If you inbreed your boucles, there is a chance of defects showing up! These birth defects, also known as BDs, then have a 25% chance to pass on to potential offspring if the inbred boucle can produce any. If both parents happen to have the same birth defect, the chance is 50%! The closer the relation of the horses, the greater the chance of BDs. To avoid BDs, make sure there is no inbreeding for three generations counted from the sire and dam!
All known BDs
Blindness
Blind boucles cannot see and might also have irritated or missing eyes.
Deafness
Deafness is not visible on the outside of the unicorn, but leaves them unable to hear and may affect their balance as well.
Allergies
Allergies can range from mild to severe. It is not always visible, but can be in the form of runny noses, runny eyes, bumps and hairloss.
Dud
Dud boucles cannot use magic. They can however still acquire MP.
High Metabolism
High metabolism will make your boucle underweight, no matter how much it eats.
Low Metabolism
Low metabolism will make your boucle overweight, no matter how carefully you plan its diet.
Infertility
While not visible, infertility makes the boucle unable to produce offspring. It may also affect their production of hormones.
Runny
Runny boucles constantly have mucus oozing from their nose, eyes and mouth, yuk!
Hairlessness
Hairless boucles do not have any fur on their body, which leaves them very susceptible to the elements as well as insect bites.
Anemia
Anemic boucles have incorrectly shaped red blood cells which cause them to be breathless and fatigued most of the time.
[example soon!]
Epilepsy
Epilepsy causes periodic fits and seizures to a minor or severe degree.
[example soon!]
Alopecia
Alopectic boucles have partial to full hair loss all over their coat.
[example soon!]
Hornlessness
While they still have bouclite skeleton, hooves and eyes, hornless boucles does not grow a horn. This in turn often leads to shunning by other unicorns, as well as lowered magical ability.
Overgrown Horn
A boucle’s horn continues to grow extra growths that can take up most of their face!
Stunted Horn
Boucles with a stunted horn barely grow more than a little nubbin where their horn should be and are often mocked by other boucles!
Cyclops
This defect causes the boucle to only have one eye just below their horn!
Triclops
This defect causes the boucle to have an extra eye just below their horn!
Deformed
Boucles with this BD can be deformed in a variety of ways, and they are always moderately to severely affected by their deformities.
Hermaphrodites
While not always visible on the outside, hermaphrodite boucles have parts of the genitalia associated with both genders. They are most often infertile, but a few with one set of genitalia functioning have been found. No inbred hermaphrodite have ever had both sets of genitalia functioning.
Corruption
Corruption is an incredibly rare group of birth defects, and their ways of expressing is largely unknown. It seem to warp the bodies and sometimes the minds of the boucles, and while they do not have special magic types or abilities some seem to be prone to their magic backfiring.
A corrupted Boucle will always reflect the phenotype it has, so for example a corrupted muffet would have a spider theme!
If an Ancients Blessing is bestowed upon a corrupted boucle, the Corrupted defect is removed!
Breeding Corrupteds:
- All boucles that inherit Corruption also roll for an extra defect as well as any others inherited from the parents.
- Only 50% of breedings to other boucles succeed, Corrupted boucles quite often scare away their partners, or are not very fertile.
- Breeding one Corrupted to another has a 75% rate of a successful breeding.
- Even if the breeding is successful and a foal is produced, there is still only a 25% chance that they also inherit Corruption (50% chance if both parents are Corrupted)
- If you breed a blessed boucle to a corrupted boucle and it inherits both, the blessing will cancel out the corruption <3
Encrusted
Encrusted covers the boucle in raw birthstone and surrounding mineral, and there may or may not be crumbling patches showing the normal coat below. The boucle is stiff to move and may have joint problems.