I like the idea of only mages getting familiars! I can imagine a kid waking up one day and finding a familiar by their side and that could be how they realize they’re a mage.
Hmmm… good suggestion! I do like the idea of the Familiar choosing their partner over them being given to someone, although I’m not partial on them being the indication that someone’s a mage. Anyone can be a mage (technically anyway), but it isn’t something I see as a destiny-driven thing that’s signified by having a Familiar. O:
Instead, if it remains exclusive to mages, what I’m thinking is mages of the court, once they’ve proven themselves worthy of the training, will have to go through a rite in which they have to approach Familiars and see which of them chooses them.
Ravio could be a special case in that he had Sheerow way before trying to become a mage; maybe Sheerow either got lost or his original partner left him in the wilderness to perish because they wanted a “better familiar”, but babu Ravio finds him and takes care of him, and that prompts Sheerow to choose him as his bond-partner.
Or somethin’ along those lines owo
ALTERNATIVELY! Ravio is the only one who has anything like Sheerow, and “familiars” either aren’t a thing or are a different creature entirely. Maybe Sheerow is a youngster of, say, a species of wild animal known for their fierceness, so the fact that Ravio even has one, even so young, is a marvel. In this scenario, Sheerow will eventually grow large enough to be a mount, so this way he could have a counterpoint to Link having Epona. o:
I drew the little fella! The square beside him houses his original in-game design to give ya’ll a visual of what I drew from! :3
As for his role, still trying to decide what it is, though I’m no longer going with him being a familiar. I’m more thinking of fully going with the alt idea I mentioned above (where Sheerow will grow large enough to ride like a horse), or just making it so Sheerow is simply Ravio’s little animal companion. O: