Legacy of Darkness (3.5e Campaign Setting)/Expansions/Dragons in Legacy of Darkness

=Dragons in Legacy of Darkness= Few beings hold as much mystery as the true dragons-a nigh extinct race from long before even the rise of the humanoids. In the time before the Shattering, the dragons were powerful, a race who could raise or collapse whole civilizations on a whim. They were patrons of the just, and the heralds of apocalypse.

After the Shattering, however, things changed.

Unable to travel through the airless Void, they were trapped on whatever fragment of the world they happened to be on, often without others of there kind. So these dragons waited, waited for the day to come when other creatures traveled the In Between. That day is here, but still many remain stranded, flying the skies until others come to free them from their prison.

Society
The true dragons tend to have very little social interaction with each other, and not merely due to isloation. Many creatures and organizations have attempted to hunt them upon their discovery, whether due to prejudice or for use as supple of meat and wealth. For many splintered cultures, a large dragon may represent weeks, if not months worth of food, not to mention status for slaying such a beast. Those warriors brave enough and skilled enough to take down a dragon might become a ruler of his tribe, or in Imperial controlled shards, an honorary knight. To say that these antics are limited to humanoids and giants would be very unfair, since in more than one recorded scenario, dragons have been seen battling each other.

For the most part, true dragons encountering other beings mask their appearance using magic, especially in areas under the law of Palantium, which declares all true dragons government property. Those dragons who choose to live in such areas often do so for a long period of time for fear of discovery.

Perhaps the rarest occurence is when a like-minded dragon meets another. In this case, they might forge an alliance of sorts, but the nature of a dragon prevents such pacts from lasting long. Rarely do such dragons meet again after they separate.

Personality
The isolation of their race coupled with their extreme longevity has caused most dragons to form their own unique mindset and moral outlook, meaning that they might be remorseful or murderous in ways unlike their type. This means that one might find aa white dragon on one shard to be a benevolent, caring guardian of several tribes, while a copper dragon might be a merciless midnight stalker of humanoid infants on another. The latter represents an especially common mentality with the rise of the Palantium Empire, from whom nearly every member of the race feels enmity towards (which often extends to humans as a whole).

Biology
Perhaps the biggest problem with the true dragons is the ability to reproduce, which many older dragons now lack due to age. Those who are fertile find themselves hardpressed to find a mate, at least of the same species. For many metallic dragons, hiding among humanoids has caused more than a few mixed race offspring, although their chromatic counterparts are rarely as discriminate. Throughout the shards, often bizarre creatures known as dragonspawn are testament to this fact.

Half-dragon humanoids are greatly coveted by the Empire for their abilities as mages and warriors, and they offer opulent rewards for the capture of these mongrels.

Other Draconic Creatures
Throught the shards and planes, many lesser species of dragon and draconic creatures dwell, often oblivious to the existence of their more powerful kin. The same species might exist accross multiple shards, but often they show slight (or drastic) evolutionary changes in response to their enviroment.


 * Dragonnes: These fierce desert beasts have been used as mounts for high ranking warriors on Palantium, even as ancient texts have shown, during the reign of the fabled Lion Queen. More recently, they have served as mounts for officers and commanders in the Imperial Navy. Palantium dragonnes are bred for speed and endurance, eliminating the species' inability to fly long distances and allowing them to survive for days without sustenance. The noble Houses Apellan and Shrinad have long bred more ornamental dragonnes, creating slenderer, brightly colored ones for use as household guardians and for brilliant aerial displays during times of celebration.
 * Dragon Turtles: One of the most farflung dragons, dragon turtles are prolific throughout the oceanic shards. They are treated with a reverance by aquatic eleves whom they share territory with, but many savage aquatic races hunt them for various reasons including status, and (among the sahuagin of Ael'Terinsin) the perceived aphrodisiac qualities of their tongue. In the swamp of Mylet, a handful of turtles hunt, using vegetation growing over their shells as camouflage to ambush unsuspecting prey.
 * Pseudodragons: An urban predator, pseudodragons are found mainly on the forested Confederation shard Emilios, where they hunt any small mammals that succumb to their poisonous stings. Highly intelligent, they are often bred and trained as messengers for both the Empire and the Independant Shards. They can also be found roaming free in many forested shards.
 * Wyverns: The wyvern is perhaps the biggest aerial predator on many shards, since its' meager intelligence, fierce personality and powerful body leaves it unharmed by most. They have been imported to Palantium from numerous other shards and now serve a place a mounts for commanders and scouts in the Navy. On distant outposts such as Rygnea and Descada, they are often the only mounts stationed, since their ability to fly has outstriped the need for landbound mounts such as horses and noas.