Editing Age Of Dragons: Biology (section)

===Reproduction===

* For more on this, see: [[Age Of Dragons: Reproduction and the Birthing Sickness]]

<br>Dragons reproduce through male-femate mating pairings, with intercourse typically taking place belly-to-belly in mid-flight, but sometimes (less romantically) in mounting position on the ground. Dragons are blessed with great fertility. When two dragons engage in sexual intercourse, conception almost always occurs, and likely a small number of eggs will result from that encounter. Furthermore, for most breeds every egg laid will result in a healthy hatchling. 

Pregnancies last around thirty six months, and at the end of this period the mother will lay a hatchery of one or more eggs. The eggs then become dormant, and will not hatch until exposed to a high degree of heat. This is usually in the form of draconic fire-breath, though a simple bonfire will also suffice. 

Hatchlings at birth are around half as tall as a human being, and in the first dozen years of life will grow extremely rapidly, achieving two thirds of their adult size during that time. They will continue to grow gradually until the age of fifty years or so, after which they will not get any larger. They reach their adult intellectual capacity at the age of fifty years as well, though by 12 years of age they are already able to outreason and out-think most adult humans.

Though most dragon couplings happen between two dragons of the same breed, occasionally two dragons of different breeds will mate. This is a rare occurence, thanks to societal prohibitions and a tendency to find one's own breed more desirable, but it does happen. In this case, a mating pairing will only ever produce one single egg, and the resultant hatchling will be a ''Harlequin'' - a hybrid creature with features of both its parent breeds. Harlequins are always sterile, and often androgenous, and many more puritanical and conservative dragons will seek to destroy them on sight, as an abomination against the Mother Goddess.
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