wild-rising:
So everyone knows about “Shade Touched” dragons. I have a few myself. GREAT excuse for fucked up shit to happen
except
Except the Shade really are like… nonentities at this point. The Shade are a distant enemy the dragon gods faced many ages ago and even though the Arcanist called the Shade back to Sorienth they’ve kinda been, not really around. Or they take the shape of weak monsters you fight in the coli (not all monsters. Mainly the non beastclan ones).
Meanwhile the Elements are much more abundant and powerful and a force in the world.
We all know about the Emperors. Dark dragon creations from the Sunbeam Ruins. They are, basically, Light Touched dragons. And my fave horror terror device: the Hewn City, where all sorts of unspeakable and unknowable things call home to play.
So it got me thinking. If a dragon can be tainted by the Shade could they… become consumed by their own element? Or maybe another element? What’s a dragon consumed by Ice look like, an Ice Touched dragon who keeps a grand hoard in an ancient cave and is responsible for year long ice storms. Or Water Touched dragons in the Sea or the waters around the continent that create powerful maelstroms that suck down anything that comes across them. Shadow dragons who become so Touched that they become more shadow and less dragon. A Wind Touched dragon that doesn’t sleep, they just stay awake forever to see everything, to talk to everyone, who can outpace a Snapper in terms of insomnia.
The idea that dragons are susceptible to their own element is an interesting idea. They are born in their element and then become so entrenched in the ‘dark’ side of their element that they become dark themselves. This reveals itself in different ways for each dragon and species and element.
And then of course elements can also corrupt other elements. Like a Fire dragon consumed by Lightning magic. The war inside them on how to make would cause them to birth odd golem abominations. Or Arcane twisting everything it touches, bending reality and reshaping an element into something else. A Nature dragon corrupted by Arcane would be a nightmare. Normally flowers would bloom and foliage grow unchecked from a Nature Touched dragon, and then corrupted by Arcane and the element of life is added by creation and life spontaneously appears around them. Things burst into life and around them they are a god. But where they’ve been the landscape has become twisted and destroyed as it sucks life up around it to power itself.
A Water consumed Fire dragon. They don’t breathe fire or shoot water from their mouth. Instead they belch super hot steam or noxious smoke. Their prophetic abilities appear as pyromancy and they find the future in pools of lava.
And of course they don’t have to be destructive. Just… strange. Water Touched dragons that can see the future in each drop of water in the rain. Fire dragons that have mouths that drip lava instead of fire. Plague dragons who can’t become sick, and do not pass on any diseases but are rather a grand petri dish that collects the world’s sickness and cures them in their own body. Lightning dragons who eat sand and breathe glass.
So. Shade Touched dragons: hella cool. Element Touched dragons: metal as all fuck.