Roleplay

@Loquaciousky

The elemental nature of dragons in this version of the world happens via the following factors:

1) Environmental Factors such as a dragon in an underwater society has a slightly higher chance of being a water dragon than say a fire.

2) Lineage of the dragons family that goes back hundreds or even thousands of generations. So long as your family has had even one Fire dragon, your dragon has a slightly higher chance of being a fire dragon than a dragon never been in your family, even if the one dragon was twenty thousand generations removed.

3) Personality does have an affect on what element your dragon is. Or is it the element has an effect on personality? No one is really sure at this point.

4)Current numbers of dragons around you has an effect as well. If there is an overabundance of, say Ice dragons, there is a higher chance of your dragon being a Fire dragon to help balance things out.

All of these things help decide what your dragon will be (most of which has no cannon lore at this time because there are not enough dragon characters made to tell Current number of dragons with various types and everything else is personal preference as you 'can' have your dragon be born outside of the caves and brought in (environmental) and you decide your own dragon's personality and lineage.

The only thing that needs to be remembered is this:

In regards to rarity of types, in a clan of 10,000 dragons, approximately 3333 ( 1/3rd) will be Corrupted, 500 (1/20th) will be Non Elemental, and 50 (1/200th) will be Corrupted Non Elemental. However, if this is your first character you must play a Non-Corrupted.

((Does all that make any sense?))

@Loquaciousky Answering questions is why I'm here! [quote] has that 1/3 proportion of Corrupted raised over time/is the "problem" getting worse, or does it hold steady? [/quote] Slowly, over time the numbers will get higher, though why this happens and when it will start I cant tell you because Spoilers. However, as we get more players the restrictions on how many corrupted people can play will possibly ease as they become more populous. [quote]How do non-Elemental dragons come to be?[/quote] The 'official' reasoning behind Non-Elemental dragons is that it is the gods way of keeping balance. Because Elemental dragons are more focused on their abilities than their own physical state of being there needs to be a balance between the physical and 'spiritual' (if you will). Non-Elemental dragons are that balance. Because they cant use any of the 'spiritual' elemental abilities, and only the 'physical' ability (their breath attack) they are more focused on their own physical well being, and thus are generally the more physically strong. (Example: An Elemental Earth Guardian might be able to carry 100 tons of rock on his back while a Non-Elemental Earth Guardian would be able to dance with at least 500 tons and not break a sweat.) [quote] How does Corrupted Non-Elemental magic even work if the current Corruptions are the inverse of their "original" forms, and non-elemental magic by definition isn't distinct enough to have an inversion? [/quote] All dragons have a natural "breath" attack that still works even if they are "Non-Elemental" as the phrase is used to describe dragons that cant use the Spiritual abilities from their Element. They can still use their basic breath attack even when they are "Corrupted" dragons. Basically... they are without the ability to use Magic, but their breath attack is physical in nature, not magical/spiritual. [quote]Does the underground living situation of the Clans predispose new hatchlings to being Earth mages (and... whatever Earth's inverse is, since it's incorruptible, but still holding to point 1)?[/quote] There are more dragons that are Earth, Fire and Water because of living in the great Underground Caves, yes. This is because their environment has a lot of Earth (the stone around them), Fire (Lava) and Water (the great underground waterways and lakes). About the Inverse of Earth, that is currently non existent as the Corrupted have not been able to successfully corrupt an Earth dragon. Why this is will be explained later in the story, I promise!

@Loquaciousky Almost missed this question: [quote] Another question, this for probably-unnecessary NPC-building: are drakes required to train into proper "higher" (specialized offense/defense/healing) use of their elemental abilities, or is it acceptable for, say, an adult scribe to not know how to use much besides their natural breath ability? I assume Varr, at least, has a strong social influence to enroll in the Drakecorps, but is there any legality surrounding it? And is Augur as likely to pressure hatchlings to train for battle/healing?[/quote] Currently drakes are required to train in the Drakecorps (Varr) or become an apprentice for whatever they wish to be in the Augur (Example: A scribe would have to train under a senior scribe), and since all must go through their First Breath ceremony, they would be taught how to use their abilities in order to further the goals of the clans. If your character was older than 250 though, they 'might' have gotten by without going through the training but younger than that, it's a required course.