Dragons

Dragons are powerful super predators with the intellect to match although their slow metabolism and long lifespans makes them slow to act and slow to reach decisions and must rouse themselves into action before they can unleash their full strength. A settlement may pass two harvests and begin expansion before the local dragon informs them that they are infringing on its domain, often by torching the buildings and fields before devouring enough settlers to satisfy its expenditure of effort and returning to its lair.

A typical healthy dragon may take a week or more to pull itself from its hibernation, usually around some source of heat like sunlight or a steam geyser or magma pool. It will begin by stretching and sharpening its claws on stone or trees, after a day or two of this it will have reached an activity level that allows it to walk around without issue but its wings will still be weak and its dragon breath inactive. Finally after a week or so it will be able to fly and hunt effectively, gathering prey and enough food to survive it's next hibernation and check its territory for signs of invasion before returning to its lair and returning to hibernation.

Dragons can rouse themselves quickly from slumber to defend themselves from attackers or threats but this has several bad side effects for the dragon; the rapid movement of loosened muscles causes tearing that takes a long time to heal, the instant activation of it's secondary gizzard to use it's dragons breath causes the organ to infalte with blood to a painful degree and can lead to rupture once the blood pressure drops and the cappilries collapse incorrectly, this massive exsertion also causes widespread micro-damage to the heart, lungs and bloodvessels shortening it's lifespan.

Living a long time, some reach nearly 600 years before their loss of ability leads to a rival or enemy to strike them down. Usually an old dragon will find it takes much longer to rouse itself into action, progressing to the loss of its sight and its scales softening, teeth fail to replace themselves and finally its wings stiffen such that it cannot fly, a dragons final affliction is usually clotting of the blood which leads to the death of the creature.

Dragons breed rarely, often only three or four times in their long lifetimes although the females will lay a clutch of between ten and forty regardless of fertilisation every few years. As there is no season of breeding; dragons who wish to do so must invade other dragons territories to discover the identity of its owner, their gender and if they are receptive to breeding. This is quite dangerous and is the primary reason dragons may come into conflict.

Childhood for dragons is difficult, the father is long gone when the children are born and the mother only stays around long enough for the strongest whelp to eat its first meal, this shows that at least one will likely survive, and the mother then leaves them to survive on their own. The young whelps will then disperse and attempt to survive in their mothers territory until they reach their second year at which point they are called fledglings and fly away to find their own territory, often by this time the brood has been reduced to only one or two due to the challenges of survival.

They don't get along well with other races for the most part, dragon’s faces are nearly immobile so emotion is mostly hidden. They cannot speak most languages and the draconic language is very regional with many mutations, the most common language for a dragon to use with others is orcish or old dwarven as these mostly work with the indelicate tongue of the dragons.

Red Dragon
The most aggresive dragon to be found, these scarlet predators usually dig deep burrows inside existing caverns until they reach a depth where the stone is warm to the touch laying claim to the surrounding cave system and it's exits. Apart from their red scales which are as hard as good bronze and can turn aside most weapons at a glancing hit, they have very large claws on their forelegs and a large flat tail that ends in a squared fashion.

Blue Dragon
These dragons are only found high in the moutains of the world and hibernate through winter completely, they are the largest dragons known at nearly 35 ft. in length from nose to tail tip and their huge wings are nearly as wide at 30 ft. on average. Blue dragons dig their homes into snow, often causing avalanches to gather more snow in one area to do so, and then allow the burrow to be covered with fresh snow before moving in to the now insulated interior. Blue dragons are hard to spot flying as they frequently glide very high in the air and their mostly static form and sky blue scales are hard to pick out from such a height, otherwise they are spotted easily basking during the summer on cliffsides.

Yellow Dragon
Commonly found basking along beaches these smaller dragons are the most placid of their kind and their territories often overlap slightly with other yellow dragons, depending on the coastline, without confrontation for the most part. They make their burrows in the air filled spaces of underwater caves but unlike other dragons they spend most of their time out of their burrow basking on the nearby shorelines throughout solarn and only retreat to their burrows when the weather turns colder.

Green Dragon
The most common dragon thanks to it's adaptability; green dragons can live in forests, caves, swamps and even open plains. The most animalistic of it's kin, these dragons rarely even speak draconic as they live a life of savagery with little diplomacy with their neighbours and a kill on sight attitude to anything not a dragon. They are lithe with small claws and a stub of a tail but their large mouths filled with venomous fangs are their weapon of choice. They make their homes dug deeply into sulferous swamps, into the side of steam geysers or mud packed root caves, anywhere they can hide while keeping themselves warm.

Iron Dragon
Revered and feared the iron dragon is a dull grey but it's scales are huge, thick and as hard as any iron sword. These powerful dragons live in the deepest caves and are mostly blind, their small black eyes almost covered with the thick iron plating along it's brow, they don't need this sight though as their sense of smell and ability to sense heat sources even at very long distances if hot enough make them almost impossible to evade notice from. Their wings are heavily modified and stand as two front facing blades with backward facing joints alowing the dragon to claw, bite and slash foes in front of it and even skewer them with their wings up to 20 ft.away, thought this leaves them flightless. Their large front and rear claws can cleave through stone with ease.

Copper Dragon
Copper dragons are perhaps the most familiar dragon to more civilised races as copper dragons make their homes inside mountain caverns and come into contact with other races quite often due to this from explorers to settlers or travelling merchants. Any who venture into the mountain interior to travel will likely pass through several copper dragon terrirories. Copper dragons have little ability to burrow but they can leap and fly with ease despite their weight thanks to their overdeveloped muscles, this along with their large fanning tail allows them to soar through the still air of the large caverns with aerodynamic hypermanuverability.

Leaf Dragon
A flightless dragon only found in the southern forests, it has the claw like wings of the iron dragon but the large, hard scales are an iridescent green. It's body is longer than it's kin with powerful grasping claws, it uses these to make it's home high in the green canopies of the skywood trees of the southern forests where it can bask away from prying eyes with it's only threats from aerial foes, of which it is the apex predator for the most part.

Purple Dragon
These rare dragons make their homes in mountainous areas in caves and use their powerful flight to lay claim to wide territories. With their vivid purple scales they can't hide easily but their aggresive temperment offsets this, along with their ability to quickly raise their body to respond to attack. These dragons can rouse themselves from hibernation very quickly getting a standard recovery in only a few days and a quick recovery in a matter of seconds with fewer negative side effects.