...So the tags on that ask about things you'd like to be asked had me looking up your OCs and I am. SO CURIOUS about the worldbuilding in Flight's End. The dragons, in particular--it sounds like there's both dragons AND humans, so I'm curious about how the two of them interact? What's the dragons' culture like? It sounds like you created a language for them, too?? (You don't have to answer if you don't feel like it, aha; I was just curious from what I was able to hunt down.)
*screeing noise so high pitched only dogs can hear*
So, I don't have a full on language for them, but I do have some scraps of it, a few words here and there. It would be really nice to create a full on language but honestly I don't know that i have the patience or knowledge to fully do it. But I do have some words, and a rough idea of some grammar in my head. Not enough to discuss it coherently (embarrassing)
But the lore, I got you! Very roughly, but I got you. Gonna get long so I'll put it behind a cut.
The world Flight's End is set in is adjacent to our reality. The dragons in it actually (sort of) came from our world, but developing humans drove them out a very long time ago (like, humans were barely humans at the time). There's no fossil record of them because the dragons are actually symbiotes with a non-sentient entity made of energy/magic that more or less consumes them post mortem (not like eating consumes, but the way fire consumes wood)- the dragons call this their "Heart." This is VERY important to the story.
So the dragons LIKED the humans. The dragons were. kind of dicks. The dragons really really liked experimenting with genetics using their magic to make changes in other animals, and humans were basically just neat animals at the time. They kind of accidentally gave them a little more oomph (intelligence) and the humans were not super excited about their new self awareness, nor of their awareness of the dragons, things went sour, and the dragons tipped their hats and said okay we're outies, and skipped dimensions (which is... basically how they showed up in the first place! which is why they're only "sort of" from our world) to arrive in the world the story is set in.
Where they immediately set about doing the same stupid shit because sometimes you're a really powerful, very intelligent flight of absolute morons. They crafted themselves some humans to try again, and it went a lot better because they kinda posed themselves as higher powers (not necessarily "gods" because these dragons have no gods) that created the humans and humans went with it because the dragons were taking good care of them and helping them build stuff and stay alive and all.
The dragons WERE kind of split on the whole humans thing. Why do we want to create the animals that tried to kill us?? So the population of dragons split at the start, and while some of them were off preening and being beloved by humans, the rest were off experimenting on the brand new fauna of the world!
But the dragons were still kind of messy bitches and not super awesome at getting along, so this group fractured further. Some of them continued to spend their time messing around with native flora and fauna, others split off and actually started messing with their own genome, to create different kinds of dragons. You know, model some fauna in their image. These groups (because no one could agree what would make the coolest kids) ended up using their own clutches to produce these subspecies/other dragons.
THE PROBLEM. (okay one of them anyway)
The problem is the Hearts. In order to make a new dragon (or dragons), you need a new Heart, and you can't just create those willy-nilly. They have to be fractured from another Heart, and a Heart can be fractured once and ONLY once. All of the dragons can produce a clutch of eggs any time they want, but they can't produce the eggs AND fracture their own Heart, so they do have to pair up for it so the other dragon can fracture their Heart and give the pieces to their children. Each pair will produce 2 clutches in their entire lifespan- one where they're the egg bearer, one where they're the Heartsake. They don't care for their own young- generally a pair will keep one of the babies, and the rest will be raised by others (and since they're so big on genetic manipulation, often the clutches DO contain dragonets that are completely (genetically) unrelated to their parents, or that are outright offspring (genetically) from another pair, so it's not like they're just like "I'm keeping bobby and fuck the rest of you," clutches are often DESIGNED to be distributed to genetically-related parents).
The dragons are the Tasia, collectively. The /breeding/ dragons are Tasia Royale, but there are Tasia Sana and Tasia Brodo, who cannot breed because their Hearts can't be fractured. They also cannot shift form, they are stuck as dragons. About 2/3 of each clutch will be made of Sana or Brodo dragons, and that's considered fine in their society; they still raise dragonets, and their genes are even still used, it's just they can't make clutches, themselves. Kinda like weird bees or ants, except instead of a queen, you have the royales.
Dragons WITHOUT a Heart can also be created, but they are considered abominations (and this is what sana/brodo would create if they tried to clutch). They are sentient (but not sapient) husks- the Heart itself may not be sentient (and definitely not sapient) BUT it does grant sapience to the dragon it's in symbiosis with. Real fucked up to create a clutch and let it hatch without giving the kids a brain.
...which is what ends up happening in the "playing with humans" parts of the world. The dragons are able to shift their forms to match other creature's forms (not just humans, other animals, but they are usually using it to interact with humans easier), and some of them got a little too involved with the humans. Like, "what if I paired up with a human and created a clutch with THEM what would happen?" involved. But humans can't do that. There's a reason dragons can't fracture their own hearts AND clutch, the stress of it will kill them. Some of them thought they were better/stronger than that and could totally do it by the power of love (they could not, and not only did it kill them, their clutches hatched as non-sapient abominations! yay!).
So, you have this fractured society (which was already kind of loose for a "society") with different factions kind of wrapped up in what they're doing, and no one checking with anyone else, everyone kind of assuming it didn't matter what they did because the OTHER dragons would be able to get them out of it. Losing one clutch isn't a huge deal.
Except it wasn't one clutch. It was like. MOST of them. And about the time that anyone removed their head from their ass, the humans had (once more) turned on them (due to the whole "clutches of monster dragons keep hatching in our major cities because of you" thing) and started hunting and killing dragons.
There weren't enough of them left to skip town (leave the dimension) like they did the first time, so instead, they voted for one pair of newly-bonded dragons to remain dragons but fuck off FAR out of human reach to clutch cleanly. Everyone else performed some fuckery that amounts to "take human form, and then take out the Heart." Without the Heart, they can't turn back and essentially become the thing whose shape they have- in this case, humans. Humans do not get their sapience from a Heart, so they kind of bet the farm on still being intelligent after doing this (they won the bet but god at what cost). The sana and brodo left collected the surrendered Hearts into holding containers (gems, dragons gotta horde gems), which they entreated the few humans still on their side to take, and hide. This would give the Hearts a period of dormancy after which they could technically be fractured again, which CAN be done, but it's a real bottom of the barrel last resort because it can't be the same dragon that fractured it originally.
But that's fine. The dragons gave up being dragons, they'll breed as humans for a little bit, and down the road, the Hearts will be released by whoever remains, and anyone with enough associated lineage will be able to pick up being a dragon and save the species. It sucks but the alternative is possibly being wiped out by their own hubris and nonchalance.
So the last pair of Royales disappear into the dunes in the south to breed, where humans don't (can't) go. The rest of the Royales straight up disappear (and a traveling band of traders emerge from the desert mysteriously at the same time, who are totally not dragons in disguise, but no you cannot travel with them and no they will not be staying in your town to settle down), and most of the sana and brodo eventually either find a good hiding spot or get hunted to extinction. Dragons kind of fade into the history of the land. There are still some subspecies out there, particularly in the mountains, deserts, and oceans, where it's inhospitable to go hunting them. And the temples where dragons and humans used to commune, where the Hearts are being stored, fall into disrepair and/or get destroyed.
And that is where Flight's End actually begins! With a young human prince (Malik) who has to flee his kingdom in the dead of night, after his half-brother assassinates his father and comes for him next. He travels with his best friend (Cassius, who is a dragon and doesn't really know it) and Some Guy (Damalis, who is a dragon and does know it, and is actually kind of pissed he has to be a human, and who also knows Cassius is a dragon but doesn't tell him because who doesn't know that shit) that was a prisoner of the king that agrees to help Cassius even though he fucking hates Malik. They take off to tattle to the High King and High Queen about Malik's brother, and kind of accidentally set in motion the comeback of the Tasia through the power of fucking up a lot along the way.
Thank you for asking about my OCs. I have enjoyed writing down the history lesson!! I haven't thought about this one in a while, but I always like to.
The Flight's End universe does lack horses, but it does have cassowary-peacock type fuckoff big birds that are used similarly, and I don't think there's anyone that enjoys riding them. They're mostly used to pull carriages/carts, though they CAN be ridden. It's not a fun time. Alyria avoids it, and there's no reason not to, since she can fly.
For the OC ask game: Were they created for the story, or was the story created for them? For Kedreeva!
ha! Kedreeva was created for the story, actually! It's not her story (well most of it isn't). It's not technically anyone's story, because it's everyone's story, but she doesn't even get to tell it, as Cazaes is doing that. She does, however, play a significant part in it; sometimes in life there is a single moment that wouldn't have necessarily been able to happen in isolation from other events, but is ultimately catalyzing at the precise right crossroads in one's life. Cazaes directly interacts with Kedreeva only once in the early story so far, but it is at the exact moment and in the right way to change the course the entire world is taking, and she's the ONLY one that could have done it because she's the only only one that dislikes Sark enough to tell Cazaes "hey if that dick hits on you, maybe consider slapping him."
I'll go with Malik, and I'm pretty sure I just paged through a baby names book (yes a hard copy, since I've had him since early HS and the internet was not as big back then), until I found one that felt right for him. I think it's perfect his name starts with Bad. He's a fairly terrible creature at the start.
Did he have a pet as a kid? Well. He was supposed to have a pet as a kid. As a prince, he was SUPPOSED to raise his own Big Desert Cat from a kitten, so it could lounge threateningly about his throne room while he did stuff as king (although honestly his dad foisted the task upon him early and set him up for failure, imo). He really fucked that up though. Got himself pretty mauled in the process, though thankfully while the Cat was still mostly Kitten.
1 for the OC ask game, for anyone you choose (or all of them if you want!)
1 is how did I choose their name, and I'll pick Khelios. It's Helios, with a K. I wanted a sun name, but dragons in universe prefer harder (or I suppose more closed) sounds at the starts of names, and I didn't want to go with Solaris since that seemed SLIGHTLY too on the nose. As if Khelios isn't, but at least it's slightly less so. Khelios, Kedreeva, Kalstralev, Sarkkhan, Valiss, Damalis, Ciara. Alyria (queen of dragons and of humans) gets a pass, and Evarea (who is infiltrating humans on a high level) chose her own name to fit in.
Hiiii do you mind answering number 14 for your oc? I’d love to know your character’s thoughts on horses :)
#14: How does your character feel about riding horses (or your world's closest approximation of a horse if it lacks horses)?
I'll answer for Malik, since his world doesn't have horses, they have birds, and he's not particularly fond of it. He's traditionally been absolutely terrible with animals of any kind really. the birds don't really care for him, either, so it's justified.
From the OC Askbox games, could you answer 13 for Alyria, Rouchelle, and Scarlet please?
Rouchelle came with a name intact, like all of Korvhan's story. I woke up from a dream, crying, with that entire story, names and all, intact in my head.
Alyria, as one of the dragons, was sounded out by the sounds dragons can make in the human tongue.
Scarlet, much less illustriously, chose her name when she became a werewolf and found her fur was red. She had a name before that, but no one including me knows it. At least one character will be calling her Red, which will annoy her greatly, perhaps even more when they point out "Red, short for Scarlet." I always wanted a character I could call Red.
somehow I missed this one so I'll answer for Malik- he does. Absolutely hates pretentious language and is absolutely surrounded by it most of his life. When people use Big Words that they absolutely do not need to use, or try to make something sound fancier than it really is (particularly with food), it drives this man up a wall. "Blood Orange" would have sent him foaming at the mouth. But like, inside. He's royalty, after all, has to keep his cool. But he's seething.
