It’s Buck time! My original animal species for Outer Wilds!
About time I made an introductory post about these guys. Meet the Bucks, pretty much the Hearthian equivalent of horses! While I’m at it, a huge shout-out to the one and only @dekkiidan for helping me create them, and for providing their symbiotic counterpart with his lovely Treefellers. Go check out his work, it’s absolutely phenomenal!
Bucks are a Hearthian’s best friend (aside from the winemaker). Originally large insectivores roaming free the wide open plains of Timber Hearth, they were domesticated a long time ago and are now are widely used as workforce and transportation. They’re mainly employed in ranching, farming, logging, pulling, and sometimes even rodeos! We all know dang well that if something can break a Hearthian’s bones, then that something will become an integral part of life in the Village.
Extra info, color variants and more under the cut!
Biology and informations:
In the wild, Bucks are known to always follow the large Treefeller herds during their migrations. The two species are in a closely-knit symbiotic relationship: Treefellers, in their quest for nutritious sap, end up ripping bark off of trees and uncover the delicious bugs the Bucks feast upon. In exchange, Bucks can help find healthy trees for the Treefellers to eat from, remove parasites from their skin and even help the herd stick together! Bucks are, in fact, well known for their innate instinct to herd and protect other animals.
The symbiotic relationship is so strong that Buck and Treefeller chemical pheromone blueprints have evolved to be very similar to one another! Bucks who travel in front of the Treefeller herd alongside the Matriarch and other Cows tend to assume a coloration and produce pheromones similar to theirs, thus making it easier for the herd to follow the Bucks to where the good trees are. Baby Bucks (Foals) and baby Treefellers (Grubs) also smell a lot like one another, as a way to ensure their mutual protection from members across both species. This can sometimes cause some confusion as to whose baby is whose, and whose parent is whose…
Domestication of the Buck happened several millennia ago, when Hearthians decided that moving only on foot was no longer the heat. The Bucks’ temperament, their teeth and their huge forelimb claws weren’t enough of a deterrent for the most stubborn species in the universe, and the critters were successfully added to the book of a Hearthian’s Best Friends. Huzzah! Telling a Buck where to go is pretty easy. Just sit on their backs, hold onto their antennae and pull one of them gently. For particularly unruly critters, bits in their mouths or regular reins can be used, but it’s mostly done during the taming process to ensure that their antennae aren’t damaged, considering how often the Bucks… well, buck their rider off, especially when they’re not used to being ridden.
Overtime, domestication has brought the Bucks to develop different traits depending on what they were used for. This resulted into the creation of several “breeds”. The main ones are:
Working line
Show line
Draft line
The Working line is made up of stubborn, sturdy Bucks employed in hard jobs, such as ranching and reining. They work closely to domesticated Treefellers, and are built for endurance and strength. Ranchers ride them off into the sunset when they need to follow their Treefellers out in the plains for the migration, with the harmonica’s sound in the wind and the bald eagle screeching off into the vast sky…
The Show line is made up of all those Bucks who, for one reason or another, are considered beautiful enough to be shown in contest against others. They can be judged based on how striking their patterns are, their overall shape, how their antennae curl, their abilities, how prettily they hop, and a ton of other fun things! Win or lose the contest, they’ll be showered in love anyways!
The Draft line is made up of the strongest, sturdiest Bucks of all. Below, you can see a Draft Buck at work pulling a logging boat upstream the river, alongside their looks without a harness on. These mighty creatures are beloved for their gentle temperament and the immense strength that allows them to bear heavy loads without breaking a sweat!
Coat colors:
And now, I’ll share some possible colors they can be born with. They do not really have fur, so this is all the work of very colorful skin pigments that are either naturally occurring or have formed after centuries of domestication.
And now, for Build-a-Buck, I’ll share the lineart for the base I’ve used for all these colors, in case anyone is interested in creating your own Buck or simply playing around to see what colors fit them best. I’d be really happy to see if anyone does! Be sure to credit me if you end up posting it, please!
