Ember Blood Dragon
Overview
Ember dragons value independence and will, they never ask for help, as they see it as a weakness. And will often refuse help of any kind.These dragons do everything by themselves, building their own homes, making their own armor ect
Ember dragons are also very volatile, they have a short temper and can be easily offended. They also prefer to be solitary, indeed the only creatures they enjoy being with is their mate or an elf they are bonded to.
These dragons value strength above all else, they regularly challenge one another to battle to see who is stronger, however they never fight to the death. Most of an ember dragon's life is to become stronger, discarding the weak and weak traits.
These dragons are extremely territorial over their territories and possessions. In an ember dragon's point of view, if you don't have the strength to defend what you own, you don't deserve to have it. If you lose in combat everything you own belongs to them.
Ember dragons will often take up hobbies or skills that will either test or show their strength. These dragons will often travel the world in search of battles to test their strength and dominance. Fighting large and formidable creatures that are capable of killing them. Ember dragons will always bring back a body part, show off a scar, or any evidence of victory in their battles. These dragons are actually brutally honest and will never lie as they never need to, they'll never lie about winning a fake battle or anything like that as they see no point in it.
Ember dragons believe that if each member of their race is strong and self-sufficient, then the race will be strong and invulnerable. Ember dragons also despise the weak and cowardly, however they will never attack someone who is weak or defenseless unless provoked.
Basic Information
Biological Traits
General Ember Dragon Biology
- All Ember dragons are naturally prone to violence, having a hot temper, a need to dominate and show dominance, they are naturally aggressive and fierce, and highly possessive and territorial.
- Ember dragons are fairly muscular and strong but are also strong flyers as they fly regularly from island to island, up and over volcanoes, and over ashy deserts. With them being one of the best dragons to fight at range along with their strength and endurance they are quite formidable in close range, ground combat, aerial combat, and long range combat. all in all they are very versitile.
- These dragons have thick scoots and ridges along the top of their body, from their snout to the tip of their tails. This species is known well for their plated horns, which unlike most dragon speices can take a wide verity of shapes and styles across individuals. Plated scales are also on their shoulders and from their wing shoulder up their main talon. They also have thick plated scales on their undersides. Ember dragons are among the most hardy of the dragon species. Their scales are also highly heat resistant, able to withstand the temperature of lava. Their scales range in colors of reds and golds.
- Ember dragons are born with the ability to wield fire magic, the strength of which grows with age and practice. They breathe fire hot enough to melt stone. These dragons are able to light their scales on fire, their scales also radiate heat at all times, however the heat is not enough to light anything on fire. Though they are capable of controlling the temperature they emit. Ember dragons can also heat up any part of their bodies to burn and melt prey or in defense. They will commonly heat up their teeth, claws, and tail spikes to absurd degrees. Though doings so costs them much energy and makes them quite hungery afterwards.
- Ember dragons hate getting wet, especially as getting water on their scales prevents them from heating up that part until it is dry. If they get too much water on them it will prevent them from even using their magic. Cold is also dangerous for them. While at first it’s not bad at all as they can easily heat themselves up, after an hour or more in freezing temperatures they begin to consume so much energy to keep their magical heat going. While consuming food can help them replenish their magical reserve, eventually the cold will be too much for them and they wont be able to replenish fast enough before dying of cold. An Ember dragon will die within 10 hours of freezing temperatures.
- These dragons have black bones. Their bones are highly sought after for their alchemical use. The Bronze Dwarves use them to make fire cannons.
- Ember Dragons smell of sulfur.
- These dragons have a very clear transparent secondary eyelid, this covers their eyes while in combat or while breathing fire. It protects their eyes from blinding light, and from damage while in combat.
- Females of this species have the ability to brand their eggs using a molten like substance from a gland within their mouths. They spew the substance onto their tongues and lick their claws. Then they write upon their eggs branding them with a glowing red glow. When the hatchling hatches they will be branded with their name, with a glowing fiery tattoo.
- Females can lay up to 10 eggs, Ember dragons can lay the most amount of eggs compared to the other dragon species.
- Their eyes are sharp and will glow when angered. Their eyes are also a golden color.
- When angered heat radiates strongly from the dragon, and smoke curls around their nostrils.
- Sexual dimorphism: Males have spiky beards, larger horns, larger leg spikes, broader chests, and a dulap. Females have no beards, shorter horns, and shoter leg spikes, and no dulap. Becuase of the males broader chests, and the dulap, thier fire breath is wider and reaches further than the females. Males also have a tendancy to enter a blind rage, while the females have a simmering calculating anger. Life cycle biology
- Ember eggs are a red color with dark red patchy scoots on the egg, they also have a red glowing name on the shell, although this is only given to the egg a few days before they hatch.
- Hatchlings are fast and slim, able to run and burrow. They are also able to breathe thick black smoke. This helps them to hide from predators, it’s also hot and burns the eyes, and nostrils.
- Draglings are able to breathe fire and it will get hotter as they grow. They are also capable of flight by this age range. During this age range they are still slim and built more for speed than for battle. Though near the end of this age range they will become well muscled and heavily built.
- As a young adult they will have all the magical traits as an adult, though it will not be as strong. And at this age they will be sexually mature.
- As an adult their fire breath will now be hot enough to melt stone.
- As an ancient dragon if they live within a region that's not native to them the following affects will accor. The area will be much hotter, summers and day time will be boiling. Fires will have a much higher chance of starting, fires that start will be far more dangerous. They will be hotter, grow faster, and be harder to put out. Human Biology
- Shapeshifting into either human or draconic form takes a lot of energy. They can only shape change about once per day.
- In Human form they have white skin and their fiery brands appear upon their skin.
- They have pointed ears eith the ridge of thier ears lined with red scales. Red scales dot parts of thier bodies, such as thier shoulders, cheeck bones, arms, fingers, and legs. They also have black claws instead of nails.
- They have their plated red horns and a variety of red hair colors. Their hair will also glow molten red when angered, and will burn if touched. It is also capable of setting things on fire.
- Their skin is immune to fire and heat.
- They have a strong build, but are not overly muscled.
- Their human forms are prone to freckles.
- They cannot use fire magic while their skin is wet.
- Their eyes keep the draconic golden appearence.
Civilization and Culture
Courtship Ideals
At the start of a new year single dragons gather within the Dalacor Creator to gain a mate. During the first week of the new year, a male ember dragon must claim an unclaimed female until the end of the week or fight off an opposing male that has claimed a female. Once a female has been claimed the male must defend his rights to her by defeating rival males until the end of the week. Once the week is over the male that has successfully laid claim on a female will be able to perform the ritual that will determine if they will become a mated pair.
The male and female will attack and wrestle with each other, they will not kill or mortally harm each other. They wrestle, testing each other's strength, for them to become a mated pair, they must both exhaust themselves to their limits with one never winning against the other, until both are too weak to keep fighting one another. Once this happens they are considered evenly matched in terms of strength and can become a mated pair, this ritual to them ensures that their pairing will produce the strongest offspring.
However should one of them overcome the other in the ritual, then the winner will be deemed stronger than the other, and the two will part ways. The winner will wait for the next year to find a stronger mate, while the loser will have to prove their strength once more and try to increase it.
Once ember dragons are ready to have eggs, they will travel out of their kingdom and into the wilds of the burning isles. There they will dig out a short term layer and build a nest, the nest is made out of hardened magma and flammable rocks. Once the eggs are laid they light the nest on fire so the eggs incubate. Both parents will guard the nest until the eggs hatch which takes about a year. These dragons can lay up to ten eggs, one in ten of them will survive to adulthood. Once the eggs are close to hatching the mother will brand the eggs giving them their names. The name will be absorbed by the hatchling inside and will forever be upon its skin. It's traditional that the mother Mark's an egg in a different location every time. So that if two dragons have the same name, it will appear in different locations on their body.
Once the eggs hatch the parents will only stay long enough to tell the hatchlings the basics of life, and what their goals should be. They also tell them that they won't be a part of the kingdom, and are not allowed in the kingdom until they survive to age 40 on their own outside of the kingdom. This ensures that only the strong survive, and once they reach 40 years of age they will be welcomed into the kingdom and be of age to mate, and claim territory.
The parents will return to their home and be partners for life, mating once a year. As for their offspring they will be living absolute heck on the isles. They will need to survive on their own fearing predation from predators and being killed from their own kind. Adults will never help nor hunt younger ones of their kind; they completely ignore them. Young ember dragons fight each other to test strength, for territory, for hunting rights, over prey, and to eliminate competition. However they never eat each other.
Common Etiquette Rules
Never look these dragons directly in the eyes, otherwise you're challenging their dominance. Because of their nature they have to accept your challenge. When interacting with them if you wish to avoid a fight, keep your head slightly bowed in submission and don't look directly in their eyes.
Never give these dragons an order. They are proud, highly independent, and very dominant creatures. They react explosively when given commands.
While interacting with them never show fear, or weakness of character otherwise they will act as if you don’t exist. To them you will be nothing. If you are strong in your bearing and tone, yet respectful and acknowledge their dominance by keeping your head slightly bowed will earn their respect, if not at least acknowledgement.
When entering their territory if you wish safe passage you must smear your blood on a tree or rock, then light a fire. You can then pass safely. Doing this shows respect to the dragon and allows him to track you through his or her territory. Not doing this ritual will have dire consequences should the dragon see you unexpectedly. As long as you are not considered a threat to the dragon, you may pass through their territory unimpeded.
Never enter a dragon's lair Doing so will result in your death. They are highly territorial already, but even more so with their lairs.
Common Dress Code
The only thing they wear as a dragon is their gold collar that shows their rank. However females enjoy gold plating their horns and talons, wearing gold necklaces, and golden bands on their arms, and tails.
Males will often challenge each other or other races for gold so as to smelt it down and give it to their mates.
In human form these males enjoy wearing armor made from emberite, steal, and thier own scales. Their armor colors are often in combinations of reds golds, and silver. Females enjoy wearing gold and golden silks. They often wear dresses with armor on their shoulders, chests, and waist, painted gold, the dress usually divided and not too long so at to be good in combat.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Architecture
Overview For the most part ember dragons prefer to build their own layers, so their homes aren't very uniform. These dragons prefer to live high within mountains. They burrow into the rock, their fire breath is hot enough to melt stone. They will use molten rock to stylize their homes. All homes will have a balcony of molten hardened rock. They will also sculpt the inside of their layers with molten rock, creating rooms and other structures. If they can they will attempt to make molten lava run through their homes as they find it comforting and enjoy sleeping in it. Within their homes are many decorations of items, heads, or limbs of the creatures and people they have defeated and made submit. For the most part ember dragons layer all over on the burning isles, preferring mountains and rock formations. However those dragons who are cast out surviving the brutality of being weak will live away from the isles. Some may live away because of their bond with an elf. Whatever the case ember dragons living outside of the burning isles prefer to live in volcanic mountain ranges within warm climates. They will naturally live in regions that will test their strength and endurance. Dalakor Creator This is what passes for a ember dragon city and is highly sought after to live in, or be allowed entry into. The ember dragons live above a lava field within a massive volcano the largest in the world. Their homes are dug into the sides of the volcano. Within the center of the volcano is the ember world tree, untouched by the dragons. Within this city is a massive forgery where the dragons forge and test their skills against one another. The only other building is the palace home to the royal bloodline. For the most part the dragons only layer and craft in the city, they will hunt outside of the city or within the great trees branches. At the bottom is a lake of magma.Dragon Royalty
Governance: The Burning king or queen keeps records of all ember dragon’s territories, and ranks by using elves who live within the palace.The current monarch also settles disputes, and acts as judge to their people. The elves within the palace are called flame keepers, they help to register dragons ranks and territories, the current monarch is the one who gives the final say and the orders. Ranking: The Royal dragons are exempt from the ranking system, because of their breeding they are naturally twice as strong as the average ember dragon. Royal dragons are ranked higher than all other dragons by default. However the king and queen are obviously higher than the other royals. Royal Bloodline: All royal dragons have emerald green eyes, and are twice as strong than the average ember dragon. The Burning king and queen have their nest within their palace. Once their eggs are close to hatching they take them to the ember forests. Once hatched they leave them to survive on their own, only telling them to get to 40 years of age and make their way to the city. For a royal dragon to take the throne it must be male, and he or she must have a mate and they must have five siblings alive within the city before they can begin the right of succession. All 5 royals must have mates before any of them can start the succession process. Because Of this requirement the king and queen will lay eggs every 5 years. And only the direct descendants of the king and queen can take the throne, once the throne is taken, any royal sibling cannot challenge for the throne. Royal siblings to the king and queen are unable to have children; it is forbidden for them. And only those upon the throne may mate and have children. Once the right of succession begins all five of the royal children will fight to the death. The last one remaining will be eligible to challenge the current king or queen, whichever is head monarch. (The royal mates are forbidden to enter this battle.) The final challenger and the current monarch will fight to the death, the winner takes the throne. Mating: As the royal dragons are at the top of the ranking they can go for anyone, they commonly go for the top ranking non-royal dragons to mate with. This helps to keep their bloodline very strong with inherent strength, as there are a lot of filters for the top ranking non-royal dragons to make it to the final rank. Territories: The king and queen have the palace as their territory and portions of the world tree branches as their territory.Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
Coming of Age Rituals
Once Ember dragons reach 40 years of age, they will have an overwhelming desire to head to the Dalakor volcano. There they will be taken to the burning palace, the king will inspect the young dragon and his staff will register him or her in their records. Then the king will give permission for the dragon to be allowed entry into the creator whenever he or she wishes, as they are now one of them and enter into the ranking system. Before the dragon can leave he or she must proclaim fealty to the throne.Justice System
When a dragon breaks any of the few rules they live by, the king himself will challenge the dragon and tear him or her limb from limb.Death Ritual
When an ember dragon is close to death it will instinctively find lava to lay down and die in. However it is far more likely that they die in battle, when dead other dragons will place their bodies in lava. They do this to honor their kin, and it helps to keep their bodies safe.Combat
When fighting people lesser in power then them. they restrict their powers and make it a fair fight so as to make the other race believe they have a chance, they want to make them submit from a fair fight, to dominate them. But not with extreme power as there is no fun nor honor in it. They would only straight out kill someone with their full might if they were provoked into anger. Once such an opponent is defeated the dragon will ask for what they have that they most value, specifically an item. If they have none then the dragon will take a body part from them such as an arm or leg. Ember dragons can remember every trophy and scar they get with extreme detail and accuracy. When fighting each other they do it for territory, possessions, or to test their strength. If one is defeated then the other will claim all of their possessions and their layer. Within the Dalakor Creator they often battle each other for layers, mates, possessions, ranks, and territory. For territory these dragons can perfectly memorize the borders of their territory and mark it using their fire breath. Other ember dragons can smell another's fire breath and distinguish it as different, the cent is different for every dragon. Melted stones and sand will retrain the scent for a certain amount of time. Territories were originally handed out by the royal bloodline. Now they are passed from dragon to dragon for whomever wins in a battle. Challenges over territory, layers, ranks, and possessions, accor with rules. For example a dragon can only challenge a specific dragon for territory once every ten years, assuming they lose the challenge. Layers, ranks, and possessions are all in the same time frame. (Challenges may only be issued one at a time. They are issued by breathing on the entrance lawyer of the rival dragon. This must be done every few days to keep the scent there. As you never know when the owner will return to notice the challenge.) These dragons constantly search for challenges to test and grow their strength. They also do this to grow their hoard. They commonly battle each other, or will travel the lands beyond the burning isles for battles.Territories
Dragons can only possess one territory at a time. however should a dragon lose to another dragon, not only do they lose thier entire hoard, they will also lose thier territory. The lost territory is returned to the monarch, and dragons will need to battle each other for rites to the new free territory. All the prime locarions have been taken by the most powerful of dragons, while the least desired locations are maintained by the weaker dragons as not many challenge over those territores. The less desired locations are the frost backs, and small islands.
Rank System
The royal family keeps tracks of the ranks. The ranks give you access to territory, great tree hunting, challenge rights, and to an extent mates. A lesser ranked dragon cannot challenge a higher rank dragon. And it is dishonorable to challenge dragons of lesser ranks. So dragons will only challenge others on the same rank. They will observe the higher ranks so as to learn what they can. Basically if a dragon wants to challenge another for territory, possessions, or a layer, they must be of the same rank, and fall within the time rule. As for courtship a male may only claim a female who is of the same rank. So females often try to get to higher ranks before settling for a mate. (Should a female not want a mate she simply will not go to the dragon kingdom during the courtship week.) Ember dragons may only have one mate as they mate for life. One layer, and one territory. mated pairs must challenge each other for rights to territory and layers and possessions. While a single dragon could challenge a mated pair it would not go over well. Mated pairs also share the same rank. Once mated any challenge is issued to both of them. There are ten ranks. Etalkon one, Etalkon two, Etalkon three and so on. (Ranks 8 through 10 are allowed to hunt within the branches of the world tree.) The dragons are given collars decorated with rubies and a crest that represents their rank. The ranks are based on how many challenges you have not lost. Once you lose a challenge you are sent back to rank one. Ranks: Etalkon one: No Collar no wins. Etalkon two: Collar with two runes in the crest. 1 win. Etalkon three: Collar with three runes in the crest. 3 wins. Etalkon four: Collar with four runes in the crest. 10 wins. Etalkon five: Collar with five runes in the crest. 25 wins. Etalkon six: Collar with six runes in the crest. 35 wins. Etalkon seven: Collar with seven runes in the crest. 50 wins. Etalkon eight: Collar with eight runes in the crest. 85 wins. Etalkon nine: Collar with nine runes in the crest. 100 wins. Etalkon ten: Collar with ten runes in the crest. 100+ wins.Hoard
Ember dragons hoard items won from combat. These range from valued items, to random items, to body parts and heads of beasts. As well as scales from other ember dragons. As they can remember every scar and trophy they gain in extreme detail and accuracy they decorate their homes with them, in an orderly fashion. Losing their hoard to another dragon is particularly painful as it’s losing all of their victories essentially.Nesting
They use their fire to keep their eggs warm, and to let them incubate. The mother will often curl around her eggs keeping them safe while the father will hunt prey for her. Once their offspring hatch they will provide them a last meal before leaving them for good.Mates
Ember dragons mate for life. They will always defend one another which is why they must be challenged together. As a mated pair they will often test their strength together by sparring and wrestling each other. However as Ember dragons they are very possessive of their possessions and territory. So in a layer they will have separate caverns for their hoards.Lifestyle Facts
Eating: Ember dragons when they manage to kill giant prey they will take as much as 80% of their kill to their layer piece by piece. To preserve their food within their layers they will travel to the northernmost continent and mine for Frothite. They will then place chunks of frothite ore in a room full of meat. They also prefer to cook their meat and will place their raw meat onto Emberite ore. They use their breath to heat emberite and cook their meat. After a large kill such as a whale, or other similar large creatures they can eat that meat for up to a month. Sleep: These dragons prefer to sleep on fire moss. Fire moss grows near lava pools and rivers.Human Form
Emer Dragons use their human forms to fight humanoids and to craft armor and certain things within their layers.Elven Relations
For the most part the ember dragons treat the elves like kin. they mostly ignore the elves, sometimes they will challenge them for something. They also carry no ill will towards them for fighting their young out in the wild, in fact they see that as an honorable activity, as it increases the strength on both sides. Elves are allowed to live in their territories as long as they don't hunt too much, and show proper respect while within their territory. When an elf bonds to another ember dragon, that dragon will be outside of the culture structure, in certain areas. They can still compete for a rank, but they cannot own any land or territory.Interaction with the Dragon Cult
These dragons quite enjoy the cult, they visit the ember cult often to watch the battles within the dragon sized stadiums, and will often join in. They also enjoy being served food.
Adult Ember Blood Dragon
Huge Dragon, Chaotic Neutral
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AC: 19
HP: (300)
Speed: 50ft, Fly 60ft.
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STR
27 (+8)
DEX
16(+3)
CON
22(+6)
INT
16(+3)
WIS
24(+2)
CHAR
24(+7)
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Saving Throws:
STR: +14
DEX: +3
CON: +12
INT: +3
WIS: +2
CHAR: +14
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Skills:
Passive Perception: 14
Athletics:+14
Survival:+6
Intimidation:+14
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Damage Immunities: Fire.
Other Immunities: immune to being blind from bright lights.
Weapon Immunities: Physical Non magical.
Weakness: Takes double damage from cold damage.
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Senses:
Blindsight: 60ft
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Languages:
Draconic
Elvish
common
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Features:
Keen Senses: Has advantage on Perception (Wisdom) checks that rely on Smell, Sight, and Hearing.
Ember Glow: Can make its markings and between it's scales glow in a 20ft radius of bright and dim light.
Flaming Heat:generates
blood thrill: gains advantage on the first attack roll at the start of combat.
Blood lust:totem
Legendary Resistance (3/day)
if the dragon fails a saving throw it can choose to succeed.
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Actions
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Attacks:
Multi attack: Can make 3 melee attacks a turn, one Bite and two claws.
Bite: +14 to hit, Reach 10ft, One Target.
Hit: 2D12+8 Piercing, 2D6 Fire Damage.
Claw: +14 to hit, Reach 5ft, One Target.
Hit: 2D8+8 Slashing, 2D6 fire Damage.
Tail: +14 to hit, Reach 20ft, Multiple targets within 20ft cube.
Hit: 2D8+8 Bludgeoning, 2D6 fire Damage.
Frightful Presence:
All creatures DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or suffer disadvantage on all rolls, Re roll every action to see if you shake it off
Elemental Attacks:
(All elemental attacks are on the same recharge timer 5-6. Can only choose one. one recharged can pick any of the ones available.---------------------------------------------------
Fire Breath (5-6 recharge):
successfulhalvedterrain. Standing in it creatures will take 2d6 fire damage per turn for 5 turns.
Molten Ground (5-6 recharge):
curricleterrain
Raining Fire (5-6 recharge):
The dragon uses its wings to bring fire raining down for the next 5 turns in a 100ft sphere. Every turn creatures must make a Dex save of 14 if they fail they take 1d6 fire damage and are knocked prone. on a successful save nothing happens.
Fire Spells Table:
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Spell Levels:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1: 5 spell slots.
2: 4 spell slots.
3: 3 spell slots.
4: 3 spell slots.
5: 3 spell slots.
6: 2 spell slots.
7: 1 spell slot.
8: 1 spell slot.
Legendary Actions 3/action
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At the end of another creature's turn can spend Legendary action points to make another move, regained every time the dragon takes a turn.
Detect: The dragon makes a Wisdom Perception check.
Tail: Dragon makes a tail attack.
Wing attack: Each creature within 15ft of the dragon must succeed on a DC 19 Dex save or take 2D6+6 Belonging damage and be knocked prone. The dragon can then fly up to half its flying speed.
Lifespan
1000 years
