Magical gene / ground and strong white

Moth Mantle

A pale mantle over the barrel crossed by a wing net, with a banded tail, a pair of spots at its tip, and a mark on each cheek - a tiger moth at rest. 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

OutcomeCarrying
Moth MantleMmw/Mmw · Mmw/Mmc · Mmw/n · Mmw/Mmk
Moth Mantle, blackMmk/Mmk · Mmk/Mmc · Mmk/n
Moth Mantle, colouredMmc/Mmc
Wild typeMmc/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 pairShows asHow often
Mmw/MmwMoth Mantle0.002% — 1 in 50,000
Mmw/MmkMoth Mantle0.0027% — 1 in 37,495
Mmw/MmcMoth Mantle0.0027% — 1 in 37,495
Mmw/nMoth Mantle0.038% — 1 in 2,632
Mmk/MmkMoth Mantle, black0.0027% — 1 in 37,495
Mmk/MmcMoth Mantle, black0.0027% — 1 in 37,495
Mmk/nMoth Mantle, black0.0027% — 1 in 37,495
Mmc/MmcMoth Mantle, coloured0.0027% — 1 in 37,495
n/nWild type99.944%

Its gene carrot

The file

common/src/main/resources/horsegenetics/genes/moth_mantle.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.

Keyhorsegenetics.moth_mantle
Phasemagical — it adds signed colour in phase 3, after the pigment has resolved
Priority224 — where it sits in the one (priority, key) paint order
AllelesMmw · Mmk · Mmc · n
Varies per horse7 values drawn once off the expressing allele copy, so a foal that inherits the copy inherits the look
Built fromAXIS, CRACKLE, PARTS, SPOTS, TOWARD, WAVES

Why it is built this way

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 Mmk 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.

Moth Mantle

The mantle goes on as a solid ground and the net is drawn into it, so the pattern is the same whatever the horse underneath is doing. Everything else on the animal - tail bands, tail tip, cheeks - is drawn in the same ink as the net, which is what ties a set of unrelated marks into one moth.

  1. a mantle over the barrel — PARTS, painted with TOWARD
  2. the wing net drawn across it — CRACKLE inverted, painted with TOWARD
  3. bands down the tail — WAVES, painted with TOWARD
  4. a pair of spots at its tip — SPOTS × AXIS, painted with TOWARD
  5. and a mark on each cheek — SPOTS, painted with TOWARD

Moth Mantle, 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.

  1. a mantle over the barrel — PARTS, painted with TOWARD
  2. the wing net drawn across it — CRACKLE inverted, painted with TOWARD
  3. bands down the tail — WAVES, painted with TOWARD
  4. a pair of spots at its tip — SPOTS × AXIS, painted with TOWARD
  5. and a mark on each cheek — SPOTS, painted with TOWARD

Moth Mantle, coloured

The same moth on a mantle in a colour the line carries - the source asked for it over an orange coat, and this is how a horse gets there on its own. Fully recessive.

  1. a mantle over the barrel — PARTS, painted with TOWARD
  2. the wing net drawn across it — CRACKLE inverted, painted with TOWARD
  3. bands down the tail — WAVES, painted with TOWARD
  4. a pair of spots at its tip — SPOTS × AXIS, painted with TOWARD
  5. and a mark on each cheek — SPOTS, painted with TOWARD

Wild type

No mantle.

Paints nothing.