Hi! You mentioned in your posts that you’ve been working on your AU. Could you please tell more about how you combined THG and furries? What new rules emerged in your world because of the furry characters? I’m honestly so curious to know how you come up with the lore! Btw, your work is true art; keep it up♥️🙏
Thank you so much! I hope this post does my Au justice and other people can be as excited about it as I am :3
I'm gonna split this post into sections because I have so much to say about this Au and this won't even be all of it
When planning what animal each character was going to be and what they would look like I set out some rules for myself:
Each character's design should be influenced by their book description over other content such as the films (hence why Peeta only has one leg).
If a character is associated with an animal in the books, that should heavily influence their design. (A good example of this is Buttercup and Lady inspiring Cat-niss' and goat!Prim's designs. In the books, the pet cat and goat are metaphors for how the sisters' lives will end up, with Buttercup surviving to the end of the series and Lady sadly dying in a bombing).
Every character from District Twelve must be an animal specifically found in the Appalachian region of the United States as that is where Twelve is set. Characters from other districts should be animals found in the United States, and if possible found in the presumed location of that district.
A parent's species can influence what species their children are, but is not a definite decider.
The divide in District Twelve's class is clearly stated in the books to be mostly shown through appearance, so characters from the Seam tend to be wild creatures like wild cats, lynxes, deer, rabbits etc. Characters from town tend to be domesticated creatures like goats, sheep, dogs etc. So Prim, despite being from the Seam, is a domesticated animal because she takes after her mother's appearance and Cat-Niss is a wild cat because she takes more after her father.
No half breeds exist in this world. Characters can take traits from both parents in appearance, like how the toast kitten and toast puppy (Everlark's children) look a bit like both their parents, but they are not cat/dog hybrids.
My designs and choices I made:
Katniss Everdeen -> wild cat
There's no way I couldn't make Katniss a cat in this kind of universe, but I think it really speaks to how Suzanne uses her character. She climbs trees, literally hisses at people, hides her emotions, and stays emotionally distant with most people in the books, all traits we associate with cats. There's a reason Buttercup is used as a metaphor for how Katniss sees herself; a scrabbling kitten who's had the world thrown at him but still survives to the end. Katniss is very proud of taking after her father in the books, and as Burdock is a lynx in this universe, I felt giving Cat-Niss lynx traits like the cheek fluff and tufts on her ears would work well for her.
Peeta Mellark -> Golden retriever
While it's an easy joke to say I made Peeta a golden retriever because of the 'golden retriever boyfriend' joke idea, there's much more to it.
Golden retrievers were originally bred as hunting dogs to retrieve ducks. They have a very good temperament, are easily trained and very loyal creatures. I felt that all these elements suited Peeta well.
Haymitch Abernathy -> Appalachian cotton tail rabbit
Rabbits are burrowers, and had Haymitch not gone to the Games he would have become a coal miner, digging under the earth. He also has a strong connection to the rabbits in his Games so I felt it would fit well with his character. Rabbits can be very territorial creatures and know when to run and when to fight, and if that's not Haymitch I don't know what is.
Primrose Everdeen -> Goat
Prim has very few physical descriptions and no outfits she wears are mentioned at all in the books, so I took heavy inspiration for some of her outfits from the films and a few suggestions from Discord friends. The pink ribbon she wears on her dress and tied to her horn when she goes to the Capitol is a reference to the pink ribbon Katniss ties around Lady's neck in the first book.
As I mentioned earlier, Lady is used to represent Prim symbolically throughout the story. She is the sacrificial goat of the story, now in more ways than one.
Gale Hawthorne -> white tailed deer
I thought making Gale a deer would be a very ironic idea for a character who hunts and can be aggressive at times in the books. I think Gale in a universe like this could feel even more threatened by the world around him as a prey animal and so that naturally makes him distrustful of other animals.
I don't currently have many in the works as I'm in my final semester of university and don't have tons of time. I don't think any future designs will get full character sheets like with the first five (Katniss, Prim, Peeta, Gale, and Haymitch) but most likely either small cleaned up sketches or nice rendered drawings if they're lucky.
I do have a list of what animals more minor characters are but I don't know if they'll ever get a design (maybe if someone requests them it will give me the motivation idk).
But the current list is this:
There is a difference between what is considered a higher and lower intelligence creature in this world. The characters I'm designing are considered higher intelligence, so they use weapons, wear clothes, walk on two legs, and can talk. Lower intelligence animals are what we have in our world. They are the same size and intelligence as they are here, and are considered fair game when it comes to eating them, with a few rules tacked on:
Katniss can happily kill and eat squirrels, wild turkeys, groosling etc. but wouldn't kill or eat lynxes, cats, or goats as that is what her immediate family members are. Similarly with Gale, he will not hunt deer.
The difference in their diets and instincts changes how they hunt. Gale's prey instincts make him better at setting traps and snares. Cat-niss has natural dexterity, is good at climbing trees to gather, and can smell prey far better. They swap their hauls with Gale taking most of the plants as Gale won't eat meat, and excess plants Prim and Asterid won't eat Katniss will trade with him for meat.
If Katniss had gone on to marry Gale as everyone thought they would, she would give up hunting and eating deer out of respect for him.
During the Dark Days, the spread of rabies was thought to be more wildly spread by wild creatures from the districts such as foxes, raccoons, rats, mice, and bats. This has coloured their reputation all the way to Cat-Niss' time and perpetuates the idea that wild creatures are more dangerous and that domesticated animals are better.
As the Capitol continues to oppress the districts in the time since the Dark Days, slowly family trees begin to consist of more and more domesticated animals and their natural instincts are dulled. The Covey and their descendants are some of the last to fall victim to this as they continue to venture out of Twelve and experience their natural habitat.
Very few birds live in this world, and any that live in the districts have their wings clipped so they cannot leave their district.
How this would affect The Hunger Games:
While there is a pretty even split between prey and predator victors, predators are thought to have the advantage.
Almost all career tributes are predator animals.
There's an unofficial rule in the Games that you're not allowed to eat dead tributes no matter what species. Somewhat similar to Titus (a tribute who turned to cannibalism in the books in order to survive the Games) the consumption of higher intelligence animals is as frowned upon as much as cannibalism is in our world.
Natural instincts definitely sway how tributes behave in the Games. Prey animals tend to hide until there are fewer opponents, predator animals tend to be more aggressive and actively hunt other tributes.
Any animal with unique defense mechanisms have them removed during prep in the Capitol for fairness. Claws are cut, antlers removed, poisonous animals like snakes have their ability to make venom temporarily removed etc.
Animals that become Victors can expect to have any special traits auctioned off and exploited by Capitol citizens. Their fur, fangs, horns, antlers, claws are all sold off at high prices.
(^ dumb sketch I did for a friend before I had their designs worked out lol)
This is really just scratching the surface of what I think could be done with this AU and I plan to expand on it so long as I enjoy making it. If you read this far thank you for sticking me with me, that was a lot 😘♥️
Any other questions I'm very happy to answer :3
