What is a merhowl?
A merhowl is an aquatic form of a howltar. The merhowl can only be seen underwater but are seen as their regular howltar form on land.
Merhowls are known for their various and unique characteristics, which allow them to thrive in their environments.
Lore:
There are many folktales about birds in the deep parts of the ocean and in the hidden corners of the rivers. They called it a “Merhowl”, a bird creature that resembles half howltar, half aquatic creature.
Most of these stories mention how merhowls have the ability to lure the sailors with their enchanting singing voice, using this mythical power to trick them into the water with the merhowls. These tales about merhowls continued to travel until one summer, two sibling explorers - Caine and Bimpy discovered an extraordinary phenomenon that went into the howltar history: a hidden civilization of the Merhowls.
Tagosa, the leader of the Howlantic - Merhowl city, informed the siblings of a Fish Orb that could transform a howltar into their desire fish form. This mysterious orb was deep blue, and protecting it, is a golden status in the shape of a fish. With the aid of this ancient artifact, a howltar could call out to the sea, and obtain their merhowl form.
Meet Tagosa, the leader and founder of the Howlantic - Merhowl city
https://toyhou.se/16215941.-npc-tagosa
Art and design by blububu
Lifestyle:
Like other normal howltars, merhowls also have various choices to create a life for themselves, such as going on an adventure, finding purposes in life, helping others, taking care of themselves or the ones they love,... any lifestyle that fits the way they want to live.
Merhowl’s abilities:
Merhowl can control water on the land as long as they keep the Fish Orb beside them.
Their texture can be changed between the land form and aquatic form (see Tagosa for a visual example). This ability is optional, which means designers do not have to make 2 different textures for their merhowls. However, when redesigning a merhowl who has 2 different textures, you must keep their textures like the original version, which cannot be changed in any circumstances. For example, if both land and aquatic versions have fur texture, you cannot change the texture of either forms when redesigning.
Open texture traits for merhowl: transparent, scales, matte, fur, feathers, sponge, shell.
Merhowls have the ability to change into their sea creature forms in which the merhowl represents (such as fish, octopus, shark, eel,...). This is an optional choice. All sea creature forms need to be approved by owners/admins/developers/moderators because they are also a part of the merhowl.
If the orb is lost, the Howltar loses all of the abilities granted with the orb, and they no longer hold the heart of the sea inside them.
Notes and guide to draw a Merhowl:
Once a howltar has a merhowl form, they can no longer change in redesigns, which means they must keep the tail as they are! Moreover, there is no item to change the tail.
Howltar with a merhowl form have an orb necklace on anywhere of the howltar’s body depending on their choice [compulsory]. Necklace only vanishes when they're in a merhowl form.
When designing a merhowl, they must have both normal form and merhowl form!
Side note: the orb must be blue and separated from the howltar’s palette since the orb’s color is not a part of it.
Merhowl tail guide:
You can apply any aquatic tail for merhowl, including octopus, squid, jellyfish, starfish tails (and many more, as long as it relates to the real life sea creatures). However, multiple normal tails still count as mutation, which you need a mushroom in order to do that.
When redesigning a merhowl, you cannot change the tail that it started with.
Traits:
You can combine real life sea creatures together to create a merhowl also!
FAQ
Q: When making a merhowl, do u give them a merhowl mask or just the sea tail? If it doesn't have to, can you use one or does that take a trait to be changed?
A: Merhowl mask is not compulsory, but an aquatic tail is a must-have! If you use merhowl traits, there’s no item to change it into any other rarity. However, if you use normal traits, you can use Citrus Swirl (common trait), Frozen Aloe (uncommon trait) or Pink Starfruit (rare trait) to change the trait. Tail cannot be changed once it has a merhowl form.
Q: How do I obtain a merhowl?
A: You can get them from staff adopts or buy a merhowl orb from the shop (to turn an MYO or premade howl into a merhowl)
Q: Am I allowed to redesign a merhowl?
A: Yes you may!
Q: Can we draw merhowls as their fish form? And are they official form?
A: Yep, the fish forms are official forms which cannot be changed to another fish species, you can read merhowl lore above to see more info.
Q: Can I change a fish form a the merhowl into another species? For example: the original form is a whale but I want to change it into a shrimp.
A: No, fish form must stay the same along with the tail.
Q: If my howltar has a transformation orb, do the fish orb need to be on the transformation form?
A: That is correct.
Q: Can the transformation be used on a merhowl?
A: No, you can't. Transformation orb and fish orb are two separated things.
Q: Do merhowl have any natural known predators?
A: They have. More info will be released soon.
Q: Do merhowl have the ability to use magic?
A: Yes, they do. Merhowl can form air bubble to bubble other normal howltars in the underwater, control water are the common magics.
Q: What happens if my merhowl doesn't have a Merhowl mask trait and what if I want to give them that?
A: Item for that is being discussed at the moment!
Q: Can merhowl communicate with fish?
A: Yes, they can.
Q: Does a merhowl base form have to have fish traits or can they be like stealth merhowl (minus the orb)?
A: Merhowls need to have ocean/sea creatures traits! For example shark tail, fish tails, pufferfish trait, turtles fins or any traits, etc... so they can take the those form to shapeshift to that specific sea creature.
Q: Is there a set date for merhowl orbs coming to the shop or not yet?
A: Fish Orb & Jellyfish Pearl is now available in the shop!