DC Lore AMA

[TJ09]

Would UV light/radiation fit within the timeframe of DC? Or would it not have been discovered/described yet?

Depends on what you mean. UV light obviously exists, and in potentially-detectable qualities (if nothing else, from the sun). That said, it wasn't really a thing humans noticed until the 19th century--in that case, is there something about Valkemare's divergence that would have enabled people to detect UV? Maybe; I can see magic that produces a similar effect to a blacklight, for example. So it really depends.

[TJ09]

How exactly did chickens end up in the cave?

I'm thinking it was a confused farmer...maybe.

I've been intentionally avoiding building up canon around in-cave jokes.

[The_Bucket]

Depends on what you mean. UV light obviously exists, and in potentially-detectable qualities (if nothing else, from the sun). That said, it wasn't really a thing humans noticed until the 19th century--in that case, is there something about Valkemare's divergence that would have enabled people to detect UV? Maybe; I can see magic that produces a similar effect to a blacklight, for example. So it really depends.

Considering someone had to have named the Ultraviolet Dragon, I would personally think it is safe to say UV light has been discovered, or at least observed, in Valkemare. Whether directly or indirectly due to the aforementioned dragon, is completely up to TJ.

 

(although that does bring up a question - are the names we give dragon species in the cave the same as humans give them in Valkemare?)

[TJ09]

(although that does bring up a question - are the names we give dragon species in the cave the same as humans give them in Valkemare?)

Probably not 100%; some of that might be cultural or vary by region.

 

Also, some names don't make as much sense in retrospect, or are just plain boring ("dark green dragon," no one even actually calls them that). Some breeds don't have official names (e.g. Holiday Dragons).

[Dirtytabs]

There've been a few events where dragons communicate with a human (the user), and the human has been able to reply to the dragon and be understood. To speak two ways, would dragons have to learn the language of the humans they're talking to? Or are there also telepathic humans?

[Obscure_Trash]

There've been a few events where dragons communicate with a human (the user), and the human has been able to reply to the dragon and be understood. To speak two ways, would dragons have to learn the language of the humans they're talking to? Or are there also telepathic humans?

This may be of interest: https://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?showt...dpost&p=8845125

[SkyWolf25]

I've acquired a headache after going through the whole thread so I might have missed it being asked before but:

 

Is there a concept of 'souls' for dragons/humans/etc? As in, do souls actually exist? And/Or they have some sort of 'life energy' that keeps them, well, alive? Or is it the same as our universe, where it's scientifically believed that neurons, electric/chemical stimuli, blood flow, etc. constitute the entirety of our life source and existence?

 

+As I was writing this it occurred to me that if souls existed, it could be the base for psyche-ish abilities like telepathy. I like the image of communicating by sending notions, thoughts, etc. to each other's souls(the essence of the mind, sort of), as opposed to "hey, I'll be giving your brain some complex magical electric stimuli to make you understand what I'm saying to you." It would be less complicated to explain as well

Edited April 22, 2016 by SkyWolf25

[aussieJJDude]

Not sure if this has been asked, but are their hemispheres in DC? If so, is it possible that its "spring now" but on the other side of the world is autumn?

[TJ09]

I've acquired a headache after going through the whole thread so I might have missed it being asked before but:

 

Is there a concept of 'souls' for dragons/humans/etc? As in, do souls actually exist? And/Or they have some sort of 'life energy' that keeps them, well, alive? Or is it the same as our universe, where it's scientifically believed that neurons, electric/chemical stimuli, blood flow, etc. constitute the entirety of our life source and existence?

 

+As I was writing this it occurred to me that if souls existed, it could be the base for psyche-ish abilities like telepathy. I like the image of communicating by sending notions, thoughts, etc. to each other's souls(the essence of the mind, sort of), as opposed to "hey, I'll be giving your brain some complex magical electric stimuli to make you understand what I'm saying to you." It would be less complicated to explain as well

As someone who naturally evaluates the world in terms of basic scientific principles, I've tried to keep things as rooted in science as possible. Magic, for example, is made possible by this really efficient liquid energy source that is mana, coupled with some unspecified mechanism for releasing that energy to do something. In this manner, things like thermodynamics aren't super-violated (at least, the violation is kept at the level of "mana probably holds more energy than is physically feasable based on the current understanding of the real universe").

 

But the idea of souls existing as a "physical" thing (so to speak) is really intriguing. The natural next question is, "what happens in a world where souls have some real manifestation? What is made possible that isn't otherwise possible? What cool things does this enable?" Having souls be this thing that occupy some parallel plane of existence, through which it is possible to navigate and communicate (i.e. telepathy, as you mentioned) is one such thing. Perhaps even the "activation mechanism" for magic that I described above can be tied into this (comparisons to the Weave in D&D's Forgotten Realms come to mind); perhaps mana exists in both the physical and "soul-ar" planes, and magic works by acting on the soular-plane to transfer the energy to the physical plane and release that energy in some manner according to the actor's will.

[TJ09]

Not sure if this has been asked, but are their hemispheres in DC? If so, is it possible that its "spring now" but on the other side of the world is autumn?

I mean, all spheres have hemispheres. But the visible map area is probably only in the northern hemisphere (the bottom of the visible map would be north of the equator, but somewhat close to it).

 

Not too much of that part of the world has been talked about publicly yet.

[TCA]

As someone who naturally evaluates the world in terms of basic scientific principles, I've tried to keep things as rooted in science as possible. Magic, for example, is made possible by this really efficient liquid energy source that is mana, coupled with some unspecified mechanism for releasing that energy to do something. In this manner, things like thermodynamics aren't super-violated (at least, the violation is kept at the level of "mana probably holds more energy than is physically feasable based on the current understanding of the real universe").

 

But the idea of souls existing as a "physical" thing (so to speak) is really intriguing. The natural next question is, "what happens in a world where souls have some real manifestation? What is made possible that isn't otherwise possible? What cool things does this enable?" Having souls be this thing that occupy some parallel plane of existence, through which it is possible to navigate and communicate (i.e. telepathy, as you mentioned) is one such thing. Perhaps even the "activation mechanism" for magic that I described above can be tied into this (comparisons to the Weave in D&D's Forgotten Realms come to mind); perhaps mana exists in both the physical and "soul-ar" planes, and magic works by acting on the soular-plane to transfer the energy to the physical plane and release that energy in some manner according to the actor's will.

Speaking as someone who likes science, and also fantasy, this is fascinating and I highly, highly approve.

[SkyWolf25]

As someone who naturally evaluates the world in terms of basic scientific principles, I've tried to keep things as rooted in science as possible. Magic, for example, is made possible by this really efficient liquid energy source that is mana, coupled with some unspecified mechanism for releasing that energy to do something. In this manner, things like thermodynamics aren't super-violated (at least, the violation is kept at the level of "mana probably holds more energy than is physically feasable based on the current understanding of the real universe").

 

But the idea of souls existing as a "physical" thing (so to speak) is really intriguing. The natural next question is, "what happens in a world where souls have some real manifestation? What is made possible that isn't otherwise possible? What cool things does this enable?" Having souls be this thing that occupy some parallel plane of existence, through which it is possible to navigate and communicate (i.e. telepathy, as you mentioned) is one such thing. Perhaps even the "activation mechanism" for magic that I described above can be tied into this (comparisons to the Weave in D&D's Forgotten Realms come to mind); perhaps mana exists in both the physical and "soul-ar" planes, and magic works by acting on the soular-plane to transfer the energy to the physical plane and release that energy in some manner according to the actor's will.

 

It's true that souls can't be easily explained(or be explained at all) scientifically like how you explained the workings of magic. I don't really believe in the existence of souls in the real world(though being somewhere between 'indifferent' and 'it might be cool if they did' on the whole matter), but souls in fantasy/sci-fi settings are another thing after sitting on it for a while I have an idea that may fit Dragon Cave- Based on the theory that souls assist in the usage of mana, maybe the creatures of Valkemare evolved to have souls in order to use mana adeptly. Like how prehistoric animals of Earth evolved to have strong legs to venture onto land, what if part of the mind evolved into a soul? It could be that prehistoric raw mana affected most animals exposed to it and prodded their minds into slowly developing into souls. Or natural selection had taken place, and the mana-affected mutants that had an intrinsic access to the soular-plane(i.e. were born with souls) survived to pass on more genes because they could use magic. Or both. I don't think it would be that different from how the human mind and brain evolved in Earth, except that mana had a say in it.

 

In a world where souls exist.. One thing I can think of right now is, if humans ever found out about their existence and researched enough, they might use it as some sort of power source or engine: If they could extract the soul and modify it enough, they wouldn't have to cast a spell and maintain it every time an airship sailed because the 'soul engine' would be the one that's consuming mana and turning it into appropriate air magic. Or somehow they use it similar to exhaustible mana? I don't know how exactly the latter could work, though. On a darker note this would be adding one more to the list of 'what to take from killed dragons'..

 

Some of the dragons in cave could be connected to the existence of souls and soular planes- Celestial Dragons become incorporeal and 'leave' the material plane. What if they are traversing to the soular plane? And Soulpeace Dragons could be expunging Zombie Dragons by separating their souls from their bodies and 'setting it free', which makes their breed name kind of literal. Souls of dead animals probably wouldn't stay forever or they'll fill up the whole world, but if we assume that they stay for the two weeks we see tombs/broken eggshells on our scrolls it would make a lot of sense, including how we are able to revive dragons within two weeks but is unable to do so later.

 

The existence of souls opens the door to a lot of possibilities, I probably would be able to think of more things if I spent more time on it but this post is getting too long already ;0

 

+) I wrote this while thinking of the soul to be something that keeps the brain running, what makes us aware of ourselves, etc, since it evolved from the mind. It's kind like the software of a computer, and the brain is the hardware where memories are stored. The soul creates their self-identity based on the memories it stored in the brain, and that's 'us'. It orders around the body through the brain. No soul means no working brain, no working brain means a lifeless body. However, it also works the other way around- dead body means no working brain, no brain means no memories whatsoever, which leads to an 'empty' soul with no self-identity to speak of. As I've mentioned above,'Empty' souls probably will disintegrate completely from the physical plane after a while, unless something is done to it.

On the subject of magic, I really like your idea of a soular plane and the soul being a link to using magic. Maybe part of the soul is in the physical plane and part of it is in the soular plane for this?

 

 

 

Eeep, and I wrote a novel. I didn't mean to x_x.. I can't be certain if it fits DC's world or not, but I hope that it was at least an interesting read. x)

Edited May 4, 2016 by SkyWolf25

[MessengerDragon]

What is the lore reason behind arias breeding pinks? And what is the lore behind frills coming back? (and thank you once again for a wonderful DC anniversary! )

[Anglia]

Since there are classified "Eastern" dragon and "Western" dragon. I wonder if the Valkemare (at least, the Galsreim) is base on a typical midden-age Europe fantasy, is it possible that have a land/area where base on a typical Eastern Asia(or other somewhere)fantasy, just have a very very long distance between the Galsreim and these other lands, so we don't know the existence of other land?

[blockEdragon]

Post above, that sounds cool, and my guess would be that the easterns moved westward because galsariem had so many dragons that it HAD to be a good place for them.

 

now my question is, what about necromancy, hows it in the DC world?

Edited May 24, 2016 by blockEdragon

[blockEdragon]

What is the lore reason behind arias breeding pinks? And what is the lore behind frills coming back? (and thank you once again for a wonderful DC anniversary! )

maybe they where all hibernating,

 

or a sickness swept across the land that affected them only and those who managed to evade the virus retreated deep into the jungle to wait it out

 

or maybe something about them was discovered by humans or something else and they where white -rinoed and are just now bouncing back to the point where they can relax a

little-enough to let their guard down and accidentally allow an egg roll away and slip into the hands of an eager human?

Edited May 24, 2016 by blockEdragon

[Pyrowings]

What is the lore reason behind arias breeding pinks? And what is the lore behind frills coming back? (and thank you once again for a wonderful DC anniversary! )

For the frills, Lythairen posted some research notes on this page that may interest you.

 

https://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?showt...=174664&st=1420

[TJ09]

What is the lore reason behind arias breeding pinks? And what is the lore behind frills coming back? (and thank you once again for a wonderful DC anniversary! )

Biologically, they aren't that different, and it's possible that a few set of genes can trigger the main physiological differences.

 

And IIRC there was never a "canon" reason for Frills going away, so it's hard to have an explanation for their return.

[Nectaris]

Where are pygmies on the intelligence scale? Are they as intelligent as their larger cousins or do they fall somewhere between drakes and normal dragons?

[blockEdragon]

Is dragon hunting outlawed in the world of DC?

I mean they are people, if you define people as any intelligent being

[TJ09]

Since there are classified "Eastern" dragon and "Western" dragon. I wonder if the Valkemare (at least, the Galsreim) is base on a typical midden-age Europe fantasy, is it possible that have a land/area where base on a typical Eastern Asia(or other somewhere)fantasy, just have a very very long distance between the Galsreim and these other lands, so we don't know the existence of other land?

If you note, the "Eastern" and "Western" labels on those two specific sub-types are italic. Those aren't the real names for those sub-types (both Eastern/Western dragons are found on the same continent and in the same areas, so Eastern dragons aren't East from Western dragons in any sense of the word), but I don't quite have a better name for them that people would understand.

 

It's entirely possible for there to be areas with different cultures/traits outside of standard European culture, but it's not going to map onto Earth's geography.

[TJ09]

now my question is, what about necromancy, hows it in the DC world?

I believe I've covered things along this line, but this question is sufficiently vague that I'm not sure what you're getting at. Does it exist? Sure; zombies are a canonical thing. Is it allowed/taboo? Like most things, depends on who you ask. People who are mana-transformed by Death Mana probably have no issue with it, for example.

[TJ09]

Where are pygmies on the intelligence scale? Are they as intelligent as their larger cousins or do they fall somewhere between drakes and normal dragons?

Probably consistent/a bit better than other beings of their size. I forget exactly where I landed in terms of size, but it's definitely a bit bigger than people who think they're cat-sized. Regardless, it's pretty likely for them to have human-scale intelligence.

[TJ09]

Is dragon hunting outlawed in the world of DC?

I mean they are people, if you define people as any intelligent being

I am pretty confident this has been covered in earlier pages.

[Melomancer]

Not counting gameplay mechanics, is there an age at which dragons are no longer able to reproduce?

 

And if there is, would the condition be called Ereptile Dysfunction? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)