Species Guide

[Vin]

Hey y'all, thanks for tuning in and sorry about the wait. Here's the long awaited Species Guide. This will tell you what you can and can't write as, as well as having some tips that will hopefully help you select what species you want to write as.

At the end of the day, I don't want to restrict what you write that much, so there aren't going to be too many actual species restrictions. The ones that do exist are based on practicality more than anything else. So I'll start with those, since that is the required reading part of this guide.

There are three main groups of species I'm going to say that you categorically shouldn't use:
1. Big animals. When I say big animals, I mean stuff like moose, bear, deer. Stuff like that. Having animals of that size be an absolute logistical nightmare, and I don't want to spend valuable contest time trying to figure out how a moose and a mouse hang out.
2. Bugs. Bugs have never been considered as anything greater than vaguely intelligent in Redwall, and never anything resembling sentient. While this contest is going to be removed from the story of Redwall, it is intended to take place in the same world, more or less, meaning that I want certain mechanics to remain consistent.
3. I'm not sure what the name for this would be but...pigs, sheep, boar, goats, deer— hoofed mammals like that. In canon we really only see this kind of animal portrayed in the original book, but I like the precedent Cutieface set in MO4.
4. I lied there are four categories. Sea creatures. This is mostly common sense and that's why I didn't even think about it at first. Most sea creatures are either food, can't move across land (important for being on the warpath), or part of the big animals ban. Seabirds not included here.
Now, those are pretty much the only hard restrictions I'm going to give you, everything else that follows is a guideline, and not hard and fast rules.

This is, as you probably noticed by now, a contest set in what is known as the New World. That might be confusing for some people, and maybe you don't know what that means exactly or how it affects the kind of species you can write as. I'm going to do something of a question and answer section now that hopefully will guide you through how to choose a species for this contest.

What is the New World? What is the Old World? Why does it matter?

The New World is a colloquial name for the continents of North and South America, as well as the islands surrounding them. The Old World is the name for Europe and parts of Asia. These two regions of the world have distinct climates, geographies, and most importantly flora and fauna. The species that we're used to seeing in Redwall books, like hares and hedgehogs and badgers, are mostly Old World species. Since this  contest is set in the New World, we wouldn't see species like this.

So we can't write Old World species at all?

The species you choose should be native to the New World.

But wait! Isn't there overlap between Old World and New World species?

You're right. There is overlap. But even species that overlap are totally distinct from their Other World counterparts. Compare an American badger to a British badger. They look and behave completely differently. That means if you're writing a badger this contest, it is very unlikely that your badger would have the same characteristics as a badger from the Redwall series. Now think about that starnose mole app you're writing. Yeah, he's a mole, but...is he gonna have a classic Redwall mole accent? Probably not, because he's a different kind of mole.

Speaking of accents, lots of Redwall species have distinct accents. Should my character have an accent?

That's entirely up to you. The one thing I don't want to see is carbon copies of existing Redwall accents. Coming up with a new accent is definitely a big challenge, and not for the faint of heart, but if you're brave enough the payoff could be tremendous. 

Can I write as any New World species I want?

I'm not going to put many restrictions on what New World species you choose to write as. That being said. This contest is focused on two main biomes that you find in the Americas: the taiga of North America, and the deserts and shrublands of the Southwest United States. If you want to write a character from the jungle, go ahead, but be careful— you need a good, compelling reason why such a creature is so far away from home. Otherwise, your character and worldbuilding will feel flat and out of place.

Do you care what species I choose?

No. You can choose to make a character of any species you want. It can be something cool and exclusive to the New World. It can be something more familiar like a red fox or a mouse. There's no bonus points for choosing a cool species, and there's no penalty for choosing something a little more familiar.

Why is the species I choose important?

In Redwall, species is something that is at the core of every character and how they act in and interact with the world. Every species has its own distinct culture and speech and mannerisms. In some ways this is a way of fulfilling the inherent truisms that are a symptom of writing with tropes, but in others they really help flesh out the world of Redwall and make it feel more real. We don't have any tropes in this contest. That means you are free to design the culture, the speech, the mannerisms of our character and its species however you want.

What if someone chooses the same species as me?

It's bound to happen, to be honest. The judges will not judge your application in relation to any other application. That means we might see two or even three applications with the same species and COMPLETELY different concepts for the species and what it is like. At that point, it's up to the audience to decide which version they would prefer to see— or if they want to see all of the versions.

What if I'm unsure if the species I want to write as is ok?

Contact me. I'll let you know if you can or can't write it. Most likely, you'll be able to write it as long as you follow the rules at the beginning.