First Name: All IC accounts are registered under the character's first name. Once a character account has been posted with, the name cannot be given to another character. If the account has never been posted with and is over 3 months old, Staff can retire the old account and give you the previously taken name.
Birth Year: Self-explanatory -- we hope. Refer to Sonder's main header to determine the current year.
Birth Season: Autumn, Winter, Spring, or Summer. Feel free to choose what feels right, unless your character is a pup born on-site -- then you're stuck!
Age: 0-6 months (young child), 6 months-1 year (teenager), 2-3 (young adult), 4-6 (adult), 7-8 (senior adult), 9-12 (elderly). Aging and approximate human age equivalencies are listed in the Breeding & Aging page. All characters aged less than 1 will need a guardian IC in order to be accepted and will be defaulted into the Commoner's Guild, as specialized guild membership begins at the age of 1. NOTE: All wolves on Sonder age according to their individual birth season, and users are expected to maintain aging on the honor system. Fae Aging is free, meaning that each year during your character's birth season, you can choose to either (a) age them up 1 year or (b) keep them the same age as the prior year. Make note of your character's individual birth season so you remember to make your election! NOTE x2: If you are re-auditioning a character that was previously on-site but is now offscreen, you can choose to (a) age up your character as appropriate to account for IC time passed while offscreen or (b) bring the character back onscreen at the same age they went offscreen at.
Gender: Pick from any of the available drop-downs!
Star Sign: Every wolf, regardless of their citizenry or religious beliefs, will be born under a certain constellation: the Mother, Father, Maiden, Crone, Rivals, or Eldritch Tree. Your character does not need to believe in the gods of the stars, nor do they even need to know their star sign personally, but all characters must have a star sign inputted into their profiles. NOTE: The Eldritch Tree is only available as a star sign for wolves born prior to 1716, the year of its untimely demise.
Citizenship: Read on for more information below.
Culture: Read on for more information below.
Guild: Read on for more information below.
Appearance: 15 written words required.
Pelt Palette: Read on for more info below.
Eye Color: Read on for more info below.
Size: Extra Small (XS), Small (S), Medium (M), Large (L), Extra Large (XL). In your profiles, you may expand more upon physique. There are no set height and weight values for each category, but the smallest a wolf can be is 25'' tall (XS) and the largest can be 36'' tall (XL) with ~2.2 inches between each size. Note that sizes do not affect gameplay.
By purchasing Mutagen via the Sonder Ko-fi Shop, characters may have size extremes of Dwarfism or Gigantism. The smallest a Dwarf can be is 14" while the largest a Giant can be is 47" at the shoulder. Dwarfism range: 14" to 24". Gigantism range: 37" to 47".
Personality: Five core personality words are required and a written description of at least 15 words.
Optional Fields
Last Name, Profession, Home, Political Party, a Visual Reference, Scent, Attracted To, Likes, Dislikes, Family, D&D alignment, etc. are all optional fields you can fill out at your leisure - or not at all!
Note on Last Name: Character last names are added as a profile field and appear whenever you post in a thread, if you add them!
Appearance
Eye Colors: if you can find it on the color wheel, you can use it. Taste the rainbow. Note that black eyes are reserved for the melanism mutation and that colorless eyes are for the albinism mutation. Puppies rolled on-site may have elective heterochromia, so long as it includes the color originally rolled. Note:Heterochromia is limited to 2 colors.
Free Pelt Colors:All natural colors are free. Your character may have as many natural colors as you like. Note that Sonder does allow for reds, blues, golds, and oranges, but in order to be considered "free", these pelt colors must be desaturated and not too highly pigmented. A good rule of thumb is, if a reasonable person were to look at your character and think "blue", then it is too blue to be free! When completing your profile, select the palette that most closely resembles your character.
Purchasable Pelt Colors: The gem palette may be purchased from the Market to allow certain unnatural colors. All purples, pinks, and greens, regardless of their saturation, must be purchased with the gem palette. For avoidance of doubt, this also includes lilacs, lavenders, and baby pinks. Note that saturated / pigmented blues and reds must also be purchased using the gem palette. Again, if you look at your character and think "red" or "blue", then it is likely too saturated or pigmented, and needs to be purchased! Neon colors are never allowed.
Albinism
white fur, pink skin, colorless eyes
Arctic
whites, light grays, creams
Coastal
blues, grays, blacks
Earthen
browns, russets, reds
Ember
russets, oranges, golds, creams
Melanism
black fur, eyes, skin, organs
Sandstone
tans, golds, creams
Smoke
blacks, grays, silvers
Gem*
all purples, greens, or pinks; saturated/pigmented blues and reds (*purchased)
Rejected Markings: Distinct unnatural shapes.
Purchasable Markings: Stripes, spots (note: face freckling is free), bilateral asymmetry (ex: left paw black, right paw white), and generally merle or piebald designs, are available if you purchase the Unusual Markings item in the Market.
Physical Mutations: Due to genetic complications or injuries, items such as missing limbs, curled tails, blindness, etc. are allowed. Just be sure to add the injury to the character's profile and adjust health in combat to the "injured" category.
Intersex Characters: These characters may be fertile or infertile, but must choose whether their female or male genitalia is most developed and fully functional. In other words, intersex characters can be able to birth puppies or impregnate others, but cannot do both. This choice does not have to be made prior to the character's first litter, but afterwards becomes set in stone.
Accessories, Clothing, & Tools: Due to semi-realism, characters have the ability to wear some accessories, clothing articles, and to use basic tools.
Tools are free to use and include: pouches, satchels, cups, bowls, sticks, cloths, and other small items that could be reasonably pilfered from decaying human castles and dwellings. To be a tool, the item must have a purpose and not be intended to adorn a character permanently. In other words, it appears in posts when it's being used, but is not "a part of the character's design" or permanently adorning the character.
Accessories & Clothing can be purchased in the Market through the Magical Realism item. It allows your character to permanently be able to wear one item, such as a mask, necklace, bracelet, cloak, scarf, glasses, rope, feathers, etc. Materials for these articles of clothing and accessories must be aged and realistic for a once-1700s style human society or created from natural materials.
Nations & Citizenship
Sonder's diverse world is made up of four distinct nations (i.e., independent countries/sovereign states): Rionnach, Éireland, Ildhrune, and Da'Ira. Within this world, Sonder categorizes characters based upon two factors: Citizenship and Culture.
Citizenship. Citizenship is the nation where a character currently lives and is subject to law and order. Mirroring real life, a character's citizenship is what nation they currently live in, and what laws they are currently subject to. It is based purely on physical location. If a character lives in Rionnach, then they are a citizen of Rionnach. If they move to the nation of Da'Ira, however briefly, then they become a citizen of Da'Ira.
Culture. Culture is a character's cultural identity. Simply put, a character's culture is where their values originate, and/or how they would identify the personal community they are apart of, regardless of where they are physically located. Your culture does not tend to change as readily as your citizenship can. Each nation listed above has its own culture(s). The culture you pick for your characters will likely influence their backstory and their beliefs, and will certainly have direct ramifications in terms of how NPCs view you and how you operate in the world. Unlike citizenship, cultures can transcend geographical boundaries. For example, a character born and raised in Rionnach as a Mainlander may move to Da'Ira later in life. In that case, the character is a citizen of Da'Ira, but can choose to retain Mainlander as his culture, even though he no longer lives in Rionnach.
Note that Rionnach has unique political parties that are optional for characters to affiliate with. If your character is a citizen of Rionnach, or has spent time in Rionnach and finds themselves passionate for the cause, you may list a political party in your profile -- but this is entirely optional.
For more information, visit the Nations and Culture pages.
Guilds
Guilds are professional sub-classes that citizens of each nation (Rionnach, Da'Ira, etc.) join upon establishing citizenship with that nation. Each nation has some version of a functioning army or militia base, academics, a black market, healers/doctors, and diverse citizenry and professions. Every character will be a part of a guild, regardless of their citizenship. For in-depth information on the existing guilds, please visit the Guilds page.
Summary & Checklist
At this point, you've read a lot of information! This checklist will help you catch everything that you need to get started.
