This is especially peeve worthy because not only Dragons within their shell have the intelligence of an adult to the point of understanding manipulation and conspiracies but also rapid growth. How are these guys not the dominant species again?
Allow me to engage in some armchair zoology and apply real world logic to a make believe game (I’m not complaining, just an exercize). I’m curious what’s the gestation period for Dragon eggs? It has to be short and with a high mortality rate for Dragon whelplings once they hatch since that when they’re at their most vulnerable c’mon, otherwise it does invite the question about how are they not the dominant species again. The Black, Blue and Red also went through so-implied exterminations to the near-point of extinction and I’ll be generous and assume that their ability to reproduce was never gone after Cata.
I remember that the book about that scale something war, only 1/4 dragon whelp survives to adulthood… What about now? They have had communal hatcheries for millenias and schools for them now. I know food isn’t an issue since I do remember in the waking shore that an NPC mentioning that eating in their visage form fills their stomach and fulfills their energy needs for some reason, otherwise I’ve never seen them hunt except the Proto-Dragons.
I should create a thread “WoW Draconomicum” because I don’t think Blizzard even possess an internal one.
Good question. If we don’t take Dragon Isles, I’d suppose that it’s the local wild gods that pay attention to the ecology in most parts of Azeroth and are able to defend their territory with force, if needed. At least, as long as mortals aren’t involved, since they’re able to take care about themselves… more or less. Poor niffen.
Short enough, and there are ways to accelerate it even further. Like the whole Diurna encounter, where elemental infusion can not only make the eggs hatch faster, but also turn the whelps into proper, even if small, protodragons at once.
The RPG doesn’t mention it and outside of this codex the only mention is a sentence in the Sundering book from rumour and hearsay that Dragons were born “from a primal plane”. So this is just Blizzard being weird again with their anti-consistency policy.
I said it before, but it annoyed me to see so much of the night elf community go out of the way to avoid interacting with Alliance travelers in Astranaar and make them feel unwelcome, including gossiping and badmouthing them behind the language barrier. Not all of them, but enough that it made a sour impression.
Lintian’s concept was spawned in part by my desire to give them an actually friendly and curious night elf to interact with, though the character then developed in directions I didn’t anticipate.
Which still gets commented in Before the Storm since half-elves are the most rare being to ever exist on Azeroth. A dragon is a more common sight than a half-elf which defeats the point of trying to “blend in”.
Brann Bronzebeard recently uncovered evidence, corroborated by reports from adventurers in Deepholm, that proto-dragons and dragons may have origins in these—and other—elemental drakes. The inhabitants of Deepholm, the Skywall, the Firelands, and the Abyssal Maw are less than talkative on these matters, however, and most of them were not around when the elemental prisons were created.
Ask CDev 2
So yeah, not a retcon but slightly different from the dominant theory xD
But now its confirmed those are true dragon(flight)s, instead of the elemental ancestors of the proto-dragons.
Wish those drakes got a place in Valdrakken too, same with the Cloud Serpents
Isn’t he a drake however? Not an actual mature dragon, or have I lost some WoW cinematic?
Anyway. Interestingly enough, in Classic WoW there was… Uh, Emberstrife I think, Onyxia’s champion, a drake. He was referred to as ANCIENT. And something ancient is usually decades old, especially in a setting where you have races that live for centuries.
While this book is overall trying to reference multiple sources, and that is kind of neat (I really like that they kept the RPG idea of Malygos befriending a human) it looks more like a fanservice book from what I gather, rather than actually providing anything tangible about the world. Would it even cost them much to write down ages for dragons? Because the last thing we actually had was the freaking RPG and that is ancient.
Indeed! It has been an IC theory since mid-Cataclysm.
EDIT. There we go.
Emberstrife is an ancient drake; an old gatekeeper of Nefarian, burdened with the duty to test those dragonspawn that would ascend to the rank of elite guard to Onyxia. https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Emberstrife_(quest)
At this stage I’ve just become cynical towards these books.
Re: the “reds prefer elven forms” it was actually from Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects book, though it didn’t actually explicitly call out “because they’re hotties”
Desharin chuckled, a deep, warm sound. “I will, friend Thrall, though as to most recent history, you must remember that I have been in the Emerald Dream and have only just awakened. But I will share what I know. One thing is for certain: Aspects only rarely intervene in the affairs of the short-lived races. The rest of my kind? Many are intrigued by what some arrogantly call the ‘lesser races.’ We sometimes enjoy taking your forms.”
“Such as a kaldorei.”
“Exactly,” agreed Desharin, “although I may assume any one I wish. While we are individuals, of course, and each of us has a preferred shape, you’ll find each flight gravitates toward a certain appearance more often than not. For instance, we green dragons tend to prefer kaldorei, because of our relationship with the great druid Malfurion Stormrage, who for so long shared the Dream with us.”
Thrall nodded. It made sense.
“I have observed the reds are partial to the sin’dorei, and the blues often opt for human form. As for the bronzes, while their task necessitates a variety of shapes, they seem to enjoy appearing as …gnomes.”
Thrall laughed. “Perhaps they enjoy being tiny and harmless-looking, given their natural form.”
Also it had this
Alexstrasza leaned forward. Their lips met, soft and sweet. One of the great pleasures of the elf-like forms they both felt so comfortable assuming was that skin was more sensitive to receiving a loving touch than scales
Oh, sorry! Serves me right for assuming. I just assume dragon-themed books are by Knaak by default, and weird elf fetishes also seem up his valley (and Danuser’s). I confused Twilight of the Aspects, by Golden, with Dawn of the Aspects, which is a Knaak book.
