#razorwings

[im-fairly-whitty]

On Bridling Dragons: The Essay

Do you like dragons, accurate world-building, and bizarre dental facts you’ve never once in your life wondered about?

Boy oh boy, have I got the post for you. 

So everyone loves a good dragon-riding story, but as anyone’s who’s ever bridled a horse can attest, most artists (or writers for that matter) don’t know the first dang thing about that strappy thing that goes on a horse’s head, and that mess gets even worse when trying to translate it to a reptilian version of realistic working riding tack.

The basic and biggest problem in trying to bridle a dragon is the anatomical differences in the skull and dental types of equines (horses) and dragons (reptiles):

Horses are heterodont (mammilian, meaning they have different types of specialized teeth in their mouths) herbivores (plant-eating). They have their incisors at the front for cutting grass and then molars in the back for grinding it down. (Some horses also have small canines also known as “wolf teeth” up by their incisors that stallions use for fighting, but they’re small and generally ground down by their owners for safety.) 

This herbivorous dental set-up leaves a convenient gap near the front of their mouths. That’s where the metal bit of the bridle sits, allowing the horse’s rider to turn the horse’s head by pulling on the reigns, which tugs the bit against the sensitive corners of the horse’s mouth and directs it.

But reptiles, and by extension dragons, do not have that gap for a bridle’s bit. While all mammals are heterodonts (again, meaning they have different types of specialized teeth in their mouths), reptiles instead only have one kind of tooth in their mouths that all serve basically the same small pointy purpose.

Most species of reptiles fall into one of three tooth types:

1. Acrodont, meaning the teeth are actually ridges attached to the jaw bone that do not grow back if lost (IRL chameleons, bearded dragons, and in this world small insect-eating wyveryns). 

2. Pleurodont, meaning teeth are set inside their jaws and constantly fall out and grow back over and over through their entire lives (IRL many lizards and iguanids, in this world drakes are pleurodonts). 

3. Thecodont, meaning teeth grow from deep sockets, the strongest type of tooth. Falls out and is replaced constantly but rate of replacement slows down with age since each tooth only grows back about 50 times. (IRL crocodiles and snakes, in this world dragons.)

  Because of these teeth types there are two common strategies for bridling dragons (quick carnivorous flyers) and drakes (slower herbivorous and flightless).

1. Closed bridle:

Meaning that there is no bit used at all. The mouth of the animal is strapped closed in a kind of muzzle while in harness. Riding closed bridle is actually legally mandated for many species of dragon that are known to be flighty, or that large enough that they could pose a danger around people if they were to be startled and snap at someone. Aside from that most dragons have necks long enough that they could reach around and bite their own rider if they were to get riled enough for whatever reason.

If a rider is caught riding open on a breed that should be wearing a closed bridle they are subject to very heavy fines for posing a public danger. Most drakes also wear closed bridle (the yellow drake pictured is actually wearing a simple lead halter) despite being easy to handle and calm, but that’s generally because they move slow enough that the kind of precise direction an open bridle gives isn’t needed and their teeth grow too constantly to remove for the second type which is the

2. Open bridle: 

English Fieldracers like Arthur are one of the few species small and docile enough to legally be ridden open bridle, but that does come at a cost. Using a bit gives dragon riders better and faster control while flying, but it does necessitate the regular removal of teeth in order to create the bit-gap that horses have naturally. 

While this is painful for the animal, it’s seen as a cosmetic sacrifice for performance, like IRL dog breeders who dock the tails or ears of puppies to meet breed standards or in order to make them better working animals. 

A dragon’s “bridle teeth” are removed as often as possible while it’s still young before it’s bridle trained. This forced them to burn through the fifty or so times each tooth is able to regrow, meaning that by the time the dragon is fully grown at about 10-20 years old the bridle gap is permanent, the dragon no longer being able to regrow teeth there. 

And yes open bridle teeth removal does become quite the animal rights issue in modern era timeline in the Free Wing universe, but for now Arthur’s one of the many Victorian Era dragons who’s just glad he’s old enough not to have to get his teeth pulled every few months anymore.

(Some more expensive bridles for younger dragons like Arthur’s use extremely tough types of leather through the mouth instead of metal in case of a surprise leftover tooth coming in. A surprise tooth that could crack very painfully on a metal bit will instead wear at the leather in a noticeable way that will allow the rider to get it removed before it’s an issue. Arthur really should be using a metal bit by now but he’s picky and Louis spoils him by buying the more expensive leather replacements when Arthur starts to chew through them since he can afford it.)

Extra note: Spanish Razorwing dragons (a cowboy’s mount of choice) are plenty big enough for them to legally be forbidden from riding open mouth, but many cowboys ignore this law since they want their mounts to be able to fight on a moment’s notice should they clash with bandits or feral dragons. 

It’s a big risk to ride a Razorwing open bridle and generally the mark of either a very skilled or a very reckless rider. Many other cowboys will refuse to work with “open riders” because of the risk it can pose to their own closed bridle mounts who would be unable to defend themselves if the open bridle dragon decided to attack.

* also I realize now that Arthur’s reigns are absent or partially missing in his headshots and his bit circle is too high, I think that was a pre-research artistic decision in order to unclutter compositions since I hadn’t quite nailed down what I wanted dragon bridles to look like yet so I had some wiggle room.

[im-fairly-whitty]

Where did the Razorwing breed come from?

The Spanish Razorwing is a large, hardy breed of dragon that nearly all cowboys use for their work. Originally bred in Spain to combat the British navy, Razorwings are known for their extreme endurance through harsh weather conditions as well as flying long distances, making them ideal for work in the Wild West where their riders need mounts that are as reliably hardy as they are. 

The coloration of original Spanish bloodlines are generally shades of green and blue-green, but bloodlines from the American populations that cowboys and Native American tribes ride have developed extra patches of coloration in yellow, orange, or red as they mature.  

Physically, Razorwings are impressive specimens, and about as large as domestic carnivorous dragons can get without becoming too dangerous for an individual to work with. Despite their on-land endurance, they are originally native to a semi-aquatic environment which means they hatch with webbing between their toes that is docked/clipped away when they’re young, and expressive fins on the sides of their heads. Like many dragon species, the females are much larger and more dominant than the males, making them harder to handle but more valuable.

Razorwings were first brought to the Americas by the Spanish Conquistadors in the 1500’s when they landed in South and Central America. The natives did have domesticated dragons of their own, (a small, rare, feathered mountain dwelling breed) but European diseases brought by the Razorwings spread like wildfire across the continent during the Spanish invasion, sickening and eventually wiping out every known specimen of the South American Percher in a matter of years. This turn of events severely crippled the native’s efforts to fight back against invaders who rode much bigger, healthier, and armored mounts. 

(Because the South American Percher dragons were wiped out before proper biologists arrived to preserve and catalog them, the only remaining record of them are a few very old skins and descriptive journal entries from the Conquistadors. Evidently, the Perchers sported a glossy coat of feathers that were often used in cultural ceremonial and religious clothing. South American drakes also have similar rudimentary feathers not seen in most European breeds.)

Throughout the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, Spanish Razorwing eggs were bought, traded, and stolen between all the way up through North America where they were integrated into the daily life of Natives across the continents. Because the breed thrives in the open plains and Rocky Mountains of North America there is a substantial invasive feral population there that is known to prey on cattle and other livestock, making one of a cowboy’s duties tracking and eliminating ferals whenever they’re sighted in order to protect livestock, making traveling in groups necessary for safety.

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STM Concept Art: Razor Wings

The first boss you'll encounter in the game. A mutated eagle. His feathers can cut through objects, and his powerful wings can produce a mini whirlpool