Flamescale dragons/Volcanic dragons

Volcanic Dragons are a subspecies of *Vodros* Flamescale created by Kynesvrn. Volcanics have adapted to the niche of volcanoes, lava lakes, and all other areas that have an abundance of active lava and magma. Competition in other niches has driven them to rely more on consuming rocks and bathing in lava in order to thrive, though their own natures keep them in check.

In general, these dragons are highly weak to ice and snow due to the necessity of maintaining core temperature. Additionally, because their scales have metals in them, lightning is conductive against them, and can strip their scales of their strength. However, they are still a formidable dragon that should be approached carefully. From their specialized diets, they extract highly combustive compounds and can use it to release an intense blast of fire if only for a few moments before needing to replenish the supply of these compounds. Generally, these dragons prefer fighting physically, using their bulk and throwing it around, albeit their mass makes them much slower than your average Flamescale.

## Community

Volcanics are solitary and warlike and communication levels vary. Most communication between Volcanics are in the form of rudimentary thundering growls, body language and warning ‘shrieks’ of air forced through their nostrils. On the other hand, when more tolerant Volcanics share territory or pair up to have a clutch, they are far more vocal and talkative, teaching their young their language and history, passed via word-of-mouth. Most of the time however, they squabble over lava pools and ideal points around and within lava, and nesting spots are fought over viciously by females. Larger communities that form tend to be a matriarchal society created by one mature female or male dragon owning a vast stretch of territory, dubbed *‘Flowkeepers,’* who allows young or juvenile dragons to live amongst the pools but will chase out all adults. *Flowkeepers* often have a disdain for the conflict-hungry nature of the rest of their species and stand against it, and try to raise up the solitary juveniles into being less warlike or to at least break out of the vicious mold that they were raised in. As a result, more tolerant Volcanics grow up and territory can often be shared peacefully- most of the time.

## Faith

Volcanics do not have a universal faith, but often have a sacred view of lava, magma and the earth they come from. They feel that the world itself is a sacred place since it births their homes in great chaotic events (e.g., volcanic eruptions) and when an event occurs, it can be sensed and scented from great distances by Volcanics, who celebrate the event and become rather enthusiastic and amicable for a short time.

Elders are also highly respected and feared. These dragons are rare, but when they claim a territory, they are left unchallenged.

## Physiology

*Physiology can be different depending on the location of where the individual lives, since these adaptations happen in a very specific and often 'small' environment compared to entire biomes. (This is code-word for go crazy. You can have as unique a design you want if their birthplace permits it!!)*

***Generally**,* all Volcanics grow to be exceedingly bulky and heavy due to how metals and how their bones become dense. They tend to not fly well, nor have a necessity to fly because of their lifestyle. Over time, their body becomes rotund, and barrel shaped as their body adapts to the mass- while they may appear nonthreatening or sluggish, they are made entirely out of muscle and minor emergency fat storages.

***Size-wise*** these dragons tend to be around twice as tall as the baseline adult *Vodros* model, with females often being larger than males of this subspecies.

Their heads are blocky, wide at the base to support immense jaw muscles, which narrows into a beak made out of multiple metals, becoming akin to something harder than rock, featuring rows of triangular scales that can flare out as a threat display. Most of their face is unmoving and solid, but their lips are softer, allowing for generalized expressions. Subadult Volcanics grow a pair of defensive fangs on the sides of their beak, useful for piercing the tough scales of their kind.

* Set within this powerful maw are rows of flattened plate-like molars, infused into the bone of the skull. Like the beak, these grow ceaselessly, chipping off rather than breaking from the roots. Used for crushing rocks into more manageable particles before sending them into their volatile gullet.
* Eyes always face forward and tend to feature a very dark nictitating membrane to guard their eyes against heat, since they are one of the only organs that cannot withstand it. Eye colors also tend to be dark to allow for ease of vision in brighter environments.

Connected to this robust skull is a medium-length neck, guarded with thick plates and rugged osteoderms. Over time, the internal rock-eating cycle causes metals to gather to their scales, suffusing them with metals and creating an additional coat over every single scale. When in incredibly hot environments, such as being submerged in lava, these melt off and create slag. Extreme accumulations can even disturb colors and make them unable to fly due to the extreme weight of these scales. Many older dragons have folds of their hide with accumulations of scales, acting as a secondary bite-shield.

Their chests are broad and stocky, allowing for a wide array of movements and attacks, and as a result, these dragons prefer physical altercations, and often mortally wounding their foes if fights go too far. Just below, they have four pairs of stocky, robust limbs. Their forearms are built to withstand blows and slams, and end in a broad, flat paw with a thick cushion on the paw pad and five digits, featuring thick, squared-off claws, useful for clawing out deep crevices into rocks and prey. Their hind legs are significantly less useful to them, but they are useful to anchor their selves and climb. Their hind legs end in flat paw with a thinner cushioned paw pad and four digits, with shorter claws that are mostly infused into the outer scales of the leg.

* Their backs have a distinct hump at their shoulders of their wings, needing the large amount of muscle to propel their selves into flight. Their wings are equally as muscular and have the most heat resistance on their body, the membranes useful as a blanket or support in lava. The 'paw' of the wing is also utilized in wing-walking and climbing, the thumb of the wing being an excellent anchor point that can support most of the dragon's weight. The membranes are dense and contain a whole slew of different things that help with flight.
* Along their backs, many of these dragons have a vicious array of quills guarding their spinal plates, which are used for multiple things, such as displays and defense. Attacks can cause these to snap off into their foe. These quills can also gather slag, causing it to harden there like a shell if the dragon so desires.

Guarding their flanks and belly is often long folds of scales and plates, which frequently overlap and gather large amounts of slag as they traverse their native environments. This is their widest section and contains many muscles for a variety of movements. Lining their ribs are rows of pointed osteoderms, peering outwards from their flanks as a prickly defense.

* Their actual organs are much smaller than one might imagine. Their heart rests firmly centered in their chest cavity with a pair of strange multi-chambered lungs. Aside from heat glands that line the body everywhere, their digestive tract is also reduced and streamlined, featuring obscure, strange organs to help produce the necessary bacteria, acids and heat supports, located in the upper portion of their body, closest to the spine. Injuries to these organs are common amongst this warlike group of dragons, and they have adapted to healing up nearly every organ swiftly. Damage to multiple heat glands, lungs or heart will often kill these dragons swiftly, however.
* Their bones grow dense as they age, becoming like rocks. They contain very little air-pockets, if any. Strangely, this does not sacrifice too much flexibility, allowing the bones to withstand blows and bounce back very lightly. The tendons and ligaments tend to be extremely versatile and don't tear easy, and the joints have efficient cushioning for their lifestyle.

Their prickly upper body leads into a bulky plated tail, which is often as long as the main body and is used to balance out their weight. The base of the tail is where extra fat may be stored, useful for long-distance treks or flights. By the halfway mark of the tail is when it becomes narrower and whip-like, the scales becoming warped and sinewy. This part is more useful for dissuading fights and a way to tell off irritating younger dragons but can be useful for slicing into the hides of others through a vicious tail-whip.

**Volcanics tend to have a poor sense of smell and taste.** Their habitat makes these unnecessary, so many focus on eyesight rather than these senses. Their sense of touch is immaculate and can easily tell when something moves in their general vicinity. Many of their thinner scales have small pores that detect movement within the air and from the earth, similar to a crocodile.

**Volcanics also have an advanced respiratory system.** Living in an environment filled to the brim with acrid, caustic smoke and other debris makes it impossible to breathe, and therefore, their respiratory system is heavily filtered to fix this issue. This makes them less susceptible to airborne poisons or other toxins. These toxins are often excreted out of pores in their scales, attracting bacteria that feast on them, making their hides particularly gross tasting or down-right unhealthy.

**Physiology at each stage of life**

* **Newly Hatched** - slender body, no beak, soft scales and soft claws. Must be fed crushed volcanic rock and regurgitated meat to kickstart their rock-eating gut flora (more explained in the Diet section, don’t worry lmao)
	+ **Hatchling** - Claws and teeth become solid. Cannibalism can begin here if the clutch size permits it, or favoritism for one hatchling will do the work for them. Once there is one hatchling, the parents will continue their steady stream of food for the next several months. Scales are still relatively soft, but the minerals are already beginning to harden their hides. Can fly now.
* **Early-Stage Juvenile** - Body is beginning to become robust, limbs are thickening, scales are rough and firm, claws can dig through softer, still-hot igneous rock, and beak can now break volcanic rock on their own. At this stage, the parents will instruct and teach the hatchling how to enter a lava pool, a trial that few hatchlings can survive if they aren’t prepared properly or cared for correctly. Once the young dragon can survive the lava pool, they can live on their own and the parents will reclaim their territories, often shooing the juvenile out if they don’t leave soon enough.
* **Late-Stage Juvenile** - Growth has slowed significantly as the juvenile settles into their own environment and the supply of meat fluctuates. If it catches a regular supply of prey, growth may be a little faster but generally these dragons are still learning the ropes. Appearance is relatively the same, but bigger. At this stage the dragon is most likely to explore and widen horizons to find a stable location to stake out, and sometimes they will explore over vast oceans since their bones aren’t as dense as a subadult.
* **Subadult** - Almost at full size. Body is robust and scales have begun to weigh down on the dragon, making it less likely to fly and remain in a set area, though they will sometimes walk to new locations instead. Generally, these dragons are strong enough to live perfectly fine on their own and stand against older dragons if they must, but will often lose those battles, hopefully with their lives.
* **Adult** - Fully grown in their glory. Scales are gnarled and likely adorned in metals. Bone density is at maximum and flight is now a stamina-draining task, but it can be done sometimes. Mighty enough to break through the hardest volcanic rock to carve out nests and dens, capable of forcing out lava and forming things with it due to the resistance of their scales. Horns and other parts of the body, similar to the scales, may become rigid and form interesting features depending on the metal that it attracts.
* **Elder** - Rare due to the warlike nature and viciousness of these dragons, but when a dragon reaches this age, their scales are entirely rocklike and their wings membranes have become atrophied, with the main musculature of the wing present but covered in a drape of igneous rock, which accumulates quickly at the venerable ages of Volcanics due to how their diets and behavior shapes them. Elders are often feared by other Volcanics because of their strength and tend to be left alone, so these old dragons often need not fight over territory.

### Colors and Patterns

Depends! Many Volcanics have naturally dark gray/red scales with motifs of fire, but more dominant green and orange scales aren’t uncommon. Due to the darkness of most igneous rocks, adaptive melanism is common (i.e., increase of melanin and darkening of the scales) and the opposite, albinism, can sometimes occur. Sometimes the scales are marbled gray and white with vibrant streaks of red and orange, sometimes blue.

Patterns involve mostly stripes. Melanistic individuals often still have visible stripes that can be deep brown, charcoal gray and black, and albino individuals also still have stripes, but with other pigments present their scales can be pink and/or yellow alongside white.

Additionally, these colors can be affected by the metals that are suffused into their scales. You can have lots of weird looking morphs being covered over by layers of copper or all sorts of other metals, depending on the buildup.

### Lairs

Around active volcanoes or lava lakes- anywhere lava or magma may congregate. They can carve out openings in the sides of mountains or dig out a divot into the rock for nesting, but generally remain above-ground due to the general safety from any larger predators (besides dragons of their own species)

Much more adventurous Volcanics tend to not settle in one lair, but will make one if they find an area with geothermal activity to stake out for a short while.

### Behavior

* On a more personal level, these dragons can sometimes be confrontational and scathing to one another. But when two fortunate dragons can meet in the middle, sometimes they can become mates for a short time. Until their hatchling can become self-sufficient, they will tolerate each other, but will treat the hatchling with interest and guard them.
* *Flowkeepers* are much more kind and loving to any young dragon that uses their territory as sanctuary, and will bestow upon them any knowledge they can, which hopefully leads to these young dragons becoming more peaceful theirselves. But in general, Volcanics are fierce and will fight one another over territory and nesting places, rarely to the point of death but it can happen. When they aren’t bloodthirsty, they can converse with one another, talking about what they’ve sensed afar and the outsiders they’ve seen- fairly uninteresting conversations.
	+ Individual personalities are varied but often still round out to being aggressive and territorial over certain things. (Feel free to go wild with personalities! Just remember these guys grow up in a hostile environment under most circumstances so having a fighty Volcanic is expected!)
* Shockingly, these dragons aren’t always sleeping and eating. Enrichment often includes short-distance exploration and volcano propagation, helping the lava flows reach new areas and celebrating the creation of new land, which will over time, become alive. Volcanics will sometimes team up in groups of two or three to help each other hunt, and will tolerate one another to share prey before returning to their territories.
* Friendly or amicable behavior includes scale-preening, where one dragon will pluck another’s scales of debris and test each other’s toughness more kindly. They will also sometimes tolerate non-Volcanic dragons and give them directions to certain parts in the vicinity, or may trade certain rare materials that the non-Volcanic can’t retrieve.
	+ These interactions can cause young dragons to become more interested in the outside environments, especially coupled with how tough it is to get a stable territory, their exploration is often met with relief. With a few exploration-hungry dragons, this species can propagate themselves elsewhere.

### Diet

Their diets consist mostly of igneous rock, but need meat as a supplement since minerals cannot give them all of the necessary nutrients, e.g. lipids. Energy is synthesized from rock-eating microorganisms that make their home within the dragon’s multi-chambered digestive tract, and as a result, the metabolic rates of these dragons tend to be rather slow since it takes a while for the microorganisms to do their full job. A slow metabolic rate also means they grow much more slowly. Their diets are kick-started when they are newly hatched and are fed regurgitated meat, which contains portions of rock-eating microorganisms that will then propagate the new hatchling’s digestive tract, but it will take time for them to become ‘settled in.’

* They CAN eat other rocks, since many rocks are just a culmination of various minerals due to the nature of the rock cycle, but Volcanics prefer igneous rocks due to personal comforts. Gems aren’t really desired but can still be munched on too.
* The digestion of these rocks makes their core heat very high, and so they must continuously have a meal of rocks in order to maintain this heat, otherwise their gut flora will die and they will starve. They cannot live solely on meat or else their scales and bones will weaken severely. External heat sources, unless they are extremely hot like lava, often cannot permeate the hide of Volcanics, and so internal heating is essential.
* Despite that, meat must be eaten every so often to extract essential nutrients, but any protein will do, including the meat from other dragons. Volcanics tend to enjoy eating other dragons, which in their natural ecosystem isn’t necessarily taboo but outside of their lands it is perhaps… not the best. Until they realize that, they may cause a war crime or two out of hunger.

## History

In the primordial age of dragons, many lived a life of primitive hunting and gathering, living by the whimsy of the elemental currents. Their lives were of survival, though glimmers of a more inquisitive mind gleamed within them through art and other carvings. Soon enough, distinct species became apparent with their own cultures and ideas, and of these were the noble ***Flamescales***: haughty, intelligent fire-breathing dragons with a desire to guard their lands and nature, despite their destructive abilities.

Living wherever their wings carried them, the Flamescales rarely settled in one area, helping diversify and spread their kind across the land. But soon, they began to colonize certain regions, preferring those with geothermal activity and caverns with active magma flows. Over time, these dragons became more advanced, forming hierarchies and mercantile sects, trading with travelers and newly founded groups from other species.

A large population of Flamescales settled in an ancient cavern and the plateaus that surrounded it. Deep within these caverns were large spacious openings that sweltered as the very blood of the earth surged through it, and their lives soon became enriched with the warmth within. They learned from the stars and from word of mouth from other dragons, enriching their culture further. Soon, they grew to worship various deities in order to earn favor and blessings, including the noble and just **Winalgalis**, a god sworn to defend the weak. They grew to deeply love and live amongst the gods and spent many days of the year giving this god gifts for his protection.

Strangely, decades later, newly hatched Flamescales began to exhibit strange deformities and mutations, the first of which being a dragoness named **Vhiss’tir**. Her body exuded unbearable heat and the scent of brimstone and smoke, and her scales were shaped like blades and rocks. Her maw was deformed into a cruel beak and couldn’t close properly. For a while, she was one of a kind- and was often disregarded due to her malformations and pushed aside by her peers. But as the years passed, more of these malformed Flamescales hatched, joining Vhiss’tir as she slowly branched out into the worship of their patron deity, spurned by their own people. Fear grew amongst the older dragons that perhaps they had committed a sin against those they worshiped and were being punished- so they did everything they could to regain that favor, to live a life of splendor again. This, unfortunately, included shunning their own.

War and battle became the malformed’s strength and power flowed through them as they began to live and breathe the underworld. As they came of age, these shunned Flamescales were pushed out of their society, dubbed ***‘Earthbloods***,***'*** by the pure-blooded Flamescales that governed over them. The higher-ranking Flamescales’ fears increased as their young were increasingly impure, and so their society had a schism- one side becoming zealous in worship to Winalgalis, pleading for his return to his brothers and sisters, and the other disbanding from the belief of their deities altogether, spurned by the fickle nature of the gods. Yet neither side would view Earthbloods as their own, shunning them even amongst internal conflicts.

Vhiss’tir, having grown into a ferociously powerful elder the past four hundred years, took to leading the zealous faith of Winalgalis. Ever since she approached the clergy of this deity, she heard his whispers, choosing to live and endure the cruelty of the pure bloods so that she could better protect her own. He spoke to her, guiding her to protect her malformed kin and granting her insight. But after decades of silence from the god, she became frenzied and desperate, tearing her own face apart in order to reveal a ‘third eye’ so that she could once again commune with him, her features becoming hideously grotesque, shocking even the most loyal of her allies. But eventually… whispers from another flowed through her mind. Whispers of a deity named **‘Diabolos.’** His voice was of many and promised her protection like her kin’s beloved Winalgalis- at the expense of devouring others.

With frenzied fervor, she indulged in his desire and united much of the Earthbloods under his banner, creating the *Cult of Diabolos*. Even amongst the inner workings of the Flamescales, his whispers united them, bringing them closer to the shunned ones. He was a war god that would deliver them glory, power, and family. When this deity descended from the heavens to consume dragons, the Cult celebrated, giving their own offerings of flesh and bloodletting on the battlefield. Soon, the maddened Vhiss’tir even took to assassinating high-ranking Flamescales, consuming their flesh and providing their bodies as offerings to Diabolos. But the very nature of her accursed form and the shame that she left in her wake around the Flamescales, led to the inevitable discovery of her sin, and by extension, the Cult.

With the Flamescales being mortified that Vhiss’tir committed such acts, the Cult and the Earthbloods were driven into the depths of the mountain, and heavily regulated from leaving to hunt out of fear. Soon, they considered wiping out the impurities once and for all, in order to finally restore the blessings they had with their gods.

Steadily being driven into starvation, the scorned Earthbloods dug deep into the mountain. Their lives became shaped around the flows of magma within, and it soon became a common ritualistic practice to drink deep magma to fully devote oneself to the earth. But survival became harder and harder each moon, with many of the young Earthbloods dying from hunger and disease. Vhiss’tir united each of her citizens once again under the banner of war, spurring their fury and promising that their lives would be freed from the shackles of their Flamescale captors. And so, the Earthbloods declared war on their once kin, assaulting in the night.

On the frontlines, Vhiss’tir crushed and devoured Flamescale generals and warriors, sending many fleeing before her displays of grotesque madness. Her deafening cackles and yells thundered across the city as her Earthbloods rampaged and devoured until their captors fled. With their freedom, Vhiss’tir stood tall on a toppled monument and declared that her kind would live by the will of the earth, that their hearts would sing on the battlefield. That they would live with spirits of steel and iron and that no one would dare keep them from surviving and thriving. As a final clause of her speech, she announced that they would no longer be called ‘Earthbloods’ but rather ***Volcanics***. With their liberation, however, came the splintering of the Cult. Vhiss’tir zealously worshiped Diabolos still, but with her Volcanics going wherever their hearts desired, some fell out of the worship, finding the use of blood rituals and sacrifices to be too macabre or unnatural to them. Many mourned the disappearance of Winalgalis, when they worshiped to protect, not to destroy.

Word spread across the continent from the fleeing Flamescales of this new group of barbaric, vicious dragon-eaters, and soon the Volcanics were regarded with animosity. For a while, the Volcanics remained in their sacred caverns to clean up the leftovers from the war. Some Flamescales driven out for their worship of Diabolos stayed, as they had pledged loyalty to the bloodthirsty Vhiss’tir.

And over time, the Volcanics dispersed throughout the lands, finding their place as mercenaries and guards. Many still worshiped Diabolos as well as other earthen deities, but due to the nature of the surrounding societies, they did not broadcast their faiths. They became a ferocious group of dragons that enjoyed being put to work, but would not sit idly under unfair conditions- since many knew what they were capable of, these situations seldom happened. With the mixing and diversifying population of these dragons, they became more distinct from their brethren. They soon became deeply attached to heat and rocks, implementing it into their diets to help reinforce their scales. As new bloods were introduced into the species, they grew nomadic and flew across vast stretches of sea to settle on volcanic archipelagos and islands, making their place among lava flows and pools. As they distanced themselves from their ancestral continent, the belief in the cannibalistic god faded- though they did retain their opportunistic appetites.

Yet even as they grew distant from their kind, their notable features that were once scorned for being malformed and grotesque became the hallmarks of their species. They grew large and commanded the presence of other dragons, and more importantly, lost their nomadic sprees with age.

Perhaps most importantly is that Vhiss’tir continued her lineage. She forever worshiped Diabolos and ‘spoke’ to him, though even the most zealous worshipers of the cannibal god denounced her in secret due to her horrifying mental break she had a hundred years before. Yet in modern days, her true children likely still roam their homeland, carrying her legacy of bloodshed and hunger.

As a result of their flighty nature at a young age, many populations became isolated and locked into their lairs by sub-adulthood, satisfied and unchallenged in their homes. The battle-hungry nature became infused into their very souls and so interspecies conflict became common as they battled for ideal locations, defining their new generations for decades to come. They became adapted to their volcanic environments, becoming like a living pillar of the earth. Yet even with the passage of time wearing down their nomadic and freedom-loving hearts, the will of steel lived on. Ferociously stubborn and fool-hardy, these dragons seldom pledged to a ruler and worked unless something was there for them. With new generations, fewer tales of the past were passed down due to the lack of written word that survived off of their home continent. The tale of Diabolos, however, found its way through the blood-hungry hearts of the Volcanics everywhere. A lord who would grant you strength if you lived alongside him and his children. The tale of cannibalism, however, seldom made it out with them. But nearly every Volcanic would have heard the name somewhere, resonating deep within the chambers of their mind...

And so, in modern times, the Volcanics have populated across the globe in sparse regions of volcanic habitats. While their species is uncommon to see outside of these regions, they’re populous within them, and tend to be open to travelers so long as they don’t threaten to take their lairs, but they may still eat them regardless due to their adapted dietary needs. If one were to find a Volcanic, perhaps it would be an interesting idea to discuss their history with them to see how much they remember.