Hi! Figured I'd toss my hat in the ring for a particularly fun idea I had and wanted to pitch it here.
Initially was going to pose this as an April Fool's joke announcement idea, but got into doodling and thought "Hey... this isn't too bad of an idea! I bet if they took it seriously and designed a proper body, this could be kinda fun!"
Lore idea: Baldwin has been at this whole brewing thing for awhile, and needs a proper assistant. He finds a pretty excitable dragon ready to prove their worth and, in order to really solidify their spot as assistant over all the rest, they decide to throw a little bit of that primordial plague goo into the cauldron and oops - new breed! but.. the little guys aren't quite fully formed and, using their quickly-forming cells, they begin to mimic the moderns they see around them. (Maybe eventually they mimic the other ancients too, but let's start with moderns.)
I classify them as ancients because they technically originate from the plague goo/soup, so they may be new, but... come from old genes, so to speak.
What's their unique twist?
They are primarily wingless, featureless critters. An extra set of limbs aids them in moving about and being otherwise adorable, so as not to scare the locals. (Lore-wise, I'm imagining the "wings" didn't develop and instead they turned into little nubs/arms.)
However, they lack any really discernible features of their own, instead, opting to borrow the traits of others through their tertiary gene colors - the mirror's crests, the fins of fae, the beards of guardians - you get the idea.
*The extra nubs also act as an anchor for the tertiary genes if they add little wings, if needed, as some dragons are known for their special wings - spirals, skydancers, etc.
Where do the colors go??
I'm imagining a sort of "Spore" scenario here
Primary genes for these guys are significantly plain/muted - think Fade, Slime, or a texture like Crystal.
Secondaries would be a pattern overlay - Spots, stripes, etc. Basic would show up as some kind of soft overlay - maybe on the back or belly, since underbelly wouldn't be a tertiary gene option here, and wouldn't want to confuse the market.
Tertiary genes - as stated above - these would be based on traits of other dragons, and named as such - Tertiary: Mirror Crests or something like that.
Edit to add: I think for our purposes on the site, Secondaries and Tertiaries could be swapped here - as in, the "body patterns" could be the terts and the "breed traits" could be the secondaries - if you really wanted to.
Did a quick mockup of a lil guy with one of my skydancer's colors - Ice/Seafoam/Black
With it being Skydancer tert, he's got a little feather crest, a set of feather wings plus a set of web wings (this could, of course, be more like skydancers actual wings and have it all on one arm, but I wasn't sure it'd get the point across on my sketch), and fluff on his tail. They're not overbearingly detailed or quite right, as they're mimicking the trait - not copying directly.
What happens when they catch up with all the breeds though??
Of course, it's bound to happen eventually, since moderns are released far more slowly than ancients, so of course they'd adapt to ancients as well, and beyond that, they could begin to display new tertiary genes of their own, from all the cell-mimicking they've learned along the way. They could gain some terts from others - blossom, antlers, things like that, but I love the idea that they'd get some really unique / weird genes instead - they have no wings so maybe they get some inflatable sacks - a la Greater prairie-chicken style (pictured below) - really unique crest shapes along their body, or what I like to call "far too many wings" just absolutely all over them, to really utilize the space.
PS - I know that 'mimic' critters have been around in forms of media for years and I doodled this guy just... literally to have a base shape and wasn't going for anything super original or fantastical. Of course, after I got this all together, realized that dumb little face reminds me of Ditto and figured it worth stating: I have NEVER played a Pokemon game more than like 20 min- absolutely don't have the patience (but I love the critters)- so I actually don't know any deep lore. I do know what a ditto is, they're... vaguely caused by science or something?? and know they can change forms because of Game Theory and years of memes, but beyond that - nothin. If this lore is similar it's purely coincidental because everyone knows it's always science that causes this kind of thing! So please be nice, alright, I was just having fun here. Thanks! c:
PPS - I'm sure they already have some actual wingless ancients in the works. I was just reaching for an overall kind of fun/unique idea, and felt this was a good place to go wingless. c:
Initially was going to pose this as an April Fool's joke announcement idea, but got into doodling and thought "Hey... this isn't too bad of an idea! I bet if they took it seriously and designed a proper body, this could be kinda fun!"
Lore idea: Baldwin has been at this whole brewing thing for awhile, and needs a proper assistant. He finds a pretty excitable dragon ready to prove their worth and, in order to really solidify their spot as assistant over all the rest, they decide to throw a little bit of that primordial plague goo into the cauldron and oops - new breed! but.. the little guys aren't quite fully formed and, using their quickly-forming cells, they begin to mimic the moderns they see around them. (Maybe eventually they mimic the other ancients too, but let's start with moderns.)
I classify them as ancients because they technically originate from the plague goo/soup, so they may be new, but... come from old genes, so to speak.
What's their unique twist?
They are primarily wingless, featureless critters. An extra set of limbs aids them in moving about and being otherwise adorable, so as not to scare the locals. (Lore-wise, I'm imagining the "wings" didn't develop and instead they turned into little nubs/arms.)
However, they lack any really discernible features of their own, instead, opting to borrow the traits of others through their tertiary gene colors - the mirror's crests, the fins of fae, the beards of guardians - you get the idea.
*The extra nubs also act as an anchor for the tertiary genes if they add little wings, if needed, as some dragons are known for their special wings - spirals, skydancers, etc.
Where do the colors go??
I'm imagining a sort of "Spore" scenario here
Primary genes for these guys are significantly plain/muted - think Fade, Slime, or a texture like Crystal.
Secondaries would be a pattern overlay - Spots, stripes, etc. Basic would show up as some kind of soft overlay - maybe on the back or belly, since underbelly wouldn't be a tertiary gene option here, and wouldn't want to confuse the market.
Tertiary genes - as stated above - these would be based on traits of other dragons, and named as such - Tertiary: Mirror Crests or something like that.
Edit to add: I think for our purposes on the site, Secondaries and Tertiaries could be swapped here - as in, the "body patterns" could be the terts and the "breed traits" could be the secondaries - if you really wanted to.
Did a quick mockup of a lil guy with one of my skydancer's colors - Ice/Seafoam/Black
With it being Skydancer tert, he's got a little feather crest, a set of feather wings plus a set of web wings (this could, of course, be more like skydancers actual wings and have it all on one arm, but I wasn't sure it'd get the point across on my sketch), and fluff on his tail. They're not overbearingly detailed or quite right, as they're mimicking the trait - not copying directly.
What happens when they catch up with all the breeds though??
Of course, it's bound to happen eventually, since moderns are released far more slowly than ancients, so of course they'd adapt to ancients as well, and beyond that, they could begin to display new tertiary genes of their own, from all the cell-mimicking they've learned along the way. They could gain some terts from others - blossom, antlers, things like that, but I love the idea that they'd get some really unique / weird genes instead - they have no wings so maybe they get some inflatable sacks - a la Greater prairie-chicken style (pictured below) - really unique crest shapes along their body, or what I like to call "far too many wings" just absolutely all over them, to really utilize the space.
PS - I know that 'mimic' critters have been around in forms of media for years and I doodled this guy just... literally to have a base shape and wasn't going for anything super original or fantastical. Of course, after I got this all together, realized that dumb little face reminds me of Ditto and figured it worth stating: I have NEVER played a Pokemon game more than like 20 min- absolutely don't have the patience (but I love the critters)- so I actually don't know any deep lore. I do know what a ditto is, they're... vaguely caused by science or something?? and know they can change forms because of Game Theory and years of memes, but beyond that - nothin. If this lore is similar it's purely coincidental because everyone knows it's always science that causes this kind of thing! So please be nice, alright, I was just having fun here. Thanks! c:
PPS - I'm sure they already have some actual wingless ancients in the works. I was just reaching for an overall kind of fun/unique idea, and felt this was a good place to go wingless. c:
