About the Project
If you like plausible aliens, otherworldly landscapes, and human perspectives, then you’re in the right place. Ilion is a planet I’ve constructed and populated with lifeforms since 2012. It is a multimedia project, featuring artworks in many materials and writings both narrative and informative.
Travelogue chronicles the first two missions to Ilion, told entirely in journal entries and other primary source documents, and illustrated with drawings, paintings, and dioramas. It is a work in progress – entries and illustrations may be added or removed at any time as I flesh out the world, develop the characters and stories, and improve my art skills. When finished, Travelogue will be a trilogy of three novellas. The first two are online, while the third is still in the early drafting phase.
Aeneid I covers the first mission to the continent of Aeneas, framed as news articles.
Helen of Troy features images and reports from an unmanned mission that seeded Ilion with over a hundred probes, rovers, submersibles, and planes.
About the Author
I am Emily Holland, a lab technician who indulges in art, music, and writing on the side. I work in every medium except colored pencils. I never quite got the hang of those.
Rhinoceros Beetle, 2009
I draw inspiration from the works of Wayne Barlowe, Anne McCaffrey, NASA, C.M. Kosemen, Nintendo, Earth, and more.
And most of all:
A Shameless Plug for my Dad
Pescadero Creek, 2011
Denny Holland is a professional artist and teacher of interior design. Check out his work:
Ilion 
I am also a person that does speculative evolution on word press. Could you give me some tips and tricks and also check my speculative evolution project. https://wordpress.com/view/euradotblog.wordpress.com You blog is really fantastic and I really want to try and be as good as you.
Thank you! At first glance I would suggest building a landing page for your website, introducing the basics of your world and its life. The first bit of content I read when I visit the front page is “The desert tripods are in the X- Otian Group.” This means nothing to me since I have no image of what tripods look like or what an X-Otian is. I would look to Project Nereus (https://sites.google.com/site/projectnereus/home) for a simple way to organize and present information for a new visitor. You can also use the wiki method of linking to higher level clades within species descriptions. For instance, I could click on X-Otian Group and quickly read what that means before moving on to the details.
You may also want to replace “this is an amazing spec bio project” with something quick and informative, maybe telling us that this is a galactic-scale xenobiology project, which we wouldn’t know until reaching the second entry on the page.
It looks like you have a ton of content already and some great ideas. Have you visited the speculative evolution forums? People are very helpful and honest there and it’s a good way to get your work seen by others in the hobby.
PS, your link brings me to my page not yours :)
Thank you it is really good advice. I will build a landing page, here is the introduction that I can use. https://euradotblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/introduction/ . When I have built the landing page would you mind having a look at it?
So far so good. As you expand the project, you can include things like geography, maps, and major life groups on the front page. If any of those get too long, they can be spun off onto their own pages with only a summary on the front.
I already have pages about these things. Maybe not the major groups of life, that is a bit more scattered. I do not know how to organise it like that using wordpress. Thanks
I’m so excited I found this site! I’ve been reading every page slowly for a few days and having a great time! I love all of your art in different media.
If you ever make this into a book I would definitely buy a copy.
Thanks! I will probably not publish the whole thing as a book because it’s formatted for the internet but there could be spinoff media like that coloring book I toyed around with a couple years ago. (Turns out making the art is the easy part)
A coloring book would be great! Maybe stickers or posters?
I actually have a redbubble for things like that! https://www.redbubble.com/people/EmilyHollandArt
Oh, I accidentally posted a comment twice. Please remove one of them.
So, in my work I was inspired by a number of projects. Among them: the project “Nereus”, “Snyad” and “All Tomorrows” by Mehmet Coseman, “Expedition” Barlow, books by Dougal Dixon, the project “Furaha”, the project on Deviantart “Urban Future”, projects by Joshua Knuppe, books by Robert Ibatullin and , of course, your brainchild.
And I haven’t mentioned many books yet, thanks to which I wanted to become a writer
The commentator above expressed a great idea. Why don’t you create a book based on your project? I think that would increase his popularity. In addition, a book that you can put on your bookshelf is always better than a dry site.
I created an official group on the social network VKontakte dedicated to your work
https://vk.com/sunriseonilion
I love this page and strongly appreciate the thought and work put into it.
Found it while searching for fiction on tidally locked planets. I can say, for sure, this is the best piece of tidal planets I’m aware of.
Thanks!
Hey! This project is incredible, the best spec bio project on the web I reckon. The thoughtfulness of particularly the microbiology and taxonomy is enthralling. More than many other projects, it feels like a real world. I note that you haven’t updated things in a while, I hope this isn’t W permanent pause! :) Best of luck with the hopefully ongoing infinite fleshing out of things! :)
Thanks! I found it harder to stay in it after graduating college and working full time. I’ve been working on some things lately so keep an eye out.