Dragons

Table of Contents
Home Page

Map of the Barony

Player Notes

Homebrew Elements

Sundria

Ships

Magic Academy

Gods and Metaphysics

Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales

Barony Laws

Miscellaneous Lore

General Information
Dragons come in many colors, and while different colors can interbreed, they generally don't, simply due to geography. The colors and their preferred environments are below. Some dragons are amphibious, some have almost unnatural climbing abilities, all can fly, and all have some type of breath weapon used to incapacitate or kill prey and enemies. All dragons are intelligent, at least on par with a very intelligent human, and though some will converse with humans or even occasionally ally with them, they are never quite benevolent. The length of a dragon is measured "tip to tail," which refers to the tip of the snout all the way to the end of the tail. A dragon's tail accounts for about one-third of its overall length.
 * Black dragons live in swamps, bogs, and other very humid areas with dense foliage. Their breath weapon is acid. Black dragon scales tend to be soft and pliable, and are most suited for being made into armor.
 * Blue dragons live in coastal caves, islands, and other rocky areas near large bodies of water. Their breath weapon is lightning. Blue dragons are notoriously hard to kill, especially in their lairs or in the water, so their scales are prized almost as highly as precious gems.
 * Gold dragons live in deserts, wastelands, or other dry, hot, isolated areas. Their breath weapon is fire. Gold dragons (like silver dragons) can actually be talked to and reasoned with, to some extent, and there are lots of stories about a person venturing into the desert to seek the counsel of a wise and ancient gold dragon.
 * Green dragons live in forests, hills, and other temperate areas with lots of camouflage. Their breath weapon is poison. Green dragons tend to reproduce slightly faster than other dragon types, and they are also the smallest; even an ancient green dragon rarely grows past twenty feet in length.
 * Red dragons live in caves underground or in the bellies of mountains. Their breath weapon is fire. Red dragons have a unique fondness for gold, gems, treasures, and other forms of material wealth, and are the source of most legends about "dragon hoards."
 * Silver dragons live on snowy peaks. Their breath weapon is cold. They are distinguished from white dragons by their preference for high altitudes and their relatively smaller size. Silver dragons (like gold dragons) can actually be talked to and reasoned with, to some extent, and there are lots of stories about a person climbing a mountain to receive advice from a wise and ancient silver dragon.
 * White dragons live in arctic regions. Their breath weapon is cold. They are distinguished from silver dragons by their reluctance to live at high altitudes and their relatively larger size.

Not Dragons
Wyverns, Wyrms, Dragon Turtles, Pseudodragons, Salamanders, and Faerie Dragons, despite similarities in name and/or physiology, are not dragons. Wyverns are similar creatures that lack forelegs, are born with wings, and only ever get to be about fifteen feet in length. Wyrms are legless and wingless tunneling creatures, and while they have a breath weapon (acid), it is almost entirely used to burrow through the ground and digest rock and soil. Dragon turtles are mythical creatures the size of islands, that supposedly roam the seas, granting advice, treasure, or even wishes, depending on the legend. Pseudodragons resemble tiny (rat-sized) Red dragons, but are actually magical constructs and not strictly "living things" at all, at least in the biological/evolutionary sense. Salamanders are big fire-breathing lizards, but they come from the Plane of Fire, not from the Material Plane. They are elementals, not creatures in the usual sense, and thus have no relation to dragons at all. No one is quite sure what Faerie Dragons are or where they come from, but they differ from "real" dragons in several important ways: they only ever reach the size of cats, they are fae or related to the fae and thus cannot die from natural causes, and cycle through colors of the rainbow as they age, spending every 25 years or so as a different color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and back to red again. Faerie Dragons, like other fae, are tricksters, and though they can be enticed with gold and gems to perform favors or act as guides, they are quick to wrath and will betray their "masters" for even the slightest insult, real or perceived.

Life Cycle
The dragon's life cycle can be divided into 6 defined stages of growth.

First is the egg. Dragon eggs match the color of the female dragon who laid them, but always take the color of the male parent. They are roughly basketball-sized, and weigh about 25 pounds. Dragon eggshells are said to be more like leather than rock, but all the same there are rumors that geodes are dead dragon eggs. Dragon eggs can stay dormant for very long periods of time without dying, and only hatch when repeatedly exposed to elemental damage of their mother's type.

Next is the young drake. Drakes are wingless, like extremely large lizards, with four legs and a long, thick tail. They are born about a yard in length, and quickly grow to about horse-size, at which point they are considered spitting drakes, which have, as the name implies, a breath weapon. Once they gain their breath weapon their ability to hunt grows exponentially, and dragons that are not exterminated before this point are much harder to kill. Once they grow to about fifteen feet in length, they begin to grow wings. Once the wings are fully formed, the drake is referred to as a winged drake (or young dragon), which, with its breath weapon and the ability to fly, is beyond the ability of most people to kill without hiring a specialist.

Once a young dragon is old enough -- and intelligent enough -- to recognize the need for discretion, it finds a lair and begins to shape it to its liking, driving out any competitors and often altering the landscape. It is at this point that a red dragon will begin to collect gold and other wealth to start building its hoard. This is also the point at which a female dragon will begin to lay eggs.

When a dragon is about 100 years old, it reaches its maximum size and is considered an adult dragon. An adult dragon is nigh impossible to kill, and many of the great heroic stories are about a person, or group of people, who set out to slay a dragon. Red dragons and black dragons are usually the most targeted, since the former has collected a hoard of wealth and the latter's scales can be made into armor.

When a dragon becomes very old (about 500 years old), it is considered to be an ancient dragon, and is no longer able to lay or fertilize eggs. Its color also changes, and its scales, which were monotone and bright before, take on a sort of pearlescent, almost reflective quality that is highly sought after for collectors, armor makers, and spellcasters. Despite this demand, and the occasional appearance of ancient dragon scales in the hands of wealthy collectors or on various black markets, there is no 100% confirmed account of an ancient dragon being killed. It is not known how old a dragon must be to die of natural causes.

History and Current Status
Outside of a few isolated reports of drakes, or alleged dragon eggs popping up on the black market, there haven't been very many signs of dragons within the last several hundred years. Dragons were hunted for many reasons, like harvesting magical components, slaying them for fame and fortune and fun, civilizing the wilderness, and retaliating for lost livestock. Dragon-hunting became a lively industry, and populations plummeted.

It's presumed that this incessant hunting of dragons, especially the relatively easy to kill drakes, has resulted in such a severe reduction in the amount of younger dragons that the remaining dragons are old to ancient, which is tantamount to no dragons at all, or at least vastly fewer numbers. Ancient dragons can't lay eggs, and adult dragons are smart enough not to lay eggs where they would just be hunted down if hatched, so the current consensus is that the age of dragons is essentially over. Any remaining dragons would have become ancient by now, and thus past egg-laying age.

Some of the more remote and inaccessible places in the world undoubtedly still contain dragons, but eventually even these hidden places will be settled, and dragons will finally die out for good. In and near the Barony, which is one of the most advanced civilizations, there are only a few places where dragons may still eke out a living on the outskirts of civilization, especially in the Barony's southern reaches, which are far less settled than the peninsula between Sundria and Nurven.

Possible Dragon Lairs in the Barony

 * Black in the swamps near Vendris. Although this region has a trade river running through it, there are still areas that are not fully mapped, and whenever a shipment using that river goes missing, it is invariably blamed on "the Black."
 * Blue on the coast south of King's Harbor. This coastline is almost completely composed of sea cliffs and sea caves, which is precisely the sort of place you would find a blue dragon.
 * Gold in the magical wasteland south of Clifton. The vast majority of the Wastes are totally unmapped, and a great deal of it is still completely unexplored except by the most foolhardy of adventurers. The Great Desert to the north of the Barony is a possibility, but the Great Desert is far more traveled and an undiscovered dragon still living there is considered unlikely by most scholars.
 * Green in the forests northeast of Clifton, especially in its dark and overgrown southern edges, where even the famous Penston Rangers dare not roam. The forests in the northern part of the Barony are a potential place as well, since many local legends still involve great beasts that kill and eat those who go too far into the woods.
 * Red in the Irontip Mountains due west of the Barony. The mountains are an ideal habitat, and the lack of safe passage through them means untraveled areas suitable for hiding vast hoards. It was once thought that the mountains east of Littlecross housed an Ancient Red, but the lack of activity leads most scholars to conclude that these rumors are false.
 * Silver in the southern reaches of the Irontip Mountains, where the peaks are high enough to be covered with snow year round. There is a rumor that Wolford was settled as part of a treaty with an Ancient Silver, but this is unconfirmed and, frankly, seen as ridiculous by most rational scholars.
 * White dragons were not often seen in the Barony, even hundreds of years ago. The temperate-to-hot climate found in most places across the region does not suit them, and the only place potentially cold enough is the southern reaches of the Irontips, where even if they decided to brave the altitude, they would probably face stiff competition from any Silvers for habitat and resources.