DC Lore AMA

[TJ09]

On 5/4/2018 at 8:15 PM, Naraku said:

The general description for all Pygmies is said to be about the same size as domesticated animals. So how small are the Pygmy eggs? I imagine they're still (slightly?) bigger than average chicken eggs.

They are. Probably comparable to ostrich eggs? Somewhere along those lines.

[TJ09]

14 hours ago, Dirtytabs said:

Do drakes share a common set of vocalizations, or do they vary by breed? As in "all drakes generally speaking can make x,y,z sounds, but specific breeds can trumpet or sing or the like"?

I'd say birds are a good example to learn from here: across species, bird calls vary quite a bit, though birds have been shown to learn and react to the calls of other birds (and this has been shown to be a learned response rather than an innate one)--sometimes even mimicking the danger calls of other species to "spread" the alarm.

 

There are probably a few common sounds (e.g. growling) that are frequently shared across breeds, but it's also important to keep in mind that there's a breed whose expressiveness and unique "vocabulary" are a distinguishing point--which would tend to mean that drakes have different sets of vocalizations, with Howlers being particularly distinct.

[TJ09]

5 hours ago, Kegluneq said:

 

It takes me by surprise that the Sinomorph is comparable to GoN. It's great *o*

 

Thanks!

I've previously talked about the two summoned legendaries (and their posses) as fairly analagous to each other, with each taking an entire continent under their wing, so to speak:

 

 

(which I guess does mean that I expect the Avatars to be singular as well; that's what I thought)

[Kegluneq]

5 hours ago, TJ09 said:

I've previously talked about the two summoned legendaries (and their posses) as fairly analagous to each other, with each taking an entire continent under their wing, so to speak:

 

 

(which I guess does mean that I expect the Avatars to be singular as well; that's what I thought)

 

That's very interesting...

 

I read some of the subsequent posts and it'd be very cool to canonically have just one Guardian of Nature, one Sinomorph and one of each Avatars and Zyumorphs, if that's not canon already.

 

It's also interesting the idea that the only one GoN is male and the only one Sino is female. Then again, if that's not a canon concept already.

 

Now what catches my eye is that the map shows 4 continents...

[TJ09]

On 5/23/2018 at 5:57 AM, Kegluneq said:

That's very interesting...

 

I read some of the subsequent posts and it'd be very cool to canonically have just one Guardian of Nature, one Sinomorph and one of each Avatars and Zyumorphs, if that's not canon already.

 

It's also interesting the idea that the only one GoN is male and the only one Sino is female. Then again, if that's not a canon concept already.

Well "canon" is completely subject to change up until the point where I actually need to make a decision. Nothing is actually different from my thoughts last year, but there also hasn't been any need to choose just yet.

 

On 5/23/2018 at 5:57 AM, Kegluneq said:

Now what catches my eye is that the map shows 4 continents...

Only two of them have names, though.

 

And two-to-four other notable land masses that you can't see on the map...😬

[Dirtytabs]

Story-wise, do seasonals have exactly four variations or do features blend if eggs are produced late one season/early another season?

(If the former, then I guess the humans on the continent have good reason to so clearly demarcate seasonal boundaries.)

[TJ09]

6 hours ago, Dirtytabs said:

Story-wise, do seasonals have exactly four variations or do features blend if eggs are produced late one season/early another season?

(If the former, then I guess the humans on the continent have good reason to so clearly demarcate seasonal boundaries.)

 

Well many species of animal (including many birds and reptiles) breed/lay eggs seasonally. Those seasons aren't necessarily consistent between species, but it does mean there's precedent to say that Seasonal Dragons probably have specific periods when they breed that are related to/triggered by the changing of seasons. So it's unlikely that there is continuous breeding to even have "blended" eggs be a possibility.

[Dirtytabs]

Ok, that'd make a great deal more sense. Is the seasonals' breeding behavior the reason behind them having four Encyclopedia entries? Or were they just assigned different names?

[TJ09]

On 6/15/2018 at 8:57 AM, Dirtytabs said:

Ok, that'd make a great deal more sense. Is the seasonals' breeding behavior the reason behind them having four Encyclopedia entries? Or were they just assigned different names?

It mostly comes down to how different the various alts are. If pretty much every encyclopedia statement would need to be qualified with "Winter variants often ..." or "Mageias tend to eat ..." then it's probably better off splitting into a separate entry.

[Moonwick]

I've got a quick question. I'm not sure if this has been asked before and I'm sure it probably clearly states it somewhere but I am too dumb to find where that is. I tried searching for it first before asking and came up with nothing related. 

 

Are there other peoples besides humans inhabiting Valkemare? I'm talking like orcs and elves and such.

 

Would love to know!

[TJ09]

On 7/9/2018 at 3:05 PM, Tesla said:

I've got a quick question. I'm not sure if this has been asked before and I'm sure it probably clearly states it somewhere but I am too dumb to find where that is. I tried searching for it first before asking and came up with nothing related. 

 

Are there other peoples besides humans inhabiting Valkemare? I'm talking like orcs and elves and such.

 

Would love to know!

Sentient humanoids is indeed something I've addressed in this thread. Rather than entirely separate species like orcs or gnomes, there are just humans. But the presence of mana changes things—raw mana is dangerously transformative, and it's effects on humans creates a variety of mana-transformed races with unique qualities. The Thalassians from the 2016 Valkemarian Tales event are an example of humans plus water mana.

 

So otensibly, there are 13 or 14 variants of human, including normal humans.

[Dirtytabs]

Which way does Valkemare spin? Sunrise-east or sunrise-west?

[Nerei]

Are pygmies and regular dragons true distinct breeding groups, or are there any dragons of intermediate sizes that bridge the gap?

[TJ09]

On 2/14/2019 at 10:52 PM, Naraku said:

what is the age of consent in Valkemare (for dragons)?

Humans would have no clue regarding the answer to that or if draconic society even has such a concept.

 

On 2/14/2019 at 10:52 PM, Naraku said:

Also, do dragons have dominant hands?

Biologically, cerebral lateralization is pretty common across the animal kingdom. But that only goes as far as "do different sides of the brain do different things." I was not able to find evidence that reptiles typically have a dominant side, so I wouldn't expect such a trait to appear in fantasy creatures heavily-influenced by reptiles either.

 

Humans probably wouldn't know that either, though that's at least something they'd be able to gather bulk data on from a safe distance.

[Kakaru_of_DOOM]

On 5/23/2018 at 12:00 AM, TJ09 said:

Quote

The general description for all Pygmies is said to be about the same size as domesticated animals. So how small are the Pygmy eggs? I imagine they're still (slightly?) bigger than average chicken eggs.

They are. Probably comparable to ostrich eggs? Somewhere along those lines.

Uhh... given the size of the misfit in the Valkemarian Tales event, and what I remember from the old pygmy description, pygmies are around the size of a cat. Ostrich eggs are ~6 in in diameter. A cat-sized dragon lays an ostritch egg? That's pretty gigantic for its body size. Am I confused about pygmy dragon (and therefore also full-sized dragon) size? Or are you talking about drake eggs being comparable to ostritch eggs? The howlers looked comparable to dogs, so I'd reckon their eggs would be... emu-sized? Hmm... they could be like kiwi birds and lay disproportionately-large eggs? But none of the pygmies have the big pelvises like kiwis have to manage that feat... 

 

Are pygmies a separate species from larger dragons the same way drakes are, or do the two groups not breed purely because of size (like a chihuahua and a great dane)? Or are each of the 'breeds' separate species (+/- hybrids) in-canon and this question is wholly moot? If the latter, are hybrids canonically sterile the way mules are, or what?

Edited April 10, 2019 by Kakaru_of_DOOM
kiwis!

[TJ09]

On 4/9/2019 at 7:47 PM, Kakaru_of_DOOM said:

Uhh... given the size of the misfit in the Valkemarian Tales event, and what I remember from the old pygmy description, pygmies are around the size of a cat. Ostrich eggs are ~6 in in diameter. A cat-sized dragon lays an ostritch egg? That's pretty gigantic for its body size. Am I confused about pygmy dragon (and therefore also full-sized dragon) size? Or are you talking about drake eggs being comparable to ostritch eggs? The howlers looked comparable to dogs, so I'd reckon their eggs would be... emu-sized? Hmm... they could be like kiwi birds and lay disproportionately-large eggs? But none of the pygmies have the big pelvises like kiwis have to manage that feat...

Pygmies are larger than cat-sized. The pygmies in VT were even bigger than the cats and those games made a bunch of sizing concessions for consistency (dragons being two tiles wide, for instance). I pretty commonly push for dragons to be larger than most conceptors visualize them as being.

 

On 4/9/2019 at 7:47 PM, Kakaru_of_DOOM said:

Are pygmies a separate species from larger dragons the same way drakes are, or do the two groups not breed purely because of size (like a chihuahua and a great dane)? Or are each of the 'breeds' separate species (+/- hybrids) in-canon and this question is wholly moot? If the latter, are hybrids canonically sterile the way mules are, or what?

Dragon's and pygmies are definitely a separate species by definition, since they can no longer physically mate and produce viable offspring. The two are definitely more closely related than either is to drakes. Over time biology tells us that the isolated populations would diverge over time even more, though.

 

I do think it's unlikely that there's much/any interbreeding between breeds (excepting canonical hybrid breeds) in any sort of DC setting that strives towards realism. All the same, I'm probably not going to "canonize" that breeds are different species since there's no strong need to.

[BlueLatios]

I don't know is this has been asked before, hopefully not since I find this topic rare but interesting. Would exposure to mana radiation, if mana crystals radiate energy, or coming to contact with mass amounts of mana change a creature (as in, they are imbued with a secondary small affinity to said mana, or have parts of their body physically changed, like the way radiation from radioactive elements may alter and change creatures)?

 

 

Edit: I finally found the keywords and saw a similar question has been asked and answered. What I meant to ask is creatures such as dragons, who may be Neutral or have one or more elemental affinity. For example, would a Sweetling, introduced to vast amounts of Water mana, gain the ability to control the movement of water or to an extreme, full mastery (all of the water molecules surrounding it)?

Edited March 4, 2020 by BlueLatios

[TJ09]

On 3/4/2020 at 8:04 AM, BlueLatios said:

I don't know is this has been asked before, hopefully not since I find this topic rare but interesting. Would exposure to mana radiation, if mana crystals radiate energy, or coming to contact with mass amounts of mana change a creature (as in, they are imbued with a secondary small affinity to said mana, or have parts of their body physically changed, like the way radiation from radioactive elements may alter and change creatures)?

 

 

Edit: I finally found the keywords and saw a similar question has been asked and answered. What I meant to ask is creatures such as dragons, who may be Neutral or have one or more elemental affinity. For example, would a Sweetling, introduced to vast amounts of Water mana, gain the ability to control the movement of water or to an extreme, full mastery (all of the water molecules surrounding it)?

 

In general, yes. I don't know if I've ever really thought of it as "radiation" but that's actually a really good way to look at it, since that's pretty much the behavior I had in mind.

 

I think dragons in particular already have pretty strong elemental affiliations (an affiliation to neutral mana is still an affiliation) and wouldn't be very affected by exposure (which can easily be explained via some biological mechanism like "their scales shield them against such radiation"). But at the same time, mana transformation only really affects physiology and innate abilities—nothing prevents a Sweetling from directly using water mana to control water.

[BlueLatios]

14 hours ago, TJ09 said:

...But at the same time, mana transformation only really affects physiology and innate abilities—nothing prevents a Sweetling from directly using water mana to control water.

Awesome! I'm still slightly confused with the this part of the quote. So is the Sweetling directly using water mana a result of the mana transformation, giving it a new innate ability, or does this mean that the ability to use mana resources for magic is not an innate ability and can be learned by just about anyone?

[TJ09]

51 minutes ago, BlueLatios said:

Awesome! I'm still slightly confused with the this part of the quote. So is the Sweetling directly using water mana a result of the mana transformation, giving it a new innate ability, or does this mean that the ability to use mana resources for magic is not an innate ability and can be learned by just about anyone?

If you search the word "innate" in this thread, you'll find a bunch of explanations of innate-vs-active magic, but the tl;dr is there is a difference between being biologically adapted to use mana in specific ways (as an extension of one's self) and taking mana and using its energy in a freeform manner. Most intelligent creatures are capable of learning the latter.

[BlueLatios]

I see! I'll look up this thread with search keyword "innate" someday. Thanks, TJ!

[Keileon]

If you had to guess (assuming you didn't already think of the answer), are dragon breeds different species of the same genus or different subspecies of the same... well, species? I know they're called "breeds", but the physiology differences make that not make a lot of sense.

 

My own personal assumption is that they're different species of the same genus, with each breeding group being different genera (though Drakes may be another Family entirely? Maybe. idk.)

 

I know you said above that dragons and pygmies are different species because they can't interbreed, but that's not quite how it works-- interspecies breeding within a genus is very possible, though unlikely in the wild, it's at the genus level where things can't interbreed.

Edited March 9, 2020 by Keileon

[subwoofer]

Are Aeria Gloris dragons able to swim?

[TJ09]

On 3/8/2020 at 9:25 PM, Keileon said:

If you had to guess (assuming you didn't already think of the answer), are dragon breeds different species of the same genus or different subspecies of the same... well, species? I know they're called "breeds", but the physiology differences make that not make a lot of sense.

 

I'm pretty sure I've said it in this thread, but the ability for most dragons to be able to even interbreed is definitely not realistic. They'd definitely be different species, and there would not likely be any crossing of populations except as necessary to support canonical hybrids. But for the purposes of an online game, we ignore that because making cool lineages is much more fun.

 

On 3/8/2020 at 9:25 PM, Keileon said:

My own personal assumption is that they're different species of the same genus, with each breeding group being different genera (though Drakes may be another Family entirely? Maybe. idk.)

Probably not a different family, no. Drakes are pretty far away from the other breeding groups taxonomically, but families are fairly broad in their classification.

 

On 3/8/2020 at 9:25 PM, Keileon said:

I know you said above that dragons and pygmies are different species because they can't interbreed, but that's not quite how it works-- interspecies breeding within a genus is very possible, though unlikely in the wild, it's at the genus level where things can't interbreed.

How species are really defined is pretty widely debated, but I'm just going with the definition where two creatures that can produce viable, fertile offspring are the same species. Since no dragons thus far produce infertile hybrids (and at least from a game standpoint that's very unlikely to change), the distinction is fairly boolean.

[TJ09]

On 3/17/2020 at 6:26 AM, subwoofer said:

Are Aeria Gloris dragons able to swim?

 

Probably not very well, but they also don't fly very well biologically--they rely on magic for that. Perhaps the bigger question is how well they can breathe in water.

 

But maybe TCA has specific thoughts on the matter.