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What would the Wings of Fire dragon tribe look like a few thousand years from now?

I had someone on my discord server ask "How do you think the tribes/dragons would've changed in 1,000 years socially and physically after the series?"

When I went to college I took a few courses in evolution, zoology, and genetics and I wanted to take a shot at my theory of what the Wings of Fire tribes would look like a few thousand years from now.

I will be using some headcanons things and also pulling from my Subspecies AU fantribe thing I made years ago and never published.

To start from the beginning: Forces/Reasons of Evolution - mutation, genetic drift, gene flow/migration, and natural selection. You can read more about that here -

However, humans have a slightly different evolutionary structure with these five main forces of evolution: natural selection, genetic drift, mutations, population mating structures, and culture.

Since our WoF dragon tribes have human-like social structures, I will be using these forces as building blocks to the evolutionary drive of these dragons. However, I will add one more force of evolution: Hybridization. Since some of these tribes overlap some territories, you would have to assume that hybridization between tribe species that share a language and socialize would be an occurrence that would happen.

One thing that happens to animals before they become separate species is they start to branch out into subspecies. In biological classification, the term subspecies refers to one of two or more populations of a species living in different subdivisions of the species' range and varying from one another by morphological characteristics. We have many examples of this, a few are Tigers, Wolves, and even Leopards. I will also be using this as a guide to building these theories.

Now, dramatic changes in species usually happen over hundreds of thousands of years, not just short hundreds of years or a few thousands. The whole HiveWings being a completely different species physically from the BeetleWings in a measly two thousand years is pretty unrealistic. Though you can say with hybridization sped things up, however, it doesn't work that fast and comes with a lot of trial and error over thousands of years to get such a dramatic difference between the two species that we see in canon Wings of Fire.

So if we are talking about just a few thousand years then my speculations are just building blocks to possible new dragon species tribes thousands of years down the line. A reminder that humans, modern Homo sapiens, have been evolving for at least three hundred thousand years, and we still don't have a dramatic difference in us to have separate human species. With this in mind, in just a few thousand years we won't have that much change in the WoF tribes, but this is fantasy so we can wing a bit of it. So buckle up, this is going to be a long one.

MudWings

Something that struck me when reading MudWings is that they have a different mating structure than the other tribes with females choosing mates for just the sole reason of producing offspring.

Females don’t usually know the males they choose so we now have to think that females are looking for something physically pleasing that they want for their offspring. What are MudWings known for physically? Being big.

So, let's assume that being big in MudWing culture is desirable so you being a larger dragon than the other dragons around you makes you more likely for you to be chosen to mate and so you have more offspring that pass on that larger trait. I can see MudWings becoming larger and larger until maybe perhaps they lose the ability to fly in favor of being larger. With that in mind, MudWings evolved to be more of land and water hunters like hippos and crocs.

With the larger swamp MudWings take over more of the wetland territories and push the smaller MudWings out and perhaps this smaller population takes over the eastern shrublands. With that, you can have a split culture of MudWings that don’t conform to the culture of larger = better and they start to genetic drift into a more shrubland MudWing that sticks to flight. By adapting to living in a more shrubland biome, I can see these MudWings growing more desaturated in coloring to blend into more of the landscape.

TL;DR - Two variations of MudWings: Swamp MudWings and Shrubland MudWings. Swamp MudWings perhaps become flightless in the distant future in favor of being larger. Shrubland MudWings keep the ability to fly and grow more desaturated in coloring to blend into the Shrubland biome.

SkyWings

SkyWings are interesting to think about because they are really only known for large wings and being the fastest fliers of the tribes. They are known for living in the mountain ranges, mountains are known for being a windy environment but what other environments are windy? Coastal seasides.

I can see a genetic drift with a group of SkyWings living a more coastal seaside lifestyle and starting to drift the sea wind currents like Albatrosses and other seabirds. This then would have this population in closer and more frequent contact with SeaWings, leading to more SkyWing/SeaWing hybrids. Hybridization would bring in more genetic traits and mutations to this seaside SkyWing variant that would benefit the marine lifestyle. More frequent hybridization would speed up the physical differences between the SkyWing variants which could lead to this seaside SkyWing becoming a new species in the distant future. Mainly with new colorations, physical adaptions for a marine diet, and a new wing shape to benefit long distant flights overseas. This wing shape, the Active soaring wings shape, allows these seaside SkyWings to soar, or fly without flapping their wings for long periods of time.

Now the SkyWings that stay in the mountain ranges I don’t see much change happening to them over time since they are already well adapted to living in the mountain range. I can see possible a new adaptation requiring less oxygen that would embrace the high-altitude flight in the higher peaks of Pyrrhia. But would this tribe need this new adaptation to survive? Probably not, so there wouldn’t be pressured to have this natural selection trait, but there is always that possibility in the future.

TL;DR - Two variations of SkyWings: Mountain SkyWings and Seaside SkyWings. Mountain SkyWings would stay the same as current SkyWings, however, the Coastal SkyWings variant would live a more marine lifestyle like seabirds.

SeaWings

SeaWings have a lot going for them. Their territory is the largest compared to the other tribes with all the waters around the continent as their territorial range. Over time, I think SeaWings will start migrating away from the island territories of the east and start to habituate around all Pyrrhia coasts. With this, you have different marine environments to take into factor.

Let's split the oceans into 4 different ocean environments:

- Northern Arctic Sea

- Eastern Polynesia Sea

- Southern Reef Sea

- Western Deep Ocean

To the north is the cold arctic-like sea with diverse large species of marine animals like whales, seals, salmon, and other high-calorie meals for SeaWings to eat. I feel a new variant of northern SeaWings. With SeaWings living in these northern water, I can see hybridization between IceWings being common. With this, a high-calorie diet, and the lifestyle of hunting larger prey, I can see this Arctic SeaWing variant being larger, with lighter coloration, and with sharper physical profiles. Probably embracing a culture of smaller family group lifestyle, like the indigenous peoples of the Arctic ocean regions of our world.

To the east are the islands and shallow seas where our current SeaWings live. These island-dwelling SeaWings tend to fly more than their other cousin variants in the north, south, and west. They have a more variety of palates in food with island vegetation and a variety of coastal sea life. I don’t see a lot of change from our current SeaWings with this variation.

We don’t have a lot of information about the ocean to the south of Pyrrhia. Since we have the rainforest in that region, we can assume that it is a warmer climate, which is great for coral reefs. The SeaWings that migrate to the southern borders of Pyrrhia would live a life among coral reefs. Their culture, I feel, would have a more color-oriented structure. This would bleed into a new mating structure of having more colors and patterns on a dragon is more attractive, leading to more colorful SeaWing variations like the pinks and purples we sometimes see in current SeaWings like Anemone and Indigo. With being closer to the rainforest, these SeaWings would have more contact with RainWings, which would add hybridization to this variant. Which would benefit this new culture and mating structure of color beauty. I can see these reef SeaWings having many color accents, new scale patterns, and perhaps longer spine frills/sails to display these colors and accents to attract potential mates.

Lastly, we have the western deep abyssal SeaWings. We don’t have a lot of information on the ocean to the west apart from it being massive. I like to think it’s like our Pacific Ocean with deep trenches and miles-deep water. With this in mind, I can see a small population branch out to live in these deep waters. Over time, these deep ocean SeaWings specialize in deep water hunting and continue to spend less and less time flying and staying on land. Perhaps this variant of SeaWings would lose the ability to fly like the Swamp MudWings, in favor of keeping the warmth closer to the body's core instead of large wings that waste heat in an extremely cold environment. Another theory is they rely more on sight with hunting deep water animals that they adapt with larger eyes. This variant could possibly become a new tribe species overall in the distant future being more isolated from the other SeaWing variants.

TL;DR - Four variations of SeaWings: Arctic SeaWings, Island SeaWings, Reef SeaWings, and Deep SeaWings. Arctic SeaWings are large, pale, SeaWings specializing in whale hunting; Island SeaWings that stay relatively close to our current SeaWings; Reef SeaWings that add more color variation and patterns; Deep SeaWings that adapt to living in the deep ocean environments to the west.

IceWings

I can see maybe two IceWing species forming: A more northern glacial marine variant that relies on marine mammal hunting that stays pretty close to our current IceWings and a Tundra variant to the south.

This northern glacial IceWing would stay with the current cultural climate, keeping to themselves and isolated from the other tribes. Possible a few families traveling the northern ice sheet waters hunting large marine mammals.

The IceWings in the southern territories live on in a tundra and taiga landscape. These tundra variants rely on the migrating Caribou herds for their food source, while also living in small taiga forests along the coasts that inhabitants deer, bear, etc. These IceWing variants would have contact with SandWings to the south and so some hybridization could happen, which would introduce new color variations to these tundra IceWings such as light tans and greys that would benefit their lives on the tundra by better blending with their environment. I don’t see a lot of other changes happening to these IceWings.

TL;DR - Two variations of IceWings: Glacial IceWings and Tundra IceWings. Glacial IceWings stay pretty much the same as our current IceWings, while Tundra IceWings might get a tan hue added to their appearance.

SandWings

SandWings are known for living in a large and wide desert plain right? Looking at the kingdom of the sand on the map it takes up at least a fifth of this giant continent. The desert is known for being empty and spacious with few oases and towns that pretty much the whole of the species live in or close to. I can see a major genetic drift between the two sides of the kingdom from the northeast plains and southwest desert coast.

Starting from the northeast side where currently the majority of the species lives, sharing borders with the mountains to the east and tundra plains to the west. With a major water source from the river running through the future dragon city, Possibility. Let's think about what they would hunt: larger mammals like camel, deer, and antelope in the northern desert, with possible grassland plains there also a possibility of bison, migrating caribou, etc., and a variety of vegetation along the Possibility river. I can see this variation of plains SandWing start to take advantage of agriculture along the river like the Egyptians with the Nile River in Egypt in our world. This variant start to live a more nutrient-boosted diet that previous generations of SandWings couldn’t do before by surviving on small desert animals, which had kept the species smaller and thinner. With the growing popularity of agriculture, this variant of SandWing would grow larger and with possible hybridization with neighboring SkyWings and IceWings, coloration could variate with more red and grey colorations along this population of SandWings.

The population of SandWings to the southwest would start to rely more on the coast for food. Coastal animals such as crustaceans, seabirds, lizards, and other coastal desert fauna. These smaller animals would keep this coastal SadWing variant smaller and thinner like our current SandWings. However, this variation could possibly have contact with RainWings to the east and with some hybridization, could add a green hue color variation to these coastal SandWings. This color mutation could benefit SandWings that live in the tropical portion of the southern deserts that have palm trees and other green vegetation, making them easier to blend in with their surroundings creating a natural selection for this variant of SandWings. With RainWing blood, curvier profiles could also be a new physical appearance to these coastal SandWings, while the northern SandWings keep a sharper-edged look.

TL;DR - Two variations of SandWings: Plains SandWings and Coastal SandWings. Plains SandWings would adapt to a more agricultural lifestyle, creating a healthier diet leading to possible larger sizes. Coastal SandWings staying smaller like our current SandWings and keeping more of a desert lifestyle.

RainWings

With the main population of RainWings living in the rainforest to the south, I can see a small population of RainWings moving to the boreal forest in the southern mountain range to the west of the rainforest around Jade Mountain. With the majority of the RainWing population staying in the rainforest. These differences in biomes between the tropical rainforest and the boreal mountain forest would create more chances for genetic drift and cultural changes between the two RainWing variants.

What would make a portion of RainWings want to leave the rainforest? I’m going to throw in a random event that happens often in nature that causes drifts in specie populations that leads to the creation of a new subspecies and species. Famines.

RainWings are one of the only tribes to practice an herbivorous diet of plant vegetation with fruits, nuts, and other plant products. A common thing that happens in nature is vegetation disease. What if the Rainforest Kingdom witness a disaster like this? The natural food resource that the RainWings depend so heavily on now is threatened and the RainWing population starts to starve and has to result to a meat-based diet. The thing is, RainWings have nearly evolved to this point to be purely herbivorous but their digestion can still handle an omnivore diet, but culturally this is devastating to most of the RainWings.

I can see a small portion of RainWings embrace this new carnivorous diet, however, the rainforest can’t support many apex predator populations, and most of the existing animals in the rainforest are already hunted by the residential NightWings. With another tribe of dragons hunting more animals, this would put a strain on the ecosystem.

This population of RainWings that want to continue hunting would then start to seek prey outside of the Rainforest Kingdom, and the mountains to the west aren’t inhabited by a large group of dragons, since the majority of the SkyWing populations are more north of the continent. This would leave a vacancy for a population of dragons, say a small tribe, to take over and fill in this apex predator vacuum.

This population of temperate/boreal RainWings would adapt to the colder environment of the mountain forest in favor of a high protein diet of different deer species and other animals that live in this boreal forest biome. With this higher protein diet and possible hybridization with SkyWings, this variant of RainWings would be larger than their rainforest cousins. Possibly seeing an advantage of larger wings to fly between mountains in seek of scarce prey. To also mention, the invisibility ability advantage, acid venom, and possibly the introduction of fire breath, can make this variant of boreal RainWings very efficient mountain forest hunters.

The population that stays in the Rainforest Kingdom recovered from this famine, returning to their herbivorous diet. However, they now share this kingdom territory with another tribe species, NightWings. With this close proximity to the other tribe, I can see RainWings being heavily hybridized and quickly starting to change appearance. Since these RainWings are heavily reliant on vegetation for their diet, where is the need for invisibility if they are no longer predators? I can see a genetic drift with RainWings losing the ability of invisibility and moving towards a more color shift like chameleons, and a NightWing gene pool could lead these tropical RainWings to be darker coloring with hue shifting and staying with a singular scale pattern. This RainWing variant just needs to blend into shadows for cover. After living in the rainforest environment for so long, they will probably have a natural selection for wing shapes made for close-quarter flight. We see this in birds that live in compact forests like a tropical rainforest with rounded elliptical wing shapes. This wing shape is perfect for allowing fast take-offs and tight maneuvering between trees and branches. This wing shape is better suited for a large flying animal in a tight forested environment.

TL;DR - Two variations of RainWings: Tropical RainWings and Boreal RainWings. The Tropical RainWings have a dramatic change in color appearance and abilities with the introduction of NightWing hybridization. Boreal RainWings migrate from the rainforest to the temperate/boreal mountain forests of the west mountain range, changing their diets and becoming powerful deadly hunters.

NightWings

Since the NightWings have fleed to the rainforest with already a full tribe living in the territory, I feel some portions of the species would split for food survival. Some would stay on the northeast side of the rainforest, a portion returns to the volcanic island after the volcano goes dormant, and the other portion would move back to the old night kingdom, the Talon Peninsula, in the southwest.

The variant NightWings that stay in the rainforest take a permanent residence on the east side of the Rainforest Kingdom. Since the RainWings and NightWings have such drastic cultural differences, I don’t think Queen Glory’s joined tribe reign would last longer than her lifetime, eventually, the tribes would split and stay close allies, sharing the Rainforest Kingdom territories. Having such close contact and intermingling with RainWings would lead to very common hybridization, which would then bring more drastic physical changes to this rainforest NightWing variant. Smaller wings, longer claws, prehensile tails, and brighter colored patterns among their starry wings are just a few of the new appearances on these NightWings. These new mutations would benefit life in the rainforest, however, with more tree cover there is no moonshine to effectively bring back lunar powers completely. Living in a tighter environment keeps the rainforest NightWings smaller as well but not as small as their volcanic cousins.

The small portion of NightWings that return to the volcanic island would now start to develop insular dwarfism. Insular dwarfism, a form of phyletic dwarfism, is the process and condition of large animals evolving, through natural selection, to have a reduced body size when their population's range is limited to a small environment, primarily islands. With this, these NightWings stay smaller and thinner compared to their other variant cousins. This volcanic variant would stay with dull black and grey scales to blend in with the volcanic rock. With the volcano going dormant, the air clears and some animal species return to residence on the island, giving these NightWings more prey options compared to the past. The volcanic ash brings a new opportunity to agriculture on the island that this volcanic NightWing variant takes advantage of. The variant would stick with using the tunnels of the island as their homes and shelter, limiting the reintroduction of lunar powers.

The NightWings that return to their ancestral territories in the Talon Peninsula, flourish. Agriculture is reintroduced, clean air, and just being back in their native habitat does wonders for the tribe species. A healthier diet, moonshine, sunshine, and living a proper physical lifestyle bring back the deeper colors on these peninsula NightWing variants. The flat blacks and greys that were the norm from the volcanic lifestyle are lost in the past; the iridescence of greens, blues, and violets scales are now common among this variant. With the reintroduction of constant moonshine from clear skies, lunar powers are brought back as a common ability. Perhaps the continued evolutionary progress of lunar powers could introduce more variations to the powers?

TL;DR - Three variations of NightWings: RainForest NightWings, Volcanic NightWings, and Peninsula NightWings. Rainforest NightWings commonly hybridize with RainWings, causing a dramatic physical appearance chance that greatly benefits them with life in the rainforest. Volcanic NightWings start to develop insular dwarfism, however, this variant learns to thrive on new nutritious rich volcanic ash soil for agriculture. Peninsula NightWings return to the old Night Kingdom and flourish in their native habitat.

LeafWings

In our current series, LeafWings introduce a new cultural trend: the renaming of branching tribes. All tribe species of Pantala adapt this trend to their own tribe branches which you will see from here on out in this paper.

LeafWings keep the cultural shift with PoisonWings and SapWings that they are the closest to the tribe splitting into two species that we could see in the near future. With the help of SilkWings and some HiveWings, over the next few hundred years, LeafWings bring back the northern tropical forests. This rainforest roughly follows along the whole northern coastal border and to the south overlapping the decommissioned, deteriorating, and abandoned Tsetse Hive and Yellowjacket Hive cities.

To the west, SapWings have taken over the western mountainous temperate rainforests. This LeafWing variant stay close to our current LeafWings in the book series. Though with common trades and allies with the Silk Kingdom to the south, hybridization has brought in new color variations to this tribe. New flower-like patterns on wing and spine membranes are becoming common among this variant. Like their neighboring SilkWing tribe, they have started to pick up a herbivorous diet.

To the east, PoisonWings stay in the deep and dense forests of the Poison Jungle. This LeafWing variant is one of the few dragon tribes that come in contact with a true dragon predator: the deadly poisonous Venus dragontrap plants. PoisonWings have now started an evolutionary arms race with the predatory plant. I can see PoisonWings in the future having a mutation that gives their scales a poisonous, toxic secretion to their scales that would deter the predatory plants, making them spit out any dragon they catch. This random mutation would create a natural selection for this trait, and soon every PoisonWing would possess this ability. Apart from that, this variant could evolve to have darker colored scales to better blend into their dense forested environments. Possible regressive evolving of the prehensile tail trait from the distance LeafWing/RainWing ancestor dragon species back to an existing trait.

TL;DR - Two variations of LeafWings: SapWings and PoisonWings. SapWings migrating to the western mountainous temperate rainforests, staying relatively the same as our current LeafWings but adding some new color variations. PoisonWings evolve quicker than the other dragon tribes due to having an evolutionary arms race with predatory plants and possibly mutating to have poisonous scales.

SilkWings

Since the great Hivemind War and SilkWings having been liberated from HiveWing rule, the SilkWing population has boomed. The population has flourished and so have retaken the territories south of the new northern rainforest. This new territory expands south of the abandoned Tsetse and Yellowjacket Hive cities. Stretching from the western coast, Beetle Lake, Vinegaroon Hive, and all the way to the eastern coast north side of the Dragonfly Bay with Wasp Hive. I can see possible two SilkWing variants forming, one to the east and one to the west.

The SilkWings to the east have taken over Wasp Hive and have renamed the city to the City of Silk, The SilkWings over the years have changed the appearance and structure to better match their needs, as well as deconstructing the bridges between Yellowjacket and Jewel Hives. Living on the savannah and not being under HiveWing control has brought back agriculture ten-fold for this herbivorous tribe, leading to this tribe variant becoming wealthy world traders. These SilkWings would hold a friendly relationship with the HiveWing variant kingdom tribe to the south, BeeWings, that keep an open border for trading. With having close contact with SapWings and other varieties of tribes from trades, I can see this SilkWing variant possible hybridizing which would introduce possible new wing membrane pattern variations.

However, after the Hivemind War and the generational trauma from their time with the HiveWings, a can see a portion of SilkWings that hold resentment against the HiveWings and choose to leave the area and migrate west. This SilkWing variant, now renamed BeetleWings, lives on the southwestern land by Beetle Lake. This land is montane grasslands that are the native habitat for BeetleWings of old. This variant has vowed to take back their lives and culture before the HiveWing rule of the past. BeetleWing keeps to themselves and has taken the Vinegaroon Hive as their capital, renaming the city to the City of Color, where a great university is opened. The city is heavily decorated with numerous silk art and colored dies. BeetleWings don’t develop much change appearance-wise due to isolating themselves from the other tribes.

TL;DR - Two variations of SilkWings: New Aged SilkWings and BeetleWings. This new aged SilkWing are great farmers and traders, they have flourished since the liberation from the HiveWings. The BeetleWings have isolated themselves in the west and returned to the culture of BeetleWings of old.

HiveWings

Since the end of the Hivemind War, the cultural and political ideology in the HiveWing tribe was massive enough to create a drift within the tribe. You have the dragons who truly believed that Queen Wasp was righteous with the Tree Wars and the ruling over the SilkWings, while you have a larger portion believing that Wasp was a terrible person and the Tree Wars and Hivemind were unjustified and look down on that part of their history.

The larger population of HiveWings that stayed north and have helped the SilkWings and LeafWings take back their kingdoms call themselves the BeeWings. These BeeWings I can see go to civil war against their fascist counterparts and push out those HiveWings to the south of the continent, taking the savannah territories at the center of the old Hive Kingdom. This territory consists of the Hornet, Cicada, Bloodworm, and Jewel Hives. BeeWings now favor a culture of agriculture, arts, trade, and travel. This new lifestyle and culture embrace healthier-looking dragons, leaving behind the thin, sharp profile in favor of thicker and softer individuals. This new mating structure promotes a more filled-out HiveWing variant compared to their previous ancestor beauty standards. Having closer relations to SilkWings, with hybridization, has also introduced new color variations to BeeWings. Yellows, oranges, and reds are not the only coloring you see among the black stripes and other new patterns, but also greens and warm violets.

The population of HiveWings pushed to the south have claimed Mantis Hive as their new capital, renaming it to just The Hive. This variation of HiveWings has kept the HiveWing name, but some of the population have started to favor the name “WaspWings.” These HiveWings have not changed much from our current HiveWings, however, a high desire for the stinger gene has been naturally selected for the gene enough to where all of these variations of HiveWings have wrist and tail stingers. A more strict and heavily religious ruling has kept these HiveWings from evolving further.

TL;DR - Two variations of HiveWings: HiveWings to the south and BeeWings to the north. BeeWings have become a peaceful society of farmers and traders alongside the Silk Kingdom.

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