i took a lot of symbolic inspiration from the slavic end of winter tradition — burning or drowning of the winter goddess morana -> giving up a girl at the end of winter to dragon to hopefully start spring nicely without any casualties (the dragon attacking their sheeps) so it was seen as necessary to start the year without any casualties . um haha,, bad omen if it didn't happen accordingly.

the village is isolated from the rest of the world by mountains and deep forests, they consider themselves one big family. they live off sheep, fish, cold hardy crops like turnips, etc. wild berries - you get the point lol. they are pagan, believe in many old gods like perun, veles, morana, mokosh, etc. their style of living is . just medieval ? nothing special i guess. men travel far by boat for items they can't create or grow themselves but they are more or less very independent village.

the maiden to sacrifice would be chosen by a black ram with bells on its horns released into a crowd and tugging the chosen girl by her skirt !! the village elders and important people such as the shaman wear a lot of bells too (it is believed the bells drive away evil spirits or even scare winter away).

the children are used to seeing the dragon lightly - since he has not attacked in many years and not even many people in their 30s have actually seen him. the boys dress up as a dragon and scare girls who are usually more mature about the matter. some little girls are confident about the fact that they hope to be picked but throw fit once they do - there are too many scenarios i can think of :')

fmtn related

femi had long accepted her death by the dragon and was extremely confused as to why he had not done so. she wanted to return back to the village, but . decided not to and the dragon wouldn't let her leave anyway. for many days she lived in fear (her expectations didn't go according to plan so now she lives in even Bigger fear yk . u get me) and wouldn't sleep but later realised the dragon simply wished to keep her and not necessarily hurt her (she didn't piss him off yet lol).

their first 'friendly' interactions would be dragontano bringing fish for her to eat and almost burning them to crisp on accident. she ate them anyways. he would sometimes just watch her do simple things like washing her linen dress in the freezing water or watching her bathe in the lake too AND BEFORE U SAY ANYTHING hes just looking . keeping watch even. ok lol. and when he saw her shiver in the cavern afterwards he lit fire to the damp wood she brought (which she tried to make fire with rocks before and failed) to keep her warm.

i took inspiration from russian fairytales / folklore and decided to fully make this slavic adjacent au with pagan elements (ie. dragon zmei змей, who in some stories is able to take form of a human).. essentially the setting is a northern tundra village — almost viking-looking, where people are mostly isolated and believe in old gods and ancient tales, participate in rituals etc .. across snowy plains and a freezing lake, there's an island where the dragon lives in its cavern :3c

au synopsis: every year around the spring equinox a dragon would come to the village, cause chaos and steal the village's sheep... because the village is isolated during neverending winter they depend on their livestock, and from fear they performed a ritual and give away a young maiden with lamb away as a sacrifice, to hopefully keep the dragon calm. the maiden would be then sent across the lake on a boat with many gifts, protective symbols carved into the wood and drawn on her body with rowanberry juice, wintergreen in hand. if the virgin maiden would not accepted by the dragon, it was seen as a bad omen — if she were to return from across the lake the people would end up killing her themselves as a way to appease angry gods. but this hasnt happened for many years... not until the timid shepherd's daughter was sent away :p haha

im not sure whether this fully encapsulates what i am going for because i really want this to be sort of unhinged au for me to indulge in HAHA .. but !! yes tano is the dragon yes femi is the shepherd's daughter and . yes he can become sort of human but . like . not fully he still has some scales on his chest and arms and horns and claws and unkept hair and his feet are still sort of dragon-like and he smells of sulfur a bit and runs warm !!!! eh IDK IM TOO LAZY TO DRAW HIM haha im too small brained for this </3 but its become a tradition for me to add some pics alongside new stuff i share so ;3;;; wehehe . .