Non-Traited Alumy Appearance Requirements

Created: 3 July 2024, 18:35:33 CDT
Last updated: 24 October 2024, 10:22:54 CDT

Non-Traited Alumy Appearance Requirements

Document written by Vilagyent with input from the alumy staff and approval from Design Approvers, Blu_x_Jay, carlos_claee, MarshMoshi.


Brief appearance are available under the Required and Default trait.

Detailed Appearance Description

Size – Alumy are large creatures. Generally, alumies range from two to twelve feet tall (~1-4m tall), depending on subtype and rank.

Eyes - Alumy must have at least three eyes, two regular eyes in the eye sockets of the skull, consistent with the placement of eyes on real animals, and one eyestone, located on the forehead in between the eyes.
The only reason an alumy wouldn’t have a set of normal eyes is:

  • If the Uncommon “Misplaced eyestone” trait is used. In this case the eyestone will take the place of one of the normally placed eyes, and the alumy will have a normal eye in place of where the eyestone would go (middle of forehead).
  • If the No Ranker only, Uncommon “No Eyes” trait is used. In this case, the alumy will only have one eyestone in the middle of the forehead.

Eyestone – There must be at least one eyestone on the middle of the alumy’s forehead. This eyestone is the source of an alumy’s magic and is an eye with special properties. The eyestone has two states:

  • Dormant - no iris or pupil is present. The eyestone is blank.
  • Controlling - the eyestone has the iris and pupil matching the creature they are actively controlling.

The eyestone must be depicted in a dormant (blank) state for the masterlist image of an alumy, therefore it is recommended to always draw the eyestone dormant on ref sheets/design concepts.

Nose – Alumy must have a three-pronged, downward arrow shaped nose, two prongs in the typical direction animal noses go and one going straight upwards. You can choose to draw your alumy with or without nostrils and can choose to make the nose thinner or thicker, or more bat nose shaped, however there always must be 3 distinct lines forming an arrow like shape.

Tongue - Alumy must have forked tongues. The only exception to this is flower alumies with the
Proboscis Tongue trait.

  • Note: Some legacy alumy have round tongues, this is an artifact of old design rules. The “round tongue” legacy trait is only for denoting early alumy designs who have rounded tongues which have not been updated on the masterlist. If you obtain an alumy with a round tongue, you will be expected to change it for any subsequent redesigns. It is recommended you draw the alumy with a forked tongue regardless of this legacy trait as round tongues are not canon.

Ears – Alumy must have ears that are as long as or longer than the length of the head from nose to back of the head (1x head size). They can be any shape or go in any direction, as long as they loosely resemble ears. There is no restriction on how slim or thick they should be but note, if you do make them particularly thin or thick, you may be asked to clarify/change these ears if the design approvers feel they stray too far from looking like ears. Alumy ears may have tufts of fur at the end, or have any accessories such as earrings, gauges, inserts, etc. Alumy ears cannot be replaced by wings, limbs, or other objects but may be shaped to resemble wings, limbs, or objects. These mimic ears do not have any functionality of the thing they mimic. The same warning applies to this as well, you may be asked to change these ears if the design approvers feel they stray too far from looking like ears.

Hair - Hair is defined by any fur/fluff originating from the head area like human hair would. There is no restriction on hair length/style/color regardless of mane length or alumy type.

Horns - Alumies must have at least one set of horns/antenna unless they are a water subtype or water hybrid (horns are optional). Please see listed trait definitions for more detail on specific horn types.

Mane - The mane must be clearly defined with a fully connected line that divides the mane section from the body section. There should be no gaps on this line, regardless of art style.

  • Regular alumy manes runs from the back of the head, on the neck and chest, and down the spine, stopping about where the ribcage ends.
  • For alumies with big manes, the fur runs down the spine to the base of the tail in addition to covering where the regular mane would. This big main trait can also extend down the tail but doesn't have to.

The edge of the mane on the body may run from the chest to the spine including the shoulder and front leg or excluding it. The mane may extend on the chest to the base of the ribcage but may go no further. An alumy can not have a mane that runs the entire length on the stomach.
An Alumy’s front legs can have tufts of fur at the elbow or wrist only if the mane extends down the front legs. If it does not, this fluff must follow the same rules as the back legs and consist of only short fur.
The mane can never extend down the butt/back legs or farther than the ribcage of the alumy on the bottom. The fur length of the mane can be any length/texture provided it is clearly longer and well defined.

Body fur - An Alumy’s body has velvety fur, most commonly resembling fur seen on horses. This fur is short, soft, and is not long enough to clump together to form large tufts. Apart from cheek/head fluff, an Alumy’s non-mane body fur should show little to no fur definition. There should be no fur texture shown on the spine or back leg areas and if the mane does not extend to the front legs, they should be similarly bare at the elbows/wrists. Tail fluff that is not part of the mane, must match the body fur length/appearance unless the tail trait would change this as is the case with many tail traits like Unc Floof Tail or Unc Curtain Tail. Tiny indications of fur are allowed but these must be kept small and limited to what could be a few cm lengths at best (remember alumy are large creatures). The maximum length for alumy body fur would be something resembling otter fur; Fur that is fluffy but uniform in length and still decently short so that it does not clump unless wet.

  • Note: It is recommended that you draw no fur tufts on the body fur unless you can make edits to the design as needed. Many designs get returned due to having fur clumps that are determined by the design approvers to be too long. Any fur clumps you decide to include on the non-mane body fur should be done with the knowledge that the design may be returned to you.

✅️ Acceptable Non-mane fluff: 

❌️ Illegal Non-mane fluff: 

Claws - Alumies have non-retractable claws on their front legs. They do not have claws on their back legs, unless they are a sky subtype or sky hybrid, in which case these back claws must resemble bird talons.

Accessories – Generally there are no restrictions on accessories an alumy may have. The decision to accessorize an alumy (add or remove) is left up to the current owner and these accessories do not have to be present on the masterlist image.
Any accessory that mimics a listed trait (ex. fake wings) must be visibly fake and labeled accordingly in the masterlist image. Please be aware that accessories made to mimic traits may be asked to be changed/modified/removed if the design approvers deem it not clear that they are accessories.
Please note, hateful accessories of any kind are not tolerated.

Scars/Wounds - Generally there are no restrictions on scars/wounds/visual deformities such as broken/cut horns or damaged/missing limbs other than that these can not completely replace the trait. Scars/wounds can not be used to completely remove horns/ears/etc (so they are not visible) or other similar alterations that would make listed or unlisted required traits unclear. Additionally, if these changes are made in ways that mimic listed traits, please be aware that the design may be asked to be clearly labeled or changed/modified so as to not create confusion.

Disabilities (Physical or other) and Aids – Disabilities will never be traited. An alumy can have any disability as long as there is effort to not demonize/marginalized individuals with this disability. Prosthetics or aids of any kind are also not subject to restriction and any aid may be added to an alumy with or without showing a physical disability.
Listed traits can be used to create aids if able (ex. An alumy missing a front leg could create a prosthetic out of vines/trees if they had the unc plant growth trait. However, this use of plant growth must be clearly distinguishable as a prosthetic as opposed to a form of a wooden elemental parts leg)
Any aid made to mimic a listed trait must still be labeled clearly so it is not mistaken as that trait (ex. As in the previous example, a prosthetic limb that appears to be a use of the Myth Elemental Parts trait) and please be aware, like accessories, aids made to mimic traits may be asked to be changed/modified if the design approvers deem it unclear that they are not physically part of the alumy.