Dragonhowl

[Prompt: A seat of power (of any kind!)]
The most obvious seat of skitter power is the Crown, but rn I think it's just a bog-standard total-power monarchy deal. Not lots to say on it at until I start populating the role with specific stories & characters I care about.
More interesting is more of an ambassadorial role: Dragonhowl. A dragonhowl is a skitter whose job is to create, maintain, and improve relationships with the dragons a few islands down. As the colonies grow to value scientific inquiry and knowledge gathering, the dragonhowls' duties will expand to include learning & recording everything they can about dragons.
Let's start with the name. "Dragonhowl" began as a verb to indicate the strange, melodious ways dragons communicate with each other, and by extension, the skitters. Humans would call this communication "singing." But skitters have no great conception of music for much of their history, so they pull up the nearest analogue available. Skitters *do* howl at the moons, and to communicate with each other at distance. The purpose is different with dragons, but it was close enough to stick.
(Maintaining the "song" theme, dragons call the skitters who come play with them "sirens.")
The role of dragonhowl is ever-shifting in skitter world. Sometimes there is only one; sometimes there are over a dozen. Some skitters bring an entourage of assistants or soldiers with them, while others prefer to act alone, or in twos and threes. The goals of the position also change, depending on the relationship with the dragons. But all dragonhowls share one common value and purpose: protect and enrich the colonies, by all means available. In war and peace, this is their consistent priority.
As dragonhowls interact closely with... dragons... they naturally have access to a massive well of natural power. This translates easily to political power, and so every dragonhowl that wishes it is very influential in the courts. They are frequently in attendance in war rooms and all matters of international policy. Many dragonhowls also involve themselves in internal affairs. They have a close, usually-mutualistic relationship with The Oakspines, encouraging them to build, plan, develop! Several dragonhowls have influenced or personally diverted significant resources toward these efforts. Though they are functionally talkers and relationship-makers, dragonhowls have come to be seen colloquially as idea people, conferring high status upon them for it.
Naturally, such an illustrious position will have great demand. But dragonhowls are almost exclusively appointed by royalty on a basis of usefulness, so there is little (effective) jockeying for power.
In order to be a likely candidate for dragonhowl, a skitter must meet the following criteria:

Be closely related to a member of royalty or high nobility

Unlike truly royal positions, horns don't matter as much for dragonhowls. They can even be seen as detrimental, for reasons I'll get to in a bit.

Have significant aquatic ability, almost always bolstered by an aquatic build, swimming limbs, and/or cetatious lung capacity.

Demonstrate early aptitude and inclination toward an amphibious ad loosely-attached lifestyle.

Conduct oneself in a way appropriate for a representative of the Divine Nation.

In short, have aquatic adaptations. And nepotism.
Why the aquatic adaptations? Well, they live on islands. And, until the Oakspines complete a bridge to the dragons' islands (one of their history's longer projects), the only ways to get between islands are swimming and flying. Flying skitters can and have been dragonhowls, but the royals just found them too indispensable to send away from home. As "Fish" hadn't yet been assigned a fabulously exploitative economic niche at the time of need, dragonhowl pretty much became an aquatic approach. Taking the submarine approach, I see. This will be quite dramatic come war.
(And there will be war. Given time, skitters will instigate some kind of conflict with nearly every people species they touch.)
During any conflict skitters have with islander dragons, the meaning of "power" for dragonhowls will change vastly, and grow dramatically. The challenge, then, is learning to translate soft power into hard. Like a non-Newtonian fluid.