A New Site?

[Kilnarak]

Mostly a buncha questions for Kat or whoever else wants to add input, sorta trying to figure out what everyone would want.

Maybe the Southern simourv have little clawed wing-fingers at the joint in their wings, to grasp branches? I know someone was talking about making them more sinuous so they'd have an easier time maneuvering through close tree cover? I think they'd probably have shorter wings to be more manueverable. Also maybe different horns - but from what I understood, the horns for northern simourv were already fairly variable just... not many people did much with it. >> Like I know Canph and Valenph have very different horns - Canph's go straight back and Valenph's curve forward (I forget exactly how far forward, if they were more ram-like. I don't remember how Zeis drew her). But there was some interest in antlers, I think? Maybe their horns aren't permanent - they shed and regrow annually? I think the original 'differences' were going to be that they had more stripey patterning on their legs and an added claw on their feet to better grasp branches and things. I'm not entirely sure, 'though - so Zeis or Fox or Winged or someone can elaborate ('cause I only hear things second-hand through Zeis).

Would the nocturnal critters be flightless, or would they still be flight-capable, but decidedly smaller than simourv? Or flightless, but with vestigal wings that allow for gliding between branches? Either way, the largest would probably be maybe the size of a large horse, with a generally smaller frame - only really able to carry one adult human? Would they have the same sort of color hierarchy as simourv, or would they have their own specific color hierarchy? Would it be more simplistic than that of simourv (since they'd sort of be proto-simourv?)

There'd probably be records of the other settlers, but they were presumed dead? Maybe there'd be some sign that shows up, around the same time as the earthquake, that they're there? Like. Mm. If we go for some big natural disaster - an earthquake and maybe storms, a tsunami? One of their... smaller fliers - a green or a rainbow, or maybe one of the nocturnal things (if they end up flight-capable) somehow gets blown off course in the storms and crashlands on Spiderland (probably half-dead from hunger and who knows what else, given the length of the flight and the fact that it wasn't intentional). And then that could spur the people leaving to try going there, instead of just trying to move to a different location on Spiderland?

As for the name. I kinda like Guardian's Land. It reminds me a little bit of SotC. >> I don't remember what they called it, the Forbidden Lands or something. But I donno. Anyone else have any preferences/ideas?

[Kat]

These are awesome questions, and I will now answer them at to what I was thinking, and what I was picking up, and then people can add/ disagree/ agree.

As I said earlier, I think it's important to make the Southern simourvs more maneuverable, because that makes sense as far as evolution things and matching their environment. I like the idea of them being smaller, more flexible, with shorter wings and legs, as that makes sense with the fact they would have to like...fly between trees. I was thinking that they should be shorter and like--more muscular in their legs and wings, since they would have smaller wings, and because I think they would need to maybe run more. That would make them stocky. However, I think it would also work/ be very interesting, if they were smaller and lighter built, so that their smaller wings can move them more easily. They could be delicate looking and lither. Maybe they are also faster, but more fragile, and maybe they tire more easily. So they can fly faster for less periods of time. And they can dodge koxi attacks, and ambush more easily, but they cannot fight koxi head on as well, because they can fight physically for less time. This would make an interesting relationship between the Southern simourvs and our Northern simourvs, who would fight differently and also act differently in flights.

I know we technically had varied horns, but I guess because not everyone drew, we never did much about it. In my head, Dionyph has big, curved horns, but I never actually established that anywhere but my head. I was thinking, though, that maybe the southern simourvs only had one set? Or maybe just one perminate set like you said. I like the concept of antlers, but they seem unlikely and impractical, but we could have horns that looked like antlers.

ORRRR, I know we talked about unicorn simourvs at one point. Maybe in the south the simourvs only have to horns that are vertically stacked , so one in front of the other, or maybe they have three horns, with two in the back and one in the middle of them in front.

I didn't know Southern simourvs were being planned previously. It's interesting. Anyway, I think giving them claws on their feet for grabbing onto trees would be good. Maybe the smaller colors especially have claws, with bigger colors not so much? We'd have the same lineart, though, so maybe not. I can't really picture what stripey legs would look like, so I'm not going to talk about that much. I don't know how I feel about little wing-hands. In my head, I like it, but I don't know how such a trait would pass on to mixed children. Which is actually the next topic I want to address. I assume we want to make it so that North simourvs could breed with South simourvs, so since we're making new lineart for each species, would we make a hybrid lineart as well. I only worry that maybe we have too much lineart which needs to be drawn. I can't offer to help with any of it, and I don't want to just come up with all these ideas and assume someone else would draw it. Of course, it would only be two new adult lines. But then the nocturnals, too. This really comes down to whether or not people would be willing to draw new lineart. Which is up to you guys who draw.

Pretty much you understand what I'm thinking about for the nocturnals, but I don't know what other people were exactly thinking. I was thinking that they would be flightless, so they would either have wings which did not work well (I like the idea of them being able to glide, if they do have wings. Maybe they could glide if they did not have a human passenger) or not having wings at all. That would be up to what people preferred. Aesthetically, I think I would prefer them without wings, but it doesn't matter much to me at all. They would be horse sized, on average, as all colors (except maybe the rainbow like color) would be able to carry a person. I was thinking that the largest would be like draft horse sized, with the smallest being pony sized. Although, now I'm totally digging having the smallest size be more like large dog sized, with the second smallest being pony sized. And the smallest ones can be rare like rainbows, and solely be a sign of wealth if they are owned. It'd be like having a lap dog in the middle ages, except well, bigger.

I hadn't thought much of their color hierarchy, beyond the fact that they would indeed have one. I like that it could be looser than simourvs. Maybe the bigger colors, blacks and reds and grays and tawnies or equivalents, could all be about equal, with the greens and blues or equivalents, could be under the bigger colors, and then the smallest little doggy sized ones could be the lowest. And only the bigger ones clutch. or maybe there are just blacks and grays, which would be equal, and greens and blues, and maybe a little tiny one. Para suggested that in nature they live in packs, and I think this is a good idea. They could communal creatures, and very vocal. I haven't thought much beyond that.

EDIT: OHOH they should be kind of like archeopteryx, and instead of wings, they could have like wing-like structures connected to their front legs. PICTURE. Except, I was thinking that they should be quadrupedal. So instead of having front legs that look like wings, they could have front legs that are front legs, but that have flight feathers and wing structures on the backs of their functional front legs. I'll try to doodle up what I mean. I'm a shitty artist, but I can try to give people the idea what I am thinking. Then at least it'll be better than my crappy explanation.

EDIT2: I made a picture. I will only share it if everyone SWEARS that I will not be made fun of. Because it's a terrible picture.


Okay, so this is not necessarily what I want the nocturnals to look like. It's just what I'm trying to illustrate. Anyway, they'd have two regular legs in back and then two legs in front with wing-things, like protowings attached to them. Basically flight feathers, etc, which allowed the nocturnals to glide. Andddddd, maybe they could have similar wing structures on the back legs, too. It's up to other people.


I'd be fine with however we wanted to assume the Southerns got there. I like the idea of perhaps a Southern simourv coming to the North. Maybe the earthquake triggered a tsunami in the south, and a group, or a single scout, came to investigate. And then told our Eyrie about the South. Even if we didn't play the earthquake part out, which I actually suggest, we could clearly define who that person was, and someone could play like, one or two of the riders who originally came North? Just a thought.

I think I addressed everything. it was a long ass post, and I'm done.

[Quill]

Well, guys. There is a lot of people on this. A lot of good minds. So I'm backing off. I cannot keep up with the cboxes and adding my opinion to the fray would be too much. I feel bad that I cannot contribute. If there are polls, I will vote. Ask me for my opinion, I will say, but I think there is enough good people to work as staff that I will act as a general member until the site is thought out.

I'll be checking every day or so, so PM if you just want to talk. I got a few messengers. koi-quill for skype

[Kilnarak]

Allright so. Getting basic site-stuff together:

Who wants to be modfolk? Who should be the site-creator? I'll offer to help with mod-stuff. And I figure Kat? Fox? Winged? Lan? Zeis? Aika? I think Quill said she wanted to be a normal member type?

What name to we want? I think of the ones Kat thought of, I liked Guardian's Land the best. Or Land of the Guardians? I prefer it remain The Last Guardian related sorta-kinda, but I'm not sure what other people think? Suggestions/Input/Comments? Maybe we can do some sorta vote for it, once we've got ideas together?

Banners and info-stuff we can iron out on the way, but we should probably at the least get the sister-forum up soon-like. As incentive to get everything else done. Yes? (And this isn't just 'cause I want more of Aika's flight. >>

[Kat]

Unless someone else wants to make the site or is good at working proboards, I will do it. I still have the coding from the site I was working on during Christmas break, so I can use that and modify it. I make decent skins at least.

Unfortunately, I doubt that can happen this weekend, since I need to get ready for the conference/ do the work for next week pretty much over the weekend, but I can try to get something together as soon as I can.

And as I said, someone else is welcome to it.

I won't be able to skin anything until we get a headbanner, though, since that'll give us the colors. So I guess we need a banner first anyway. (And a name, but you know, technicalities.)

Actually, on the actual staffing front, did everyone like the idea of having an admin account which is accessible to the staff from which everything is posted? I know we talked about it. I like this idea, because I think it would create a system where the staff had equal status.

Also, I don't know if I said this already, but I think we may want to consider having staff members picked independently of IC site rank. Thoughts?

[Kilnarak]

I like the admin account idea. And also the staff-not-based-on-IC-rank.

I can try to put together some banner type stuff once we've got a name.

[Kat]

So, guys, we need a name.

[Aikaph]

Granuaile's Dance!

... Or at the very least, the title of a song by Celtic Woman. >>;

[Kat]

I kind of like Guardian's Dance.
-shrug-

[Kilnarak]

Guardian's something. >>

Also, working on scribbling a nocturnal thing for uh. Looking at.

[Kat]

It could also be something like...The Next Guardians, or something involving newness, or rather progression, or even something involving evolution, like Guardian's Propagation. Maybe Guardian's Power?

And I really want to see a nocturnal design, quite badly.
Also, we need a real name for them, so people please start suggesting.

Does anyone disagree with the small village idea for the Southern social structure? I think we were all thinking pretty similarly, but I wanted to check. I'm trying to get a handle on what we are finally deciding about things so we can start pondering writing things up.

And did we come to any conclusions about color variations for any of the colors besides the blacks? I know we have all pretty much agreed that blacks will now have majority black bodies with colors, but I don't think we at all decided whether other colors will also have some variation between the north colorings and the south colorings. I know we have decided that the colors and the color structure will stay the same (except that there will be more junior phoenixes, so the tawnies clutch less, and the rainbows are now the hunter/gatherers.) But I don't know if we settled on any other variants. (I like blues having brown on them, but I think I'm the only person interested in that.)

Also, any other thoughts about variations in simourv? Fox suggested that they be smaller and lither, which I think was pretty well supported, and someone mentioned striped legs, and Killy suggested little claws on the ends of wings as well as more curved claws that better grip trees on their feet. I suggested that they have different horns, but did we settle on anything besides the size difference?

We need to start settling on things, so people need to post agreements or disagreements. I've tried to summarize the things I don't think have been settled on, but I don't know.

I think maybe soon I'll make a thread which has a list of what I believe is settled, that people can and should comment on, and that thread will probably also be a poll thread, since that will be more conclusive. In fact, I'll go throw that together now.

OH! And last night in the shower, I was thinking maybe we could assume there are 100 or 200 riders, so that we could calculate how many riders of each color we had at the Eyrie. 100 seems to be the best number to work with, but 200 would make the Eyrie much better.

And, should the Eyrie have a name? We would need to name it.

EDIT: Also, for admins, are we thinking Killy, me, Fox, Zeis, Lan, and Aika? That's a lot of people, however I think that is totally fine, since activity might slack off, and this way we could make it so that there were always staff that could run the site from the group admin account.

I know Wing said she would like to help, but since she may not be back until later, I figure we can add her if she wants to be added at a later date. I was also wondering if we wished to make some people admins and some people mods? We could separate it by what people do. So Admins would be the people doing really technical things around the site, so me, Killy, Zeis, and Lan. Then Fox, Aika, and Wing (and Quill if she wants) could be mods, and help with plotting, staff choices, player interactions, and profile accepting? There would be very little distinction between them, actually, but it's a thought. Then we need to choose if there would be one staff account or two staff accounts: one admin and one mod account? I actually think it might be better just to have one staff account from which people posted all information and accepted characters. Anyone on staff would have staff privileges on their regular accounts, too.

That was a much, much longer discussion of the staff thing than I meant. I need to stop talking.

EDIT2: Okay, so when I was typing up my new list of things we have settled upon, I realized we never talked about the leadership under the phoenixes and commanders. Firstly, how are the junior commanders chosen? I think it might be best if these were also voted upon by the senior phoenix, but maybe the junior phoenixes vote on these or nominate riders as well? Thoughts?

And, are we going to use the same wingleader system with wings and shifts based on geographic splits? I actually suggest that we do, because it is a system that makes sense, and that is how we've been talking about it, however I think we need to at least talk about it, because someone may very well come up with a really new awesome idea.

[Lan]

My suggestions from the c-box, as promised:

29 Mar 11, 01:39 AM
Lan: Honestly, I think -sp would be cute. You could have "nocturnals" (or whatever you're calling them) named Whisp or Lisp and fun stuff like that
29 Mar 11, 01:38 AM
Lan: however, much like how simourv names end in -ph instead of the draconic -th, you could change it up a bit
29 Mar 11, 01:38 AM
Lan: For example... I'm making a wher handler right now whose name is Physicero and his bonded's name is Physisk
29 Mar 11, 01:34 AM
Lan: Kat- For a name system you could use something like what's used for Whers from Pern. Like, they take part of their bonded's name and you add something common to the end of it

Also, according to what Bre had planned Junior Commanders were going to be the pairs who flew the Junior Phoenixes. Very much like how the Senior Commander is chosen. It's not a political decision so much as that is how natural animal ranking would go in an alpha/beta sort of fashion. If a black didn't fly a gray, the other simourvs wouldn't respect him as being any better than they are. Particularly other blacks. They're the male lions of this messed-up pride, after all.

Furthermore... I have access to some of the stuff Bre was planning as far as color mutation-wise. I can ask her for permission to make this information available for you so you can decide whether or not to roll with it.

Just wondering if we decided against the idea of bringing old characters over? Because I could bring E'an over and Sly could come that way, if you were keen on keeping him, Kat. Which I hope you are. Sly is awesome. >.> And so is E'an.

And more still... if you feel as if that is too many admins you don't have to include me, if you wish not too. After sort of failing here I don't know how good for moral it would be to have me on staff. Of course I'm available if you have a need help out with anything starting up logistics-wise, but I'm not exactly the best administrator in the world. Plus, you all have been working so hard. I'd feel like I was taking credit for your brainchild. Which is a mark of shame in my book.

...And that's my random rant of random topics. Enjoy! =)

[Kat]

It's really up to you, Lan, if you wish to be staff.
We would be glad to have you, but if you do not feel you can do it, I understand.

Since I think we're going to change the way that commanders are picked, that idea doesn't work. To me, the senior commander needs to have less to do with the simourv, and more to do with the rider. I know that technically, the simourv is somewhat a reflection of the rider, but that doesn't really change the fact that even though a simourv may be the most physically fit, his rider may not be the best leader. With that said, Lan's comment made me think maybe there could be another rank, which is for the simourv, and holds less actual political power, but more ceremonial power. Like the Queen of England. I mean, for the blacks who win flights. Since we're using the term "Phoenix" for the women, maybe said ceremonial rank could be named after another mythical bird, to reflect that it is a title less for the person and more for the simourv. Also, this blackrider would be in charge of anything at all clutch/egg related, and also in charge of opening ceremonies and being a sort of figure head to the community. The Senior Commander would make most of the decisions about how the Eyrie is run, but the other position may do more of the work within the community. And Commanders would do far, far more of the strategy and military work, run all the shifts, organize the troupes, do any sort of punishing/ disciplining that needs to be done, etc.

I also think we should limit commanders to 2, even though I think we'll have at least three phoenixes. Then we'd have 2 or three of these ceremonial black riders.

For names for such a position, I was thinking Roc or Ziz, since those are very large mythological birds. The Roc is Persian, which I just learned is the origin of "simourv," and is a giant eagle that eats elephants. Ziz is one of the three great beasts from the bible, along with Behemoth and Leviathan. It's also a giant bird. I actually think they may derive from the same myth. But anyway, we could always go with Griffin (Gryphon) or Pegasus, I guess.

I would love to see the new colors. Wing gave me a brief run down, and there was one I really liked. I won't spoil it for anyone, but I think it might be worthwhile discussing if we wanted to add them/ some. As it stands now, we have exactly the same colors with the blacks being altered. (Which, by the way, is going to be incredible. I have been looking at bird pictures, because I've been not so secretly making a nocturnal character, and I keep running across birds that would make incredible blacks.)

If we added colors, we could always split the percentages of the current colors, if we add similar ranks. For example, if we add a lord rank, we would split the red percentage in half--I think it's 6 %, so 3%, and make 3% another color. Or, we could vary it up even more and do 4% and 2%, etc. Of course, they would all be considered the same rank, but it might be fun for us. I don't know what you guys think. I am actually fine with out current colors. We can always think of more variations, etc.

Lan, we are bringing characters over, and I am most absolutely bringing Sly over. You have no idea. I need him. He's my brain child, and very fun to play. He'll stand at the first hatching over there, actually, along with Altaph's. It'll be fun timez.

Okay, and finally, nocturnal naming system. I know I mentioned in the cbox that we need to decide if we want to establish one. The nocturnals would not be able to talk to humans, even though they can convey ideas and emotions, so they would not be able to name themselves or their riders. I was thinking, though, that maybe some sort of system has been put into place by society which names them all uniformly. Maybe, then, only guard riders and people who breed them/ people who run caravans use the name themes, and then people who bond to them accidentally in the wild do not always do so. That'd be an interesting distinction.

Also, should we have a similar rule for riders. That they also get ceremonial renames. Maybe only guard riders do?

Lan suggested that we use the system used by Pern for Whers. I think this is certainly an option. She described it, so I won't repeat. Personally, though, I think this does not allow for the rider and nocturnal to have much individuality. And the names feel belittling to the creature, to me. And I worry about the fact that these are already so much like Whers, that if we use the same name theme, it is just a bit unoriginal. I don't know. I was thinking maybe the nocturnals were named after dead relatives and then those names were changed. So like, if everyone is cool with the character I want to make, my male character will be bonded to a female nocturnal. If he had a dead sister, for example, and her name was...I dunno, Daisy, he would use that name and then modify it with an ending, like Daisp, if I use Lan's suggesting of an ending, which I like. (I was thinking -tt or -st myself, but the -sp is very cute and much more simourv-y.)

Then the character and the nocturnal would have distinct and defined names, but the character would still be placing some of his or herself onto the nocturnal and the name system would be the same. Besides, I think it could be something people decided to honor the dead, since a lot of people die constantly.

Anddddd, it could be played hysterically, if one person was just really lucky, and didn't have a lot of dead family. There could be a nocturnal named for a dead great aunt, for example. Or a female nocturnal given an extremely masculine name. I don't think many people could only name them for distant relatives, because most character lose lots of family because of the koxi, but there could be a few. (After I posted this, I ran through my current characters. They are split half-half for who has dead family, which kind of undermined my point. But whatever; I'm making it.) I also think that perhaps in certain circumstances, characters could name the nocturnals for dead friends or comrades, if that felt more appropriate to them.

On a similar note, in the cbox, we talked about what we want to call the nocturnals. It turns out that "simourv " is a variation on simurgh which is a legendary bird-dog creature of Persian myth. So we could name the nocturnals some other variant on simurgh. We could also name the nocturnals after a different figure of Persian lore. I was thinking chamrosh, personally, because that is another legendary bird-dog creature who lives on the ground under the tree on which the simourv roosts. So that would be an interesting way of framing what the nocturnals do. They do fly, but they are more ground oriented than simourvs, so they protect the ground while simourvs protect the skies. People suggested lots of good things in the cbox, and I can't recreate them, so I guess people should resuggest things?

FINALLY, we need to decide upon colors for the nocturnals. Size wise, I think we all agreed that the largest would be draft horse sized, if not bigger. (Maybe small elephant sized?) and I suggested that the smallest (rainbows only, unless we change up the colors.) would be the size of a large dog. (Like smaller than Great Dane sized, but bigger than say--a Labrador. So like--boxer sized.) The smallest ones would not be ride-able, but all the other colors would be. (So only like 3% of the population would be too small to ride.)

But we never decided if we wanted to keep the color rankings the same. Or do we even want to keep all the colors the same? I think it would be best to keep many of the colors the same, but we could also define new colors to fit new/ different roles, or whatever. I don't really know. I think we should talk about it.

Actually, I just remembered that we need to talk about whether or not they are nocturnal. Para pointed out that they would be, to some extent, forced to be diurnal because of their riders, who interact and do things during the day. She suggested that they should perhaps be crepuscular, or active at dusk/dawn. I think this is a valid change.

I also think that they could work as nocturnals. The more I think about it, the more I like it. Of course, the riders would be active during the day, but they would also be taking nighttime hunting and watch shifts, so the riders would probably live on some sort of odd sleep schedule which woke up late and went to bed late. The nocturnals, then, could be really lethargic while the riders were awake during the day, always sleeping places and napping. Like, for example, if a rider stood in one place too long, the nocturnal could just park itself in a corner somewhere and sleep. Like feathery cats.

Furthermore, maybe all the traveling between towns happens at night? Because koxi attack indiscriminately, but I don't think they see well, so it would be beneficial for the people to get around during the night. Koxi, at least, do not attack more at night, and the cover of the dark would be some sort of protection.

So I think nocturnal nocturnals still could work. I think crepuscular nocturnals could also work. So people should discuss.

God, I have class soon and some work to finish, so I have to stop, but that was a lot. So I hope it wasn't too much ramble. I probably should have been addressing things earlier as they came up, and not blanket posting a bunch of separate ideas now. Oh, well.

[Kilnarak]

Could also maybe try Singha for the nocturnals, which is a Thai winged lion. I also kind of like chamrosh, 'though.

I donno about the naming scheme. Especially if they don't actually tell you a name, I doubt everyone would follow the tradition? But I suppose it could be a general thing, where most of the guards who are brought up to be guards do it, but people who find them wild and don't know about it don't?

I think maybe a little bit of a difference in their color schemes. At least, females darker-duller colors, males brighter colors? Maybe there's also less distinction between breeding individuals and non-breeding - make it more wolf-pack style hierarchy than outright these-colors-can't-breed. There's an alpha pair - or perhaps a handful of alpha-type pairs - that breed and more or less enforce that the others don't? It might happen sometimes, but it isn't something the nocturnals themselves tolerate well? I might not be explaining real well. There'd still probably be distinct larger-individuals are more dominant, 'though - so thus rainbow and green equivalents usually don't clutch?

[Para]

Eeee, I have too much to respond to. I need to stalk these threads more; cbox just isn't enough.


I like the idea of the southern simourvs being smaller, thinner, and most of the other changes that were suggested. The only one I'm less sure about is having claws on the wings, just because I don't really see how they'd be useful, short of the southern simourvs' wings being more batlike than birdlike (shape and structure wise, not meaning they wouldn't have feathers). That could just be my mind not being able to come up with it though, and it's not going to bother me much if we stick with it; honestly I'll probably forget.

I'd like to have some kind of color variation in the southern simourv beyond the 'blacks have color.' Aaand I have now come up with a set of ideas, so….

1: Replacement color: A color (such as tawny or red) is unknown in the south, replaced with a different color (white or orange?). Then any future hybrid colors can come from a flight with the southern replacement color (white) and a northern original color (red) (or a tawnyXorange pair). Of course, that would only work with colors that are large enough to lay eggs, and of course fill in whatever colors you want; I just picked those as examples because I thought of them first.

2: Color switch: switch two colors. For example, in the south, blacks could be the queens and grays the kings (I know, we wouldn't ever do exactly that, but a switch of that kind; again I'm just picking colors that I think of first. Switch whatever colors you want; grays with tawnies, tawnies with reds, blues with tawnies, greens with tawnies... I seem to have a thing with switching the tawnies don't I?). Again, this would make more sense, to me at least, for producing hybrid mutation colors; I don't see the logic in northernXsouthern pairs suddenly producing new colors, because they're a northernXsouthern pair, when there doesn't seem to be any other major difference. (Color wise; I just don't see things like the talon difference producing an entirely new color).

2again: Alternate color switch: if the switched colors aren't roughly equal, such as switching rainbows and tawnies (or reds and blues, or blues and rainbows; whatever). There'd be some interesting shocks all around, and again if a breeding color is involved it'd make the idea of future hybrid colors much more logical; even if a breeding color isn't one of the switched ones, it'd illustrate pretty well that there are differences beyond height and wing and talon size, so it's make the hybrid mutations more logical.

3: …I had another one… oh, gender switch. Keep the colors, but change what they mean, specifically in regards to gender; maybe blues are all female, greens can be either gender, and rainbows are all male (or just stay both).


Additional colors: I like the idea, though I seem to like very nearly all let's-mess-with-the-colors ideas. But I think it would be fun to see, say, a simourv with a red rank, but a totally opposite personality; calm and hard to offend and thoughtful rather than aggressive. They could also be the common in-between for lesser simourvs to higher simourvs if we keep the limit on what colors can address other colors; there's going to be at least a few points where a lesser color has no invitation to talk but has discovered something that has to be known, and now. Or, alternatively, make oranges a female equivalent to reds; ranked the same as tawnies, but temperamental and active instead of nurturing. Especially if we keep the percentages of those pretty low, I think it'd be quite interesting to see a split somewhere in the Lord rank, since their personalities (from my perspective, anyway) seem to be pretty preset relative to the other colors. Reds will be aggressive, tawnies will be motherly; I'd like to see a lord that isn't one of those two. I'm sure I'm over-generalizing, but still.


Staff: I like the idea of a staff account that all the staff can access, and site leadership being unrelated to in-game leadership. Also, if staff is split between technical-ish admin and more plotting/character accepting-type-stuff mods, I could probably be a mod. I'd want to check with one or two people to make sure my idea of what's needed is right, but I'm pretty sure I could do it. I could probably learn technical-ish stuff for an admin job too, but not soon enough, so that's probably irrelevant. So, anyway, it sounds like there are enough people, but if there isn't or something else is needed, I can help, or at least work on what I need to be able to help in the future.


In-game leadership: I like the idea of the kind of ceremonial-leader blackriders being separate from the Commanders; it makes a lot of sense, provides more options for characters, and… yeah, I don't have too many thought-out reasons, but I really like it. I like the name Roc for them, and want to add that they'd probably need to work closely without he Phoenix and Commanders in at least some cases, since while the humans may not care too much who won a flight, their simourvs will have more authority among other simourvs than the Commanders' simourvs are likely to (unless a rider is both Commander and flight winner).


Mini simourv name themes: I'm kind of neutral; I think it's a good idea, but maybe have it set so that the themes aren't so much an absolute rule as a strong general trend. Or perhaps different breeders or cities have different patterns; one names their minis after relatives, one after role models, one after plants, one after animals, one after minerals, etc. That way there's still a pattern, but people could still do close to whatever they want, and the mini's name would give some clues to backstory.


Species name for the minis: I still think Chamrosh sounds kind of pokemonish, but I like the connection a lot. So maybe adapt it? Amrosh, or Amrov? Kamrosh? Kamrov?


Minis' colors: I don't care too much, really, but one thought I had was, what if the minis don't have such a color-oriented hierarchy? Maybe certain colors tend to be bigger, but not so much that it's a rule, or even that (for example) a red being larger than any blacks that are around is a really noticeable exception. (Maybe a rainbow would still be never considered possible to rival a red or black in size… but could be larger than any greens or blues). If they're scaled down the size differences will be scaled down as well, so it's not much of a stretch, and I think it'd be interesting. With simourvs, even if a black is tiny when it hatches, it's still a black, it's still at the top of the hierarchy, and short of being crippled nothing's really going to put any simourv that isn't a gray or black in a position to order it around. I think it'd be interesting to see a species where there isn't any guarantee like that. Maybe two thirds of mini packs have a gray as queen, but the other third have tawny queens, possibly with (smaller than the tawny) gray junior queens, and similar proportions for blacks and red. And, tawnies that don't grow to rival grays could be… um, whatever the minis' version of flown is… by large blues or even rainbows.


Now that I've thought of it: The minis seem more and more to either not fly, or not fly much/well. So, uh, what's their equivalent of flights? Runs? …Into koxi? Does it affect their bonded the same way simourv flights do, or similar but less, or not at all, or have a completely different effect (such as making the bonded really hungry/energetic, but not really anything sexual)?


I, personally, want the minis to be either diurnal or crepuscular (awake at dawn and dusk, sleep during the day and night). Really, though, that's just because they aren't really satisfying what I wanted from the idea of nocturnal simourv much if at all, so I want to keep that possibility at least to some degree for the future, and I think it's much less likely to happen if people can say 'but you already got nocturnal simourvs!' So it's not a practical/logical preference at all, just me.