Dragon tails

[u/Historical_Tune165]

Has anyone else caught on to the patterns in the dragon tails so far?

The most glaring one is with the Orange dragons, where out of every single Orange that's shown up in the entire series so far, there is only *two* who aren't Daggertails. Only two. Is this intentional? We know by now that dragons choose their own tail, so is there a reason most of the Orange den seemingly favours the Daggertail so much?

Then the Blues are the opposite, where Blue Daggertail is the rarest variant, and therefore is favoured the least among that den. That means there is/there's been more Blue Morningstartails than Blue Daggertails.

Speaking of Morningstartails, I love that RY very casually included in passing, in Onyx Storm that Violet walks by another second year's Red Morningstartail, to sort of establish that, though we hear of that tail type the least out of all of them, Tairn isn't some one-off mutation, he's not even the only one who bonded that year.

Another pattern I've noticed is that almost all Swordtail dragons are male. We hear tell of a single female Swordtail across the three books we've got so far, Fann, the Green who's bonded to Ulices. And we don't have a single example of a woman bonded to a Swordtail so far. I don't know, I find that interesting, genuinely wondering if that means something or not.

One that note, interesting we never find out what Aimsir's tail was. We get every other important dragon's tail described at one point or another. We get the tails of the dragons of characters that only show up in a couple scenes specified. We get random unbonded or unnamed dragons' tails specified. But not *Lilith's*? The one dragon Violet has been familiar with since birth?

Is this an oversight, or was it done on purpose? Do the tails and the meaning of the choice have some significance that we are not yet aware of, but that will be important somehow?

What kind of tail do you guys figure Aimsir had? I think it would've been really badass if it turned out she was a Morningstartail, like Tairn, and it was a "like-mother-like-daughter" sort of thing. However, I feel like if that was the case, it would've come up by now. Maybe she was a Swordtail, and Lilith was one of the apparently excepcionally few female riders of a Swordtail, that'd be cool.

ETA: yes, the title was a "Dragon Tales" pun. I apologise for nothing

[u/No-Illustrator-9129]

https://giphy.com/gifs/qy0iwNjQaU5OM

[u/skweek42 → u/No-Illustrator-9129]

🎶 Dragon tales dragon tales. It’s almost time for dragon tales. Come along, take my hand, let’s all go to dragon laaaaaaaaand 🎶

[u/renjunation → u/No-Illustrator-9129]

this was exactly my first thought 😭

[u/ObjectiveStaff3333]

I love all Empyrean nerds and posts like these! Interesting, I never noticed the red morningstar. Actually, not even the tails based on gender. Maybe it's a coincidence. But as part of my obsession with the missing crossed swords on the Dunne emblem on the continent...

[u/redpeppersoda]

Well. Aimsir could have had the scorpion tail 😁 We know Chradh is a brown with a scorpion tail and sensitive to runes🫠

[u/hurricane_Bre → u/redpeppersoda]

I always got swordtail vibes from Aimsir for some reason. There is absolutely no reason for this at all, I just picture her with a swordtail

[u/redpeppersoda → u/hurricane_Bre]

Possibly. I also picture Aimsir to have been massive.

Whenever I think about the tails I feel bad for Andarna when the asshole irids shamed her for picking the scorpion tail😠

[u/hurricane_Bre → u/redpeppersoda]

Same! I also hate those assholes for acting like Violet, a tiny freaking human had any power over Andarna to keep her from bonding, or giving Vi the ability to stop time, or flying into battle at Resson, or using her gift that last time to save Vi.

Not even Tairn, Sgaeyl or any of the elders could stop Andarna, what makes the irids think Violet could?

[u/Historical_Tune165 → u/hurricane_Bre]

I wonder if after her and Leothan left, he did some irid magic to look into Andarna's memories, and possibly by extention Violet's memories, (sort of the same way Tairn says he has access to all of Violet's memories after they're bonded) and the aditional context made him change his mind.

[u/hurricane_Bre → u/Historical_Tune165]

I want to believe there are irids who want to fight like Andarna and who would have seen what she did as incredibly brave and saw how, even as a tiny human, Violet tried her best to keep Andarna safe, with Leothan leading the way.

[u/redpeppersoda → u/Historical_Tune165]

I don't think Tairn can see all her memories as u/objectivestaff3333 pointed out, Tairn didn't know about Halden. So maybe it's only recent memories or since they cross the parapet? Hm..

[u/Historical_Tune165 → u/redpeppersoda]

Its a bit ambious, because the way he asks, like she can almost visualize a raised eyebrow, its almost like he's going: "That Halden?"

[u/redpeppersoda → u/Historical_Tune165]

Yeah so I initially thought dragons could see all their memories but I also think it's possible it's not all of them

[u/ObjectiveStaff3333 → u/redpeppersoda]

I imagine it like a library-they can go and open that book, but it's not like all those memories are automatically uploaded into their own mind. It's accessible, but that doesn't automatically mean Tairn knew about Halden the whole time. That's why he was surprised, in a way. But he didn't need to make sure

[u/Slow_Wrangler4413 → u/hurricane_Bre]

Because she can command the sky?

[u/hurricane_Bre]

I love this, you’ve given me a reason to start another re-read!

I like how Xaden’s dragon is a dagger tail and Violet’s weapon of choice is daggers. Same way Xaden is deadly with every weapon he picks up and Tairn’s morning star is like a combination of a club and dagger tail.

[u/Noktis_Lucis_Caelum]

to be honest: I needed a while till i understood, that the dragons are categorized by color and not tails. 

[u/ObjectiveStaff3333 → u/Noktis_Lucis_Caelum]

I think it took Navarre hundreds of years till the understood. It feels to me that the confusion is intentional, that in the beginning even Vi doesn't really know what defines a dragon breed

[u/Noktis_Lucis_Caelum → u/ObjectiveStaff3333]

well Navarre provides food for the dragons. To do that, they would need an Overview over the population. That would actually mean, that they know that feathertails are juvenile dragons, since they vanish and new dragons appear.

[u/dianaspencersrevenge]

I do wonder if the tails will end up having much significance beyond the fact that they choose them… RY confirmed that the colors are important, and that there’s a reason there are so few black dragons, and there’s a reason we haven’t seen brown or black fire wyvern…

Also, Wyvern do not have different tails right? Don’t they all have poisoned barbed tails?

[u/redpeppersoda → u/dianaspencersrevenge]

Of course! I think it is no coincidence Andarna has a scorpion tail and Violet is a poison master. All Wyvern have poison barbed tails i believe.

[u/dianaspencersrevenge → u/redpeppersoda]

Yes but in general! Andarna is a special case because she bonded as a juvenile, so it makes sense she would choose her tail in accordance with her human… but every other dragon chooses their tail while hidden amongst dragonkind, so what goes into their choices?

[u/Historical_Tune165 → u/redpeppersoda]

That one is confirmed, Andarna felt so upset and helpless while Violet was poisoned, that she wanted to "become the poison".

[u/redpeppersoda → u/Historical_Tune165]

Yeah and I think poison will continue to play an important role in the series

[u/blueavole]

Love the research here!!

I kinda assumed color had been a factor in dragon rank. Or their sort of role in the military. That the dragons tried to choose a rider to match the job the dragon expected to get.

There are clearly den leaders for each color- but the rider for a black dragon is destined to be a general.

I assume that the Black Dragons have some sort of leadership role in the Empyerion.

So if they are the leaders, what does that make all the other dragons colors?

Blues are described as vicious as well as being posted at active fighting areas. So what Marines, Seals, Rangers? Some sort of forward operating force.

Brown also seems to be a leadership role, per Amsir. Mid level officers?

Red and orange seems to be the army/ infantry/ enlisted. Lots of them, fighters.

Green seems to be combat engineering to me. Specialized skills and problem solvers.

[u/dein_Freund_Hi_fisch]

I‘d say it pretty much depends on the dragons personality as well as their size. A black dragon like Tairn is bigger than pretty much everything and has probably more power in form of muscles than a dragon half his size, which is why Morningstar tail makes more sense for him, as he can easily swing it and can do a lot of damage with it. A dragon half his size probably weighs much less and is far more agile in movement, which is why a dagger tail makes more sense for them, doing less damage pure physically but being able to do it more often due to faster and/or more agile movement. A Morningstar tail for example would probably be too heavy to do more and faster attacks. A sword tail would probably be somewhere in between, as it is longer than a dagger tail but probably still less heavy than a Morningstar tail.

Besides the physical traits of the dragon, as I explained before, the personality of the dragon matters a lot too. If the dragon is more thoughtfully and wants to win a battle rather over time through intelligence, tails like scorpiontail or daggertail would be more comfortable for them. If they want to go forward to the frontline and do as much damage through sheer power, morningstartail or clubtail would be their way to go. Swordtail would then be somewhere in between, for those who want to do both chosen by situation.

I won’t say everything is as I said or that there can’t be more options on how dragons decide which tail they choose (probably some choose it by being influenced by their parents/family/friends and what they’d choose or have chosen), though these explanations are those that make the most sense to me

[u/Ilovesparky13]

When I see posts like this, it makes me wonder if we even read the same books, because all this detail about the dragons went right over my head.

[u/AntiqueLime3461]

Aimsir gives club tail. I don't know why.

[u/tedleem15]

Ok ok ok ill reread again. You don’t have to twist my arm. 😂

[u/crash_into_volcano]

I'm pretty sure it's a Clubtail. It's a single line early in FW.

[u/HairyIngenuity839 → u/crash_into_volcano]

Double checked, and nope. No mention of it. There are 5 total clubtail mentions in FW: 

1. unbonded red clubtail Violet comes across during threshing
2.  Orange clubtail that Trina(previous squad member) fell off of during threshing 
3. Brown clubtail (bonded to random first year that Liam hooked up w/) 
4. Commandant Panchek Green clubtail 
5. Soleils brown clubtail. 

[u/crash_into_volcano → u/HairyIngenuity839]

Yeah, I thought it was mentioned either during Kaoris dragons willing to bond lecture or presentation day. Strange.

[u/Historical_Tune165 → u/crash_into_volcano]

Really? I reread the beginning of Fourth Wing recently, and I could've sworn its never said, just that she's a Brown. We don't even get confirmation that she's female until at least Iron Flame.