Art + Crazy = Me 4

*Amare* Species Info!

Species name: Amare (singular/plural, ah-mare)

Class: rodent

Height: approximately 12 inches

Length(including tail): approximately 30 inches

Age: they usually live to be around 50 years of age, though some can be as old as 80.

Habitat: everywhere except oceans and extreme arctic climates, like deep/center Antarctica.

Diet: insects, fruits, vegetables, herbs, some animal produce, such as eggs.

Description: Amare are small rodents that can communicate verbally and physically with each other. (They speak, but also have body language to follow). They live on Tarre(Tare-eh), which is Earth after the human population have died out. They have learned from ancient human civilizations and are capable of building and living in small societies such as villages, but not much more advanced than that. They are distantly related to Numbats, but have developed bird-like coloring originally as a show of dominance and to attract mates. Now, however, their color is simply an identification tool, although especially rare-colored Amare might receive higher attention. Their claws and teeth suffice as weapons, but some will create and use hand-held weapons, such as slingshots, swords, maces, staffs, etc.

History: The Amare species evolved long after the humans died out. They began in Australia with a long stripe in place of their spot trail and stripes, and their colors were predominant orange-to-tan. However, as they developed better intelligence, they began to gather in packs, and the majority of these packs migrated to tropical areas through small, primitive rafts they built. In these rain forests their fur pattern changed for better camoflauge, thus turning into a long band of stripes and rings to blend in with the trees. Their colors also became much more vibrant, much like birds of paradise. All the while, their intelligence was expanding, and they soon developed a language of their own: Tarrean. Certain groups continued to expand past the rainforest after a while, and after a long period of time, they populated every continent. Their intelligence has grown to the point where they were following the line of humans as they created small huts and buildings, organized into villages, and learned to make tools and weapons. They are at the very beginning of a new era, as they are quite close to forming the first ever Amarian Kingdom. (This will all be depicted in a book I am writing later on about the species)

As for specific characteristics, I'll just go down the list of body parts.

Body shape: (see picture)

Eyes: usually grey, black, or brown, though they can be metallic colors as well, such as silver, gold, etc. rare eye colors would be metallic but vibrant hues, such as blue, purple, green, etc.

Ears: females have plain ear-tips, while males have black-tipped. All Amare have some sort of black marking on the back of their ear, and the shape can vary greatly. It is almost unheard of for two Amare to have the same type of marking. Their ears are also always the most saturated shade of their primary color.

Paws: they have small, mouse-like paws with claws that do not retract. Paws are always the secondary color. (You'll see more about that later)

Toes: forepaws have four toes, hindpaws have three.

Tail: Tails are always the same on every Amare. They are somewhat bushy, have a blunt end, and are white with black rings. They always are white tipped, not black tipped.

Stripes: the rings from the tail continue up the back as black stripes. The stripes are thick, rounded rectangles/ovals, not triangular. They split at the neck and continue as spots below the ears, just under the eyes, and down the snout, where they stop at the nose. Stripes are always black; never any other color.

Primary colors: A Amare can have any primary color, from red to violet to black, and everything in between. Their color generally is affected by their habitat(i.e., desert-dwelling Amare would have softer, warmer colors, while jungle-dwelling Amare would have more vibrant colors), but is not completely dictated by it. Their primary color fades in a gradient, with the main color starting at the spine in full saturation and slowly fading into the secondary color. It is also important to note the the white from the tail does extend up the back slightly in a thinning stripe, so there will be a small band of white across the spine. It does not overlap the stripes, and it usually doesn't exceed past the mid-back to neck area. (Look to reference picture for a better idea)

Secondary colors: the secondary color is almost always white, though occasionally an Amare will have beige, off-white, or a very pale grey for their secondary color. Rarely there will be darker greys or browns, and almost never has there been a black. In the case of black, all the stripes and markings would remain black, so it would be very hard to distinguish them. Paws, snouts/noses, and ear-fluff are always the secondary color. The whites of the tail are alway white, no matter the secondary color.

EXTRA INFO:

•they can walk on their hind legs, but prefer walking on all four feet.

•their names can be objective(Frost, Leaf, Ember, etc.) or latin(Gelu, Folium, Hominis)
(I accidentally translated to Romanian instead of Latin for my OC, which is why I have a non-roman name for him. Woops. ^-^' In Latin he would be Rubrum, not Rosu)

•their language is called Tarraen, and all Amare speak it, though they can have different accents.

•Amare live together like humans did, so they can be in family groups, on their own, or with friends.

•they are apart of the Leporillas genus, which also includes the Lesser Stick-nest Rat, another close relative besides the Numbat.

Anything else you want to know? Ask me in the comments, and I'll help as best as I can. :3 I will also update this page with new information as it comes along.

NOTE: this is an open species, meaning you are free to create your own OC/s for it and do what you like with them. However! You must stay within the limits of the species, or else your character will not be an Amare. Ask me about anything extra you might want to add if you're unsure, like say, a white stripe that's abnormally large and covers most of the body(which would be fine, by the way. Anomalies like that can happen sometimes.)

Also, if you do make an Amare OC, it would be wonderful do you could tag me in the picture so I could see what kind of interesting character you come up with! :D