Breeding

The pitter patter of tiny hooves!

Having foals of your own is arguably one of the main goals of the game! Having a bunch of rambunctious little hooves galloping around is simply the best! In Elysium, it takes 2 seasons for a foal to be born! Their gestation period is a little quicker thanks to magic! :D

In order to breed individuals in your herd, you need to simply draw or write about them being together with foals on their mind. Explicit images or literature will not be accepted as we don't require such submissions! Drawing your characters watching the sun set or having a PG snuggle under an apple tree will be more than sufficient.

While a lead stallion will often breed to the mares of his herd, not all leaders are the same. Some herds group together because of shared ideals or because of friendship.Some leaders may allow for their herd mates to pair off on their own, adding to the herd diversity but also increasing their numbers. Others may be happy with a more open love life in which case players have the option of breeding their characters with other member owned characters. The process on doing so can be reviewed below.

Whatever the case, once your breeding image/literature piece has been accepted it will be logged and your foal traits rolled! These will be included in a confirmation comment left by a mod along with the official 'birth date' for the foal.

There isn't a set breeding season in Elysium but breeding your horses at different times of the year comes with its own pro's and con's. Below is a quick list of what you can except depending on the season your mares are bred.

Winter: 15% chance of breeding failure
Spring: 0% chance of failure
Summer: 5% chance of failure
Fall: 10% chance of failure

Risks and Dangers

If looking after a tiny foal wasn't hard enough, carrying a little one can be a dangerous as well! Love knows few limitations in Elysium but one dominating is the height of dear old mom and dad. The height difference between mare and stallion should be considered when pairing off unicorns, after all the resulting foal will often be the average size of the parents.

Mares breeding to stallions of smaller stature posses no risk. In fact, a mare more than 3hh larger than the stallion can carry twins more safely than normal.

However, mares who find themselves seduced by a stallion 3hh or taller than them will face serious issues. Breeding such as these will be rolled for Birth Complications which could vary from minor issues such as a premature foal birth or stunted growth of the foal to more severe issues. Mares who roll for a severe complication will be faced with any of the following issues:

Mare Infertility
Severe Birth Defects
Death of Mare and/or Foal

Severe Birth Defects (detailed)

The following list is all the severe birth defects that could possibly be rolled for a foal born from a dam and sire with more than a 3hh height difference.

Blindness
Deafness
Mute
Nyctalopia (night blindness)
Infertility (foal is born infertile)
Foal is born a Magical Dud regardless of parents magic
Severe stunted growth (foal will be mature smaller than dams height)

Submitting your Foal

Any and all bred foals should be designed on the group Foal Lines. Once you're happy with your design, you should save the design to your st.ash. You can either fill out the standard design information in the comments of the st.ash file or include it in your note to the group.

Designs must then be noted to the group so that they can be approved and uploaded onto the groups admin account. We do this mostly so that members don't have to deal with the plethora of mod comments that we have to leave on designs to track things. Click 'Message admins' on our homepage, link your st.ash file and someone will get back to as soon as as they can!

Breeding to member owned characters

Members retain the option of breeding the mares of their herd to stallions owned by other members. In order to do so, the following criteria must first be met:

Players are in agreement on who will own design and play the foal.
Two rps are required for the breeding to be approved. The first should about how the two horses meet, the second can be players choice. Perhaps, in the second rp, the potential mom and dad discuss foals. Will the stallion be alright with a tryst or will the foal be coming to live with him? Will the mother bring the foal to visit or expect dad to visit? Perhaps neither! The second rp will be considered the breeding proof so it can be the pair becoming affectionate or perhaps its several days later and the mare knows she's with foal. Rps can be literature or images so long as they remain on theme with whats listed above.
The breeding is logged on our google sheet once the rps are accepted.

Things to keep in mind

Things to remember when breeding outside of your characters herd will be how their friends and family will feel about it. Is it against the herd rules? Will their family be upset or happy? What will your herd leader think? Mares who are apart of a herd with a strict lead stallion may find themselves in trouble if it's discovered the foal doesn't belong to him. Or, is their herd more relaxed? Perhaps the news won't be a big deal but the excitement over a new addition will be?

Special Bonuses

The two rps required for a breeding between two player characters still qualify for rolls. Should items be rolled, they will be given to both players as a bonus. Gemstones will also be given to both players as is the same rules for collabs.

Important Terminology

Elysium operates using an in-game genetics system! While most of our genetics are based on REAL LIFE alleles and genes, our unicorns also exhibit some unnatural coat colors! In order to understand some of our genes, it's good to be familiar with the following terms:

Homozygous: means two copies of the same allele/gene are present.
Heterozygous: means one of each type of allele, one dominant and one recessive.
Dominant: Color trait is expressed with 1 or 2 copies of the allele is present
Recessive: Color trait is only expressed when 2 copies of the allele are present
Genotype: Literal genetic coding for a horses coat color. (Ex: Ee/Aa/nCr)
Phenotype: The expressed coat color of a horse! (Ex: Three Palomino horses can look the same but have different genotypes! ee/Aa/ncr, ee/AA/nCr and ee/aa/nCr are all palomino!)

Designing your Foals

Players reserve the right to design their own foals but may also request that an admin do so for them. If a player wishes to design their own foal but doesn't understand how our genetics system works, they are welcome to note the group to learn what options are available to them. If you need your Geno/Phenotype options, note the group with the following filled out:

Breeding Image: Link

Stallion: Link

Phenotype:

Genotype:

Mare: Link

Phenotype:

Genotype:

Items: Using an item? Be sure to list it!

A mod will get back to you as soon as they can with a list of both the genotype and phenotype options. Once you know what colors your foal can be, refer to our color guides in order to design your foal. Foals should be designed the group foal lines.

You may design your foal as soon as you want but it will not be playable until it's in game birthday! Submitting your foals early is a good idea as it gives the player more time to make corrections should they need them.

Mod designed foal

If players don't feel comfortable designing their own foals, they may also choose for a design mod to do so! Players wishing to take advantage of this option should note the group once their breeding image/story is accepted. Players can be as specific as they want but must include some detail for designers to go off of. Players should minimally know what base color they want the foal to have OR at least some of phenotypic features they want the foal to inherit. The less detail you give, the more creative our designers will be! Design mods may preview designs to players but this is at their discretion. There is no rule saying design mods must reveal player foals to them before hand! It's a risk you take when requesting this option! Foals will be uploaded on their in-game birthday and at that point playable.

**Once a design is accepted it can not be changed**

This rule applies to both design mod and player designed foals! Once they're accepted their design and gender are locked. No changing!

Magical Influence

Foals inherit magic from their parent (naturally). Should both parents share the same strain of magic, the foal will inherit that strain. Should the parents magic differ however, the strain may be one of those two. Normally, the mothers strain has a higher chance of passing than the sires but this is not a 'set in stone' rule. A fire magicker who has a foal with an earth magicker could have a foal who turns out to have fire magic!

Unicorns who have their magic awakened will produce foals born with their magic already awakened! This surprising news has begun to spread over the last few years as more and more unicorns reconnect with magic. It gives elders hope that, perhaps, Elysium is not as doomed as they once thought.

Shadow Magic and breeding Blights
Shadow magic works much more differently than 'normal' elemental strains.
Shadow Magic stallions will not pass their corrupted magic since it's just that; corrupted. Foals will still have their potential strains rolled between the original strain from the father and mother.

Shadow Magic mares on the other hand can pass on their corrupted magic. As they themselves are corrupted, their foal gestates in this environment and is often corrupted from birth. This is assuming however that they are born at all. Shadow mares have lower fertility due to The Blight and struggle with conceiving. These mares have about a 30% chance of not conceiving, 30% of having a magical dud, 20% chance of having a shadow foal and a 20% chance of having a normal foal.

Crossbreeding to Ethereal Unicorns

As previously mentioned, Etheral unicorns can cross breed to the standard 'Elysium Unicorn'. Which body type the foal inherits however is not set in stone. Ethereal stallions who sire foals out of 'Standard' mares will find that their offspring appear Ethereal about 45% of the time. Ethereal mares on the other hand who bare offspring from 'Standard' stallions will find that their offspring appear Ethereal about 55% of the time. Keep in mind that no matter who the parent is, should an Ethereal foal be born with only one copy of their respected Solar/Lunar Complex, they will express a natural horse coat color and become 'Lunar carriers'.

Players who breed such foals will have their body types rolled for them when their breeding is submitted, much like what is done when deciding horn, hoof and tail type. Additionally, magic will also be rolled. Ethereal magic is a fickle thing however and doesn't pass as often as standard elemental magic. Regardless of which parent is the full blooded Ethereal, Ethereal magic only passes down to crossbred foals about 30% of the time. Should a foal fail to inherit it, they will automatically inherit their parents elemental strain of magic instead.

If the non-Ethereal parent does not have their magic awakened, the foal be born with dormant magic.

Art credits: Hiokami-chan, DodgerMD and Saltyearthmango of Deviantart

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