ringleaders | TRANSFORMATION GUIDELINES

COMMON CHANGES↴
► Abnormal eye, hair, or skin color/texture.
► Development of fangs and/or claws.
► Slitted or inhuman eye features.
► Long, pointed ears.
► Long and/or forked tongue.
► Animal ears of any kind.
► Small horns of any kind.
► Small/medium antenna of any kind.
► Becoming smaller and/or slighter in build.
► Becoming taller and/or bulkier in build.
► Elongated limbs and/or fingers.
► Small fins on any sensible part of the body.
► Patches of feathers, fur, moss, or scales growing into skin or hair.
► Patches of small gemstones on skin.
► Bioluminescent spots or stripes.
► No reflection and/or shadow.
► Distorted reflection - the specifics are flexible.
► Colour tinted blood/body fluids.
► Fae marks.*
► Custom (ask mods)

All character will exhibit at least two of these traits within the first two IC months of their stay in the carnival, and may exhibit up to a max of five. This is assuming they do not involve themselves in any non-manditory fae magic, and do not experience any additional transformation catalysts*, as both of these will accelerate changes. Beyond those first two IC months, character may develop 1-2 additional traits per IC month. However, unless further changes are provoked in character, all changes beyond the first two are optional.

UNCOMMON CHANGES↴
► Small, flightless wings of any kind.
► Plant growth in hair or along the skin.
► Spines anywhere on body.
► Snouts or other miscellaneous animal facial structures.
► Up to full body coverage of feathers, scales, or fur.
► Metal, stone, or gems covering/growing from parts of body.
► Tails of any kind, short or long, but non-dexterous.
► Long horns or antenna of any kind, including angler lures.
► Extra eyes, either magic based or physical.
► Compound eyes, or other particular weird eyes.
► Unguligrade legs and/or hooves.
► Digitigrade feet and/or pads on hands and feet.
► Shadows and/or reflections that move independently.
► Glowing skin and/or 'fairy' style sparkly aura/trail.
► Any other kind of magical aura.
► Completely unnatural blood colours and/or glowing, sparkly, etc blood.
► A supernaturally flexible body.
► Custom (ask mods)

This tier of changes is usually triggered by specific change catalysts, such as being under the effect of potent fae magic, learning to use magic yourself, or a particularly long stay in the carnival. This means that they will frequently come as surprise side effects to unrelated magical gifts that have been bestowed by the Ringmaster or any other fae. Events that have the potential to trigger uncommon changes will be listed as such. Veteran characters will have one uncommon change to represent each year spent within the carnival, up to a max of three years, at which point it will slow down or stop entirely. This doesn't include any changes caused by the character's choices and actions.

RARE CHANGES↴
► Flight capable wings of any kind.
► Tail that is dexterous enough to be used as an extra limb or weapon.
► Body parts entirely made of plant life, frequently individual limbs or hair.
► The ability to breath fire, and/or to have fire naturally burn from places on body.
► Extra arms or legs coming from torso.
► Additional, magical mouths build into body parts.
► Taur body form: as in centaur, mermaid, naga, or similar.
► Blood completely replaced with an alternate substance.
► A partially gaseous or liquid form.
► Custom (ask mods)

Rare effects are, indeed, fairly rare - they only tend to come about due to the extensive use of fae magic, or through making potent contracts with the Ringmaster or any other fae. These are hard to stumble into by accident, though the occasional situation may occur where a carnival worker might stumble into more fae magic than they bargained for. While some may dislike these changes, many who have worked in the carnival consider them a mark of status.

MENTAL CHANGES↴
► An increasingly territorial/aggressive nature regarding personal spaces and relationships.
► A hoarding tendency towards just about anything, including types of people.
► Any kind of animal themed behavioural quirks related to your character's changes.
► A reluctance or full inability to tell lies.
► The dulling of empathy towards mortal issues and social constructs - that is, things like natural death, fiscal concerns, love, justice, etc.
► The presumption of one's right to own other people, and/or a desire to do so.
► An enhanced preoccupation with games, puzzles, and riddles, and the desire to make bets related to them.
► A preference for natural and wild things, in opposition to constructs like civilization and industry.
► An inclination to solve problems in round-about "manipulative" ways, as opposed to taking a direct approach.
► An instinctive fear of iron.

Mental changes do not have to be tied to any particular catalyst, and are completely optional. You can pick as many or as few mental changes to develop into your character at a time of your choosing, within reason. Generally speaking, there is a theme of bestial and fae associated tendencies, so if you can think of something that is not yet included on this list feel free to ask the mods if it would be appropriate. The content here can be pretty flexible, as long as it fits the game's themes.

CHANGE CATALYSTS↴
A catalyst, in game terms, is simply referring to any number of events that could occur in game to cause a character's body to magically mutate beyond the baseline ambient effects caused by the carnival. Common catalysts include: being subjected to large amounts of fae magic due to frequently using spells or being heavily and frequently affected by other people's spells, inspiring the Ringmaster to bestow them upon you due to particular interactions (with OOC consent), or stumbling into any number of potential "weird magic" situations that occur in game events.

FAE MARKS↴
'Fae Marks' are a kind of magical, spiritual marking left by the touch of fae magic. They appear in a large variety of patterns and colours, and are more or less an in-game excuse for your character to develop some sweet looking tattoos. They will usually start out with a small, self contained design, and may grow larger and more complex over time and with more exposure to magic. Fae marks will glow when in the presence of fae magic, and will be written in a character's "spirit colour."

The symbols should not be ripped straight from your canon, though they can be reminiscent of canon based symbols, due to the fact that fae marks usually make reference to aspects of a character's soul or their relationships to the fae whose magic triggered it. The symbols all mean something, if you know how to read them - the potential alphabet of symbols is just flexible and potentially unlimited. Keep in mind a rough idea of what your symbols mean when you design them. Tribal style, abstract designs and similar are good examples of fae marks.

SPIRIT COLOURS↴
You'll be asked to list your 'spirit colour' on your application. This colour can be anything from the rainbow spectrum, and is meant to represent the colour of your character's soul. The choice is up to you, but it should be appropriate to your interpretation. It cannot be changed in game outside of extreme, character changing circumstances. If your character is heavily based around concepts of duality, or if they are particularly divided in spirit, they may express more than one soul colour. This sort of makes them look like a weirdo, but that's okay. If your character has multiple souls in their body, their fae marks may express as many colours as they have active souls. This means souls that actually take part in controlling the body as opposed to just hanging out.

NOTE: Unless your character is literally a physical embodiment of chaos/evil or order/purity, you can't give them a spirit colour that is pure black or pure white. Colours like silver or grey are fine, but no one is just casually going to have a black soul because it fits their aesthetic. The implications of a purely black or white soul are fairly major.

WEAKNESSES TO IRON↴
The more fae aspects your character takes on, and the more they rely on fae magic, the more iron will begin to hurt them - iron is a fae’s natural kryptonite. The symptoms described below explain how different kinds of iron will affect a character that has already been significantly transformed, and likely already boasts one or more of the rare changes described on this page. Those with lesser fae aspects can scale these effects to be more mild as is deemed appropriate by the severity of their current changes.

► PURE IRON: Unrefined iron element taken directly from the earth, possibly ground into filaments or powder but never smelted. Could also be referred to as “cold iron” as it has never been processed in a furnace. The touch of pure iron is like acid to a fae’s body, and the wounds will linger for much longer than those made by any other cause.

► PIG IRON: Iron ore that has been melted down and molded into brittle iron ingots that are mostly not suitable for crafting or weapon making due to their fragile structure. Any blade made from this will be crude and very easy to break with physical force, but against a fae’s body it will cut with the ease of burning steel. Prolonged, non violent contact with the substance will gradually burn through a fae’s skin.

► WROUGHT IRON: Iron ingots that have been smelted worked by a blacksmith in order to become malleable and easily forged into weapons, tools, and structures. Wrought iron is durable and functional as a weapon. Against a fae, it will strike and wound them as if they are a mortal, and cut through most of a fae’s magical defenses. Prolonged contact with wrought iron will result in increasingly severe nausea, weakness, and sickness, eventually robbing a fae of their strength entirely until the iron is removed and they are allowed to recover. Wrought iron is mostly immune to fae magic.

► STEEL: Iron that has had its carbon content lowered via processing, and that has been alloyed with any number of additional metallic elements. Steel is stronger, cheaper to make, and more durable than wrought iron, but the tampering used to refine it has robbed it of most of its anti-fae qualities. Its iron content still allows it to be more resistant to fae magic than most other materials, and the wounds it creates on fae tend to be more severe than other sources. Prolonged contact with steel, or being in the presence of large amounts of steel, can result in a fae experience increasing feelings of unease, headaches, and other kinds of discomfort.