#because why the hell does everything directly integral to the plot— except for darkstalker and scorching stuff— happen within living memory

[wings-of-fire-reforged]

just some questions what does the journal of a, codex otrim, codex irkkikr codex aesyn mean?

For those of you who exclusively browse Tumblr on mobile, this is what's being referred to:

I decided instead of writing about the dragon world in the sterile, detached way of wikis where it reads, "icewings are like this, and skywings are like that", I'd instead frame my reworldbuilding into four in-universe documents, so the information is colored by the perspective of each writer. It's more interesting, challenging, and fun to me this way.

The Journal of Á was once the personal research journal of an ancient traveling hominid (probably an elf) simply referred to as Á. Á traveled all across the continent to observe dragons in their natural habitats and document their biology and behaviors. It has flaws, sure, but it's the best hominids got, and copies and translations are precious resources for any city. Major settlements often have their own addendums documenting the observed behavior of their own regions' dragons (including the seafaring peoples' whose copies include a whole seven strange new dragons), but the version I will show to you is probably the most prized by any hominid: the original one penned by Á themself in a now-dead language with a script nearly unknown to modern humanity.

Codex Æsyn isn't as old as the Journal, but it's still a very old work, written three generations ago by a Nightwing scholar right before the Second Hallowmoon Empire went belly-up and drove the majority of Nightwings back into hiding. Æsyn was the name of the scribe who aimed to compile as much "dracology" as he could, though his execution was pretty poor. Instead of going out and studying the cultures for himself, he relied upon the words of Nightwing travelers and priests who returned to the Holy Depths and reported what they could recall, which obviously were pretty inaccurate and highly dubious. Even then, a stopped clock is right twice a day, and there are some truths that managed to slip through.

Codex Irkkīkr is even more recent, made within the last hundred years and on an entirely different continent. After the Swarm subjugated all dragons on the continent, a dreamy-eyed Hivewing princess aimed to document what the world was like before her species came to rule (a difficult feat when one was too young to even remember the old days). This scholar at least bothered to interview the individuals from her cultures of study, but certain dogmas prohibited the publishing of certain findings. The modern Hive Queen barely tolerates her great-aunt's work, but it is begrudgingly permitted to be read by curious Hivewing students. No one else though.

Lastly, we have Codex Otrim, the work of decades of careful study and passionate labor. Otrim the Farsighted orchestrated the writing of this document with his adopted family, personally interviewing many dragons from all flights of life with the intent of making an unbiased codex of "dracology". Whether or not he succeeded in his endeavors is yet to be determined...