Post by Guardian on Feb 29, 2016 23:11:28 GMT
GENERAL
Shadow bringers are a sentient subspecies of wyverns. They are highly adaptive, taking on the general persona of the creatures around them while retaining their own personality. For example, a shadow bringer raised in the Akuma Realm would be highly defensive and prefer their alone time, but might also be kind towards someone once they've redeemed themselves for stumbling across their main den. They are capable of living for up to 100-150 years, but many don't reach 70 due to being quite violent among themselves, but females do tend to live ten years longer than males.
CHARACTERISTICS
Shadow bringers are characterized by their modest size and dark colour palette at a glance. All of them have a loud, defensive screech that they use to intimidate potential opponents. All of them have solid black eyes and teeth. There's a varied colour palette when it comes to the main body, however.
Most common
Dark grey
Dark purple
Navy blue
Dark green
Most rare
Females and males are vastly different in behavior and appearance. Females tend to have simpler spines that run along their back and longer horns, while males have intricate horns and spines that are often sharper. Males and female tend to weigh similarly, usually around 1,000 pounds, but may vary by 100 pounds depending on height/length and diet. The average length is fifteen feet, average height is ten feet, and average wingspan is 20 feet, though sizes may vary.
Females tend to behave more defensively than males, and may act more violently around a male than around another female. Males, in breeding season, attack every male they see, including kin, and will attempt to court every female. Out of breeding season, males are more social in general. Both are relatively social, and don't mind being in the company of others, but sociability strongly depends on where they were raised and how.
Brawls aren't uncommon, and most shadow bringers have the same objective-- make it so their opponent cannot fight any longer. Usually, they try to slash the wings so that they cannot fly away very well, and if food is scarce, they will kill their weakened opponent. If the opponent is tied to the ground, styles vary greatly, but the most common one is to swoop in and land strong blows before quickly flying out of range, only to repeat. Should they want to avoid a brawl, they can screech quite loudly to disorient their opponent, but this has limited effectiveness on their own species.
BREEDING
Breeding season tends to last from early fall (September) to mid-winter (January), but never starts earlier than late summer (August) or end later than early spring (mid-March). It never starts later than late fall( (November), or end earlier than early winter (December).
During these months, males seek out females, where there is always bloodshed. Males age of 5 years and older brawl over females, but then often have to fight the female to even get near her. Rape isn't uncommon from non-shadow bringer wyverns and small dragons who don't understand the shadow bringer mating "ritual", or even young shadow bringer males. Females who already have a hatchling to care for are even more highly offensive, and many chose to raise their young in an out-of-the-way place. If a male somehow manages to subdue the female, he has every right to mate with her, but may not last any longer, as many females attempt to kill the males that mate with them, similarly to black widows.
HYBRIDS
While hybrids aren't too uncommon, since most young males struggle to get near a female and successfully mate with her, hybrids that exceed the age of ten are. Shadow bringer genetics are complicated, and most hybrids with other wyverns end up with an incredibly clumsy, noodly wyvern that is rather inefficient at everything. Hybrids with dragons often have birth defects that are either minor or are useless limbs.
If the one parent is a shadow bringer and the other a different wyvern species, the hatchlings will tend to appear normal, though there might be some proportion issues depending on the species of the mother and her genotypes. The most common one is the body being too long, causing some difficulties flying. These hybrids are often clumsy in battle and easier to hit, due to there being more to maneuver.
When one parent is a shadow bringer and the other a small dragon, this is where things get a bit more messy. It's not uncommon for hatchlings to die before leaving the egg, often due to the vast difference in genetics and phenotypes in the two species. There's often missing organs that are important to one species survival depending on what species the mother is, and sometimes extra limbs (such as a useless pair of forelegs that cannot be moved) that only hinder the young from flying or moving.
Overall, breeding a shadow bringer with any other species, in the wild or captivity, often has messy results when it goes horribly wrong. However, most young can scrape by to at least the age of ten to fifteen, but this is rare in the wild. Hybrids are sterile, and cannot pass on any of their traits. If a shadow bringer was bred with anything with higher magical capabilities, the resulting egg would be dead within days of being laid; with anything with lower magical capabilities, the egg would have the same chance of hatching as any other egg (90%).
REARING YOUNG
If a female is successfully mated, there is a 60% chance she will lay eggs. While hybrid eggs will usually be laid in batches of 2-6, shadow bringer x shadow bringer will usually yield 1-3 eggs. Two weeks after mating, she will lay her eggs.
The mother builds her nest in a cave nearby to everything she will immediately need, and is often located on a high cliff. Sometimes she'll have to dig the cave out herself, but this it time-consuming and it's easier to find one that's already there. She'll build it out of whatever soft materials are available, although branches and leaves are ideal. Rocks would also be used, but this would mean the mother would always have to be curled around her eggs so that they don't freeze.
After about three weeks, the eggs hatch. The young are born unable to fly and blind, but can crawl about the cave. The mother will bring them food, and the competition between the young starts as soon as they can see. The young will battle over how much they get to eat, and only the strongest survive into adulthood. The ones that don't get enough food simply starve, despite the mother often trying to give them something small. Usually, one out of three will survive without a doubt, two will scrape by, and one will die of starvation.
When they're two months old or so, the hatchlings are reading to test their wings. The mother will simply fly away and hover about twenty feet away horizontally from the cave. Often, the hatchlings simply glide, and will explore flapping and soaring on their own. For the most part, their mother won't help besides catching them when they fall.
After they learn to fly, the hatchlings start tagging along with their mother on her hunts, and copying what she does. As they start catching food for themselves, their mother will begin to draw away from them, even snapping at them when they try to eat with her at times. When the hatchlings are ten months old, they often stay together, but leave their mother. At this stage, they're called juveniles.They'll stick together until they get sick of each other's company, and one by one will leave to live on their own.
The first mating season they participate in, usually 3 years old for females and 5 years old for males, ends their juvenile stage, and they are now considered adults, even if they are still immature.
DIET
Their diet mainly consists of meats, but their diet is highly adventurous and adaptable to what's available. They will eat anything that gives sustenance besides their companions. (Young hatchlings that have yet to leave, friends, etc.) They'll eat the most plentiful food, whether that be their own kind or fruits.
Shadow bringers can go nearly a month without food, and the same goes for water. While water from a stream is most direct, they can easily get their dose from cacti or juicy meats.
HABITAT
While they don't tend to stay in any one area for more than a month, they tend to stay within around 100 miles, and females rear young in the same den every year. Males, however, wander quite a bit more, and often shift where they return to every night, oftentimes permanently leaving realms, as opposed to females who tend to return to the same place in the same realm.
In order for a shadow bringer to even consider a spot becoming it's home, it needs to meet several criteria. The first of which is easy access to food. Whether they eat a large meal once or twice a month or a small meal every other day, there needs to be some access to food. During famines, they may end up fleeing their normal confines temporarily after draining an area of most of it's nutrients. Water is another important criteria. While they may not always drink water, they still need to wash themselves after a brawl. A small geyser that is consistent with when it goes off would likely be enough.
MAGIC
While they're not the most magic oriented species, they do have some minor magical capabilities. The physical manifestations are a second head/set of wings or a split tail, though this only occurs in 30% of births. Powers come from a small pool of potential powers often passed down from either parent. Many only have one power, and a few lucky go-getters have two. The powers a hatchling can receive are hastening the healing of wounds (on self or other), gathering a small cloud of shadow, spitting acid (that cannot harm others that carry or show this ability), and being able to teleport (varying distances). It appears random which one the hatchling can actually chose to use, though the ones the parents can use seems to be a factor.
DULY NOTED
-The most pure shadow bringer eggs ever laid was six in the wild, ten in captivity.
-The most adult males are killed off before they are seven in mating battles, and nearly twice as many ameature fighters are severly wounded.
-The longest living hybrid had a shadow bringer father and a highly mixed wyvern mother who had phenotypes similar to shadow bringers, and the hatchling that resulted had a tail that was a bit too long and lived to be 50 years old. (Captivity.)
-The largest full-grown shadow bringer was 19.5 feet tall, 22.1 feet long, and had a 26.3 foot wingspan.
-The smallest full-grown shadow bringer was 6.3 feet tall, 11.8 feet long, and had a 16.1 foot wingspan.
Shadow bringers are a sentient subspecies of wyverns. They are highly adaptive, taking on the general persona of the creatures around them while retaining their own personality. For example, a shadow bringer raised in the Akuma Realm would be highly defensive and prefer their alone time, but might also be kind towards someone once they've redeemed themselves for stumbling across their main den. They are capable of living for up to 100-150 years, but many don't reach 70 due to being quite violent among themselves, but females do tend to live ten years longer than males.
CHARACTERISTICS
Shadow bringers are characterized by their modest size and dark colour palette at a glance. All of them have a loud, defensive screech that they use to intimidate potential opponents. All of them have solid black eyes and teeth. There's a varied colour palette when it comes to the main body, however.
Most common
Dark grey
Dark purple
Navy blue
Dark green
Most rare
Females and males are vastly different in behavior and appearance. Females tend to have simpler spines that run along their back and longer horns, while males have intricate horns and spines that are often sharper. Males and female tend to weigh similarly, usually around 1,000 pounds, but may vary by 100 pounds depending on height/length and diet. The average length is fifteen feet, average height is ten feet, and average wingspan is 20 feet, though sizes may vary.
Females tend to behave more defensively than males, and may act more violently around a male than around another female. Males, in breeding season, attack every male they see, including kin, and will attempt to court every female. Out of breeding season, males are more social in general. Both are relatively social, and don't mind being in the company of others, but sociability strongly depends on where they were raised and how.
Brawls aren't uncommon, and most shadow bringers have the same objective-- make it so their opponent cannot fight any longer. Usually, they try to slash the wings so that they cannot fly away very well, and if food is scarce, they will kill their weakened opponent. If the opponent is tied to the ground, styles vary greatly, but the most common one is to swoop in and land strong blows before quickly flying out of range, only to repeat. Should they want to avoid a brawl, they can screech quite loudly to disorient their opponent, but this has limited effectiveness on their own species.
BREEDING
Breeding season tends to last from early fall (September) to mid-winter (January), but never starts earlier than late summer (August) or end later than early spring (mid-March). It never starts later than late fall( (November), or end earlier than early winter (December).
During these months, males seek out females, where there is always bloodshed. Males age of 5 years and older brawl over females, but then often have to fight the female to even get near her. Rape isn't uncommon from non-shadow bringer wyverns and small dragons who don't understand the shadow bringer mating "ritual", or even young shadow bringer males. Females who already have a hatchling to care for are even more highly offensive, and many chose to raise their young in an out-of-the-way place. If a male somehow manages to subdue the female, he has every right to mate with her, but may not last any longer, as many females attempt to kill the males that mate with them, similarly to black widows.
HYBRIDS
While hybrids aren't too uncommon, since most young males struggle to get near a female and successfully mate with her, hybrids that exceed the age of ten are. Shadow bringer genetics are complicated, and most hybrids with other wyverns end up with an incredibly clumsy, noodly wyvern that is rather inefficient at everything. Hybrids with dragons often have birth defects that are either minor or are useless limbs.
If the one parent is a shadow bringer and the other a different wyvern species, the hatchlings will tend to appear normal, though there might be some proportion issues depending on the species of the mother and her genotypes. The most common one is the body being too long, causing some difficulties flying. These hybrids are often clumsy in battle and easier to hit, due to there being more to maneuver.
When one parent is a shadow bringer and the other a small dragon, this is where things get a bit more messy. It's not uncommon for hatchlings to die before leaving the egg, often due to the vast difference in genetics and phenotypes in the two species. There's often missing organs that are important to one species survival depending on what species the mother is, and sometimes extra limbs (such as a useless pair of forelegs that cannot be moved) that only hinder the young from flying or moving.
Overall, breeding a shadow bringer with any other species, in the wild or captivity, often has messy results when it goes horribly wrong. However, most young can scrape by to at least the age of ten to fifteen, but this is rare in the wild. Hybrids are sterile, and cannot pass on any of their traits. If a shadow bringer was bred with anything with higher magical capabilities, the resulting egg would be dead within days of being laid; with anything with lower magical capabilities, the egg would have the same chance of hatching as any other egg (90%).
REARING YOUNG
If a female is successfully mated, there is a 60% chance she will lay eggs. While hybrid eggs will usually be laid in batches of 2-6, shadow bringer x shadow bringer will usually yield 1-3 eggs. Two weeks after mating, she will lay her eggs.
The mother builds her nest in a cave nearby to everything she will immediately need, and is often located on a high cliff. Sometimes she'll have to dig the cave out herself, but this it time-consuming and it's easier to find one that's already there. She'll build it out of whatever soft materials are available, although branches and leaves are ideal. Rocks would also be used, but this would mean the mother would always have to be curled around her eggs so that they don't freeze.
After about three weeks, the eggs hatch. The young are born unable to fly and blind, but can crawl about the cave. The mother will bring them food, and the competition between the young starts as soon as they can see. The young will battle over how much they get to eat, and only the strongest survive into adulthood. The ones that don't get enough food simply starve, despite the mother often trying to give them something small. Usually, one out of three will survive without a doubt, two will scrape by, and one will die of starvation.
When they're two months old or so, the hatchlings are reading to test their wings. The mother will simply fly away and hover about twenty feet away horizontally from the cave. Often, the hatchlings simply glide, and will explore flapping and soaring on their own. For the most part, their mother won't help besides catching them when they fall.
After they learn to fly, the hatchlings start tagging along with their mother on her hunts, and copying what she does. As they start catching food for themselves, their mother will begin to draw away from them, even snapping at them when they try to eat with her at times. When the hatchlings are ten months old, they often stay together, but leave their mother. At this stage, they're called juveniles.They'll stick together until they get sick of each other's company, and one by one will leave to live on their own.
The first mating season they participate in, usually 3 years old for females and 5 years old for males, ends their juvenile stage, and they are now considered adults, even if they are still immature.
DIET
Their diet mainly consists of meats, but their diet is highly adventurous and adaptable to what's available. They will eat anything that gives sustenance besides their companions. (Young hatchlings that have yet to leave, friends, etc.) They'll eat the most plentiful food, whether that be their own kind or fruits.
Shadow bringers can go nearly a month without food, and the same goes for water. While water from a stream is most direct, they can easily get their dose from cacti or juicy meats.
HABITAT
While they don't tend to stay in any one area for more than a month, they tend to stay within around 100 miles, and females rear young in the same den every year. Males, however, wander quite a bit more, and often shift where they return to every night, oftentimes permanently leaving realms, as opposed to females who tend to return to the same place in the same realm.
In order for a shadow bringer to even consider a spot becoming it's home, it needs to meet several criteria. The first of which is easy access to food. Whether they eat a large meal once or twice a month or a small meal every other day, there needs to be some access to food. During famines, they may end up fleeing their normal confines temporarily after draining an area of most of it's nutrients. Water is another important criteria. While they may not always drink water, they still need to wash themselves after a brawl. A small geyser that is consistent with when it goes off would likely be enough.
MAGIC
While they're not the most magic oriented species, they do have some minor magical capabilities. The physical manifestations are a second head/set of wings or a split tail, though this only occurs in 30% of births. Powers come from a small pool of potential powers often passed down from either parent. Many only have one power, and a few lucky go-getters have two. The powers a hatchling can receive are hastening the healing of wounds (on self or other), gathering a small cloud of shadow, spitting acid (that cannot harm others that carry or show this ability), and being able to teleport (varying distances). It appears random which one the hatchling can actually chose to use, though the ones the parents can use seems to be a factor.
DULY NOTED
-The most pure shadow bringer eggs ever laid was six in the wild, ten in captivity.
-The most adult males are killed off before they are seven in mating battles, and nearly twice as many ameature fighters are severly wounded.
-The longest living hybrid had a shadow bringer father and a highly mixed wyvern mother who had phenotypes similar to shadow bringers, and the hatchling that resulted had a tail that was a bit too long and lived to be 50 years old. (Captivity.)
-The largest full-grown shadow bringer was 19.5 feet tall, 22.1 feet long, and had a 26.3 foot wingspan.
-The smallest full-grown shadow bringer was 6.3 feet tall, 11.8 feet long, and had a 16.1 foot wingspan.