Guide - Orb Dragons

The Eastern or Asian dragon, also known as the lung, was a very different being than its Western (or European) counterpart.  While Western dragons were commonly considered evil, greedy beings, most Eastern dragons were beneficial to humans, often thought of as powerful nature spirits whom it was best not to anger.  There were hundreds of lungs in Asian mythology, each with a specific duty and appearance. They could be smaller than a raindrop or larger than the mountains, and were frequently associated with water and rainfall.  Asian dragons were said to derive their powers from magical pearls, kept either in the mouth or throat, and could fly by balancing on Earth's magnetic fields.  They were frequently shown pursuing pearls of knowledge (sometimes interpreted as their eggs), an image which inspired the Skyhaven orb dragon.

Origins
Orb dragons are comparatively recent immigrants to Tirialle, having traveled in a great thundercloud across the uncharted Silverfoam Ocean.  They have not told anyone yet where they came from, or why they migrated to Tirialle.

Habitat
They are found mostly in deep wilderness, primarily near water sources.  This can be anything from an ocean to a mountain spring to a misty cloud.  Their imperial palace is itself hidden in a large white cloud that seems to move of its own accord, sometimes lowering to stand among a fogbank or rising to float among the lower, or crystal, stars. (See Magical Traits, below.)

Feeding
Orb dragons, being dragons, are carnivorous, but are peculiar in refusing to eat the flesh of birds.  It has some religious or spiritual significance to them.  Like most other dragons, they don't eat sentient beings.  Their favorite foods are deer, elk, and fish.

Life Cycle
Orb dragons live a very long time, longer than most Western dragon species.  Each egg (roughly the size of a large coconut or a bowling ball) takes roughly a hundred years to hatch.  The young take five hundred years to reach maturity, an adult orb dragon being recognized by their forked horns. Different subspecies and races grow at different rates.  They grow continually throughout their lifespan, though the rate of growth decreases over the centuries.  Orb dragons have been known to pass their 10,000th hatching-day in fine health and sharp mind.  The orb dragon emperor and empress are both rumored to be nearly a half-mile long each, and both over 20,000 years old, but, as only orb dragons of high nobility are allowed to approach them, this is unconfirmed.

Culture
Orb dragons adhere to a strict royal hierarchy, ruled by the emperor and empress from the imperial palace.  A dragon's place in this social structure is determined partly by birth and partly by the outcome of their coming-of-age rites of passage.  These are threefold: the Rite of the Claw, the Rite of the Heart, and the Rite of the Pearl.  The Claw test determines the dragon's physical capabilities and fitness.  The Heart test involves not just a dragon's character, but their knowledge of dragon custom and lore.  The Rite of the Pearl is the least standardized yet most important.  It determines, through ways never revealed to outsiders, aspects concerning the dragon's magical and spiritual nature.  It is a gruelling challenge of meditation, vision quests, and temptations.  A young dragon who fails the Rite of the Pearl is executed, assuming they survive the failure.  This may sound harsh, but the powers an orb dragon commands must be placed in only the worthiest of talons, lest all be jeapordized.  Fortunately, very few dragons are born with such flaws.  Just because a dragon passed the Rite of the Pearl as a youth doesn't mean they are immune to temptation or cannot become corrupted by their own powers.  Every sentient creature has that potential.  The Rites are strict in order to reduce the chances of such a transformation, for, as the orb dragon saying goes, a tree must have strong roots to withstand a storm.  Translated loosely, a creature known to have strong moral character and conscience is less likely to turn bad than one with weak values.

Temperament
These are very sophisticated beings, with a strong sense of duty and honor.  Raising an orb dragon's temper is difficult - they are harder to anger than almost any other species at Skyhaven Keep - but once roused they relentlessly and ferociously seek justice.  They serve as guardians for very ancient, powerful elemental magics, so any being foolish enough to upset them in their duties usually pays with their life.

Magical Traits
In Tirialle, not all stars are distant suns.  Some, the so-called  "lower stars," are small crystalline structures orbiting the planet, formed when cosmic dust interacts with the magically-charged exosphere of Tirialle or its moon, Lunos.  Their actual altitude is roughly the same as that of Terran satellites.  These "crystal stars" are very powerful magical artifacts, which only very rarely survive when they fall to the ground.  Orb dragons can tolerate the lack of atmosphere in order to collect them; the orbs they clutch have from magically shaped and polished crystal star cores.
Every orb dragon actually has two magical orbs.  One is the translucent sphere that they often keep either in their claws or in their crop (a pouch inside the throat, similar to the kind birds use to store grit and grind seed), called the crystal orb.  Crafted from the heart of a crystal star, it is given to a dragon when they come of age and complete the Rites.  It requires regular exposure to sun, moon, and starlight to maintain its power, but also needs to spend a certain amount of time in the dragon's crop to grow and stay attuned to its bearer's energies.  Like a pearl, the crystal orb actually grows during its time in the dragon's throat, so the proportionate size of the sphere stays about the same throughout the dragon's life.  The second orb is a small, pearl-like sphere that grows from birth inside the dragon's cranium, forming the lump between their eyes.  This is the pearl orb, focus of the powers inherently present within the orb dragon's body and spirit.
The two orbs are tuned to each other on levels beyond human comprehension.  Should the crystal orb ever be lost, the dragon will always be able to find it through the resonant link with their pearl orb.  Should one ever be broken (a very difficult task, requiring a great deal of dark magic), the other will shatter in sympathy.  Breaking their crystal orb will kill an orb dragon instantly, as the pearl orb in their skull shatters.  A broken pearl orb means the dragon is already dead, and the crystal orb will fragment into a million shards before disintigrating, ensuring that none can steal any of the orb dragon's power.  In recorded history, there are only three non-dragons who ever succeeded in stealing an orb and keeping it, usually by capturing, binding, and torturing the dragon who owned it into a perpetual pain-induced stupor.  In all instances, the victory was temporary; the orb's magic eventually rebelled against the inexpert manipulation, slaying both thief and dragon in cataclysmic events.  In the meantime, great harm could be (and was) done by the thieves.

Other Notes
Orb dragons are very powerful, both physically and magically.  With age, they learn subtlety, but all can raise or calm the weather, and the seas respond to their moods.  Their orbs are the focus-points of their magic, which tends to be of an elemental nature (i.e., linked to primal forces of Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Spirit.) The flamelike extensions from their shoulders and hips are a visible form of elemental fire.  These flames grow brighter when the dragon is using its powers, to fly (by balancing on ethereal winds and magnetic waves) or work magic.  When resting, they dim to translucent shadows.  Even without magic, orb dragons are immensely strong, stronger than Western dragons of similar size.