Got my question answered in the Failbetter AMA today! It is with the utmost love, respect, and frustration that I say I want to flense Mr.Arendt like an orange. :]]]]]]]
For image references:
We have canon faces for both hearts and pennies, but for posterity here's my species guesses.
Hearts: Desmodus Rotundus
Pennies: the colours wrong, but from what the old group chat could glean from the nose and mouth shapes, and the eye potition and size, the Egyptian fruit bat was our best guess. I'm keeping it here for posterity (and some laziness as to finding a better match)
For the other masters, we don't have canon faces (aside from veils icon, but thats not particularly helpful), but we do have descriptions, vague though they are. Heres my guesses from those.
Fires: Mormoops megalophylla, or Centurio senex
Spices: Lasiurus borealis (the left isn't the best picture of them, but it's one of my favourites. So small. So shouty.)
Veils: Vampyrum spectrum
The rest are undescribed, so this list is based on puns and vibes.
Candles: Diclidurus albus. Reason? Pun. Northern ghost bat. Also just... just fucking look at it. Look at this little thing. Look at their teeth. Christ.
Wines: Acerodon jubatus. Reason? Pun. Golden-Crowned Flying Fox, wine-coloured pelt, fruit-eater, absolutely huge.
Irons: Lonchorhina aurita. Reason? Pun. Tomes's sword-nosed bat. Also look at that nose. It's a weapon to itself. Christ.
Mirrors: Lasionycteris noctivagans. Reason? Pun. Silver-backed, like a mirror!
Cups: Myotis albescens. Reason? Reverse colours to the previous, otherwise plain and relatively unnoticeable. Can be mistaken for many other bats were one to cover the belly. Works with mirrors' whole schtick.
Pages: some kind of new-world mollosid. Reason? Unassuming, kinda cute actually, looks like they know something you don't and won't tell you what. Has the nose for glasses.
Stones: I honestly have no clue. We haven't been given a good physical description, but we know they're grey-skinned on the palms. This... doesn't help much. I've legit got nothing. I'm taking reccomendations though.
(Clipshow host voice:) So if you, dear reader, want your Stones headcanon featured here, message me at hikineet-trash.tumblr.com and You might be featured in an edit of this post!!!
And for the masters of the house of rods and chains whos faces are not shown:
Barleycorn: Cardioderma cor. Reason?. Big-large. Predator. Extremely Monogamous. And you cannot convince me to not read a weird sort of love into Barelycorn's devotion to their sun. I might have shipper brainrot, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Pipes: Perimyotis subflavus. Reason? vaguely spices-looking (in the way their hoards have some similarity), but quite distinct on further inspection.
Menagerie: if I wanted to keep the colouring on runts as white-and-yellow, and the large-predator thing through the house of rods and chains (to match Barlrycorn that is), I'd say something like Lavia frons. But I don't, and instead I don't really have a suggestion here either.
Something small and darkly coloured perhaps? Craseonycteris thonglongyai maybe, for the size? If we wanted to be fun maybe Niumbaha superba, keeps some of the white colouring and it's rarity coincides with the relative uncommonality of runts.
In my head they're just relatively small and plainly dark for a curator, and that's not distinctive enough to get a bat species from. Suggestions accepted for Menagerie too, but for now, here's the discussed options:
