hey ! Ho! easy..calm down..take a breath...
let see..
- each breeder must make contact with some entity called Mother Dragon
- if mother dragon accept the breeder, he/she will gained some mark on the body
- the mark grow and unique pattern shown your dragon progress and power
- as the dragon ready, it'll born to the world through the mark
- possibility for the dragon to die before birth also present like normal pregnancy
- Most dragon have serpent or lizard like appearance but Eiko is special case
- Ash mark is extra ordinary wide, almost cover his entire left hand
- Ash 'pregnancy'
also extra ordinary long, like what happened if you cook lot's of food in one go
- Eiko human like appearance is temporary, since we see her in the cover with her own dragon body
probably because Ash 'pregnancy' of Eiko took longer than usual, much dragon take a sympathy, thus make them ride-able for Ash, or may be Mother Dragon designated Ash to be like that and bestowed him with Eiko
(I suspect Eiko to be Mother Dragon too or it's successor)
Ash still newbie in combat, but in term of special power, he's extraordinary, if in combat he meet stronger dragon, he'll just kick the rider off and ride it himself
Breeder is the standard title..but Arch Dragonar..much like Arch-Mage..is high class level..like Sage or Guru.
Paladin..it's tied to allegiance of one Breeder to some kingdom or royalty or honor/praise for his/her ability
Veronica is not chosen by Mother Dragon may be because some trait in her that not need such aid or unfit for dragon host
and due to the rejection, she designated her self to be more badass than the one bestowed upon, by become researcher with the desire to research (dissect) unique dragon or/and it host
to find out why Mother Dragon reject her