Scanderan dragon
| Scanderan dragon | |
|---|---|
| File:Viking-dragon-rider.jpg | |
| A painting of a scanderan dragon | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia
|
| Phylum: | Chordata
|
| Class: | Reptilia
|
| Order: | Squamata
|
| Family: | volanssaur
|
| Genus: | Dracolius
|
| Species: | D.Scandera Major
|
| Binomial name | |
| Dracolius Scandera Major Hylfred Görenssen, 1789
| |
| File:Dragonhabitats.png | |
| darkest brown: northern dragon Second darkest: Vedian dragon middle brown: Southern dragon Second lightest: Karmanjakan dragon lightest: Sund dragon. | |
The Scanderan dragon is one if not the most dangerous predator in Scandera and one of the largest of the so called dragon beasts and in fact the second largest non-aquatic animal and is only outdone by the large rotbest in terms of size and even in the water so can only the larger whales, kraken and sea wyrms are able to compete with it for size. The race is however very diverse and there are several subspecies varying in size, shape and colour and even ability and some species have even been domesticated for warfare and long range attacks.
There are however several races of the Scanderan dragons ranging from the large Karmanjakan dragon known for it's strength and fury, the slender longwinged east vedian dragon and the smaller ice dragon of the northern iceplains amongst others.
Etymology
The word dragon in the good old tongue "Drake" evolved from the old word "Draki".
History
Dragons have historically been seen as fearsome creatures worthy of fear and admiration by the commoners and noblemen alike of Scandera and while they were not domesticated until after the human migrations so have they served an important part of Scanderan warfare as massive formation breakers and were for a long while the only flying animal directly deployed against enemy units as wyverns were too fragile and costly to risk the near certain death it meant to deploy them against a crossbow supported shieldwall.
Even Dragons were in the risk zone however as wyvern formations, crossbows and balista batteries often proved far too fatal to risk sending one in so it has been debated if the dragon had much tactical use despite it's wide spread popularity. However it is documented that while dragons were often held in reserve so were they still serve their purpose as a reserve force and often did they rely entirely on ones own cavalry's ability to outmanoeuvre the cavalry and charge home at the enemy's crossbow men and balista batteries after which the dragon could without risk be released. An event that has almost always utterly shattered enemy shieldwalls and won the day.
In karmanjaka so did the Karmän grow famous for their dragons and the small nation had proportionally more and better trained and bred dragons than the other regions and despite inventions as "darke pik" or "Dragon pikes" that allowed two men in pike formations to carry 30 meters long pikes to keep the dragons at bay and later on even arbalest and rifles designed to shoot down dragons so did Karmänen continue to use them to frightening success and in the civil war did a small dragon supported force of Karmän shatter a much larger syndicalist army which ensured the continued royal support of Karmanjaka that were even able to advance into syndicalist land before they entrenched themselves.
Taxonomy
The dragon were with other flying animals catalogued and given their official Latin name by Hylfred Görenssen in 1789 when he released his book "di flygande raserna" and he grouped them with dragonlings as volanssaurs or flying lizards. He did further split them into several sub species, most noteworthy of which are Dracolius kamanjaka, Dracolius Vast Vedian, Dracolius nord. Which are the main races of dragon that one can find in Scandera even if in most recent days so have one also made Dracolius sund and Dracolius syd their own subspecies as the dragons in the southern mountains and sundet are known as.
Anatomy and health
The dragon is a odd creature in Scandera as it is the only sixlimbed non-insect creature on the entire continent as it has four legs and two giant wings that allows it flight. While the dragons for centuries were belived to be a magical creature so have it however been revealed in recent ages that it's fire comes from two chemical pouches that it has in it's mouth that when mixed allows the dragon to unleash a large flame almost twenty meters long.
It's flight have also proven to have some basis in the laws of physics rather than magic as it has several pouches filled with Hydrogen in it's stomach that it creates as a bi product from it's digestive system.
Reproduction
Dragons are solitary creatures and lives in large caverns that they often even expand themselves with their large sharp claws and teeth, just as their cousin the rotbest so are they able to eat and digest stone but not metal which makes it easy for the dragon to dig out the cave but save metal that it would need for it's mating rituals.
Once the mating ritual starts so does the dragon females collect their treasure that they have gathered, either by stealing shining objects from humanoids or other dragons or by digging them out themselves and display it outside of their lair. The males on the other hand sets out for their own lairs with an offering of their own and once they have found a female with a suitable pile so do they land and gives her their offering.
if the offering is considered good enough so do she allow the dragon to mate with her in a impressive aerial display. Once the mating is done does the dragon leave his offering and the female lays an egg that hatches about a year later and the kid stays with his or her mother for about five more years.
Diet
The dragon is a carnivorous creature that hunts during the day where it flies out to look for large herds of either mammoths, Myskoxs, giant aurochs or rhinos.
Behaviour
The dragon is a solitary creature that spends most of the year in it's cave sleeping or digging and it only really leaves it's home to hunt or to mate. Once it takes flight however so is it as agile as one could imagine and it is easily able to fly down it's prey before it kills it with it's burning breath before it takes it to it's cave where it devours it.
While a dragon lair is large and filled with smaller caves that it digs in the hope of finding metal so is it all centred around a so called "main cave" where the dragon keeps it's treasure and where it sleep. However so does the cave also have a so called "winter cave" far down into the depth of the cave where the dragon pushes it's wealth in winter and where it then hibernates.
To prepare itself for the winter rest so does it go into what is called "vinter blodstarst" or "winter bloodlust" in scandera where it goes out for massive hunts and brings down massive amounts of prey and are even known to attack human settlements to enable it to eat itself fat enough to survive the winter.
Life expectancy
A dragon is however nothing but resilient and long-lived and can be up to fifty years in the wild and domesticated dragons have been known to grow older than a century.
