Dragonkin

Dragonkin were created by the Gods as experimental servants, quite close to the end of their reign. Perhaps it was even this experimentation that provoked the Celestial Wyrm to revolt in the first place. It would surprise no one, since the exact reasons and triggers are lost to time.

Dragon kin are humanoids with the features of Dragons mixed in. It’s surmised that either the Gods themselves or their imported humanoid servants were used to form the basis for this mixture. They are slightly taller than normal Humans, with longer necks and very obvious inhuman skin and colorations that match those of the Dragons themselves. They have a reasonably long, thick tail, and most have wings which can for some be made strong enough to fly with. Their hands have at minimum five digits, though some bear six (five plus a thumb, or four plus two thumbs), and all of them have hard claw-like nails. Their fingers are reasonably nimble, though not as much as Wyldkin’s. They have four claws on their feet plus an additional dewclaw resting somewhere near the heel/ankle. Their toe claws are much harder, larger and sharper than their fingers.

They are bipedal, though they tend to ‘lean forward’ – their long tail as well as the wings on their back make it improbable to stand fully upright, they would simply fall over backwards. Their tails are not truly prehensile, but are definitely under conscious control when needed. The tail can be used as a weapon, along with their clawed wing wrists.

They are highly telepathic, empathic and enjoy spell-magic use to an extent that only a few other peoples can maintain. Most of them have long since mastered wordless magic, thus their realm, the Silent Empire, is quiet save for murmuring speech, the calls of lovers, and the like. Unlike Dragons, dragonkin speak with their mouths using lungs and their tongue, though they too have an extraordinary range of vocalizations they can manage, even without proper lips. They speak the language of the Dragons – albeit very quietly – and their own dialect of it verbally among one another. They can easily converse under water.

Dragonkin are hatched from eggs, but their mother lays only two or three at the most. She lays in shallow water, or even in artificial ponds, but the urge to find a nice natural body of water is very strong in pregnant females. However, this is where the resemblance to their full sized kin ends.

A hatchling dragonkin bears far more resemblance to their humanoid counterparts, and is considered a ‘baby’ when they hatch. They do breathe water at first, however, and come up for air after only about a year. Their mother and often their father, but particularly aunts, extended family and nearby village groups will raise the young together. There is always someone watching the eggs of the village, generally more than one person. These caretakers are also often charged with keeping track of young Emergent or pre-emergent Dragons.

A baby dragonkin has wing nubs, a short tail, and closed eyes (but bears eyes to start). As it grows in the warm waters of its birth, its eyes will open and it will begin seeking food actively rather than being fed. Baby dragonkin eat a krill-mixture, small fish and whatever else can drift near it, and are regularly tended and fed by their mother or aunties. They make adorable gurgling sounds when they are happy, and annoying but thankfully short chirps when they’re agitated.

As a toddler they begin to age and grow very similarly to Human children, and put on growth spurts which are hardly rivaled anywhere in the world. A young dragonkin can sprout from a foot long baby to a four-foot high ‘teen’ in less than a year. Of course, their attendants are often exhausted by the food needs of these young kin! (Which is why it ‘takes a village’ to raise these children!)

Like any humanoid at this stage, they are learning to speak, walk and interact. They often attend the same schools as their humanoid counterparts, if they’re in an area where dragonkin and others are mingling. Otherwise they learn at home or in the temples where elders reside. Their magical powers begin coming into strength after they are around five years old.

Their youth is very short, profoundly so, and only some Wyldkin and Griffins are shorter. But their lives are very long, though nowhere near as long as full Dragons. Thus, dragonkin are encouraged to make the most of their youth and enjoy life. They are expected to settle down and become productive around when they are ten years old, but before then almost anything goes.

That all said, though, they are sedate and keen on learning, more than most young people. As their magical powers and telepathy begin growing, they also learn how to negate contact, something essential to any society where mind contact is common. They value privacy, but enjoy contact enough that there are very few things taboo mentally to a dragonkin community.

In most respects, dragonkin act as other humanoids do. They are not bound to the sea, nor the sky. As a group they are far more calm than adventurous and even seen as boring to some. But they are dedicated, and loyal to their Dragon counterparts more than they can even express. When a Dragon dies, they know it as much as the Dragon community does. They share a very special bond, even if their life styles are very different. Of course over the long years of history many dragonkin have become known for their wild spirit or adventures with groups of disparate species. Most ‘teams’ roaming the world tackling the wilderness or defeating Daemon foes have at least one dragonkin with them. They don’t necessarily like to lead, but they are usually called upon for organizational skills and diplomatic issues.

An adult dragonkin may try flying, though younger ones have more success because they are smaller. Those that do manage the feat are sought after as mates, small tribes of truly flighted dragonkin exist around the world, but are not common.

As with Dragons themselves, an outsider attempting to determine the gender of a dragonkin is a laughable matter. One sure way is to watch the nesting pools. But even then, there are the rare males who dedicate their lives to the task of taking care of hatchlings. They do not have breasts or external genitalia, male or female, so essentially only asking would do the trick. There is much less frill and display to dragonkin mating, and they do not mate for life like some other humanoids. However they do not really expect their males to fight one another, nor females to argue over space to breed. Just don’t get into a bar-fight with one.

Dragonkin, while they are physically similar to humanoids and Wyldkin, prefer their own for personal company. They cannot interbreed but certainly can enjoy close contact with other breeds. Perhaps with strong magical aid, they would be able to crossbreed with reptilian Wyldkin, but do not feel that this would be appropriate.

Because they are very adaptable to the surrounding cultures, Dragonkin usually defer to the reigning peoples’ rules or requirements, when they are within that territory. In their own, they don’t have what anyone might call a centralized government – like the Dragons, they just sort of exist and deal with things as they come. They have laws and ways to make decisions, but they don’t have a hierarchy designed to rule or pass laws aside from when needed.

Dragonkin get along with nearly everyone, because they appear to have been designed to do so. They, unlike their Dragon counterparts, accept this without question as it has helped the world adjust to all the different people who have arrived upon it since their creation. They are least attracted to the Grape Barony – similar to the Dragons – because of their boisterous and highly distracted nature. They are also less inclined to enjoy being around the Dark Elves of Ravenhill, though they seem to have a bit of distaste for their Bright cousins on Starcourt as well. They respect and often discuss politics with Necromancers and Summoners, and they absolutely delight in watching the interesting Clockwork. None of the species on the planet are either reviled or embraced by these silent folk.

Unlike their Dragon counterparts, Dragonkin do take more or less formal names for themselves. They have a wide variety of sounds that can be used for this purpose, so they are also similar to Dragons in that other people often give them nicknames – though mostly based on what sounds can be utilized by those around them. Their script follows a format of visualizing the sounds, thus it’s actually possible for a humanoid who can learn to read it, to identify by reading, whose name it actually is when they hear it spoken. Dragonkin names tend to be short, however, not as involved as Dragons, and they do have ‘common’ names equivalent to ‘John’ or ‘Lucy’ in their own fashion.

Prominent Dragonkin of the Current Era

(none yet)

Features of Dragonkin

• Humanoid in configuration of limbs, bipedal, with added leathery wings and a tail, dragon-like skin/markings
• Long lived, up to 300 or more years, but with a very short maturation time (under 20 years)
• Egg-laying, incompatible with other similar species (including Dragons, which are far too big to be considered anyway)
• Sedate and calm, highly intelligent and learned, telepathic and with strong magical powers; strong communication and social skills