Scythods weren't created by Ballpoint, no. They evolved on a distant planet, Ballpoint found them and thought they'd make great soldiers. The Seqivet were originally the ones that brought the scythods over to dwarfworld, but that was in Mr Frog's mod, back when it was still in business. Now, it has to be Ballpoint... otherwise it makes no sense that Ballpoint could've "hired" them.
They were originally going to have eyes, something Mr Frog strongly detested and finally did away with altogether (and I'll admit, I like them better without eyes now). This is from a PM where I was explaining them, minus the part about the eyes. It does a pretty good job of explaining my thoughts behind the scythod, and their homeworld. It also does a good job of demonstrating that I'm a major astronomy buff, though that wasn't my intention.
In a young star system far, far away, there was a brown dwarf (of the astronomic variety). As you likely know, brown dwarfs have insufficient mass to sustain hydrogen fusion at their cores, and as a result don't emit radiation in the form of visible light - only heat, infrared radiation and x-rays, generally. They have up to around 75 times the mass of Jupiter (I think) but interestingly enough about the same radius.
You might initially think the brown dwarf's small radius would allow orbiting planets to approach rather closely, and thus enable them to make use of some of the heat. Unfortunately, the heat thrown out by the brown dwarf isn't nearly enough by itself to heat a planet, and the planet would require something else to heat itself up to temperatures capable of sustaining life. Now... a planet of decent size orbiting at close range would invariably be affected by strong tidal forces much in the same way that Jupiter affects Io. Thus, the planet would be somewhat volcanically active (though not nearly as active as Io, lol, if the planet was sufficiently farther away). This volcanic activity would generate gases in the form of COČ, along with a number of others, a few of which would probably be toxic to humans. This would collect in the atmosphere of the hypothetical planet (assuming the planet had a higher mass) and would thus raise the temperature in a manner similar to that of Venus's thick clouds. This might also generate pretty big storms... but we'll ignore that for now.
The variety of gases in the atmosphere, and the thickness of the atmosphere itself, as well as dust all over the place, would force whatever evolved there to develop a complex lung system in order to survive. I would expect frequent ash storms as well, and the creature would need to have somewhat recessed breathing organs (thus, the spiracles and four lungs - kind of like the way a cow has four stomachs, but more sophisticated). The high atmospheric pressure would force evolving creatures to assume a compact form - their limbs couldn't be fleshy or weak. They would be forced to develop hard outer shells, and their limbs and body would be fairly thin to prevent collapse. As a result, their lungs couldn't expand in the same way ours do - rather, they would require elongated tubes close to the same manner of ants (trachea) that would span a good portion of their bodies (which I failed at doing. you can only have a lung span one body part).
The surface of the planet would likely be strewn with old boulders of gargantuan size - everywhere - the result of violent eruptions accumulating over many, many years. Krakatoan explosions would happen on a regular basis on this hypothetical world. Mountain systems would form easily, due to tectonic activity. The surface would be as a maze to anyone of terrestrial origin. Even the active weather system would have difficulty disposing of all the rubble, and overhanging boulders would drop huge pieces onto the terrain below. To traverse something like this you would have to be extremely dexterous, if not agile (thus, the long spike legs, long graspers and especially the suction cups on the scythe arms (upper set)).
There would be very little herbivorous life on our little distant world... At least, as we know it. Photosynthesis would be out of the question - light would be scarce. Actually, with a non-light-emitting brown dwarf and a ridiculously thick cloud cover to keep the planet warm, there wouldn't be any light - except for that of distant volcanic eruptions and lava flows. I doubt anything would want to live directly next to a volcano (edited later: except for things like the wormish creatures living around magma vents in earth's oceans. This creates three problems at once.
First, you wouldn't have much water on this planet. Without photosynthesis, nothing produces oxygen - at least, if it was terrestrial. However, it's theoretically possible for life forms to inhale COČ and exhale oxygen - and they would have to, on our little patch of extra-terra firma. The produced oxygen would be eaten up by the volcanoes and fires, which would release more COČ for the creatures of the planet to consume. This would make it difficult for water to be overly abundant, though it would exist in some quantity. It's actually entirely possible that they would drink something besides water. Unfortunately, that would make it impossible for them to survive on Earth, and especially on our dwarven fantasy planet, so it has to be water. Thus, they don't need much at all. I was unable to find a way to work this into the creature (besides something akin to a camel's hump, which, let's face it, makes no sense).
Second, all creatures on the planet would be forced to depend upon killing others to survive. Granted, some might settle for consuming the extraterrestrial bacteria (which would be in overabundance due to nothing else speeding decomposing times, and thus keep the soil at a minimum - helped greatly by the lack of plants). These bacteria consumers, while carnivorous themselves in the strictest definitions of the word, would be the planet's version of herbivores. For the larger species, peace wouldn't be an option. If not adapted to consume bacteria, they would have no choice but to consume other creatures - and practically everyone would be trying to kill someone else. This would lead to very advanced predators - warriors would develop against other species, everyone out to kill. Creatures would develop both defense mechanisms and methods of offense. With a scarcity of water, spray weapons are out of the question, but the creatures could easily develop advanced melee weapons, such as sharper exoskeletons, or spiked feet, or claws, or graspers that double as piercing spikes. After all, with the creatures needing thick exoskeletons to defend from falling particles of rock, and to defend against the heavy atmospheric pressure, their shells would be pretty hard to pierce. Sharp would be the way to go - blunt weapons would be useless against other species.
Finally, the light. As I mentioned before, the light would be scarce - extremely so. It would be possible to see - the light wouldn't be gone - but it would be far distant most of the time, and reflected off many places. For a human, it would be pitch-black. For any terrestrial species, it would be pitch-black. (later edit: creatures would need to develop their other senses instead sense of smell and hearing.)
-megasnip explaining why the eyes make sense-
Now, if you really want something that doesn't make sense... 1. They have two sets of guts. whoops. 2. They don't need their "olfactory patches". They can breathe perfectly well through their spiracles, and I doubt they'd want to smell the sulfur-heavy atmosphere of their planet. I just left them there because I didn't know if it would be bad to leave the nose out. (later edit: as Mr Frog so wittingly pointed out: "So, Frankoid, what's in the air today?" "Smells like sulfur to me, Boboid." "Still?" - It would all smell normal to them.) 3. There is absolutely no good reason for the mouth to be where a head would be on a terrestrial creature. It would actually make more sense for the mouth to be at the end of the scythe arms - two mouths, yes, but they would be able to maneuver them more efficiently, and it wouldn't be so far removed from what they're eating. Their current mouth ought to be able to point straight up, if it was a real creature - what sense does that make? I suppose it could help them bite-attack larger predators, but other than that, it doesn't make any sense. Still, I clung to the idea of the terrestrial head and wanted something similar for some reason.
-snip-
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