Rhondi the Volcano Kimaerha is the latest incarnation of my personal fursona, who began life as Agent Elrond (Rondie) the anthro Absol, evolved into Elrond Drakendíl the mountain chimera, who underwent a slight design change and drastic recolor when I moved to Bend, going from a mountain chimera to a Volcano Chimera.

The final piece of the puzzle fell into place when Starwing misspelled my nick-name, Rondie, in an email as Rhondi, which I thought looked 1000% better. Since then I've been fleshing out this oddity of a creature, and have discovered that Rhondi's is one of many different kinds of "environmental chimerae." Which I'm spelling Kimaerha, even though it's a little dorky.

Kimaerhas differ from the Classic Chimera of Greek Mythology in that they usually have only one head, and come in a variety of animal combinations dependent upon their environment. Rhondi is herself something of an anomaly since she is African Lion, big horn sheep, wolf, and generic snake—none of which are associated with volcanos. Other Kimaerhas will be explored in my upcoming Inktoberfest show, including the Arctic Kimaerha, Borhosa, the Desert Kimaerha, Kirhi, and the Forest Kimaerha, Rheef, and others!

Kimaerhas are notable for not being sexually dimorphic at all, with dimorphic traits associated with their root animals having no bearing on the individual's gender. Therefore, even though Rhondi is female, she has a male lion's mane and a ram's horns. Kimaerhic names are the best indicator of an individual's gender: the i suffix is female, a is male, e is genderfluid, as are the combinations ia and ai. Trans-male and trans-female individuals can optionally use the u and o endings, if they wish to do so. Names ending in consonants can be any form of non-binary, intersex, or otherwise neuter.

All Kimaerhic names include rh somewhere in their body, followed by a vowel. It is pronounced exactly like a regular English R, but you can rolling it if you like.

Pentel brush pen and watercolor.