World Building - Dragon appearances
Apr. 10th, 2009 01:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sparkindarknessGeneric Appearance
Dragons
Generically Dragons are relatively similar to our European-myth dragons. 4 legs, 2 wings, reptilian, tail, long head, large teeth, no ears, large claws. Legs come straight down at the hop rather than being splayed like a crocodile. Front legs shorter than rear (but not massively so). The wings are large, ribbed - a lot larger than is usually depicted (a dragon’s wing span will be 4 times as long as its body when fully unfurled at very least)
Half-dragons
Half-dragons favour their human parentage strongly with only a few draconic characteristic, these fade through generations unless more dragon blood is added until oddly glinting skin or and oddly hued or shining eyes remain as clues to their ancestry. For a first generation half dragon the changes are very noticeable.
A half-dragon stands a minimum of 9 feet tall. Their skin usually carries some suggestion of their draconic heritage but that varies from dragon line to dragon line. They have extremely large wings growing from their back. I have a terrible judge of distance, but these wings will stretch WELL above their heads when folded. Outstretched they would probably have a 30 foot+ wingspan (which sounds ridiculously long but the more I try and work it out the more I come back with the same numbers - if anything 35ft would be pretty minimal). Half-dragons are capable of flight but any attempt at prolonged flight (more than say, 15 minutes or so) exhausts them. Half-dragons generally say it’s not worth the effort and they have 2 perfectly good legs. The wings are near direct (but smaller) replicas of their draconic parent’s (the skin is scaly, the colour different from their normal skin tone)
They have long talons on each finger ranging from 1-3 inches long and pronounced upper and lower canines (the rest of their teeth tend to be sharp and pointed).
Golden Dragons
Golden Dragons are (surprise) gold in colour - they do shine just like the metal. They are very elegant - not spindly or skinny, but their necks and limbs are long with smooth, clean lines. Their wings are even larger than usual for dragons, not so much longer but very broad. They have 2 horns on their heads, well back over their eyes. They are very large and backward curling at the tips (not curled in on themselves). Near the head and thinning down the neck they have a lion-like mane (like a Chinese dragon) which is darker than their scales - usually with a reddish hue, looking more like brass than gold. A ridge of long spines decorate their backs (the spines are about 2-3 feet apart, a human could easily sit between them. They are, at most, about 3 feet long) until half way down their tails. Their wings have small, forward facing spines on the main “elbow” wing join. The horns, claws, spines and teeth of a golden dragon are pale, white gold and dazzlingly metallic, shining far more than their normal scales. Golden Dragon eyes look like faceted gems - emeralds, sapphires, rubies or, rarely, diamonds. They have no pupil or iris and are just solid, brilliant colour gleaming with fire.
Golden Half-Dragons
Tend to be muscular without being bulky - they look athletic but not excessively muscular. They tend to be tall, even for a Half-dragon, sometimes reaching 10’ but usually grounding our at 9’7” Their wings are broader than average and have tiny spines on the elbow joint. Except for their golden wings, their skin tone runs the full range of normal human skin tones - but glitters as if someone has covered them from head to toe in body glitter. They have small horns protruding through their hair which tends to be very very very thick and unruly and have massive body, sticking out around their head like a mane unless severely cut back and styled. Hair colour ranges from strawberry blond to auburn. Claws, teeth and spines aren’t metallic - but are very very very white. Golden half-dragons tend to have noble, extremely handsome faces and deep, resonant voices. They rarely shout but can be heard very easily as their deep, rich tones tend to cut through any conversation. Every word is well thought out and often sounds more like a speech than common conversation. Their eyes are solid colour from edge to edge. The colour is incredibly brilliant and has gem-like brilliance in direct light. They have a bony ridge covering their spine that is normally unnoticeable under clothes.
Silver Dragons
Metallic, liquid silver in colour, Silver dragons actually look more like they’ve been crafted from mercury than silver, their shining scales often seems to move and flow in the light. It looks like their skin is a clear mould full of quicksilver. Silver dragons tend to be thin and slender and even serpentine with short limbs and narrow wings. Without spines, horns or manes they can seem quite unadorned next to many other dragons but in the middle of their foreheads is set a large, perfect pearl. It is said the pearl acts as a third eye, seeing more than any mortal should. Their claws and teeth are a pure, solid black and gleam like onyx. Their eyes are grey - but constantly shifting from charcoal to nearly white. Again, their eyes have neither pupil nor iris.
Silver Half-Dragons
Tend to be short for Half-Dragons, sometimes as little as 8’ 4” but usually around 8’8.” They tend to be thin, saturnine, elegant with thin, scholarly faces and surprisingly long limbs and long, thin fingers. The pearl on their foreheads sometimes gleams when there is no light and is quite unnerving. Their large silver wings are relatively narrow compared to other half-dragons. Their claws are short and their teeth small - but both are Onyx-black. Their hair is nearly always grey - ranging from nearly black to nearly white and usually fine and straight. Their eyes are near clones of their parent dragon’s. Their skin colour is entirely dependent on their human parent but like Silver Dragons has a liquid, shifting quality to it. Silver Half Dragons tend to have quiet but carrying voices and a measured, evenly spaced way of speaking that is very precise. They avoid contractions or slang.
Bronze Dragons
Tend to be large, more barrel-chested than Golden Dragons. Like Golden Dragons they have 2 horns, but these are much longer and straighter. They also have very long spines on their wing elbow joints. All spines, claws and teeth are an aged, bronzed ivory colour. Their skin is a rich, deep bronze and gleams like glass. It’s not as glittering or flashy as the Golden dragons, but its gleam emphasises highlights into shining accents. Like Golden Dragons, Bronze Dragons have hair - thin straight black hair that falls in thin, long locks around the back of their head and around their nose like moustaches. They have spines running down their lower back to the end of their tale - they’re short, but razor sharp. The eyes of a bronze dragon are dark polished mirrors from edge to edge. It’s said if you look in them long enough you can learn great insights about your soul.
Bronze Half-Dragons
Tall and heavy set with broad shoulders and strong limbs, Bronze Half Dragons are an intimidating sight.. Their black hair falls naturally into individual locks that are usually turned into a multitude of braids - they’re black except when they catch the light when a sheen of red. They have straight horns that they often use to keep the long dreadlocks back out of their faces. Their wings have long elbow spines and all spines, teeth and claws are the same aged ivory hue. Their mirrored eyes are eerie and forbidding set in stern, thin lipped faces. Their skin carries the same gleam of their father’s, making them look smooth and eerily flawless. While not as deep as a Golden Half-Dragon, a Bronze’s voice tends to be equally resonant, dripping in authority. They tend to be verbose and slightly pompous using large vocabularies and even larger words. Like Golden dragons, they have a bony ridge down their spine - it is sharp so padded clothing is needed to disguise it.
Red Dragons
Red Dragons are the biggest of draconic kind. Strongly European styled They are huge and muscular and their claws and fangs are massive and metallic grey-blue - gunmetal grey. They have huge curling bull horns on their heads, 2 long straight horns behind and a row of short spines running from their forehead down to the end of their snouts. 2 more spines jut from the base of their cheeks. A long, high ridge of spines runs down their backs, narrow, long and razor sharp it continues to the very tips of their tails. Their wings not only have long elbow spines, but smaller spines at the bottom of every rib at the bottom of their wings. Their skin is a rich, deep scarlet and shimmers as if in a heat haze. their eyes are crackling flames, like staring into 2 windows into an inferno.
Red Half-Dragons
Are BIG. Taller than most half-dragons and built on a huge scale with arms and legs like tree-trunks, barrel chests, broad shoulders and rippling muscles. Their hair tends to be wild and untamed and often streaked with red. Their faces are round, large and broad and anvil hard, small bone spikes decorate their cheeks, forehead and the bridge of their nose like piercings. Their fangs are very long and sometimes prevent the completely closing their mouths. They have a sharp bony ridge down their spine that needs specialist clothes to cover and their wings have elbow spines and spines at the bottom. All claws, fangs and spines are metallic as if someone had replaced their bones with steel. Their eyes can be any human colour, but are always a mass of flame. Like their parents, they seem to have fire in their flesh and their skin shimmers as if through a heat haze.
Red Half-dragons are loud and brash and boisterous. They speak at loud volumes and in blunt terms and have loud, booming laughs they use often. They roar their words and have a tendency to bellow, even at close range.
Green Dragons
Only the Gold Dragon can surpass the Green for beauty. The greens scales range in full colours from intense dark emerald to the palest jade to the bluest turquoise. All the colours blend together in incredible iridescent hue, shining like the feathers of some exotic bird. They don’t have hair but have a crest and crown of feathers that extends along their necks to their upper-chest and forequarters. The feathers range from peacock feather blue to incredible, emerald green. Their wings are a riot of colour feathers and are dazzling to behold. Their claws and fangs are glittering yellow, like sunbeams captured. Greens tend to be on the smaller side, only a little bigger than silver dragons. Their eyes are dominated by large liquid pools, looking into them you can see visions of natural paradise - glens, glades, deep forests and breathtaking mountains even majestic deserts. Bordering the huge pools they have an iris of many iridescent petals of overlapping colour. Like Silver Dragons, they have no spines
Green Half-Dragons
Are a little taller than Silver Half-Dragons with a similar, slender build (though not to the same extent as the Silvers or Blacks, both of which are almost ethereally thin). They have large eyes, the better to show the stunning scenes in their petaled frame and delicate, child-like features. Their wings are covered in iridescent feathers like their draconic parent’s. They have hair but it falls from the back of their head, the top and sides are covered in lairs of incredible feathers.
Their skin is the most human of the Half-Dragons, with normal skin tones - but the Greens have the most incredible markings. Lines and swirls and knots decorate their skin in the same iridescent colours as their feathers like the world’s most awe inspiring tattoo. Their hair can be any colour, but usually has green undertones, teeth and claws remain the same Sunshine colour of their draconic parent’s.
Green Half-Dragons speak rarely, they usually seem distracted or solemn. When they do speak their voice is quiet but has an odd, echoing quality and sometimes background natural noises - running water, bird song, wind in the trees - can be heard in their words.
Black Dragons
Are serpentine, closer to Chinese Dragons than European dragons. Their skin is black - but a black so deep that it has neither highlights nor shadows, making them seems unreal and incredibly unnerving. Their eyes are black holes, featureless and empty more of a void than a colour. Tall, spiral horns jut above each eye. Horns, claws and teeth are all a deathly white. Black dragons have no hair or spine ridges. They are larger than Silver dragons but smaller than the rest.
Black Half-Dragons
Perhaps the most unnerving for the Half-dragons, Black Half-dragons have their parent’s eyes and their parent’s eerie lack of shadows and highlights, no matter what their skin tone is. Their hair is nearly always black and has the same void-like quality as their eyes, as if someone had spun a hole into hair. Like Silver Dragons, they are shorter than most Half Dragons, some Black Half Dragons are only 8’ 4” and few taller than 8’ 6”. They are extremely thin and fine boned with thin faces usually with goatees or long, thin moustaches. A Black Half dragon speaks very quietly, sometimes no louder than a whisper and their words have a slight sibilance. Their words often have double meanings or can be interpreted in several ways. Teeth, claws and horns are bone white.
Dragons
Generically Dragons are relatively similar to our European-myth dragons. 4 legs, 2 wings, reptilian, tail, long head, large teeth, no ears, large claws. Legs come straight down at the hop rather than being splayed like a crocodile. Front legs shorter than rear (but not massively so). The wings are large, ribbed - a lot larger than is usually depicted (a dragon’s wing span will be 4 times as long as its body when fully unfurled at very least)
Half-dragons
Half-dragons favour their human parentage strongly with only a few draconic characteristic, these fade through generations unless more dragon blood is added until oddly glinting skin or and oddly hued or shining eyes remain as clues to their ancestry. For a first generation half dragon the changes are very noticeable.
A half-dragon stands a minimum of 9 feet tall. Their skin usually carries some suggestion of their draconic heritage but that varies from dragon line to dragon line. They have extremely large wings growing from their back. I have a terrible judge of distance, but these wings will stretch WELL above their heads when folded. Outstretched they would probably have a 30 foot+ wingspan (which sounds ridiculously long but the more I try and work it out the more I come back with the same numbers - if anything 35ft would be pretty minimal). Half-dragons are capable of flight but any attempt at prolonged flight (more than say, 15 minutes or so) exhausts them. Half-dragons generally say it’s not worth the effort and they have 2 perfectly good legs. The wings are near direct (but smaller) replicas of their draconic parent’s (the skin is scaly, the colour different from their normal skin tone)
They have long talons on each finger ranging from 1-3 inches long and pronounced upper and lower canines (the rest of their teeth tend to be sharp and pointed).
Golden Dragons
Golden Dragons are (surprise) gold in colour - they do shine just like the metal. They are very elegant - not spindly or skinny, but their necks and limbs are long with smooth, clean lines. Their wings are even larger than usual for dragons, not so much longer but very broad. They have 2 horns on their heads, well back over their eyes. They are very large and backward curling at the tips (not curled in on themselves). Near the head and thinning down the neck they have a lion-like mane (like a Chinese dragon) which is darker than their scales - usually with a reddish hue, looking more like brass than gold. A ridge of long spines decorate their backs (the spines are about 2-3 feet apart, a human could easily sit between them. They are, at most, about 3 feet long) until half way down their tails. Their wings have small, forward facing spines on the main “elbow” wing join. The horns, claws, spines and teeth of a golden dragon are pale, white gold and dazzlingly metallic, shining far more than their normal scales. Golden Dragon eyes look like faceted gems - emeralds, sapphires, rubies or, rarely, diamonds. They have no pupil or iris and are just solid, brilliant colour gleaming with fire.
Golden Half-Dragons
Tend to be muscular without being bulky - they look athletic but not excessively muscular. They tend to be tall, even for a Half-dragon, sometimes reaching 10’ but usually grounding our at 9’7” Their wings are broader than average and have tiny spines on the elbow joint. Except for their golden wings, their skin tone runs the full range of normal human skin tones - but glitters as if someone has covered them from head to toe in body glitter. They have small horns protruding through their hair which tends to be very very very thick and unruly and have massive body, sticking out around their head like a mane unless severely cut back and styled. Hair colour ranges from strawberry blond to auburn. Claws, teeth and spines aren’t metallic - but are very very very white. Golden half-dragons tend to have noble, extremely handsome faces and deep, resonant voices. They rarely shout but can be heard very easily as their deep, rich tones tend to cut through any conversation. Every word is well thought out and often sounds more like a speech than common conversation. Their eyes are solid colour from edge to edge. The colour is incredibly brilliant and has gem-like brilliance in direct light. They have a bony ridge covering their spine that is normally unnoticeable under clothes.
Silver Dragons
Metallic, liquid silver in colour, Silver dragons actually look more like they’ve been crafted from mercury than silver, their shining scales often seems to move and flow in the light. It looks like their skin is a clear mould full of quicksilver. Silver dragons tend to be thin and slender and even serpentine with short limbs and narrow wings. Without spines, horns or manes they can seem quite unadorned next to many other dragons but in the middle of their foreheads is set a large, perfect pearl. It is said the pearl acts as a third eye, seeing more than any mortal should. Their claws and teeth are a pure, solid black and gleam like onyx. Their eyes are grey - but constantly shifting from charcoal to nearly white. Again, their eyes have neither pupil nor iris.
Silver Half-Dragons
Tend to be short for Half-Dragons, sometimes as little as 8’ 4” but usually around 8’8.” They tend to be thin, saturnine, elegant with thin, scholarly faces and surprisingly long limbs and long, thin fingers. The pearl on their foreheads sometimes gleams when there is no light and is quite unnerving. Their large silver wings are relatively narrow compared to other half-dragons. Their claws are short and their teeth small - but both are Onyx-black. Their hair is nearly always grey - ranging from nearly black to nearly white and usually fine and straight. Their eyes are near clones of their parent dragon’s. Their skin colour is entirely dependent on their human parent but like Silver Dragons has a liquid, shifting quality to it. Silver Half Dragons tend to have quiet but carrying voices and a measured, evenly spaced way of speaking that is very precise. They avoid contractions or slang.
Bronze Dragons
Tend to be large, more barrel-chested than Golden Dragons. Like Golden Dragons they have 2 horns, but these are much longer and straighter. They also have very long spines on their wing elbow joints. All spines, claws and teeth are an aged, bronzed ivory colour. Their skin is a rich, deep bronze and gleams like glass. It’s not as glittering or flashy as the Golden dragons, but its gleam emphasises highlights into shining accents. Like Golden Dragons, Bronze Dragons have hair - thin straight black hair that falls in thin, long locks around the back of their head and around their nose like moustaches. They have spines running down their lower back to the end of their tale - they’re short, but razor sharp. The eyes of a bronze dragon are dark polished mirrors from edge to edge. It’s said if you look in them long enough you can learn great insights about your soul.
Bronze Half-Dragons
Tall and heavy set with broad shoulders and strong limbs, Bronze Half Dragons are an intimidating sight.. Their black hair falls naturally into individual locks that are usually turned into a multitude of braids - they’re black except when they catch the light when a sheen of red. They have straight horns that they often use to keep the long dreadlocks back out of their faces. Their wings have long elbow spines and all spines, teeth and claws are the same aged ivory hue. Their mirrored eyes are eerie and forbidding set in stern, thin lipped faces. Their skin carries the same gleam of their father’s, making them look smooth and eerily flawless. While not as deep as a Golden Half-Dragon, a Bronze’s voice tends to be equally resonant, dripping in authority. They tend to be verbose and slightly pompous using large vocabularies and even larger words. Like Golden dragons, they have a bony ridge down their spine - it is sharp so padded clothing is needed to disguise it.
Red Dragons
Red Dragons are the biggest of draconic kind. Strongly European styled They are huge and muscular and their claws and fangs are massive and metallic grey-blue - gunmetal grey. They have huge curling bull horns on their heads, 2 long straight horns behind and a row of short spines running from their forehead down to the end of their snouts. 2 more spines jut from the base of their cheeks. A long, high ridge of spines runs down their backs, narrow, long and razor sharp it continues to the very tips of their tails. Their wings not only have long elbow spines, but smaller spines at the bottom of every rib at the bottom of their wings. Their skin is a rich, deep scarlet and shimmers as if in a heat haze. their eyes are crackling flames, like staring into 2 windows into an inferno.
Red Half-Dragons
Are BIG. Taller than most half-dragons and built on a huge scale with arms and legs like tree-trunks, barrel chests, broad shoulders and rippling muscles. Their hair tends to be wild and untamed and often streaked with red. Their faces are round, large and broad and anvil hard, small bone spikes decorate their cheeks, forehead and the bridge of their nose like piercings. Their fangs are very long and sometimes prevent the completely closing their mouths. They have a sharp bony ridge down their spine that needs specialist clothes to cover and their wings have elbow spines and spines at the bottom. All claws, fangs and spines are metallic as if someone had replaced their bones with steel. Their eyes can be any human colour, but are always a mass of flame. Like their parents, they seem to have fire in their flesh and their skin shimmers as if through a heat haze.
Red Half-dragons are loud and brash and boisterous. They speak at loud volumes and in blunt terms and have loud, booming laughs they use often. They roar their words and have a tendency to bellow, even at close range.
Green Dragons
Only the Gold Dragon can surpass the Green for beauty. The greens scales range in full colours from intense dark emerald to the palest jade to the bluest turquoise. All the colours blend together in incredible iridescent hue, shining like the feathers of some exotic bird. They don’t have hair but have a crest and crown of feathers that extends along their necks to their upper-chest and forequarters. The feathers range from peacock feather blue to incredible, emerald green. Their wings are a riot of colour feathers and are dazzling to behold. Their claws and fangs are glittering yellow, like sunbeams captured. Greens tend to be on the smaller side, only a little bigger than silver dragons. Their eyes are dominated by large liquid pools, looking into them you can see visions of natural paradise - glens, glades, deep forests and breathtaking mountains even majestic deserts. Bordering the huge pools they have an iris of many iridescent petals of overlapping colour. Like Silver Dragons, they have no spines
Green Half-Dragons
Are a little taller than Silver Half-Dragons with a similar, slender build (though not to the same extent as the Silvers or Blacks, both of which are almost ethereally thin). They have large eyes, the better to show the stunning scenes in their petaled frame and delicate, child-like features. Their wings are covered in iridescent feathers like their draconic parent’s. They have hair but it falls from the back of their head, the top and sides are covered in lairs of incredible feathers.
Their skin is the most human of the Half-Dragons, with normal skin tones - but the Greens have the most incredible markings. Lines and swirls and knots decorate their skin in the same iridescent colours as their feathers like the world’s most awe inspiring tattoo. Their hair can be any colour, but usually has green undertones, teeth and claws remain the same Sunshine colour of their draconic parent’s.
Green Half-Dragons speak rarely, they usually seem distracted or solemn. When they do speak their voice is quiet but has an odd, echoing quality and sometimes background natural noises - running water, bird song, wind in the trees - can be heard in their words.
Black Dragons
Are serpentine, closer to Chinese Dragons than European dragons. Their skin is black - but a black so deep that it has neither highlights nor shadows, making them seems unreal and incredibly unnerving. Their eyes are black holes, featureless and empty more of a void than a colour. Tall, spiral horns jut above each eye. Horns, claws and teeth are all a deathly white. Black dragons have no hair or spine ridges. They are larger than Silver dragons but smaller than the rest.
Black Half-Dragons
Perhaps the most unnerving for the Half-dragons, Black Half-dragons have their parent’s eyes and their parent’s eerie lack of shadows and highlights, no matter what their skin tone is. Their hair is nearly always black and has the same void-like quality as their eyes, as if someone had spun a hole into hair. Like Silver Dragons, they are shorter than most Half Dragons, some Black Half Dragons are only 8’ 4” and few taller than 8’ 6”. They are extremely thin and fine boned with thin faces usually with goatees or long, thin moustaches. A Black Half dragon speaks very quietly, sometimes no louder than a whisper and their words have a slight sibilance. Their words often have double meanings or can be interpreted in several ways. Teeth, claws and horns are bone white.