The Creatures of Codex Inversus
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- čas přidán 13. 06. 2024
- Explore a dreamlike realm where flora and fauna have evolved to use spells. A breakdown of Luca Vanzella’s surreal worldbuilding project ‘Codex Inversus.’
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Codex Inversus Instagram: / codex_inversus
Codex Inversus Subreddit: / codexinversus
Codex Inversus Stories: / lucavanzella
Have you ever heard of dragonflies that snipe their prey with bolts of energy? Or octopuses that serve as guard dogs? Or Necromancer Bees that live in reanimated carcass-hives? These are from the Codex Inversus - a modern worldbuilding project like Codex Serephinianus from the imagination of the brilliant artist and writer Luca Vanzella.
Brought to life through collages of classical art, the world of Codex Inversus is full of flora and fauna that have evolved to use magical energy, visitors from parallel dimensions, and fractures in space and time. At a glance, the surreal, scrambled visuals are difficult to make sense of. Yet like a medieval bestiary, the project does follow a unique system of internal logic.
So, for this entry into the archive, I’ll investigate the creatures, people, and locations of this scrambled world - and reveal the hidden order to the chaos of Codex Inversus…
0:00 Codex Inversus
1:17 Strange Creatures
3:46 A Shifting Realm
7:07 Ethereal Ocean
9:42 Nation of Beasts
13:22 Tale of Two Moons
15:06 Elsewhere Woods
18:44 Edge of Reality
Copyright Disclaimer: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/image content is edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary.
I do not own the images, music, or footage used in this video. All rights and credit goes to the original owners.
♫ Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com):
Beauty Flow, Impact Lento, Majestic Hills, Thunderbird, Floating Cities
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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#CuriousArchive #Worldbuilding #CodexInversus - Zábava
I love how the octopus didn't change at all indicating that the octopus itself is a surreal creature
If I described an octopus to someone who’d never heard of one, they’d never believe me.
@@fionagibson7529 describe one to me please
@@evanherrera5948 since they seem incapable, I will.
Some weird creature that fits through holes so small your pinky finger could get stuck! It has 8 boneless arms that think independently, looking for something interesting! It changes Colours and has multiple hearts! It has a goat’s eyes and a birds beak. It has a hole in its side that acts like a jet pushing it along! It swims and can walk, even crawl on land!
@@evanherrera5948 Eight-limbed, three-hearted boneless sea creatures that can fit through any opening bigger than their beaks(they have beaks for some reason.) Most of them can change color at will and some can also change the texture of their skin, making them able to hide virtually anywhere. They regularly punch fish that they’re hunting with. Many species of octopus create ink within their bodies and squirt it at predators to confuse them. Every species is venomous to some degree, but the blue-ringed species are the only ones known to have killed humans via their venom, which is a nerve toxin that kills by paralyzing the respiratory muscles and has no antivenin. To top it all off, octopuses are very smart. On multiple occasions they’ve demonstrated the ability to leave their aquarium tanks whenever they wanted even when humans tried to prevent them from leaving.
So yeah, I’d definitely say they’re fairly eldritch.
@@BillyBob-jy1gv thanks but ur wrong
I love how this world is completely nonsensical but also has a strange logic behind it that kind of ties everything together
Like real life
@@ykshay haha yeah lol
@@ykshay A lot of it is just a twist on something people used to actually believe.
For example, the necromancer bees comes from a belief that bees and wasps spawned from corpses, and so a ritual was made known as 'bugonia', in which an animal (usually a cow) is killed and prepared in such a way that it would supposedly spawn said bees. If you ever thoroughly read the biblical story of Samson, you might recall that at one point Samson comes across the corpse of a lion and finds it to be the host of a hive of bees, from which he snacks upon the honey.
@@LordIsrafel That's cool, thx for taking ur time to inform me. One of the crones from witcher 3 has a beehive in her face, that could also be due to what you wrote.
Have a blessed day bro
Yeah I love stuff like this I always get a little angry when fictional stories have some of this crazy stuff and just explain it away with "that's how it is"
There’s something about this that just makes me satisfied. It’s just something about finding order and logic in chaos that tickles all the right parts of my brain.
i know...
monke
Same
I agree with that. Another thing that made my feel good was that it doesn't work the way natural things do. The feeling that you might never really truly understand what is going on and that's okay. It's meant to be that way. Guess I just like how people put it into there work.
For me also is kinda pleasant that not anything is explained, Incomplete narratives are fascinating because you fill the empty spots left with your own logic, which means that you cannot get disappointed from a bad explanation, because there is none to begin with
This is like an enhanced or ultimate end goal of the high fantasy genre. It has all the tropes and symbolism of high fantasy, but provides an explanation for them in a medieval context.
For real, you need one hell of a mind to create a world like that.
@@newhek it's as if Tolkein and Salvador Dali were reincarnated into the same person.
Not only the medieval context but most importantly the use of renaissance style art. It really immerses you into the world/lore.
I just can't believe people keep making movie reboots when there's so much potential for amazing stories.
HEY! GhostBusters 2016 isnt a reboot! its a colorful reimagining where the actors are let loose to adlib and have fun and if you don't like it you are a sexist!
@@nunyanunya4147😂
big franchises will always make money, taking risks can make you win or loose money
That's because remaking the same old movies is the safe way to do things. Hollywood would rather remake Star Wars a hundred times because its guaranteed to generate a profit. Besides as much as I would like to see new and unique movies I highly doubt Hollywood has the creativity anymore to pull anything like this off.
"Have you ever heard of dragonflies that snipe their prey with bolts of energy?"
I can tell already I'm in for a wild and uh... psychedelic, ride. Can't wait.
Dr bright what are you doing here?
@@averycoolhat1709 another rule in the "things Dr. Bright is not allowed to do"
No.
Share your drug with me
Dr. Bright is not allowed to read from the Codex Inversus
Let’s all appreciate how this master artist put some medieval things in a world building project. I also love the idea of the sky being the opposite sea and the bees using a corpse as a hive and "reanimating" it for defense. Your content helps me inspire worldbuilding projects of my own!
I agree, the internet "mainly this channel" has inspired me and helped motivate me to make and work on my world building ideas. I eventually want to share them with others too.
OMG SPINOFAARUS AND PALEOMEMES GUY?! SUP MIKAITHEKOMODODRAGON
I like your videos, I didn't know that you'd be interested in Curious Archive videos.
There are real species of bees which use decayed meat from animal cadavers to ferment the "honey" which feeds their young.
Add some _magick_ & you get the *_"Reanimator" Bees_* - which just cut out the middleman...
yo yo yo its the paleomemes dude!
This project seems to be very unique. I like it's Medieval-Renaissance art style. Projects like these inspire me to work on my own world building projects and share them with others.
I would like something like this but without the chimerism and the -mimicry- convergence personally, I know that is part of the aesthetics, but I think it's much more interesting if we get original animals that have evolved having magical powers.
Same
@@didack1419 But mimicry happens all the time in nature
@@astick5249 Not to this extent at all. I think the premise of this project is that it's Earth but magic appeared, so it's justified.
But you wouldn't expect stuff like cows or dogs to evolve in other planets. Non-avian dinosaurs evolved on Earth and were very successful and they are clearly different from dogs.
It's not like mammals will evolve everywhere and then cows.
@@didack1419 I already know that a copy of mammals or any earth animal wont ever happen a second time (unless a ridiculous unimaginable coincidences happened) , especially in the context of magic. Im talking about just the mimicry/illusion spells. Illusion spells wouldn't seem like that hard of a thing to do. Extremely convincing mimicry is a common thing in nature, but now with the addition of magic its made far more convenient.
Also i think in the context of Codex its mostly just scrambled bits of earth animals smashed together, which then the evolution happened afterwards (probably why insects seem to use magic the most since they have quicker and more generations).
As a forever DM, I've officially subscribed to the Codex Inversus subreddit and will be thrusting future players into a world that defies explanation.
Oh I think I just found my new favorite subreddit
That's just what I thought watching this :D
Yeah, honestly now I want to play a necromancer with a swarm of necromancer bees as their familiar, it's just such a cool concept
Yup. Now I gotta figure out how to fit necromancer bees and magic missile dragon flies into my campaign.
@@agustinvenegas5238 necromancer multiclass with swarm ranger
I’d say my favorite creatures from this are the Transmuter Snails, the Hammergulls, and the Cloud Possums.
Not only do they just look awesome, but having them as a pet would be really cool. Imagine having a little tank where you can keep a few transmuter snails, or having a hammergull or cloud possum in the place of a dog or cat. It’d be awesome.
@@walbergverissimo2815 Indeed. I very useful and cool looking pet.
Foolish plan. You’d be the first one dead in a world like this
Wait untill you Heard about the Roc seagull
I do like how the magic logic of this world is directly based on movement and patterns that create specific shapes that cause the magic to happen, even if the results can be kind of random by the looks of it.
I know right, it's similar to glyph magic (a show called The Owl House uses a system like this by combining different glyphs for a required spell)
The Future is Wild: **Develops Earthling animals with logical developed parts and cool evolutions.**
Expedition/Alien Planet: **Inventive alien designs with original environment ideas and cool adaptations.**
Codex Inversus: *_I M A G I N A T I O N._*
It's definitely an interesting concept to consider the implications of magic created by pattern, which is a long-established trope, intersect with the natural world and evolution. It's one of those things that seems so obvious once you've heard of it, but you never thought of until you did.
Of course a world with magic produced by structures like that would have life evolve to take advantage of it.
@seigeengine it really was a genius idea. It's like the ultimate mix of high fantasy and specualtive biology
The magic octopuses are too shy to cast spells in public 😭 so cute
I wish more fantasy setting were like this, just weird and alien and almost fairy tale like but still having it's own sense of logic.
Tolkien once said that Fantasy only needs to make sense in it's own world and i think this is one of those worlds.
Can this get turned into a rpg?
@@dangelobraker9866 check out @The Dude, below
Im sure if Hollywood adapts this into a movie or show some of these animals need to be gay or black
@@markcruz359 lol, probably netflix would do that.
@@sethleoric2598 everyones doing it lately. Amazon, Netflix, Disney, HBO LOL
This is just genius, combining speculative evolution with stereotypical magic tropes and giving explanations on how they work and how the individual harnesses the power is just incredible.
Not the HOLY COW-
This was a treat! Good work and thank you for introducing me to this wonderful worldbuilder.
HOLY COW
Praise be the holy cattle and their infinite rings of light! Lol. 😂
One of the most interesting things about this project being framed as a medieval bestiary is that medieval bestiaries in the real world are notoriously unreliable, with artists and writers usually only having second-hand accounts and no photos to work with, resulting in drawings and paintings that depict rare animals as literally in relation to their descriptions as possible. When this same process is applied to a magical world where the laws of reality aren't always stable and most uninhabited places are much more dangerous to visit, it becomes both harder and easier to trust descriptions of things like the otherworld monsters with the mishmash of parts. On the one hand, the artistic depiction could just be a very literal interpretation of how the beasts were described to the in-universe artist, but on the other hand the instability and malleability of reality means that by simply giving a visual form for the thing that might guarantee it actually does look like that more reliably in the future.
you are smart
this has to be intentional, because the descriptions of "and faces like that of a weeping child" being used as a source for a literal weeping child face just seems like those depictions of "leopard horses" that are just giraffes.
I really like these. They are like speculative evolution with the suspension of disbelief since they officially are magic.
I love all of the spell-slinging insects! That's just such a rad concept. Thanks for covering this CA.
That was my favorite but too! I'm SO using this in some way
I noticed they were all themed after magic schools in dnd (transmutation, abjuration, conjuration, necromancy, evocation and illusion)
I love the idea of how animals might evolve to use magic. In theory, if magic is part of the natural laws of the world, it'd make sense for animals to make use of it.
frighteningly, it would PROBABLY defy the idea of sentience or sapience so if we're going there, it'll be a no return point by then
It might suggest sentience, or it could simply be another thing that evolution happened upon without "intentionally" doing it.
@@hastingssaunders9661 idk I got high on cortisol there, ye
Okay real talk tho, when you asked if we had ever heard of bees living in reanimated carcasses I was slammed back about ten years to a time when I played a unicorn corpse hive full of face sized hornets in a one off ttrpg. So yes. Yes I have.
What game was that?
Well fun fact alot of the creatures in Codex Inversus also have DnD style stat pages so they can be used in games
You are a very disturbing person. Glad to meet you.
@@hyrumstearns5791 Just a home brew one shot thing. We were sitting in a friends living room bored and itching for RP so our usual dm was like "hey let's just run a modern little dooms day scenario". No real stats. Roll a d20 and whatever you get determines if and how well you succeed at something. Play what you want. They never expect what I want. I have a reputation now.
@@mstrfool likewise I'm sure :3
The fact that someone sat and thought this out with detailed/ scientific and (sometimes) DaVinci -esque style illustrations. Our narrator just rolls along without calling the beautiful absurdity into question, just describes the landscapes and life forms with deliberate detail and calm “matter of factly” cadence, despite the obscene and absurd deviations of life, physics and magic being described. Cool.
So it's basically psychodelical Witcher mixed with Dark Souls, Chronicles of Narnia and a medieval manuscript?
I already love it.
This is the coolest thing I’ve found out about in a long while. It’s like something we all thought about when we were kids. What makes it even cooler is his use of the classical art style
DM: "This is mine now"
(Proceeds to run away with the book cackling maniacally)
it's like a weird fever dream that a renaissance painter would have, kind of makes me want to make it into an rpg setting...
Oh hey, this is an artist who occasionally posts their work on reddit, really amazing stuff! Didn't realise there was such a complicated world behind this, so I'm glad you've covered this.
I feel like this would be a good open world game. Especially if they make it like Elden ring. Imagine all the creatures moving and interacting in the game. Also like a sense of discovering all the strange beings and Powers in this world.
It’s actually nice and amazing that this channel, that has been only covering sci-fi media, is now covering a medieval, magical book.
Gosh, I just adore how surreal yet grounded the worldbuilding of this setting is!
The necromancer bees are one of the wildest yet most oddly logical things I have ever heard of
Damn this is easily one of the best you've ever covered on the channel, such uniqe and creative world building
I love how every frame looks like some bizarre and surreal high-level sh*tpost but the lore and the world building is so interesting that I nod my head while watching as if these were all real things
The Collapse seems very similar to the Conjunction of Spheres in The Witcher universe, where multiple universes collided and the result was the introduction of magic and the arrival of several kinds of monsters.
That's exactly what I was thinking!
Or The Eclipse from Berserk.
You don't see too many speculative biology projects that take magic into account. I like it.
This might be my favourite so far, the artwork is incredible, the lore is something even my dreams can’t compete with, I’m officially obsessed
I LOVE CODEXES! It's a peek into the world of someone's mind and imagination, SO COOL!!
I love me some codex inversus, glad to see ya coverin’ it!
Possibly the best episode yet with all that creative skill on display
Question, is the codex inversus a book or is it limited to only subreddit or Instagram?
@@sebastiengendron6427 It was just a subreddit at the time of this video, but in response to it the creator announced they’d be making a book
@@disgruntledbob2812 when will the book be available?. Will it be in pdf format, will it be free?
@@sebastiengendron6427 The author doesn’t know yet, said it might take some months. As for the rest, idk sorry.
@@disgruntledbob2812 can you link the author responses (I have a hard time finding them the long lists of options/art)
I can imagine this Worldbuilding Project being turned into a Book Series or TV Show, because this is hands down the best Worldbuilding Project yet.
One idea I can think of for a future episode could be the life and environment of Made in Abyss. Just the level of detail that series goes into for its wildlife and unique setting is nothing short of impressive.
Good idea, I always wanted a Made in Abyss in lore survival booklet filled with maps, sketches of creatures, white whistles, food recipes made in the Abyss etc nothing like exposition dumping on how the world works but more like a diary of a tourist who meets his/her eventual end going too deep. By the way, excited for Made in Abyss season 2 (ganja arc) coming in July?. I prefer codex inversis better than codex seraphineas, both artworks for both books are beautiful but codex inversis have better world building in it's continuity. Codex seraphineas felt like "reading" a diary of a person trying making sense of a bizzare dream like realm before secumbing to it.
@@sebastiengendron6427 It was due to the upcoming seas that I had to idea of making that suggestion.
I'm glad someone made this suggestion, it would be pretty good timing if Curious Archives made one on made in abyss in the coming months as well.
I love the medieval like art style its so cool keep showing this awesome stuff I would probably never know exist ❤️❤️❤️
It looks medieval because they're made from using mostly renaissance paintings.
@@itsgonnabeanaurfromme ok…
This reminds me of "Codex Seraphinianus", a book by an Italian artist written in an imaginary idiom and portraits strange creatures.
That's amazing. As a big fan of Tabletop RPGs I can't stop thinking how an adaptation of this book to a game would be
These creatures and locations could be added to Numenera without much alteration
Sometimes its really astonishing how beautifully and cohesive those imaginary wonderlands are crafted while being that absurdly bizarre at the same time..
It’s all just curiouser and curiouser!
What I like so much about this project is that animals evolved to use the magic system which very rarely seen in fantasy which I wish more series would do, because I think it makes the world more interesting and it just makes sense like why wouldn't organisms evolve to take advantage of it
11:32 while i know about the Bee dance, i thought you were going to say "Bees does reanimate corpses in real life." And that will haunt me forever
"...overrun with chimera cats instead"
Australia, is that you?
Yes
I somehow got D&D vibes immediately but I love that while they kept races like elves, dwarves, and halflings, this is far from the traditional fantasy setting.
This is probably my favorite video that you’ve done. The sheer absurdity of everything is so interesting and I love the paintings. Makes it feel so real.
I love Codex Inverus so much! And the author is really nice.
This is so wildly creative, I almost had my foot turn into a hand
A universe where evolution process through magic instead of mutation to adapt... Never thought about that in my wildest dream. It's so interesting to watch.
The first human magic users learned by observing animals.... just like the elemental benders in the "Avatar: the last airbender" show
I always wish that you’d show all the content for things like this, but I understand that showing us everything makes it pointless for people so truly want to know more to support the original creator(s).
Great video, love seeing Codex Inversus get recognition outside of D&D/Worldbuilding subreddits
Really cool that you did a video on codex inversus
What a fantastic project! I love the attention to detail, and the way that the creator takes so much real-world information and twists it in so many unique and interesting ways.
The necromancer bees are my favorite. It's so disturbing yet so fascinating
I get way too excited when I see another video from you get uploaded 😂
This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen! I love magic and logic mixing together. I also really like how the animals learned and evolved to cast spells rather than just being inherently magical like in most stories
This right here, is one of my most favorite videos on CZcams.
Only if someone made a damn game about all in this video...
Oh hey I finally knew about one of these! Love the series, do you think you could someday cover the keys of Solomon? I’ve been reading them lately and I think they could be a cool video
This makes no sense, and yet somehow it makes perfect sense at the same time. Man this is cool, I don’t think I’ve seen any other project able to do that!
I love this world this channel may be about things that don't actually exist but its hella fun to watch
Oh hell yeah, back to the content of your early days! This is why I subbed
I would LOVE to see a book series or video game set in this universe.
You can make an entire campaign out of this
I love the idea of how the world would be different if magic axisted. It's very logical animals and plant would adapt to use it. Simply fantastic material. Great artwork. Congratulations to the artists.
I love that the octopi are too shy to do spells in public, it’s utterly adorable
I love this type of artistic imagery intertwined with speculative biology. It would be cool to see you describe Codex extinct animalia from the book The Resurrectionist. It's one of my favorites
Ive followed the subreddit for a while now. The other day I hoped you would make just this video. Thank you.
I love this utterly unique mix of speculative biology and surreal fantasy. I hope whoever made this keeps making more artwork!
Man this was A Trip, Literally
Dear lord imagine a movie about this
This is really cool, and gives me a ton of inspiration, since I kinda made up a similar magic system for my AU, and needed more ideas for fauna design
This is the best I've ever seen, such a great universe, there's so many great stories you can make and such an infinite lore.
This is impressive in how it resembles the medieval & renaissance views of reality, where Heaven & Hell were as real as any other location.
The illustrations are so evocative of the artworks of painters (Leonardo da Vinci, Rene Magritte, Salvador Dalí & especially both Max Ernst & Hieronymus Bosch, etc.) from many periods & styles (though definitely Surrealism) across Europe.
A truly remarkable achievement.
Uhmm it's evocative of their artwork because they're digital manipulations and collages of artwork from that period. They're not paintings made from scratch.
There's something about Codex Inversus that reminds me of the Southern Reach Trilogy, by Jeff VanderMeer. There is a logic behind it, a form of naturalism rooted in a form of science, yet something that we can't quite tangle with, as it violates much of what our rational brains have come to expect of the world. It visually and conceptually messes with your head, yet it still gives your rational mind a tenuous branch to hold on to. The book Annihilation and its sequels managed to pull off that same unique paradigm.
A holy notification to finish the day
Amen
I love how this channel keeps bringing up stuff I've been following on Reddit for months
Probably my favorite video you’ve ever done. Great job! Keep up the awesome work!
I love that you can just hear him smile when he says the holy cows
both strange yet peculiar
There's something utterly delightful about the narrator explaining necromancer bees or spellcasting butterflies only to take a moment to explain briefly how somerthing of what they do is akin to real world phenomena.
Super awesome, one of my favourite worlds I’ve been introduced to on this channel. Love your content, thanks for showing us these awesome creators!
Love to see that you're exploring more fantastical stuff. You should totally check out the Cosmere, the collection of planets where Brandon Sandersons fantasy novels take place, providing plenty of unique ecosystems with both natural and supernatural evolutionary factors
This channel is so interesting love it.
One of the coolest worldbuilding vids from you imo
Wow, this has inspired me so much, this is absolutely amazing. I always love community projects like SCP, the Backrooms and this.
That's one world setting I wouldn't mind getting isekai'd in.
something i really like about the necromancer bees is that it calls on the real life practice that some bee populations have, which is where they follow scavengers to carcasses, wait for them to be cleaned out and use the leftover skeleton frame to build their hives inside of!!!!! :)
Okay, I have to say this channel is incredible for having a deeper understanding of the arts. And I truly appreciate the visuals, which serve as inspiration and knowledge, throughout all the videos and topics covered.
How is so unknown? Everything about it from the art, to the script, to the lore is so unbelievably creative.
I like to see other works that combine magic and biology. I have one. Nice to learn someone else's take on the subject, and maybe this will even give me ideas to improve my own.
This guy is a straight up god-tier artist
this has easily become my favorite youtube channel. another awesome one. 👏🏽
I LOVE this kind of stuff, you should make more videos about these kinds of wacky things
Yes i love this! Ive been writing my own creatures in a world where magic is very common. The origin is different, but functions in the same way that patterns manipulate the flow of magic into spells.
Which is more *terrifying* and deserves athmospheric kinetic bombardement
Flying variants of arachnids
Or walking running snails
@Sungindra Setiawan make it trillionare
Luca is an exceptional painter. I've been waiting a long time for a contemporary renaissance artist, and this is just marvelous.
This is absolutely becoming the setting of my next D&D campaign.