Headcanons and General Character ideas for Public Use
Table of contents 1. ToC 2. Rules and Submission forms 3. Navigation to Headcanon/Herd lore 4. Terminologies and names 5. Breedings, Baskets, and Growing up Pony 6. The humans of the Kawani Lands 7. Familiars 8+. General Headcanons
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 9:43 pm
Rules
Do not Post in this thread! While some things cannot be RPed/discussed on Gaia or even implied to have happened in canon due to Soquili rules, we do know that soquili and familiars are just as complex as humans. If you want to know about something that may not be spoken about on Gaia as they might be a little squicky or adult themed, contact me with your AIM Address and I might be willing to discuss what IS possible to keep in the back of your mind, but cannot be mentioned anywhere in canon due to its nature even though it is part of the underlying story. (example: How to explain to yourself Surrogation for your sex repulsed (at least toward opposite gender) character) These do not have to be canon in your reality, and are not necessarily canon throughout the shop -- I don't have this on the official guild since people would take it as canon or just say "hey mind its your shop, why isn't it official canon?" but that sort of thing needs to be agreed upon by more than just me and may contradict with other people's personal play styles -- I like keeping it free to interpretation most of the time.
Soquili and Familiars mostly speak a common language, though there are sub-languages within "Common" tongue ("Common, Common-Latin, Common-Japanese, etc") Human characters do not and cannot speak "Common". Angeni with Domains (and thus the ability to create a human form) speak Common and NOT human Languages. There ARE ways for Humans and Familiars/soquili to communicate, but they are incredibly basic and usually have to be developed between closely bonded individuals, much like communication in real life between humans when training their pets, only going in both directions. This usually results in hand gestures from humans and handed familiars, and stomping and head gesturing from soquili, plus learning each others body languages, drawing objects in the dirt with a hoof, claw, or finger, or trying to show by example and then using the basic language to confirm when they grasp the concept.
It is EXTREMELY basic, and much like if a Single English Speaker who could only speak English and a single Russian Speaker who could only speak Russian, two languages that were completely different roots so had nothing in common to be recognized, were enchanted so that they looked like a dog or cat (even if they weren't actually changed, but both have different body language, like tail wagging means different things) so the known human body languages would be lost even though they both knew the other person was human when set down in this location, then dropped off on an isolated location for a short period of time and had to build a shelter before being separated a week later before they could learn more than 'Yes" and "No" of the others language, but instead had figured out a sort of new, extremely basic language comprised mostly of gestures that those two people knew. Also, its much like the communication between an owner and their pet: You can recognize when your dog is happy, sad, wants to go out, wants to be fed. You learn the individual, and it might help you with others outside, but a strange dog not trained the same way won't recognize the same commands as your own dog, and you'll have to guess a bit more to recognize the desires of this strange dog.
A few familiars can Learn to speak exceedingly limited human vocabulary - Parrots, Corvids (ravens, Magpies, Crows, Rooks and Jays), and mockingbirds - but cannot express anything more complex than "yes, No, Thanks, More, Less, Good, Bad, Hello, Goodbye, Danger, Help, Me, you, that, want, give, take, food, come, go." in words... Well.. Maybe excluding a few swear words they might hear with regularity. THERE ARE NO MERMAIDS/MERHUMANS/"MERLOC" -- There are another group of people, different than the Kawani, that live closer to the Aquatic Soquili, but that's canon Uta and I are working on getting set up and will eventually have a thread on them. Please do not RP Mer-people as Canon RP.
However the Kawani historically used to misunderstand their name as Merloc, and used to confuse them, since they often rode on the back of mers and use heavy body modification to mimic their closest aquatic companions markings and forms, they were sometimes mistaken for being mer-folk and that they'd split into two individuals, Soquili and human, to walk on land., only to rejoin their other half shortly after. This is, however purely mythology.
Common, Common Tongue: The language(s) soquili and familiars speak and are capable of learning to speak. The most common sort (depicted in English since the majority of the owners are English speakers) is simply called Common, while the other sorts of common are often called the language that they are in the human world, despite the fact that a soquili speaking Japanese (common) cannot speak with a Human that Speaks Japanese (Human language)
Critter: Term used for Animals that are not capable of learning Common and have non-extended lifespans. They are usually treated as pets or food animals. There are Critters that look like familiars and are the same 'species' as them, but are more like their real world equivalents. For example, a Bison/buffalo Familiar has forward facing eyes like a human and can speak common, while a bison critter has side facing eyes and speaks only bison. The two are NOT capable of interbreeding as they are from different branches (much like Gorillas and Chimps cannot interbreed while both are primates).
Real World Horses can and do exist in the Soquili world, but they are much less common in the America's than soquili so are only seen on rare occasions, much to the confusion of Soquili when they encounter them. Some soquili have been raised by humans as Horses along side these and may not know Common at first (but are capable of learning it). Often times these sorts feel that they are ugly (even if beautiful for a soquili) due to having different facial structure than the Horses.
Due to physical similarities, the Spirit Touched (Soquili/Familiars) can learn the basic language of their critter 'distant cousins', much lat the same level as Corvids and Parrots learning human languages (See Canon-Canon Listing), more reading emotions and intent. Spirit Touched individuals do often have more human-like behaviors and body language (bearing teeth in a grin to show they're happy rather than as a form of aggression) so it is a bit of a learning curve and fraught with mistakes if not raised alongside them.
Spirit born/gifted: Occasionally baskets with children inside them will appear out of what seems to be thin air overnight, either due to a wish to a wishing star by a loving couple who couldn't ordinarily have children or, on rarer occasions, because a Trickster decided to ship two ponies who never met. No one is sure if the spirits take orphaned foals and paint and sculpt them to look like the parents they want them to take after, or if the babies are literally born from the spirit world, as soquili are unable to communicate with or even see the spirits (So can't even be positive if spirits actually exist or if its just happenstance) no one could ask them their origins. The children sure don't know, even when they're familiars found nested nearby whimpering for assistance in confusion, not knowing who their parents are.
Spirit-touched: A very broad term with multiple meanings.
Quote:
Meaning A) All Soquili and Familiars are "Spirit-Touched", which separates them from the critters that are more like how we treat Pets or food animals, giving them extended lifespans and human-like mental capabilities. They are slightly anthropomorphized compared to their critter counterparts and capable of speaking Common.
Meaning B) When used with a Descriptor such as "Trickster Spirit Touched", "Wood Spirit Touched", "ink Spirit Touched" or "Wind Spirit Touched" just to name a few examples, can be used to describe Soquili, Familiars, and even critters that have mutations. Critters that are unnatural colors (like familiar and soquili often are) Are also considered "Spirit touched". Another term for this is "Spirit Painted" since it applies only to appearances.
This is often used for mutations, such as Visual illusion Mutations (Sumi-E, Sketch, Glitch, etc) ponies, ponies from 'tunnel' breedings (Winter, spring/Floral, summer/Tropic, Twisted/Trickster/Fall), Treebacks, pawed feet without walker blood ("Wolf Spirit"), etc.
Meaning C) Often used for soquili that are given unusual powers outside of their breeds capabilities: Cerynei that can see Spirits of the dead, Hippogryphs given Mixed Ulun'suti powers, etc. These are gifted by the Shop itself (The Great Spirits). They have been touched by the spirits to be given a gift, though the gift cannot pass down to their offspring.
The breeding baskets were not originally used for breeding, but rather as a method of food storage by the people of the Kawani nation, other local native nations, and Familiars as the food could be picked prematurely and put into the basket to ripen for nomadic groups who could not stick around to wait for the trees to ripen their fruit, and to preserve meat for longer periods of time. Additionally, during hard winters where the ground was frozen, they were used as caskets to allow them to wait until the ground had thawed to give a proper burial and prevent predators from tracking them down and the healthy from growing ill.
The wicker of the reeds would slowly shift color to fit what was inside them, allowing them to tell what was inside and when it was ripe. When its energy is spent, usually two months for things that are still young and developing rapidly, the seal that was formed would 'pop' and the wicker loosen, the lid sealed mysteriously by a loose weave of wicker. After that the food inside needs to be either eaten, or transferred into another basket for continued and longer storage in its new fully developed state.
They were only discovered useful as breeding baskets when a human child, born months early, was thought to be dead and put inside one to wait for the ground to unfreeze. Before spring could come however, the basket gave a soft 'pfft' and began to cry, the mother quickly returning to her basket and freeing her living and healthy fully developed infant, the child well fed and feeling like one who was already two months old.
When the soquili were encountered in ancient times by the Original Princess Soquili, and were only just beginning to switch from one child to two to three and thus having higher amounts of premature offspring, the Kawani, who had larger baskets then the Raccoons and Otters, came to the rescue and started putting the premature foals into their baskets, and after that have started putting baskets out empty baskets for soquili to find, while familiars began to produce them in larger sizes with greater regularity for their new companions.
Older breeds of Soquili that existed in the land (the Hippogryphs and Ulun'suti) Had already figured out how to make the baskets themselves by the time the fertility shift had occurred.
Breeding baskets are woven out of a common reed that, when soaked to make supple for weaving in a bowl made of a local mineral, can give energy to life and allow it to develop safely as if it was still in the womb (or if food, still growing in the tree).
Meanwhile for Breeding shells sort of common water grass, capable of growing in both fresh and salt water is pounded with a rock made out of the same material creates a soft casing, but unlike the wicker doesn't color itself to look like the foals inside until it is used to line the inner shell of an extremely common and fast growing shell fish often farmed and harvested for food and their shells for jewelry, the shell having a chemical reaction with the treated grasses and fuzing together, creating a protective casing that will keep the foals from being eaten by aquatic predators such as Crabs, and prevents them from floating away. Often times before doing this the native humans, pawed and clawed breeds, and familiars with paws will often polish the shells outer casing so the effects of the combination can be seen.
While the baskets start out in natural earthy tones, and the Shells are mother of pearl. However within a few weeks the colors will begin to saturate the outer protective wicker or shell. By the end of the first month, the colors of the foal inside will usually be showing (though, in some instances they will instead become extremely different, something the natives call "Trickster Baskets".
They can also hold fully grown healthy soquili or Familiar if they are small enough to fit inside (Such as an Usdia, Shrunken Flutter, or Raccoon), but the energy will drain faster from the material it is in, causing it to rattle and pulse inside in a way that sounds identical to obnoxiously loud snoring. The individual inside would wake up once the energy is drained feeling well fed and well rested, and if they were sick with a temporary illness, such as a Cold, food poisoning, or the flu, will be healthier as well. This is sadly not useful for more Chronic illnesses, though it would boost the immune system to help them fight it or stall the illness in exchange for losing a week long gap in their life.
While the foals inside are in stasis, it is often found that foals talked to while inside their baskets develop language skills quicker than other foals, and will often have a larger vocabulary in later life. Adults that have been stuffed into baskets (See paragraph above) will often be confused about where they are, but will subconsciously know whether or not they are in danger by how their basket is talked about and those who have been around it.
About: Glitches, Illustrative, and other "Visual illusion Mutations"
Glitch pets and brushpaint ponies are the sorts I like to call "Visual illusion Mutations", Where a species has a mutation that causes uncontroled Illusions within an area of their body/the entirety of their body, and anything that touches that area/their body gets included in the illusion (At least as I see it).
I RP my Glitch Wolves as the following scenario being a thing that can happen.
"I'm just a regular Raccoon.. However I put my hand onto this glitched area, and it ends up lost in the glitch. I touch solid flesh, soft fur, etc where it would normally be. It isnt sharp and blocky or twitchy. And I dont FEEL anything but my hand looks like it's dissolved into a bunch of little square motes of color, fizzling in the air like the cloud of water vapor at a base of a waterfall and in little lines. I pull my hand out of the field and its perfectly normal. TADAAAAAAAA!"
And then occasionally there are raw materials discovered that have the same effects on those occasions where the pet itself isn't glitched but they have like.. A Necklace with a gemstone that gives off sparkles of light or wisps of shadows or even just "Creates a small pocket of night sky in the air like smoke"
Brushpaints are also a fun headcanon since they don't have glitch spots, but I suppose anything touching them causes the inking to 'bleed' into the item.
Using that same ordinary raccoon, they'd touch them, a soquili that looks like a living illustration, the inks constantly moving and shifting as they do to always be outlining things and hatching the contours, and feel their rounded form, But then the markings shift slightly, slowly at first, inking the outlines of their touching hand and fades away to thinner lines as it gets further away from the body, and then rapidly bleeds back into the soquili, vanishing almost immediately from the Raccoons paws with a quick version of the inking process reversing, the Raccoon's hand no longer part of the illustration of the other creature.
Meanwhile, accessories made out of "Ink-spirit touched" (as would likely be the term used by locals) Items would only bleed into the other materials used to create a full item, but not living beings. So things like a Shield could be owned by a non-inked pet; though it would make a pony unfinished so might not actually pass quality control at soq outside of it being Customed Specifically to be that way, BUT could be used as an RP element for Sumi-e ponies/Sketch ponies (cause there ARE a few out there with their body fading into Pencil-style sketching rather than Sumi-e, meaning so far there are TWO TYPES type of Illustrative Visual Illusion mutations.. Well that and the "Tribal Ink" and Paint Wings but thats sort of a lesser/possibly more "What you see is what actually IS) who want their accessories to remain inked when not being worn.
Now, lets have a visualized example of this
First off, the control sample -- Look at these two, normal looking raccoons holding hands. Both of them were quick to volunteer (being the first two I grabbed and said "Stand here and hold hands for this picture and they did so with confused looks on their faces but still smiled when I asked them to.)
Nothing out of the ordinary there, just two raccoons holding hands. Its cute, and its unusual seeing either of these two boys without their musical instruments, but they make for good test subjects.
Now Lets touch Kara's baby Sumi-e girl, who I'm using since we're talking and I do not personally own a Sumi-e pet to use as an example and the usual suspects I'd have asked werent on at the moment.
Oo, a little bit of bleed, but nothing really all that much. Likely looks much more impressive in person in all honesty, seeing that ink bleeding in and fading into nothing and seeing it shift as you move your fingers, constantly outlining them and hatching your shadows, but its a simple easy to see example against his Pale fingers.
But lets move over to our next volunteer, one of my Glitchwolves, Gl!tch.
Now go ahead, Scratch, touch the wing tips and then just put your arm near the tail...
Ahaha! A fine example -- Both what is touching and what is within the 'field' is glitching on our raccoon model. You can see motes of his pale fur speckling around. You can stop now, Scratch.
Back to normal and ready to play some Flamenco, hands completely intact!
Of course, some may have it be only them and their accessories are made of 'spirittouched' things if they have similar affects, such as woven and dyed hair from animals with similar mutations, and others might be just them and the 'effect' only passes onto inanimate objects and not living creatures.
In those cases the raccoon would touch a glitch pets glitches and just find a solid object and seem to be stopped by an invisible force (or the glitches might react and create a patch of fur/skin that looks solid where touching but pixely and scattered on the edges) and then would touch a Sketch or Sumi-e or other illustrative illusion pet and nothing would happen, much like if you touched a painting.
And if the illusion is only them and doesn't bleed to their items, they'd interact with things without it temporarily developing the inking, which would make the individual look MORE surreal.
so its really up to the owner, but the tutorial was for more how I RP it, and just me wanting to stress that with glitches people aren't getting pixels flying into their eyes and stinging them since its just an illusion.
Though the patches might not stay in the same place all the time with the glitch pets and might shift around the body depending on whats moving at the time. Which COULD make Glitches... Disorienting.
About: Unmapped Settlement: Geyatahi Gali (Wild Raccoon) Village
Named after its founding citizens and built in the woods to the west of the Kawani Village, Geyatahi Gali is the largest permanent settlement completely populated by Familiars, its most populous being Raccoons, Corvids, River otters and Songbirds.
While the Kawani may visit on occasion in an attempt to enact trade, and Soquili may visit for services or even live in the same general area in their own herd, this territory is, for the most part, lived in permanently by familiars, the majority of it set up in platforms high up in the trees, camouflaged in the trees and, save for occasional land based 'hubs', leaves the forest floor pristine.
The Majority of the village is built literally into the trees with platforms and thatched roofs to keep as much of the forest floor space cleared, though larger land based structures -- wall less chickee with ramps for larger breeds, including soquili, to get up off the ground when necessary as sometimes, being so close to the floodplanes, a foot of slowly rising water might flood the ground in the southern most parts of the village. Additionally, some of the dead woods have been carved into spiral staircases (though from the outside they seem to be spiraling gaps in thick wooden totem poles) to allow smaller familiars that are unable to climb trees, such as river otters and Rabbits, to venture into the platforms, rope bridges, and houses that snake through and spot the canopy and trunks of the trees.
For Wild soquili who are skittish about the "Two Leggers" (Humans), the Geyatahi Gali is one of several villages Familiars have set up, and is the "Kawani Village" of the Spirit-touched, a hub of trade for the Main Lands.
It is, however, a fairly young village, having only formed within the past two decades. It has been growing rapidly over the years, and has adopted a Single human as one of theirs: A human hermit named Hatchee, though the Kawani know her as "Acotas", a Miccosukee/seminole woman who doesn't speak the Kawani language who helped them learn how to make chickee as to not leave their Larger residents unsheltered and in the water during flooding season.
Often times, when it comes to trading with the Kawani, they send their items with her. While she doesn't understand Common, and they don't know her own Language (though honestly, neither do the Kawani), a Corvid named Acapella often stays with her, having learned a few of her words (see "human vocabulary" in Canon-Canon) and a few Kawani words to allow rough bartering between the Spirit touched, Acotas, and the Kawani.
Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 12:24 am
Headcanon
User Providing Headcanon: Mindsend
About: Traveler Spirit Shrines (AKA: How to get items without Trading for them)
Traveler Spirit Shrines are locations where merchants and artisans of both familiars and Kawani and even the occasional soquili will often donate some of their items to these Shrine posts for Travelers to take for use in exchange for good fortune from the spirits. Taking to sell from these is considered bad luck. To take you don't need to trade it out with anything, but it is considered good taste to thank the Spirit that is thought to live in them and to ask them to bless the artisan that made it
So soquili that have nothing to barter with can still occasionally get a trinket or find a breeding basket there as it is also a place where breeding baskets will often be donated if they don't know how to get ahold of a midwife that can weave them or cant afford a fancier one.
Traveler spirit Shrines Can often be pretty simple -- Such as a Cross shape or a bar resting between and tied to the ends of two posts with small pegs on it for hooking necklaces on, or can be super fancy with a totem pole or statue and some sort of cover. They are often used, if the herd doesn't have a private shrine of their own, as alters for the wishing star, which thought to be one of the strongest, and possibly mother, of all the Traveler Spirits.
Occasionally these shrines are targeted by skinwalkers and other unsavory folks that wish to spite the spirits or deprive others of their blessings, often destroying everything they can before they can be hunted down or chased away.
Many more settled herds may keep a Traveler shrine of their own for visitors within the heart of their territory.
