November 2022: The following rules are being adjusted to allow for better inclusivity of disabilities and expand character development:
OLD RULES – Prior to November 2022:
- You CANNOT crop your boucle’s tail! This would leave the boucle with severe balance issues and lessen its quality of life :c
- You CANNOT break your boucle’s horn! Bouclite is stronger than any known material, and a boucle with a broken horn would be shunned by other boucles as well as have weaker magic :C
NEW RULES – Starting November 2022:
TL;DR: Major injuries are now permissible in references after completing a prompt. Minor injuries such as surface scars do not require a prompt. Harm by handlers is not permitted. Castration is now possible for Boucles you do not wish to breed.
Bouclite is a very durable and almost unbreakable material, it cannot be harmed or broken easily. Scarring of the skin or muscle is possible, but keep in mind that Classiques and Palais tend to heal quickly, especially with the help of blood magic; Batailles may scar more readily and more permanently, and are less affected by blood magic.
Boucles can be shown on their reference (not design) with injuries caused by things such as the following:
- Predators such as the Unicornian Bog Beast (a creature that lives in the Bogs that evolved to consume Bouclite);
- A Bataille (aggressive war-trained unicorns);
- By misadventure (eg, accidents).
Keep in mind:
- Harm to a Boucle’s tail will leave them with severe balance issues and lessen their quality of life.
- A boucle with a broken horn would be shunned by most other boucles as well as have weaker magic.
How to Add an Injury
Do not add injuries to foal or import designs. During acceptance, we need to be able to see the design in its “pure” form, and scars may obscure design details. The only exception may be on official group imports that have scars from story events.
Do not add anything to BAs or BDs field that is not on the breeding note/import. e.g.: Blindness from an injury is not inheritable so should not be included under BDs.
Minor Injuries
Minor Injuries are surface wounds such as scars caused by bites, kicks and scratches from thorns or fences etc. These are surface wounds and do not cause impairments, and may heal by themselves or leave small hairless patches or fur discolouration in roans or greys.
Please add a record of their Minor Injuries to their reference, to help others when drawing them.
e.g.: “Injuries: Scar on bridge of nose (minor)
You do not need to complete a prompt to add Minor Injuries to a reference.
Major Injuries
Major Injures are deeper than the skin, and usually cause some sort of impairment and/or permanent scarring. Blindness, deafness and other impairments that have no visual scarring but cause a lasting effect also count as Major Injuries.
You must complete a prompt to apply a Major Injury to your references:
- After designing and before referencing your Boucle, you must complete an art or literature prompt describing how they received the injury (remember to tag it as mature if the reason is particularly messy!).
- When submitting your reference, add an “Injuries” field, list the injury(ies) and include a link to the Injury Prompt.
e.g.: Injuries: Scar over right eye causing blindness (major injury – [prompt link])”
You can add injuries to already referenced boucles by removing their reference from the group, updating it and resubmitting it.
Intentional Harm
Purposeful harm/abuse by handlers IS NOT PERMISSABLE within the group:
- Handlers CANNOT harm or otherwise abuse their boucles;
- Handlers CANNOT crop their boucle’s tail! It is not ethical to do so;
- Handlers CANNOT break, drill or otherwise disfigure their boucle’s horn! It is not ethical to do so.
Any artwork or literature including any intentional harm will not be permitted into the group and cannot gain XP.
Characters with intentional harm have previously been available through certain nefarious RP events including an evil faction of wizards, only these characters have canon intentional harm and can gain XP from art/literature including this storyline. Said stories must be appropriately filtered with deviantArt trigger warnings.
Birth Defects
Injuries added in the reference that cause Blindness, Deafness etc are NOT the same as inheritable Birth Defects, and should NOT be listed under BDs in the reference.