Information: Shapeshifters (Vie Elavie)

[Lachlan Williams]

Crossbreeds

If you are going to try to figure out genetics here, please keep in mind that these are not strictly scientifically accurate.  Elavie genetics mix magic and science, so yes, they are slightly different.

If you would like to understand the whole thing, go here and read the page, but keep in mind that it's complicated and may make your brain hurt if you go into the really strange ones.

If not then here's the quick version: elavie magic changes recessive genes. Therefore, if you try to cross a SSSS shifter and a ssss shifter, the child will be SSSS, because the SS will change the ss (SSSS x ssss = SSss -> SSSS). Genes of equal dominance can either act as co-dominant, mixed dominant, or recessive.

A bit confusing? Yes. But that's the way that it works. Once again, I know that this isn't how genetics work irl. This isn't irl, is it?

Breeds

• Azteka Jaguar/Quetzal Mixed Blood
  • Breed Specific Traits
    • The traits are the same for a mixed blood as they are for normal azteka - if they can take a quetzal form, they will have feathers.
      
      Mixed bloods can, at most, take 5 forms - human, quetzal, jaguar, mixed form half, and mixed form.
      
      Not all Azteka who can take both quetzal and jaguar forms can take a mixed form.
    Second Form Description
    • Go check out the Azteka post for jaguars and quetzals, here is where I'm describing the mixed form.
      
      We know almost nothing about this (including if it actually exists outside fanon - the genetics make perfect sense but the author has never yet created one... which tells you that yes, they will be rare), just that it is a feathered kitty. Take a jaguar, add feathers - the coloring may be black, orange, green, red, white, or any combination of these, they may or may not have wings, may or may not be able to fly, may or may not be of different size then a normal jaguar....
      
      There's quite a bit of freedom at the moment simply because we don't know. If this is ever updated, the rules will be changed accordingly.
    Genetics
    • I'm going to use J for jaguar and Q for quetzal to illustrate this.
      
      Now, if both parents were JJJJ, the outcome is obvious. The kid would be pure jaguar. However, if you had a cross of JJJQ x JJJJ then you could get JJJJ or JJJQ, and in either case the child could be pure jaguar, or in the second they could end up a mixed blood.
      
      The mother's phenotype (what kind of shifter she is, jaguar or mixed blood) is what affects what the child with the JJJQ tag would be.
      
      If the mother, in this case, was the pure jaguar JJJJ, the child would have the traits only of pure jaguar but would have one 'recessive' Quetzal gene that they had the chance of passing on. If the mother was a mixed JJJQ jaguar, it would be the same. However, if the mother was a JJJQ mixed blood (aka, could take both quetzal and jaguar forms) then the child would be mixed blood as well.
      
      If you had two jaguars carrying a 'recessive' Quetzal gene mate (JJJQ x JJJQ) then you can get either JJJJ, JJJQ, or JJQQ. In the first case, the child would be pure jaguar, in the second the same rules apply as in the case that I just illustrated (the child could be either jaguar or mixed blood), in the third, the child will be mixed blood and has the possibility of getting a mixed form, regardless of the mother's phenotype.
      
      A JJQQ x JJJQ cross could result in a child that was JJJJ (pure jaguar), JJJQ (jaguar with a 'recessive' quetzal gene or mixed blood jaguar/quetzal), JJQQ (mixed blood quetzal/jaguar regardless of mother), or JQQQ (mixed blood jaguar/quetzal).
      
      If I missed anything and/or confused you, pm me and I'll tell you what I can. If you do not have an account yet and so cannot pm me, you might want to start with a slightly more common type of character.
      
    Possible Pictures
    • None yet
      
  Avian/Serpiente Wyvern
  • Breed Specific Traits
    • A wyvern has 5 forms that they can take - human, wyvern demi (take a cobra demi - eyes, scales, teeth, etc - and add wings), full cobra, full hawk, and wyvern.
      
      Their coloring is a mix of cobra and hawk - gold and black in their hair, or a mix, eyes can be either gold or red (and change - a wyvern in a golden hawk form will look like a typical golden hawk, coloring included, one in cobra form will look like your typical cobra, black scales and red eyes). Yes, they will have feathers in their hair - black and gold and mixed, just like their hair.
    Second Form Description
    • I'm not going to describe cobra or hawks again, just go up to the avian and serpiente posts for that. What I am going to outline is a wyvern.
      
      We don't know exactly what they look like, what we do know is this:  Take a cobra then add wings, talons, and a feathered crest. It is also assumed that they have a feathered tail, as you need one of those to control flight and wyverns can certainly fly, and fly very fast.
      
      Beyond that, no description, so personal vision varies quite a bit.
    Genetics
    • Were you confused by all the Jaguar/Quetzal possibilities? Yes? Well rejoice good people, you don't need to worry about any of that second generation stuff for Wyverns.
      
      How you get a wyvern is fairly simple - a cobra and a hawk need to have a kid. No, it does not work with any other kind of serpiente/avian cross, the only wyverns you will get are HHCC.
      
      Now, why do you not need to worry about second generation? First - the alleles bond together after that, making it almost impossible to pass on anything but HC. Second, because there is a ban on second generation avian/serpiente wyverns for one good and simple reason.
      
      They are too strong and their magic too uncontrollable. Magic? Yes, magic.
      
      Those of you who read the Avian, Serpiente, or Falcon histories will recall that the falcons and serpiente have common roots, in the Dasi, where one group worshiped Ahnmik and the other Ahnamiriak. When they were turned into shapeshifters, they retained the magic of their gods.
      
      The falcons, who have Ahnmik's power, are dangerous enough - and Ahnmik is the god of silence, of rest, or peace, of unchangingness. Their magic, by nature, is less destructive then that of Ahnamirak, who is the goddess of change, of movement, of fire, of distruction, of freedom, of dance. While the two groups were living together there was balance, and each side of the opposing magic kept the other in check, but when Maeve and the Falcons were cast out for practicing black magic, suddenly Ahnamirak's magic had nothing to hold it back.
      
      The falcons therefore ripped the power in half, leaving half with the serpiente and giving half to the new breed of shifters they created, the avians.
      
      The only way for that power to be reunited is in the child of a cobra and a hawk, and in that first generation the magic is almost completely dormant. You may get a few odd flashes of this or that, but not much. A second generation child, however, would be born with the full force of Ahnamirak's magic - the magic with its power centered in change, in fire, in destruction.
      
      If (when, really) that child's magic got away from them, they would destroy themselves and probably everything for miles.
      
      Now then, it's possible that a second generation child wouldn't have all of these problems if you went into some of the really, really strange crosses - but we don't know that for sure. A falcon/wyvern mongrel - yes - would have the full force of both sides of Ahnamirak's and Ahnmik's magic, which would probably balance both and make it very unlikely that they would loose control of either, but having them be such would make them more or less all powerful.
      
      You try telling them to go to their room when they don't want to.
      
    Possible pictures
    • None yet
  Falcon Mongrel
  • Right, I'm going to avoid as many spoilers as possible in this section since Wyvernhail does play a big part into it, but this means you're going to have to just take a few things because I say so, all right? I may not give many reasons; please just have a little faith in me. If you want the reasons, go and read the book, it's a good book.
    
    Now, on to the actual section.
    
    Before all else, let's get this over with: you will not get a half falcon for your first character. Sorry, but they're complicated - especially for someone new to stuff around here. Now that we have that out of the way, here's number two: these characters are SEVERLY restricted, if it does not make sense you will not be getting it.
    
    There are several reasons for this: falcons are the most isolated species pretty much EVER, they have laws against having a kid with a different species of falcon then you yourself are, say nothing of other types of elavie, almost none of the falcons ever leave the white island, those falcon mongrels who do manage to come into existance anyway usually tend to either blow themselves and others up at a young age or else are killed or else fall into Ecl....
    
    Which leads me to rule number two, by the way. No magic. Yup, absolutly no magic. Think you could handle it? Sorry, nope. If you want to play a falcon mongrel, they need to have one heck of a history to explain why they're around in the first place and they cannot have any falcon magic. I don't care why they don't have magic (they weren't born with it or it was stripped) but it cannot be 'they never learned to use it.' That would still mean that they had it which would mean it would almost certainly get away from them, especially away from the White Island. Even those born on the White Island, which was designed to be a sort of 'safe' zone for those who haven't yet mastered their powers, normally they loose control. The magic is unbalanced and VERY unstable.
    
    So yea; no magic. If they have ANY supernatural abilities from their falcon parent, the extent needs to be shapeshifting. Now, falcon mongrels that are a cross with other species of elavie - or, at least, Kiesha'ra - are apparently somewhat unique in that they can take the full forms of both their parents as well as the demi forms. There is no mixed form, however. The only two elavie who have mixed forms are listed right above.
    
    Rule number three: NO second generation falcon mongrels. Period. Nope, sorry.
    
    Four: Try to stay away from half-falcons that were raised by falcons. Trust me, the way that a falcon thinks is very, very complicated and a half-falcon raised falcon would think the same way. You would need more falcon lore then you know if you wanted to play it correctly.
    
    Five: If you do wanna play one then you'd better have one darn good story as to why they exist, are still alive, and are out and about in the world at all. Once again, things must make sense.
    
    A final thing that you'll probably want to keep in mind; half falcons tend to be slightly crazy.
    
    And, other then that... it varies. If you have specific questions, go on and pm me. If you have an idea then run it (briefly) by me - if I ok it then you might (MIGHT) have a possiblity. Please remember, however, that there are no definates. Just like with everything else, the final decision rests with the administration.

[Lachlan Williams]

Part Human/Latent Elavie

Just because a person has elavie blood does not necessarily mean that they have all the powers associated with that, or even that they can shapeshift.

Latent elavie are people who have elavie blood but cannot shapeshift - or even know of the fact that they might have. If someone doesn't shift fairly early on in life (the ages differ between the different breeds) then they'll loose the ability as well as any seconday traits that go along with it. For example, if someone with the power to shift into some kind of bird (avian, goshawk, quetzal, etc) didn't end up shapeshifting fairly early on they'd grow up with none of the other defining traits - the feathers at the nape of their neck, hollow bones, higher temperature, strong eyesight, etc. They would pretty much be a normal human with nothing but the possibility of passing on the genes - because it doesn't really matter if they can shift or not. Even if they don't display any of the secondary characteristics of their blood or even shift, that doesn't change the genes. They can pass those on to their children who then would (as their parents) have the possibility of being able to shift. You needn't be full shifter to be a latent elavie - if any of the human x elavie mixes didn't shift while still young, the same thing would happen to them.

The three breeds that you would NOT get latent elavie with are Pakana, Cougar and Wolf for one good and simple reason - they are affected by the stages of the moon. They feel the need to shift at the full moon, so they wouldn't make it until they couldn't shift anymore without shifting.

Make sense?

Now then, part human.

You can have a part human elavie who can shift, the power simply becomes somewhat diluted by the human blood. A SSSS shapeshifter would have 'pure' blood; the magic would be stronger simply because more of it CARRIED the magic. But, unlike when you get a shapeshifter x shapeshifter cross, human blood is not converted to shifter by vie elavie. So, if you crossed a human and a shapeshifter the gene tag that you would get would be SSHH - only half of their blood would have elavie magic in it.

Half'n'half can still shift and they display all of the other characterstics - taking avian as example again, they'd have the elevated body temp, etc. However, because the magic isn't as strong in their blood they don't have quite the same finesse that a pure shifter might, so no HHSS person can take demi form. Similarly, for one of the breeds with an elongated life span, they might not live as long. Quarterbloods are slightly different stories - if a person is 3/4 human (HHHS) then they'd pretty much be a typical human, not able to shift. The only thing that they'd be able to do is pass on that one S gene to one of their children - who might carry it again or (if the other parent also had S gene/s) might be able to shift. For royal bloods (SSSH), they might be able to take a demi/half form.

[Lachlan Williams]

Approved Non-Canon Breeds

Closed

All non-canon breeds of elavie now must be chai. No new species of vie can be created. Yes, this includes undiscovered branches or whatever - the ONLY way that ANY breed will EVER be added to this kind of shapeshifters is if the creator of the universe (Amelia Atwater-Rhodes) comes out and says that she has created a new breed.

Unless she does that, this all there's gonna be; sorry.

[Lachlan Williams]

FAQ

Please feel free to pm me with any questions not answered here, I'll do my best to answer and will better know what to put in here.

General

• Q: Can elavie be bloodbonded?
  • A: Vie elavie (the ones discussed in this thread) cannot be bloodbonded, no. Chai elavie can be. More information on chai elavie can be found here.
    
• Q: Can my shapeshifter character have some form of magic other then shapeshifting?
  
  • A: The only canon shapeshifters who can use magic are a second generation Avian/Serpiente Wyvern, a Falcon, a Falcon hybrid, a second generation Falcon/Kiesha'ra hybrid, or a fully trained Azteka Bloodwitch. As all of the above listed are non-playable due to power reasons... no. Sorry, but no magic - not canon, and espeically not non-canon.

Breeds

• Q: Are cat type shifters affected by catnip?
  • A: Yes
• Q: Are the various color morphs out there for all the various animals possible for their shifters as well?
  • A: We don't have a canon answer for this question, so for the purposes of this board, yes.
    
    There are obviously some exceptions to that rule: golden hawks, king cobras, and white vipers will have the coloration listed. However, for species with more... flexible options, yea. If you want an odd-colored animal, however, then you need first to go and find out if it would be possible, and what the genetics behind that in real life would be. True white lions, not merely albino, are very rare since there is one specific recessive gene tag that triggers that coloring, and while black jaguars are fairly common, black leopards that were not bred in captivity for that color are almost non-existent. Ghost-striped tigers exist, so do spotless black jaguars and king leopards and reverse-striped tigers and all the rest of them... but they are EXTREMELY rare. The Maltese Tiger is believed to exist, but only two or three have been seen in the last few hundred years, and there has been one alleged sighting of a black cougar on record.
    
    Use common sense, please - and it would probably be a good idea to contact the administration before setting your heart on having a particular color morph.
• Q: Are the various sub-species within a species named available for creation?
  • A: Once again, we don't have a definitive answer for all species, so for the purposes of this board the answer is yes unless specifically stated otherwise. This means a tiger could be Siberian, Bengal, Chinese, Sumatran or any other of the subspecies, a hyena could be Spotted, Brown, or Striped, a bat could be any of the species of bats that eat fruit. You could NOT, however, choose just any species of python as the breed has been pinpointed as a Burmese Python, nor could you choose any kind of sparrow as it has been confirmed that the avian form is closest to the House Sparrow.
    
    You get the picture.

Crossbreeds

• Q: Is any other kind of crossbreed then the ones you listed possible?
  • A: If you want to know all of the genetics behind the elavie and everything that is possible, go and read this. If you just want a straight answer, then no. No more mixed forms.
    
    If you're gonna go into the genetics side of it, and ask if you can get an AABB cross... as far as this roleplay goes, no. Crosses where the child is a different breed then the mother are possible, if very unlikely, and are next to non-existant for the breeds affected by the moon. Even if they manage to produce one, as soon as they shift because of the full moon they will probably have a miscarrige. If not that, then it could damage or kill the mother and the child.
    
    Humans have problems if the blood of the baby isn't the same kind as the mother - if it's positive instead of negative, for example. How much more do you figure that would count if it was a different species?

Part Human/Latent Elavie

• None yet

Approved Non-Canon Breeds

• Q: Can I create a shapeshifter not discussed here?
  • A: Yes! Of course, it can't be the same kind as one of the shifters discussed in this thread (vie elavie - so no extended life, etc) and has to conform to certain standards.
    
    For more information, check here