Age of Dragons: Ghost Dragons

Age Of Dragons: Main Page -> The Twelve Breeds -> Ghost Dragons

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The Dying and the Dead

Appropriately, for the draconic firstborn of the season of Death, the Ghost Dragons are entirely obsessed with their mortality.

They were never numerous - even with their strong Pneuma most found that the Birthing Sickness was too high a price to pay for the privlege of offspring. When the Ascendancy started hunting the Ghosts, their numbers dwindled further, and the desperate flight south has claimed its toll of casualties as well.

Now they are told that Endless Night has declared their future extinction - they have only four hundred and forty four years before the dreaded Prophecy Clock runs out. They are all going to die - few can deny the certainty of this - the only question is how they will choose to face their fate.

Character Creation: Game Rules

Sphere Ratings

• Soma 3
• Sophis 4
• Pneuma 5

Birthrights

Deathsight - Ghost Dragons can visualise the energy they call Deathforce, which flows into the world from the Void Beyond, and surrounds that which is touched by death. With Ghostsight they can instantly identify if someone is dying, if a creature is alive or dead (or undead), can detect even the most subtle of necromantic magics and can determine to the nearest year how old any creature is, and to the nearest five years how much longer they would likely survive if death from old age or ordinary disease were to take them.

Voidtongue - Undead, elemental creatures of death energy and (rare) ghosts typically do not communicate in mortal fashion, instead simply moaning and wailing. When these entities do speak they speak Voidtongue, the language of the nothingness beyond. This language cannot be learnt even by the most scholarly linguist, but Ghost Dragons can understand and speak it intuitively.

Breed Weakness

Masque of Disquiet - Ghost Dragons make for disturbing and unpleasant company. Their voices seem soft, but also seem to cause others to feel uncomfortable. Their physical forms seem basically normal (if unhealthy), but there is something oddly wrong about the way they move. Ghost Dragons are at -2 dice to any positive social checks (i.e. not including intimidation and attempts to cause fear or discomfort). When interacting with Life-aligned Dragons, or with any non-Dragon living creature, this increases to -4 dice. When dealing with other Ghosts, undead or any other creature that speaks Voidtongue, this penalty is waived.

Physical Appearance

Ghost Dragons are pale grey in colour, with jaundiced-looking yellow eyes, and an overall build that seems sickly and unhealthy to other breeds. Their horns are spiralled and a dirty off-white colour. Their skin seems to be drawn a little too tightly across their ribs and limbs. Others cannot help but note that there is a certain intensity to them - they stare too long, breathe a little too quietly and are generally unsettling to be around.

Society and Culture

Its been over one and a half millennia since the Ghost Dragons fled the North, and just over 1200 years since the Breed settled in their current location. Every Ghost Dragon now alive was born in the South, but almost every one can remember stories from parents or grandparents of the long flight. The new generation may be Southern-born, but they still regard themselves as refugees.

Lifepaths and the Ashen Dragons

As suits their changing and experimental nature, it is almost unheard of for an Ashen Dragon to pursue just one lifepath. Most find that the necessity of defending their interests requires some time and training as a Warmaster, and most find that experimentation with magic is easiest on the Lifepath of a Scholar-Sage. Of course, the intrigues of the Bloodline Houses require some skill as an Ambassador-Courtier, there is enlightenment to be found in the mutable physicality of the Physical Adept, and even imitating the Hunter Breed as a Beast Unbound has its value. Almost any lifepath can be assumed by an Ashen Dragon, and they are not so stupid as to fail to copy the Lifepaths of other cultures as well, leading to some pursuing short stints as Demonbinders, Sarcomancers, Animist Adepts or Sky Dancers.

Often the Ashen will mark the change into a new lifepath by joining a group of likeminded dragons. For example, one Ashen might join the Cabal of Broken Reflections to learn about polymorphing, then later swear "unending" loyalty to the Society of Ashen Knights to learn warcraft, then attend the Courts of the Grey Circle to apply his skills to the political arena. As already noted, these societies are always coming in and out of existence, and any that does persist often does so by changing its name and agenda every half century or so.

Outlook

Scion-of-Unchanging-Truth, says he is of House Boneclaw, and of the Cabal of Fractured Reflections, but this may be as inaccurate as his name. He may be lying when he tells you what he thinks:

• Pure Dragons - "Ah yes... we also revere Mother Sky, so we are kindred, you and I. Tell me, have you ever considered the other half of the creation myth?"
• Argent Dragons - "A fearsome bunch of soldiers to be sure, and so grim, so serious. Very admirable, I'm sure."
• Solar Dragons - "Of course we will support your Alliance and sign your treaties! The Cabal is with you, my friend! What do you mean we reneged on the last treaty we signed? Well, we were hoping to renegotiate..."
• Hunter Dragons - "Stupid ferals, clinging to the "old ways". If your old ways are so great, remind me why you're losing our little war?"
• Forest Dragons - "So interesting that they have subspecies of different sorts, eh? I wonder if that phenomenon can be manipulated somehow..."
• Storm Dragons - "Yes, yes, you go play in the sea. We'll deal with things up here."
• Velvet Dragons - "Come in my dear, make yourself comfortable. I do like to collect things like you."
• Chimerical Dragons - "Astonishing sorcerous prowess, and such wisdom! I do so admire them."
• Ghost Dragons - "Oh we sympathise, we do so much. But there's no room here in our little paradise, so move along, move along."
• Blood Dragons - "Best not to mock one of these, unless he doesn't realise you're mocking him. Which isn't hard, really."
• Sable Dragons - "Clever - damnably clever. Luckily, so are we."

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