Thanks for downloading 五德神兽苑!
Pinyin: Wǔ Dé Shénshòu Yuàn
Translation: Five Virtues Heavenly Realm Menagerie

A.K.A. *Chinese Charms*

~~Content List~~

=> Loong. Highland, tankable. Compatible with Taz's Baiji, Hawkkeye's Koi & Hawkkeye's Chinese giant salamander.
=> Qilin. Highland.
=> Fenghuang. Highland, water placeable.
=> Nian. Highland, tankable.
=> Pixiu. Highland, water placeable.

Nian likes salt water. The other ones are compatible together.

Bonus items:

=> God house shelter. *Water & land placeable*.
Uses FancyShelter strings in LANG--ZTCDD language file! 
=> Qinling brown panda. Highland. Compatible with in-game giant panda.
=> Wuxing banners. One for each wuxing elements:
==> Water, 水 (Purple).
==> Fire, 火 (Blue).
==> Wood, 木 (Orange).
==> Earth, 土 (Red).
==> Metal, 金 (Green).

=> Screenshot displays YinYang path designed by Genkicoll, available here: https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/1028-yin-yang-path-by-genkicoll/
=> Screenshot displays the main sprite for sleeping animals, these are not actual items in game.

Zarawatto, August 31st, 2025:

"Three days ago, I woke up around 4:30 am with the idea to take my works again. Some of this are made from zero because, while I was reading, the ideas were coming to my head and I gotta add them to it. That's why this was the individual project that toke longer than usual.

Loong, protector of the rivers and the weather, swims in water and underwater. Will also turn itself into water when angry or sleepy. Will battle any tiger that dares to obstruct its way. Its elevated cost represents how number nine was a lucky number for chinese traditions of the nine children of dragons. Naturally hard to please, will rampage anything inside their exhibit until you bring the ultimate offerings. As a prize, when fully satisfied, they will unfold their majesty in exchange. I was tempted to make scenery items for this, but you can find out there several chinese themed items made by various designers, which I configured to add suitability. The original model belongs to New Athens expansion pack created by *Tamara Henson & WorkowatyWilczek*, the same that contains the peryton I also crafted some time ago. I just modified the model a bit to make it longer. The urn where the water dragon hides itself is made with FluxSchnell algorithm. This is my most personal work to date. Enjoy!"

Zarawatto, Sep 16th, 2025:

Changelog:
- Loong new underwater animation, which is different between female, male and young.
- Loong prefered foliage changed for water Lily and now compatible with Taz's Baiji.
- Corrected loong's list icon.
- Minor typos corrected.
- Added the qilin.

"I dedicate the qilin to myself. I know that this fantastical creature is an omen of a forthcoming sage, but this is no selfish depiction. Qilin animations include sprites from several videogames I used to play often when I was younger. Nostalgia is a very strong power, and each frame that I exported manually was a storm of remembrance of my past and how much I've learnt through my short life. I mean, the sage we expect is our self future. All humans fail, that's a fact. But only a true sage acknowledges their past mistakes, offsets them and learns from their experience. Denying people is able to change is denying people is able to learn."

Zarawatto, Sep 21st, 2025:

Changelog:
- Loong wasn't moody enough.
- Loong now likes Hawkkeye's chinese giant salamander & Hawkkeye's koi.
- Loong & qilin now like bamboo and gingko tree as much as their prefered items.
- Minor typos corrected.
- Added the fenghuang.
- Released now like a pack.

"I dedicate the fenghuang to the whole ZooTek community. ZooTek *Phoenix* now has a new Phoenix for all their members. ZT is like a phoenix itself. It constantly burns and rebirths from the ashes. Every ZT player can confirm for sure: You can leave the game, but you know it will recall eventually back to it. Btw, I used AI for my previous works like cat plaques, floofy dinos backgrounds and the mango tree was the first foliage item with AI graphics. Loong has also AI graphics for urn, but fenghuang got its texture also made with AI. Guess this opens a new oportunity spectrum for these kind of Works. I got three mythical animals, but chinese tradition has five elements, so expect two more soon! My detail-perfecionist arse keeps finding things to change, so expect several updates as well."

Zarawatto, Oct 05th, 2025:

Changelog:
- Loong made bigger.
- Loong got a new rare animation.
- Loong underwater animations corrected.
- Loong AI graphics changed for a 3D model, details at credits section.
- Fenghuang bonsai replaced with wooden vessel (credits conserved for previous version).
- Added the nian.
- Minor typos corrected.

"Unless a wild bug appears, this is the last update I do for the loong. After three new creatures, I noticed it was notably smaller, so I made some changes and toke a chance to add one new animation. Since all other animals have two animations with sprites, loong was missing another one. This week, the skies where I live have been stormy, and every lightning I see trough my window or the car glass remind me of the loong. That day, while I was manually changing the rotations, a strong downpour released its rage at my city, so all my lights were off as the strikes glew up inside my room. I felt like dr Frankenstein crafting a huge one!. Btw, if someone knows a way to avoid that "crunch" sound that pops at the end of every audio in-game, I'd be grateful to know. Sorry about the constant changes, but I already said that my pitch-detailed neurons keep haunting me. The next addition to this pack will be the last one, so I'm tempted to do some additional stuff. It's been a while since that last time I made a pack with bonus items. Any suggestions?"

Zarawatto, October 19th 2025:

Changelog:
- Added the pixiu.
- Added the brown panda.
- Added the scenery items.
- Animals configured to like new items into their exhibits.
- Fixed nian swimming animation.

"To me, each of these mythical beasts included represent one of the confucian virutes. Loong, wisdom (智, zhì); Qilin, benevolence (仁, rén); Fenghuang, propriety (禮, lǐ); Nian, righteousness (義, yì); Pixiu, trustworthiness (信, xìn). Also, each of them represent an element from Wuxing. Long, water (水, shuǐ); Qilin, fire (火, huǒ); Fenghuang, wood (木, mù); Nian, earth (土, tǔ); Pixiu, metal (金, jīn). You can notice this with their animations, which drives me to the next point: This all started in a thread about transfiguration animals like in-game mermaid, so this is my attempt to do so. Some of you were following the constant updates of this, so I'll keep the notes I wrote each time. Btw, I tried to fix the audio, unsuccessfully. Also, I discovered some time ago that there are BROWN pandas! They're cute as hell! I made a simple recolor of in game panda and changed their configuration in order to display animations not used by the in game panda. Hope you like it! No more updates on this, so I'll upload this file in both ZooTek and ZooBerry unless some fix needs to be done. It's been a fun trip! See you on next works!"

Zarawatto, October 25th 2025:

Changelog:
- Audio issues corrected. Thanks to Jay and Fern who promptly advised about how to fix this!
- Efficiency corrections.
- Size improvement.
- Minor detail changes.

"All previous versions of Chinese Charms should be overwritten by the newest version, now called 五德神兽苑 (Five Virtues Heavenly Realm Menagerie) reviewed and corrected with Fern & Jay's help and guidance! Available at ZooBerry and already submitted to ZooTek library awaiting for approval! All links in this thread have been replaced: Get the newest version here! https://www.zooberry.org/mods/zt1/expansive-packs/chinese-charms/"

Zarawatto, April 19th 2026:

Changelog:
- All AI generated images and text in animal info plaques were removed.
- Added fables written by myself into the animal plaque info text.
- Added handmade drawings made by myself into the animal plaque image.

"Goosifer & the admin team of ZooTek where this pack is hosted... And anyone else following my works are gonna kill me after this, but I had to do a last change to this pack despite said it was definitively concluded. A couple of months ago, we were having a very enrichment dialogue at discord about the use of AI. I'm not changing my mind on the use of AI as a tool for some stuff. However, I already told that this is my most personal work ever and I didn't even include some text written by me, despite how much I actually like it! For anyone who already got my skinwalker or my extinct animals, I've been adding some short tales instead of some random animal fact text taken from wikipedia or similars. I guess some ZT players do not read the plaque, so I'm adding this detail in an attempt to induce reading habits again! I toke my time to read several chinese traditional fables, so I can make mine a tribute to chinese literature. I'm not Shakespeare or Confucius, of course, but I want you to enjoy the short reading of these. Hope you like it! 

Also, I replaced all AI pictures from the plaque window and inserted some pencil sketches I made in order to display the fables. Despite trying my best with GIMP, with the game resolution, you'll probably miss most details. That's why I'm posting the pictures in this thread alongside the fables. Enjoy!"

Current compatibility item list:

- Ancient China Packs by Savannahjan
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/2810-ancient-china-pack-2-by-savannahjan/
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/2783-ancient-china-by-savannahjan/
- Imperial Pack by GenkiColl
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/1432-imperial-pack-by-genkicoll/
- Small Chinese Garden by Genkicoll
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/5522-chinese-garden-landscape-pack-by-genki/
- Small Gong & Small Lantern by Toodlepops
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/1722-panda-extras-by-toodlepops/
- Dragon Statue by LAwebTek
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/1430-oriental-statues-by-lawebtek/
- Zoo Cementery by LAwebTek
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/4851-zoo-cemetery-by-lawebtek/
- Chinese Statues by LAwebTek
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/1679-chinese-statue-pack-by-lawebtek/
- Emperor Observation Area by RDingFT
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/2742-emperor-chinese-eaves-observations-area-by-rdingft/
- Emperor Trading Junk by RDingFT
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/2790-emperor-trading-junk-by-rdingft/
- 2.5D Chinese Structures by RDingFT
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/2761-25d-chinese-structure-pack-by-rdingft/
- Emperor Chinese Scenery by RDingFT
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/2896-emperor-chinese-scenery-by-rdingft/
- WuLin Statues by RDingFT
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/2777-wulin-variant-statue-pack-1-by-rdingft/
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/2777-wulin-variant-statue-pack-1-by-rdingft/
- Marble Chinese Arches by RDingFT
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/2746-marble-chinese-arches-by-rdingft/
- Chinese Magnificent Palace by RDingFT
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/2793-chinese-magnificent-palace-by-rdingft/
- Azure Dragon Memorial Wall by RDingFT
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/3063-chinese-twenty-eight-mansions-memorial-walls-by-rdingft/
- Oriental Dragon Fountain by DragonLord
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/874-oriental-dragon-fountain-by-dragonlord/
- 2020 Dragon Arch by Devona
https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/files/file/5838-2020-arches-pack-by-devona/
- Dragon Garden by Devona, not currently available since ZooAdmin no longer exists. ZooTek Will eventually upload it.

Credits:
- Loong made with base model by Tamara Henson & WorkowatyWilczek. Includes sprites from Metal Slug X (SNK, 1999). Water cloud graphics from BlueFang. Chinese vase model by M3D, available at sketchfab.com. Link to get: https://skfb.ly/oPROo
- Qilin made with base model by Tamara Henson, Whalebite, & WorkowatyWilczek. Includes sprites from Metal Slug (SNK, 1996), Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers (SNK, 1998) and The King of Fighters 2003 (SNK, 2003). Includes sounds from Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (Warner Bros. Pictures, 2022). Qilin statue model by Sakchai.Sompila, available at sketchfab.com. Link to get: https://skfb.ly/6X6Fq
- Fenghuang made with base model by Ulquiorra & Hendrix. Includes sprites from The King of Fighters 2003 (SNK, 2003). Uses sounds from Pokemon Sword & Shield (Nintendo, 2019). Texture made with Flux Schnell algorithm. Wooden vessel model (last version) by Yale Peabody Museum, available at sketchfab.com. Link to get: https://skfb.ly/oxMJZ
- Fenghuand Bonsai model (first version, now unused) by Vermos, available at sketchfab.com. Link to get: https://skfb.ly/6XnsZ
- Nian made with base model by Ultamateterex2. Includes sprites from The King of Fighters 2003 (SNK, 2003). Includes sounds from Pokemon Sword & Shield (Nintendo, 2019). Lion temple statue model by polarathene, available at sketchfab.com. Link to get: https://skfb.ly/6AZJz
- Pixiu made with base model by Tamara Henson & WorkowatyWilczek. Includes sprites from Metal Slug 3 (SNK, 2000). Uses sounds from Pokemon Sword & Shield (Nintendo, 2019). Dragon coin model by Alazur & Pixiu figurine model by Mofashi, both available at sketchfab.com. Links to get: https://skfb.ly/ZGPv https://skfb.ly/pzEIG
- Wuxing banners made with base model by Wolfy23, available at sketchfab.com. Link to get: https://skfb.ly/6WTSv
- God House Shelter made with base model by ANO9s, available at sketchfab.com. Link to get: https://skfb.ly/pCvKq

Please report any bug on my projects thread at Zoo Tek Phoenix:

https://zootekphoenix.com/forums/topic/38245-my-works-on-lacking-stuff

Zarawatto, October 19th 2025