#kheprriverse

Most of this ref done thanks to MHRS, poses, refs, etc, to make my life easier, and changing things I needed changed. It probably would've taken way longer than a day if I had done the reference parts from scratch.

I wanted him to have kind of a bard-trader-hunter kinda vibe, being a hunting horn main and all (though he has a wide variety of weapons at his disposal). I think the dignified set really helps? Maybe expect more armor sets though? I'm not entirely sure. It completely depends on what styles I discover as I experiment in rise and older games. I know for a fact that Zelda's design is gonna be more iceborne-inspired tho.

I mentioned he was born from a clutch of 6 eggs. The eldest is his sister, Scorn, who is also the largest and most fierce.

I want her to make an appearance eventually, relating to this post funnily enough (I’m actually reworking when this meeting even takes place so while that post will still be sorta relevant to their relationship it’ll have nothing to do with Scorn). He knows the most about her which... is not much tbh. Usually after dragons migrate away from families they'll likely never see each other again.

The second oldest are his sisters Blitz and Blaze, twins born from the same egg. He doesn't know much about them aside from what Scorn would tell him in the future. That they continue to be inseparable, insufferable, and downright wacky. They rule their territory together and don't have (or don't want) mates, unlike Scorn who had her own family at one point.

He knows his three other siblings; Flare, Sear, and Burn, all of which are female. He knows of them, but doesn't know what they've been up to since they all migrated. He's the youngest, the runt, and funnily enough (one of) the most odd. He's had to exaggerate just about everything about him in order to keep his siblings from treating him like he's weak, which happened to play into his current arrogant and prideful self now. Though, sometimes he lets that facade fall when alone with Ares.

They're in no way the only hatchlings their parents had, but Volga wouldn't know any of them outside of his clutch.

Then there's his parents: his mother Smolder, and his father Gargoyle.

He's not exaggerating when he says they're the largest dragons someone could meet. They've lived and ruled their territory for many years unchallenged. Though he does make an off comment about Smolder being bigger than Hyrule Castle sometime in a future conversation, but he never makes it clear to Ares if he's truly joking or not.

Fire dragons don't leave their eggs, nor do they leave their hatchlings out to survive on their own unless there's some crazy exception that would make them think abandoning is the best choice. Could be from the current situation being unsafe, like having just been driven out of territory (in Scorn's case) for example. Or it could be the hatchling has some mutation or is too weak. Though not every fire dragon will abandon their hatchlings unless they think there's no other choice.

They're raised for about a year, taught what's important (how to hunt, how to breath fire properly, how to defend oneself and fight, what is honor and how to have an honorable fight, territory and what it means, how to hoard, social cues, etc). After that initial year the hatchlings, now fledgling dragons, will migrate to claim their own territory or challenge another dragon for theirs.

Volga was actually going to have a snide comment at the end here like "not anymore at least". This is just snippets from a storyboard so it may or may not appear in the future.

Some instances, dragons may stay with their parents and help defend the nest and hunt for future siblings. I'm sure if Volga ever went back to his birthplace he'd maybe see a few siblings still, but it doesn't always happen. Sometimes they'll stay on the off chance that they can challenge their parents for their territory when they're older, but Smolder and Gargoyle aren't really dragons you wanna challenge.

Volga chose a rather dangerous route when migrating and that was over the Great Sea. Likely to prove a point to his family. The ocean is much too large for a 1-year-old dragon, especially his size at the time, to fly over. But he managed to do it anyways, whereas the rest of his siblings likely stayed within reach of their parents, or each other, or even just within the same continent.

His decision to migrate across the ocean likely caused his family to believe he probably died before he got to the other side because of how difficult it is to get across. Which is something I plan for Scorn to point out when they finally reunite. if I ever get to drawing it.

He arrives in Hyrule when its already established, but manages to keep himself hidden long enough to find Eldin Volcano -- the perfect home for a fire dragon. But before he can become comfortable he meets another fire dragon! An old one even, burrowed deep within the volcano with its hoard of monster bones and jewels, and a large community of lizardfolk working for it while it sleeps.

The dragon is much too old to fight, and Volga at the time is much to small to challenge anyone. So he ends up blending into the lizardfolk and bringing the elder food, though its likely the dragon knew he was there. It would be a couple years of Volga running random errands the lizardfolk give him before the older dragon finally leaves its burrow and makes himself known; Obsidian, as the lizardfolk would call him.

Volga was pretty lucky the dragon was so old. He had built up the territory for multiple centuries, had a deal with the gorons and lizardfolk, but was having difficulty keeping peace with the rito and newly settled hylians. Because of his age, Obsidian didn't see a need to feel threatened nor threaten the 3-year-old fledgling, instead he found potential in Volga and decided he'd be a good successor. So he took the smaller dragon under his wing (haha) and its been history since.

Volga learned much of his prowess from Obsidian and many of his current techniques as well. Many fire dragons have potential to shift into an alternate form and this is who Volga learned and perfected his from. It wasn't until this ability was practiced to perfection before Obsidian decided Volga was ready to challenge him and take his place.

Often times when fire dragons are trying to find territory and encounter another dragon, they much "challenge" the current dragon. Challenges are done honorably, either ending in death or when one of the opponents forfeits. When a dragon challenges another, they unfold their wings and hang their head high to make themselves look larger before letting out a "challenge roar". The fight starts when the second dragon initiates.

Plus a closeup on Ballad because he's so so pretty.