Soquili's official answer
There have been a lot of questions and suggestions and even demands, so this letter is to respond to as much of this as possible. It has been broken up by category to make it easier to understand.
First and foremost, the reason cursedwalkers don't pass down cursed children is because the powder is not some sort of disease. It cannot be contracted, is not contagious, it is simply a twisting of ones heart, soul and spirit. Genetically speaking, cursed skinwalkers still have the genetics of their original breed.
Purewalkers are demonic creatures. While there is a very rare chance a cursed (or other) x pure breeding might result in a pure, it is incredibly rare and is not something that has yet happened. The reason they do not produce demonic children is because they ARE demonic beasts. The demon spawn that makes them will usually only take only with another demonic purewalker. All the other times the beast breeds (sans that rare exception), while the skinwalker can still procreate, it will simply take on the form of the non-purewalker.
Just so you can understand how this works, there is a 10% chance when a purewalker breeds with a non-purewalker that something other than the non-pure parent is born. This is split evenly between the 5% chance of the animalistic traits passing without the demonic influence, where ears, tails, or even the paws of the purewalker appear on a child with or without passing the madness, and a 5% chance that the demonic influence of the purewalker genetics appears in full in the offspring, resulting in a purewalker child.
Overall verdict
Cursedwalkers: Will not be able to breed down traits (though a colorist CAN choose to give edited accessories inspired by the skinwalker parent depending on the edit-levels of the non-cursed parent or the peltless pre-curse version of the parent, such as fur capes - this has happened before already - The actual template cannot be used in this situation, and the kids still will lack ANY skinwalker influences personality wise.)
Purewalkers: They already have a small chance of breeding their traits down in non-pure breedings and have been able to for over a year, as well as an even rarer (and optional to the colorist) chance to hybrid between two breeds of pure. We’re not going to increase the chances.
Cursedwalker and Purewalker Rarity is something that will not be changed. I’m sorry for those of you who voted for this, but there are reasons for this, and in the long run this is a suggestions thread and some times things suggested simply don't work.
Storywise, corpsepowder is extremely rare, only made in small quantities in a time consuming and ritual riddled process by a single evil shaman. It is not contagious, it is not genetic, it is one demonically charged human being doing long hard difficult work only he can canonly do.. Exposure isn’t something that’d be even rare: It’d be practically unheard of in most cases. However, is even rarer for a purewalker to fight their way through the ‘gate’ to the underworld and enter the Kawani lands. If the rarity of them were to be altered in any way to fit, it’d be to make them even less common than they already are, but we’re not going to make a category just to make them ‘ultra-rare’. We WANT them to be super rare. Though admittedly they are rarer than we’d like in some ways…. And not rare enough in others.
While RP is not required, and skinwalkers are not required to breed with a different soquili every time they’re entered, there are rules that are required to be followed when it does happen. Skinwalker contests, especially those for purewalkers, are not only completely optional and limited in amount allowed, but usually run by the Heads of the Shop (Sirenz, Malhith, and Mindsend). They are often helped run by assistants who have the authority, and often times job requirement, to remind people who break the rules. Unfortunately, they are often confronted with aggression when they do so. While other rules are broken and confronted with are met with similar aggression, those of us who are in charge of scheduling purewalker giveaways and free cursings often decide to hold off since the breed seems to be the one causing the most ‘House Rules” and sometimes even Gaia ToS breaking in the shop. All of us have been confronted with the same reactions to enforcing rules. Needless to say, this is a situation that makes us a little more careful with how we give away the free ones, since we want to reduce the risk of overall drama.
As it is, there are plans on trying to figure out ways to prevent the rule breaking rampant with the breed to reduce the risk of heart attack for everyone involved while still managing to give some free chances out. However due to their enforced rarity, and other plans, events, meta events, and giveaways taking priority, do not expect an immediate reaction. Especially since we’re trying to figure out ways to streamline things so the free!walkers do not cause more work and headache for everyone.
Overall verdict
Cursedwalkers: Remaining super rare.
Purewalkers: Remaining Restricted Release
Both curseds and purewalkers are able to get “peltless” versions for breeding purposes. For the Cursedwalkers this is “Before the Curse”. For Purewalkers however this is simply for when breeding with Non-Purewalkers so they have some physical traits they can pass on.
MOST purewalkers are premade, and thus are often made without such a peltless form or minimal edits because that is what the colorist felt like making. However this is not the case for all of them. For instance, the current Owl purewalker has a peltless form with moderate level edits. If you win a non-premade, custom or semi-custom, depending on the rules of the event they are given away in, you can request a peltless version. Purewalkers however cannot have 'critters' customed with them.
Overall verdict
Cursedwalkers: Pelts and feral forms will remain premade, with custom ones being a mutation. Most edits can be done precurse: if you want pelts and Animals to pass, buy the pre-curse form with fur accessories and custom critters. If you want just the pelted form, don’t be afraid to add accessories and hair to them as well: the only thing really holding you back is you.
Purewalkers: Pelts and feral forms will remain premade, with custom ones being a mutation. They can still have peltless versions for breedings with non-walkers. As most are premade, colorists can make them however edited they want. If you get one custom, you can custom them just like a cursed.
Contests/Free Giveaways: As stated above, Contests are dependent on the general climate of how skinwalkers and their owners are behaving publically with them and reactions when rules are enforced as they cause the most issues for staff. The better the climate, the better chances everyone has to having them made more readily available to those without and even with purewalkers. We have been working on ways of figuring how how to counteract it without having to worry about the current population, but it is a massive work in progress. Below in "Rules, tips, and suggestions" we will be posting some basic rules on creating a better environment for skinwalker contests.
Customs: Each colorist is only allowed to do ONE Super rare custom per month they have been scheduled to do customs based. So Skinwalkers, Angeni, and Ulun’suti are competing against each other. Each individual Super rare custom has the same chance of winning that raffle, and such superrare raffle spots cannot be split by breed, so one cannot have a “skinwalker only” super rare slot. As stated above, it will remain Cursedwalkers at superrare, and purewalkers kept as a restricted breed. HOWEVER, we cannot control who wins them without having the superrare slot be CC only, which means that it is not RP required.
Bribes: Like customs, this isn’t controlled by RP/the environment and behavior of the shop, but rather whomever wins. They can usually get what they want within limitations. If they want a skinwalker they can get one. However if they are to post anything publicly within the shop about the skinwalker, they need to follow the rules just as everyone else.
Bribes however are difficult to start: one must have not only the desire to open bribes and be at least a senior colorist, but must pay credits in order to do so, have all of their work completed, and have finished up their quotas. Most colorists are either busy with Real Life issues and thus have slowed down to the point where they cannot finish in time to do their quota, are either familiar colorists, Apprentices, rookies, or Juniors, or are more focused on customs, breedings, and making the templates everyone seems to want, and generally keeping themselves too busy to even think about opening bribes. It’s an optional perk for the colorist. If they don’t want to pay for them or can’t, they won’t happen.
Auctions and Paid Raffles: Like customs, this isn’t controlled by RP/the environment and behavior of the shop, but rather whomever wins. However if they are to post anything publicly within the shop about the skinwalker, they need to follow the rules just as everyone else. They usually happen only during big events, and whether or not skinwalkers ‘fit’ the theme or the event is something that has to be kept in mind.
Private Auctions and Raffles Cost credits just like bribes do, and have the same limitations, being Perks.
Just so people can understand how such perks work, here are how they are priced.
These ‘perks’ often result in a LOT more work for us, and often times? We’d honestly rather just take a break or work on things that help the shop out as a whole rather than just ourselves and one person.
Staff Credits: It costs 7,000 credits to get a non-mutant purewalker, and 9,000 credits to get a mutant one for Colorists, and there is a 6 month cooldown between Purewalkers bought for the person (Not by colorist) who gets the purewalker. Most colorists cannot afford this, but if they can, AND have finished their work, AND the individual receiving the skinwalker are not currently on a cooldown for the breed, they are welcome to spend their credits however they please. Random quest raffles have happened in the past to give things away, sometimes friends are gifted, sometimes they get themselves something. However if they are to post anything publicly within the shop about the skinwalker, they need to follow the rules just as everyone else.
RL customs: Currently not being done since Sirenz is super busy. But once again, these are not limited by rp or behavior when purchased, but still have to follow the rules when in the shop.
Overall verdict
Cursedwalkers: Available in customs and the occasional giveaway.
Purewalkers: Available in bribes, custom auctions, and RL customs when the winner wants them, Auctions, paid raffles, and staff credits when the colorist/staffer wants to, and free giveaways whenever we think we found a way that causes the least amount of drama in the long run or simply want give one away.
In the end, not much has or will change any time soon. We will be working on a “Skinwalkers 101” to help people with figuring out plotlines and personalities, and have already been working on figuring out ways to reduce the headaches they often cause so we can make them at least a little more accessible. Right now out of all the breeds and characters, they are the ones that break not only the most shop rules, but also Gaia’s ToS, and often times we the staff are seen as bad guys for trying to patch things up, being fought and complained against for simply enforcing the Rules and Terms of Service. We hope that as we try out different ways of releasing them, that we can indeed give more away and make it just a little easier for others to receive, and MAY have a way figured out, but it requires time and is a low priority as other things are in the works.
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Breeding Skinwalkers
First and foremost, the reason cursedwalkers don't pass down cursed children is because the powder is not some sort of disease. It cannot be contracted, is not contagious, it is simply a twisting of ones heart, soul and spirit. Genetically speaking, cursed skinwalkers still have the genetics of their original breed.
Purewalkers are demonic creatures. While there is a very rare chance a cursed (or other) x pure breeding might result in a pure, it is incredibly rare and is not something that has yet happened. The reason they do not produce demonic children is because they ARE demonic beasts. The demon spawn that makes them will usually only take only with another demonic purewalker. All the other times the beast breeds (sans that rare exception), while the skinwalker can still procreate, it will simply take on the form of the non-purewalker.
Just so you can understand how this works, there is a 10% chance when a purewalker breeds with a non-purewalker that something other than the non-pure parent is born. This is split evenly between the 5% chance of the animalistic traits passing without the demonic influence, where ears, tails, or even the paws of the purewalker appear on a child with or without passing the madness, and a 5% chance that the demonic influence of the purewalker genetics appears in full in the offspring, resulting in a purewalker child.
Overall verdict
Cursedwalkers: Will not be able to breed down traits (though a colorist CAN choose to give edited accessories inspired by the skinwalker parent depending on the edit-levels of the non-cursed parent or the peltless pre-curse version of the parent, such as fur capes - this has happened before already - The actual template cannot be used in this situation, and the kids still will lack ANY skinwalker influences personality wise.)
Purewalkers: They already have a small chance of breeding their traits down in non-pure breedings and have been able to for over a year, as well as an even rarer (and optional to the colorist) chance to hybrid between two breeds of pure. We’re not going to increase the chances.
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Rarity
Cursedwalker and Purewalker Rarity is something that will not be changed. I’m sorry for those of you who voted for this, but there are reasons for this, and in the long run this is a suggestions thread and some times things suggested simply don't work.
Storywise, corpsepowder is extremely rare, only made in small quantities in a time consuming and ritual riddled process by a single evil shaman. It is not contagious, it is not genetic, it is one demonically charged human being doing long hard difficult work only he can canonly do.. Exposure isn’t something that’d be even rare: It’d be practically unheard of in most cases. However, is even rarer for a purewalker to fight their way through the ‘gate’ to the underworld and enter the Kawani lands. If the rarity of them were to be altered in any way to fit, it’d be to make them even less common than they already are, but we’re not going to make a category just to make them ‘ultra-rare’. We WANT them to be super rare. Though admittedly they are rarer than we’d like in some ways…. And not rare enough in others.
While RP is not required, and skinwalkers are not required to breed with a different soquili every time they’re entered, there are rules that are required to be followed when it does happen. Skinwalker contests, especially those for purewalkers, are not only completely optional and limited in amount allowed, but usually run by the Heads of the Shop (Sirenz, Malhith, and Mindsend). They are often helped run by assistants who have the authority, and often times job requirement, to remind people who break the rules. Unfortunately, they are often confronted with aggression when they do so. While other rules are broken and confronted with are met with similar aggression, those of us who are in charge of scheduling purewalker giveaways and free cursings often decide to hold off since the breed seems to be the one causing the most ‘House Rules” and sometimes even Gaia ToS breaking in the shop. All of us have been confronted with the same reactions to enforcing rules. Needless to say, this is a situation that makes us a little more careful with how we give away the free ones, since we want to reduce the risk of overall drama.
As it is, there are plans on trying to figure out ways to prevent the rule breaking rampant with the breed to reduce the risk of heart attack for everyone involved while still managing to give some free chances out. However due to their enforced rarity, and other plans, events, meta events, and giveaways taking priority, do not expect an immediate reaction. Especially since we’re trying to figure out ways to streamline things so the free!walkers do not cause more work and headache for everyone.
Overall verdict
Cursedwalkers: Remaining super rare.
Purewalkers: Remaining Restricted Release
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Edit Levels
Both curseds and purewalkers are able to get “peltless” versions for breeding purposes. For the Cursedwalkers this is “Before the Curse”. For Purewalkers however this is simply for when breeding with Non-Purewalkers so they have some physical traits they can pass on.
MOST purewalkers are premade, and thus are often made without such a peltless form or minimal edits because that is what the colorist felt like making. However this is not the case for all of them. For instance, the current Owl purewalker has a peltless form with moderate level edits. If you win a non-premade, custom or semi-custom, depending on the rules of the event they are given away in, you can request a peltless version. Purewalkers however cannot have 'critters' customed with them.
Overall verdict
Cursedwalkers: Pelts and feral forms will remain premade, with custom ones being a mutation. Most edits can be done precurse: if you want pelts and Animals to pass, buy the pre-curse form with fur accessories and custom critters. If you want just the pelted form, don’t be afraid to add accessories and hair to them as well: the only thing really holding you back is you.
Purewalkers: Pelts and feral forms will remain premade, with custom ones being a mutation. They can still have peltless versions for breedings with non-walkers. As most are premade, colorists can make them however edited they want. If you get one custom, you can custom them just like a cursed.
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Methods of Distribution
Contests/Free Giveaways: As stated above, Contests are dependent on the general climate of how skinwalkers and their owners are behaving publically with them and reactions when rules are enforced as they cause the most issues for staff. The better the climate, the better chances everyone has to having them made more readily available to those without and even with purewalkers. We have been working on ways of figuring how how to counteract it without having to worry about the current population, but it is a massive work in progress. Below in "Rules, tips, and suggestions" we will be posting some basic rules on creating a better environment for skinwalker contests.
Customs: Each colorist is only allowed to do ONE Super rare custom per month they have been scheduled to do customs based. So Skinwalkers, Angeni, and Ulun’suti are competing against each other. Each individual Super rare custom has the same chance of winning that raffle, and such superrare raffle spots cannot be split by breed, so one cannot have a “skinwalker only” super rare slot. As stated above, it will remain Cursedwalkers at superrare, and purewalkers kept as a restricted breed. HOWEVER, we cannot control who wins them without having the superrare slot be CC only, which means that it is not RP required.
Bribes: Like customs, this isn’t controlled by RP/the environment and behavior of the shop, but rather whomever wins. They can usually get what they want within limitations. If they want a skinwalker they can get one. However if they are to post anything publicly within the shop about the skinwalker, they need to follow the rules just as everyone else.
Bribes however are difficult to start: one must have not only the desire to open bribes and be at least a senior colorist, but must pay credits in order to do so, have all of their work completed, and have finished up their quotas. Most colorists are either busy with Real Life issues and thus have slowed down to the point where they cannot finish in time to do their quota, are either familiar colorists, Apprentices, rookies, or Juniors, or are more focused on customs, breedings, and making the templates everyone seems to want, and generally keeping themselves too busy to even think about opening bribes. It’s an optional perk for the colorist. If they don’t want to pay for them or can’t, they won’t happen.
Auctions and Paid Raffles: Like customs, this isn’t controlled by RP/the environment and behavior of the shop, but rather whomever wins. However if they are to post anything publicly within the shop about the skinwalker, they need to follow the rules just as everyone else. They usually happen only during big events, and whether or not skinwalkers ‘fit’ the theme or the event is something that has to be kept in mind.
Private Auctions and Raffles Cost credits just like bribes do, and have the same limitations, being Perks.
Just so people can understand how such perks work, here are how they are priced.
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Other Perks
{Bribe/Big Bribe}, {Auction/Collab. Auction} each share cooldowns. Senior/Elder Colorists only.
• 2,000c = bribe slot - good for any one breeding bribe or two custom bribes. Two month cooldown.
• 3,000c = custom collab auction. (each colorist needs 3k). Three month cooldown.
• 4,000c = personal (only pet(s) colored by you) non-event paid raffle 80% profits (10% to list manager and 10% to MS pay) max 5 pets in raffle. No purewalkers or megamutants. Three month cooldown.
---+1,000c Per Purewalker in raffle
---+2,000c Per Megamutant in raffle
• 5,000c = custom auction with (80% junior/90% senior/100% elder) profits. Three month cooldown.
• 10,000c = Big Bribe slot - up to 20 customs or 10 breedings, in any combination (2 customs = 1 breeding) Six month cooldown.
{Bribe/Big Bribe}, {Auction/Collab. Auction} each share cooldowns. Senior/Elder Colorists only.
• 2,000c = bribe slot - good for any one breeding bribe or two custom bribes. Two month cooldown.
• 3,000c = custom collab auction. (each colorist needs 3k). Three month cooldown.
• 4,000c = personal (only pet(s) colored by you) non-event paid raffle 80% profits (10% to list manager and 10% to MS pay) max 5 pets in raffle. No purewalkers or megamutants. Three month cooldown.
---+1,000c Per Purewalker in raffle
---+2,000c Per Megamutant in raffle
• 5,000c = custom auction with (80% junior/90% senior/100% elder) profits. Three month cooldown.
• 10,000c = Big Bribe slot - up to 20 customs or 10 breedings, in any combination (2 customs = 1 breeding) Six month cooldown.
These ‘perks’ often result in a LOT more work for us, and often times? We’d honestly rather just take a break or work on things that help the shop out as a whole rather than just ourselves and one person.
Staff Credits: It costs 7,000 credits to get a non-mutant purewalker, and 9,000 credits to get a mutant one for Colorists, and there is a 6 month cooldown between Purewalkers bought for the person (Not by colorist) who gets the purewalker. Most colorists cannot afford this, but if they can, AND have finished their work, AND the individual receiving the skinwalker are not currently on a cooldown for the breed, they are welcome to spend their credits however they please. Random quest raffles have happened in the past to give things away, sometimes friends are gifted, sometimes they get themselves something. However if they are to post anything publicly within the shop about the skinwalker, they need to follow the rules just as everyone else.
RL customs: Currently not being done since Sirenz is super busy. But once again, these are not limited by rp or behavior when purchased, but still have to follow the rules when in the shop.
Overall verdict
Cursedwalkers: Available in customs and the occasional giveaway.
Purewalkers: Available in bribes, custom auctions, and RL customs when the winner wants them, Auctions, paid raffles, and staff credits when the colorist/staffer wants to, and free giveaways whenever we think we found a way that causes the least amount of drama in the long run or simply want give one away.
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Rules and Tips
Rules
Skinwalkers, in character, must be evil and not have any emotional bonds: This includes bonds to parents, offspring, and breeding partners.
Keep out of Character behaviors Private: this means if for instance your skinwalkers breedings are all with the same soquili, do not announce it in the breeding form where it asks if they are lifemated. We don’t care if your breedings are between only the two of them, just keep it to yourself and there won’t be any issues.
Be polite when told you’re breaking a shop or ToS rule: Not only is it usually just someone’s job, but being mean or fighting it only means you’re now breaking even more rules and you could end up greylisted, either from the shop in general, or just being able to RP (or in severe cases breed or win) the breed in question.
Do not enter purewalkers into Wishing Stars or Mockbreeding giveaways: They cannot love. They cannot form bonds. They will not wish for offspring. And the spirits that grant such wishes will NOT grant the wish of anyone mad enough to wish for a purewalker’s offspring.
----cursedwalkers and wishing stars/mockbreeding raffles: The cursedwalker themselves cannot wish for a child, nor would someone who met them as a skinwalker be granted a child. Despite this, a lover from before their cursing however can wish to have a reminder of who they were before the curse.
Be courteous: If you’re causing issues, you’re hurting everyone, including yourself! If you don’t like how things currently are and would like a chance to win a purewalker/another purewalker/a free bag of corpsepowder for one of your soquili to be just a little more common, even if you do not want to follow the restrictions, just keep it on the down low and things will warm up.
Do NOT harass people who aren’t following rules: If someone is breaking the Personality and Plotline rules in the shop, do not police them as that is our job: if you do it you could end up simply end up banned from gaia. However you can report such issues to staff. Doing so not only helps us keep soquili running smoothly, but it lets us see who has a decent understanding of the breed, even if you don’t RP.
While characters can be freely rped however you wish outside of the shop, other shop rules must be followed regardless of location: This means you cannot sell soquili you own for gold or real money, harass other customers or staff, control what happens to breedings you do not own etc.
Tips
Have trouble Rping something evil but still want to Rp the character? Keep the No-shop-compliant character rp and info out of the shop and in a private, personal setting such as a personal guild, a journal or an instant messanger.. While you won’t get any statistics for it, we don’t care how you Rp them outside of the shop. You can have IM RP, PM rp, or even rp in your own personal guild, but do not have anything posted within the shop. What we don’t have to monitor, we don’t have to police. You cannot get stats for this however. If you want stats for it, you need to follow shop rules
Like how your skinwalker and a soquili-they-can't-breed-with (Same gender, incompatible breed) look together? You CAN still buy customs made to look like a mix of them. Please note that the skinwalker can only be used as a reference, not a legitimate parent. These customs are inspirational only, and cannot be treated as mockbreeding/spirit children between the two publically, nor can the couple in question be entered in to wishing stars or mock breeding events.
Don’t know if your personality or plotline fits what is allowed in the shop? Ask one of the following people: Uta, Nisshou H, Malhith, Mindsend. Asking anyone else would likely get the question redirected to one of these four, and they’ll give suggestions of what you can do to make it work. If you don’t like what can be done to make it work, just don’t break the rules and keep such Rp simply for the fun of it in your own personal areas outside of the shop or even Gaia. There are plenty of soquili that don’t follow the rules but don’t cause us issue because it’s kept at the ‘sig candy’ level in shop and everything else is offline.
In the end, not much has or will change any time soon. We will be working on a “Skinwalkers 101” to help people with figuring out plotlines and personalities, and have already been working on figuring out ways to reduce the headaches they often cause so we can make them at least a little more accessible. Right now out of all the breeds and characters, they are the ones that break not only the most shop rules, but also Gaia’s ToS, and often times we the staff are seen as bad guys for trying to patch things up, being fought and complained against for simply enforcing the Rules and Terms of Service. We hope that as we try out different ways of releasing them, that we can indeed give more away and make it just a little easier for others to receive, and MAY have a way figured out, but it requires time and is a low priority as other things are in the works.
To get straight to the point: I think cursed skinwalkers should be dropped to "uncommon" or "rare" and Purewalkers should be allowed in "Super Rare" slots for customs.
Ultimately, Purewalkers are bordering on (if they haven't already been) surpassing cursed skinwalkers in numbers, mostly because Purewalkers can breed true, and cursed skinwalkers cannot.
Cursed skinwalkers have all the disadvantages of skinwalkers (hard to RP, cannot breed with Angeni) NOR will their traits breed true. Even cursed skinwalkers breeding don't make baby cursed skinwalkers. I'm not suggesting this be changed, it makes them very different than their Angeni counterparts.
I also think having Purewalkers be so exclusive is a bit arbitrary. Having non-hooved paws is kind of big deal, but with the addition of hippogryffs we now have a precedent for non-hooved breeds in normal custom slots. Purewalker paws still don't pass down unless they breed with a Purewalker or a pawed mutant, from my understanding (at least, not without a super lucky role). And you can't get "halfbreed" or "crossbreed" Purewalkers, either.
Overall, I think since non-hooved Soquili are more "normal" now than they used to be, having the chance for others to get their hands on a Purewalker would be ideal, with a bit of work and luck in customs. There can be other methods to keep their rarity in check, without just making them event or staff exclusive - such as a cooldown (you can only get one purewalker a year, for example, by any method other than breeding).
Thoughts?
(PS - I'm referring to the templates Purewalkers only, like always custom templates/animals would be considered mutants)
