NOTE-Thanks to Vuthasjach for this wonderfully written Templat! All rights are reserved to him-


The dragon, like most creatures, comes in all varieties of shape, size, color, and form, but there are a few standard features that appear to be common to all dragons. The most obvious of these is their size. The smallest dragons hatch at less than five feet in length, but can grow to four times that size easily. The largest wyrms are known to have been over twenty feet in length, but few dragons will ever reach such a size, and many will just barely quadruple their birth size. All dragons are blessed with a pair of leathery wings situated on their back, just behind their front shoulders, that allow them the capability to fly with great acrobatic talent, using their tail as a drag to keep themselves stable while in the air.

On the ground, they are capable of running at fair speed, but whenever possible, they prefer flying to walking. The only natural weapons a dragon is likely to possess or use are its claws and its teeth, which are formidable in their own right. Their mouth is full of an even row of razor sharp fangs which it uses to tear at its prey. Their claws are less standardized, and can be any of a number of forms, sizes, and colors, although they are generally hooked, half the length of the foot they are attached to, and a similar color to the dragon’s scales. The scales of the dragon are a matter of some debate. They come in a plethora of shapes and sizes and colors, but are always of similar form: sleek, flat, and interlocking. These qualities make them effective as armor plating to protect them from most attacks. In fact, the most vulnerable part of a dragon is its underbelly. The underbelly (usually a lighter color than the rest of the body, but not always) extends from the dragon’s chin down between both sets of legs and partway down the tail. It is formed of a slightly different style of scale, softer and more pliable. This is to allow it to stretch and deform to accommodate movement and to allow the stomach, lungs and other internal organs to stretch the dragon’s hide as they move and expand. It also allows the belly scales to be penetrated much more easily by an attacking claw, but all of this is negated by the fact that dragons spend all of their time on the ground walking on all four legs.

They are digitigrades, walking on the balls of their feet with their heels in the air, and they have elbows on the front legs and knees on the back. They lie down with their legs folded under them and their wings wrapped over their back, with their head and tail curled to one side under a wing. With their mates, the male will often cover the female with one wing and put his head and tail around her body in a protective posture, and the female with eggs or hatchlings will do likewise. The dragon’s hearing is sharp and acute, such that it can hear a mole digging several feet underground or a fly buzzing across a field. Their sense of smell is similarly strong, as is their sight, but their tactile sense is weak, and they have almost no sense of taste to speak of. This is because they have a long, slim un-forked tongue in a long, thin snout.

Variations are not unheard of, but they are not drastic, and usually occur with respect to the length and width of the snout. The dragon’s eyes are catlike, with irises that encompass the entire visible eye and a pupil that can potentially fill the iris, allowing for spectacular low light vision, almost as good as their regular sight. Their pupils react to light almost instantly, allowing them to make the transition from daylight vision to dark vision without a noticeable pause. This benefits those dragons that sleep deep in caves where only the barest sliver of light will be sufficient to illuminate the entire cavern for them.

Dragons are neither specifically nocturnal nor diurnal. Their sleeping cycle is determined largely by the color of the dragon; darker colored dragons are generally nocturnal, as their dark scales absorb light and tend to overheat them; lighter colored dragons are generally diurnal, as they are much more easily seen at night, putting them at greater risk for attack from other dragons. These are, of course, generalizations that apply mainly to lone dragons or groups of similarly colored wyrms, a rare occurrence at best.

Other qualities which are more variable include weight, girth, wingspan, neck, and tail length. Although dragons tend towards a dinosaur-like shape, they can also be slim, like snakes with legs, or extremely rotund, with bellies that drag the ground when they walk. Naturally, their agility and strength are largely determined by their size, but there are always minor anomalies. There are occasional instances where dragons will possess physical oddities, like fins, fans, or horns, but these are generally reserved for the head, back, and tail, and are always decorative. No dragon has ever been seen using horns in combat, and no tail has ever been reported to have spikes, blades, or anything of the sort that could potentially be used in a fight. Dragons are by nature honorable creatures, and will rarely, if ever, resort to any means of combat outside their claws and teeth.

Fighting usually occurs in the air, where the feuding parties will also try to out fly their opponent to gain the advantage. Since a pair of dragons locked in combat will lose their ability to fly and begin to fall, the two will fight for a few moments and then separate to regain the lost altitude and to engage one another again. Fights are usually to the death, although occasionally, the losing dragon will surrender and try to escape the fight to avoid being killed, but usually the fight ends when one dragon loses the ability to fly and plummets to the ground, which generally results in crushing death. It is not entirely unheard of for both combatants to be so seriously wounded that neither one is able to fly, and they will both be killed. Similarly, occasions have occurred when either one of the fighters will intentionally grapple his opponent to prevent his escape, or both dragons will be so interlocked in the fight that they simply do not escape in time, and they will fall to the ground, resulting in both of their deaths. This is generally the only way a dragon can be killed in a fight, since their armor plated bodies and extremely hardy constitutions make death in any other arena unlikely at best. Eventually, age will catch up with a dragon, and his wings will begin to tatter, his scales will harden, crack, and begin to fall out, and he will eventually die, but unlike most creatures, the dragon’s mind and senses remain sharp and acute until their final moments of life.