Dragon

Dragons are dangerous creatures that inhabit Ersetu. They are solitary creatures that view their own kind largely as competition rather than kin, and usually live and hunt alone, only forming societies if pressured to do so by outside aggression. Because of that, dragons are considered to be mostly an individual threat.

There have been some cases in the past where dragons amassed themselves into massive flocks to fend off against human campaigns that sought to wipe out the dragons of a particular area. Once the danger was gone, however, the dragons would break up again and continue with their isolated lifestyles.

There is an island near Blantyrre that is mostly inhabited by dragons, with the very fitting name of Dragon Island. Zach and Zorian pass very close to this area when flying the Pearl of Aranhal to Blantyrre in search of the imperial staff.

## Dragon magic

Dragons possess their own brand of structured magic, which has never been successfully copied by human mages. Quite simply, the issue is that dragons possess far bigger mana reserves than humans, and the sheer amount of energies involved in dragon spellcasting is virtually impossible for human spellcasters to match. Not every dragon is proficient in this form of magic, however – most don’t have the talent or patience for it, and instead simply rely on their innate magical abilities.

Dragon mages tend to pick another dragon as their student to pass their techniques on to the next generation, but in rare cases, like Oganj's, they might teach more than one student.

## Innate magical abilities

Apart from the minority of dragons capable of draconic magic, dragons have many other innate abilities.

They can breathe fire (and shape that breath to some extent, concentrating and guiding it and sometimes applying additional effects to the flame), release ‘battle roars’ (sound attacks), they’re great flyers despite their weight and size, their agility on the ground is more reminiscent to that of a tiger than an 8-meter long behemoth, their scales are supernaturally tough, they have powerful magic resistance, all of their senses are very sharp, they can see in the dark, they have very good magic perception and they can manipulate the air to some extent by using their wings (usually limited to directing gusts of air at things).

## Dragon lairs

Dragons are highly magical creatures, and thus need highly magical areas to lair in. Fortunately for dragons, their powerful flight and huge mana reserves allow them to venture far from these places, which means this restriction limits them far less than most other highly magical creatures. They typically spend days or weeks touring their territories, periodically returning to their lairs to rest and recharge. If a dragon loses its lair, and cannot find a suitable replacement, it will either die of magical starvation or be forced to spend a lot of its time in vulnerable sleep in some less magical location. Since a dragon’s lair is so critical for their survival, and since highly magical locations are in great demand by just about everyone, dragons are fiercely territorial creatures, always ready to defend their claims against challengers – be they human, monster or a fellow dragon.

## Dragon biology

Dragons are very large magical creatures, measuring up to 8 meters in length in their adult form.

Dragons mature very slowly, taking more than a hundred years to reach full size and maturity, though they are technically capable of breeding while still in their 40s. Females produce 4-6 eggs with each pregnancy, and can get pregnant every four years or so. Parenting is done primarily by the female in most cases, though the male often helps by bringing her food and helping her defend her territory while she’s busy with their children. Despite their durability and impressive capabilities, most dragons will never reach adulthood, as their mothers have a tendency to kick them out of the nest as soon as they can fly and many things find young dragons to be a tempting prize. If they can actually reach full maturity, however, there is little than can truly threaten a dragon. Even if they encounter something that is beyond their means to defeat, they can usually retreat and live to tell the tale.

Dragons don’t appear to grow weaker with age, and several have been confirmed to be more than a thousand years old.

## Civilization attempts

Probably the most serious weakness of the species is that they are highly solitary creatures. Although they do occasionally congregate into larger groups, this is usually induced by outside pressure and these groupings fall apart quickly without external threats to keep them together. Young dragons, especially siblings, will often form small bands and stick together for a while, but these tend to fall apart as they age, individual members gradually leaving to set up their own domains. There have been several known attempts by powerful dragons to start a dragon civilization, but all have ended in failure. Nonetheless, as humanity continues to advance and pushes into the wild corners of the world ever more insistently, these attempts are getting more common, and last longer and longer each time before they fail…

## Fighting

They are fast and enduring flyers, despite their size and weight. Although their flight is clearly magical in nature, they do need their wings to fly, and damaging them will ground the dragon until they heal. Though shockingly durable, and thus hard to wound or put down for good, dragons do not possess supernatural regeneration and any wounds they suffer in battle will linger with them for a long time. Lost limbs will likewise not grow back, and it is possible for a dragon to end up permanently crippled if a fight goes poorly for them.

All of this means that dragons, contrary to their fierce reputations, dislike getting into even fights. When faced with something they think can actually hurt them, dragons prefer to launch surprise attacks, making use of their flight and innate magic to stay out of range of attackers. The advent of firearms has complicated this tactic somewhat, but adult dragons are capable and canny enough to lure entire army groups into traps, drop huge boulders from huge heights on top of static targets and make use of their superior senses to launch raids during night hours, heavy rains, dust storms and other times of reduced visibility.

## References

1. ↑ Sapient Species of the World (Worldbuilding Page) comment