Age of Dragons: Forest Dragons
Age Of Dragons: Main Page -> The Twelve Breeds -> Forest Dragons
Contents
A Mother's Blessing
It is said that when the world was young, the first Forest Dragon turned to his mother and asked her to explain the secrets of life to him. He said that he was frustrated by the fact that dragons seemed not to be truly alive, living above and around the natural world rather than as a part of it. He had the insight to recognise that even the smallest animal in the forests below had a greater connection to the harmonious patterns of Lifeforce.
The Mother Goddess told him he was wise, and that she would grant him insight if he wished, though he might not thank her for it. The Forest Dragon promised that he would be grateful and promised her that he would never be bitter for any gift of wisdom.
She smiled, and breathed over him, and in doing so blessed him with the gift of mortality. No longer would the Forest Dragon or his breed exist as other dragons do, fearing multiplication and eventually calcifying into stone. Instead, from that day on, Forest Dragons would age and die as all mortal animals must.
The Forest Dragons are thankful for the blessing that the Mother Goddess gave them, and over the millennia have kept their promise to be grateful. Each year a Forest Dragon will offer a prayer of devotion to her for her gift, and as a Forest Dragon dies he will whisper his thanks to his Mother for the blessings she has given them.
Hand in hand mortality (and a shortened lifespan) the Forest Dragons have won freedom from the curse of Birthing Sickness, and gained insight into the cycles of life in a way that only a mortal creature can. They pity the other breeds who are unable to enjoy the blessings of a short life, lived fully. They forever stand apart from the other breeds, living in their own way, in their own realm.
Character Creation: Game Rules
Sphere Ratings
- Soma 3
- Sophis 4
- Pneuma 5
Birthrights
Freedom of Fertility - Forest Dragons do not suffer the birthing sickness as other dragons do.
Vitality - Forest Dragons roll one additional dice on any dice roll to cast Life-aligned magic. Also, they fear death less than other dragons, and roll one additional dice on any test of courage regarding threats to life or limb.
The sub-breed of Jade Dragons do not gain the two birthrights above, having "freed" themselves from the Mother's blessings.
Breed Weakness
The Mother's Blessing - Forest Dragons do not grow more powerful as they age, instead entering senescence at the age of 250. Instead of gaining Sphere rating at 250 years, they instead lose -1 from Pneuma, Soma and Sophis, and lose a further -1 each 3D6 years afterwards. When any score hits zero, they die of old age. In Senescence, a Forest Dragon ceases to be fertile.
The sub-breed of Jade Dragons do not gain the above flaw, and instead age as other breeds of dragons do. Instead they have the flaw below:
The Withered Soul - Jade Dragons have reduced fertility. Their Pneuma is reduced by -3 for the purposes of breeding rolls.
Physical Appearance
Forest Dragons are predominantly green-scaled, though their shade and patterning varies greatly. The majority of Forest Dragons (who dwell in the vast Heartswood) have leaf-green scales with dappled brown patches, and are slight and aerobatic in frame. In contrast the less numerous Jungle Dragons are a subspecies that have far darker green colouration, are much more heavily built, and oftem have thin red and yellow bands running along their torso. Finally, the rare Jade Dragons of the cold north have almost translucent pale-green skin that is entirely unpatterned, and have red eyes in contrast to the yellow eyes of the southern Forest Dragons. Horns vary also within the Breed, with long horns, spiral horns and other variations found across all the various subspecies.
Society and Culture
What most Dragons and mortals refer to as the Ashen Kingdom, the Hunter Dragons call the Skies of the Free People. This vast swathe of land includes plains of long grass, cave-run hills and tracts of open veldt. It is the land which the Hunter Dragons claim that the Mother Goddess placed in their care, and it is the land which they see the Ashen Dragons have invaded and defiled. The heart of this land has been replaced with the wasteland of a bloated and decadent civilisation. While other breeds might see the Ashen Kingdoms as a triumph of civilisation (with its sprawling metropoli, its fertile fields of crops and fine vineyards and its well built network of roads) the Hunters see them as nothing less than an abomination upon the land.
For as long as they can remember, the Hunters have been fighting a losing battle against the spread of this cancer of civilisation, and year by year the natural world is being replaced with the unnatural. Though the Hunters are physically and spiritually strong, they lack the organisation, sorcerous might or mortal military support of the Ashen breed. At present there are twenty seven Sky Tribes, each with two dozen or more Hunter Dragons, and there is only one Ashen Kingdom (with a mere two hundred and seventy Ashen Dragons) but too often it is the forces of the Ashen who are hunting the Hunter Dragons, reducing the Sky Tribes to hit and run guerilla tactics. The Hunters know that if they can't find some new resource or new strength, they'll have lost the war within a century or two.
With this threat hanging over them, the Hunters cannot help but see both Ascendancy and Alliance as lesser enemies (though they are enemies nonetheless). The desperate pleas of Solar Ambassadors to bring them into the Alliance have for the most part fallen on deaf ears. Only a single twelve-dragon tribe - the Talons of Open Sky - has joined the Alliance, and they have done so only because of a foolish preemptive strike by the Ascendancy on them fifty years previous. Because Hunters tend to identify with their tribes rather than with the breed as a whole, the rest of the breed have seen little reason to follow the Talons of Open Sky into a war that they see does not concern them.
The Ascendancy have had even less luck recruiting Hunters. The usual inducements of arcane power and wealth do not tempt Hunter Dragons, and only a handful of sick corrupt Hunters have ever defected North.
Lifepaths and the Pure Dragons
Without thinking, the majority of Hunters will follow the Lifepath of the Beast Unbound, simply because it is in their nature to do so. In fact, most Hunters do not recognise this as a particular lifechoice or calling at all, simply seeing it as the way things should be.
The depredations of war sometimes drives Hunter Dragons to work become Redtooth Berserkers, as the pain of loss and the frustration of defeat is channelled into rage and anger. Though berserkers are respected for their martial might, other Hunters pity them as having fallen into despair.
At the other end of the spectrum are those who choose the path of the Animist Adept. Animists act as shamans and spirit guides amongst the sky tribes, though never as tribal leaders. They officiate over ceremony (such as coming of age, or marriage) and are seen as the wisest of the breed, looked to for sage guidance, though always a little outside the tribe, and outside of the pack.
Amongst the Alliance, seven of the twelve Talons of Open Sky have chosen to serve the war effort as Far-Sky Rangers - a role which allows them to balance their nomadic nature and their desire to fight the Ascendancy.
Outlook
Tooth and Claw, Hunter from the Wall Breaker Sky Tribe, tells it like it is:
- Pure Dragons - "The Mother Goddess is on the wind that lifts my wings, in the joy of the hunt and in the blood of prey. Where she is not, is within their little temple buildings."
- Argent Dragons - "Nature has only one law - survival of the fittest, and the rule of the strong. I have no use for their petty codes of conduct."
- Solar Dragons - "They try to fly with our tribes, so to draw us into their war against the North. We have our own war to fight and it is a far older and closer one."
- Forest Dragons - "Young cousins to the west, rulers of their domain as we rule ours. They keep to their lands, and we to ours, as it should be."
- Storm Dragons - "I have never seen a Storm Dragon, but I hear they live in the underwater realm. Is such a thing even possible?"
- Ashen Dragons - "Defiling scum! They will perish beneath my bloodied claws!"
- Velvet Dragons - "Pretty to look at, but soft, weak and useless - just liek civilisation."
- Chimerical Dragons - "I don't pretend to understand them. Are they even dragons?"
- Ghost Dragons - "They make me shiver, these creatures. I am glad that they did not stop in our lands, as I want nothing to do with them."
- Blood Dragons - "They are almost wise, in that they recognise the beast within. They are fools though, because they have fallen into atavism."
- Sable Dragons - "A distant threat, to the far North. They know betetr than to cross our skies. They fear us."
