Aloy

Genes: - Bee generally results in wings that are too weak and delicate to support flight. The exception to this is in Veilspuns, who are light enough to fly on said wings without tearing a membrane.

- Shardflank is generally considered to be a more severe variant of Gembond.

- Several genes, like Runes and Smoke, were originally attempts to create magical tattoos that somehow ended up being heritable.

- Starmap and Constellation are the result of exposure to high doses of arcane energies. The patterns of stars are slightly different for each dragon, and shift over the course of one's life. Some dragons believe that they can be used to predict the future - it's similar to the palm-reading done by some Beastclans.

Breeds: - Separating a Pearlcatcher from their pearl causes intense physical pain and emotional distress.

- Bogsneaks have snake-like jaws that aren't fused in the middle, allowing them to eat food items that are larger than their heads.

- Obelisk manes will naturally form thick dreadlocks if they aren't braided up or regularly brushed out. A sufficiently long, thick mane can actually serve as natural armor - hair is hard to bite through.

- Snappers can produce and hear infrasound, like elephants and whales. Their wings are vestigial, and are mostly used for thermoregulation.

- Guardians are proportionately very heavy due to crocodilian-style osteoderms in their skin.

- Tundras have semi-prehensile lips, like many grazing animals.

- Very rarely, Pearlcatchers can be born with an intersex condition that causes them to grow three or more horns. This is seen as a sign of a divine blessing from the Lightweaver.

- Wildclaws' sickle claws are useful for climbing the huge trees of their home region, and are also used to pin down prey or enemies before a killing bite to the throat. They also use wing-assisted incline running to get around in the forest canopy.

- Like Gaolers, Imperials, and Tundras have antlers instead of true horns, and shed them on a yearly basis. Each summer, they grow back larger and more ornate. An impressive set is viewed as a sign of wisdom and maturity, and dragons with large antlers will decorate them with all kinds of things - ribbons, flower garlands, gilding, you name it. Unfortunately, they also tend to cause issues with doorways and low-hanging trees.

Eyes: - Dragons with Light Primal eyes are entirely blind, but are subject to dreams that often prove to be prophetic. Arcane Primal eyes allow a dragon to see spells and magical effects that are invisible under normal conditions.

- Earth Primal eyes are composed of many tiny lenses of calcite, creating a compound eye. Dragons with them have trouble seeing fine details, but are better at spotting movement. (Faceted eyes have a similar effect.)

Other: - Dragons talk using a syrinx, like birds.

- Wing membrane piercings exist, but apparel that looks like it's going straight through the wing is actually held together with hidden straps or magnets (like a clip-on earring).

- Larger, heavier dragon breeds can hit really hard with their tails, and use this in combat when enemies try to get behind them. It's like getting hit with the world's biggest whip.

- Dragons who grew up exposed to the Scarred Wasteland's cauldron of horrifying pathogens are much more disease-resistant, and have a microbiome of bacteria that would kill anyone else. However, the genetic mutations that make this happen also cause a variety of autoimmune conditions.

- Dragons have natural variances and mutations based on the element they're born in - it affects things other than eye color and magical abilities.

Earth: More natural armor, more likely to contract Gembond. High bone density, overall stout build.
Ice: Thicker fur or feathers, stockier body type, smaller ears. (Think arctic animal adaptations.)
Lightning: Able to sense magnetic fields. Desert adaptations - large ears, thinner fur, thick eyelashes and/or third eyelid.
Plague: More likely to have hyperdontia (extra teeth), polydactyly (extra toes), supernumerary organs. Mutations that aren't actively harmful are seen as blessings from the Plaguebringer.
Shadow: Improved night vision, but more likely to be colorblind.
Water: Webbed feet, gills, short, muscular limbs.
Wind: Larger wings, more aerodynamic body plan



- Apparel that doesn't seem like something a dragon would have any need for is usually the result of attempts to copy "exotic" fashions from the Beastclans, with varying degrees of success.

- The Auction House is an abstraction of the many small markets that exist throughout Sornieth. It's common to enter a settlement and see several clans laying out various odds and ends on blankets outside their lairs or setting up tents in a public bazaar.

- Plague flight has been divided for centuries by a political and religious schism over the correct interpretation of their deity's commands to her followers.

The Survivalist faction believes that "survival of the fittest" means that only the toughest, strongest dragons have a place in the Scarred Wasteland. They believe that technology makes you weak, and are generally loath to trade with outsiders. However, dragons from other flights who demonstrate great prowess in combat or survival skills are welcomed into their clans. Typically, they wear clothing with minimal decoration (when they bother with apparel at all) and live either as nomadic bands or in very simple lairs.

The Biodiverse faction believe that the best route to survival is through maximum diversity of genes and ideas - throwing as many things as possible at the wall to see what sticks. They also believe that the ability to work as a group is a useful adaptation, and that dragons who seem "weak" in some regard still have a place as part of a clan if they can contribute other useful skills. They tend to be much more open to allowing outsiders to join their clans and trading with Beastclans and non-Plague dragons.

- Necromancy is another cultural faultline for Plague flight. Some dragons believe that it's only right that those who were too weak to survive should serve their betters in death, or that the mind and soul are gone, so reanimating a corpse for combat or menial labor is a victimless crime. Others see it as desecrating the honored dead or perverting the natural cycle of life and death by keeping a body from decaying.

- Nature clans are known for their strange mutualistic symbiosis with the countless clonal offshoots of the Behemoth. Dragons build shelters in the branches or live inside the hollow trunks of the great trees, and in exchange, they kill any competing plants or potentially tree-damaging herbivores in the vicinity. Food scraps and other compostable wastes are used to fertilize the tree, and the dead are buried under the roots of new offshoots.

Nature dragons who travel to other flights' regions are often unnerved by the "dead" lairs the locals live in, not to mention the felling of living trees for building materials or fuel.

- Lightning dragons are known for having about a million superstitions about how to get lucky in business. Water flight has a similar reputation, but their superstitions are more centered around fishing and sailing. The market stalls of Flotsam Town are full of evil-eye charms, dreamcatchers, and the like.

- Clans living in the Ashfall Waste commonly build their lairs by expanding natural lava tubes. Earth dragons will take a similar approach when other types of caves are available in their home territory. On rare occasions, fire and earth mages will work together to sculpt flowing lava into grand structures as it hardens.

Language:

- Different regions of Sornieth have different accents and dialects, some of which are barely mutually comprehensible. Add on the unusual speech patterns of Coatls and Fae, and you can get a situation where two dragons who ostensibly speak the same language can't understand what each other are saying.

- The Beastclans have a number of languages and sub-dialects of their own, which are linguistically unrelated to those spoken by dragons.

- There are also a number of sign languages in Sornieth, which vary based on both regional dialects and differences in anatomy between different dragon breeds and Beastclans. In some areas, signing is used as a trade language between groups who otherwise don't share a language - this "hand/claw talk" has a simplified vocabulary (compared to other spoken/signed languages), but is usually sufficient to get concepts across.

- Fire dragons stereotypically have very rough, scratchy voices from overexposure to volcanic ash and smoke from the forges.

- Arcane flight (especially Aethers) are notorious for their love of using long and/or archaic words in everyday conversation.

- Lightning dragons are known for their distinctive accent and very fast speech patterns. They always sound like they're trying to sell you something.


Funerary Customs:

- Fire dragons burn their dead. Where possible, this is done by throwing the corpse into an active caldera.

- Earth dragons dig out elaborate catacombs under their settlements for burials. Some of these tunnel complexes have been continually expanded by generation upon generation of dragons for thousands of years. On occasion, they end up haunted by the unquiet dead, in which case it's time to hire an adventuring party to clear them out.

- Wind flight practices sky burial, laying the dead out to be eaten by carrion birds.

- Water flight weigh down dead bodies and let them sink into deep water. For larger dragons, this can create ecological effects similar to a whale fall when the body reaches the ocean floor.

- Nature dragons bury their dead among the roots of trees, so that their nutrients will feed another living thing. Legend has it that in less civilized times, this would sometimes be done with living, unwilling sacrifices captured from other flights.

- Lightning clans living in the deep desert will use magic to extract all the water from a dead body, which is then shared among the deceased's loved ones. Every drop is precious, particularly in the dry season. More modern clans will put the body in their apartment complex's incinerator/generator.

- Some Mirrors practice funerary cannibalism. They believe that eating the dead returns their strength to the tribe. They also sometimes do this with the corpses of enemies during warfare - if an opponent put up a good fight, they'll eat them in order that the best parts of them will live on after their defeat. Both the Beastclans and other dragons are absolutely horrified by this.



- Earthshaker is still trying to repair the damage done by the Shade and guard against its return, and being exalted to his service sends you out to do the same work. It's sort of a combination of joining the military, taking holy orders, and volunteering to plant trees and pick up litter.

Earth dragons are typically more aware of the Shade, and there's a strong social pressure to join in the efforts against it. If you're not planning to take an exaltation one day, you're training recruits or gathering funds.

Non-Earth dragons see all of this as unsettlingly cult-adjacent, but Earth flight sees it as a proportionate response to a very real threat.


Each divinity presides over domains outside their element and region, some of which are a bit more tangential than others.

Earthshaker: Mining, sculpting, pottery, eldest hatchlings
Flamecaller: Metalworking, cooking, hearth and home
Tidelord: Fishing, boatbuilding, sailing
Windsinger: Music, messengers. Invoked for creative inspiration.
Shadowbinder: Thieves, spies, nighttime, stealth in combat. Invoked against being seen by one's enemies.
Icewarden: Winter, law
Stormcatcher: Commerce, material wealth
Lightweaver: The Sun, summer, philosophy
Gladekeeper: Gardening and agriculture, forestry
Plaguebringer: War, hunting, athletic competitions
Arcanist: Astronomy, scholars, libraries

Gladekeeper and Plaguebringer's domains aren't so much "growth vs. decay" or "sickness vs. health" as, respectively, living things that photosynthesize and those that don't. Some of Gladekeeper's creations are parasitic or carnivorous, and some of Plaguebringer's help other living things survive.
Nature and Plague flights might be more accurately known as Wood and Meat, but it just doesn't sound as good, so the inaccuracy is excusable.

- Earthshaker very rarely moves from the site of the Pillar. From a distance, it's easy to mistake him for another of the dramatic mesas that dot Dragonhome. He's surrounded by an encampment of worshippers, who chant hymns and burn incense at his feet. On the rare occasions when he actually gets up and moves, you can feel the tremors from as far away as the Behemoth.



- Some dragons who are hard of hearing wear earrings enchanted to amplify sound, which serve as hearing aids.

- Badges exist in-universe - it's common to hand out pins and stickers as "participation prizes" during events like raffles and scavenger hunts.

- Skins and accents are elaborately crafted pieces of illusion magic, keyed to a small talisman worn or carried by a dragon. (The "wrong breed/pose for the skin" glitch is the result of trying to wear one that's really not made for your body type - it looks absolutely bizarre, like clipping issues in 3D animation.)

- The "tiny Bogsneak/Nocturne" glitch also exists in-universe - there was an issue with early versions of the breed change spell that meant they didn't cause any change in mass.