A New Site?

[Fox]

Right guys, I'm sorry for yet another late reply.

I'd be fine with modding if you guys want me to. This is basically a post to say I haven't completely abandoned the site, and I looooove the ideas put forward for the new variations of minimourvs, whatever they will be eventually called. X3 I'm afraid I don't have a coherent opinion to offer at this time, but I'll just say that you guys are all fantastic and it makes me very proud. :]

[Kilnarak]

Idea things for um. Kamrosh? Is that what we were going to name them?


Was what I sketched, based more on Kat's idea that the wings would be used for gliding and not flying. Could always make the wings bigger. Also would add on the feather-details later when I cleaned it up more.


Was a 'what the hell I'm bored and want to critter design' idea. They were actually going to be smaller critters, but the idea might work for this too? Flight capable wings, but a lot more delicate, I guess?

[Kat]

I like both designs, but I LOVE the second one.
I like the almost bipedal bodyshape of it, as well as the prehistorical looking tail.

I think we could make them flight capable, if they just didn't fly much.
That would work, right?

[Para]

Some variation of Kamrosh, anyway; I think Kat said she liked Kamrov?

I was thinking they'd probably be flight capable, just not able to fly with a rider (or anything close to a human's weight). Maybe they (the larger ones at least) could fly a little bit carrying children, or very small riders? (Which would be interesting to see if, say, people race the mini simourv like we do horses, but all the riders for the races have to be children/young teens... or there was some other flying-involved job for mini simourvs that required young/small riders; maybe an important message delivery system or something similar. I think it would be very interesting to have a career that's important, respected, and a goal for lots of people, but that ends as soon as the kid hits puberty. Do we have any kind of communication system for the south yet, apart from people spreading news as they travel?)

...Someone shut my brain off, please?


*edits because she is a ditz and forgot* And I agree with Kat; I especially like the second design.

[Kat]

PONY EXPRESSSSS!!

I want the nocturnals to be able to take riders, but perhaps they have fragile wings and cannot fly with riders or fly for extended periods of time. They could be mostly ground dwellers who fly when they need to like--not get killed by koxi, simourvs, or each other. (And maybe other predators? We haven't discussed if the South has more large animals than the North. We probs should.)

But anyway, back to my pony express idea. I've already talked about having the nocturnals act as like draft creatures who allow for safer transportation between towns. Maybe they also are the mounts of some sort of cross country letter carrying group. This would be useful, since unlike the north, the south does not have centralized urban centers, so there would need to be a way to carry information from one place to another. Perhaps a lot of the mail carriers are newly bonded preteens, like small 12-15 year olds, who, if they have big enough colors, can fly for short spurts on their mounts. Then, when the rider gets too big, he/she has to retire to being a guard or something else.

The post office would be in the Eyrie, of course.

And we could certainly talk about racing. Maybe some of the smaller colors race? We'll still need somethin' for the rainbows to do besides look cute.

And yes, we were thinking some kind of name variation on Kamrosh. I like Kamrov as Para noted. -shrug- I'll make a poll tomorrow.

WHICH MEANS EVERYONE GO VOTE IN THE CURRENT POLL.
or I will close it, and the site will be called Guardian's Land, which is winning currently.

[Para]

I thought Dance was winning? Not that I'm complaining, I like Land better.

I like the idea of a pony-express-type group that uses mainly/all preteens; even without the flight aspect, a kamrov (I'm getting sick of typing out mini simourv) with a smaller rider could run faster for longer, and one that could fly at least a little could, say, jump across a canyon instead of having to climb down and back up, or go out of its way to find a bridge. Also, maybe the races could be part of the express thing--speed in (long) races determines a simourv and rider's ranking in the business, and if they can't complete the race in a certain amount of time, they're considered not good enough and retired/sent to some kind of training, depending on the age and size of the kamrov and rider (basically, if the rider's still really small, they go to training, if the rider has started growing, they're retired because it's figured they won't improve). Then retired pairs become trainers/guards/kamrov breeders/etc; it could be kind of an entrance position to all kamrov-related jobs, but also have prestiege of its own, since I figure not all people in all mini-simourv related jobs would be former express riders.

I think this would also lead to people trying (and, probably, succeeding) to bond younger kids to the kamrov, so you'd get nine and ten year olds bonding, training and riding (alright, maybe wait for eleven or twelve for long/dangerous rides) these express kamrov. Especially if we make the kamrov bonding more like firelizards; they're not going to care if they bond to a four year old, much less a ten year old, instead of a twelve year old.

Oh, back on the racing topic, maybe it started as a express rider test, but eventually became a sport as well? So there's the express races, and then there are separate entertainment races that the nobility sponsor/watch/etc. Maybe the nobility (or some of them) keep and breed kamrov specifically for racing, and also look for very young/small riders? It'd be interesting to see a kid bond to a kamrov and then get pulled between being an express rider and a racer.

And... oh! I mentioned before but I don't remember any answer; what about making the kamrovs' size more variable in relation to their colors? Like, a rainbow would never be larger than a gray, but could be larger than a blue often enough that it's not too exceptional. A blue wouldn't be larger than a gray, but might be as large as a red, etc. I think that would make things much more interesting, and since they're scaled down, the size difference from one kamrov color to another wouldn't be as much, so it'd be much easier to have that happen in kamrov than in simourv.

Sorry about the rambling, but I wanted to get everything down before I forgot; hopefully it makes sense.

[Kat]

Oh, I meant to address the last part of your post earlier, and then I must have forgotten. I dislike the idea of the sizes of the kamrov/rosh being that fluid. I think it would be possible for big greens to be larger than small blues, and for blues to be almost as big as small reds, since simourvs have that kind of flexibility. And reds and blacks can be similar sizes, so there is some of that flexibility already in place. I would jut rather keep the size color inverses limited to the extremes of the color sizes. I don't really see a reason for them to be color ranked, if it is not reflected in size. Perhaps, though, there are more extremes than the simourvs show. So there are an increased amount of large greens as well as small greens? Rainbows, though, would still be the smallest, but maybe some greens are as small?
What I do like about the suggestion is the idea of fluid leadership roles. I like thinking that the kamrov/rosh/ other names I cannot remember, being more oriented around packs, and thus a bit less didactic with color ranks. I would imagine if there was a gray in a pack, she would lead, but maybe the other colors are not as set in stone, so a red could rank over a black, or a blue could lead a pack with a tawny. Perhaps each back has to have one breeding female? But otherwise, they can be of any color composition.

And then the riders are also less ruled by creature rank, and moreso by skill, as far as the postal riders and the guard riders are concerned? Since the bondings are rather arbitrary, I think that makes a lot of sense. Of course, a green is going to have trouble becoming like an uberleader, but it is possible if the rider is good enough.

[Kilnarak]

Maybe with the Kamrov/rosh, we can allow for more individuals capable of clutching - gray-equivalent would maybe have 5-10 eggs, tawny-equivalent 3-5 eggs, green-equivalent 1-2? Maybe rainbow-equivalent females could also rarely have small clutches.

But I'd think it'd be like a wolf pack, where really only the 'alpha' individuals tend to bear young. Clutches that aren't the alphas' wouldn't be cared for by the pack/might be destroyed if the alphas find it. Of course, then human contact might change that, as humans might begin to care for the unwanted eggs, where the kamrovs themselves don't?

I'm also not sure if I like color-hierarchy being exactly the same as simourv. But I'm not sure how it would change. There could be fewer colors? Or possibly just more variation/less distinction between classes? That might lean towards multiple 'lesser' colors being able to clutch/lead a pack?

Anyhow, if the preference is for the raptor-y one, I'll work on a skinned version of it, and maybe younger variants? Do we want much gender-dimorphism, build-wise? Should males be bulkier?

[Kat]

I think the idea of having them like--have more fluid color heirarchy works well, as long as we keep in mind that the "more important" colors like blacks and grays will likely be bigger. Perhaps, then, the size dynamic keeps everything in check, to some extent. So like--a green could theoretically rule over a pack, but if there is a gray, black, or tawny, for example, the green is less likely to win any fights for power or domination. I guess I just added the idea that they fight for dominance. Ideas/ comments.

I like the idea of all the females being able to clutch. I think Killy's numbers are about right, but I might limit grays to 5-7 instead of 5-10. (Also, on a selfish note, since I think I'm going to have a rainbow kamrov/rosh rider, I like the idea of his little girl clutching. In my head, she's kind of an adorable spazz.)

Also, I like the concept of alphas dictating whether or eggs live. Perhaps some alphas, like maybe often tawnies, usually let eggs/chicks live, while other alphas are much more dogmatic. It could depend on the pack. I really like that idea.

Whether or not you want to make gender variations is up to you, Killy. I think it would be cool, but it would be unnecessary. We only have one simourv lineart, and it's fine. You could have your way with such variations, unless anyone else has an idea.

As for little forms, I think we should at least have a chick. I think it would be fine if we only had chick lines and adult lines, but again, that's at your discretion.

[Kilnarak]

Baby? I decided they needed ears. >>; And little nub-horns. Adults horns... probably either stay fairly small, compared to simourv horns. Max length maybe a few inches longer than their ears, if that?

Also, just chick and adult sounds fine to me.

[Kat]

Oh, I quite like it!

[Kilnarak]

Working on cleaning up the baby lines, but here's the adult:



Here's another version that... didn't quite get finished, but if you like the pose better, I can try to fix it up instead:

[Kat]

These are awesome!
I quite like both poses.

I can't wait to see some colored!

[Aikaph]

Auuugh, I'm torn between them. ;;

I like the first one because the facial features seem, i dunno, softer I guess? (i prefer soft >>; ) But I like the second one because you can see it's underbelly and wings much better than on the first.

Annnd, that's my unhelpful two-cents. >>;