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Description

This is the overall project that all these individual kitsune pictures have been building up to. I used an old paper texter that I remember some artist I follow made, but I can not figure out who did it to give credit. Anyways, since I figure it might be rather difficult to read, I have pasted the full text below.

If anyone has any more questions, I would love to answer them. There is more I did not cover, but there was only limited space on the page, and I was pushing the font size already.
The Kitsune
As the old saying goes, where there are foxes, there are kitsune. This is something that has been true as far as written history has permitted. Still, their origins are shrouded in mystery and are the subject of much debate between scholars. How did the kitsune come to be? Were they just originally foxes infused with magic? Or is there a deeper story left to discover. Due to the kitsune’s unique lifespan it is difficult to say. There are no kitsune societies with long rich cultural histories, but rather the species has instead slotted itself into whatever society it has found itself in with the rare, odd individual or family found pocketed here or there.
Description
Fig. 1. An arctic fox kitsune’s paws are entirely covered in fur just like an actual arctic fox.

There are twelve varieties of kitsune. Each one is based on a species of true fox. The fennec kitsune stands the shortest at an average 3 ft. tall while the red kitsune stands the tallest at an average of 4 ft. Each distinct kitsune species takes on the various traits of their parent species such as coloration, muzzle and ear shape, seasonal coat changes, musk glands, and if their paw pads are fully covered in fur or not. Females have a multiple sets of nipples down their front to match their feral counterpart though these are often unnoticeable under the fur.
Lifespan
The lifespan of a kitsune is rather unique. For the first hundred years of their life, they spend it as feral foxes. While in this state they are more intelligent than the average fox, but otherwise indistinguishable lacking any signs that they are kitsune and not regular foxes. Only their extended lifespan gives them away. A kitsune mother gives birth to a litter of foxes, usually fox to six. Within each litter one or sometimes two of those kits are kitsune while the rest are normal foxes. Historically, it was common practice to allow all of the children to spend their lives in the wild as keeping the foxes in the home usually leads to destructive behavior as foxes are prone to do. Instead, families would often adopt wild kitsune they found when those children reached a hundred.

More recently, there have been attempts to keep the family together to varying degrees of success. While this does mean that they are able to raise the children that are actually theirs, the way that the children are treated has been found to have lasting mental impact on their lives and the emotional stress of parents slowly watching all of their children age and perish except one or two in each litter is hard to measure.

Fig. 2. This Bengal fox kitsune was treated as a pet for the first hundred years of his life. Even when maturing to adulthood he still desires being treated as so and feels anxiety if not given daily walks.

Since during this first hundred years of life, the kitsune are for all purposes normal foxes they are able to reproduce on their own and even interbreed with normal foxes of their parent species. It has been found that within each litter these wild kitsune bare, even with wild foxes, one or two of their offspring will also be kitsune. This allows the kitsune to continue to propagate in the wild despite the low lifespan of foxes in the wild.

Upon reaching a hundred years of age the kitsune begin to heavily change. They grow a second tail and their body begins to rapidly change and morph into a more anthropomorphic shape. Their intelligence raises giving them full sapience, although still with the mind of a child, and they gain large amounts of magical power and shapeshifting capabilities. Since historically many lived out in the wilds they would usually end up as feral wild children until some poor sod decided to take them into civilization and tame them.

Fig. 3. A kitsune in the middle of growing their third tail.

At this point they continue to grow until reaching their full height around 113-118 years of age. Every hundred years they grow a new tail, up to nine. The new tail always spits off from the original tail as the two slowly pull themselves apart over the course of a number of weeks. This means that in the fan of tails usually the oldest tail is in the middle with then tails descending in age from the outside in. Since the tail is also always a clone of the original one, if it sustains any damage that damage will also be copies to the new tails grown. After reaching 800 years old and gaining their ninth tail, the kitsune will not gain any more, but as far as anyone knows this is not the end of their lifespan. Seemingly the kitsune are unageing with no upper limit to the length of their life, though they are still susceptible to disease and injury meaning that most parish long before that. Their bodies exhibit no extraordinary regenerative capabilities although they do seem to have continuous sets of replacement teeth.
Magic
Kitsune are naturally talented magic wielders with even those who are even introduced to civilization and more formalized magical training picking up the talent. Of particular note the kitsune are highly talented shapeshifters and are able to take the shape of any other species or even inanimate objects. The most talented are said to be able to completely warp to bodies to such a degree that they appear to be made out of fluids as they dodge attacks or slide through minute cracks.

Both the act of shapeshifting and remaining within a shapeshifted form for long periods of time are tiring activities. Endurance and skill can reduce the fatigue of these activities heavily. If a kitsune falls asleep or unconscious, then the shapeshifting is broken and they revert to their original form.

The act of shapeshifting normally does not affect any items that the kitsune has on their person including clothing although special magically enhanced items do exist that can be changed in conjunction with the kitsune. This does mean that a kitsune who wishes to transform themselves usually must remove all garments or risk having them lost in the process. On the other hand, a skilled kitsune may weave fake clothes into their transformation giving the illusion they are clothed although such items cannot be physically removed from their body and damage to them will cause injury to the kitsune themselves.

Fig. 4. Keitèl, perhaps the most skilled kitsune shapeshifter ever, has the ability to reshape his body so quickly that he can effectively dodge bullets.

Fig. 5. A comparison of heights between all known species of kitsune.

Description

This is the overall project that all these individual kitsune pictures have been building up to. I used an old paper texter that I remember some artist I follow made, but I can not figure out who did it to give credit. Anyways, since I figure it might be rather difficult to read, I have pasted the full text below.

If anyone has any more questions, I would love to answer them. There is more I did not cover, but there was only limited space on the page, and I was pushing the font size already.
The Kitsune
As the old saying goes, where there are foxes, there are kitsune. This is something that has been true as far as written history has permitted. Still, their origins are shrouded in mystery and are the subject of much debate between scholars. How did the kitsune come to be? Were they just originally foxes infused with magic? Or is there a deeper story left to discover. Due to the kitsune’s unique lifespan it is difficult to say. There are no kitsune societies with long rich cultural histories, but rather the species has instead slotted itself into whatever society it has found itself in with the rare, odd individual or family found pocketed here or there.
Description
Fig. 1. An arctic fox kitsune’s paws are entirely covered in fur just like an actual arctic fox.

There are twelve varieties of kitsune. Each one is based on a species of true fox. The fennec kitsune stands the shortest at an average 3 ft. tall while the red kitsune stands the tallest at an average of 4 ft. Each distinct kitsune species takes on the various traits of their parent species such as coloration, muzzle and ear shape, seasonal coat changes, musk glands, and if their paw pads are fully covered in fur or not. Females have a multiple sets of nipples down their front to match their feral counterpart though these are often unnoticeable under the fur.
Lifespan
The lifespan of a kitsune is rather unique. For the first hundred years of their life, they spend it as feral foxes. While in this state they are more intelligent than the average fox, but otherwise indistinguishable lacking any signs that they are kitsune and not regular foxes. Only their extended lifespan gives them away. A kitsune mother gives birth to a litter of foxes, usually fox to six. Within each litter one or sometimes two of those kits are kitsune while the rest are normal foxes. Historically, it was common practice to allow all of the children to spend their lives in the wild as keeping the foxes in the home usually leads to destructive behavior as foxes are prone to do. Instead, families would often adopt wild kitsune they found when those children reached a hundred.

More recently, there have been attempts to keep the family together to varying degrees of success. While this does mean that they are able to raise the children that are actually theirs, the way that the children are treated has been found to have lasting mental impact on their lives and the emotional stress of parents slowly watching all of their children age and perish except one or two in each litter is hard to measure.

Fig. 2. This Bengal fox kitsune was treated as a pet for the first hundred years of his life. Even when maturing to adulthood he still desires being treated as so and feels anxiety if not given daily walks.

Since during this first hundred years of life, the kitsune are for all purposes normal foxes they are able to reproduce on their own and even interbreed with normal foxes of their parent species. It has been found that within each litter these wild kitsune bare, even with wild foxes, one or two of their offspring will also be kitsune. This allows the kitsune to continue to propagate in the wild despite the low lifespan of foxes in the wild.

Upon reaching a hundred years of age the kitsune begin to heavily change. They grow a second tail and their body begins to rapidly change and morph into a more anthropomorphic shape. Their intelligence raises giving them full sapience, although still with the mind of a child, and they gain large amounts of magical power and shapeshifting capabilities. Since historically many lived out in the wilds they would usually end up as feral wild children until some poor sod decided to take them into civilization and tame them.

Fig. 3. A kitsune in the middle of growing their third tail.

At this point they continue to grow until reaching their full height around 113-118 years of age. Every hundred years they grow a new tail, up to nine. The new tail always spits off from the original tail as the two slowly pull themselves apart over the course of a number of weeks. This means that in the fan of tails usually the oldest tail is in the middle with then tails descending in age from the outside in. Since the tail is also always a clone of the original one, if it sustains any damage that damage will also be copies to the new tails grown. After reaching 800 years old and gaining their ninth tail, the kitsune will not gain any more, but as far as anyone knows this is not the end of their lifespan. Seemingly the kitsune are unageing with no upper limit to the length of their life, though they are still susceptible to disease and injury meaning that most parish long before that. Their bodies exhibit no extraordinary regenerative capabilities although they do seem to have continuous sets of replacement teeth.
Magic
Kitsune are naturally talented magic wielders with even those who are even introduced to civilization and more formalized magical training picking up the talent. Of particular note the kitsune are highly talented shapeshifters and are able to take the shape of any other species or even inanimate objects. The most talented are said to be able to completely warp to bodies to such a degree that they appear to be made out of fluids as they dodge attacks or slide through minute cracks.

Both the act of shapeshifting and remaining within a shapeshifted form for long periods of time are tiring activities. Endurance and skill can reduce the fatigue of these activities heavily. If a kitsune falls asleep or unconscious, then the shapeshifting is broken and they revert to their original form.

The act of shapeshifting normally does not affect any items that the kitsune has on their person including clothing although special magically enhanced items do exist that can be changed in conjunction with the kitsune. This does mean that a kitsune who wishes to transform themselves usually must remove all garments or risk having them lost in the process. On the other hand, a skilled kitsune may weave fake clothes into their transformation giving the illusion they are clothed although such items cannot be physically removed from their body and damage to them will cause injury to the kitsune themselves.

Fig. 4. Keitèl, perhaps the most skilled kitsune shapeshifter ever, has the ability to reshape his body so quickly that he can effectively dodge bullets.

Fig. 5. A comparison of heights between all known species of kitsune.