Site News

Oncoming lunar activity has made the local spirits restless in their Middling Plane, and now they gather at the Rosen Forest in search of a new life. This year, there is a strange, energetic thrum in the air. The spirits are restless and eager to rejoin the world of the living.

The quest to search for new life cannot be done alone. You must meet with a companion, and together embark on a long and arduous journey to discover the newly-born Fawn brought into existence. This requires trust in both yourself and the living soul in your company.

Will you help guide a new life in need?

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Welcome to the 2026 Fawning Season! 

This news post contains all of the information (including all relevant links and user guides) that you need to get started. 

Event hub and other links

Fawning Event Hub - In-Depth FAQ - Item Purchases

Fawnid Form Submissions - Faun-to-Fawn Submissions

Public Helpers - Artist Queue/Fawn Rolls - Fawning Item Shop

Event timeline

This year, Fawning will run similarly to last year's Corruption event. The staggered start made the event much more accessible to our newer users experiencing the event for the first time. It also allowed us to promptly send invoices and communicate with users to answer questions and organize our artist queues. 
This year's timeline is: 

- March 1st (Sunday) -

Event News is posted. Item shop opens. Item purchase forms open.
Participants have time to read through every element of Fawning, discuss helpers, ask questions, gather/purchase items, and talk to artists/moderators.
Artists who require pre-approval will make official lists of approved pairs and post them in the Artist Queue/Fawning Rolls spreadsheet. 

- March 14th (Saturday) -

Fawning Submissions and Faun-to-Fawn Submissions open.
They are addressed in the order they are received. 

- March 28th (Saturday) -

First batch of Fawns are released by the artist team.

- April 4th (Saturday) -

Second batch of Fawns are released. 

- April 10th (Friday) -

Submission forms are closed.
Two releases of Fawns before the prompts close allows anyone unsure of whether they want to participate or which artist to go to time to make those decisions!  

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New User Referrals

Know someone who might want to join Faunids? Now’s the perfect time to get them involved:

Any user who is listed as a referral for a new user in a Fawnid form will receive a Fawning Item of their choice as a reward. Additionally, the new user will also get to choose a Fawning Item of their choice. 

Note: the new user must put in a form and order a Fawnid for the referral to be counted for this referral program.
Simply put the name of who brought you here to Atalav at the bottom of your form submission!

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Ordering a Fawnid (Quick Guide) 

You may only submit one form per 24 hours.
All users may submit up to three forms unless they have a Fourth Fawning Voucher (User) in their inventory.

Step 1: Find your pair of adult Faunids.

You do not need to own either Faunid. You may use Public Helpers, your own Faunids, or private helpers as long as you have permission to use them.
Each individual Faunid may Fawn up to three times per year. Adult Merfauns, Minodae, Hybrids, Quad Faunids, and Anthro Faunids may all be eligible for this event. Fawns cannot participate in Fawning; they're babies! 

Some Public Helpers may be free, while others may charge for their slots. View the Helper spreadsheet here: 

If you use a Faunid from another user to create a Fawning pair, you must have permission from the owner in the form of a screenshot. Please use Imgur links so they don't disappear when reviewing forms. These are most commonly something simple like this:

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Step 2: Choose your Artist

Two of our artists, MUTT (Jaquiri) and pebb (the.pebb), are taking limited slots, as this is their first year participating in Fawning as artists.
You must speak with them over DMs to confirm your pair before submitting your form.

If you previously confirmed with an artist for pre-approval and do not see your name on their list, please check in with them to make sure you are added. 

GoryTeeth and Necrologia are not limited in slots, but it is good practice to ask in advance if an artist will take your pair. We all have our own strengths!
If you have no preference for your artist, you may state ‘any' on your form.
All of us on the artist team communicate with and support each other, so we may collaborate on forms with no preference.

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Step 3: Obtain your Items

There are multiple ways to obtain items this year!

1. You may trade them with other users. Some users may have items they won through other events.
You may not purchase items from users with real money, but you may freely trade art, Faunids, Fawning slots, etc. 

2. You may purchase them with Barters (our site currency) from the Strange Baubles Shop. 

3. You may purchase them with real life currency via Paypal invoice through the Item Purchase Submission form.

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Step 4: Submit your Form

You must attach all items you plan to use for the pair when you submit.
The only items that can be added later after the roll is finalized are Herne’s Gamble, Herne’s Grace, and Herne’s Blessing. 
You do not need to use items if you do not want to. They are entirely optional for those who want to add more RNG or control specific elements of a Fawn.

Fawnid Submission Prompt

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Step 5: Wait for Approval

Your artist will approve your form on-site. Once it is approved, please wait for your artist to contact you regarding payment.
Your artist will also contact you to show you the roll for your Fawnid if you would like to see it! All of the rolls will be available on the Fawning Rolls spreadsheet.

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If you have questions that are not answered by these guides, please feel free to reach out to a community moderator or administrator.
You may also ask questions in the #event-chatter channel on our Discord server! We have a lot of very helpful community members who love seeing new faces. 

Thank you for participating in our first Fawning season hosted entirely on-site! 

Event hub and other links

Fawning Event Hub - In-Depth FAQ - Item Purchases

Fawnid Form Submissions - Faun-to-Fawn Submissions

Public Helpers - Artist Queue/Fawn Rolls - Fawning Item Shop

This newsletter will give a lot of information and updates to the upcoming 2026 Fawning event, site updates, and more!

The purpose of these newsletters is to keep our community informed about site updates, upcoming events, official artist commission openings, new user guides, highlight different bits and pieces of our species, and build on community engagement. The content of these newsletters will vary by month.

To sign up for a Faunids account, message a moderator for an invite code. Once you have that, you can register on the sign-up page.

View the Faunids Policy Handbook

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Welcome to our newest staff members! 

Please welcome areallifeonion as our newest coder, as well as our newest community and site moderator, Kardinal!
We are so happy to have them both with us.

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Character Appreciation

We want to appreciate all the hard work that goes into turning designs into full-fledged characters.
As part of the Newsletter, we choose community members with well-loved Faunids to tell us a bit more about them!

Our first character, Blithe, is owned by twentynyne! 

Describe Blithe's upbringing (relationships, hobbies, location?):

Blithe doesn't know her parents, she somewhat raised herself, found a section of woods and on the outskirts of town where she founded her Orchard from one apple tree she found. Blithe likes to dance and decorate her kart with paint, plants and shiny gems. Her orchard she tends to is slightly outside lavandul.

Does Blithe have any moral/religious convictions?

Blithe often find herself in a balance between earning a living and over-farming her orchard, tho she is the one that tends to the trees, she is also the one that sells the apples and more apples sold gives her a better life. Therefore she teeters on the edge of being ethical and pleasing Herne.

What does Blithe do for work? How is her relationship with coworkers (if any) and their clients (if any)? 

As stated, Blithe works her orchard, she works alone or occasionally with other traveling merchants, she has a great relationship with them, as Blithe is a people pleaser and very to herself for the most part. 

What does Blithe do for fun?

Blithe likes to create pigments from plants and minerals, and using her hooves and occasionally with a paintbrush, she will paint panels or leathers she gets from other merchants.

What is Blithe's relationship with other Fauns?

She keeps to herself for the most part and doesn't talk much unless she is doing her merchant stuff. When Blithe does spend time with other Fauns, it tends to be around Merchant meets where she has a merry time sharing her apples with mostly Ben and Demi, her traveling merchant friends.

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Next up is Vaelen, who is owned by FatalChimera! 

Describe your upbringing (relationships, hobbies, location?):

I grew up in Makino by the Rosen Forest, but I never stayed there long. As soon as I was able to sneak off with the merchants, I was gone. I loved traveling with them, hearing their stories, seeing new places and new faunids! The downside though was having to sit through the gatherings that the merchants sit through, having to be cleansed of the outside influence. Oh and the scoldings! The scoldings were fine though,I just hated sitting around. When I got old enough, I decided to leave for good. I loved the Rosen Forest, but traveling and adventure were far more appealing! When I settled, it was in Lavandul.

Do you have any moral/religious convictions?

Due to my upbringing in Makino I have a strong belief that gift giving to those in your life is essential. I would much rather give a friend or a partner a small meaningful gift than anything else! I actively partake in this by sending Prisma perfumes of her favorite scents at least twice a year. However, living in Lavandul has led me to develop a religious practice of bringing my fawns and any partners I have to the “Blood Grove”. I did this for Halo Vire and for Javrik when they were both young. Though, I think Javrik appreciated being in the grove a lot more than Halo Vire did. 

What do you do for work? How is your relationship with their coworkers (if any) and clients (if any)?

I make perfumes and Colognes! My job is the main reason I decided to settle in Lavandul actually! With its rich agriculture and heavy trades going in and out, it was just the perfect place to set up! I don't really have coworkers though, unless you count some of the merchants I trade with when they come in. It's a small at home business I run, but I wouldn’t have it any other way honestly. My favorite part of my job is the clients. I love meeting new faunids and seeing different cultures!

What do you do for fun?

I mostly travel for fun! I travel to Makino to see Prisma from time to time, I travel to the Bullran Cliffs to see Luka. I just love to travel, doesn't even have to be for a reason! My most exciting travel was recently to the Wild Wood, I was looking for new plants and flower to use in my scents when I realized I was being stalked.. 

What is your relationship with other Fauns?

I usually have a good relationship with other fauns! Prisma has been my bestfriend since fawnhood, and now she is an aunt to my, currently, two fawns Halo Vire and Javrik! I also have a really good relationship with my partner Luka. He lives far, but I make a point to see him very often. It's always a great time when I get to see my loved ones again. 

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Site updates

We are just about at the point where we can shut down Atalav, our secondary website, as it is significantly more expensive than Faunids with less functions and image storage. As of now, all of the pages that are staying the same have been ported over to Faunids.com. 

Here is a list of updates made to front-end HTML by kojoty:

1. Updates to the World Expanded page, with a new set of links on top to make navigation to various site lore pages easier. 
2. Every City/Location has been updated with their relevant information and tabs. Some of this information will likely be updated and reworded or reformatted as we develop more.
3. Springtide, Fawning, Gachafawn, and Corruption pages have all been updated and formatted. 
4. All of the User Guides and Species Specific Guides have been populated and formatted.
5. Corruption Items have had their descriptions updated to reflect information that was previously only hosted on Atalav.

Additionally: 
1. Fixes to broken links to Filegarden and other peripheral updates to the site have been logged and worked on to update accordingly. 

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Fawning Season

The Fawning Hub and in-depth FAQ are now live [CLICK HERE]!

This FAQ includes all the information for the 2026 Fawning event; information on how it works, pricing, how the items work, artist information/availability, and all the relevant changes and updates to previous Fawning seasons!

All three prompts (Ordering items, ordering Fawns, ordering Faun-to-Fawns) are now live on-site under the Explore dropdown. You cannot submit them until they are open, but you can view all of the forms and review how the process works. 

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Hybrids

We’ve been working as a team to simplify the percentages for Faun/Mino/Merfaun Hybrids for fawning, and have come up with a bit of a rehaul to the whole system.
These infographics will be added to the Fawning FAQ, and will apply for the 2026 Fawning season. No more pesky 37.5%’s!

Here is a visual guide for how the percentages work when using either a Handy Dandy or Wild Child. The percentages listed are the base odds if not using these items.
Since these are new percentages and might change some of your fawning plans, feel free to reach out and ask if you have any additional questions.

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The Strange Baubles Shop

Starting this year, you may purchase Fawning Items with Barters, in addition to USD!
While you can still purchase your items through the Fawning Items prompt, we are also happy to introduce a new friend. This friend is very interested in Faunids and how they live, and happens to have stumbled on a treasure trove of items they can't figure out what to do with! No matter. They have learned through their experience living among Faunids that sharing is caring, and are happy to trade some shinies for other more practical and informative items. 

 

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Fawning Base Prices

We have modified the prices for the upcoming 2026 Fawning Event! 
All Fawns will be $60 USD.

This change was made with a lot of in-team deliberation, and through community feedback from our multinational community. Thank you all! 
This will be reflected in the Fawning Hub and the Fawning FAQ document.

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2026 Policy Handbook Changes

We have updated the Policy Handbook after suggestions for clarity and internal staff consensus.
The current handbook linked on the Discord (and linked below) is the current reflection of the rules.

Edits have been made to: 

1. Discord conduct rules. 
2. Clarity and definitions for the Forgotten policy have been edited.

View the 2026 Handbook [HERE]. 

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Art Challenge

Thank you, everyone, for warming up this year with some 30-minute timed works! 

Our winners for January were: 

20 Barters - Sh3Draws

20 Barters - L0sw

30 Barters - Elk_Montauk

Full-body Character Artwork from Zorkia - MothDad

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There's still one week to submit your entry for February's Art Challenge!

How does your Faunid express love? Do they have a love language? 

'Love' can mean a lot of different things. Everyone expresses it differently! 

For this challenge, think about how your Faunid might express self-love, familial love, romantic love, or love and appreciation for their friends.

Remember that in order to enter for this prompt, you must submit your entry into the art challenge gallery and submit a prompt.

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Additional Art Challenge news

There is a new on-site prompt for users to make suggestions for upcoming Art Challenge prompts, which you can submit as many times as you want! 

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What's Coming Next?

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Community Suggestions

At our staff meetings, we have been going through the list of existing suggestions to discuss whether we should implement them and how. Here are a few we discussed. Not every one we talk about will be here, just the ones we have longterm plans for 

Traits

1. Curly Feathers - We are not adding this as a unique trait, but we will be adding some clarification within the trait notes to existing traits that already allow for texture. AKA, [Hair/Feather texture is allowed so long as it does not mimic other traits and is within other applicable trait standards.]
2. Nose Ridge Fluff - We will be adding this trait.
3. Upright Ears - We will be adding a trait that is similar in expression. 

World

1. Plants related to Fawning/Corruption (which had mock-ups drawn by msmydeer within the Discord server) - The Tender Plant would be perfect to represent the companion-boosting item during Fawning next year, as well as both of these plants being associated with these events in-world!
2. Stagwagon rehaul/official information Release - Yes. This is part of our Fauna release plans. 
3. Reptile Mounts - Yes. This will also be added to our Fauna release plans. 
4. Peryton Fauna Concept - Yes, pending more concrete concept design. 

Community

1. Trait Replacement Token - Yes. This item will allow users to remove and replace a trait in the same area with one token. This will likely be released during the summer. 
2.  Suggestions for Art Challenges by users - Yes! This is implemented as of this newsletter. 
3. More updates on community suggestions and what we're working on internally: You're here right now!! 
4.  Faunid 'Redesigns' - In the summer, we will be opening a testing process to figure out how we would like to roll something like this out to users. There will be a submission process to apply to 'redesign' a Faunid so we can work with an initial group of users to iron out what this can and should look like. We want to structure this with the goal being for the person who submits a Faunid to end up with a Faunid that member is happy with while also maintaining existing species standards as a team. 

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Monthly Question

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Lavandul is known for our agricultural exports, our biggest specialty being lupine flowers and other fragrants.
However, we're also known for our unique wildlife who love to eat our crops. Convenient isn't it?​

Of course, we don't want to harm these creatures... but their population still needs to be monitored.
We were hoping that you could go and catch some of these lapines and chimebirds and bring them back here to be adopted out to potential adopters! They're very popular as companions recently.​

The weirdest coincidence has been happening as of late with these adopters though.
I've noticed that when a creature is brought in, an adopter with remarkable similarities comes in soon after.

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You can view all of this year's full Gacha previews (as well as Springtides from past years) and all the information you need on the Event Hub page [HERE].

Each day, starting Wednesday the 4th, a winner for one of the Springtide gachas will be rolled by RNG.
Thank you to all of the artists who contributed this year. Everyone went all-out with creative, thoughtful designs that we are so excited to share.

The artists who made Springtides this year are Hyenadayy, Necrologia, L0sw, pebb, Loutta, BelPlasmawolf, Banriion, GoryTeeth, kojoty, WinterTigris, and Cockroach!

You can enter for the Springtide gachas through the Google Form linked on the event hub, or:

[Entry form for springtide raffles]

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the floral whorl

The Floral Whorl will be our interactive wheel for this event. It will run from the 7th to the 19th.
Prizes will be granted as Barters, shared in-universe between Faunids as gifts freely given. These are gestures of goodwill to help one another climb out from the bitter chills of winter. 

This is the last chance to save up Barters before Fawning begins! 

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Our newest Lore Development is, collectively, a 28-page comic following one small chunk of the strange meteor that landed in the deep sea beyond the coasts of Atalav. L0sw and MUTT worked for over a month to collaborate on the first 23 pages, and the rest... well, you'll just have to find them. 

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Cameo Vouchers

These Vouchers were in the pool of prizes for last December's Winter Gala. Our plan with these was this exact comic! We made the storyboard together based on what each owner shared about their characters, such as what they do in their daily lives and what they might trade for an unusual rock.
Thank you to everyone who allowed us to use their characters as cameos in this comic! We had a blast including them. 
We would love to know if there would be interest from the community in making more Cameo Vouchers for projects like this. 

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Without further ado, touch this meteorite to start your journey! 

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Our first Community Newsletter of the year is a short one!

The purpose of these newsletters is to keep our community informed about site updates, upcoming events, official artist commission openings, new user guides, highlight different bits and pieces of our species, and build on community engagement. The content of these newsletters will vary by month.

To sign up for a Faunids account, message a moderator for an invite code. Once you have that, you can register on the sign-up page.

View the Faunids Policy Handbook

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Official Artist Commission Openings 

Two of our official artists, Necrologia and pebb, are open for commissions.

Necrologia is open for customs, age-ups, and re-references, with single-view commissions being preferred. 
[View prices and examples here!]

pebb is open for any type of commission from headshot/sketch to scenes/painted illustrations. 
[View prices and examples here!]

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character appreciation

This month, we've called in a very special little wet beast to ask him some questions. 

Eeekel, our newest NPC, is on the loose and owned by nobody. He's just too slippery. 

1. Tell us a little about yourself, Eekel! 
Eekeel loves trinkets and doodads and whatzits and hoozies and doohickeys and gizmos and wants to look at them all with both eyeballs one at a time. Eekel gets bored very fast but not because he doesn't like the cool stuff but there's always gonna be new stuff to find you know I bet you could find new stuff every day if you looked I do it every day! Eeekel's not good at talking but he is good at looking at things if you have any. 

2. Where did you grow up? 
Big blue ocean. Eeekel lives in the big kind of ocean that's so big and so far away from rocks and sand but a little while ago the big ocean got too big and too weird scary for Eeekel. There's good scary and there's weird scary and it was that one which is bad and Eekel didn't like it so he got closer to the not-big ocean. 

3. Where does your name come from? 
Eekel can't remember not being Eekel. (Eekel's name comes from "ekel", the German word for disgust, with an eel-like extra e.)

4. What do you do for a living? 
Oh mostly swim around. Eekel doesn't have a 'job' Eekel lives by eating soggy soaked stuff that's usually green and sometimes Eekel swims around with fish until they get too fast or too shy and don't like Eekel anymore or they just get tired. Eeekel likes collecting but what Eekel likes more is talking to see what other collectors have in their collections that Eekel can see and maybe touch if it's a lucky day for Eekel. He just lives to live because living is the coolest thing to do as a thing that lives and is alive. 

5. Are you spontaneous or do you always need to have a plan? 
What's spontaneous? 

Spontaneous means that you don't plan what you do, it just happens. 
Yeah that one. Eekel doesn't plan at all. 

6. What in the WORLD is up with that meteor? 
The big rock? That's what made things weird scary. It got hard to move around and made the water feel wrong and too heavy and all the fish and other beasts got lost and didn't know where to go. Eekel got lots of headaches and there was a big storm and now the bottom of the ocean isn't happy and a lot of us had to leave. It kicked up so much sand and other stuff Eekel's never seen before.

7. What kind of stuff? 
Like rocks that are smaller than big and new stuff under the sand. Eeekel even got a piece of the big rock! 

8. You touched the meteor? 
Well at first nothing could get close to it but Eekel heard about it and had to see with both eyeballs one at a time. Eekel got a little piece of it when it broke all over the place. 

9. Do you still have it? Can we see it? 
Nooo, sorry, Eekel got something else to look at that's waaaaay more cool.

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Site Updates

Thank you as always to our coders for making all of this possible! 

1. Added a new "Bases" page. Added all approved site bases to page with download links [HERE].

2. Updated Barter Shop Coupons to be a 'box' that has all choices for use within it. No need to contact a Moderator to get your items. 

3. Theme Selection exists for users now (though please keep in mind that these themes may not be as up-to-date as the main theme for now). 

4. Users can now use basic HTML to make descriptions for their characters. 

5. Notes are updated so that there is now an option to indicate whether a Faunid has a Trading Clause (such as with Fawning). Users cannot edit their own notes (though they can put a note in the character description), as our moderator team uses this section to document important updates and changes as well. However, all Fawns this coming year will have any relevant trading/sale clauses added to the character when they are uploaded.

6. Some dropdown tabs have been updated to be easier to get to certain pages. Clicking 'Browse', then 'Guides' leads you to a page containing quick access to many different pages. Some of these are empty at the moment as we continue work on getting Atalav ported over, but many of them are accurate. You can view all Lore pages here, as well as species-specific information and FAQs/User Guides. 

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Self Age-ups/Re-references

We are keeping the price of self age-ups $20 for streamlined submissions. A new option, mentored, will be the original $30. Mentored submissions allow us to get more in-depth earlier in the process, providing guidance as early as the initial sketch phase that includes more detailed redlines, resources, drawn visuals, etc.
Other than the price, Streamlined submissions remain the same as they always have been, including critiques on anatomy, layout, and design translation. 

Submissions have been taking our team quite some time to work through and we have been putting our heads together internally to figure out how to conduct them best. In the past, submissions were not handled as a team and, unless an artist made a design, they were not included whatsoever in the threads. Everyone on our team has different strengths and we do these submissions collaboratively. 

At our most recent meeting, we decided to focus on these things related to submissions: 
- Creating a checklist to guide users to check their submissions for common errors. 
- Creating pre-threads amongst the artist team so that we can come to a consensus on all critiques we want to give, so they all come at the same time. 
- Reworking the Age-Up Guides page with updated wording, and including more directed supportive guides on that page to help with trait presentation and more clear guidelines overall. We have had to prioritize many other things these past few months, but this does need to be more of a priority ASAP. 

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Upcoming lore development

Our next update has been a lot of work behind the scenes. Cameo vouchers won by users during the Winter Gala were used to add community Faunids to a comic you can expect to drop at the end of January. In total, it is nearly 30 pages long! 

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Springtide event

Our yearly Springtide event will start early February this year! While it may not always occur in February, our timeline worked best to have it a bit early this year. 
The event hub page is nearly done, only needing some text changes to reflect updated information. You can also view past Springtide adopts on this page [HERE]! 

This year's theme is: Strange and Unusual Plants. 

Important changes and updates this Springtide: 

• You can expect Springtide to start early February. 
• Companion previews for all adopts will be viewable at the start of the event, similarly to the Nostalgia and Advent gachas. 
• Adopts will be rolled daily. There will be no alternating days where tokens are won. Instead, you can expect a new wheel later into the event. 
• No custom or on-base companions for the event this year. We plan to roll out a new site feature as part of the Summer Camp event related to this.

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Fawning Event 

We hope to have the Fawning Event page fully up-to-date by February 1st. At minimum, the Public Helper List will be viewable on that date. 

While you cannot view the spreadsheet yet, you may start submitting your helpers now with the [GOOGLE FORM].
Having an early backlog should help us make sure we can get through the bulk of them before the hub even opens! 

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Art Challenge

This month's Art Challenge is still open for another week:

Let's warm up this winter and bring the energy we want to see in this new year!

For this Art Challenge, you'll need a 30-minute timer. Your task is to draw a Faunid as silly and loose as you'd like, while making as much progress as you can within that time. If you need to step away, pause the timer and come back to it. No matter how unfinished it looks, stop at that 30-minute mark! 

Due to the nature of this challenge, there are no color, clean-line, or amount of the body requirements. However, use this as a chance to get outside your comfort zone. Try not to spend time correcting mistakes. Draw over them, play with them, and see what you can do.

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Monthly Question

This Festival is a celebration of life, where Faunids focus on a species they share the earth with and celebrate their existence as part of a greater ecosystem. The timing of this celebration is meant to bring a spark of color, glimmers of hope, in the heart of winter to remind one another that hardships will pass. Life will persevere.

Since this is our first year hosting Hues of Lifesource, we still wanted to recognize the year of the Horse with a Faunids twist.

Introducing: Bolters! 

Bolters are the evolutionary descendants of draft horses. They are hardy, stocky creatures who have adapted well to the mountaneous climates found near the settlement of Vinnde, and may even have herds deeper in the Cold North.

While they are highly social herd animals, their lack of exposure to Faunids mean that they are generally wary of them, though it's not impossible to gain their trust with dedication and persistence. "Bolter" is an accurate description of both their high endurance and ability to escape danger unscathed, with Bolters being capable of quick thinking and navigational awareness to use the terrain to their advantage.

Bolters are much more familiar with the presence of Minodae, and herds are more commonly present in areas inhabited by Minodae. They are willing workers when faced with a challenge, and they display an impressive stamina to travel great distances at consistent speeds. This makes them exceptionally beneficial for farm work that includes logging, plowing, and hauling even in unpredictable weather conditions.

[Read more about Bolters on their Fauna page here!]

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New Trait category: lifesource aspects

A disruption of Lifesource has bled out from the initial shock of the meteor in the deep sea, spanning all across Atalav.

Many signs are as subtle as a strange chill in the air where there never was before. The Spirits are restless. Strange phenomena trickle in from the coasts, passing through waterways and falling with the rain. Herne's presence feels closer than ever, seemingly keen on protecting life on Atalav from unpredictable hardships.

Stories travel fast. Two tales emerge of lives touched by Herne's will, undeniable evidence of potent magic woven into the very bones beneath their skin. Lifesource Aspects are not mutations or traits. They are explosive interactions between a living soul, the forces of nature, and the manifestation of Herne's connection to Lifesource. As such, the way they may possibly present themselves is as unique as the narrative we all possess inside us. Our story. Due to this, they do not pass from parent to Fawn.

As for those twin rumors shared across Atalav, you can see for yourself.

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Auction Faunids

These auctions will end on Friday, January 23rd at 8PM CST. You can view their sales post [HERE] or bid within the Discord!

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Loch Revival 

By GoryTeeth and MUTT. 

"This Faunid may appear unsettling to many, yet all who know them describe a truly unique character full of warmth, kindness, and grace.

Often seen guiding wayward Fauns through a mazelike series of freshwater channels, they possess a deep understanding of the life in nature around them. Frequently, they are seen teaching travelers about the local wildlife and how to respect the waters they tread.

Following the meteor's impact, changing tides led to flooding channels and perilous currents. Still, they persisted, putting their own life in peril to protect all who needed guidance.

Nature's claim to the water became unforgiving. One fateful day, this Faunid helped a boat that had fallen off-course avoid a channel full of sharp rocks and torrential water. Unable to fight the currents, they were swept up and battered by the rocks along the riverbed. In an act of strength, fortitude, and hope, they used the only limb they could still feel to pull themself up to the nearest bank.

In an act of grace befitting the life this Faunid led, Herne used the source of their devotion– the very waters that turned against them– to repair what was possible to recover, granting  them another chance to continue their work."

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Forged in Flames

By pebb and Necrologia. 

"This unusual Minodae's conviction and spirit were so strong as to catch the attention of Herne himself.

When the meteor crashed into the deep sea, a shock wave spread outwards, disturbing the flow of lifesource as far as the Cold North and beyond. This triggered a dormant volcano's eruption in the heart of the Bolter's herd lands.

While others fled, this soul stayed behind, defying the wrath of nature to save all they could. As molten heat spread behind them, the last life they saved came at a cost; heat spreading, burning down to the bone, consumed by smoke and ash. Yet they kept running, fighting, and pulled their way out of the debris all to protect another life. By the time they both reached safety, they were different in ways they could barely comprehend."

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Important Note: This News Post contains information regarding upcoming events between January and April of 2026.

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Year In Review

While there is no typical Newsletter for December, a wrap-up for our very big year in Faunids feels like the best way to send it off before the meteor comes. 

Thank you all. It's silly to say that I'm tearing up from writing that, but I am. I'm writing this thank you after putting together this news post, and it's hitting me all at once how lucky I am to lead Faunids and how much being part of Faunids has changed my life for so many years, in recent months more than ever. I am proud of my team and my community in so many ways that I truly do not have the words for.
I'm saying this as the guy who has put together a 3,000 word news post, too, so you know I mean it. 
(Lots of love, from your ever-dramatic Muttjack)

Let's celebrate a few highlights!

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Charity Raffle

In early January, we hosted a charity raffle. The combined funds gained through raffle tickets purchased in our communities totaled nearly $1,000! The charities our community donated to were the Joplin Humane Society, Urbana’s Cunningham Township Gaza Relief, Cops for Kids, Texas Health Action, Dogs Home of Tasmania, Blue Star Service Dogs, Great Plains SPCA, Athens Area Humane Society, ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid), Cheyenne Animal Shelter, and United Way of Asheville & Buncombe County! 

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Lunar New Year

We had two auction Faunids for the Year of the Snake: 

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Fawning

This year, 123 Fawns were born, with an additional 24 Faun-to-Fawns being drawn by our artist team! 

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Lore Development: Cervidic runes 

(For all the Lore Development sections, click on the image to go to that page!) 

Our first Lore Development of the year, Cervidic Runes, went live in early March, introducing a new NPC: Leonard the Theologian. Our community has used these runes to create freeze branding, accessories, and personal runic symbols for their Faunids! This was a big shift for Faunids towards enhancing the lore within our world, moving away from pre-existing symbology toward a crafted construction of sigils that fit what Faunids find important, how they view magic in their daily lives, how they communicate with one another, what they value, and what mysteries there still are within Atalav to discover. 

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"April Mule's Day"

The most beautiful Faunid of all graced us with her presence on April 1st.
She hasn’t been seen since, but just know that she is out there, and she is real. 

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Springtide

This year’s Springtide was the first inclusion of raffle prizes as part of the event. It allowed for more tokens to be introduced into the community, and provided an extra way for users who did not want to purchase new Faunids a way to participate in the event. This addition propelled us into considering more opportunities for our community to access items for their Faunids. 

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Community Newsletters

In June, our first ever Community Newsletter was published on our new website (this one). The content included in these Newsletters was informed by a wide range of responses to a community survey. Surveys have been a source of immensely valuable information for so many elements of Faunids and how we operate. As our Community Manager, I was able to organize all of the data and present it to our team, speak up for what the community shared was important, and advocate for changes in how we run events, run proposals for new concepts, and write all of these Newsletters! 

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Summer Camp

This summer, we had our first community-led event: Summer Camp! Alongside it, we had our first-ever Site Shop, where users could participate in activities and redeem their Pebbles for prizes. We received nearly 150 art/writing submissions as part of this event. Our community tested many site features during this event, which taught us a lot for how to structure these events in the future. Users had to navigate the website to find scavenger hunt items, submit art prompts, color bugs, and go fishing. This event will return as a yearly event. It will contain new prompts and themes depending on in-world events on Atalav, and will hopefully include more new site features.

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Nostalgia Gacha Batch

In early August, a set of 20 Gacha Adopts was released under the same theme: Nostalgia. This theme allowed for a spectacular range of designs that were all, at their heart, a source of something positive for all of the guest artists who supported us with this batch. This group of Gachas also included a few adopts that were only eligible to be won by first-time owners; we wanted to see how this went so we could consider more opportunities for newer members to participate. 

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Barter SHop

In August, we also announced the first permanent on-site trading post where users could exchange Barters (which represent goods that Faunids have made) for Faunid items that allow you to further customize your characters. Barters are obtained by participating in the monthly Art Challenges and responding to the monthly Newsletters! This was a big way to reward active community members for their effort without relying on random chance to receive anything, and has quickly become a staple of our community. 

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The Faunids Handbook 

Our staff team published our official policy handbook in August as well. This handbook will be updated as necessary (with an announcement) and at minimum reviewed annually by staff to make sure our policies are up-to-date! 

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Lore Development: Cervidic (Corrupt) sigils 

Our second Lore Development of the year came as we prepared for Corruption. It features Curiosity Killed the Cat, an eerily passionate Faunid who seeks to understand the nature of Lifesource by inspecting the dark underbelly of magic as it exists in Atalav. Sigils are often associated with Corrupt Faunids, as sigils are often powerful tools to channel energy that evoke the life narratives and motives expressed by Corrupted Faunids. Her studies frequently lead Curiosity to find herself in dangerous situations, but she is a natural collaborator with other Faunids in her quest for information. She frequently travels with her partner, Satisfaction Brought Her Back, who supports her in her studies. 

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Corruption

We tried out many quality of life changes with this year's Corruption. We had a new set of Quad and Anthro bases, new structures for submitting forms,  new items, new traits, and a new donation shop! We love Roach. When all was said and done we had nearly 50 Corrupts this year! This is a massive difference compared to previous years. Our community was more engaged than ever and truly made this Corruption Season feel special. 

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Site Overhauls & New Coders

Our two coders, Banriion and bluiestarss, have put countless hours into the development of our website. They have fixed tons of errors that previously would routinely break the site or prevent users from completing basic site functions, they have ported over tons of pages from Atalav, and so much more. Banriion has formatted so many pages to go above and beyond what I thought was possible with interactive images, new hub pages, more accessible formatting, and new site themes. They worked on the internal coding for our Winter Wonderwheel to make that possible, and are constantly stressing me out with their incredibly creative and ambitious concepts for new magical features that are beyond my comprehension. They frequently tell me, "Jack, don't be scared, but" and then I get scared, but it always turns out great. Thank you two so much for pushing the bounds of everything I thought our site could do. 

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Age-Up/Re-Reference Fees

This year, we were able to bring the cost of User-submitted references down as soon as we hit the annual cost of our website hosting fees. The Faunids Fund has been able to pay site fees, provide compensation for supplemental guest artists and large projects for official artists, website coding, and a wide range of event prizes! 

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Traits and Tokens 

We had our first large trait overhaul in October. 12 trait visuals were updated with new images, and ranges were more clearly defined for many more. We added lore flavortext to many Mutations and made adjustments to the "Antler Modification" token, changing it instead to an "Accent Adjustor". This allows for much more freedom for owners to alter several aspects of a Faun's design! 

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Lore Development: Clothing

Our third Lore Development featured materials and styles of clothes Faunids of all kinds may wear in our universe! 

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The Winter Gala

Our first annual Winter Gala is in full swing! You can read more about the event by clicking that banner above. The Winter Wonderwheel closes tomorrow. I know, I know, "Jack, we want to spin the wheel some more, please let us spin the wheel, I love gambling" I hear you. There will be more wheels to come! 

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Lore Development: Constellations

Our final Lore Development of the year revolved around the 12 main constellations Faunids use to navigate the night sky. Hopefully, it won't be our last update, but... that meteor sure is coming.

It's getting closer every day. 

Oh, look, a FUN FACT: Did you know there were 288 Faunids uploaded to the website this year? What the hell...

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Art Challenge Compilation

This year, across 11 different monthly Art Challenges, we received a total of 198 visual and written works of art from within our own community. 

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upcoming 2026 developments 

We have a lot planned for Faunids in the years to come (again, let's hope we survive the meteor). We have met many times to discuss our timeline and what works best for our team and the community as a whole. We think you will really enjoy what we have in store, and have been working for months to achieve our goals with as little disruption to our usual schedule as possible. So far, we've stayed right on track, and we want to share our overall timeline for the first few months of the year to give our community time to prepare. 

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New Artist Team Member 

Please give a warm welcome to our newest Official Artist In-Training, Loutta! 

This isn't Loutta's first rodeo. In past years, Loutta has made Fawns, Springtides, Gacha adopts, Auction Faunids, and supplemental art galore. They made this year's Winter Gala banner, and have been working behind the scenes on several upcoming Faunids developments. 

Loutta will not be an artist option when submitting Fawning pairs this coming year, but will be supporting us in a multitude of ways, such as lineart edits, critique, and another set of eyes throughout the design process. Loutta's position will involve creating environmental art for the world and towns across Atalav, concept design for creatures, Summer Camp event prep, and more secret upcoming lore developments. Loutta's work allows the rest of our team to focus on Fawning season without burning out, and ensures that we can continue to add enriching details to the world of Atalav for our community and Faunids as a species. I am so over-the-moon grateful that Loutta wants to join us; I couldn't ask for a better team. 

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january: hues of Lifesource Mini-event

Starting this year, the Lunar New Year Auction Faunids will be restructured as a mini-event that leans into the celebrations held by Faunids on Atalav. The Hues of Lifesource is a celebration of life where Faunids focus on a species they share the earth with and celebrate their existence as part of a greater ecosystem.
2026 will be the year of the horse, so it's only fitting that we introduce a species on Atalav that evolved over time from the horses we know today: Bolters.
There will be two very special Auction Faunids to fit this year's theme, one designed by Necrologia and pebb, the other by MUTT and GoryTeeth. 

The same way we introduced Cervidic Runes as an opportunity to enrich the world beyond human symbols, we want to offer our community more ways to play in the universe we've created. This new mini-event allows us to build at minimum one release or significant highlight on Atalav's other creatures into our yearly framework. This way we can plan regular additions to our bestiary and fully flesh them out to give them love! 

Stay tuned for more information around mid-January. 

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January-February: Lore Developments

During this time, you can expect some major Lore Developments that we hope will really knock your socks off. I can't say anything more than that just yet.

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February: springtide

First, we will not have custom Chimebirds/Lapines as an option to order during Springtide this year.
We will be testing a new extension for the Summer Camp event that will hopefully make the reason for this make a lot of sense (and also worth the wait!). 

Second, part of the Springtide event will feature a wheel similar to the Winter Wonderwheel.
This will give everyone who participates one last chance to save up Barters before Fawning. 

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April: April Mule's Day

I thought the joke I made last April Fool's day was so funny that I not only included it as a highlight from this year's recap, I also decided to make it the name of our new April mini-event. Expect some gags and jokes and good fun for a few days in April. 

Also, if you noticed that I skipped March, please leave a comment on this news post where you roleplay as someone pointing out that I skipped March and you're trying to correct me like it was a serious mistake. Seriously. That's how you get 5 Barters for this newsletter. 

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march: Fawning Event

I made it huge so everyone can find it. Sorry, I start to get a little delirious by the end of these news posts and it makes me silly.

It's very important to our team that all of you know what you need to know about Fawning as soon as we can tell you. We know how much prepwork goes into Fawning from all sides, so while this is not all the news related to Fawning you'll hear in upcoming months, this post includes some of the most important ones to share with you right now. I've been compiling so much feedback on Fawning, proposing ideas to the artist team internally, discussing suggestions from said lovely team, and we have been weighing things we want to do this year and things that may be best to implement or consider/poll about the year after.

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timeline 

Corruption was a huge success. That specific buffer time at the beginning where staff could support users through the process and make sure everything was running as it should was key to that. Artists were able to discuss pre-approval with commissioners, users could trade and purchase items, and once the first wave of forms went in we had time to breathe and organize them and help each other (Jack and Pebb had both never been Official Artists before Corruption, which will be true of Fawning as well). 

March 1st (Sunday): The Event Hub goes live on Faunids.com (everything at this point will be accessible on one website, you will not need to jump between Atalav and Faunids). Everyone will have time to read through every element of Fawning, discuss public helpers (which we will compile leading up to March 1st), ask questions, gather/purchase items, and talk to artists/moderators. Artists who require pre-approval will make lists of approved pairs during this time, and will be able to get help from the artist team if they're unsure about the pair. 

March 14th (Saturday): Forms open on Faunids.com. Like Corruption, they are addressed in the order they are received. 

March 28th (Saturday): First group of Fawns are released. 

April 4th (Saturday): Second group of Fawns are released. 

April 10th (Friday): Forms close. This means that our community, like with Corruption, gets to see at least two batches of Fawns from our artists before forms close. 

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Bases

Out of the three choices for which Quad base to use for this year's Fawning season, 62% (34) of respondants in the Discord voted for 2023.
2021 and 2024 received 25% and 13% of the vote, respectively. 

So, this coming year, our main Fawning base will be year 2023! This means we have tons of premade lineart at the ready, and the freedom to focus more on personalizing from what we have and designing each Fawn. This will be a huge time-saver for us, and the familiarity of the poses that we have all worked on before plus knowing how designs tend to look on this base means we know what to expect when translating traits and the clarity of each design. 

All previous years' bases are available as always for Faun-to-Fawns! 

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Event Updates

This is not a list of all the fun secrets we have in store for Fawning, moreso the most relevant and important details. We will share more information when we are ready to share it. Until then, please take this bullet point breakdown and be gentle with me. If you notice that a point on this list is worded more like a sphinx's riddle than a fact, that's code for 'a very detailed description will come at some point that is not right now'.

• A shop will exist that allows you to exchange Barters for Fawning-related items. 
• All Fawns will have a base price of $60 that does not increase per the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Fawn. 
• There will be specific guidelines for what might cause a complexity fee to be requested by an artist to create a Fawn. This is universal across the artist team and is $15-$25. 
• All Fawns will have a 1/10 chance to be born with a Companion. There will not be an item to increase these odds during this Fawning season.
• There is a new item that will function as a Mutation Denial. 
• Another new item, Herne's Gamble, is a strange and mischievous item with a mind of its own. Odd things tend to happen around this item, including a strange interaction with Lifesource that may cause a bit of variation in Fawns; these will be known as Wild Traits. 
• Merfaun x Minodae may result in a Minodae-specific hybrid with advantageous adaptations to the climates Minodae inhabit. 
• When Herne's Grace is used by a Fawning pair, they may hope for a glimmer of color or an absence of another. 
• Re-rolled designs will not be kept by the artist; as in, they will not be used to make adopts or designs in the future. These designs are only to be used on-site as parts of visual guides if there is a relevance for them as examples for how certain things work like traits, items, etc.
• One-per-week is still the minimum requirement for releases. In addition to this, 'surprise' releases may occur during the week. 
• Prices for items may be adjusted but these adjustments will not be increases. For example, Handy Dandy and Wild Child will both be the same price. 

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Welcome to the first annual Faunids Winter Gala! 

As the world gets cold and dark, many of our animal friends go to hibernate. But not Faunids! They know the best fix for being stuck in dreary weather- second only to a mug of hot chocolate- is to search for the positives our winter season has to offer. Faunids, as a whole, love an excuse to share their crafts and company with one another. The Winter Gala is a time for gathering, games, and fun! 

Despite the strange meteor approaching Atalav, Faunids everywhere are still finding joy in this yearly celebration.

This News Post will be the central hub for information related to the event, and will be updated throughout the month.
You don't have to be in the Discord server to participate. 

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Secret shriekers

Secret Shriekers forms have closed. Thank you to everyone who signed up for this gifting mini-event.
We have a grand total of 34 participants this year! We can't wait to share them all later this month.

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Winter Wonderwheel

The wheel is now live (Early)

Once per day between December 6-15, you can spin our first daily wheel for free! 
You can find the wheel under the 'World' tab -> 'Dailies', or you can click on the banner right above. 

Our coders have been able to make magic happen with this wheel. Their work allows us to have a wider prize pool and customized rarities for said prizes! 

When spinning the wheel, you may receive:
5 Barters (Common)
10 Barters (Uncommon) 
Barter Shop Voucher* (Rare) 
Cameo Voucher** (Very Rare)
Trait Applicator - Exclusive (Super Rare) 
Trait Applicator - Mutation (Extremely Rare)

The Barter Shop Voucher allows you to redeem one item of your choice from the Barter Shop. 
The Cameo Voucher grants a Faunid of your choice an appearance in a very special upcoming Lore Development.
The Faunid does not have to be a Faunid owned by you, but you do have to have permission from the owner.
You will receive more information shortly after this event! 

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Advent Calendar

Gacha Batch

Like last year, we will be releasing a set of advent gacha adopts. This batch, like last year's, includes some visually unique and atypical Faunids. The Winter Advents are a great chance for new users to obtain a Faunid, and to introduce rare trait combinations, less widely used color palettes, community suggestions, and more.

There are ten gachas this year, all priced at $50. They were designed mainly by MUTT.
You may only win one gacha, and will receive your adopt once payment has been sent. 

Last year’s theme was food. The foods chosen gave hints as to what traits and color palettes could be found on the adopts they represented.
This year’s theme is toys!
If you’re a longtime community member, you may recognize our guest mascot from the toys she often makes to give Faunids when they are newly introduced to our community. Veltruska, more widely known as Velly, is owned by Athenadora. She has made some exceptional toys for our new friends this year!

 

You can view last year's gacha set, including the flavortext that came with them, [HERE]! 

Calendar Overhaul

In addition to the gachas, there has been a HUGE overhaul for our advent calendar.
Every day of December up to the 20th has its own unique prize, with the Winter Wonderwheel opening between the 6th and 15th.

Explanation of Prizes

Prizes on even-numbered days will be referred to as "tokens". 

You may not choose which tokens to enter for. This raffle enters you into all possible tokens.
You may only win one for the duration of the event, which does not make you ineligible to win a gacha - they are separate raffles. 

All token prizes may be traded or gifted, but CANNOT be sold. 

Many of these prizes are only possible due to the contributions members have made to the Faunids Fund via submission approvals. Thank you! 

Day 4: Standard tokens include any that can be found in the Barter Shop.

Day 6: This Fawning voucher covers the cost of one Fawn during the season. It does not include helper fees or items purchased - just the base price! 

Day 8: This Half-off Gacha voucher can be used to either 1) halve the cost of any future gacha you win, or 2) gift to a specific user or apply randomly to any upcoming gacha batch. 

Day 10: This will grant you an extra set of 6 randomly generated items from the pool at the Fenris Dispensary, starting in 2026. 

Day 12: Fourth Fawning Slot (For a USER) allows whoever possesses it to order a fourth Fawn during the season if they have already ordered three. It does not cover items/helper fees. Base price for the Fawn will be equivalent to ordering your third Fawn. 

Day 14: Fourth Fawning Slot (For a FAUNID) allows whoever possesses it to bypass the 3-slot limit all Faunids have during the season once. This does not count for both Fauns involved in the pair, only the Faunid it is ‘applied’ to. 

Day 16: No raffle prize. The Winter Wonderwheel will open, which has prizes of its own. 

Day 18: A Faunid of your choice will make an appearance in a very special upcoming Lore Development. It does not have to be a Faunid owned by you, but you do have to have permission from the owner. 

Day 20: Our first MYO Slot: Merfaun! All MYO rules apply. Type of Merfaun must be discussed between the owner and admin to determine what creatures may be used as a ‘base’ for the Merfaun; there is some flexibility here beyond what is generally possible for custom Merfauns.

Referrals

When submitting your entry form for the advents and tokens in the calendar, you will see an option to include whether you were referred by another member. 

If you do not own any non-Corrupt Faunids and were referred to Faunids by a community member, you may share their username in your form.
This will grant both you and the user you’ve referred an extra raffle ticket to any raffles you have entered! 

The Winter Gala is the perfect time to invite some new friends into our community, and we want to celebrate participation from both longtime and brand-new members alike! While I believe our community will be fair and respectful about this, it must be said that it is against our code of conduct to use others who have no interest in participating in Faunids to gain extra raffle tickets. If you are found to be purposefully manipulating this raffle by using your friends in this way, you will be banned from participating from future raffles, and we will likely never grant a reward like this in future raffles for anyone.
Please do not be the person who ruins the fun! 

[Advent Entry Google FOrm]

(Special THANK YOU to Loutta for our event banner, and hearteater for our calendar layout!)

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Winter Gala Updates

There will be no newsletter for December, as our new Winter Gala will be a month-long event and no other news is planned. Expect a news post this weekend that outlines everything happening next month!

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Current Auction Faunid

As a quick reminder, our Auctions now run exactly one week from the day they are posted.
The current Auction, designed by Necrologia, ends Saturday, November 29, 2025 at 8:00 PM CST.

This Faunid has a naturally-occuring Split Tongue mutation. Here is the new lore flavortext:

Faunids with split tongues are often quite adept as navigators. Faunids with this mutation often find themselves in positions as trackers, as it provides them a stronger sense of smell and an ability to pinpoint scent-based trails. Those who are particularly creative have found that the unique structure of their tongues make them very good ventriloquists, mimics, or intimidators in conversation.

Bidding can be done directly in the thread, or on the discord server. A moderator will make sure bids are cross-posted and kept up-to-date.

[Official Sales Thread]

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Lore Development: Constellations

Our newest lore development is now live!
(This page is best viewed in desktop mode).

The sky above Atalav contains 12 distinct constellations, each connected and formed from myth, verbal history, legend and folktales.

It is our first lore page with interactive images. Try hovering or clicking on the constellations to check them out!

This Lore Development marks the introduction to our first ever Faunids ARG Plot line. It gives some clues for what's headed straight for us, and you'll find that the information you gather here will be useful for things to come.