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Dragon

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Appearance

Dragons come in a variety of colors. The color a dragon displays can represent its lineage, alignment, and element, but this is more of a guideline than a rule. Dragons are able to come in any color, sheen, or combination. Metallic, gem, and other exotic descriptive tints are included.

The size of a dragon ranges from the tiniest insect to the larges mountain. Dragons to not have standardized sizes, and often can change their size to suit their purposes. The same is true of a dragon's weight. They can be the size of a firefly and weigh forty tons just as equally as they can be the size of Mahtohs and weigh as much as the foam atop the waves.

Dragons have an assortment of limbs, including but not limited to: arms, legs, whiskers, antennae, and spikes. Dragons in Karchan can have five, four, or three digits per limb if they have limbs. Some dragons do not have limbs at all. Whiskers and antennae, like cats or insects, need not be limited to the head, though that is where they are most commonly found. A dragon may come equipped with teeth, scales, claws, talons, webbed appendages, fins, wings, flippers, feathers, sharkskin, and other unique and useful features. Some dragons have large, pointed ears, while others simply have ear flaps or holes.

The only really unifying trait that dragons and their sub-races seem to have is that, no matter what size they take on, they are quite long of body, and can resemble snakes, worms, eels, sea cucumbers, and other equally wriggly species.

Physical Abilities

On the whole, dragons are stronger, faster, and generally smarter than standard humans. They also live much longer lives. Because of this, many dragons consider themselves to be a superior race. For good dragons, this may only mean they often consider humanoid races as children, trying to take care of them and educate them; for evil dragons, they consider humanoids as mere animals, or as toys to play with; at best, they are minions and slaves. Occasionally, individual dragons will consider humans and other such races to be their equals.

A dragon's outer coating, whether it be sharkskin, scales, or cartilage, hardens as the dragon ages, reaching full hardness at about 1,000 years of age. Until the dragon is fully grown, patches of skin or scale will be softer and more subject to harm and injury where the dragon has most recently had a growth spurt. Dragons that have stopped growing but are below the estimated one thousand year mark have soft spots where their sweat glands are. The interior of a dragon's mouth is also vulnerable, and they are prone to biting the inside of their cheek.

Dragons with claws, teeth, and other appendages are able to and will attack and defend with their unique anatomical attributes. Even a dragon's whiskers and antennae can be used to whip or strike a cheeky opponent or unruly child.

Magical Abilities

Dragons in Karchan may assume these abilities as traversing both regular and variation dragons. This is a list of standard (innate) dragon powers that all dragons in Karchan can possess.

Radiate Aura is a dragon power that is tied to age and attenuation. From the moment they are born, dragons are able to send out an invisible warning that is akin to a frilled lizard or cobra fanning it hood. It is a small aura, usually purposed to instill fear and make the observer run away, or give the observer a blind spot so that they cannot pinpoint the dragon's location. As dragons grow older, they can increase the area of effect and alter the goal of this aura, using it to charm, terrorize or soothe others and hide themselves.

Sliding Scale is a power that dragons use to change their size and weight at will. Younger dragons will struggle making themselves more than three standard deviations larger or smaller, heavier or lighter, than their true form.

Breath Weapon is highly dependent upon the dragon's element. Fire, frost, ice, water, light, darkness, earth, fog, poison, and acid are all existing elemental breaths in Karchan. Others could be expanded to include such things as magma, lightning, plasma, blood, ectoplasm, slime/sludge, and molten metals. Note that a dragon's element does not have to match its color.

Thunder Lizard is an ability that dragons have to shake an area around them. Like other magical dragon abilities, this one is highly dependent upon the age and maturity of the dragon. In accord with their element, dragons are able to enforce their will and cause an area ranging from 30 feet up to 200 feet in radius shake, quake, and tremble. This can be ocean, air, land, etc.

Standard Dragons

If you'd like to play just a simple, standard dragon and not one of the specialized sub-races in Karchan, you can add the following powers as well

Biped Form is a power that standard dragons are able to enact, changing their form into one of the bipedal races of Karchan, typically a human, though other dragons have taken on elven and other such races, mostly to explain their innate magical connection.

Magic Sense is the ability for standard dragons to sense magic. They can tell when magic has been used, someone has the ability to use magic, and places that are naturally magical. They are able to sense the depth of magical power in a person or location, meaning that gods and sacred areas make their nose tingle just a bit more than other magic.

Combination Dragons

Dragons that are born from two dragons with differing elements can choose how they'd like to play their dragon. They can either take after one parent more than the other for their elemental influence, or combine their two parents' elements to come up with a third, related element.

Dragons that are born from one standard dragon and one sub-race dragon will receive all of the standard dragon's powers and abilities at full strength, and the sub-race's at half strength.

Half Dragons

Half Dragons are dragons that have one non-dragon parent and one dragon parent. Though the child does receive the abilities of the dragon half, it is at a greatly reduced rate. They will top out at the abilities and physicality of a five hundred year old dragon, and progress at half the rate of full dragons.

Dragons that are half sub-race dragon and non-dragon parent will also receive half the capacity of the abilities of that sub-race.

Non-Sapient Dragons

There are several species of non-sapient dragons in Karchan, and thus they are non-playable, but are available as pets.

Brightly colored fire lizards are the size of a standard squirrel. They never grow larger, and while they can be taught to do both magical and non-magical tricks, they maintain the intelligence of a 3 or 4 year old human throughout their lives. They bond with one person only, but will tolerate others as long as their person gives consent first. These dragons can teleport on command, and communicate telepathically, though there might be a learning curve for the receiver. Fire Lizards are always scaled, with front and hind legs, five toes on each limb, and clawed. They have pointed teeth and large canine fangs on the top and bottom.

Drakes, not to be confused with the sapient version, are non-sapient miniature dragons able to be summoned when a witch or warlock attains a particular level at Howlswealde University. Drakes come in a variety of shapes, sizes, elements, and breath weapons. Most drakes tend to be in the house cat to medium dog range of sizes. They can be tailored physically to suit the summoner's preferences, and are able to be trained in both magical and non-magical tasks. They have an intelligence equivalent to a 5 or 6 year old.

Diet

Traditionally, Dragons in Karchan are carnivores. There is a history of dragons raiding and eating livestock, fisheries, and even people, though these may have been simply the most visible version of dragons at first. Since then, dragon species of all dietary requirements have come out. Carnivore, herbivore, and omnivore dragons all now feature in the land of Karchan, but it doesn't stop there. Some dragons have discovered that they are only truly satiated by eating gold, silver, or other precious metals. Some prefer gems and precious stones for their daily caloric intake. Other dragons eat things like ectoplasm, memories, or feelings. There's even a dragon that eats magic!

Regardless of their specific diet or favorite snacks, all dragons in Karchan share one thing: a very delicate stomach. What goes down often comes back up, which can be frustrating for the dragon, hazardous to those around them, or fortunate for whomever they ate. A dragon's dinner can take a week to weeks to digest, thus giving those who are consumed ample time and opportunity to escape - and to be grateful that this particular dragon didn't chew.

Hoards

All dragons keep hoards. It's an instinct that cannot and will not be denied. Not all dragons hoard gold. Dragons collect whatever is most important to them. Whatever speaks the most to them. Both physical and metaphysical collections are viable and valid. Dragons are so closely attuned to magic that they can easily hoard corporeal and incorporeal things. Most dragons become enraged and violent if anyone attempts to interject or impose themselves upon the dragon's hoard. Cities have been burnt, forests laid to waste, because someone dared pluck a piece of dust from a dragon's hoard.

Society

Dragons are largely solitary, thanks in part to their territorial nature. Dragons typically avoid overlapping or sharing space with other dragons, with family units being quick to separate once children are of an age that they are able to take care of themselves.

Rarely will dragons form a cooperative territory, and work together either as a family or organization to keep themselves and their territory safe and secured. The Dragon Monarchs of Rajan have managed this for centuries. Each color or element of dragon is given their own temple where devotees can leave tributes, seek advice, and ask for favors. They each have their own area of influence, and are equivalent in power to the land's most learned mage.

Many dragons incorporate themselves in their humanoid forms into Karchan society either as a temporary or permanent measure, depending upon their opinions of bipeds and biped society. One notable dragon who lives with bipeds, and they are aware she is a dragon though she most often appears in humanoid form, is Paitheia of Pendulis.

History in Karchan

Dragons did not have the most illustrious start in Karchan. For many years, the only interaction between dragons and the humanoids of Karchan were when the dragons were destroying things and eating people. This has caused a great distrust of dragons among the populace. In short, dragons in the early history of Karchan:

• Destroyed the money changers and wiped out their entire store of gold in Pendulis.
• Lit the Dew Drop Inn on fire in Pendulis.
• Threatened The Taverne, just north of the road
• Regularly absconded with various people in their stomachs, only to deposit those people deep in the Dark Forest later on.

Of course, not every dragon felt the need to include humanoid as part of their diet.

No one is entirely sure of who created dragons, nor where or when. The first dragons appear almost immediately in Karchan, seemingly alongside Elves, Dwarves, and Humans. They have never seen fit to share their version of a creation story with the humanoids, Algol and his minions have yet to enlighten us, and there has been no word from any deity nor the darkness as to how they came to be.

Separate from the original dragons of Karchan, the god Obsidian created a line of dragons to serve him. These were, by intention, solely evil dragons. Some of those dragons went on to propagate, and they and their offspring are still in Karchan today.

Notable Past Dragons

Drache

Tantalas

Pidish

Trodgor

Mahado

Last modified on June 14, 2025, 15:35:32