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BlueNephelim — Pixies
Published: 2009-03-26 11:50:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 1997; Favourites: 20; Downloads: 13
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Description
Here within this moonlit rosebush we have a rare sight: a male pixie (green) showing off his Faerie Fire as a courting display for the female pixie (blue). Pixies are temperamental, and can be dangerous in swarms. They are unnaturally strong for their size - a swarm of twenty pixies can drag off a grown man - and they can deliver a magical string that is both painful and venomous. Should you bump into pixies, your best bet is give them an offering of something shiny and get away as quickly as possible...Drawn by hand, colored in Photoshop CS. Some heavy use of the leaf brush in the background, but I think it turned out okay.
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Comments: 31
Hey this is really beautiful work, Alexius, lovely sense of movement
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Thank you very much! I tried to use the "sparkles" from the Faerie Fire effect and his tail to accent the motion in the picture, so I'm glad you noticed. ^_^
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I love the way she's sittin' on the flower and holding onto the branch... that is what I'm seeing, right? @_@ I haven't been to bed since 10 in the morning and it's now seven in the morning the next day... beautiful piece, though.
Hope he gets lucky.
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Hee, yes, that what you're seeing. She's crouching on the flower stem to see how he does - I hope he gets lucky too!
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From what I read in the description, I feel like if it doesn't work, she's going to bite his head off! @_@;
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It is possible - pixies have very volatile tempers and are known for being unpredictable! I don't think she'll hurt him if she doesn't like his display, but if he misreads the signals and tries to advance too soon, well, it could get ugly...
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*puts on goggles* I'm ready for pixie blood splatter.
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Hee hee. Assume the crash position!
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From what I read in the description, I feel like if it doesn't work, she's going to bite his head off! @_@;
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Aww how cute! I bet she's mighty impressed with him 
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Yes. ^_^ She's trying to hide it, but she is highly pleased with his shiny-ness. She has to play a little hard-to-get to make sure she gets to see the best of what he can do.
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Hahah yeah aww how cute! Of course a more impressive male may come floating along
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Ooooh, drama! Then they will actually have an aerial Fairy Fire fight...
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They don't kill each other, no...the loser would just scoot off to nurse his wounds (and his ego!) until the next full summer moon, when there would be another set of courting flights for unattached pixies like himself.
They're much more dangerous to mortals than to each other - they don't like "big folk" in their groves and will swarm like hornets.
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I can imagine. Do pixies stay together for life? And what do baby Pixies look like?
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They do! Mated pairs are monogamous for life. Baby pixies come from egg cases that look like tiny cocoons, which the mother attaches to the underside of leaves with a sticky silk like spider webs. The parents guard the egg site until the babies hatch, usually no more than two or three. The babies look like miniature adult except for their wings, which come out soft and crinkled and need about an hour to dry and stiffen.After about three months, the babies go off on their own - they will usually join a group of juveniles for the next three years, and during that time they will stay mostly down in the undergrowth where it's safe until they reach their full size.
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Aww how cute! 
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Yup, much like little butterflies...
Pixies have no mouths, so they don't quiet eat the way we think of it - they're fey, and fey are weird. O_o Pixies sustain themselves on the mana (natural/life energy) of their environment. Male pixies will choose a plant in the center of their home territory, and they will weave themselves a bower of glowing silk. The female's silk does not glow, since she uses it to hang her babies' egg cases and doesn't want to attract predators - but for a male, a more brightly glowing "nest" shows that he is strong enough not to fear predators, so brighter is better. The male will rest here for an hour or two every day, going into a kind of torpor while his energy reserves tap into the plant's energy to refill. In return, because of his glowing bower (which works like a UV light in a greenhouse), the plant can perform photosynthesis even at night and it becomes strong and healthy. Females move from plant to plant until they mate, at which point they "move into" their male's bower. Pixies often decorate their little nests with shiny things.
Pixies are strongly connected to the area they live in, and are very sensitive to changes. If people begin clearing the land and chopping trees, or even if an active human settlement springs up too close, the pixies will leave due to stress. On the other hand, groves and meadows where pixies live are always unnaturally vibrant and lush - not only can plants use the faerie light to grow, but the magical energy that pixies give off naturally seeps into the plants, water, and soil. A Pixie Haven is an area that may be inhabited by dozens of pixies, and it becomes so infused with magic that it never experiences a winter, just one endless growing season. Only the pixies feeding on the plant's mana keeps them from overgrowing and choking each other, and pixies from these Havens are always strong, healthy, and highly magical.
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Aww wow you make them sound so real, I see you got everything worked out for the species, you should do a mini species guide to pixies and their habits
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I will! ^_^ It's the biologist in me; I love doing race development stuff. Thank you for noticing!
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Heheh I only every did a couple of those, the Heyld-mar and Iven-mar, the Flufferbims, The Meldrith, EquovisSleyfus, and the Ratwolf and Swamp wolf...wow that's actually a lot
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Yeah, I was going to say, what is this "couple" of which you speak? ^_~ Sounds like you've done quite a few! I really don't know what it is, but I love doing in-depth physiology/behavior. Actually, I do know what it is; I love combining Biology and fantasy because they're my two favorite things. (I actually got my minor degree in Biology, so science is the other great love of my free time.) I've always thought that just because something doesn't happen to be real doesn't mean you shouldn't develop it so it could be - I try to make all my races as detailed and realistically functional as possible. ^_^
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But if you add facts that can be backed up, then it becomes as good as real, which makes it so much better!
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I agree. Like i said, I try to put the biology to work and make everything as plausible as possible. I want all of my worldscape set up so that it could be real.
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That's a smart way of looking at it, and it also makes you feel content and proud when something just fits right
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Thanks! It is a good feeling...
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Heh, thank you m'dear. ^_^
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