#askdragon

[thedragonredux]

[loominggaia]

Question Time! Are there any extinct animals from the past still alive in Looming Gaia? Like, say, trilobites, ammonites, Ice Age megafauna, or pterosaurs? Just askin'.

There are wooly mammoths still hanging out in the Shrieking Mountains, but not as many as there were in prehistoric times (in this case meaning before the 1st Age). Folkvarans herd them across the tundra like cattle. It's dangerous work, but every dead mammoth provides a huge amount of resources, and the cold climate makes it easy to transport the meat long distances before it goes bad.

There are plenty of megafaunas like sharks, squids, giant sloths, and giant insects. (Most of the giant bugs are in Umory-Ond and eastern Evik. They used to be plentiful in western Evik too, until Zareen Empire killed them all with pesticides.)

Mr. Ocean and Solveig had a pet giant ground sloth called King Kaiva. He was supposedly the last of his kind on Redwood Island.

There are gigantic isopods in Mogdir Kingdom which are used as busses. They have not evolved in millions of years.

There are straight-up velociraptors in Lorrowey.

Most of Looming Gaia's dragons are "dinosaurs" that have not changed much from their ancient forms, especially the Evangelite and Matuzan war dragons, and the Redwings. They're basically perfect predators as-is.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Read the Series

[thedragonredux]

AFTER A LONG AND GUILT-RIDDEN WAIT... THE DRAGON RETURNS...

WITH A VENGEANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ASK. THE DRAGON. ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! https://thedragonredux.straw.page/

[loominggaia]

Anonymous asked:

Are dragons used as planes on looming Gaia if so what kind?

Anonymous asked:

Are dragons used like planes on looming gaia

Anonymous asked:

Are dragons used as airplanes on looming Gaia if so how?

Dragons are the primary form of air travel across most of Looming Gaia. The most common transport dragons are cargo dragons. Because of their great size, strength, and docile natures, they can safely carry many passengers at a time. As their name suggests, they also carry heavy cargo across long distances.

There are also war dragons, which are much smaller and can only carry 1-2 passengers at a time. There are a few different breeds of war dragons, but all of them are quite aggressive and can only be ridden by specially-trained dragoneers. They are dangerous if not handled properly, but also have amazing speed and agility in the air, which makes them great combat mounts.

Then there is the ala-beguzo, more commonly known as the “sky donkey”. Like war dragons, they can only carry 1 or 2 passengers at a time. But unlike war dragons, sky donkeys are docile, they can’t fly very fast, and they’re not very agile in the air. They fly slowly and steadily, so anyone can ride them without much trouble.

Aside from dragons, people also use pegasi, airships, rocs, and spells of levitation to travel by air.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

[loominggaia]

How do seige dragons reproduce and what is the lifecycle like for these winged natural disasters? Do they lay just afew eggs at a time and grow slowly? Or do they lay hundreds of small eggs with only one hatchling surviving to adulthood? Do seige dragon parents care for their young or abandon them to their fate?

Actually not much is known about siege dragons at all, including their breeding habits. This is because they are so dangerous that researchers are not able to get close enough to observe them for extended periods of time.

Evangelite researchers managed to steal 3 siege dragon eggs from a nest centuries ago. These 3 eggs were hatched in captivity, where the full-grown dragons remain today. They are very difficult and expensive to contain, and because they are not in their natural environment, they don't behave like their wild kin. This means studying the captive dragons is pretty worthless.

To acquire these eggs, Evangelite scouts had to scour the land for decades to find a nest. It was very well-hidden in a large cave system at the base of a mountain. When it was first located, the nest was empty, but a female siege dragon was found sleeping close by.

Researchers were tasked with monitoring the area, checking on it a few times a year for many years. One day, they noticed the nest had 3 eggs in it and the siege dragon had changed its position. It was now sleeping with its tail wrapped around the nest.

Evangeline sent a small army to the nest to steal the eggs. They had no choice but to wake the dragon in the process, and the soldiers tried to lure it away from the nest while researchers snatched the eggs. Sounds simple in theory, but the operation was a messy, violent disaster. Every last soldier and about half of the researchers were killed, but the remaining researchers narrowly managed to escape with two eggs. A few centuries later, Evangeline pulled this heist again and acquired a third egg, but this operation also ended in many deaths.

So, here's what researchers gathered from these operations: Female siege dragons do seem to guard their nests, at least until the offspring hatches. They keep the eggs warm with their own body heat (the coal in their bellies seems to passively generate heat). They choose dark, secluded caves as nesting areas.

That's it. That's all they know, and they're too scared to find out more.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

[loominggaia]

How do dragons on Gaia breath fire? Is it magical or a physical ability? This also applies to flight, if their flight is magically aided or not?

It just depends on the dragon! In some cases it's a magic spell and in other cases it's a chemical reaction.

For example, kite dragons fly using magic while redwings actually use their wings.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

[loominggaia]

Also to add on, how in the hell did Evangline manage to tame seige dragons? In lore their describes like a nuclear bomb with wings and foul temper and disrespect for its masters, so how exactly did Evangline go about acquiring these “tamed” dragons. And also what measures do they take to keep these living natural disasters from just turning on them the first chance they get?

Good question! Evangeline Kingdom happened to master the art of beast-taming early on in their civilization's life. They were interested in taming dragons in particular, because they saw the massive potential of these beasts as weapons. Evangeline Kingdom invested a LOT of money and resources into the science of dragon breeding and taming. Still, siege dragons were eluding them. They just couldn't capture one, these dragons were way too dangerous and powerful.

So what they ended up doing was sending an expedition out to steal a siege dragon egg. Hundreds of soldiers and researchers were killed in the process, but the kingdom did eventually manage to get an egg in its possession, then successfully incubate and hatch it.

This dragon spent its entire life in the confines of an underground dungeon, where it underwent strict 24/7 training. Now it's a few hundred years old and fully grown. Despite a lifetime of constant training, it's still semi-feral and hard to control. Only the kingdom's most skilled dragoneers are allowed anywhere near it. It has never left this dungeon, and with any luck, it never will. Evangeline Kingdom would only release it in the event of a serious kingdom-shattering threat. Elite dragoneers have been trained to pilot this beast towards the threat, and hopefully be able to pilot it back to its dungeon. But even they are doubtful that the beast would return to captivity peacefully, so nobody is eager to sling it around for nothing.

Currently, Evangeline Kingdom has 3 of these siege dragons in its possession: two males and one female. All of them were obtained by stealing eggs from the wild. They have tried breeding them before, but the result nearly destroyed a whole city, so that idea was quickly put to rest. They're not currently trying to obtain any more. Just feeding and maintaining the ones they have is extremely expensive and can potentially destroy the whole kingdom if even one mistake is made.

Now, there are wild siege dragons that are potentially just as dangerous running around all over the Evangelite countyside. However, these beasts spend decades at a time asleep and only come out once in a while, and when they do, they're only focused on eating some livestock and fucking off back to their caves. They don't see Evangeline Kingdom as a threat, so they leave the cities alone for the most part. When a wild siege dragon flies overhead, the city's sirens go off and everyone hides indoors until it disappears. At worst, a few dozen cows get gobbled up, but people are very rarely killed unless they do something stupid (like trying to defend the cows...just let 'em go, bro)

The captive dragons are different because their captivity and constant training (aka: torture) has made them insane. They're pissed off and way more unpredictable than their wild kin, so what they'll do once they get loose is anyone's guess, but dragoneers unanimously predict disaster.

[loominggaia]

Okay one final ask about the siege dragons, are you sure their a natural animal and not some divines sick idea of a joke? Because if their a natural animal then I just gotta ask… what the actual F*CK was going on in ancient noalen to where the siege dragon needed to evolve the way it did to survive?! Fire & Lava breath, flight, obscene size, and iron laced scales?! Also since theirs no way this thing ain’t magic, why doesn’t the iron in its scales affect the dragons abilities?

Surprisingly, siege dragons are actually not magical! Their fire-breathing abilities are due to a chemical reaction that occurs in their bodies. It was thought for a long time that they were magical beings, but only recently has the World Athenaeum determined that they are not. However, the fire-breathing mechanism still isn't 100% understood...turns out studying these beasts up close and personal is not an easy (or safe) job. It is known that these dragons regularly eat coal, so this likely has something to do with their special ability.

How or why they evolved to be so tanky is also not very well understood, but the theory is that back in ancient times, there was megafauna of similar size and power that the siege dragons had to compete with. These species have largely died out and the siege dragons are just one of the few remaining in that region. Today they are few in number, but there is evidence that they used to be more populous in the past.

I will say, wild siege dragons actually aren't much of a threat to humans/people in general. People are so small and insignificant to them that they're usually ignored in favor of large livestock like horses and cattle. As a human, you could probably walk up and hit one with a stick and it wouldn't even notice or care. You're basically an insect. It's not worried about you.

Now if, say, a whole army of humans showed up and tried to bind it in chains...then it would start flipping out.