#also it has clearsight

[crowcrash]

would you believe me if i said i’ve read legends: darkstalker at least a dozen times

[transitionalwerewolf]

anyways i'm reading legends: darkstalker for the first time and it has to be my favorite book out of this series that i've read recently. i haven't had as much thought and connection to actual genuine canon characters in the recent arc i read, (and didn't finish) the lost continent arc, moreso just like. kinda frankensteining ocs out of what i wish couldve been.

but. i've always been incredibly fond of clearsight even in the brief prologue where she was pov. and especially even the book of clearsight- she was so full of love and now that im reading her chapters it took such great pain to get there and it Hurts

[lillyosaurus]

MY LOVE FOR YOU WAS JUST TOO BIG.

YOU FILTHY DETESTABLE PIG.

[seawing-vibes]

Oh!! Eleven! What’s your favorite quote?

Oh this one is so hard for me . . quotes aren’t something I always remember in all honesty! But I think one bit of text thats stuck out to me is the entirety of Clearsights Preamble in the Book of Clearsight , for what it is, its a very well written part and I highly recommend reading the full thing again if you haven’t recently, good stuff. But this is probably my favorite bit;

“But most of what I see is joy. Your futures are full of joy. What a miracle it is to be a dragon, alive right now and part of this wonderful world. Do you never stop to think about that? About what an odd and lucky thing it is to be this soul inside this body. To live in a world with so many marvels in it. I am so grateful to have known and loved you all.”

Im always a sucker for “there’s joy in everything” ideals, I just love that Clearsight mentions these disasters throughout her entire note but ends with acknowledgment of joy and love. You can also really feel her own character development & newfound (well not for her in the moment, but to the reader) sense of love. Good stuff !

[lionblaze03-2]

It's dangerous to go alone. take this Nightwing

[nightwingsaregoths]

Thank you for the mention, @izzy246girl. I have observed the dragon.

Darkstalker

[laweema]

I fantasized a little about what one of the first children of the Clearsight and Sunstrike could be like. The dragonets are not related to the canonical ones mentioned in the book, here I was just thinking about the design.

Pantala dragons are quite different from Pyrrhyans, and because of this, it seems to me that the first cubs could turn out to be either deformed or with some mutations, defects. I also took into account that the genes in the wof are mainly from the mother, and my own design of beetlewings. First Dragonet He is devoid of any abilities, he does not have star scales and antennae have not grown, in the future there will be a very thick horn on his forehead, some scales have not grown evenly and fall off from the general group.

The second Dragonet: He has grown a second pair of small wings that prevent him from flying, but he is trying to learn. Small wings don't move well. It also turned out to be a dirty color.

And the third one: He was born under two full moons, but cannot perceive other dragon's thoughts in words, sees only pictures that often confuse him. Mutated horns with growths and too small wings, with large wing elytras, most likely he will not be able to fly. There is a poisonous thorn on the tail.

[flawseer]

3000 AS character drawings

(Clearsight, Listener, Thoughtful)

I suppose this might be a new collage? Probably not a complete one, but I would like to draw some of the characters from this time period that I liked or found otherwise notable.

I wanted to include Clearsight's parents in this post, but the prospect of drawing five full-body pictures of dragons in one post filled me with some kind of emotion, so if I do that, it'll likely happen later.

Clearsight

The mother of pantaloons herself. She is described as slender, beautiful, and as having purple eyes. The graphic novels so far have one depiction of a Nightwing using future-sight and it shows her eyes glowing an eerie white while she does it. Clearsight's method of using her clairvoyance is very unorthodox, but I like to imagine she still gets this effect when she looks ahead at future events. Only in her case it looks less ominous and much more casual. I picture her sitting at the dinner table with her eyes lighting up every few minutes, until her mother finally goes "now dear, we've agreed; no future-vision during meal time." So she sighs and silently continues eating her beet salad.

Also, obligatory mention that the silver scale in the center of her forehead is, once again, a reference to my partner @flamebringer0 's theory about Nightwing powers and indicates the presence of prophetic powers, like eye scales would mark a mind reader.

Listener

Clearsight's bestie is described as large, long-necked, and curvy, and seems like a good extroverted foil to someone who spends most of her time cooped up inside her own head. She comes across as a bit of a romance-obsessed airhead, but some of the things she tells Clearsight are actually pretty reasonable, and I like to think Clearsight becomes more appreciative of Listener's ideas and influence once she departs the continent and they are separated.

Apparently she later writes a scroll about Clearsight being the most brilliant prophet who ever lived. I would like to know how that affected her life, considering the Nightwing tribe probably remembers Clearsight as "that lady who was fawning over the crazed warlock we all ran away from". Did Listener catch push-back for publishing a laudatory script about someone like that?

Thoughtful

Here is glass boy. The book describes him as handsome with circular glasses. I accidentally drew him a bit more chubby than I intended, but honestly, I think it suits him. He looks very pleasant and friendly, which seems to be in line with his general character. I am actually very happy with how this drawing turned out.

Also, he is not bipedal in this picture. He is resting his weight on his two hind legs and tail. I think of this as "tripod stance"; it's a body posture a dragon can assume to free up their front legs to do precision work. It is relatively stable, but grows uncomfortable if you stay that way for too long (tail cramp).

Also, you can't really walk like that. To walk on their hind legs with any kind of proficiency, a dragon has to place both of their wings on the ground to substitute their front limbs.

[seven-gill]

Listener of the NightWings!

She’s finally here! It’s only a headshot, but I tried to compensate for that with some nice lighting. I imagine this is her at the NightWing lantern, glass festival thingy.

Oh, Listener. She doesn’t have too much page-time in the books, but she’s lovable all the same. My heart melted when she called Clearsight “moonbeam”.

Listener is generally depicted as brown or red in the fandom and I decided to roll with that by combining the two. My interpretation of her is a purpleish-brownish-reddish gray with gold compliments. I debated whether or not to give her big ears but I eventually gave in. As one Tumblr user pointed out, that paired with her buck teeth gives her a bit of a rodent look. It wasn’t my intention but I dig it. I also gave her a crescent moon theme for no particular reason other than I wanted her to have some sort of motif associated with her. She also wears golden crescent earrings as a way to emphasize her big ears and teardrop scales. I also gave her mane a bob cut because I thought that fit her. I imagine Listener is pretty, but has some ‘imperfections’ that make her a little more grounded and quirky.

I’m not sure who to draw next. Most of the requests I’ve gotten are NightWings, IceWings, and SeaWings, and I’ve already drawn a lot of those. If there’s a character you’d like to see that isn’t one of those tribes, let me know! Otherwise I’ll probably try out Opal, Indigo, or Fathom.

I’ve also provided a flat color sticker :)

[mad-raptorzzz]

[ID: A drawing of three Wings of Fire Dragons on a gradient background that fades from dark red at the bottom to dark blue at the top. The dragons are Winter, Moonwatcher, and Qibli. Qibli is in the center and is using his wings to hug both Moon and Winter. He has tan scales with darker wings and dark brown freckles. He wears a cocky smile on his face, with his ears pointed upwards. Winter is slightly leaning away from Qiblie and pouts his face in annoyance, trying not to enjoy the hug. He is an ice blue with darker blue and light spots on his feet. Winter's horns are more like deer antlers. Moon leans into Qibli and smiles up at the two other dragons. She is chubby with a very pale green diamond on her forehead and tear drop scales near her eyes. Her bat-like ears are a soft pink and are pointed upwards. Her purple eyes crinkle with her smile. They are gently outlined in yellow with a small yellow heart above them. /End]

Favorite fannon couple has to be Quinterwatcher. I like to think that Moon and Qibli get together first, and then years later after some therapy and soul searching Winter re-enters their lives. And becomes their third partner. Qibli and Winter are both bi in my headcannon (pretty sure Tui may have lightly confirmed that Qibli and Winter could have ended up together so maybe that's cannon?). And I headcannon that the RainWing cultural norm is poly/pan. Since Moon actually spent a decent time around them as she grew up, she saw a lot of very happy couples and partnerships that the traditional NightWings would have scoffed at. This allowed her to realize that she also identifies as poly and pan. Winter, coming from another pretty stiffling culture, has a hard time fully embracing his queerness. But, eventually, opens himself to his heart and lives a happy life. They definitely have like 7 dragonets.

Also, I gave Moon purple eyes to emphasize the Clearsight similarities more. And chubby Moon reigns supreme. SandWings (and MudWings) in my headcannon really like body art including tattoos and piercings. So Qibli, like most of those loyal to Thorn, has a cool scorpion tattoo and several additional piercings on top of his classic earring. I don't think I went too crazy wit Winter. I like IceWings with antlers so I did that. And a bit of snow-leopard spotting for him. I will definitely give other IceWings a bit more of that because it looks cool.

[flamebringer0]

About Nightwing Powers

Wow it turns out you can attach titles to posts, awesome. I will now make another post.

It always drove me kind of crazy how Nightwing powers are presented in canon. I think it drives a lot of people crazy because I've seen more than one person's headcanon adjustments to them. So here is my contribution to that genre.

Some Nightwings have perceptual abilities that other dragons -- other Nightwings and members of other tribes -- lack. One is the ability to read minds, the other is the ability to see the future.

All Nightwings develop both future sight and mind reading in the egg. The mind of a fetus can't integrate any of this information, and most will lose both abilities long before learning to understand what they mean. The dragonet's third eye closes, so to speak, within hours after hatching, and will stay that way for the rest of their life. For unclear reasons, the loss of these abilities is prevented by exposure to the light of a full moon immediately after hatching.

Nightwings always hatch at night, at least if the eggs are exposed to the sky. Those who hatch under a full moon retain the ability either to read minds or see the future, whereas those who hatch under two or three full moons retain both. The presence of these abilities also causes the development of silver scales on the face. A mind reader has a silver scale at the outer corner of each eye, whereas a prophet has a silver scale in the center of the forehead.

[Image ID: Two simplistic line drawings of a dragon's head. These drawings are identical with each other aside from the placement of specific scales, which are highlighted in white. The left drawing is labeled "mind reading" and shows two crescent-shaped scales at the corners of the dragon's eyes. The right drawing is labeled "prophecy" and shows an eye-shaped scale in the center of the dragon's forehead. /.End ID]

The appearance of the silver scales correlates with the strength of the ability. A larger, rounder scale indicates greater power.

[Image ID: Five simplistic line drawings of a dragon's head. These drawings are identical with each other, and with the drawings in the previous image, except in the placement of specific scales. The first drawing is labeled "Starflight" and has no highlighted scales. The second is labeled "Fatespeaker" and has two crescent shaped scales near the eyes. These scales are very thin, much thinner than those of the drawing that was labeled "mind reading". The third is labeled "Clearsight" and has a single scale in the center of the forehead. This scale is large and perfectly round. The fourth is labeled "Moonwatcher" and has three scales: two at the corners of the eyes, and one in the center of the forehead. These scales are shaped identically to those of the "mind reading" and "prophecy" drawings from the previous image. The last drawing is labeled "Darkstalker" and has three scales: two at the corners of the eyes, and one in the center of the forehead. All of these scales are large and perfectly round. /.End ID]

A dragon hatched under three full moons inevitably has the most powerful prophecy and mind reading. Other than that, it's unclear what exactly makes the abilities of one Nightwing stronger than those of another.

Raw power isn't the whole story, though. Clearsight is the greatest prophet of all time, but she isn't the most powerful prophet of all time (or even the most powerful in her immediate friend group). It just turns out that a dragon who diligently works on her abilities will have a certain advantage over one who believes he is already the most powerful and has an inevitable destiny.

It may not be immediately obvious what it would mean for someone to be "more" or "less" powerful at mind reading or prophecy, but there are two relevant metrics: clarity, and control. I think the names are self-explanatory, but just in case, here's a metaphor. If you imagine Nightwing powers as a flashlight shining into a dark room, clarity is the brightness of the bulb, and control is how easily one can direct the beam. These metrics are not really independent: weakly empowered Nightwings will be weak in both aspects, and strongly empowered Nightwings will be strong in both aspects. For those in the middle, who make up the majority, clarity is more developed than control.

The strongest prophets can direct their vision down many different paths, examining the futures that cascade out of intricate chains of decisions, possibly centuries into the future. The weakest prophets have occasional, muddled impressions that a certain decision in their immediate future might lead to something good or bad. In between are the average prophets, who have clear visions, but little ability to control when they occur or what they are about.

Similarly, the strongest mind readers can root around in another dragon's mind and examine any fact, belief or memory they're interested in, whereas the weakest may have a vague impression of the most immediate, intense feelings of whomever they're around. Average mind readers can clearly read the surface thoughts of other dragons, but can't probe arbitrary mental structures without somehow activating them -- by inducing the target to actively reminisce about a memory or some such thing.

In the old days, back when Nightwings understood where their powers came from, it was quite common for ambitious parents to try to time the conception of their eggs so that they would hatch under the full moon(s). For a single full moon, this is almost pointless: the quickest of the three moons cycles through its phases in just a few weeks, and the variation in the incubation period for a Nightwing egg is great enough that it can't be reliably timed to any specific moon phase. For two and three moon nights, this practice is more meaningful, but only in the very general sense that someone who doesn't conceive an egg roughly a year before the brightest night definitely won't have any thrice-moonborn dragonets, whereas someone who does, might.

Some seers would also offer advice about how to do this. For the most part, this advice was snake oil; only the most powerful seers could decide to have a vision about a particular egg's future. Even among the few who could, it would be extremely difficult to see and articulate all the subtle factors that lead an egg to hatch after a longer or shorter incubation, and most of them would be far outside the ability of the parents to really control anyway.

More unscrupulous parents would occasionally try to break an egg open under the full moons, regardless of whether the dragonet was ready to hatch on their own. This practice has never been successful, as hatching in this way disrupts the delicate developmental process needed for the dragonet to retain their power. It is also quite dangerous, and many of the dragonets who were subject to this simply died.

Foeslayer and Arctic didn't do any of this, incidentally. They just got lucky. Or they got unlucky. Depending on which of them you ask.

Speaking of Foeslayer and Arctic's kids, Whiteout has both Nightwing powers. It's not because she hatched one day after the brightest night, though. Hatching a day after a full moon doesn't grant any power. It's actually a manifestation of synesthesia. Synesthesia causes sensory modalities that are unrelated in most people to correlate in a specific way. Whiteout, like all Nightwings who hatched under no full moons, lost direct access to her abilities shortly after hatching. However, she's still able to use them indirectly via synesthetic influence on her other senses. This is why she describes Clearsight as "azure on the inside": to her, Clearsight's thought patterns are azure in a fairly literal sense.

Another Nightwing whose power manifests in an unusual way is Flame. I mean, Flame isn't actually a Nightwing, but he has a semi-recent Nightwing ancestor. That's why he has a forked tongue, unlike other Skywings, and why he has darker scales than any other Skywing. And he hatched under a full moon, so he can read minds. But since his Nightwing ancestry is slight, his power is extremely weak. It's so weak that he has never become consciously aware of it, and most of the time, it doesn't really affect anything. But if someone thinks really hard about him, he senses it. This is why he's the only dragon Moon has ever met who can tell when someone's looking into his mind. It's a very weak form of the same two-way communication she uses to talk to Darkstalker.

In the year 5000, Nightwings have largely lost access to their powers, since they no longer allow their eggs to hatch under the moonlight. Contrary to what Moon thinks, this isn't because they're afraid of hatching another Darkstalker. After all, if it were specifically desired to avoid hatching eggs under the full moons, we would expect to see some kind of active prohibition, or at least some sort of legend about the terrible consequences of doing so. What actually happened is that the Nightwings' new home prevented them from hatching eggs in moonlight, and after a few generations with no mind readers and no prophets, the dragons started to believe their own abilities were legendary or allegorical.

Despite the Nightwings' present powerlessness, belief in their abilities persists. The Nightwings encourage these rumors, and also train their dragonets to imitate the power they lack. This training mostly consists of cold reading and theatrics, not unlike the techniques human con artists use to simulate psychic powers. However, they also leverage the one sensory ability that Nightwings still have over all* other dragons: an extremely strong sense of smell. Most dragons are aware that Nightwings smell better than members of other tribes, but they don't grasp that they may leak private information through subtle odors that only Nightwings can perceive. By examining the smell of another dragon's body, modern Nightwing "seers" and "mind readers" deduce information in a way that is easily mistaken for magic by the uninitiated.

Darkstalker is highly scandalised by this practice when he wakes up, not least because he has an Icewing-tier nose and can't do it.

Now that Nightwings are living in the rainforest, it's likely that their extrasensory abilities will start to become more common again. Unfortunately, their only connection to the ancient techniques for controlling those abilities turned out to be evil and was sent to gay baby jail. It will likely fall on Moonwatcher to begin the process of re-developing these practices and teaching them to a new generation of Nightwing dragonets.

*Actually, Seawings can smell nearly as well. But only underwater.

[wings-of-fire-confessions]

Darkstalker is a bitch ass loser who lost to a group of children twice while being the "most powerful dragon on Prryhria," yeah right. If I went to the same school as him I would shove him in a locker and he wouldn't be able to do anything about it cause that dragon is built like a stick. We have only seen him fight physically once in the mini Icewing and Nighwings fight, he has a massive advantage being way bigger than everyone else and did nothing and he struggled to carry Qibli while being so much bigger than him. I could beat him in a fight anyone could beat him in a fight because he is a loser that relies on his magic and powers that have never put any effort into anything and because of that he treats everything as if it were expendable and I hate him for that. Also before anyone says he would just use animus magic to stop you, to that I say you can't use animus magic if you have been knocked unconscious.

Not only is he a fraud he is also a creep, he constantly tries to isolate Clearsight and Moon so he can get them to depend on him. He always disrespected Clearsight boundaries on reading her mind by trying to distract her so she would let her guard down. Thinks that he can just put spells on Clearsight and the time when he turned Fierceteeth into Clearsight which I am actually just at a loss at. He would have been fine having a relationship with a dragon he turned into a fake version of Clearsight which is just creepy and terrifying, having your agency and personality revoked and being turned into a different dragon completely. He could have had a good life with his friends and Clearsight but he threw it all away, in the beginning I wanted for him to be good I wanted him to live a happy life but he lost me after he enchanted Clearsight and everything after that just made me hate him more. Yeah no he's done, if we ever met for some reason it's over for Darkstalker. I am not even gonna ask anonymously I am gonna make my stance known.

.

[jetlag102]

Apollo’s version of the hunters

Please note that I am no writer and have never tried expressing an au in words like this before. It might suck a little.

Apollo has a temple for young boys on Delos. They swear themselves to Apollo (like Artemis’s hunters do for her), pray for him, sacrifice food for him. They are basically his modern priests. Inside of their lord’s temple do art, music, medecine etc. all in Apollo’s name. They also take care of Apollo’s holy cows which he has moved to Delos since ancient Greece. In exchange for what they do for him Apollo gives them immortality (like the hunters), makes them stronger and more apt at the things in his domain (they are great healers, musicians , etc.). He loves them (platonically) and acts as something between their dad and their patron god (like how he acts with Rachel). While they don’t advise him, he does care for their pinion as humans both very old and very young. They are kept a secret for their protection. Only a few other people know about this place: the Olympians, other more minor gods who’s sons have joined and Rachel (because she is his oracle and they are in similar situations). Apollo’s priests are mostly abused children, either demigods who prayed to him before or after joining camp or (clearsighted) mortals who prayed as a “joke” or in desperation for anything to save them. Most if not all didn’t think it was going to work since they either didn’t believe in the gods or didn’t believe in their goodness, but he saved them anyways. There are some demigods that weren’t aware of their parentage, but felt drawn towards greek/roman mythology and there are others that knew but never made it to camp or left camp because they didn’t like how violent it was. There is a five year old child that had just heard stories of greek myths from a book that said gods protect mortals (He heard mellowed out versions for children lol) which caused him to pray to Apollo, his favorite god (He’s shiny) when his mother hit him again. Apollo then took him away and got him to join his priests. Because they have been hurt so much and most aren’t fighters, the temple has a magical barrier that keeps them hidden from mortal eyes and masks their smell from monsters. (Other option is doing a thing about how sirens are part of his domain because of the singing and are therefore protecting the island). If they ask to leave that life they are allowed but they will lose their immortality and other added skills (If they learned to play the guitar they won’t suddenly lose that, but their playing won’t be able to magically affect people’s emotions anymore). After TOA Apollo reveals the temple to the other gods and demigods. It then becomes a resting spot for demigods and a sort of hospital. The island moves around (like in the myths) and can sometimes be found by heroes in need.

Here you go @apollosgiftofprophecy

[minkydinks]

Why HiveWings in canon do NOT have to be the result of tons of generations of detrimental incest (a hot take maybe)

@sarcasticrat @incorporeal-entity @daishitheprofessionalfool

It's a funny meme in the WoF community that HiveWings are incestuous abominations having all descended from a single dragon (Clearsight). But honestly I think a lot of the weirdness revolving around that idea is missing a fundamental piece of the way WoF genetics work.

It's relatively well known that when two dragon tribes hybridize, their offspring will primarily take after their mothers. Every. Single. Time. At most, there may be somewhat-even mixes of both parents, but the mother's tribe is still largely apparent. We see this with Whiteout, Darkstalker, Typhoon, and Sunny. Whiteout and Darkstalker appear primarily NightWing, like their mother Foeslayer (although Whiteout has a little more IceWing than Darkstalker). Sunny is mostly SandWing in appearance like her mother Thorn; enough that most regard Sunny as a regular SandWing that may just have a rare genetic anomaly. Typhoon confirms his mother as a SeaWing in his dialogue, when he mentions that his father is ill by the animus IceWing plague that Darkstalker caused.

What does this mean for HiveWings?

While it does still sound exhausting to have so many relatives, it's very plausible for her to have caused a branching new tribe with her genetics, WITHOUT inbreeding being involved in that process.

Because Clearsight is female, the VAST majority of her dragonets with BeetleWings would appear.... mostly NightWing! Mostly black scales!

Somewhat like this, if you assume this is relatively canon:

And, any of her daughters who decided to have dragonets themselves, would have ALSO had dragonets with primarily black scales, no matter WHO they married to. The black scales would have easily passed along hundreds (if not thousands) of dragons, without a single instance of genetically problematic inbreeding, so long as the direct descendants of Clearsight were female and had black scales. Regardless, no matter how many children Clearsight had, her daughters, granddaughters, great granddaughters and so on, would pass down her black scales to future generations; all of their Night/Beetle offspring would have taken after the mothers that appeared more NightWing-like, until eventually the form of HiveWings became most familiar because of the consistent mixing of the NightWing & BeetleWing physical traits.

Clearsight may well have only needed to EVER have 6 of her own dragonets total, for there to be a tribe split based on her genetics; depending on whether or not all of her dragonets chose to have families of their own (which we assume they all did). But, it is canon that Clearsight remarried several times, so we can assume she had more than 6; albeit probably not as many as your mind wanders into thinking. No slutshaming!!!! /j

Assuming she had 4 daughters and 2 sons, and each of her children had 3 dragonets of their own (predominantly female from her daughters and predominantly male from her sons), that would be 12 NightWing-dominant hybrids and 6 BeetleWing-dominant hybrids to kickstart the tribe splitting. It's perfectly plausible with the way canon genetics work.

What about SilkWings?

BeetleWings were a spread-out tribe, not existing purely in one location for their kingdom. So, while it's fun to theorize about SilkWings also being descendants of Clearsight, it's improbable at best (and disprovable at worst) that they're related in any way. It's theorized (and probably accurate) that BeetleWings had already been in the process of diverging into SilkWings, and Clearsight's arrival sped up that process significantly by reducing the population of non-diverging BeetleWings.

Incest had to happen at some point, didn't it?

I'm going to tentatively say, yes. But not in the way you're thinking.

At some point, after the BeetleWings had been bred out of existence and replaced by HiveWings and SilkWings, there HAS to be interbreeding of HiveWings at some point. And if ALL HiveWings are descended from Clearsight, that would mean that modern HiveWings are technically inbreeding by continuing to have eggs with other HiveWings, instead of more BeetleWings.

However, this is not as problematic as you'd think. (Stay with me here, this isn't proship territory. I promise.)

If we're looking at animals as a prospect, you'll notice that millions of extant species in REAL life are actually the result of similar conditions. Direct descendants of ancestors that they inherited their primary abilities and traits from, that have ultimately somewhat inbred.

You may be shocked (and even grossed out) to hear that we're actually all somewhat related, especially to those in our own countries. However, the reason incest between close relatives is considered immoral to people (and is illegal in many places, thankfully) is because of genetic anomaly. There is always risk to pass down genetic anomalies, I happen to have one myself! (A congenital defect of the heart that gives me two aortic valve flaps instead of three. This is a standard defect though and I promise I'm not an incest baby.) But the issue with inbreeding is just that it drastically increases the chances of such anomalies happening, the more closely related to an individual you are.

To put it more science-y, inbreeding only increases the chances of consequential or fatal anomalies if the offspring of two individuals contain alleles at the gene site that are identical from descent. In other words, there's a single ancestor shared from both the maternal and paternal sides. This becomes negligible when it's no longer probable to pass identical alleles from both sides; i.e, hitting about 6th degree (roughly second cousins once removed).

In other words, should someone interbreed with their second cousin-once removed, the chances of there being genetic anomalies or consequences are so low, that it's about as likely as if you had a child with any other person in the general population of your area. Your average shared DNA with that 2nd cousin-twice removed would be ~1.5%, which is actually lower than the default chance of any other average birth defect happening to the child of an unrelated couple (~3-4%). Genetic counsellors themselves state that they completely stop worrying about the potential for inbreeding-related fetal anomalies (AND moral code) once the relativity is 4th degree or further, because there is simply such a low chance of any defects, and it would be substantially different from marrying & reproducing with your siblings, parents, grandparents, and other direct relatives. Simply put, incestuous pairings are not black & white when it comes to more distant relation. Although direct relative pairings are inherently risky and therefore morally & ethically reprehensible by any means.

Dragons in Wings of Fire live to a maximum of about 130 years, and 2000 years had passed since Clearsight's arrival to Pantala. That's about 13 generations of dragons, give or take a few. We know based on the story told by Lady Scarab that a close relative of hers that she knew personally actually named the HiveWing tribe - implying that BeetleWings' extinction was actually relatively recent; within the last 200-400 years. Meaning that the genetic diversity of modern HiveWings is high enough that it would be incredibly unlikely for any random pair of HiveWings to pass down identical alleles to their child and cause significant issues.

So while, definition-wise, it is TECHNICALLY inbreeding, it is not a morally questionable issue because there are very few physically consequential results from their pairings; there have simply been FAR too many unrelated BeetleWings in their family trees for so long, that the VAST majority of HiveWings are as closely related to one another as the average city population in the United States.

Additionally, reptiles are not affected by incest the same way mammals are. The majority of unique pet trade reptile color morphs is a result of inbreeding for those colors; it's quite rare for them to have consequential anomalies as a result of such inbreeding as long as they aren't direct relatives only exclusively inbreeding with each other. Also these are magical fantasy dragons, so like. Shrug. I can't imagine incredibly distant relative consanguinity would affect them as badly as anything that's ever happened to British royalty.

(Also you didn't hear this from me, but MudWings are probably significantly more worrisome because of their monthly random breeding nights and no real semblance of family trees. I'd worry about them before worrying about tons of generations of hybrids with the genetic diversity of New York.)

[toadslug]

I FINISHED IT!! Here are my silly opinions for the silly dragon series 🥰 Character names, explanations, and template below the cut:

★ Favorite character: Clay

Clay has been my favorite character since I read his book!! I think his character goes a lot deeper than how some of the fandom treats him (his character arc is amazing), and he's also just a really nice guy.

★ Liked by everyone but me: Queen Ruby

I have no idea why I don't like her 😭 I think the way she treated Peril just kind of pissed me off when I was a kid, and I've never been able to shake the grudge. It's not her, it's me. I almost put Bumblebee here instead (I can't fault her for acting her age, but her screaming can get tiresome).

★ Didn't like at first: Fatespeaker

I considered putting Glory here, but I only started to hate her when that was the popular thing to do (I'm back to liking her now). I immediately didn't like Fatespeaker... Probably because I was rooting for Sunny x Starflight at the time 😬 I PROMISE I'm not like that anymore omg, I was, like, nine. I've come to value Fatespeaker a lot more; her character is surprisingly interesting to pick apart.

★ Would like to know more about: Hailstorm

There's so many characters I want to know more about!! Gill!! Tau!! Riptide!! Moray!! Osprey!! Sora!! Literally any MudWing character!!! But I went with Hailstorm. I adore the cool, supportive big brother energy he radiates, and seeing him trying to fit back into IceWing society (and maybe go through a teensy identity crisis) would be interesting.

★ Least favorite character: Sky

Honestly, I don't really have a least favorite character...? There's Whirlpool, of course, but that's too easy. I ended up choosing Sky 🤷‍♀️ I liked him enough in Dragonslayer, but he annoyed me in The Flames of Hope. I feel like he became a lot louder and more brash.

★ Like the design, dislike the character: Vulture

His dragon skull tattoos and the gimmick for them is so sick?? Why is this grandpa more stylish than me and everyone I know??? His design is great, but everything to do with him and his crime ring felt a little out of nowhere to me. It's been a while since I've read Darkness of Dragons, so maybe I'm just not remembering everything? But yeah. I wish he was introduced better.

★ Like the character, dislike the design: Luna

I like Luna!! And I like how she looks on her book cover, too (the rendering on her is drop-dead GORGEOUS). But the rest of her appearances in canon art... ehh.

These shades of green are making me feel things. And the spots on her wings look kind of awkward to me.

★ Favorite ship: Jambu x Pineapple

I was really close to putting Clay x Peril here because of how OBSESSED I was with them as a kid (shout-out to the Demons Peril PMV by Echosplash Animations that saved my life); however, Jambu x Pineapple is the only ship in the series that got me kicking my feet. The flashback to them cuddling in the hammock melted my heart 💖 Luna x Swordtail, Tamarin x Anemone, and Mangrove x Orchid are also my beloved. Honestly, though, I'm not that involved with shipping anymore.

★ Would never befriend IRL: Sundew

I like Sundew as a fictional character, but I would be slightly scared of her if she was real. She probably wouldn't like me.

★ Would befriend IRL: Umber

He just seems chill. I don't think he'd prod me to do stuff or talk, and I like people like that... People who can just let you exist. I feel like he'd tolerate my cringey humor, too.

★ Similar personality: Clearsight

I am NOWHERE near as girlboss as her, but I can relate to constantly worrying about future situations that may or may not happen 😁😁

★ Least favorite ship: Burn x Scarlet

Sorry toxic yuri ☹️ I just don't ship Burn with anyone.

*This template wasn't my idea; I took the original template and modified it to my liking.

[queenjunothegreat]

Unpopular opinion time! There are some characters in the Riordanverse that would NOT say "Oh my gods" because "Oh my god" isn't a religious statement. Learning about the existence of multiple gods is NOT going to rewrite your language habits overnight. Characters like Annabeth, Jason, and Reyna who have all grown up in that culture would probably say it. Percy, who spends a lot of time with Annabeth would likely say it because she's rubbed off on him. (Also, with Sally being Clearsighted, it's possible he grew up hearing her say it, especially TV!verse Percy.) Rachel ABSOLUTELY says it, but it's a deliberate choice. She heard about lots of gods and went "Fuck yeah I'm adopting the hell out of that." Frank is pretty half-and half. He does make an EFFORT to say it, but he forgets a lot and trips over it. Hazel doesn't say it, but that actually has more to do with the fact that "Oh my god" wasn't really super popular Way Back When and with her growing up with the nuns, she probably found different phrases to use. She DOES, however, say "God damn it" and that was one of the main reasons she got her mouth washed out with soap in school. Nico's in a similar boat, but I think his is more to do with the fact that he's not exactly an "oh my god" kinda guy. I think he would probably say things like "My gods..." all dramatically and would use gods in that situation. Piper and Leo do NOT say "Oh my gods." (Maybe EVENTUALLY they do if they spend a lot of time with someone who does say it, but at 15/16 a lot of your core speech patterns are probably gonna stick.) Leo will occasionally say stuff like "Hoppin' Hephaestus" or something silly like that but just because they are fun, silly things to say. Piper, darling Valley Girl of my heart, says "Ohmigod" and that's it.