Random Wings of fire stuff

Scorching Theory

So, the Scorching or what we know of it so far, marks the beginning of the dragons of Pyrrhia and their history. But we never learn exactly what the Scorching IS, or how Dragons came to rule both Pyrrhia and Pantala.

Obviously, humans are apart of their world, but we don't know if dragons have always been the ones in charge, or if they just took over the place the humans were ruling. But I have a theory!

WAaaaaaaaaay back in 1340's, humans (or scavengers) were underdeveloped. We didn't have big skyscrapers or cars- we had like, huts and stone buildings. Easily destroyable buildings, if you're a dragon.

And humans hadn't explored most of the world yet. The Americas weren't discovered until the late 1400's, so humans were in a limited space. 

So my theory is that back in this time, when medieval stories of dragons are just starting up, dragons lived in the ocean, like some sort of Lock Ness Monster. And they were intelligent, but they just left the humans alone, each of them having their own territories. 

But in the 1340's, the bubonic plague hit humans, wiping out most of the population. The main thing we remember from the plague is the song "Ring Around the Rosie" and one of the lines is, 

Ashes, ashes, we all fall down. 

This line referencing how they would burn the bodies of plague victims to prevent the disease from spreading. Sort of like a scorching.

So what if in this time, when the human population was cut in half, maybe more, the dragons rose out of the sea, and wiped out what was left?

They destroy the buildings, fires spread, burning most of the land, so the dragons call it the Scorching, and decide to live on the land. The few humans that survive are the indigenous people in the Americas, or those few that were able to escape and survive the dragons by going mostly underground.

So the dragons, who are all basically Seawings at this point since they all came from the ocean, split up and take over the world. Those that move to colder areas slowly adapt into Icewings, those in the mountains to Skywings, the rainforest and swamp to Rain and Mudwings, those in the canyons to Nightwings, and those in the desert to Sandwings.

They evolve into the different tribes on Pyrrhia at the same time dragons on Pantala do the same, and the humans slowly survive underground, becoming scavengers and adapting themselves. Their population doesn't grow much due to dragons eating them, but they have enough people to survive until we get to the present dragon time we see in the books, which is about 2,000 years after the Scorching.

And a side note, on animus magic-

Wizards, like dragons, are common myths found in the medieval era. So what if some of the surviving humans are wizards who live up in the mountains. These wizards are found by Seawings, and they use magic to communicate with the dragons and teach some of them magic. The ability to use this magic slowly becomes a genetic trait, known as animus magic, and it is bred into the Skywings and Icewing tribes while staying in the Seawings. This is why it is most common for Seawings to be animuses- because they are most directly related to the dragons who originally possessed the magic. But after the scavenger wizards die, the powers fade, and are forgotten for years.

But then the Icewings get it back, and learn to control it, master it.

Then the Skywings get it, and are unable to control it. They grow to fear the magic, and that's why they start killing the animuses in their tribe- out of fear and loss of understanding.

The Sandwings gain the magic through a few cross breedings, but it's so rare in their tribe that they don't have many chances to master it or grow to fear it. It becomes unimportant. 

The Nightwings, of course, gain the magic through Prince Arctic and Foeslayer, further proof that the magic spreads genetically from tribe to tribe. It's probably a recessive trait, which is why it can disappear and randomly pop up so easily. 

Because recessive traits (sorry, I'm a genetics nerd) typically skip generations. That's why Stonemover is an animus, but Sunny isn't, but her dragonet is more likely to be. Coral isn't an animus, but several of her children are. Tsunami isn't because she probably didn't receive the recessive trait, but Anemone did. There is a chance then, for Tsunami's dragonet to be an animus, but a greater chance for Anemone's dragonet to be an animus because she must have two recessive traits for it to be an animus, whereas Tsunami can only have one.

Seawings, however, never crossbreed with Rainwings, which is why Rainwings have yet to have an animus. But since hybrids are more common now, and with the inevitable crossbreeding of Nightwings and Rainwings in the rainforest, it is more likely for their to be a Rainwing animus in the future. Kinkajou's child, for instance, is highly likely to be an animus, especially since her tribe hasn't been exposed to animus genetics yet.

Additionally, since I've seen people mention this, just because Icewings don't have any animuses doesn't mean they don't have the potential to have them.

Icewings, like Seawings, have animus magic bred into their royal bloodlines. Arctic broke that when he married Foeslayer, an outsider. What probably happened, gross as it is, is that animuses stopped happening in the Icewing Kingdom because they stopped interbreeding. 

You need two recessive traits for a dragonet to have that trait, AKA one from each parent. So every Icewing royalty probably has one trait, meaning that they don't have animus magic because their other parent passed down a dominant gene instead of a recessive one. So if two dragons with one recessive gene each have a dragonet, then there's a 1 in 4 chance of that dragonet being an animus. 

But since the gene is rarer now, and Icewings are marrying dragons that don't have any animus genes, then they will never have an animus because the dominant gene will always take over. But, gross as it is, if an Icewing had a dragonet with their relative, who also had a recessive gene, then they have a 1 in 4 chance of having an animus dragonet. 

So long story short, Icewings have to have some incest in order to get animuses back. 

Gross, I know, but accurate. 

I'm taking genetics next year, so chances are I'll actually do out the Punnett Squares and everything for this stuff because it's just fascinating.