state of the den

March 19, 2023

I’ve had my hibernal den all crammed into one mega-tab (OC-dragonsonas not included) for a few months now, but I was getting tired of seeing lore groups split up so I reorganized them all again last night \o/ Doubt that’ll last so no screenshots, but but here’s the state of things.

Also doubles as a quickfire introduction to dragons who probably aren’t going anywhere any time soon.
[after actually writing the post] It Was Not Quickfire.

landing tab: the oldies

These are ten of my first dragons ever; I got them all within a year of joining (2015–16)! There’s a couple others who could technically be sandwiched in here, but as a compromise between having nice full rows & staying more or less chronological, this is the grouping that’s stuck.

Maelstrom & Lapilli are my progens, custom and random, respectively! They founded the clan Viral Evolution, which eventually dissolved, but these two have remained mostly inseparable nonetheless.

Altostratus and solar joined on the day one, as the first dragon I ever bought & the first dragon I was gifted, respectively. Their arrival marked the clan’s foundation; Solar was loyal to the end, but Altostratus’ actions led to VE’s undoing. That said, the two have both had significant time elsewhere in Sornieth on their own, and I like to think four get back together sometimes.

The next three were part of VE at some point, but none were meant to stay:

• Pestilence is my first (and only, OC-fandragons not included) “dream dragon,” as in I made a scry and fell in love and bred him shortly after. He hatched on the tail end of VE’s internal tumult and never quite fit in, nor did he have a great time in a would-have-been empire that also crumbled, but his “science” has always been there for him.
• Drosera visited VE as a representative from the Viridian Labyrinth, had to be quarantined for a while, and then left without much further ado. She hasn’t changed much all these years, but the goggles seem to be permanently affixed to her skull. How quaint!
• Schism is my first Mire flyer, and has subsequently (accounting for her time active in the lair) seen a lot of dragons come and go. Though she was involved in the “Emperor incident” that spelled the end of Viral Evolution, her loyalties were never in question, and since leaving the clan she’s had a grand ol’ time Basically Just Vibing.

Fern was never involved in Viral Evolution, iirc, but met Schism at some point and they spent some time traveling together as pals. Fern’s also the token courier, and thus a go-to for whenever I want distant dragons to keep in touch.

Last but certainly not least, the Golem Workshop fae couple Riviniana and Gizmo! Both orphans (G1s), but with very disparate origins; Riviana was raised by dragons related to the Emperor incident, and after those faes split, she traveled with Fern and Schism for a time. But she didn’t find home until meeting Gizmo, a lonely little thing raised in the Workshop among the robots it called kin. The two quickly became inseparable, and while they don’t flitz around banging cogs as much as they used to, they still call Lightning’s domain their home.

…I was supposed to keep these short, oops.

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Going out of chronological order now, first covering major groups and then the rest:

the “cryptid bros” (and son)

I don’t know how this happened, tbh. Eavn was a raffle prize, Kieran was a random snag, Midst had lore from his last owner but I wanted to put a different spin on it, and somewhere along the line I was like “these three go together” and so They Do.

They’re called “cryptid bros” because they’re all a little bit ~spoopy~ in some way; Eavn spawned from an, ahem, immortal pair; Kieran has those glitch-void wings; and Midst’s whole lore schtick is that he got chased out of his home village after kids went missing. They’re not actually cryptids (no supernatural powers beyond my usual for dragon lorestuffs), but they sit at the weird kids’ table together anyway.

As it happens, though, they ain’t kids; Midst, unbeknownst to the other two, had An Amount of kids himself. I’ve left that part vague lore-wise since they’re all from the previous owner & his breeding partner has also been rehomed, but the point is that Midst’s line of descendants is long, spanning generations…

And so, on a whim one day of “it’d be neat to have a descendant of one of my dragons,” I picked up Koirin! They’re related to Midst at multiple points in the family tree; for lore purposes, all that matters is that Koirin is the draconic equivalent of an ancestry.com nerd, left home to meet Midst, and now they have three dads. Good for them!

Whilst reorganizing the lair I briefly considered grouping them with the next cluster, but A) row-aesthetically it worked out better with them separate and B) I can’t see them staying in one place for long. A lot of my dragons are basically nomads, yes.

That said!

second tab: assorted remnants

Heck it, we’re tab-hopping. While these guys aren’t wholly separate in lore (the more I develop stuff the more everyone interconnects anyway), it doesn’t feel Right grouping them with everyone else somehow. Retroactively I’ve decided it’s because they’re not nomadic (anymore, in some cases), and actually settled in approximately the same area…

I’ve noticed my lore has gone through loosely-defined phases centered on different casts, some more strongly-united than others. In late 2021, CabochonLuster and his then-BFF founded the Hibiscus Inn, because I wanted to try shuffling traveling dragons around for a while. Turns out I don’t have fun constantly trying to make myself write new lore snippets, but it was a fun venture while it lasted, and a little family spawned between Cabo, traveler-turned-perma(-turned-Cabo’s-mate) Axius, and their adopted son Zachariah.

Haven’t actively revisisted their lore in a while, but I figure they’ve never left the ?building that the Inn was founded in because it’s still a good seaside shelter. Which is good, because as of this hibden reshuffle, they’ve got more “guests”....

This whole cluster is only tenuously related but they were in the lair around the same time & look good grouped together, so bear with me:

Asclepius is an… acquaintance of Zachariah’s, somehow? I considered having Asclepius and Z’s dad be A Thing, but as of today Astraeus’ travels have seen him off so I’m soft-retconning the whole thing. Also, wildly unrelatedly, Asclepius has gotta know Pestilence for good Science Buddies shenanigans.

Order-hopping a bit: Asclepius and the cranky neighbor duo Novak and Layes all spawned from a “holy crap, two-headed dragons!!” kick. I never quite figured out what the lore was doing here, but the dynamic potential is fun; Asclepius was breed-changed against his knowing but has come to love/embrace it, whereas Novak and Layes knew exactly what they were signing up for.

As for why I call those two “neighbors”: I was going to do a Stock the Pond challenge with a couple friends, got bored (and friends have gone inactive at the time of writing), but the kids Scylla and Bokeh persist nonetheless.

Scylla’s adoptive-sister also had a whole Thing with the dragon who’d become Ascher; said sister is now dead, and Ascher hung around the area out of guilt like the world’s saddest janitor. But they had one nest together, and three generations later Alcho hatched, and so I guess she kinda just hangs around too. Hell, I could see Alcho joining the cryptid gang, but same primary color & gene as Ascher (who used to be a guardian) so for now they Must stay together.

But yeah, long and handwaved story short, this whole crew’s at the Inn now. They were located in the southern regions of the Scarred Wasteland to begin with, which is also where the Inn happens to be, so.

these guys also

At one point I thought it’d be cool to have one G1 banescale for each element, and they’d be their own little clan. The idea stopped sparking joy before it saw completion, but these five remain. (There’s technically one more but she’s on the question block atm; in light of the potential Arcane Ancient teasers I might keep & breed-change her? That or yeet.)

Anyway, I haven’t had the slightest clue what to do with them all these years, but whilst reorganizing I liked the idea they wandered towards the Inn, went “dang, it’d be nice to stop being nomads, plus some of us are still kinda bummed out about our close friends leaving; maybe we should settle down?”, and so they’re here now. Don’t know if they’ll stay but it’s something!

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The rest of these are only barely interconnected, so I’m going by chronology of the first dragon listed.

last but not least

These four have some crumb of lore but they’re not “grouped” with anyone like the dragons above.

• Skiptrace has been freeloading for years. I don’t remember if he was the first Auction House G1 snag, but the first I kept; Rivi came second. But I also had lore for Rivi early, whereas “Gondor” (as he was initially named) languished Doing Nothing for years. Eventually I figured he might as well be a new Mire Flyer, with Schism’s build having been rendered outdated for -checks date marks- four years, wow. Schism trained him, and he trained Mallow and the current Flyer LethalTriplicate, but other than that and being shoehorned into a little Plague challenge, Skiptrace hasn’t had too much lore involvement.
• Rothide… actually, Rothide is only barely in this tab and was previously grouped with the non-lore crew. Guess he’ll move back some time…? IDK. First fodder breeder, and subsequently the only one who’s got staying privileges. (The second pair also used to be permas but eh I’ve since changed my mind; if they’re not adopted they’re getting exalted together.)
• Carnation is my oldest dragon by hatchday; August 18, 2013!! She also had a Coliseum stint as a supplemental venue grinder, but mostly I like throwing her in lore once in a blue moon to chide the Kids These Days.
• Seafoam is here for the same reason as Mallow: I hopped back in after a hiatus and went “veilspun pwetty *u*.” Mallow got lore, though, and Seafoam… I mean, I tried, but nothing’s stuck. Could also get punted to the non-lore tab, by that token. We’ll see.

potential strays

May or may not see these guys off; in the process of The Reshuffling, I realized I actually really like seeing my oldies find new homes, ’specially when they haven’t been doing anything for me. Even if it’s to a newbie who’ll be inactive within a month, the dragon gets to be part of their founding lair, and maybe they’ll even come back later! Who knows! They probably served that newbie better in weeks than they have me in the den for years.

That said, I’m also a sentimental sucker; the “serving someone else better” is a non-small component. Even with all their info “archived” here, I’d almost definitely regret exalting or giving away some of my most cherished oldies, y’feel??

Still. These guys find themselves in murky waters, currently.

• Delphi is, incidentally, a member of the “one of the first dragons I ever had” squad, and also I have never quite figured out what I want to do with him. He brings back a nice little memory of the nest he hatched from*, won a Hunger Games simulator that determined a pre-hibden purge, and has a couple potential lore threads… but ehh. Might be happier seeing him elsewhere.
  • *…I could’ve sworn this was in the description but apparently not. Not in the unholy loredump thread, either…? Anyway: Someone asked me out of the blue for a nest rental, I said yes, and I got to keep the rejects. Both parents have D- names (Deramor x Desire), so I named the whole nest with Ds, too. Checking back way later, turns out every single other hatchling from the pair was given a D-name. I don’t know who’s responsible, but it amuses me a lot!
  • . . . Honestly, maybe I just need to scrap/retcon/otherwise toss all his current lore and remake the character from scratch. Maybe a breed change is due; as an XYX it’s hard to go wrong, although no scries have Spoken To Me yet....
• Galena is most likely of these four to stick around for a while yet anyway, because I shot myself in the foot by giving him “has exaltation trauma” lore. But there’s potential for it to be nicer!! I bought Galena on a whim because his colors reminded me (and still do, long as he’s a mirror) of my OG training pair, both of whom are exalted; I like the thought Galena eventually meets the progens and joins them! But… agh. Dunno. :I Lore is flexible and can be ignored and all, I definitely have yeeted dragons with “incomplete”/middling developments before (Delphi would also qualify), but… eh. Ehhhh. I’m stuck. Just like Galena. (Hm, fun idea: maybe it needs to get worse before it gets better…)
• Soleil was an impulse buy because I Like Blue, and she was also a damn good Kelp Beds trainer before updates rendered the build ineffective. I always thought she’d make a sick Water Ancient, but much as I like undertides, I’m just not quiiiite vibing with any scries.... Fingers crossed for the Arcane one, maybe? Or maybe I’ll see if there’s an updated build, actually tincture her instead of training up a whole new trainer… Mostly I’m just very eh on the appearance; “eldritch deep sea mirror” is a really cool concept but I wish it was reflected onsite better :Ic
• Sempre was freeloading for years, then got roped into the baneclan thing, and has a bit of lore about that but ehhh. Could also get a breed change or something. Were it not for Carnation she’d be one of my hatchday-oldest dragons (I think, but am not 100% sure, she’s second-oldest?) but I’m not really an oldie collector, so.

third tab: no lore, mostly

Not gonna go into too much detail here or so help me—

Going by current tab order, despite the above:

bonus lair check-in because why not

No pictures because they’re not onsite yet.

• Katsura: I am not 100% sure why I bought this dragon tbh, or if she’s even a long-term keeper, but she hatced primal and was breed-changed into a banescale so that’s neat! Has some interesting scry potential but I’m not prioritizing a regene; for now she just serves me well as an all-purpose lvl25.
• LethalTriplicate: Mire Flyer the third. If terts could stack he would’ve been undertide’d in a heartbeat, since the initial “wow!!” has long worn off, but he’s still Pretty Dang Cool and probably not leaving my lair any time soon.
• Lithophone: survivor of a scrapped ’locke, may or may not stay long-term; I was very much enamored by Abyss Web at the time but it’s lost its novelty >:T If I do ever yeet, Litho, it’s only fitting if he’s exalted as part of another challenge of some sort; I just haven’t had the time/motive/inspiration/lair space/what-have-you to start one.
• Evergreen/ChoiceParalysis: During said ’locke I hatched an egg on a whim and got a matching XXY like what the hell honestly. Her and Exuberant, I feel like I need to keep just for bragging rights, but also I (temporarily) renamed her ChoiceParalysis for a reason. Idk, I thought it was funny at the time but now it just makes me sad, maybe I’ll cave and scour a wildclaw scroll or maybe a $newBreed scry will Speak To Me. She almost definitely ain’t leaving, though :Vc
• Singularity: im love spiral

tagged: #lair revival