Dragons

Dragons are large, fearsome beasts with a variety of characteristics between them. They are large, strongly elementally tied, long-lived, frequently considered temperamental and are among the rarest of all wild creatures.

Physiology
A dragon's features vary by the element it's tied to, though not enough to class them as individual species from one another, as they can still interbreed. What they all have in common is their large size – usually ten meters long or more – their reptilian, scaly hide, and their general build. Most breeds have large, flight-capable wings, the exceptions being Earth and Frost dragons, with Earth dragons being commonly referred to as Sand Wyrms and preferring to dig, and Frost dragons having long, durable fins instead. All dragons are considered highly intelligent, capable of telepathic speech and independent decision making should they dislike their master's commands.

Balance Dragons
We'll start with Balance dragons. The most basic, for good reason; Balance dragons are lithe, but well built and sturdy. They are medium-bodied, meaning they share the proportions of most other quadrupeds. They have a few frills, but not as many as some other breeds. Their coloration is light, tending toward whites, silvers and sky blues. Balance dragons are noted for having the longest horns of any of the breeds, and were poached in the past for them, as dragon horns tend to have magical qualities to them. In the modern time, they are a protected species, and poaching of a Balance dragon for its horns is punishable by death.

Light Dragons
Light dragons seem to shimmer and shine in the sun. They are easily the frilliest of all dragons, covered with long flares and flitters. Even their wings count as frills. They have slightly longer bodies than their bretheren, Balance dragons, with somewhat shorter limbs, and an average build, neither overly strong nor overly built for speed. Their horns are closer to antlers than proper horns, with several prongs and branches along their length. Each has a long, furry mane running the length of its body. They say that mane dictates the dragon's status in its family – the longer and shinier the mane, the higher the rank. Therefore, those that the Lumentian royals try to tame have the brightest, longest manes possible. Their coloration ranges from bright gold to brilliant white, and their frills tip in light blue.

Shadow Dragons
Shadow dragons are among the most lithe of all the eight chief breeds, very thin, and very fast. They also have multiple pairs of wings, with two pairs to them – one where the wings would be on a standard dragon, and one on the hips. Their horns are not in the same place as they might be on other dragons, instead presenting on their faces. Females tend toward having one long horn, while males have two. In the place where regular dragons would have horns, they instead have long ears. Due to their chosen environments, Shadow dragons have whiskers on their faces, meant to allow them to feel the space around them. They, however, are not blind, as they do not live in absolute darkness. Their colors are dark reds and blacks.

Lunar Dragons
Lunar dragons come close to the amount of frills that Light dragons have, but they are much less grandiose. They, like Balance dragons, are of medium proportions. They are rather frail, however, being built to be magical adepts rather than strong physical fighters. Lunar dragons are very distinct in that they have two pairs of forelegs rather than just one. One set of forelegs is the basic set used mostly for walking around, and the other pair is used as a pair of arms. They have very short, sharp horns along the back of the head. Their coloration ranges in the lavender to silver to pink area.

Storm Dragons
Storm dragons are built solely for air speed. They are very long and serpentine, as they very rarely need to land. There are multiple pairs of wings along their body, starting from the standard pair behind the shoulders and going down. Even their arms and legs have wing-like structures growing off of them. They have a pair of raked-back horns on their head, and a row of long, sharp spines growing from inbetween those horns down to the base of the neck, which they shed yearly. These spines are excellent for weaponmaking due to their exceptional propensity for holding Storm-element enchantments. Their colors range from bright violet to electric teal.

Frost Dragons
Frost dragons do not fly. Their wings long ago changed into fins, and their legs grew long, fishlike fins that enable them to be extremely adept in water. That isn't to say that Frost dragons are incapable of land travel, in fact they are quite strong with it, as their native home of the Wrathlands hosts most of its native wildlife, their prey, on the icy fields above ground. They live in the massive underground lake underneath the  frozen fields, their homes lit up by the light filtering in through the thick, yet transparent ice above. Frost dragons have a long ridge of fins along their back, and both of their limbs have similar fins folded up behind them, which expand in the water, enabling them to swim. Along their neck are ridged scales which protect their gills. They are mostly blue-colored.

Fire Dragons
Fire dragons are the other breed that inhabit the Wrathlands, building their homes in and around the magma lakes and obsidian fields that intermix with the icy plains. They are very well-built and strong. It is very difficult to take down a Fire dragon, they say, as their preferred environment tempers their scales. Fire dragons are able to stand on two legs as well as four if needed, usually for fighting. They are quite similar in decorative features to Balance dragons, different as the two are, being rather plain. They have six horns each, on either side of the face. They are red and orange in coloration.

Earth Dragons
Earth dragons, also known as Sand Wyrms, also do not fly. They lost their wings long ago when they chose the underground instead of the sky. They are perhaps the most sturdy of any dragon, very clearly adept at physical fighting. Their limbs are short, but come with long claws made for tunneling. If you feel a tremor below you in an area not known for earthquakes, chances are a Sand Wyrm is tunneling below you. They are covered in armored plates, to the point that they do not have horns, so much as large armor ridges. They are rather slow-moving above ground. An elder Earth dragon tends to have moss growing on it, showings its age. They are mostly various shades of brown.

Dragons can live to be several hundred years old.

Diet
Dragons are by and large carnivorous, with few exceptions. They are apex predators, one never sees something hunt a dragon. Certain breeds, such as Frost and Earth dragons, can and will consume plants if there is nothing else around, but this is not the ideal and if left for too long, they can become malnourished.

Dragons as royal mounts
As a species, dragons are near-impossible to properly domesticate, being far too intelligent and far too tempermental to properly initially tame. Instead, one may come across a dragon who takes a liking to them, and form a bond with them. The dragon is then willing to serve as a mount and companion to its bond's family as long as they live.

Because of this, and the rarity with which commoners come face to face with dragons, it has been a custom since ancient times for royal families, and not necessarily even just those in power today, to make pilgrimages to the homelands of dragons to seek that most cherished bond. It is said that this is to happen every time there is a change in the ruling family of a kingdom, as when the last in the bloodline dies off, the dragon who the family is bonded to returns to its home for the rest of its life. The latest recorded instance of a dragon-bonding was very recently, when one of Magmarne's current royal families took up the throne in the mid-1950's.

Multi-elemental dragons
In the wild, it isn't uncommon to find dragons with any combination of the traits of the pure-elemental dragons. This is due to the ability of the eight pure breeds to intermix. These are called hybrid dragons, and they are, perhaps as to be expected, somewhat more common as a whole than the pure elemental dragons, although certain elemental combinations are rarer than others. They have a tendency to be smaller than their pure-elemental cousins; while a pure Balance dragon may be able to carry the entire current Nintendrian Royal Family on its back reliably, a hybrid dragon is better suited for, at most, one or two riders.

Half Dragons
Interestingly enough, dragons are genetically compatible with humans, enabling them to create half-dragon children. For the longest time this phenomena has been somewhat of a mystery, due to the large difference in dragon and human biology and evolution lines. The current theory, as posed by Ranthael, is that this compatibility was woven into the very creation of the universe itself, caused by Zora Blackwood's own promiscuity. Zora herself has denied this explaination, stating something about frogs and breeding. The current genetic compatibility between frogs and humans is, admittedly, untested.

Half dragons are usually human in shape, but contain many features of dragons, such as wings, scales, horns, claws, or tails. The amount of dragon features to that of human features varies in each individual.