# Norns A desktop pal from Creatures 1 & 2 (the Creatures games), by WhiteFish Creative. Page: https://palstudio.whitefishcreative.co.uk/pals/norns/ > “Norn wake. Norn look hand. Hand nice?” The curious, cuddly stars of Creatures 1 and 2 – all 30 breeds – babbling in Norn, dancing, napping and saying hello to each other across your desktop. Up to eight at once. Norns are the stars of Creatures 1 and 2: curious, sweet, easily distracted little creatures who learned to talk from whoever was holding the hand. Now they live on your desktop, in the same pixels they had in the game. They wander about, babble in the game's own Norn voice, sit down, dance, jive, drum, sneeze, shiver, yawn and – late at night – curl up and snore. Add more and they notice each other, walk over and say hello (with the odd kiss). Norns speak simple Norn. There are no Yes/No buttons: they say their piece, and the bubble goes away on its own (or when you click it). The first time Norns start, they show you every breed side by side so you can pick one – or press Surprise me. Change your mind any time with “Change this one…” (right-click a Norn) or “Add another…”. ## At a glance - **30** Norn breeds to choose from - **Up to 8** on your desktop at once - **21** animations, from dancing to snoring - **Offline** never touches the internet ## What it connects to Nothing – it never goes online. Norns never connect to the internet. They have no feeds to read and nothing to fetch – they work exactly the same with your Wi-Fi off. They don't open web pages either; the only link anywhere is the WhiteFish Creative website in the About box, and only if you click it. ## Sound Norns make the game's own noises: they babble in Norn when they talk, giggle when poked, say “ow” when dropped, and sneeze, cough, shiver, yawn, snore and kiss. Mute them with the 🔊 on any Norn (it mutes them all), pick a volume, or set quiet hours (10pm–7am, 9pm–8am, or 6pm–9am for work hours only) from the Sound menu. ## Types Every breed from Creatures 1 and Creatures 2, plus five much-loved breeds made by the Creatures community. Each comes as a female and a male. - **From Creatures 1:** Norn breed A (female); Norn breed A (male); Norn breed B (female); Norn breed B (male); Norn breed C (female); Norn breed C (male); Norn breed E (female); Norn breed E (male); Norn breed F (female); Norn breed F (male); Norn breed G (female); Norn breed G (male) - **From Creatures 2:** Norn breed H (female); Norn breed H (male); Norn breed I (female); Norn breed I (male); Norn breed J (female); Norn breed J (male); Norn breed K (female); Norn breed K (male) - **Fan-made breeds:** Dog Norn (female) (made by Studz); Dog Norn (male) (made by Studz); Frog Norn (female) (made by Alex (V3), after CyberLife's Frog Norns); Frog Norn (male) (made by Alex (V3), after CyberLife's Frog Norns); Kai Norn (female) (made by Wafuru & Lis Morris); Kai Norn (male) (made by Wafuru & Lis Morris); Kanga Norn (female) (made by Alien & Studz); Kanga Norn (male) (made by Alien & Studz); Mer Norn (female) (made by Wafuru & Lis Morris); Mer Norn (male) (made by Wafuru & Lis Morris) A few of these go back a long way: the Dog Norns, and the Kanga Norns with Alien, were made by James himself in the late '90s and early 2000s, under his Creatures community name, Studz. ## The menu Right-click a Norn, or click the icon in the menu bar (Mac) or system tray (Windows). - **Add another… / Add a surprise one** – Pick another breed to join the herd, or let it choose. Up to eight. - **Send this one home / Change this one…** – Right-click a Norn to wave it off or swap its breed. - **Say something helpful** – A Norn talks now instead of waiting. - **Let Norns wander** – Untick it and they stay put. - **Quiet for 30 minutes** – No chatter for half an hour. - **Come here, Norns** – They walk over to your mouse pointer. - **Sound** – Mute, volume (25%, 50%, 80%, 100%) and quiet hours. - **Appearance** – Match my computer, Light or Dark. - **Close Norns…** – The plea, then goodbye. ## Things Norns say - Saying hello: “Hello hand! Norns happy. Play?” - Norn thoughts: “Norn push ball. Ball roll!” - Norn thoughts: “Hand! Look! Norn dance!” - Norn thoughts: “Norn want carrot. Hand get carrot?” - Norn thoughts: “Norn eat honey. Honey very good!” - Norn thoughts: “Norn extremely stressed.” - Meeting another Norn: “Norn see norn! Yay!” - Meeting another Norn: “Norn like you. You nice norn.” ## Getting Norns - **Pal pack for PalPlayer** (Mac, Windows and Linux): available from https://palstudio.whitefishcreative.co.uk/pals/norns/#download - **Standalone app** (Mac and Windows, no PalPlayer needed): available from https://palstudio.whitefishcreative.co.uk/pals/norns/#download - Free. No account, no email address, nothing to sign up for. Creatures, Norns, Grendels and Ettins are from Creatures 1 & 2 by CyberLife Technology / Creature Labs. Fan-made breeds by their creators, credited on each pal's page. --- From PalStudio – Desktop Pals by WhiteFish Creative Limited. Web page: https://palstudio.whitefishcreative.co.uk/pals/norns/ · The whole site for AI assistants: https://palstudio.whitefishcreative.co.uk/llms.txt