“Skycallers” is the working title for a dragon role-playing fantasy world building project.
Four-legged, winged dragons serve as the dominant intelligent species of this world, with complex and varied societies and cultures. Many dragons are nomadic, always migrating between multiple ancestral homes to avoid storm season. Some dragons live in underground cave bunkers which offer protection and creature comforts, at the cost of being trapped underground for weeks at a time when storms are raging.
World
The world of Skycallers is an earthlike high fantasy world which has a surface of entirely ocean. All landmasses, large and small, are gravity-defying floating islands hovering at different heights above sea level. The ocean itself is extremely deep without any traditional continents, very salty, and supports an ecosystem with numerous dangerous predatory leviathans. A layer of dense, salty sea fog sits above the ocean surface, which typically obscures the view of the ocean from above.
Sky islands, or skylands, come in many shapes and forms, all supported by a base of skystone. Skystone is a mineral imbued with magical properties that allow it to anchor in midair, but that does not mean it is lightweight or easy to move the skylands. Skystone erodes similarly to limestone, yielding caves and water pockets within most skylands. Skylands often also have non-magical soil and rock surfaces that can support foliage and fresh water.
Skylands (pronounced like “islands”) are categorized by shape and the ability to support soil, caves, and vegetation.
- Bald-type skylands are formations of pure skystone that support caves but have no surface of soil or vegetation – they may or may not have water within the caves
- Bowl-type skylands are formations that support significant amounts of surface water, like a pond or even a lake – they may also have underground water in caves
- Slab-type skylands have a skystone base that is too small to support caves large enough for dragons to enter, but they have a large upward-facing surface area that supports soil and vegetation
- Mountain-type skylands have enough soil or non-magical stone to support caves in the soil/non-magical stone – these are rare, and the caves formed in non-skystone materials often contain rare geological materials
- Tooth-type skylands have a flat upward-facing surface that supports soil and vegetation, along with a sufficient skystone base that can also support caves large enough for dragons to enter
- Pillar-type skylands are a sub-set of tooth skylands that are simply taller than their soil/vegetation surface is wide
- Tiered-type skylands are any skylands that have multiple surfaces that support soil/vegetation
- Shards are any skystone formations that do not support caves large enough for dragons to enter or significant soil or vegetation
Ocean
The surface ocean is very dangerous to dragons. There is a thick layer of whitish-gray, salt-dense sea fog extending up from the surface about .5 km/.31 mi from sea level. Large predators hunt near the surface. Any predator that actively hunts dragons is classified as a ‘monster’ according to dragonkind.
- Great Snapper – long sea serpent/bony fish monsters with long, gharial-like jaws
- Prison Waterlily – carnivorous plants that float on the surface, with Venus flytrap-like “mouths” on long stalks
- Scoutclaw – a crab-like predator that uses a single long claw, equipped with sensory organs, to reach up and out of the water’s surface
- Tendrilactua – a jellyfish-like animal that floats just beneath the surface, using long, waving, stinging tendrils to immobilize prey and then drag it underwater into the mouth
The primary food source for dragons is fish and small vertebrates. Fish are abundant, tasty, and highly desirable to most dragons, but are extremely risky to acquire.
Storms
The seasons of this world are divided into “calm season” and “storm season”. During storm season – and occasionally even during calm season – large, dangerous, supernatural storms roll across the sky. These storms range from common sleet and hail to storms of fine silica glass particles and storms of pitch darkness full of hungry monsters.
- Seawater storms have clouds that resemble ocean waves and rain salty seawater down
- Voidstorms are jet-black and rain freezing cold, inky liquid that sucks the warmth from anything it gathers upon
- Ashstorms rain down bits of burnt, carbonized, still-hot ashes as if a fireplace were up-ended
- Glasstorms rain razor-sharp silica glass shards
- Fogstorms immerse the affected area in thick, white haze that induces anxiety and hallucinations of vague but threatening figures
- Metalstorms rain liquid aluminum, which rapidly cools and forms stalagmite-like structures and slabs
The Everstorm
A single giant storm constantly roves the world of Skycallers, with every other storm splitting off from it.
No dragon has ever breached the eye wall, the inner band of clouds to access the eye of the Everstorm, and returned.
Skycallers
Skycallers are dragons whose occupation and lifestyle revolve around researching and reporting the weather to others. Think of them as a combination of meteorologist, radio station operator, and lighthouse-keeper. Skycaller towers are large permanent structures where one or more Skycaller lives, usually full-time.
Skycaller Towers are equipped with magical devices that can detect the strength, direction, intensity, and type of oncoming storm, and equipment to broadcast messages on the electromagnetic frequency that dragons can “hear” with their horns. In this way, each dragon is like a radio receiver, and each tower is like a radio station and a tornado siren.
Dragons who choose to reside outside of the range of any Skycaller Tower are considered foolhardy and risk-taking as they have no way of receiving alerts until it is often too late to seek shelter.
Dragons
Basic Biology
Dragons are the dominant, intelligent species of the Skycallers world. Dragons have human-equivalent intelligence and language capability, with varied regional cultures and community structures.
Dragons are four-legged and two-winged. They have dexterous hand-like forefeet and also have opposable thumbs on the hind feet capable of grasping and carrying.
Dragons have large, expressive eyes that contain reddish-orange oil, which allows a certain degree of vision in clouds and fog.
The horns of dragons serve as a sensory organ for electromagnetism and magic. This sense is called a dragon’s “Stormsense” and is used to sense oncoming storms, electricity, running water, and sources of magic.
Dragons have tough, leathery hide with patches of rounded knobbly scales, and a mane of proto-feathers that appears similar to fur, which is oily and water-resistant. They have an ear slit similar to birds, which is protected by a proto-feather frill on the jaw.
Dragon wings are patagium, the dorsal side of which is covered in a fine layer of keratinous feather-spines.
Dragons have tough, leathery hide with patches of rounded knobbly scales, and a mane of proto-feathers that appears similar to fur, which is oily and water-resistant. They have an ear slit similar to birds, which is protected by a proto-feather frill on the jaw.
Dragon wings are patagium, the dorsal side of which is covered in a fine layer of keratinous feather-spines similar to the placoid scales of Earth sharks and rays.
Dragon horns are electromagnetic sensory organs. Horns are hollow, and connect to two symmetrical organs at the top of the dragon’s skull that interpret the input from the horns. The longer the horns, the greater the range and sensitivity to electromagnetic fields. Dragons essentially have radio antennae on top of their head, which allow them to detect prey, other dragons, running water, and environmental changes including those associated with storms.
Dragons who live primarily underground often have less-developed horns than those that live as nomads.
Life Stages
During the equivalent of the human teenage years, dragons enter a phase of high adaptability. During this phase, their bodies rapidly adapt to their environment based on:
- The food they consume – especially prey animals, as they also accumulate magical energy in their bodies which is absorbed and transferred to the predator
- The environment they sleep in (dragons absorb more magic from their surroundings while they sleep)
- The places where they experience the most parasympathetic nervous system activation (rest & digest)
- Temperatures, climates, environments and biomes that they spend the most time in
- The strategy that led them to survive any crucial fight-or-flight moments
- The strategy that led them to the most successful hunts
Aspects of a dragon’s physiology that may change during the hyper-adaptation phase include the body colors, shape and function of keratin structures, body fat/muscle ratios, horn and claw shape, dentition shape, and/or tail tip growth.
Dragons do not die of old age in the traditional sense. Even after they have exited the hyper-adaptation phase of adolescence, dragons continue to passively absorb magical energy from the world around them. The magical energy affects their body by gradually replacing cells with magic. The dragon becomes lightweight, able to fly with increased ease and eventually float passively. The wings begin to shrink and atrophy as they are no longer needed for flight, becoming vestigial. The body elongates as the skeletal structure loosens and eventually vanishes altogether. Many ancient dragons do not bleed, as their blood vessels have fully converted to magical energy – they may “leak” a white cloudy vapor when injured instead. Many of these dragons become increasingly distant from main dragon society, meditative and quiet and observant as their brain functions are replaced with magic. They often feel the compulsion and yearning to venture higher and higher into the sky.
Eventually, they simply do not return.
Dragons do not leave behind a corpse when they die of old age/full magic conversion. They simply evaporate into wispy white clouds, their consciousness scattered amidst the elements of the sky and wind. Some dragons persist even after they have lost their physical forms as a sort of sentient cloud ghost, a translucent vaporous phantom of their previous self.
Society
Nomadic dragons remain on the surface year-round, migrating to avoid the paths of the most dangerous storms. Nomadic dragons live in tribes. Each tribe is a group of 3-20 other dragons that consider each other either biological or found family. Tribes divide tasks among the members and help care for their young or elderly communally. Hunting may be done individually or in small groups, with the spoils always returned to the tribe for sharing. While individual rules and norms vary per tribe, many dragon tribes hold values that support individuality while also contributing to group tasks.
Nomadic dragons typically visit the same sites throughout the year. Sometimes permanent structures are build at these sites, serving as multiple homes that they move between.
Wanderers are nomadic dragons who do not live or travel with a tribe by their own choice.
Exiles are nomadic dragons who have been rejected from their tribes against their will.
Bunker dragons are those who live in underground shelters year-round. These shelters tend to operate more like cities rather than a family unit, with distinct hierarchy and jobs/roles assigned by leaders. Bunker dragons typically spend half of the year completely underground, living off of stored food and traded goods brought to the shelter by nomadic dragons. Shelter-cities often serve as marketplaces and trading posts for nomadic dragons, which also gives the bunker dragons access to supplies and goods they otherwise can’t access.
Scouting, gathering, and hunting parties are dispatched from shelter-cities to collect supplies during storm season. Since storms are volatile and may appear at any time without much warning, this is a dangerous task.
Creating a Character
Check back here for information about how to create a character for Skycallers! I’ll be making question sheets you can answer to develop a character, a text generator you can use to get ideas, templates and more!
