Silver Dragon
Silver dragons are the second most powerful of the metallic dragons and are true friends to all. The silver dragon enjoys the company of humans and elves so much that it will often take the form of a human or elf and live among them for the majority of its life. It should be noted that silvers, like all dragons, believe themselves the most superior creatures in the world. However, apart from the ability to fly, which they enjoy greatly, they tend to prefer the physical forms of humanoids for everyday life.
At first glance, the silver dragon appears very similar to the White Dragon. The wings are more curved than a White's though, and the silver has two talons on its wings rather than the single talon of most dragons. Silver dragons employ a breath weapon of extreme cold similar to that of white dragons. They also have a second breath weapon, a cone of paralyzing gas.
They are very intelligent, extremely powerful, breathtakingly beautiful, and have lifespans which can extend to 4,200 years (as stated in draconomicon, the book of dragons). Dragons may live for millennia, while humans only live a few decades. This vast difference in time leads to inherent psychological differences concerning time. Dragons tend to think things through for years at a time, using their razor-sharp intellects to hone a plan to perfection, solve near-impossible puzzles, or engage in other intellectual pursuits. Silver dragons, however, note that humans are able to accomplish much in their short life spans because of their drive for success. When a silver dragon can combine its own long-term perspective with the ambition and drive of humans, the benefit is undeniable.
Silver dragons are nonviolent and avoid combat except when faced with evil or aggressive foes. Often they remain in their assumed forms and attempt to quickly end battles using their spells and magical abilities. When fighting in their true forms, they prefer to remain airborne, and they use any clouds in the area to conceal themselves and to take advantage of their cloudwalking ability. No matter who or how they are fighting, silver dragons usually seek to eliminate the leader or the most aggressive foe first, in hopes of persuading the survivors to surrender or retreat.
Silver dragons are the knights-errant of dragonkind – fierce champions of great causes. Good silvers defend innocents, assure the prosperity of civilized kingdoms, and protect and nurture noble families and young heroes. Honour means more than life. Silvers choose silence over lies and keep their word, even when doing so places them in opposition against creatures of their alignment. For example, a good-aligned silver dragon sworn to guard an oracle from all intruders discourages any adventurers from consulting the oracle, regardless of their reason, and attempts to destroy those who disregard the warning– after offering them the option to retreat.
Basic Information
Anatomy
The silver dragon is regal and statuesque. A silver dragon in its true form can be recognized by the smooth, shiny plate that forms its face. The silver dragon also has a beautiful frill that rises high over the top of its head and flows all the way down its neck and body to the tip of the tail. The frill is silver towards the body, fading to a purple hue at the edge. A silver dragon has the tallest frill of any metallic or chromatic dragon. Long spines with dark tips support the frill. The dragon also has ear frills with similar spines. They have two long, smooth shiny silver horns, also with dark tips, pointing up and back from the head. A silver dragon has a beaklike nose and a strong chin with a dangling frill that some observers say looks like a goatee. It has a pointed tongue.
A silver wyrmling’s scales are blue-grey with silver highlights. As the dragon approaches adulthood, its colour gradually brightens until the individual scales are scarcely visible. The pupils of the oldest silver dragons resemble orbs of molten mercury. A silver dragon carries the scent of rain about it.
The silver has two talons on its wings rather than the single talon of most dragons. When viewed from below, a flying silver dragon shows a remarkably similar profile to a red dragon. It has long wings that are broadest along the trailing edge. The wing membrane attaches to the dragon’s body behind the rear legs and well down the tail, and the head has clearly visible horns. The wings also show darker markings along the trailing edges, just as a red dragon’s do. Fortunately, a silver dragon has one minor feature that sets it apart from a red dragon: The outer alar phalange forms a second “thumb” at the leading edge of each wing. Viewers unable to discern the dragon’s colour would do well to look for this vital detail.
Biological Traits
Maximum Height: 22 feet
Maximum Weight: 1,280,000 pounds
Maximum Wingspan: 150 feet
Breath weapon: Cone of Cold, Paralyzation Gas
Maximum Weight: 1,280,000 pounds
Maximum Wingspan: 150 feet
Breath weapon: Cone of Cold, Paralyzation Gas
Genetics and Reproduction
Silver dragons lay their eggs in a bed of snow. A new hatched silver wyrmling has scales of a bluish gray, which change to silver over time. Silver wyrmlings are intelligent, kind, extremely curious, and adorable.
Ecology and Habitats
Though they can be found nearly anywhere, silver dragons love high mountains and vast, open skies with billowing clouds, open spaces and lofty heights. High mountains: the colder the better. They make their homes in mountain ranges, in castles constructed among the clouds, and in the Elemental Chaos. During periods of warm weather, they retreat to the coolest, loftiest heights. They enjoy flying and sometimes soar for hours just for the pleasure of it.
Silver dragons prefer aerial lairs on secluded mountain peaks or amid the clouds themselves. Because they spend so much time away from their lairs, silver dragons choose lairs among the highest, least accessible mountain peaks. Those lairs bristle with defences and traps to protect hoards from other dragons. A silver dragon's lair is typically found within an icy mountain, with the main entrance only accessible by air. The lair itself is similar to the gold dragon's in its sophistication and design, although the silver dragon's lair tends to be far less intricate. A typical lair will contain a main entertaining area, a storage room, a vault, a sleeping chamber, study, library, shrine, and two clinic rooms where the dragon can offer help and protection to those who need it. The lair will also have a concealed back entrance for use in emergencies. A cloud lair always has an enchanted area with a solid floor for laying eggs and storing treasure.
Silver dragons spend less time in their lairs than other dragons do. Wanderlust and curiosity spur them to engage in far-ranging patrols. From time to time, silvers embark on months-long journeys to the corners of the world. Silver dragons often dwell in towns or in dungeons. When doing so, they typically take a humanoid form and blend in with the rest of the population. They always situate themselves near one or more open areas where they have space to assume their true forms when necessary.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Like eating almost anything; love tasting new things. Silver dragons are dedicated omnivores and always seek a variety of foods. Many prefer human fare and exist on it exclusively for years without suffering any ill effects. Though many silver dragons have favourite dishes, they seldom pass up the chance to try something new. An unusual trait silver dragons offer is the love of human dining, and will use the ability of alternate form to take part in large feasts.
Silver dragons, gifted with keen eyesight, hunt wild game such as mountain goats and deer. They fly gracelessly but dive with great accuracy and power. A silver commonly makes its kill by swooping from a mountainside perch. Silver dragons eat lightly for their size, taking prey only three or four times a month. They do not devour intelligent creatures, because they consider such behaviour savage.
Additional Information
Average Intelligence
They are very intelligent, more so than most humans. Dragons tend to think things through for years at a time, using their razor-sharp intellects to hone a plan to perfection, solve near-impossible puzzles, or engage in other intellectual pursuits. Silver dragons, however, note that humans are able to accomplish much in their short life spans because of their drive for success.
Civilization and Culture
Beauty Ideals
Silver dragons prefer portable treasure that they can keep with them while living among humanoids. Silver dragons especially appreciate items that show exceptional workmanship, everything from carefully cut gems to intricate carvings to textiles and jewellery.
A silver dragon often assumes a humanoid from, usually appearing as a kindly old human or a comely young elf, and spends most of its time in that form. Silver dragons do so to more readily associate with humanoids.
Courtship Ideals
Courtship and mating among silver dragons is always a civilized and decorous affair. They always seek mates outside their own clan—mating within the clan is a serious taboo. Either sex can initiate courtship. Once a courtship is completed, one of the pair leaves its clan and joins the mate’s clan. Usually, the younger dragon or the dragon of lower status is the one to change clans, but this is not always so.
Relationship Ideals
When two silver dragons agree to be mates, they seek the approval of the seniors from both clans. The approval is largely ceremonial, and is rarely withheld (never without good reason). Many silver dragons mate for life, but not all do so.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Silver dragons are extremely rare and elusive, preferring to take the guise of kind and elderly humanoids or fair and very attractive young humanoids. Silver dragons believe themselves to be superior to most other beings, just as other kinds of dragons do. Unlike other dragons, however, silvers believe that being a dragon imposes some limitations. Many of these are practical in nature, such as their massive size and the huge living space requirements that go along with it.
Some scholars maintain that silver dragons prefer the company of humans or elves to that of other silver dragons. They very much like to associate with these races, not necessarily because they prefer their company over other races, but because they try to learn from the shorter-lived humans. What concerns silver dragons the most is the draconic sense of time. They’re happy to live more than 2,000 years, but they constantly fight their tendency to reflect on things and let opportunities pass them by. They understand that short-lived races such as humans must seize every opportunity that comes their way, which gives them a drive toward accomplishment that most dragons lack. Silver dragons seek to couple their own long perspective on the world with humanity’s dynamism. It’s a lesson silver dragons believe other dragons would do well to learn.
Silver dragons hate injustice and cruelty and will attempt to right an injustice if they see one, but they have no inclination to intentionally seek evil and destroy it. Unlike the gold or bronze dragon, the silver dragon does not usually go out of its way to bring justice to the world. They cheerfully assist good creatures in genuine need, but usually avoid interfering with other creatures. Instead, they wait until their assistance is requested or until inaction would allow something evil to come to pass. They concern themselves less with punishing or rooting out evildoers than with protecting the innocent and healing their hurts. They are more interested in protecting the humans or elves they have come to care for. Like most metallic dragons, silvers do not enjoy combat, and are averse to killing. If forced to fight, however, they are as deadly as any other dragon.
Most silvers form loosely knit family units or group together in "clans," a loose organization of dragons who choose to live together as a family with a matriarch or patriarch (called the “senior”) presiding. Clans take communal responsibility for protecting and raising their wyrmlings. Though the senior may act as a leader, no true leader actually exists. Silver dragons do not feel the need for a strict social structure, since they are most content to live as honestly as possible. The senior gives advice, settles disputes, and coordinates any actions the clan might take as a group. A clan of silver dragons can be spread over an entire continent, with the individual dragons in it establishing their own lairs and otherwise going about their business. Individual silver dragons might go for decades without associating directly with other clan members, but the clan takes care of its own and is always available to provide support or advice.
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
Though lawful and good, silver dragons have no great love for hierarchies and formal authority. They believe that living a moral life involves doing good deeds and taking no actions that bring undeserved harm to other beings. Actions that cause no harm are not their business. Silver dragons are hardly pacifists, however, and they are quick to battle other beings who would do evil or harm the innocent. They usually do not take it upon themselves to root out evil, as gold and bronze dragons tend to do. Silver dragons find that, in time, evil tends to make itself felt almost everywhere, and they seek to stamp it out whenever it appears in their vicinity. Should they discover widespread evil looming over the land, however, they are both willing and able to locate its source and tackle it there.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Silver dragons are natural enemies of red dragons, because these chromatic dragons are almost always evil and have a talent for destruction. They consider the formidable reds to be the worthiest of adversaries. Silver dragons despise red dragons for their love of carnage and penchant for destruction. In return, red dragons, which hate anything that has the potential to match or better them, kill silvers indiscriminately. Duels between the two varieties are furious and deadly, but silver dragons generally get the upper hand, usually by working together against their foes, and often by accepting assistance from nondragons. Silvers and Reds favour the same sort of mountainous terrain for lairs, which leads to territorial disputes on top of having attitudes and philosophies at odds with the others'.
Silver dragons also favour similar terrain to white dragons. When a white dragon catches wind of a silver, it stays out of the way.
Silver dragons admire civilized races, particularly individuals that have noble or heroic backgrounds. Silvers commonly associate with dwarves and dragonborn. In the Elemental Chaos, silvers ally with azers and djinns. When a silver dragon wants to observe a lesser creature, it keeps its distance. A few silvers perform rituals to disguise themselves so they can walk among creatures of interest.
Many silver dragons leave their clans for long periods of time to live among nondragons. A silver dragon living among nondragons often develops strong attachments to its nondragon companions. When such a companion earns the dragon’s trust, the dragon maintains the relationship for as long as the companion lives, and may pick up the relationship with the companion’s descendants. As members of the family die, the silver dragon, grieved by the loss, often chooses to stay with the family, remaining a true and loyal friend and champion through many generations. If the dragon feels comfortable enough around these nondragons, it might even decide to reveal its true self. A silver dragon always eventually reveals its true nature to a trusted companion. This honesty relieves any pangs of conscience the dragon may have about deceiving its companions. It also prevents any awkwardness that may develop if the dragon has to ask some special favor of a companion, such as taking care of the dragon’s abode while it embarks on some venture that might take decades to complete.
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