Magical gene / lines and strokes

Elytra Veins

A net of veins over the barrel and neck, each one bright down its middle - the cell pattern of a beetle wing-case rather than a marking. A third allele carries the same marking worked in greys instead of white - dark where the pale form is light, and the same number of steps.

What it can come out as

Outcome	Carrying
Elytra Veins	`Elw/Elw` · `Elw/Elc` · `Elw/n` · `Elw/Elk`
Elytra Veins, black	`Elk/Elk` · `Elk/Elc` · `Elk/n`
Elytra Veins, coloured	`Elc/Elc`
Wild type	`Elc/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 1,786 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
`Elw/Elw`	Elytra Veins	0.002% — 1 in 50,000
`Elw/Elk`	Elytra Veins	0.0027% — 1 in 37,495
`Elw/Elc`	Elytra Veins	0.0027% — 1 in 37,495
`Elw/n`	Elytra Veins	0.038% — 1 in 2,632
`Elk/Elk`	Elytra Veins, black	0.0027% — 1 in 37,495
`Elk/Elc`	Elytra Veins, black	0.0027% — 1 in 37,495
`Elk/n`	Elytra Veins, black	0.0027% — 1 in 37,495
`Elc/Elc`	Elytra Veins, coloured	0.0027% — 1 in 37,495
`n/n`	Wild type	99.944%

Its gene carrot

The file

common/src/main/resources/horsegenetics/genes/elytra_veins.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.elytra_veins`
Phase	magical — it adds signed colour in phase 3, after the pigment has resolved
Priority	371 — where it sits in the one `(priority, key)` paint order
Alleles	`Elw` · `Elk` · `Elc` · `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	CRACKLE, TOWARD

Why it is built this way

Imported from the magic-gene intake, 2026-09-08. Two crackle fields on the SAME seed and the same cell size, with different channel widths, painted narrow-over-wide. That is the whole gene: because the lattice is identical, the second pass lands exactly inside the first, and every vein comes out dark-edged with a bright core. Change either seed and it falls apart.

The black allele is the white one with the light taken out of it, and it sits one rung under white in the dominance series - so every combination that existed before it keeps the outcome it had, and only the pairs carrying Elk are new. The re-toning is a mapping rather than a repaint: every achromatic target moves into the dark end of the scale keeping its order and its spacing, and every SATURATED one is left alone, because that colour is the gene rather than its lightness.

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.

Elytra Veins

Two crackle fields on the same seed and the same cell size, one with a wide channel and one with a narrow one, painted in that order - so the second sits exactly down the middle of the first, and every vein comes out dark-edged with a bright core. The cells themselves keep the coat.

the heavy veins between the wing cells — CRACKLE inverted, painted with TOWARD
a bright hairline down the middle of each vein — CRACKLE inverted, painted with TOWARD

Elytra Veins, black

The same marking as the white form with the light taken out of it: the same 2 steps, moved to the dark end of the scale.

the heavy veins between the wing cells — CRACKLE inverted, painted with TOWARD
a bright hairline down the middle of each vein — CRACKLE inverted, painted with TOWARD

Elytra Veins, coloured

The same net in a colour the line carries, dark on the outside and bright down the core. Fully recessive.

the heavy veins between the wing cells — CRACKLE inverted, painted with TOWARD
a bright hairline down the middle of each vein — CRACKLE inverted, painted with TOWARD

Wild type

No veins.

Paints nothing.