Dragon

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Introduction

Digging their claws and teeth into every civilization on Antarok, Dragons Cultivate within themselves a Three-Among-Many, the power of Grist. You receive a Free Racial Merit for the Grist of a Dragon while playing as one. You must expend a Major Merit as XP Debt to be a fully-grown Adult Dragon - further Life Stages must be earned in play. Dragons begin with Grist as a Free Racial Merit.

Fast Facts

• Population: 100,000+ Adults, 400 Elders, 20 Meridians
• Lifespan: Indefinite
• Height: See Life Stages
• Racial Merit: Dragons begin with a Free Racial Merit for their Grist.

Note: You may begin play as up to a 2,950-year-old Adult Dragon by expending the necessary Merits as XP Debt.

Racial Abilities:

Grist

All Draconidae have have access to the Glamour of Grist, located within the apple of their throats.

Three-Among-Many

For Dragons, this Grist is their way of life. They spend much of their time beholden to, dominating, hoarding, encouraging, and Cultivating the Three-Among-Many of their Grist. What is Governed, what is Sought, and what is Embodied influences what they desire, and how they perceive the world. Most Dragons will prioritize Cultivating their Three-Among-Many before anything else - contrary to belief, it is not the Dragon that influences their Three, it is the Three that influence the Dragon, and the Dragon discovers what these are as they Incite their Grist.

Grist Predation

Dragons may steal the very age of other dragons by slaying them and then feasting on their Grist throat-gland. The most powerful dragons are truly ancient, and dragons slowly grow boundlessly in size with time.

Anyone with the power of Grist can become a full-blooded dragon, inheriting the age of a slain dragon by eating its Grist organ, expending the proper Merits if any as XP debt. Eligibility includes those with Grist: Kobold, and those who are part-draconidae or else part of a Bloodline with Grist. While rare, Maltricians may implant themselves or others with Grist to then absorb the powers of a dragon.

Note: Even non-Dragons without Grist may consume a swallowed Glamour Organ. If fresh, this will confer an additional spell cast worth of Saol for the tier of that organ - but the consumer must have Grist whilst eating a Grist throat-gland to make the age become a factor.

Playing a Dragon

You may begin play as a natural-born dragon without approval. Understand that many cultures worship, respect, fear, or abhore dragon-kind, and their size leaves them dependent on magic or special social customs afforded to them should they wish to interact with the mortal races of Antarok. A dragon who destroys their surroundings will be met with retribution by the populace, and sometimes even their fellow Dragons.

Make sure to study a Dragon's Grist as it helps define who and what they are.

Progression

• A Whelp may be played without penalty, and may unlock its Grist as a Racial Free Merit.
• A Young Adult Dragon may be played without penalty, and has unlocked its Grist as a Racial Free Merit.
• Beginning play as an Adult Dragon is a Major Merit which may be spent during character creation as XP debt. Your starting age is limited to 2950 years old.

You may also expend a Major Merit during play to become an Adult Dragon without approval, provided you can logically slay an Adult Dragon and possess the Grist necessary to absorb its life force

• To become an Elder Dragon, you would have to expend another Major Merit during approved play through the act of Life Force Predation, or be Ascended in Grist.
• To become an Ancient Dragon, you would need to consume the Life Force of an Elder Dragon - having spent the Major Merit to be one - whilst being Ascended in Grist. This will total three Major Merits (250 + 750 + 1,250 XP).

Dragonbound

The Dragonbound are those who have undergone Saolbinding to ritually tie themselves to a Dragon's Grist and Life Force. As Dragon Riders, mages, and those who aid Dragons in other ways, they adapt some aspects of a Dragon's Grist unto themselves. See Dragonbound.

You may wish to create your character with its own Dragon or Rider Companion NPC to take advantage of this.

As A Race

Biology

Beneath Embodiment, a Dragon is a large reptile with a Fae, somewhat humanoid mind.

Appearance

At their core, Dragons are serpent or lizard-like - 'eastern' or 'western' variants, with or without wings, legs, and arms. This is dictated by their Grist, as they are able to some extent Embody Dragons in concern to themselves, and adjust these features accordingly through Cultivation. Depending on their Grist, a Dragon might have traits from an animal, or even aesthetic representations of Metaphor upon their hide. They can be as big as their Life Stage permits, or as small as the creature or Flora they Embody. Furthermore, a Dragon's original appearance is influenced by the Embodiment of their mother, meaning they may use these qualities as well as part of their own Embodiment - to a lesser degree.

Aging & Reproduction

Dragons are evenly divided between mating for life - being incredibly loyal to one partner - and having a form of polyamory, often with a mate that they mutually acknowledge as primary. Dragons hold few reservations about who they will mate with; they don't experience genetic degradation from inbreeding, and only rarely intervene when there is a concern for the power and control one's immediate family can hold over one-another.

Typically, a couple will adjust themselves through Cultivation of their Embodiment until they are compatible with one-another, in alignment with the female's bi-annual estrus cycle. During this period, there is a chance of success if mating is achieved, but this is never a sure thing.

After four to five months of gestating, a Dragoness will lay her clutch: one to twelve hard, ovoid eggs varying in size. She will then cradle her clutch surrounded by inferences to the Metaphor she governs to keep it growing, or else have her Kobold care for them if she must leave them behind.

If lain as eggs, it will take up to three months for newborn Whelps to crack open their shells - 'brooding' dragons might carry on this habit for several decades or more, rarely leaving the Dragonbarrow. She will not bother raising the Whelps beyond mentoring them - there are far too many, and she will push out the weak or sheltered ones to fend for themselves, believing they will remain so for the rest of their unending lives if she does not let the wild humble them.

Mating Flights

Dragons experiencing true affection often perform a 'Mating Flight' with each of their mates - this is a tradition where the dominant of the pair will elope with their mate somewhere far into the wilds - within Antarok, or beyond; some will even fly high into the isles of Céleste, deep into the depths of the sea, or beneath the earth and into the bowels of the Ur'Duun. There, they will find a secluded place to seal their bond before they return.

Sex & Gender

Dragons may be male, female, or rarely hermaphroditic. While few ever do this as they must first unhinge how they feel about themselves, some may even use Grist to change their sex - and hormones - should they Embody an animal of that gender.

Dragons are not sexually dimorphic, meaning there is no visual or social difference between them. However, they tend to be matriarchal when they do ascribe to a hierarchy, as they rarely tolerate one-another without a maternal bond to bring together their dispirate degrees of civility. Masculine dragons might Seek effeminate things, and feminine ones are no stranger to hunting and violence.

Psychology

Dragons - as former denizens of Ælphyne - tend to be distant from mortal concerns; most of them drift between interests and obsessions, self absorbed in primitive and wild ways until aligning themselves with something greater than they are - a Flight, faith, philosophy, or the culture of another people.

The sheer age of an Adult Dragon can leave them feeling detached. They are often prideful and solitary, so it is rare to see more than one dragon united over a common goal; they will usually see another's quarrel as theirs alone and will not rise to the defense of other dragons unless they are told to do so by the Eldest of their Flight.

Each dragon has a strong instinct to hoard something - what they Seek - be it wealth, power, friends, or even something more unusual and specific. Dragons can sense even un-incited Grist within others under their gaze, and so they often allow Kobold and those with draconic heritage to serve them. Not every dragon is wise; most of them are tribal savages that operate on instinct unless the stories of their elders have shaped how they interact with mortals.

History

Dragons are tied to nearly every legend on Antarok in some way. In spite of their low number, they are ubiquitous throughout the entire world, and their youngest wander forth to touch the lives of all they encounter.

Overview

Dragons were once denizens of Ælphyne who were banished by the Fae, exiled to Antarok more than twenty thousand years ago. Their lives and death have shaped history, touching every culture in the world as they spread across Antarok and found for themselves innumerable niches, from living wild, to dominating or aiding the lesser races.

Origin

Draconidae first began in ancient times a primitive race of Fae lizard people who cultivated their Beast Magic towards certain ideals of Metaphor. Through a series of Saolbinds, Shēngsǐ Xuě - once known as simply the 'Scalemother' - became the first Dragon, and the first with Grist. Embodying Dragons, her Outer Alchemy bent her entire race into all manner of Draconic presentation; those who Incited their Grist became Dragons themselves to interbreed with one-another. And so the cycle of their kind began.

Those first years were a struggle. Having unusual power in Ælphyne, the Dragons were set upon while they were still quite young. Time and time again, Shēngsǐ Xuě lost scores of her brood, but this did not deter the first Flight. They found a home for themselves in the Ælphynian side of Ur'Duun, gathering beneath the earth. It was over the next thousands of years that those lizards who could not Incite their Grist became Kobold, aiding the frigid Queen of Dragons with all manner of busy-work.

Once Shēngsǐ Xuě Ascended to the Aspect of Grist and became a Meridian, the Sidhe King Oberon turned his eye to her. In the next thousand years as more Meridians began spreading out from the Ur'Duun, Oberon determined it was time to deal with these Dragons; he saw that the sun should fall upon the Ur'Duun, uncovering the Dragons like worms writhing in the mud.

Dragon-Faefolk Conflict

With no time to mourn, one thousand Elder Dragons and five Meridians - Shēngsǐ Xuě and Ældrassil among them - met the Sidhe not far from the walls of Ælysium, capital city of the Winter Court. King Oberon and his council of Bug Wizards burned many of them, slaying the Dragon Queen before reanimating her as the first Dracolych. Every Dragon fell to scarring horror as their beloved kin oozed her twisted Geist through their very souls.

The war was brief, only lasting seven days before the Dragons were routed from Ælphyne, forced to choose between roles of subservience to the Fae Courts or else fleeing through Arcadian Causeways to Antarok.

Ældrassil

Ældrassil fell to melancholy, growing delirious with shock. He escaped this by retreating into the world of flora under the watchful eye of Sidhe that kept him in chains. Soon he was allowed to choose a 'grave' for himself on Antarok - a choice of his own - and he became a great tree that fell to slumber.

Later when the Sidhe exiled their own kind and stripped them of their Wings - and their Glamour - many of these same beings who once looked down on Ældrassil as wardens now looked to his power for security in a hostile world without wing nor Glamour of their own. It was through his humility that they were elevated to the Æld'Norai.

Shēngsǐ Xuě

Shēngsǐ Xuě chose death. She flew to the north of Antarok, to Slahane. There, she reveled in her misery, for her Grist had become Geist, her heart cold and restless. At the point of her passing, she ceased being the Meridian of Dragons, and she became the Meridian of Draugr. In time she fostered a Philosophy around her new existence, and came to the somber realization that undeath would be the only way to avenge her slain kin, to take back her homeland from the Sidhe. Entirely committed to the belief that all should join the ranks of the Draugr such that they do not hunger and take from one-another, Shēngsǐ Xuě espouses this belief to the Dragons still loyal to her, living and dead.

Even so, she is their mother, and no longer their commander. Each of the Elders beneath her operate with their own interpretation of her beliefs, and she is wont to taint them after losing so many thousands that once worshiped her.

Society

Technology

Dragons most often either shirk technology entirely, or they are obsessed with it. They have little need for furnishings or comfort, living within a den where they hoard what they Seek. Others expand their awareness more deeply into the subject, broaching its associations with what is Sought, or their way of pursuing an artform is to manifest it themselves rather than merely being its patron or dominator.

Arcana

Arcana is inborn to every Dragon. They possess a special relationship with their own Grist, and nature itself, with many forming Pacts associated with what they Govern. Still more Embody flora to become Draoidh. Dragons see the world through a naturalist, oft dogmatic lens associated with Metaphor, and this extends to how each individual Dragon might see other's Arcana. If one spoke with enough Dragons, they would surely find at least one who wielded the power sought. With such things, Dragons are slow to foster their own Arcana, acquiring it as it comes or stubbornly refusing the risk of Initiation. For them, Galdr is quite difficult to survive as this has little to do with one's constitution.

Cultivating Grist is seen as culturally sacrosanct by nearly every Dragon. It is in their every instinct, and how they compare themselves to each other; they will get to know their Three-Among-Many, and orient their lives loosely around these concepts. Dragons with weak Grist are often abandoned by their peers or banished from their Flight after enough decades without any sign of improvement. Most would compare such a weak Dragon with a Hatchling, undeserving of sympathy or community beyond what nature affords them.

Language

The primary language spoken is Draconic, consisting of body language with a spoken component of guttural noises which sound similar to sung Turkish - Dragons slowly sing, rattle, and hiss their words at each other, posturing to communicate added intent and meaning. Two dragons can communicate fighting and friendly language without making a single sound; they might also speak at a frequency only they and those with sensitive hearing can hear. Draconic is written in scratches and teething marks; Draconic is mainly used to communicate with wild, less civilized dragons or one's Kobold. Some refuse to learn any other language, clinging to the wild where they belong, but most learn to speak another language should they wish to socialize in the wider world beyond their own kind.

Naming Convention & Titles

Draconic names are listed as follows:

Surname (Governed, Sought, or Embodied) Flight

Dragons have a Surname from another race's language, and use that language to then describe an element of their Three-Among-Many and Flight.

If a dragon lacks a Surname, then other dragons will refer to it by one of its Three-Among-Many, and it may begin to do the same. A youthful Dragon's name is an evolving thing.

Examples:

Luxium-Am-I

Tiger-Bodied

Rain-Seeker

Nævi Ljós Ævergreen

Shēnghuó Xiào Sǐwáng

*Refer to the article of another Race and its real-world language analog when devising the surname, if any.

Flights

Dragons rarely associate with one-another in a cooperative manner without some overarching, revokable authority. Flights are that authority. They are usually established by Meridians or Elder Dragons, but rarely an ambitious Adult Dragon might take their mates, brood, and servants elsewhere to foster one of their own. These Dragons of a feather typically see themselves as superior compared to other Dragons or themselves, or they ascribe to a rigid ideology that they enforce among their own kyne.

Dragonbarrows

Most dragons live their lives together with their Flight in vast patchworks of shared nests winding through the earth referred to as Dragonbarrows. The den of a Dragon that has not established a Flight is simply referred to as a 'nest' or a 'den' - in a seemingly derogatory sense, as if they are disappointing those who see such a pathetic thing as a Dragon alone in their weakness. Present within each Dragonbarrow are communities of Kobold and rarely Half Dragons from other races as well.

Notable Flights

Ævergreen of Ælheim

Those who belong to the flight of Ævergreen are in turn reverent of Ældrassil and the structured Æld'Norai people. They are custodians of His grove. Those born to the Flight are left to the forest to come up as one of the beasts before consulting one of the three Elder Dragons that administer the Flight. Dragons who survive and thrive in the wilds of Ælheim are chosen for the Flight are thus allowed to stay beneath His boughs, Awakening to Draoidh as an Æld'Norai would, becoming Æcturnis.

Within Ælheim, members of Ævergreen are universally considered of the Odoln'i Dræknir caste, and assume all relevant privileges thereof. Their Dragonbarrow is located within the Myrkvior basin.

For in depth information on Ælheim, see the codex located in the forums.

Sǐwáng of Slahane

Those who belong to Sǐwáng are not born so. They are those dragons raised as Dracolyches or soon to be, declaring themselves loyal to Shēngsǐ Xuě, the Geist Meridian. The Sǐwáng are not inherently evil - this is subjective - they are custodians of the Draugr, and aid the living in becoming such. They wish to see the entire world be freed of mortality, achieving the True Moral of a world without predation and hunger. Many of the Sǐwáng are philosophers who entice the living to become Draugr with fair points on life and death. Others are conquerers who seek to wipe out life and replace it with the undying.

Life Stages

Dragons age slowly, eternally through life.

Dragon Egg

• 🥚

Dragons begin as an egg. Their Grist will need to settle from being bathed in a concept for about a year, otherwise the egg will remain dormant for centuries without hatching. Warmth is irrelevant, and only the females feel an instinct to protect their young at this stage.

Dragon Whelp

• 17 Years or Less, 6" to 3’ tall.

A Whelp is between the size of a raven, to that of a large dog. Its scales are soft yet as durable as bone, and they are quick and flighty at this stage of life. They can fly, but tend to flutter and cannot soar for long distances. They are usually one among hundreds, competing for limited resources or preying upon each other; only the strong survive. This sometimes drives them far from their Dragonbarrow where they are captured by other races and raised as pets or slaves. Primitive Dragons tend to care only about the successful among their brood, praising the best and condemning or even disowning those who routinely fail to impress.

Young Adult Dragon

• 18-99 Years, up to 7’ tall.

A Young Adult Dragon is up to the size of a large horse. Its scales, feathers, and hide have grown to be tougher, similar to copper, while their Grist has begun to shape their form according to how they live. They are no longer attacked by dragons of their own nest, and they have begun to form a hoard, the nature of which may change over time.

Adult Dragon

• 100-2999 Years, up to 20’ tall.

The adult dragon may be taller than three men standing upon each other’s shoulders, their size enough to loom over the average single storied home. Their scales, feathers, and hide are equated to sheets of iron. Something so large and well protected might only need instinct to crush and bite someone too brazen with expert-level combat skills, but a spear might give them trouble. Adult dragons also have an edge with Saol Metaphor due to their higher sum of life force; they are able to use half again as many expressions compared to other races without tiring.

Elder Dragon

• 3000+ Years, up to 60’ tall.

Elder dragons are oft tall enough to loom over the walls of small castles. Very few places can contain them, their natural strength capable of smashing most forms of stone and common metal without any combat skill at all. Their scales and teeth are thought to be as tough and durable as steel, yet thicker than the traditional plate armor. Elder Dragons can use twice as much Saol Metaphor as any other. Similarly, they could rend such material apart with tooth and claw.

Ancient Dragon

• Elder + Meridian Ascension - up to 120’ tall.

The Ancient Dragon is a beast of lore. Only perhaps a dozen exist in the entire world of Antarok. Many of them spend their time slumbering among a hoard of treasures, resolving disputes between their kin, or instructing the younger generations. Some have lived so long that they care little for conquest, power, or wealth as they have likely attained all they could have ever wanted, and others spend their days chasing knowledge for the sake of understanding. Their scales are supernaturally impervious to all but the most potent forms of harm, and their minds can speak so loudly as to make lesser mortals writhe in agony. Most troubling for those who would try and fight them, their boundless life force allows them to use even Expert-level Saol Metaphor seemingly without end, and they otherwise have thrice as much Saol as any other. The path to becoming an Ancient Dragon requires consuming the Grist Organ of an Elder Dragon whilst being a Meridian of Grist, or being an Elder Dragon and Ascending to the status of Meridian.

Related Articles

• Dragon
• Kobold
• Grist
• Geist
• Dracolych

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