I'm terrible at writing, if someone with writing skills wants to do something with this here's my headcanons on the different wof tribe's courting rituals and stuff (it's only the phyrrian tribes because I was thinking of jade winglet polycule while making this)
Skywings
Scarlet era
Courting invitation: challenging someone to a fight to the death and then not killing them when you have the chance to
Accepting courting: acknowledgeing that they let you live and letting them live in return (killing them would be the only way to reject them)
Courting: gifts, hunting together
Rules: challenging someone to a fight to the death and both of you surviving is the only way to legally court someone (not very strongly enforced because Scarlet is the only one who cares about it) also the only way to stop courting is to challenge the other to a duel and kill them
Ruby era
Courting invitation: sharing food/hunting for the other/gifting specific sun-related jewelry
Accepting courting: accepting the food or jewelry, gifting food or jewelry back
Courting: sharing food, hunting together, napping in the sun together
Rules: no trying to kill each other, no challenging death duels, you can end the courting whenever but just saying so or giving back the jewelry your partner has given you.
Mudwings
Courting invitation: Sharing food/hunting for the other dragon(s)
Accepting courting: accepting the food and sharing your own food
Courting: sharing food/hunting together/physical touch/introducing the other dragon(s) to your siblings
Rules: none
Seawings
Courting invitation: gifting jewelry/making art for the dragon(s)
Accepting courting: accepting the jewelry/art and giving jewelry/art in return
Courting: more gifts, physical touch, aquatic nickname
Rules: unofficial, only for royals: no courting other tribes. You can only gift pearls if you intend to get married and have permission from your parents and the parents of the dragon(s) you're marrying. You can't innitiate courting with a family heirloom, those are for engagement. You don't have to return any courting gifts but dragons sometimes exchange courting gifts for an amicable break.
Icewings
Courting invitation: Gifting jewelry (family heirloom)
Accepting courting: accepting the jewelry and gifting your own jewelry back (also family heirloom)
Courting: gifting jewelry on anniversaries, in preparation for the wedding, and as congratulations for accomplishments
Rules: you can't court someone in a different ring, courting is engagement, you must have permission from your parents and the other dragon's parents. Polyamoury is illegal. No courting other tribes. You can only end courting if the other dragon does something wrong (like cheating, breaking a law, dropping more than one ring down, etc)
Nightwings
Darkstalker era
Courting invitation: Gifting jewelry (1 full moon: dating, 2 full moons: engagement, 3 full moons: wedding)
Accepting courting: accepting jewelry and giving jewelry (usually matching)
Courting: gifts for hatchingdays, anniversaries, full moons (singular when dating, double when engaged, and triple when married), or hatching moons (when the moon(s) in the sky look the same as what the moon(s) were like when you hatched)
Rules: If you work for the Queen or are part of the Queen's Royal Court you have to get the Queen's permission to court someone.
Religious Custom: polycule with anything divisible by 3 is blessed (so 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27. 27 would be the best because it's 3^3 but it's never happened before so 9 is considered the best of the achievable numbers because it's 3+3+3)
Current time
Courting invitation: Giving food to the other dragon(s)/sharing food with the other dragon(s)
Accepting courting: accepting the food and giving/sharing your own
Courting: sharing food/hunting together
Rules: 3-dragon polycules are considered cursed (thank you to Darkstalker, Clearsight, and Turtle for being such a toxic throuple they ruined throuples for a whole tribe of dragons)
Rainwings
Courting invitation: "*name*, darling, would you grant me the honor of courting you until our bodies become stardust?"
Accepting courting: "*name*, my love, I'll be with you even when our stardust stops sparkling"
Courting: gifts, sharing a hammock during suntime, sharing food, taking care of the other dragon(s)'s pet(s)
Rules: none
Sandwings
Before civil war
Courting invitation: Gifting jewelry/offering to pay for something
Accepting courting: accepting the gift/letting them pay
Courting: gifts/hunting for the other dragon/keeping watch while they sleep even if it's unnecessary
Rules: When gifting jewelry you must buy the jewelry for the dragon you're courting, you can't give them a piece of jewelry you already own. The only acception to this is if the jewelry is a family heirloom, in which case you need your family's permission to gift it. If you accept a courting gift and you choose to end the courting you must give the gift back, if they end the courting you can keep the gift. If the gift was a family heirloom and they end the courting they need to give you a piece of jewelry of equal value in exchange for the heirloom if they want it back. You cannot, under any circumstances, regift courting jewelry. The only scenario where you can give courting jewelry to another dragon is if it's a family heirloom and you're passing it down to your child.
During civil war
Courting invitation: Sparring one on one, offering to fight someone for you
Accepting courting: accepting the spar, letting the person fight someone for you
Courting: sharing food/hunting together/keeping watch while the other sleeps/sparring
Rules: none/no one to enforce the rules so there are no rules
After civil war
Courting invitation: hunting for the other person/sparring with them/offering to fight someone for them
Accepting courting: accepting the food/sparring/letting them fight someone for you
Courting: sharing food/hunting for or with the other person/sparring
Rules:
Why the change?
During the civil war sandwings who were training for battle would be split into two teams and then had to mock battle. This was a way to reprogram their brains to recognize "friendly" sandwings vs. "enemy" sandwings. Before the civil war they just trained to be good at fighting, they knew the enemy would look different so they didn't need to worry about people mixing up their friends and enemies. The civil war changes that so they had to adapt their battle training. Sparring one on one wasn't necessary due to this so it became a show of trust and vulnerability and a way to initiate courting.
