Confused about all the racial, Blood manifestation, and Power terminology? Look no further than this handy-dandy, mostly comprehensive matrix.
Manifested Forms of the Children of Life
By Korinth Lind, King Consort of Ice; Scholar Premier, Covenantal History & Theory
I am obliged to point out that what follows is the inferior model, once espoused by lesser
scholars—never myself. The full model, which I developed, is available behind the gate
far below. However, to avoid spoilers, do not consult that second, complete version until
after chapter 32 of Dragon’s Child.
You have been warned.
Where the older model simply had no answer, I have left the gap visible rather than repeat my
colleagues’ handwaving. A ? means precisely that: not yet known.
Circle of Power3-part model
Children of LightDawn
Children of FlameNoon
Children of IceMidnight
Realms
Light
Lumina (“the Seventh Realm”)
Flame
Ythra, Ekrel, Oshal, Romskal, Yonvey, and Ykran (“the Six Realms”)
Ice
Earth—though every invested child of Ice now living is in exile in Lumina, the Seventh Realm.
Race
Light
lucima(“loo-SEE-muh”)
Flame
dramá(“druh-MAH”)
Ice
glacima(“glass-EE-muh”)
Drona
amá (“ah-MAH”)
English
human
Uninvested
Light
lucimon (“loo-see-MOHN”)
Flame
amón (“ah-MOHN”)
Ice
glacimon (“glass-ee-MOHN”)
Invested
Light
luson (“loos-OHN”)
Flame
drakón (“drah-KOHN”)
Ice
glason (“glass-OHN”)
Colors
Light
White; black (Royal); silver accent
Flame
Gold; black (Royal); others: purple, blue, red, orange, and green
Human shape, but with skin, hair, and eyes all glowing and letting off a white vapor. Wings, when summoned, are avian but formed from the constantly swirling vapor.
All
one set of wings
Heir
two sets of wings
Monarch
three sets of wings
Powers & abilities
Enhances the light abilities available in normal form
The further along the spectrum toward starform, the less corporeal the body becomes
Gravity loses its hold; surging becomes the default movement
Ambient power charges nearby drakón
Flame
Simply called half-form in Drona (Royal only)
In flux by nature, and so a little different every time. Generally a humanoid with dragon wings, horns, eyes, and talons, and some degree of scales. In extremity a tail as well—though that is nearly impossible for even a Royal to hold for long, and usually impractical without going entirely nude.
Powers & abilities—most of the Royal’s concentration and power goes to holding the form, so there are few
Displaying Royal status
Intimidation of foes
Using enhanced draká senses in a smaller package
Gaining at least some flight capability at night—mostly quick spurts or gliding
As normal form, but—as the name implies—covered in frost, the eyes constantly glowing ice-blue without pupils, and ice-shard wings when summoned. Fingernails sharpen to points, like claws.
All
one set of wings
Heir
two sets of wings
Monarch
three sets of wings
Powers & abilities
Enhances the ice abilities available in normal form
Harder, armor-like skin
Speed—can move so fast they blur; stamina lasts as long as the form does (power of time)
Claws can be used as weapons
Temporary flight with the wings, but laboured—best for short rises or gliding. Heavy and costly in power, so normally summoned only when needed.
Full form
Light
starform(Royal only)
A sphere of light, the core of which is about the diameter of the Royal’s normal-form body, though the aura extends further.
Exclusive powers & abilities
Able to provide energy to all drakón within miles, regardless of relationship
To a lesser extent, to all races
All attention and energy goes to holding the form, which cannot last long
Flame
drakáform
A dragon (Drona: draká).
All
one set of horns
Heir
two sets of horns
Monarch
three sets of horns
Exclusive powers & abilities
None in this form—all energy is devoted to holding it
However, the shift into and out of drakáform lets the shifter store belongings in, and retrieve them from, a personal ether storage
Ice
iceform(Royal only)
A progression of frostform that turns the glason entirely to living, rock-hard ice.
Exclusive powers & abilities
Retains the speed and stamina of frostform
Gains lethal strength
Really hard to hurt or kill
Loses the ability to cast magic, as all energy goes to holding the form, which cannot last long
Notable members
Light
Monarch
Sarah Moontouched [Consort: Koriben Sunfilled, not in clan]
Leftwing
Svyer Moontouched (formerly Peacegrowth)
Rightwing
David Moontouched
Heir
Korrien Moontouched
— Leftwing
Merin Moontouched
— Rightwing
Thomas Moontouched
Other
Elizabeth Moontouched (Strongshield Lady Consort)
Wikal Moontouched
Flame
Monarch
Koriben Sunfilled [Consort: Sarah Moontouched, not in clan]
A note on my terms, since I am certain to be asked for one. Zenith and nadir mark the summit and the floor of a Power’s own cycle—what the matrix above calls its strongest and weakest hour. Each Power keeps its own sky. The zenith of Ice falls at midnight, when the sun is at its lowest; this troubles only those who imagine the sun to be the measure of all things.
The ring is one day—28 deken, read clockwise from dawn at the crown. Each Power brightens toward its zenith and dims toward its nadir; the ticks mark the hours at which every Power changes phase.
This chart restates the Diurnal power cycle row of the matrix above; that row carries the same information in words.
Notes
Range, short for regenerative period (i.e., feasible range): Children of Life do not increase and decrease in power at equal speeds. Rather, they experience a cycle of slow regeneration, rapid regeneration, slow decline, and rapid decline. The regenerative period is the point of “waking” (literal or symbolic), beginning with rapid regeneration and going until the onset of the rapid decline. ↩
Reading the hours. A day is 28 deken, counted from dawn: dawn is Hour 0, noon Hour 7, sunset Hour 14, midnight Hour 21. So Hour 27 falls an hour before dawn, and Hour 12 two hours before sunset. ↩
Dramá ideally sleep 9–10 hours; lucima and glacima, 8. ↩
A bond is only possible between two adjacent invested in the Circle, and it cannot occur between two invested of the same type. The first bond listed in each category is the flow of natural power.↩ 1↩ 2
All invested children of Life share a magical foundation that stays much the same across all races, with variations primarily in how each similar intention is manifest. For example, all can charge gemstones, but the color of the charged gemstone is unique to the person’s soulcolor, which is greatly influenced by clan color. Likewise, all can create shields, and arguably go about it much the same way—but a luson’s shield is white, amorphous energy; a drakón’s shield is a clearly defined force field in the soulcolor; and a glason’s shield is made of ice, though in its thinnest state it could appear like a soap-bubble film and thus more similar to the others’. ↩
The dramá descend from both draká and amá—hence the joining of the two racial names into one. But because it was a small group of amá who left Earth to join the draká on their birth world, Ythra, there was long a natural psychological and linguistic bias toward the draká, and it lingers in the word amáform: the borrowed shape, named as though it were the exception. True draká are long since gone, and amá is now the default form for everyone. ↩
Drona: the lingua franca of the Seven Realms, descended from a mixture of Old Draká, the language of the draká at the dawn of the Covenantal Age, and the language (the name of which has been lost to time) of the amá who joined them to form the dramá. ↩
Dregna: a pidgin dialect combining elements of Drona and English, primarily used by the Third Generation,9 especially Sevenths.10↩ 1↩ 2
Third Generation (Children of the Third, or Thirds): the children of the Seven Realms (dramá, glacima, and lucima) born after the introduction of the Third Covenant. ↩
Sevenths: denizens of the Seventh Realm, currently the lucima and glacima. ↩
About 1 in 4 dramá of the Six Realms becomes a drakón upon presentation before the Tree of Flame. Their higher mortality rate (being the protectors of their people) is balanced by their greater longevity than amón, so at any given time about a quarter of the dramá population are drakón. ↩
A Warning Before You Read On
The complete model
The matrix above is missing a quarter of the Circle. What belongs there is the heart of
Dragon’s Child, and I will not have it spoiled on my account. Read the book
first—at minimum, up to and including chapter 32.
Appendix A
Royal Bonded Forms
There are technically two more forms, available only to Royals and their bonded: heartform and oneform.
Both are physically difficult to hold, and each requires a willingness either to give up one’s self wholly to the other (heartform) or to be of one mind, heart, and body (oneform) for the form’s duration. Complete trust and harmony—not sameness—are necessary for both, but particularly for oneform. In oneform, separate impulses and thoughts remain possible, and are sometimes useful as one partner advises the other; but the moment the couple’s intentions and emotions truly diverge, the form is at an end. However good the relationship, neither form can be held for long.*
Heartform
Only possible after bonding. One partner surges into the heart of the other.
Power
If the person was in a form that previously could not sustain magic, their typical magic becomes available again. Otherwise they have far more power than they would otherwise.
Forms
Whatever form the corporeal partner was in when the bonded entered their heart is somehow enhanced, but completely retains its own shape. Drakón in drakáform, for instance, become larger than otherwise possible, but do not change in any other way.
Magic type
The corporeal partner gains no extra abilities and relies solely on their own magic type, knowledge, mind, and skills.
Consciousness
The heart of the pair enters a nearly unconscious state with no senses, only vaguely aware of the corporeal partner’s strongest thoughts and emotions. After division, even those memories grow vaguer and fade like a dream.
The corporeal partner feels much as they did before. They are alone in their mind and feel only the vaguest sense of another when they search for them. Communication with the heart is possible only through emotion and strongly felt thought.
Oneform
Only possible after at least partial heartbinding (betrothal). Greater unity is possible after full heartbinding.
Power
They receive greater power than the sum of their individual stores.
Forms
Whatever form they are in becomes an altered blend of each person’s equivalent forms.
Magic type
The couple’s abilities are combined.
Consciousness
Blended. Not wholly one, but functionally so—diverging no more than one’s own thoughts and impulses typically do, and sometimes less. The pair can draw on the knowledge and experience of both and advise each other. But when they act, it must be with unity, or the form will unravel.
* Nor would it be the Tree’s will that they always, undeviatingly, be of one heart, mind, and body. Separateness of being, and ebbs and flows in harmony, are natural and healthy parts of the growth of relationships—so long as the couple is always striving to regain balance. One cannot always be in perfect balance, perfect harmony with another; in fact healthy, tempered conflict is necessary for intimacy. But that does not mean a couple should stop trying to come back to that place, as one must keep climbing and descending all the mountains of life. Great power and great vistas await every couple at each peak. Yet it is in the ascending, the descending, and the ascending again that true growth happens. In other words, it is the lows that make the highs possible at all. A commitment that is not tested is no commitment at all.
Appendix BKey Terms & Translations+
The glossary as it stands in the front matter of Dragon’s Child—safe
here, since you’ve finished book five. The shorter version that opens books one
to five lives on its own page:
Key Terms & Translations.
Races
draká(“druh-KAH”)
The original “dragons.”
amá(“ah-MAH”)
Human(s); the sentient inhabitants of Earth.
dramá(“druh-MAH”)
The race that emerged from the combination of draká and humans; children of the Tree of Flame, inhabitants of the Six Realms.
lucima(“loo-SEE-muh”)
Children of the Tree of Light, inhabitants of the Seventh Realm, Lumina.
glacima(“glass-EE-muh”)
Children of the Tree of Ice, born to Earth and now in exile from it, hosted in the Seventh Realm, Lumina.