Alicornutopia

Timepoof wrote:

Kappa wrote:It is so enormous. Admittedly still less enormous than the OP.

What is the OP?

OP = Original Post, or the first post in this thread.

Can also mean original poster, the one who started the thread, but that doesn’t really work because the post will fit on a harddrive and in comparison to people harddrives are not enormous.

Or overpowered, but that makes less sense in this context.

3. I do not care about making them mummy-like, unless I stumble across a great idea for making them mummy-like in a cool way that fits their established theme. The vague sun connection and the fact that they stop aging the latest out of all the sky-kin are as much mummyness as they've got in them right now, and I'm fine with that.

all right all right *rubs hands together*

3. HYBRIDS (god help me)

So! Here are some general principles of hybridization and sky-kin conversion.

Transmitted traits add.

• A Luminant-born Moonsinger will have 4x human strength (1 + 3) and 3x human speed and durability (1.5 + 1.5). They will have full Luminant powers and full Moonsinger powers except for the non-transmitted Moonsinger cosmetic feature of thick silvery hair, and they will hybridize as both a full Moonsinger and a full Luminant (except, again, for the non-transmitted Moonsinger cosmetic feature).

Hybrid traits unify.

• The child of a Luminant and a Moonsinger will have 3x human strength (highest of 1 and 3) and 1.5x human speed and durability. They will have full Luminant powers and full Moonsinger powers. But (see below about dilution) they'll hybridize as a half-Luminant half-Moonsinger. A hybrid of two kinds of sky-kin will stop aging at the youngest applicable phase; a hybrid of two people with different aging rates will age at the slower one.

Phenotypes mix.

• In cases where unification doesn't make sense because a thing doesn't really come in amounts, like most sorts of pigmentation, hybrids mix and mingle their parents' traits. A human/Tenebrant hybrid might have blonde hair (human), amber eyes (Tenebrant), and blue fingernails that are translucent over the nail bed (mingled).
• Some traits that seem like candidates for mixing are more stubborn than they may appear. Anyone with enough sky-kin heritage to avoid dying of old age will definitely have sky-kin eyes, and sky-kin hybrids with more than a quarter ancestry always have full fangs even if the rest of their ancestors were non-fanged people. Anyone with enough elemental ancestry to have non-negligible magic will get the appropriate physical trait (leaf/flower hair, heat shimmer, fairy wings, mer-tail), and elemental hybrids with more than a quarter ancestry always have pointed ears even if the rest of their ancestors are round-eared.

Dilution begins at 1/4.

• If one of your grandparents was a Luminant and the rest were Tenebrants, you might find your mind-magic noticeably weaker than your half-Luminant parent. If one of your grandparents was a Starspeaker and the rest were human, you might find your fangs are a little short and you experience some intraphase aging as a Young Adult (which full Starspeakers don't), although you still won't ever age past that phase. If your mother was a half-Sunwalker half-Luminant and your father was a half-Mirage half-Undine, all your innate magic will seem a little weak compared to the relevant parent, although your basic elemental-group traits (pointed ears, 5x human lifespan) will hold up fine since you have more than a quarter of your ancestry supporting each of them.
• Between 1/4 and 1/8, dilution is noticeable but you still get some of the appropriate magic, most of the appropriate lifespan where applicable, and undiluted versions of the stubbornest theme-group traits - sky-kin eyes and age-halting; elemental (plant-hair/heat-shimmer/wings/tail).
• Between 1/8 and 1/16, dilution is nearly complete: you might get a little magic, you might get a little lifespan, and you might get those stubborn theme-group traits (they're always the last non-strictly-cosmetic stuff to go), but you might also get nothing, or nothing but a hint or two of unusual coloration for whatever else you are.
• If you have less than 1/16 (i.e. less than one full great-grandparent in total) ancestry from some theme group, you still have a chance of getting stubborn theme-group traits if your appropriate parent had them, but you're otherwise out of luck except for the strictly mundane cosmetic traits. Mundane cosmetic traits can skip generations and show up in people who didn't even know they had any such-and-such ancestry, but magic cannot: if neither of your parents has enough such-and-such ancestry to notice, you're not going to turn up with noticeable such-and-such magic.

What the hell happens when a sky-kin and a different sky-kin have kids?

• I'm settled on first-generation sky-kin/sky-kin hybrids halting at the younger of the two applicable final phases, but I haven't begun to figure out how hybrid transmission works. Except I do know that no sky-kin can turn another sky-kin. If you have sky-kin eyes and sky-kin lifespan (those things always go together), you cannot be turned into sky-kin.

Also, I have invented a partial list of adorable nicknames for elemental/elemental hybrids. For example, half Sylph and half Undine: seabreeze. Half Sylph and half Dryad: leafblower.

Updated first post because I remembered that Sunwalkers don't eat.

Also, from an IM conversation: Being bitten by a Starspeaker for nutritional or recreational purposes doesn't hurt as much as you'd expect, but isn't painless either. It will tend to heal quickly and neatly. On the other hand, turning bites from any kind of sky-kin get Weird. I am not at all sure what kind of Weird they get, but I am sure that they do.

Kappa wrote:What the hell happens when a sky-kin and a different sky-kin have kids?

I'm settled on first-generation sky-kin/sky-kin hybrids halting at the younger of the two applicable final phases, but I haven't begun to figure out how hybrid transmission works. Except I do know that no sky-kin can turn another sky-kin. If you have sky-kin eyes and sky-kin lifespan (those things always go together), you cannot be turned into sky-kin.

10. The sims had potions that turned or removed life states? Are you planning to feature something similar? Maybe a potion of sky-kin require somehow?

Kappa wrote:3. I do not care about making them mummy-like, unless I stumble across a great idea for making them mummy-like in a cool way that fits their established theme. The vague sun connection and the fact that they stop aging the latest out of all the sky-kin are as much mummyness as they've got in them right now, and I'm fine with that.

3. huh, my main idea is that Sunwalkers are very active, energetic and vibrant during the day, but at night they turn into a wittered state. They might also be able to temporarily "drain the light" of people, which will make the Sunwalker look like a young adult for a time.

Also, I have invented a partial list of adorable nicknames for elemental/elemental hybrids. For example, half Sylph and half Undine: seabreeze. Half Sylph and half Dryad: leafblower.

This is cute and I wish to know more :D

10. I'm not planning to feature potions that turn one sort of person into another. It's bites or nothing.

3. Hmmmm, no, I'm not feeling it.

The other hybrid nicknames I've come up with so far are marshreed (Undine/Dryad) and kettlespout (Undine/Mirage).

Kappa wrote:10. I'm not planning to feature potions that turn one sort of person into another. It's bites or nothing.

3. Hmmmm, no, I'm not feeling it.

Oook, sorry.

Kappa wrote:The other hybrid nicknames I've come up with so far are marshreed (Undine/Dryad) and kettlespout (Undine/Mirage).

Pretty sure this much cute is not legal. It needs a fluff permit or something.

If Kappa’s fluff permits aren’t up-to-date and valid, I think we would have noticed by now when the entire Tony template was confiscated.

Since I am also the fluff permit issuing authority as appointed by Nemo, I wouldn't have to go far to get mine renewed.

*stamps page*

Fluff permit approved: the word "kettlespout" can continue to exist.

See?