The Divus Universe

## **Animal features**

Animal characters in the Divus universe are anthropomorphic animals and gain more animal-like features as they age. Any real-life animal has a human/animal version in the Divus universe.

**Age 0 - 1**

They look the most human-like as babies and are always born fur-less (feather-less). Some babies are born with their eyes closed (like cats and dogs in real-life). Babies grow fur (or feathers) after a few months.

**Age 2 - 12**

When animal characters get older, they get more animal features, depending on what kind of animal they are. Birds get bigger wings and a beak-nose. Other animals get longer teeth (fangs), bigger ears and a longer (fluffy) tail.

**Age 13 - 20**

Their animal features still look the same, but just like normal humans, animal characters go through puberty.

**Age 21 - 24**

After puberty the animal features started to grow again. Starting with the claws, a nuzzle, digitigrade (bend) legs. But this depends on the animal species.

**Age 25 - 100**

Between the age of 25 and 28 an animal character will grow more animal features in the face, like: they get a bigger beak, longer snout and some animal characters get antlers or slit pupils. Also the digitigrade legs will be fully bend. But their feet will stay human. After the age of 28 (some animals need more time) a character is fully developed and will not gain any more visible animal features. Just like humans, they do grow older and get gray hair (not fur).

## **Divus**

Animal characters with special powers are called Divus. They always have an abnormal hair color and depending on which generation or family line they can also have an abnormal skin tone, eyes or more tails. Divus have the same life-span as normal animal characters.

## **Deus**

Godlike, immortal animal characters with incredible powers. This group of six are called Deus and always stay around age of 30. It's not sure why (probably evolution) but Deus have a bit more animal features than present day animal characters. They have longer claws, fangs, antlers and wings. And their feet are more animal like and not fully human as with other animal characters.

## **Skin tone**

Skin tones (except for Divus) are sometimes linked to their animal species skin tones, but sometimes they're based on real-life human skin tones, which means any animal character can have any (natural) skin tone.

Animal characters are not covered in fur; they only have fur on their ears and tail. Birds only have feathers on their wings, tail and sometimes head (like hair).

## **Life-span and height**

Animal characters have the same life-span like humans and their height is not always linked to their animal species.

The offspring of a Deus (with a mortal human/animal) has the same lifespan as any other human/animal. If 2 Deus would have an offspring, the child would have a much longer lifespan, but will not become immortal.

## **Offspring**

Any animal character in the Divus universe can have a child with another animal character no matter which species. Their offspring have a 50/50 chance to be the father’s or mother’s species of animal.

**Eggs**

If the mother is a bird (or another egg laying animal) and the father a mammal, their offspring will always be a bird and hatched from an egg. The other way around is alike when the father is a bird (or another egg laying animal) and the mother a mammal their offspring will always be a mammal.

#### **Amphibian**

There is a small exemption with amphibian when a **male** amphibian has a child with female bird or mammal, this child can also be born an amphibian. This because in the Divus universes an amphibian egg looks a lot like soft egg or amniotic sac.

## **Hybrids**

Hybrids are very, very rare in the Divus universe. It happens about 1:10 000 000. The only known hybrid in the Divus series is Jackalope Jack. However there are a few "normal" animals who are from a hybrid species like Mötto and Kitty.

## **Animals and pets**

The Divus universe is very similar to our world we live in. There are normal animals living side by side with the animal characters and some are kept as pets.

Characters known to have a pet are:

* Eland Alces with Mötto
* Alex Foxx with Kitty
* Jolene Lapin has a bunny and cat she named Pyrus.

## **Humans**

Humans don't exist in the Divus universe. They are a made-up species like unicorns, dragons and mermaids. Animal characters do like the human myth and it's popular in media. (Characters Gregory Sciurus and Kat Fae are big human fans).

There is also a yearly human-con, which was mentioned in Divus 1 - Love and Mystery.

## **Diet**

After years of evolution animal characters don't eat meat or any dairy products anymore, which makes the vegan. Animal characters never have the urge to eat other animal characters, like portrayed in other stories and media.

Some Deus that were resurrected are still meat eaters and struggle with the new habits. Their diet was mentioned in Divus 25 - I'll wait for you

## **Location**

The Divus universe is a more ideal version of our world, but with better rights for animals and the LBGTQ+ community. There are hints that the main characters live in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.