Unfolded origami - a fan-made species guide for AATHADTE 1/?

                           

I wanted to make this for the longest time, and I think season 2 of AATHADTE has finally given me the push to create original material.

So far the only species we have enough information on to look at the big picture is the species Milph, The Substitute and The Caretaker belong to. So let's have a look.

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1. Milphs true form. We see Milphs true fom for a split second in the trailer, and as a shilouette in the promotional material. 

(Photo shows up at 0:36)

We can gather from this that Milph has a long, spindly body with mantis-like arms and lots of smaller arms/feet. His head shape is remarkably the same, altough on the Trailer picture he has red eyes. In his human form his eyes are orange and grey. We'll get back to that later.

(From S1E5)

2. Milph and The Substiute look a lot alike. When The Substitute is rearranging their body, there are similar appendages to what Milph has. I think the dialogue also implicitly states that Milph and The Substitute are similar in more ways than one.

(From S2E1)

3. Milph- looks semi-human, but has still kept some of the traits he has in his original form. We can see this from the head shape, but Milph is also notably short and wants to stay short.

 

In contrast, despite The Caretaker being the same species, they look very different. They are tall, have a tentacled head and back and are completely white*. Their head shape is also different. The only thing they seem to have in common is the eyes? When the substitute "blinks" their eyes turn from orange-grey to red. That would mean that in the trailer shilouette Milph's eyes are closed.

  

4. The Caretaker is either a different sex or a different subspecies or race than Milph. (I suspect the difference is sex since the roles they have are more oriented toward a family unit) In contrast, since Milph and The Substitute are allowed to compete on the same field (biological engineering) where apparently The Caretaker is not allowed to succeed (or can't succeed?). This brings me to my first conclusion:

(From S2E5)

Milph and The Substitute are the same sex:

The Caretaker is another sex:

- different features

Now this is me going off the deep end but I think the species might be trimorphic. There is this bit where Milph is standing next to an alien at the party. This alien:


(From S2E3)

- Has some of the features The Caretaker has like the shiny skin and mantis-like arms

- A differently shaped head. Head shapes have previously been the same between forms, so I don't think this alien is line The Substitutes original form.
- It is the only rendered alien in the entire episode. The rest are shadows of shapes and not nearly as detailed.

This brings me to my second conclusion: This alien is the third sex of Milph's, The Caretakers and The Substitutes species. Will there be a fourth one? Who knows. But at least there are three.

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Why sexes and not subspecies for example?
As I wrote before the main differences in roles seem to be centered around careers and family units. The Caretaker states that someone like Milph cannot take care of a child. Of course, this is muddled by the fact Milph was a laboratory creation.


"But wait! Wasn't The Substitute called in to be a parental figure to Ed?" - you say. Well, The Substitute seems to be a temporary solution. The Caretaker was always going to arrive, but in Ep1S2 we can see they have to travel to get to Earth (making the sabotage possible). Milph could have also been a temporary parent of he wasn't propped up like a mummy.

*This could also be because Milph is color blind

(Throwback to S1E3)

That's my theories so far. Let me know if you have any notes.

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Edit 1: THANK YOU NATE (on discord) i completely forgot that the pitch book EXPLICITLY STATES that Milph's gender is geared toward genetic manipulation. It also states he is gender nonconforming I wonder what that means or if it stayed in the final product.