MoonShark

I believe cardinal refers to cardinal directions, as in North, East, South, West on a compass, in this instance. I absolutely love their lore and design!

The design is absolutely GORGEOUS! And I adore the lore as well! Very happy to have these sparkly cosmic horror dragons joining the Halloween lineup, I foresee a lot of pretty lineages happening next year! ❤️ Also, a big welcome to Zon for joining the ranks of in-cavers, and a huge congratulations to all three artists for their first holiday release! It's well deserved, such absolutely beautiful dragons! ❤️ And I can't wait until next year where I can freeze a whole hoard of little void hatchies, they are SO cute.

That's true... *stares at my flint egg* Maybe I will keep the marshmallow...

Raise your hand if you grabbed a Flint Drake thinking it was a new release

Awww, you just made my day!

Infi mentioned it on the Discord; they were indeed originally a Christmas concept. The Blueflame version was her alt, while the green (with some color differences) was the normal. Now that we have seen the adults, I want to say how excited and happy I am to see the Siorghlas Wyverns in-cave! Infi and Doha did a fantastic job with the artwork, and I did my best to write worthy descriptions for them. ❤️ I proposed the name Siorghlas in honor of my grandfather, who was Irish. I'm so glad to see people enjoying them, and I can't wait to see what lineages people make when we all start getting adults!

The event's almost over, so I wanted to share which one was my submission this year! I've had a couple eggs in FoE in the past, but this was my first attempt doing an animated one (not to mention shading glass, which is...really, really hard. Many thanks to a friend of mine who gave me some tips! It's not perfect, but nothing ever is. ) I first started spriting this a few years ago and poked at it each year a bit, finally getting it to a point where it was accepted this year, which made me super happy! It's not a reference to anything, but rather a personal depiction of my experience with depression and the powerful effect of having someone reach out when I'm trapped in that dark glass cage. Everyone needs a kind hand to reach out to them at some point in their lives, and I try my best to do that for others just as some dear people have done the same for me. Be a light in the darkness. ❤️

YAYYYY! So hyped!

Thank you for the extra tidbits! They're lovely dragons! ❤️ The hatchling-ref gif has me cracking up.

I appreciate you raising that question. I've been here for going on 15 years now, and I'll be honest that I'm not sure what the answer to that is either. I will say that I appreciate a mod stepping in to say something earlier to a lot of the negative criticism that was being raised, but it is sad to see continued debate about whether or not they're "Halloween-y" enough. To me, as the conceptor, they embody a lot of my favorite things about Halloween--spooky colors, eerie and fear-inspiring appearance, and hailing from a dark and terrifying place few ever venture. Things that go bump (or glow!) in the night have always spooked me a lot more than more contemporary Halloween things. I do understand they are not everyone's cup of tea, and that's okay. No single release is going to ever satisfy every player, because there is always a range of expectations for what a release or a dragon should be. I just wish that this release, which I was so excited for that I was bouncing around my room at midnight when I saw them dropping, was not overshadowed by commentary regarding what a Halloween dragon should or shouldn't be. I don't believe there's any one true answer to that, and I think that is reflected in the beautiful variety that we have among the Halloween breeds that exist on DC.

You did! I grinned when I saw that post of yours, because it was almost on the nose--in fact, it was their original name back in 2019.

I've never played Subnautica, so I googled what these are, and I can see that! Definitely not something you want to encounter in the depths all alone...

Conceptors do get salts for holiday dragons, yes. You can actually see my Pryanost alt in my forums profile pic right now in all her pretty glory. ❤️ It'll be a bit before the Abyss Watchers are alted, since I haven't even finished collecting them (I have a few kind folks helping me reach the allowed 24).

I did! I didn't want to say anything until there were adults... But I did speak up when people were brainstorming names, because I loved seeing the theories!

They're pretty big as dragons! You could ride on the back of one for sure, though I recommend caution in that situation, since even if one was feeling magnanimous and accepted such a request, they'd be likely to do some rather fancy dives and spins in the water and possibly forget that humans can't breathe underwater. I mentioned in my post about kids collecting scales, and teeth would definitely be grabbed as well! Though they shed much more slowly over the course of years, so they'd be a much rarer find. As for selling them, well, humans will sell just about anything, so I could definitely see them being made into trinkets or jewelry or the like for a festival booth.

Hi, everyone! Now that the Abyss Watcher adults have arrived, I'm delighted to come forward as their conceptor! This marks the tenth release that I have had a hand in, but it is the first release in which I concepted the dragon before the art was even begun. ❤️ I first wrote lore for these pretties back in 2019, inspired by everything from Antennarius striatus (the striped anglerfish) to Stauroteuthis syrtensis (the bioluminescent octopus) to the many-eyed Watchers of fantasy fame. Though they went through numerous changes in appearance from original concept to the beautiful sprites that Schen made this year, their general color scheme and their basic description did not change drastically. I am incredibly thankful to Schen for taking on this project that is so dear to my heart. She did an absolutely fantastic job bringing these dragons to life. When she first completed the art, I couldn't help but stare at them for ages. She captured their essence perfectly, and I'm so very excited to see them on the site! ❤️ They do have encyclopedia notes (which will be uploaded hopefully soon), but here's a few fun facts about Abyss Watchers to tide you over! Despite their rather solitary lifestyle during much of the year, Abyss Watchers can be quite sociable and especially enjoy listening to ghost stories and other creepy narratives. Particularly enterprising storytellers may even be able to bribe one to accent their tall tales with appropriately timed glowing. Younger Abyss Watchers sometimes get too caught up in such stories, though, and decide to make some of their own...by scaring the daylights out of passersby! Smaller ships and fishing boats in particular should keep a sharp eye out when the currents shimmer with a bioluminescent glow. Though their lures and their belly scutes glow brightest, their orange scales actually possess a faint bioluminesence of their own. Shed scales maintain this glow for a while, and it's not uncommon for children to comb beaches after an Abyss Watcher sighting, looking for loose scales that might have washed ashore. That's all for now, but I'm happy to answer any questions folks have, to the best of my ability. I hope you all enjoyed this release, and I can't see what beautiful lineages are created with these! (As a side note since it's been mentioned a couple times, I know nothing about Dark Souls 3, so any similarity to some boss there is completely coincidental. These creatures were born from my love for the ocean and all the mysteries embraced in its depths!) (Also, I keep seeing folks refer to them as leviathans... They are actually wyrms! Their original name was even Abyss Wyrm, though I changed it to Abyss Watcher for the final version.)

I'm enjoying seeing people's theories on what it could be! There's been some fun ideas tossed around. Keep it up, folks. Also, I'm so happy to see the extra day of flooding. So many folks were struggling to grab eggs yesterday. I'm glad even more will have the chance to grab them still! ❤️

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Ahhhh, birdz, you're so sweet. 😭 It was an absolute pleasure to work on this dragon with you, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity. Sharing a release with you is a dream come true, and I'm so, so happy to see them in-cave at last! The art is absolutely fantastic, and I can't wait to start making beautiful lineages with them. ❤️ I'll be right there beside you, hunting those Eclipses! (And continuing to hoard the other colors as well. They're all so gorgeous!)

No, it's RNG-based. There's no other player on the other end (after all, what would happen if there were an odd number of players? Or if no one else was playing right when you are?) You can tell because the result is always instant (which wouldn't be the case if it was waiting for another human's action on the other end.) So it's totally fine to blame away.

Mewtie had a wonderful concept for them! I helped polish things up and also incorporate that bit about bad luck... inspired by my love for fairy tales and the whimsical nature of the fae. It doesn't specify in the description, but an oath breaker would in fact have seven days of bad luck--a play on the mirror-breaking superstition. They are far too nice to curse people for years.

So glad to see the Ushgorns released! They are the first hybrid to release that I've had the pleasure of working on the writing for, and Mewtie's art is always dropdead gorgeous. The Algarre are cool too, love the swamp and estuary habitat bent. All sorts of interesting things lurk in estuaries, they're a favorite environment of mine.

Given how fast they shed fur, it wouldn't be unusual to have enough fluff for a sweater after a few years, though often people knit scarves or mittens instead (or clothes for children, who have less defense against the cold, being smaller.) And yes, it would definitely mix well with Pillow fur! Or even sheep wool... Because it's so precious, I imagine it's often mixed with other materials to stretch out its use. If you google Aran sweaters, you'll get an idea of what they look like (as well as their fascinating history)! Nowadays, they're made of a very soft, creamy wool called Merino.

Their palmate antlers provide plenty of defense, haha! If you've ever seen a moose...well, those antlers are pretty stabby and you don't want to be on the business end of them. They are quite intelligent and have a very good memory for directions! If they visit a place, they'll never forget how to get there. Generally, they avoid people and other dragons as they're rather solitary, but during the winter, they become more social and tend to gather with family and friends to celebrate the season. They enjoy pretty much any sweet, including fruit tarts and pies! And they loooove honey. If a family is too poor to leave out iced cookies, a bit of honeycomb can entice them too...and they may leave extra fluff behind!

Couldn't have done it without Cort and Infinis. ❤️ They're the ones who invited me to write for them, and I am so honored and privileged to have worked with such amazing artists. ❤️