#pyyrhia

[puppetmaster13u]

What's this, a wings of fire redesign thing? Yeah I kind of wish the tribes had more unique body shapes because looking at all of them they have like, the same sort of proportions for the most part.

I feel like mudwings would have a more crocodilian-sort of body shape, more designed for ambush, with shorter, thicker necks since they're known to be the tanks of the tribes.

Sandwings I took more inspiration from vipers and lizards that actually live in the desert, and I feel like they could almost slither across the sand to sneak up on prey.

Nightwings I took a lot more inspiration from things like komodo dragons, and gave them kind of stretchier skin on their underside and smaller scales across their body, which I feel like mimics things like obsidian and volcanic rock.

Seawings deserve some anglerfish lures and the bioluminescence to be more similar to IRL creatures like deep-sea jellyfish. I also took inspiration from dolphins for the head shape, seeing as we read about how the seawings believe them to be cousins of sorts.

Rainwings I took inspiration from chameleons and frilled lizards, make them look like they can be threatening if they want to.

Icewings I gave almost seal-fur on their undersides for more help on the ice, caribou-esque horns to give a bit of uniqueness to the silhouette, and protruding tusks both for the ice and silhouette.

Skywings I made have a bit of a bird vibe with the head shape, almost like they could hook into whatever they're biting or use it to pick up things like rocks.

[lillyosaurus]

dont you want to become a cult leader

why does nobody (aka the books) not bother to think of the impact darkstalker left on pyyrhia after he was defeated.

[mozziu-s]

[Pictured above is that of SkyWing General Sparrow and ex-captain Searing engaged in sparring with swords. They are highlighted by a lightning storm that rages around them.] (SFAU)

-Annual report recorded by SkyWing scribe, Secretary, to superior, Scalding, approx. 15 years after the War of SandWing Succession began-

"This war has afflicted the tribes of Pyyrhia in way no other disaster has. Every of them raked to their core fighting for the SandWings and their royal squabbles.

.

The MudWings are nearly extinct. The IceWings sealed themselves behind their borders. The SeaWings have all turned to high-seas crime and piracy. The NightWings are only alive because they've enslaved most of the RainWings. (I hear their labor is used for making that awful thick and oily armor they wear) The SandWings themselves are all starving. I wonder what guilt they feel for the war they started? Any at all? The princesses better be sorry at least. I'm happy one is already dead.

.

The SkyWings survive. Not that we dont have our own problems though. The Queen has gone absolutely mad with gladiatorial gluttony. Drunk on violence. Her generals, Sparrow, Vermillion, Bloodstone, and Peregrine have taken over in her mental absence, it seems. The rest of us train. We protect our border and fight with vicious vigor. Iron sharpens iron. Flame adds to flame. We spar to keep us in practice in the event we are attacked from a force on the outside, or within. We'll be ready nontheless. The SkyWings will not fall to this war. Not to anyone. Not even to ourselves."

-end of report-

[hal9000000000]

Leaked graphic novel concept art of Luna on her way to Pyyrhia

[wingsoffireaus]

i already tried to send this but I'm pretty sure tumblr just tossed the ask directly into the void so. since skywings believe in reincarnation, what about the other tribes? like, what if some seawings found the bones of some real big water dinosaur and thought it was a dead god, and came to worship them. or mudwings wearing necklaces of alligator teeth to ward off bad luck. or sandwings respecting scorpions as ancient ancestors

(agh. Sorry for getting to this so late... And yup this was definitely lost to the abyss! I am so sorry!)

And oh I love this idea! It's so good! Like I said before I adore mythologies in stories. Like... It's such a big part of world building!

Honestly the closest we get to it in series is probably Darkstalker and maybe Albatross and Arctic? Which you know is all well and good... But I want straight up myths.

For example. This why they have three moons, or this is why Pyyrhia us shaped like a dragon or yada yada.

But yes! I love all of these concepts! (I'm particularly partial to the giant sea dinosaur. Lol)

[wingsoffirescience]

Guys pyyrhia has scrolls and Pantala has books idk why it took me this long to realize this

[wingsoffireconfessions]

ok two things. firstly--- QUINTERWATCHER yes im here for this content come on Tui this is the ONLY acceptable thing for the three of them. secondly,,, i dont like bug dragons because theyre so boring?? like,, pyyrhia with its diversity and climate based races and then. pantela with... bugs. just bug dragons. not even bug dragons actually, just blue guys with more wings and kind of sort of antennae.

there might be other, cooler bug dragons. we can still hold out hope right. someone please tell me we can still hold out hope,

[mozziu-s]

Introducing you all to Caribou and Moose, an IceWing and a RainWing dragonet native to the SFAU, and two of my most popularly requested characters since their inception.

In this alternate version of Pyyrhia, Queen Scarlet has more than just her gladiator arena to satiate her need for controlled violence. Luckily, an island miles to the north of the Sky Kingdom, ringed in a mile of boiling water on all shores, served to be her new favorite place to pass the time.

The island, called Menagerie, became Scarlet's preferred POW camp. Her prisoners are brought in with their wing membranes shorn in half, or "clipped" so no dragons can fly away. It serves as an illustrious hunting playground for the SkyWing elite, as their flightless prey are still full of spunk and more fun to chase down.

It was here that Caribou, a second-circle military commander for the IceWings, was dumped- and subsequently where she met two fangless RainWings, who had lived on the island so long, they had a dragonet together. When the two caught wind that Caribou was attempting escape, they begged her on talons and knees to take their son with her. Reluctant, and wary of dragonets in general, Caribou begrudgingly agreed.

If you like these two and my other SFAU content so far, I recommend visiting my Instagram profile (@mozziu_s) to see all of the posts in their original glory, and to be immersed in the stories they tell. Thank you for lending me your eyes here, enjoy!

[hal9000000000]

Darkstalker resorting to war crimes two seconds after he isn’t instantly handed the crowns of every tribe in Pyyrhia:

[hal9000000000]

Darkstalker: Summons every animus in Pyyrhia to him at once.

Jerboa:

[wingsoffirescience]

This post kind of puts together some of my previous posts into one very big one! Here I’ve discussed my take on the pyyrhian evolutionary tree and it matches up mostly. But one thing you missed is that while mammal hybrids are usually sterile some snake hybrids are fertile! I explain it more in depth here . One thing that I have noticed is that the dragons on pyyrhia show lots of typical signs of domestication which I talked about on my blog! Tui probably didn’t intend it but it would be kind of cool if the dragons turned out to have synthetic origins!

Wings of Fire Dragon Head-Cannon: An Essay on the Origin of Tribal Evolution and Adaptations

This is a head-cannon that I’ve been thinking about for a while, almost since I picked up the book series. How did and when did each tribe develop? Why are they so adapted to their environments? The answer of course seems obvious; they are adapted to survive in each climate or biome of Pyrrhia.

But how did that come to be?

Being the great, voracious sponge of knowledge that I am, I instantly looked to a real-world explanation; Evolution via natural selection. For the most part this theory works within the Wings of Fire Universe and can be seen in some similarities between the tribes as well as explaining some of the interbreeding (to an extent; more on that later). My working theory is this. There was an ancestral dragon tribe that eventually split off into two branches; the ancestors of the SkyWings and the ancestors of the NightWings. These two tribes in particular share their scales shapes, scale placements and body types with the other tribes as well as foot shapes.

I’ll start with the foot shapes. SkyWings have a unique back foot. This foot type means that (at least on their hind legs) SkyWings are digitigrades. This term means that they walk on their toes. Many predatory animals share this type of foot including your house cats and dogs. This back foot is shared by RainWings, IceWings and SandWings.

Art by Joy Ang. Encircled: the digitigrade back foot of a SkyWing.

It can’t be ignored that SkyWings and RainWings look very similar to each other in their body shapes, horn shapes, scale placements and belly striations. It would be likely that these four tribes shared the same ancestor or are directly descended from SkyWings. Currently, it seems logical to say that the ancestor dragon spawned SandWings and SkyWings and then IceWings evolved from SandWings and RainWings evolved from SkyWings.

Art by Joy Ang. Encircled: The other tribes with digitigrade back feet.

On the NightWing side of things, I point to their back feet once again. NightWings, SeaWings and MudWings all share this same back foot, making them plantigrades. This term means they walk on the soles of their feet instead of on their toes. If you look closely at NightWing and MudWing scales, you will also see a lot of similarities.

Art by Joy Ang. Encircled: The plantigrade back foot of a NightWing

From my standpoint is seems logical that MudWings evolved from their cave-dwelling cousins the NightWings and then SeaWings evolved from MudWings.

Art by Joy Ang. Encircled: Other tribes with plantigrade back feet.

However, the problem with this model is this: Time.

In the books the dragon tribes of Pyrrhia took over the continent from the scavengers a little over 5000 years before Clay’s book began and around 2000 years prior to Darkstalker’s. We know little about The Scorching or the dragons that participated in it. It seems extremely likely that a single tribe left Pantala for Pyrrhia and took over, and adapted from there. It would be unlikely (and extremely convenient) for all seven tribes to have arrived on Pyrrhia and found it had a biome suited for each one.

But once again, the problem becomes time. In order for evolution to take place, an enormous amount of time is needed for it to happen. I’m talking millions of years with slight changes happening over time. But the time frame of when the dragons arrived/took over Pyrrhia is 5000 years prior to book one. That’s way too short of a time for natural selection and adaptation to occur to the extremes that are displayed by each tribe. Evolution makes no sense unless they arrived from different, unknown continents that contained their favored biomes prior to settling in Pyrrhia. It doesn’t make sense unless the dragons had been on the continent for a very long time, whether scavengers ruled it or not.

So how?

The next possible answer becomes animus magic.

SkyWings, SeaWings, SandWings and IceWings are all reported to have animus magic in certain hereditary lines. It is very possible that all the tribes at one time had animus magic. And what gives very strong weight to this theory are IceWings and SeaWings themselves.

Both of these tribes are what I would consider the most extremely adapted tribes in Pyrrhia. Especially the IceWings. Their blue blood, and naturally cold bodies are unnatural and unheard of in our reality. Their ice breath is also unique. Their bodies function in cold temperatures and their bodies make the air around them cold. That means that they are essentially the opposite of any warm-blooded animal on earth. We produce heat in order to keep our organs warm and functional. There is nothing alive that is opposite of that. Even cold-blooded lizards need to warm their blood and bodies using sunlight or they are sluggish. Very few animals can survive extreme cold that are not warm-blooded. Those that come to mind that are not warm-blooded are mostly insects, but they will actually fall into a frozen stasis until a thaw comes through in extreme cold. They can’t function in it. But IceWings produce cold probably because their internal organs need to stay cold to function.

With such an unnatural and un-animal ability, there is little explanation as to why or how they could or would evolve. Even with the prior model, going from SandWings to IceWings is a massive leap by evolution standards and would take millions upon millions of years to occur. It is far more likely that they were born of animus magic, after their tribe split from their ancestral predecessor or the SandWings and used the magic to make their tribe able to live and survive in the extreme climate of the northern peninsula of Pyrrhia. (Perhaps this source of magic is the Great Ice Dragon mentioned in the books? The IceWing that turned the tribe into what they are?)

The same goes for the SeaWings. Evolving gills in a land-animal is distinctly un-natural. We know that it is possible for a land animal to evolve adaptions to the sea. (See whale and dolphin evolution.) However, these mammals still have to breathe air and do not have gills. Gills are adaptations of fish and amphibians, animals that live primarily in water and never left it. It should be noted that  Lungfish have primitive lungs as well so that part isn’t totally unheard of, but these fish are adapted to surviving during the dry season, and bury in mud and enter into a hibernation state. This is when they primarily use oxygen to breath. To have both fully formed lungs and working gills is nothing short of magical.

Above: Lungfish. Source: Wikipedia

It seems far more likely that they too were born of animus magic, and when all the space on the continent was claimed, they took to the islands and then the sea.

With that in mind, it seems likely that most of the tribes were born of animus magic in one way or another. At least for the Pyrrhian dragons. The Pantalan dragons are an anomaly on their own as they take after insects. With little information on whether they have always been on the Lost Continent or not leaves this up to speculation and for the time being, a mystery.

Ultimately I settle upon either all tribes being born of magic, or that some were born of magic while others evolved naturally.

The only other alternate theory I have spins the series into more of a Sy-fi. It is possible that the scavengers were rulers of the planet, or that they are people who landed on the planet from space in the distant past. Due to the three rotating moons and the obvious abundance of oxygen evidenced by the huge trees of the rainforest that dwarf our dragon friends, it is clear the books do not take place on Earth. So, for whatever reason, the scavengers or humans genetically engineered the different tribes for war perhaps, as evidenced by the dragon’s tendencies towards violence. (Though that could be due to the time period in dragon history of the books being similar to the Bronze to Iron Age in human history. Our ancestors were a tribal, violent bunch. Due to their intelligence, and tribal nature, it wouldn’t be surprising if dragons would mimic this sort of behavior.) However, the theory of genetic engineering has little evidence at the moment and spins into heavy speculation. 

The last thoughts I have on this topic involve the ability to interbreed. Whether the dragon tribes of Pyrrhia evolved naturally or via magical means, they can still interbreed. This is an anomaly as well when it comes to natural selection and evolution. New species in our world are born of a few different ways, but the usual way is when a small portion of a population of the same species becomes separated via terrain. After a period of time, the two populations will start to change to adapt to their particular part of the land or certain features will be favored over others. After enough changes occur, the two populations can no longer breed together and if they try will often produce infertile offspring if any offspring at all. This is called speciation due to isolation or, allopatric speciation.

Above: A very basic representation of allopatric speciation. Source: link

The dragons of Pyrrhia, while not necessarily isolationists, have the adaptations, body shapes and possibly even DNA of completely different species of dragon. If they were made by magical means, their evolution was likely sped up, meaning that technically each dragon tribe is its own species.

Now hybrids in our world are of course possible between species. Mules, Ligers and even an elusive hybrid between the Spotted Owl and Barred Owls among others are reported. The two I mentioned prior only exist however due to human intervention since the parent species do not have overlapping habitats in the wild. Most of the time, these hybrids are highly likely to be infertile and cannot reproduce. This is more likely among highly differentiated species like a donkey and horse more so than my owl hybrid I mentioned. This is because the parent species have changed so much from their common ancestor that they no longer share similar enough DNA for it to pass healthy to offspring. Mules have an odd number of chromosomes at 63. Horses have 64 and donkeys have 62. An even number of chromosomes is needed in order for them to divide and reproduce properly. This means a mule cannot reproduce and cannot go on further to create a new species.

So why am I bringing this up? If IceWings and SeaWings are so extremely adapted, the likelihood of hybrids between them and other tribes would be either impossible or at best infertile. I know that conclusion is a massive bummer since the community is creative with their hybrids and tribrids. This also means that Darkstalker and Whiteout wouldn’t technically be possible unless Arctic or Darkstalker’s magic intervened. However, a SandWing/NightWing hybrid like Sunny would be more viable since these two species are much closer, more similar to each other and would be more likely to produce healthy offspring.

What I will say is that Sutherland hit the mark when making Whiteout autistic; if a hybrid between two extremely adapted tribes occurred, it would be likely to have some developmental problems within the egg that would lead to her result. Why it didn’t affect Darkstalker though…? There are of course a number of possibilities. Maybe he got the right amount of DNA. Human parents who produce children with autism can also produce children without it. So just because Whiteout was, doesn’t automatically mean Darkstalker would be also. But that’s between two humans who are still of the same species. Not two highly different types of dragons like an IceWing and a NightWing. In the end, perhaps due to their magical heritage, maybe all the Pyrrhian tribes can still interbreed due to some massive foresight of their ancestors. Or, if I can quote one of my favorite internet reviewers, Linkara, “It’s magic I don’t have to explain it.”

Only Sutherland would know the answer to that, if there is an answer at all. It’s very possible that due to the series being made for children, that amount of thought wasn’t put into why the dragons tribes are so different. I find this even more evident when it comes to the book descriptions of each tribe’s culture, or lack thereof. In the end, it is likely the dragons are an allegory of humanity pushing for the idea that we are all one species and that our minor differences don’t actually matter and that fighting over them is bad. And so any form of evolutionary theory wouldn’t matter and would have to bow and break to the story’s needs.

But hey, I have fun pondering these questions and with no definite answers it makes for fun speculation. I hope this sparked some speculation in you, if you managed to make it through my small essay of thoughts.

~LCW

“The origin of each tribe, of all dragons is still a mystery shrouded by time. Dragons didn’t start writing down their histories in Pyrrhia until after the Scorching. So whatever had happened before either wasn’t worth mentioning, needed to be kept secret or will forever remain a mystery.”

                                                           -Storywriter, NightWing Historian

 If you want to follow my personal blog where I post my fanart for Wings of Fire and other fandoms, general thoughts, re-blogs, and original art, follow me at Stream of Distracted Thought.

[puppetmaster13u]

PART 2! The Pantella dragons

Honestly I had fun with them. My server joked about stickbug leafwings but honestly I kind of like the idea of scales that mimic leaves and branches so... They can definitely camouflage in the jungle.

Hivewings deserve mandibles and big chitin-like scales. Though I did my best to take some aspects from my nightwing redesign too. Did my best to combine a lizard with a wasp sort of vibe lol

Silkwings have the same stretchier skin as a nightwing ancestor, but its covered with fine fur that I feel is similar to moth scales. I didn't mean to take bat inspiration but honestly that's what the squished muzzle and big ears remind me of lol

What's this, a wings of fire redesign thing? Yeah I kind of wish the tribes had more unique body shapes because looking at all of them they have like, the same sort of proportions for the most part.

I feel like mudwings would have a more crocodilian-sort of body shape, more designed for ambush, with shorter, thicker necks since they're known to be the tanks of the tribes.

Sandwings I took more inspiration from vipers and lizards that actually live in the desert, and I feel like they could almost slither across the sand to sneak up on prey.

Nightwings I took a lot more inspiration from things like komodo dragons, and gave them kind of stretchier skin on their underside and smaller scales across their body, which I feel like mimics things like obsidian and volcanic rock.

Seawings deserve some anglerfish lures and the bioluminescence to be more similar to IRL creatures like deep-sea jellyfish. I also took inspiration from dolphins for the head shape, seeing as we read about how the seawings believe them to be cousins of sorts.

Rainwings I took inspiration from chameleons and frilled lizards, make them look like they can be threatening if they want to.

Icewings I gave almost seal-fur on their undersides for more help on the ice, caribou-esque horns to give a bit of uniqueness to the silhouette, and protruding tusks both for the ice and silhouette.

Skywings I made have a bit of a bird vibe with the head shape, almost like they could hook into whatever they're biting or use it to pick up things like rocks.