Silver Dragons - Lords of the Frigid North

Saynleh's Power Incarnate

The Silver Dragon. Mystical, Magical, Fearsome.
There is little in the world that approaches the beauty and power of Saynleh and his children, the silver dragons. All full blooded silver dragons are magnificent and beautiful creatures, given to extreme stregnth, undying faithfulness, battle ferocity, insatiable curiosity, insightful intelligence and an arrogant pride that knows no bounds. Dragons embody an unrelenting persistence and passion for excellence and superiority. They bow to none, even their father Saynleh, an ancient Voice and a god of the gods.
Little wonder their likeness has been stolen by sentients as the symbol of royalty and power for thousands of years.

Dwelling In Seats of Power

by Terry Cassis using Imagine AI

Silver dragons have mostly migrated from their original homes on the Chromatic Continent to the bitter cold of the frozen Northern Wastes, a habitat that suits their temperament and allows this solitary creature to thrive in spite of it's highly territorial and aggressive nature.
Silver dragons can live thousands of years - they have no natural predators, but typically they will live half of that, given their highly aggressive nature which leads them into conflict frequently. They become sexually mature at the age of fifty and cease having young between six and seven hundred. Young males will seek out an appropropriate area, wrest it from it's current holder if they must and are able, and look to attract a female to mate with.
Silver dragons love to lair in castles and other buildings that were once inhabited. They have been known to clear out a human habitations in warmer populated areas so they can move in, but more typically, given their decided preference for the cold, silver dragons will lair in buildings that were overcome during the Cataclysm. These old human habitats provide a plentiful supply of frozen food for their young, are roomy yet defensible, and typically come equipped with a strongroom where the long dead humans have provided a start for the dragon's hoard.
Male silver dragons are larger than females and highly aggressive. If allowed to stay in the lair of his female he will inevitably grow jealous for the female's attention and savage their young, yet dragons appear to be pair bonded as they will mate only with each other while they both live. Typically females will choose a male who offers her an abandoned city to lair in so that her chosen male will have the comfort of a lair of his own and be able to provide a diligent watch for threats to the female and their young.

Mating and Reproduction

by Terry Cassis using Imagine AI

A female lays her eggs in an inner room in her lair and will guard and protect her nest assisted by the male who defends the broader reaches of their territory. The eggs take 4 years to hatch, and the female typically lays only one at a time, but may lay as many as three. When more than one egg is laid, it is certain that only one of each gender will survive to adulthood as the young are highly aggressive towards their same sex siblings and one will eventually kill the other. In these cases, it is not uncommon for both young to die in the inevitable combat.
Young hatchlings are somewhat self sufficient within six months after birth, but are kept in the lair by the mother who teaches them survival skills. Young dragons learn to hunt quickly, and have a voracious appetite which they will sate with live prey or frozen flesh, a resource that is in plentiful supply in the Northern Wastes. The young remain with their mother for a full 6 years at which time she will drive them from her nesting grounds. The young are allowed to remain in the broader territorial area of their parents, loosely protected by the male and tolerated by both parents, until they reach sexual maturity, at which time the male will drive them out of his territory.
After she has driven her young from her lair, the breeding female will experience a resting period, typically ten years, and then enter a fertile period and breed with her male again. Interestingly, should either the male or female of a mated pair die, the other will complete raising the current young before seeking another mate, presumably because a new mate will kill the young of the old one to make way for a nest of their own.

The Spectrum of Silver

The color of a dragon is not fixed at birth, yet it plays a clear role in their development and the strengths they manifest as individuals. This differentiation and specialization comes as a result of their hoards of precious metals which they eat. Both females and males collect hoards and consume them, but males hoards are typically filled with gemstones rather than precious metals, and are much less rich than those acquired by females. The male is larger and has a more frequent need to eat the metals in his hoard to thicken and replace his scales which protect him in battle. Some dragons will prefer to consume gemstones rather than metal and their lairs are typically filled with precious metal rather than gemstones.
The color of a silver dragon varies widely, and is actually largely dependent on the color of the metals or gems they have consumed, silver being the most widely available metal, but not the only one. Some silver dragons are gold (in it's many shades), or even black as they have developed an appetite for plentiful iron. Dragons who consume iron have difficulty flying as their wingspan to body mass ratio is imbalanced for flight. While they can fly, they prefer to stay land bound, but they are incredibly strong and well protected by their iron scales. Gemstone dragons who are readily identifiable by their brilliiant colors and shine are excellent flyers and can be counted on to conduct most of their battles from a position of air superiority. They are also resistent to some types of magical and physical damage including lightning. All dragons, regardless of color, will immediately consume any steel they happen across as it provides superior stregnth and protection, and if that steel is magical (a sword for example), they consume it even more eagerly. Very old dragons have usually consumed a wide variety of different metals and gems and can be extremely difficult if not impossible to defeat.
There is only a loose association at best between the color of a dragon and it's breath weapon as this is predominantly a magical effect and a matter of the dragon's personal preference. Dragons have very large magei systems and are capable of multiple uses of their breath weapon.