2024-05-21 - Dragon Cave's 18th Birthday!

[Kaini]

Absolutely lovely additions

[wolfSirius]

ohhhh！yes！I love Chinese five elements!

[bord]

nice dragons, I love the colors and patterns (and Chinese elemental auspicious creature theme.) got two of each already, drop rate is still really high, wondering if these will be common breeds like last year's birthday release dragons

[Shokomon]

Ohh the adults are BEAUTIFUL! And the last one is a Qilin!

 

They are all so lovely. I think the Caihong and Zarafauri are my favorites.

 

It's kinda nice to see the 4 holy beasts as dragons on DC. I remember making a similar concept way back when that I never did anything with. So, it's cool to see them here and now.

 

Thank you so much TJ and Sprites!

16 hours ago, SkyWolf25 said:

Finally, adults!

 

As many of you guessed, this year's theme is the East Asian Five Passages/Five Elements matched with the four auspicious cardinal beasts and the kirin, each tied to one stage/element. The elements represent the five stages of change that they say all things in the universe go through, beginning with Wood that represents birth/creation and ending with Water that represents death/preparation for a new life, then cycling back to Wood.

 

I suggested it because I thought it would be fitting for Year of the Dragon from the Chinese Zodiac, another widespread Asian culture, and I'm very happy the other artists went along with it! Many countries have different animals for some of the years, but it's the Dragon this year in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam afaik.

 

-Thousand Wish Dragon

 

I dug a bit deeper for their concept, partly because I'd been interested in the Five Elements for a while and had done some research beforehand, and partly because the base animal for Wood/East is literally just dragon. xD

 

Life affinity was an obvious choice, for Wood and the birth it represents. As the first out of five stages Wood is connected to spring, they return to the surface at spring, the season of new life.

 

I added Lightning affinity because Wood encompasses lightning/thunder and air according to the 8 Trigram. (For reference, fire belongs to Fire, water belongs to Water, sky and swamp belong to Metal, and mountain and ground belong to Earth, though as incorporating this into the dragon was an optional choice made by me, the other birthday dragons won't necessarily fit into this.) I thought it was fitting, because lightning causes some nitrogen fixation when it strikes, which is good for plant growth, and can cause fires that'll create nutrient-rich ash. It was also a good elemental affinity for rain.

 

Them living in the ocean during winter stems from Eastern dragons' affinity to water and tales of dragon kings that rule the sea, and also alludes a bit to Water's keywords - winter and end of a cycle, which then flows back to Wood.

 

The shoulder ornaments were inspired by the shoulder decorations on the blue dragon of the East mural and flag from ancient Korea - 

 

The shoulder ornaments on the Lihnseyres originated from the same thing too, actually. I love the shoulder stuff on traditional dragon art.

 

The trees in the description that villagers tie fabric on their branches with their wishes comes from the wish trees in many different cultures, and is the reason for this dragon's name. I imagine the tradition to be a long-standing one, with the same dragon returning to the same village for many, many years. The tree would be equally ancient and colourfully adorned with numerous wishes.

 

 

Here's the sketch:

The antlers have a gemstone-like core that is covered by a wood bark-like substance. It's been simplified in the sprite since the antlers are only 1 pixel wide, but the gems are revealed at some of the tips where the casing splits apart, and light can be seen seeping out from the cracks near the points of the antlers.

 

Additionally, Pinus densiflora(a.k.a. Korean red pine / Japanese red pine) was the general vibe aesthetic I had in mind when designing and concepting them.

I love the mystical feel of the winding and twisting trunk and boughs.

 

I don't have a definite size for them atm but imagine them to be a little shorter than Lihnseyres in height and less bulky but around the same length, maybe longer - they are loong.

 

They are benevolent and have been known to advise villagers who come asking for their wisdom. They don't live inside the villages, typically, but they will descend from the sky or their resting place - usually an ancient, giant tree - in the forest. 

 

I don't know if the encyclopedia will be released right away, but I did write it up, so hopefully you guys will be able to read them soon!

 

 

---

Since my post is pinned, here's a link to Pied's Chaliuba lore post.

 

14 hours ago, PiedPipecleaner said:

Wooo adults are out so I can give my lore dump!

 

Obviously mine is based on the white tiger/byakko. For the actual design, I've always really loved these creatures/statues called xiezhi. Namely the way their fur curls is pretty satisfying to me, so I thought I'd use that as another point of inspo. Lore inspo came from the steel pipe meme (and steel drums, for when they're feeling merciful) lol.

 

I'm sure people are wondering about the name too lol. I have two modes when naming: two words and latin mashups. This was just one of the latter, nothing particularly deep. I did briefly try doing some mashups with East Asian languages but couldn't get anything that would roll off the tongue very well.

 

And finally, the original sketch:

 

Hehe loud kitty :3

Thank you both for the lovely dragons! 

 

These are so cool.

[Rhikasa]

All of the adult sprites look stunning! I'm really excited to start some lineage projects with them, especially the Caihong and Thousand Wish dragons. Thank you so much to everyone involved, and happy birthday again to DC! ♥️

[DragonObsessed?]

Happy 18th Birthday! Gorgeous new dragons! 🐉😍 

[Kaityn]

Happy 18th Birthday DC! Thank you very much to TJ and spriters for these glorious dragons!

[topaz08]

I love them all! TY to TJ and the artists! Happy Birthday DC!!

[ChewyBoba]

Happy Birthday! So happy that I didn't miss the launch

 

 

[random_dragon_collector]

The thought and care that went into this release is much appreciated!

[Sarjis]

Awesome sprites! The Caihong would make great mates for Rifts.

[purplehaze]

There is so much going on with the Caihong that I have trouble discerning its anatomy. Is that a curled wing obscuring the tail area? Or am I seeing it wrong?

[ScourgeHedgehog]

the Archelonian are definitely my favourite! 😍 after i secured a breeding pair of the others i filled my slots just with them haha

[blackmoonflower]

These dragons are all gorgeous! I love the Chinese heavenly beasts reference, the spriters did a fantastic job. Probably my favorite release so far!

[ShorahNagi]

My ranking for these dragons (and why):

1. Archelonian - the muted colors really make this one pop out to me. Plus, I like turtles.

 

2. Thousand Wish - love the blues of this dragon's body, and the seaweed-like horns and accents. Very close fight with the Archelonian for first, but loses that spot because I'm not a fan of the legs (they look more like hands than claws to me)

 

3. Chaliuba - A dynamic yet simple design with a pallette that's easy on the eyes

 

4. Zarafauri - Love the soft, warm colors. It's a very close match with the Chaliuba, but loses a point because I feel the mane is a bit busy

 

5. Caihong - I love the colors on this dragon so much and the bird-like motif but the fire around it is very distracting and makes the sprite seem overly busy to my tastes

 

Anyhow, that's just my thoughts on them. So thank you TJ and spriters for this amazing (and easy) Birthday release.

[Dilaughosaurus]

Beautiful!! I think the Zarafauri is my favourite.

[Talisraye]

Is it too late for RD eggs to be in the AP? Blue Dragon is the only 1 I’m missing for my collection quota, but I haven’t seen new eggs in the AP at all.

[Frej_the_Gold]

Just now, Talisraye said:

Is it too late for RD eggs to be in the AP? Blue Dragon is the only 1 I’m missing for my collection quota, but I haven’t seen new eggs in the AP at all.

 

They're showing up sporadically, I saw (and missed) 2 blue "serene" eggs about 30 minutes ago.

[Twyro]

Are they still dropping in the cave?  

[euphoric_poptarts]

1 hour ago, Twyro said:

Are they still dropping in the cave?  

I just saw 11, so I would say yes They seem to be fairly common!

[Fuzzbucket]

I just tried and there was at least one in every biome they show up in.

[random_dragon_collector]

That's been kind of a trend--sure some BD releases become rare, but the Harry Potter four were all common, and the adventuring ones. It's one of the nice thing about birthday releases.

[Lagie]

1 minute ago, random_dragon_collector said:

That's been kind of a trend--sure some BD releases become rare, but the Harry Potter four were all common, and the adventuring ones. It's one of the nice thing about birthday releases.

Coppers...

[random_dragon_collector]

11 minutes ago, Lagie said:

Coppers...

 

Those were years and years and years ago--I meant a recent trend.

[Gluria]

Oooohhh I love this seemingly never-ending feast 🥰

Just stuffed myself again. More than halfway there with scroll goals already!

 

Anyways, they make me want to reread Fushigi Yuugi again lol

Edited May 25 by Gluria