LunarWings

LunarWings belong to SageoftheOverReactiveImagination. Please do not edit them without her permission.

"Current times" on this page refer to 5,117 AS

Names[]

Ordinary names are names that have to do with stars and constellations, such as Orion, Canis(adding Minor or Major is optional), Gemini, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Trapezium, Scorpius, Infinity, Aperture, Bellatrix(which is actually a star, not just a crazy Harry Potter witch.) While latinish names are preferred, occasionally you'll get a LunarWing whose name is a word that everyone knows, like Star or Cosmos. They often reuse names, and the names Carina, Mensa, Libra and Orion are popular, for obvious reasons. However, it’s considered uncreative to give your kid the name of someone alive, so the Carinas and Mensas and others often have a bunch of parents, who kiiiind of want them to die or change their name before their eggs hatch. The parents name their children with occasional help from trio members or friends.

Lifespan[]

LunarWings live to be around 160-170, though there have been some who lived past 200.

As of 5,117 AS, everyone has a different age, though 4 is the most common because the four-year-olds are twins. The oldest, Isonoe, is 167 years old, and the youngest, Merope is 9 months. Dragonets are incubated for one year, though they tend to stay in their eggs longer, currently.

The oldest dragon recorded was Crab, who lived to be 221

Hierarchy[]

Dragons born on the brightest night become the queen at ten, rule for one hundred years, and then hand the crown to the next dragonet. Same goes with Chief Advisors, which are the ones born on the darkest night, fifty years after the brightest night.

Queens are in charge, and the council needs their approval to do almost anything. Chief advisers are second-in-command, and if a queen dies before finishing her reign, they take control until the new queen turns ten.

They and their trios form the LunarWing Council. When the current queen or chief advisor retires, they and their trio throw ginormous retirement parties. These parties are normally "Thank you so much, >new dragons< for taking our jobs!" By the time they retire, they are SO DONE. The new queen/chief advisor gives a speech, and gets lots of attention. They don't allow males to become queen, so there was a bit of a succession crisis when Cosmos was born, as he was male, but at least he tried to gain the tribe's favor. A few are angry, others could care less, most like Cosmos enough to not care what gender he is.

Current ruler is King Cosmos and his triomates, Monoceros (Ceri) and Cygnus. Current chief advisor is Sagittarius, and her triomates Encke and A'a.

Dragonets[]

Hatchlings[]

One dragonet is hatched per year, no exceptions.

Dragonets are not proportioned the way adults are, like human babies. Their heads and wings are giant compared to their body, and they often have quite a bit of baby fat. The longer a dragonet stays in the egg, however, the less baby fat they have. Dragonets who would've died if they hadn't been hatched in that year, like Cosmos, are stick-thin and sickly, and some don't survive. These dragonets need food and medical attention IMMEDIATELY. Dragonets also tend to have shorter and thicker horns than adults, and their manes are thinner and shorter. The spikes on their tail, however, are sharper than normal, as their primary function is to get the dragonet out of the shell and they dull and break easily. Young dragonets are toothless, they start growing teeth at one month and end at 6-7 months. This period tends to be uncomfortable and the dragonet chews on everything. Don't put anything you care about in the mouth or a teething dragonet, they will bite and the teeth they do have are sharp. They keep these baby teeth until about three, and then start losing them. They lose their last teeth at five or six.

The dragonet's powers are a lot less powerful when they are young, most likely a mechanism to keep the little ones from harming themselves accidentally. They develop as the dragon develops, and stop when the dragon's brain is finished growing.

There is a condition among babies commonly known as "Moon-scald" where one or more of the dragonet's powers are more developed than they are able to handle. How it works depends on the power in question. Dragonets with moon-scald tend to cry a lot, and, depending on the seriousness of the condition, need very calm minders with them at all times. Serious cases are like colic in human babies, where the dragonets cry and cry and never calm down. Fun fact: the twins, Pollux and Castor, had serious forms of moon-scald in probably more than one power. They required ALL THE ATTENTION. Minders are always available, however, and since there's only one new dragonet per year, about five or ten dragons will come running every time the dragonet cries. This attention stops once the next dragonet is born, and some one-year-olds feel jealous. Royals tend to be paid even more attention. Note that dragons with moon-scald do not end up with stronger powers than other adults. Their powers just develop faster than the rest of the brain can handle. Teenagers(5-8) often have the teenager-version of it, where they sometimes accidentally use their powers when they're feeling a strong emotion.

There are special dragonet houses near the hatchery that have places where parents and other caretakers can sleep. They're shaped like normal LunarWing houses but with one or two extra bedrooms and doors that can be locked from the outside. Dragonets mostly just play with their trio, the other dragonets, and their minders. Once they turn one, dragonets are expected to find tutors and get taught by them for the remainder of their dragonet years. They also move out of the hatchery-houses once the youngest member of the trio has turned one and into a normal house. Dragonets aren’t expected to have a serious job, but it is appreciated when they help out.

Eggs[]

Eggs are laid two months after conception, and take one year to be ready to hatch. Eggs are black, most of the time with small white dots like stars. Like all dragons, the eggs take a year to incubate. About a month before the egg enters ready state, three of the dots start to grow bigger and mimic the moons. When the egg enters ready state, the black turns into a lighter shade of blue. The dragonets can stay in their eggs for about ten years before the nutrients inside run out and the dragonet dies. Oddly, dragonets on the moon can't get out of the shells (the theory is that their tails and egg teeth can't develop enough to get out of the egg), and they have to use a slow animus object to hatch.

School[]

While learning is very important to the LunarWIngs, there's no defined school and dragonets learn whatever and wherever adults are willing to teach them. Schools are wherever the dragonets score a tutor. Plenty of dragons are willing to teach the younglings, as long as they don’t get in the way. The ones who don’t want to teach anyone will direct the dragonet to someone who does. Generally, the trio learns together and starts working when the youngest member turns ten. What they learn depends on who they ask to teach them. An astronomer might show them how a telescope works, an artist would teach them about their art, etc. you have to be learning or looking for someone to be teaching you from 6/30 to 14/30. Learning outside of that time is appreciated, and learning as an adult is fine, even encouraged.

Appearance[]

Body Shape[]

They are built long and low, often with thin, stubby legs. Their chests are often deep with a relatively small waist area. Built a bit like a chinese dragon with wings and longer legs. The fact that they are low to the ground does not always help with coordination, their legs usually are rather thin.

Their head is most like a SkyWing's or maybe a SandWing's; they have medium-sized snouts and big eyes. They have a mane, behind the head, and thicker scales on top, with an eyebrow reminiscent of a SkyWing's. They have "moon freckles" (literally what they're called) that are three circles in the shape the moons were when they were born. They have a spike on their beak, and their lower jaw has the beak-scale as well.

Their horns are curved like a SkyWing’s, with small spikes that really aren’t dangerous. The tail, body and neck have three rows of triangular scales. The top row is typically darker than the others, and the middle has silver crescents on each scale, similar to the NightWing’s. Wings about as big as a SkyWing's for flying long distances. (Though not as big; SkyWings are normally faster). I am still kicking myself over this, but the underbelly is the single most difficult thing to draw. It is sort of four curves. Kind of hard to explain, but it looks cool, despite being super hard to draw. Scales tend to be triangular (a la SandWings), in three rows. Legs have small, octagonal scales and crescent top scales. Their tails are long and thick. They have four to six spikes that, while a little scary looking, are easily broken(and it hurts to break them), and are usually pretty dull by the time the dragon reaches adulthood. You can get a rough estimate of how old a LunarWing is by how dull they are. By the time Crab died, her spikes were barely short nubs. The spikes are only useful in getting a dragonet out of the egg and some LunarWings know how to slam their tails against the ground to boost their takeoff power. Additionally, LunarWings have a disk on their tail that is shaped like the phase the farthest moon from Pyrrhia was in when they were born. Their back spikes are long with webbing connecting each individual one, similar to a SeaWing.

There are many exceptions and variations in build, the above body shape is only the general rule.

Coloring[]

They have three main colors. 1st color is commonly white, silver, and pastel shades of blue, pink, gray, or brown. Rarer it's pale green, rust red, dark gray, and pale purple. Sometimes LunarWings have pale silver (pale enough to look white but still show up on white LunarWings) dots on their bodies like stars, called starspots. These are fairly common, like freckles or moles, and can be only on some scales. Very rarely, they are multicolored. 2nd colors can be black, white, dark brown, purple, or dark gold. 3rd colors are silver, gold, brown, blue, green, pale purple, or gray. Brightest Nights have gold 1st colors, Darkest Nights have black 1st colors.

The spikes on their tails are 2nd color, as are their horns, claws, and other spikes. The webbing on their back spikes is third color on the bottom, moving to 2nd color on the top. Their tongues are red unless they're sick or have eaten dye, and their teeth are white but can be stained.

- Head: Main scales are 1st color. Top scales are a darker version. Moon freckles are silver, unless there's a dark moon in there, in which case they are dark circles.

- Neck: Scales are 1st color, the top row is a darker version. Crescents are silver/gray.

- Wings: 1st color on top, black with pale gray moons and stars on bottom. Dragons born under a dark moon have no moon, but the absence of star scales in that area often makes it feel like the moon is there, just dark.

- Legs: The non-membrane parts of the wings(is there a word for that?) follow this pattern, too. They are 1st color, with 2nd color(sometimes a darker version, but not always) scales that are on top, kind of hard to explain but I hope you know what I'm talking about.

- Overscales: 1st color, the top row being a darker version.

- Underscales: Underbelly is always white.

- Other Particular Scale Groups: N/A

- Tail: Tail follows the same pattern as the neck.

Society[]

Jobs[]

Scientist, astronomer, farmers, glassblowers, sculptors, teachers, firefighters (they are often needed), fliers (flying is a competitive sport), and there is literally a job called “problem-solvers” where you go around trying to solve problems. Because Luna is such a small and tightly-knit community(you know everyone’s name, age, preferred art form, and favorite scroll by the time you’re twenty), there’s really no need for money and people often do jobs because they’ll a) get to do fun stuff b) get lectured by everyone if they don’t (and you don’t want to be known as The Lazy One here, it’s a über-small town where everyone can gossip) and c) have lots of dragons who can help.

The oldest few and the council tend to decide who’s doing what job. The council lists what jobs need to be done, and the oldest dragons (ideally the ones who are too old to work) make sure they are done. The old dragons also make sure criminals get the worst jobs, dragons are (mostly) doing what they like, and that the carrots are weeded because no one seems to like doing that, are they all lazy or what?

The Pyrrhia Program is different. Dragons in it are basically spies sent down to Pyrrhia to get supplies, news, and knowledge. If you are part of the Pyrrhia Program, then your life is different. You still help out when you can, but you are encouraged to do jobs that will strengthen you or your abilities. Those dragons have to be strong to withstand Pyrrhia’s gravity. Dragons with strong strength skills and either invisibility or illusion are often the ones picked.

Royals have their work cut out for them, making sure important things get done, filling out paperwork, listening to petitions, making sure the supplies go where they're supposed to, punishing crimes, regulating gossip, keeping the tribe happy, planning parties, managing disease, regulating intertribe relations(if there were any), and much more.

Housing[]

The basic layout for a LunarWing house is three small bedrooms for the trio, with a common room and maybe one other room. One thing about LunarWing house layout: it's very difficult to assign a room in their houses a specific name. Their bedrooms also function as offices and storage spaces. The castle's throne room is rarely actually used as a throne room; the royal LunarWings often store their telescopes, scrolls, food (Yes, some do. It’s usually found three weeks later), and other odds and ends in there. It has so many bookshelves that it's more a library than a throne room. About once or twice they clear it out for some official function or another, but other than that it's a dumping ground. They eat, drink, cook, whittle, talk, read, and every other thing you do in your house in the same four or five rooms. In the castle, the room that doesn't belong to a trio and isn't the throne room is referred to as “that extra room” because nobody's quite sure what it specifically is used for.

The castle has four sets of bedrooms and common rooms with a throne room and a general court/kitchen/talking room. The queen's room in the palace has the names of every queen who's lived there carved in the walls and floor and, in Pictor’s case, the ceiling. Well, almost every queen’s name. Queen Tycho was infamous for replacing every brick and smoothing over the parts of wall which had a name other than her’s, Queen Carina, Queen Mensa, and Queen Libra’s on it. No one is entirely sure why she did that. However, most LunarWings are sure she wasn’t all there.

LunarWings like to stuff windows and skylights into their buildings as much as they can. And everything that isn't a window is covered in carvings.

There's plenty of homes, but if you've excommunicated you are forbidden to enter occupied homes and must decide between derelict house #1 and derelict house #2.

Relationships[]

LunarWings are divided into trios by the order in which they were born. They do not have to be blood relations, but many trio members refer to their trio as their siblings. Before they lived on the moon, LunarWings still had trios, but they were not really in the order of birth. Instead, the council would match up dragonets whose skills would complement each other at a certain day each month. Two Brightest Nights or Darkest Nights were never allowed to be in a trio together.

Marriage is not a huge part of LunarWing culture. Being single is perfectly acceptable. LunarWing marriages are all about love, not childbirth (for obvious reasons) and same-sex and same-gender marriages are common and fully accepted. Most LunarWings are bisexual. Couples normally don't have more than one egg together (though sometimes they do, just not less than thirty years after their first), as eggs with siblings are more likely to be terminated than eggs without. Only a few dragons have non-trio siblings. Dragons never marry trio members. It would be like marrying your sibling. Weddings are downplayed affairs, though queens or Council members are often asked to Couples don't generally get a house of their own, though it has been done before, they stay with their or their partner’s trio. Sometimes they move back and forth between houses. Twin eggs are seen as a huge blessing, for obvious reasons.

There isn't much classism in the tribe; there can't be, considering their population count. Royals tend to be part of the crazy LunarWing family, like the super-rich relatives in an average-income family, or that one person in your family who's really famous. The only sign of classism is that royal dragonets get more attention.

Before the LunarWings moved to the moon, they had a pretty good relationship with the SkyWings, NightWings, and IceWings, and a neutral relationship with everyone else. They lost their relationship with the SkyWings when the Sky tribe had a major growth spurt and Queen Cadmium started eyeing their territory. The NightWings were mostly allied with the LunarWings because the SkyWings were, and they would take Cadmium's side in the conflict that was to come.

Holidays and Celebrations[]

When the egg of the year hatches, there's a huge celebration. Since all of the tribe shares the same hatching day, many smaller birthday parties are held before and after, as the actual Hatching Day is dedicated to the new egg.

During the long nights (their moon spins slowly, so their night lasts about two weeks and their day the same amount of time), the LunarWings hang lanterns all over the city and through the trees. They each light a candle and put it on a windowsill. The monthly sunset is celebrated with a huge bonfire and candle and other light-source making. When the sunrise happens, they blow out the candles and some LunarWings have things like rainbow makers or stained glass ornaments to replace them. Generally, LunarWings like the night more, because you can see the stars and other astronomical items more clearly.

They sometimes celebrate the death days of important dragons, depending on the mood the tribe is in that year. Group gatherings and random parties for no particular reason happen too.

Laws[]

LunarWing laws come in different kinds. Some codes are more followed than others, and they're changing all the time. The laws are divided into societal and official.

Punishments differ between societal and official laws. Breaking societal laws can result in you being considered weird or strange, generally disliked, and/or being shunned by the people who follow them. Imagine someone marrying their cousin or blatantly trashing yards. You'd act the same way to them that LunarWings would to someone who broke one of those laws. Official laws often have more harsh punishment. They include a long time of community service (Ex. The most boring, tedious, or gross jobs.) to excommunication. Excommunication is a far more painful crime than it seems. It involves LunarWings pretending the perpetrator is invisible. They have to do everything alone. Their trio members have to evict them from their houses or be excommunicated themselves. They can't go to celebrations or gatherings. They live in empty houses or in the forest alone. The only time dragons can interact with them is if they've broken a rule (Like they've gone to a gathering). Dragons will bite, kick, throw things, and generally make them miserable until they leave. Often the pain of isolation is far worse than dying. Excommunication is reserved only for extreme cases.

Laws are created by the queen, and need at least three other signatures from court members to be put into effect (Note: Many queens have resorted to blackmail, especially in the early days). Laws are often changed or deleted, but the lawmaking process is not.

+ Ancient codes: Societal. Basically social norms like the traditions surrounding trios and royalty. They were created around the same time as the tribe.

+ Libra laws: Official. The laws created by Queen Libra. Mostly about how to live on the moon. The two most important are No Animus Magic and Never Kill Another Dragon. The animus magic one has been explained, but no killing hasn't. It's really important, though, and LunarWings are pacifists because of it. Because of the small size of their tribe, the murder of even one dragon is a terrible crime. If it's ruled self defense, then the dragon will get off if they do community service. Some dragons will still judge, however, and life could get harder.

+ Religious laws: Societal. Not many LunarWings are religious, but the religious laws are things that most LunarWings value, like Take Care of Nature and Find Out About the Universe (aka science things).

+ Current Laws: Official. These are laws created recently, by the old Queen Spica and King Cosmos. There's not many of them and they could change, but one notable one is Don't Go to Pyrrhia. Made because a group of rebels took all but one of the animus objects that let you survive in space.

Religion[]

Some LunarWings don't have a religion, and the ones who do worship a foursome of powerful dragons who are said to have created the universe.

The Four are Sílthéy, Ruler of the Physical World, Délines, Ruler of Time, Lilithéy, Ruler of Life and Death, and Tethalaos, Ruler of the Mind.

They believe that these four created the Universe, each supplying their bit of reality in the order above. Sílthéy is the only one who's "safe" to worship; you do not want to get the attention of Délines and Lilithéy, and Tethalaos is incredibly random; they is just as likely to hurt you as they is to help.

There’s a glass statute of Sílthéy(about one half the length of an average tail at the shoulder, so probably pretty small by dragon standards, but the artwork is rather amazing) that they can pray to. To pray, you put a paper card with your request on it, leave it at the statute’s feet. It will be burned in the next bonfire, and Sílthéy supposedly looks at it.

The statute is in the museum, along with artifacts like the book, Queen Carina’s favorite necklace, particularly cool artwork, etc.

Sage is an acceptable sacrifice to Sílthéy(:D). Foxes are left alone because Sílthéy is supposed to like them.

Religious symbols include bats and ravens, neither of which are on Luna, sage, foxes, stars, galaxies, Pyrrhia in the sky, a spiral, a four-pointed star, and butterflies.

Sports and Recreation[]

Flying is a big thing, as well as art. For flying there's acrobatics and racing, and dragons work on their different art forms. Star mapping used to be a competitive sport, but it's kind of fallen out of fashion lately. Cooking and dance competitions are not unheard of. LunarWings also have their own game called stickyball. It's borrowed from A Practical Guide to Faeries and it goes as follows: Dragon A is bored, and there's leftover beeswax/honey/something sticky/whatever so they throw it at Dragon B, who throws stuff back, and it snowballs. The object of the game is to have the least amount of objects stuck to you when the game ends.

Most competitions are held at festivals and celebrations, the biggest one being the Hatching Day. It's a little like football: for any competitive activity you have several small games at small festivals, and then the Superbowl at the Hatching Day.

The only fights that aren't punished are verbal or friendly fights. However, the fact that there's no need to fight makes them generally bad at fighting. Only dragons trained to go to Pyrrhia are trained to fight.

Music and Dance[]

Music isn’t very important. A few LunarWings sing, but it’s hard to make instruments. To make a drum you need either a lot of animal pelts or a large one, and there’s no large animals on Luna. Metal is harder to get, and LunarWings are more likely to use it for tools, candle holders, or what-have-you than musical instruments. And because trees grow slowly, they try to make stuff out of fallen branches instead of the trunk, so wooden instruments are rarely bigger than pipes.

Oddly, while music isn’t super important, dance is. Lots of LunarWings like to dance, whether there’s music, really-bad-and-croaky-singing-music, or no music at all. Flying acrobatically is seen as a form of dancing and it is highly encouraged that you try it.

National Symbols[]

The national animal is the fox. National colors are blue, gold, black, and gray/silver. The flag is a blue rectangle with a silver circle in the center. Around that are five more silver circles, and a gold band with six four-pointed stars at regular intervals around it.

History[]

Four thousand years before the war of SandWing Succession, Queen Carina was the ruler of the LunarWings. Their territory was a strip of land along the west coast of the SkyWing territory, going up to a larger patch of the tip. They were a great tribe, and in those days they numbered in the thousands. However, Pyrrhia had just gone through a huge plague, and as LunarWings are more susceptible to disease, their population was decimated. Queen Cadmium of the SkyWings, seeing a chance to expand her growing tribe and get rid of a huge rival, started making alliances with other tribes who resented the LunarWings. Eventually facing five tribes preparing for war and with only one ally, the IceWings(the RainWings didn't take part), Queen Carina had a vision she decided was the only way to save her tribe.

She moved her tribe to the moon.

It was a difficult journey. Queen Carina exhausted her animus powers trying to get the tribe and their supplies to safety. Every LunarWing was able to bring one or two important possessions. LunarWings brought both sentimental and practical gifts. Mothers brought their eggs. One trio brought seeds for the maple, apple, and olive trees that are signature to the LunarWing forest. One brought four bees: a queen and three drones. Another brought five rabbits. Others brought grass seeds, books, squirrel pups, vegetable seeds, and one even thought to bring farming tools.

At last, the tribe arrived at the moon. Queen Carina built the domes, but went animus crazy in the process. She handed the throne to her successor, Queen Mensa, and committed suicide rather than risk being responsible for killing any of her subjects. Her chief adviser, Orion, took the throne for three years and Queen Mensa ascended the throne at ten.

She created ten necklaces that would allow the user to survive in space. Soon, however, the LunarWing population was ravaged by yet another disease, and only about eight hundred were left.

And soon, another problem was found: eggs couldn't hatch on the moon. So Queen Mensa created the pillar of hatching, an animus touched pillar that would hatch the eggs. Unfortunately, the pillar could only hatch one egg at a time. Mensa didn't dare fix it, for she had figured out what had happened to Carina and didn’t want it to happen to her. She didn’t know it was too late. She begged Orion, to kill her if she went insane. He refused, as he'd already lost too many friends and family. However, one terrible day, she went on a rampage, killing a few random bystanders before attacking Orion and her trio member, Izar. They fought a huge battle on the roof of the palace. Many tribe members witnessed the event, but the fight was over before anyone could gather the courage to intervene. Mensa attacked the two, pinning Orion down. Izar barreled into her, they rolled, and Izar came out on top. She braced herself to kill her adopted sister, but Mensa threw her off, slashed her wing, and bit her neck. She missed her spine and artery, but was about to bite her again as Orion slashed her tail. Mensa was pinned down by Orion. She clawed at him, leaving a permanent scar on his arm, but she was pinned fast. He had no choice but to kill her.

Without an official queen – the brightest night wouldn't occur for another twenty years – Orion ruled as regent. He was absolutely heartbroken, but he was a good ruler.

Back on Pyrrhia, the LunarWings had left chaos behind. Queen Cadmium had realized what she had done and tried to negotiate peace. Still, tensions ran high. The IceWings retreated to the coldest parts of the Ice Kingdom, increasing the Sand Kingdom by a lot. Afraid of being attacked by determined enemies, one of their animi created the Ice Cliff, which shoots deadly ice spears at any non-IceWing.

Seeing this chaos with the spies he sent to Pyrrhia, Orion decided to create a program to help the Pyrrhians, which the Chief Advisor is traditionally in charge of. LunarWings spy on the tribes and help without seeming to even now.

Thirty years after Queen Mensa's death, Queen Libra was crowned. She knew the damage that animus insanity had done to the tribe, and so issued a law banning animus magic by LunarWings. Very few LunarWings protested, and it was backed in full by Orion.

Around two thousand years later lived Queen Tycho, who was a tiny bit weird and most definitely went down in history as the most frivolous queen too walk their moon.

There is also a legend about a LunarWing and NightWing hybrid named Aquila, way, way back around twenty years after the Scorching. She was supposedly the first animus. The story goes that to thank the NightWings and LunarWings for being so kind to her, she built three boats out of grass and put special animus-touched objects — “beacons” – inside. She sent the boats up to the moons, where they shine as moonlight, giving the NightWings and LunarWings powers to this day. Many LunarWings thought it was just a myth, and the NightWings had all but forgotten it by Queen Carina’s time. But as the LunarWings flew to the third moon, a dragonet named Kepler found a grass boat on the second. It was shaped like a Viking ship with a dragon figurehead, and the grass was still alive and even thriving. Its cargo was two marbles, one silver and the other gold. It seems that at least some of the legend is true.

Back when the Scorching first occurred, an unknown LunarWing brought a mysterious object back to the slowly-forming tribe after raiding a scavenger den. It’s not known why they brought it back, though a few think they thought it was interesting, liked the shiny cover, or wanted to use it for kindling. Anyway, the object was not set on fire because the pseudo-LunarWings found that is was more interesting than they thought. It seemed to be a stack of paper held together with glue and… was that wood? And the paper had strange marks and illustrations on it. There was writing, in a strange, neat language none of the dragons knew. They had to be very careful when turning the pages, because their claws easily ripped the paper. They eventually decided to have their best artist draw all the markings in the scroll. It took a long, long time to translate it, but eventually a LunarWing named Hawking was able to crack it. It showed amazing descriptions of the Universe, and while they couldn’t see the “atoms,” everything in the books started to make sense. The LunarWings guarded the knowledge jealously. They built what they could in secret, and while all attempts at making a microscope failed, they were able to create telescopes and see stars up close. This knowledge was never shared with any of the other tribes.

(The book they found is based off my book Universe: The Definitive Visual Guide.)

Powers and Abilities[]

Common Powers[]

They have two different skill sets, based on the phase of the moons that they were born on, night skills: invisibility, (third moon) strength (second moon), and the ability to cast an illusion that looks like another tribe(first moon) which are based on how dark the moons were. Day skills are telepathy(first), telekinesis(second), and precognition(third), and are based on how full the moons were. First moon powers are based on the closest moon to Pyrrhia, second to the middle moon, and so on.

Special Powers[]

Brightest Night-borns have animus magic, Darkest Night-borns can sense the history and sometimes the potential of an object. They can do it with a living creature, but it's harder.

Weaknesses[]

They are far more susceptible to disease and poison than other dragons, and since they live in close quarters in their habitat, sickness can spread quickly. The spikes on their tail break easily and are painful when broken. The gravity on Luna is a lot less than Pyrrhia's, so they will have some difficulty walking and flying there. Which is bad, because that weakness can last for years.

Additionally, if the queen goes murderous, there’s almost no way to stop her. The whole tribe could be massacred quickly.

Death Count per year is 1, on average.

Habitat[]

Overall[]

The farthest moon from Pyrrhia. They refer to their habitat as “Luna.” They live in a huge animus touched glass dome inside a crater, with about a 1-3 mile radius(it’s not a perfect circle). The large dome is somewhat based off Decorah, IA (beautiful place, peeps), being hilly, especially at the edges of the crater, and a river cuts the dome in half. On one side is a city of sometimes strangely shaped buildings. On the other side is fenced-off farmland and a forest containing mostly olive, apple, and maple trees, as those were considered the most useful trees. Rabbits and other small animals roam the forest for the LunarWings to eat. Farms have honeybee hives, vegetables, and/or flowers. Half of the city side is on top of a giant cliff, which was given the wondrously creative name of "The Cliff." There is another, smaller, dome that dragons coming to and from Pyrrhia enter the domes from. A tunnel connects the two domes. Dragons coming in have to wait there the lunar equivalent of seven days to make sure they don't have any sicknesses. If they do develop symptoms, they have to stay there until they get better or die. They cannot infect the tribe. The small dome is not lived in, it's pretty much only used for storage.

They fly almost everywhere, but there is a narrow and somewhat treacherous walkway from the bottom of the Cliff to the top. There's also paths in the forest, but it's not strictly encouraged to stay on them, especially if you're hunting.

There is a cleared area at the bottom of the Cliff that is used for bonfires and meetings.

The Hatchery is a large, egg-shaped building in an easily-defendable position near the castle.

Flora and Fauna[]

Trees include maple, o live, and apple trees. Smaller plants are things like vegetables, grass, bright flowers, and the occasional bush. LunarWings are far more omnivorous than other tribes, as they grow a lot of plants and hunting out all the wildlife when you have plants to eat is not a good idea. They have a technique to make regolith (moon dust) arable.

For some reason, probably having to do with the animus magic of the dome, the trees and plants can survive without sunlight for the two weeks the sun is gone. The tribe did an experiment on it once, and found that the plants, depending on how large they were, could survive from three weeks to two months without sunlight. A cool fact is that their apples have a slightly orange tint, and no one's entirely sure why that is.

Animals are small, as the original settlers couldn't carry large ones. The forest contains rabbits, squirrels, worms, mice, voles, bees, and a fox or two. There are no birds on Luna, but some LunarWings look at the illustrations in scrolls and want one. Rabbits are used for food,but squirrels and mice are as often pets, or at least cleaners, as they are food. Foxes were left alone, and were brought to Pyrrhia for religious purposes.

The dome cools off during the nights, and triggers a slight frost half of the year in the middle of their night, which makes some of the trees grow fruit.

The river flows in a circle, and is home to some small fish, like sunfish and minnows, and a few aquatic plants. It keeps itself clean from animus magic, spitting the dirty parts into the center island. Since there isn't much that could be poisonous on the island, LunarWings use it as a place to store compost.

Decoration[]

During the long nights, there's candles and lanterns everywhere. During the long days, there's often random strings of stained glass beads hanging around. The LunarWing flag is a silver circle with six gold stars on it, five silver circles just inside, and one large silver circle inside them, on a dark blue background. There's one flying from the castle, and some others around depending how patriotic various LunarWings are. Houses are decorated with whatever the LunarWings living in there like. Decorating houses with bright colors is often done, as almost everything is gray. Flowerbeds and gardens are everywhere, but they don't quite cover up the gray.

Overall, it’s kind of like a small mountain village, with decoration and art style fitting for a fantasy mountain village.

Benefits[]

The domes clean the air very quickly, the small size of the tribe lets absolutely everyone have a voice, everything is within flight distance, it is very, very difficult to attack, easily mined metals (including lots of starfire) are everywhere.

Disadvantages[]

Most will never travel farther than a few miles away from home ever, it's small, death by freezing and lack of oxygen is just outside, it's isolation means virtually no contact between tribes, you have to be careful not to reach the surface when mining, sickness spreads quickly, you have to get used to the fact that you'll be sleeping during the day, everything is gray.

Health Issues[]

Sickness spreads very quickly, the river is the entire water supply, the Cliff can be dangerous for dragons who can't fly, there's utter death waiting for you if you go outside without protection.

Meta[]

Development[]

The LunarWings came to me somewhere in the way-to-long break between MR and TBN. I was thinking of how it would go — and, really, my policy was the crazier the theory, the better. I eventually came up with this crazy idea that started everything. What if another tribe on the moon was influencing things? So the LunarWings were born. At first, I called them LegendWings. For about a year, they stayed on the Shelf In My Mind Full of Ideas I May Never Develop, always in the back of my mind. LunarWings and LegendWings are not the same tribe, however, LegendWings were a lot more OP with few to none weaknesses to match. By the summer of 2014, however, I was full into my Astronomy craze. I took the LegendWings off the Shelf In My Mind Full of Ideas I May Never Develop and renamed them LunarWings. I gave them the two-hundred-max weakness, though I didn't know quite why it happened. Over the past few years, I've been developing their strengths, weaknesses, culture, and backstory.

Naming[]

Yeah... the LunarWings were partially named after the Lunar Chronicles, and Cosmos was named after the TV show.

Ceri (Cosmos's sister) was originally named Infinity, and Sagittarius (Cosmos's Chief Advisor) was originally named Gravity, but I decided those were boring names and changed them. I was going to change Cosmos's name as well, but he'd developed enough to be outraged and told me to not even think about it. I still think about it, but I won't do it.

Hawking's name has changed an alarming number of times for such a minor character.

Plot, Character, and Worldbuilding Stuff[]

Sagittarius was originally going to be evil. I decided that avoiding the "evil chief advisor" trope was a good idea.
In the TTM series, the original plot was going to be totally different. Paradise was the daughter of Glory and Deathbringer, Vine wasn't even in the picture, and there were other random tribes popping up. I decided that the time period was wrong, the other tribes were pretty random and pointless and I didn't have a great explanation for them anyways, and I want this to be less of a princess story. So I changed it.
While not one of my current advisors are evil, I definitely have evil queens. Yay, tropes!

Adoptables[]

You can buy LunarWings on my dA, here

Trivia[]

LunarWings have a thirty-hour day; time is represented by fractions such as 2/30, 6/30, etc.
LunarWings tend to swear on celestial objects.
The LunarWings have been developing for over two years. September 3rd is their birthday, because while I can't remember when I first thought of them, that was the first time I ever wrote anything down about them.
Everything about their society only works because they are so small; if they were as large as the other tribes, they would have to change drastically.
It took me three days to complete the current version of their form.
Unnamed Who Found the Book is actually named Matariki – but LunarWings don't remember her name.
Pseudo-LunarWings were around before the Scorching; they formed their tribe at the same time as the canon tribes.
I am writing a trilogy concerning them, which stars Cosmos and two Pyrrhians named Paradise and Vine.
Aquila is a pretty big mystery: the first animus was Nova, but she came four hundred years after Aquila; Yet evidence of Aquila's magic is there.
Everything on Luna is animus-touched, except the rocks.
The exit to the outside is marked in Very Bright Paint, just in case.
Sílthéy thinks that her being worshipped is utterly hilarious.
Sílthéy was created before the LunarWings. She was around before my first WoF OC. She's over three years old in that regard.
The LunarWing's scientific name is Draco Lunarus.