ALRIGHT SO excellent questions everyone. 

on the subject of the character sheet: yeah, it's probably a little long...i'm considering scrapping the talents/flaws section, or at least just the flaws section. i trust yall to run realistically flawed characters without writing it out piece by piece. (and you're welcome for the formatting—that's always the most tedious part of writing a CS imo)

[@Gisk]: i have actually thought about the central ruling body, just didn't put it on the first post because we're pretty much immediately leaving caerel. i'll be adding this blurb to the 'on draketooth mountain' section:

[i]Caerel's general government is a little different than the dragonrider's. The hereditary title of Lord/Lady belongs to whoever is in charge of each fief, and there are about fifty fiefs of varying size across Caerel. The Lords loosely convene four times a year—attendance isn't mandatory but highly recommended, so some of the outlying fiefs do not make an appearance. The Lords themselves elect three Barons to settle disputes and lead meetings, and there is at least one in attendance at every meeting. However, the annual spring meeting of all Lords and all three Barons, plus the dragonrider General, is mandatory, to discuss matters most important to the future of Caerel.[/i]

hopefully that clears stuff up? so there's not exactly a knighthood, persay, but lords/ladies might gift land to certain people in exchange for their service/vassalship.

as far as what dragonriders [i]do,[/i] that's one of the things that has grown somewhat murky over time. when there was still regular contact between the islands, caerel was known as one of the most fertile and productive—the dragons protected the island from invaders time and time again and often made long journeys across the water with a speed only dragons can achieve. these days, they're an important part of the economy—heavy lifting, transport, deep sea fishing, things like that. the dragons don't mind, but some of the riders chafe at the 'common work.' mostly, the island supports the dragons because it's how it's always been done, but you have a point—after a century or so of isolation, some people are questioning why they should have to give a significant portion of their product over to dragonriders.

and now on to characters:

[@Archmage MC]: magnus looks pretty dang cool! i hadn't considered making alchemy a big part of the rp, but it's a very interesting concept. as far as bonding with a young dragon, i'd prefer her to be as close to a hatchling as possible, but if you go with a deep sea habitat for your custom breed it would make sense that not every female dragon is monitored. once the details for the custom breed are ironed out, go ahead and move him over to the character tab.

[@Guilty Spark]: maria looks like a [i]total badass.[/i] cool history, too! she's set for the character tab.

[@RedDusk]: apples and cheese are indeed fantastic together. for a second when you mentioned a nest high up in the vines, i thought we were about to see a flitwit, but the image of a starscale swooping in out of nowhere in the middle of the night with his rider raining death from above is, admittedly, awesome. kaisen seems well fleshed out—off to the character tab!

if anyone has any more questions, feel free to ask—the more worldbuilding now, the less confusion later!