General

Name: Candycorn
Pronunciation: “candy” + “corn”
Plural: Candycorns
Habitat: Forests; both temperate and cold, mountain forests
Status: Abundant
Diet: Herbivore; will eat any non-poisonous plant, along with berries, fruits, nuts, and seeds.


Social Behavior

Candycorns are very social creatures. They live in villages made up of many small families living together in mint houses (created from a certain kind of moss that hardens; explained in-depth in my other Deviation, "Candycorn World" - link in the Artist's Comments). The village is usually very close to two things; one, a forest, and two, a source of freshwater, such as a river or, more commonly, a lake fed by a river. The forest is mostly for finding food and resources, such as mint moss for making houses, wood, and all sorts of edible plants. The lake is for clean water, of course. Villages are never too far from mountains and the Field of Rebirth (which is explained later).   

Flavours

Each Candycorn has a unique flavour. The flavour is usually that of a fruit (like apple), a spice (like cinnamon), or basically any other kind of candy or food you can think of. Most Candycorns are a “sweet” flavour, and although salty or spicy flavours are not unheard of, they are rare. They are named after their flavour, and they smell and taste heavily of it. (Yes, I said taste. The oil on their skin and fur smells and tastes of their flavour.) It can also be smelled on their breath. Their insides are full of the scent, too, including their blood.

Soulmates

Candycorns have one mate for life… their soulmate. They actually have one perfect match, out there waiting for them. Upon reaching puberty, they will be heavily attracted to the scent of their soulmate – so attracted to, in fact, that just smelling their soulmate’s scent is like a drug. Of course, tasting it is great, too (and that’s where kissing comes in!). The soulmate’s gender doesn’t matter. Two girls can be mates, as can two boys, just as regularly as a boy and a girl can be mates. Candycorns are not attracted to gender, they are attracted to scent.

With the concept of mates comes the concept of reproduction. For this, Candycorns use an ability of theirs called “sparking”. When two soulmates meet, as long as they are past puberty, they can spark by touching their fingers together. An electrical current will pass through their fingertips, and they both will experience immense pleasure (so they love doing it!). What is really happening is an exchange of DNA between the two, which can be used to create a child during the Festival of Life. (Yes, boyboy and girlgirl couples can have kids!)

Only soulmates can spark – this is part of what makes them so special.

Life, Death, and Reproduction

To explain a Candycorn’s life cycle, we need to start with death.

When a Candycorn dies (they live to about 100), its soul departs from its body and flies to the Field of Rebirth. Its body disintegrates into a fine, powdery dust. The dust faintly smells like the living Candycorn and bears a little bit of its color. The family and/or friends of the deceased Candycorn then collect the dust (if all of it is not obtained, it’s alright, as long as there’s a good amount) and bring it to the Field of Rebirth, which is basically the “heart” of the Candycorn world – all the different villages surround it, none of them wanting to be too far away. The dust is placed in the very center of the field, along with the dust of all the other Candycorns that have died that year, and left there. The souls of all these dead Candycorns float around in the sky of the Field of Rebirth, waiting for their chance to be reborn.

In preparation for the Festival of Life (which happens once a year), the dusts of the dead clump together, mixing with each other and such, to create “blank” eggs. These eggs are pure white and do not have any DNA. For each dead Candycorn, one egg is formed, and along with them are a couple of eggs formed by leftover dust. New souls will inhabit these eggs, souls that have never lived before.

When the Festival of Life finally arrives, the soulmate couples that have reached adult age (usually about 30-40), choose a blank egg, spark with each other, and put their hands on the egg. The egg absorbs the spark and its parents’ combined DNA, and a soul is called down into it from above. The soul’s personality is different in every life – all scrambled up and remixed – so the new Candycorn will not act like the old one, and will have a different scent (usually related to the scent of one or both of the parents).

The new couple takes the egg home with them and cares for it. It grows bigger each day, and begins to smell slightly of the Candycorn growing inside. Its colors start to change to mimic the colors of the new Candycorn’s fur, and it will sometimes acquire little patterns that may show up on the baby. After a while, the egg hatches into a baby Candycorn.

Growing Up!

Candycorns rarely grow above 4 feet tall. They’re very small creatures. They also grow slower than humans, due to their longer lifespan (about 100 years).

Here’s a little chart of sorts.

Years: Stage

0-1: Infant
2-4: Toddler
5-7: Young Child
8-12: Child
13-16: Older Child
17-30: Adolescent (“Teenager”)
31-50: Young Adult
51-70: Adult
71-90: Older Adult
90+: Elder

From the “infant” to “older child” stage, the Candycorn is about 1-3 feet tall. From then on, they’re anywhere between 3 and 4 feet all (hardly ever any taller).

To determine a suitable weight for a Candycorn, use a BMI Calculator.

“Sexual maturity” (basically, whenever a Candycorn is able to realize that it is attracted to a certain scent and is able to spark) begins around age 12, and most Candycorns are completely mature by age 17.