(AMA) I am a ~3000-year-old dragon with memories of a rich home world and culture, Ask Me Anything!

Any and all questions are welcome, no matter how personal you think they may be. This includes mature topics. I do reserve the right to refuse to answer a question if I feel too uncomfortable with it, however I want to be as open as possible.
I want to do this AMA to help me better understand myself. I've found that oftentimes my memories are a huge jumble, but if I have a way to direct them, such as answering questions, I can sort them out better and this helps me to better "get" my kin-self.

A little preliminary info for y'all:
I am a Black Dragon of the planet Huyeana. I've written a blog about the significance of my scale color here: https://www.theobsidianspire.org/t42-the-curse-or-blessing-of-the-black-dragon For those who want to learn more about that detail. Feel free to ask more on it, however! The blog is hardly all-inclusive.
I lived in a "collective" of dragons sharing a massive cave. We recorded history and shared our memories with each other and each successive generation. We also had genetic memories, though those can be hazy and indistinct. Nature and the preservation of it was very important to us. We were almost religious about how hunting methods, and we hated waste and did not want to kill any more than was absolutely necessary to survive.
We shared our home planet with a humanoid race that called themselves Huyeans (I don't know if they named the planet after themselves, or themselves after the planet. They didn't keep very good records of their history so much of their past is lost to us) with whom we held a somewhat symbiotic relationship. We were capable of forming permanent telepathic bonds with Huyeans which could only be severed by death. This could be very traumatic for either party, and usually resulted in the surviving partner dying of grief as their body simply couldn't handle the emotional strain of the loss. As a result, such bondings were extremely rare, and among those who survived the loss of their partner, none ever took a second.
We were not a monogamous species, though occasionally two dragons would become so close that they simply never took any other mates. I, personally, was Asexual both in my dragon life as well as as a human, so I never mated.
A very important part of our culture is the fact that we did not raise our own offspring. Eggs were laid, and then mature dragons who wished to raise a hatchling were selected and permitted to select a single egg whom they would raise to adulthood. Adulthood was technically when a dragon could fly, at about 20 months of age (our months were longer than Earth months, so in Earth time we were a bit over two years old at this point). After that, they were independent but often remained close with their mentor, or adoptive parent, for the rest of their life.

Alright, that's about all I can think of to start with. Let the questions fly!

Did you ever develop a bond with a Huyean?

Roarar wrote:Did you ever develop a bond with a Huyean?

I personally never did, no. Though there were three dragons who had done so who lived with their bonded Huyeans when I was a young dragon.

•Hmmm… were there any special stories, or special knowledge that dragons of your world had, or shared with each other? Also, did dragons in your land only breathe fire, or were dragons able to harness other elements and kind of magic? What kind of animals lived in your world? One more…. What did your home look like exactly?

lunastredraconis wrote:•Hmmm… were there any special stories, or special knowledge that dragons of your world had, or shared with each other? Also, did dragons in your land only breathe fire, or were dragons able to harness other elements and kind of magic? What kind of animals lived in your world? One more…. What did your home look like exactly?

Woohoo, multiple questions! I'll answer them one by one:

were there any special stories, or special knowledge that dragons of your world had, or shared with each other?

We had lots of stories and special knowledge, though because we were all telepathically linked we didn't tell them to each other exactly. We did share these stories with the Huyean people of our world, though. We kept a massive library with all of the history we could remember written down, and welcomed anyone who wanted to visit it to read and learn. I, personally, and some others as well, would go out and visit the Huyean villages, towns, and cities. We would share knowledge with them and answer questions. (we would also give the daring some flying time) My favorite stories were those about how dragons and Huyeans came together and learned how to bond to each other. The first time it happened was sort of an accident. Neither party knew it could be done, and were experimenting with what sorts of dragon telepathy Huyeans could experience and handle. Turns out, they can handle anything we can give them, but pushing past a certain point in telepathic connection winds up becoming permanent. So a dragon who shared deep memories and their innermost thoughts with a Huyean, like we did with our fellow dragons if we became good friends, would become permanently linked with that Huyean. The only requirement was that the Huyean had to reciprocate.
There's loads more stories I can tell. Thanks for asking this question, it's given me a lot of fuel for thought for future writings! I'll be sure to post them on the blogs threads!

did dragons in your land only breathe fire, or were dragons able to harness other elements and kind of magic?

There were many elements we could harness! Not all dragons could harness an element, like myself, but there were plenty who could. It also went beyond just breathing/spitting an element as well. Those who were elemental dragons could actually control those elements. How well they could and how strongly they could depending on experience, age, and how closely linked with their element they were. There was a period of time in which some elements disappeared, with no new dragons being born with a connection to them. We don't know why they disappeared, nor why they started appearing again a few generations later. There were six elements, fire, ice, water, earth, electricity, and wind. Most elemental dragons had a scale color to match their elements. Fire dragons were usually red or orange, ice dragons were usually white or pale blue, water dragons were usually blue or blue/green, earth were typically green or dark brown, electricity dragons were usually yellow or orange. Wind dragons were the most unpredictable in color, their element didn't seem to affect their colorations much at all, except they were usually very vibrant and monochromatic. Scale color didn't guarantee an elemental affinity, either. There were plenty of yellow, blue, green, and red dragons who couldn't harness the elements at all. And it wasn't unheard of for a dragon to be a color that didn't match his or her element, too. There were plenty of green fire dragons, and red earth dragons for example.
Dragons who couldn't harness an element generally had some other ability that sort of made up for it. Some were venomous, or could spit an acidic substance. I could actually do both those things.

What kind of animals lived in your world?

There were a few animals that were similar to Earth animals. Deer, bears, and lions, to name a few modern Earth animals. On our world they were called Braynach, Mathsan, and Yuah. We also had some animals that had similarities to extinct Earth animals. Tyrannosaurus Rex, and ancient sharks. We called them Trinno, and Gronch. Trinno were commonly hunted by adult dragons seeking a challenge, as they were one of the very few animals that were larger and stronger than us. To successfully hunt a Trinno, a dragon had to be very smart and strategic.
There were other species that were quite unique to our world. There was a rodent species that lived in the trees of the forested portions of our world, we called Rhodech. They were a predatory species that targeted birds and young Braynach. We often hunted them as hatchlings, and they were a main food source for forest-dwelling Yuah as well. They could grow up to 6 feet long including their tails, which were similar to Earth opossums in that they were fully prehensile.
The most common animal to see was a canine species the Huyeans had completely domesticated. They don't exist in the wild at all (possibly partly our fault, they taste good) anymore, but thrive alongside the Huyeans. The Huyeans named them Ludus, and use them as pack animals, mounts, and companions. They get to about the size of an Earth horse, with all the intelligence and loyalty of an Earth dog. They don't much like dragons, but can be trained to tolerate our presence (once we've promised not to eat them that is).
There were also countless insect species. I don't know much about most of them, except two varieties that annoyed dragons. One was a parasitic tic-like insect that would get under our scales and latch on, drinking our blood and making us itch. Because of them, we often took long baths in rivers and springs to drown them. Dragons who bonded with a Huyean would often ask their friend to help get rid of the stupid things. Their name was actually an expletive in our language. The Huyeans called them Dragon-Biters. The other variety was a worm that would infest Braynach deer guts. They weren't dangerous to dragons, but annoying as they would ruin the flavor of the deer's entrails, which we liked. We called them Gurum.
The planet also hosted thousands of species of birds, but I don't know much about them as they weren't really important to me at the time. There were birds of prey, sea birds, song birds, carrion-eaters, and the like.
Overall the ecosystem was not too different from Earth's, just with different species of animals filling the same roles.

What did your home look like exactly?

I'm assuming you mean my home cave? The entire planet would take a whole book or six to describe entirely lol
Homecave, as we called it, started out as a pretty big cave in the southern mountains of the eastern continent of the planet. It sits overlooking a valley carved by glaciers and full of pine trees. The first dragons to find it set to work excavating more space, to make room for their growing families. By my time, it was a cave network of absolutely epic proportions. Each adult dragon had his or her own private cave cut out of the rock, either by claw or by the services of an earth dragon. Each little cave was linked to a massive labyrinth of tunnels all interwoven and interconnected. There were larger chambers as well. Audience halls meant for dozens of dragons and hundreds of Huyeans, communal areas where dragons could sit or lie together and groom each other, talk, or just be around each other, our immense library, and the egg chambers where fire dragons kept soft sand heated to incubate the eggs until they were ready to be adopted by their mentors.
This was no damp, dripping cave. It was dry and comfortable, though I did occasionally hear Huyeans complain that some areas were too cold. There were glowing crystals growing throughout. If a cache of crystals were discovered while excavating new personal caves, they were carefully extracted and added to the lighting of the entire network. It was always lit inside and the light levels were always at the very least comfortable to read by. If a dragon wanted some darkness, they would just tuck their head under a wing. The crystals came in a rainbow of colors, but put out white light. So, they were very pretty to look at themselves, but the color of the crystals in a given chamber didn't affect sight.
The entrance to the cave was kept rough and much how it was when it was originally found. The main thing that has changed is that thousands of generations of dragons' feet coming and going over the threshold has worn it down and smoothed it. Huyeans have even said the stone looks polished at the entrance and in the most heavily-used chambers. There is a ledge outside the cave large enough for two dragons to take off or land side-by-side, and a staircase was cut into it by the Huyeans so they could access it without having to beg a ride up from a dragon. Most of the cave entrance is made of volcanic basalt, but the deeper into the cave one goes, the more granite is present in the cave walls.

Thanks a bunch for all the questions, I really enjoyed answering them!