[Tang's FR Lore Trove]

As Aprils end approaches, that means works busy season is about to end and boy am I happy about that :D As I get back into Flightrising, I'd like to get back into lore posts - so I made a poll with a few dragon runes to see which one you guys prefer. Feel free to comment too, regardless if you don't see one you'd like me to cover!

So you want to expand your lair lore because as awesome as your clan is, maybe you're a little bored and you want to add some pizzazz to the mix.

One way to do that is to look at dragonrunes, which we can see in Runestones of the Arcanist. Today we're covering Venom (we covered Time here), a dragonrune who has roots (haha) in both Plague and Nature flight.

But how you ask? Through research, puns, and an unhealthy dragon obsession, that's how! *rummages for fancy-lore hat* :D!

So let’s define Venom first - Venom is a form of toxin secreted by an animal for the purpose of causing harm to another. Venoms adapt to their environment and victims and accordingly evolve to become maximally efficient. Consequently, venoms become specialized to an animal’s standard diet. (Wikipedia)

Venom is something creatures make for numerous reasons, two main reasons being as a defense or as a predation mechanism. Predation usually refers to the way a predator subdues or digests its prey - seeing that venom can evolve and specialize for its bearers environment, diet, and defensive needs - something that is key to this rune and the flights that are at its roots.

Let’s take a look at Nature flight first.

The second sentence there is the most important - dragons work in tangent with the Labyrinth and try to internalize its attributes - the dragon breed known as Wildclaws (WC for short) came from the Gladekeepers forests. They are of the “might makes right” theology, using their physical prowess to figure out hierarchies - in order to survive in the wilderness and in WC clans you must prove your hunting expertise and strength.

Wildclaws have even begun expanding into new domains, their most notable one being the Wandering Contagion. Wildclaws and Plague Flight share wildly (;D) similar beliefs. The number one rule is survival of the fittest. You must evolve and adapt to survive. 

(Side-Note: Wildclaws seem to be based off of the beloved Velociraptor, a family of dinosaurs people know well. Well, did you know that there is a possible venomous specimen? :O!)

Anyways - what better place to look for these similarities in Plague lore than the Wyrmwound?

The thing about the Wyrmwound is that while dragons do settle here, they steer clear of the wound itself. The Plaguebringer herself creates the strains she releases and no one knows for sure what they could do, but between mutation or destruction there's not much wiggle room for niceities.

So not only is the most important place to plague dragons a cauldron of "hey try to survive this crazy soup", it embodies their views to the T. And what are those?

Plague dragons are survivors, they are strong, they adapt to their environment and are the most savage of all flights. They hold wildly (haha) similar views to Wildclaws and their origin flight, Nature.

So we can come to the conclusion that while nature and plague appear different, they share a lot of the same views. Venom is the child of Plague and Nature because venoms adapt and evolve to the users environment. They are constantly evolving to ensure they are as efficient as possible against their victims, something plague can hold dear - there is always room for improvement in their eyes. Venom is used in hunting and surviving, which both flights showcase in their cultures, especially Nature and their native breed, Wildclaws (the #2 most populated area for them is in Plague territory).

Hello, welcome to FR! :D Feel free to PM/Friend me on FR (Tangaroa/#131444) and I’ll send you over a welcoming present!Thank you so much for the compliments, your ask made my year! ;A; I can totally do more and venom was actually the one I was going to cover next (and maybe cloud after that?) but you’re very astute about the runes! I totally agree that Venom would be plague/nature and I’ll have a post up soonish explaining why :)

And if there are any other parts of FR you’d like me to research explain, feel free to poke me here or on FR! Thank you so much for this ask (it really made me smile for hours! 8D) and I hope you guys have the BEST Friday (and weekend!)

One of the biggest complaints I've seen on FR is that while there are plenty of flights, there doesn't seem to be much room for variation for lore inspiration inside a flight.

(I'm so so sorry I've wanted to use an Excalibur meme since forever)

That is anything but true! *puts on fancy-lore hat* :D

Let's take a look at a game everyone's played at least once - Runestones of the Arcanist. The basics of the game are match the tiles within a timeframe, but there are more tiles than flights! We call them dragonrunes and here are a few examples;

These are easy ones to look at because we can interpret them by the colors and words they use. For this post we'll focus on the time rune.

Let's define time first - Time is the indefinite continued progress of existence and events that occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future. (sourced from Wikipedia) So with that explanation, let's connect that to proper flights! Which are those, you ask?

Earth and Light. Why? First let's get down to the very first flight!

The Earthshaker is the first deity of flight rising(literally, his ID# is 1), he was the foundation of the pillar, his flight is the most passionate about their past, and keeping/remembering history is one of their favorite things to do (if you need more evidence go read snapper lore!).

Now let's go back to the time definition, specifically the "..indefinite continued progress of existence and events.." part. In order to keep "with" time, we must remember, record or communicate events to each other so we have a frame of reference for when they happen. Earthshaker was the first to exist and he was the first significant dragon event. His children record and remember history because it's one of the most important things to them. Stone was one of the first ways we recorded history too!

Now let's look at light - how does light relate to time and the possible "subflight" of time? Well, what do we use light for? A lot of time related things, actually - and one of them is the first place every light-flight user knows well.

Sundial Terrace - a giant sundial that records the time of day by using light and stone. This is literally a giant time-monument that the entire population of Sornieth celebrates once a year (during the longest day too!).

No one knows who built it, light dragons came across the Sunbeam Ruins and claimed it as their own. Dragons were coming to the Sundial before it was light territory.

Even the colors for the time rune settles nicely between Earth and Light's brighter/darker toned yellow;

So to wind everything up - both Earth and Light have a major role in the time rune. We can even see that the time-runes colors are a mixture of both flights powers (Stone/Light) AND both flights record time through their own flight-culture ways.

Think of sub-flights like a specialization! Besides, there are so many tablets you can use and implement in lore. Pretty cool huh?

It’s the hot topic of today, but let’s take a closer look at it. Why is it goopy? Why are there such weird colors? Is this actually in compliance with ice-flight/fr lore? YES - but that answer requires a bit of reading to really answer! :D *puts on fancy hat*

Looking at the Ice Flights tid-bit on the world map, we can see one very specific part of the ice flights territory that seems to correlate with the new pillar.

So we now know that the Frigid Floes used to be comparable to the continent most of the other flights reside on. Thats huge! The two things that have decreased its size are weather and dominance battles. 

So now that we know that let’s take a look at the exaltation block again;

There seems to be ice breaking away from the pillar this lovely imperial is modeling, plus it’s melting! Considering that we exalt dragons for dominance battles to gain ground, it would seem logical that the exalting pillar we see here is close to the Frigid Floes, close to other flights territory, or the dragon/that area is currently was/under attack from another elemental flight (probably lightning and fire, two flights which attacks can cause ice to crack and melt).

Also, the colors reflecting off of the pillar and in the background do go with ice flight lore, as evidenced by the pictures below;