The small dragons of the fae.
Abstract
Unknown and misunderstood, the faerie dragons have served as the Multiverse’s protectors since the far reaches of history. They float in and out of the planes and affect every aspect of life while still completely unnoticed by most mortals. Typically associated with the fae-folk, the faerie dragons are the protectors and defenders of the balance of the Multiverse, though reticent to show themselves to peering eyes.
Physical Appearance
A careless eye might mistake a faerie
Dragon for the surface of a lake on a hot summer day. Someone else might think of crystal chandeliers spinning slowly in the candlelight. Another might see a beautifully-cut gemstone that can catch and then explode light in innumerable colors and directions.
These chromatic effects are entirely due to the faerie
Dragon’s wings which make up over two thirds of its entire body size. Each side of the torso is dressed with two half-circles, making four wings in total, with the upper being significantly larger than the behind. The width of the wings, from base to tip, stretches approximately two and a half times the length of their torso.
The strength of the wings comes entirely from a central vein that branches out into the edges, creating the appearance of tendrils or roots across the membranous skin. Most of the wings are opaque, light can pass through, although its intensity is muffled and its path diffracted. For a faerie
Dragon, the colors of one’s wings are limited only by the broadness of the spectrum and they have been seen in every color of the rainbow, and many in between. However, a single set of wings adopts only a single color; a faerie dragon’s skin can be but one color and one color only.
As the second and central part of the body, the torso of a faerie dragon is always found in between the shades of pale aqua to deep azure blue. It makes one even shape from the very end of the tail, an appendage stretching at least twice the length of the central body, to the very tip of the nose. From the tail to the head, it makes an elongated cylinder much like the body of a snake before coming to a triangular shape as it flows into its face. This region of their selves much resemble reptiles: their skin is made of iridescent, glittering scales, and their face is bedecked with two large eyes matching in color to their wings, one on either side of a protruding snout that opens at the very end into a perfect circle to make its mouth. Quite often faerie dragons carry feathery antennas over the ridges of their eyebrows, stretching anywhere from a few inches to a few feet. Due to their height and a total lack of strong support, the antenna will be worn bent over and fallen into the dragon’s face.
In total length, from head to tail, a mature faerie dragon will measure between eight to twelve inches. In total width, with wingspan measured from the tips of the upper wings, a mature faerie dragon will measure one and a half to three feet. The accuracy of these averages is, however, extremely limited due to their reclusive nature; exceptions may exist, but they have not yet been observed.
Climate and Terrain
Part of the mythos of the faerie dragon is its rare appearance on the Material Plane. By their nature faerie dragons dwell in Kel'rondar, the magical sister-plane to Fae'rel, the home of the Fae-folk. This makes their encounters with most of the mortal races few and far between. They do possess the ability to “wink” or teleport between planes and generally prefer to inhabit those of a magical nature such as the Essence planes used in arcana.
As far as their sightings in Telath, the faerie dragons typically appear of their own accord in locales heavy in
Magic and energy. They have, though, been known to appear at the behest of particularly powerful magi, including Sharinya, High Queen of the
Faeries during the Battle of Midpoint. They do not stay in the Material Plane for long; the concentration of
Magic in this plane is much too low to sustain them and thus their visits are very rare and very brief.
Diet
Faerie dragons feed entirely on energy and essence. As babies, this is nether essence, or the energy that fuels their magical abilities. It is the energy opposite that of the ara used by magi in Telath and thus gives the faerie dragon its base as an anti-magical creature startled and far from fond of arcana. Once the faerie dragon has matured, however, and chosen its constituent element, it then feeds on the energies associated with its realm of its responsibility as its pure essences.
The digestive tract for a faerie dragon is far from similar for those of mortal
Beasts found on the Material Plane. Rather than swallowing their desired food, faerie dragons absorb it through their tongues. It then seeps through their tongue into their bloodstreams and replenishes their systems. To an uneducated observer, then, it appears that the faerie dragon has “swallowed and chewed” the essence – but in reality, the faerie dragon does not have a throat nor a stomach nor intestines.
Organization
The beginning of a faerie dragon comes in the shape of an egg, speckled with turquoise flecks on a cream-colored surface. The eggs themselves are approximately two inches in diameter and shaped in ovals, generally numbering five to ten per laying. At their birth, the eggs are placed within a spherical enclosing of energies and hidden away in some corner of their native Kel’rondar. Both parents leave, leaving the babies to fend completely for themselves.
The eggs must mature for the time equivalent of two years before they will begin to hatch. Here, the beak-shape of the faerie dragon’s nose becomes an essential tool for cracking and then loosening the shell, allowing the small baby to escape. At birth, the faerie dragon has no wings – it fully resembles a blue worm no more than a few inches long. It has not yet developed its outer scales, so the pure sapphire skin color underneath shimmers in their place from nostril to tail. Its eyes are lacking eyelids and antennae are but stubs above its head.
Through magical means, the infant faerie dragons can levitate themselves above ground as their style of transport. This method is not, however, fully inherent at birth – the babies may instinctively use it but must build up their strength to make longer travels possible as it drains their internal magical energies. Usually the young will remain banded together in packs for protection – they must forage for their own food and defend themselves against potential attackers, therefore making safety in numbers attractive.
For a faerie dragon, the cycle of growth is very slow, taking approximately twenty years for it to approach adolescence. By this time, the wings of the faerie dragon have grown in, but are still very weak – flight is extremely limited. They have also begun to show their fabled prismatic qualities and will glimmer in even the dimmest of lights. Throughout their adolescence, faerie dragons may change the colorings of their wings at will with even the slightest change of mood or environment.
At the point of their maturity, however, this ability to change is lost. After the faerie dragon has aged approximately thirty years, they become full-fledged adults and, through complex sensing abilities, begin to attune themselves with the components of the Multiverse and its numerous planes. Thus when a faerie dragon reaches adulthood, it is faced with a choice – it must become a part of a component of the Multiverse and inhabit its plane of existence and thereby become its protector, guardian, and gatekeeper.
This choice is quick and instinctive for a faerie dragon as their consciousnesses are intrinsically tied to the state of the Multiverse at all times. They are fully aware of any imbalances in its elements and essences and will align themselves with those that are deficient in order to bring the scales back up to normality. Thus the decision for a faerie dragon to choose the color of its wings and thereby its realm of responsibility is not one of great deliberation – it is effortless and natural, as the faerie dragon simply knows what needs to be protected.
An average lifespan for a faerie dragon is approximately two hundred years. When an elderly faerie dragon dies, its body disintegrates into pure energy and essence and departs back into the Multiverse, eventually becoming nutrients for new faerie dragons to feed upon and fueling the cycle of life that it so fiercely protected during its existence.
Combat
As a reclusive creature that has little to no contact with the mortal races of the Material Plane, the faerie dragon prefers anonymity to open combat. They rely instead on their powers of “winking” and their immunity to and nullification of
Magic to both defend and attack those that wish them harm. Despite their lithe and wisp-like forms, they are strong creatures indeed and are capable, at maturity, of carrying three to four times their weight in full, prolonged flight. Their use in physical combat is, however, severely limited as their only appendages are their wings.
Although their teeth are many and sharp and their nose long and thin, they have not, on any occasion, been known to bite or use their snout in combat in any way. From the width and shape of both their nostrils and eyes, it can be assumed that their senses of smell and sight are highly acute compared to other
Beasts of their type. However, these physical abilities are irrelevant – a faerie dragon’s sense of the Multiverse serves as its greatest defense, as it can easily “wink” in and out of planes and manipulate energies to keep itself hidden and unknown.
Special Abilities
As young, the faerie dragons instinctively know how to levitate above the ground and thus transport themselves across distances. With more practice, this ability strengthens and the length of time and distance they may travel increases. By the time they reach adolescence, a faerie dragon no longer touches the ground – between their levitation and the new growth of their wings, the faerie dragons may float to any desired location and thus generally remain hovering in the air rather than landing.
Their “winking”, or teleporting, grants any faerie dragon the ability to go between the planes of existence, even those outside their chosen realm of responsibility. This method is inborn within the faerie dragon at birth, allowing it to hide from unwanted sight and thus adding to its mystery in the eyes of mortals.
Though a faerie dragon many inhabit any plane it wishes, they are drawn and tied to their realm of responsibility. It is there, in that plane, that a faerie dragon may wield incredible power, crafting the energies of the plane to its own whims and desires for both defense and offense. This ability should not be confused with “spellcasting”, but rather a manipulation of the essences to which the faerie dragon has become tied. Their inhabitance in planes outside of their area is very limited, as they cannot be away from their native essences for very long. Beyond that, the faerie dragons cannot be found in any place that is devoid of magical energies – though they may “wink” onto the Material Plane, it must be in a region full of magical essences, and they can only remain for a very limited time.
Resistances/Weaknesses
As the faerie dragon from birth feed on nether essence, they have, from their youngest age, the ability to negate all
Magic of any arcane sphere. This makes them completely immune to all magical abilities, effects, and spells even as babies and defines their behavior both in and out of their native Kel’rondar. They are, at their core, anti-
Magic beings and react out of instinct to cancel any magical use within their immediate area.
Though immune to
Magic of all types, faerie dragons are very perturbed by its use, often becoming violent if a mage attempts to cast a spell anywhere in their vicinity. Faerie dragons abhor magic and magic-users, having been known to negate all spells near them and even violently attack the spellcasters themselves. As spellcasting disrupts the native balance of the Multiverse, faerie dragons can both sense and then cancel any craft that utilizes magical energies instantly. They are fiercely protective over the balance of magical essences in the Multiverse and thus become hostile to those that would disturb them.
Credit
Credit goes to Charybdis
