Species:

These here are the Elwood, or commonly known as ‘Forest Spirits’, they are masked deer-like entities which are the most common beast type spirits that live in Kitsune Forest and are closely related to Daemons in the aspect of their social intellect.

Traits:

Although the Elwood are not ‘anthropomorphic’ like Daemon’s, as they don’t have a specific language pattern that is easily distinguishable and understandable. Elwood are emotional beings and are extremely sensitive to their surroundings and to others; they speak to each other through body language and various sounds like clicking and growling.

All Elwood (males and females) have horns/antlers and each are unique (like a fingerprint) as well as they all have canine-like ears; the top two bigger Elwood that look like they’re running are males, they have longer/thinner legs, longer tails and bigger horns/antlers compared to the female in between them, who has smaller horns, stocky body, shorter tail and stockier legs for birthing.

Gender/sexual behavior:

This also leads to how they are ‘gender fluent’, as they are ‘Sequential hermaphrodite’s’ (meaning when an individual changes sex at some point in its life) Although for them, its not at “a point in their life” its when they reach sexual maturity (about 5-6yrs old) that they are able to discern what gender they wish to be, as when they are fawns they are just hermaphrodite’s (like the small Elwood fawn at the bottom left with the small horns) all fawns(male and female) have pink markings on their masks as there is no pigment yet until they mature into adults. The process of each sex change varies, but it take about an average of two-three weeks for them to go from male to female and vice-versa.

An Elwood’s sexual preference depends on them as well as their choice in mates; for emotional beings like them, its not preferable nor desirable for them to mate with someone that they do not know and don’t have an emotional bond/connection with. This also goes into gender roles as Elwood tend to have same sex coupling. So for example, if two male’s that have a tight bond together and they decide to mate, one of them will have to change their sex to female for a safe birth. Most times the more submissive male/female would be chosen for the ‘female’ role, though in some instances of a more stubborn same sex pair, they would have a ‘play fight’ to determine the role.

General behavior:

Elwood are cautious, but playful spirits with highly developed senses of sight, smell, and hearing. They approach many things with a cat-like curiosity (even things that are bigger/more dangerous than themselves as they are not prone to be attacked by other animals/beings as they give out an aura that is respect on a universal level of understanding).

There are a few (its not commonplace, as they are peaceful spirits) of the Elwood who are extremely aggressive without cause (most are only aggressive when fighting for territory or protecting their mate). These types are loners and will attack their own kind at will for their own needs.

The Elwood stay in groups up to 4-20 members and are constant roamers, always looking for food and water.

Mourning behavior:

All Elwood (males and females) have specific mourning behavior to show others that they are visibly and physically non-threatening. As shown by the smaller male in the bottom right corner, the horns/antlers fall off, they show submissive behavior to an extreme whenever there is another visible Elwood around, males and females whole body literally get smaller than their previous size and their general eating habits diminish and they sleep more.

Weight

Female: 55.1–70.5 lbs (25–32 kg), Male: 63.9–79.4 lbs (29–36 kg)

Height

Female: 22–24 inches (55–60 cm), Male: 22–24 inches (57–62 cm)

Lifespan

50-75 years, there is the rare occasion that they survive to be 100yrs old, when that happens the previous Elwood deity, known as a Moriko, would then pass on their power to the new Moriko and pass away. A Moriko is a guardian deity of the Elwood species and the forest it dwells in, they are about 3.9ft and weigh about 400lbs.

Commentary:

Hey guys~ I thought about doing a lil world building today, mostly because I had fun drawing these guys here.

These guys are still in development, but please feel free to make one for yourself if you wish, if you do, linking back to this would be good so that others can have the information to make their own ewe~<3