pets
general
Acquiring Pets
Collected in a variety of ways, pets are given as a numbered linework file that acts a lot like a MYO ticket. It’s up to you to color it to your liking; there’s very little restriction on coloration and markings for the most part, so feel free to make something that you’ll enjoy! You’re also welcome to make small alterations to the lines to add accessories, scars, and little personal touches. You may bond a maximum of three pets with each mirn character. These will be recorded in the masterlist along with your mirn, so choose carefully-- at present there’s no way to unbond a pet without giving it up entirely! You have two weeks after receiving the lines to decide who you want them to be bound to, giving you a little time to think.
Experience
Pets can gain experience in a number of ways to help them grow and transition into new forms. The best way to encourage their growth is to interact with them and strengthen the bonds between mirn and pet. Drawing and writing that features either the pet or the mirn and pet together will grant a point of experience per day; the complexity of the work doesn’t matter, though of course more polished pieces are eligible for more glim! Additionally, for those who are pressed for time but still want to speed up the process, the Wanderer sells treats that also grant one experience point per day. If you’re going to be pushing experience through art or writing, be sure you’re submitting your pieces via the glim form in order for them to be properly recorded for experience! We also recommend keeping a personal updated journal or a thread on the Toyhou.se World forums for easy tracking.
Evolution
Upon gaining enough experience, you can take your pet to the temple for Solette to help accelerate their growth cycle into a new form. Five experience points are required to progress from pet to companion, and ten more points on top of that are required to get from companion to mount, meaning you need 15 experience points total to fully evolve a pet. However, it’s no worries if you decide you’d rather keep them at a more manageable size; form progression is completely voluntary and you don’t have to advance them if you prefer how they look now. If you’ve evolved them and decide after the fact that you liked things better the way they were, you can always roll back to any earlier form with no penalties or cost to you! At their first stage, pets are mostly small, cute, and provide little quality of life perks. At their second stage, they become more useful as companions, able to assist in various tasks. At their third stage, they are large enough to be ridden as mounts!
Custom Colors
For those not wanting to color their own, Split and Crow are happy to offer pets fully colored and rendered to your specifications.
Pet or Companion forms: $7
Mount form: $10
Evolution Bundle (all three forms as it progresses): $20
Non-Mirn Ownership
While some pets can only thrive within the Great Basin, some pets are available to be transported to foreign worlds where they can be bonded with your other, non-mirn characters or live on their own. Nobody’s quite sure how the Wanderer arranges this, but he doesn’t accept glim in trade for it. If you’re interested in a pet for a non-mirn character of yours, or to have one as a distinct character of its own, lines can be bought for RLC. These are considered non-canon and exempt from species lore. You may buy any stage of any pets currently unlocked, but will not be able to evolve the pet for further lines. These lines are single personal use only and may NOT be used as lines for base adopts. The resulting pet may not be sold except as add-on art to an associated character.
Pet or Companion forms: $10
Mount forms: $15
bestiary
fernback
Stage 1: Pet
Tiny creatures who fit easily in the palm of a hand, young fernbacks are timid by nature and feel most comfortable when tucked out of sight. They rely on the sprouting fern tendrils on their back to help blend in with the undergrowth and hide from predators. Once separated from their mother, most will pluck a large flower to hide themselves under; it doesn't work very well, but they get quite anxious at any attempts to take it away. Most mirn have given up trying to convince the little creatures otherwise and it's become fashionable to tuck a fernback and their flower behind one ear as a fashionable accessory.
Stage 2: Companion
Once their natural coat of ferns begins to open up and proliferate, fernbacks begin to resemble nothing so much as small, shaggy footstools. Their fur increases in length and seems to provide a naturally nourishing habitat for any seeds they pick up, resulting in a small living garden of sprouting grasses, wildflowers, and other greenery; many mirn take advantage of this and turn their companion into a small walking planter or flower garden. As they grow, fernbacks become more confident and somewhat sassy in nature but are still quick to hide beneath the shelter of their plants when threatened.
Stage 3: Mount
Fully grown fernbacks are the caretakers of the forest, growing tall and lanky with fur that trails like a curtain around them. The increase in size allows for even more greenery to drape across their sides, and many seem almost a walking piece of the forest. While they're generally calm and easygoing when left to their own devices, they can be incredibly obstinate about taking directions from anyone other than a persuasive mirn partner; when combined with formidable front claws and a naturally protective nature, nobody wants to cross a fernback whose mind is made up about something. They'll often 'adopt' and babysit small animals, children, and other pets, picking favorite spots to settle down and keep a watchful eye out while appearing as nothing more than another section of forest floor.
In the Wild
Due to their superb camouflage, it's widely understood that for every fernback spotted in the wild there have been far more that were passed by unseen. It's an important ability for them to have; though they're large even by Basin standards, fernbacks don't have the sheer mass or speed to defend themselves effectively against other large predators. They'd rather avoid confrontation when they can, and are quick to teach this strategy to their young. Disturbing a host of young fernbacks hiding among their mother's ferns is one of the few ways to prompt a fight with one of these calm giants; for the most part, they don't care much about passing mirn unless actively provoked.
Typical Stats
firebug
Stage 1: Pet
Firebugs hold a strange place in Mirnic tradition, simultaneously considered sacred to the spirits of flame and dangerous pests that needs to be carefully controlled. Sometimes spontaneously emerging from the sparks and embers of the Winter Festival's ritual bonfires, newly formed firebugs are only a few centimeters long and seem to have little sense of self or awareness beyond a desire to start fires. They'll seize glowing coals from any available fire and try to spread them to anything flammable; as a result, it's incredibly important that they're quickly caught and confined to small enchanted bottles that can contain them without suffocating them. Mirn who choose to raise a firebug will wear these bottles on their belt, keeping their charge from harm while also giving them the time to grow and mature.
Stage 2: Companion
After enough time spent in close proximity to a mirn, firebugs seem to gain a measure of awareness and self-control and can be allowed to animate more material from a bonfire to increase their size. They're no longer compulsive firestarters, and while they can generate warmth and can be used to warm enclosed spaces they aren't hot enough to the touch to burn. While they're not particularly intelligent, they can follow simple instructions and complete basic tasks when directed by someone they're familiar with. Many mirn take advantage of the fact that wild animals have a strong natural aversion to firebugs, using them as companions on journeys through the forests of the Basin.
Stage 3: Mount
At their full size, firebugs are both awe-inspiring and (to many mirn) terrifying. They're exceedingly strong, and excellent for tasks that require brute strength such as hauling cargo or clearing ground. They also continue to repel the more natural denizens of the wilds, with no known predators; though still only warm to the touch by default, they can ignite and produce fire-starting heat for limited amounts of time. Despite their fearsome nature, use of firebugs in warfare is a strictly enforced taboo for obvious reasons. They're traditionally used to light the bonfires of the Winter Festival, which is thought to be the reason that these same fires sometimes spawn further firebugs.
In the Wild
Unique among all the creatures of the basin, firebugs only seem to spawn and thrive in the presence of mirn settlements. There have been records of great fires tearing through the Basin as a result of unmanaged firebug swarms, but they don't seem to mature to the point of reproduction when left to their own devices. It's thought that they expend too much energy when unrestrained and die off as a result.