Celestial Vale
was a simulation game in which players could adopt, train, breed, and compete with a variety of mythical creatures. Although it had a promising start with an active community, activity dropped drastically in the second half of 2013, and it closed its doors at the end of April the following year.
Celestial Vale had two incarnations. CV 1.0 was a hybrid pet site and simulation game, while the site in its final form, referred to as 2.0, was a pure simulation game. The two versions of the site had vastly different play styles and game mechanics, so some tropes below may be outdated.
It spawned two sister sites, Into the Vale and Valley of Unicorns. The former was similarly ill-fated, but Valley of Unicorns is still active and has surpassed its sister sites' popularity.
Celestial Vale and Into the Vale provide examples of:
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Although most species do have plain and natural-looking colors, some colorations definitely fall under this.
- Anti Poopsocking: Players could do a finite number of quests per day in Celestial Vale 1.0, and they had a finite number of foraging and training turns in 2.0.
- Asian Fox Spirit: The kitsune here have one "tail" made out of a Faux Flame.
- Bedsheet Ghost: Last Minute Costume is a limited edition unicorn color.
- Cool Horse: Unicorns, pegasi, and alicorns.
- Creature-Breeding Mechanic: The site had three breeding systems during its lifespan. 1.0's DNA system was short-lived due to its flawed execution resulting in some colors being disproportionately common as breeding results. For the rest of 1.0's lifespan, breeding results could be influenced by the colors of a creature's ancestors, with more recent ancestors having greater chances of their color being inherited. 2.0 brought DNA back, but with so much added complexity that only the site's programmer fully understood how it worked.
- Darker and Edgier: 2.0 has a significantly darker tone.
- Dracolich: Bone dragons are a particularly cruel breed of dragon that are characterized by their torn bodies and exposed bones.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: Several species have a limited edition rainbow coloration.
- Fearsome Critters of American Folklore: Cactus cats are available on Celestial Vale.
- Gender Bender: Reflections have the ability to do this to creatures who haven't been bred before.
- Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: In the Vale, anything can breed with anything. In 1.0, it was only certain combinations of species that could interbreed.
- Hybrid Monster: The hybrid species in CV 1.0, of course.
- A Kind of One: Fenrirs and pegasi.
- Lamarck Was Right: In 1.0, well-trained creatures could pass down stats to their children. This was one of the major advantages of breeding.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Every single hippogryph.
- Retcon: 2.0 retroactively renames all kirin to qilin.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Several of the baby creatures, especially fenrirs and nekomata.
- Sea Monster: One of the many dragon variations.
- Shout-Out: The Sourpuss nekomata is based on Grumpy Cat.
- Spin-Off: Into the Vale and Valley Of Unicorns. While Celestial Vale is more of a breeding sim, these are traditional adoptable games. Each of the three sites has species unique to them.
- Stealth Pun: The Scary Yaki item from 1.0 is literally creepy pasta.
- Unicorn
- Unstable Genetic Code: In Celestial Vale 1.0, hippogryphs, kirin, and angha could destabilize into more common species if one tried to change their color.
- Winged Unicorn: Alicorns.
- Youkai: Kitsune and nekomata are among the available species.
