Dragons

The exact origin of dragons is a hotly debated subject. In draconic mythology, they are the children of magic itself. When magic solidified in the primitive days of mankind, it shaped itself into the perfect vessels for its boundless might: dragons. And these dragons were designed by magic and shaped by humans belief to be the gods and kings of man. They taught us the secrets of magic, of agriculture, of architecture, of language.

And in return, man, full of hubris, cast them down.

Well, to be fair, the dragons were already on the decline, because the other races, while individually less powerful, were more numerous and more willing to cooperate with members of their own kind than the vainglorious dragons. Dragons had been loosing their power and influence since the bronze age, as other supernatural races, such as jinn, fey, vampires, therianthropes, and demons begun to wage magical war against the self-titled Tyrants of Earth. Over the next four thousand years, the dragons lost more battles than they won, and their spheres of control were increasingly restricted to the fringes of the world.

This made them incredibly easy pickings for the mortal hunters and knights when the Veil was implemented in the 800s through the efforts of the angels and horrors. The Veil forced the supernatural races back into the shadows, giving mankind dominion over the world for the first time in our history. However, it was not be easy to get the dragons to agree to let their former slaves become the masters of the world the dragons felt was rightfully theirs. And thus, it is said the angels taught mankind how to slay their former masters, and gave us the weapons needed to carry out the task.

Approximately four out of every five dragons perished between 600 AD and 1400 AD. It was brutal, but in the end, enough dragons agreed to sign on to the Veil treaty that the treaty's ritual magic came to cover their entire race.

The dragons haven't forgotten this slight, and even though their population has begun to recover since the slaughter of the Middle Ages, they are still vastly outnumbered by not only mankind, but most of the other supernatural races. Normally that wouldn't be an issue, as an individual dragon is more than a match for a dozen lycans, vamps, or fey... but most of the dragons alive today are scarcely over 500 years old, scarcely into their prime, and the elders who would have taught them how to access the incredible powers held within their draconic blood were among the first targeted by the early dragon hunters.

So most dragons instead use their longevity, incredible intelligence and magical might to gain positions of power within mortal and supernatural society. More than one Fortune 500 company is headed by a dragon, and many secret societies have at least one dragon close to the top of their organization. Dragons may not be the god-kings of old, but that doesn't mean they can't enjoy the comfortable life of power and luxury that is their birthright. They just try not to be too overt as to arouse the ire of their supernatural peers, or, even worse, the hunters who now busy themselves with the other supernatural races but are all too happy to turn their attentions to the dragons their forefathers slaughtered.

Dragons, being the children of magic, are an incredibly varied race. Many do appear as the archetypal six-limbed reptilian beast, full of dreadful majesty, but there are those who appear more serpentine, avian, or bestial, with four limbs, or a dozen, or multiple heads and tails. Each dragon could potentially be called a species in and of themselves, though they do tend to inherit the traits of their parents, which leads to dragons in a certain area sharing numerous traits. Yet, despite these vast differences between the various families of dragons, they were still members of the same species, and unions between two dragons who looked nothing alike, such as a European drake and a Mesoamerican feathered serpent, were not unheard of.

This was remarkably helpful after their race was devastated by the hunters during the middle ages, as it allowed disparate, fractured families to join together for mutual survival. However, this had another benefit. See, many dragons were forced to live as humans, hiding their true form beneath the skin of man as many of the other supernatural races were. This lead to more interactions between the dragons and their former subjects, and, eventually friendships, alliances, and even romantic relationships.

And it just so turns out that the children of dragons and humans are almost always dragons in and of themselves.

Now, these new dragons, with the blood of mankind running through their veins, are a bit different than the dragons that came before. They age far faster, reaching proper draconic adulthood in their 50s. Furthermore, they adopted humanity's drive and innovative spirit, and are by and large the reason dragons have survived as well as they have. However, they lack the raw power of pureblood dragons, and their lives are comparatively shorter. Many are actually dying of old age in their fourth or fifth centuries.

See, given the incredible amount of anima, or life-force, coursing through their bodies, dragons are nigh-ageless, and increase in both power and size over the course of their lives. However, this carries with it risks, as a dragon who becomes sufficiently powerful may find themselves loosing their hold of their mortal bodies and becoming purely spiritual entities. Indeed, many of the great spirits of the Spirit World began their lives as dragons before growing beyond the limitations of the mortal realm.

Half-blood dragons still have this potential, but most of them fail to reach the level of their pureblooded kin, and eventually, their age catches up to them, and they die no differently than their human ancestors, their souls descending to the Underworld instead of transmuting into immortal spirits.

Because of their innate ties to anima, every dragon is born with magic. It's not known the patterns this magic develop in over the dragon's life, but most families share certain traits. Dragons with ties to primal fire, for example, tend to develop the ability to breath forth bursts of flame, resist the ravages of an inferno, and catch glimpses of the future through flames. Others prominent families have connection to other powerful forces such as storms, ice, death, dreams, and time. However, with the infusion of human blood, some dragons are developing unique powers, such as some with arcane ties to metal, machines, and electricity.

All dragons, however, are natural shapeshifters. While most prefer their normal form's vast physical and magical powers, they can and will adopt other forms as needed. Nearly ever dragon in the modern era can shapeshift into human form, and those who can't are either incredibly ancient or very young. As with most of the other non-human races, they have a favoured human form which relies on their self-image, projecting themselves as "myself, but if I was a human." This form remains constant, and is incredibly difficult to change as it would require a change in their own self-image. Also, this form will probably have tells, such as eyes the colour of their scales or hair or a birthmark shaped like a dragon, or particularly odd hair colours which make them stand out from the crowd, if one knows what to look for. However, this form is also incredibly easy for them to assume, and takes virtually no concentration or magic to maintain. A dragon can spend weeks or even months in their base human guise without ever having to revert to their draconic form. Furthermore, it's relatively easy to hybridize their favoured human form with their natural draconic one, allowing their claws, wings, tails, and the like to sprout forth when advantageous.

With training, dragons can assume even more forms, from other human guises to those of animals or even other supernaturals. However, in most cases, these forms are more draining, and most dragons may only be able to spend a few hours with these guises. Certain dragons are gifted with beastshaping, however, and can spend just as long in a particular animal form as they can in their base human shape, though as with their base shape, this animal body will have a number of tells that speak to its true nature as aa dragon.

Also, because of this high concentration of anima in their bodies, dragon parts are incredibly valuable. Dragonscale can be forged into nigh-impenetrable armour, dragonbone makes incredibly durable armour, and dragonblood is a powerful arcane catalyst. Dragonblood can awaken the magical potential in a mundane human, forge weapons that can slay angels and demons, and even quench the thirst of a vampire. The most valuable component of a dragon, however, is a their heart. See, consuming a dragon's heart shortly after its death will give you the powers of that dragon. Indeed, if done in the proper manner, consuming the heart of a pure-blood dragon will actually transform a human into a dragon.

Now, such an act is considered an act of darkest magic not just by other dragons, but most other members of the supernatural world, who generally don't appreciate the consumption of supernatural beings in any form. Generally, killing sentient creatures for their power is considered an evil thing. However, that doesn't stop ambitious individuals from hunting down dragons for a taste at draconic magesty. There are tales of a few humans being willingly given the power by a dying dragon, but the majority of heartwrought dragons are simply vile individuals who put their own ambitions above the lives of others.

Bloodlines of Dragons include

Python (Dragons of the cthonic depths)
Chimera (Dragons who appear as a fusion of animals)
Tarrasque (feral, bestial dragons)
Quetzlcoatl (feathered serpents)
Salamander (dragons of flame)
Cernunnos(dragons of the woods)
Sedna (dragons of ice)
Tiamat (dragons of the sea)
Kioh-Long (eastern spirit dragon)
Zahhak (dragons of shadows)
Oroboros (dragons of wisdom and knowledge)
Ryu (dragons of the wind and lightening)
Nidhoggr (dragons of destruction)