Matope
River Tam: Awesome?
| Yes |
  
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45.6% | [ 62 ] |
| Yeah |
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16.9% | [ 23 ] |
| Absolutely |
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37.5% | [ 51 ] |
| Total Votes: | [ 136 ] | ||
Matope
p a g e | o n e
1. introduction
2. index/news
3. events
4. rules
5. lifestages
6. legendary unlocking
7. naming conventions
8. coming soon
9. coming soon
10. breeding
11. customs
12. familiars
13. affiliates
14. staff
p a g e | t w o
1. memberlist
2. familiar list
3. faq/pronunciation guides
4. roleplaying notes (temporarily housed here)
05 . 07 . 09 - Spring brings with it the start of a new event! Check out the gone buggy! springtime happenings here!
02 . 02 . 09 - blue's got a sweet valentine's-day mini-event going on from now until the holiday itself! Check out the beating hearts mini-event here!
10 . 18 . 08 - Interested in obtaining a Legendary so that we can jumpstart the plot? Check out this thread in the guild and PM an application to be considered for an extensive (and grueling!) RP event. You WILL be expected to answer several prompts over the course of the next couple of weeks, all within a few days. Between one and three people will walk away with Legendary Kimeti!
10 . 17 . 08 - A big Halloween Event is going on! Check it out here, see a range of sweet Matope, including two totally free events!
10 . 11 . 08 - If you're interested in trying for the custom and semi custom slots, please click here: yay~
10 . 03 . 08 - Joke telling contest is over, but the pets are here, with a new familiar! Click here to join in!
09 . 27 . 08 - Holmes event is over, thank you to all participants! There's a joke-telling contest hosted by Kitty Sprightt & and be blue here. Win one of their breeding babies!
09 . 18 . 08 - Check the post below this one for Sherlock Holmes event goodness :O
09 . 14 . 08 - Equinox event over, but there's a Quasi-custom contest going on, page 448! click here to check it out! - Winners announced here!
09 . 07 . 08 - Look out! We've started up the Early Equinox mini-event thread! An auction, newbie raffle, writing contest, dice game, and a breeding slot are all up for grabs! Head on over now!
Also, congrats to the winners of the Naming contest (khryssie__x), Gentlemen's night raffle (TormentedAngie, surreality, Kiwi Squirt Bottle), Thank-you paid raffle (lilwerewolfgirl, Annchen), and Free tickets mini-pet raffle (Aiko Destiny, vegeta_nathan13)!
..
Matope
1. Please abide by all Gaia ToS.
2. Please be polite at all times. Chatspeak is strongly discouraged. Don't spam the thread, if you feel the need to bump, try to make some conversation! Trolling is absolutely not tolerated at any time, nor is flaming. Let's all hold hands and eat some tofu and burn some patchouli, okay?
3. Please refrain from begging, whether it be for Kimeti, gold, or favours.
4. If participating in events, please accept the fact that you might not come out a winner. Try to be graceful whether you win or lose.
5. Newbies to the thread and to the B+C are perfectly welcome here. Please do your best to make them feel at home!
6. Roleplaying is an option, not a mandatory thing. You don't have to RP your Kimeti if you don't want to, but it is the only way to unlock special stages.
7. We encourage out-of-character chatter in the thread, of course, but please don't make this a place to air your personal life. There are journals for that, and to be honest, it makes some of us uncomfortable (and I'll be honest--by some of us, I mean me, Rejam). Talk about Gaia, Matope, current events, movies, music, and even what you did today, but try to keep it upbeat. If you don't have anything pleasant to say, please just don't say anything at all. We're not trying to be harsh, we just don't want the thread to turn into so many other threads that revolve around the most depressing of personal topics. We don't even care if you do a little token bitching about work, so long as it doesn't make up the bulk of your conversation. To sum up: if almost everything you post is negative or contains details that will almost certainly make readers uncomfortable, please don't post it.
The Kimeti:
1. Kimeti are never to be sold. Evar!
2. It's okay to add your Kimeti to graphics for signatures, etc.; to crop them down, colourize them, or whatever to make them fit into your sig; but please do not perform any lineart edits. Use your good judgement here; obviously we're not telling you not to put a santa hat on them around Christmas or to doodle a French moustache on them if it amuses you. Just be sure and make a note that you did it.
3. The artwork in Matope is strictly for Matope's use. It is not to be lifted for any other shops. This is a particular concern for us due to the easily-pilfered nature of pixel art. If you suspect another shop of stealing Matope's art, please let us know via PM before flaming them. It could all be a misunderstanding.
4. Make sure your Kimeti's name follows the naming conventions! This cannot be stressed enough. Having the common thread of Matope names will add a sense of believability and community to the shop and to Matope.
5. Please keep all RP PG-13 or below! No one wants to see that D:
6. If you ever decide you want to get rid of your Kimeti (and there's really no reason you should ever feel obligated), please inform Matope and they will be distributed out to new homes. You may or may not have a choice in the question of where they go. Remember, once you give away a Kimeti, you can never arbitrarily take it back. It's not a decision to be made lightly!
7. While we try to cultivate a persistent storyline here on Kimeti, this is a delicate thing to handle if you're actually roleplaying in that storyline. Before deciding to RP some major event that would have huge repercussions (the return of the Legendary Kimeti, for example; or an earthquake or flood), please contact the mods for permission. If you have a great idea for a plot event or festival, please do the same!
w h i t e l i s t
and be blue, for all her amazing help with templates and everything else. luffluff.
Kiwi Squirt Bottle, for going out of her way to help us out.
b l a c k l i s t
no one yet, thankfully!
Matope
Larvae (unhatched) - Kimeti females lay between ten and twenty-five eggs at a time, in sets of five. Each set of five occupies a slimy but incredibly strong and nutrient-rich sac, strung like a spiderweb with utmost care between two limbs. Eventually, as the eggs develop, four of the eggs will succumb to the stresses of growing up. Rarely, all five will die; even more rarely, two will survive, growing up alongside. The young develop in these sacs for about a month, growing very rapidly, until the sacs are about the size of a basketball. While in the sac the Kimeti has vivid dreams, in which he learns his name. The faint memories of these dreams will accompany him the rest of his life.
Foal (infant) - One day, the sac will fall from its perch, and the newly-formed Kimeti will begin the slow and extremely difficult process of kicking off its protecting covering. This process can take hours or even days depending on the strength of the Kimeti, and leaves the foal utterly exhausted and practically helpless for several days. Because the Kimeti are not typically attended by their mother at this stage, it is a very difficult time, and it is not uncommon for the foals to fall prey to crocodiles and even large catfish. Their skin is too delicate and soft yet to repel the blades of the sawgrass, and they are blind, eyes closed, and live solely by their acute sense of smell and hearing, and so they are usually forced to spend the first two to three weeks of their life in the tiny patch of roots where they were first planted, huddling uncomfortably above the dangerous waters and eating what vegetation is available. At this point Kimeti have an instinctive knowledge of their name and understanding of the swamp, although they cannot speak.
Filly/Colt (juvenille) - Kimeti grow rapidly in these first few weeks, until they eventually feel safe venturing into the water for the first time. They instinctively know how to speak at this stage, and their glowing eyes have opened, giving them their first blurry looks at Matope. By now they may be learning to catch their own fish, and they will instinctively seek out either their mother or father, who may or may not accept their company; if not, they might seek out another willing companion, adult or otherwise, or choose to remain solitary. They are slightly sturdier, but their skin is still relatively delicate and their hair soft but waterproof. The filly and colt are playful and curious creatures.
Doe/Buck (adult) - Kimeti in the prime of their life, Does and Bucks are beautiful, elegant animals. They have learned to hunt, and to avoid the crocodiles, and are strong and swift even in the waterlogged, root-tangled swamp. Their skin is thickened, and the hair around their tails and hooves is coarse and rough. At this age the Kimeti is able to breed.
Mare/Stag (legendary) - Stories have been handed down over the past several generations of these nearly-mythical Kimeti. No one is sure whether these are simply very elder Kimeti or if they are in some way blessed by the swamp with a prolonged life and their more elegant shape and vibrant eyes; still others insist that they are not like regular Kimeti, but spring from the mud of the swamp full-formed to bring guidance and authority, the voice of the swamp itself. In any case, some refute their existence entirely, as not a single one has been seen in living memory. But some whisper that all the signs are pointing to the return of these beasts...
Matope
the legendaries
The swamp is ready. Its fireflies have been sleeping in the eyes of its children and they stumble blindly through the mire, lost.
The time for the lights of the swamp has returned. The spirits of the mares and the stags are ready to stir in the bodies of the Kimeti.
We are legendary. We are story and myth taken form. We are souls bound to the flesh of our Sisterbrother, our Motherfather, the Swamp. And we are ready to awake...
What are Legendary Kimeti? They are Chosen by Matope, often for reasons not obvious to their fellows or even to themselves, and they have been gone for so long that their origins have become the stuff of much-argued story, and some no longer believe in them.
They are said to be able to bless expectant does with especially hardy litters, and are said to bring special power to the naming dreams of unhatched foals. They are also given the power to understand the heartbeat and the rhythm of the swamp through its sacred animals--the treant, the crane, the firefly, and the owl, which gives them insight into weather and to coming changes. With their voices they heal hurt trees and with their keen eyes and instincts they find the richest foods for their people in times of scarcity. Their dreams are thick with riddles that foretell, in the most cryptic of symbols, the times to come.
And, some say, when they lift their heads and cry their strange and eerie cry to the skies, the Fathermother's lost children hear them, no matter where they are, and return, prodigal, to her mired breast...
Unlocking your Legendary Kimeti
It is no easy task to unlock a Legendary Kimeti. They cannot be bought or traded for, and must be RPed for.
To qualify for a Legendary, you must have been engaged in at least five finished or at least lengthy RPs with the Kimeti in question in the Matope guild forum, contributed at least one story to the myths and legends forum in the framestory that the Kimeti in question is telling or hearing it, and also posted a naming dream for the Kimeti in question. Roleplaying and myths can take place at any stage of a Kimeti's life.
It should be noted that Matope's mods have very specific views of RP, and we will not tell you that your posts have to be several paragraphs or even sentences to qualify. Think Gricean theorem here: Say exactly what you need to say and no more or less, and that's fine with us. All of the shop mods have been known to post one-word dialogue replies when it was all that needed to be said. So those of you who can't BS for four paragraphs, fear not! WE SUPPORT YOU.
When you fulfill the requisites, please post to the Legendary Reqs Completed forum in the guild forum, with the appropriate links. Once every couple of months the mods will get together, review the qualifiers, and use a set of guidelines including quality, adherence to canon, out-of-character behaviour in the thread, and depth of character development to determine a handful (one to ten) of second-tier qualifiers. These will then follow further instructions to complete for the Legendary, through a series of PM-received dreams from the Swamp which will require IC response. Any valid and original IC response will be considered sufficient for obtaining a Legendary, but they should be thought of carefully and with attention to detail, as some aspects of these responses will manifest in the Mare or Stag's finished form. In most cases all second-tier qualifiers will receive a Legendary, but there may be some very rare exceptions.
The recipients of Legendaries will receive a PM outlining the Kimeti's new powers and their limits, and also the updated image of their Kimeti, including anything that changed or was added or subtracted due to the Kimeti's response to the Swamp's dream.
Once your RP reqs are completed, you do not need to do them or post them again to re-qualify if you are not chosen as a second-tier qualifier. Your chance will come again next time Legendaries are released, and with each selection your chances will be slightly higher for being chosen. However, adding more content to your post never hurts and will almost certainly help.
If you would like to have more than one Legendary, you will have to complete the reqs for each Kimeti.
Good luck!
Matope
naming conventions
(It is vital that before you begin playing here, you read this section!)
The Kimeti's names are highly significant, and usually in some way reflect the animal itself. Kimeti do not choose their own names, nor are their names (directly) given to them by their parents.
Kimeti names are always natural, and made up of real words that reflect their world. This means that only animals, plants, and phenomena known to the swamps and the marshplains make up Kimeti names, if the names are not an indicator of some action. This means that a Kimeti will never have the word "dune" in his name, as dunes do not exist here, or "giraffe" or any other thing alien to this area of Matope.
Seasons do exist on Matope, so words such as "snow" and "frost" are not entirely unheard of, although they are extremely rare, as Matope spends most of its time in a humid heat, and so snow is rare to the point of being nearly non-existent, although stories are handed down. Fire, too, occasionally ravages the swamp and plains after a lightning storm, so words related to flame, while also uncommon, are not unheard of.
Names can be phrases or single words. To borrow a few suitable examples from the rabbits of Watership Down, Nose-in-the-Air, Song-of-the-Blackbird, Movement-of-Leaves, Blackberry, and Furhead are all appropriate names. Rejam's own Kimeti are named Walks-Between, Cicadasong, and Rabbit, to spark more ideas; colours, sounds, sights, smells, and thoughts are all good springboards for Kimeti names.
Kimeti are born with an instinctive knowledge of their name, even before they can speak, in the form of a very vivid mental image that takes the shape of a dream that occurred while still in the protective sac they emerged from. If you're itching to RP your Kimeti before it hatches, planning out this dream is a great way to do it, and there's a thread in the guild forum especially for them. Think carefully--they mean a lot about the Kimeti you're playing! You can see the thread for more examples. This image, in the shape of vivid dreams, will recur throughout a Kimeti's life, often during unusually significant passages in its life, and friends will sometimes incorporate variants of these images into one another's stories as a subtle nod to their companions.
Even if you are not playing your Kimeti, you MUST choose a name that follows these conventions.
nicknames
Nicknames among Kimeti are reserved for very good friends or for elders referring to younger Kimeti. It is VERY disrespectful for a young Kimeti to use a nickname for any Kimeti significantly older than himself, even if they are both technically adult. Nicknames are almost always simply a shortening of the Kimeti's dreamname, but can be a clever reduction of it to its simplest terms--Cicadasong, for example, is known to friends as "Chirp," and a Kimeti called Reflections-Play-on-Roots may sometimes go by Glimmer.
for more information on Kimeti society, please check page two of this thread.
Matope
Matope
Matope
Now is the time for... luuuurve. Or at least lust, Kimeti being the not-so-monogamous creatures they frequently are.
If you are ready to breed your Kimeti, you'll need a few things!
1. An adult (or legendary) Kimeti!
2. A willing Kimeti of the opposite gender who belongs to someone else. No breeding your own Kimeti!
3. 5000g (per participant)!
When Kimeti are bred they will produce at LEAST two sacs of random gender. There is a 50% chance that the Kimeti will produce a third sac as well. If the third sac is produced there is a 10% chance that it will contain twins, one male and one female.
You can increase this number a few ways:
1. Furnishing any kind of RP log between the two Kimeti of more than a few posts per Kimeti will add ONE to the litter AND will allow the RPers to choose the gender of this one larva.
2. Reserving a baby for a friend who does not yet have a Kimeti will also add one to the clutch.
3. Sometimes contests and events will be held to add a potential sac to the clutch.
4. Show me an RP log where a Legendary (even your own) has blessed the expectant mother, and one extra sac will be added to the clutch.
It will be up to the breeding pair's owners how the resulting Kimeti are divided. Each owner MUST keep at least one or else give it away--the base two cannot be sold, auctioned, raffled, or given away in a contest without special permission from Matope. Obviously, reserved babies must be given to the person for whom they are reserved. Please do not sell these slots to people, they are meant to be gifts.
Any extra babies (from RP or from the 50% chance of a third, or from a Legendary blessing) can be kept, given away, used as prizes in art, RP, or writing contests, or, with permission from Matope, auctioned or raffled. They can also be sold back to the shop for 1000g a piece to be used in a future flatsale or contest. Twins count as two Kimeti.
Only one breeding slot is open at a time unless otherwise noted. Some will be raffled, some will be given away first-come-first-serve. Just keep an eye on the thread.
If you are lucky enough to snag a breeding slot, both of you will need to PM this form to the mule or, if the colourist requests, directly to the colourist:
[quote]
[b]Name of Kimeti:[/b]
[b]Name of other person's Kimeti:[/b]
[b]RP logs? If yes, what gender for this baby?[/b]
[b]Legendary blessing? Please link.[/b]
[b]Are you reserving any for a friend who hasn't got a Kimeti? If yes, who?[/b]
[b]If you'd like to ask permission to do anything with any extra babies, please specify here:[/b]
[/quote]
[b]Name of Kimeti:[/b]
[b]Name of other person's Kimeti:[/b]
[b]RP logs? If yes, what gender for this baby?[/b]
[b]Legendary blessing? Please link.[/b]
[b]Are you reserving any for a friend who hasn't got a Kimeti? If yes, who?[/b]
[b]If you'd like to ask permission to do anything with any extra babies, please specify here:[/b]
[/quote]
Make sure you've worked out how you want to do this beforehand!
GOOD LUCK!
Matope
and be blue's customs are: CLOSED
and be blue's semi-customs are: CLOSED
---------------------------------
Rejam's customs are: CLOSED
Rejam's semi-customs are: CLOSED
For all four stages: Semi-customs are 20K; customs are 40K.
Adult stage only: Semi-customs are 10k; customs are 30k.
Semi-custom info: You can select gender and up to three colours, or you can send me an inspiration image. The resulting Kimeti will not be a literal interpretation of the inspiration image. You can be vague with your colors (i.e. "I'd like two shades of orange and one blue one" ) or you can send hex codes or swatches.
Custom info: coming soon.
Please send trades after claiming a spot in the thread and also a PM containing your colour specs or inspiration image (as well as your preferred gender) to Rejam, if I'm not actively posting at the time. If I am, you can post in the thread. Your call.
Semi-custom slots:
(one slot per person)
1. CLOSED
2. CLOSED
Matope
Pets are domesticated by the Kimeti for companionship or to serve a purpose. While they do bond with their owners in the way of an exceptionally loyal dog, they don't share a mental or emotional connection in the way familiars do. They have no way of verbally communicating with their owners.
There are currently four available pets, but more are coming soon!
The watersnake was domesticated by the Kimeti partly for companionship, and partly to help them locate the tastiest fishing spots in the swamp. Snakes come in all shades of green, brown, grey, black, and, sometimes, slate-blue.
Arguably the most useful pet, the mongoose can, when properly trained, retrieve delicious treesnakes and high-dwelling lizards for the Kimeti to enjoy. They're also extremely affectionate and very intelligent companions. Mongooses often have pretty stripes, like skunks.
The beautiful swallow-birds of the swamp are both attractive and capable of producing beautiful song to entertain the Kimeti. With patience, they can be taught simple melodies on command, to blend their voices with their owners'. They come in many different colours, and their tails are generally flamboyant, metallic, and highly prized for shed feathers, which some Kimeti use as decoration by sticking them to their fur and scales with clumps of sticky clay.
It may be adorable, the foxbun doesn't serve much of a purpose other than looking cute and providing very ready cuddles. It loves being loved and fed root vegetables, and bounding through the water after its owner or curling up on its shoulder. They come in all colours, but are nearly always some shade of pastel.
Familiars are for the most part only available to Legendary Kimeti. None of them have yet been seen, but there are stories of Legendary Kimeti striding through the swamp in the company of cranes, owls, wolves, and even, some say, walking trees...
buying info
The familiars will be sold through auctions, flatsales, and raffles. There are no order forms for them, but customs may eventually be offered.
The familiars will be sold through auctions, flatsales, and raffles. There are no order forms for them, but customs may eventually be offered.
Matope
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Matope