Dragons

OMG! A dragon!

— August

The dragons are a species that have two forms. Once, a long time ago, they had an endless amount of forms.

Anatomy

In one form they are covered in scales. They have 4 legs with paws that have five talons on the front legs and four talons on the back legs. They have large wings that they can fly 180 km/h with. They have long tails and some of them have talons or bone plates along their spines. Their necks are long and their heads are proportionate to their necks. Most of them also have horns.
In their other form, they walk on two legs and have two arms. They have two hands with five fingers each and two feet with five toes each. They have long pointy ears like the elves and most of them decide to keep their horns and their tails in their bipedal forms, but proportioned to their bipedal bodies. Their four-legged shape is their original form, they can of course change it to look however they want it to look just like they can do with their bipedal form. However, it takes practice to change the building blocks into something new and then change between those building blocks.
All dragons have pale eyes. It does not matter how hard they try, they can not change the colors of their eyes. So you can always recognize a dragon by the pale color of their eyes. They are usually white but some dragons have very pale amber or blue eyes.

Genetics & Reproduction

The dragons are the only species that can reproduce with other species. As they can change the building blocks of their form. With this, they can mate with an elf and get an elf or a halfling child. However, a dragon that is in a House or an Order are expected to mate with another dragon to keep the species thriving.
Dragons who mate with each other in their bipedal form also get halfling children, which is not acceptable in most dragon cultures.
When a dragon mates with another dragon in their four-legged form they will lay around 1-18 eggs.
There are different colored dragons, nobody knows why as they don't appear to have come about because of where the dragons originated. Since it is believed that the dragons came from another world a couple of billions of years ago. Like with their eyes they can not change the colors of their scales. Their bipedal form can have different colored hair or skin but their scaled form does not lie.
The rarest colors are gold, silver, and multi-chromatic. These rare colors have only been seen on Ancient dragons, so it is believed that all dragons who have these colors will become ancients.
An Ancient is a dragon that becomes a whole lot older than the average life span of 102 years. The oldest currently living Ancient is 13503 years old.
The most common colors are white, brown, red, yellow, and blue.

A blue and a red dragon couple can get children that are blue, red, purple, and violet.

A purple and orange dragon couple can only get brown and white children.

Growth rate & stages

After the eggs are fertilized inside the female dragon, in their four-legged form, it takes around 26 days before the eggs are laid. The dragons will have to keep the eggs safe and warm for around 16 months until the eggs are hatched.
A newly hatched newborn is sexless and very fragile, its scales are still very soft. They won't be able to do any magic or change their forms yet. They recognize certain smells, will react to stimuli, and wobble around.
At around 4 -6 months old the whelps are developing quickly, they can respond to their name. Their scales have become harder and they are moving their wings around. They can walk a lot better. A 12 month old Whelp will babble and pick up objects.
Around 1 to 4 years old, the dragons should be able to fly short bits and speak brief sentences as well as follow simple instructions.
A whelp becomes a fledgling at the age of 7 years old. Between the ages of 4 to 8 years old, the fledgling should be able to fly, change their form, do a couple of spells, and talk.
Depending on the culture in which the dragon is born they become mature and will have their Maturity Ceremony around the age of 18-23 years.

Naming traditions

The dragons have a weird quirk about names. They always want to give their child a "Z" in their name. Their last names are also the name of the House or Order that they are a part of.

Gender

The Dragons are born sexless, when they reach maturity and have their Maturity Ceremony they proclaim which sex they identify as. Up until the Maturity Ceremony the dragon children's pronouns are "Za/Zan". After the Maturity Ceremony, they will be referred to as "He/him", "She/her", "Ze/Zir" or something else that they should be referred to as.

Halflings

The halflings look like the dragon's bipedal forms, some of the have horns and tails but most of them look like either parent. They have Mana pools but no access to Dragon Magic.

Perception & Sensory

The Dragons have poor eyesight and hearing compared to other species, like Elves and the Others. Instead they have cones in their eyes that let them have infrared vision when they want to and an organ in their mouth that gives them a very strong sense of smell. They can also sense beings in an area size that is different from dragon to dragon.

Lifespan

102 years

Related Materials

• Dragon fabric

Population

985 455

Population in Korda

10 374

Average intelligence

The Dragons are sapient, some are more intelligent than others...

Geographic distribution

Almost the entire world, most have settlened around The Center of the World though.

Uses & byproducts

Scales.

Hoarding

Most dragons have hoarding tendencies.
A lot of dragons have caves or other spaces where they store a large number of items that they feel are important to them. This is usually gold and jewelry, but books, fabrics, and even non-valuable items have been found in hoards after the death of a dragon.

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Images coming after WorldEmber, so sometime in 2021.

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