Origin of the species: Blurbys

Since I just released a game featuring them heavily (Bok's Expedition, which is based on the first Blurby-focused story I wrote waaaay back in 1997 or so), I figured it'd be a good time to go into where I got the idea for them.

Spoiler alert for the dumbasses in the back eating paste: it's got nothing to do with fucking Kirby.

Seriously, I am beyond sick and tired of people assuming that every single one of my round-bodied species is based on Kirby in some way.  Or worse that they "are Kirbys."  Yes, the K'hyurbhis (another of the main Nummorrian species) WERE based on Kirby originally, and for a long time their design still looked a lot like Kirby except white (and later on, with spikes and facial markings.  More recently they've gotten a different foot design, visible nostrils, and whiskers instead of those vague Kirby-esque cheek markings.)  But not everything with a round-ish body is Kirby, or even Kirby-based.  Seriously, take off your Kirby-tinted glasses for a second so I can punch you in the face with the real origin of Blurbys and its distinct lack of Kirby.  Actually, on second thought, leave them on -- I wouldn't mind breaking those particular glasses.

Of course, just because Blurbys weren't based on Kirby doesn't mean they weren't originally based on anything.

Nope... Blurbys were originally based on an enemy from Yoshi's Island:

I have no idea what the smaller ones appearing as random enemies throughout a few levels were called, or if they even had a name, but there was also a boss version a bit later on:

...and that jumbo-sized version was named "Marching Milde."

So yes, Blurbys were based not on Kirby but on Marching Milde... or whatever the smaller versions were called (I've actually never seen a listing of official names for most of the Yoshi's Island enemies, now that I think about it.)

Looking at Blurbys, you can probably see the resemblance.  Way waaaaay more of a resemblance than to Kirby at least.  They're both white, and they they both have the "red cheek marks + wide mouth + small eyes" look.  For many years Blurbys had the "lump feet" like Marching Milde too (though they were colored red), which is something Marching Milde and Kirby have in common.

Blurbys don't have the "nose" of the Yoshi enemies (never have, actually -- that was an intentional design change way back in the day because kid-me thought noses looked dumb), and they of course have arms, which I'm guessing is why nobody ever thought to link Blurbys with Marching Milde before.  But there actually were some early Blurby drawings with no arms, and sometimes they'd randomly gain and lose arms depending on... whether they needed them at the moment or not, I suppose.  That was only really early on, though -- like when I was in 3rd or 4th grade.  Later Blurby drawings all had arms, at first the "flipper-arms" like Kirby (or like the Pokémon Jigglypuff, in case anyone randomly forgets that this is not a feature exclusive to Kirby), but starting around 2013-2014 I started drawing them with actual arm arms, complete with clawed fingers.  This was the same point where I ditched the "lump feet" for almost every Nummorrian species, replacing them with their current clawed foot design:

They've also become a bit less round and more lumpy-oval over the years, because I wanted a bit more variety in body shapes rather than all the "round" creatures being perfectly round (K'hyurbhis have shifted a bit too, though they still usually show up as round-ish.)

Right about now one of the dipshits in the back has run out of paste and decided to sniff some glue instead.  And, now that they're lacking brain cells even more than before, they're probably asking "but but but... if they're not based on Kirby, why does their name rhyme with Kirby?"  Because we all know Herbie, Furby, and the Kentucky Derby are all totally related to Kirby...

Much like the above examples, "Blurby" rhyming with "Kirby" is nothing but a coincidence.  The name "Blurby" actually was derived from the word "blubbery."  They've always been defined by being heavy and having a layer of blubber (they were the original users of the Blubber Slam attack after all!)

Basically, by removing and rearranging some letters like so...

Blubbery --> Blubbery --> Blubry --> Blurby

...I ended up with the name "Blurby."  I'm fairly sure I rearranged the letters (to Blurby instead of just shortening "blubbery" to Blubry) mainly because I didn't want them to be mistakenly called "blueberries."  Yeah, kid-me was concerned with strange things sometimes -- never thought for a second that I'd have the whole Legion of Dumb mistaking them for Kirby, but was immediately worried about people calling them blueberries, of all things.

So... now you know the full story of where Blurbys came from.  And now you have no excuse for calling them "Kirbys" or assuming they were based on Kirby.

From this point forward, I'm just going to assume anyone who brings up the K-word in association with Blurbys or Bok's Expedition is just... a very severely mentally-disabled child, and rather than getting pissed off at them for (perhaps intentionally) being a dipshit, I'll just pat them on the head and be like "yeah, that's right little Timmy, everything is Kirby.  Now take your Kirby pills and finish your Kirby homework before the Kirby bus comes to take you home."

So I just realized something about the Nummorrian calendar...

...and that something is that I kinda made an "oops" in making up the months and such.

You see, the whole reason why Earth's calendar has the months set up the way it does (roughly 30 days each, 12 in a year) is because they're based around the cycles of the moon...

I must've forgotten this when making Nummorro's calendar, taking its 600 day year and making it so there are more months and they are each (with a few exceptions) longer than Earth months.  The problem with that? Well... Nummorro doesn't have a moon.  So having a set of months roughly corresponding to the moon's pattern of phases doesn't make any sense.

So... I'm thinking that it's a good time to redo the Nummorrian calendar.  Some of those months are going to cease to exist, which makes this the first time I'll ever remove words from the Khurbyish Dictionary rather than just adding more and more.  I really like some of the month names, but there were always a handful that I wasn't a fan of, so I figure trimming them down a bit shouldn't be too hard.

The Current System

Here's the current lineup of Nummorrian months:

1. Iilu, named after a small flower known to sprout near the beginning of spring each year.  Appropriate for the first month, considering that the Nummorrian year starts in spring rather than mid-winter.
2. Acralnu, named after a rapidly-growing shrub that dies and regrows from seeds each year.
3. Hamwudi, translating to "high forest."  I suspect this one is going to be ditched, because forests are sort of a permanent fixture and not something that grows at a particular time every year like the name of the month implies!
4. Kril, which  translates to "short" or "small," is the shortest month.  Not hard to imagine that this one's getting ditched.
5. Burediban, the fifth month.  I like the name but I don't think I ever came up with any meaning for it, so I may reuse it for something if it ends up being one of the ditched months.
6. Hamroas, translating to "high heat," it's a late summer month where the temperatures reach some of their highest points (think August in Earth terms.)
7. Lelduf, the seventh month which has no defined meaning for its name.  Probably ditching this one.
8. Wakuwudi, translating to "orange forest," apparently roughly corresponding to the time the leaves start changing color on Earth.
9. Aigyuuhuo, translating to "fat aigyuuh," it's the month where the aigyuuh crop is ripe for harvest.
10. Gatadzkan, named after the god of death and cold in the ancient K'hyurbhi religion.  This one's staying for sure.
11. Narudiban, the eleventh month.  Like Burediban, it has no defined meaning.
12. Teyguo, named after an ancient Numnum.
13. Narrwudi, translating to "snow forest."  I'm thinking I'll probably ditch all of the "-wudi" names for months, considering that a lot of Nummorro doesn't exactly have such dramatic seasonal changes...
14. Enzamkolu, the fourteenth month.  Like Burediban, it's one I like the sound of even though I don't think I ever came up with a meaning for the name.

So, looking over these, it seems like Kril, Lelduf, and all three of the "-wudi" months are going to get thrown out for sure.  I've never liked Lelduf much, and Kril was literally just a pun (the shortest month is just named "short"... also the Khurbyish word Kril is absolutely named after Krillin from Dragon Ball Z, who is... well, short.)  And of course the "-wudi" months either don't make a whole lot of sense as month names (Hamwudi) or are a little too "Earth-ish" in terms of what the seasonal changes actually look like (Wakuwudi and Narrwudi.)  A significant portion of Nummorro doesn't have trees that change in the fall, and snowfall isn't quite as rare but still doesn't happen widely enough for the K'hyurbhis to name one of their calendar months after the sight of forests full of snow-covered trees.

I really like the idea of the first two months being named after plants that start growing in those months, so I'll probably keep Iilu and Acralnu exactly where they are.  Since the early spring "sprouting" and "everything's green again" periods are fairly short compared to some of the other seasonal changes, they'll probably stay roughly the same as they are currently; Acralnu will probably be extended a bit to account for the loss of Hamwudi and Kril, mostly Hamwudi since that one seemed to be the "later growth season" kind of thing anyway.

I figure Burediban works as a late spring, early summer kind of thing, and I do really like the name even though it currently means nothing.  Hamroas will absorb Lelduf and part of old Burediban, essentially become Nummorro's equivalent of the June/July/August trio, one long month of "hot season" rather than several separate ones.

Wakuwudi is going to be gone, so I'll probably just put Aigyuuhuo next, as the "harvest season" sort of month that would generally follow the hot season as the weather cools off.  For the later fall and winter, I'm not sure what to do -- I like the idea of Teyguo having a month named after him, and I like the name Narudiban, but those two should definitely not both be before Gatadzkan because that's supposed to be the coldest winter month.  Maybe I'll have one of them come before Gatadzkan and one come after, with one being the "it's starting to get cold" month and one being the "winter is letting up a little bit, we're coming up on spring."  Teyguo seems appropriate for the latter, so I guess Narudiban will be the "getting cold" month.

...and it's looking like Enzamkolu has probably gotten crunched out of the calendar too.  Which actually works out just fine, since it's another never-had-a-name-meaning one and I don't like the name quite as much as the "-diban" ones.

Which means...

The Possible New System

1. Iilu, early spring, new plants are sprouting.
2. Acralnu, spring, everything's becoming green again.
3. Burediban, late spring/early summer, warmish weather and plenty of greenery.
4. Hamroas, summer, the hottest part of the year.
5. Aigyuuhuo, the harvest season, time to pick the aigyuuh plants.
6. Narudiban, late fall/early winter, it's getting colder out.
7. Gatadzkan, winter, if you see any snow or ice it's in this month.
8. Teyguo, late winter, weather's getting a bit warmer, ready for spring.

...the new Nummorrian calendar ends up only having eight months, so each of them will probably be longer than an Earth month.  This should help differentiate the calendar from Earth's even more, since Nummorro has a longer year but less months rather than just being "slightly bigger Earth," with a longer list of months because the moon goes around more times during its orbit.

Also kind of interesting that the last two months have Numnum inspired names, since Gatadz was depicted as a skeletal Numnum and then Teyguo is a historical figure who helped fight off an attempted invasion of Ummiboro's Numnum-populated lands by the ancient, long-fallen Dondu Empire.  Aigyuuhuo ties in to K'hyurbhi culture (they're the ones who really like the aigyuuh plant, using it to make a particular kind of bread), so maybe the "plant named" ones could all be seen as the K'hyurbhi contribution to the calendar.  And then that leaves Hamroas (which is just a general description of the temperature) and the "-diban" names.  I get a more Blurby-ish feel from those than a K'hyurbhi or Numnum one, so I'll probably come up with some connection between them and the Blurbys in the future, meaning all three of Nummorro's primary species now have their own associated months.

I haven't updated the Khurbyish Dictionary to reflect these changes just yet, but I'll probably do that within the next week or so.