Creative Corner

[center][img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/330tcbnx6rjq5i1/natureh4.png[/img] [size=5][b]HERE BE WILDCLAWS.[/b][/size][/center] Welcome to the Clan of Wildclaws! (Excellent name, I know.) Here we plant flowers, feast upon geese, and fight often! With constant shifts in the hierarchy, this is something you probably wouldn’t want to miss! Let’s get onto the information. [b]History.[/b] [url=https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/3080769/1#post_49694024]Here be history.[/url] [b]Lair information.[/b] [url=https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/3080769#post_49694025]Here be housing.[/url] [b]Current pack ranks.[/b] [url=https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/3080769#post_49694026]Here be roles.[/url] [b]Hierarchy shifts.[/b] [url=https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/3080769/1#post_49694027]First week of December[/url] [url= https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/3080769/1#post_49829516]Winter solstice.[/url] Feel free to comment, my lore will be linked here!

HERE BE HISTORY.

In the chaos after the First Seed’s planting, a plague wildclaw musician named Buckley was displaced from his pack in the Wandering Contagion. He didn’t know whether it was an honest mistake, or whether he was purposefully abandoned for being weak; he just knew that he needed to survive any way he could. The best way to to that would be to find another pack, and soon. Knowing he needed to find more wildclaws, he made the decision to pull leather straps over his eyes to hide his elemental allegiance and begin traveling through Dragonhome to reach his element’s greatest enemy: The Viridian Labyrinth.

Meanwhile, in the Worldedge Wetlands, a nature wildclaw named Maachal had left her old pack to form her own, and was searching for wildclaws who would join her. Everyone was (reasonably) preoccupied with the panic of the Armistice being broken, and she began to lose hope that anyone would understand her plight. She wandered to the border of Dragonhome, wondering if their earthen allies could bring her a solution… and the land did.

The two wildclaws first saw each other from a fair distance, and Buckley hurriedly pulled the leather straps above his eyes as they approached each other on neutral ground.
“Alone too?” Asked Maachal, looking at the stranger. He was ragged and hungry, weak and thin from traveling in the desert without any expertise of Dragonhome’s landscape.
“Yeah… I need to find some wildclaws.”
“So do I. I guess we found each other.”

It wasn’t quite a love at first sight sort of deal, but it was close. The two began working together back in the Worldedge Wetlands, digging out a cave and recruiting more wildclaws to their cause. Buckley revealed that he was a plague dragon to Maachal, and to his surprise she didn’t really care. If his loyalties lied in nature, he was a nature dragon without a doubt.

More wildclaws joined, until the clan was a reasonable size. Not nearly the largest in the area, but just enough that everyone can be fed. Once everyone had settled in, hierarchies were created, with Maachal being the strongest and therefore the matriarch, and Buckley formally becoming her mate.

The wildclaws’ lair is a cave dug out underneath a large mangrove tree, secured by its roots but still at relative risk of flooding and minor cave-ins. Each dragon gets their own room independent of their status, all being sized the same unless two dragons choose to share a room (Maachal and Buckley, or Bumble and Amber for example). If the clan had a higher population they wouldn’t be able to maintain everyone getting their own room, but with the population lingering around 15 it is just feasible.

The nesting grounds is hidden behind a patch of mangroves in a smaller tunnel away from the main cave, with nests made of loose logs and leaf litter. Pairs travel away for about a week to raise eggs, then return with their hatchlings having imprinted on them. Whenever the two high ranks are out, the delta takes on their duties in addition to their own and usually asks the fourth rank for assistance.

Highest ranks.
Matriarch: Maachal
Matriarch’s mate: Buckley
Delta: Pine

Warriors.
Fourth rank: Nelby
Fifth rank: Tairin
Sixth rank: Bumble
Seventh rank: Amber
Eighth rank: Constellation
Ninth rank: Thyme
Tenth rank: Mihlos

Artists.
Eleventh rank: Clandest
Twelfth rank: Norah
Thirteenth rank: Kai
Fourteenth rank: Gladeling
Fifteenth rank: Smith
Ranks beyond: Open to newcomers.

The first week of December was a fascinating one. Logs of the previous shifts in the hierarchy were lost in a flood, and murals had to be repaired by memory and word of mouth. The wildclaws all agree that the murals do look better now, so there was a silver lining. Four new wildclaws joined the pack, Tairin, Norah, Kai, and Gladeling. Gladeling was too young to duel for a higher rank, and Norah and Kai were occupied with tending to their eggs, so those three remained at the three lowest positions. Tairin, however, had other plans.

A newcomer to the pack, Tairin, was able to use his might to move up to the fifth rank in the pack, only being bested by Smith, who despite his age and his smaller size, had more muscle mass and better strategy.

Bumble moved up from the ninth rank to the sixth rank in the pack due to both other and Amber sort-of agreeing not to duel each other, and Amber moving down to seventh rank to give Bumble sixth rank. It’s always nice to see members of the pack ranking up in non-lethal ways. Now, back to the bloodshed!
Mihlos, the son of the matriarch, dueled Clandest to move up from the last rank to the tenth rank in the pack, and unfortunately extremely fashionable fighting couldn’t account for Clandest’s smaller, weaker stature, leaving him to be easily bowled over.
No injuries were sustained in any duels.

Maachal and Buckley remain firmly in their respective first and second ranks, as they have been for the entirety of the pack’s existence.

The week of the Winter Solstice was at first a relatively peaceful one, with not much in the ways of duels until the shortest day of the year, when the wetlands were covered in a blanket of shadow for nearly the whole day. The pack was having a rather jovial day, capturing geese migrating from the colder regions of Sornieth, when the matriarch, Maachal, noticed two glowing eyes staring at them from within the wilderness.

She crept closer to investigate, until the green eyes gleamed brighter and rose above her head. The being in the shadows opened its mouth to let out curious chirping, a noise wildclaws are known for making. Maachal wondered if it was one of the nocturnes that were coming out for the winter solstice, until the being stepped closer to the light of the pack’s celebration. It was a green Wildclaw, taller than Maachal. It didn’t hesitate to walk over and sit down by the rest of the pack, leading to confused murmurs from them all.

“Who might… you be?” Buckley asked nervously, to which the stranger turned its head and stared with silence for a moment, before a squeaky, almost adorable voice uttered its own name.

“Nelby.”

Constellation, ever the greatest at saying the wrong things at the wrong time, began to burst out laughing. “You picked out that name!?”

Before the packmates could get Constellation to quit jeering, Nelby was lunging at him full-force with teeth bared. Venom bubbled up in the back of his throat before Constellation let out an ever familiar cry of surrender and Nelby was knocked over by the pack, and as he struggled to stand back up, the pack was already conversing about what to do with the outsider.

“We do need a couple more fighters,” one chimed in.
“What if he overthrows the Matriarch!?”
“Then he’s the matriarch- I mean- whatever. Let’s just see what happens.”
“He did technically win the duel, so we have to let him into the pack if he wants.”
“He didn’t win!”
“You forfeited. He did win.”

Nelby clicked curiously as the pack turned back to him, and to his delight they welcomed him with open arms, giving him the fourth rank in the clan (to much of the lower ranked wildclaws’ annoyance) and finally letting Smith retire to be an artist.

No physical injuries, Nelby becomes fourth rank, Smith becomes last rank.