Quote:My thoughts on interbreeding had basically been that the genetic kinship ran Plumed - Fanged - Gemstone - Antler, with fertile kids being impossible across more than about one degree of seperation... That's -without- magical interference, of course.
Further, the Antler dragons, while still cross-compatible with their kin, must perform complicated rituals over the egg shortly after it is laid, to either give the offspring functional wings and a wing-flier boody shape or six legs, rather than being stuck in between. Dragon/human crossbreeding requires a spell to reinforce the natural transformation ability, and will result in a child that is mostly human but with higher muscle power per pound, a much higher base mystic energy, and a few superficial dracnic features. And despite being oviparous and scaly, dragons are warm blooded and breastfeed until the children start to grow front teeth.
Dragon-human crossbreeds... eh. I don't really like the 'they're like Herb' theory - I'm more inclined to say that the magic that allows them to be concieved in the first place does so by, um, creating a genetic representation of what one partner would be like if they were the other's species - twice - and then giving the kid the ability to switch between his two-human-parents and two-dragon-parents forms in much the same way that full dragons stuff themselves into human suits... only, because the monkey-edition is just as much their true form as the other, they don't need to eat so much.
This might mean that a sizable proportion of the 'dragon' population is actually half-human, although the way the spell works could easily be fiddled to say either that half-breeds alway have half-breed kids -or- that their kids are always the other parent's species.
Or, for that matter, whichever of the two the parents pick.
Quote:Not neccessarily - this cliff is one, two hundred feet high, right? That's, what, two or three seconds of free fall?
There's something we've forgotten, here - if Kennan is a dragon in human form, able to change back whenever he likes, why is it so dangerous when he's dangling over the side of the stairs? Did he get so wrapped up in the moment that he just forgot he's not a normal guy? Did he have some special sealing done, locking him in human form for a while so the priests wouldn't be able to detect his otherworldly nature? He couldn't just not know yet himself, could he? If the last, then cancel the bit about flying out to go fishing every evening , but I think the second is most likely.
How long does it take to shift forms? ^_^ ...and, for that matter, how long would it take to pull up out of that kind of dive?
Oh, and if you take the approach that dragons tend to be honorable creatures, then Ken's statement of indebtedness to Miyou makes a -lot- more sense.
More Dragon Biobabble!
Stone dragons tend to be fifteen to twenty percent longer than Fanged ones, but more than half of that total is tail. Their necks are also proportionally longer, and their bodies considerably more slender - think of them as cheetahs to the Fanged dragons' tiger. They have the same sort of frill as their cousins, but not the spines along its edge or the back of each vertebra. Legs are about the same length but slimmer, and the wings shorter, broader, and a lot more rounded at the tips - IOW, designed for agility rather than soaring, more like a Gyrfalcon than an eagle.
Ja, -n
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."