Design Guide

Navigating the Design Guide

Below you will find all current genes for all playable races on Xiunus. This goes from universal markings (such as underbelly and choker) to markings that are white and cover other markings (such as appaloosa and sabino) to markings that simply modify other genes' appearances (such as cream, artifice, and ticking). There are also species-specific markings (such as impala for tsabhua) that can be found under their specific species name below.

If you have questions about markings and designs, feel free to shoot Uri (preimpression) a message with your question and they will assist however they can.

Genetics on Xiunus

Genetics in Xiunus is loosely based off of real world genetics, with dominant and recessive heredity as well as heterozygous possibilities.

Regular genes are those where a gene will be visible if the gene is homozygous dominant (has two capitals: Gn Gn) or heterozygous (Has one capital: Gn gn,) whereas recessive genes are those where the gene will be visible if the gene is homozygous recessive (Has no capitals: gn gn). If the gene does not have "recessive" mentioned at all in its description or button, it is likely a regular gene that follows normal rules.

A phenotype is the written-out explanation of a genome, whereas the genome or genotype is the list of allele pairs used for breeding purposes. Note that in the phenotype, if a gene is carried, it will not be visible! These colonists can't have the markings visible but they may pass them on to their offspring.

Genes are inherited by colonists from their parents and all genes in the Xiunus genome are listed for users to see on the colonist's profile. Each parent gives one half of each gene, separated in our genomes by a space (or by letter differences in the instances of colour and sex.)

For the sex chromosome, we use Earth Mammalian terms. XX is female and XY is male.

The colour complex is more complicated - this consists of four pairs of alleles that match up to determine the base coat colour. There are several other genes that affect the base coat, such as the cream complex or other modifiers such as greying or countershading, but these four are the most important. Each species has a different set of base coat ranges and names, so it's important to look at the ranges for the species you are focusing on.

The greying gene and dun both follow regular dominance, as mentioned above. A colonist with "G G" will have greying and will always pass it, while a colonist with "D d" has a 50% chance of passing on the dominant "D" allele. The flaxen and countershading genes are both recessive - in order to display one of the two genes, it must be recessive dominant (cs cs or f f). For markings like these, if they are heterozygous it means the colonist carries the gene and it will be displayed in parentheses at the end of the phenotype.