Isla

Isla is the creation of DeviantArt user bionautic (also on Instragram and YouTube). It is a tidally-locked world where life lives only near the “twilight zone” between the cold night side and the hot day side. Plants are often flat to deal with the constant wind in this area, though some rise above the surface somewhat to better capture the very horizontal sunlight.

Though lower in biodiversity than Earth, there are several interesting bidirectional animals described, as well as some of the variety in spore dispersal used by the plants.

Isla is also a world I can feel at home in while it captures the imagination. It has many cozy nooks and crannies created by the plants, whether it is the gaps between the generational reefs of flat desert plants, the root mesh underneath large plant colonies, or the world under the solid canopies of the “spore forests.”

Although I have seen many equally-good artists, this is the best art I have seen that was coupled with clear biological prose into a real project.