True Dragons

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A true dragon emits an exultant cry, silhouetted against the dawn sky.

True Dragons are what can best be described as an interdimensional force of nature that even the gods themselves find extremely dangerous. Whether they're a species of individuals or a sort of intelligent swarm-being is hotly debated among xenobiologists. Some scholars think they are a semi-sentient manifestation of Kos due to their inborn, seemingly biological ability to warp reality in their immediate vicinity. This would classify them as Extites: fundamentally foreign beings from outside The Known Universe.

True Dragons are, mercifully, opposed by another mysterious and alien pantheon called the Sphinxes.

Description

True Dragons are either accompanied by, or take the form of, many distinct creatures: great lizardlike beings that vaguely resemble Tiam-Anzu but are larger, scaled, membrane-winged, multi-eyed and can fire gouts of elemental energy from what can be called their mouths. But most frightening about these creatures is a defense seemingly baked into their biology: the ability to warp reality about them in novel, unpredictable, and almost always advantageous ways, potentially rendering them dangerous even to enemy gods.

Whether one or many, these creatures simply can't be reasoned with in any capacity or scale, to the point where they are much better understood as a cosmic weather event. They show little individuality beyond a rudimentary heirarchy based only on raw strength and while the pinnacle of these storms do show differences in "personality" between each other, they are all utterly capricious beings and have absolute control of their "army". Ultimately, whether a True Dragon is one thing or many things, they must be escaped from or endured. One's best hope is to pray a Sphinx intervenes on their plane's behalf.

Instances

The only two merciful thing about True Dragons are i) the rarity in which they strike and ii) that they're opposed by an equally alien pantheon of gods called the Sphinxes.

Waking Materia

Waking Materia was only moderately advanced and moderately worshipful when struck by a True Dragon their cultures variably named "The End", "Elir-Otrinax", "God-Killer Otrinax" and more, alongside its ravenous pack of godhounds. After many months of death incarnate -- even to the local Waking Gods -- Materia did receive the benediction of a Sphinx named Tallari-Anaviri-Irallat. But God-Killer Otrinax was well-matched for its new opponent, and while the First Dragon Wars were eventually won, it was only with a great deal of bravery and sacrifice. This memory lives on distantly in many of their surviving cultures.