Guide: Designing a Sparkwing

Before we begin, please read the Sparkwing, the Dragon Empire, and the Red Claw pages. They give more specific information on biology or society that is almost necessary to creating a good character!

Sparkwings are a lot different than Longwings or Sparkclaws. Therefore, this page will be organised a bit differently than the prior pages. Remember to be creative, but please, follow the rules here! Guidelines, as always, can be warped slightly. Ask me questions on deviantART, FurAffinity, Weasyl, Tumblr, or even here if you're confused!

Physical Attributes
Sparkwings are a combination of Longwing and Sparkclaw DNA. At the first generation, it splits out 50/50. Most traits are 'either-or' and some can be a weird combination of both.

Gen One
Your Sparkwing will either...
 * Have spines or frills (Former is more common)
 * Have fire or venom (Nose horns are a trait that come with fire, too)
 * Markings or not (Former is far more common)
 * Iridescence or not
 * Slit eyes or circle eyes (Longwing slit eyes are more dominant)
 * Medium wings or large wings (Latter is dominant)
 * Fireproof thick scales or thin scales

Sparkwings will always inherit their parents' novothermy and ambient temperature resistance.

At the first generation, a Sparkwing will not inherit their Longwing parent's black scales. They will always have a color scheme somewhere on the Longwing marking spectrum, with the markings being slightly lighter or darker than their base scale color. They literally look like a mash-up of the races.

Do note the consequences of what you choose. Fireproof and thick scales on a flying dragon can hinder their flight. Thin scales on a fire breathing dragon can be dangerous to the dragon.

Gender-specific traits carry over; female Sparkwings with frills will have ruffs and their frills begin on their neck, while males have no ruff and the frill begins on the head, for example. Male Sparkwings with fire breath have nose horns, while females do not.

Further Generations: Longwing Dominance
As a Sparkwing line breeds with more Longwings, more Longwing traits will appear. A second-gen will have a darker primary color and a more notable lack of iridescence. As the line continues, spikes and fire breathing disappears while frills and venom become more common. The Longwing traits become very apparent very fast, overcoming the Sparkclaw ones swiftly. Nose horns are a pesky trait that comes with fire breathing hatchlings, however, and frills often are deformed for generations to come.

The only known dragons from a very long Longwing/Sparkwing line are Draekor, Nezrik, and their relatives. These lines lose the temperature resistance from Sparkclaws rather swiftly.

Further Generations: Sparkclaw Dominance
More Sparkclaw traits appear, as expected. A few generations is all it takes to rid venom and frills from the line. Height continually shrinks over the years. Even at the first Sparkwing/Sparkclaw mix, markings start to be much less apparent.

On the flip side, Sparkclaw wings and eyes almost never reappear. It's unknown if the wings will ever be removed from the gene pool as the trait for them is so dominant. Same goes for the slitted adjusting eyes; it's a miracle the Sparkclaws ever evolved the traits in the first place.

Further Generations: Sparkwing Dominance
This is basically just a mix and remix of the traits of the two races; not much variation is apparent that makes this distinct from gen one.

Further Generations: Haphazard
Haphazard and random breeding ends up with haphazard and random dragons. Sparkwings begin to look a lot less like either of the races as they go further down the line; new genes and mutations appear in their genetic code, making them look less and less familiar. Some look almost like an entirely different species of dragon. However, none have gone deep enough in this breeding to actually see these traits; most Sparkwing lines are only gen three. Someday, however...

Differences in Alignment
Sparkwings do not exist freely in the Dragon Empire. Your Sparkwing will be hunted down and killed if it's known, often made a public spectacle in the act. They're seen as vile consequences of illegal race-mixing; they aren't even seen as dragons anymore. Unless your Sparkwing manages to escape or live in secret its entire life, it will die.

In the Red Claw, Sparkwings may exist freely, but they are still rather rare. They are looked at with curiosity and interest by the other races and can often be the center of attention. They make friends easily from all of this attention, but true friends are hard to come by. When it comes to politics and the military, Sparkwings are drilled and treated like the rest of the population.