Kingdom Come
Page 54
Queen dragons are larger, stronger, and fiercer than other dragons. They grow rapidly, and are equipped with unique breath weapons, magic, and – once they reach sexual maturity – the ability to produce pheromones that suppress the fertility of other dragons and encourage them to obey her. In the presence of a Queen, non-reproducing female dragons do not lay eggs or even properly grow in their ovaries. Males are not hormonally suppressed by a queen, meaning that ‘worker’ males usually end up being quite larger than ‘worker’ females.
The birth of a queen is a cause of great celebration within a clan – but also wariness. A Queen who bears a Queen daughter is loving and tolerant of her until she reaches adolescence and begins to produce the pheromones that are her birthright. At that point, the relationship between mother and daughter inevitably becomes tense and competitive, ratcheting up to the point where the elder queen either drives her daughter from the clan or risks being killed by her. Fortunately, Solonkratsu Queens have a strong instinct against forming incestuous relationships with male kin, so young Queens are usually happy to leave their clan and strike out on their own – by treaty or by conquest.
Like bees, dragons within a clan naturally sort themselves into worker-caste roles. The majority of a clan is comprised of one Queen’s daughters, who will stay with their mother and serve as hunters, soldiers, artisans, nurses, teachers, archivists and governors. The males, who are almost always larger and stronger than their sisters, stay with the clan until adolescence and are then expected to leave and seek a new, unrelated clan to join and serve. Grand Olympics-style contests were once held between allied clans, where males court families they are interested in joining and compete to secure entry to desirable positions.
A Queen dragon will select a harem of 3-10 mates through an involved courtship process which includes displays of hunting, dancing, gift-giving and relationship building with the biggest and strongest (unrelated) males of her clan. Queens are sexually active but infertile most of the time, entering a fertile heat period twice a year. Just before the Queen’s estrus begins, she will begin laying unfertilized eggs whether she has mates or not. She becomes aggressive, solitary, and irritable, building to a point where she openly challenges her mates and may even attack them if they approach her. This hormonal rage culminates in a spectacular and dangerous mating flight. The Queen flees her harem and the males pursue her, battling each other for supremacy until one manages to catch his mate and consummate with her. It is not uncommon for males to kill each other, or even for an enraged Queen to kill her would-be lover if he is not careful. Once the mating flight is over, this male rejoins the harem and takes on a leadership role, bossing around his brothers-in-arms… at least until the next season.
Within this instinctual framework, dragons are a highly intelligent and culturally rich people, with numerous customs, religious beliefs, and economic systems. In the golden age before the Drachan invaded Archemi, the Solonkratsu built ‘cities’ which ranged thousands of miles and housed multiple clans. Secure in their positions, the Queens within these cities created rituals to manage their instinctive need to compete, creating effective councils to govern over wide areas of territory. War between clans was managed by laws enforced by the community, and breaching the laws of conduct could result in an upstart clan being mobbed by a punitive force comprised of several Queens. Magical, artistic, and mercantile activity flourished in the hey-day of dragonkind, and the dragons had good cooperative relationships with both the Aesari and Meewfolk. Those cities are now no more, and the few wild dragons left are intensely tribal, ranging long distances to trade males and information before returning to their villages.
Eggs and Hatchlings
Ninety days after her mating flight, a pregnant Queen lays a clutch of 6-12 eggs. Very rarely, she may lay a queen egg within a clutch, which will be notable for its variant size and color. The older a queen is, the more likely she is to lay a queen egg. On average, a queen will birth only two other queens during her 1000-year lifetime. Some may produce four, while others will never bear one.
The eggs incubate for 42 days, then hatch under the watchful eye of their mother and her clanmates. The baby pulls itself free as a thirty-pound infant with soft, under-developed wing membranes, claws and scales, poor vision, but an acute sense of smell. Within a few hours, the hatchling’s eyes will have cleared, their keratin and membranes hardened, and they will be tumbling around and beating their wings in anticipation of flight. The Queen nurses the hatchlings on regurgitated meat and a thin, nutritious ‘milk’ she secretes from special patches of scales under her wing. The milk nourishes the hatchlings while also providing them with a loading dose of hormones that stifle their sexual development, preventing competition from drone daughters. The tiny dragons practice flying by bounding, pouncing and gliding off their mother’s body in the nest, building the necessary muscular and cardiac fitness to take off and land in a way most baby birds would envy.
Young Solonkratsu grow rapidly, swelling to over fifty pounds within the first two weeks of life and reaching sexual maturity (Queens and males) within four years. Growth continues from that point for another decade, with fully-mature dragons reaching lengths of 80-100 ft by 15 years of age. Starborn-bonded dragons have an accelerated growth cycle, with years replaced by levels gained through EXP. A Starborn’s dragon reaches sexual maturity at Level 10 and full maturity at Level 30.
Aging and Death
Dragons are long-lived and hardy under ideal conditions. Worker females typically live to 750; males who live out their natural lifespans can reach 800. Queens have been known to live as long as 1200 years. Once a dragon has reached maturity, their rate of growth slows but never completely stops. They do not visibly age much, but wear and tear makes the activities of flying, hunting and living too strenuous to bear. Death for the elderly typically comes in the form of a mid-air heart attack, aortic rupture, stroke or – more rarely – cancer of the brain, eyes or tongue.
Secret chapters and more
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List of James’ Books
Hound of Eden Series
Dark, gritty urban fantasy with a cosmic horror twist, join Russian mafia hitmage Alexi Sokolsky as he confronts the mad demons of the abyss, finds redemption, and saves the world. Hound of Eden is an LGBTI series.
Hound of Eden Omnibus (Books 1 – 3)
0 - Burn Artist (Prequel)
1 - Blood Hound
2 - Stained Glass
3 - Zero Sum
4 - Cold Cell (2020)
5 - Scavenger Eyes (2020)
6 - Morning Star (2020)
Archemi Online
A LitRPG saga about a young dragonrider’s ascension to greatness inside the virtual world of Archemi.
1 - Dragon Seed
2 - Trial by Fire
3 – Kingdom Come
4 - Warsinger (Late 2019)
5 - Blaze of Glory (Early 2020)
Other Titles
Fix Your Damn Book!: A Self-Editing Guide for Authors
The Expanding Universe #1 (Paperback)
The Expanding Universe #2 (Paperback)
Copyright
Archemi Online and all associated intellectual property is Copyright © 2018 James Osiris Baldwin
Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
For permission requests, please contact James Osiris Baldwin: author@jamesosiris.com
Layout and design by James Osiris Baldwin.