Dragons

Beings of superior power who can shift between humanoid form and a traditional large scaly reptilian form capable of flight. The humanoid form of dragons appears to run the full gamut of the race, some appearing as dwarfs, gnomes, elfs, and humans. The humanoid form is always peculiarly marked by eye pupils which are attuned to the color of the dragon.

Dragons are beings of great magic, originally engineered by the Elder Gods. Each color of dragon represents a form of magic. Gold represents the divine schools of magic, Red the infernal, Blue the arcane, and Green the fae.

Dragons come in three forms. At base, they are all beings of great power and many can wield magics outside of their specialization at a level superior to many mortal casters. As dragons mature to the second stage, they pick one of the four schools of magic and take on that color. The transition is visible in their physical features.

The third form of draconic existence is the elevated. Currently, the only elevated colors known are Silver and Black. A dragon is elevated to the third form when a god formally invests them with a particular measure of their power and favor. This is spoken of in terms which appear to make it similar to the characteristics of paladins which keep ascended entities grounds.

The Silver color is the elevation of a dragon of the divine school. Black is the color of elevation of those connected to the infernal school. It is understood that other schools could be elevated if the relevant patron god were so inclined, but Naiya's inattentiveness combines with her inclination to invest in avatars who are her own children like dryads, kitsune, and valkeries, make the elevation of a green dragon highly unlikely and it is unknown what color such an elevation would take. There is no known patron of the arcane to make such an elevation for blue dragons.

Elevating dragons has proven to a strategy of spotty success for gods. Scyllith was a pioneer of the technique but apparently abandoned it some 2000 years before her fall. Scyllith abandoned the technique of elevating dragon champions after her last champion, Belosiphon tinkered with forces beyond his control and became tainted by chaos. Scyllith was obliged to recruit an alliance of dragons of all colors to hunt and end Belosiphon. Ellial, once enshrined as the ruler of Hell following her ouster of Scyllith, also experiment with elevating her own black dragons, however the experiment was a failure and has not been repeated in the last 800 years.

Dragons are a small community. They are normally quite solitary creatures vis-à-vis their own kind, preferring their own color even when they must interact. Dragons are an entirely male species which scholars believe was a population control bred into them by the Elder gods. Dragons mate with humanoid females by unusual means, which are colloquially insinuated to be through anal intercourse. In terms of mate choice, Dragons prefer female of youth, vitality, beauty, and most of all strong spirit and ability.

Dragons, all Dragons, maintain a sharp respect and fatherly affection for all dragon-kin even the mortal off-spring of those who do mate with dragons. Dragons will respect dragon-kin of other Dragons even if not related to themselves. Although this respect is suspended or abandoned in the face of attack by the protected party.

Dragons do, habitually, maintain lairs with which they hoard treasures of value to them. It appears that the contents of a dragon's hoard, while always valuable, reflects the personality and taste of the individual dragon. Some chose to populate their lair with art, statuary, or powerful or valuable artifacts rather than the stereotype of gold and jewels. Dragons do try and keep their lairs away from other dragon lairs. It appears that they do prefer to have their lair and hoard in mountainous surrounds.

Dragons are capable of incredibly fast flight, even crossing over the horizon in mere seconds. However they normally approach each other, or other entities of power worthy of respect, by zig-zagging to make their approach slow and obvious.

Although individual dragons have their own taste, their does appear to be a mainstream of value preferences and taste among them. For example, Zanzayed the Blue is regarded as particularly self-indulgent. In like turn draconic norms such as monogamy, can provoke a sharp disdain from their fellows if broken, such as the reaction to Khadizroth's breeding plan. All Dragons do maintain a strong sense of honor and a sense of decorum, although they may individually disagree on what the demands of honor and decorum dictate in a particular situation.

Dragons are normally reticent from participating in mortal societies, the more reclusive doing so only to seek mates. Even the more social of them still maintain strong instincts toward their lair.

There are only 18 or so dragons left on the continent in which Tiraas is situated and roughly a hundred or so world-wide. In the latter half of the series they form a government and open an embassy and formal diplomatic relations with the Tirasian Empire.