Nidus Descendi is a dragon adoption website. You can submit written stories in exchange for dragon images and hatching stories. It's a part of a larger ring of writing and art-sharing called The Nexus (Discord community), where dragon breeding is the name of the game. To take part, you need somewhere to keep your stories and images. You can use a website, google docs, or even a forum. The only caveat is that your URL needs to be accessible.

You can build on your character's story, and even create a whole new world where your dragons can live! Check the Rules to start, and see what's available on the Hatching Sands for your character to bond.

The Nidus

Nidus Descendi is built into a sprawling cave system within a rough-hewn young mountain range. From its lowest valley to highest peaks, Nidus Descendi's territory covers a temperate to alpine range of temperatures and ecological zones. Its summers are mild, but its winters are harsh. Most of the Nidus is carved into the mountains, but a few buildings have been erected in the valley at the foot of the main mass of cavelets (also called niduli) where dragons come home to roost.

Nidus Descendi is not alone on the continent: between it and the distant Nidus Lacus is a festering pit of evil and inequity, Arx Infusco. These thieves and warmongerers cause the dragons of Nidus Descendi to take their patrols very seriously. Arx beasts often probe at the edges of Descendi's territory, and many have powers that they use to harm and even kidnap innocent stakeholders. The patrol wings of Nidus Descendi (flights of five to twenty dragons trained to work together) protect those who choose to live away from the main mountain home by harrying enemies back to the Arx. Some of the Nidus' wings go so far as to hunt Beasts, to destroy any that cross their border. In doing so, they participate in an alliance with all the other Niduses on the continent, though some of these alliances are more strained than others. It takes all the power of the Niduses United to contain some of the especially powerful Arx beasts, but in containing the Arx, dragons of the Niduses allow their weaker, two-footed friends to survive the already harsh wilderness to eke out their own homes.

Nidus Descendi's population of dragons skews sharply towards "Old Blood". These dragons come from a variety of places, from Weyrs to Cathairs to other, similar Dragonries. They naturally fall into a colour-based caste system, usually with huge, golden Queens ruling the roost and bronzed males taking leadership of the wings. Smaller colours: brown, blue and green usually, bulk out the wings, fly errands, and search for humans to bond young dragonets. Many but not all of the Nidus' residents come in human-dragon bonded pairs, and most life at the Nidus revolves around supporting individual bonds as well as bonds within a wing, and on the larger scheme, bonds between Nidus and outlying towns of innocents.

1. Prism Falls. A huge waterfall cascades down the side of the Nidus' main mountain, called Prism Falls for the way the water thundering to the foot of the mountain casts its incandescent, misty rainbows. Near the small lake carved by the falls is the main human (and humanoid) settlement. This town (Also called Prism Falls) bears a striking resemblence to ancient settler villages of Old Earth, where cabins of granite and logs are set along winding paths in the valley. A main hall and central square are large enough for dragons to congregate, but most things here are sized for humans.

2. Deer Brush Valley. Herding beasts are scattered throughout the valley below the Nidus, stocked from nearby ranches. Deer, cattle, and alien equivalents are allowed to free-roam in this space, but ultimately this is the source of food for most of the dragons at the Nidus. Industry is present here, too: there are discreetly built tanneries, farms, and cottage-crafts holds that make their living off of the beasts that are released into the valley, and most do trade with dragons who enjoy collecting trinkets and precious objects that are raised off the land.

3. The Diasil. Up the side of the mountain about forty feet from Prism Falls is a huge, flat surface that was cleared in the early days as a landing pad for dragons. The copse of trees cleared from this location was oddly spindly, and seemed to grow (when viewed from above) in the form of a large spiral. When the land was cleared, the reason became clear. "Diasil" is the nickname given the absolutely enormous fossil of some kind of prehistoric ammonite. Easily over one hundred feet in diameter, the dragons loved the discovery and proceeded to polish it up to a shine. Since then, further fossils have been carved out of the mountain, and are put on display around the edges of the Diasil as an impromptu museum.

4. The Sands. The main cavern of Nidus Descendi opens up beyond a short but massive tunnel descending from the Diasil into a cultivated cavern. Though it is easily accessible by wing, stairs and railings have been laboriously carved out of the rock for those who are flightless. An impressive amount of engineering has gone into the Sands to keep it warm, dry, middling-bright, and otherwise ambiently comfortable. This huge space can accomodate one large Queen-sized dragon, two-to-three medium-ranked clutchers, or five-to-seven small clutchers at one time, though rarely is it fully in use. Most of the floor is coated in a fine grey sand that is combed over daily when not in use by clutching mothers. A walk-way lined with arid shrubs circumvents the edges of the hatching sands, and stadium seating is carved around the edges of this cavern.

   Several tunnels branch from this space, most notably those to the Novos' barracks, the Archives, the Queens' niduluses, and the Basin. Other, smaller tunnels branching from this area lead to smaller cave pockets, some of which have been claimed for living, and some of which descend into the mountain beyond further exploration. The latter are marked off as dangerous.

5. The Archives. Nidus Descendi was forged by a community of refugees, many of whom escaped from a Nexus space station that fell to disaster. Though the Nidus' level of technology is a hodgepodge of neolithic, magical, and cutting-edge, there are many of thoes who wish to preserve what they could of their home, Star City. Anything that could be cobbled together has been brought here for preservation and restoration, and the Archives have become a place of learning and sharing for refugees who fled to other locations. It is sized for dragons of large stature (given that those from Star City were naturally quite huge), and broken into a main cavern for discussion, reading, and working, as well as several smaller caves equipped to store various books, electronics, and cyborware-capable technologies.

   The Archives also, by its nature, contains an element of healthcare: many residents from Star City originally had technology implanted into their body that requires maintenance, and those who are familiar with that trade can be found in this location.

6. The Basin. Not all of the water from the mountain crashes down Prism Falls. An internal series of waterways has carved through Nidus Descendi into a cave sea known colloquially as The Basin. This water is naturally warm, a little sulphurous, and has sprouted several superstitious stories already. It reaches deeper than anyone has yet been able to swim, and even those with light spells aren't able to see further than forty feet in any direction. There is one sandy shore near the entrance of the tunnel that rises to the rest of the Nidus, but the rest of the Basin's walls drop sheer into the water.