Coastal dragons

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Coastal dragons
(Verusdraco sapiens litoribus)


Origins
Coastal dragons are considered to be one of the last "classical" subspecies to have evolved, in terms of time, making them semi-modern dragons. Their body color, one of the most showy and harmonious among all dragons, has specifically evolved to blend in with the color of sea and foam, and is unique in the Verusdraco panorama, shared, interestingly enough, only with some species of sea dragons (who have no relation to real dragons). According to some researchers, the costal dragons are descended from a very ancient population of gray dragons, that still had an antlered head at the time, which settled near the Diomede Islands, in the middle of the Bering Strait; this is mere speculation, but it is still possible that gray dragons and coastal dragons are related to each other.

Appearance
Coastal dragons are small, colored in various shades of blue with a mottling of a myriad of white streaks, and, sometimes, an iridescence around the base of neck and tail. The horns, that elongate behind the head following the line of the forehead, are white, smooth, in number variable from two to six, most commonly four. They might have a sharp, little horn growing at the end of the nose bridge, but in females is often nothing more than a white or peach colored plaque.
Their back is surmounted by a single row of showy keratin horns, proportionally bigger than those that adorn other Verusdraco, flat instead of having a round section, and often irregular in shape, with a "broken" look.
Coastal dragons' skin, if deprived of scales, is dark purple or black in color. A peculiarity of their scales is that they're of dermal origin and ossified, more akin to fish scales than those of reptiles; the edge of their scales is round, and it's possible to observe the growth of the lamellar bone which traces concentric circles (similar to the growth rings in trees) from which one can deduce the individual's age.
The eyes, big and usually described as having a gritty expression, with dark eyelid edges, and can present different iris colors: yellow, light blue, aqua green, green, white or red; curiously enough, the red color is the most common.
These dragons are light in weight, agile, with slender paws and tapered heads.
The maximum height ever recorded by a coastal dragon was of two meters and seventy-seven centimeters (a little over nine feet), with a wingspan of ten meters and fourty-two centimeters (thirty-four feet).
Their tail is slim, especially long, and lacking fat accumulations, with the ending section thinning out and always terminating in a long keratin tip, extremely resistant ad used as a weapon or as a "spear" when they wish to fish from the shore.
Their fingers have massive claws and are webbed, to improve their movements in water.
Their fire is yellow-tinted, also due to the sodium chloride accumulations that can often be found at the corners of their mouths and on the tip of their tongues.

Behavior
Coastal dragons have a strong racial identity, so much so that it's difficult to see them "mixed" with other dragons, although they share beaches and cliffs with wyverns, Maregens, and demidragons. Their isolation is partially due to a language peculiarity: they speak a Draconic dialect, the Minidraconic (Pilisodor do Draco), characterized by deep and rough sounds and very similar to the ancient Grey Draconic, with very long sentences, articulated, and frequent low roars called “rumbles”, overall incomprehensible to humans and not particularly appreciated by dragons which consider themselves to be more “noble”.
Coastal dragons have no real deities, but a sort of cult of the sea is strictly interwoven with thier culture, and it's not rare to hear sentences (admitting you're able to understand Minidraconic) such as "Thank the Sea!" or "May the Sea protect you!". They write the word “sea” (“Maurrrrooourr” in Minidraconic) always with the initial letter capitalized.
Coastal dragons have, moreover, a fiery, sanguine temperament, and aren't inclined at all to keep secrets or join in intrigues of court; they do not elect leaders, and love to play in the sky and underwater thanks to the big, agile wings that make them unchallenged in the air and also work as excellent fins.
Contrary to most of the other greater dragons, which actively look for a human to bond with, coastal dragons wait for the humans to find them; they don't send their youngs to train in schools that put them in contact with children, but they rather prefer interacting with local communities. The 65% of coastal dragons never bond with a human.
Should a dragon bond with a human being, it's the human that will join the pack and not the dragon that will leave it, even if it may happen that dragon and dragoneer go together on long quests before returning to the pack, which, however, welcomes them back with no problems.

Birth and growth
Coastal dragon hatchlings are born, like most dragons, from eggs that need to be incubated for a variable period of time. Their eggs are relatively fragile if compared to those of other dragons, with a shell that might take on several colors, from light to midnight blue, mottled with rosy veins, and might be preserved quiescent even for hundreds of years.
At the moment of birth, a baby coastal dragon already has the definitive number of horns an adult has and functional wings; it weighs between 200 and 800 grams. The size of the egg and baby depend on the mother's age and size. Females lay from two to six eggs at a time, and they have fertile cycles every seven-ten years.
The baby isn't removed from the group, like it often happens with many dragons that live in the hinterland, but it grows inside the pack, and gets educated in the art of fishing by the entire community. Very often the little dragons don't even know who their real parents are: growing in little mixed groups that everyone takes care of, it's difficult to remember from which nest they come from, and the parents themselves, over time, become unable to tell their babies apart from the others.
Coastal dragons grow slowly, and they obtain the full maturity and ability to reproduce when reaching the forty-fifty years of age.
Due to the long period of time in which they're still fragile hatchlings, coastal dragons statistically have the higher percentage of child mortality among all dragons.

Social life and courtship
Coastal dragons are extremely social, and it's impossible to find one of them living isolated from the rest of the world, or not having a contact with their kin. They live in packs with complex interpersonal relationships, in which males and female benefit from similar rights and duties, despite females being bigger, taller, and stronger, as well as magically more gifted.
To seduce females, males show off their incredible flying prowess, "jousting" in the sky and dashing against each other to veer at the very last second; it might look like a dangerous game, but even the youngest suitors had at least forty years to train their flying skills, and accidents are incredibly rare. Crashing in flight against each other at that speed could kill a dragon on the spot, or at least badly maim them.
Females, more clumsy and generally more ferocious, don't joust in the sky, but remain spectators from the cliffs, from which they enjoy those beautiful stunts. They can choose from one to three males to mate with during the spring season. If a male is particuarly skilled and handsome, it might happen that he will be desired by many females, and in that case loud fights on the cliffs will break out, from which the victorious female will decide with whom the male will mate and how many times: she might, for example, concede a couple of matings to one of her friends, none to the others, and all those necessary to be fertilized to herself.
The winner of the brawl is the last female to be still standing on the cliff, while all the others have been thrown (or have fallen) in the water. The use of wings is banned from these fights, not only because it would much prolong them and risk making them more brutal (preventing the females from throwing the adversaries in the water, they would instead use teeth and claws to wound each other), but also because harming the opponents' wings, which are frail enough to break in a rough fight, would prevent them from fishing and feed, something that would be considered barbaric from any coastal dragon.

Habitat and diet
Coastal dragons mainly live on the sub-Antarctic archipelagos, other than on the coasts of Horn Blu Island, and bear the cold exceptionally well, but they never go as far in the true Antarctic zones, for which they feel a strong awe. Almost exclusively carnivores, they feed on petrels, penguins (especially king penguins and erect-crested penguins), cods, skuas, sharks, and seals, but they do not disdain beached cetacean's carcasses.
The hatchlings mainly feed on small fish and, contrary to the adults, they never hunt birds.

Famous coastal dragons
Skye


Trivia and facts
Almost the totality of human dragoneers that get bonded to coastal dragons are fishers.
Coastal dragons brag about being great experts of hydromancy, the art of predicting the future through water. If this is true or not, though, remains a debated issue.

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Angel dragons

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Draghi angelo
(Verusdraco sapiens alba x aurea)

Origin

Angel dragons are born from the crossbreeding of a white dragon and a major golden dragon.

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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🌵🎨 All the drawings in this page (and probably in all the other pages, if not differently specified) were realized by our artists, Furiarossa e Mimma. You can see more of their works and support them on their Patreon page. Become patrons of the arts! 🌵🎨

Gray dragons

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Gray dragons

(Verusdraco sapiens griseus)

Origins
Gray dragons are a fairly ancient race, so much so that they're supposed to have been the first race to write down the extremely complex and guttural sounds of ancient draconic, transforming and creating some grammar rules for it. We owe to a gray dragoness, Andoraaal, the writing of the oldest Draconic literary work, The Myth of the Dragonixius (Tihodohor dok Draconi Graxius), transposition of one of the oral myths created by the now extinct race of the marble dragons.

Some primitive findings of gray dragons remains occurred on the Andes, in particular the remains of two camps similar to proto-cities were found in the Patagonian Andes, one in Chile and the other in Argentina.

Anyway, the appearance of gray dragons on Earth precedes that of the Homo sapiens sapiens and is considered by many experts vital to the forging of the relationship of dragonery.

It's not known with certainty which races contributed to the creation of gray dragons; it's supposed that it could be the convergence of four or five ancient races that are now completely fused and extinct, if not for this form.

 

Appearance
Gray dragons ara average-sized, which, how the name suggest, appear gray in color. Their scales, rhomboid in shape but tiny and compact, have an opaque coloration, and the resulting effect of this is that their lean and muscular physique look covered in stone. When they stay completely still, especially if balled up, their resemblance to rocks is impressive; an ability that allows them to perfectly blend in the rocky plateaus, even hiding to human eyes

Gray dragons rarely have the typical flat and wide scales on the belly, also known as "ventral armor", which distinguish many dragon races, but more often they exhibit a homogeneous surface of small scales on both the dorsal and the ventral part

They have no horns to ornate their head, althought they present a small conic horn at the end of their nasal bridge, slightly over the nostrils, and these characteristics combined (the gray skin, the absence of horns on their head, the nasal horn) make them resemble, even if not closely, rhinos.
There's a single row of black keratin horns on their back, not particularly big.
Their skin, if deprived of scales, is gray, sometimes decorated by dark blue spots.
The eyes, small but expressive, always have light-colored irises, among which the most common are green and gray. Gray dragons have visible, mobile auricles, with a pointy tip, that got them also the nickname "wolf dragons". Some individuals have two tiny meaty whiskers, similar to those of carps, on their upper lip, but the use of this decorations is unknown.
The maximum height ever reached by a gray dragon is of four meters and seventeen centimeters (thirteen comma seven feet), with a wingspan of ten meters and forty-one centimeters (a little over thirty-four feet). They're good fliers.
Their tail is willowy and muscular, with the ending part that gets thinner and always culminates in a dark gray or black keratin arrow, which gray dragons often sharpen and use to cut meat or cut down trees.
Their fire is orange-red. These dragons have the habit of spitting small amounts of fire inside their own mouth and warm up their saliva, which is dense, much more so than other dragons', and if it makes contact with fire for a couple minutes it will become incandescent and similar to fluid magma. When a gray dragon is angry, it can happen that they unknowingly start warming great quantities of saliva and drooling, giving the impression of pouring lava from their mouth, and it's best not to get too close to avoid being burnt.

Behavior
Gray dragons are considered by many a "basic" dragon regarding to behavior: nor religious fanatics nor completely godless, nor detached and cold nor completely feral or ruthless, clever and curious without being prey to a knowledge craving. Even the gold greed, which makes other dragons go crazy and unapproachable, only has a bland effect on them.
They often seek the company of white dragons, with which they share an important sense of justice, altough not as extreme, other than the love for mountain environments.

What is unknown to many of these dragons, instead, is the destructive intensity of their ire: incredibly hard as it is to be witness to it, since gray dragons have a great patience, when their endurance ends they transform into terrifying war machines barely able to control themselves. During a typical rage episode, it happens that steam cloud, caused by the evaporation of a part of the liquid in their saliva, lift from their mouths, the air trembles around their nostrils reddened by fire, and the rest of their saliva, dense, viscous and now incandescent falls from their open jaws, passing through their displayed teeth and sizzling when it touches the ground, the breathing becomes hoarse and hissing, the voice deeper, the muscle efficiency increases as it does the possibility of accidental realease of destructive magic.

Paradoxically, it seems that human have been acknowledging this altered state of gray dragons more than other dragons: in several written documents it's narrated of the leggendary destructive fury that these creatures are able to unleas, destroying entire cities.

Birth and growth
Gray dragon hatchlings are born from eggs that are incubated inside stone nests, lined inside with animal pelts, that get heated with fire untile they're incandescent and can slowly release heat. Gray dragon eggs are robust, incredibly hard to break, and have an irregual look that can remind of a big gray pebble, often mottled in irregular cream and black patterns. In a cold environment they can remain dormant for one or two hundred years, but if exposed to heat they hatch (if temperatures are over forty Celsius degrees) or tend to mould (at temperature between twenty and thirty-nince Celsius degrees), killing the hatchling. The transport of gray dragon eggs isn't recommended for those who are not experts.
A particularity tipical of gray dragon is that the size of the eggs or the newborn dragon aren't linked at all to the size of the mother; instead, they're standard: nine hundred grams. Bigger females lay more eggs (to a maximum of seven), but all of the same size, once every nine-ten years.

Mothers tend to care little or none at all for their offspring, limiting themselves to protecting the territory in which the baby dragons grow up and inviting them to get out and search for their own independence when they're ready to hunt on their own. Babies learn everything that will be useful for their survival through the observation of their mothers, but it can happen that some of them will be adopted instead by white dragons and formally educated to the use of magic, an art in which they're especially well-versed.
Gray dragons are fairly slow to grow, and reach the ability to reproduce once they have thirty years, but the complete maturation of their body, with strong muscles and the full definitive dentition, will only come at one hundred years.

Social life and courtship
Gray dragons aren't among the most social of dragons, and they live in small territories of around forty-sixty square kilometers, which they call "houses", and from which they tend not to go out too much, being one of the few dragon races that farm cattles, other than being, of course, hunters and gatherers. A series of houses close to each other creates a camp, which the maximum of sociality for them: it's moving inside it, through the territory of other gray dragons that are friendly with them, that they find their reproductive partners.

Males don't actively court females, but they take care to always be handsome and well-groomed: strong muscles, a lean and fit body, ornaments and patterns make them more noticeable. Oratory and personal pleasantness are two other characteristics that strongly incide on the choice of a partner.

Sexual dimorphism, on the contrary of what happens in many other races, isn't particularly definite: females are only slightly bigger than males, and they don't have different colors.
They don't really have a reproductive period.

It rarely happens that these dragons mate with specimens of other races, giving birth to hybrid dragons that almost always look like gray dragons, which genetics is surprisingly dominant.

Habitat and diet

Gray dragons can live a bit anywhere, from plains to deserts, but their places of choise are without a doubt the plateaus, especially those hidden and surrounded by other mountains, like the one of Tibet.

They're omnivores and feed on livestock (especially goats) that they farm themselves, other than deers, ibex, chamois, roe deers, eggs, wild fruit of many kinds (in particular, despite the exiguous size compared to that of their body, they really love blackberries), roots, and leaves. Worth noting their habit of chewing on moss to clean their teeth and perfume their breath.

It isn't considered a social taboo for gray dragons to feed on humans, although it is to kill them with a hunting purpose, so they often don't put off the idea of feeding on human corpses, if they happen to casually find them.

Famous gray dragons

Artenair

Trivia

• Numerically, gray dragons are among those more frequently chosen as rulers by other dragons, second only to white dragons.

Image gallery (Click to enlarge!)

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🌵🎨 All the drawings in this page (and probably in all the other pages, if not differently specified) were realized by our artists, Furiarossa e Mimma. You can see more of their works and support them on their Patreon page. Become patrons of the arts! 🌵🎨

Major Golden Dragons

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Major golden dragons
(Verusdraco sapiens aurea)

Origin
This is an ancient race, which, however, underwent several changes in time to adapt to their mutated lifestyle. At first, major golden dragons were smaller and a tad slimmer, with a skin tone that ranged from light brown to a bright sand color, ideal to blend in savannas and deserts. After starting to coexist with humans, for some reason, golden dragons began to be passionate about collecting precious gems and metals and became guardians of the richest treasures. Their color and physical shape changed: they became thicker, heavier, and took on a color very similar to that of the gold they protected. A major golden dragon, lying on a cascade of gold coins, is almost the same color as the latter; the pattern of their round-edged scales closely resembles a pile of coins, allowing them not to be immediately seen by a thief who comes in to plunder the treasures, thus being able to catch and punish them.

Appearance

The major golden dragons are cousins ​​of the lesser golden dragons, of course, and with them they share the color of scales and wing membrane, both golden. Their similarities end here: the major golden dragon is heavy, with stubby legs and a thick muzzle, capable of collecting the water they drank in body tissues to slowly consume it later, an evolutionary legacy of when these creatures lived in deserts. The horns of the major goldens, as well as all the spines and claws, are smooth and black or very dark brown in color. They only have two pointed, straight horns that continue the profile line of the head backwards. The tip of the tail doesn't end in any barb or keratin tip, as it occurs in other species, but is simply covered with small, almost completely round scales, like pennies.
The teeth are partially differentiated: although they aren't divided into true incisors, canines, molars and premolars, they tend to "imitate" them and are suitable for chewing.
Major golden dragons are medium to large sized dragons, and an adult can weigh up to five tons in weight. Their bones are also hollow, and the wingspan can exceed twenty-seven meters (around eighty-five feet) due to the fact that a huge wing area is required to keep one of these burly dragons in flight!
Despite their mighty wings, the major golden dragons don't like to detach themselves from the ground, and it's considerably tiring for them, but if necessary (especially if it's to save some stolen treasure) they're capable of remarkable aerial sprints.
The ears have no auricle and the eardrum is only protected by a modified translucent scale, called the auroscale, which prevents dirt from entering the eardrum and the eardrum itself from vibrating too strongly during flight.
Often these dragons seem "fat": sometimes this is due to the accumulation of water in the tissues, other times it's authentic fat, as they are very inclined to gain weight and lead a sedentary life.
The sexual dimorphism is remarkable: the males are smaller (although not slimmer), with sharper, longer horns and brighter colors, especially on the wings, while the females have more blunt, shorter horns, more powerful muscles of chest and forelegs, and slightly shorter tail. Males sometimes possess a pair of black spines on the hocks of the hind legs, the use of which isn't clear even to them.

Behavior

Major golden dragons love gold and food, although they aren't as possessive as they may seem: it's not the ownership, but the presence of gold itself that exalts them. Like many other ancient dragons, they have a complex society and hierarchical relationships that are sometimes incomprehensible to humans; for example, respect isn't owed to the head of the flock (although a golden dragon flock is an exceptionally rare event) as much as it is to youngsters with a nice voice, and their greetings vary from rank to rank, and from region to region.
Major golden dragons have a very long memory and remember with precision the faces of other dragons, and also other humans, that they have seen even dozens of years before, hence the treasure hunters must be very careful not to reveal their faces, not even for a second, if the guardian of such a treasure is one of these creatures.
Major golden dragons love to sing as well, and they do so with a low voice, often using totally invented terms, which may seem draconic or some other, more arcane, language to an inexperienced ear. Sometimes they use words from different languages that sound pleasant to them to create song-collages, and are able to imitate even some animal sounds. One of the refrains of the most famous musical lyrics from their culture, reads as follows:

“Banana gold animalis
Ek is 'n goeie draak
ang usa ka maayo nga dragon
I am bello drago oh oh oh
*bear sounds* Christmas”

In general, the personality of a major greater dragon is straightforward, direct, open to fun and experimentation, but not too fond of physical activity. They laugh often, with a characteristic sound that resembles a small thunder rumble; they can emit very high-pitched whistles for various reasons, including calling their partner who has strayed too far.

Birth and growth

Major golden dragon hatchlings are born from eggs, incubated for a variable period between two weeks and two months. The eggshell is moderately soft, and touching it is similar to touching a cheese ball; the eggs themselves are able to bounce a bit to avoid getting damaged by small hits.
The baby dragon comes out of the egg thanks to a special keratin tooth, which falls off little after birth, and lacerates the egg shell with the claws. The mother, afterwards, eats the empty shell to take supplementary calcium, and also because of its delicious taste.
The newborn has a yolk sac and don't need to consume food for two or three more weeks after birth, even if the parents often start feeding them immediately. Like all big dragons, they're slow to grow and reach full maturity and the ability to reproduce only after getting over twenty-five years. The growth of a major golden dragon continues at the same rate for the first sixteen years of age, then it slows down without stopping until they reach their maximum weight: five tons.

Social life and courtship
Golden dragons have, as anticipated, an intense social life. They love talking to humans, other dragons, dragons of their kind, and even to themselves.
They don't live in real herds or packs, but they can gather in groups of up to four individuals, colloquially known as "roommates" or "students", because the reason behind these meetings is generally the study of something (which very often happens to be music).
Sometimes, to attract females, males pretend that their older roommates are other females and show themselves as happy couples who then separate after violent quarrels: from that moment on the young male, who has proven to be an excellent partner, is single and ready to be conquered. However, this trick can only work among very young dragons, since as they age, no male could be mistaken for a female.
Other times, males gather in groups and engage in mock fights in order to show their prowess, but this trick generally doesn't work, as females are not interested in males that get involved in scuffles.
Golden dragons don't call courtship by this name, nor do they speak of a mating season: the love season gets the name of "time of tricks", because all the males (since the males are the only ones courting) get busy inventing the funnier skits to impress females with their wit and, sometimes, physical prowess.
Golden dragons don't form stable couples, but estabilish relationships with numerous "friends": dragons to which they are attracted to and that can, during the breeding season, be chosen as partners, while during the rest of the year they meet mostly to sing, talk or hunt together. In the past, it was believed that males had real harems, but actually both sexes can choose between different partners. A male and a female who don't intend to reproduce by choosing the other, but who still live together, are called a "single pair", while a male and a female who live in the same cave and intend to reproduce are called a "double pair", because the average number of eggs laid by a major golden dragon is two.
The hatchlings get cared for by all the roommates, parents, and "friends" of the parents, as in some sort of huge extended family, reason for which they often travel from one den to the other to meet cousins, uncles, half-siblings. The education received by the hatchlings is shorter than in many other species, and, at only three years of age, the little ones are free to stay with their closest relatives or reunite with their favorite siblings and cousins to form a new group of roommates that will go live far away from the original family.
It will very seldom happen that a golden dragon mates with a dragon of another species, especially during their fertile period (which goes from the beginning to the end of March), being particularly proud of their own race and genome and refusing others to interfere with their reproduction. Contrary to what most other dragons do, coupling without a strictly reproductive end is contemplated for goldens; and so sometimes they court outside of the time of tricks other dragon races, which, however, usually aren't as inclined to spend energies on a mating without gaining eggs from it.
A popular saying goes that all major golden dragons know each other, like friars in a convent, and it really seems to be true: each golden dragon on the planet has seen, at least once in their life, every other golden dragon existing. How can that be possible, since adults travel little or nothing, is an authentic mystery.

Habitat and diet
Major golden dragons love dry places. Wet caves, full of treasures? Not their cup of tea, despite the treasures that would certainly tickle their interest. Golden dragons love warm stone, sand, and cactus (which are part of their diet), so they're widely spread in the Equatorial zone and in the deserts of Africa and America (where they have arrived long before Christopher Columbus and without knowing how, since they're not fond of traveling). They're omnivores, although with a carnivore tendency, and eat literally any animaly, even the small ones like flies and cockroaches, despite them being of almost no sustenance for them. One of their most common sayings goes: "Every little fly liver is substance", meaning that every food crumb concurs to their feeding; their propension to catch and swallow small moving things can even seem pathological.
In order to hunt bigger preys they bury themselvs under sand dunes, or cover their bodies with twigs, and wait in complete stillness until preys literally put their feet on their head to, very simply, open their jaws, snap their powerful neck and kill their prey, then enjoy eating it with calm.

Famous major golden dragons
Dollaro
Picustia Gro'baker

Trivia

• The crossing between a major golden dragon and a guardian dragon is called treasurer dragon, and is considered to be one of the most lethal and "perfect" dragon races.
  
• The crossing between a major golden dragon and a white dragon is called "angel dragon" and is sterile, so it can't be considered as its own race.
  
• The crossing between a black dragon and a major golden dragon is a slightly fatter black dragon.
  
• The eggs of major golden dragons get jokingly defined as "cheeses".
  
• The words "fat" and "obese" are considered non-existent by major golden dragons, which often also fake not understanding them.
  
• Exuvias left behind after molting by golden dragons are golden as well, and of great value.
  
• Golden dragons are perfectly able of spitting fire, but many believe them to be unable to do to so because they almost never do it.
  
• They spit though. And their saliva is dense and sticky like glue.
  
• Julius Ceasar was a dragoneer and had a golden dragon, but she was so lazy that she rarely came out of her den, and so many didn't know of her existence. Her name was Pallal.
  
• Originally, major golden dragons had six fingers for each paw: the number was reduced in time to five for each of the front paws and four for each of the hind paws.
  
• In 1100 the draughts game was invented, but few know that it was a major golden dragoness, Picustia, to invent it with the rules that we know today!
  
• In France they were known as Dragons des pierres, aka stone dragons, referring to the precious stones.
  
• In the Zulu language they're named sawubona isibankwa, freely translated as “greeting lizards” due to their tendency to greet passersby.
  
• In English they were known, other than as “Major golden dragons”, also as “gay dragons” because of their happy, joyous attitude that allowed them to face with a light heart even the grief caused by loss of a family member. This definition was lost, sadly, to be replaced by a gloomy “fat yellow dragons”.
  
• When a major golden dragon dies, their family will give a name similar to the one of the deceased to a newborn hatchling. For example, if the dragon that has passed away was called “Oester”, the family could give to the new baby the name of “Chester”.
  
• They're not as fat as their nicknames and hunting technique could suggest, but just a little lazy: they're totally able to run for a long time (even if not at great speed) and to perform exceptional flying sprints (even if not for too long).
  
• Their scales were once considered a good of immense worth, and the horns of the dead specimens were being used as raw materials to produce statuettes and other decorative objects.
  
• They hate eating lemons, but not lemon leaves.
  
• The "trivia" section for the major golden dragons sheet is the longest ever written for any "trivia" section ever written for sheets that describe dragon races.
  
  

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White dragons

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White dragons
(Verusdraco sapiens alba)

Origins
White dragons are one of those races that are considered to be “classic”, a term used to indicate a category of dragons which are not ancient nor recent.

They've probably been born from the cross of two old dragon kinds, now extinct, respectively known as marble dragons and golden dragons of the Black Valley; other influences from other subspecies may be involved, among which, rumors say, there could also be black dragons' blood. The amount of races that have had an influence on the creation of this splendid variety of Verusdraco is uncertain, a variety that is the only one that can sport a completely white coloration in modern times.

Appearance

White dragons are of average size, covered in scales that are generally very light in color. They can sport scales that are colored in pale golden, cream and even peach, but the coloration that's more common in this race, as well as exclusive to it, it's total white that makes white dragons look like living marble statues. The horns, that extend behind the head following the line traced by the forehead, are smooth and black, creating a strong contrast with the color of the rest of the body. They can have a third horn placed between the nostrils, but in females it's mostly just a black-colored plate.
The back is topped by a single row of extremely sharp and dangerous keratin tips.
White dragons' skin, if deprived of the scales, is liver-pinkish in hue or of a similar color gradation, usually lighter than average in comparison to other dragons. The scales have a rounded rim and are resistant, but very flexible.
The eyes, big e usually described as having a compassionate expression, can be of only two colors: light blue or yellow, even if light blue is more common and appreciated.
They're armonious dragons, never too heavy-looking, with big wings equipped with white membranes and a black keratin hook on the top.
The maximum height ever registered by a white dragon is seven meters and twelve centimeters (around twenty-four feet), with a wingspan that reached twenty-three meters (seventy-five feet).
Their tail is tapering, without fat accumulations, and it almost ends with an arrow-shaped, extremely hardy black keratin tip.
Since they possess a fast metabolism, in comparison to the dragon average, is pretty difficult, if not almost impossible, for them to fatten up.
Their fire can be of any color, but the most common one is pink.

Behavior
White dragons have a very high sense of justice and morality; they're able to sacrifice themselves for others or for an ideal. They usually speak in an elegant and refined way, as they're pretty gifted with languages and learn them quickly, so much so that a white dragon that speaks less than three idioms won't be considered much by a possible partner.
They have ancient rituals, inherited from the races they were born from, and they're devoted to the cult of the dragonixius, mytical alien creatures that, according to them, brought life on Earth and decided to create dragonkind by placing in the “Source of Life” (some sort of Primordial soup in a puddle on the summit of mount Horn) the dragon DNA.
They don't really have deities, but they respect anyone who might worship one or more.
Thanks to their high sense of justice, this species rarely has "racist" behaviors and does its best to relate with all the other races and species of dragons; furthermore, it has a particular preferences for humans, that white dragons protect and educate as if they were their own hatchlings.
There's no white dragon that doens't create a bond with a human: every individual has their own dragoneer, and to not find one would be considered by everyone a great shame, because it would mean that this individual is unable to intimately understand human culture or that they secretly think themselves too superior to have a bond with one of them.
White dragons are often elected to cover important political positions, and the king of Horn Blu Island is, indeed, almost always a white dragon.

Birth and growth

White dragon hatchlings are born, like the majority of dragons, from eggs that are incubated for a variable time period, but that will almost always hatch only at the presence of the human the newborn dragon will bond with. White dragon eggs are robust, with a thick rind that can have a variety of colors from cream to pure white, usually mottled by iridescent veins, and they can remain dormant even for centuries.
At birth, a baby white dragon already has functional horns, thorns and wings, and they weigh from 300 grams to 900 grams. The size of the egg and of the baby depend on the age and size of the mother. The females lay only one egg at a time.
The newborn is immediately sent, often togerther with their dragoneer, at the schools of the Ancient Dragoneery, where they are educated by other dragons and learn several idioms.
Other draconic species, especially the primitive ones, believe that white dragons have drifted away from the ideal of what a dragon should be and, although they don't reject their authority as justice bringers, they won't accept advice or influence from them in matters of warfare or hunting protocols.
White dragon growth is moderately slow, and they reach full maturity and the ability to reproduce when they're eleven or twelve years old.

Social life and courtship
White dragons are extremely social and it's impossibile to find one that lives isolated from the rest of the world or that doesn't keep in touch with anyone else of their kind. They don't exactly live in packs, but, similarly to humans, they group in "cities", made up of close territories, and they very often pay visits to their neighbours.
They rarely get involved in arguments, but when it happens they challenge each other in duels of magic or flying dexterity to determine who's the most skilled and is therefore more likely to be right, or, in the most desperate cases, they summon a neighbourhood meeting and vote by show of wings who's right in their opinion.
Their magic duels are of great beauty, because they're often complex light tricks and spectacularized displays of magic power.
To seduce females, males show off their flying and magic skills in the annual gathering of the white dragons, which coincides with the only fertile period of the females, in spring; the gathering is known among them with only one term in Draconic, untraslatable for humans, but that roughly means "Place and time in which we amicably let the others know we're better than them". The females, much bigger and generally more vicious, can choose from one to three males to mate with during the season, but since the fertility of white dragons is low and the females lay only one egg, not all of them will become fathers, and it's not even sure that the egg will be laid.
Once, if the father proved himself unworthy of being a parent after the mating (for example by staining his reputation with an ignominious act or by obstructing justice), the mother could decide to break the egg with a fist, hence killing the baby dragon before its birth, but in more recent times this custom has been judged barbaric and inappropriate, and it's no longer in use.

Habitat and diet
As the “sovereign” race of Horn Blu Island, white dragons are rarely found outside of it. They usually live in mountainous and cold places, and one of the few other places colonies of these subspecies can be found in is Greenland.
They love eating fish, wild berries, roots and some kinds of meat like seal, reindeer, and deer, but they're omnivores in the broad sense and don't disdain almost any food. Eating humans is a terrible taboo for them, that must never, in any circumstance, be performed.

Famous white dragons
Orotagon
Aureo

 
Facts and trivia

• Females are more often excluded from political roles due to their fiery temper, more prone to angry outbursts, as well as the danger they pose thanks to their bigger strength. However, they're considered to be excellent warriors and guardians.
  
• Despite marble dragons being an extinct race, nowadays this name is wrongly used to indicate white dragons.
  
• In the past there was another species with a completely white coloration, which, however, has disappeared without leaving traces: the glaciers dragons.
  
  
  

🌵🎨 All the drawings in this page (and probably in all the other pages, if not differently specified) were realized by our artists, Furiarossa e Mimma. You can see more of their works and support them on their Patreon page. Become patrons of the arts! 🌵🎨