Empirial Nests

"The huge rocky homes of Empirial dragons - known as nests - are quite literally made from mountains".

A New Nest

A new nest can be the result of one of 2 things - when a newly mated centre pair are looking for a home, or when an old pair move out due to outgrowing the original nest, or if a catastrophic event such as a cave in forces them to leave. It is rare to see centres moving around outside of a nest, and quite a spectacle to watch such huge creatures fly, followed by hundreds of Emperials .
Once a new nest site has been chosen - normally far away from any other nests - the centres will bore the largest tunnel into the side of the chosen mountain/s and construct a large hole in the middle. Unless to move nests, they will stay here permanently.

The largest and fastest empirials will reach the new nest first, and get access to the parts of the mountain closest to the centres. They will slowly remove more rock to create the largest tunnels, which will become the main routes around the hive for other empirials. Each arriving dragon will try to find space to create their own cavernous home, which will also be the home of their mate and hatchlings. The closer to the central pair a personal cave is, the more heat will be available, and so these parts are most popular and usually only inhabited by the largest empirials - usually also the oldest. It is a long process of excavating rock and burrowing new tunnels as more and more empirials arrive at the new nest site. This is a chance for those with lower standings to gain space of their own, -it's kind of like black Friday for dragons.

Layout

basic structure

with such an odd process for the creation of nests, there is no set layout, however certain areas always pop-up. As the first and largest empirials create the largest tunnels that go straight from the outside to the middle of the mountain, these become major highways for smaller dragons to build off of. This pattern continues with passages gradually getting smaller. How exactly they prevent a cave in from happening right off the bat is unknown, but they seem to have an innate ability to excavate stable structures with dome like tops and pillars of all sizes that act as foundations in the more unstable areas.

Social Floors

As years go by, some personal caves will be connected, and this will eventually make social areas apart from the main highways. These end up being the homes of the smallest and least able dragons, as well as a meeting place for friends. Such 'social floors' influence how much of a community bond is felt within the nest, and has been the gateway for the social structures of the empirials. They were also the birth place of painting, and the first communications between sylphs and empirials.

Farms

Though perhaps not quite the right word, all nests have been found to be above huge mushroom caverns that lie well below the mountains. These are likely how centres pick out a suitable nest, as they provide magic energy that both centres and empirials can absorb directly. Though a most unique way to keep the body nourished, as long as the empirial does not use up to much energy, they can continue to rest and slowly grow through this method. Much later, after nests have learned to communicate, a much wider may of farming will be developed where empirials tend the mushrooms to increase the energy produced and prevent the need for hunting and generally destroying the surrounding ecosystem.

population

up to 300 empirials have been recorded in a single nest

Alternative Names

Hives

Centres

Within the deepest and largest cavern of the mountain, a pair of mated 'centres' will live in every nest. They provide heat that is essential to the survival of the nests in particularly chilly mountainous regions, and will give birth to a new centre once every 100 years. Although the empirials will claim that their own royal lines are all descendants from these centres, it is rather doubtful that they are even the same species- given the immense difference in size. A centre could take up to a 3rd of all the space within the mountain, and weigh enough to slowly deepen the cavern by gravity alone. Empirials always flock to centres to create a natural colony, and most will follow just one or two for their entire lives.