Dragons

Overview

Dragons are an ancient and powerful beast, and they have existed alongside the mortal races from the beginning. It is said that they were originally created to act as the steeds to the Divine, though due to their unruly nature, they defiantly scattered throughout the wilds. Dragons are -- mostly -- destructive beasts, fixated with the hunt, and domination. For this reason, they are equal parts revered and despised, for their strength and courage, and inversely the havoc they create.

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Diaspora

Dragons originated in the province of Ectahl, the capital of the Old Clockwork Empire, a land which no longer exists due to the Sundering. Ironically, however, the Sundering has acted to create a modern zenith for their kind. During the Clockwork Era, the Empire hunted Dragons ruthlessly, partaking in these hunts as a national sport, with the goal being their total extinction. This forced them to migrate throughout the world, with their spread creating a larger variety of Dragons, often based on climate and region. When the Empire met its total collapse in the face of the Sundering, Dragons managed to recover to near their pre-Imperial peak, reclaiming a great deal of land in the ruins of old provincial territories. The Dragons of today still mostly lurk the most isolated corners of civilization, avoiding the sapient races, seemingly for their own safety.

Carrying on the legacy of old is the Daravinic Empire - or the New Clockwork Empire - which still hunts dragons when they are found. For this reason they are largely absent from Central Mornoth. The areas most commonly inhabited by Dragons are those least populous, with Atharen's south and northwest their primary range of habitation.

Biology

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Reproduction

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Abilities

In general, Dragons are the most deadly animals on Atharen, and those gifted with divine abilities by the Adac - such as Black Dragons - tend to be some of the more powerful beings traversing the planes. While many Dragons belong to some subtype or other, there are abilities innate and universal to all of them, which will be detailed here.

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Subtypes

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Fume Dragons

Fume Dragons (or Vögdrachen) are a Tier 5 Dragon. They are often called Red Dragons due to their brick-like color, and their use of their fiery breath as their main weapon. Fume Dragons are incredibly fast, and are poor physical fighters compared to other Drakes, who tend to be larger than them. They make up for this with their sweeping speeds and the vast damage they can cause with their breath, as well as their excellent ability to evade. Their wings are proportionately much larger as compared to their body than with other Dragons, explaining their speed and agility. Fume Dragons were previously most common in Daravin, but have migrated west over time as a result of the hunts.

Tundra Dragons

Tundra Dragons (or Mürdonir) are a Tier 6 Dragon primarily found in the Kingdom of Lorien, though they are a critically endangered species due to the Kindred. Like Von Rabe, the Mürdonir originally came from a plane of pure frost, created by Venadak long ago and for inexplicable reasons. Also like him and his Kindred brethren, they flooded into Atharen thousands of years ago through a great portal, settling the world's wintry northeast. While originally the Kindred and the Dragons were ambivalent to one another, the events leading to the destruction of House Reizend put them at odds with one another.

Unlike most Dragons, Mürdonir are not violent, instead tending to act fairly benevolently to the sapient races. They were known to serve as mounts for the Kings of Lorien, and fought against the Kindred when they first emerged. However, this has - over time - resulted in their near extinction, as the Kingdom's institutional power fails to protect them from the roving birds which hunt them in packs, often alongside members of the Order.

Mürdonir are dragons covered in a fine, but densely plated layer of ice armor. They are incredibly adept fighters, wielding their long tails like spears that they can rapidly thrust and rebuke attacks with. They are also capable of wielding immense, glacial powers that appear almost like magic, creating powerful blizzards and forcing avalanches to run across flat surfaces by compiling and manipulating snow. Their breath is known to be precise and rapid in meeting its destination, able to freeze and brittle even advanced walls within a few blinks of time. As such even a multitude of Kindred struggle in facing them, yet through hundreds of years their numbers have waned to near-nothing, and the remaining few reside in the Graaf-Reinet mountains, awaiting their fate.

Brass Dragons

Brass Dragons (or Brondrachen) are among the upper echelon of Atharen's animal Drakes, those not created by individual Gods to serve some purpose. They are Tier 6 beasts, and are known for their intellect and stunning ability to outmaneuver and deceive. Considering they are among the most intelligent of Dragons on Atharen, they have learned to harness World Magic. Brass Dragons are particularly fond of the magic of Artifice, the source of their name, and frequently use it to augment themselves with mechanical limbs or armor plating. They are also known to design golems, filling their lairs with strange, often useless automatons. Almost all adult Brondrachen are fully plated in dense copper-colored armor, and they typically sculpt and empower their wings with similar techniques to make them more durable and capable of sustaining greater speeds. Considering they are not afraid to flee and repair themselves if damaged, they are incredibly difficult to kill, though due to their reclusive nature they are low in number. They typically live in mountainous caves, and can be found in virtually all of Atharen's mountain ranges save for in Lorien.

Blood Dragons

Blood Dragons (or Viledrachen) are Tier 6 beasts, created by the Imprisoned God Valteran to serve him in the Endless War. They are beings of pure blood, much like Ascended Blood Mages. For this reason, their shape can be somewhat amorphous, and their appearance draws no shortage of disgust from onlookers. They are capable of manipulating blood to an exceptional degree, and are known to effectively reanimate their fallen foes by turning their blood into a fully functioning entity, an automaton of theirs capable of suspending itself and fighting viciously. Blood Dragons wield their breath as their primary weapon, acting as a bloody projectile vomit that tends to come out in massive, burst-like quantities rather than a sustained stream. This build-up of vomit is extremely acidic, able to melt almost any material it comes into contact with in mere moments. The rest of their body does not have this trait, making mounting or damaging them feasible, though their liquid and amorphous forms are difficult to damage conventionally. As is to be expected, Blood Dragons primarily live in Bel.

Crystal Dragons

Crystal Dragons (or Koldrachen) are incredibly powerful creatures, but one has never been seen outside of Reverie or Muid. They are Tier 7 beasts and are responsible for the dreams and nightmares of many, their form itself a shifting gallery of blended imagery. Being that Crystal Dragons are essentially living dreams, they wield a very personal connection to mortals, and take interest in their dreamers. The most lucid dreams appear to be ones where their influence is the most tangible, though it is unknown what draws them to specific minds within Reverie.

Due to the nature of their abilities, their power is that of shaping reality itself. This means that within Reverie, they are almost invincible beings of God-like strength, as they can reform the world around any hostile force to be completely at their mercy. Thus, they serve as Kyrikain's great guardians, defending him and his realm.

Black Dragons

Black Dragons (or Nürdrachen, pictured above) are among the most powerful subtype of Dragon, considered to be Tier 7 beasts. They are the servants of the Living God Malek, and enforce his will. They are known by a few within the Black Remedy's inner circle to be the creators and distributors of Beacons, necessary to initiate others into Sigilic Pyromancy. In fact, Sigilic Pyromancy is designed after them, as they breathe natural Shrivenflame capable of obliterating spiritual beings and the undying with incredible ease. Nürdrachen are also massive, onyx colored beasts, much larger than the typical Dragon seen on Atharen.

Because of the rarity of their sightings, they are mostly anomalous. However, scholars of planar cosmology know that they are adept at traversing through the Dead Realm and are capable of consuming and harvesting miasma, as well as breathing and utilizing it for their own ends. This makes them a truly diverse and terrifying beast. Black Dragons are virtually non-existent on the mortal plane, though famously one is known to serve the Court of Dusk in Sil-Elaine, in opposition to its own creator, Malek.

Notes

• Most scholarship on Dragons is done by Lorien native scholars, and so a great deal of literature on them - including their 'academic' names (such as Brondrachens, Koldrachens, etc) - are written in the Rien dialect.
• In order to encounter, fight and especially kill a dragon, moderator approval is needed. Acquiring a dragon as a mount is virtually impossible in most circumstances, and this would require Architect-level approval. Even then, this request should be reviewed by multiple Architects before confirmation is given.
• Dopplegangers can become Dragons. They are the only Animus mages who can.