Suggestions

I'm sure this has been covered already somewhere in the vast suggestions, but I feel it's important. I am voting that the ancient breeds be breedable with each other. Shared genes, the works. It's kind of silly to have these new breeds be exclusive to just themselves within the Ancient class. Which is already exclusive from the common breeds. Our common breeds can intermix just fine. I do not understand why the ancients can't within their own class of dragons. I feel that this would be natural, considering that it's already a feature being used by common breeds. I get the rarity idea, thus the reason they are their own group, with the same genes, but separate at the same time. So that's my suggestion/plea!

The ancients can't interbreed because they don't have the same gene sets.

Gaolers have a specific set of genes, and Banes have their own set of genes. Yes, some of those genes overlap, but others don't.

Even if all prim/sec genes are eventually shared to all dragons, there are still tertiaries, and not all of those are necessarily sharable with all other ancients. At least not without heavy modifications.

Imagine a wingless breed, and another breed whose main look is their wings. One gets several terts that modify their wings but those wouldn't work on the wingless breed due to them not having wings. It would mean either giving the wingless breed wings, or figuring out how to adapt the genes to the other breed.

This also means that ancient releases are slowed, because suddenly all ancient breeds have to have the exact same set of genes. So, whatever genes Gaolers have + whatever genes Banes have, suddenly all future breeds *have* to have those genes. I also forgot that any new gene brought out with any new ancients also then have to be backwards compatible with all existing ancients.

Moderns are different because they don't have hugely line breaking terts, and they all conform to the same basic idea of one head, four legs, one tail and two wings, so genes can be easily shared between them with minimal modification.

Ancients aren't like that.

Ancients were released to reduce some of the stress on creating a whole new breed, and while the main stress was apparel, genes are another one, because for moderns, ALL genes that moderns can use MUST be available to the modern dragon at release. Unlike ancients, in which they can release any genes they want at release, and they don't have to worry about 'okay Gaolers got Tiger, so this new breed HAS to have tiger up and ready to go when we release'.

Basically each ancient can be its own 'island' with its own features without worrying about what the other 'islands' have, because they aren't connected to each other. It allows for more versatility in design (as thye don't have to worry about trying to adapt terts that are meant for features one dragon doesn't have to that particular dragon) as well as faster releases.

For my information, and anyone who is curious, I am going to list the genes Gaolers and banes both have, with bolded genes indicating shared ones (will edit it in later)

Banescale Primary Candycane Cherub Chevron Jaguar Laced Marble Metallic Petals Pinstripe Poison Ragged Savannah Skink Tiger

Gaoler Primary Bar Crystal Falcon Giraffe Jaguar Mosaic Phantom Piebald Pinstripe Shaggy Tapir Tiger Wasp

Banescale Secondary Alloy Arrow Butterfly Edged Mottle Rosette Safari Seraph Spinner Stripes Sugarplum Tear Toxin Trail

Gaoler Seconary Bee Breakup Daub Facet Hex Paint Peregrine Rosette Spirit Streak Striation Stripes Trail

Banescale Tertiary Contour Crackle Fans Filigree Ghost Lace Plumage Porcupine Ringlets Skeletal Squiggle Trimmings Underbelly Wraith

Gaoler Tertiary Blossom Braids Fans Ghost Gnarlhorns Opal Ringlets Runes Scorpion Shardflank Smoke Thylacine Underbelly Veined Weathered Wintercoat

Unfortunately no support. As Jemadar says, the Ancients were created with the intent of being separate, and the genes are often wild and line breaking. Doing this would mean limiting the potential tert options and slowing down the production of Ancient breds, defeating the purpose of creating them.

Lorewise, it seems like "Ancient Breed" is less a class and more a title given to breeds not within the Modern Species, so I'm fine with them not mixing.

I thought there were more shared genes, but unless I Missed some from the morphology screen, there aren't.

Only three shared genes per gene slot. I wonder if that was a deliberate choice or if it just worked out like that.

But that would mean that first of all, all the non-shared banescale genes would have to be done for Gaolers, and then all non-shared Gaoler genes would have to be done for Banescales.

Then any future ancient has to have all those genes to start with, and any new genes drawn/adapted from modern for the future ancients have to be redrawn for each existing ancient.

No support for all the previously stated reasons. Additionally, it would take away legitimacy from the lore that ancients can't interbreed with moderns. Being able to interbreed with other ancients would immediately raise questions as to why they're not compatible with moderns. However, only being able to breed within a species removes the confusion.

@Pfvupl

Sure

Yeah, it is interesting, I could have sworn there were a LOT more shared genes between banes and gaolers, but there aren't.

@pfvupl

Okay, done, pretty sure I got them all.

I know, I thought there were like three non-shared genes between ancients, then to find out there are only three *shared*! I honestly thought it would be the tertiaries that would hold back interbreeding, and they probably will, but there are a lot more primary/secondary genes that are unique to one ancient *and/or shared with moderns

Thinking of putting another table with all modern genes in it for comparison, but that will have to wait.