Silt Strider Anatomy Inquiries

[Cobra Storm]

Genuine mystery here. Do these wonderful specimens have eyes or not?
It doesn’t look to me like they do, but I just feel like I’m missing something.
Brilliantly alien design.
Asking this primarily for a little project I’m doing for myself.

[theo]

They do have eyes in Elder Scrolls Online although it's not uncommon to consider Morrowind to have its own lore canon separate from other games.
So I don't know but there are no eyes on the model - although texture is too low res to tell for sure. It's possible that they don't have eyes, or eyes are removed to make them more obedient (much like their backs are split open). I'd say go with whatever seems more interesting.

[Lobo de hielo]

As @theo has stated.
But also the Silt Strider was based on the flea, so if adding eyes to the model they would be very small composite eyes just a little below the antennae. Maybe just too small a feature to add to the model.

[psychotron666420]

Originally posted by slayor3000:

As @theo has stated.
But also the Silt Strider was based on the flea, so if adding eyes to the model they would be very small composite eyes just a little below the antennae. Maybe just too small a feature to add to the model.

When I was a teenager playing morrowind when it came out me and my friends jokingly called the silt strider giant lice.

[theo]

Also here's an early concept art https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/File:MW-concept-01.jpg

[Diddy Kong Racing]

fun fact silt striders also have their own language. although i don't know what much you'd say to one other than who is going where.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by slayor3000:

As @theo has stated.
But also the Silt Strider was based on the flea, so if adding eyes to the model they would be very small composite eyes just a little below the antennae. Maybe just too small a feature to add to the model.

I just looked at UESP's lore entry on silt striders, and yeah, it looks like there's really no way for them to tell which way they are going. From the Dragonborn screenshot, there seems to only be one place for them to have eyes. There's this small bulge on either side of the head; if they do have eyes, I suspect the eyes are in those bulges.

However, I'm inclined to think that it's a different situation. Given that the drivers actually control the silt-strider's direction and speed by fiddling about with its insides, maybe the silt-striders actually can't see, and navigate through other means. After all, the Fremen in Dune control a sandworm's direction by manipulating the cracks between each section of a sandworm's skin, and the sandworms themselves are blind but have extremely good hearing; what the silt-strider drivers do strikes me as just a more direct form of that.

[Lobo de hielo]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Originally posted by slayor3000:

As @theo has stated.
But also the Silt Strider was based on the flea, so if adding eyes to the model they would be very small composite eyes just a little below the antennae. Maybe just too small a feature to add to the model.

I just looked at UESP's lore entry on silt striders, and yeah, it looks like there's really no way for them to tell which way they are going. From the Dragonborn screenshot, there seems to only be one place for them to have eyes. There's this small bulge on either side of the head; if they do have eyes, I suspect the eyes are in those bulges.

However, I'm inclined to think that it's a different situation. Given that the drivers actually control the silt-strider's direction and speed by fiddling about with its insides, maybe the silt-striders actually can't see, and navigate through other means. After all, the Fremen in Dune control a sandworm's direction by manipulating the cracks between each section of a sandworm's skin, and the sandworms themselves are blind but have extremely good hearing; what the silt-strider drivers do strikes me as just a more direct form of that.

I did actually think the same way as you have stated, but knowing me over thinking things, I was wondering why no hairs on the legs, which I would expect from a "blind" creature so big and no extended antennae. Which ever way the graphic/ devs went, I think they look great graphically. Almost iconic.

[theo]

Maybe they're using echolocation, hence the sounds they make.
Point about sandworms makes a lot of sense because Morrowind was heavily inspired by Dune.

[Cobra Storm]

Originally posted by theo:

Maybe they're using echolocation, hence the sounds they make.
Point about sandworms makes a lot of sense because Morrowind was heavily inspired by Dune.

Originally posted by Valden21:

Originally posted by slayor3000:

As @theo has stated.
But also the Silt Strider was based on the flea, so if adding eyes to the model they would be very small composite eyes just a little below the antennae. Maybe just too small a feature to add to the model.

I just looked at UESP's lore entry on silt striders, and yeah, it looks like there's really no way for them to tell which way they are going. From the Dragonborn screenshot, there seems to only be one place for them to have eyes. There's this small bulge on either side of the head; if they do have eyes, I suspect the eyes are in those bulges.

However, I'm inclined to think that it's a different situation. Given that the drivers actually control the silt-strider's direction and speed by fiddling about with its insides, maybe the silt-striders actually can't see, and navigate through other means. After all, the Fremen in Dune control a sandworm's direction by manipulating the cracks between each section of a sandworm's skin, and the sandworms themselves are blind but have extremely good hearing; what the silt-strider drivers do strikes me as just a more direct form of that.

A little mish-mash of these has been my pet theory going into this little post.