Dragon

Dragons are a non-humanoid species of sapient creatures native to Craedock. Unlike the humanoid races, dragons were not created directly by Hartzonell, but rather by Juxinkarr (in the case of good dragons) and Venixamus (in the case of evil dragons). They live in isolation, unconcerned with the affairs of humanoids. They are long lived, and may very well live over a thousand years, although even Craedock's best scholars are shy to estimate their true lifespan.
Dragons are either metallic (gold, bronze, silver, etc.) created by Juxinkarr and good aligned, or chromatic (red, black, blue, etc.) and created by Venixamus and evil aligned.

Basic Information

Dietary Needs and Habits

Dragons are cold blooded, requiring very little food or water to manage survival. They will often hibernate for years at a time, completely out of tune with the seasons. These periods can last decades, and make it incredibly difficult for a single scholar to study their habits. Some do speculate that their hibernation cycles are in tune with astronomic events, such as the passing of a comet or the alignment of Craedock's sister planets. In folklore, such omens are used to signal the possible return or invasion of a dragon. To do this, dragons will raid the landscape for an approximately 2 to 5 year long period of intense feeding. Evil dragons take whatever they please, good dragons will make an attempt not to harm other sapient species. Often such raids make the stuff of legend in mortal folklore.
More physically active dragons, though, require more energy than their physiology will support to move about the world and go about their plans. They are sapient and intelligent, building upon years of worldly knowledge, and have been observed to congregate in social gatherings, although the mortal races have never observed them directly. They also study magic, having learned from humanoids long ago since the Enlightenment of Vithimiris and since then surpassing most humanoids' ability for spellcasting. Some folklore states that the dragons now learn magic from Vytali herself. Regardless, it is known that occasionally, more-so with the metallic dragons, they will shapeshift into a humanoid form and live amongst them in their societies, out of curiosity, to learn magic or history, and also out of convenience: the smaller, mammalian forms are far easier to maintain in terms of food and water.
To perform these activities or to avoid the need for hibernation they have the natural ability to feed of the residual magical energy in their environments in a process known as Arcanosynthesis. Dragons might make their lairs in naturally magical environments, such as enchanted forests, mystic islands, or ley lines; or places where magic is congregated, such as libraries or temples (often abandoned). Aditionally, dragons will hoard magic items or artifacts, making their lairs in caves, mines, or dungeons, along with troves of treasure. Arcanosynthesis does not reduce the magical energy of its source, and so dragons can simply hoard a few items and live off this energy with ease. More ambitious dragons though will hoard more, thus gaining more energy and expanding their abilities magical and mundane.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Dragons are typically solitary creatures, but have social cognitive abilities. They live, hunt, and hibernate alone, but might shapeshift into a humanoid form and integrate themselves for decades at a time into humanoid societies, for the sake of curiosity or for ease of survival.
Dragons rarely mate for life, but do sometimes take a mate for decades or centuries at a time. Evil, chromatic dragons tend to mate for shorter periods of time, while good, metallic dragons will mate longer. They have been known to mate in pairs, or also in polygamous groups, seemingly at personal preference but some trends have been noted amongst different colors of dragons. Similarly, some dragons protect their eggs until they are hatched, or even protect their young, while others lay the egg in a protected area and leave, seemingly at personal preference: metallic dragons being more likely of the former and vice versa.
Another rare occurrence is known to scholars in which dragons congregate, an event known as a "conflagration", a play on words involving some dragons' fire breathing capabilities, although these meetings are held in secret and are not known to be destructive in any way. Often occurring in lands inaccessible to landbound mortal races, such as high mountaintops or untraversable islands, nothing is known about why dragons do this. Some speculate it is a type of mating season, but many scholars are skeptical of this as most colors of dragon have already been shown to mate in pairs or small groups as discussed above. Others think the conflagrations are simply social gatherings and give the long lived dragons a chance to socialize and exchange knowledge or treasure. In any case, they are so rare and protected, they cannot as of yet be studied sufficiently.
A group of dragons travelling or flying together is known as a "conquest".

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Scale Scarabs are a parasitic beetle that mimics the appearance of a dragon's scale. They will dig between the dragon's scales and plant their heads into their skin, their bodies laying flat on the scales, blending in as a scale. Here the scarab will suck the dragon's blood using a long proboscis. Once satiated, the beetle will detach and fly away and nest nearby. Any given dragon might have a handful of scarabs on it at any time which go unnoticed: they are too small to cause pain. Over time they might nest and cause an infestation, and several scarabs attached at one can cause the dragon irritation. They can very rarely be found in the wild, and as they are drinkers of dragon blood, are believed to contain magical properties and have been used as spell components.

Lifespan

Unknown, potentially over 1000 years

© Dylan Eugene Wheeler 2018
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