Dragon

Dragons are large reptilian creatures that span the width and breadth of Eleril some hidden far away from prying eyes while others are bold and mingle with the populace unknown to observers around them.  These mighty creatures are both revered and feared by the populace that dwells upon Eleril.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Dragons have a muscular body, a long, thick neck, a horned or frilled head with a toothy mouth, and a sinuous tail. The creature walks on four powerful legs with clawed feet, and it flies using its vast, batlike wings. Heavy scales cover a dragon from the tip of its tail to end of its snout. Despite its scales and wings, a dragon’s body has features that seem more feline than reptilian. A dragon’s mouth features powerful jaws, a forked tongue, and sharp teeth. The exact number and size of a dragon’s teeth depend on the dragon’s age, habitat, and diet; however, a dragon’s array of teeth usually includes four well-developed fangs (two upper, two lower) that curve slightly inward and have cutting edges on both the inner and outer surfaces. A dragon uses its fangs to impale and kill prey, and they serve as the dragon’s primary weapons.Immediately in front of the fangs in each jaw lie the dragon’s incisors, which are oval in cross-section and have serrated edges at the top. When a dragon bites down on large prey, these teeth cut out a semicircle of flesh. Behind the fangs in each jaw, a dragon has a row of peglike molars that help it grip prey. A dragon is not well equipped for chewing, and it typically tears prey into chunks small enough to gulp down. A dragon can create a sawing motion with its incisors by wiggling its lower jaw and shaking its head from side to side, allowing the incisors to quickly shear through flesh and bone. Many dragons learn to seize prey and literally shake it to death. Other dragons have mastered the technique of grabbing prey and swallowing it whole. Some dragon hunters boast that they can hold a dragon’s mouth closed, preventing the creature from biting. It is true that a dragon applies more force when closing its jaws than it does when opening them; however, holding a dragon’smouth closed still requires prodigious strength. Even if an foe were to succeed in clamping its jaws shut, the dragon is likely to throw off the opponent with one flick of its head, claw its attacker to ribbons, or both. The spines, frills, and other projections that adorn a dragon’s head make the creature look fearsome, and that is their main function. A dragon’s horn is a keratinous projection growing directly from the dragon’s skull. A dragon with horns that point backward can use the horns for grooming, and they also help protect the dragon’s upper neck in combat. Horns projecting from the sides of a dragon’s head help protect the head. A dragon’s spines are keratinous, but softer and more flexible than its horns. The spines are imbedded in the dragon’s skin and anchored to the skeleton by ligaments. Most spines are located along the dragon’s back and tail. Unlike horns, spines are mobile, with a range of motion that varies with the kind of dragon and the spines’ location on the dragon’s body. The spines along a dragon’s back, for example, can only be raised or lowered, whereas the spines supporting a dragon’s ears can be moved many different ways. The frills on a dragon’s back and tail help keep the dragon stable when flying or swimming.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Like a cat’s eye, a dragon’s eye has a comparatively large iris with a vertical pupil. This arrangement allows the pupil to open extremely wide and admit much more light than a human eye can. The sclera, or “white,” of a dragon’s eye is often yellow, gold, green, orange, red, or silver, with an iris of a darker, contrasting color. To a casual observer, a dragon’s pupils always look like vertical slits. If one were to look very closely into a dragon’s eye, however, one could see a second iris and pupil within the first. The dragon can shift and rotate this inner aperture up to 90 degrees, so that the inner pupil can overlay the outer one or lie at a right angle to it. This ocular structure gives a dragon extremely accurate depth perception and focusing ability no matter how much or how little light is available. A dragon’s eye is protected by a leathery outer eyelid and three smooth inner eyelids, or nictitating membranes. The innermost membrane is crystal clear and serves to protect the eye from damage while the dragon flies, fights, swims, or burrows with its eyes open. The other two eyelids mainly serve to keep the inner membrane and the surface of the eye clean. They are thicker than the innermost membrane and less clear. A dragon can use these inner lids to protect its eyes from sudden flashes of bright light. A dragon’s eyes glow in the dark, but the dragon can hide the glow by closing one or more of its inner eyelids; doing this does not affect its vision. A dragon’s ears often prove indistinguishable from the frills that frame its head, especially when the dragon is at rest. The ears of an an active dragon, however, constantly twitch and swivel as the dragon tracks sounds. Not all dragons have external ears; burrowing and aquatic dragons usually have simple ear holes protected by an overhanging fringe.