Guess who just spent the last few days drawing and redesigning all the Kirins, and creating headcanons for them………..

Yeah I haven’t done much these holidays and got bored of doing nothing, so I’m riding this creative high for as long as I can XD

I loved the Kirin from the moment I saw their episode, and I don’t think anyone’s tried to flesh them out at all really, (I haven’t looked so I could be wrong). I thought why don’t I do it! So here they all are (I think there’s like two kirin I didn’t bother with, but that’s because they weren’t featured in the Kirin Tale Song, and I only wanted to do the kirin that were in that song (Mist Shine is the exception, I don’t know when she appears in the episode, but the wiki had a pic of her and I was like, that’s Rain Shine’s colour palette?? she cAN HAVE A DAUGHTER! ))

A lot of the Kirin shared the same designs with just a recolour (literally all the guys were the same model with dif cols), so I changed up their manes mostly, added a couple features here and there. If I keep drawing them their designs will probably evolve over time like my next gens. But for now, this is what they’ll look like.

Be prepared for a long description ahead, I might move this information into a different post or a journal if it gets wayyyy too long, but oh well.

For a quick ref of the relationships: Kirin Relationships

Head Canons ahead!:

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Lin Peaks:

The Kirin live in a secluded part of Equestria known as the Peaks of Peril, a mountain with a valley in the middle of it, surrounded up multiple dangerous mountain peaks. To the Kirin, this mountain is called Lin Peaks (which means forest peaks). They live in houses built into the trees and are happiest close to nature. A magical stream flows nearby, called the Stream of Silence, causing anyone who enters its waters to lose their voice. Because of this, the Kirin have created a form of magical sign language. (Like how Japanese/Chinese/Korean languages use symbols for words, instead of English where we write out each letter for a word. (In Japanese, 木 = tree) ) It appears above their heads.

The Kirin have two languages, one evolving from the other. There’s the traditional language, a longer form used when speaking or writing. There’s multiple words for the same thing (Tree/Sapling/Bark… Apple/Fruit/Royal Gala/Granny Smith/etc…) and then there’s the simplified version; used for sign language. It can get tiring using your magic to describe something when one word will suffice. Plus writing out full sentences takes too long, so this simplified version evolved during the few years the Kirin had their voices lost. Like how texting gained its own shorthand language; (brb / lol / ttyl / omw / the myriad of emoticons; :D XD :/ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ಠ_ಠ (I like to think the Kirin created their own version of emoticons to help communicate to each other as well).

The Kirin live closer to a “Hunter-Gatherer” lifestyle, calling themselves a tribe, rather than a village. They don’t seek monetary gain, they instead have a trade and bartering system. It’s supposed to help promote helping each other out, because for such a small community if they don’t all do their part for the tribe; helping to grow fruit, collecting resources, and building tools, then come harsh times, they could be in danger of going hungry or cold. So instead of not having enough money to buy food, they trade other resources for a future favour. Though sometimes this can cause disagreements when one Kirin believes they are getting an unfair trade.

Since the Kirin are such a small and isolated community, they have a strong love of entertainment. This could be music, writing, theatre, art or sports. This love fell a little to the way-side when they all became silent, not being able to speak made it impossible to sing, put on a play or cheer for a sports team. Plus the water made everyone mellow, so their passion, their drive, fell away as well. They just didn’t feel like doing any of that anymore.