Frankly, there should be more information here on how the Lightbringer Order, as a human institution, functions in society, and what sort of duties and responsibilities they have to the gods and to their believers. How do lay people participate in their faith? What sort of stories are told about the gods, and how much creativity is allowed in them (given that most Lothanasi never see the gods)? What sort of rituals do they have for birth, adulthood, marriage, or death? Why are they so tolerant of magic? Is it an ancient occurrence, or a modern "PR move" against the Ecclesia?

I'll split up "non-canon" into two parts. One for those stories that are explicitly non-canon (think Fox Dragonrite), and one for stories that are of uncertain status (like Stealthcat's 4 stories). And I'll add another color for earlier drafts of stories, I know there was some additional confusion regarding that.

As someone who's read the update notes on the mailing lists… it is complicated. "Background" is non-canon because it made Thomas a gendermorph. "Long Live the King" was an attempted correction to make THAT Thomas be the father of the current Thomas… but after "Malvoisin", it was easier to just make them non-canon.

When the archive was first created by Lovebear, she asked everyone for permission to include their stories. Some authors, from what I can tell, forgot to give permission (i.e. Eric Rossing and Cerulean; Jon Sleeper at first) Some authors did, but later retracted their stories, because they wanted to rewrite them and never did ("Geneses" and "Leonidus"). And some weren't added because, although other people were referring to them in-canon, they weren't technically finished ("Distant Voices", "From the Shadows").

As of now, stories are only canon if the author sends the story to the MK webmaster. I don't know if it's a hard rule to submit it to a mailing list first so that the community can beta-read it, but most people do anyway. I would guess that most authors from 2002 onward forgot to send it in.

I know what you're thinking, Misha. Could we add some of these "noncanon" stories into canon? There's no reason why not, just look at "Reflections" and "Coming Home". There are two hurdles, though:

1) Can the author be contacted to give permission? And will they give permission?
2) Do the stories fit with canon nowadays? I'm… still kinda embarrassed about preemptively adding the second half of "Penance and Retribution" into canon, when it involved a darkling invasion of Metamor that killed many, followed two weeks later by a surge of Hipoccian refugees settling in the valley, both of which went unmentioned for the rest of MK (at least Oren's follow-up stories mentioned the Hipoccians).

I actually was going to write a post to the mailing list, regarding a few noncanon stories I'd read that I feel have merit: the MK Histories by Oren the Otter; Misanthrope" and "Father Figure" by Firemane; "Sunday" by Bill Kieffer; and the 2012 revision of "A Taur's Tail" by Stephen Tigner.

And while we were at it, if someone could reassess the impressively longer stories to see how they fit in canon: "Dead of Winter", "Fire and Ice", "Meeting at Caralore", and "Menace of the Malachites" by Volk-Oboroten; "William and Emily" by ShazerFox; "Two for the Price of One", "The Spotting of a Knight", and "New Lessons to Learn and Old Ones to Teach" by Kamau.

(I did take a cursory glance at "Menace of the Malachites", and it seems it might conflict with "Llyn's Tribulations" regarding Lik. Just throwing that out there.)

It's complicated, and usually writers will adjust their stories to fit within what has already been accepted as canonical.

Because I'm afraid of coming off as presumptuous, I've kept every word of both articles, and added missing bits of info that I've gathered from various discussions and stories I've seen. However, I have no real idea of how accepted these ideas are, so I've put all my additions in underline. If nobody has any objections, I'll remove them in a week. Eventually, I'd like to clean up some of the old text as well and polish the whole article. But I'd like to hear if anyone has any comments or critiques.

Rickkter being one - actually, following WA he would essentially be an Adept Master though he would not have anyone to administer such a test of skill to establish his rank.

Other than Morigund, there are no mages of sufficient rank to administer any tests of advancement until the local guild has Adept Grand Masters of its own.

Murikeer is another, and as the Duke's counsel for all things Magic would be de-facto liaison between the throne and any guild of magic users. Rickkter elevated him to Master rank in the autumn of 706. He refuses to be a member of any guild directly, nor confined by their bylaws. He would not attempt to control any guild or define how it functions, insofar as it does not impede or threaten the people of Metamor, its leadership, or attempt to manipulate any market in magical items for their own benefit at the detriment of trade.

In short, mage guilds would have deal with him rather than the Duke.

By 710 Kozaithy will be a Master in her own right, guildless as well.

Neither of them would establish their own guild, however, though would establish a school which would train guild members along with those without guilds. As Malger is the school's patron costs of training would be manageable - supplemented with trade in items finished during training (minor enchanted items).

Are apprentices and journeymen admitted as guild members or are they just there under their masters' memberships?

If this is not okay I/you can take them down and I will change it in the story to omit them. Sorry, I got really excited about these critters, I should have asked before editing the site.

I agree with what you said for the most part about elder dragons. True, from birth dragons I think would have less desire to enter into this type of relationship while younger ones would do so more freely until they had experienced the loss of some they became close to. Still I think a few would continue to enter into the relationship either out of desire for a diversion from their normal lives or out of desire to comfort/care for a weaker creature.

The question of relationship and friendship will be something I hope to develop with Tychichus as I put some more depth into his character. For that matter it will also have to enter into Rorlyn's character as well due to gryphons having a longer life span than human, though shorter than dragons.

This is something that certainly can lend itself to some great development and interplay within the MK universe.

An old dragon proverb: "Dalliances with humans end in tragedies for dragons."

So I suspect the Keeper dragons will for a generation or two be viewed as having the maturity of a young dragon at best even if they appear much older. After a few generations and they've started to grasp the consequence of a dragon's life, those that turn to the dragons for guidance will be welcomed and taught. Some may hold out longer, but I imagine that all of them eventually will end up living as do other dragons once all that they knew and loved as humans has passed.

Dominus tecum

But one thought is I'm sure that natural dragons would recognize a Keeper dragon right away.