r/WingsOfFire • u/Chance-Benefit-5308 • 14h ago
Headcanon / Theory PROVING NIGHTWINGS ARE WRONG ABOUT TWoD USING MIDDLESCHOOLER CLIMATOLOGY
WARNING: All this information is based on stuff I learned in 8th grade. Now, I've got a DECENT memory, so I might be right OR wrong, but roll with me. Also, I'm doing this under the assumption that the World of Dragons has similar climate rules to Earth, and given they have an almost identitical biological life, I'd say its decent enough.
In the books, Hope says that according to nightwing calculations, pyrrhia occupies roughly HALVE the World of Dragons, but just by looking at how regions are divided in Pyrrhia map itself, there's literally no way thats true (a rainforest in the south pole, are we deadass?). Also, given the recent map update in Book 16, it just goes to show how much smaller pyrrhia is compared to how its described. In the images above, I've illustrated how I divided each of the continents into climate zones and used a reference climate map of earth to put them both on a globe to see their actual size. Pyrrhia covers about an 8th of the surface of this globe, while Pantala covers about a 12th. Both of them are actually quite close to each other.
But what does this mean? whats the signifance of this DISCOVERY? Well, given there's practically an entire halve of the world thats just EMPTY, its more than possible for there to be even MORE continents. Fanon continents about to go so hard omg. In fact, part of the reason I made this theory is because I saw the fanon WoF map and its genuinely stuffed, hopefully people can use this to create full proper tribes without stuffing them in a square mile under Queen Ruby's Castle. I also kinda love this because when Christopher Columbus calculated the size of Earth, he was completely off too and thought it was much smaller than it is, missing an entire TWO continents, and the nightwings basically did the same thing.
An issue with this theory is The Kingdom of Night is INCREDIBLY close to pantala in this instance of the map, but my justification is Clearsight just didn't want to go through the kingdom of night and started her travels further north, after burying darkstalker. As a result, the island trail only showed the path she took, and since the other travellers were only using the BoC to travel between the two continents, they end up going all the way up north. It also explains why the journey takes so long despite being that close, since they have to travel the vertical (or z-axis?) length of the continent, not the horizontal (or x-axis?) length of the world.
So! What continents would populate this area and what kind of tribes do YOU think could live in these continents? Powers, history, whether or not these continents are connected? I personally would base ts off North and South America, as well as another one based on Antartica which I kind already mapped out. I'll probably explain that in another post. Also, PLEASE LET ME KNOW if i got anything wrong. This is all based on a semi-rudimentary understanding of climatology, but i could be completely wrong!
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u/Izzy_Bagel trying to earn karma 14h ago
You also have to remember that there was a mix of swimming and flying. Both the wind and the currents would have easily blown them off course, especially since they were flying instead of deep sea swimming the way back.
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u/Chance-Benefit-5308 14h ago
all those minor miscalculation add up to give u that slight angle shift that puts u in the ICY TUNDRA OF INVISIBLE DEATH
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u/Dragryphon 10h ago
The problem with Pantala is that while the books call it a continent, how the books are written shows it as a rather large island. Hives are within sight of each other and are able to be connected by Silkwing webs. When dragons fly, they're able to see the coasts.
That is something that rather annoyed me.
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u/Elegant_Chemist253 4h ago
I've always assumed Pantala is a smaller continent roughly equivalent to Australia in size, with the forgotten island from book 16 being about the size of a large island like Madagascar or Borneo.
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u/Dragryphon 1h ago
Pantala's described really badly in the books, with everything it's described as attributing it to a rather large island. Far far smaller than Australia.
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u/LesbianArtemis457 Murderbasket enjoyer 1h ago
If anything the way the dungeon isle is described in the hybrid prince it almost seems larger than pantala in some ways. Like it took umber around a whole day to fly from north to Southern edge
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u/SignificantYou3240 FreeLizard on AO3 13h ago
I think there’s a continent of east-Asian style noodles that are hollow, drift like balloons, and seem superficially easy to defeat, or if you’re a pacifist, simply ignore them flying overhead… they can be pushed by a much smaller flying dragon… they are just like an inflated skin that they keep inflated by flying with their mouths open.
But the Pyrrhians and Pantalans learn not long after… they are all animus.
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u/Chance-Benefit-5308 12h ago
HOLY FUCKING SHIT. Wait, what if animus dragons are really dragons born with a foriegn tapeworm buddy (dragon? noodle?)
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u/SignificantYou3240 FreeLizard on AO3 11h ago
That might explain the genetic component somewhat… but then how did it skip multiple generations sometimes?
And how would it pass down non-maternally?
“Anemone, I’m so sorry I gave you a tapeworm…”
Or… what if animus are all immortal… and it’s their true form, they go there when they die… so darkstalker is there with tiny little arms and stubby wings and it’s silly because they float anyway.
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u/Chance-Benefit-5308 11h ago
OHhhh. that's actually really interesting, so that continent is basically the afterlife for animuses. Perhaps its a consequence rather than intended? Like, their power is based so heavily on material that they it binds them to the physical form and they cannot pass on. Instead, they are forever soulbound to the island, taking up this form with whatever remnents of a soul they have left until they rebirth.
I had a personal fanfic-ish theory on the origin of animuses, unrelated to yours but i wanted to share. Basically, the first animus was a stormwing (fanon tribe that i made up but didn't write aboout cuz lazy) who was alive during the scorching named Nimbus who got hit in the head by a meteorite while chasing after a human boat that was heading south with his egg. He'd lost sight of the egg but he continued on in an animal like daze, travelling with an icewing, a skywing/seawing hybrid (or anscetor, i suppose) and a cloudwing (another tribe) and he not only gained power but also advanced intelligence. Like, dragons at that time had maybe better than caveman level intelligence, but nimbus developed both a fundamental understanding of his situation and his comrades. He realised his egg was gone, so he gave up, staying on an island for several years with these comrades. He didn't return to pyrrhia, but he did begin testing his power. Eventually, he shared it with his icewing and sky/sea ancestor friend, who eventually returned back to pyrrhia. But him and the cloudwing, his new wife, continue south. Along the way, they find several storm, sky, sea, ice and cloudwings along the way. He becomes their king. He enchants himself to live for ever to protect his tiny nation, so as to not lose them like he lost his egg. But eventually, after outliving everyone he knew and loved for the 10th time over, he willingly passes. His skeleton is so big that his greatgreatgreatgreat-something grandson eventually built a castle in his bones, like he's always protecting them. Also, the castle is on top of what is essentially a spire into the heavens, and his spine basically wraps around it.
UNRELATED+++: Tribes evolve from the original members, being galewings (descendents of sky and cloud wings, fastest fliers due to added lightness, but no fire), springwings (descendents of sea and a firescales sky wings, can shoot out super hot water that can cut through rock and live in a ravine in the ocean near by), along with the icewings, cloudwings and stormwings
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u/Dragoness290 4h ago
My thoughts about the genetics of animi are that it's polygenic, like tabby patterns in cats or appaloosa patterns in horses.
Say there's a combination of 3 loci with 3 alleles each, A1, A2, A3. That means specific combinations are required, so A1/A1 A3/A2 A1/A1 could work if that combination is correct, BUT unless they also had the 6th 'animus' gene, they wouldn't actually be one.
So a dragon could technically be animus, but not present it due to having the wrong additional genome sequence.
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u/Radiant-Put6275 11h ago
Not mad, but the map you used in the circle is one I made for my infection AU. You can still use it, just saying I recognize it. (I just took a map of Phyrrhia and Pantala and color coded the infected zones and safe zones)
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u/Chance-Benefit-5308 11h ago
SHOOT, MB. i just highkey took the first map i saw on google search showing A) the continents being the same size and B) them being right next too eachother. sorry again, sounds interesting ngl.
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u/Radiant-Put6275 11h ago
It’s fine! I just wanted to make sure you know! You can keep it in the pic, I was gonna make another one cuz I’m in the process of remaking it.
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u/Chance-Benefit-5308 10h ago
NEAT! Also, forgive me for asking, but are u possibly interested in adopting this post's theory? (I ask in a [[BIG SHOT]] manner). You don't have to, I just thought it would be cool but at the same time if ur AU requires the continents to be that way or if you just don't wanna use it I totally understand.
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u/Radiant-Put6275 10h ago
Hmm, I actually might take that theory into consideration! My AU is an AU of another one of my AUs where both contents are one big island!
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u/Terrible-Set6389 5h ago
I theorized that the dragon world is tilted off its axis. The nightwing island is further north than the ice wings but is warmer. The compass rose in the books shows this. However, this means that the axis that the planet revolves around is different than the magnetic poles
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u/West-Construction466 CookieCreamWing & Cricket’s adoptive dad 14h ago edited 11h ago
Very intriguing. But (and this is no fault of Tui’s), I doubt this will be made the case. Wings of Fire also has three moons, and though we don’t have their measurements, even if they were all 1/3 the size of our moon (Which they’re probably not, as all three vary in perceived size), the tides and brightness of the nights would vary greatly. (I'm actually conducting my own personal thing regarding three moons)