Spacedrakes
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FAQ
🕑 Added 2024-06-27 04:16:11 +0000 UTCI'll try to be as succinct as possible [like always] and will post these in Q/A format
I'll start to basic questions then move up to more complex
Q: How many eggs do abyss drakes lay?
A: 2-4 avg. max of 6.
Q: When do female drakes produce eggs/go in heat?[asked by chibi]
A: While there is no 'heat' females ovulate when the weather is hottest. They do in fact have pheromones' that attract males. Females ovulate every 2 cycles. She can choose whether or not she wishes to breed at her own free will. However…cannibalizing ones own eggs is an extreme offense and one of the two laws that are utterly unbreakable. They will land you in serious shit if you do it [hello Ezrael]. Females also don't get that disgusting human gut when pregnant. They just get more tube shaped/thicker in the mid section see: pregnant snakes
Q: How are the eggs cared for? [asked by chibi]
A: Weeeeell, drakes are like gators and turtles. They have a STRONG preference to bury their eggs under moss. Pups are in fact, fully self sufficient hunters from birth. It's likely this desire and trait is passed on from the Mistavians. MOST females will opt for either public nurseries or to use an incubation device in the home. Drakes are not raised like humans are, they are raised by the entire pack. The phrase "it takes a village" certainly applies to them. Nurseries are public and free institutions that have a variety of nesting options for mothers or parents. The facility always offers group incubation in mossy chambers where the eggs are kept at their natural and correct humidity. There's no such thing as "my blood, my family, my family name" bullshit. All drakes are /the people/ [Nytrek. All is one, one is all] therefore each colony treats pups like they are ALL their sons/daughters, brothers, sisters, grandmothers, etc. There are terms specifically for that but we will get into that later. Drakes have no family names. Each name is unique to the drake.
Q: Are there m/m f/f pairings? Are drakes bisexual?
A: no. [complex no] females, as the head of the species and dominant sex, will often choose to be in the company of other females rather than the persistent annoyances of a lustful male. Females will sometimes imprint on each other but never bond, and never engage in major sexual activity, though they are happy to cuddle and nuzzle one another. Males are akin to lone elephants, they do not imprint on one another and barely tolerate each others presence unless a female is there to take charge. Androgyns are hated by both "normal" sexes, they usually have very lonely lives. Damian [my drake] included. His power as a mob boss does not change the fact he is an androgyn. Aeryn was hated her entire life for being an androgyn, the first person who didn’t hate her is her Elsker, Hades.
Q: What is bonding? How does it work?
A: Bonding is a mostly still forbidden act between two drakes whom have imprinted on one another. To bond is to share ones anima with another. Their soul. There are practically no bonded drakes for obvious reasons which will be listed momentarily. Bonding is both a ritual AND an act. It goes all the way back to Mistavians [the only ancestor who bonded with another dragon] and it's a sharing of mind/body/anima. The ritual involves a quiet space, peace and a short phrase, then the drakes cut themselves on the hand and heart and each drake places their hand on the others heart. As blood is shared, so is anima. They then touch foreheads together and remain in this position for a span of time [30mins to an hour] during that time they begin to feel the memories and experiences of their partner. Pain, pleasure, fear, trauma, everything is shared. In the end, entirely random traits from one are passed to the other. This is why it's frowned upon as some drakes [Ezrael for example] are unstable psychopaths. Any drake who bonds to another that has either hidden or out in the open, defects in their personality, risk the chance of inheriting those traits.
If one bonded drake is killed or dies, their partner dies too
Drakes whom are bonded and can't be near their partner fly into a dangerous and unreasonable rage. They cannot by any means, be reasoned with or soothed until they are reunited. Obviously this is extremely bad if you're a soldier during war.
Personality sharing isn't all it's cracked up to be, a gentle soul can become a bloodthirsty beast, a sociopath, a rapist, or far worse.
Q: What are Elskers? How does their existence differ from bonded pairs?
A: Elskers [for short] or Elsker Anima [proper] are a direct result of the galactic balance being broken. An Elsker is one half of the pair, and this will be a being that feels pain and loneliness deep in their core from birth. It's an unnatural phenomenon versus bonding, which is natural but banned from being performed. Elskers have NO CONTROL of what they are. They can be paired with any male/female species that fits their anima type. i.e sentient life forms/large predators/insects/etc. Elskers will also always have a pattern on either skin, scales or plumage that reflects that the anima [soul] is broken. The markings will be a series of barbed stripes with hooked markings and twisted shapes. Two elskers will be driven to reunite their anima. This will impact them from birth. A drake born on a space station whom has an elsker on Io that happens to be a kyon will feel the urge dragging him/her to Io. They may become pilots or engineers or colony directors in that case, just to subconsciously be driven towards their other half. When reunited, the "love" goes far deeper than a humans understanding of the concept. They literally share the same soul. It is the purest form of love anywhere in the universe. Often if one dies, the other will commit suicide to try to reunite their life force in the Great Repository. Quite a large difference from bonded drakes which can only bond with another drake, and not any old creature.
Q: Do drakes celebrate a birthday/hatchday?[asked by chi]
A: No. they celebrate their nameday though. The festival for namedays is jiji'onom. They're held once a month to cut down overall celebrations [1st of the month]. The party has loads of food and is held on Io. Nameday celebrators are called out loud by the Matriarch or grand matriarch and toasted to and stuffed with food. Many are gifted items from shiny artifacts to useable things like a box of nanites to program and perform tasks. Hatchdays exist too, they are placed on legal documentation, as is nameday date. Namedays can be anywhere from day after birth, to a month after, to half a year. It's all highly dependent on what timeline the event is happening in.
Post war, on emain, chaos rampant: hatchday entirely irrelevant. Drakes grown in maturation chambers are named after they complete training. Usually around 6 months. Prior to that each batch of pups were given a number and a letter as a name. i.e 001a, 002a, etc. Augments had no letter, only numbers. i.e 002 [ezrael, who named herself not the facility. She read in an ancient book about an amazing goddess of death and took her name]
2. post everything, current timeline: hatchday is a minor celebration within either the household or brood hatchery [always looked after by females as they're the most responsible]
Q: Are there still soldiers in the current timeline?
A: No. Current timeline is roughly 200 cycles POST absconding Emain. No soldiers are being trained and the military was dissolved. Many soldiers traded in their blades and guns for the quiet life of colonizing and farming, and working in nature as the wars were EXTREMELY traumatic and they only want peace now. The remaining soldiers who were too broken by war to reintegrate into polite society formed the Reaper Association, aka 'the Reapers,' "the fucking reapers," "those reaper cunts," and "reaper sons of bitchies" [quote: Ezrael & Damian who both refuse to adhere to laws] led by the Crimson Huntress, Antares[Ezrael's former commanding officer].
Q: Were children ever soldiers? [asked by ribbi]
A: No. Absolutely not. Children are the blood and future, in no timeline, in no period, were children ever equipped with weapons and sent to war.
Q: Do Abyss Drakes annihilate life forms on other worlds, engage in hostile takeovers? [asked by ribbi]
A: Absolutely not. The drake population spread out across NUMEROUS solar systems is only in the millions. The LOW millions. They would never, ever engage in war knowing how fragile their existence currently is plus the fact the Galactic Repository is still fucked up and anima distribution is wrecked. They'd never further upset the balance considering people and animals of all sizes are still actively dying on Emain.
Q: How long do Abyss drakes live? [asked by chibi]
A: We don't know, no one knows. Rift drakes [parent species a] lived into the 900s, up to 1000. Mistavians lived well over 1000 cycles [grandparent species]. Veil lived around 750 [theorized, they all died during the various wars] It is HYPOTHESIZED to be somewhere in the 700-1000+ range, but we have no way of knowing for certain. The oldest known drake currently, is in her 500s [Rhaeash]. If there are others, we have no way of knowing.
Q: When does a pup become an adult?
A: 2 cycles. Like many dinosaurs and large reptiles, Abyss [and their ancestors] grow immensely in their first 2 cycles of life. After that they slow down due to lower metabolism and body temp. Reptiles on earth are some of the longest lived creatures we have, alongside birds. A drake is an adult by 1 cycle, and fully grown by 2 cycles. [My form featuring southern drakes shows a mother and her 1 year old "pup" beside her.]
Q: What is an aberrant drake?
A: A drake whom either crashed or ended up marooned on an otherwise utterly inhospitable planet with a toxic atmosphere. As /reptiles/ they are a very, VERY hardy species. Like Earth reptilians, they can adapt and survive the most absurd conditions. But survival means adaptations that push a drakes mind and body backward in time, towards that primordial phase of evolution. Their skin thickens, some even lose a majority of body plumage. They grow adaptive venom and fire, their body itself turns into a more animalistic shape, often with a hunched back, much larger claws, and the head shape flattens into a sleek, hunting machine. Their teeth grow larger too and some have such large venom glands in their neck that they pooch out visibly. They also go feral and mildly insane during this period. It's next to impossible to rehabilitate a feral drake. Usually they are killed on sight. The only success in "recovering" aberrants are:
Bonding [arzu and azia, as well as ambrose and circe] bonding with an aberrant can save his or her life. By sharing in their insanity, the sane drake can pass their calm/sentience back to the feral drake.
Imprinting [rika and asura] in some cases, if a drake encounters an aberrant and they attempt to fight on behalf of the aberrant, they will then see that drake as good/family/packmate. In that case, the feral drake will loyally stick around the normal drake. Asura fought on behalf of Rika a few times. It earned her loyalty. Rika is barely more than an animal however, almost entirely nonverbal, but if also FIERCLY protective of her rescuer. To a fault. She tries to attack almost anyone who comes near "her person"
Q: How long does it take to become an aberrant?
A: It's dependent on a few factors. Are they alone? Do they have communication devices with the outside world? Is the biome excessively toxic? Drakes whom are marooned and entirely alone descend into feral madness in a handful of years [about 4-5] they become aberrant during a 10-20 cycle period. The longer they are alone with no one to speak to, the more aberrant they become. Even in a toxic environment, they can retain some sanity if there is at least one other with them. They will still be aberrant or partially aberrant though. In that case, sanity is the last to go. In most cases the drake marooned is alone, and the entire process is much faster.
Q: can aberrants be tamed?
A: haha, no. Look at rika and asura. While those two are [canonically] a unit and rika is imprinted on her rescuer, rika can't be saved or fixed. She is how she will always be. And asura is okay with that. Rika is pleasantly behaved compared to MOST aberrants. Aberrant males are the worst as they are larger, stronger, with shit tempers.
Q: Are pups taught about Emain? What sort of education do they get? [asked by chibi]
A: Similar to earth history drake pups and younglings are shown slideshows, holofilms, and real life research videos containing graphic content from the massive world war, and then the infection and outbreak of Chaos. SOLDIERS have neural ports at the base of their neck and they download relevant data directly into their brains, they are still made to watch all documentation of events so that they are fully versed in how to be proper members of society and not murderers. The documents are extremely graphic, showing the infection stages of Chaos in real time, and watching as infected turn and attack their own friends, family, loved ones and tear them apart with tooth and claw. The videos are meant to instill fear and emotional damage so that they know what they are fighting for [life itself]. Even current timeline pups are fully educated on the reality and suffering of their older kin.
Q: Do drakes care about scars? Do they remove them? [asked by chibi]
A: They can get them touched up and removed if they happen to care enough. They have the technology to remove any scars but most drakes will get patched up and call it good. They're rather impatient and unlike Rifts, not neurotic about physical beauty. Most in fact, seeing a scarred up drake, find it incredibly attractive and "that guy/girl must be very powerful and a great warrior." Some scars are considered medals of honor, bravery and sacrifice.
Q: How do drakes refer to one another in public places?
A: Most will say "kanuna" when referring to anyone older than themselves that is female. Kanuna means matriarch. "mynk'na" said as "my brother" and "kler'na" as "my sister." This does not mean blood siblings, these phrases are used toward any non-directly related drake. I.e you're shopping and bump into another drake, you wish to apologize, you say: "Ik esvik iz Mynk'na," "I'm sorry my brother."
Q: As far as laws or rules go in the drake societies, are they made and enforced by the matriarch in each colony? And as for any severe rules broken: such as needlessly murdering another drake, what are the types of punishments for that if there are any? (Outside of what Ez essentially got banned for)[asked by chi]
A: Ezrael is likely the only known exception to the enforcement of certain laws regarding murder, and that's due to the fact that she gave the Reapers way way too much trouble. [she killed several packs, alone, just her]. Cannibalism and murder are the main charges that will land a drake the death penalty. Minor cannibalism is usually stopped with a control collar. Drakes who refuse the control collar and rehabilitation are put down. Being put down by Reapers is the last desire of any drake. Ezrael is the only one who went maniac that hasn't been put down. A special exception to their own laws was written for her.
The law reads: No Reaper be he leader or subordinate is to engage in the hostile entity 002: Ezrael by any means. An agreement has been reached with 002 in which she is not to land on any planetary body within the Astaris system. If she does however, extreme precaution is warranted. For no reason should any drake attempt to subdue or interact with her whatsoever. 002 is considered armed and dangerous at all times and takes an extreme pleasure in tearing apart and cannibalizing her prey. Do not become her prey.
Furthermore, drakes outside of astaris and even on the outer ring of the solar system often descend into anarchy with laws being lax and not entirely enforced due to the overall lack of population as a whole and lack of sufficient Reapers to enforce it. There's a lot of "if the matriarchs don’t see it, it didn't happen" mindset outside of Astaris--and even within [Damians base of operations ]
Q: Do drakes have other holidays or celebrations?[asked by chibi]
A: yes. There are numerous festivals and holidays.
Drakys Sol'on (Reptilian Kin Festival), Krethak strat'iori sol'on(Day of honor for soldiers/veterans), Gastran Sol'on (The Feast of Harvests). There are also festivals for other things, known as jiji's.
Q: How many augment soldiers were actually produced? [asked by chi]
A: Approximately 5 thousand. Numerous died during the Chaos war and evacuation. There are about 3 thousand currently "accounted for." Nearly all of them are Reapers, others are mercs, and a tiny handful are wild game hunters on Io/Qothos because killing big murderous animals and selling them is a highly honorable profession. It feeds the colony, it's difficult and sometimes deadly.
Q: How do genetics work in offspring? What patterns are passed on?
A: I've done genetic stuff in the past, but suffice to say, a tropic and a southern breed, they have 4 eggs. Rationally 50% of those eggs will be either southern or tropic. Statistics don't actually mean 2 eggs will be such and such and the other 2 will be the other. It's a rough estimate. But for the sake of explanation we will stick with the MOST BASIC punnet square.
Parent A: SS parent b: OO
50% of the offspring will be tropical, 50% southern.
Offspring 1,2: SS // Offspring 3,4: OO
Let's depict a more complicated pairing:
A point [recessive] tropic breeds with a stripe [dominant] southern
The offspring are as follows: [SS for stripe, Pp for pointe]
| S P | S p | s P | s p |
------------------------------------
S P | SSPP | SSPp | SsPP | SsPp |
------------------------------------
S p | SSPp | SSpp | SsPp | Sspp |
------------------------------------
s P | SsPP | SsPp | ssPP | ssPp |
------------------------------------
s p | SsPp | Sspp | ssPp | sspp |
------------------------------------
Result:
Given the recessive nature of the Pointe pattern, we see that there is a 1/4 chance of the Pointe pattern appearing in the offspring, specifically when the genotype is sspp or Sspp. Here is the distribution:
25%: SSPP - Stripe, no Pointe
25%: SSPp - Stripe, carrier for Pointe
12.5%: SSpp - Stripe, Pointe
12.5%: SsPP - Carrier for stripe, no Pointe
12.5%: SsPp - Carrier for stripe, carrier for Pointe
12.5%: Sspp - Carrier for stripe, Pointe
0%: ssPP - No stripe, no Pointe
0%: ssPp - No stripe, carrier for Pointe
0%: sspp - No stripe, Pointe
Q: Are there matriarchs for each colony? [asked by chi]
A: yes. They are also all part of a collective. Matriarchs are voted in and can be voted out at any time. The collective determine laws and how actions will be taken against rule breakers as well as the important facets of reality like trade exports between colonies. All Matriarchs answer to a grand matriarch. There are currently 5. grand matriarch is a title, and position. It's equivalent to world-leader. There is one in Serala on Io, one on Qothos, the remaining 3 are on space stations. The current grand matriarch of Io is only there because the real grand matriarch Rhaeash, refuses to take her position of leadership and would much rather keep her seat on the council [the collective].
Q: What/who are the Reapers?
A: Former augment soldiers as well as former un-augmented soldiers. Rather than become lawless mercenaries, the Reapers answer to the matriarchal council. They are also run by their own sub-matriarch, Antares.
Q: Compared to a human, whats the strength of the avg drake versus soldier, versus augment, versus aberrant?[by chi]
A: Their muscles are FAR more dense than a humans, and the avg non-soldier can lift 1,000lbs with ease [their own weight]. Soldiers often can lift 2k, aberrants and augments strength are hard to quantify as they are both very hard to test. Aberrants are uncooperative at best, and augments vary wildly in their skills. Ezrael can likely knock over a loaded semi [abt 16,000lbs] in a mild state of anger. Much more in a state of pure rage. She couldn't lift it simply due to the awkward shape. If there was an ultradense and small object that a 7-9ft drake could lift, it would be easier to quantify their abilities. Since no such element exists, it's fundamentally impossible to fully gauge their prowess.
Q: What % of abyss drakes are born with wings?
A: 1% from all "purebred abyss" pairings. The early generations like othello, damian, and rhaeash are not purebred abyss. They are the resulting offspring from a veil/rift pairing. In such cases the % changes. The highest chance is 20%. Damian is an example of the 20%, his mother and father both had wings as their respective races. With 1 winged parent it's 10%. These %'s only apply for veil/rift parentage. For offspring of such parents, say Ezrael, the chance of her being born with wings [her father is a rift/veil pairing. And is NOT winged, neither were the parents but for the example we will pretend] from her fathers genetics, would have been 5% if her fathers parents had had wings. [again, they did not] and her offspring would have had a 2-3% chance of it if her father's parents had had wings [again, no wings here. Just an example]
Wing veil + wing rift = 20% chance
Abyss+abyss = 1% chance [literally genetic trait floating in dna and it MAY activate in 1/100 pups]
Veil + winged rift= 10%
There are no viable non-winged rifts with which to procreate, so the other option need not be listed.
Q How long is a cycle? (Compared to earth years basically)
A emain cycles are approximately 8 earth years. because Io orbits emain, its years are also approx 8 years
Planets/moons and their distances and relative gravities
Astaris: sun
Etmos: .5au // .24 earth years
Liiya [gas giant]: 2.5au // 2.67 earth years
Emain: 5.43 au // 7.53 earth years
Erebos: 6.2 au // 18.2 earth yrs
Qothos: 6.5 au // 24.6 earth years
Pol 40 au // 170.6 earth yrs
Q. how long is an emain day? how many minutes in an emain hour? [asked by myself]
A. calculating, the formula for this universe has primarily been built on 10s in the form of 2s,4s,8s.
An emain day is = to 40 earth hours.
They divide their clock into 2 20 hour segments, like many cultures on earth split the clock into 12 hour segments.
1 emain minute = 2 earth minutes.
a 3 hour movie on emain would be 6 hours long on earth.
A year is 730 days[emain days.]
Q. how long are the months/seasons on emain? [asked by myself]
A. [with much MUCH math done-] spring is 2 months long. each month has 105 days
summer is 2 months long. each month has 105 days.
fall is 2 months long. each month is 100 days
winter is 2 short months. each is only 55 days.
These will be recalculated to have a more casual and familiar setup. i.e month 1 and 2 of spring will likely be month 1: 89 days month 2: 121 days [and such like that so that the total is still 730 emain days in an emain year.]
Comments
A Spacedrake
No parthenogenesis for them sadly. It’s one of my all time favorite lifeskills of monitor lizards though and barely anyone even knows it exists! Sharks can do it too theyve recently confirmed. So awesome. But alas. Drakes are a bit too complex for it
Kit
mfw I realize Circe can’t actually do the forehead part of the bonding ritual because of her tall stabby horns 😭 She could press the lower part of her muzzle to her big stupid man’s forehead at best but otherwise she would skewer him. Can drakes reproduce through parthenogenesis? And do they lay infertile eggs, or is an egg only produced if it’s been fertilized? (I feel like I may have asked this already, at risk of sounding annoying :v )
A Spacedrake
8 earth years. it used to be 48 for emain buuut I changed it.
Chibee5
How long is a cycle? (Compared to earth years basically)
