News post
Creature release news
Creature 673: Jinglong Crystalwing
Obtained by: Stream, Limited: Floods the stream up to and including May 20th
Sprites: Tekla
Description: Sochitelya
A thick, luxurious mane pokes through this egg's shell.
(m/f)
Spoiler
Jinglong hatchlings hatch at the very tops of mountains and spend only a short time in the nest before they begin to take short trips into the air. They grow rapidly and within a year will join the adults in circling the mountain peaks, and they continue to grow throughout their life at a slower pace. More nimble than the adults, they enjoy swooping down on unsuspecting travelers; never to hurt them, but just to startle them. Males and females are easily distinguishable right after hatching by their different coloring, but both have a thick, fluffy mane that stands up straight and covers their body from head to tail.
(m/f)
Spoiler
Despite the stories, an adult jinglong has never come down from the mountain to steal a child, or anything at all. They prefer to spend most of their time up in the mountains, drifting through the air; likely because their legs are too small to support their great weight. Within a few years of hatching, they're easily big enough to carry a person on their back, and no one is quite sure how they manage to keep themselves aloft with their small wings. Their size also means that they don't need to have any camouflage, leading to bright colors on both the male and female. Thick, fluffy manes that stand on end stretch down the entire length of their bodies, and like all crystalwings they shed their gems once a year.
Spoiler
Crystalwings are rare, shy creatures who often seem to spawn more myths than actual fact. Towns and villages near the Alasre Mountains whisper tales of the jinglong crystalwing and tell their children to behave lest the jinglong come down from its mountain peaks to spirit away those who are naughty. Large and slow-moving, jinglong spend most of their time moving sinuously through the thin air at the tops of mountains, watching the land far below. They almost never land and it's considered a sign of great luck when one does; the place that it touches is an auspicious place to build a home, will yield excellent crops, or contains treasure.
Creature 674: Spectrum Crystalwing
Obtained by: Stream, Limited: Floods the stream up to and including May 20th
Sprites: Xenomorph
Description: Sochitelya
This purple and white egg gleams with jutting crystals of light.
Spoiler
Spectrum hatchlings are long, sinuous creatures bristling with crystals, though these crystals don't yet have the colors they'll attain when the crystalwing is fully grown. They don't particularly like being handled, and many magi avoid it without wearing heavy protective clothing and gloves; the crystals are sharp and can easily cut skin, though spectrum crystalwings are rarely actively aggressive. Spectrum hatchlings can use their crystals to create light and especially enjoy using it to light up dark corners to see what's in them.
Spoiler
An adult spectrum crystalwing is an impressive sight: they're large creatures and the crystals that adorn their bodies turn a rainbow of colors thanks to their diet of gems. They're considered to be the source of actual rainbows by reflecting light through their crystals after a storm. Though they don't actively seek out contact with magi, they are patient when magi do come across them, and have been known to help those they consider to have a good heart. No one has ever found a spectrum crystalwing nest - which legend says only appears at the end of a rainbow - though many magi have tried. Instead those rare eggs hatched by magi are often found outside the home of those who are especially kind and pure.
General:
Spoiler
Crystalwings are rare, shy creatures who often seem to spawn more myths than actual fact. Even for a crystalwing, the spectrum crystalwing is a rare sight, spotted most often just at the tail end of storms high up near the Caves of Nareau. The most unique thing about spectrum crystalwings is their food source and the source of their coloring: they eat the gems shed by other crystalwings. The crystals they shed once a year are hard to find as they're often in the highest reaches of the mountains and often only visible when the light is just right after rain. Little else is known about spectrum crystalwings, though many magi are involved in the research to discover exactly how they digest gems.
Obtained by: Stream, Limited: Floods the stream up to and including May 20th
Sprites: Lazuli
Description: PKGriffin
This heavy egg is covered in brightly glowing gemstones.
Spoiler
Hatchling fluorowing crystalwings are born completely black, an important adaptation in their desolate cave habitat. Few creatures dwell deep in the Caves of Nareau, and because of this most of the deep-dwelling creatures must be able to take whatever comes their way. Juvenile fluorowings even have to be wary of adults of their own kind, as their species is one of the largest in the deep caves and requires more energy than any of the cave-dwelling fish or worms or salamanders. Hatchlings survive by staying out of sight for the first few years of their lives, wandering the water channels of the caves in search of blind cave fish or the occasional animal that washes through the underground river systems of Nareau. They are quite adept swimmers and only every grow in short bursts, when they happen upon a large supply of food. As they grow larger and exploration of the caves' waterways becomes difficult, the fluorowings begin to grow in a new set of teeth that allows them to exploit the bacteria-lined walls in some of the caverns. As their diet shifts, they begin to grow in the bright crystals which mark their maturity.
Spoiler
So little is known about the behaviors of adult fluorowing crystalwings that no one is quite sure what the function of their unusual glowing gemstones must be. These grow in as the crystalwing ages, and are a direct result of their microbe-rich diet as adults. Many magi point to the defensive use of these gemstones in other crystalwings, the hard gems forming a sort of scaly protection from predators, suggesting that once the crystalwings reach a certain size, they must invest in defenses to keep from being eaten by their own kind. Others point out that although adults vary greatly in size, these variations only occur between different tunnel systems -- a single adult will not wander far, and within a single system is only likely to encounter adults of the same size. The current hypothesis for why the gems glow is that they are used in mating displays, as the largest and most well-fed fluorowings usually have the largest and most vibrant crystals. However, why both males and females have these impressive structures remains a mystery.
Spoiler
Fluorowings are cryptic crystalwings thought to be very rare, almost never wandering near the surface. They have only been sighted by magi on rare occasions in the past, and seem to range in size as adults, some never passing the size of a cat, while others are nearly large enough to ride. They live solitary lives in the deepest parts of caves, moving slowly and conserving energy in the times when they can't easily acquire food. Although opportunistic like many cave dwellers, fluorowing crystalwings rely heavily on an unusual food: cave bacteria. They have specialized chisel-shaped teeth for scraping patches of bacteria off of rocks, preferring those with a fluorescent or phosphorescent glow. The components of glowing bacteria augment the crystals growing on their body, giving them an eerie but beautiful glow as adults.
Remy serves a new drink:
Party Paloma, 150gGifting badge:
I am egglocked (was getting these eggs for gifts anyway x3), but I also didn't realize it was already May 10th, so I will get the CWs when I wake up in the morning/sometime in the afternoon. But holy cow seven years 
I can't believe I've been here for that long 
.
and I can't believe I've been here that long, haha Happy 7th Anniversary Magistream 
exciting times, can't wait to see what the new crystalwings look like! 
