Work In Progress Ask Blog

Greetings! I am Saxifrage the icewing, here to answer any questions you might have regarding myself or the tribe I hail from, though my knowledge of the royalty’s livelihood is sparse. I am non-binary, and use they/them pronouns. I am looking forward to answering your queries and perhaps even making a few friends! (OOC: Asks are currently closed while I get this blog set up, sorry!)

[ask-an-improper-icewing]

06. Q: Anonymous said

Can icewings be near fire and not get for for a while?

06. A: I’m sorry anon but I have no clue what you’re trying to ask me..

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05. Q: lightingkitty said

You answered my main question perfectly, i find your tribe one of the far more desirable. Perhaps more than mine, at least in terms of things like beauty, for most nightwings if its not useful its not desirable. If you dont mind my rambling, i want to visit all the tribes someday, i want to see their customs and traditions. I only know one icewing and, hes not very useful. Hes a hermit really, poor thing scared of his own shadow, and never leaves his home, hence why i had to come to you-pathseer

05. A:

I’m not quite sure what you mean by ‘desirable’, but the idea of visiting all the other tribes is an interesting one. I’ve never thought much about traveling, as much as I complain about the ice kingdom. It’s definitely something to keep in mind for the future if things ever get to difficult here..

And of course I don’t mind you rambling, Pathseer. If you can’t tell, I’m quite a fan of rambling myself! (In fact, I’m about to do quite a lot of it!)

As for your hermit friend, do try to get to know him better. You’ll always be surprised by what you can learn from dragons who don’t say much. Besides, I’m not the only icewing in the kingdom who’s allowed to explain our culture! He may have a much different take on everything than old Saxifrage.

Speaking of my take, you mentioned that you’re curious about the customs and traditions of other tribes too, so I suppose I’ll give you some insight there too. For starters, it’s customary to store meat out of your living quarters at all times, and instead to keep it stored outside either in an underground dug out room for long term storage or buried under a foot or so of snow if you plan to eat it soon. This is because meat spoils much faster in a icewing igloo than under the snow, as igloos are usually a deal warmer than the surrounding tundra despite the natural chill that icewings give off. Nobody wants spoiled polar bear, especially with how difficult hunting can be in the dark season.

As for traditions the Icewing tribe as a whole doesn’t usually celebrate anything together. The only tribe wide celebrations that I can think of is the sun festival, which is a celebration of the ending of the dark season, but even then most icewings don’t agree on the exact date of the festival. Most are fine to go along with whatever date the circles say the festival will be held on, but others don’t celebrate until the first day of sun, and others still just don’t celebrate at all!

Most traditions are dragon specific, for example, in my family its customary for everyone to go the the home of the current oldest family member’s home for their hatching day. We each bring the reigning elder a gift (food, jewelry, clothing, imported goods, etc.) as sort of a thanks for creating us. Then we get a chance to catch up with our family and meet all the new dragonets and in-laws and son on. Most everyone makes it there, no matter what, but my sister has been absent from the event for 7-nearly 8 years now. We don’t know where she’s gone off to, but we do know she’s still out there since she writes us letters for every gathering she misses.

Anyway, traditions like that are another thing to try and ask your friend about, but you should really warm up to him first. Some icewings won’t like talking about their traditions as they can feel extremely personal to some dragons. This closed off nature is also sometimes due to the unpleasant ideology that many icewings hold, that icewings are the superior tribe above all others and that they have no reason to answer to a lesser dragon. Although, I must admit this doesn’t seem to match your friends demeanor.

I hope this informed you a bit more about our tribe, Pathseer. I don’t know how you plan to visit the ice kingdom, but if you do find a way to visit I will look forward to it.

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04. Q: lightingkitty said

Dear icewing, can you tell me about your tribe? I understand being asked by a nightwing must seem rediculous. But i have my reasons.... And i hear you guys take beauty to another level. Far better than my tribe.... filthy savages.... -Pathseer

04. A:

A nightwing, eh? I’ve always felt rather neutral towards your tribe (why hold such a ridiculous grudge over some dead royal), but the stories I’ve heard recently have been rather..horrific. I’ll just assume you took no part in that repulsive barbarism.

But now where do I even start? There’s quite a good deal I could tell you about my tribe. I guess you did mention our beauty standards foremost, so I’ll cover that.

While specific preferences may vary dragon to dragon, in general, blue, white, and silver are the most desired scale colors. Recently, pink and purple shades have risen in popularity within the circles, while green and warmer tones remain steadily undesirable. Overall, lighter colors are also preferred to darker or brighter ones, though bright blues have also risen in popularity recently. Asymmetrical features are also not usually preferred by most dragons.

As for accessories, the icewings within the circles prefer to decorate themselves with silver, diamonds, and sapphires. Thin silver chains with dangling gems are often draped throughout an icewing’s crown of spines to look like falling snowflakes frozen in place. Intricately carved silver armbands that have been embedded with jewels are also currently popular. They are sometimes engraved with words or a short sentence or even a name, though this is very very expensive. Gold is also starting to gain some traction, though many older icewings are against the trend.

Trends outside the circles tend to come and go rather quickly, although there are always exceptions. For example, fur has stayed popular for nearly four years now and shows no sign of falling out of fashion. Fur cloaks are especially in, along with just cloaks in general. Usually they are made out of polar bear or arctic fox fur, as it is in abundance in the ice kingdom. The more expensive cloaks are made from cotton imported from the mud kingdom, and can be dyed different colors to add some extra style.

Another interesting fashion trend is the bronze and obsidian jewelry that’s becoming really popular. While copper is rather cheep in the city’s markets, obsidian usually fetches quite a hefty price. Because of this, many dragons have taken to painting regular stones black, with a paint made from the roots of a specific bush that grows between the ice and sand kingdom. A friend of mine works as a jeweler claims to be able to tell the difference between the fake and the real just by handing the stone, though she won’t tell me what the secret difference might be.

This is probably one of my favorite trends in a while, I own this one bronze necklace with this gorgeous obsidian pendant that I’ve taken to wearing almost all the time. Plus it has a rather interesting story behind it, though I won’t get into it now as this post is already dragging on a bit to long. Perhaps some other time.

So, Pathseer, is this enough for you? If you’d like me to cover a different topic, just ask. This question was surprisingly entertaining to answer, even if it did take me longer than usual to get my thoughts about it together.

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03. Q: nivrad00 said

How do you feel about Snowfall being queen? She's quite young, isn't she?

03. A:

Snowfall is definitely rather young..

Truth be told, I am not sure how I feel about our newest Queen. She seems rather brash, having called her kingdom to war almost immediately after the death of Queen Glacier. However, I can see how the death of one’s mother can influence your sense of rationality. While she has been ruling for many months now, almost none of her actions as Queen have really had much of an effect on myself or the dragons I know.

Honestly, all that she’s done that has mattered much to me was an increase in taxes on all items sold within city limits to fund the Queen’s funeral. No dragon outside the circles were even allowed to attend, allthough none of them paid a single coin for the event. Me and a few other common icewings attempted to attend, we even brought gifts for the grieving, but we were shunned away by the castle guards. They took the gifts we’d brought and claimed they’d be delivered to the grieving, but I firmly believe they simply kept them for themselves.

Glacier was a wonderful Queen, and it felt like she cared about all her subjects, royal or not. She opened public schools and taught new teachers in the palace and paid them with royal coins, she kept taxes low despite the war so that all her subjects could survive, she even passed a few anti discrimination laws to protect icewings who didn’t fit the ‘proper’ icewing model. I am still on the fence about her daughter, though I hope Snowfall can live up to her mother’s name. She’s probably got a long time to try anyways.

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02. Q: saucymapleshade said

ooh, Saxifrage, you look so pretty! Icewings are so sparkly... do you get asked about how pretty you are often?

02. A:

Hah, uh, well-I, firstly I’d like to thank you for the complement. As for the rest of your question, I don’t get complements often, if ever. Icewing beauty standards tend to emphasize blue or purple hues, and as you can see I am rather green. On top of that, asymmetry is also considered rather unappealing.

Though I’m sure beauty standards in other tribes must differ from the ones my tribe holds so dearly.

And anyway, the icewing tribe has a large amount of stigma placed upon complementing others looks (I figured this one out the hard way), although making fun of another’s appearance and the like is perfectly fine.

(OOC: Sorry for such a long answer, I’ve been wanting to talk about the icewing culture for a while..)

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01. Q: nivrad00 said

Hey Saxifrage! I heard it was cold in the Ice Kingdom, is that true

01. A:

Uh, yes it is rather cold in the ice kingdom. Due to all the ice. In the kingdom.

It doesn’t really bother me much though, as most icewings are well adapted to survival in the cold, but all other tribes tend to find it rather intolerable. Besides, dragons from the other tribes cannot even make it very far into our kingdom anyway.