Dragons

Once the rulers of an empire that spanned the globe, the dragons are all but extinct in the present day.
The days when dragons truly ruled were millenia ago, and well beyond the memory of anyone still alive. In many ways the ancient empire's passing was necessary for the current races to come into being; the dragons weren't cruel but neither were they kind, and they had very little regard for those they considered below their notice. Despite this, those who still live are treated with great respect by the other races. While the dragons are still feared for what they once were, they're also honored as the final remnants of a world long since gone.

Typical Physical Characteristics

Though their characteristics may have varied slightly during the height of their empire when they were far more numerous, modern remnants of the dragons are massive and continue to grow slowly for the entirety of their long, long lives. Females tend to stretch approximately 100ft from nose to tail, with wingspans that can nearly double that; males are typically larger by a significant margin and can be almost half as large again. They're reptilian quadrupeds with finely scaled bodies and a more broadly scaled underbody, with prominent horns on the head and a line of small spines down the ridge of the back. Dragons have a long neck and tail, and have a powerful build that's nonetheless surprisingly elegant. They fly by supplementing their natural muscle with magic, allowing them to have a solid bone structure that their membranous wings couldn't lift via natural physics.
Dragons range in coloration, generally various earth tones all the way from off-white/ash through ochres and reds to charcoal gray/black. Many exhibit stripes in a darker shade of their primary color, and most will have a typical dorsal/ventral variation with a pale underbelly. A dragon's wing membranes are usually pale, typically a paler tint of their primary color. Claws and teeth may be either white or black. Eye color is typically gold, amber, or red-tinted, with a vertical reptilian pupil.
With an enormously long lifespan and profoundly powerful reserves of lifeforce, dragons are almost uniformly powerful spellcasters. They use a combination of natural magic and their innate ability.

Natural Abilities

Dragons have several natural abilities that reinforce their senses and basic functions, such as supernaturally powerful eyesight and an instinctual use of their lifeforce to enable their flight. However, by far their most well-known feature is their ability to breathe fire. Dragons are able to do so at will by releasing pure energy, directed by the breath in a jet that can reach lengths of 40-50 ft. It's theoretically an expression of Casting-focused natural magic, but is done so spontaneously and efficiently that most consider it an innate ability; this theory is further supported by the fact that young dragons seem capable of doing so almost from the moment of birth, far before they gain the capacity for deliberate spellcasting.
Additionally, dragons are protogynous sequential hermaphrodites and can change their sex. All dragons are born female, but upon reaching a certain age and size threshold that allows them to be sexually competitive are capable of changing their sex to male depending on population density.

Life Cycle

Tremendously long-lived, dragons far surpass any other race of Genesis when it comes to longevity. They live thousands of years, with an average range all but impossible to calculate due to the sheer difficulty of documenting such an extreme span of time. The best estimations suggest that dragons live something in the area of ten thousand years, becoming more and more sedentary and reliant on drawing from the earth's energy in the last thousand years or so of their lives.
Hatchling dragons spend their first hundred years of life on their own and as little more than feral animals, thankfully not developing beyond about four feet in length before they achieve a greater sense of sentience. After this point they reunite with their mother and spend several hundred years growing before being considered a part of greater society at about five hundred years of age. They reach full sexual maturity at about this same time, and females will typically mate once per century until 5000 years of age. At this age individuals who've reached a certain size threshold will sometimes change to male, continuing to reproduce until they reach the end of their sexual prime at about 8000 years old.

Reputation

The remaining members of the dragons are almost a living myth to the rest of Genesis; a source of awe, both feared and respected. They're rightfully seen as wise and powerful, and their extreme age makes them a wealth of knowledge about the ancient world and the history they've been a living part of. It's similarly understood that even if they don't have the mindset of conquerors anymore, the dragons don't feel any particular love for what they consider the lesser races. Only a fool challenges a dragon, and for the most part they're given a wide berth except by those who are trespassing by invitation.
Dragons, for their part, care very little about the affairs of their short-lived neighbors. They keep to their sole remaining stronghold of Iscalion and largely ignore the rest of Genesis, though there are a rare few among them who take some interest in current history.

Social Structure

For most of their history, the dragons were ruled by a royal family who held dominance over both the Northern and Southern halves of their great empire. Since the death of the last of the royal line, they live with no real leader. A rough hierarchy is based on age, power, and dominance, but the few dragons that remain are so isolated and sedentary that there's rarely any remaining need for any kind of authority. Like all other aspects of what was once a vibrant, thriving race, their social structure has largely broken down altogether.

Societal Norms and Values

For more specific racial customs, see Draconic Customs.
TRADITION AND CEREMONY
The sheer length of dragon lifespans meant that most customs would evolve from generation to generation, leaving very little in the way of overarching tradition. As the empire began its decline there was a period where behavior became more highly ritualized in an attempt to reinforce their heritage, but this faded as it became clear that the species was doomed to a slow slide into extinction.
LOVE, SEX, AND MARRIAGE
Dragons loved fiercely, with little distinction between male and female due to their ability to change sex. Mating was considered largely unrelated to romantic relationships, and there was little sense of sexual monogamy due to the length of time between mating cycles. Male dragons were fiercely territorial with regards to mating rights, meaning that the strongest male would generally act as partner to all females he shared territory with; younger, smaller, or weaker dragons would rarely transition to male until they reached a point where they could be sexually competitive.
Partnerships between dragons were informal but deeply committed, and it was relatively common to form lifelong pairs who would hunt and live alongside one another. These pairs would most typically be exclusively female based on the population's gender breakdown, but could sometimes be between males and females; male pairings were possible but rare due to a tendency towards natural aggression between males. There was no formal concept of marriage.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
During the height of the empire, draconic society had an intricate dominance structure based around territorial boundaries, hunting rights, and mating rights. The royal family's dominance was considered absolute and would accept no disobedience; below that, 'crime' was defined as offense between two individuals and was remedied by physical and magical combat to the point of submission or death. As a general rule the societal hierarchy was well-understood, meaning that there was little misbehavior from those who knew that they'd face the inevitable consequences.
DEATH
Dragons treated their dead with great reverence, treating their remains as sacred. In their old age dragons become more and more tied to their lairs, relying less on hunting and more on drawing natural energy to sustain themselves; in death, those lairs become their memorials, with their bones left among the treasures that most acquire over the course of their lives. Dragons have very little tolerance for would-be treasure hunters from the lesser races when it comes to disturbing their dead, and it's one of the few things that will bring them down on what they see as desecrators.

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INDIVIDUALS

LOCATIONS
Emberspurs Shard
Iscalion Shard

OTHER