Eldritch Dragon

*"The Hunt Begins*

*As old wizard Whitbee put the finishing touches on the Airship of Ghouls late at night, a dark mass materialized in a blue portal behind him. This was the same blue portal he had made every year as part of his themed décor, but it was never functional.*

*The mass propelled from the portal, creating a rush of wind that blew Whitbee's hat off. He bent down to pick it up and saw the mysterious entity rush into a forest before losing sight of it. He nervously twisted his hat.*

*Whitbee decided to research this phenomenon in the Dragonarium and while browsing bookshelves from floor to ceiling, he stopped dead in his tracks as one tome pulsed. He retrieved it with a levitation spell and quickly thumbed through the pages. He arrived at a depiction of a shadowy figure dubbed the Eldritch Dragon. Upon reading more, he found that after escaping its home realm, only the Shrouded Cavalry could usher it back to its proper plane of existence. A dragon's shadow spread across the wall behind Whitbee, unbeknownst to him as he pondered the implications of the text.*

*Just outside the Dragonarium, Gardenia, Nogard, Kaleni, and Lumi were searching for a lost baby lycan dragon. Everyone had their wands set with torch light. As soon as they discovered the wandering baby, it began to howl. "Well, that's one heck of a howl, little one," Nogard declared.*

*Lumi looked up at the full moon and said, "It must be a natural reaction."*

*Gardenia chimed in, "It's so cute! It sounds like it's saying 'looooo.'"*

*"Like, let's name it Moony-Loo, then," Kaleni announced. Before anyone could agree, the eldritch dragon flew past them with a gusty force. "Yikes!" yelped Kaleni.*

*The gang hid behind a tree, including Moony-Loo. They saw Whitbee follow in the creepy dragon's wake with a book tucked under his arm. Nogard deduced, "I've got a feeling, Whitbee might be planning something a bit too scary for some of the Valefolk this year."*

*\*This dragon must be level 4 or higher to wear a Shroud"* -Nogard's description of the **eldritch dragon** in The Book of Dragons

The **Eldritch Dragon** is a rare quad hybrid of the Fire, Plant, Earth and Cold elements. It's main element is Fire. It is also categorized under the Spooky element as well.

## Appearance

The eldritch dragon is a dragon who's body is made entirely of wispy ectoplasm, resembling strange flames made of shadow. It's body is mostly black in color, but the tips of it's wings, horns, and tail are transparent, and it's bottom jaw is silver. It has four sets of wings; one set on it's torso, and one set of the tip of it's tail. Neither set of wings is actually connected to it's body, but rather hover near the dragon. It has long legs that look far too thin and frail to support it's body, which end in sharp points affectionately described by fans of the dragon as "nubs." Much like the sprite dragon's peculiar head, the eldritch dragon's head is not actually attached to it's long neck, but rather hovers near the tip of the dragon's neck. Speaking of which, the eldritch dragon has a short muzzle that's filled with sharp "teeth" that are actually extensions of the dragon's maw. It's head is adorned with long, curly horns. The eldritch dragon appears to lack organs of any sort; even it's "eyes" are just gleaming, orange-yellow lights, vaguely resembling the eyes of a lit jack-o-lantern.

That being said, eldritch dragons are morphians, and as such are capable of shapeshifting. It is not an uncommon sight to see an eldritch dragon who appearance deviates from the standard mold. That being said, eldritch dragons appear to be incapable of flawless shapeshifting, as no matter what form they take, some parts of their body will still resemble wispy ectoplasm, and they appear to be incapable of imitating any form outside of a quadrupedal dragon form.

## Abilities

### Weapons

In it's natural state, the eldritch dragon possesses sharp horns, teeth, and legs, but that's far from it's most impressive offensive trait. The eldritch dragon's real offensive ability is it's ability to perfectly imitate the powers of whatever dragon they take the form of. For instance, if an eldritch dragon shapeshifted into an apocalypse dragon, it would gain access to all of an apocalypse dragon's natural abilities, even their magic.

### Defenses

The eldritch dragon has many defenses. First of all, alongside imitating the weapons of any dragon it shapeshifts into, it can also imitate the defenses of any dragon it shapeshifts into. Second, it can partially shapeshift it's body to avoid attack; for instance, if someone aims a spell at it's chest, the eldritch dragon can just create a hole in it's chest. Lastly, since the eldritch dragon's body is made entirely out of ectoplasm and lacks organs or bone, so ordinary easy kill maneuvers like ripping out the opponent's heart or breaking their neck just flat out don't work on eldritch dragons.

### Other Abilities

The eldritch dragon's shapeshifting can be used for reasons other then attacking or defending; for instance, they can take on the form of an air dragon in order to make a quick escape. As the eldritch dragon lacks organs, the eldritch dragon doesn't require oxygen or nourishment to live, and can live it's entire life without eating or drinking. It can also fly without actually having to flap it's wings.

### Weaknesses

As the eldritch dragon's body is made entirely of ectoplasm, the eldritch dragon is extremely vulnerable to spells designed to trap and/or destroy ghosts, as well as spells designed to manipulate ectoplasm or the minds of ghosts, despite not actually being a ghost itself. It also has a natural disadvantage against ectoplasm-vores.

## Habitat

### Regions

Eldritch dragons are known to originate from an alternate dimension, tentatively named The Null. Very little is known about the Null or what it is; however, several theories have been proposed. Some claim the Null is merely a corner of The Rift that is unusually lacking in Chaomancy. Some claim that the Null is the same thing as The Void that void dragons originate from. Others claim that the Null is none other then The Other Side itself.

### Preferred Home

Do to the fact it comes from a highly mysterious alternate dimension, very little is known about the eldritch dragon's preferred home. That being said, it appears to have a distinct preference for warm, dry, and dark habitats.

### Sheltering/Nesting

Similarly, very little is known about the eldritch dragon's preferred type of nesting. Observations appear to show that it doesn't make nests at all, however, and that it merely shapeshifts into an ectoplasm puddle when it wishes to sleep.

## Diet

Eldritch dragons are nullavores, and do not require food to live. That being said, just because they don't have to eat food doesn't mean that they can't eat food, and eldritch dragons may eat food for enjoyment reasons purely.

## Lifestyle

### Behavior and Personality

Very little is known about the behavior of eldritch dragons, and the fact the two main sources on eldritch dragon behavior conflict with each other doesn't help in the slight. The Draconomicon, an ancient tomb that was, for a long time, the only source of information wizards had on eldritch dragons and the Null, claims that eldritch dragons are inherently violent and evil creatures that are completely incapable of benevolence. However, Novaluna, the eldritch dragon seen during the Haunted Hunt, as well as most parkborn eldritch dragons, don't fit this description at all, instead being curious, intelligent, and timid dragons who love to learn. While most recorded eldritch dragons have been somewhat unemphatic, they are far from showing an "incapability of benevolence." As such, several theories have been proposed as to why these descriptions conflict so much.

Some propose that whoever wrote the Draconomicon based their description of the eldritch dragon on an unusually malicious and hostile specimen. Others state that the book is right and that most eldritch dragons actually are evil, or at the very least extremely aggressive, but that Novaluna was a rare example of a calm and placid eldritch dragon. Some believe that the dragon described in the Draconomicon is actually a different species of dragon that the eldritch dragon was simply confused with. Some simply state that the Draconomicon, like many ancient wizard books, is simply incorrect and based largely on superstition. And some people, the kind that wear aluminum hats, believe that all eldritch dragons, even Novaluna and parkborn dragons, are just as evil as the Draconomicon claims, and are merely pretending to not be evil as part of a massive conspiracy.

### Relationship to Wizards

Most wizards possess a strong dislike of eldritch dragons, do to their unsettling appearances, the fact that not much is known about them, and the fact that, until recently, there was a long held belief that eldritch dragons were evil and malevolent; even before there was solid proof that eldritch dragons actually exist, eldritchdracophobia was one of the most common variants of Dracophobia developed by wizards, and there was a highly influential series of horror novels based on the dragon. Now that there's not only actual proof that eldritch dragons exist, but also evidence that they are far from as evil as the Draconomicon claims they are, however, the reputation of eldritch dragons is slowly becoming more positive. In particular, there is a growing fanclub of people who consider the dragons adorable and often talk about their "little muzzles," "big eyes," and "nub legs."

As of currently, the DDLA has ranked eldritch dragons as 1.5, as while they have a variety of dangerous powers that could easily seriously injure and even kill a wizard, the only record of an unprovoked eldritch dragon attack exists in the debatably accurate Draconomicon. That being said, this ranking is likely to change as more is discovered about the dragon.

## When in a park

### Breeding

Breeding an eldritch dragon requires two dragons with, at the very least, the Fire, Plant, Earth, and Cold elements. While this is theoretically simple, the high amount of dragons with these elements makes this more complex then it seems at a glance.

### Habitats

Eldritch dragons can live in Fire, Plant, Earth, Cold, and Spooky Habitats. They can also be kept in Omnitats. They appear to have a preference for Fire Habitats, Earth Habitats, and of course, Spooky Habitats.

### Favorite Treat

Eldritch dragons for the most lack a particular treat preference, as they lack taste buds, but they appear to have an odd fondness for Kraken Kabbage. The exact reasons are unknown, but it's believed that eldritch dragons just like the texture.

## History

### Discovery

The discovery of the eldritch dragon is a story clouded in myth, and it's a complete mystery as to who discovered the dragon and how they discovered the dragon. The oldest record of the eldritch dragon was in an ancient book known as the Draconomicon, but the way the eldritch dragon is described there is noticeably inaccurate to living specimens; the Draconomicon claims that eldritch dragons are extremely powerful and pure evil dragons who can drive people insane just by looking at them and can rewrite the laws of reality, but no known eldritch dragons have shown any sign of these powers. The description given in the Draconomicon is so inaccurate, in fact, that some people theorize that the Draconomicon was describing a different dragon entirely.

That being said, despite there being records of it's existence in the form of the Draconomicon, the eldritch dragon was not proven to exist until the Haunted Hunt.

### The Haunted Hunt

While it was long believed that eldritch dragons were merely an old wives' tale, they were later proven to exist during a particularly catastrophic event that occurred during Whitbee's eighth Candy Bash, later known as The Haunted Hunt. The Hunt began when Whitbee, while trying to create a non-functional portal for decorative purposes, accidentally created a portal to the Null instead, which an eldritch dragon managed to escape from. This ended up resulting in Whitbee, alongside Nogard, Kaleni, Gardenia, Lumi, and a baby lycan dragon named Moony-Loo going a wild goose chase to recapture the dragon before it harmed anyone, with Whitbee even resorting to summoning the highly dangerous group of Apocalypse element dragons known as the Shrouded Cavalry in an attempt to capture it.

However, Whitbee and his comrades eventually realized that the eldritch dragon wasn't actually harming anyone. Whitbee ultimately decided to allow the eldritch dragon, as well as the Shrouded Cavalry, to participate in his Candy Bash. While he didn't decide to keep the dragons, he did end up naming the eldritch dragon Novaluna and the members of the Shrouded Cavalry Conqueror, Famish, Warmonger, and Reaper separately.