This adventure is only playable on PC!

ADULTS ONLY

NC-17

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BEHOLD! LADY KARNSTEIN'S

MAY I USE THE BATHROOM FIRST?

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BEGIN
FURSONA

DIRECTORY

FINE

Piss behind the wishing well in the garden where no one will see your shame.
Watch out for crows.

"I'm good," you say after finishing your business.

With that said,

my own fursona has gone through several redesigns and overhauls, name changes, species changes, you name it. While I'd personally like to think I'm at the point in my furry career where I have a solid look for my fursona, one can never know the future, and she grows as I continue to grow.

Lastly, I want it to be understood that character creation and self representation are both extremely personal things, and if at any point there's something in this guide that you feel isn't necessary, helpful or something you feel like doing,

HIT DA BRICKS!!

The lack of rules when it comes to making a fursona is part of the fun of making one! Just like identity is limitless, so are your options.

NAME YOUR INNER BEAST

SPECIES

At the core of every fursona's identity is a species.This is quite typically the host- I mean creator's favorite animal. Generally folks will choose an animal that they think might match up with their own personality, or has desirable traits they'd like to emulate. Whatever you choose, your species is something that's typically very respected within furry spaces. If you think it's a match, so does everyone else, and it's very uncommon to see anyone criticizing another for their choice of animal identity. It's very comforting, I personally believe, to be in the kind of space where you can state something about your identity and know it will be taken seriously, and not only respected, but frequently validated.Your species will typically be the basis of your furry identity, for better or for worse.Most newer fandom members tend to lean towards a canine or feline for their first fursona, but a fursona can be any animal or species, real, extinct, mythical, or otherwise. Mixing them is even allowed!Make that guy a freak!!

SYMBOLISM & MOTIFS

What are people going to remember about your sona? What do you wish people knew about you at a glance? Symbolism and originality are the spices of any design.

NAME

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PURPOSE

Figuring out the main things you'd like to use a fursona for can do a lot in reigning in what kind of design you'd want them to have. Fursonas exist to be depicted in art, but those art forms all require different attributes in a design to work a certain way. While there are no rules to having multiple designs for the same character, it's good to make certain designs for doing certain jobs. If you want your fursona to be a mascot for your art storefront, it's going to look different than a design that was made to be used as a comic character.Deciding what you want to do with a character is core to the identity of the type of art it will be depicted in.Most fursonas are designed to be characters used in once-off illustrations or fursuits, and while this is most likely the kind of fursona you will end up with, there are a lot more options to be explored. Especially for small artists looking to market their art.

COLOR

The colors of your character can be literally anything you want them to be. Folks' fursonas can range from completely faithful to the natural color of the species, to looking like a Lisa Frank nightmare beast. Both options and anything in between totally rules, and the best way to do it is whichever happens to be your favorite. My personal favorite tends to be a largely natural palette, with one or two brighter accent colors.
This is my own preference however, the choices are limitless!

PERSONALITY

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The core of the furry fandom is ANTHROPOMORPHISM.

The Oxford dictionary states anthropomorphism is
"the practice of treating gods, animals or objects as if they had human qualities."

This is a practice dating back around 30-40 thousand years. You are taking your first steps into one of the most ancient art forms to ever exist!

Personally, I find that cool.

Your species as a furry is typically the foundation of your fandom identity. Many members of the community consider the species they choose for their fursona to be representative of how they see themselves, what they might wish to be like, or how they feel the world views them.

The Löwenmensch figurine

While I mentioned that some folks choose their animal based on aesthetics, some furries might also choose animals that they have grown up with, worked with, rescued, or have otherwise had a positive experience with. Members of the community also often pick their species for the traits and characteristics commonly associated with that particular animal, given to them by human media from ancient folktales to modern movies.

If you consider yourself to be a person who is
SLY, CLEVER, TRICKY, or SMUG
then maybe you should try

For good boys, good girls, and good pals who love their friends, and are loyal to a fault, maybe go with the timeless classic and think about being

Awww are you a gay lil meow meow?

If you want an animal with a lot of design flexibility, with room for magical possibilities and a flare for the fantastic? Go with

You could even put fur on it. I bet that'd be crazy.

Would you consider yourself furry trash? Are you down to get dirty? Do you listen to AJJ? Known for being the chosen sona of the furry punk, test out

Hyena.

and have an edgy personality.

Are you SHY? PRINCELY? Do you stare unmoving, unblinking in the face of bright white oblivion?
Is it beautiful? Do you feel at peace?

Australian? Yeah sorry, there's only one choice and it's

Like I am speaking legally. Sorry, for real.

Gay and/or trans!

While species is the easiest thing to start with, determining your fursona's purpose is arguably the most important step. This is typically skipped over in a basic fursona guide, but I'm covering it here because I don't think it's too difficult to explain to beginner creatives, and it saves a lot of valuable time in the long run if you have to redesign your fursona.

Don't sweat though, there's no rules against having multiple designs for the same character.

Flick from Animal Crossing, was designed to be a mascot-like character, and therefore has a fairly simple design.

Blue, my fursona, was designed to be in a comic. I would argue, however, she's pushing the amount of appropriate detail.

When I talk about your fursona's "purpose" I mean their primary use. If you, for example, want to use your fursona in a comic, you probably want to consider a simpler design than you might if you just planned on drawing them in your free time. Sonas with double use as logos would also need to be fairly simple and have a very recognizable silhouette.

Some, but not all furries have an interest in fursuits. Dressing up in a fursuit can add a much stronger aspect of reality to an ideal self. Fursuiting can help bridge that gap between fantasy and reality, and one of the most visually prominent features of the furry fandom. If you are going to be designing a fursona SPECIFICALLY to be a fursuit, I IMPLORE you to look at some of the faux furs available online. While there are many colors out there, I can tell you from experience that characters with four similar shades of brown will be much harder to find faux fur for than characters with their pallets planned out.I also PERSONALLY, don't put gradients on my designs, in case they were ever to be turned into fursuits*. Gradients can be achieved with air brushing, but not every suitmaker offers this.

And at this point you might be like "I've seen your fursona Carmilla, it has intricate tattoos. How would that be easily transferable to a fursuit?" and to that I say you will refer to me as Lady Karnstein and furthermore shuuut the fuuuck uuupppp like don't even worry about it.
God.

*This applies to plushies as well!Photo and plush Silvy by Salem C. !

You should also take a moment to consider the people who are going to be drawing your fursona should you plan on buying commissions. There's no "right" way to do a fursona, but if your character is too over-complicated, you might find that some artists will either charge you an extra fee, or reject your commission outright.

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Now, the world is your oyster, but I'm going to recommend starting with the average fursona if you're doing this for the first time. A character that's both visually interesting yet not too tedious to draw is going to be the best bet for beginners or casual fans, and after that you can always make a companion design to that character later, if that's the fursona that calls to you.

If you're looking to mostly draw or commission art of your character, your design will absolutely be able to get by while adding details such as wings, extra limbs, more than one set of eyes or a single mouth, and more. My best advice is that while you can have as many of or as few of these traits as you'd like, shoot for a maximum of two or three to avoid up charges when commissioning artists.

Personally, I think making something I like and think is cool without worrying about any complicated rules is the most fun you can have designing characters. It's definitely the right choice for a first fursona, or the average animal oc.

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SPICY DRACULA

-Edgelord
-They did the Mash
-They did the Monster Mash
-Black wardrobe
-Enjoys ex, drugs, rock and roll
-Hopeless romantic.

COWGIRL? HOGWOMAN.

-Mushroom obsessed
-Are you employed
-Don't fuck with my wife
-Dirty little animal
-Tips well.

GRUMPY

-Wants to go back to bed
-Looks like she can kill you
-Can kill you.
-Vote for my wife this Fat Bear Week
-Assman

doggo :)

-She's wagging her tail but she's so cool about it
-Record shop frequenter
-Sweet tooth
-Lover of purple
-You have a kush on her.

evil...

-Can't help being a scorpio
-Can open a beer on the counter
-Loves musicals and dramas but won't admit it
-"I wonder if there's a god." Is a demon from hell.

HUNGRY

-It/its swag
-Do you want those leftovers? I can take 'em
-If you were gonna throw them out I mean
-Doesn't have a brain cell to its name.