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.
  

 

Image gallery (Click to enlarge!)

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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! 🌵🎨