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Draghi angelo
(Verusdraco sapiens alba x aurea)
Origin
Hybridization between these two races happened enough times to ensure that this creature gained a name, evidence in history, and even stereotypes about it; however, since all angel dragons are in fact infertile, they can't be considered their own Verusdraco subspecies.
The term "angel dragon" was attributed to them both referring to the light hues of their bodies, which often show colorations with abundant white and golden, and to their behavior that is commonly thought as protective, good-natured, and endowed of a strong moral sense.
The first time the words "angel dragon" have been used explicitly referring to this kind of Verusdraco was in a text from 1289 (in the Bestiarium Raritatis, "The
Bestiary of Rarities", a tome in Latin of which the last copy left is located in the town of Bareblia), although there's some previous, rare descriptions in some draconic tales that could, indeed, be about angel dragons, proving their existence from since before they received a name.
Appearance
Angel dragons are medium to big-medium sized dragons; they can include in their colorations white, light blue, peach pink, and golden.
Their appearance rarely gives an impression of homogeneity: angel dragons often show different colored areas that contrast with each other, some more opaque and some more metallic, a build that's more massive in certain points and thinner in others (in particular, they often inherit a slim tail from white dragons). Despite the fact that this often doesn't gift them with an especially elegant or mimetic look, they're actually considered to be beautiful creatures due to the complexity of their appearance. Build, size, and looks are fairly variable from an individual to the other, dictated by the genetic cocktail inherited by their parents, although they often happen to get the slow metabolism of golden dragons and their tendency to accumulate fat and water in body tissues.
Their scales, flexible and hardy, have round edges; the skin underneath is light brown or liver colored, sometimes mottled with lighter hues like sand or pink.
Their back is covered by a row of sharp keratin thorns, and, sometimes, a variable number of spines adorn their cheeks, hocks, and base of the neck. The black horns on their head are straight and pointy, extending behind their skull following the line of the forehead.
Angel dragons can have a little horn growing between their nostrils, more or less developed: sometimes it's just a dark plaque. Claws, horns, and thorns are generally black or dark brown, with rare exception of golden, and they're smooth and sharp.
The eyes of angel dragons, described in the Bestiary of Rarities as "clever, cunning even, but benevolent", are always light blue or golden.
Their wings have hollow bones and are pretty big as a rule, which allow these dragons to perform remarkable aereal sprints, with one or two keratin hooks on the top.
Considering the specimens' variability it's pretty difficult to identify a sexual dimorphism, if not for the fact that females tend to reach greater size and weights compared to their male counterparts; the record for maximum height ever scored belonged indeed to a female, named Roclippì, which measured exactly seven meters (twenty-three feet); she had an impressive wingspan of twenty-eight meters (almost ninety-two feet), for a weight of a little over five tons.
Their ears lack auricles, and the eardrum is protected by the auroscale: a modified, translucent scale that prevents the eardrum from vibrating too much during flight and from getting dirty.
Angel dragons often have partially differentiated teeth, like major golden dragons, but the mix with the genetics of white dragons seems to bring a special emphasis on their canines, which are particularly showy in some specimens.
Angel dragons' fire is often pink or pale yellow; some of them are also able to produce a dense saliva, sticky as glue.
Behavior
Angel dragons are distinctly social creatures, able to quickly interiorize quirks and mannerisms of species other than their own and to fluently use this new "language" when interacting with them. They love company, and their iron memory allows them to easily remember names and informations, which also gives them an advantage when learning new idioms.
When they're raised with care and love, it's natural for them to estabilish an empathic contact with animals, dragons of other species, and human beings; this is also why almost every angel dragon ever witnessed has bonded with at least a human, accepting them as their dragoneer.
They're usually sunny and balanced dragons, intelligent, compassionate, but they have a big weakness: the vulnerability to gold greed.
Angel dragons love to collect books and precious stones, which compose their personal hidden treasures and of which they're very jealous, but gold has a special impact on them: its only presence makes them exalted, greedy,
reason for which a good portion of angel dragons try to avoid entering in contact with this substance.
In the most severe cases, if an angel dragon has managed to hoard a gold treasure and hits a moment of particular psychological fragility, the situation can degenerate in a real psychosis, in which the individual will start isolating from everyone else and living in their treasure chambers, believing they have to defend their fortune from everything and everyone, or it will be stolen from them.
Despite being considered good, wise dragons, it's also due to this impulsive side of them that they never manage to occupy high political offices among dragons, since those require to show strong self-control and discipline.
Birth and growth
Angel dragon hatchlings are born from eggs, that have to be incubated for a variable period that goes from two weeks to two months.
If they're lacking the adequate heating, these eggs can remain quiescent even for hundreds of years before hatching.
The eggs from which the little angel dragons will be born usually look like a common egg of the mother's species (if the mom is a golden dragon, it will look like a "cheeseball", a golden dragon egg, while if the mom is a white dragon the egg will look just like a regular one of her species), but if the mother is a white dragon the difference becomes apparent from the fact that the baby doesn't need the presence of the human they will bond with to hatch.
Newborn angel dragons have a special keratin tooth, which falls shortly after birth, that they use to help themselves opening the shell of their egg from inside. Newborn hatchlings weigh between 500 and 900 grams, and they're already curious and active, ready to explore the world.
Angel dragons grow moderately slow, reaching full maturity and the ability to reproduce around sixteen years of age. At this point, some angel dragons considerably slow down almost to an halt, while others only reduce their growth rhythm and continue growing until they reach their max weight, around five tons.
From that moment on they'll keep on growing anyway, but so slowly that it's impossible to perceive unless it's from one millennium to another.
Like all dragons they're extremely long-lived, so much so that no angel dragon has ever died of old age.
Social life and courtship
It's extremely rare for an angel dragon to be able to interact with another angel dragon, especially in their first years of life, so their first teachings about morality, religion, and hyerarchy will be imparted from the family in which they'll grow up... be it an adoptive species, the eccentric, noisy familial culture of golden dragons, or the accademic, moral education of white dragons.
All angel dragons are sterile; some don't even feel the impulse to reproduce and don't let themselves be involeved in courtships, while others mate for recreational purposes, especially if raised in golden dragon communities, but once they discover their own infertility they usually engage in such activities only outside of the reproductive season.
Habitat and diet
Angel dragons easily adapt to both cold and warm weather, and they seem to have a fondness for islands and coasts, estabilishing their lairs inside grottos and marble caves that aren't too far from the sea, despite the fact that nor white dragons nor major goldens usually live in similar habitats.
Angel dragons love food, and they're prevalently carnivorous omnivores. They mainly feed on fish and meat, but they don't disdain almost any kind of aliment; they enjoy fat foods like avocadoes, nuts, and oil seeds, but they mainly consume them as babies, due to the exiguous size of these aliments compared to their adult tonnage.
They tend not to kill any creature that they deem particularly intelligent, like octopi, humans, and dolphins, on which they can feed in case they find freshly dead bodies. If they were raised by white dragons, though, they inherit from them the taboo that prevents them from eating humans in any case.
Famous angel dragons
- Roclippì
- Atrebor
Trivia and facts
- The last known angel dragon egg, survived to the extermination caused by the Pater Inferorum, was initially identified as a major golden dragon egg, revealing the truth only several centuries later when it hatched.
- The last and only angel dragon of the current century is named Atrebor, and at the moment she's living in the marble caves of Patagonia.
- Many angel dragons have a certain affinity for music and singing, a talent that helps them climb hyerarchies among major golden dragons.
- Some attribute a mystical aura to angel dragons, due to their looks and rarity, so, even if they're often excluded from prestigious political offices, if they wish for it they easily obtain religious ones.
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