I finally drew the maps of Alraeon, Alcepist, and Prodigy.
Warning- lots of text below the cut. It's mostly just in-depth rants about each tribe's territory (there's twenty tribes in all) if you're interested, keep reading! If not, you can just admire the maps or something :)
I also decided to put an equator line on all of them because why not.
Also, the smallest continent is Alraeon, the largest is Prodigy (proportional to the number of tribes held on each one)
Alraeon has three tribes- the StripedTails, TreeTails, and SoftTails.
Alcepist has seven tribes- the Rubblescales, warmscales, sunscales, Featherscales, coldscales, Glowscales, and moonscales. The Featherscales and moonscales share land due to the marriage between their queens.
The StripedTails live on a savannah, positioned slightly below the equator on alraeon. There's a couple canyons near the mountain range that are used for the main cities of the StripedTails. There are fewer cities on the open plains because of the absence of cover, though some small villages make it through all seasons.
Prodigy has ten tribes- the swamptalons, Blazetalons, Buzztalons, Rattletalons, Tropictalons, Jungletalons, glaciertalons, Tidetalons, mothtalons, and vulcantalons. The Tropictalons and Jungletalons share land because the rainforest happens to be very large, and also their preferences for where they live are different enough for them to coexist. The Blazetalons and vulcantalons also technically share land because the volcanoes are technically part of the mountain range, but the Blazetalons don't go into the volcanic region and the vulcantalons typically stay out of the mountains save for a small part for hunting and farming for food.
Alraeon tribes
The Softtails live in the mountains of alraeon, splitting the savannah from the jungle. Their kingdom is also slightly split in half by the equator, nearly an equal amount of land being on both sides. The StripedTails make homes among the mountains, spinning large expanses of web canopies for shade and shelter from winds and rain. Their main city is right in the middle of the mountains. Most of the silk webs stretch in the valleys, but there are also many silk bridges among the peaks too.
The Rubblescales live in the wetlands of alcepist (yes I know I called it a swamp on the map, it's kinda a mix of all types). They're right next to the rainforest and below the equator under the mountains. Closer to the rainforest is the swamp, following the rivers splitting up the land are marshes, bogs and fens are nearer the mountains, and saline wetlands dominate the coasts of this kingdom. The Rubblescales have small cities dotted all around and the main capital where queen silt lives is basically no different. She prefers the swamp area though, despite its closeness to her enemies. Most of their homes are simple structures, though in the areas where solid ground is less common than water, they'll build boardwalk villages on stilts.
The treetails live in the jungle on alraeon, most of their kingdom stretching further above the equator rather than below. Due to the densely packed nature of the jungle, the treetails have plenty of shelter from sun and rain. But not much safety from the other dangers of the jungle. Which is why they make their dwellings higher up in the canopy- less sheltered from the weather, but more out of reach from other creatures. They usually weave hammock-like homes from long, durable, waterproof leaves. While wind may make them rock and feel unsteady, the treetails are very skilled in making their homes safe. Their largest city is in the middle of the widest section- far away from the coastline.
Alcepist tribes
The warmscales live among the high peaks of the mountain range sitting right on the equator line. They stay in the peaks, rarely going into the deep and dark valleys and gorges between the mountains. Despite having some slight claustrophobia, they mine the caves of the mountains for metals and gems. Their main city is on the tallest peak- they do get snow there in winter, but often the fires they build melt the snow rather quickly. The palace is often deemed the most beautiful of all the tribes because of the sheer amount of vanity put into its construction. Some tribes (Glowscales and coldscales) would beg to differ. It's a matter of preference, I suppose.
The sunscales live in the desert just above the mountain range and the equator. Most prominent settlements focus around water sources such as oases or the rare not-dried-up river. Their main city is located around the largest oasis in the desert. The palace walls actually encircle the water source, while the rest of the city has to ask to access the primary water source or get it from the wells set up around the city, fed by the oasis.
The Featherscales and the moonscales live in the rainforest, next to the wetlands and under the mountains. Originally, only the Featherscales lived in the rainforest, building the village among the trees alone. Their village is built around a large lake in the rainforest. They have fewer dwellings on the forest floor than in the canopy because of their love of sunlight. Like the treetails, the Featherscales weave hammocks out of the variety of leaves and flexible wood in their forest. But, they also make large platforms among the trees- mainly for gathering large amounts of dragons in one place, but also for gardening specific plants without them getting snuffed out by the competitive forest below. Bridges are also common- mainly for young dragons, adults are fine with flying or simply crawling along the vines that connect trees across wide expanses. The lake is used for more water focused plant gardening along with the occasional fishing. When the moonscales joined them in the forest, they took up the forest floor around the lake. They also caused the Featherscales to start hunting animals a bit more often. Not completely carnivorous, but eating the occasional boar with their much more carnivorous friends.
The coldscales live the furthest north in an icy tundra. Their land is separated from the desert by a smaller mountain range than the warmscales' mountains, but it's still big enough to be relevant. Their land is relatively hilly with plenty of glaciers and scary deep cracks splitting the all white landscape. The main city is the furthest north they can get before hitting open ocean, where the homes are sharp, spiky, and stunning among the otherwise soft snowy landscape. Some villages are housed in icy gorges- though those are not very popular. Igloos are a less popular option, mainly for those who travel often. Igloos are rarely manually knocked down, so other dragons and some of the creatures that roam the tundra make homes in them- whether temporarily or permanently.
The Glowscales primarily live in the bay area of alcepist. I say primarily because, technically, the ocean is their kingdom, not just the bay area. But, they typically keep to that area mainly because it's hard enough to communicate across the bay- imagine correspondence across an entire continent and the open ocean! There are a few villages on the islands in the bay, primarily because of queen hurricane's inability to fly. They don't have a palace on land as well. Most of their architecture is below the waves, hidden in trenches and among the coral. Most of the architecture is carved from the natural rock and coral formations- making it look like the architecture simply was there and formed like that from the beginning. And, like the warmscales, their palace is also imbued with plenty of vanity decoration :)
The moonscales, before their union with the Featherscales, lived in the valleys of the warmscale mountain range. They also did plenty of mining because most of them lived in the deeper caverns and gorges, not just the valleys. Their main city was located in the largest cavern, but was largely unknown to the other tribes- all of which have a little bit of claustrophobia. Being a largely nocturnal tribe, they also often ventured up into the peaks and other lands while the other tribes were almost all inactive and were some of alcepist's best spies and assassins. (I'ma write the story of how queen leopard and brightstar got together and everything soon >:3 it has something to do with what I just mentioned too >:D)
The swamptalons live in a swamp. 0o0 what a surprise. Their swamp is also occasionally mixed in with other wetlands, but their land is almost entirely swamp- lots of water and trees growing straight from the water. Basically zero solid ground to walk on without having water up to your shoulders (sometimes shallower :P) most of their villages are, therefore, boardwalk stilt villages. Obviously built to withstand the weight of several swamptalons at once, so these villages- while often perceived as poor and filthy to live in- are rather sturdy and have stood through the worst of monsoons and floods. The swamptalons can swim anyways. They also make use of the large, thick trees in more ways than architecture. They sometimes use the trees for sleeping spaces- especially during floods- and sometimes they'll build platforms on the larger trees so that more dragons can sleep in one tree at once. In the villages, the young are often kept in a shallow pool in the center where multiple caretakers help change the water, make bubbles to oxygenate it, and generally play with the little tadpoles :) their main village is on the larger part of the territory, right near the coast.
Prodigy tribes
Blazetalons, like the warmscales, live among the mountain range of prodigy. Their mountains are mostly barren- mostly stone faces with very little foliage instead of forested. The mountains closer to the swamp and rainforest are much more forested, but otherwise, barren. They stay in the gorges for their homes, but during the day soar among the peaks. They have large torches on most of the tallest peaks that are tended to every day and night to light up the range and melt the snow at the peaks. They don't like the cold, so it's good that they are literally always on fire :D (they're not burning alive, don't worry) their main city spans across three mountains- valleys included. Probably the biggest city so far. It's located northeast of the equator, right at the eastern end of the mountain range.
The Buzztalons live in the savannahs and grasslands of prodigy, located right below the mountain range (I messed up the territories- the Buzztalons are supposed to be in the green territory) in some regions, they have mesas and plateaus, and tree cover is less common. Tall grass, boulders, large bramble clumps, still-attached tumbleweeds, and other brush plants. Their territory is very dry, similar to the desert on the other side of the mountains. The important thing, though, is that when rain comes, usually it falls on their side of the mountains, not on the desert. Meaning the rivers that feed into the swamps down south get flooded, hydrating otherwise parched lands. The Buzztalons usually make homes either near the rivers or on the flat tops of mesas and plateaus. It's generally considered unsafe to build homes on the sides because the stone isn't always the most sturdy. Staircases are sometimes built- especially if there are several dragons who can't fly and can't always be carried up to the villages high up on top. The towns near rivers are often built with the expectation of floating away (got the idea from the way riverclan builds their nests) they make sure to build nets to catch any valuables that float away in the yearly floods. During flood season, dragonets always have an adult to watch over them and if they get swept away, the adults will search until they find them- dead or alive. Most of the young are kept further away from the rivers and on higher ground to try and prevent things like that happening. The main village is on a large cluster of plateaus. They dug several tunnels into the plateaus and they call it the Hive (of course they do) imagine something like the buzzard wasps hive from ATLA.
The Rattletalons live in the desert above the mountains. It's your typical sand dunes desert, but there're also areas that have mesas, hardpan plains, and some areas with a bit more vegetation than usual. There are towns sprinkled across the desert, but the main city is focused around a river that's like the Nile river- it floods yearly and is one of the places that has significantly more vegetation than the rest of the territory. Towns built on hardpan plains are built on stilts- for the rare occurrence of rain, hardpan plains flood very easily. When rain does fall in the desert, it comes in torrents. The main city is also built on stilts for the buildings that are closer to the river and on lower ground. The buildings on higher ground where floodwater doesn't (usually) get to are usually fully on the ground. Some may have the entrances raised while still being built from bricks and sandstone. Buildings on stilts aren't very useful in the dune lands of the desert, so solid buildings are more common for permanent buildings. Nomads usually carry their homes with them- usually simple tents- unless a town they come across has apartments or inns where they can sleep.
The Tropictalons live in the canopy of the rainforest on the western coast- (they're in the light brown/orange area, made a mistake :') they specifically live in the emergent and canopy layers of the rainforest because they share it with the Jungletalons. They prefer the more open, sunny parts of the forest, spreading their wings wide. Their homes are not usually focused in clusters- the only cluster of tropictalon architecture is the village where the queen lives. The village has one large platform for tribe meetings and smaller platforms for any meetings that dragons want to keep more private or to just hang out. The homes are treehouses that are basically like giant woven bird nests and also smaller single or double dragon homes that are like woven baskets hung from the trees, usually with some kind of curtain all around for privacy and shelter. Most homes throughout the forest are the small hanging baskets. Occasionally you might find a platform and maybe three to five homes nearby. Usually clusters mean there's a family of dragons living there, usually the Tropictalons don't cluster unless it's for politics near the queen or to stay near family.
The Jungletalons also live in the rainforest on the western coast. But, instead of high up in the treetops, they live in the understory and forest floor layers. Low light, dense foliage, and a variety of snakes, insects, predators, poisonous plants, carnivorous plants, mushrooms, etc. The Jungletalons love it. They're a lot less visible than the Tropictalons, since most other tribes that may visit try to avoid the dangers and claustrophobia of the lower layers. Jungletalons don't really have claustrophobia, and they adore the dangerous things of the rainforest- and use them to their advantage. Their homes are well hidden, as well as the home of their queen. It's easy to assume that their homes are made out of wood, leathers, and leaves, but we can't really know until the Jungletalons decide to show themselves.
The glaciertalons live in the furthest north peninsula of prodigy, above the mountains. Unlike the permafrost and glaciers of the coldscales' territory, the glaciertalons get warm seasons where the landscape loses the pure white a pale blue glittering blanket of snow for a few months each year. They do have areas of permafrost and glaciers- mainly in valleys and gorges where sunlight rarely hits and snow can collect and compact. I suppose you can consider most of their territory to be tundra while the coldscales have more of a polar desert. The land closer to and going into the mountains is more of a taiga, getting a longer growing season and many more trees. But, most of their territory is tundra- most of the islands around their peninsula are actually icebergs and small islands consumed by ice with nearly zero life. The glaciertalons stay in the tundra, mostly avoiding the icebergs and ice caps and preferring to not aggravate the Blazetalons by going into the taiga regions. The largest settlement is not as far both as possible, rather it's comfortably in the heart of the tundra. Glaciertalon buildings and homes almost always make use of leather, feathers, furs, and, of course, the largely abundant snow during most of the year. At the height of the warm season when the ground peeks through the snow and ice, they'll resort to just tents and ice caves for their shelters. The snowy plains are very windy, so shelter is needed, if only to get away from the wind.
The Tidetalons live among the islands of the archipelago, which spans the eastern side of prodigy, stretching above and below the equator. Since queen cistern can fly, settlements on land are just as common as settlements in the water. There are a few major on-land settlements on the largest islands where the Tidetalons conduct most of their external trade with the other tribes. Internal trade is less common in these settlements and most homes are usually hastily built since they aren't meant to be permanent. Underwater, it's a different story. Their underwater architecture is similar to how the Glowscales make their homes and other essential buildings, though the decorations are much more coral and artwork focused rather than wealth focused. Queen Cistern loves art and sculptures :3
The mothtalons live in what's considered "barren land". None of the other tribes want it. You can't grow anything, there's no food to eat, it's not particularly hot or cold or humid, it's just plains and hills of unusable land.... That also happen to be dappled with holes that lead underground! The mothtalons are similar to the moonscales- nocturnal and live in caves. Except, their caves are filled with bioluminescent foliage and creatures that the mothtalons make plenty of use from. They build up most of the tunnels and caves almost like a spider's den- all the walls are covered in silk and the mothtalons crawl along it lightly, making homes out of their light, flexible, and incredibly durable silk. The largest caverns are generally left silk-less, letting the natural parts of the system to continue working without much interference. Over time from living in these caves, the mothtalons have started gaining markings that glow in the light of the caves. It's also been hypothesized that the reason the land above is so empty is because of the odd things happening in the caves below. (Imagine the hidden world from httyd, Pandora from the avatar movies, the lush caves biome from Minecraft, etc etc) At night, the mothtalons don't usually exit the caves (they don't really have much reason to)
Finally, the vulcantalons! They live in the volcanic region of the mountain range at the southern end. Despite it being called a volcanic region, there's only a couple large, active volcanoes with a few smaller active vents. The atmosphere of this territory is obviously very smokey, very ashy, but the vulcantalons can breathe it just fine. Though it does make them sound like chronic smokers (technically they are ;) most of the volcanoes are inactive or at least haven't erupted in a very long time. The largest volcano in the region is inactive and has a large crater where the lava used to spill out. This is where queen caldera holds most of her business in the tribe. There's a lake in the middle of the crater city, which is cleaned of ash routinely. The ash might not make them sick, but it also doesn't particularly taste good. Most of the homes are made out of stone since 1- fire breathing dragon and 2- volcanoes are hot, even inactive ones. Despite the heat, though, in the cold seasons they still get snow, and rain is also often infuriatingly cold even in the warmer seasons. The region is not only dominated by lava and smoke, though. There are geysers and hot springs that are so hot, they would boil most dragons alive- even Blazetalons. And they can still boil a vulcantalon alive if they stay for too long. There are lava fields where the ground is hot and thin, giving way under the weight of anything stepping on them to either boiling hot water, or equally hot lava. I don't recommend taking your kids there. There are rivers and dense foliage on the inactive volcanoes that thrive off the ash and mineral rich water. Animals also happen to like living among such foliage. There are tunnels into the inactive volcanoes and even on active ones that are generally believed to be the ancient pathways of underground lava channels, now dried up and hardened. These tunnels are sometimes used for homes, though vulcantalons do still have a bit of claustrophobia.
Finally! I'm done writing this! It took me yesterday and today to finish this! If you read all this, thank you very much :]
