Ancient Dragons

## Overview

Ancient Dragons (**not to be confused with the racial subset** Dragon) also called Armless Dragons or shortened to just the non-pronoun form of "dragons" (lower-case "d") are a race of flying, non-reptilian, scaled carnivores that exist closely with the Riders and act as both battle-mounts and companions.

## Physiology and Life Cycle

Their growth does not end at a certain age like most other creatures, a dragon has the ability to continue growing for as long as it is alive and fed, so their maximum size and weight is unknown. Basing the average on the currently living examples, most of these creatures are upwards of two metric tonnes and have wingspans of hundreds of feet, their bodies typically stretching to around 30-45 feet not including tails. Their bodies are relatively slender compared to their massive wings and are covered in a protective layer of scales that are made of an extremely resilient and fireproof material resembling chitin. Their underbellies are unarmored and females have a cloacal opening at the base of their tails. Males will have spiny growths in two rows running down their backs, beginning at their brow and stopping a few feet before their tail ends. While on the ground, dragons walk on all four of their limbs, their hind legs capable of supporting their full weight for brief periods before takeoff and during combat, but usually chose to balance themselves on clawlike appendages on the wrist joints of their wings.
#### **Birth and Infancy**

Conception begins at the parents' desire to mate; in the wild (wild examples are rare) a single hen will seek out many males to contribute sperm, fertilizing a clutch of eggs that are produced after their first molting. Once they have all been fertilized, the hen might fly for thousands of miles to find a suitably secluded area in which to build her nest and lay her eggs, typically seeking intense, natural heat in which she can safely incubate the eggs and develop her milk.
Once laid, the eggs require a stable and significant amount of heat to continue developing. If heat is ever taken away, the egg will revert into a dormant state, where it can exist indefinitely until heat is reapplied. If no natural source of heat is found, the hen dragon will generate fire by expressing the gas sacks in her throat and chewing stones to create a spark with her metal-lined beak. If this method is used, the hen will either seek out fuel herself or allow a male dragon to seek fuel out for her, along with meat to continue producing both the gas and to continue to develop her milk.
As the egg continues to mature, its shell will harden until it is as strong as sword steel, able to be fired out of a cannon with little effect on the egg or dragon inside, until that point it will be much more brittle. Once matured however, a wild dragon egg will hatch without the need for a bonded partner, unlike the Rider variant of dragon. The baby drake will break through the shell of the egg with relative ease and will usually consume it immediately upon hatching, taking in the irons and calcium within the shell.
The food source for the newborn is a white, thick and oily substance called "milk" that the hen dragon generates in a specialized organ attached to its forestomach, it will feed all the drakes this milk for the first week of their lives, the drakes able to catch and kill their own meals after that point.
#### **Juvenile**

Juvenile dragons will typically remain close to the nest, interacting with their siblings (if any) and hunting food for both themselves and their mother, whose body is drained of energy from the birthing and infancy processes. If a male dragon accompanied the hen, it will usually leave at this point and continue to find new females to impregnate. This process only takes a few weeks, but the juvenile drakes will slow their physical development significantly and remain roughly this size for a number of years before going through their first molt and subsequeent growth spurt.
Once the dragons are large enough to begin developing their crowns and molt coats, they will begin to leave their area of birth as will the hen. At this point, the hen must wait a significant amount of time before it is able to generate new eggs, typically around four years. The juvenile dragons will begin to separate from their siblings now and seek out humanoid contact, the inborn desire to Bond driving them towards a specific person that is connected to them via Voidsense.
After a dragon finds its Bond, it will begin to molt its soft, newborn scales and develop its final, composite scales that will grow with it for its entire life. Males will also begin to develop their crowns and females will develop their first clutch of eggs, though typically the first batch will remain unfertilized.
#### **Adulthood and Rider Variant**

With a fully-developed body and a bonded match, a dragon enters a different phase of development from its wild parents. If it is a female, it will begin to develop its first clutch of fertilizable eggs, all of which are connected to a specific person via Voidsense and the alpha properties of the Void. When they become fertilized, they will all become dormant and the hen will seek to lay the eggs as soon as possible, rather than seek out a shelter first. If she lays the eggs, they will need to be heated just as the wild eggs, however, they will never hatch until they've both reached full maturity and have been physically contacted by their Bond. The Bond of the hen laying the eggs will typically assume the responsibility of finding the eggs pair bonds, holding a cultural festival wherein children under 10 are encouraged to touch a variety of eggs to see if they hatch.
#### **Rider Variant Process**

Drakes hatched from the Bonded eggs will all be Rider Variant dragons and will no longer possess the instinct to seek out shelter and heat, they will resume the cycle where their parents did and seek to lay the eggs as soon as possible, creating more Rider Variant eggs.
## Bonding

Aside from the effect Bonding has on the egg cycle of dragons, it changes the connection the dragon has with the alpha wavelength. This connection becomes so strong over time that the connection between itself and its Bond is so intense, if either should die, the other would instantly lose its connection to the Void and die of cardiac arrest. This gives it and its Bond extraordinarily strong wills, able to recover from blows and access levels of energy that would rip apart their unbonded counterparts.