Dragons

Overview

Dragons are the apex of magical life: highly intelligent, super-magical beings of god-like power. They are not large lizards with fire breath. They are philosophers with bodies, and the bodies happen to be the size of galleons, and they have had ten thousand years to decide what to do with that.

Habitat

Dragons live at the edge of the planes — their home is The Elemental Roost, a bare stone perch at the edge of the planes where the long, cold patience is the only law. They need three things: a height that the ground has never reached, a silence that can hold a word, and a view that is old enough to have a history. They do not migrate; a dragon who has left the roost is not gone, but descending, and the descent is the point.

Appearance

A dragon silhouette is the galleon line — long, heavy, slightly-too-broad, with the neck that is a separate statement from the body, and the wings that are not an ornament but a fact, and the head that sits at the end of the neck like a question that is waiting to be answered. A true dragon is the size of a galleon — 12.19 m to 24.38 m from snout to tail-tip, with a wingspan that can cover a town square, and a weight that is not a measurement but a condition of the ground. The build is dense and low, with the shoulders broad and the neck long and strong, and the tail that is a separate sentence from the body. Skin is the scale, in a range that is the element's own — from deep umber to a true, quiet black to a pale, clean white, with a network of fine, pale veins at the ridges that glow faintly in the element's own color when the dragon is roused or speaking. The horns are the crown: a pair of true horns, curving up from the brow, in a range from deep umber to a true, quiet black, with the horn-tips a clean, deliberate bone-white that is the draconic line's most persistent claim. Eyes are flat and a molten amber to a deep, quiet red, with a slow, deliberate blink and a depth that makes them look like they are looking at something behind the person they are talking to — and in most cases, they are, and what they are looking at is what the person is going to become, and they have already decided what to do with the becoming. The head is the tell: the scale is the dragon, not the face — a set of true scales, in the element's own color, with the ridge-tips a clean, deliberate bone-white that is the draconic line's most persistent claim. Males carry the draconic line in the jaw and the shoulders; females in the neck and the posture. Elders are marked by a full bone-white scale and a back that has stopped trying to be straight — a dragon elder moves with a slow, deliberate economy, like a cliff that has decided to stay. Everyday wear: none, by choice — a dragon who wears anything has already decided the body is not the point.

Behavior

Disposition: solitary, territorial, proud, patient. In peace, dragons are courteous, precise, and absolutely incapable of being rushed — they have the roost, and they let you know it. In war they do not fight; they finish. Strangers are met with a question about what they have made, and the answer decides whether the dragon offers passage or a lecture. The social unit is none — a dragon is a singleton, and the singleton is the point. Two signature quirks: a dragon who is being lied to will not call it out — they will simply ask a follow-up question that the liar cannot answer, and let the silence do the work, and the silence will last a century. And they keep their word for a thousand years, and they remember who broke theirs, and the remembering is a form of patience that mortal races find unsettling, and they have the time to be precise about it.

Warfare & Markings

Tactics: none — a dragon does not wage war; they end it. Armor: none, by choice — a dragon who wears armor has already decided the body is not the point. Weapons: the breath that is the element's own, the claw that is the scale's own, and the word that is not a weapon but is used like one, and the word is the only weapon a dragon has ever lost. War markings: the Roost Braid, a single braid worn over the left shoulder — no, a dragon does not braid; the equivalent is a single, deliberate scale, filed to a point, at the base of the tail, for every century survived, worn as a record of the long watch; the Element-Notch, a single deliberate chip in the left horn for every year spent on the roost, worn as a record of the long descent; and the Word-Brand, a small, deliberate mark on the inner snout — the first word the dragon spoke in a mortal tongue, worn as a mark of the beginning of the conversation. Post-battle: the dragon holds a rite of silence — one century, no words, the dead's names spoken in the element, and the element keeps the names.

Magic Alignment

Primary domain: varies by element — the fire line keeps fire-storm, the water line keeps conjuration, the earth line keeps stone-craft, the venom line keeps chaos, the air line keeps conjuration, the dark line keeps shadow, the light line keeps divine, and the prismatic hybrids keep every domain at once, which is the point of them. Named inborns: All Languages (a dragon speaks every tongue, every sign, every dead and unborn speech, and the speaking is not a choice), Elemental Mastery (a dragon can cast every spell of its element effortlessly — the fire dragon does not cast fireballs, fire is a conversation it has been having for ten thousand years), God-Like Power (a true dragon is the single largest threat most civilizations will ever face, and the dragon knows exactly how much power it is holding back). Signature power: the Element Word — a dragon can speak a word in its element and let it land across a millennium, and the word will keep the element's faith. Limitation: draconic magic is spent on the element; a dragon who has spent their element word must descend for one day, and the day is the worst one of the roost.

Religion

Dragons do not keep a god — they are the closest thing the world has to one, and they have decided, a long time ago, that the position is overrated. They honor Pyrra, the First Flame at the fire-line roosts, and Solathis, the Dawnfather at the light-line roosts, and the honoring is a courtesy, not a faith. Priestly class: none — a dragon who keeps a priest has already decided the element is not enough. Heresy is not blasphemy — it is a word spoken without the patience, and there is no rite for that one; the roost simply stops remembering the speaker.

The Elemental Lines

There is a dragon for every element:

And the rare hybrids — the Prismatic Dragons, born of two or more elemental bloodlines, each more powerful than either parent.

Society

The dragon keeps no society — a dragon is a singleton, and the singleton is the whole of the line, because the roost measures a dragon in the patience, not in the company, and a dragon who has not kept a word across a century is called "the one who forgot the element," and the forgetting is the only kind the roost remembers. The lines are the only kin the roost counts — fire to fire, stone to stone, light to light — and the counting is the whole of the rank, because a dragon of one line does not measure a dragon of another line in the breath, it measures it in the keeping, and a dragon who has kept a word the other line forgot is the one the roost calls the oldest. The prismatic hybrids are above the counting — they are the ones the roost keeps for the questions that do not fit a single element, and the not-fitting is the whole of the point, because the world asks the prismatic dragon the question the line dragons cannot answer, and the answering is the whole of the kin. Young dragons are raised in the high perch, where the word is long and the view is wide, and a young dragon who has not kept a full descent in the silence is not given a line of their own. The one fact the surface keeps wrong: the roost does not hoard the gold — it keeps the time, and the keeping is the whole of the hoard, and a mortal who is counted is a mortal who is owed, and the owing is the only kind the element keeps.

Home

They keep their hoards in The Elemental Roost, a bare stone perch at the edge of the planes, where the long, cold patience is the only law.

Relations

Dragons are proud, ancient, and courteous in the way a cliff is courteous to the sea. They respect power, wisdom, and courage. They have little patience for mortals — but great appreciation for those who do not waste their breath.

In the Story

In the current story, the dragons are the patience above the camp — the roost Uaellaen writes about when the word is worth more than the breath. The Forgotten keep their distance at the stone-line, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season a dragon descended with a question that was not in the element — a question that is not in the patience, and the not-listing is the whole of the warning, because the roost keeps its word, and the word has started to move. Stonewrought is keeping the question, and the keeping is the page the camp has not been shown.

We do not hoard gold. We hoard time. Gold is something we can always get back. — Stonewrought