For a few years now, I've been working on and off with a dear friend on a lengthy novel. Without going into huge amounts of details irrelevant to this post, it's basically a "magic exists in the real world but it's secret" story. Magic--which in the context of our story is basically just a form of energy, and thus follows laws of thermodynamics, etc--comes from two sources: familiar-like creatures who are in the form of real-world animals like dogs, cats, birds, etc, and fae. The category of "fae" is broad and encompasses mythological creatures like djinn and the Sidhe.

In North America, the predominant type of fae are creatures known as Guides. Guides are dream-travelers and shape-shifters, who believe in helping others help themselves. They're meant to be what gave rise to the widely varying Native American beliefs in animal as spiritual guides. The concept is still in heavy development and will hopefully end up being neither irreverent nor cliche.

I wanted to base my pet Coyatl off of one particular Guide who appears in the story. He's a Coyote Guide living in Arizona with his rather extensive family. He originally hails from Mexico and can probably trace his heritage back to someone resembling Huehuecoyotl. He has both the trickster nature of the mythical Old Man Coyote and the wary shyness of the real-world animal; he's big on family.

I'm looking to find some items with a kind of southwest-y theme to them. Some Mexican foods. Dream-related or Native American items. (Much as I hate to go with stereotypes...) Of course, if you can think of anything else that might fit, I'd love to see!

Hi, Timesong! Here are some items you might be interested in for your pet:

-Dream/spirits- Kerubi Wand of Dreams Fire Dreamcatcher (there's a series of these in different elements) Bottled Dreams Dance of the Spirits (A book)

-Desert cowboy southern- Homespun Poncho Functional Spurs

-Aztec/maya/shaman southern- Omen New-Era High Priest Belt Omen New-Era High Priest Cape Omen New-Era High Priest Circlet Omen New-Era High Priest Kilt Omen New-Era High Priest Necklace Dark Shaman Wolf Totem Shaman Amber Necklace

Thank you!

You're welcome! And in case you need some minion suggestions:

Dancing Ghost Circle Tranquil Lunar Achi Sunset Moon Man Desert Spirit Taillis Enchanter

I don't know if these are along the lines of what you want or not, but I have them in my pet Tak's wishlist:

They seem very totem-esque to me. Tak's a fan pet but he's a desert-y one :D

EDIT: Haha, I'm sending you Taco Corset because I have one XD You don't have to use it, but hey, it's a Mexican food ;)

Ooh! Cool!

Haha, thanks so much!