With Dragonflight’s renewed focus on dragons, some World of Warcraft fans are discussing why Azerothian dragons have eggs covered in spikes. Though official information from World of Warcraft is somewhat sparse, many players have come up with some sound logic as to the nature of the barbed eggs.
The discussion all started with a post by Thirteenera on the World of Warcraft Reddit. They first posited the question regarding the spike-covered dragon eggs, citing they might cause problems during the laying process.
Within hours of the question’s posting, over a hundred comments flooded the post. While some players offered jokes about breakfast or other, more crass topics, others immediately went about discussing the logistics of the eggs. Some players suggested the eggs were laid with the spikes facing inward so as not to harm the mother, while others suggested the spikes were soft until they hardened later. In most cases, players agreed the spikes existed to fend off predators who might want to steal or eat the eggs, like those encountered in the Waking Shores in Dragonflight.
Redditor and World of Warcraft fan Meltedskull, however, went even deeper with their explanation. They combed through Day of the Dragon–a World of Warcraft novel written by Richard A. Knaak in 2001–and found a passage that confirmed the truth: dragon eggs are smooth when they are first laid, only later growing scales and spikes as they grow closer to their hatching.
“...eggs in some stage of development, from smoother, nearly round ones to others even more scaled than the first, eggs clearly near to hatching.”
Of course, Day of the Dragon is hardly contemporary Warcraft lore. The book is over two decades old, predating the launch of both Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft. That said, World of Warcraft has not offered other answers on the spikiness of dragon eggs since then, so players can safely assume Knaak’s logical explanation is canon until proven otherwise.
With World of Warcraft: Dragonflight bringing dragons back to the center of attention, players are more curious about the winged leviathans now than ever. Fans of the five dragonflights have tons of opportunities to learn ancient lore of the dragons in Dragonflight and can help the Aspects regain their power and defeat the Primalists who threaten Azeroth. Though World of Warcraft has a long way to go before it earns back the good faith it lost due to unpopular expansions and drama within Blizzard, threads like Thirteenera’s are proof that Dragonflight is a strong first step. If World of Warcraft can keep up its momentum, perhaps similar lore speculation threads will become more common as more players flock back to the long-running MMORPG.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is now available for PC.