Post by CyMoahk on Apr 21, 2008 14:19:37 GMT -6
____Hatchlings are wingless, nor can they breath fire. The fire bladder usually matures within the first year, though, at which time the foua it produces will ignite on contact with the air when spat. Dragons fledge at anywhere between ten and fifteen years of age. The wings grow beneath the skin on the back along the spine; just before it is time for the dragon to fledge, the skin benath the back scales will bubble up, so that when it is finally time for the wings to emerge, the skin can be torn open relatively easily.
____Besides flying, a dragon's main style of locomotion is just walking, although they can also swim quite easily, and they can run for very short distances in what is known as a 'dragon-dash'. A dragon's sii are shorter and less muscular than the saa; the talons on the saa are like those or ordinary lizards, with a dewclaw, while those on the sii are much more like hands in their dexterity.
____Dragons have two hearts, both on their neck just behind the head. Their lungs run along their backs, under where the wings are. On a dragon's forehead and jaw are the griff, armoured fans that can be exteneded to protect the sensitive ears and throat. Males also have tough crests on thier heads, from which grow horns later in life, the number of horns quite frequently taken as a measure of health, fitness, and wisdom.
____A dragon's color depends on its gender. Males can be red, blue, silver, copper, white, broze, gold, or black, while females are commonly green, although there are white females as well. Then, there are rare cases where a dragon is born without scales, making them grey - this can happen to both males and females. It is also possible for dragons to be striped; the intensity of the stipe pattern can vary, and is much more easily seen on scaleless dragons than on scaled ones. Also, all scaled dragons must included coins and other metals in their diet (as well as gems) to keep their scales healthy, in addition to the meat they eat.
____It is in a male's instinct to remove any other males from their territory by chasing them off or killing. As such, since all eggs in a clutch hatch at basically the same time, only one male will survive the first several minutes of its life, thus becoming the 'champion' of the clutch, while any females that hatch usually survive to maturity.
____There is no convention for naming female dragons. The clutch champion, however, takes on his father's name until he breaths his first fire. His personal name will share the first syllable with his father. Then, upon fledging, the stress of the name moves from the first syllable to the second (represented in writing by capitalizing the first letter of both syllables instead of just the first).
____Dragons of both genders are considered 'hatchlings' until they breath their first fire; males are then considered 'drakes' and females 'drakkas'. (as a side note: the fire bladder does work from hatching time, it's just that the liquid it produces, though still fatty and acidic, will not ignite until the dragon matures enough for the bladder to produce real foua.) Upon fledging, males then are called 'dragons' and females 'dragonelles'.
____After a year or two, after hatchlings first breath fire, the father will chase the young drakes and drakkas out of the home cave to prepare for the next clutch. Drakka usually stay closer to home, while drakes enter a period or wanderlust, usually until they get their wings. Givenn no conflicts, dragons ar incredibly long-lived creatures.
____A traditional dragon mating occurs in flight. From takeoff, the male sings his lifelong to the female as they fly as high as they can, with the mating itself occuring aftrer, with the two locked in free fall. It is a fairly loose tradition, though, as it is not uncommon for females to prepare their own lifesong to share (as a general rule of thumb, dragons love song), nor does the mating have to occur during flight ("It's tactics, you know. Just a matter of position.... Proper? Probably not. But it'll be exciting" - the Copper, DO III)
____Unlike all the other non-hominoid species, dragons can become literate, which is fairly common for dragons who live in large societies and/or have much exposure to hominoid groups, and they also have been known to learn magic, althouh this is fairly rare (which is understandable given the dragons' creation story).
The Dragon Creation Story in a nutshell:
(you can find the whole story in chapter 3 of DC I)
____Long ago, the Sun had the Four Spirits make order of the shapeless choas, creating a world of light and a world of darkness, the Upper and Lower Worlds. The Sun then ordered two of the Spirits, Air and Water, to make creations in the Upper World to glorify Her. The Moon, jealous of the attention the Sun was getting, made his deal with the other two Spirits, Fire and Earth, to create something to eliminate the Sun's worshippers. The result was the blighters, which killed and ate many of Air's and Water's creations. The Sun grew angry and ordered an apology from the Moon, but he instead ran and hid from her and has never faced her since.
____The Sun then ordered the Four Spirits to eliminate the blighters. Instead of doing it themselves, they worked together to create the dragons, with Earth granting the armour, Air granting them flight, Water granting strength and wisdom, and Fire granting the ability to create flame. The dragons thus kept the blighters in check, to the point where dragon held a hated/worshipped position among the blighters.
____The Sun was pleased and asked who the credit for the dragons should go to. When the Spirits fell to quabbling, the Sun witheld her reward from all. Each then attempted to prove themselves the greatest of the four, reasoning that to do so, they should create something that could hunt even the dragons. Earth created the dwarves, solid as mountains and able to create tools to piece even dragonscale. Water made the elves, who age like the trees and hunt with more stealth and keen senses than even the best feline. Air made humans: wanderers, hunters, and above all, adapters. Fire took a select few from each of the other spirits' races and taught them magic.
____Unfortunately for the Spirits, their creations fell to quabbling just like they did. Still, each managed to kill its fair share or dragons, which in turn allowed the blighters to grow in number once again. The world's history has thus been that of wars between hominids and of numerous dragon slayings.
*please note that this is just the dragon's creation story. It contradicts (or just doesn't explain) other elements of the canon:
-it makes no mention of the demen
-according to elf history, the dragons came before the blighters
-in the full version, it says the wolves howl to warn of the Moon's ugly presence, while in reality the wolves praise the moon.
____Besides flying, a dragon's main style of locomotion is just walking, although they can also swim quite easily, and they can run for very short distances in what is known as a 'dragon-dash'. A dragon's sii are shorter and less muscular than the saa; the talons on the saa are like those or ordinary lizards, with a dewclaw, while those on the sii are much more like hands in their dexterity.
____Dragons have two hearts, both on their neck just behind the head. Their lungs run along their backs, under where the wings are. On a dragon's forehead and jaw are the griff, armoured fans that can be exteneded to protect the sensitive ears and throat. Males also have tough crests on thier heads, from which grow horns later in life, the number of horns quite frequently taken as a measure of health, fitness, and wisdom.
____A dragon's color depends on its gender. Males can be red, blue, silver, copper, white, broze, gold, or black, while females are commonly green, although there are white females as well. Then, there are rare cases where a dragon is born without scales, making them grey - this can happen to both males and females. It is also possible for dragons to be striped; the intensity of the stipe pattern can vary, and is much more easily seen on scaleless dragons than on scaled ones. Also, all scaled dragons must included coins and other metals in their diet (as well as gems) to keep their scales healthy, in addition to the meat they eat.
____It is in a male's instinct to remove any other males from their territory by chasing them off or killing. As such, since all eggs in a clutch hatch at basically the same time, only one male will survive the first several minutes of its life, thus becoming the 'champion' of the clutch, while any females that hatch usually survive to maturity.
____There is no convention for naming female dragons. The clutch champion, however, takes on his father's name until he breaths his first fire. His personal name will share the first syllable with his father. Then, upon fledging, the stress of the name moves from the first syllable to the second (represented in writing by capitalizing the first letter of both syllables instead of just the first).
____Dragons of both genders are considered 'hatchlings' until they breath their first fire; males are then considered 'drakes' and females 'drakkas'. (as a side note: the fire bladder does work from hatching time, it's just that the liquid it produces, though still fatty and acidic, will not ignite until the dragon matures enough for the bladder to produce real foua.) Upon fledging, males then are called 'dragons' and females 'dragonelles'.
____After a year or two, after hatchlings first breath fire, the father will chase the young drakes and drakkas out of the home cave to prepare for the next clutch. Drakka usually stay closer to home, while drakes enter a period or wanderlust, usually until they get their wings. Givenn no conflicts, dragons ar incredibly long-lived creatures.
____A traditional dragon mating occurs in flight. From takeoff, the male sings his lifelong to the female as they fly as high as they can, with the mating itself occuring aftrer, with the two locked in free fall. It is a fairly loose tradition, though, as it is not uncommon for females to prepare their own lifesong to share (as a general rule of thumb, dragons love song), nor does the mating have to occur during flight ("It's tactics, you know. Just a matter of position.... Proper? Probably not. But it'll be exciting" - the Copper, DO III)
____Unlike all the other non-hominoid species, dragons can become literate, which is fairly common for dragons who live in large societies and/or have much exposure to hominoid groups, and they also have been known to learn magic, althouh this is fairly rare (which is understandable given the dragons' creation story).
The Dragon Creation Story in a nutshell:
(you can find the whole story in chapter 3 of DC I)
____Long ago, the Sun had the Four Spirits make order of the shapeless choas, creating a world of light and a world of darkness, the Upper and Lower Worlds. The Sun then ordered two of the Spirits, Air and Water, to make creations in the Upper World to glorify Her. The Moon, jealous of the attention the Sun was getting, made his deal with the other two Spirits, Fire and Earth, to create something to eliminate the Sun's worshippers. The result was the blighters, which killed and ate many of Air's and Water's creations. The Sun grew angry and ordered an apology from the Moon, but he instead ran and hid from her and has never faced her since.
____The Sun then ordered the Four Spirits to eliminate the blighters. Instead of doing it themselves, they worked together to create the dragons, with Earth granting the armour, Air granting them flight, Water granting strength and wisdom, and Fire granting the ability to create flame. The dragons thus kept the blighters in check, to the point where dragon held a hated/worshipped position among the blighters.
____The Sun was pleased and asked who the credit for the dragons should go to. When the Spirits fell to quabbling, the Sun witheld her reward from all. Each then attempted to prove themselves the greatest of the four, reasoning that to do so, they should create something that could hunt even the dragons. Earth created the dwarves, solid as mountains and able to create tools to piece even dragonscale. Water made the elves, who age like the trees and hunt with more stealth and keen senses than even the best feline. Air made humans: wanderers, hunters, and above all, adapters. Fire took a select few from each of the other spirits' races and taught them magic.
____Unfortunately for the Spirits, their creations fell to quabbling just like they did. Still, each managed to kill its fair share or dragons, which in turn allowed the blighters to grow in number once again. The world's history has thus been that of wars between hominids and of numerous dragon slayings.
*please note that this is just the dragon's creation story. It contradicts (or just doesn't explain) other elements of the canon:
-it makes no mention of the demen
-according to elf history, the dragons came before the blighters
-in the full version, it says the wolves howl to warn of the Moon's ugly presence, while in reality the wolves praise the moon.