#ssotc

I happen to be in a yapping mood, so buckle up.

I started a family tree image for Echo's lineage! I could've included a lot more horses from her parents' lineages, but heck, enough people have done those kinds of family trees and I'd like to focus mainly on my characters.

I know Spirit's genes are hotly debated, but I headcanon him as a dunskin. Overall, I'm really not that concerned about genetics, I use them as a guideline for my designs but I like to get creative. Which is sacrilege to a lot of horse people, they've certainly let me know that...

Echo wasn't originally going to be a dun, I didn't give her a dorsal stripe for a reason. But I've since changed my mind, so future art of her will have a dorsal stripe. You might also notice Fox happens to be a dun here too. This decision comes from designing their first two kids, who I really wanted to be duns. I'll adjust Fox' design in future art as well, likely to be a more noticeable change than with Echo.

Speaking of Fox, here you'll get the first peek at his sire: Eagle! He's a seal brown bay, with silver, roan and dun. I was tempted to make him an appaloosa too, might not be too late... I'll be posting both Eagle and Fox's dam, Sinopa, together at some point.

But here's a little something I've been so excited to do: the first batch of foals in Echo's herd!

Not including Faith and Valor here, of course. They're destined to be background characters, but goodness I had fun with them. As always, I tried to simplify their designs a bit to fit the animation style, but I might have to go a lot simpler to make them appear more like background characters. But that's no fun.

And yes, following a bit of realism here, Fox isn't exclusive to Echo. While Echo is undoubtedly the lead mare and his beloved, Fox is a stallion after all. I imagine this is the same case for Spirit, Rain is his sweetheart but how else are you going to explain the other foals in his herd? Now, Fox isn't the only stallion in Echo's herd. Wolf is the herd's lovingly tolerated satellite stallion. But while Fox does allow him to stick around the herd, he will not let him near Echo. So don't expect any Wolf x Echo foals in the future.

Now, it seems I may have forgotten to mention Faith and Valor on most of my socials. Oopsies, my bad. I made them around a bad time, I had posted them officially on Insta, but then shortly after archived the post.

They're Fox and Echo's twin foals. They're like two peas in a pod and create trouble together, but eventually they part ways at some point in their adulthood. I have some story ideas brewing, but again, nothing concrete yet.

You may notice how much Faith looks like Esperanza. Which is indeed on purpose, surely her name being synonymous with Hope (the English meaning of Esperanza) also helps to give that away. I always loved Esperanza, and I just thought it'd be cute if her great granddaughter were just like her. Look at them!

They never meet, but maybe Faith is Esperanza's reincarnation? A concept to think about, perhaps.

While I still need to draw adult Faith, I do have an adult Valor to present to you:

Valor is set to be the next main character after Echo's story ends. Which, yeah, I know... Echo doesn't even HAVE a complete story yet. But what can I say? I love creating new horses. By the time I'm done this family tree is going to be a mighty oak.

Something I do want to note: I'm on the fence of whether Ghost will ever have foals. I wouldn't rule it out yet, but for anyone anticipating seeing some I wouldn't hold your breath.