Magical gene / speckle and dust

Duskfall Speckle

Fine speckling that is thickest along the topline - the back, the crest of the neck and the poll - and has thinned to nothing before it reaches the legs or the muzzle.

What it can come out as

Outcome	Carrying
Duskfall Speckle	`Dfs/Dfs` · `Dfs/Dfe` · `Dfs/n`
Duskfall Speckle, ember	`Dfe/Dfe`
Wild type	`Dfe/n` · `n/n`

How each one is actually drawn - region by region, and the layers it is built from - is on the coding tab.

Crossing two of them

Finding one

About 1 in 893 wild horses is born showing this. That is the whole of the supply: catch one, or make one with the carrot below. Breeds set their own pools and a breed built around this gene will carry it far more often than the wild population does.

Wild pair	Shows as	How often
`Dfs/Dfs`	Duskfall Speckle	0.004% — 1 in 25,000
`Dfs/Dfe`	Duskfall Speckle	0.016% — 1 in 6,250
`Dfs/n`	Duskfall Speckle	0.076% — 1 in 1,316
`Dfe/Dfe`	Duskfall Speckle, ember	0.016% — 1 in 6,250
`n/n`	Wild type	99.888%

Its gene carrot

The file

common/src/main/resources/horsegenetics/genes/duskfall_speckle.json — a data-driven gene, not a Java class. It is listed in the index.json beside it and registered by Genes' class initialiser at startup.

Key	`horsegenetics.duskfall_speckle`
Phase	magical — it adds signed colour in phase 3, after the pigment has resolved
Priority	331 — where it sits in the one `(priority, key)` paint order
Alleles	`Dfs` · `Dfe` · `n`
Varies per horse	5 values drawn once off the expressing allele copy, so a foal that inherits the copy inherits the look
Built from	AXIS, SPECKLE, TOWARD

Why it is built this way

Imported from the magic-gene intake, 2026-09-08. Three regions, three separate fades, because a single AXIS band across the whole horse fades on the WHOLE horse's Y and would take the poll and the belly together. The point of the gene is that the speckle dies out before the legs and the muzzle, and that is a per-part statement.

What it paints

Each outcome, described the way the gene file describes it, and then the layers that draw it in the order they are painted. The prose is the part a reader checks a bake against; the list underneath is what the engine actually did.

Duskfall Speckle

A fall of fine white points, densest on the back and the crest and gone by the elbow. Each of the three regions carries its own fade, so the speckle runs out gradually rather than stopping at a part boundary - which is the difference between snow settling on a horse and a horse wearing a blanket.

speckle heaviest along the back, thinning down the flank — SPECKLE × AXIS, painted with TOWARD
speckle along the crest of the neck — SPECKLE × AXIS, painted with TOWARD
a scatter over the poll, fading before the muzzle — SPECKLE × AXIS, painted with TOWARD

Duskfall Speckle, ember

The same fall in a colour the line carries - the ember form, which on a dark coat reads as sparks rather than as snow. Fully recessive.

speckle heaviest along the back, thinning down the flank — SPECKLE × AXIS, painted with TOWARD
speckle along the crest of the neck — SPECKLE × AXIS, painted with TOWARD
a scatter over the poll, fading before the muzzle — SPECKLE × AXIS, painted with TOWARD

Wild type

No speckle.

Paints nothing.