I was looking at your speculative WoF AU dragons, and i wondering how easy would it be for a human to raise each tribe's babies. Would it be more difficult for Wren to raise Sky? (assuming they exist in your AU lol)
(also those tribe bases are sick as heck!) :D
Hmmmmmmmm..let's see, musing under the cut!!
The first obstacle is the rigid in-group politics between the dragons. The queendom territories aren't made up of all one type of dragon and have a broad mix of dragons, but it is understood that you're in the Skywing Queendom and the skywings there are the ones whose law you live under because there is a Skywing queen. This creates divisions based on physical dragon type, even if the average commoner skywing isnt at fault for the tax rate or the newest war effort. As of present there is a lot of generational resentment, stereotypes, and conflict between dragon types and a lotnod social pressure to stick to your own/look out for Your type. They're taught from a young age to meet other types of dragon with suspicion and aggression, holding your own group and your Queen above all else as a means of survival. Theres also the general view of adoption/egg and child raising in general. Many dragons live in harsh conditions where infant mortality is high and most groups cant support that many people resource-wise (leading to practices to control population, such as reproductive exclusivity to certain people and/or sacrifical/culling practices). So, combining those two factors, cross-type adoption is veryy uncommon at the moment. For example, its more likely the leader of a mudwing village will just decide to crunch some sandwing eggs they find, or leave orphaned hatched sandwings alone. If a mudwing is willing to take them on, they arent likely to get support and those kids arent likey to be accepted as a part of the village. It can happen, but it'll be a struggle.
Social ostracized childhood stuff aside, theres also some phycial struggles theyd deal with raising a kid with drastically different physiology. Icewings need to be careful about overheating if theyre down south, and conversely their non-icewing parent could die from being too cold. Rainwings also have heat requirements, they'd have trouble living anywhere that gets too cold. Rainwings and Mudwings are omnivores, so if the other tribes are raising hatchlings they'll have to provide vegetables and fruits too (something that could take a sec for a carnivore to understand. Why is my child so sickly you're getting the best dead animal I can provide :( ) Seawings are probably the hardest, they Need to be in water for a lot of their day, can't really fly or walk well (makes doing average labor in a terrestrial dragon community very hard), and can't talk very well even if trained.
Hivewings and silkwings basically have the same larva requirements and are more or less raised the same way in the Hive (separately, but still. Theyre both omnivores favoring plants, so they can be given the same yummy child slop, and even pupate at around the same time!). Leafwings bud off their parent tree and are very antisocial, they're likely to just run away from your well-meaning attempts to raise them (maybe occasionally returning, depending on the individual. Theyre carnivores, so a hivewing or silkwing trying to raise one would run into the opposite problem of a skywing trying to raise a rainwing. Whys my giant translucent mantis child so sickly, youre getting the best honey, fruit, and grain I can provide :( ).
In terms of scavengers and dragons, I actually answered that a bit HERE! It's definitely possible, the scavenger is going to have to be very careful being seen by adult dragons (even when the dragonet is older) and also work very hard to find the space and food resources to provide lol. I think the dragnet could definitely imprint on them, but it kind of depends on the person. The dragons tend to have a pretty strong instinctual disinterest or distatse for anything that's not dragon-shaped(kind of like our uncanny valley in a way?) so once they get old enough to catch on to that kind of thing/understand what's going on, conflict can arise.
