Acerovidae

A deer-like creature known for its symbolism for love and their plentiful populations. All subspecies wield wind magic, and depending on their biome, occasional other magical elements. Often a source of food for many settlements, they are widely used in various dishes common to their habitats.

## Etymology and terminology

Acerovidae was derived from a historical legend of a flying whale, which in reality was a blimp powered by wind magic known as the Acerodeus. This name was, in turn, derived from the terms, acceleration, aero, and deus. The -vidae part of the word is taken from the scientific family of deer, Cervidae. A group is often called a "herd," and occasionally a "loving."

## Distribution

Due to their adaptability and mobility, they have spread far and wide, becoming the most common form of deer in the world, although tend to be spotted in any density of forest, open fields, savannas, and mountain valleys. A subspecies called the Isenpastis Acerovidae is found on mountaintops, tundras, and snowy biomes. Due to their advantage in mobility, they have preference for bottoms and tops of cliffs, as well as clearing or forest edges. The highest concentration of such Acerovidae can be found in hard-to-traverse terrain as long as grass is plentiful. Another highly capable subspecies, yet one of the rarest kinds of deer, is the Otensivaerto Acerovidae (nicknamed the Forest Deities), which can be found thriving in any location, including the skies, the ocean floor, volcanic flats, caves, icebergs, deserts, and in city alleyways. Such subspecies are unbelievably rare, yet in no way endangered. They naturally are averse to intelligent lifeforms, and cannot be tamed.

## Description

Most of its appearance resembles the common whitetail deer, but have swirly, smoothly curving antlers that often form heart shapes, hence their common depiction in romantic literature. While most are brown with green and bright green spots, the occasional pure-white albino Acerovidae, and the pitch-black khalino Acerovidae can appear. Isenpastis Acerovidae are often various shades of blue, with brighter colors on its underbelly, and darker colors on it's back and top of head. The Otensivaerto Acerovidae are chromatically colored, and no two specimens share the same pattern, due to their high rate of evolution caused by their highly erratic genetic replication. Their hooves are extremely hard, yet extremely capable of resisting shock, evolved from their common behavior of jumping high.

## Biology

As such a varied, widespread creature, it has gained a wide range of foods and unusual behaviors to allow them to not only travel quickly, but also adapt to the locations they migrate to. Their magical properties serve as a vastly differentiating trait that dramatically changes the way other creatures interact with them. Having evolved in this world brimming with magic, they took advantage of these abilities and grew magical capabilities to assist their survival in this ever-changing world.

### Diet

As creatures that migrate all over the place seasonally, they have evolved to accept nearly any form of plant or mushroom, and have natural antidotes to most poisons and toxins. Despite this, they cannot resist the effects of alcohol, and are known to occasionally eat rotting fruit for the fruit alcohol in them, sometimes seen stumbling around drunk. There are a total of four other toxins they have no resistance against (excluding the Otensivaerto subspecies): Barium, Iron Rust, Carbon Monoxide, and Deathberries.

### Diseases and ailments

Drunkedness is the most common ailment in Acerovidae, and addiction also occurs in 1 out of 25 specimens that consume such foods. The deadliest to the Acerovidae is a parasitic infection of mentally compromising bugs that cause them to become violent, and learn violent uses of their magic, though cause it to also begin to lose its outer skin layers, as they become unable to support this tissue. Often dubbed "Deathhorns," they are best avoided due to their high speed and offensive capabilities. They can be completely neutralized by cutting the neural chord connecting the brain to the body. This bug only affects deer, and will stop controlling the deer after five years, when the larvae inside its body finally mature and leave the host. Oddly enough, they are extremely vulnerable to the common cold, and will die in a week of contracting the disease.

### Magic

The Acerovidae are capable of using wind magic, and only use it to leap up to 50 meters, launch themselves forward to maximum sustained speeds of about 154 miles per hour, knock fruits and berries off trees, and on rare occasion, create dust smokescreens. They have no defensive nor offensive capabilities with the exception of parasitically infected specimens. Isenpastis Acerovidae are also capable of ice magic, constructing temporary footholds and barriers, although not fast enough to block projectiles, and fire magic, which they use to heat their bodies. Spirit Deities are capable of every magic excluding creation magic and dark magic, and might be intelligent. Not much is known about them, with how rarely they're sighted.

Their magic is mostly attributed to the small gemlike stones embedded in their spots and their forehead, which can be taken and used as wind magic infused material. Some are naturally stronger than others.

### Behavior

There are four sub-subspecies of Acerovidae, each which rotate locations every season, so each season brings with it its own sub-subspecies. They are all migratory, and will move to the next biome after a season ends or begins. They are prey animals, so they never fight, and are particularly skilled in escape.

They have heightened sense for the wind, and will occasionally be able to sense chaotic flow caused by other living beings’ interference with air flow. This grants the the ability to run away before being hunted, which contributes to their extreme success as a species. The issue is their simple escape method, of moving in the perfect opposite direction that they sense danger in, unless they notice a pincer, in which case they move in the direction that gets further from all sources of danger fastest. Due to more chaotic airflow during escape, they have less air sense and are therefore less likely to notice a second hunter.

Acerovidae have a symbiotic relation with Solaewools, and will stay in close proximity to wild specimens during cold seasons for heat, in return for giving warning calls at the first sign of danger due to their better sense of danger than the Solaewools.

During mating seasons, males tend to gain far more vibrant coloring than normal, and will each generate a unique mating dance for the partner they pursue. This pattern can be derived mathematically from the wind patterns and airflow of the exact location they Acerovidae stand, witnessing such a dance is very rare, and often seen as a sign or good fortune, prosperity, and luck.

Foals can commonly be seen playing in fields with their parent Acerovidae often for exercise to build up strength for running and leaping for the future. Their magical stones are often underdeveloped at such a stage, thus less capable of running fast, leaping high, and sensing, making them much easier targets, albeit for much less reward. This is often made up for by one of the most unique behaviors Acerovidae have in herds.

## Cultural Significance

### Literary Meaning

They often represent the ideas of love, nature, and lack of human or other intelligent life's meddling, often used as a metaphor for one's original form. Sometimes, they are used as an insult for cowardice.

### Food

In the biomes where these Acerovidae are plentiful, they are commonly used as the main type of meat in one of the widest varieties of cuisine. It has a springy, "flowing" texture and flavor, and can be extremely fragrant when cooked any more than medium rare. Combination with any spice or flavoring increases the intensity of the flavor by massive magnitudes.