Lunar Herald Dragon

Lunar Herald Dragons were released on August 29, 2015, with their release of all variations spanning across a month. They occur in four color variants, which are determined by the phases of Valkemare's moons, Aurax and Cirion. This is the first dragon to have variations dependent on moon phases. Each Lunar Herald color appears in-cave or through breeding on certain moon phase combinations.

Egg
This metallic egg shows faint iridescence in moonlight.

Hatchling
''Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. When it basks in moonlight, it is surrounded by a faintly glowing aura.''

Mature hatchling
''Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. When it basks in moonlight, it is surrounded by a faintly glowing aura.''

''And look! It has grown wings! It must be close to maturing.''

Adult
''Lunar Heralds are deeply attuned to the two moons of Valkemare, Aurax and Cirion. Strictly nocturnal, they draw energy from moonlight and will only hunt when the moons have waned. When breeding, the amount of moonlight the parents receive from each moon will determine the color of the egg produced. When a Lunar Herald is struck by direct moonlight, an illusion of multiple wings may appear. Witnessing a Lunar Herald’s illusory wings is commonly believed to be a sign of good fortune.''

Sprite artists

 * LadyLyzar (All)

Transparency
Lunar Herald adults are semi-transparent, and will appear slightly different depending on the color of their background.

Retired sprites
Show/Hide Table

Variant determination
The following table demonstrates how Valkemarian moon phases affect Lunar Herald variants. The colors will appear in-cave and during breeding. Dragon Cave's official moon clock can be found on the Time Reference page.

Trivia
"Lunar Heralds are deeply attuned to the two moons of Valkemare, Aurax and Cirion. Strictly nocturnal, they draw energy from moonlight and will only hunt when the moons have waned. When breeding, the amount of moonlight the parents receive from each moon will determine the color of the egg produced."
 * The description of the Lunar heralds was updated a few hours after TJ's dragons grew up. The original description was:
 * After 2 of the 4 colors were released, TJ09 realized that the incorrect moon phases were being displayed on the website. This has since been corrected, and a phase tracking post was given to show the correct moon phases up until that point.
 * LadyLyzar responded to a user on the forums who mentioned that Lunar Heralds would have made great Prize dragons, suggesting that the species were originally designed to be Prize dragons themselves before revealing that this was the intention later on. She also later revealed that they were created around the same time as the Shimmer-scale Dragons.
 * LadyLyzar clarified to users that the name "Indigos" for the blue variant is not an official name and that she did not have an official name for the variant. When they were being made as prize dragons she referred to them as "Gold Lunar, Silver Lunar, Bronze Lunar, and Alt Lunar" dragons.
 * This dragon only has one pair of wings. The other wings are illusory. It was further elaborated on that it is not achieved via an illusion of motion, as per the updated adult description.
 * LadyLyzar commented that the Lunar Heralds' colors happen to have "worked out nicely for the moon phases" of Valkemare's moons, rather than the dragon's or the moon's colors made to suit one or the other.
 * While the description includes the term "metallic", they are not to be considered as part of the same metallic group as Gold or Silver Dragons. Their description is meant to specify that their scales are metallic, a concept that remained with the dragon when it was originally intended to be a prize.
 * During the release, speculation was raised as to what elemental affinity these dragons would have. While it was not yet added to the site officially, LadyLyzar would have put the Lunar Heralds' elemental affinity as Light.