Soul Dragon

"If you look at any dead, yet advanced, race from this galaxy, you will notice one thing in common, reports of turquoise fire raining from the sky and huge dragon females with no legs." Unknown Ancient Dragoian Scholar.
"A being that could survive in space for millennia, don't be absurd!" Likely comment from someone who has been told of Soul Dragons, but hasn't seen one.
Soul Dragons are an enigmatic species that have no known homeworld, instead coming from another plane of existence. They call themselves Sould but are almost always referred to as Soul Dragons by other species.
==Overview==
The Sould are a race of giant all female, around 50km long on average (longest on record that isn't Shirnyu or Shurendia reached 100km), DragonKin-like species which on average live for around 1,000,000 years, although it is known for some to last considerably longer.
Nothing is really known by non-Sould species about their origins, their homeworld, or even how they exist in the vastness of space. Sould, unlike nearly all space capable species which possess hands, do not have opposable digits, having just 4 clawed fingers on each hand. Adult members of the species make up for this by being able to mentally manipulate objects near their hands as if they had an opposable digit, children however lack the mental capacity to do this, while Elders can manipulate far more significant objects at a further distance with some Elders having such control of their manipulation abilities that they can affect the molecular structure of certain things.
Sould are slow growing, only fully growing into an adult at around age 1000, and are considered Elders when and if they go past the age of 500,000.
Sould consider themselves to be the apex of life, and often visit primitive species with the intent to leave a distinct mark by first creating a world-ending disaster, then revealing themselves and saving the primitive species from it in a heroic way, re-writing history to make the Sould look like gods. Unlike most things relating to the Sould which remain a mystery, the common reasoning for this particular behaviour is put down to sheer arrogance.
Upon death, Sould leave behind crystallised remains, known as Soul Crystals, which contain the Soul energy contained within the Sould when she died. The more Soul energy the Sould contained, the more of her remains will crystallise and the less will disintegrate in a blinding flash. The glowing portions of their bodies will crystallise before the rest if total energy is not enough for full crystallisation. Depending on where the Sould in question died, her crystalline remains may float through space and gradually collect dust turning into an asteroid, or be buried underground eventually becoming part of the landscape. Occasionally a Sould will die in space and her crystalline remains will shatter (likely from a non-complete crystallisation and usually during a fight) and rain down onto a nearby planet, spreading the deposit over the surface.
A Sould's primary means of defence is both her incredible bulk, and the devastating Soul Blast attack which drains her reserves of soul energy but will usually destroy what it hits. A partly formed Soul Blast is more commonly used as it's more energy efficient and less potent than the often overkill full-powered Soul Blast, these partly formed attacks are known as "Soul Spits". Sould children are given energy cannons they can carry so as not to drain their soul energy, these weapons are typically made by an elder Sould, and run off Soul Crystals, being typically as powerful as the intended user's "Soul Spit" would be.
Sould are not technically DragonKin, but share more traits with DragonKin than any other species, and the scaled parts of their bodies are comprised mostly of DragonKin Base Metal, which results in them often being classified as DragonKin.
Sould possess numerous innate abilities that allow them to happily exist in the depths of space, with examples including vastly improved and often unique senses that allow them to see far better than their eyes ever could, the ability to naturally generate spatial rifts into subspace, locally distort gravity to allow for movement in space, spit powerful blasts of energy, etc. Child Sould either lack many of these abilities, or they consume too much energy to be safely used without frequent feeding and are often supplemented by technology until the Child becomes an adult. Many Sould find not using their innate abilities and unique senses and relying on more "primitive" means (such as eyes) to be not only distasteful and beneath them, but also depressingly limited.
== Appearance ==
Skin Type: Scales and Pliable Crystal (On Underbelly).
Colour Range: Sould are two-tone, with their main body ranging from light grey to dark grey and their underbellies are always a shade of turquoise that varies not by individual, but by how much energy the individual has within her, with a bright almost cyan considered normal and healthy.
Eyes: Sould have two large eyes with a slit pupil and near-black sclera, with an iris that is always a deep shade of red
Heads: Sould have large bulky heads which mount 2 long, rounded, scaled horns which extend backwards with little elevation and have wide, thick, almost lipless jaws with exposed teeth, two immense fangs jutting out from their angular up-turned upper jaw, and a lower jaw defined by two prominent "spikes".
Bodies: Sould bodies are somewhat humanoid down to the waist but bulky and usually with enormous breasts even by DragonKin standards, with long arms ending in thumb-less 4-fingered clawed hands, prominent hips and arse, but with a long thick tail ending with a cruelly barbed spike instead of legs. A pair of large wings protrude from their upper back which appear incapable of propelling the Sould's bulk, but distort local gravity to allow for flight even in space even with a slow lethargic flapping.
Tongue: Sould have a short, tri-split pointed tongue.
==Technology==
Sould technology is impressive in it's size and power, and also it's simplicity of use. Technology designed by the Sould for use by their children is designed to be carried and operated with 4 fingers with no opposable digit and is designed primarily to make up for a Sould child's lacking innate abilities.
Sould technology runs off the same energy source it's creators do, Soul energy, a unique form of energy which a Sould's unique biology allows them to extract. Most of the time, this technology, such as a sensor module, is implanted into a Child Sould and draws of her own energy reserves. However, when the technology is being designed for defensive purposes which require a large power drain such as shields or weapons, it runs off an external source that either runs of Soul Crystals (from a dead Sould) or an energy tank designed to hold raw soul energy which would be charged by an older Sould. Fully grown Sould adults often quickly ditch their technology and rely solely on their innate abilities, but it is not unknown for some to retain it.
Most Sould technology is collected upon it's owner's death, or in the case of implants is destroyed during it's owner's death. However, a few working, but almost always badly damaged, remnants exist across the universe and are often used as the basis for spacefaring technology.
In terms of space travel, Sould do not need technology to move in space at sublight or faster-than-light speeds as they can naturally fly in space (by flapping their wings which manipulates space and distorts gravity around them, enough to move them up to near the speed of light) and can naturally generate the same effects as a hyperdrive upon reaching adulthood. Child Sould are given technology to somewhat replicate the abilities they do not yet possess or are too energy intensive to use.
Certain Sould Elders have a Wormhole Drive implanted to aid in their mobility, using the extremely complex Sould brain to perform the normally impossible jump calculations in a matter of seconds. While beyond a normal Sould, this effect is naturally generated by Shirnyu and Shurendia. Unlike most Sould technology, this technology has never been made in child sizes, and as a result, has never been retro-engineered by "Lesser" species. These drives are considered one of the greatest gifts a Sould can receive, as with the implanting of the device, they also receive edits to their genetic structure by Shirnyu to drastically improve their lifespan.
==Culture==
Sould culture is one of god like impersonation and nomadic travelling to keep them out of the eyes of any species they are not currently in the process of making believe that the Sould are their gods. All commands come from Shirnyu, although they are passed on to the rest of the species via two chosen Elders who then pass these orders to the other Elders. 
Sould will often wipe out highly advanced species, especially if they are getting too dominant in a populated galaxy. Sould attacks of this nature are often absolute, completely wiping a species out, but have been purposely told to leave DragonKin groups in stasis alone in certain situations. These attacks are considered a great time in a Sould's life, as it's the only chance she has to truly feed.
Sould heavily influence nearly all DragonKin species by either direct or covert means, rarely ever truly wiping a DragonKin species from existence, but instead crippling them by diminishing their numbers to a point that is either not sustainable for long, and/or to ensure that any influence they once had would collapse. This is how concealed Stasis Facilities used by many species have been allowed to survive. This apparent mercy is not shown to non-DragonKin, with Sould purges against non-DragonKin being absolute and eradicating every single member of the species, with these purges often taking several decades.
==Speech==
Sould do not speak using sound waves like a normal species would, but speak via a unique form of radiation unique to their plane of existence that is harmless to all species but can carry sound waves through space at supersonic, near light, speeds allowing themselves to interact with each other within the confines of space.
Sould have two primary spoken languages, the "simple" form which is compatible with (can be spoken by and understood by) DragonKin, Human, and many non-Human and non-DragonKin species, and the "pure" form which is only intelligible to the Sould and often lacks direct translations.
==Feeding Process==
Sould naturally pull energy from their home plane of existence while within it, but while outside of their plane of existence they need to form a connection to their plane which allows them to "feed".
Sould do not "feed" in the conventional way, instead using a living victim as a conduit from which to draw a unique form of energy, known as Soul Energy, from their original plane of existence which will sustain the Sould. Each human sized and weighted lifeform is measured as a 'Soul', around 300 of which is needed to sustain an Adult or Elder Sould for a month. Sould can feed one of two ways. The first way involves swallowing the victim, letting the stomach extract the energy, killing the victim in the process and disintegrating the body. The second method is normally employed by young Sould, and involves impaling the victim on the Sould's massive frontal fangs, draining the energy directly but without destroying the body. The disintegration of the victim's body is due to the storage of Soul Energy within the Sould's belly and is considered to be as agonising as a non-female DragonKin digesting DragonKin Base Metal. Sould may also "feed" from exceptionally strong direct energy sources, such as stars, although this process is considerably slower than consuming organic life, often taking up to a week of being inside an active star to gain the equivalent of 300 'souls'.
Nobody who isn't a Sould is sure how the Sould feeding process actually works in any sort of detail, with even the Sould themselves only being able to explain in their pure language with even the most co-operative Sould individual being unable to provide any explanation in a translatable language.
A Sould's belly can be used to see how recently, and how much, she has fed. The more the belly glows, the more Soul energy is in that Sould. The feeding process allows the Sould continue living, and also allows her to use her Soul Blast more often.
==Influence On The DHG==
*Humans are not native to the DHG, and were brought to it from Earth by the Sould to create an easy but satisfying food supply for the developing DragonKin species. This is the reason why the Humans of the DHG both exist and are slightly different to those on Earth, since they were a forced evolution.
*Many Dragoian Home Galaxy species, at some point in their history, revered the Soul Dragons as gods.
*The Sould, when they acted like gods to a species (every sentient species in the DHG), insisted that the species would learn, and speak, the "simple" Sould language, although written forms of the language varied by species. This makes first contact among the DHG species easy, as they all speak a common language, even if their written language is completely different. This is beneficial, as DragonKin are universally terrible with learning multiple languages.
==Notable Sould==
*Shirnyu
*Shurendia
Category:Soul Dragons
Category:Species