Dragons

D
ragons */drah-guns/* were a species of four-legged draconian with the capacity for flight.

## IRL

Nearly every culture in the world has been observed to have some form of a monstrous reptile, whether they're more lizard-like or snake-like. Many of these tales originate from the ancient ignorance of dinosaur fossils, while others are exaggerations of living reptiles. An easy example of this is *draco volans*. Some expelled fire or lightning from their mouths, others had more than one head, and many had wings. The name used to describe these creatures is *draconian* from the Latin word draconem/draco. Greeks referred to them as δράκων/drakon or δράκοντος/drakontos, as they're derived from drakein or derkomai meaning "I can see clearly".

Draconians themselves come in a large variety, although historically, terms have overlapped and been confused for one another.

* Dragons are easy. They originate from European mythology. They expel fire from their mouths, have quadrupedal bodies, and have large wings from their shoulders. Dinosaur bones seem the most likely for this case.
* Wyverns are also from European mythology, although they frequently get confused with dragons for whatever ungodly reason. They have the body type of bats and birds. I suppose bipedal?
* Drakes were also confused with dragons due to drake meaning dragon in Middle English. Besides the fact that drake is a term for a male duck, mythological drakes are large, wingless reptiles. The Maori people of New Zealand are the only notable culture to specify a drake in this way.
* Lindwurms (Old German; lintworm/dragon snake) are special. Despite their mythological counterpart arising in Old Norse culture under the name linnormr and having various spellings otherwise, their real counterpart is an insectivore called *bipes biporus*. It has remnant hind leg bones and sort of half crawls, half slithers around. Bipes biporus and lindwurms are similar due to having snake-like bodies with forearms.
* Amphithere mythology is scarce, but the Egyptian goddess Mersokar/Melsokar had a biwinged serpent, which was meant to symbolic. For those familiar with the Borderlands franchise, rakks are amphitheres. They're essentially winged snakes.
* Wyrms, not to be confused with lindwurms, are described as wingless, limbless reptiles with dragon heads. So essentially serpents on crack. Historically, they were referred to as such or mislabeled as dragons. They were referred to as orms/ormr in Nordic myths.

DINOSAUR
A new four-winged dinosaur has been discovered, with exceptionally long feathers on its tail and "hindwings". *Changyuraptor yangi* was a gliding predator which lived in the Cretaceous period in what is now Liaoning, China. Its remarkable tail feathers - measuring up to 30cm - are the longest in any non-avian dinosaur. This unusual plumage helped the creature to slow down during flight and land safely, say scientists writing in Nature Communications. *C. yangi* is a new species of microraptorine, a group related to early avians. These ancient creatures offer clues to the origin of flight - and the transition from feathered dinosaurs to birds. Palaeontologists once thought that four-winged gliders were a stepping stone in the path to two-winged flight. But recent fossil discoveries suggest that microraptorines were an evolutionary side-branch. Flight probably evolved many times in different feathered species - not only the lineage which ultimately became birds.

## In Beolynn

Two variables set draconians away from Nokiarith reptiles; the ability to exhale an element and diversity. They exhibit the former in three ways depending on the element:

* A gland that produces a phosphorus liquid that combusts when coming into contact with oxygen.
* Two glands produce hypergolic propellants, fluids that ignite when coming into contact with one another.
* Methane bacteria in their stomach produce. A piezoelectric crystal in their mouth, which is a substance that produces a spark when placed under mechanical stress and could thus serve to ignite the methane gas.

As far as the latter, there's six species of draconians:

Each one can be further divided into sub-species that range from 1h (4in/10cm) to 13ke (65ft/20m). The most common sub-species tend to be ~14.4qu (12ft/3.6m). General appearances tends to align with dinosaurs, plus or minus the above mentioned variables. Aerial draconians have hollow bones, while their terrestrial counterparts don't. As far as interbreeding goes, winged cannot breed with wingless. Besides this, only size keeps individuals from breeding.

Due to the varying body sizes, their brains follow suit. Levels of intelligence/sentience differ greatly across sub-species and even species themselves, although dragons and wyverns are generally considered the most intelligent. Drakes are often used as guard dogs. Some can speak basic sentences, but most can't. Domestic lindwurms and wyrms are generally harmless "wiggly boopers", while their wild counterparts are "danger noodles".

Due to these varying sizes, their brain sizes also differ. Therefore, levels of intelligent and/or sentience may differ greatly. Esprindre Disorderis a disorder where- they go feral, essentially. Their brain degrades from sentience down to a primal state. It could be considered draconian dementia. It occurs most often in adult to senior draconians.

## Stereotypes

They're as old as time and *breathe* fire, turning whole villages into bonfires.

## History And Culture

They're ruled by an Elder Conclave. Despite the name, you don't need to be elderly to rule. It's the wisest draconians that make the big decisions.

## Trivia

* The "dragons" with no forelegs in video games are actually wyverns. Skyrim is the most notably guilty of this mislabeling. The most exemplary wyverns I've come across are the ones in Ark: Survival Evolved. They have thick forearms, logical membrane placement, and just overall lovely designs. Slightly odd heads and designs that are essentially swip-swap, but definitely lovely.
* I know draconian is a word used to describe harsh laws. The word itself comes from a Greek politician that was too strict.
* I hate lung dragons. I always have and I dunno why. Hence, why they're not between drakes and lindwurms when they otherwise would be. They're simply considered elongated drakes, although not as long and extravagant as they are in Chinese/general East Asian cultures.

Draconians are a classification of element expelling reptiles. Their intelligent is no more than that of a cat.

⭐ ``Appearance:`` Draconians are divided by body type.

o Wyrms (weerms) : Wingless, serpentine, apedal
o Lindwurms (lind-wurms) : Wingless, serpentine, bipedal
o Drakes (dray-kz) : Wingless, lizardtine, quadrupedal
o Amphitheres (am-fih-theers) : Winged, serpentine, apedal
o Wyverns (wih-verns/why-verns) : Winged, lizardtine, bipedal
o Dragons (drah-guns) : Winged, lizardtine, quadrupedal

However, they also have known breeds.
o Allogonas (al-low-goh-nas) : wyverns
o Compskies (comp-skees) : drakes
o Helophuses (he-low-fus-says) : wyrms
o Styracertas (sty-ruh-ser-tuhs) : drakes

⭐ ``Height:`` 10in/25cm - 50ft/15m
⭐ ``Weight:`` 10lbs/5kg - 50k lbs/22k kg
⭐ ``Age:`` Come of age at 75, average lifespan of 300. Smaller are often less.
⭐ ``Diet:`` Carnivorous

⭐ ``Inclination:`` Sicarith
⭐ ``Abilities:`` Speed

⭐ ``Society:`` Smaller are pack-like with mild territories, larger are solitary with expansive territories
⭐ ``Behavior:`` Aggressive. Cannot be domesticated, only tamed.

⭐ ``Habitat:`` Wyrms are deserts to otherwise dry climate, lindwurms are tundras to arctic, drakes are tropical to swamps, amphitheres are islandic to crags, wyverns are highlands to mountains, and dragons are forests.
⭐ ``History:`` Varies on location.