There is a mystery spreading across Sornieth. It began in the Tangled Wood, in clans nesting in the Foxfire Bramble, and traveled quickly from there.
Nests have too many eggs. Sometimes right from the start -one clan reports a nest with a record-breaking 6 eggs inside- and sometimes at some point during incubation. Keepers go to sleep with 3 eggs, and wake up with 4. Upon very close inspection, it is possible to tell the new eggs apart. However, as they're clearly dragon eggs, no clan has yet been heartless enough to discard one.
Old records speak of this happening, but most don't elaborate. Some report the appearance of an extra egg, but speak as if all eggs hatched into unremarkable hatchlings. Some speak as if the extra egg never hatched- mentioning its arrival but not describing what, if anything, comes from within.
None have hatched yet. It remains to be seen what these eggs contain, and dragons all across Sornieth watch their nests with even more care than usual, apprehensive to what may be within.
Cuckoo dragons are an Ancient breed, potentially the distant relatives of Nocturnes. Like real-world cuckoo birds, they sneak their eggs into the nests of other dragons to be tended. Unlike real-world cuckoos, neither the parents nor the hatchlings harm the other inhabitants of the nests.
Cuckoos come in a vast array of sizes, and those of each size will seek out an appropriately sized nest in which to place their eggs. Regardless of the elements of the parents, the eggs possess a magic all their own that causes them to morph near-instantly to match the eggs in the nest they're placed in, down to changing sizes slightly. That same magic can even cause them to pick up some of the patterns from the babies in the other eggs, to the point of looking as if the nest parents somehow birthed a hatchling of a different species than their own.
When a cuckoo dragon hatches and reveals itself, responses vary. Some dragons will shrug and accept this extra hatchling as their child as well, as though it were their own. Others, considering the invader a pest, will toss the hatchling out of the clan. Cuckoo hatchlings are extremely self-sufficient at birth, able to hunt for themselves and sporting venomous spines for protection against predators, so either response works just fine for them. And, pest or not, no dragon clan will harm a hatchling. Nor has any clan been recorded to be heartless enough to discard a live egg. Pest or not, a Cuckoo egg will be tolerated, at least until it hatches.
Cuckoo dragons live in a series of underground, fungus-filled caverns stretching across much of Sornieth, surfacing only to place eggs. They take in any hatchlings which are thrown out by their (unwilling) adopted clans, and any cuckoos that are accepted simply live above ground. A series of earthquakes long ago sealed up the entrances to their caves, though, potentially aided by clans in some areas irritated by the nest-occupiers. Now, an entrance in the Tangled Woods has cracked open, the dragons that crept free have begun to dig at the other entrances, and Cuckoos are in the world above ground once more.
Mechanics-wise, you can get cuckoo dragons one of three ways. You can buy scrolls to transform a dragon into one, you can (rarely) find a scroll with any sort of Gathering action, or you can get an egg. But you don't find Cuckoo eggs in the wild, like you do other eggs.
Every time a nest is created, once the number of eggs is calculated, the RNG rolls to determine if a Cuckoo egg will be added. The chance is low, but will be high for the week or so around when they're introduced. If a Cuckoo egg is added, you get your original nest contents, but also a Cuckoo.
Additionally, every time you incubate the nest, there's a chance that a Cuckoo will appear.
To be very clear: a Cuckoo does NOT replace any of your eggs. You will get however many eggs you otherwise would have, but you will ALSO get a Cuckoo egg.
When a cuckoo is present, incubating the nest for the first time (or the first time when the Cuckoo egg is there, if it shows up later) will return a message of "your dragons notice that the nest smells strange. Upon inspection, they determine that one of the eggs smells different than the others", and the egg will be marked with a rune.
If the Cuckoo arrived when the nest was laid, or on the 1st or 2nd day afterward, it will be ready to hatch with the rest. When the nest is ready, a "remove Cuckoo" button will appear. If you hit that button and the confirmation, your dragons will leave the Cuckoo egg elsewhere to hatch. You can ignore that button if you want to keep the Cuckoo.
If the Cuckoo arrived three or more days after the nest was laid, it won't yet be ready to hatch. You hatch the nest as normal, with no extra button, and you get an item instead of a baby dragon.
When the nest with the Cuckoo hatches, one of two things can happen. If the Cuckoo egg is ready to hatch, you get a Cuckoo dragon along with the other babies. This Cuckoo is NOT G1, its parents are listed as the parents of the nest. It can inherit colors from them, and, IF they have a gene of which there is a Cuckoo equivalent (i.e. Spines and Spines (Cuckoo) are equivalent), they can pass it on to the Cuckoo.
If the Cuckoo arrived after a certain point, you hatch the nest normally, then you get an announcement of "One egg didn't hatch with the rest. You obtained 1 Unhatched Suspicious Egg (dragon breed)!" and an Unhatched Suspicious Egg (dragon breed) appears in your inventory. It matches your element, and has a breed of one of the nest parents listed. THAT is where you can get a G1 Cuckoo. When you hatch it, its colors are completely random. It has a small chance to hatch with at least 1 non-Basic gene. There are maybe 2 possible Primary and Secondary genes that can appear on G1 Cuckoos, and then it will have a Tertiary mimicry gene that matches the breed of one parent, as listed below.
Because it entertains me, you can in fact have a Cuckoo egg show up in a nest made by two more Cuckoos. If you get a Suspicious Egg out of that, though, it's just a Basic tert.
Cuckoos vary in size depending on the nest parents. Whenever a Cuckoo hatches, the algorithm looks at what breeds were possible in the nest it came out of, and assigns it a breed(ish). For example, if you have a Mirror/Fae nest with a Cuckoo in it, the Cuckoo would say on its page something like "Cuckoo (Fae) Male", and it will be somewhere in the Fae size range. Cuckoos would probably not be sortable by breed(ish) on any page that sorts by breed, that would add way too many sort options. It affects nothing except size.
Edit:A Cuckoo hatched from a Suspicious Egg will usually have a mimicry tertiary. Mimicry terts are line-breaking terts that add additional details based on the breed it's mimicking, I.e. a Coatl-mimicking Cuckoo might have feathers. The mimicry terts are Zenzic's idea, and I love it.
Cuckoos, though preferring to sneak their eggs into other nests, are not ignorant of egg and hatchling care. Two can, in fact, be bred with each other. They tend to produce lower numbers of eggs, though.
Two Cuckoos that breed will produce offspring who just say "Cuckoo Female", and can fall within any breed's size range. They have no mimicry tert.
Cuckoo dragons resemble Nocturnes, superficially. They have a similar dewlap down their throats, and have similar head shapes. They have large eyes, suited for the dark, and rows of venomous spines run down their backs. They additionally sport extra frills along their frame, meant to help disguise their shape, which can protect them in fights or while fleeing a nest placement. It doesn't matter if the parent gets smacked a few times after putting an egg in someone else's nest- no dragon clan will throw out a live egg. At worst, they'll throw the Cuckoo hatchling out, where it can fend for itself.
I think it'd be very cool if Cuckoos were relatively long-bodied dragons with an extra set of forelimbs coming from somewhere along their flanks. If they're an Ancient breed that won't wear apparel anyway, why not play with the number of limbs? They might also have a tail that splits about 2/3 of the way down and can flare out to enlarge the frill at the end of it. Whatever frills they have should be impacted by the secondary genes.
Being extremely adaptable to whatever clan they end up in, they can eat anything and everything. All four food types are an appropriate diet for Cuckoos, though they tend to prefer plants, especially any that remind them of the fungi of their native home.
Cuckoos are a friendly enough breed. A little cautious at first meeting other clans, somewhat expecting to be chased away, but friendly. In battle, they prefer tricks and flashy, showy displays of waving frill and raised spine to any true fights- battles between Cuckoos are almost entirely show, with little to no blood drawn. If left with no other option, they lash their foes with venomous tail spines and bite with venomous fangs, then retreat and wait for the foe to be weakened by venom before closing in for the kill. They seldom resort to killing, unless their homes or kin are threatened, but can be lethal opponents. If pushed, they can follow a foe for days, slinking through shadows and cover and leaping out only to bite or slash, waiting for their foe to collapse from exhaustion and envenomation.
If any dragon clan ever existed that tried to harm a Cuckoo hatchling instead of adopting it or tossing it away, it does not exist any more.
Cuckoos exhibit a sort of mimicry akin to Nocturnes, but much less pronounced. They do tend to develop body language similar to whatever other breed they are around most, and 'true' Cuckoo body language is a mishmash of things from other creatures- even from things that aren't dragons! Many are rapidly developing a liking for the body language of birds.
Some gene ideas:
@Zenzic's idea of line-breaking mimicry terts.
Spines (Cuckoo) that gives them an extra row of long, sharp spines, much more noticeable than non-Cuckoo spines.
Poison and Toxin equivalents, and maybe even a tert to match.
Tatterfrill, a tert that causes the frills to all develop looking kind of tattered, with the tert color applied around the edges.
Lionfish and Noxtide equivalents, because, again, toxic dragons.
Camouflage and Cloaking, which produce mottled, asymmetrical patterns that would help the dragons blend in to their environment. These would probably be the most common non-Basic genes that a Suspicious Egg might have, a sort of 'wild-type' coloration.
Nests have too many eggs. Sometimes right from the start -one clan reports a nest with a record-breaking 6 eggs inside- and sometimes at some point during incubation. Keepers go to sleep with 3 eggs, and wake up with 4. Upon very close inspection, it is possible to tell the new eggs apart. However, as they're clearly dragon eggs, no clan has yet been heartless enough to discard one.
Old records speak of this happening, but most don't elaborate. Some report the appearance of an extra egg, but speak as if all eggs hatched into unremarkable hatchlings. Some speak as if the extra egg never hatched- mentioning its arrival but not describing what, if anything, comes from within.
None have hatched yet. It remains to be seen what these eggs contain, and dragons all across Sornieth watch their nests with even more care than usual, apprehensive to what may be within.
Cuckoo dragons are an Ancient breed, potentially the distant relatives of Nocturnes. Like real-world cuckoo birds, they sneak their eggs into the nests of other dragons to be tended. Unlike real-world cuckoos, neither the parents nor the hatchlings harm the other inhabitants of the nests.
Cuckoos come in a vast array of sizes, and those of each size will seek out an appropriately sized nest in which to place their eggs. Regardless of the elements of the parents, the eggs possess a magic all their own that causes them to morph near-instantly to match the eggs in the nest they're placed in, down to changing sizes slightly. That same magic can even cause them to pick up some of the patterns from the babies in the other eggs, to the point of looking as if the nest parents somehow birthed a hatchling of a different species than their own.
When a cuckoo dragon hatches and reveals itself, responses vary. Some dragons will shrug and accept this extra hatchling as their child as well, as though it were their own. Others, considering the invader a pest, will toss the hatchling out of the clan. Cuckoo hatchlings are extremely self-sufficient at birth, able to hunt for themselves and sporting venomous spines for protection against predators, so either response works just fine for them. And, pest or not, no dragon clan will harm a hatchling. Nor has any clan been recorded to be heartless enough to discard a live egg. Pest or not, a Cuckoo egg will be tolerated, at least until it hatches.
Cuckoo dragons live in a series of underground, fungus-filled caverns stretching across much of Sornieth, surfacing only to place eggs. They take in any hatchlings which are thrown out by their (unwilling) adopted clans, and any cuckoos that are accepted simply live above ground. A series of earthquakes long ago sealed up the entrances to their caves, though, potentially aided by clans in some areas irritated by the nest-occupiers. Now, an entrance in the Tangled Woods has cracked open, the dragons that crept free have begun to dig at the other entrances, and Cuckoos are in the world above ground once more.
Mechanics-wise, you can get cuckoo dragons one of three ways. You can buy scrolls to transform a dragon into one, you can (rarely) find a scroll with any sort of Gathering action, or you can get an egg. But you don't find Cuckoo eggs in the wild, like you do other eggs.
Every time a nest is created, once the number of eggs is calculated, the RNG rolls to determine if a Cuckoo egg will be added. The chance is low, but will be high for the week or so around when they're introduced. If a Cuckoo egg is added, you get your original nest contents, but also a Cuckoo.
Additionally, every time you incubate the nest, there's a chance that a Cuckoo will appear.
To be very clear: a Cuckoo does NOT replace any of your eggs. You will get however many eggs you otherwise would have, but you will ALSO get a Cuckoo egg.
When a cuckoo is present, incubating the nest for the first time (or the first time when the Cuckoo egg is there, if it shows up later) will return a message of "your dragons notice that the nest smells strange. Upon inspection, they determine that one of the eggs smells different than the others", and the egg will be marked with a rune.
If the Cuckoo arrived when the nest was laid, or on the 1st or 2nd day afterward, it will be ready to hatch with the rest. When the nest is ready, a "remove Cuckoo" button will appear. If you hit that button and the confirmation, your dragons will leave the Cuckoo egg elsewhere to hatch. You can ignore that button if you want to keep the Cuckoo.
If the Cuckoo arrived three or more days after the nest was laid, it won't yet be ready to hatch. You hatch the nest as normal, with no extra button, and you get an item instead of a baby dragon.
When the nest with the Cuckoo hatches, one of two things can happen. If the Cuckoo egg is ready to hatch, you get a Cuckoo dragon along with the other babies. This Cuckoo is NOT G1, its parents are listed as the parents of the nest. It can inherit colors from them, and, IF they have a gene of which there is a Cuckoo equivalent (i.e. Spines and Spines (Cuckoo) are equivalent), they can pass it on to the Cuckoo.
If the Cuckoo arrived after a certain point, you hatch the nest normally, then you get an announcement of "One egg didn't hatch with the rest. You obtained 1 Unhatched Suspicious Egg (dragon breed)!" and an Unhatched Suspicious Egg (dragon breed) appears in your inventory. It matches your element, and has a breed of one of the nest parents listed. THAT is where you can get a G1 Cuckoo. When you hatch it, its colors are completely random. It has a small chance to hatch with at least 1 non-Basic gene. There are maybe 2 possible Primary and Secondary genes that can appear on G1 Cuckoos, and then it will have a Tertiary mimicry gene that matches the breed of one parent, as listed below.
Because it entertains me, you can in fact have a Cuckoo egg show up in a nest made by two more Cuckoos. If you get a Suspicious Egg out of that, though, it's just a Basic tert.
Cuckoos vary in size depending on the nest parents. Whenever a Cuckoo hatches, the algorithm looks at what breeds were possible in the nest it came out of, and assigns it a breed(ish). For example, if you have a Mirror/Fae nest with a Cuckoo in it, the Cuckoo would say on its page something like "Cuckoo (Fae) Male", and it will be somewhere in the Fae size range. Cuckoos would probably not be sortable by breed(ish) on any page that sorts by breed, that would add way too many sort options. It affects nothing except size.
Edit:A Cuckoo hatched from a Suspicious Egg will usually have a mimicry tertiary. Mimicry terts are line-breaking terts that add additional details based on the breed it's mimicking, I.e. a Coatl-mimicking Cuckoo might have feathers. The mimicry terts are Zenzic's idea, and I love it.
Cuckoos, though preferring to sneak their eggs into other nests, are not ignorant of egg and hatchling care. Two can, in fact, be bred with each other. They tend to produce lower numbers of eggs, though.
Two Cuckoos that breed will produce offspring who just say "Cuckoo Female", and can fall within any breed's size range. They have no mimicry tert.
Cuckoo dragons resemble Nocturnes, superficially. They have a similar dewlap down their throats, and have similar head shapes. They have large eyes, suited for the dark, and rows of venomous spines run down their backs. They additionally sport extra frills along their frame, meant to help disguise their shape, which can protect them in fights or while fleeing a nest placement. It doesn't matter if the parent gets smacked a few times after putting an egg in someone else's nest- no dragon clan will throw out a live egg. At worst, they'll throw the Cuckoo hatchling out, where it can fend for itself.
I think it'd be very cool if Cuckoos were relatively long-bodied dragons with an extra set of forelimbs coming from somewhere along their flanks. If they're an Ancient breed that won't wear apparel anyway, why not play with the number of limbs? They might also have a tail that splits about 2/3 of the way down and can flare out to enlarge the frill at the end of it. Whatever frills they have should be impacted by the secondary genes.
Being extremely adaptable to whatever clan they end up in, they can eat anything and everything. All four food types are an appropriate diet for Cuckoos, though they tend to prefer plants, especially any that remind them of the fungi of their native home.
Cuckoos are a friendly enough breed. A little cautious at first meeting other clans, somewhat expecting to be chased away, but friendly. In battle, they prefer tricks and flashy, showy displays of waving frill and raised spine to any true fights- battles between Cuckoos are almost entirely show, with little to no blood drawn. If left with no other option, they lash their foes with venomous tail spines and bite with venomous fangs, then retreat and wait for the foe to be weakened by venom before closing in for the kill. They seldom resort to killing, unless their homes or kin are threatened, but can be lethal opponents. If pushed, they can follow a foe for days, slinking through shadows and cover and leaping out only to bite or slash, waiting for their foe to collapse from exhaustion and envenomation.
If any dragon clan ever existed that tried to harm a Cuckoo hatchling instead of adopting it or tossing it away, it does not exist any more.
Cuckoos exhibit a sort of mimicry akin to Nocturnes, but much less pronounced. They do tend to develop body language similar to whatever other breed they are around most, and 'true' Cuckoo body language is a mishmash of things from other creatures- even from things that aren't dragons! Many are rapidly developing a liking for the body language of birds.
Some gene ideas:
@Zenzic's idea of line-breaking mimicry terts.
Spines (Cuckoo) that gives them an extra row of long, sharp spines, much more noticeable than non-Cuckoo spines.
Poison and Toxin equivalents, and maybe even a tert to match.
Tatterfrill, a tert that causes the frills to all develop looking kind of tattered, with the tert color applied around the edges.
Lionfish and Noxtide equivalents, because, again, toxic dragons.
Camouflage and Cloaking, which produce mottled, asymmetrical patterns that would help the dragons blend in to their environment. These would probably be the most common non-Basic genes that a Suspicious Egg might have, a sort of 'wild-type' coloration.
http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/sug/2715032
This is an idea I had for an ancient Nocturne-esque breed that's a nest cuckoo. Basically, every time you make a nest, you have a small chance of a gen 1 Cuckoo egg turning up, or a non-gen-1 hatchling that mimics the nest's parents. Like the idea? Don't like it? Have some input? Let me know! Editing the main post in response to feedback.
This is an idea I had for an ancient Nocturne-esque breed that's a nest cuckoo. Basically, every time you make a nest, you have a small chance of a gen 1 Cuckoo egg turning up, or a non-gen-1 hatchling that mimics the nest's parents. Like the idea? Don't like it? Have some input? Let me know! Editing the main post in response to feedback.