 Poor Bessy[th] didn't make it. She's now on display in the science wing.
Click here for details on dragon growth and sizes.
Dates of Past Hatchings at New Landing
Artifial Clutch 1: Hatched d08.m01.y11 (1 year, 2 months old)
Artifical Clutch 2: Hatched d08.m03.y11 (1 year, 0 months old)
Artificial Clutch 3: Hatched d12.m5.y11 (11 month old)
Month by Month Dragon Care Required reading for those playing dragonriders. (Months are measured starting with month 1 when the dragons are 0, so they will be six months old in Month 7, for example) **The dragon guide sizes are currently out-dated but will be updated soon**
Month One (Dragon age: 0 months)
Month Two (Dragon age: 1 month)
Month Three (Dragon age: 2 months)
Months Four and Five (Dragon age: 3-4 months)
Month Six (Dragon age: 5 months)
Month Seven (Dragon age: 6 months)
Month Eight and Nine (Dragon age: 7-8 months)
Months Ten and Eleven (Dragon age: 9-10 months)
Month Twelve (Dragon age: 11 months)
Month Thirteen (Dragon age: 12 months)
Month Fourteen (Dragon age: 13 months/1 year)
Month Fifteen (Dragon age: 1 year, 1 month)
Month Sixteen (Dragon age: 1 year, 2 months)
What is known about dragons at this point in our timeline?
Kitti Ping passed away after shortly completing the dragon program and was very secretive about what she programmed, so very little is known about the dragons. The following is a list of what exactly is known, suspected, and unknown about dragons in our timeline. The list is updated as the story progresses and more is discovered about dragonkind. If there is anything not on the list that you are unsure about, please feel free to ask us.
What Is Known (updated Feb. 6, 2005)
One dragon for one rider.
Dragons grow big enough to ride at one year of age and reach their adult size in 15 months.
There are the same five colors as fire-lizards. Greens and golds are always female, blues, browns, and bronzes are always male.
Dragons have increased empathy and telepathy due to mentasynth enhancement.
The dragonets hatch starving, so red meat should be available from animals adapted to Pernese grass - the dragonets need lots of boron to grow early on.
Dragons bond shortly after hatching, introduce themselves, and ask to be cared for.
Dragons are born knowing their names.
Dragons can speak telepathically to their riders and one another.
Fire-lizards and older dragons indicate a hatching is near by gathering around the eggs and humming.
Dragons are a huge time commitment and require almost constant care in their infancy.
Dragons keen to mourn for dragons who have died.
Dragons are hierarchical. Golds can use a commanding voice to control the other colors, and golds and bronzes sometimes will not obey greens and blues.
Male dragons and greens can flame.
The artificially clutched golds do not produce the enzyme required to process firestone. (Chewing fire-stone does not cause sterility, the queens were genetically designed to be unable to do so.)
What Is Suspected But Not Confirmed
(Not all suspicions are correct)
Dragons should be able to teleport.
There is little reason to suspect that greens are sterile because green fire-lizards produce clutches, so it is assumed the green dragons will reproduce as well as the golds..
There may be some aggression between broody females, as fire-lizards in heat have been known to have quarrels. (It is not known that queens will violently battle, however.)
Mating flights will be very emotional, possibly magnifications of the sensual feelings fire-lizard owners receive when their pets mate. (However, it is not known that riders of the dragons involved will feel an uncontrollable desire to have sex with each other when their dragons mate.)
Anyone can Impress. There have been successful Impressions as young as 15 and as old as 31. There aren't enough dragons at the moment to observe any patterns in dragon choice.
May think dragons won't fulfill all that is promised. Whers were a botched attempt to make bigger fire-lizards, so many are worried that the dragons will be deformed or useless.
The death of a dragon severely impacts the riders.
Hatchlings may not be able to survive without a human. A bronze would not choose a partner at the third hatching and curled up and died. It is unknown if he died because he could not find the person he wanted, or if he had some sort of hidden flaw.
What Isn�t Known
Greens are sterile.
Nobody knows where fire-lizards go when they teleport. Nothing is known about the nature of between, and it has not been named yet.
Gender plays a role in Impression. Golds only Impress women and bronzes only Impress men. The other colors Impress people of their own gender more often than not, although it doesn't play as big of a role in their bond. (Dragons do not Impress based on sexual orientation in our club.) Because almost anyone can Impress a fire-lizard, it is generally expected that anyone can Impress a dragon of any color. While it has been observed that the gold and bronze dragons have stuck to their own gender so far, there isn't a large enough number of dragons to prove their choices aren't merely coincidence. After all, the same thing could be said about blues at this point!
Natural clutch sizes or length of gestation. (Artificial clutches may develop differently than natural ones.)
The life expectancy of a dragon.
Dragons suicide when their rider dies and can't survive without a rider.
Exactly how large the dragons will get. It is also unknown that they will get bigger with each generation.
Dragon population will grow or shrink depending on whether it is a pass or interval.
Queens must blood their kill rather than eat to be able to fly high during mating flights. The size of the clutches depend on the length of the mating flight.
Dragons can't Impress other dragons the way fire-lizards can bond to other fire-lizards.
Because so much remains a mystery, there are many skeptical thoughts about how reliable the dragons will be, especially after the first attempt to create larger fire-lizards that resulted in whers.
Candidates
The scientists didn't have much to go by at first as far as selecting candidates. Kitti Ping left instructions to select candidates between the ages of eighteen and thirty to present to the eggs upon hatching. She suggested young men and women be chosen by their empathy with the fire-lizards, and that there be more candidates than eggs. The candidates are to present the dragonets with food upon hatching. Candidates still must apply with the scientists on the dragon team and go through a process of interviews before being presented to the eggs. Because so little is known about how much of a time commitment dragons are, candidates often will be married and have families... although it's now common knowledge that dragon partners must almost entirely sacrifice their schooling careers for their dragons, so fewer people in highly trained positions are applying for candidacy.
If you'd like to play a candidate, you're welcome to role-play the interview for candidacy or it can be done off camera. Candidates must be between eighteen and thirty at Kitty Ping's request.
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