HELL YEA I DID IT
a remake of
this ancient thing
Hive Dragon
A diverse class of Fan-Tailed Dragons found flitting about canopies and foliage all across Scourge, named for their community-based lifestyles.
PhysiqueHive Dragons display many key traits shared by other Fan-Tailed Dragons: they are very small in size, possessing wingspans from around 5 inches to no greater than 3 feet; they have segmented wings that complement fins at their rumps and a wide finned tail that gives them their namesake; and they have very little exoskeleton, reserving it only for their muzzle, feet and claws. A notable oddity that sets them apart from many other creatures of Scourge is their soft rounded scales, as opposed to the rectangular, crocodile-like hide shared by most creatures.
Their head tends to have a large cranium and a much smaller muzzle in comparison; they have large round eyes and small horns around their ears and chin. On the backs of their heads (and sometimes extending further down the neck and back) they often have pseudofeather-fins in the form of long finned spines that form a somewhat feather-like shape, which are used for intraspecies communication. They have plated scales along their belly and may have smaller plates or spikes along their spine. Their forearms are very small and have only 2 claws--a large outer one and a small inner one--which are hooked for use in climbing walls. Their hind legs are much more muscular than their forelimbs and covered in exoskeletal plates from the ankle down. These limbs have 4 toes: 3 in front and 1 in back, again with small hooked claws. Their wings possess 2 digits at the wrist and the fin itself is segmented into 4 pieces, separated by digits. The webbing curves to connect to the body at the rump where its shape complements that of 2 sets of large fins. Their tails are long and thin and mostly only serve to support a flat, wide fin.
Their coloration varies immensely from species to species. Males often rely on coloration to impress females, leading to many species having males with bright flashy colors and females with dull camouflaged colors. Their colors may also be used to be able to tell different species apart. They often represent their environment, such as inhabitants of the Desert Islands having sandy shades of orange.
Species
An uncountable number of different species exist, reaching well into the hundreds of thousands. These species have evolved to coexist by suiting different niches in their shared environments, such as by having different diets and/or living in different types of roosts. Species can also vary in many other ways--usually in color--but also in size, the number and shape of their horns, the extent of their psudofeathers, the shape of their tail fin, their reproductive behavior, and the sounds they make. Other than this they usually all have very similar community-based lifestyles.
Distribution
They are found in every habitable region of Scourge save for the outermost layer of the Inner Void. They are rarely far from shelter-providing structures such as Cleurke Roots, and thus the barren Desert Islands reserve their populations of Hive Dragons for patches of forest and crops of stone.
Diet and Feeding Behavior
Different species can have vastly different diets. Most commonly they feed on fungus, insects, and nectar; a few species eat webroot or scavenge carrion. They are extremely group-orientated, travelling and feeding together in a large flock and chittering all the while. They will compete with each other over food and commit to minor scuffles between themselves over access to the best feeding areas, while the weakest and least successful get the slimmest pickings.
Many species play a vital role in helping their food items repopulate. Like pollinators to flowers on Earth, nectar-feeding Hive Dragons are integral to spreading the pollen of the plants they visit. Likewise, the spores of fungus and webroot will cling to the Hive Dragons feeding off of them, and the Hive Dragons in turn will spread these spores wherever they visit next. Some species rely entirely on repopulating through this manner, making many Hive Dragons an integral and irreplaceable part of their ecosystems.
Lifestyle
Hive Dragons are named for their extremely community-based lifestyles. They live in large flocks that center around a single communal roost dubbed as their 'hive', and they will protect this hive viciously--though they normally flee from predators, they will gather together to maraud any threat that comes too close to their hive. Despite their size and fragility, they are effectively deadly when in massive numbers.
This 'hive' can come in a variety of forms depending on species. Usually it is made of a particular type of fungus for that specific species of Hive Dragon. The hive is constructed by chewing out tunnels and dens into a large growth of this fungus; the fungus provides shelter for the Hive Dragons, and it in turn feeds on their scraps, egg remnants, and excrement, creating a symbiotic relationship that benefits both parties. When a colony begins to outgrow their hive, they can expand it by first going to the area they want to expand and stabbing small twigs into the fungus. They will then chew off excess growths of fungus from other areas and fit these pieces into the twigs. Over time these pieces will grow and connect back to the main fungal growth, creating a new wall of fungus that grew over the twig scaffolding. It is through this manner that a colony can expand their hive and build new tunnels and dens. While most colonies are very small and limited to resources in their environment--such as food--particularly ancient and successful hives can grow up to 40 feet in height.
Some species do not live in fungal growths, and the next common type of living space is simply within the hollow tunnels of Cluerke roots. Hive Dragons may build platforms and nesting spots out of twigs, but these forms of hives are generally limited to however the root grows.
Hive Dragons will live in large colonies centered around their Hive. The colonies can be of various sizes depending on the availability of their resources, and will grow endlessly as long as they have enough access to food, water and nest-building materials. Rarely do they have consistent pecking orders or other relationships between the members of the hive, especially in larger colonies where they don't care to remember one another individually.
A colony will generally split itself into the group that remains at the hive and the group that is travelling in search of food and resources. The travelling flock will move together in a synchronized swarm, locating and moving from one feeding ground to the next. They will repeatedly return to the colony where the now-fed members will stay and members needing resources will head out with the flock. Those waiting at the hive will wait for the flock to return before leaving with them to scavenge, and very rarely a number of them will form a second travelling group to head out. Due to Scourge's lack of day/night cycles, this process is ongoing.
The colony is very noisy, and relies heavily on voiced communication. They will signal calls for food, aggression, predators, threats, etc. Even when not trying to communicate something in particular, they will produce frequent chitters.
Family Lifecycle
Pairings are usually (but not always) monogamous, and will last different extents depending on various factors. It is typically the responsibility of the male to impress the female, which he will usually do with a visual display to show off his colors, but he may also give the female gifts of nest-building materials or protect her when scavenging to help secure the best feed for her. In some species, the male is responsible for securing the best nesting grounds and building a nest with which he will try to impress a female--in most species, both parents will build and protect the nest. Nests will be built out of a small bed of twigs, webroot, and other soft materials. They will be fiercely competitive over where to build their nest within the Hive, preferring places that are easy to access and less trafficked.
The mother will lay 2-3 eggs in the nest which will hatch within a few weeks. The newborn young are very under developed, with a very soft exoskeleton, weak muscles and small flightless wings; they will be entirely reliant on their parents for food and protection during the first month of their life. The parents feed their young in much the same manner of birds, and will even adjust their diets during different stages of the children's growth in order to ensure they are getting adequate nutrition. The parents will also take turns fiercely protecting the children, who are threatened by other members of the colony. Hatchlings appear to pose quite the annoyance for anyone who isn't their parent, and it is not uncommon for passersby to bully and even maul unprotected children, often killing them. It is for this reason that nesting sites in quieter, less trafficked areas of the Hive are preferred, while nests in open and popular areas will be more dangerous for the children.
After about a month, the children will be developed enough to venture beyond the hive. By this point they are large enough to be less threatened by other members of the colony and can be safely escorted by their parents to the outside. They will be coaxed to climb outside the hive and may explore to the ground around the hive. They will become more adventurous and the parents can confidently leave them home alone. They will learn to fly by scuttling around the hive, and eventually be brought on journeys with the travelling flock, at which point they will become independent adults.
When a hive begins to become overpopulated, those at the bottom will begin to be pushed around more during the increasingly-desperate struggles for shrinking resources. Divergent groups will form, usually of these less-successful flock members, who seek out a new home. This may be by finding another hive that they will integrate with very easily (as colonies will not be territorial to other colonies of the same species and will mix members without dispute), or it may be by creating a new hive out of their own by first finding a new fungal growth (or other living location) to begin constructing the hive in. If they didn't travel far from their previous colony, they may revisit frequently until their positions in their new colony are firmly set.
Symbiosis with Reptipods
Reptipods--Scourge's only and most sentient species--appear to have domesticated a species of Hive Dragon known as
Atrueli Domesticus, the only known species of the Atrueli genus. The A. Domesticus lives exclusively inside Reptipod caves, where they benefit the Reptipods by eating harmful fungus and other small growths (such as molds) that grow inside the den. They are also one of the largest Hive Dragons by having 3 foot wingspans, and are generally slower and less agile than wild Hive Dragons. It is likely for this reason that the genus has not been found anywhere in the wild, as they rely heavily on Reptipods for protection from predators.
https://www.deviantart.com/soulsplosion/art/Hive-Dragons-856454025
's Final Fantasy X
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Tardifice
