Starfall Dragonry

Dragon Information

General Information

Asana dragons are native to the Starfall Dragonry area. Physically, they are small in comparison to many other species of dragons, with adults standing between five and seven feet tall at the shoulder. Males are generally larger in size than females on average. Asana dragons have lithe, muscular builds and draconic wings, which enable them to fly beginning at their adolescent stage of growth. By the time they reach adulthood, a ridge of silky fur will have grown all the way down their backs. Males develop horns as they age, whereas females do not. They are capable of using verbal speech from birth and are also capable of using powerful magical abilities beginning at adolescence. Adult dragons typically do not mate for life; however, a handful of them do choose to do so. An adult female can lay a clutch of three to ten eggs, with smaller clutches being more common. Bonding occurs while still in the egg - when a bonder touches an egg, the dragonet inside may 'choose' them and a bond will be formed immediately. The strength of the bond is similar to human friendship - while they will not die without each other, the two bondmates will become very close. A single bonder may also bond to multiple Asana dragons. Although Asana dragons come in a wide variety of colours,they do not appear to have a colour-based ranking system amongst themselves. However, some of the colours are certainly rarer than others.

Chart depicting average sizes of adult Asana dragons.

Asana dragons have three basic stages of growth, these being the hatchling, adolescent and adult stages.

Hatchlings are very small and vulnerable, about one foot tall at the shoulder on average. Hatchling Asana dragons are rather clumsy and awkward in stature, and typically take quite a long time to adjust to their bodies. Their only ability at this stage is verbal speech, which they can use to communicate fully from birth and do not have to learn. However, a hatchling's vocabulary is quite basic and they will still need to be taught about a variety of concepts throughout their lives. Hatchlings have large paws, tiny wings (which make them incapable of flight at this stage), and small tufts of fur on their heads and tail-tips. The hatchling stage lasts approximately four years, during which time the Asana dragon will grow at a very rapid rate.

Adolescent Asana dragons are typically between three (females) and five (males) feet tall at the shoulder. At this stage an Asana dragon's wings have grown enough to allow for flight, an ability which most adolescents are eager to try. They are much less clumsy at this stage, although flight is something which may take some time for the dragon to master. Adolescent males have also begun to grow horns, and the size difference between males and females has become apparent. The adolescent stage lasts approximately six years, and during this time a dragon must prepare for maturation to adulthood. During this stage an Asana dragon also gains the ability to access all seven of the different types of magic (outlined below). While these abilities remain limited due to the amount of time it takes for a dragon to hone magical skills, the dragon must decide which of these abilities will be Imprinted permanently on it upon its transition to adulthood. This is a highly important choice, because once the Imprinting ceremony occurs, the dragon gains permanent use of a single ability, while it loses the ability to use the remaining six magic types.

Adults are fully-grown Asana dragons (average sizes are shown in the chart above). On the dragon's tenth birthday, the Imprinting ceremony takes place. The Imprinting is held by the elders of Starfall Dragonry. Once the dragon has made his or her choice of which type of magic they wish to use, he or she is tattooed with that magic's symbol by the elders. The tattoo is given painlessly by magic, and at this point, the dragon being tattooed gains full access to its chosen power while losing access to the other six. Adults are large enough to be ridden by an average-size human and are also mature enough to mate and have offspring. Asana dragons can live for a very long time - while not immortal, they can live for over one hundred years. By this point in time, all of an Asana dragon's fur has grown in, males' horns are fully grown, and they are typically both physically and mentally mature.

Asana Dragon Genetics

The wide variety of colours seen in Asana dragons can be attributed to their diverse system of colour genetics. Each Asana dragon has three sets of colour genes, one each for body colour, wingsail colour and fur colour. This system allows for thousands of possible colour combinations, and it is very difficult to find two Asana dragons with identical colourations. A dragon's genes are paired - it receives one from each parent in each pair. The genes are listed in the table in order of dominance, with the gene at the top of each section of the table being the most dominant in that section.

Basic Colour Genes
C	green
C*	blue
C!	violet
C'	yellow
Cº	orange
C~	red
c	yellow-green
c*	blue-green
c!	blue-violet
c'	yellow-orange
cº	red-orange
c~	red-violet
Colour Modifiers
M	normal colour
m	brown modifier (all colours become brown; pale/dark modifier determines specific shade)
m*	shade modifier (normal colours become gray, pale colours become white, dark colours become black)
m!	rainbow modifier (all colours become rainbow; pale/dark modifier determines specific shade)
Shade Modifiers
D	normal colour
d	pale or dark colour

An example gene set could look like this: cºC~ddmm!

In each genotype there will be three of these gene sets; however, in this example we will be covering only one to explain the basics. In a regular genotype the first set determines body colour and the second and third sets determine wing and fur colour respectively. To determine the dragon's appearance, find the most dominant gene in each of the three gene pairs (these being the C, D and M pairs).

For the base colour pair, we see the presence of the cº gene (red-orange) and the C~ gene (red). A quick glance at the gene chart shows that the red gene is dominant over the red-orange gene, which is located below it in the chart. Therefore, this part of the dragon will be red in colour, with a recessive gene for red-orange. This recessive gene may be passed on to the dragon's offspring, but it does not make any change to this dragon's appearance.

The D gene pair shows the presence of a double-recessive d gene, meaning that the red in this dragon will be pale or dark in colour. When this happens, a die roll determines whether the colour appears pale or dark (odd is dark, even is pale).

In the M gene pair we see that a colour modifier has taken effect. Without the presence of the dominant M gene, the most dominant gene in this pair is m, the brown modifier. This means that instead of a pale or dark red as determined previously, the dragon's colour will appear as pale or dark brown. Additionally, the dragon carries the recessive m! gene, meaning that its offspring have a chance of inheriting the rainbow modifier.

This process is repeated for each of the three sets (body, wings and fur) to determine each of the colours seen on an Asana dragon. These colours do not determine which type of magic the dragon will use later in life, despite the magic types being symbolized by colours.

Types of Magic

There are seven types of magic that may be used by Asana dragons. Below is a table of each of the different types of magic, the colours which they are represented by, and a list of possible abilities that a user of each type may have access to. Each type of magic includes but is not limited to the abilities listed, as each magic user is different and new abilities are discovered frequently.

Earth (Red)	earth control (may include stone, soil, plant, etc.), plant growth and control, creation of earthquakes, animal communication, shapeshifting (into organic materials - crystals, rocks, trees, etc.), regeneration, photosynthesis, crystallization (effectively, time/pressure control applied to stones and other objects), alteration of physical structure (stone/soil/plant/crystal/other organic material).
Water (Orange)	water breath weapon, water creation, water control, water extraction, hydration, tide control, alteration of physical structure (ice/water/steam), manipulation of states of matter (can melt ice, freeze or boil water, condense steam, etc.), precipitation control, underwater breathing, water purification.
Fire (Yellow)	fire breath weapon, pyrokinesis, creating fire, controlling fire (including moving and extinguishing fire at will), temperature control, alteration of physical structure (fire), spontaneous combustion (can make things burst into flames at will).
Air (Green)	weather control, creating wind, air purification, wingless flight, controlling wind, alteration of physical structure (air), underwater breathing (includes ability to breathe in other hostile environments as well), pressure control.
Sound (Blue)	heightened sense of hearing, sound manipulation (including amplification and dampering), sound creation, pitchbending, elimination of sound (for purposes of camouflage, etc.), voice boosting and amplification, use of sound as a weapon (by amplifying sound waves, it can be used as a force field or other weapon).
Light/Darkness (Indigo)	creation of light, creation of darkness, bending and controlling light, illusion magic, colour warping (by altering the wavelengths of light seen by others), alteration of physical structure (light/shadow), heightened sense of vision (includes ability to see infrared, ultraviolet, and other forms of electromagnetic radiation).
Thought (Violet)	universal telepathy and empathy, mind reading, emotional manipulation, dreamwalking, dreamweaving (creation of dreams), hypnosis, memory manipulation (examples: creation of false memories, soulsearching for lost memories, and forced memory loss), reality warping (within the subject's mind, can create an alternate reality which only the subject experiences), heightened senses.

Starfall Dragonry is owned by Molly (a.k.a. Starburst).
Rainbow link script provided by Rainbow Arch.