I thought it was about time I wrote down some definitive 'facts' about my world of Dragons
Dragons, eggs and
mating
The normal colours for dragons are Amethyst lore-wyrms,
Diamond spell-wyrms, Beryl speed-worms, Ruby war-wyrms and Topaz nurture-wyrms.
Under normal circumstances, only Ruby and Topaz are sexually
aware and fertile. There are a
preponderance of male Ruby dragons and female Topaz dragons. The mix of the two gives the full normal
range of eggs with a small chance of an Opal egg on which more anon.
A male and female Ruby can mate.
A male and female Topaz can mate
Eggs from any single-colour pairing significantly reduces
the number of other colours.
A female dragon will come into season every 4-6 years, and
will lay 3-18 eggs
Normal matings of Ruby x Topaz produce:
5% Amethyst
10% Diamond
9% Beryl
31% Ruby
44% Topaz
1% other, which may be Opal or it may be an infertile egg, a
sport or a deformed dragon.
In a mating of Ruby x Ruby the results are as follows:
90% Ruby
9% Topaz
1% other which is more likely to be sport, deformed or
infertile than one of the other colours.
In a mating of Topaz x Topaz
1% Amethyst, Diamond or Beryl
9% Ruby
89% Topz
1% other which is more likely to be sport, deformed or
infertile than one of the other colours.
In times of warfare, there tend to be more female Rubies
laid to increase Ruby x Ruby matings for more war-wyrms. Dragons have an unconscious
level of divination. As the eggs can be
stored, this can be a long-term divination, when times are good, for when times
are bad, as with the production of an Opal egg in normal matings.
Topaz do carry latently the other colours but without the
Ruby stimulation it is less likely to express.
Unusual eggs.
The unconscious divination causes the occasional Opal egg to
be laid. The sexual maturity of an Opal
dragon awakens a sexual drive in Amethyst dragons, which the intellectuals of
the dragon world find unnerving so they prefer not to talk about it.
An Opal dragon matures at around 5 years old like other
dragons, but typically only comes into season every 10 years or so; the result
of this is 2-12 eggs.
The other colours are Onyx Leader-wyrms, Tourmaline healer-wyrms, Rose Quartz
empathy-wyrms, Emerald truth-wyrms and Sapphire talent-wyrms. Opal
dragons can also lay Amethyst, Diamond and Beryl eggs, and rarely, other Opals.
Onyx wyrms are produced if there is going to need to be a
cohesion between dragonkind. Dragons
like to lair together, but on the whole are pretty unco-ordinated in large
numbers, finding co-operation difficult.
An Onyx wyrm is, however, immediately obeyed by all Rubies.
Tourmaline dragons, like Amethyst dragons live a very long
time, expand the lifespan of their Bonded, and though nobody knows this yet at
the Legr will Bond, like Amethyst dragons, more than once.
Rose Quartz dragons and Emerald dragons tend to be shelled
when increasing numbers is desirable, to better check out the hearts and minds
of potential Bonders.
Sapphire dragons also live longer, and expand the lifespan
of their Bonded but will not survive past the loss of their human Bond. The muse is too deeply intertwined.
Eggs from an Opal x Amethyst clutch
2% Onyx
15% Tourmaline
13 % Rose Quartz
4% Emerald
15% Sapphire
28% Amethyst
15% Diamond
5% Beryl
2% Opal
1% Other – sports, deformed or infertile. Opal matings have a slightly higher chance of
a sport which might become a new type.
There have been no known Opal x Opal matings.
As Opal dragons awaken awareness in Amethysts of the
appropriate gender, there have been no Amethyst x Amethyst matings. If there
was the very unlikely situation of a male and a female Opal dragon, both on
season at once [and I do not rule out that a female Opal could drive a male Opal
into season] then it would be possible
for sexually awakened male and female Amethysts to mate.
I want this clarified in case of this series generating fan
fiction and also to be a laid down set of rules for if I should extend the
stories after the six books about Bess.
Many thanks for this, a much more interesting mix than on Pern and much nicer clutch sizes. It is also nice to know that all the species can have both genders.
ReplyDeleteThe ten sided dice have been busy!
Dave Penney
thank you; I wanted to be different so I sat down and worked out what specialisations made sense to me. I have never been able to figure out the point of having firelizards come in different colours especially if green ones mate and lose most of their clutches. I could see a fair of sterile smaller dragons to assist with raising the breeding pair's broods but fertile and sexually voracious greens makes no biological sense [and if that sounds like heresy, I still love Pern but I hate Anne's lack of scientific knowledge when she tries to come up with quasi-scientific explanations. sorry rant over]
Deleteand the 6-sided ones
firelizards, even, not dragons, they being artificial which is kinda fair enough
DeleteI am wondering if the mix from a Ruby/Topaz pairing is any different from a Topaz/Ruby pairing, personally I think that it should differ.
ReplyDeleteDave Penney
It would be interesting on fanfiction seeing slytherinsal using Sarah Jean's books as a base.
that's a good point, and I need to think about it
DeleteLOL possibly. You want to write some too?
My initial pondering is that the biggest difference will be invisible at first, being more female rubies in a clutch. Did you have any thoughts, Dave?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMy thoughts is that there will be a slight bias towards the species of the female as well as the gender. We also need to think about an Amethyst/Opal mating.
ReplyDeleteSetting up the Dragon Manifesto does take rather a lot of thought and as my background is in electronics NOT biology I am somewhat out of my field.
As to me being an author, I am not creative but I am a fixer. I failed GCE O level English at the second attempt back in 1955, during my apprenticeship in the RAF the instructors used to complain that I used far less answer books during exams but they couln't mark me down as everything was there, although somewhat condensed.
Dave Penney
that does make sense. I bucked out of biochemistry myself after a remedial chemistry for biologists course in my A level year, though I've always been interested in genetics.
DeleteNothing wrong with condensed. My husband is autistic and he gives lovely concise answers to things.
I always take ideas though and run with them if someone has a thought to follow through.
I am thinking that because Opals have a specific task, and are shelled to be the right sex for the right person, the differences between Opal x Amethyst and Amethyst x Opal are going to be vanishingly small. [that at least is my excuse and you are stuck with it unless you talk very fast]
How interesting! I'd like to know more about the reBonding of adult dragons once their Bondmates have passed away. So far we've only seen hatchlings Bond.
ReplyDeleteOther than Skyshadow, who is mentioned to have rebonded to Master Van Huys, I haven't done a lot with it. I will think about that.
DeleteAnd by the way anyone who wants to write any fanfiction is welcome to do so.
I was reading Bess and the Queen on my Kindle and had a thought about Shakespeare carrying a scrap of paper in his pouch.
ReplyDeleteI don't think he. He'd likely have a waxed tablet for notes like that.
sometimes i compromise over less important things rather than go into long explanations
Delete