FTW:Month 1/Dragon Anatomy

Month 1/Dragon Anatomy

There are a bunch of things that need to be remembered when playing a Pernese dragon, and this document is intended just to highlight the main ones. For a more in-depth discussion of our dragonhealing program, please contact Jenna. Another excellent source for weyrling injuries and when they occur is: Dragon*Con Panel of Dragonhealing.

• Dragons have six limbs. Forelimbs for grabbing, hind limbs to take off and landing, and the wings. They have 'hands' with five fingers - a trifle different from the firelizards who have only three. Both dragons and lizards rely on a modified ball and socket joint in their legs and hips to keep from dislocating a joint in takeoff and landing.

• The forelimbs are used primarily for hunting and have sharp, retractable talons for rending their prey. The forelimbs are extremely short compared to the hindlimbs. This is the main reason for an awkward 'hop-skip' they have when they're forced to walk everywhere.

• Many consider the wing to be the most vital part of a dragon. It consists primarily of the main sail, the leading edge, and the trailing edge. A dragon's wingspan typically runs 1 and 2/3 the length of the dragon; because the wings functions somewhat like sails, the terms used are quite similar. These membranes are translucent in firelizards and nearly so with dragons, but thicker over the bones and where they attach to the muscles. They are much stronger than they appear; a dragon can still fly even should a full third of the wingsail be damaged.

• About half the length of a dragonwing is supported by bones that are shaped similar to arms from the shoulder to the finger joint, including an elbow. The strength of the shoulder and upper arm muscles supply the power necessary for a "lift." The elbow has a slightly flexed position, and the leading edge of the wing is a membrane that stretches between the shoulder and the finger joint.

• The first two wing bones run almost together, as the bones form the outer spar portion of the lub; this is the term in Seacrafting applied to the support for a square sail. The remaining two wing bones fan out from the finger joint. The inner bone is almost perpendicular to the spar bone, and ends about midway between the body and the forestay finger tip. From the dorsal spine and stretching to this inner bone is the primary mainsail I mentioned before, the largest of the three membranes, which supports most of the body's weight.

• There are other 'sails' as well. The outermost, forestay, tip is able to function almost independently, giving it the term 'finger sail', while the secondary mainsail runs from the inner bone to the mid bone, and the spar mainsail runs from the mid bone to the spar bones. They are used in support as well, but also provide maneuverability. These are the sails that are most often strained or torn in the smaller blues and greens, because of their ability to turn on a tailtip. Cartilages provide additional support, extending from arm and finger joint to the leech or trailing edge.

• Dragon hide is smooth, soft to the touch, strong, and hairless. A healthy hide is glossy with no hint of gray. The female golds and greens often experience a change in tone before mating, the hide brightening; just before a flight they may even appear to glow. The male bronzes, browns, and blues generally do not experience this fluctuation in color, although their hides may gradually deepen with age. You have to oil your dragons, and keep them oiled several times a day. At first, they will seem to outgrow their hide every night, and complain almost constantly of being itchy. As they get closer to their full growth, this will ease quite a bit. The amount of oiling will slow down as the dragons finish their growth, though this will more than be compensated by the block of time it takes to completely oil the bulk of a full-grown dragon, especially the larger bronzes and browns. This task is a lifetime job, and must continue all through you and your 'mate's life. If one goes between with a patchy dragon, the skin may slough off, which can then lead to all kinds of complications and infections.

• Dragons have forked tails; in the fork is their sphincter. Dragons and firelizards will store up excreta for several days in their tails until they are able to go between and get rid of it there. Because you cannot yet fly or go between, you will need to muck out their couch. The genitalia are concealed behind pouchlike flaps of skin under the junction of tail and body, and only revealed during mating.

• As for the senses, a dragon's headknobs are more prominent than those of a firelizard and their noses more pointed. Dragonkind have no ears or eyelashes. Their headknobs appear to function as our ears do, for they react to noises that are not related to their sixth sense, that of telepathy. They rarely, if ever, speak to another human, though they can, if it suits them to. Dragons have an excellent spatial sense with reference to other dragons when emerging and going between; this is why dragons don't collide with others of their kind when arriving into crowded airspace.

• The eyes are protected by three sets of lids: an inner transparent pair and two increasingly thicker sets of membranes. Because their eyes protrude outwards from their set in the skull, dragons have peripheral vision that extends to what is above them, as well as to their sides and beyond. A dragon's eyes can see air currents, which is an aid to their skill in Fall. Additionally, dragons can occasionally "look through" their riders' eyes to see what their rider is seeing, if they are not themselves present. Though it takes considerable patience to hone this particular skill.

• Dragon eyes are multifaceted and color reflects mood: green/blue signifies contentment, yellow, fear; red/orange, anger; red, hunger; danger, white; pain is gray, and purple signifies the mating urge, lust, and love. The quicker their eyes whirl, the more intense the emotion they feel is; the whirling is, however, supposedly an optical illusion caused by the eyes' facets. Their sense of smell isn't that well developed; to them, there is nothing distasteful in the stench of firestone. They can, however, smell well enough to detect "strange" or unfamiliar scents.

• Draconic memories are proverbially short, their recall of specific events usually lasting between two and three days. They also infrequently offer unsolicited opinions. Often, dragons have difficulty recalling names, and they'll frequently slur or compress syllables of names they do recall. This is likely the origin of the honorific most male riders take after impression. Dragons often have problems correlating cause and effect-just because they see their rider making new straps, it does not follow that they will identify this as meaning increased safety during Threadfall. Possessing an instinctual drive to battle Thread, dragons are very difficult to dissuade from doing so, even if they aren't stocked with firestone.