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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