Dragons in the Threshing Day Game: Colors and Tail Types
Every bonding in Dragonkind comes with a result line: a dragon name, a color, a tail type, and a lineage. The colors and tails echo the dragon lore Rebecca Yarros built across the Empyrean novels, so knowing the books helps you read your result — and know when you have landed something rare. Here is what each part of your Threshing Day game result means.
The six dragon colors
Community-reported results in the official game so far include black, blue, brown, orange, red, and green dragons. In the series, color says a lot about a dragon’s standing — and about what choosing you cost it:
| Color | What it means in the Empyrean world |
|---|---|
| Black | The rarest and most powerful dragons in the Empyrean series. Tairn, the dragon who bonds Violet Sorrengail, is a black swordtail — and black dragons are famously selective, taking only riders they consider worth the risk. Landing a black dragon in the game is the result players screenshot most. |
| Blue | Navy-blue dragons are formidable and fiercely loyal to their riders. Sgaeyl, bonded to Xaden Riorson, is a blue daggertail — and as Tairn’s mate, she is the reason Violet and Xaden’s fates are tied together. |
| Brown | Brown dragons are the steady presence of the Riders Quadrant. Codagh, the dragon of General Melgren, is brown — proof that the color carries real power in canon. |
| Orange | Orange dragons appear across the Quadrant in the series and are part of the community-reported results in the game, often paired with bold, aggressive riders in the books. |
| Red | Red dragons are among the colors riders bond in the novels; in the game, red is one of the results players report alongside the more common colors. |
| Green | Green dragons round out the game results. In the novels, green dragons take part in Threshing alongside the other colors and bond riders across every wing. |
The tail types
Reported tails in the game include swordtail, daggertail, clubtail, scorpiontail, and morningstartail. Not every color and tail combination exists — players report that some pairings, like a black morningstartail, do not appear, which matches the books’ implication that each dragon’s build is individual. The tail types in the series:
- Swordtail. The tail of Tairn — long and blade-like. One of the results players report in the game.
- Daggertail. Sgaeyl’s tail type — edged with dagger-like spines that make close combat lethal.
- Clubtail. A heavy, blunted tail built for crushing blows. Part of the reported game results.
- Scorpiontail. A curved, stinging tail. Reported by players in the official game.
- Morningstartail. A spiked tail named after the medieval weapon. Reported in game results.
- Feathertail. Not a game result: feathertails are adolescent dragons in the books — Andarna is one — and they are too young to bond during a normal Threshing.
The dragons of the books
If you are new to the series, three dragons carry most of the story in Fourth Wing and its sequels — and they explain why players care so much about their game result:
- Tairn — a black swordtail, one of the most powerful dragons alive, who takes a chance on the small, fragile Violet Sorrengail during her Threshing. Violet is expected to fail; Tairn chooses her anyway, and the choice reshapes the war.
- Sgaeyl — a blue daggertail bonded to Xaden Riorson, and Tairn’s mate. Because dragons bond for life, their riders are bound together too — a lesson in how seriously the series takes the bond.
- Andarna — the young feathertail who bonds Violet in a way no one expected. Feathertails are adolescents, which makes her bond unprecedented — and her gift, briefly holding time still, saves Violet at a critical moment.
Can you choose your dragon in the game?
No — and that is faithful to the source. In the books, the dragons do the choosing; cadets can only present themselves. The Threshing Day game keeps that rule: your choices in the Vale shape how dragons read you, but there is no confirmed combination that guarantees a specific color or tail. Players who report bonding a black dragon usually bonded early, with few or no burns behind them — but that pattern is anecdote, not mechanics. If you are hunting a rare result, the only honest strategy is to keep stepping into the Vale after every 4:00 cooldown.
From dragon to signet
In the books, the bond is only the beginning: once a dragon channels magic through a rider, the rider’s signet — a unique power — manifests. The official game is teasing its own signet phase, which has not opened yet. Track the countdown on the status page or read our signet guide to see what is coming for bonded riders.