:•3

I think HTTYD THW completely missed a great opportunity with its whole namesake. A hidden world that’s the birthplace of all dragons is such an interesting topic— yet they barely did anything with it! No new species native to there except maybe the Hobgobbler and that’s a joke dragon! I’d like to think the Light Furies are from there but they did nothing to imply it, they’re more like cloud Night Furies if anything…

The ancestral home of the dragons would have been a perfect opportunity to introduce the ancestral versions of the dragons we’ve already seen. Plus it would be super easy since you’re just giving them a new coat of paint. Plus I’m pretty sure they might have been inspired by the Hollow Earth theory, where the dinosaurs didn’t die and just went way below ground; like Ice Age 2.

Anyway here’s the lore of the ancient ancestor of the Hideous Zippleback, the Abyssal Zippleback:

•(I decided it would be a nice motif to make the ancestral dragons have blue eyes to match with the Light Furies, just to tie in the idea of them all belonging to THW.)

•The Ab. Zips. live in the deep dark waters of THW. They hide in underwater caves and ambush their prey, much like eels.

•One head squirts out a thick ink to blind their prey, while the other head latches onto their prey while inducing electric shocks— stunning and paralysing them. This allows them to take on animals that may have an advantage over them otherwise.

-> When the species migrated outside of THW and eventually on the Overworld, they had to adapt their ink breath to work on land— since their ink didn’t travel far enough to actually reach their targets. Thus turning from a black liquid into a now green gaseous form, which was successful in clouding their targets vision.

-> Since their shock bites were also short-ranged in a long-ranged world with fire breathing dragons, they’d had to adapt those too. Eventually nature mutated just right for their shocks to turn into sparks, which ignited the other heads’ gas to create a powerful explosion.

-> The Hideous Zippleback eventually lost its head fins, as their purpose shifted over to their wings; now much bigger due to their new habitat being out in the open instead of in caves. Plus their head-fin only attracted more attention as well as most other dragons’ fear responses being “shoot the big dragon to temporarily distract it then fly away”. Fireballs don’t do much underwater but they do on land!

•The Abyssal Zippleback has an angler fish-like bioluminescent bulb dangling from its horn for both attracting mates and to lure prey closer, as they live in the depths of THW with no light except for their own.

->The Hideous Zippleback slowly lost this feature as it served no purpose other than to basically blind themselves and to waste energy.

•The Ab. Zips. has extra sensory nubs on their chin to detect their proximity to the caves’ floors.

•They had jutting bottom teeth that allowed them to snag and impale their prey easier. The Hid. Zips. kept this trait as it helped them catch fish easier.

•Their long necks gave them a longer reach to jump out at prey.

•(Like most ancestral HW species, they are much larger and powerful than their descendant counterparts.)

-> Overall, the Abyssal Zipplebacks’ traits gave their land-dwelling descendants unique advantages in a very competitive scene. Allowing Zipplebacks to thrive on the Overworld and become one of the most common species of dragon.

I think HTTYD THW completely missed a great opportunity with its whole namesake. A hidden world that’s the birthplace of all dragons is such an interesting topic— yet they barely did anything with it! No new species native to there except maybe the Hobgobbler and that’s a joke dragon! I’d like to think the Light Furies are from there but they did nothing to imply it, they’re more like cloud Night Furies if anything…

The ancestral home of the dragons would have been a perfect opportunity to introduce the ancestral versions of the dragons we’ve already seen. Plus it would be super easy since you’re just giving them a new coat of paint. Plus I’m pretty sure they might have been inspired by the Hollow Earth theory, where the dinosaurs didn’t die and just went way below ground; like Ice Age 2.

Anyway here’s the lore of the ancient ancestor of the Hideous Zippleback, the Abyssal Zippleback:

•(I decided it would be a nice motif to make the ancestral dragons have blue eyes to match with the Light Furies, just to tie in the idea of them all belonging to THW.)

•The Ab. Zips. live in the deep dark waters of THW. They hide in underwater caves and ambush their prey, much like eels.

•One head squirts out a thick ink to blind their prey (as well as helping them disappear if threatened/attacked), while the other head latches onto their prey while inducing electric shocks— stunning and paralysing them. This allows them to take on animals that may have an advantage over them otherwise.

-> When the species migrated outside of THW and eventually on the Overworld, they had to adapt their ink breath to work on land— since their ink didn’t travel far enough to actually reach their targets. Thus turning from a black liquid into a now green gaseous form, which was successful in clouding their targets vision.

-> Since their shock bites were also short-ranged in a long-ranged world with fire breathing dragons, they’d had to adapt those too. Eventually nature mutated just right for their shocks to turn into sparks, which ignited the other heads’ gas to create a powerful explosion.

Before —> After.