Flight Rising Discussion

As you've probably noticed, we've got new kelpie familiars from the Mire update, but they look different from the kelpies we get from Baldwin. I once made a post about how the chargers and Hippocampi are possibly related, but this post adds kelpies in the mix. Here's all of the kelpies, hippocampi, and chargers on the site so far: [item=Bluefin Charger][item=Clown Charger][item=Coast Charger][item=Surf Strider][item=Hippocampus][item=Clown Hippocampus][item=Kelpie][item=Swamphaunt Kelpie][item=Marsh Kelpie][item=Vilevenom Kelpie] All three are different species, but some of them share traits with another species, so they could possibly be crossbreeds. Here's what I've come up with: [b]Hippocampus:[/b] Herbivores that can't leave the water due to having fins and no legs. However they're able to be trained by both dragons and Maren to help transport goods across water or simply for companionship. [b]Kelpie:[/b] Omnivores that are able to leave the water to lure in prey to their watery demises. Mire kelpies are crossbreeds between hippocampi and kelpies that have better camouflage and can't leave the water. [b]Charger:[/b] Carnivores that are able to live on both land and in water. Charger and Hippocampus crossbreeds that are also called "Striders" are unable to leave the water, but are quicker underwater than their semi-aquatic cousins. Feel free to discuss these ideas! @Natron Pinging you because you love this type of stuff.

More kelpies! I am so excited to add these to my collection.

i didnt even realize chargers were a type of aquatic horse,,

additionally, it's interesting to note that the original chargers appear to have cloven hooves, while none of the others in this list seem to share that trait.

I indeed love the consistency! The chargers seem to be closely related to the kelpies, I agree! And just like the hippocampi, they have ornamental frills on their heads that are placed below the ears. Although I wonder where the ears of the new ones are. Perhaps they got a bit more reduced in this group?

The musculature of the chargers is nice but even though the quadrupedal chargers and coastal chargers are more closely related than to the kelpies or the hippocampi, they would still have to be fairly distant due to lack of legs on the coastal ones. I have to correct you on one thing and that's the crossbreeding part. All of these are WAAAY too morphologically different to be put neatly together and related closely enough to crossbreed (between different types, the same types could). They all appear to belong to the same large group but they're still different, we'd need closer relatives

@Natron
That's a good point you have there. I was trying to think of a reason why the new kelpies have flippers instead of legs. Maybe it could be due to the environment they evolved in? Who knows. I love them anyway.

@buggy101 honestly, I think they're just called "kelpies" by dragons, just like some birds are called sparrows but are not sparrows, how the tarantula hawk isn't a hawk or a tarantula, or how a camel spider is neither a spider or a camel. These new "kelpies" are pretty much most likely hippocampi genetically.

dangit i love speculative biology

*cracks knuckles* I got inspired by this, so here are some headcanons for my lore version of Sornieth! (Which is just an expansion/deep-dive of the canon Sornieth, no canon rules broken, just expanded upon)


Swamp Kelpies are actually not related to other kelpies; they are actually a type of hippocampus, called “kelpies” because of their similar, evolutionarily convergent behavior of dragging their prey underwater to eat.

Chargers are related to the ancestors of hippocampi. Chargers developed multiple ears through magic-influenced mutations that were beneficial since the multiple pairs of ears helped them hear better somehow, and in the hippocampus ancestors, some of these extra ears became gills since they were more useful underwater as gills rather than ears. Surf Striders and Coast Chargers are living fossils closely related to the ancestors of hippocampi, and resembling them almost exactly.