Red/Flame Dragons

Basic Information

Anatomy

Red dragons have two massive horns that sweep back atop their heads, which can be straight or twisted and vary in color from bone white to night black. Rows of small horns run along the top of their heads, cheeks, and lower jaws. Their snouts are beaked with small noses and chin horns, and their tongues are forked, with flames often dancing in their nostrils and eye sockets when they are angry.

As they age, their fringed ears merge with the cheek horns. Their teeth protrude when their mouths are closed, and a single backswept frill runs from behind their heads to the tips of their tails. The scales of wyrmlings are bright glossy scarlet, turning deeper red and duller with age. Older dragons have large, thick scales as strong as metal. The pupils of their eyes fade with age, resembling molten lava orbs in the oldest dragons.

They emit an odor of sulfur and pumice, and the air around them sometimes shimmers like a heat mirage. Their wings are the longest of all chromatic dragons, with a bluish or blue-black tint along the trailing edge, and are vast in proportion to their bodies.

Growth Rate & Stages

When red dragons hatch, their small scales are bright glossy scarlet, making them easily spotted by predators and hunters. They are hidden in deep underground lairs and not permitted to venture outside until their scales turn a deeper red with a smooth, dull finish, and they become more self-sufficient. As they continue to age, their scales become large, thick, and as strong as metal.

Red dragons are considered wyrmlings until about 8 years old, young until about 200, attain elder status around 950, and become ancient around 1,900. The oldest known red dragon reached approximately 2,500 years.

Ecology and Habitats

Red dragons prefer mountainous regions, hilly areas, badlands, desert mesas, and other high locales. They favor elevated and hot locations like volcanoes or sulfurous geysers but can adapt to normal mountain peaks and snow-capped peaks. They lair in large caves extending deep into the earth, often with volcanic or geothermal activity. They prefer high vantage points for surveying their territory and feel safer sleeping and storing their treasure beneath layers of rock.

Red dragons frequently take over caverns dug by other races or enslave people to construct or modify their lairs. They often conflict with silver dragons, copper dragons, and occasionally purple dragons, and they hate gold dragons above all else.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Red dragons are meat-eaters, preferring human or elf youth, especially young women. They hate to eat anything else and may starve themselves rather than consume plants or inorganic matter. They eat any animals, including other dragons—the younger, the better. They force villagers to sacrifice maidens or hunt themselves and are capable of digesting almost anything.

Behaviour

Red dragons are rapacious, ferocious, vengeful, avaricious, and exceptionally vain. They are arrogant, seeing themselves as the pinnacle of draconic perfection. They never forgive even the smallest slights and kill over territorial intrusion, theft, or insults. They are obsessive collectors of treasure, knowing the exact value and location of each item in their hoard.

They are fiercely territorial and solitary, keeping constant watch for trespassers. They use lesser creatures as informants, messengers, and spies, often patronizing and killing them if they bring bad news. They take interest in news of the world to compare their status to other reds. Their pride is easily wounded, and they are prone to destructive rages to recover lost status. Only enormous monetary tributes or blood can sate their legendary rage.

Red dragons are confident fighters, preferring ground combat. They use their breath weapons judiciously to avoid destroying treasure and relish melee combat to showcase their superior strength. They fight to the death more than any other chromatic dragon due to their hubris and never retreat once blood is shed. They use a variety of "perfect" strategies worked out ahead of time and are born immune to fire, gaining additional powers as they age.

Courtship among red dragons is perilous, with younger dragons carefully approaching older ones. Females usually court, and younger dragons guard the eggs. They rarely fight for mates, knowing battles can be fatal.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

The frills on the sides of their heads aid in picking up sounds and determining directionality.