Silver Dragons

My treasured friend, Melchias, in repose as he beholds the dawn over the Elderwood in Andvar.

### Related Species

Dragons

The salakiin, better known to us humans and other races as the silver or celestial dragons, are, in this researcher's humble opinion, one of the most noble peoples to populate the earth. I feel no shame in professing that the first time I stood in the presence of one in the fullness of their glory, I fell to my knees and wept with joy. If you are ever so fortunate as to behold one for yourself, dearest reader, you will see why. Words and my own drawings cannot do justice to the majesty of these magnificent beings. Their glory comes not from their power, tremendous which it is, even to fellow dragons. Their glory comes not from their perfection of their form, which none can doubt. No, their glory comes from the purity of their hearts. No other dragon that I have encountered has ever sparked the same passion within my heart as the noble salakiin. None other has ever been so considerate of me, a mere human, and treated me not only as an equal, but as a true friend. So without further ramblings, read on, and allow me to describe to you the ancient and virtuous salakiin.

## Physiology

### Appearance

Like other dragons, the salakiin are possessed of a pair of leathery wings, four legs, and a tail. Adept flyers, they possess muscular wing-shoulders, as well as powerful forelimbs, which have small leathery frills extending from the back. Their necks are long, only slightly shorter than their main body, while their tails are nearly a quarter longer. Their wingspan is usually a third longer than the length from the tip of their nose to the end of their tails.

The most distinctive bodily features of the salakiin are its prominent head crest, which are more prominent in males, as well as further frills running along the sides of its jaws and cheeks. These cheek frills vibrate intensely when the dragon is agitated or excited. They also possess a frill that dangles from their chin, which is longer and narrower in males. Like may other dragons, the salakiin also have a long frill running down its spine, which aids in flight stabilization.

As wyrmlings, salakiin are typically a blue-grey in color. As they age, their scales lighten, becoming brighter and more reflective, and it becomes more difficult to discern the individual scales. The pupils of their eyes also fade as they age, and old salakiin appear as though they have eyes of pure quicksilver.

I cannot do justice to the sight, but a salakiin shimmering in the sunlight is truly something to behold.

### Life Cycle

#### Eggs

A salakiin eggs appears as a smooth silver ovoid, approximately two feet tall and fifteen pounds heavy. As with other dragon eggs, those laid by the salakiin after mating must undergo an incubation period before they hatch. This period begins before the eggs are laid, which usually takes around three months after mating. After that time, the female lays her eggs, usually just one, but on occasion two eggs have been known to be produced, and in extremely fortuitous circumstances, clutches of up to three eggs do occur. After being laid, the eggs must then spend half a year immersed in snow or encased in ice. If these conditions are disrupted for more than around ten minutes during this period, the hatchlings inside will die. After this tremulous period, the eggs must incubate for a further six months, though it is nowhere near as vulnerable, able to survive most conditions excepting being violently crushed or incinerated. Once this is done, the salakiin chick will be ready hatch within a few days.

#### Growth Stages

A salakiin chick as it emerges from its egg is some four feet long, from nose to tail, weighing only about ten pounds, carrying the usual awkward proportions associated with young dragons.

By the age of around seven years, a salakiin will have developed into a wyrmling, having doubled its length and grown to weigh over a two hundred pounds, and standing two to three feet high at the shoulder. It still will have a head and feet that seem overly large compared to the rest of its body.

At approximately twenty years of age, a salakiin will reach its fledgling stage of life. Typically, they will measure some fourteen to seventeen feet in length, weigh around one thousand pounds, and stand between four and a half to five feet at the shoulder. When a fledgling reaches its twenty first birthday, it is tradition for it to strike out on its own, out of the territory of its parents.

By the age of around fifty, salakiin will have progressed to the juvenile stage. Weighing in between five and eight tons, standing seven to eight feet at the shoulder, and measuring from nose to tail from thirty five to forty feet, the young dragon is now a true behemoth.

Subadulthood is attained by the salakiin at approximately one hundred and twenty years of age. Subadults usually stand twelve to fourteen feet high at the shoulder, weigh somewhere between ten to sixteen tons, and measures between fifty five and seventy feet. At this stage, their growth slows considerably, and while they are similar in size to a full adult, they lack the raw physical and magical power that a full grown dragon possesses.

Close to two hundred and eighty years of age, a salakiin at last possesses the full power of an adult, and is entering the prime of their life. Most stand fifteen to eighteen feet tall at the shoulder, measure seventy to ninety feet long, and weigh some eighteen to twenty three tons.

A salakiin is considered an elder at the age of around twelve centuries. By this point, they typically measure up to one hundred and twenty feet long, weigh close to eighty tons, and stand close to twenty six feet tall at the shoulder.

An ancient silver dragon has lived approximately twenty eight centuries. Such beings are utterly gargantuan in size, weighing over three hundred tons, standing over to forty feet tall at their shoulder, and measuring more than two hundred and ten feet from tail to snout. From then on, the ancient salakiin has the potential to live up to around forty two centuries, though I have heard tale of one living to around five thousand.

#### Reproduction

Salakiin are capable of mating with another of their kind as subadults, but most do not reproduce until full adulthood. When they have assumed the shape of another creature, they are capable of mating with one of them to produce a half dragon, and this can be done before they reach draconic reproductive maturity. Female salakiin are capable of breeding from subadulthood until they become ancients, while males become capable of fathering children as subadults, and remain capable of doing so throughout their lives. However, their fertility does vastly decrease once they become ancient in age.

While my friend Melchias has gleefully told me that salakiin are capable of intercourse at any time, his mate, the esteemed Alaaruth, has explained to that the female fertility cycle is somewhat more restrictive. Females are able to reproduce every five centuries, the second longest period of any dragon, surpassed only by the altukiin. As a result, the birth of new salakiin is tragically rare. I myself have been blessed and honored to witness the hatching of one such young salakiin, a male named Turelax. In all my travels, I have truly never witnessed a more miraculous and wondrous event.

### Hunting and Diet

Like other dragons, salakiin are carnivorous predators. As a result of their ability to sense the emotions of living creatures, they prefer to kill their prey as swiftly and painfully as possible. Typically, their primary hunting strategy is to sweep down from on high, and painlessly kill their target with a blast of their icy breath. However, many spend a large amount of time in human form, and subsist mostly on human fare as a result, though they typically consume far more prodigious amounts than any man.

## Powers and Abilities

The majority of the following information comes from my friend Melchias, and tales of his adventures during his younger years, many of which he spent fighting alongside the elven prince, Cildarin Tralyn. I have also interviewed his current mate, Alaruuth, several of their offspring, and numerous other dragons about the capabilities of the salakiin.

### Chick

Salakiin chicks are incapable of sustained flight, though they are able to produce enormous leaps by flapping their wings. They are able to walk upon clouds, and are able to breathe frost capable of freezing small animals. And of course, even from an early stage, the salakiin is able to sense the emotions in those within their presence. As a chick, they are only capable of focusing on one person at a time.

### Wyrmling

Wyrmlings are capable of flying, though they can typically only sustain it for only short distances. Their physical strength develops to the point where they are capable of taking on and killing most forms of wildlife, even ones substantially larger than themselves, and their hide is quite tough, allowing them to shrug off all manner of slashes and bites from animals. Their breath weapon has improved to the point where it can cause most substantially sized creatures to die if hit. Wyrmlings lack fine control over the intensity of their breath, and are thus incapable of regulating it to merely freeze a foe. Their skill at reading emotions has also reached the stage where they are able to read the emotions of up to around half a dozen individuals within their presence at once.

### Fledgling

As a fledgling, the salakiin will be able to change its shape, though it will not have fine control over the specifics of the form it takes. Though they now can regulate their breath so as not to be lethal, the fledgling is capable of engulfing several men in lethal doses of cold at once. Physically, they are capable of flying for several hours without tire, and are strong enough to carry several riders on their back or tear apart a timber house. Their armor is tough enough to withstand sword cuts without trouble, though powerful stabs or a close range crossbow bolt might still pierce it. They are also capable of reading the emotions of a roomful of people without much trouble.

### Juvenile

Possessed of strength to smash stone and rend armor, the endurance to fly for an entire day without tire, and scales as resilient as steel plate, a juvenile silver dragon is a true force to be reckoned with. Capable of customizing the features of any creature whose form they take, the salakiin can now blend in with humans relatively easily from a physical standpoint. Added with the fact that they are able to read the emotions of a substantial crowd of people, they can be quite socially adept, despite their youth. With a touch, they may confer their ability to walk on clouds to anyone, and keep the effect active as long as they are within their presence. Additionally, their frigid breath is capable of engulfing dozens of men in a single sweeping blast. Combined with the fact that they are capable of altering the weather within a one mile radius, such as by summoning fog, clearing the sky, or calling down a snowstorm, a young salakiin of this age is a tremendous boon to any force they fight with, or a horrendous foe to any they fight against.

### Subadult

Nearing adulthood in size, a subadult salakiin is a truly mighty force. Subadults are capable of flying for several days without rest. Their hides are nigh invulnerable to anything less than a direct shot from a catapult, and they have the strength to wrench off a castle gate or knock over a small tower. Magically speaking, their breath is capable of flash freezing large portions of an army in a single blast, and is often employed to devastate large structures by making them cold and brittle, and even easier to break apart. The power of their control over the weather improves so that they may control conditions within a five mile radius. Their ability to read emotions allows them to sense the combined mood of a small village or city district. Additionally, subadults are able to, over the course of several hours, substantiate masses of clouds or fog, rendering it solid. Lastly, as they near adulthood, they begin to have the ability to perform weak manifestations of dragonfear when in their true forms, which can serve to make foes massively vulnerable to intimidation.

### Adult

As full adults, a salakiin is capable of single handedly battling an army or besieging a castle, and they can fight for many days without tire, and fly for even longer. Truly titanic levels of force are required to do them serious harm, with potent magic being the only other alternative for harming them. Given that salakiin, like other dragons, are quite resistant to magic as adults, this is oftentimes not overly effective. Capable of commanding the weather over ten miles, tearing apart a castle wall or devastating armies by raining frigid cold down from above, they are a true nightmare to face in battle. They are also capable of unleashing full dragonfear, sending any being lacking magical protection and tremendous willpower fleeing before them. In contrast to the titanic ability to unleash violence they possess, adult salakiin are so skilled at reading emotions that they can get a sense for what causes them, for instance, being able to detect if one person is in love with another. This makes them uncannily good at reading people. Lastly, their ability to shape and substantiate cloud material has improved so that they can typically do it within a few minutes.

### Elder

Having read of the physical capabilities of an adult salakiin, imagine a creature capable of utterly crushing such a being. Battles between such creatures are like great mountains of scales in conflict, shaking the landscape around them, and an elder is easily capable of devastating a city with near impugnity. Elders are able to control the weather across a thirty mile radius, and can form cloud constructs within a few moments. They may gauge the mood of an entire city with their sensory powers, and also discern deep, hidden emotions, even those which are not felt in their presence, such as hidden fears and secret loves.

### Ancient

Mighty as elder salakiin are, the powers of an ancient put even them to shame. Ancient salakiin are more forces of nature than creatures, so far elevated above mortal men as for them to be scarcely comparable. They can discern the moods of entire regions, and have the power over the weather across around a hundred miles. With such tremendous might at their command, they are capable of bringing kingdoms to heel with personal power alone.

## Weaknesses

Mighty as the salakiin are, even they can be killed. Sufficiently grievous wounds and potent magics can fell them, though for the older among them, such power is quite rare.