#the even shorter TLDR; Shade is Underutilised. Makes for scary plot points. Use it

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sample concept redraws of Ancient Dragons Ice / Fire / Shadow, + Shade-afflicted versions... + Lore Rewrite

HUGE WRITEUP what I would fix overall lore / storywise / physical traits under the cut

I might also post this in Creative corner for my own lulz, but yeah. I just needed this out of my system lmao. I don't think I will do the other breeds but here's a sample gist of it

Bigg TL;DR : Too much potential wasted

FR places huge emphasis on how the Shade was a huge force to be reckoned with. At the end of the Third Age, the Shade had broken the barrier and clearly destroyed "their best ward", before leaving.

In the Gaoler story, there is a huge emphasis on being "Shade-touched", and the Gaolers make it a serious duty of imprisoning Horrorbeasts, which are massive Shade creatures. There is massive potential of what these beasts could be and from just smelling it, anything from just a drop of Shade to full corruption is taken seriously.

Think of Code Corrupter from Halo : they are to be eradicated as swiftly as possible because they are just that strong.

Bounty Of The Elements Core Rewrite :

What I'm saying is, Bounty of the Elements could be the events of the Lightning Flight screwing a massive leyline that runs through Sornieth, causing a HUGE shockwave that causes the other stories to happen.

This could inadvertently reawaken many elemental energies and lines, but also cause Shade fragments to awaken, and also revive Ancients that have been extinct for a long long time. Some are properly reawakened and normal, but most of them have already fallen prey to the Shade of a war long long ago...and become monstrosities...thus what we have in the Fortress of Ends!

The result, the uncorrupted / still sane Ancients try to find their way to get help / help the poor Modern dragons and Beastclans that are confused by all these Horrorbeasts. The Ancients,Moderns and Beastclans can then share their knowledge to try at the very least contain the Shade's influence.

[ GAOLER ]--------------------------------///

To me, the Gaoler are almost perfect lore and designwise. The only things I would change would just be the stubby wings and fully convert them to muscular arms that are for beating down enemies. They are jailers and they would need a TON of power to muscle rampaging Beasts.

This makes them formidable warriors, but should any ever be corrupted, they are hell to deal with.

[ BANESCALE ]--------------------------------///

Chicken was the literal first thought to mind and that thing hurt to look at. The banescale are mentioned to be huge fans of crafting and armour and this is a huge massive point -- they could have been capable of things that bested the Shade's attacks.

I would make their design to be more stocky akin to a typical Wyvern and have more armour plates all over. They are bulky at the top, but their wings would be leather as the Flamecaller. The armour they make would augment their already ridiculously buff scales and massive spike tail.

The Banescale would have been revived underground by the elemental energies, and would have carried on creating everything, as if time was just frozen from them. Only in the events of Temper, Temper do they realise that they can get out and realise the world has changed drastically, and on learning the situation, work with the Fire Flight's denizens to create fantastic armour with modern materials.

[ Veilspun ]-----------------------------------///

Just bug on the wings??? Come on man. A portal is a powerful device and there would have a been a reason they were locked away. The energies would have awakened them, and there could be a elemental reason; Shadow flight is ironically more susceptible to Shade influence than the rest of the other flights, bar maybe Plague.

The Shadowbinder is a huge huge trickster and the flight reflects that, but even more to the design of everything. Nocturnes are a, personally, imitation game gone wrong. But they have something right and it's them mimicing behaviours when needed.

The Veilspuns could have been utter masters of deceit right down to the design, based off a Leaf Insect and legs of a chameleon. Since they are tiny, they can be in the THOUSANDS, and this force would even make a Shade touched go down for the count. The massive drawback would be that the Shade easily "infects" them by the numbers, leading to whole wars between infected and normal Veils under the darkness of night.

They can teach other dragons the art of stealth, even when they are massive creatures, but requires a lot of magic, and the massive energies would be a huge help...