Flight Rising Discussion

i'm a cheapskate so i almost never scry dragons as veilspun or wildclaws, and as a result i really don't think of them often. oops!

banescales! compared to all the rest of the dragon breeds theyre kind of just. there.

Banescales, dusthides, and undertides! It's not that I don't like em, it's just that I don't really need them for any project so I just don't see them.

So a little while back I did a massive revamp/re-examination of all of my Future Fandragon Project Scries (due to the Everlux release) and I noticed.... in all of my 99 Scries, I had somehow ended up with basically no Undertides.

I just, like, never really found a Niche for them in the way I use Breeds for Fandragon designs. I mean, I made a few Undertides Scries when they were first released but they were more of an excuse to use their Exclusive Genes rather than anything specific to the base Breed. Once the Gene Expansion gave Aethers Tentacles, it was all over for Undertides.

They're one of the three (3) Noodley Breeds alongside Spirals and Auraboas (and Skydancers also work if you're trying to make a Dragon counterpart to a humanoid character who's tall and thin) and these Breeds also have the added bonus of having, like, a clear Vibe in their design that I can attach to a character's personality (Spirals are energetic and silly, Auraboas are friendly and cute in a more 'pretty' sort of way, Skydancers look elegant but aloof). And Undertides are.... I guess they look 'cooler' than the other Noodley Breeds. I guess their thing is that they're the Cool Noodles. But I just don't know that many characters for whom this applies???

They're also one of the three (3) Water Breeds (while, for example, Gaolers and Veilspun only have to 'compete' with one other Breed representing their element for now), plus the Lightning Breeds also have kind of a sealife theme with their whole shark motif, plus all the other ways you can make a Dragon feel 'water-themed' via the right Genes and colors. And, like, it really feels like being the Wateriest Water Guys is the Undertides’ main Thing. In terms of Vibes all of the current Water Breeds have kind of a similar feel with their ‘cool’ look - in contrast to how, for example, Tundras and Coatls are the cuter and friendlier Ice/Fire Breeds and Gaolers and Banescales are the fierce and intimidating Ice/Fire Breeds. Or how Skydancers and Faes represent the more elegant and dignified aspects of Wind/Arcane while Spirals and Aethers represent the sillier and goofier sides of these Flights. The big thing that distinguishes Undertides is that they’re a lot more aquatic and a lot less amphibious than all of the other Water Breeds. And as far as Niches go, ‘More Water than the other Water Guys’ is not always instinctive to utilize when there is, like I said, already so many options for making a Water Guy in FR.

And in terms of general design, their most distinctive physical feature is their lack of legs - which is often not that useful when I’m making Fandragons of primarily humanoid characters. Their most obvious animal inspiration is Eels, which don’t get as much use in fiction compared to how many bird-themed characters I can make as Skydancers, or serpentine characters as Coatls and Auraboas, or elephant/turtle characters as Snappers, or feline/leonine characters as Obelisks…. And they don’t really have other distinctive design features like the Ridgeback’s noses or the Veilspun’s long manes or the Obelisk’s gorgeous curls that can be easily connected to a humanoid character’s features either.

In their Lore is primarily focused on their symbiotic relationship with the Maren, which is cool… but it is not easy to draw inspiration/comparison with characters from other media (compared to, like, how Guardian Lore about the Search and the Charge makes me cast protective and dutiful characters as Guardians, how Aethers are Wacky Space Guys, how Pearlcatchers are haughty with a secret inferiority complex or how Everlux are homebodies and bookworms).

And all of these factors together is how I ended up with little-to-no Undertide plans. Their niches feel too situational and outside of them they feel kinda generic. I don’t think any of it is a problem with the Breed… They don’t really gel with the extremely specific way I approach playing Flight Rising but I’m under no illusion my way is the only way (or even a common way in any way).

Still, I personally would like to play with all of the various FR Breeds at least a little bit (and since I'm an Avid Arlo Activiter, Undertides are actually one of the more convenient breeds for me) so I’m currently trying to, like, deliberately carve out a wider niche for them. Trying to find particularly noodley and/or water-themed Fandragons that look better as Undertides, trying to make them the go-to counterpart to Merfolk due to their in-lore connection to them (the same way Veilspun are my Fair Folk Dragons and Dusthides are my Dwarves Dragons)....

Ridgebacks and Banescales!! I forget which is which constantly, let alone telling the m and f poses apart

veils and sandsurges for me. i have at least one of both in my lair, but i always seem to gloss over them when thinking of fr breeds n scrying ...

undertides and gaolers

Wildclaws, they’re all the way at the bottom of the scrying workshop and available like two weeks out of the year and expensive when they are, so I just don’t usually think about them

Banescales. I always be like "oh I wonder what fire ancient will look like--oh, wait."
Idk why, from all of the breeds they just don't look like ancient of any element. Just some dtagons, some random wyverns...

And also... Ridgeback females. Just females. I see them so rarely I straight up forget about them when making an outfit for "another noble lady", though I used to dress and scry them really often two years ago...

Dusthides because I dont much like them