Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="mythusmage" data-source="post: 1321891" data-attributes="member: 571">Child RearingDragons are egg-layers, producing 3 or 4 eggs a clutch. The nest is always placed in a lair excavated in firm ground or soft rock, though white dragons have denned in snow bank while red and silver dragons with the requisite magics have excavated lairs in hard rock. At hatching the young are usually about 18” in length, with ready appetites.Adolescent and old dragon mothers usually raise their young on their own. Mature and middle age dragons as mated couples. For this reason the former group tend to have fewer young survive to the age of majority. In some species an adolescent’s mother may assist, but even among such as gold and green dragons this is not universal. Unless something happens most dragons are raised until they reach maturity at the age of 25. There are exceptions.The young are taught how to hunt, appraise valuables and potential valuables, the practice of magic as performed by dragons and non-dragons, and how to behave around both dragons and non-dragons. Especially the last, now that humans have gotten it into their heads that they’re running things, while elves have always been a bit, well...Discipline is tough. A wilding dragon is not in anybody’s best interest, and could cause problems with the non-dragon community. Even copper and topaz dragons have been known to kill an especially troublesome child. Punishments are aimed at instilling one simple lesson, “You don’t do that sort of thing, period.”At the same time dragons almost always kill a child that has a deformity or gross disability. With the exception of red dragons. They are in the habit of sparing a mildly retarded child. Considering such good luck charms and a special blessing. Red dragons will not talk about this practice. Or about why they won’t talk about the practice.Dragons believe in reincarnation. They hold that being born a dragon is the last step before advancing to the status of celestial being. Elf, dwarf, human, kobold, then dragon is the usual progression. Elves don’t appreciate the humor in this. Given that life as a dragon is supposed to be the last step before advancing to life in Heaven, dragons don’t think it’s right for somebody to be stuck in a defective body. Rather than be so cruel, they kill the child so the soul can then be placed in a healthy body. As noted before, red dragons are an exception. They believe that mildly retarded red dragon children are a special gift they are entrusted with. They provide love and care for the child, mourn when the youngster dies (such children almost never live past 15 years of age, with none getting much past 18), and celebrate the deceased’s rise to the highest ranks of the celestial hierarchy. There is evidence red dragons are right.With all that said it must be noted that dragons are fierce, dedicated parents. Dragons have been known to lay down their lives for their young. Prospective baby-sitters are followed for years before being approached with a job offer. Someone’s thirteen year old daughter gets approached by a blue dragon mother to watch her kids, it is an honor of the highest order.It should also be noted that dragons follow the affairs of their children for centuries. Grandparents, great-grandparents, even great-great-grandparents are known to ‘assist’ their descendents. Nothing blatant of course, they prefer to help from behind the scene. Though some ancestors are better at it than others.Dragons usually have their clutches about 20 years apart. That way they can devote their attentions to the latest generation. When population density is low they are known to have them as close together as a clutch every five years. Under high population density the gaps between clutches can be as long as a century or more.(On that note I end this installment. It is a rough draft after all, and so could use a bit of reorganization and rewriting. As with the previous entries this is presented as an example of what’s going into the book. Your comments and suggest would be a great help.(When next I post we’ll be taking a look at dragon life stages.)(In case you’re wondering, I decided to make Dragon Earth dragon infants of a size since the various species are so closely related. So instead of tiny little black dragon infants and huge, enormous (comparatively) gold dragon infants, they’re pretty much of a size now. They do grow at different rates on the other hand, so a 10 year old gold dragon is typically substantially larger than the 10 year old black dragon.)</blockquote>

Verification