Uncommon Tainted Breeds
AbyssalSize: When mature Abyssal's measure 90ft from nose to tail tip, however Abyssals grow continuously throughout their lifespan so a tiny foot-long hatchling could, if left alone with plenty of food, grow to mountainous proportions.
Females: 90 feet long, 15 feet high at shoulder.
Eggs: Translucent orange sphere, jelly-like in texture. 1ft diameter.
Colouring: Depending on the waters they live in, Abyssals can come in a variety of different colours. Abyssals found in warm waters or near the surface are often the most colourful of their breed, whereas Abyssals who make their home in the icy waters of the tundra are predominantly dark colours like grey or black. The nightmarish subspecies who live 90% of the time at the bottom of the ocean in the deepest trenches of the world are the largest by far, bleached corpse white by their lightless existence.
Appearance: Abyssal dragons have long thick bodies that are ribbed and wormlike. Their skin is thick and rubbery, and oozes a poisonous slime that makes them virtually impossible to hold. Beneath their skin, muscles bulge obscenely, mostly on the upper arms and meaty haunches. The muscles quickly dwindle to nothing on their limbs however, leaving the fore arms are thin and spindly. The fingers are long and webbed with not much maneuverability and little to no strength. Their hind legs are stubby and short with little grasping toes and thin, sharp little claws equipped with some irritating, mildly paralytic toxin. An Abyssal dragon's wings are similar to its front legs in their flimsiness, and are only used for sensing disturbances in the water and corrections to steering.
One of the few things the Abyssal retains from the water dragon are the thin, webbed spines that travel from the nape to the base of the tail. The webbing between is ripped and holey, eaten away by planktonic life. Abyssal's tails are of great length, at least the same length of the body. They begin thick at the base and thin until the very tip of the tail, which ends in a bio-luminescent lure. The Abyssal dragon has a total of three lures, one on the tail-tip, one on the end of the tongue, and another attached to a tentacle on top of the skull. Tail and head lure can change color from green to yellow to blue, the tongue lure remains a bright red.
Abyssal dragon are all hatched with a dark purple crystal imbedded between the clavicle. The crystal is very fragile and thus is crushed by the extreme water pressure soon after it develops. By and by the most bizarre and eye-catching of the Abyssal dragon's features is its jaws. Split four ways and each lined with a mouthful of long, needle-like teeth, it has intense grasping power and once prey is ensnared, escape is highly unlikely. Each tooth also contains a small amount of poison that causes painful inflammation. The Jaws normally only open halfway and can extend double their length again down the throat, in a gulper eel-type fashion, to swallow larger or more cumbersome prey. The Abyssal dragon has eight, small red eyes (bead-like) that are aligned two to each jaw. They can only see small amount of heat and are completely blind above water. The bright light they emit also serves to attract prey.
Elemental Abilities: They can also excrete a sweet, intoxicating odor that attracts and soothes prey, which they then stun with a pulse of electricity and devour. The strength of the pulse depends on size of dragon. Their body is entirely coated with a poisonous layer of slime that they can control the toxicity of. The poison coating their body is the only one of their poisons that will kill fairly quickly. Abyssal dragons can only use their breath weapon when on land. They can spit highly concentrated digestive juices in thin but powerful jets over long distances, and with great accuracy.
Unique: Abyssal dragons can survive and move about on land, their soggy skin drying out to a sandpaper like quality and limbs strengthening to allow them to waddle awkwardly across the ground. However, it is night and day different when an Abyssal is in its element. In the lightless and crushing depths where there is no sound or heat, the Abyssal dragon is an invisible demon, reigning supreme over the depths. In addition to the mind-numbing size they can grow too, every part of them is built to move through the waters in complete silence and their frail bodies can detect the slightest undulation in the water and hone in on it undetected.
Abyssal dragons can live at depths anywhere between 5,000 to 18000 ft, though adults are most competent and efficient and the lower depths. Abyssals are highly carnivorous and eat constantly, they will tackle anything that they can fit their monstrous jaws around. They younger Abyssals are more commonly scavengers.
Abyssal dragons are always female. If a male Abyssal is conceived, the embryo combines with a female embryo and the resulting female hatches pregnant. Pregnancy is extremely short and makes Abyssals appear grotesquely engorged. Abyssals are some of the least intelligent of dragon breeds, driven by a voracious hunger that hounds them unceasingly, they are left with very little time for intelligent thought. Other dragons seem to bring out the best in them however, provoking a keen, calculating intellect that is usually drowned in the murky depths of instinct.
Abyssal eggs are a rich orange and transparent, the hatchling easily visible inside. They are soft and jelly-like, perfectly spherical and fragile. Mothers lay large clutches, commonly between 18-20 eggs. The reproduction rates for Abyssals are very high but numbers are thankfully kept in check by the small portion of eggs that don't hatch and the various marine predators that prey on the helpless hatchlings.
DisruptionSize: Males of this breed are larger than the females, and their size can vary wildly depending on their sire's breed (Chaos, Gravity or Earth)
Males: 55-165 feet long, 15-45 feet high at shoulder.
Females: 40-115ft feet long, 10-25 feet high at shoulder.
Eggs: The size of a Disruption's egg varies on the hatchling inside, but you can tell which gender the hatchling is by the egg's colour. Both shells are pitch black, but female eggs carry a silver sheen to them while male eggs carry a gold sheen.
Coloring: All Disruption dragons are born black in color; but this changes slightly as they mature and grown in size. As they grow they become more highlighted or hued with deep purples and blues, or reds and greens. The wing membranes and spines are flecked with either silver or gold depending on the gender. Males are flecked with gold and females with silver. The dragons second, smaller pair of wings tends to be lighter in color than their main or first pair. Also the flecks of color on their horns tends to be more jagged and striated than on the wings.
Appearance: These dragons are very sturdy, bulky, heavy-set and thick boned. On their faces they possess no eyes and the scales are smooth along it. They also have multiple horns in rows alongside their heads. Sharp and long fangs glisten in their mouths. To add to their powerful, stocky build these dragons has a set of large, thick plates which run down their back as well as their chest. Disruption dragons also rows of thorns run down from the elbow to halfway down the forearm. The talon on the front of their wings is very sharp and splinter like and their tails end a branched row of spikes that look similar to a trident. These dragons are born with double wings, the leading being the larger of the two and the membrane on both thick. The parts of their body that is not covered by the heavy plated scales these dragons instead have tiny holes and smaller scales that they can lift and flatten at will.
The two genders have a few differences; the rare females being smaller and less stout. Their frame slightly more graceful and agile and thus more skilled on the ground. Though both genders are the same in the air. Another difference in the genders is that the leading edge of a female Disruption dragons wings is razor sharp and deadly.
Elemental Abilities: These dragons seem to be able to throw everything off balance with their unique ability. When a Disruption dragon sits on the ground and sinks its talons, claws, wings and tail are sunk into the earth they are able to release a powerful burst of sonic sound. This also can alter gravity, throwing off the equilibrium of other dragons and their riders. Being blind doesn’t seem to stop these dragons as they can uncannily find their way with a sort of echolocation, similar to that of a bats. When lifting up their scales they can release a sonic blast, this is especially true if the dragon has been startled.
Due to their abilities Disruption dragons can also disrupt time instead of just gravity, causing chaos for all. They can disrupt anything around them, but they rely heavily upon their sound generation to find anything. Thus when they get confused they can be an angry, aggressive sitting duck.
Unique: It’s said these dragons get angry or are prone to outbursts during earthquakes or when things go wrong when they should have gone right. Disruption dragons are born of tainted eggs, all having a Sonic dragon mother. Their fathers tend to be either Chaos or Gravity dragons, or rarely an Earth dragon, but they can have multiple parents. Female are the rarest and have the ability to produce disruption eggs, of equal amounts with the father’s breed. So, half Disruption eggs and half the father's breed.
Ruina.k.a. Revenant dragon.
Size: It’s difficult to measure the exact length and height of these dragons. Females and males generally are around the same size, but, later in life, it's hard to tell the two apart. Before adulthood, much of their vapor hasn’t developed, but, after their last growing stage, their tails and often their shoulders trail slow, ghostly clouds of dark gasses and steams which extend out over and behind them. As far as anyone can guess, they’re not much larger than the airs they descend from when height is concerned. They are at about 20 ft tall at the shoulder. However they do grow longer, especially if you count the vapors of their tails. Even as Revenant dragons age, the gas extends further from them in all directions.
Males and females: 70-80 feet long, 20 feet high at shoulder.
Eggs: Approximately 9 inches high and 5 inches in width, their bone white eggs are small, soft and rubbery, as if from a snake. After a few seconds in the open air, they begin to steam a heavy grey gas. During the latter stages of hatching, its easy to see the young dragon moving about under the membrane.
Appearance: Ruin/Revenant dragons, like the Airs they mutate from, are lithe and thin boned creatures, but, as a tainted breed, they have more defined muscle, especially along their limbs. Also like the Airs, they all bear at least two sets of powerful feathered wings with which to stay aloft and throw winds. Unlike Airs, they may bear as many as 8 pairs and are not limited to feathers or even half feathered. They can range anywhere from either extreme. Sometimes the feathers may even spread into their manes, which run from their heads down to their back legs, with extra on the tips of their tails. This mane is neither feathers nor fur, but actually made up of flexible needles, which stiffen into quills during confrontation.
Upon their heads is perhaps one of their most striking features, a white, sometimes grey or maroon outer casing around their faces, like an external skull or mask. Even within families, each mask is drastically different from the next, some symmetric and aesthetic, some with uneven protrusions or boned horns, but all of them have blunt, triangular holes for one or more sets of glowing, bright eyes. The often grotesque masks allow for more natural, horns to spring forward, like a bull’s, over the mask. Long needle tipped ears also break from the back, where they can swivel around for better hearing. Many masks are marked by various colors, but they can be bleached white as well.
From the striking, vicious eyes set behind the mask, a vapor slowly rises like steam. This vapor also spills gently from the end of the tail, the legs, the mane, wings and mouth. It’s a heavy gas that dissipates slowly, but it’s also light enough to rise up, through the natural air. As the dragon ages, the vapor becomes more and more prominent until it is apparent that the body of the dragon itself is vaporizing and becoming a tightly bound gas. Though the tail is the first to show the vapor, the wings are often consumed first, but still hold much of their previous silhouette and do not discourage flight.
Because of these unique traits, these dragons go through certain stages in their lives.
When they are born, they immediately begin to steam from their eyes and tail. Their mask is lighter and moves as they speak. Within an hour of birth, theoretically one may forcefully remove the mask, but no one has seen the true face underneath. After a month, it is permanently adhered to not only the true skull, but also the spine, which is reinforced to bear the weight.
As a youth, the mask becomes more ridged, but still hinged. They exude more vapors and their true colors begin to develop.
Later, as a full adult, at least 80 or more percent of the body is still physical, but it is at this time that, by a shock or strong emotional response, the mask will suddenly freeze in position. Some are left with open, vapor spewing maws that never close, while others are never able to open their mouths again. Their voice begins to change, to something more whisping through the gaps in their mask. It is not known how these dragons consume food after this point, but it is speculated that they use the energy provided by their chemical catalysis to bring energy rich gasses into their bodies and use them in combustion to provide energy.
As an old dragon, they are entirely vapor and most are unable to bear riders. Their mask covers where their head should be and their crystal becomes a pulsating heart, levitating in the middle of the mass. It is very rare that a Ruin dragon reaches this point. Often, they do not possess the sheer willpower to keep themselves together. Some completely dissipate and are gone forever. Those that do live, however, are powerful forces of destruction. They speak in many whispering voices all at once, a cacophony of words from many unseen lips. Sometimes they even seem to speak in tongues and converse with the air itself.
As an adult, base colors range from dark greens to blues, purples, reds and blacks, but more often lie on the redder spectrum. Their manes are lighter, and much like the hue of the vapor that rises around them. Most have a secondary base color that lines their back from their mask to their tail and intermittently stripe down, especially around the rib area. The wings are also this color, but may bear many different color variations on the underside of the wing.
Each dragon is unique, from its mask to its mane and each one grows at a different speed. Some even completely vaporize while a young adult, but are never able to hold their form. They become too thin to survive. Even their breath weapons differ slightly from individual to individual. Some may possess a better hold on oxidizing one material over another.
Still, despite their differences and strange ways, they all seem to succeed in bringing Ruin to the world around them.
Elemental Abilities:
Rapid chemical redox reactions associated with one or several catalysts. Commonly with metal +1, +2, or +3, but also with incidental polymers of varying degrees of saturation; homo and heterogenious mixtures of common solids, liquids and gas-phase reagents.
Also called Ruin dragons, their other name is directly tied into their malevolent element. As an Air-changed-Ruin dragon, rule of the Air becomes less powerful, but still workable. As a born Ruin dragon, their true element is in the forefront. Besides claws and teeth and other pointed, serrated or unkind parts of this dragon, their breath is a formidable weapon and their most heavily relied on.
They breathe rust.
Or, rather, they breathe out a chemical, stored in their saliva which vaporizes upon contact with air and, as it interacts with their surroundings, it oxidizes them, removing electrons from the elements and making them weaker in stability. This is also found in the vapor that surrounds them, but in very, very dilute quantities, but this can be changed on whim. The most obvious reaction to this chemical is instant rust on oxidizeable metals. The chemical is so volatile that it will eat straight through anything it can. In younger dragons, the chemical is more dilute and less potent but still more than enough to make the strain on a buckle or hinge too great. This is most effective while in the air, where weakened saddle harnesses would break, sending riders plummeting down to a sudden and often fatal stop.
However, this reaction is certainly not limited to metals. Plastics, even clothing and leather can oxidize if the chemical is concentrated enough or, for the more dilute, if there is sufficient fuel around to strengthen the terrible breath such as sugar, which readily oxidizes, especially in contact with outside sparks or flames. Ruin Riders often carry matches for just such a purpose, though the presence of the second element isn’t always found so often.
In large scale attacks, an older Ruin can trail a breath along a building and, as the chemical eats away internally as well as externally, the infrastructure will weaken to the point of collapse, quickly killing as many as possible both inside and within a collateral area. A team of skilled ones could take down a city within only hours. A favored way of spreading their rust is by winging over head and letting it trail down behind. Most of all, they can destroy weapons, armor, and even temporarily blind others if they’re close enough because the watery membrane of the eye would be susceptible to a high concentration of a Ruin’s breath. However, against a fleshy sort of foe, unless the opponent is a very old, conniving specimen of this breed, not much damage can be done. The Ruin’s main abilities are not great enough to do direct or lasting harm to a person or dragon, unless they were very foolish.
Unique:
These dragons are born in ratios higher to males than females, but may hatch to any tainted dragon with even partial Air lineage.
Also, as an idiosyncrasy particular to the breed, all of them prefer sugary foods. They'd do anything for a good pile of sweets.
