Recent History
Traditionally seen as a pest at worst, dracological study of these creatures has revealed a sizeable intelligence among the females of the species. Gold and Silver ‘Queens’ of the species have been known to influence local events to their advantage. Silvers through their transformation and direct influence, while the Golds use their influence indirectly among their packs, small creatures and friendly locals.
General Description
Dragonlings are the smallest of any known Dragons, and for the most part resemble tiny True Dragons, with slightly shiny scales, purplish coloured eyes and, in males, two small horns growing backwards from the eyebrows.
Colonies
In the wild their populations are made up of breeding colonies, headed by one or several Gold Queens who are the largest of the species. While it has been known for Silver Queens to breed successfully, it is a rare event for Greens, the only other female Dragonlings, to lay viable eggs. Often the eggs of Green Dragonlings are significantly smaller and not guarded by the colony which results in poaching by Troll children mistaking them for gemstones and by birds of prey seeking an easy meal. Usually speaking, the Queen’s choose their mate by a ritual of flying which any male can take part in, but this is nearly always won by adult Bronze Dragonlings. Rarely, a small colony may lack for Bronzes and a Blue will be selected, but the collection of eggs will always be smaller in both size and number in this case. The odds of this are further reduced as not all Blues are fertile and some have been known to engage in seemingly intentional homosexual mating with other Blues, a phenomenon which attracts much attention from dracologists.
Behaviour
Dragonlings are playful creatures who engage in rodent hunting when hungry, but they prefer the free food offered in the form of scraps and gifts from local Trolls and Catfolk. Of particular delight is the treats provided by Wizards wishing to study them and in such situation Dragonlings have been known to be picky eaters, especially when this results in the Wizards experimenting with their favoured food type. In times of food shortages, the colonies have been observed dividing themselves around their Golden Queens and heading out into the wilds in the search for other towns and cities. Dragonlings are not generally aggressive outside of mating season and will only fight if cornered or defending their young, generally preferring to flee when threatened. Green Dragonlings have also been observed as intentionally detaching their own tails to assist in their escape; this will regrow after some time.
Intelligence as a SpeciesWhile Silver and Gold Dragonlings are the most intelligent of the species, even the lower castes of the species are very intelligent by animal standards; capable of learning to speak (if limited), learning to read, understand complex concepts like object permanence and the concept of absence and even make existential reasonings about themselves. It has recently been discovered that even the lowest castes (Blues and Greens) are fully sentient and sapient with adults of lower castes being of similar intelligence to a ten-year-old Halfling child and upper caste Dragonlings being fully capable of scholarly discourse and humanoid-level displays of logic and cognition. As such, as of 3A 206 they are considered to be citizens of the
Imperial Troll Empire with all the rights and dignity that entails.
Dragonlings and Society
Though generally seen as pests, some lucky Dragonlings have found purpose in the modern Oerth. Some have been trained to follow surprisingly precise directions to the point where they can identify the location of a house just by the address; this is the fundamental principle of the Dragon Post system. It uses Dragonlings to deliver post and small parcels. Without this system, communication between places could take weeks or even months whereas now it only takes a few days at most, provided the Dragonlings don’t get distracted which is unfortunately far from uncommon. Many Dragonlings have also found themselves comfortable existences as people’s pets or wizard’s familiars.
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