When dracovix gain more experiences and mature, they also gain a statistic called Nobility Points (Np). This consists of their age, experience, and skills, and contributes to their social rank in society and nets them more respect from their peers.

Mechanically, this consists of all the artwork and literature that is made of them, meaning every time you or anyone else draws or writes your character, no matter what situation or style, they gain Nobility Points towards their next level up, like in an RPG!

In order to count for prompts and Np, all art or literature entries must be posted on a valid platform under the dA account you joined the dA group with or the off-site accounts you have registered with us. Off-site art posts may be linked in Np trackers and prompt submissions as long as your account and posts are accessible without needing to follow your account. You may need to use reply threads on shortform post platforms like Twitter and Bluesky to include necessary forms for certain prompts. Before linking off-site art in prompts or Np trackers, you must tell the group what your off-site account name is.

Currently, the allowed non-deviantArt platforms for which art and literature entries may counted for Np and prompts are:

• Twitter

• Bluesky

• Fur Affinity

• Instagram

When a dracovix has enough Np to level up, they gain Titles, which will net them a variety of benefits towards breeding, activities, and combat.

When your Np trackers are being counted up for Np assessment, we will not be judging your work based off skill or technique, or your personal journey as an artist or writer honing your skills. You’re allowed to take it easy or to put 200% into your work no matter how professional your usual craft is. It’s all up to you how much you want to invest in your hobby in order to tell your stories. :)

When you're ready to have your dracovix's Np counted to reach the next title, head over to the ⁠#🧮np-counting channel in the discord server!

To count for Nobility Points for your character, artwork depicting your character is scored based off how much of the character's body is drawn. If more than 50% of the character is unquestionably showing, they count for fullbody points. If less than 50% is showing, they count for headshot points.

Despite the massive size of dracovix wings, using the wings in the composition only mechanically counts for at most 25% coverage. When using the wings nearly to their fullest in a composition, you need at least from the dracovix's head to its ribcage to be showing to count for fullbody points.

The absolute minimum amount of a character that needs to be showing to count for headshot points is an area equaling the size of the head.

Base: (Before flatcolors representing the character's phenotype design and rendering, ie. shading/highlights) Should portray all of the character's individual physical features accurately through depiction of their ears, horns, and tail types.

Color: Must represent all of the character's colors and markings. Lighting conditions, atmosphere, art style, and even gradient maps within reason may be used, resulting in the character's colors deviating greatly from their exact color picked tone from their import, as long as the general values of the character's color palette remain roughly in the same relationship to each other. For example, if a character is heavily tinted, shadowed, or even in sepia tone, its white markings should still be lighter than its cream markings, and its neutral browns should be lighter than its blacks.

Rendering: The character is rendered to bring out its 3d form and texture beyond the base lineart or flats. This can be achieved with cell-shading, soft shading, and highlights, among other painterly techniques.

Common Rendering Faults

When working in styles similar to the cell-shading method, there are some unique circumstances where decisions made to shade a character will not be counted for the rendering Np bonus, requiring one additional layer of visible shading in order to receive the rendering bonus and pass for prompts requiring rendering.

[no/yes example] If a character is enveloped entirely in a cast shadow by another object or character, they need an additional layer of shading to bring out their 3D form, even within the cast shadow.

[no/yes example] If a character is within the shadows almost entirely except for a small spot of light such as a peephole, this would also not be enough to count for the rendering bonus, and they need an additional layer of shading.

[no/yes/yes example] Using rimlight alone and nothing else to shade a character also unfortunately isn't enough to count for the rendering bonus, and can be fixed by extending the rim light and adding some varying shapes to indicate the character's 3D form, or by adding an additional layer of shading.

[no/yes example] If the Np counter has to squint really hard or color pick and compare HSB/RGB numbers to find evidence of very faint or subtle rendering, then the entry may not be eligible for the rendering bonus. This can be fixed simply by strengthening the contrast of the shadows and highlights.

[no/yes example] Heavily blurred soft shading may be ineligible for the rendering bonus if the character's whole body appears to be one end-to-end gradient with almost no framing of the character's form or shapes. Try to use a slightly harder air brush to bring out some of the character's contours!

Background requirements

Backgrounds have a minimum requirement in order to get counted for the background bonus.

With background art, you can go above and beyond these minimum requirements and make a background full of scenery that will pass minimum requirements effortlessly, but on the minimalist end, backgrounds must have at least two things:

1. A backdrop color, gradient, or texture representing the earth, sea, or sky, or other background object filling the space drawn to clearly show what it is, like a cliff face with some subtle bumps to show it is a rocky surface, or large wooden cabinet behind a character's head. The backdrop cannot be entirely abstract, and must represent whatever backdrop concept is being portrayed in the scene.

2. A hand-drawn, colored, and fully rendered, non-sentient background element that contextually fits into the backdrop. This can be things like clouds, stars, planets, picture frames, windows, flowers, rocks, moss clumps, plants, rivers, props, etc. The background element should have a contextual reason why that object would be placed in or floating against that backdrop.

Rendering wise, the background element must use at minimum two colors to show depth and variety. So clouds painted only in flat white will not be enough to pass as the minimum hand-drawn background element. You can resolve this by shading the clouds in a second tone.