Marking Guide
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The Tribes
Chatloups have a special way of naming their markings- they use heraldric terms. They like to get fancy. It's fine to merely refer to a chatloup as 'brown and white with yellow stripes', of course, but if you want to have fun with it, here's a guide of markings that are allowed and what they are called when you're fancy. I've also included rarity. On adoption and breeding pages, artists will also include the fancified coat description to suit your fancy needs.
Tinctures
Tinctures, put simply, are base coats. There are two kinds- bases, and stains, which are variations on a base. Stains are indented below the base they originate from. All stains are uncommon, while bases are common.
---Gules- brown
-------Sanguine- red-brown or ginger; uncommon
-------Murrey- dark, dull brown; uncommon
-------Tenné- fawn; uncommon
---Or- gold
---Argent- silver, light gray, or white
---Sable- black
-------Azure- dark gray, sometimes with a bluish tint; uncommon
Divisions
Divisions lie between tinctures and secondaries; there are two kinds. Basically, divisions mean a chatloup has large areas or splotches of different colours.
---Parti- two different colours; i.e., black and white or brown and white
---Tierced- three colours; like calico
Secondaries
Secondaries are 'true' markings- stripes, spots, roaning, points. Some are rarer than others; be warned! These may be overlaid any tincture, and may be restricted to divisions(if there are any) or may go outside colour boundaries. As a general rule, the more secondaries there are, the rarer is the chatloup.
---Paly- vertical stripes, i.e. tiger
---Barry- horizontal stripes, i.e. bengal
---Canton- points, i.e. a Siamese cat
---Ermine- any kind of spots, always darker than the tincture.
---Fur- roaning; uncommon
---Vair- brindle; always darker than the tincture; uncommon
---Counter-ermine- any kind of spots LIGHTER than the tincture; rare
---Counter-vair- brindle LIGHTER than the tincture; rare
---Purpure- A faint purple or lilac pangare or coat over the tincture; rare
So, for instance, a chestnut-and-white chatloup with brindling on the chestnut part would be:
---Parti gules barry and argent.
Or a calico that is black, dark brown, and white would be:
---Tierced murrey, sable and argent.
The Rule of Tinctures
Fondly known as 'RoT' or just 'rot', this is an important rule in chatloup markings. Or and Argent are very, VERY rarely seen together on one chatloup. That is, gold and white or silver. So or with canton argent, or argent with ermine or... It's rare.
-This rule does not apply to divisions; only tinctures and secondaries.
-This also applies to chatloups with multiple secondaries; an or secondary and an argent secondary rarely both appear on the same chatloup.
-Hate me if you like. As I said, it's 'rot'.
