Magical gene / fields and regions

Masked

A hard-edged dark mask over the whole head and down the crest, broken by pointed light streaks along the neck, with the far half of the tail dark to match.

What it can come out as

Outcome	Carrying
Masked	`Msk/Msk`
Masked carrier	`Msk/n`
Wild type	`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 1,250 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
`Msk/Msk`	Masked	0.004% — 1 in 25,000
`Msk/n`	Masked carrier	0.076% — 1 in 1,316
`n/n`	Wild type	99.92%

Its gene carrot

The file

common/src/main/resources/horsegenetics/genes/masked.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.masked`
Phase	magical — it adds signed colour in phase 3, after the pigment has resolved
Priority	252 — where it sits in the one `(priority, key)` paint order
Alleles	`Msk` · `n`
Varies per horse	2 values drawn once off the expressing allele copy, so a foal that inherits the copy inherits the look
Built from	AXIS, PARTS, STROKES, TOWARD

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.

Masked

Dark over the whole head - forehead, poll, orbits, cheeks and jaw, carried down to the bottom of the head and onto the muzzle, with both surfaces of both ears to match. The field runs back along the crest, dips lowest at the mid-neck and rises again at the withers, and stops there - the barrel, flank and legs are untouched. Four to ten light streaks run front to back through the neck field, tapering to points at both ends and irregularly spaced, and they are not mirrored side to side. The far half or two-thirds of the tail is dark, cut square across.

the mask over the head and ears — PARTS × AXIS, painted with TOWARD
the field along the crest — PARTS × AXIS, painted with TOWARD
the light streaks that break it — STROKES × AXIS, painted with TOWARD
the far half of the tail — AXIS, painted with TOWARD

Masked carrier

One copy is a narrow dark band across the forehead and around the eyes and nothing else - no crest field, no streaks, no tail.

a band across the forehead — PARTS × AXIS, painted with TOWARD

Wild type

No mask.

Paints nothing.