#ppl also mostly know stuff about thrones but theyre just local rulers and the vast majority of dagnyds are critters that dont resemblehumans

[spookygibberish]

I am trying to think of what characteristics are important in designs for my stuff, what works and doesn't work, and it's very hard lmao.

For dagnyd designs I only really have a good sense of Jacanti's design language, but it walks a tightrope between decorative and functional. All dagnyds follow principles of other biological entities, and when they're ornate, they're ornate in a way that animals are. Especially fancy ones have lots of sculptural elements but what is Correct and what Isn't is so based on my own whims it's almost impossible to articulate.

Any dagnyd needs to be able to exist even if it's existence isn't comfortable. Something that actively looks like it's rotting doesn't work, but something that's experiencing the everyday torment of being born a pug is perfect.

Lots of "horror" designs don't actually work bc they don't look functional as creatures. No dagnyds should be especially recognizable as any particular animal, or just an animal with other animal bits stapled on. A lipless ghoul beast and a dog with wings both don't work equally. If something has exposed teeth they will need to be tusks that are designed for that. A dog with wings isn't transformed enough, it needs a humanlike face or hands or something too, or scales or a monkey tail or a vase for a head. The only dagnyds that are humanoid are almost entirely indistinguishable from humans (other than a mark on their back thats baisically a fancy keloid), none of them are JUST people shaped with extra stuff glued on. Lots of dagnyds also end up with masklike or "ceramic" faces. Even when this is the case they still need to be able to eat and shit and shit like that, all dagnyds have the standard suite of biological needs.

Dagnyds are also not really spec bio creatures. They should have thought out biology but they explicitly did not evolve and are created by people. Think of them more as preindustrial meat robots or fancy homunculi. They are tools created by people while also themselves being people.

Anyways have a Waterbearer as an example design