Birthday Giveaway! (Merideti)

Post by **Dray** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 10:09 am

Since I'm not really interested in running SCD any more, but I liked the idea of having a b-day giveaway, I figured I'd do one for my own! >:D

This time around, I'm planning on giving away a few 'starter' dragons for a new species I'm working on. This race is wingless, long-limbed as well as long of neck and tail, and this particular template has a ridge of fur down the back, tufted ears, feathering on said long limbs, and a belly plating that extends down (and wraps around) the length of the tail. I'm currently inking the image, but I'll have a preview up shortly.

These guys, called 'Merideti' (as in, 'a single Merideti', 'many Merideti' and so on) are shape shifters but they only have a single, humanoid form. There are no in-between stages because those are incredibly unstable! Said humanoid form is typically a little shorter then average by human terms, though both males and females end up with similar heights. They have pointed ears and digitigrade legs that have rotating ankles, and their five-digited hands and feet (dew-claw on the feet) have longer, more pointed nails then humans. They also have tails very much like those of their draconic form, but these are much shorter, only just reaching the ground when they stand straight. Other then that, they're fairly well humanoid, though their skin colours tend to be a little closer to those of their draconic form then to anything really... skin-coloured? XD

For magic, they have the potential to learn the stuff, and they have a form of teleportation that they call something froofier, like 'dream walking' or 'shadow walking', etc. How it works is, they set off walking in whatever direction they're going, meditating intensely on the place they want to be, and eventually they get there. Depending on how good they are, it could take minutes, or it could take days--and sometimes it doesn't happen at all! Once in a /very/ long while they end up somewhere completely different--though please, /please/ don't use that excuse in them unless you absolutely have to. x_x' It's as done to death as the 'and they popped through a random portal for no apparent reason!' plot-hinge.

For them, magic is also a rite of passage. The Merideti can bond, but it's not at all the same as for most dragons. These guys bond to inanimate objects, and it's not the mind-link thing that Pernese etc. dragons perform at hatching. Here, a Merideti has to first go out and find an object that calls to them. It could be a precious gem or metal, it could be a piece of driftwood or a worn down pebble--though whatever it is, it tends to be something more permanent. They return home with this item and go through a certain amount of rites with it, and they'll know if it was the 'right piece' if, when they perform their first spell (usually a simple light-casting one) works. If not, they have to start all over again. >:D Once they find their bonded piece, they'll have to practice with it and learn from other masters if they want to really become great. Some Merideti don't bother to find a bonded piece--they're perfectly happy to live an unmagical life.

The thing with bonded pieces is that they're going to work like cyborware tokens. You'll get an image without any bonded piece, and if you proceed to write for your Merideti, you'll get a chance to send in for one. (This is the equivalent of your Merideti going home and studying with a master, as opposed to just picking one up!) Since Merideti will also wear either piercings, anklets, or necklaces to display that they do indeed have a bonded piece, this will be the kind of alteration I make to the template. (There will be a list of gem-types and what they mean, once I get a site up. :) )

Now, onto the pertinent info for the giveaway.

Merideti come in colours that range from yellows through oranges, reds, browns, and occasionally dark shades that verge on black, and light shades that verge on white. They may also have accents of a different colour, but if they're, say, 'purple', it will be a very greyed down version. This template will not have a pattern unless I get the time and the urge to work one in. XD

Here's the form. Please note that if you pick colours other then 'natural' tones, said colours will be dulled down quite a bit!

Your name:
Your email:
Merideti's main body colour:
Merideti's eye colour:
Merideti's fur colour:
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour:

Unlike with most giveaways, I'd really like to have links to the dragons I give out, once I give them away! May 24th is when I will need to see them up!

They won't be available for breeding just yet, since I haven't fine-tuned all the details on that, yet, but I plan on letting them out eventually. :3

Thanks for participating! This draw will close tomorrow, so if you want one of these, please send in a form today!

JKatkina · Post by **JKatkina** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 10:14 am

Yeee! Terry for the win!

Your name: JKatkina
Your email: jkatkina@hotmail.com
Merideti's main body colour: Creamy tan-red
Merideti's eye colour: If possible, orangey
Merideti's fur colour: Creamy red
Merideti's belly/tail plating color: Cream-colored

Yay naturalish colors! Look at ruddy Abyssinian cats for inspiration, I guess. :D <3 ruddy.

Post by **DragonFlight** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 10:15 am

Your name: DragonFlight
Your email: dragonflight@lostmysanity.net
Merideti's main body colour: Light brown!
Merideti's eye colour: Um.....blue?
Merideti's fur colour: Light light brown or white
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: Dark brown or blaaacccckkk. :D

I hope that's ok, and these guys sound fun!

Starburst · Post by **Starburst** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 10:18 am

Your name: Molly/Starburst
Your email: molly@mysticalplace.com
Merideti's main body colour: White, or something really close.
Merideti's eye colour: Blue
Merideti's fur colour: Red (crimson-ish)
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: Orange (burnt-sienna-ish)

jess d · Post by **jess d** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 10:19 am

Your name: Jess D
Your email: jld77084@yahoo.com
Merideti's main body colour: cream
Merideti's eye colour: green
Merideti's fur colour: rust
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: tawny (golden-brown)

Skysong · Post by **Skysong** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 10:52 am

Your name: Skysong
Your email: skysong_of_shar@yahoo.com
Merideti's main body colour: Light brown
Merideti's eye colour: Emerald green
Merideti's fur colour: Darker, more chocolate brown
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: Golden yellow

Do they always have to bond to something natural, or could it be, say, a book or a pencil or something else man-made? Just curious XD I'm so looking forward to seeing these guys, yay!

Post by **Dray** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 10:59 am

They don't have to bond to anything at all, if they don't want to. X3 It's not like a /need/, more like an "I want to be able to perform spells, therefore--" sort of thing. And yes, they can bond to man-made objects, and often do. If, for instance, one finds a book or a blade or, frick, a toaster oven or whatever that they're willing to cart around all the time, then they can work with that. It's just that, when it's something that's smaller, it's easier to carry around. With gems and metal and stuff like that, they can usually fashion it into jewellery, which makes that popular. The wood and such can sometimes be splintered off (though sometimes only works if kept whole and un-chewed-up) and set into something that can be worn around the neck or tail. If they can keep it strapped to them for easy use while wandering around, then they can use it!

Skysong · Post by **Skysong** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:07 am

Okay, after reading that, I have an image of one of these guys bonded to a gigantic dining room table or something and having to drag it around everywhere XD XD

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:14 am

Your name: Unyko
Your email: unykness@pegaruny.com
Merideti's main body colour: dark red or dark gray
Merideti's eye colour: green
Merideti's fur colour: white, or pale gray or whatever is closest to white for them.. ^.^;;
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: er.. fiery?

*also can't wait to see how these gys turn out!*

*and cracks up at Sky's table-draging dragon* XD!

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:21 am

Clever ideas.

And happy birthday!!

Your name: shard
Your email: kshau_protectorate @ yahoo.com
Merideti's main body colour: dusty orange / yellowish
Merideti's eye colour: blue
Merideti's fur colour: black (if possible please)
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: white/cream

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:23 am

Oooooooh... these sound cool. And happy birthday, also!

Your name: Shiolar
Your email: shiolar@uk2.net
Merideti's main body colour: Brownish Gray, maybe?
Merideti's eye colour: Gold
Merideti's fur colour: Reddish Brown
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: Orange

Kitsuneko · Post by **Kitsuneko** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:43 am

Happy Birthday!

Your name: Kitsuneko
Your email: silver_storyteller@yahoo.com
Merideti's main body colour: Red
Merideti's eye colour: Blue
Merideti's fur colour: White
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: Yellow

Xenoqueen · Post by **Xenoqueen** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:47 am

Oooo, right, because the Terry's birthday is tomorrow!

Awesomeness!

Phe-Classic color-scheme time! >3

Your name: Phoenix
Your email: thexenoqueen@gmail.com
Merideti's main body colour: Red
Merideti's eye colour: Yellow/Gold
Merideti's fur colour: Black
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: White

Banned User · Post by **Banned User** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:10 pm

Your name: Yakima
Your email: wolf_mage_of_rerir@msn.com
Merideti's main body colour: white
Merideti's eye colour: blue (?)
Merideti's fur colour: gold
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: gold

I'm in a white-gold mood again...dur

Post by **Dray** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:26 pm

XD Now, I can see some kind of house-wife or house-husband bonding to something like that. "I make magic in the kitchen, honey~!" *handflap* XDD

Whee, lots to colour today! I plan to give these out tomorrow, and I'll try to have info up on them soon so that people can write for them, if they feel like it! I just need to figure out how to make a webpage, again. XD It's been absolutely forever since I last did!

Cacopheny · Post by **Cacopheny** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:32 pm

: O Such an interesting idea! And hey, it's Terry-art >.>

Your name: CacophenyAngel
Your email: cacopheny @ gmail . com
Merideti's main body colour: Light brown
Merideti's eye colour: Green
Merideti's fur colour: Dark brown
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: Cream

... I love mah browns >.>

LakotaWolf · Post by **LakotaWolf** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:50 pm

Your name: Lakota
Your email: Lakotasilver@gmail.com
Merideti's main body colour: gray-blue
Merideti's eye colour: green
Merideti's fur colour: tan
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: cream

I have an interesting mental picture of these guys in my head.. can't wait to see if it's close to the truth X3

Post by **Dray** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:00 pm

Here's an in-progress image, for everyone who'd like a visual example of what they're going to get. ^_^

I'm also getting an idea for a 'bonding site' that's pretty different from the candidate/novo kind. O_O' What do you guys think of a site where, instead of sending in candidates to bond or sponsor a pup (since I think these guys will have 'pups', either that or 'kits'), you send in a youngster of whatever kind you want (could be dragon, could be humanoid) and that character will switch with the pup? It would be like two-way fostering, and would give me more characters out of the exchange, too, whether or not they have an image! XD

The idea is, these Merideti have a big old party every couple of years where various clans or tribes travel to the host-clan, they party it up for a week or two, and in the mean time, their children decide which tribe they want to leave with. Since I'm planning on having my first 'clutch' be something like this, only open to offworlders, what I'd expect from you guys would be a story with a youngster and caretaker, or even ambassadors and the like. Then I'd give out pups based on the story and which characters were going to stay with the tribe... which means I'd get to write them in to further stories and the like. XD It's like a trade, I guess!

LakotaWolf · Post by **LakotaWolf** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:05 pm

I like it! Reminds me of stuff I've read about cultures in history in which royalty would switch their children with the offspring of other royal families to cement alliances and whatnot X3

::can't wait::

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:07 pm

Sounds pretty cool. And I love that image, too.

Xenoqueen · Post by **Xenoqueen** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:49 pm

::headscratchins:: Kid-swapping might be fine for the Merideti culture, but I have trouble seeing how off-worlders could get in on that. o_o So it's like foreign exchange students... but permanent? O.o That weirds me out a bit, really. My brain is dubbing in, "You want our children, you must give us yours!" o.o

Post by **Dray** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 2:01 pm

Pretty much... though it's more up to the kids to decide if they want to stay, and the usual age of the Merideti is something around teen-aged, so it's not like they're too young to make their own decisions. Their whole culture's going to be at least a little odd, but I still need to work a lot of it out, of course.

I'm mostly trying to think of a different way to adopt creatures out... and I think it would be neat to have a place where, when I give out a character for someone to write about to their hearts content, I get one to do the same with!

Do you have any suggestions, though? I'd like to hear what you think!

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 2:45 pm

Can I use the Sanger ambassador I was hoping SCD would be taking? Is this a one-for-one or a one-for-howevermany? (Ambassadoring would, I had hoped and planned in the past, allow for multiple sponsorships, but this doesn't seem like that.) I like the idea, actually, and heck, we've got generators aplenty for such characters. Heh. How about a usagi bunny?

Xenoqueen · Post by **Xenoqueen** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 2:49 pm

Okay, if it happens at a more teenager-y age, I can wrap my head around it better. I guess what I'd really like to see is an explanation of how off-worlder "trading" works into it. Swapping clanmates makes sense for things like genetic diversity, but how does swapping with off-worlders fit? What do Merideti do that off-worlders can't, and vice versa? Give me the whyyyyyys! X3

I totally understand the wanting-a-character-in-turn bit, though I can't imagine running a whole agency that way. As popular as your images are, you'll be up to your armpits in characters in no time! But then again, we're all already so with dragons, so I guess it's not a difference at all, really. XD You'll just get a batch of new characters at a time, in contrast to collecting dragons one or two at a time.

Omniwite · Post by **Omniwite** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 4:04 pm

Your name: Omniwite
Your email: Dances_with_Moogles@hotmail.com
Merideti's main body colour: Dark, nearly black with a mahogany sheen
Merideti's eye colour: Pale, seafoam green
Merideti's fur colour: Dusty white (very pale grey)
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: Emerald green

Interesting ideas! Can't say I get it fully myself, but that'll be worked out in time. ^^ So lovely! We should set up a roleplay with them. I always find it easier to write stories when interacting with others. :3

And before I forget: Happy Birthday, Dray! I know it's not until tomorrow, but what the hey, right? ^^

Xalia · Post by **Xalia** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 4:29 pm

Your name: Xalia
Your email: xaliademarin@yahoo.com
Merideti's main body colour: Orange-brown
Merideti's eye colour: yellow-orange
Merideti's fur colour: Red (maybe a little orangey)
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: Creamy yellow?

Hope that color combo comes out okay... XD And awesome idea Dray!

Silver Midnight · Post by **Silver Midnight** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:25 pm

Your name: Sil
Your email: silvermidnight@gmail.com
Merideti's main body colour: Silver
Merideti's eye colour: Blue-grey
Merideti's fur colour: Black
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: White

Those are pretty awesome, Terry. Is this just a one-time thing?

Indigo · Post by **Indigo** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:26 pm

Your name: Indigo
Your email: indigozeb@yahoo.com
Merideti's main body colour: beige
Merideti's eye colour: light blue
Merideti's fur colour: cream
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: a darker (perhaps more golden) beige

Huh, what an interesting idea - I'm game. ^__^ Oh yes, and a early Happy Birthday to you! ^__^

IceCat · Post by **IceCat** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:35 pm

Your name: IceCat
Your email: mordria@yahoo.com
Merideti's main body colour: black
Merideti's eye colour: bright blue
Merideti's fur colour: silver
Merideti's belly/tail plating colour: opal or white

Happy Birthday ^___^

Post by **Dray** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:44 pm

@Shard: The idea is that once the character you choose to send stays, I get to write for it in the future. It's sort of a one-for-one deal, though if I really like the story, I might send a couple back your way. This doesn't mean that you can't send in Ambassador-Sanger, it just means that you'll have to send someone else along with him--he could arrive and stick around, but it's usually the kids that do the most switching around. XD Heck, they'd welcome him with open arms, I'm sure, but he'd definitely have to be okay with getting absorbed into their tribe/clan/whatever-I-decide-to-name-the-large-groups. >:D This is kind of an excuse for me to start creating half-breeds, too, because they certainly would.

@Phe: It's not so much the question 'why?', for these guys, as 'why not?' This race of them is incredibly laid back and, once they've found out that there are other worlds with other people, they're going to be interested (and in some cases eager!) to absorb other people into their groups, and a lot of the kids are going to be eager to go out into the Nexus and see what's different. XD They're people-lovers, kind of.

I'm planning on having the agency span several clan/tribe/groups, rather then just a single one. X3 It'll make for more places to distribute the inflow of characters, and will hopefully be more fun.

The guys that I'm sending off to you will all be teenaged sorts, either sent off to glean more info about the Nexus, advertise for their clan/groups, or running off at the first chance because they want to be somewhere else, or they're looking for an exotic bonding-piece. X3 They'll all be allowed to come back home any time they want--heck, if they bring back foreigners with them, all the better! :P

I'd like to set up an RP at some point, but I'm not sure how to go about that. X3 Maybe some time during the summer when I have things more sorted out.

@Sil: Nope, this isn't a one-time-thing so much as the starting of another agency--this one is just run very differently from your usual candidate-site.

Eee, have to get all of the pickup-info written out now so that everyone has something to go off of!