#dragon elements

A polar cousin of the reefwalker, called a daybreaker. She is greeting someone with the typical local open-palmed greeting.

Daybreakers are still of the water element (not ice as one might assume) and live in a blisteringly frigid region far enough to the north that they experience a yearly period of no sunlight. During this time, a sacred bonfire is created and clan members gather together to ask the sunlight to come back. Thus, they are called "day breakers" because they are the ones who bring back the daylight.

This is a lushtender, also called a Behemoth of the Forest due to their large stature. They are flightless dragons with an ancient body plan that combines impressive muscle with plant-like qualities (such as antlers meant to blend in with trees.)

This is a female lushtender, which you can tell from the smaller tusks in the mouth and the smaller dewlap - these are much larger on males. Her antlers are shedding their leaf-like velvet because it's autumn - and because they are antlers, they do eventually fall off entirely. The "branches" will fall off for the winter and regrow in the spring. The velvet releases a pheromone present in all sexes of this species once it starts growing back.

I hate this one but wanted to throw it together anyway.

This is an ashdweller, teaching a much younger would-be farmer how to handle farm equipment (He has no intention of doing any farming himself, hence the pipe full of reapwort.) He is from a temperate, volcanic region called the Crimson Coast where the soil is very fertile and farming is a successful profession. It's not without its dangers, however, as he had fallen from a cliff and injured himself just last year.

Ashdwellers have a wyvern-like body, with their wings being attached to their arms rather than being located on the shoulders. I didn't draw the wings very well here. They also have thin skin around the throat where you can see fire welling up within them before they unleash it.

I'm going to attempt to show what the different dragon species look like in my simpler drawing style so I can at least have something to look at and edit as needed.

Here is a young, gender nonconforming reefwalker going for a swim. You can identify his gender nonconformity by his shell necklace, usually seen on betrothed female reefwalkers. A rare occurrence, but it's generally accepted within this society.

Updated map of Astria for now. I hate my cartoony art style sometimes.

Too many land masses got moved so I'll need to redo the map and fill in some of that frighteningly sparse open ocean.

There definitely needs to be a wide open ocean around The Far Reach, which is the grayish continent in the farthest northwest corner. It's an island lost to time, where there's no weather or aging or dying. There's a vast ocean surrounding this area for miles around up until you get a bit close to it, and then the seas get eerily still and nothing swims there.

Just some edits to my map of Astria. Nations are getting moved around or yeeted altogether. Some territory is shared. And the Lunar/Solar element has been combined into one, with Lunar and Solar being the variants. Below are the nations so far.

The Solar Starseekers (Cosmic)

The Lunar Starseekers (Cosmic)

The Reefwalkers (Water)

Unnamed polar Water dragons

Unnamed western Fire dragons

Unnamed eastern Fire dragons

The Mountain Movers (Ice)

The Cloudchasers (Air)

Unnamed Earth dragons

Unnamed lowland Nature dragons

Unnamed highland Nature dragons

The Ghosts of the Undergrowth (Rot)

Unnamed coastal Rot dragons (which may not be kept as a variant)

The Steelbearers (Tech; this includes the island chain of them for now.)

The mainland Suneaters (Light)

The island Suneaters (Light)

The Far Reach (technically the forgotten "Time" element, split off from the Cosmic dragons)

There is a teeny-tiny Fire clan living up in the Frozen North where the Ice dragons are. These dragons are employed for their fiery powers and work on the railways, clearing snow and ice from the tracks. The employed Fire dragons eventually made a settlement in this region, creating generations of railway workers that are better equipped to handle the cold environment.

Anything with colored diagonal lines represent a shared region. The island south of the Tech dragons' region (The Scrapyard) is shared with the Light dragons and you can see how the Rot dragons share territory with the Nature dragons in some areas (The Nature dragons stay in the treetops and the Rot dragons live in the Undergrowth.)

The three regions completely crossed out of existence are the amphibious Water dragons to the northwest, the deep-sea Water dragons to the east, and some random Light settlement near the island chain (Never knew why this was put there in the first place.) I liked the different Water regions but for balancing purposes, I decided they didn't really need so many variations.

The big scribbly blue island that has a note saying "Change?" will probably be more polar Water dragons but that's undecided, hence the scribble and the question mark.

A map in the works. A layer for trade routes will be added soon.

Solar/Lunar dragons have been combined into the Cosmic element (split between the Lunar west and Solar east.) They remain isolated in the northwest.

Air and Earth share a space, with Earth dragons in the valleys/canyons and the Air dragons residing in the mountains in between.

Fire dragons live on each end of the main land, which is largely made up of Nature dragons in between. Tech dragons once lived in an enormous expanse of land but that area has been downsized.

The Light dragons are stationed all over the map for surveillance, with Rot dragons doing the same in key locations to the west of the main land.

- Solar - hoarding gold, solar power, daytime activity, communication, politics, law, currency and banking, wealth, solar eclipses

- Lunar - guardianship, lunar power, blue or purple flame abilities, nighttime activity, secrecy, meditation, silence, space, the cosmos, stars, galaxies, the void of space

- Water - fishing, storms at sea, music, trade, exploration, cartography, swimming capabilities, deep diving, meteorology, lightning power and electricity, weather power and abilities, adventures, fishing

- Fire - heat, red-hot flame abilities, culinary arts, metallurgy, strength and might, vitality

- Ice - architecture, isolation, transportation, ice and frost abilities, hunting, weaving and leatherworking, travel

- Nature - healing, potions, medicine, growth, camouflage, agriculture, biology, poison and toxicity, regeneration, decor and aesthetic, alchemical abilities, medical practice

- Air - flight, music, dance, sound, singing, artistry, topography, festivals, community, costuming, heights, open spaces, speed, whispers

- Earth - blacksmithing, gemology, climbing and burrowing capabilities, carving, geography, geology, defensive abilities

- Tech - magic, wisdom, technology and technological advances, innovation, evolution, shapeshifting powers, body augmentation, invention

- Rot - connection to the earth, death, decay, mourning the dead, worship of nature spirits, family, familial ties, ancestry, religion

- Light - teaching and education, information, knowledge, heritage, languages, writing, chronology and chronoception, illuminative powers, swift and silent abilities

- Time - history, ancient artifacts, changing seasons, time, patience, righteousness, remembrance, rebuilding of culture, rebuilding of nature, reclamation, storytelling, tradition, ritual