Winged Dragon
The Winged Dragons are a strong, powerful, and proud dragonkind and their pride has stranded their relationship with the other dragon clans.
They were driven from their home on Earth and came to Grandel in hopes of living quietly away from what they call two-legs, but after a few short thousand years, the two-legs arrived here. The Winged Dragons are again fighting for their right to live but this time the two-legs are fight along side them.
Basic Information
Anatomy
They are large and bulky creatures. Feathers cover their wings and down fur that extends from the back of their head down to the base of their tails. Their feathers and fur help them cope with the cold climate they prefer. The dragons have ice-blue eyes that are hooded, as are their nostrils. This helps them to keep ice and snow out when they are flying. Crowning their heads are several small horns. The Winged Dragons' scales are all white to help them blend in with the snow they hunt in. They possess sharp teeth and talons.
Biological Traits
Winged Dragons are the largest land dragon on Grandel Isle.
Genetics and Reproduction
Winged Dragons have a unique mating tradition. When a male is born during a specific moon phase, the next female born during the same moon phase becomes his mate for life. However, this tradition has faced some challenges as the Winged Mothers have started having only one child per birth, making it difficult to find a suitable mate. Despite this, the tradition is still being upheld, although the age gap between potential mates has become wider.
If a female is born and no male is waiting for her. She will go through life without a mate.
After laying an egg, the Winged Mother harvests fur from herself and her mate to keep it warm. One of them always stays with the egg to protect it from egg thieves on their island, who would consider a dragon egg a valuable prize and a meal. When a newling hatches the phase of the moon is noted so that they will know who its mate will be.
Growth Rate & Stages
A Winged Dragon newling is hatched in a month. Their eyes are closed, but their hearing is excellent. From the first day, they are walking and working their wings. Within days their eyes open. They do not take flight until they are several months old. Winged Dragons are predators and start their training for hunting a few days after hatching. Within the first two months, they doubled in size, and their heat-sensing ability starts working. By six months, they are half the size they will be when fully grown. At this point, they are taken out on their first hunt. At a year, they are at their full size and are the deadliest creatures on their frozen island.
Ecology and Habitats
The Winged Dragons require a cold climate to survive as their body temperature must remain low. If their body temperature rises, they will shut down. They inhabit a frozen island called Distal, characterized by its mountainous terrain. The high peaks are covered in snow and ice. The Winged Dragons reside on a flat-topped wide mountain that is honeycombed with caves.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Winged Dragons eat all of their prey. They have strong jaws and back teeth that break bones. They also have special stomach enzymes that aid in digestion.
The hunters of the clan are aerial hunters. They scan from above for heat signature. The dragons wait for a herd of large animals and then dive. The herd will scatter, but with the large number of dragons, they will be able to catch many. They sink their talons in and use their powerful jaws to snap the prey's neck, ending its suffering quickly. They bring their prizes back to the clan to share with the other dragons. What is not consumed is stored in the snow and ice for the next mealtime.
Biological Cycle
A Winged Dragon grows swiftly in its first year but thereafter its aging slows down. They stay in their prime hunting years for countless moon cycles. When the first signs of aging start, the darkening of their white fur, their hunting years are over. They tined to the maintenance of the clan's home. The ones that have wings brushed with silver will have the chance to become part of the Council.
Once a Winged Dragons last moon cycle has passed they are taken to the burial mountain were they are incased in ice for all eterity.
Behaviour
Winged Dragons are a proud clan. They hold themselves and others in their clan in high regard. They have a Council that guides the clan, and those born with silver-brushed feathers are expected to achieve greatness. If one of them displeases the Council they are exciled and have had their wings broken to the point that they can never fly again. They tend to isolate themselves from others, and their island is off-limits to most other dragons and Grandelites.
When they face an enemy, whether alone or as an army, they go in with the same attitude they are the winner before it starts. They are large creatures, and that alone gives them an advantage. They possess talons capable of penetrating deeply into flesh and leg muscles powerful enough to support their weight. They have a hard beak at the front of their mouth. Razor-sharp teeth in the front and bone-crushing ones in the back on the inside of their mouth. Lastly, they have an icy breath that can freeze anything, and if they wish it can have ice shards in it.
Additional Information
Social Structure
At one time they had a clan structure but that was abolished and they now have a Council.
Facial characteristics
They have a hard beak at the front of their long muzzle. As it goes back, the beak fades, and scales appear. They have ice-blue eyes that are weak compared to the other dragonkind. Their eyes and nostrils are hooded to protect them from the snow and ice of Distal. Between their eyes and nostrils is a hole where a unique organ that helps them see in inferred can be found.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
They needed cold a climate due to the fact that their core temperature must stay low. If it drops the dragon's body shuts down in hopes of saving the dragon. They live on an island in the north that stays frozen in all moon cycles. The few that can handle higher temperatures go to Grandel Isle to help protect the Queen and her family.
Average Intelligence
They are highly intelligent. Most of their knowledge revolves around the moon's cycles and being a hunter and warrior.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
The Winged Dragon has weaker eyesight compared to other dragons. Instead, they rely on their hearing and sense of smell. They have a unique organ located below their eyes that allows them to detect heat in their frigid world. Furthermore, they are capable of exhaling an icy breath that can instantly freeze anything in its path. If they so desire, this breath can even contain ice shards.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Most Winged Mothers name their children which relates to the cold environment or the moon.
Chillugon
Winark
Winterzin
Iceson
Creastlyn
Major Organizations
The Council
Beauty Ideals
Smooth beak, clear eyes, silver-brushed feathers, strong muscle structure
Gender Ideals
Male
Female
Courtship Ideals
No courtship match are made by the moon phases.
Relationship Ideals
Mate for life.
History
THE WINGED DRAGON HISTORY AS THEY TELL IT.
The Arrival
We were driven from our home on Earth by the two-legs, who learned to harvest our magic. All dragons have magic. It is concealed inside us in a bony compartment near our hearts. The two-legs, with the aid of green and red bloodstone wands, could extract the magic after they broke into the hard shell. The magic of a dragon, dies upon our death, so the dragon had to be alive while this was being done to them. It was bloody, horrific work that the two-leg enjoyed.
As the two-legs gathered more magic, the work became quicker, and the number of us dying became greater. In what felt like a short period of moon cycles, our kind became in danger of disappearing, and the dragon clans went on the run. We no longer had homes, and mothers stopped having cycles. For the first time in history, all four dragon clans came together and fled across the world that was our home, hoping to find another.
Led by our Clan Leader, Winark, we came to a place with a gateway to a new world. Before we could find the gateway and flee, we went hunting for the entire Great Clan. During the hunting trip, Winark stepped on a sacred land guarded by a creature more powerful than any dragon. That day, unknowingly, a curse was cast upon the Winged Dragon clan because their clan leader had listened to a Spirit Dragon. Adner had been the one to tell them to hunt in that direction.
As the Great Clans prepared to leave, the two-legs found them again, and there was one last great battle. The Earth came alive that day to help dragonkind survive. Animals that the dragons fed upon fought with them, along with other predators. Three mountains woke from their slumber, and in the forms of dragons, they struck down the last of the two-legs, and Abner freed the dragons, who were trapped in the bloodstone wands. Those dragons returned to the life tree so that one day they would return.
When all the two-legs were gone, and their blood was washed away from the site of the bloody battle, we found the gateway and left the harsh Earth behind. Our kin came to the peaceful world of Grandel and found this island that we named Distal. The clan thought all would be well, but we were wrong.
Our kin soon figured out that the clan had received a curse and that Winged Mothers could only bear one child at a time. Our numbers would not increase because of Winark. It was his carelessness that had brought this to kin and they decided he must pay for the crime. The clan formed a council from the elders, who had silver-brushed feathers, and they exiled him from the clan. Before descending the mountain, both of his beautiful wings were irreparably broken. They were merciful and let Winark's mate and child stay.
Winark was last seen heading southeast on one of the natural bridges that connected all five Dragon Islands. No Winged Dragon saw him again, including his mate and little one.
The Ending of the Great Clan
We kept the relics of the clans on the island that no one dragonkind lived on. One dragon from each clan was to represent them in the Great Clan. That one would stay for several weeks and then return home to be replaced by another. Our kin would only send the ones that could tolerate higher temperatures.
Iceson, a remarkable young dragon with silver-brushed wings, was the one to go this time. He was leaving behind his picked mate, Creatlyn. She was younger than him by several cycles and would not be ready to mate for a few more cycles. Iceson cared for her, but the bond that would come once she was ready had not formed. His family and mate saw him off and watched him disappear into the distance. Unknown to them all, a vixen awaited him.
Midlight, a Spirit Dragon, greeted him on arrival, and before nightfall, Emberous stepped off the natural bridge that connected to Thetal. At this time, Fire Dragons had no wings. The moonlight gleamed off her dark, purplish, spiraling horns. Her golden eyes shone in the darkness. Her thin, scaled body moved gracefully in a way no Winged Dragon ever could on the ground.
Iceson's heart quickened at the sight of her like nothing else had ever done. He knew he had a mate waiting, but that did not matter he had to get to know this dragon. As their time went by, he found she felt the same, and the young dragon that was meant to be so much was slowly losing everything. Before his time was up, the Fire Dragon was with children, and she laid ten eggs.
Iceson could not believe it, for no Winged Dragon had more than one egg at a time. Was this the answer to his kin's problem? He was so happy.
Happy that he was having children with the one he loved and not with the one he was chosen to. He thought that maybe, at long last, Winged Dragons could start having broods again. There was fear inside him as well he knew his kin too well to believe that they would accept what he and Emberous had done. He had heard of what had happened to others who strayed from the Winged Dragon's ways.
If he could only get them to listen. What would become of him and his children?
Iceson left the day she laid the eggs. Flying in the same path that he did when he came he had time to think. The closer he got to his home, the more he understood what he had done. He knew he could not hide from it, that he would have to tell them and take his punishment. After being away from Embrous, he no longer understood why he did what he had done. His life was over for a Fire Dragon.
When Iceson saw his home for the last time, he wept. When he landed on the mountaintop that housed his clan, he begged for forgiveness. There was none to be had. The thought that Winged Dragons should mate with other species was revolting and the fact that he had been was unforgivable.
Crestlyn would go through life without a mate because the one that the moon had chosen for her turned his back on her. The Council would not punish her further. She would never have a mate or a newling that was enough of a punishment. As for Iceson, they severely punished him.
A group of young males drove him down the mountain, attacking his wings. They removed all his silver-brushed feathers first, then broke every bone in them. Bleeding and broken, they pursued him across the natural bridge. When he finally stumbled onto the relic island, the Winged Dragons took their relic and broke the bridge. They destroyed the bridge that connected their island to the southeast as well.
With the two bridges gone, the Great Clan crumbled, and as time went by, they lost the final two as well.
In the wake of the severing, Earth Dragons were brought into the world of Grandel.
Historical Figures
Winark
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Forbidden
Grandel the Battleground for all Earths.
Scientific Name
Winged
Origin/Ancestry
Dragon
Lifespan
The pacific lifespan is unknown. They use the moon cycle to consulate time passage, but they do not use it to tell age. Age is canulated by the markings in the fur on their back.
Average Height
27 feet
Average Weight
240 lbs.
Average Length
Wing span 72 feet
Nose to tail 36 feet
Average Physique
Their bodies are muscular with four strong legs. They have four talons on each foot. Two enormous feathered wings sit on their backs and soft down fur covers their back.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
All Winged Dragons' are a shade of white. Some are born with silver-brushed on their feathers.
Geographic Distribution
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