equivalent of coughing?
Claire
Pneumonia resulting in leaky sides sounds profoundly unpleasant. Not that our pneumonia is good, really…
TotallySomebody
Ooagh… YUCK!
Michi
And now remember that there are several species with their heads just level with a Centaur’s exhaust nostrils. I don’t want to imagine what a good sneeze does either.
JoB
Don’t carry an umbrella unless you’re Mary Poppins …
Napkinkat
Imagine the sound of them blowing their side nostrils lol
Jay Eaton
Centaurs can cough and sneeze. It involves clenching the medial valve and contracting the entire airway, expelling air and sometimes goop from both ends. Yucky!
Napkinkat
That sounds very unpleasant, glad I don’t have their lung setup.
eden
does the congestion affect their speech at all? if they have too much goop in their trunks do they slur or have bubble popping sounds?
Jay Eaton
Yes, although unlike in human sinus congestion, thick congestive gunk clogging the trunk or incurrent nostrils is usually a sign of severe infection in the head. Mild respiratory illness for centaurs mostly results in watery discharge from the rear nostrils.
Greebus
This is awesome!
Lilac
Ohhh the centaurs will get various more specific logs….. I see……..
apprenticeNerd
Oh man, now my feral linguist brain is wondering what centaur points of articulation are like! Manners of articulation are probably pretty similar (only so many ways to block air from going through a tube or two), but the points must be totally different. And what would you even call them in English??
40
The trunks are so vastly different and the ridges only exist for speech so I imagine they’d just use the same terms. Or maybe instead like “pseudo-dental” or “pseudo-velar”. Pre-contact Centaur linguists tho?, shit maybe they’d just number them, or describe them like vowels.
K
Can the vocal lung absorb oxygen, or is it really only used for redirecting air for speech?
Ossumsauce
Since it says theyre sinuses I assumed theyre there for making mucus and humidifying the air :]
JoB
Hmmm, they *are* called “lungs”, as opposed to the “air sac” in the upper torso, so …
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Unless the blood vessels running to the head turn out to be surprisingly large, however, they should be but a *supplement* to the main lungs’ supply. (We know that Talita just continues to exhale out of her excurrent nostrils even when they’re under water, so there’s no need for a head-end-only “emergency breathing mode” for centaurs who accidentally fell into a lake.)
Jay Eaton
It can do gas exchange, since it is a mucus membrane with blood vessels in it, but not to a especially meaningful degree. It is mostly an olfactory organ that got greatly expanded to use for vocalization.