Steel Dragon

Basic Information

Anatomy

Steel dragons in their natural forms are especially feline in their movements and stature. They have scales that shine like burnished steel as adults and usually smell like wet metal. Younger dragons' scales are a darker blue-gray and less lustrous. Their wings consist of overlapping blades that look like feathers, and the scales on their chests resemble shields.
Their faces are particularly expressive, sometimes giving the illusion of a human-like face. They have many long spines surrounding their faces, which give the appearance of hair.
In humanoid forms, steel dragons usually keep their true identities secret; however, they always have at least one visual indication of their true nature in the form of steel-gray hair, eyes, tattoos, or another feature.
Steel dragons are immune to acid and resistant to poison and especially magic. They have innate abilities to enchant and charm individuals.
As dragons, they are a blend of apex predator, magical conduit, and link to the elemental planes. In particular, steel dragons have a connection to the elemental plane of Earth, and as such can breathe both a line of acid and a cloud of poisonous gas.

Biological Traits

Steel dragons are, as most true dragons, functionally immortal. If not slain, they will continue living until they choose to move on. Unlike other true dragons, choosing to move on is relatively common among steel dragons. At the end of their lives, when their great autobiography has been made and disseminated to bring a draconic perspective to the mortal races, when they have decided that they have no more lives to live, they engage in one last magical ritual they call 'the Trial.' The Trial begins, as with their other rituals, with a deep slumber and dreams that reflect on their many lives. They relive these lives over and over, learning the lessons from them until they are ingrained in their very soul. When they are satisfied, they allow themselves to pass into the Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia. There, they explain to Bahamut himself what insights they have gained. Bahamut then makes the choice whether to allow them eternal rest or to send them back down to begin their cycle anew.

Genetics and Reproduction

Steel dragons lay eggs and they court for only brief periods of time; romantic relationships between steel dragons rarely go past the ten year mark, though relationships with humanoids can last an entire human lifetime. They generally part on good terms, and will often correspond as their alter egoes.

Growth Rate & Stages

Steel dragons experience the typical five stages of growth of normal, true dragons: Wyrmling, Young, Adult, Ancient, and Greatwyrm, though their method for attaining this last is unique.

Ecology and Habitats

Moreso than any other sort of dragon, Steel dragons prefer cities or other such locations booming with sentient life. If denied the bustle of a city, they enjoy a place with a deep history, and can adapt their personal spaces and lairs to nearly any sort of climate.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Once a month, a Steel Dragon needs to hunt for food in its dragon form. On these hunting trips, it has to eat at least its body weight to sustain it. Otherwise, as their alter ego, they can generally subsist on three meals per day so long as they were able to go on this hunt.

Biological Cycle

Steel dragons maintain a single humanoid alter ego through the natural life span of that alter ego. They live, love, and 'die' as these alter egoes. When they are done with one life, they retreat to their lairs and perform a ritual they call the Vaunting. They sift through their memories of being their alter ego, and encode all of the moments in particularly large Memory Crystal, which stores all of their memories of humanoid life. They can access these memories at any time, but after the Vaunting, they seem distant and surreal, as if they had all been a dream. Steel dragons do this to avoid allowing one life to alter the next one. When the Vaunting is done, they assume a new identity.
An Ancient Steel Dragon, when they feel that they have lived and lost enough lives, will conduct a new ritual; the Deep Reverie. They will hibernate, awakening only once every few centuries to gorge themselves on food. While in the Deep Reverie, they relive all of their lives, sometimes reliving favorite moments over and over again. When they awaken, they are now Great Wyrms, and remember all of their lives as vividly as if each moment of those lives has just happened. They may continue adopting humanoid form, though now most of their time will be spent in their natural form. They turn to their Work, an autobiographical anthology in some form that tells the tales of their many lives and draws lessons from their lives for humanoids. This autobiography can take many forms; some write scrolls, others tablets or tomes, still others use murals or bas reliefs and still others prefer sculpting grand marble statues or writing epic ballads to be passed down as a verbal history.

Behaviour

Steel dragons hoard treasure, just as other dragons do. The most prized treasures in their collection are memories. Far from some sappy life lesson about meeting friends along the way, these memories are stored in dazzling blue sapphires which give off a luminescent azure glow. These Memory Crystals have value as gemstones, but for alchemists and wizards who know how to access them, as well as for other steel dragons, they are nearly priceless.
Steel dragons, as a rule, are amiable, curious, and witty. They would rather spend their time among human cultures than in their own true forms.
However, they have difficulty when dealing with all kinds of absolute authority, even authority that used for good. This puts steel dragons at odds with other kinds of metallic dragons that use their power and experience to justify their actions, especially bronze dragons and gold dragons; this also makes them bitter enemies of chromatic dragons. For those same reasons, steel dragons usually work within their chosen communities to promote freedom and undermine authoritarian forces.
Steel dragons like the company of humans, elves, half-elves and dwarves, and they usually support adventurers that opposed tyrants.
They prefer to invest in property and business unlike other dragons, who prefer to hoard monetary treasures. Some steel dragons do hoard items, but they prefer to hoard works of art, antiquities, books, finery, magic items or servants, and most especially memories.
Similar to brass dragons, most steel dragons would rather talk than fight, yet like all dragons, they can be formidable opponents. In combat, they avoid melee and instead relied on their magical spells. While by no means cowardly, if they truly losing a battle a steel dragon is likely to teleport away, feign their own demise, or otherwise use trickery to escape.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Steel dragons rarely speak to each other outside of correspondence. Their drive to learn about other species and new and interesting facts demands an understanding audience, but they also already know all about steel dragons so find the company of their own tedious for extended periods.

Facial characteristics

Steel dragons' faces are more expressive and fluid than any other dragon type. Their scales are much smaller and their muscles much more fine and dextrous on their faces, and they often sport manes of spines in their natural forms which they style and preen over, often in the latest humanoid fashions.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Steel dragons can 'smell' violence in an area where it has occurred, even if there is otherwise no trace of it. The 'smell' fades as time wears on, until around one or two seasons have passed and the 'smell' is gone. The 'smell' also lingers on those touched by the violence for up to 24 hours.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Steel dragons guard their true names jealously, mostly for aesthetic purposes. These names are typically given by parents or childhood friends, and if they are given in a language other than Draconic, the steel dragon will sometimes prefer to translate it into common. Otherwise, they like to give themselves humanoid sounding names or nicknames, sometimes with realtionships to their true names and sometimes not. These names occasionally carry over into their humanoid alter egos and sometimes they like to make these persona names a reference to a friend, a past life, or to a legendary character from which they're drawing inspiration.

Major Organizations

Nominally, steel dragons on Kobos all consider themselves at least somewhat loyal to and aligned with the metallic dragons of Shelor. In reality, they're almost as likely as Copper Dragons to resist the dictates of the Golden Emperor.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

When they are young, steel dragons' scales are blue-tinted cobalt with a smoky refraction. As they age, their scales become a clear and burnished sheen until the Greatwyrms display an almost mirror polish with razor edged scales and a reflection that can be nearly blinding in direct sunlight.