Flight Rising Discussion

there is like a 50% chance I've already made this thread before, but I don't remember if I did so. do you think that the image of a Bear is sacrosanct among dragons. the 2014-2015 set of fest fams is all bears, right, and they're all Guardians of respective elemental territories. and ofc the NOTN mimics but theyre mooooostly the only bear familiars we have--burrow bears are CALLED bears but they're not truly ursine (on trying to find an adjective for "badgery", this is how I learned the scientific name for some groups of badgers [i]also[/i] incorporates a term for bearlike! neat). I think the closest thing we have is the hoarfrost mauler and its alt palettes, but the tooltip for hoarfrost maulers calls them "bearbeasts" rather than True Bears. so let's say for the purpose of this post that there's something that sets them apart from True Bears. basically moooost Explicit Bears on FR have direct and indelible ties to the elements and furthermore, are recognized as Protectors of the territories. and I know this is a marva item and everything and probably can't be considered strict canon but, consider the polar bear ice castle scene: [item=scene: polar bear ice castle] many Bears (statues? I thought they were statues at first but now I can't tell) are stalwartly positioned in front of the castle itself, like they're guarding it. and the tooltip for the emeraldback shardspawn (ik I said they may not be Full Bears but still, they're adjacent at the very least) says that theyre trained as individual lair guardians, and its implied theyre somewhat of a protected species. if we wanna get super meta, amethyst kings and emeraldback shardspawn aren't even eligible to be fought in the coliseum so in effect its Literally True that you can't Poach em. so what I'm saying is. is the form of a bear considered a totem of Protection. do dragons invoke them in art or tradition, are there folktales of bears, are bears in dragon territory considered a blessing, a sign of good fortune. is the form of a bear itself considered auspicious. are there perhaps offerings made to bears to assure safe travel, are there bear based holidays when they come out of hibernation. do dragons make art like the Bearscape card from magic the gathering [img]https://assets.echomtg.com/magic/cards/cropped/7797.hq.jpg[/img]

After pondering on it for a bit: yes.

Bears are the one large animal that's going to mooch off of dragon dens but also bring benefits to a clan. Depending on the breed, most dragons are noted to make their nests and lairs in underground dens and some even have tunneling behavior.

It wouldn't be too wild to imagine that because of the sheer size of the tunnels being dug out by dragons, it would attract bears and that would be a complete boon since even a sleeping bear would immediately ward off an intruder trying to come in through a back tunnel.

They might be seen as protective figures because of that.

yeah this is canon now. bears would be like dogs to larger breeds and would be elephantine to fae and veilspun, and mid-size breeds would see them as equals. they're one of the only creatures that seem to be peer-sized to dragons, apart from the coli bosses which seem to be aggressive towards/dangerous to dragons. dragons also hibernate like bears. the bears were also the second fest fams, and the first few rotations of fest fams are more "sacred" than the more recent ones, being directly related to their deity in some way, and the bears are the only ones that aren't some kind of mythical beast like a sprite or a goblin or an extinct humanoid.

i don't know the general popularity of bears in like, human society other than the fact teddy bears are a a hit phenomenon that isn't going away any time soon but yeah now that you mention it we have very little bears. and that's not super on topic for the thread because as much as i love topics that delve into random or esoteric site lore but i do wonder if the great bear debacle during notn is why we're lacking on the ursine front despite the fact that im pretty sure the bears were voted as number one in a poll for the next fest cycle? your theory could be a direct result of user opinion which is incredibly funny to think about.

[quote name="corndog" date="2024-01-01 14:42:12" ] yeah this is canon now. bears would be like dogs to larger breeds and would be elephantine to fae and veilspun, and mid-size breeds would see them as equals. they're one of the only creatures that seem to be peer-sized to dragons, apart from the coli bosses which seem to be aggressive towards/dangerous to dragons. dragons also hibernate like bears. the bears were also the second fest fams, and the first few rotations of fest fams are more "sacred" than the more recent ones, being directly related to their deity in some way, and the bears are the only ones that aren't some kind of mythical beast like a sprite or a goblin or an extinct humanoid. [/quote] the bit about them being in the first few rotations while not being Mythical Animals is part of why I started thinking about this like, I know WHY (had I an account I wouldve voted for bears. I love bears) they’re just diegetically such an outlier among other older sets of fest fams. I suppose we don’t have any evidence that Just Regular Bears exist in sornieth though so, maybe bears Are mythic status? I somehow feel like thats less likely but maybe that’s just my bear positive agenda [quote name="DoubleO" date="2024-01-01 14:27:12" ] After pondering on it for a bit: yes. Bears are the one large animal that's going to mooch off of dragon dens but also bring benefits to a clan. Depending on the breed, most dragons are noted to make their nests and lairs in underground dens and some even have tunneling behavior. It wouldn't be too wild to imagine that because of the sheer size of the tunnels being dug out by dragons, it would attract bears and that would be a complete boon since even a sleeping bear would immediately ward off an intruder trying to come in through a back tunnel. They might be seen as protective figures because of that. [/quote] I absolutely love the concept of bears being symbiotic lairmates to dragons. dedicated lair chambers for both hibernating bears and nocturnes in torpor. bearst friends speaking of them as Large Animals though I realize this could also be like, a potential point of Cultural Contention between dragons and beastclans. like your average dragon is either large enough or…capable of flight enough that a bear isnt going to do huge damage/they can probably put food and stuff far out of a bear’s reach via flight or magic or something, so its not gonna damage their stores. beastclans on the other hand, are of a size where bears around their settlements would probably be more a problem at least to like, longnecks and centaurs. an added level of Difficulty for coexisting with dragons, they just have so many bears in their territory [quote name="bulrush" date="2024-01-01 14:52:14" ] i don't know the general popularity of bears in like, human society other than the fact teddy bears are a a hit phenomenon that isn't going away any time soon but yeah now that you mention it we have very little bears. and that's not super on topic for the thread because as much as i love topics that delve into random or esoteric site lore but i do wonder if the great bear debacle during notn is why we're lacking on the ursine front despite the fact that im pretty sure the bears were voted as number one in a poll for the next fest cycle? your theory could be a direct result of user opinion which is incredibly funny to think about. [/quote] I completely forgot about the Mimic Bear Oversaturation issue while I was writing this post ngl and like I could TOTALLY see that as a reason for fewer bear familiars; and like as someone who really loves bears I don’t take issue with it, having a full set of fest fams and their recolors is enough for me. I just do like the implications, including the meta-site-mechanic of how the fest fams got to BE bears is just players voting for it and down the line it kinda feels like Players Pick What Beast Is Holy To Dragons anyhoo ty to everyone for reading my post and especially for responding!! I rlly appreciate it like I know this is an objectively Kinda Silly Post its just one of those things I love thinking about and to see others thinking about it too makes me real happy