Welcome to Gaia! ::

I think going with a new concept would be a great idea because as stated before, I think that even the slightest resemblance will cause a huge outburst of drama that I don't think anyone would like to deal with. That being said, I like the idea Theidren kind of came up with of there being more than just the Native American aspect. Maybe touching on all sorts of different 'realms' or regions would be a good way to get things going.

I can't speak for everyone, but with my own characters while their personalities and such are set they would be able to transition into the new environment. As said before by Rynn, they would be essentially be reborn into a new world. Maybe a tragic event happens to those individuals or (keeping with the different realms theme) they are pushed into another realm somehow. I think expanding the character universe, so to speak, would also open up more possibilities for OC characters. In Soq I never really created one/used one because I felt it was sort of limited but I think in this shop the possibility of having an OC that could potentially be from a larger world would be pretty awesome. :] I just thought I'd support some of the ideas already up.

I skimmed, so forgive me if I repeat anything already said, just want to throw my two cents in. I like the rebirth-/re-envisioned ideas for 'old' characters. I do worry, at least for me personally, that simply throwing established characters from other shops (especially later gen ones) into a new setting as they were could be complicated. For example, If I was to custom Claudette Sinclair first in SfS, it would be difficult for me to play her out the way I would in her original setting. Her parents, grandparents, lifemate, all of them aren't here (yet or ever), its just different. And if this world allows for more magic and fantastical things It would just...change her. The whole Cleaver family dynamic would just be different, mates, siblings, friends, all sorts of people that are important for character development may be missing, later gens may appear before their predecessors, etc. But if family or significant people in their lives were to come in, I would love the opportunity to reforge old connections. Perhaps allowing for some intact, albeit foggy, memories to carry over for reincarnated characters would allow us to stay in touch with their past and allow for some development based off of past lives while still opening the way for independent future development in this new setting? Also would allow us to do different breeds within the family if we wished. Dragon brother meets Equine past sister and recognizes they have a history even though they have new forms in this life or something? It could also introduce a lot of fun drama and exciting plot opportunities if people wished. I'm spit balling, and possibly rambling, shooting out thoughts as they occur so I would welcome input or improvements to this suggestion.

I've tried rping later gen characters in new settings and it tends to be complicated for me to wrap my brain around, but that could simply be a personal limitation XD This is also the first time I've faced transferring pets between shops so I may just not have the experience to do it smoothly....

EDIT: Also, I wouldn't be opposed to dispensing with Native American as the main theme all together. I think it could be incorporated for characters that want to hang on to it, as could various other cultures, but I was always the person who gave their characters various mental illnesses to allow for a bit of the fantastical to leak in. It created a big dissonance in my brain to look at some of the mutants in soquili and try to logically explain their existence within the confines of shop rules.... XD

The way cosplays are going to work is that you can get the same character on multiple linearts. So there could potentially be a large equine Spiderman, a mini equine Spidy, a gryphon spidy ect. They will be dopplegangers and counted as 'family' (so no breeding them together) but can be RPd at the same time.

Love it.
All in favor of questing a bunch of dead pools here with me?
Ah who am I kidding I know your all down. Who doesn't like dead pool at least a little.

OKAY I JUST HAD SEMI-BRILLIANCE POP IN MY SKULL OF DUMB.

So, depending on how the shop story goes, maybe it could be a dream-world like setting. In this dreamworld, however, there's no humans. Remakes from anywhere are dreams as well-- born from the minds of others. Some are strong, and tied to others (Families or mated pairs); others are weak, only holding an identity, a new beginning. Dreams can have snatches of 'memories' that you may dismiss, which in remakes could be strong, or weak.

The Customs Subforum is called orbs-- maybe they're formless until recieved, sort of like a mass of jumbled up ideas and theories until then to cover things...?

As for distributing remakes, I'd agree with raffles, but if the design was by another colourist before whom is NOT in this shop, modifications to avoid copying the idea would be required to avoid screaming fits of scandal or somesuch? Because using your own OCs, for example, you give blanket permission to use your design for the pet, and characters in the media including digitally (Webcomics do often sell shirts, pins, ETC) fall under Fair Use, but, say I put Itzel or Heath in, they weren't customs. The new colourist might not have permission to use that exact design, so changes may need made-- hairstyles, pattern variation, different edits, ETC.

Raffles should probably be a big source-- maybe a conversion thread where people can post up to 3 pets at a time to be picked up when colourists have time? I've seen it other places with no number limits. Customs of course-- maybe a few "Conversion" Flaffles? Saving every pony would be impossible-- I'm looking to see mentally who of my herd I can go without (Hint: I'm not doing well at this) but it is stuff to consider.

My two cents now that we know Soq and SfS can be affiliated:

in one of the other brainstorming threads, someone suggested that the SfS world could be a nexus/gateway world that held "doors" to other worlds that people/critters could easily stumble in and out of, and i LOVE that idea. i've worked with it in the past at several multifandom RP communities and it works beauuuuutifully to justify crossovers while still retaining the crossover characters' previous histories

i say allow pets on Soq lines/certs to be RPed in SfS like normal, with that as the explanation for how they got there. they found the "door" in Soq that leads to SfS, and decided to poke around, but they can return to Soq at any time. i don't think SfS pets should go into Soq though, so maybe explain that as only creatures from a world originally may return to it? the gateway world could also justify the crazy cosplays and varying levels of tech/magic/science/so forth, and give players a way to go with any mythos they'd like

a catch for RPing Soq in SfS: Soq can't gain stats/benefits from any RPing done in SfS. they can't gain Soq stats and they can't gain whatever benefits SfS might offer. if a player wants their Soq to get RP stats/benefits in SfS, they'd have to convert their Soq to SfS lines, in which case they'd forfeit being able to get Soq stats. kinda like, "if you become part of this world, you can't return to the world you came from"

for converting Soq to SfS, i like the monthly raffle idea. maybe everyone posts in a thread the Soq they'd like to convert to SfS lines (perhaps a limit on how many Soq per person?) and every month, once all the normal work is done, a colorist can take on a few conversation slots and would dice/number roll for "winners" to convert. winners would get to choose which single Soq out of their "please convert these" list they'd like converted (rather than the colorist choosing). i think a nominal fee should be charged, but i'd leave it up to the colorists' discretion. i also agree that non-custom Soq OCs whose original colorist isn't with SfS should be altered to avoid stepping on toes, and that cosplays are first-come-first serve, regardless of who had them in Soq. also, definitely a cooldown on something like this. so if someone gets chosen for a conversation, they'd have to wait, i dunno, three months? before they could get chosen again. and it would be up to the owner to explain why there's an SfS version and a Soq version of their character, if they so choose

and guh, i could've sworn i had more ideas, but i've lost my train of thought