A New Site?

[winged]

I don't see why the Grays should be any color other than Gray - I'm more for incorportating colors later on rather than modifying them from the start. It just seems simpler that way, and there could be more thought put into them. ...also, it'd bring some anticipation for future Hatchings.

[Kilnarak]

Goin' back a bit: Rainbows and Greens hunter/gatherers, since they aren't as useful as fighters. I also think it needs to be something more than *just* rainbows, because rainbows are so rare and with a large population, they would need to do a lot of hunting. Maybe the owl-type wouldn't be an actual color, but rather a rare mutation that could exist in other colors? Then it wouldn't be so much as fitting a new color into the existing set-up, but rather working out how often the mutation can occur and if it only occurs in specific colors (I'm again leaning toward Greens, Blues, Rainbows. Maybe Reds and Tawnies?)

I don't know if I like colors being replaced so much, especially 'important' colors. But maybe there could be a different sort of variation in their plumage - like grays are still gray, but have more bronze or white or whatever in their feathers. I do sort of like the idea of the 'queen' gray being... the most gray? She'd probably have the largest clutches, where the subordinate grays might have more non-gray colors in their plumage - white, bronze, maybe duller reds, greens, blues? The more saturated colors would have to be in very small quantities, 'though. But anyway, subordinate grays have *very* small clutches, more in line with tawny clutches. And tawnies themselves likely don't clutch often, what with there being so many clutching superior females. Tawnies would instead be more like the egg-care-takers, while the grays are busy doing whatever it is they do normally.

As for size variation - maybe it's just there's a greater diversity. Grays and blacks are around the same size - particularly the more dominant individuals, but the subordinates are smaller. And the other colors are maybe scaled down a bit further? Or maybe just make the Queen Gray huge, 'cause. I donno, I want her to be. >> Very few *large* simourv, and those ones are the more dominant?

Mm. Also I'm willing to try to help writing up stuff, once we actually have decisions on what we want to do. If it's just rewriting stuff we have already and maybe adding more information to it, that seems... do-able. More do-able after this week, 'though, since uh. Midterms and portfolio review and ohgod this week.

[Para]

*responds to Kat real quick before she forgets what she's thinking*

I like the nocturnal simourvs, as anyone who's had to listen to me babble about them can tell. And what I'd like is for the nocturnal simourvs and riders to have kind of a bit of a subculture to some degree, since they interact with each other a lot and the diurnal colors not as much, or barely at all if the rider and simourv don't want to. And, interaction when both nocturnal and diurnal simourvs are awake aside, the nocturnal simourv and riders wouldn't be working with the diurnal simourv, so there would probably be some kind of rank that isn't color-based, if they're only one color; maybe they're more aggressive, like reds, as a result of fighting among each other for a kind of sub-hierarchy?

Rainbows: I like the idea of them being hunters. ...Not a whole lot more to say there, just I like the idea.

Greens + smaller/tropical simourv: what if the southern greens, rather than having color differences, were built different? Thinner, maybe longer; a bit snake- or quetzalcoatl-ish (not much, but relative to other simourv) so they can weave between trees. Possibly make rainbows thinner in a similar way, since they'll have to get through trees too to hunt.

Oh, and I can write stuff; nothing specific in mind, but I can write prettymuch whatever if it's needed.

*runs off to read the rest of the posts to respond to*

[Kat]

I am very, very, very tired and a bit tipsy (English Major events have free wine, and I think that might have been bad for me.) so I am not quite up to addressing everyone's points.

However, I want to post a few things right now to keep the conversation going.

I like the idea of making greens hunters, especially since if they are hunters, they can still also be fighters, as those two professions do overlap. I really like Para's idea that the greens are built slimmer in the south, since they are hunters. Then we could have a physical difference which was no colored based, which would be really neat.

I agree with everything Killy says about the colors in her paragraph about grays staying grays. Also, this is a really weird place to stick this, but I have a gray I did up in GIMP a few days ago, and I don't know if I want her or if I can have her or not. But I love the way she looks, so if anyone is on the lookout for a predesigned gray simourv, hit me up. Not that I don't want to play her, because I like her, but I just know I want either a subordinate gray or a tawny, and I don't care which, and I thought I'd offer this one up if anyone really wanted her. She's not for the big gray, though, because she's a bit homey.
This is weird sentiment, so I'm sorry. I just needed to get it out there. I need to stop coloring things in GIMP.

I would like to see one color which is different in the south, even if it is just a stupid like simple color replacement. I'd be DOWN with seeing reds or tawnies replaced with some other color. Just for variety.

I'll admit to being significantly less keen about the nocturnals, but if people want them, I think we can work them in. Now, though, they are sounding almost like an entirely different species, if they are going to have their own society and have their own color hierarchy. Do people want to make some sort of creature which is nocturnal like a watchwyer? Some sort of simourv-like creature which is nocturnal. Because as I said, if they are going to be across all colors and have a different appearance and a different society structure within the Eyrie, we might as well differentiate them. Then again, that's very Pern-y, and I am not sure I like it.

I think we need to be careful adding new species or very different colors right away, and therefore maybe we should not make aquatics, at least not yet. That would require making aquatic koxi, which seems to be more trouble than it is worth.

Also, people should start brainstorming names as well, I think.

[‡§åkørü‡]

Whoa. Wow. So obviously -I- haven't been active like, at all...

Anyway, I kind of like this new site idea. However, I won't be staff again. I don't have the time or energy and my characters can just dick around that way when I have muse for them.

Since y'all have fabulous ideas and I haven't got enough brain cells to develop any of them, I will say a few things:

1) Night simourvs sound interesting, and so do fishy-ones.
2) Aburo will die in the hierarchy system. Forrlz. I can't wait to see it.
3) Greys should stay grey. Yesyes.

Aaaand that's my half-a-cent. Not even two. ;D

[/center]

[winged]

...name the noctural 'mourvs...get ready for this...

...


...Hooters. -shot-

[Kat]

Hahahaaaaa~

[‡§åkørü‡]

*guards Wingy from being shot and holds her up on a pedestal*

...HOOTERS.

[/center]

[Para]

*attempts to clarify*

For the nocturnal simourv, I wasn't thinking they'd have a separate culture, just kind of a culture-within-a-culture. Um.... Like... I can't think of a comparison. But anyway, not a separate culture; they're still very much part of the Eyrie culture and hierarchy, they just also have a few quirks and things that only nocturnal simourv/riders do, since they spend so much time with a smaller group of riders and simourv than the other colors do. Like, they all have a little patch that means nocturnal rider, and where they wear it indicates their rank within the nocturnal riders, or something.

...Actually, if we have a stricter hierarchy, I could see that happening with each color. So, like, all green riders wear gloves, and blue riders keep their hair short, and things like that. Maybe red riders get tattoos, and the number of marks in the tattoo means something. Things like that, except probably more logical and interesting since I'm coming up with all these in two minutes.

Anyway, not a full separate culture; just a few quirks and traditions like would develop in a sub-group that spends a lot of time together.

[Fox]

Right. I'm going to split this reply into the sections Quill so neatly listed in order of what I think is precedence. ^^

1. Who is going to admin/co-admin/help out

2. Leadership in-game

3. Simourv Variations

[/i] and not a one off mutation. Since, at most I think the settlers who landed on the Southern Continent would only have a generation on our Eyrie Riders, there wouldn't really be time for them to hatch and train enough of these rare owl-simourvs for any sort of guard force to be feasible. Thus, a cousin of the simourv sounds better; it would be to the simourv what the leopard is to the cheetah, similar enough in appearance, but with subtle differences in physicality. I'm not sure if you'd consider it Pern-y, but I think it's a reasonable option. ^^

In addition, I support Para's suggestion that the Southern simourvs be built a little differently, considering that they might have to weave through trees rather more than our Northern ones, but there is also the fact that tropical jungle is rather much harder to get through than others. The canopies look like a rather large carpet, from above actually, because the trees are so close together and intertwined. Difficult yes. More below on tropics.

I'll add more if I think of anything. (YES AS IF IT ISN'T LONG ENOUGH ALREADY)[/ul]

4. Southern Continent

[/u]. You'd be mad to try and get around on foot without a path or a guide who knows the place. Pitfalls, vines, poisonous plants and the like are hard enough to spot in our world, much less in a place where the trees are ginormous and carnivorous for goodness' sake! It'd be suicide. No joke.

Like Kat said, there'd be a lot more ground cover definitely, but it'd also be twice as dangerous for inhabitants as Chydyn forest in my opinion, since Tropics breed a staggering number of different species of plants and animals. For example, in a more temperate climate, there would be, say, four different species of flora in one square mile. In a tropical climate, there'd be well over a hundred. And considering that the place has had the wherewithal to somehow manufacture carnivorous trees, yeah. I'd stay away from suspicious plants.

Of course, treetop living would be safer from koxi and/or any other groundbound predators. Safer than a cliffside settlement in that sense, but if they have simourvs then there's that line of defense. But, in the cliff-settlement's favour, I will say about a jungle: Bugs. And not the nice-nice kind, either. In Pohono? Er yeah. [/ul]

5. Similarities and Differences

SO YES. If you read all of that, you have my great respect and deepest sympathies. >.> But yes, that's what I think. [/size]

[Kat]

God, guys, this sounds so like...bossy. I'm sorry. I don't express myself in text well, and clearly my ideas are not the end all be all of ideas.

2.

Well, I assume there will be whole different leaders in the South, so whoever is highest ranked in our group will lead the Northeners until they get to the new Eyrie, where there will be all sorts of drama.

As for the South, I like the idea of the Sr. Phoenix choosing the Sr. Commander. Maybe the Phoenix has to take in input from the other powerful riders, like the wingleaders, etc, just to keep public opinion up. I can see that being frustrating. Like the Phoenix can do whatever she wants technically, but there's an unspoken kind of rule that she should include the wingleaders etc in the choice, and they will get all pissy if she does not. If we go with the evil queen idea, then maybe one of the ways she is really particularly tyrannical, she doesn't try to include other leaders in her choices.

Then, there could be a kind of campaigning system. Not like campaigning, campaigning, but rather that the senior wing leaders try to charm the other officers in attempts to gain favor.

3.

I like the idea of smaller simourvs a lot. I'd be down with maybe them having brighter legs/beaks in general, too. Ours had to have pretty standard leg/beak colors, so maybe these have the option of brighter colors.

I don't know how I feel about bringing in the colorations only the staff knew about. To me, since they were never introduced, they don't really exist. I'd be down for a proposal, though. Some sort of appeal for them. I dunno. It's hard for me to judge here, because I don't know how to deal with them, since they were never officially introduced.

My idea for the nocturnal creatures is that they are mounts of some sort, with a distinct trade, that people who are not riders have. I picture them as belonging to the guards of the different little clusters of people and towns that I'll explain in my next comment, as well as people who are really wealthy. Having these could be a privileged, and one few people could surmise to.

I also think there should be some sort of trade of them. Like they are bred and raised by people whose profession it is to breed them, and then sold for extremely high prices. Since I like the idea of guards having them, I was thinking maybe the traders have to pay some sort of tithe in eggs to the guards, or that the guards have a breeder who works for them who produces them--one for each town.

As for what they are, in my head, I picture them being significantly smaller than simourvs, maybe only like small horse sized to larger horse sized, and colored similarly to simourvs. They would look similar to simourvs, but also be different looking, perhaps shorter legged and more muscular on their legs, since they wouldn't fly. And big eyes. Maybe a slightly different color system...

As for what they would be mentally, I picture them kind of similar to firelizards. The nocturnals would be very intelligent, but they would be unable to completely telepathically interface with human minds. So they could only communicate emotions and feelings and stuff like that. I think they would bond more indiscriminately with humans than simourvs, but that it takes a good deal more time. So you have to spend a bunch of time with them before they will connect.

Since we would need them to be at the Eyrie, I was thinking two things. 1. that they need the Eyrie's heated sands to harden their eggs like simourvs do, so that the traders brought the nocturnals to the Eyrie to clutch. Or 2. the nocturnals mate when simourvs rise, and they need to physically be around simourvs in order to go into heat or something.

Just some ideas. And someone would have to draw lineart for them that was simiar in style to the simourvs. Just as a note.

Oh, and individuals could not be bonded to a nocturnal and a simourv at the same time. At first, I thought this would mean that the simourvs would avoid characters already bonded, but a second part of me thought it might be fun to play around with the idea that if a simourv wanted to bond to someone bonded to a nocturnal, the simourv would kill or at least attack the nocturnal. It's just an idea.

I wouldn't mind seeing a color replace one of the old ones. I do want the colors in the south to vary slightly from the old ones. I would also not be opposed to seeing a new color introduced all together. I know people want to see some new colors.

4.

I was thinking that because the climate will be so terribly difficult, perhaps instead of cities, there are a lot of small communities or towns which are intimately connected to the hostile land. Everything Fox said about the tropics is what I was thinking of the land as. Anyway, there would be a bunch of small communities, all with their own system of government, except that there would be a guard for each town, with the nocturnals, and some sort of executive government. Then, each government would in some way report to the Eyrie an exist under the Eyrie's power. I'm thinking of it like a really loose feudal system with the Eyrie as the like Kingship. And some people could travel between the towns selling goods. BUT OH I KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THE NOCTURNALS!!! They could be the way people traveled between the towns. Because they would be able to run from and fight against koxi to some extent, people who were bonded to them could use them to travel and sell goods and stuff. I think that's a really valid use of them.

We need to make some plants, work out those carnivorous trees, write some more parasites, and bugs, of course. Also, maybe the northerners bring over some plants and parasites, which make a slight ecological problems.

5.

I am thinking the settlements are smaller, as I described, even smaller than Itnala. Maybe the biggest is Itnala sized. We can name some of the towns as people come up with them and add them to the map as we go, if people want some personal connections. Although, I think only a few people could be from one town. We'd have to work on that.

The Eyrie, though, would be bigger, I think, for obvious reasons. I like all the stricter things and who can talk to whom, and etc.

And yeah, the technology would be a lot lower, although not like a huge, huge much so. And the Eyrie would have more tech than the rest of the South. The northerners, too, would bring a lot of tech. I know specifically, since I am bringing Ri'ley, he can bring with him a lot of medical knowledge and surgery things. That is just an example.

THINGS I'M ADDING:

6.

We need to think of a name. People need to offer to make the banner or set up the site. I have a coding format I can steal from the site I did not end up making. It's not super pretty, but it's functional. If someone else is better at it, though, I don't need to do it. I'm just offering, because someone needs to.

7.

We also need to decide how the settlers in the South made it. I think it would be best to say that they were settlers who left the north and traveled to the south. But it's also possible they are another group of settlers. Thoughts?

[Kilnarak]

I actually think we should have them be a separate group of settlers from the dropship, maybe that lost contact with the northern continent due to their equipment failing or something. It'd give them more time to have developed and established themselves on that continent, and thus lead to a longer tradition of working with simourv.

Nocturnal not-simourvs... maybe go more reptilian. Definitely predators. I was actually coming up with a sort of smaller critter that would follow simourv - mostly as scavengers, 'though. But I like the idea that they mate when simourv rise more than because of the eggs. I wonder that simourv eggs really need the heat, either? Because our original northern group, did the first gen eggs actually hatch in a heated place?

Can work on a banner, if we've got a name. Preferably something still related to The Last Guardian? We'd also need a name for that continent. And probably to work on the exact differences between northern simourv and southern simourv, so we can work out maybe a slightly different adult line-art. Hatchling and adolescent can stay the same, I think?

[Kat]

I like the idea of the nocturnals being kind of reptilian. It would make them kind of like dinosaurs, I think, reptilian-like animals that are related to birds. Then we could imply they are evolutionarily related to simourvs, and perhaps some kind of proto-simourv, in the line.
-shrug-

I totally did not connect Guardian Sky and The Last Guardian. Which is very silly, because it's pretty explicit.

Maybe it could be really similar to Guardian's Sky. Like Guardian's Flight. Guardian's Land. Guardian's Dance.

As for the Southern simourvs, I think they should be shorter and smaller than the Northern simourvs, since they will have to maneuver in the trees. They shouldn't be like...a lot smaller than our simourvs, but a bit smaller. And their legs should be shorter, because that also makes sense. They could also be bulkier than our simourvs, because maybe they have to move through the trees on foot or something. I think this could look very cool. I suppose we should have more obvious differences. Perhaps the horns are different, or the flight wings?

And my only problem with the settlers being another dropped group is that there would be record of them in the consciousness/ records, of the Norther riders. But then again, maybe that could be a good reason for the Northerners to try to go South.

[Quill]

THis is quick and I'll comment later, but flying lizards, snakes? With feathered wings?

[Kat]

I don't think the nocturnals should fly, since the air is simourv territory. It makes more sense to me to have ground animals to fight the koxi from the ground.
-shrug-

Besides, I'd like them to be really distinct, and not just small, mini simourvs.
-shrug-