Editing Age Of Dragons: Birthrights and Flaws

[[Age Of Dragons: Main Page]] -> [[Age Of Dragons: Hatchery Overview]] -> [[Age Of Dragons: Birthrights and Flaws]]

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=Overview of Birthrights and Flaws=

* Record Universal Birthrights and Flaws
* Record Breed Birthrights and Flaws
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=What are Birthrights and Flaws?=

In game terms, a Birthright or Flaw is a special condition that may effect the rules in some way. Birthrights and Flaws are considered to be "always activated", as they are part of the inherent draconic condition.

Birthrights are advantages unique to the draconic race or to particular draconic breeds, which distinguish them from other living creatures. 

Flaws are disadvantages and weaknesses that set aside dragons from other races in unique ways.

Technically, the list below of universal birthrights and flaws is far from exhaustive. You might note, for example, that all dragons are warm-blooded creatures, so have an advantage over cold-blooded creatures in terms of thermoregulation. You might also note that they reproduce through male-female pairings, or that they breathe oxygen, or that they are a lot larger than humans. It is assumed that players and GMs can work out a lot of these things for themselves, whether through examining the chapter on draconic biology, or by deciding for themselves! 

The lists below instead help you note the ways in which dragons differ from humans and the other "lesser races."

=Universal Birthrights=

All dragons share these birthrights.

===Flight===

Dragons can fly. Though this flight itself is faciliated by magic (as physically it shouldn't be possible for a dragon's bulk to be lifted off the ground with their wingspan and mass), they still need their wings to do so - a dragon maimed or cursed with one or no wings will not be able to fly. Dragons learn to fly within a year or so of their birth, and from an early age will have considerable aerial agility - comparable to a bird of prey such as a falcon or eagle. They can take off from a standing jump, can fly to the altitude of the lowest clouds. Though they cannot truly "hover" like a helicopter, they can use updrafts and the wind to stay more or less stationary in the air if they need to. 

===Firebreathing===

Dragons can exhale fire. This is not really an inherent ability, but rather a simple ''suspire'', but it is one so straightforward to dragons that almost all will learn it in the first ten years of life. Firebreath can be used as a ranged weapon, with an area burst equal to a six or seven square metres and a range of a few dozen metres. It can be manifested as a jet of flame, as a loose fireball, or as an incandescent cloud. If in the sky, dragonfire tends to self extinguish after a second or two, but when there is something for it to set alight (as there often is at ground level) it will persist just as any ordinary fire does.

In game terms, firebreathing is an ''area burst ranged attack'' with that deals ''fire damage''.

===Heat immunity===

The scales and indeed the flesh of dragons cannot be burnt or harmed by heat or flame. This blessing is said to have come about because dragons existed in a time when the newly created world was alight, and the Mother Goddess wove a spell around them to protect them. One result of this birthright is that firebreathing is of no use as an injuring weapon against other dragons.

In game terms, any fire damage dealt to them is ignored, and they never suffer any injury from heat or fire.

Note that this is a magical effect, and as a result ignores physics to a great degree. Its worth bearing in mind:
* Cold still affects and can injure dragons normally.
* Lightning and electricity can still injure dragons.
* Though heat itself doesn't directly injure dragons, dragons can still suffer from dehydration and exhaustion and will still, for example, dehydrate faster in a desert environment.
* A dead dragon has no heat or flame immunity, and can be burnt as normal.
* Smoke inhalation can still harm a dragon.

===Arcane senses===

Dragons are intrinsically aware of the magical, and can perceive magical energy that is normally invisible to humans. This is a sixth sense that overlays and is interpreted through the normal five senses. For example, a Dragon might smell a scent in the air that tells him magic has been cast in his vicinity, or he might see coloured lines of arcane energy being drawn to a sorcerer just before he casts a spell.

=Universal Flaws=

All dragons share these flaws.

===The Birthing Sickness===

Dragonkind is blessed with long lives and great natural power, yet dragons themselves remain relatively lacking in numbers compared to most races. This is not a result of infertility (as indeed almost every draconic coupling results in conception and offspring) but due to the curse of the ''Birthing Sickness''.

Essentially, to have children the draconic parents must sacrifice their own lives. Such is the nature of the curse that no dragon will ever see his or her own children.

The rules for this are detailed in full in [[Age Of Dragons: Reproduction and the Birthing Sickness|this chapter]]

===The Sleep of Stone===

Senescence for dragons happens very different than for mortals.

A dragon will remain at full health until his thousandth year. In fact, thanks to gaining experience in lifepaths he will usually grow more powerful till that time.

After that, old age will strike suddenly and irreversibly. For each year that passes, he will lose -1 from Soma, Sophis and Pneuma. During this time the dragon will seem to be transmuting physically into stone - a hard and smooth rock akin to pale grey marble but with a slight translucent quality. Their muscles will grow stiffer and more sluggish, their minds will grow sleepier and their breaths more shallow.

When any sphere rating reaches zero, the light leaves the dragon's eyes, and he is effectively turned into a statue, never moving or responding again.

Dragons call this frozen state the ''sleep of stone''. The statue that they become is no more or less resilient than a marble statue, and if broken apart is made of the same stone all the way through. No dragon ever returns from the sleep of stone, and the stone is not known to have any especial magical qualities, though certain macabre dragons and mortals might seek to acquire such statues for their own collections.

Note that dragons that die from any cause other than the millennial senescence do not enter the sleep of stone, instead rotting away as any other organic creature might. 
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[[Category:Age_of_Dragons|Birthrights and Flaws]]