Dragons

"The pinnacle of non-divine life, dragons are more akin to forces of nature than simple monsters. Capable of harnessing elemental magic depending on their variant, and intelligent enough to learn arcane magic, very few mortals can get the best of a dragon in single combat. Fortunately, I am one of these few." ~Church Paratir, Grand Archivist of the Authenian Archives.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Dragons are large, winged reptiles. They have four legs, a tail, two massive, scaly, bat-like wings and often have horns on their head. They can grow to phenomenal sizes, dwarfing most mortal dwellings. The tails on dragons are almost as long as the rest of their body, and typically end in a point. These tails are strong and heavy, which dragons use as a counterbalance whilst flying, or as a mace in combat. Dragons' feet end in claws, capable of carving stone and steel with relative ease. Dragons have long necks, covered in scales and spikes.

Biological Traits

All dragons have a breath attack of some sort.
White and Silver Dragons both have a frost breath, capable of freezing their enemies solid.
Bronze and Blue Dragons can exhale beams of electrical energy at their foes.
Black and Copper Dragons have an acidic breath, which they can use to corrode their enemies.
Steel and Green Dragons can both exhale a poisonous gas at high speeds, which is fatal to most creatures.
Red and Gold Dragons can breath fire, capable of causing massive infernos and disintegrating their opponents.
Brass Dragons can breath a sleeping gas, allowing them to subdue potential threats in a nonlethal manner.

Ecology and Habitats

White Dragons live in cold environments, often making lairs in frozen caves and icy caverns.
Black Dragons like to make their homes in swamps and marshes.
Green Dragons live in forested areas, often forming large underground lairs and stalking the forests they claim ownership of.
Blue Dragons live in deserts, often creating lairs in canyons and caverns in order to hide their treasure.
Red Dragons like to live in mountainous regions, and are particularly fond of areas with volcanic activity. They create large underground lairs for their treasure, and so that they can slumber in peace.
Steel Dragons like to live in towns and cities. They are most commonly found in the Authenian Republic. They often live in large estates or mansions.
Brass Dragons like to live in areas of intense heat, typically deserts. They tend to create their lairs near roads so that they can talk to any travellers passing by.
Copper Dragons make their layers in rocky canyons and small mountains, making certain that the area they made their lair in is not inhospitable to mortals.
Bronze Dragons live in coastal areas, and enjoy watching the ships pass by. Their lairs tend to be hidden from mortals, so that they can spend time away from their lair without worrying about thieves.
Silver Dragons typically integrate themselves into a community of mortals, but they also have small lairs, often within mountains, for them to hide their wealth.
Golden Dragons liked to make a home for themselves in locations of natural beauty, such as at waterfalls or crystal clear lakes. They often build stone castles and recruit loyal guards to protect their treasure.

Behaviour

Hoarding

A reoccuring trait among every species of dragon is an overwhelming greed. Most dragons like to hoard treasure, seeing it as rightfully theirs due to their massive size and power.
Some dragons have different ideas of what constitutes as treasure. Copper Dragons tend to hoard oddities and artworks, and even create living spaces for mortals that they find entertaining and have made friends with. Copper dragons see good companionship as just as much of a treasure as any precious metal or gem.
Bronze Dragons, whilst they do love treasure, they do not believe that they are entitled to it, and only hoard what they believe they have earned.
Red Dragons believe that information is just as useful as any other treasure, and due to this, they hoard not only jewels and metals, but vast libraries as well. They also regularly employ spies to keep the, up to date with the affairs of Eregost.

Personality

The personalities of dragons vary from type to type, and even then there are exceptions.
White Dragons are the most feral, preferring to spend their days hunting and killing rather than spying on the affairs of others or slumbering on their mounds of treasure. They rarely speak, and are completely uninterested in the civilized world.
Black Dragons are known for their cruelty and sadism. They like to taunt and torment their prey, especially mortals. Black Dragons are extremely territorial and will hunt and torment any mortal that trespasses on their land.
Green Dragons are known for their manipulative and selfish nature. They have a love for intrigue and secrets. They put on a front of diplomacy and deceit when faced with enemies stronger that them, but their cruel and petty nature are revealed when intimidating lesser foes or whenever they gain the upper hand. They revel in corrupting lesser beings and hoarding them like possessions. Some warlocks have made pacts with these creatures.
Blue Dragons are mocking and manipulative to weaker beings, but not outright cruel or murderous towards them. They have a strong sense of order and like to keep their hoards both clean and organized.
Red Dragons are the largest of the chromatic dragons, and take great pride in their strength. They revel in the destruction they are capable of, not out of sadism but merely because they see it as a display of their power. They are vain creatures and are extremely confident in their own abilities. When fighting foes, they would often leave survivors so that they could tell others about the Red Dragon's strength and power. Red Dragons like to stay relevant, and pay spies to keep them informed about current affairs and if they have heard about any other dragons.
Steel Dragons are curious creatures that prefer the company of mortals to other dragons. They often take a mortal form and live in cities and towns to absorb culture, art and politics. Steel Dragons do not like absolute authority, which puts them at odds with other dragons, who often use their power as a way to justify their actions. Due to their dislike of strong authority, very few Steel Dragons are located in the Venatorian Empire. Steel Dragons do not have traditional hoards, but instead like to invest in businesses and property, though some liked to collect artwork, magical items and servants in their houses.
Brass Dragons are extremely talkative beings that typically would not let mortals cross their territory without first engaging in a conversation with them, and often having a drink with them as well. Brass Dragons do not like violence, although they are more than capable of it. They love to engage both friend and foe in longwinded, hour long conversations. It is not uncommon for Brass Dragons be be fluent in hundreds of languages, both alive and dead, just so that they can converse with anyone they meet.
Copper Dragons are even-tempered and sociable creatures. They are tricksters and pranksters, and enjoy telling jokes, interesting stories and riddles. They love pulling pranks on mortals, often assisted by illusion magic. Whenever they meet a group of individuals that they take a liking to, they often quickly organize a party back at their lair and invite these mortals. They often employ bards to lighten up their lairs, and occasionally create living spaces for any mortals they like to live in.
Bronze Dragons tend to have a strong sense of justice and fair play and are disgusted by any cruelty they witness. Due to living in coastal areas, they often make friends with sailors and and lighthouse workers. They are known to go out of their way to help mortals, and there are countless stories of mortal who end up shipwrecked being rescued by Bronze Dragons. They quite social and like to attend mortal social events, though often not in their true form. Even when in their mortal form, they rarely make an effort to hide their true nature from others.
Silver Dragons like to think of themselves as noble protectors. They spend the majority of their lives in disguise in mortal settlements, often only taking their true form so that they can go out flying, which is one of their favourite pastimes. While they would right wrongs wherever they saw them, Silver Dragons prefer to live peaceful lives, and do not actively search for problems to solve.
Gold Dragons are the largest and wisest out of all metallic dragons. They are relentless foes of evildoers and are dedicated to fighting injustices. While respected for their compassion and knowledge, they are grim and reserved, and rarely sought out other dragons for casual, social reasons. They often shapeshift into non-threatening forms, in order to put mortals at ease. They often enjoy passing out advise and wisdom to adventurers and those that seek them out.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Dragons have excellent night vision, and are capable of seeing in total darkness. Dragons are also capable of sensing small vibrations in the ground, meaning that they can even sense invisible beings that get too close to them.

Civilization and Culture

Major Organizations

The AMC has several contracts with Brass Dragons, employing them to protect merchantile vessels from pirates, storms and natural disasters. These Brass Dragons are also expected to warn the AMC if any of their ports have been attacked.

History

The first dragons were creations of Gaia, meant to ensure that the natural world cannot be conquered, by making creatures live within it that also cannot be conquered. Her attempt was in vain, however, when Iapetus started to slay these original dragons for refusing to acknowledge Cronos as their ruler. After the creation of mortals by Prometheus, new dragons were created, as a way to ensure that they did not dominate the wilderness, and in order to stop them from overpopulating.

Historical Figures

Exogryph was a Ancient Red Dragon known for his unnatural bloodlust, for hundreds of years he would randomly appear and destroy entire cities. That is until 1325, when he attempted to destroy Arcadia so that he could add the books of the Authenian Archives to his collection. Before he could damage the city or harm anyone, Church Paratir exited the Archives and demanded that Exogryph leave. When Exogryph refused to, and laughed at the foolishness of the Grand Archivist. Church Paratir then used an imprisonment spell to shrink Exogryph down to the size of a coin and imprison him within a small, red jewel. Exogryph has been kept in the storage room of the Authenian Archives ever since.
Pretheanoir was an Ancient Blue Dragon that lived in the West of Eregost. When starvation struck Eregost due to Demeter's sorrow, Pretheanoir decided to take advantage of this and destroyed many of the western kingdoms in order to plunder their wealth. Pretheanoir was the first dragon to be killed by Septimus Angelius.

Average Height

Up to 24ft

Average Weight

Up to 580,000kg

Average Length

Up to 120ft.