This project is structured differently than normal. This project is meant to be read, not played! Please read the text in the description, that's all! Welcome to the update project, I'll be addressing some of the questions and extra information I've gotten since Cervimard's release. 1) How is “Cervimard” pronounced? I pronounce it Serve-ih-mard! I attempted to compile it into the phonetic spelling, and here’s what I got: “sɜːv-ɪ-mɑɹd” Try plopping it into an IPA pronouncer if you’re still having trouble understanding/want to hear it for sure! 2) How would I like to be credited? I don’t need to be credited for the species every time you use your cervimard character. I’d just like to be credited in any ref sheets you make of the character, that’s all! :) 3) Bodily limitations/specifications - extra info everyone should know I’ve received a lot of questions on what sort of things are and aren't allowed when it comes to the features of your cervimard. I hadn’t thought about some of these limitations, so I’m glad people have brought them to my attention! On top of this, I’ll be including some extra information that I hadn’t thought to include initially that I now realize are important specifications/details you should be aware of. Firstly, I’ll be addressing the limitations of the possible features a cervimard can inherit naturally in greater detail. I’ve received some questions about features like extra eyes, nonhuman ears, and I’ve even seen some released designs of cervimards being nonhuman animals with horns rather than, well, HUMANS with horns. I described cervimards as “colourful humans with horns,” and I figured this description would be enough to ensure that creators would keep their features within the boundaries of that of a human body plan. The only nonhuman features cervimards can have are that of teeth, eyes, tails, horns and possibly their noses. Otherwise, cervimards would be basically visually identical to humans! The criteria of extra differences like flexibility and better senses than humans still apply - everything that I mentioned in the last project is still valid! All things considered, this specification does not invalidate my previous claim that cervimards can still unnaturally posses inhuman features such as nonhuman ears, extra eyes, and anything else you could think of. The requirement for your CERVIMARD possessing these features, however, is that I ask of you to give a reason as to why your cervimard has inherited such unnatural features. Think about it as a means of susceptibility of the living beings in your stories. In the real world, humans are not susceptible to genetic mutations dramatically enough to give us a set of symmetrical, functional arms and eyes. There is no such thing as humans with naturally occurring wings, or humans with naturally occurring cat ears. There is no evidence of any sort of curse, disease or supernatural influence that would be capable of giving humans reptilian scales or spikes down our spines. However, in some fictional stories detached from the real world, there are curses that can cause eyes to grow on human skin like pimples. Ive seen stories of diseases of passion that could cause plants to grow in human lungs thriving off of the host’s care for someone else. I’ve seen stories of curses that can give humans donkey ears and fox tails. Ive seen stories where it’s normal for humans and plants to live in natural symbiosis. Ive seen stories of altered humans, like werewolves, vampires and zombies. Outside of the world we live in, and inside these many different streams of stories, humans are given much more susceptibility to fictional conditions that could change the way they function. Despite still being considered “humans,” they’re still subjected to external forces that expands upon their initial limitations. However, these limitations are bound to the stories they are part of. None of those exciting fictional circumstances are tied to humans as a species! In my world/story, there are no external forces that would dictate the dramatic features I’ve seen some other creators implement into their cervimards. There would be no curses, no magic, or no mutation catalysts that would allow cervimards these unnatural features. This means that if whatever features being added is not something that could happen to a human in the real world, it is not something that could happen to a cervimard (like extra functional limbs or extra eyes.) Cervimards are about as susceptible to dramatic changes as real world humans are.
(CONTINUED FROM ABOVE) However, that doesn’t mean that in YOUR story, it is not uncommon for all species to have wings due to the livable environment of your world requiring its organisms to navigate through the air. That doesn’t mean your world couldn’t be plagued by a curse that merges the features of multiple species. That doesn’t mean your world couldn’t let multiple niches of the ecosystem possess gills and other aquatic features because there isn’t any dry land for these organisms to thrive on without these features. Remember, you can have all these features added on as long as you have a reason! Colourful humans with horns can be changed based on the stories they’re inside of, just like regular humans can! I hope this helped explain what you can and can’t do with your cervimards a little better, I was being pretty vague in the last project! 4) Another question I’d received is that of what their noses look like. Cervimards can have human noses, and often do! Some have speculated the way i draw them (as a flat line rather than a human nose,) is because of a style choice. Originally, yes, this was the case, but over time it’s changed into a feature in Cervimard biology. The way I draw Cervimard noses is, as you’ve probably seen before, just a flat line. I imagine these noses to be very flattened versions of human noses, with nostrils a similar shape to a crescent rather than the round shape humans have. Here’s an example my friend TheNuzzels did that captures my vision of a cervimard nose; check the backdrop of this project! This isn’t mandatory when you’re designing your cervimards, but it’s an option I’d forgotten to mention in the original project :) 5) Lastly, I’d like to provide some more information on cervimard’s powers. I forgot to mention how using powers is exhausting. How exhausting? Well, it depends. It’s kind of like running. Sometimes, you don’t run very fast, but you can run for longer. Other times, you sprint as fast as you can, but can only go for so long. Cervimard powers are like how fast you’re going - the more vivid the sensation your cervimard is inflicting on someone, the harder it would be to keep their power going! Take Draven’s power, for example. Draven has the ability to make himself appear invisible. If his surroundings are similar to him in appearance, the easier it is for him to activate his ability. It would be easier for him to disappear in a dark forest than a wide open, sunny field, because he has to change less about how anyone looking at him would perceive. It’d also be easier for him to disappear in the summertime when everything is green rather than autumn when there’s an array of contrasting warm colors, since the colors of his surroundings are closer to his colors already. The more your cervimard has to change, the harder it will be for them to activate their powers. The list of sensations cervimards may manipulate from easiest to hardest are as follows: scent manipulation, physical sensations (including things like balance or dexterity), auditory sensations, emotional or mental stimulation, and finally visual perception. Another thing that might make using their powers harder is if they’re using their powers on more than one person. Focusing on more people means you need to spend more energy to get the same effects in multiple places! As I mentioned before, cervimards get tired when they use their powers too much! Just like how the extended use of a muscle would feel, eventually your cervimard will find it harder and harder to control their power smoothly. It becomes harder to focus, harder to hold, and harder to coordinate. Just like you can’t run forever, cervimards can’t use their powers forever! Eventually they will get so tired that they will be forced to stop, but usually no one would want to persist to that point. When you get tired while running, you usually want to stop before you collapse of exhaustion! Like recovering from intense exercise, it takes a little while before your cervimard may feel recovered enough to continue using their powers again. Treat it realistically, you wouldn’t go back to running 5 seconds after you’d just finished a round of laps! 6) That's all I have to share! Hopefully this helped clear up some confusion, and I'm really happy with seeing how everyone engages with the species now that they are available! Keep up the great work :)
