how do the like, species work in tkn? nimue is a siren(?) thing and charlie is a dragon but are there any others? what makes them different?
I can’t exactly give an answer without infodumping all the species I currently have lol. It’s going to be a two parter because I have too many photos. Already used all 30. They’re going to be categorized into separate sections for easier reading, though!
Nimue’s a mermaid, actually! For sirens, if I do use them, they’ll be more aligned with the bird women counterparts that Greek Mythology originally had. Sirens being mermaids annoys me so much 😭. And apparently it started in the Middle Ages, soooo that’s hard to shake off.
Yes, there are other species! A few of them are gods, dragons, spirits, mermaids, fairies, elves, orcs, and vampires.
I actually made a list for creatures I wanted to include in Daylight’s Redemption: Emerald Embers, but I think it could still fit for TKN! Crossed out ones are species I already have.
They’re one of the most important species in the world of Galdorcræft (Gall-dor-kraft; the Old English word for magic). They aren’t a monolith, and they all look vastly different, from humanoids with a couple of different features such as glowing eyes, to a completely non-human wolf-spider hybrid.
For the most part, they currently have one domain each, but they can have multiple! For example, the aforementioned hybrid (who’s named Helena) has fertility and children as two of her domains, and Merlin has magic and justice as his.
All of them have resurrective immortality: after they’re killed, their body disappears with them when they go into limbo, and once a little bit of time passes, they come back to life. They can choose to either go back to where they died, or spawn somewhere else. The injury or injuries that caused their death are healed, but depending on the severity they’ll scar (which is how Merlin got the scar on his throat from it being slit). Gods who aren’t dead can also go there if they’ve already died before.
Sometimes, depending on their domain, the more one uses it, the more it invigorates them; the more Gunnar, the god of war, fights, the harder he is to defeat, and the same applies with Merlin using his magic. Does Merlin sometimes use a ton of magic to stay awake longer? Yes, yes he does.
For some, there isn’t really a way for that, because if Helena is the god of children, what is she supposed to do? Make people have more babies?
Most of them also can’t logically get cut off from it, besides Merlin. Magic suppressants also affect him much worse than other wizards. For them, it literally just takes away their magic, and they’re completely fine while they’re on otherwise, as well as once they’re taken off. He, however, feels worse the more he’s without it, and he can even pass out from having them on for too long.
Some of them bleed an aspect of their domain, if that makes sense. Catherine, the goddess of the sea, bleeds water. Merlin bleeds a mix of his magic and blood the color of brass, like what older weighing scales are made of. While Helena’s blood is colored green, it still makes plants grow.
Others with more abstract concepts, I suppose, or things that wouldn’t translate as well, like Adhan (the goddess of animals) or Amara (the goddess of life), bleed a mixture of red and gold that sometimes almost gives off the appearance of lava due to the colors. I got inspired from Gwendy’s cut concept of ichor in EPIC: The Musical!
Unlike Greek Mythology, where gods getting along depends on which ones, the majority of them get along with each other, even if their duties sometimes take them away for a bit. Adhan (Merlin and Ganieda’s mother and the goddess of animals) and Helena are best friends, partly because they both understand what taking care of helpless creatures that sometimes aren’t cared about by people are like.
However, like Greek Mythology, sometimes being the descendant of a god means absolutely nothing. Ganieda didn’t win the genetic lottery like Merlin and is a normal human, buttttt she was made immortal through another way. 👀
Not gonna lie, I struggled with that for a quite a while. Enjoy the copy and pasted segment of me spitballing cut concepts to @gaylightisminetocommand lmao.
I HAVE AN IDEA.
Okay got busy for a little bit lmao. anyways, not to sound like the guy with a conspiracy board but: What if Gunnar was Merlin’s father?
Wait I realized that wouldn’t this make him a demigod?? I want him to be a full god 😞
Um. Unless Adhan was a goddess???
The question is why would she be living on earth if so, and ummm. What’s her domain Or not earth I guess
Cause the world is Galdorcræft
Okay wait. Merlin’s name actually means “sea fortress” in Welsh so… Adhan, goddess of the sea??
Waittttt I wanted Ganieda to be. human so um. Ugh
I don’t think a kid could be born human with two god parents??
Okay okay hold on um. I briefly had a little idea of like human and gods procreating having a chance of their kids being completely human despite the god heritage??
Sorry for the ramble spam my brain isn’t braining consistent things 😭
Sooooooo wait if I have furred dragons and scaled dragons being the same species could gods be born to human parents??
Okay wait. Ummm what if like gods completely cancel out human heritage so they’re born fully gods?? Doesn’t solve Ganieda though 😭
Unless I make her a goddess of smth
Idk
Or I retcon lore and make her not his twin again?? I don’t know my brain is dead
I was thinking more and maybe Ganieda is just a very minor goddess compared to the rest of her family? 🤔
Anyways, being divine doesn’t exclude them from being disabled: Eleanora (the goddess of love) has a prosthetic peg leg, and Merlin, of course, has schizophrenia, psychosis (as a symptom of it), anxiety, C-PTSD, and misophonia.
There are ✨also✨ queer gods! Merlin is a transgender man and non-partnering romance and sex repulsed aroace, and Amara is a transgender woman. They’re shaking hands being trans gods lol. She had bottom dysphoria and changed it when she shapeshifted into a woman, and while she’s happy now, she wishes she could have grown up a girl.
Their names are all vastly different, and only a couple directly correlate to their domains:
Helena, fertility and children - “light” or “bright”
Merlin, magic and justice - “sea fortress”
Gunnar, war - “fighter, soldier, attacker”
Catherine, the seas - “pure”
Adhan, animals - no known etymology from her name
Amara, life - several different meanings, but in Latin “everlasting” or “bitter”.
Mórrígan, fear - translated to “great queen” or “phantom queen”
Eleanora, love - either unknown or “shining light”
She was an adoptable from Ko-Fi! I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with her at first, but I got ideas pretty quickly. She was my first non-human goddess!
You already know what he looks like!
Some characters are just an absolute bitch to nail down a design for, and he was one of them. Merlin and Uther are just two examples, although Merlin wasn’t really frustrating? Probably because he’s my blorbo besides Charlie lmao.
Some of the Gunnar design saga posts are at the bottom since I’m at the 30 photos limit. You can really see how he changed!
I made him again in Heroforge yesterday after trying to combine two designs from his previous attempts, but my sister and boyfriend both thought he seemed too much like a tiefling. As well as being very generic, and that next time I mentioned him in a post they wouldn’t remember what he looks like.
I looked through other species to make him, and I thought of changing his species to a Lionfolk! He won’t be called that here, though. He’s more like Egyptian Mythology where they have an animal head and mostly humanoid features otherwise?
I’ve had her for quite a bit! I first made her April 29, 2023. I thought she’d be a fierce queen of deep sea mermaids or something, but I decided to use her for Catherine instead of making an entirely new character. Made her in HeroForge yesterday!
She doesn’t have a set design yet unfortunately. 😭 I’ll hopefully reveal one soon!
I’ve had her design for quite a bit too! I first made her on May 13th, 2023. I redid her hair on July 9th, 2024, as well as making her a goddess after not knowing what to do with her, and I finally made her in HeroForge yesterday.
I made two concepts at like 5 AM on July 16th, but the first one is what I ended up going with! I also made her in Heroforge, but alas, photo limit.
She’s actually my first oc ever! From Narnia. I first made her in Gacha Life in 2019 at least. I wanted to use her in Emerald Embers, but I don’t remember if I ever figured out a role for her. I wanted to still use her for TKN, and had the idea to make her a goddess! Didn’t know for what at first, but then I basically said “fuck it we ball she’s the goddess of love”. I also said “fuck it” with giving her the peg leg lol.
I’ve had the thought of a “‘my leg broke!’ and everyone freaking out, but it’s a prosthetic joke” multiple times lmao. But I never had a character with one until now. Lol.
They’re actually a bit different from their usual depictions! Many of them have fur instead of scales, and are far more mammalian in general instead of reptilian, such as giving birth to live young, producing milk, and purring like domestic cats.
A lot of their characteristics are inspired by big cats, actually. (Lions and tigers mainly, lol.) Examples are: eating one big meal and then not eating again for four to five days, liking water, hissing, growling, and roaring like a tiger, and flicking their tails when angry.
It applies to their designs as well, since they have lion-like fangs, paws, and paw pads, and soft, cat-like fur.
Charlie specifically also has characteristics from other animals; his claws are like bears, his face is long-nosed and fox-like, and his wings are high-speed and tapered like peregrine falcons. His parents’ wings seem a big too long and thick to be that type of wing? I think the paws and claws could still work for them, though! And maybe the facial structure.
Unlike the aforementioned big cat characteristics, dragons don’t need to sleep that much compared to them! 7-8 hours a night, like the average adult human, is enough. (Lions sleep for twenty hours a day.)
Land dragons, anyway. Undersea dragons lay eggs, and are far more reptilian, as well as having translucent bodies. They’re wingless, since having them underwater would only be a hindrance instead of a help. They also lay soft-shelled, snake-like eggs instead of giving birth to live young, and all of them are blind because of underdevelopment. Like olms! And like olms, their senses of smell and hearing are great.
Despite the differences between the two subspecies, as a whole, they age one physical year every fifty-five chronological years. At a year old [fifty-five], they’re still too small to open their eyes. Five years later [60], they’ve opened, but their teeth haven’t grown in yet. Ten years later [70], they’re able to be weaned off milk. At two years old [110], they’re able to speak. From there, the main changes are their bodies slowly changing into adulthood. They become full adults at five years old [two hundred seventy-five].
That’s when they finally leave their parents, since both of them raise their kit, and set out to find a mate. Like lions, they can find one throughout the year, but they also have a breeding season. Theirs is in the summer, from July to September. The males gift the far larger females carcasses of deer and other animals, and if she accepts, they begin courtship rituals, such as nuzzling and flying together. They test each other’s strength through fights, and eventually, they fall in love, or at least deem each other to be compatible mates. Their bond is lifelong, like swans, because I think that would be sweet :)
Their gestation period is two years, with the aforementioned aging process.
Unless they become immortal, like how Charlie did through his familiar bond with Merlin, they live to be fifteen [825 years]. Dragons hold funerals for their dead, settling the body ablaze and mourning.
And yes, you read an earlier paragraph right. All dragons are sentient and can talk! Most of the land dragons can’t read, but they can be taught to. Charlie can since he grew up around humanoids.
Also, a lot of dragons do have huge hoards of treasure and the like! Charlie doesn’t, though. Guess what his hoard is instead :)
Believe it or not, I actually struggled with the worldbuilding for a while. 😭 I’ve had how dragons age for a bit, but for a while I wanted to have both mammalian and reptilian land dragons. I had them all be the same species and officially considered dragons, but there was a furred subspecies and a reptilian subspecies. Like now, the furred ones gave live birth and were more mammalian in general. The scaled ones usually laid eggs and were more reptilian. Charlie was obviously the mammalian side, and there were actually more variations in between the two.
But some people kept saying that didn’t make sense, and that the furred dragons should have scales, despite my insistence that Charlie’s a mammalian dragon and I was not going to give him scales.
“but they’re still reptiles so they should have scales though
if he doesn’t have scales he isn’t a reptile”
“HE’S A MAMMALIAN DRAGON”
“can’t he have SOME scales”
“I SAID THIS
“NO
“NO SCALES FOR HIM”
“😐
boring”
Despite them also telling me it’s fantasy and to do floating islands because it’s fucking sick?? We had multiple arguments about other aspects of dragon worldbuilding, like how Charlie shouldn’t be so knowledgeable as a baby, but I didn’t care; I was ignoring them and making them the same species.
Later, I realized that sometimes you’ve just gotta be silly and goofy in your worldbuilding, and I finally had a reason as to why mammalian dragons and reptilian dragons were the same species: the god who made them was drunk lol.
I eventually scrapped that and chose the furred dragons, thinking maybe reptilian land dragons is an accidental false depiction. They’re usually taught to be feared from an early age, and Charlie is one of the few, if not the only one, who lives among humans.
Despite how big he looks, he’s smaller than an average male dragon even as an adult. He’s thriving, though! ◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜ His original design is at the bottom; it’s the one called Fulgent Flames!
She may look cool, but I can promise that she absolutely sucks! She abandoned her baby and said he died because he wasn’t growing fast enough for her. She has scales because of her father being a land dragon, and her mother being an undersea dragon. They can interbreed, but it’s somewhat rare.
You can see where Charlie got his red eyes from! But like cats, they can look entirely different from each other and still be related. He also sucks, since he actually fully agreed with Rachel. He can’t give an excuse of inaction, either, since he actually went with her to see his son being abandoned.
Possible long-lost sibling?:
Technically just a recolor of Alwyn, but I’m adding them in anyways! I’m still not sure what to name them… I think they’d be a sister if I do it?
Maybe a genetic malfunction made them be without wings? Or maybe there are just some wingless dragons lol.
Aren’t they cool? :D I think their skin might feel smooth and cold, and slimy if one of them had just come out of the water.
Last for this post, but not least, mermaids!
They have the same core trait: tails (of course). Otherwise, they look vastly different. Some of them have webbed hands, while some don’t; some have ear fins; some have fins on their tails; along with having vastly different skin colors that range from human-like to more fantastical, such as purple, green, and blue. Even their tails aren’t all the same. Nimue, for example, has a traditional mermaid tail, while others can have tails that resemble goldfish or sharks. Some of them also have scales that trail up their bodies, while others don’t.
They live in vastly different locations, as well. There are shallow water mermaids, deep water ones, lake ones, pond ones, river ones, and tiny rock pool ones! Basically imagine a body of water, and there might be a mermaid or two in there!
Many of them are highly social and live in pods, and often venture out with their friends. They share platonic affection a ton, and take care of each other’s hair without any stigma. Since many of them have long hair, it’s quite helpful. Queer mermaids aren’t a surprising sight, and Nimue herself is aroace!
When mermaids want to court one another, one will bring the other fish they hunted themselves and seashell necklaces. Sometimes, they accidentally end up bringing each other gifts at the same time. They might give a love confession, but for some, actions speak louder than words, and nothing has to be said. It depends on the prospective couple, really. To propose, they bring their partner a piece of brass jewelry they made themselves, using some of the air pockets in caves around them to forge it.
When they get married, they have a simple ceremony with family and friends, with the leader of their pod, royalty or not, officiating.
When they have children, they lay fish-like eggs, since they have fish parts. They have human-like ovaries, but the rest of their reproductive organs are fish-like. They have traits from different fish, such as having a genital papilla like oarfish, for one, which according to Wikipedia is: “a small, fleshy tube behind the anus in some fishes, from which the sperm or eggs are released”. Their eggs are also fertilized externally/outside the body like salmon, and it takes a period of eight to twenty-three days, like cod, for mermaid guppies to be born.
Aroace queen! She’s actually my second newest mermaid! Catherine is the newest.
At one point I thought these three were a trio of friends lol. I was thinking the lighter purple one could be more cautious than her friends? I also had an idea for them being a best friends squad with the princess down below. 🤔
Unnamed queen and princess:
I’ve had these two for a bit! I’ve had the princess since January 7th, 2023, and the queen since February 11th, 2023.
Links to their individual posts, if applicable: Merlin name meaning, Gunnar name meaning, Catherine name meaning, Mórrígan name meaning, Helena name meaning, Eleanora name meaning, Amara name meaning, HeroForge, Helena (on Ko-Fi), Gunnar’s design struggles (1, 2, 3), Embrace, Merlin and Charlie’s redesigns, Fulgent Flames, Overseer, Gilded Rose, Bear, (all on Ko-Fi), Lurker (on DeviantArt), Current Nimue (on DeviantArt)
Artist credits: brick/mechagender (on Ko-Fi), @heropaws, @theeio, NaldThal (on Ko-Fi), rawwwwrw (on DeviantArt), sebreesi (on DeviantArt)
Picrew credits: baydews [BAYDEWS’ avatar maker!! | V2], elequinoa [Mermaid Maker]
TKN taglist: @gaylightisminetocommand, @the-arson-author-gamer, @aroace-edward-elric, @fate-is-a-lie, @figureitoutinthemorning, @mxxnlightwriting, @lets-zofifi-stuff
