Spirit Dragon

Spirit dragons are the embodiment of nature itself and a strong conductor for natural plant magics. There is one varient of the spirit dragon simply called the Fungal spirit dragon, they have some slight differences from their main species but are ultimately very similar.

## Sociocultural Information

### Languages

* Draconic
* Sylvan

### Distinction(s)

* Fungal Plates
* Light Breath weapon
* Soil composed body

## Description

Spirit dragons are by far the most recognizable of the draconic species, they are essentially massive moving plants whose body itself is made up of a mixture of soil and moss from which small plants grow. Because of this, a Spirit dragon's favored habitat is an area with lots of sunlight and an abundance of moisture which they drink from the air using their moss.

When a Spirit dragon reaches maturity they will begin growing mushroom-like plates which will protect their fleshy soil and moss body and aid in collecting moisture.

Less common are the purely fungal Spirit dragons whose dirt and moss can only grow fungi, these spirit dragons can be more isolationist, preferring moist caverns far from civilization and will only meet another dragon when they mate. Fungal Spirit dragons are made up of thick fungal plates, stronger than that of your basic iron armor and harder than a typical spirit dragon's fungal plates.

### Personality

Spirit dragons are extremely docile and passion, the most out of all the draconic subspieces, with their love of nature coloring every decision they make, the spirit dragons will do anything to protect their home forest. But it is unwise to take this docileness as a sign of weakness as the spirit dragons are still dragons at their core and as such have potent combat abilities as well as their breath weapon which can severely damage their combatant.

They are not social creatures with no need for those of other species or races even those within their own draconic race or subspecies as a spirit dragon can procreate asexually, a trait they gained through their more plant-like body. However, most spirit dragons will avoid creating offspring until their later years in life where they raise the hatchling until they reach the juvinile stage of life where upon the parent dragon will exile them from their forest to find their own new home; they do not due this out of cruelty, at this point even the child has begun to grow weary of their parents company as they mature and no longer need their parent dragon.

A spirit dragon will avoid combat if they can help it, preferring to work out the problem another way, though they are highly intelligent and can tell when there is no use in even trying to reason with a creature.

### Abilities

An average spirit dragon has a number of abilites that come with the territory of being the protectors of Neraida's wildlands, they gain control over plants somewhere in their juvenile stage of life where upon with each growing year they gain more and more control over their powers to manipulate plants and weather to the point where they can force rain in certain region for an extended period of time or cause an intense bloom of all the plants in their surrounding area.

Spirit dragons often prefer distance in combat, using plants and wildlife to fight for them instead as the keeper of the wildlands must survive if even at an expense of the wildlife. They will use their well-versed knowledge of the surrounding terrain fully to their advantage and to aid in their defeating of you, though a Spirit dragon cannot bring themselves to directly take a life and will often spare combatants if they yield.

#### Breath Weapon

A Spirit dragon's breath weapon is a concentrated beam of light which uses the sunlight they collect when feeding and their Pnoi glands, this light has been known to cause burning when it comes into contact with flammable objects such as trees and plants; because of this if a spirit dragon is cornered in a wooded area it will likely not use its breath weapon unless gravely injured as it doesn’t want to harm the surrounding plants.

## Ecology

Spirit dragons make their home within jungles, woodlands, or, for the more fungal variety, damp caverns. They pleasure themselves in the remoteness and seclusion their lair has along with the level of its plant and wildlife protection which they involve heavily, Spirit dragons will often share their lair with creatures like bears, wolves, or elk which will fight to defend the lair and subsequently, the dragons horde. A spirit dragon will often hoard magical trinkets that they may find laying about within their realm and some will even pick the pockets of wondering travellers if they sense a particularly magical item hidden away. Around the area of a spirit dragon den the grass and other plants will seem brighter, healthier, and will always be in bloom; there will be a higher level of game like deer and rabbits mingling with wolves and bears who do no harm to them while they within the dragons territory.

## Reproduction

A spirit dragon reproduces by itself asexually. This occurs through a process in which the spirit dragon begins forming a large flower bud on their chest under the protection of their mushroom plate, this flower bud holds the developing hatchling as the spirit dragon begins consuming more and more sunlight as their body expands and forms anew within the center of the flower bud. This process takes about a month to complete with the resulting flower bud eventually blooming at which point the hatchling will fall the small length to the ground, attaching itself to the ground immediately as it soaks in the water residing within the soil and drinks up the suns rays.

### Development of a Young Spirit Dragon

This process takes about a month to complete with the resulting flower bud eventually blooming at which point the hatchling will fall the small length to the ground, attaching itself to the ground immediately as it soaks in the water residing within the soil and drinks up the suns rays. The hatchling will remain rooted to the spot for the next 3-10 days as its body consumes a large amount of "food" in order to strengthen the young dragons body to the outer world, their soil and moss composed body will become denser and the hatchlings premature armor made of wood begins to grow in.

After the hatchlings wooden armor forms a thin and somewhat flimsy protective shell, the hatchling will release its hold from the ground and join its parent. the hatchling life-stage of a spirit dragon lasts it's first 20 years over the course of which the hatchling's wooden armor will thicken and become more durible and expand as the hatchling grows into its wyrmling stage, during this time the hatchling is practically joined at the hip with their parent, never leaving their side as a wayward hatchling has been known to be a perfect snack for the larger herbivores as they have yet to develop any offensive defenses.

As a Wyrmling the spirit dragon will slowly become more and more distanced with their parent as they begin to mature and grow over the 50 years that this stage lasts. The wyrmling will learn how to defend themself with their thorned claws and teeth from their parents before their breath weapon even begins to come in, it is most important for a spirit dragon to know how to fight without their breath weapon for in case they are in a situation that they cannot use it; like if they are in the middle of a dense wooded area that would catch on fire with the use of their breath weapon.

As soon as the wyrmling reaches the juvenile stage of life they are shunned from the parents territory and encouraged to find their own. The breath weapon develops 2-5 years into the juvenile stage which lasts a total of 315 years, this time is a time of growth for the juvenile dragon as they are exposed to and forced to travel the world which they will, in time, grow to hate the humanoid world that so infects their world of nature they so desperately strive to protect.

## Harvesting

Killing and harvesting a spirit dragon is seen as taboo in some cultures, such as the elves and gnomes, but for those who go past the boundry of morality and inovation, harvesting such a delicate and passive creature comes with many benefits such as spell components that are able to be testing on and experimented with, such as the mark of a true Dragonologist.

**Fungal Plates**: *"while being a useful component for an eco-friendly armor, they can also be cut up into smaller pieces and used to make a lovely mushroom soup; oh and they also make for a great enhancer when casting a defensive spell"* - Dr. Kilagam Kramham

**Druid Orb**: *"at the center of a spirit dragon is what is called its life-orb, this is what allows the dragon to continue existing and is formed when the spirit dragon is still within its egg. This life-orb, however, can be used as a powerful druidic focus, allowing a druid to cast spells with less material components and at a lower level of personal reserves if the caster decides to use the orb's own reserves. Though there is a limit to the reserves of the orb which can range from casting just a handful of spells to over 30 at an enhanced level, it is unclear as to why and is recommened that study of these orbs be done to a fuller extent before they are released to the public."* - Humry Druumer