wingsofmud

[wingsofmud]

Headshot of my current Fathom design since I don't want to post the full thing without Indigo to pair it with but I feel kinda bad about how long I'm taking.

So some notes about Fathom that probably won't show up in his character sheet.

Fathom has large, dark scales grouped on several parts of his body similar to a sea turtle. This trait was eventually passed down to Turtle.

Fathom tends to pick at his fins when nervous. He does this a lot post-Royal Massacre

He actually adjusts to the Nightwing sleeping schedule quite well since Seawings follow a diel cycle... at least when he's not having sleepmares.

Like most Seawings, he's highly socially adaptable which leads him to get along relatively well with most dragons, even ones like Arctic to some extent.

Seawing scleras are usually not visible, but Fathom whale eyes a lot due to being anxious.

[wingsofmud]

Dear god has it really been so long?

And I still don't have an Indigo design?

Eesh

These plantigrade dragons made me want to rip my hair out istg

I can't get Indigo's design down but I can't post Fathom without her

Auuggghhhh

Paaaiiiinnnn

[wingsofmud]

You will be randomly assigned a NightWing name. Spin this wheel for your prefix (first part of your name) and then spin this wheel for your suffix (second part of your name).

(I got the name Marveladvisor... It's tolerable)

[wingsofmud]

The Weird Introduction of Thorn and the Outclaws

Thorn's introduction is so weird, especially compared to how she's characterized for the rest of the series. Like the first time she was introduced, I was fully convinced she was running the equivalent of the Sandwing mafia.

Like the first thing said about the Scorpion Den, where the Outclaws reside, is this:

Which, fine, they are Nightwings so obviously they'd have baised information. But when they go to meet the Outclaws, they're not allowed in without some sort of offering:

Okay, they are grown Nightwings, so I suppose a contribution might make sense since they'd probably not come because they're in need of something. Whatever. But he specifically said "no one" gets inside.

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Anyway, Six-Claws finds Sunny hiding behind them and escorts her inside the city. She's approached by an assassin-for-hire and given his card and Six-Claws says this:

Mind you, Six-Claws is essentially Thorn's right-hand man.

Then we're introduced to the fact that the Outclaws feed dragonets:

This is something that's clearly meant to make them seem like good guys in both Sunny and the reader's eyes. But also, it's mentioned that most of the dragons here are starving or injured so they're likely impoverished. Which really begs the question, what were they giving to the Outclaws to get them to let them in? Isn't it kind of fucked up to demand something in exchange from a desperate dragon?

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When they come across the Oasis the city is built around, we have this exchange:

You guys see how this sort of thing is a problem, right? Like this would read as villainous?

It would be one thing if this was prevention from any one group taking control of the water, but no. They control it because then they can control the city. Granted, guarding any sort of vital resource is automatically very suspicious regardless of how good your intentions are. But hey, they are intended to prevent crime and this is a very effective way of controlling the territory. Fine.

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Anyway, we're introduced to Thorn and she kills Preyhunter. It would be one thing if Preyhunter had attacked her, but that's not at all what happened. I'll just put here the full excerpt:

This is not at all a reasonable reaction on Thorn's part. Generally, in any media, when someone kills the messenger, they're the bad guy or at the very least not the greatest pillar of morality. Because killing the messenger is a disregard of someone's life and a show of lack of emotional control considering you lashed out not at the person causing you harm, but the one who had the unfortunate job of telling it to you.

Hell, Preyhunter was the more reasonable one here. It takes Thorn grabbing him by the neck and throwing him on the ground, then threatening him with her tail, and then nearly burning him with fire for him to fight back. And does he use his built in throat flamethrower? No, he uses his claws instead. The way it's written heavily implies even this is just a blind panic reaction. And Thorn kills him.

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The book never goes into how messed up this whole situation was. A few paragraphs later, we have these thoughts from Sunny:

Ah yes, murder is okay as long as you feel bad about it and the person attempted to defend themself.

Also she 100% did not have to do that. There's genuinely a level of insecurity you need to have to feel the need to prove to someone who is very clearly at your mercy that you have power over them.

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It is later explained that Thorn does this because she thought Preyhunter was lying, but when Fierceteeth confirms that Morrowseer is in fact dead and the Nightwing Kingdom was destroyed, we have this:

Sunny is fully convinced Thorn intends to kill Fierceteeth for telling her a fact she doesn't like in a tone she also doesn't like.

If this were any other book, hell if this were any other character, they would be a villain. I actually genuinely can't think of a single villain in WoF who has killed some sort of messenger or bystander because they didn't like something that was told to them. Like, that is villain behavior 101.

When Sunny and Thorn mention killing Preyhunter, all she says is this:

"Yeah, sometimes you gotta show your gang your teeth by throwing down and killing a random dragon who let you know that the guy you hate is dead because you thought he was lying but as it turns out he wasn't lying and pretty much died for nothing, Beetle"

"Beetle?"

"My pet name for you!"

Am I tripping or is the sudden shift in conversation weird? After this Thorn is presented as being level-headed, kind, wise, and, in general, a good leader.

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So what we have is:

You must give something to the Outclaws to be allowed into the Scorpion Den

Said Scorpion Den is full of impoverished and injured dragons likely fleeing the horrors of the war

It's implied Six-Claws at least has hired the services of enough assassins to recognize that the one here is "too expensive" and "barely competent"

The Outclaws feed dragonets up to the age of 8 for free every day

The Outclaws control the only water supply in order to control the town

Thorn kills a guy who tells her a message she doesn't like and dismisses this action as "showing your teeth" essentially

Please, I need to know it's not just me. Like this reads as some sort of desert mafia, right?

It would be one thing if just Sunny herself was idealizing Thorn because she was her mother and realized she wasn't as good as she thought she was, but no. All of the Outlcaws' and Thorn's actions are not only justified, but seen as a necessity in the narrative.

Thorn is basically divinely blessed to rule the Sandwings. This introduction to Thorn and the Outclaws doesn't really line up with the rest of the book(s). Am I saying Thorn or the Outclaws are villains? No. But I am saying the way they were introduced implies that they are or at the very least are morally grey. But they're not. It makes me wonder if they were original meant to be more villainous, but Tui changed her mind? Idk

[wingsofmud]

I can't get Indigo's design down but I can't post Fathom without her

Auuggghhhh

Paaaiiiinnnn

[wingsofmud]

The canonically rapid evolution of the dragons in WoF is really interesting to me, so I added some aspects of that to my rewrite.

The rankings system is also interesting, so I made that a nation-wide thing, instead of something just for the nobility. Circle 1 and the palace are located in the upper most part of the territory, with the other circles going in a line south of it.

I shifted the Great Ice Cliff to separate the 1-3 Circle from the 4-7 Circle and the rest of Pyrrhia.

Info Below (For present day Icewings):

Lower Circle Icewings

Lower Circle/Southern Icewings are vaguely based off of polar bears. They're shorter and brawnier than upper circle ones. While they do give off that signature Icewing chill, their scales are not as frigid as their northern counterparts. Their tails are like a spiked club.

They can come in white, but often come in light browns, grays, reds, and oranges. The closer the dragon is to the Great Ice Wall, the more whites, blues, and purples show up in their scales.

Southern Icewings are also more likely to have spots and/or stripes on their scales, all to blend in better in the ranging subarctic to temperate to desert climate they live in. They are more omnivorous, and many herd caribou as an occupation.

They make up the majority of the Icewing population and the backbone of the military. They wear clothing more often, which usually consists of fur, bone, or fish scales. Better off Icewings can also obtain cloth and jewelry from passing Sandwing nomads.

While all Icewings have a reputation for being frigid, pun intended, lower circle Icewings tend to be friendlier.

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Upper Circle Icewings

Upper Circle/Northern Icewings are inspired off of arctic wolves. They often have small, pale irises and their scales feel like ice to the touch. Their tails are like spiked whips. They mostly come in white with some light blue or purple accents on them. Some dragons like Snowfall have red accents. Spots and stripes are rarer and usually much paler when they are present. They are much less tolerant of the heat.

Northern Icewings don't usually wear much jewelry. It's seen as garish to make such obvious displays of wealth, unless you're the Queen. They usually only dress up during special occasions and celebrations, and even then that's usually reserved for the one being celebrated.

The upper circle consists of all Icewing nobility along with the richest dragons. Most work in or around the palace grounds. Most of their diet consists of fish and seals which they eat raw.

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History

I changed the Gift of Order to the Gift of Equality. In ancient Icewing society, the caste was absolute. You were born into and died in your circle. The Gift of Equality came with a system to introduce fairness by basing what circle a dragon ended up in on their merit rather than birth.

Of course the Queen at that time did not account for the fact that Upper Circle Icewings have far more resources at their disposal to ensure their dragonets remain in the upper circles than lower circle Icewings. A few dragons manage to climb a circle once in a while, which the upper circle dragons love to use to shut up complaints from the lower circles. It is incredibly difficult to end up in the top three circles if you were not born into them.

Lynx is an outlier. So much so that her family has been investigated several times by Icewing nobles for fraudulent scoring. Considering the punishment for that is death, it is not a light accusation. Nothing was ever found. Of course her problems aren't over, especially since Icewing nobles aren't exactly known for being accepting.

Lower circle Icewings are usually disregarded when it comes to decisions like war and lawmaking by the upper circles. In fact, the upper circles dragons very rarely directly interact with the lower circle ones, often giving news to the fourth circle for them to spread it to the rest themselves. Though each circle and town is different, there is a massive culture shock between the 4th and 3rd circle. Not to mention the literal wall between them.

Lower circle Icewings are vying for independence, a movement that grew rapidly during the War of SandWing Succession. A movement Queen Snowfall is now expected to do something about now that the war is over and Darkstalker has been dealt with.

[wingsofmud]

The Star-Crossers

Doomed lovers my beloved. I want to make their relationship a lot more messy in my rewrite. So I want to make the shitty and good qualities between them a lot more even. I have so much to say about them so, without further ado:

Info + Heights Below:

Prince Arctic

Queen Diamond's only son and the betrothed of Duchess Snowflake, his life has been determined since before he was laid. Of course, the animus abilities were a bit of a surprise, but the possibility had already been accounted for. Such is the life of a drake in the Everfrost Palace. Arctic was prepared to live an uninteresting life as a fixture in Snowflake's household... until he met Foeslayer.

Big, bold, and a bit vulgar, she caught his eye immediately. Like most Icewings, Arctic had never seen a Nightwing before. She was incredible. Like something out of a fairytale. A knight with shining scales. She had so many stories of her home, of places and creatures he'd never seen and never would see. Arctic fell fast and fell hard in the month she was there.

So hard in fact, that on the eve of his 20th hatchday, his wedding, and the night Foeslayer was to return home, he fled to her quarters and professed his love and intention to run away with her. Things escalated very quickly from there. There were dragons chasing them. Someone grabbed him. There was a scuffle but...well... Icewings, upper circle Icewings at least, don't feel the cold. But there was suddenly blue on his scales and he felt its chill. He'd never seen a body before.

They married that same year. Arctic did not expect to be so...alone. A prince has more allies than friends, but at least he was surrounded by dragons like him. He didn't understand the way Nightwings spoke, their differing formalities, their jokes, their gods, their stories, their food, their...anything really. Not to mention their spirit-forsaken sleeping schedule. Sleep deprivation has become a constant in his life, especially after the dragonets were born.

On top of that, Foeslayer was around less and less often as things escalated between the Nightwings and Icewings into full-scale war. Arctic was often left to care for the dragonets on his own while also having to navigate the Nightwing Court by himself, which was a different beast entirely than the Icewing Court. While Prudence is often there, she doesn't exactly have his best interests in mind. He has little authority in the decisions made surrounding his children.

He doesn't quite regret leaving his mother's Queendom, especially after she attempts to assassinate him, but he does wish he'd done things differently.

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Foeslayer

So Foeslayer fell for the elegant little Icewing prince like some sap in a dragonet's romance scroll. Sue her. But, truth be told, Foeslayer had no real intention of marrying Prince Arctic when she first met him. It simply couldn't work. They could have a bit of fun, but she would have to return to her Queendom and he'd be married within Oracle's blink.

Safe to say that having the prince barge into her room the night before his wedding day wanting to elope with her then having to suddenly flee under threat of death for kidnapping a royal thus ruining months of careful negotiations was not exactly on her year's bingo card. It is unclear whether or not Foeslayer would've married Arctic were their situations different. As it were, she could not simply leave him to fend for himself in a foreign land. She loves him, truly, but it would be a lie to say the marriage wasn't at least partially out of obligation.

Yes, perhaps Arctic does have a point that she tends to ignore issues, especially those in the household, but she does not want to return from a bloody, death-ridden battlefield to problems at home as well. She doesn't exactly get to spend much time with her dragonets. And for Imperial's sake, he could stand to lighten up a little. He's not in the court 24/7, he doesn't need to act like it.

While Arctic generally isn't shy making it known when he has an issue with something, Foeslayer tends to keep it all in. She treats personal problems like they'll go away if you ignore them, but of course this only lets them build and fester. Spending days, weeks, or even months at a time on the battlefield does not help. She has... so many feelings about this whole situation, about Arctic, about this war, about her family, but she's unwilling to examine any of them. She's afraid of what she might find if she does.

That isn't to say their relationship is all bad, much of it isn't, but they do seem to be fighting more and more as the children grow.

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Height Comparison:

Foeslayer is very big for a Nightwing. Upper Circle Icewings tend to be taller while Nightwings tend to be larger.

Male and female Nightwings are about the same size while male Icewings tend to be smaller than females.

Foeslayer and Arctic are about 2 years apart in age. Foeslayer is older.

[wingsofmud]

📓📓?

So sorry for the delay, got unexpectedly busy! Anyway, two books for two fics so:

Pariah

This would be a fic that follows Icicle as she's judged and convicted under Queen Snowfall. But Snowfall is going through her own issues with her sister Crystal leaving unexpectedly disappearing one night and her suddenly being in charge of an entire Queendom when she's not even an adult and trying to gauge her relationship with her younger sister considering she could become a threat in the future.

So instead of exiling or executing Icicle like she's expected and planning to, she feels...something about the fact that Icicle was willing to commit treason for the sake of her brother and her mother's last words so she pardons her.

This would partially follow the dynamic between Snowfall and Icicle now that they're no longer in competition with one another. It also follows political issues between the lower and upper circles as well as Snowfall trying to make sudden and massive changes to the Queendom which most dragons are not happy about. And Icicle as she's effectively ostracized from the rest of nobility and her relationship with her family.

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2. Whale Killer

This fic would be in King Gill's pov as he watches his and Queen Coral's first daughter, Orca, grow. Mostly the little things he notices as she grows and her resentment of her mother grows with her. It would mostly be a series of interactions between Orca and Gill, Coral, Shark, Moray, her brothers, and Blister all leading up to Orca challenging Queen Coral when she turns seven. And how, despite himself, Gill isn't that surprised when it happened. He just wished she hadn't decided to do it so soon.

[wingsofmud]

Hey, here’s a fun new game. Put “📓” or some other version of a book emoji into my inbox and I’ll explain the plot of a fanfiction that I haven’t written but daydream about.

[wingsofmud]

Going through old drafts and docs is so funny cause I'll come across gems like this:

with no context. Like...what and why?

[wingsofmud]

The Betrothed

The illustrious Princess Charming, daughter of Queen Vigilance and Darkstalker's betrothed.

Info + design w/o accessories below:

Princess Charming:

The aptly names Princess Charming is the youngest daughter of Queen Vigilance. Traditionally Nightwing Queens only have two daughters. One meant to inherit the throne and a backup in case anything happened to the first. Charming is unlikely to and uninterested in ever ruling. She wouldn't even be able to challenge Vigilance if she wanted to as law dictates her older sister must do so first (if she ever does). Sisters are also not permitted to challenge each other for the throne, only daughters and nieces. No, Charming would much rather go about her luxurious life in the palace, attending balls and sitting quietly in on council meetings. It's incredible what a dragon can learn when they just listen.

Charming is beloved by (almost) all in the Nightwing Queendom. She's often seen parading around during festivals and interacting with the commoners. While she's well-known for her quick wit, she's also known to lend an ear to those who need it. If you're lucky, she'll even perform a song. She's got a lovely voice. Additionally, she's well-versed in several languages, astronomy, music, art, historical and poetic texts, mathematics, geography, and all other things expected of a Nightwing princess. She's expected to take the role of an advisor once her elder sister takes the throne.

While Princess Charming isn't particularly close to her mother, she would do just about anything for her Queendom... even if that something is being betrothed to a hybrid animus. She's not thrilled, but it wasn't as if Vigilance ever asked for her opinion on the matter... or any matter. To put it bluntly, she doesn't care for Darkstalker and the feeling is very much mutual. They are only seen together at formal events.

The two of them are simply to wed and have at least one daughter between them. Nothing dictates that they must be faithful. As long as Darkstalker can perform his duties, Charming cares very little about how he spends his free time frolicking with lowborn dragonesses. Besides, it is not as if she doesn't occasionally enjoy the company of other ladies and gentledragons as well. However, if Vigilance ever caught wind of Darkstalker's little "escapades", well, she certainly won't vouch for him.

Charming has a massive wardrobe, so the outfit above is only one of many. Since only Queens are permitted to wear the image of a full moon, Princess charming wears a blue crescent on her tiara. Often the most notable part of her outfits are the long, glittering, translucent fabrics she adorns herself with. All of which are cool colored, of course.

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Design w/o accesories

[wingsofmud]

The Besties

I'm giving Clearsight and Listener more history together in my rewrite. They meet years before Clearsight and Darkstalker ever cross paths.

More info + designs w/o accessories below:

Clearsight:

Clearsight is lowborn. She's the only child of Swiftwings and Dreamer and thus grew up with her parents' complete attention. She certainly needed during her earlier years considering her unusually strong prophetic ability. First she can only see a few minutes into the future, which stretches to hours, then days, then weeks, then months, then years as she grows. By the time she's in her elder years she can see up to a couple of centuries past her death.

This only gives Clearsight more and more anxiety as she grows. Due to this, she was a late flier and started school a year later than the other Nightwings at the age of seven instead of six. Clearsight is a highly organized perfectionist and an anxious mess. Luckily her best friend, Listener, is her anchor every time she spirals into a pit of possible futures. Despite her set backs, she's an excellent student and a talented flier.

She's just trying to get through school and navigate through her rapidly expanding prophetic abilities. Then one night she bumps (or rather, body slams) into the hybrid prince on the beach while chasing a vision and watches her every possible future dissolve and reweave itself right before her eyes. Fun.

Clearsight wears a friendship bracelet she fashioned from cheap iron scraps with Listener. Darkstalker gifts Clearsight her earring. It is very obviously worth more money than Clearsight could ever make in several lifetimes so Darkstalker enchants it to look cheap.

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Listener:

Listener was born into a large family, smack dab in the middle of eight other siblings. Due to this, She grew up navigating ten other voices in her head, while having ten dragons talking into her ears, and a sea of paws, tails, and wings to step around. Anyone who suggests the mind reader ocean method to her has clearly never had four younger siblings trying their best to annoy them.

One day, while looking from some peace, she stumbles onto a dragonet up in a tree. Said dragonet claims to be a seer, but, in Listener's opinion, she must really suck at having visions if she couldn't foresee getting stuck up there. After letting her know this, Listener helps her down. They hit it off and the rest is history.

Listener herself is an adventurous and excitable dragon. She's not interested in looking too far into the future, and would rather live spontaneously. She's looking into becoming an explorer once she finishes school. She loves hunting and gossip, and is very good at getting into relationships but not so much at keeping them.

She's very opinionated and has a bad habit of never thinking things through all the way, like the time she released the class pets. Or the time she accidentally picked all of her neighbor's primroses as a gift to her crush...who was said neighbor's son. Luckily, her best friend Clearsight always has Listener's back in whatever schemes she cooks up... and acts as damage control. Listener always has Clearsight's back in turn, even when she starts hanging out with very powerful, very scary dragons in her free time.

Listener wears a friendship bracelet she made with Clearsight.

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Designs w/o Accessories:

[wingsofmud]

The Thrice-Born Twins

(Edited: adjusted their colors)

I'm starting my WoF rewrite project with the Darkstalker Legend. The book is honestly fine, but I want to see if I can turn it into more of a tragedy where Darkstalker is known to be an animus from the start, Fathom flees the Seawing Queendom after the massacre, Arctic isn't a complete abusive asshole, and Clearsight and Darkstalker were never meant to cross paths.

Here are my Darkstalker and Whiteout designs/redesigns

Design info + minor ancient nightwing fashion hcs + designs without accessories below:

Darkstalker:

I find it incredibly boring that Darkstalker looks exactly like a Nightwing and that Prince Arctic likes Whiteout more because she looks more like him.

The only Nightwing aspect of Darkstalker is his dark scales. Everything else from his body structure, to his wings, to his face says Icewing nobility. In fact, he bears a striking resemblance to his grandmother, Queen Diamond, even inheriting her signature twisted horns. He has a teardrop scale behind each eye and a round scale on his forehead that denote his mind reading and prophetic abilities.

As is expected of any noble Nightwing, Darkstalker is very intelligent and very charismatic. He was always going to be a key pawn in the Nightwing court by virtue of his birth, but when he was born on the brightest night, plans started to shift. Then, to Arctic's dismay, he presented as an animus when he was a dragonet.

Darkstalker is betrothed to Queen Vigilance's daughter and spends his time learning to become the perfect prince. He and all those around him see nothing but glory in his future, at least until he bumps into a strange Nightwing one night.

Darkstalker is always in fashion. Like many noble Nightwings, he wears a cool colored cloth around his body (the more translucent the better). He wears a matching set of bracelets and a tail band as well as silver bands on his horns and spines. The earring he has on is part of a pair gifted to him from his betrothed. He unfortunately doesn't have a nose horn or he would wear a ring on it, he wears one on his wing thumb instead.

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Whiteout:

Though her egg turned silver, Whiteout hatched the morning after the brightest night, which is unheard of. Unlike her brother, if you painted her fully black she'd heavily resemble a Nightwing, sans some spikiness. She has Foeslayer's eyes and horns. She's shorter than her brother, but a lot more stocky. Whiteout is regarded as strange, quiet, and a pain in the tail to make wear anything.

Whiteout doesn't speak much and the words that she says are either very blunt or don't make much sense...at first. She's sensitive to a lot of stimuli and rarely changes her expression. She was very difficult to teach, regardless of how many private tutors she had, and continues to be unable to assimilate into Nightwing nobility. As a result, she's generally dismissed and escapes Queen Vigilance's eye. She very talented in painting.

Whiteout wears a triple piercing earring with a blue, star-shaped gem on the end as well as a onyx bracelet matched with a nose-horn ring studded with lapis lazuli. She does not wear any clothing outside of formal events. All of her usual accessories have been enchanted by Darkstalker to not bother her.

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Designs w/o accessories:

[wingsofmud]

Is it just me or is the introduction of Thorn and the Outclaws really weird in The Brightest Night? I feel like they're given a villain intro with a sprinkling of good inside that, compared to everything else, feels slightly sinister and we're kind of just supposed to forget about it later.

[wingsofmud]

Clearsight should've taken her girlfriend, Listener, to the Lost Continent with her.

[wingsofmud]

omfg I just realized it's Smaugust

[wingsofmud]

Has anyone created a map/pmv/animatic/etc of Darkstalker to the song "Handlebars" by Flobots?

Because that is a very Darkstalker song.