Dragons

Dragons are powerful, Mystical Creatures in the Course Books storyworld.

Dragon Names

Dragon formal introductions are done like so:

[Dragon Name], of the [flight name], out of [Mother's Name] by [Father's Name].

Example:

Hunter Jusenkyou, of the High Mountain Flight, out of Sahar by Hygelic.

Dragon flight names always end with Flight. Example: Ozork Flight, High Mountain Flight, Warsong Flight, Lowland Hills Flight, etc, etc, et agnosiam.

Feral Dragons

Feral dragons have the body of a dragon but the mind of a beast. Dragons do not consider feral dragons to be dragons, and have no more qualms about killing them than you would a monkey or a cow. They are animals, the likeness is merely coincidental.

Physical Types

Dragons can be classified by how they fly, and they fly one of three ways:

Black Earth Dragon

Dragons of this type have extremly large lungs and many tiny air bladers within their bodies. They swallow fire to heat the air bladders, thus producing lift much like a hot air ballon. Small wings are used for steering and propulsion. Black earth dragons excel at distance travel and need very little energy to fly far.

Blue Air Dragon

Blue air dragons use magic to fly. They will typically have no wings at all or very small wings. Conversly, they might have very large but completely decorative wings that serve no actual function. These dragons are typically the rarest, but also the most powerful. They are often highly manuverable.

Red Fire Dragon

A red fire dragon flies much like an aircraft, using lifting surfaces and flapping wings for thrust. Red fires are the most common and typically fill the roles of hunters and warriors. Red fire dragons are also the only type to have been subjected to scientific study. According to Rinoin scientists, Red fires can fly at speeds of up to 400mph and can break the sound barrier in a dive.

Belief System

Though dragons worship the One King and the Last Dynasty, tradition holds one called The Broodmother as both the mother of all dragons and the moral authority.

Fallen Dragon

A Fallen Dragon is a dragon that has chosen evil. When fallen dragon's reproduce, their offspring are born feral.

Dragon-form

Dragons can shapeshift, but only into a limited number of forms. Specifically other mystical creatures and humans. They cannot disguise themselves as anyone, the dragon has very specific 'forms' in it's other shapes, all of them distinct and identifiable. A dragon in human-form might not be identifiable as such to a human, but if compared to it's dragon form the similarities would be obvious.

Organizational Structure

Dragons live in flights. The flight is a close-knit community with a herarchy and leadership. Usually the eldest dragons lead. The flight will live in an eerie, a system of gaves usually heated by geothermal energy(volcanic activity). Dragon eeries are heavily guarded, outsiders are not permitted under any circumstances(including dragons from other flights). Though dragon eeries are a community, the dragons consider each other dragon in the flight to be as family, referring to each other as 'brother' and 'sister', regardless of actual familial relationships. Dragons do organize into family groups, and are very interested in consanguinity(family relationship, in laymens terms who is related to who and how). Though familial relationships are rarely spoken of, every dragon nows how he is related to every other dragon.

Dragons mate for life. Eggs, however, are hatched in a communal rookery, tended to by the entire flight. Despite the massive size of dragons, eggs are only around a foot in diameter. The exact incubation time varies drastically between flights, with some as low as four months and others as high as two years. Hatchlings grow very quickly, doubling in size every two or three months. Hatchlings remain in the rookery for the first year or so of life, before venturing out into the eerie with their parents. Hatchlings only ever leave the rookery with their parents; when the parents must leave the hunt the hatchlings are returned to the eerie. This continues until they reach around the age of three. By this time their physical bodies have matured enough to begin learning to hunt and fly.

Despite their long lives, dragons develop mentally along a similar time line to humans. Much of their early life is governed by instinct, but they soon become aware. Dragons have exceptionally good memories, and thus have no need for books. Every dragon will learn the oral history of the flight by age ten, along with any other information they may require.

Dragon grudges last a long time. When one flight is 'at war' with another, the war does not end until one flight has been completely annihilated. Though the war may not involve any active battle, all dragons know which flights they are at war with, and if one ever encounters a dragon from an opposing flight, they will battle one another until one lies dead.

Living Accomodations

Since the destruction of all the old nomadic flights, all dragons now live in eeries. An Eerie is a network of natural and artificial tunnels in which the flight makes it's home. These are usually built over volcanic 'hot spots' to provide the eerie with warmth. Where a natural hot spot is unavailable or has shifted(as dragons inhabit the eeries for thousands of years), they will often dig tunnels down many miles into the earth to release heat, sometimes even tunnely down to the magma themselves if needbe.

Eeries are always very hot, the dragons prefer a temperature of between 95 and 110 degrees fariehiet, though personal preferences vary. Average temperatures tend to be inversely proportional to the size of the flight: larger flights maintain lower temperatures.

Bedding

Dragons actually collect gold for a very practical reason. The flames they emit would ignite most forms of bedding, only gold is soft enough to be comfortable but also fireproof.

Most flights have a single, large, communal bed chamber, though they may be storing gold in many interlinked sections of the eerie.

Food

Dragons self-identify as carnivores, but most are completely omnivorous, to the degree of being almost walking garbage disposals. Young dragons especially will eat basically anything, including fruit, shrubs, fruit trees, fruit farmers, small woodland creatures, large woodland creatures, woodlands, and rocks.

In general, the flight's food comes through hunting. Most dragons simply go out alone to hunt in the flight's territory, though some flights have organized parties of hunters that go out and gather food for the elders.

Dragons typically enjoy their food raw, or cooked with a blast of flame. The only condiment universally enjoyed is ketchup(see the Kladeth article for details), though some flights do have an interesting history of cullinary excelence. Meals are prepared, recipes followed, and all manner of seasonings used. These flights are fairly rare, however, and the food would often still not be fit for human consumption.

The Eerie

The eerie is divided into several key sections. At the very center is typically a single large cavern which contains the bulk of the flight's gold. This is called 'The Horde', and the name reffers both to the chamber and to the cold within the chamber. In conversation, dragons always seem to know exactly what each other are talking about(the chamber or the gold) and have no linguistic distinction.

The horde is always the best-guarded part of the eerie, and the entrance to the rookery is always through the horde. The rookery is where the eggs are lain. It is usually tended too by a dragoness who remains in the chamber at all times. Water is brought either from a natural spring or through an artificial channel, so the rookery is always very hot and humid.

Around the horde or near it lies the library, a large network of tunnels and chambers in which the history of the flight is recorded, usually written directly on the walls but sometimes stone tablets will be added. The library may have no clear entrance or border, as it expands along with the age of the flight.

Some flights may also have chambers for meeting and chambers for feeading(eating within the horde is considered extremly poor manners) though most dragons eat outside.

The eerie tunnel system is very extensive and has many entrances and exists.

Trivia

Most dragons cannot make the 'hew' sound in human with their mouths in dragon-form, thus they prounounce it 'oo' or uuman. Many dragons are unaware that this is the incorrect pronunciation and will even try to correct humans who say it wrong.

"Tatsujin" is a dragon term of endearment. Though it has roots in words from the Mage Wars meaning master or expert, it has evolved over the eons into a term of affection. Traditionaly reserved for use on one's beloved elders, it is not uncommon to see it put in place of friend.

Famous Dragons

A number of dragons throughout history have had a great impact. Draco is the most popular and notable, however in the city of Arindell Ikelani Nosval is quite the legend.

Ikelani Nosval, of the High Mountain Flight, out of Sharai, by Ikenaw.