Dragon

What is a dragon exactly? Well in brief, it's a monsterous creature, usually comparable in size to a large truck (though older ones are more comparable to buildings). They're covered in scales, have massive wings, horns, and they breathe fire. Some would describe them as a furnace with wings. Either way, they're among the deadliest of super naturals you can find. They combine the shear brutality of a werewolf with the age of a vampire.
Still, dragons are rarely seen. They are largely believed to be nothing but myths. So few have been seen. Even when one does appear, they're written off as being nothing more than a publicity stunt, a very incredible prop, a machine. They value their secrecy like no other creatures. After being hunted for centuries, they've just disappeared from the world.
And they're shapeshifters. Modern dragons? They go around in human form. Good luck finding them.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Dragons have two forms: their human form, and their dragon form. The human form is an exactly normal human. Their biggest stand-out feature is that in human form, they can still breathe fire. Their core body temperature is extremely high. Their external temperature is elevated, but often reads as a fever to most observers. They achieve their human form using magic, it's not something their species could natively do. When they shift, they convert from one form to another, plus a lot of magical energy. Their human bodies are slightly more durable than a human. They can survive massive drops with little consequence.
As a dragon... they're massive beasts. Most are big enough to straddle semi-trucks. They're scaley, four-legged, with claws, wings, horns, and all. Most of their organs fall along near-mammal patterns, plus a few extra, a few glands for creating fire for example. Their bodies are immensely powerful, with raw musculature in line with their size, like being around dinosaurs. Even a young dragon is able to flip a car over with ease. Bigger dragons can carry and throw vehicles. Their claws are excellent at tearing into and picking apart brick structures, or shattering concrete.
The biggest thing in dragons' favor are their thick scales and their body mass. It takes time to bring one down. You need to get past their scales with high caliber weapons, and score a killing shot. Get bullets into their brain, take out their heart, and so on.
They have above-human healing, but it's not magical in the way werewolf and wendigo healing is. Their broken bones need to be set, shifting while a bullet is still in them is risky and may cause further injury, and it's not uncommon for a dragon to need surgery after being heavily wounded. It's not as big a deal to a dragon to be in surgery, they do have that better healing factor, BUT it's still more than other super naturals. They cannot regrow limbs on their own, though magic can help to do it.

Genetics and Reproduction

Dragons reproduce by laying eggs. It's a simple enough process. The eggs have a fairly long gestation period, needing several months until they're ready to be laid. Once they're ready, the eggs will require several months until they're able to hatch. Typically, a mother will lay between 1 and 4 eggs at a time. More recently nest sizes have been smaller, producing 2 or fewer eggs. While pregnant, a dragon cannot return to their human form without terminating the pregnancy. As such, dragons who do become pregnant must take extensive precautions to ensure they will not be located or harmed during the term of their pregnancy.

Growth Rate & Stages

Dragons have a far slower rate of growth than humans. A 10 year old hatchling will have the human-form of a 5 year old and about the mental development of a 7 year old. This slowed growth is a part of their longer life spans. A dragon appearing to be a teenager would perhaps be in their late 20s to early 30s. Their rate of growth will slow even further as they age, seeming to come to a standstill when they appear to be in their mid-20s. Their dragon form however, will continue to mature and grow. An early adult-stage dragon will be able to straddle a truck. Their growth will proceed slowly for the next several hundred years, topping out at building-sized near the end of a millenia.
Younger dragons are trained to blend in with humans, maintain their secrecy, and eventually given some measure of freedom to explore the world and get to know humanity directly. This is their integration practice. After they've been through integration training, they're expected to move into a career-track that will benefit the species at large.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Dragons are ravenous, even in human form. They need to consume an immense amount of food daily to stay healthy. Younger dragons will survive on a comparable human feast. Older dragons will need to consume essentially entire cows to survive. Luckily, humans have become exceptionally skilled at packing a LOT of calories into a small amount of food. Many dragons have taken to using specialy made calorie-supplements that will provide for their needs in less time.

Additional Information

Social Structure

The Dragons of the world are united in a pseudo-organization, the [Alliance]. The organization arranges for the protection and long-term goals of dragon survival. They manage things around hatchlings, looking out for any emergence of dragon hunters, and arrange for the careers and development of their hatchlings. Most dragons attempt to cultivate professional, business-relations between each other, hoping to scale the 'ladder' of the organization. Due to their extremely small population, most dragons tend to use humans as their main area of social interaction. It's rare for more than two dragons to be together at once, a necessity of preservation. Even then, such meetings are often strictly for business and other important matters.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

For centuries, humans have captured and even killed dragons to use them for magic and spellcraft. The various organs and parts of a dragon are incredibly powerful when used for spells and potions. In the past, capturing a large number of dragons would provide the magic for a world-ending cataclysm. Some events of ancient destruction are blamed on dragons or spellcasters using dragons. The exect breadth of this is lost to history, nothing more than myth at this point. Some postulate that a few hurricanes were created using dragon-based magic.

Average Intelligence

As dragons mature, they develop an exceptionally sharp intelligence. Over their centuries of life, they're able to obtain and make use of vast experiences. They're better thinkers and planners than vampires. Where Vampires are humans that have simply been made to live long lives, Dragons were born to their long lives. Their brains are literally better adapted to processing the knowledge they learn and retain. Some of the sharpest minds in history have been dragons. There are rumors that Warner von Braun was in fact, a dragon or working closely with one.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Dragons have a dulled sense of touch in their dragon form, their eye sight is more farsighted than humans, and their sense of hearing is often slightly weaker than humans. It's all consequences of their immense size. They're generally more interested in things farther away, as fliers, zipping in to attack or breathe fire on something. Consequently, they have less need to worry about things close up. They can see a person just fine, but of course, text in human books is going to be illegible in their draconic form. Likewise, they have less need for sensitive hearing, their own voices are loud and powerful. They don't need to hunt mice or rabbits, it's a trait their species need never be concerned with.
In their human form, their senses sharpen to human levels. Their eyes have better near focus, their skin is sensitive, their hearing normal. This allows them to do all the things humans do. They can eat, read, and so on. There's little they can't do that's considered normal.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Most dragons have a semi-symbiotic existence with humans. They will take a few into their care, these humans are treated somewhere between pets and servants. They will be exceptionally well cared for, well looked after. In exchange, they expect their humans to obey them and take care of meanial tasks. This can be things like arranging phone calls, logistics of food, and providing guard duty to more close, affectionate interactions. They can survive without their humans, but life is easier when you have a few lackies who can do the little things. A few even have humans read to them in their dragon forms so they don't have to shift to do their reading. Hatchlings are often cared for and attended to by humans.

Civilization and Culture

Beauty Ideals

Dragons consider shinier scales a certain slim, almost cat-like figure to be the peak of beauty. They love the idea of a sleek, but powerful dragon. There's an even greater lover for healthy looking scales, that cast reflections across the room, even in dim light. It's a very difficult level of beauty to attain for a dragon. Most have shiny scales, but exceptionally few can achieve that gem-like sheen. The artists dragons have worked with have created two groups of beauty in their works that showcase draconic beauty: dark and mysterous, and the incredibly bright and vibrant. They've painted black dragons emerging from the shadows in wonderful, subtle tones, then turned around to catch a bright, flaming-red dragon sparkling in front of a window and lighting a room with her brilliance. Consequently, colors that are duller, but not dark, bright but not blazingly sparkling are less attractive.

Courtship Ideals

Courting for a dragon, at least, between dragons, is a decades, even centuries long process. They'll meet, patiently enjoy each others' company, however rare it is over the centuries, and slowly grow closer together. Most dragons mate until one has died, essentially for life. The grief felt after one passes can be fatal. They're exceptionally careful who they will mate with, for fear of what may happen should their pairing prove less than ideal.
Courting with humans however, is far different. Although a dragon would likely never consider a human to be their mate in the truest sense of the word, they do get close to humans. A lifelong, deep, and patient lover if they do fall for someone. They'll burry their lovers in affections, be exceptionally protective of them, and reluctant to let them go. Typically, a dragon will remain with a human, or a chosen group of humans, for the duration of their lives. It helps to stave off the loneliness and isolation they experience.

Average Technological Level

The Alliance has perfected the merging of science and magic. They're not capable of the same super-science as The Lab, they couldn't build the shuttles or the mech suits. They could however, use magic to enhance weapons, shape diseases, and alter the natural world. It's a strange form of advancement, where their technology isn't constrained by the laws of physics as humans understand them, but at the same time, they're not necessarily able to perform feats of nearly impossible science either. There's trade offs to their advancements, things they understand and things they don't.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Dragons' scales come in a wide range of colors. Some are known to have 2-3 colors, though their patterns are very subtle. The most vibrant color differences tend to be nothing more than subtle shifts in the saturation of the scales across their body. A few younger dragons have taken to dying their scales to have brighter and wilder colors. This is frowned upon by elder dragons.