Magical gene / lines and strokes

Moth Wings

A moth's wing read onto the barrel - chevron bands each with a dark edge, a paired eye-spot on the flank, and a scalloped hem along the belly.

What it can come out as

Outcome	Carrying
Moth Wings	`Mwa/Mwa` · `Mwa/Mwc` · `Mwa/n`
Moth Wings, coloured	`Mwc/Mwc`
Wild type	`Mwc/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
`Mwa/Mwa`	Moth Wings	0.002% — 1 in 50,000
`Mwa/Mwc`	Moth Wings	0.008% — 1 in 12,500
`Mwa/n`	Moth Wings	0.038% — 1 in 2,632
`Mwc/Mwc`	Moth Wings, coloured	0.008% — 1 in 12,500
`n/n`	Wild type	99.944%

Its gene carrot

The file

common/src/main/resources/horsegenetics/genes/moth_wings.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.moth_wings`
Phase	magical — it adds signed colour in phase 3, after the pigment has resolved
Priority	379 — where it sits in the one `(priority, key)` paint order
Alleles	`Mwa` · `Mwc` · `n`
Varies per horse	8 values drawn once off the expressing allele copy, so a foal that inherits the copy inherits the look
Built from	RINGS, SPOTS, TOWARD, WAVES

Why it is built this way

Imported from the magic-gene intake, 2026-09-08. Every element is drawn twice - wide and dark, then narrow and pale on top - which is how the whole gene gets its dark edges without a second mask type.

The row of chevrons is ONE mask with `spacing` turned up rather than several masks at different phases. WAVES is the only mask in the vocabulary that repeats evenly, and this is what that is for.

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 Wings

Each band is drawn twice - once wide and dark, once narrow and pale on top - which is how every element here gets its edge without a second mask type. The row of chevrons is one mask with its spacing turned up rather than several, an eye-spot built from a ring and a spot on one lattice, and a scalloped hem that is just a sine band low on the barrel.

the dark edge of every chevron band — WAVES, painted with TOWARD
the pale band inside it — WAVES, painted with TOWARD
a paired eye-spot on the flank — RINGS, painted with TOWARD
its pale pupil — SPOTS, painted with TOWARD
a scalloped hem along the belly — WAVES, painted with TOWARD

Moth Wings, coloured

The same wing with the pale half in a colour the line carries. Fully recessive.

the dark edge of every chevron band — WAVES, painted with TOWARD
the pale band inside it — WAVES, painted with TOWARD
a paired eye-spot on the flank — RINGS, painted with TOWARD
its pale pupil — SPOTS, painted with TOWARD
a scalloped hem along the belly — WAVES, painted with TOWARD

Wild type

No wings.

Paints nothing.