Everyone has gathered in one of the library's side rooms and a charged murmur goes around as every magi seems to have their own theory of what is going on. Someone is heard exclaiming they must've broken at least five Keep records with their breeding project whereas someone else is exasperatedly offering anyone who's willing to listen a second-by-second recollection of that one time their Nandi bears produced an albino egg.
Once again silence settles on the crowd as High Archmage Thane steps into the room. Lady Alua follows close behind bearing a basket woven of seaweed filled to the brim with greenish potions.
"Dear friends," Thane says. "It is my great pleasure today to offer the podium to Lady Alua. All of your research help gave her just the data she needed to get to the breakthrough with her latest project." Thane offers his hand to Lady Alua who deposits the basket onto his outstretched arms before stepping up, beaming, to address the eager audience. She gives a look around the room and claps her hands together in excitement.
"My dearest fellow magi! Ever since the elemental magics started flowing more freely again through the Keep grounds, and all around us, I have been noticing small changes throughout our companions. With time and dedication and the help of all your research I came to conclude that certain breeding habits could be harnessed for gathering ingredients for my latest potion innovation!" Lady Alua picks up a small vial filled with something green as well as a smooth stone with crisscrossing lines. "Here we see a Vial of Life as well as a Crossing stone. The Vial of Life I've concluded can sometimes be obtained when creatures attuned to life element breed, regardless of if the breeding is successful or not. Likewise the Crossing Stone can be obtained by breeding creatures that are of different species. When these two are combined together via crafting you will be able to obtain my latest potion: the Breeding Enhancer Potion! This potion will increase the likelihood of your creature pairs producing offspring!
The findings of all the breeding research and especially life magic has also helped us to successfully breed species that have never before been bred in captivity. By applying all this information we are excited to tell you that we have managed to make multiple creatures breedable, who prior to this were unable to produce offspring!" Beaming ever so wider as she speaks, Lady Alua grabs her new potions from the basket Thane is holding and starts handing them around the room and the excited murmur starts to pick up again.
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Competition results:
Thank you all for participating. Reading all your entries was such a delight and we are so happy you all seemed to have such fun with this competition as well! There were so many great papers!
For everyone who submitted a paper, a
participation prize of fifteen Breeding Enhancer Potions has been awarded.
Honorary mentions for dedication, wit, and the joys and exasperations of research go to the following:
An attempt to grow the population of Oaxacan Citellan within the keep. by
@Dunstan
The Limited Breeding Phenomenon: Data Collection and Hypothesizing on Wyrms, Ornamental Penguins, and Arkai by
@faedemon
A Research - Breeding Pumpkins by
@Real
Establishing statistical boundaries for breeding difficulty categories as defined in The Bestiary by
@Kestrad
The Breeding Success Rates of Three Types of Unicorns and the Significance of the Vials of Life by
@Ayakashi
And the
Winning entries chosen to be published in the library, these authors will be rewarded with a pair of Calico Lynx Cabbits.
A Comparison of Wild and Keep Breeding Populations: an Introduction to Colour Variants by
@fierfly567
Leafpiles: Implications of Farir breeding on hybrid color projects and life magic attunement by
@crazyflight
𝖒𝖞 𝖆𝖗𝖙: https://lucard.neocities.org/
