“The lesser races bow and scrape to gods whose existence and power they cannot fathom. We do not bow and scrape to our own shadows.”
Their claws can cut through steel. Their jaws can crush stone. Their teeth are akin to dwarf forged swords. When they spread their wings the sun fades from the sky. A swing of their tail can shatter a castle like glass. Finally their voice…a whisper is a thunderstorm. Dragons are by and large natural disasters. They are titanic beings, living machines of destruction in a world of other dragons and food.
Dragons are creatures of both physical and magical power. A newborn dragon is typically the size of a house cat with scales that are soft and sponge like. Additionally they have no wings at birth as they begin growing shortly after their first set of teeth come in. This time of vulnerability only lasts a few days as they begin life by devouring the egg they hatched from and progressively eating everything that they can fit into their mouths as their teeth come in. A dragon will have a full set of milk teeth within a week and by that time they will usually be the size of a small child. It is at this point that the wing bones and muscles begin growing from their backs framing a translucent membrane that will stiffen into leather like wings in a few short weeks.
A baby dragon will hunt anything smaller than it once its teeth have come in. It will no longer settle for eating just inanimate objects and plants. Still they are dependent on their parents for protection not just from the dangers of the world but from any siblings in their clutch as well. A baby dragon will hunt and eat ANYTHING smaller than it. For this reason parents try to make sure their babies all eat relatively the same amount and separate any runts from the clutch until they grow out of the phase of consuming anything they can get a hold of.
In a year a dragon is typically the size of a horse, capable of flight, and highly curious about the world around it. A yearling will typically spend its time eating, learning, and playing like any toddler. However because of their natural intelligence they will usually begin speaking, reading, and often casting minor spells in this stage of their development. Still, they are just babies and as such they are reckless and often prone to tantrums. The latter often leading to small villages being destroyed. By the time they are juveniles their scales are as hard as stone and they are the size of small houses. There is no notable change other than displays of higher reasoning and a desire to eat fewer inanimate objects in favor of eating more meat.
It is the teenage years of dragons that we do not know much about. From birth dragons are attracted to shiny objects. As they grow they horde anything and everything they consider valuable. As they age they gain a better sense of value, leaving behind shiny rocks and forks for metallic coins, magical items, and books. By the time a dragon reaches this stage of development it has usually amassed a small horde that it will typically bury itself in to hibernate. A teenage dragon will usually only come out for two reasons: to gather more treasure to bury itself in or to eat four to five times its weight. Using its treasure like a cocoon a dragon will usually triple in size during this time and emerge from their lair as a young adult.
Now the size of a cathedral and inexplicably capable of feats of sorcery the dragon will usually travel to a remote location suited to the environment most hospitable to their color type to establish a lair to fill with treasure. Most will venture to train their minds in the grand arcana while in seclusion. Most will also seek to gather treasure. However all dragons in this stage of young adulthood become the living embodiment of a natural catastrophe. For an example we will look at the red dragon. As an adult a red dragon becomes completely immune to adverse effects of fire. Its breath burns hotter than any other dragons, and its very sweat can melt metal. Red dragons will often live near or within volcanoes since it is a natural habitation for them but to other dragons it will likely be a major deterrent. During this time most dragons decide to test their power and build their treasure by seeking the only true challenge they could possibly have: fighting other dragons.
It is for the above reason that middle aged/ fully adult dragons are a rarity. Dragons tend to kill each other off in order to gain power and treasure. A fully adult dragon is typically the size of a small castle and as powerful as a master wizard in terms of magic. This is the age where dragons stop producing fat and start converting most of what they eat into muscle. Adult dragons are rarely seen as they think little of the lessor races except that they are sometimes useful to adding to their treasure hordes. An adult dragon may destroy a lone wizard’s tower or the castle of a wealthy kingdom but rarely will it bother with small cities or villages unless desperate for entertainment.
Finally we come to the ancient dragon. They are the result of centuries of repeating cycles of eating, hibernating, and study. They are so powerful that the beat of their wings is enough to erase villages from the world. Few have ever been seen as most dragons do not reach this stage. Either they are slain before reaching this stage or oddly enough, it is rumored, that dragons of this age begin to petrify. We do not have an exact measurement for the size of an ancient dragon. It has been speculated that the very continents are simply petrified dragons.