Appropriate Character Designing

▸ Hello! Being a site aimed at a more advanced crowd, Of Lykon does have some rules for your character's design. Don't worry, though, it's not to restrict you, just to ensure that your character will fit in nicely in the setting. And it can actually help you make better designs for your wolves in the long run.

I generally trust that the members will all have good, acceptable, and reasonable designs, but this is to make sure that we're all on the same page.

Of course, there are different rules for different areas. Let's begin.

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▸ Scars
Too often I see wolves with scars in places that, if injured badly enough to scar, would kill the wolf. For example: scars on the neck, especially on the vulnerable throat. In the wild where it's very dirty and health care is virtually nonexistent (outside of what medics/healers do) and fights aren't very fair most of the time, such a wound has a better chance of getting infected or killing the wolf quickly.

Here is a good guide to help you get an idea of how to improve your scars:

Spoiler:

Types of unacceptable scars:

• As mentioned earlier, the neck and especially throat.
  
• The vulnerable under belly. (injury there is bad news)
  
• Scars that go directly over the eye and through the lid with the eye remaining perfectly intact and seeing.
  
• Anything that would require human intervention (example, surgery). Humans have no place on Lykon and do not exist in-story, so they cannot appear to give a wolf surgery.
  
• Please do not do with the tail what has been shown in the above guide. I'd avoid tail scars all together outside of torn-off tails and broken/crooked tails.
  

Another good resource for scars would be to look at real dogs that have scars. (though, a warning: the image results can be pretty bloody) Here are a few images:

Scar Images:

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▸ Fur Pigmentation
There are different areas of fur colour we will cover and I will begin with using colours that look good together and don't clash too much.

For example: brown on grey designs. Many realistic wolves have fur that is a combination of grey and brown primarily, often with some white/cream and black. So why is it that many designs that use brown and grey don't look very good? That's pretty simple actually. It's simply because they end up using the wrong kind of grey or the wrong brown. Often the brown is too saturated and the grey is pure grey.

Here is an example of a real wolf with brown and grey fur:
Here are its colours:

I picked the most saturated brown in its coat and the one of the darkest greys. As you can see, the grey is not pure grey. It is slightly tinted with brown. And the brown is unsaturated and somewhat dull. Against the grey and on the wolf's coat, the brown will still look vibrant if this is a concern.

Here is another brown and grey wolf:
And here are its colours:
So it is the same for all browns and greys. Now how do you fix it? That's pretty easy actually. Just slide the brown to the left, and the grey to the right. If you have an HSV slider available (that's Hue Saturation Value) it makes it easier.


Black on white designs. Done wrong, this can be quite an eyesore, as the contrast is far too great, especially with pure #000000 black or #FFFFFF white. Instead of using the pure versions of either colours, tint the white with grey or cream to make an off-white, which is in general much better to use than pure white and decreases the extreme contrast between the black fur. As for the black, it should be a bit lighter, perhaps slightly brown. And, of course, it's always good to have gradual colour changes, so add some nice grey or brown midtones, and it can really help boost the appeal of the design.


Unrealistic colours. They are allowed and acceptable. Many wolves on Lykon have fur colours that are not found in real wolves and it is one of the most common mutations/recessive genes. The most common unusual pigmentation would be orange, with the least common being colours such as purple, pink, and green, to the point where purple and pink are almost unheard of.

Colours such as orange, red, and blue have less restrictions as they are the most common unusual colours for a wolf to have. Generally they are slightly dull, except for orange which is capable of being very vibrant. Red is often somewhat dull and very rarely vibrant and can often be a little brownish instead of pure red. Blue can range from blue-grey (most common blue) to vibrant blues.

The rarer tones have more restrictions to them. They are very rare, thus should be used very sparingly. Purple is similar to blue in that wolves can have purple-grey fur, but unlike blue, they almost never have vibrant purple. Pink is almost unheard of, and green, too, is often dull.

Another thing I should mention is that your character's markings shouldn't glow or be bioluminescent.

When using the colours, ensure that it looks good with the design, as always.

Here are some example designs which exhibit good examples for all the things I have mentioned above regarding colour:

Good Designs:

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▸ Markings and Patterns
Of Lykon does not require realistic wolf patterns, or that your wolf's design is based on photos of real wolves, but it's absolutely encouraged that members try to go for realistic pattens and markings. Much like the colours above, it is certainly possible for wolves to have  things such as stripes (within reason of course, which would mean no tiger or feline-style stripes) and small spots here and there (but not patchy calico or dog-like fur). Try to avoid perfect hearts and stars or anything like that.

As long as the markings seem wolflike and are reasonably believable, that's good enough.

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▸ Fur Types
As you may be aware already, different wolves have different types of fur. Generally their coats follow a specific grain, and this is the most common look a wolf's fur can have. Some individuals have fur that sticks up in certain areas, and is smooth in others. Take for example, PureBlood: his ruff flows against the typical grain but is smooth on his head and the ruff forms a bit of a point.

A wolf can have long, short, thick, thin, fluffy, rough, etc fur. If you draw your wolf, it's great to incorporate it into their design somehow and really helps give them a unique appearance.

In some places on Lykon, the individuals are more likely to have a certain look to their pelts. For example, in Iskogurz, many of the wolves that reside there have thick, shaggy, rough-looking pelts that often stick up in places, while down in Jokivand, most have comparatively smoother, softer, and glossier pelts.