We have another dragon for Christmas, '09. the "common" name has not yet been set.
The so-called "Holiday" dragon is a mostly silvery-white creation with gold wings, red-striped green horns, green stockings on all four legs,red and green striping on the tail and upper legs, a green tail tip and bells on the feathery wings and at the end of the tail.
They are all Female dragons. Unknown if they can breed at this time.
An example is visible here: http://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?showtopic=77056
The egg is shiny gold with curving diagonal red and green stripes on the lower half of the egg, rising from left to right.
Hatchlings: The first-stage hatchling sprite is almost all white and looks like a ferret, IMHO; the second-stage has white wings and resembles a cat ready to pounce. The hatchlings show the colorpoints of the adult, but the gold wings and bells are found only on the adult sprite.
Many common names have been suggested. The best one so far, "Seraphim" ("Seraph"), has been objected to by some because of religious connotations and/or "wrong gender" (the latter is actually not a concern at all for a seraph/seraphim have no gender).
Others are just plain, IMHO, silly.
Looks like this one will be named and re-named for a long time.
The name has been revealed. The Spriters have said this is the "Snow Angel" dragon.
Also: What looks like bells (or ribbons) at first is actually tiny wings.
There is also a report of a user getting a Snow Angel with gold-and-white striped wings with the "extra" wings all white. If this is the case, this is the first Holiday dragon with an Alt form on record. An Alt which is not apparent at the egg or hatchling stage but only at maturity.
This may really explain why TJ dropped almost nothing but '09 Holiday eggs (with the exception of bred Holiday eggs from previous years) for eleven straight hours on the last day. Dropping so many eggs with a lot of Holiday eggs already out there at the time would seem to make this Holiday dragon much too "common" for an event dragon.
That is, unless there is an Alt form that is not known to be an Alt until the dragon is an Adult (and no longer giftable or tradeable).
Clever…
There is even more about this three-form dragon (or two-alt and normal):
There are three variants (staff insists on that term and not "Alt"):
1.) All gold wings;
2.) Mostly white main wings with gold striping, mostly mid-wing and the tip, with the "extra" small wings all white;
3.) Tri-colored main wings. The base color is gold (and the small wings are all-gold), with red and green stripes and green feather tips on the outside of the wing. {I got this variant.}
TJ set up the coding so that the code tied to the individual scroll determined which variant one got when the "Angels" matured. In any case, both were the same for the same user.
There were also reports of some users experiencing getting the variant they got changed after the fact, normally to one they did NOT want. If this did happen? It appears that these users MAY have been among the ones that were not satisfied and complained a lot over a GIFT on the boards and repeatedly so and only them.
If it did occur? Some thoughts:
a.) TJ may have done this as a "punishment" for the ungrateful.
b.) Or, might it really have been a correction to badly-executed coding which was corrected?? (This may well be the real explanation.)
The result if it was (b)? All that happened was these users got what they were supposed to get after all. I suspect that the latter situation was the correct one (IF the event occurred at all).
Not that it would make most people cry if the only "victims" were this group of kvetchers: Only a small percentage of players are regular posters to the Forum. A tiny fraction of those are known whiners who complain about EVERYTHING; this group seems to have been the vocal ones who deserved to be taken down a few pegs, IMHO.
Intentionally or not.
More information, this time to do with breeding:
It has been reported that one of these "Snow Angels" bred with a Magma (Legendary Trio) on 1/12/'10 on the Trio spreadsheet. The reported result was TWO eggs, one trio and one "Angel". If this entry is not another spurious outright lie (it's suspicious at this time)? Then we have a VERY unusual situation:
1.) A Rare successfully breeding with a Rare (Trio and Snow Angel). No other Christmas dragon has done that…or ANY Rare, as a matter of fact;
and
2.) A Christmas dragon has actually produced one of its own kind AFTER the Holiday breeding period.
I will attempt to do the same once my Snow Angels come back into season (they are not ready to breed on this date) and report what happens.
