of monstrous and queer creatures 5: the dragon

GENERAL

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it is said when the first revelry will end, when the stars will go dim and when the oceans will call their children to their depths, the gods will descend upon the world to do battle, and only one will remain. And that god will devour the universe and become pregnant with it, birthing a new one after a long slumber. When that time will come, the dragons will be the gods vessels, the armor they will inhabit to tread the world, too small and too fragile for their true essence. And so dragons lay eternally in wait in their caves, waiting for the time the god that created them will imbue them with their essence to fight in the end of the world.

AN ARMOR THAT THINKS

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there are approximately 69 dragons in the world, one for every deity and devil known and unknown in the world's pantheon. They are attuned to the god that spawned them, and often embody the concept that the god represents, but of course there are exceptions. Some decide to suppress their link to their god so the other dragons won't have an advantage when the wat comes, some outright lie, claiming to be another god's dragon instead of the deity they actually represents. There are even dragons that rebelled long ago against their creators and that embrace the opposite concepts of the being that will eventually inhabit them. But for the most part the few creatures that meet a dragon knows exactly whose emissary they're facing.

A MYRIAD FORMS

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the world's pantheon is varied , and so are the dragons the gods forged when they decided they will have a war at the end of time. There is a common trend among the oldest deities, that created their dragon in a very similar fashion : an enormous horned and winged lizard, with scales thick and a deadly breath, capable of razing to the ground entire citiess. These are also the most popular and known dragons and what people usually think of when they hear the name of the creature.  But the most twisted , young and bizzarre gods don't very much care for this tradition: for example, it is said that milany, the goddess of civilization and nests has a dragon that is actually a city, so well disguised in the landscape that is impossible to tell its true nature. Baronet Hytroces , purulent ,elegant, infested and refined, is said to have a dragon that is a plague. Norniral the headless has a dragon that is only a head.  Some say that some important human historical figures might have been dragons. all this is ultimately a testament to how varied these creatures can be , and to expect anything when dealing with them.

FIRMAMENT

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when the time for the war will come, the dragons conscience and their being will be eradicated by their gods descending in them. The gods however , won't let their sacrifice be in vain: when the new world finally emerges from the victor's womb, their souls will adorn the sky of the new creation as stars , celestial bodies and constellations, an honor and an eternal state of joy and  bliss that is granted only to the most loyal and important creatures in creation.

REBELS

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however, serveral dragons despise this ultimate fate, and have decided to cut their ties with their gods and to fight against them and to stop the final war from ever happening. One of the most prominent rebellious dragons is khafron, the green dragon of luxury and hedonism, who was destined to be inhabited by the bound one, a very old deity representing piety and restraint. Khafron, disgusted by the amount of sacrifice he had to endure to please the being that will eventually  destroy him and make a trophy of his soul used his divine powers and several mortal rituals and spells to invert his god's energy, turning in a creature that weaves pleasure and desires as easily as a man molds clay.

He desires everything that the world has to offer, and is constantly dealing with countless creatures from all over the creation to further his goal to stop the final war. Khafron himself is a coveted creature, incarnating a potent allure that is quintessential to his being. His rituals have made him the ultimate desire of every living and unliving creature. He is the ultimate fantasy of everything but the gods, and he knows this well, as he often joins creatures from all over the cosmos in carnal pleasure to gain their favor and to further his plans.

KHAFRON AND HIS WISHLESS CITY

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the rebel dragon, khafron, is said to have a gigantic room full of lamps of all sizes and shapes. He calls this room, the wishless city, as each lamp is home to a wish granting djinn that he has loved and that loved him back during the eternal millennias he existed. The djinns in the lamps are devoted to khafron and not bound to him by the same spell that traps them in the lamp. He actually ammasses these obejcts to avoid other people to find them and to exploit them, as he relates to the curse that befell the djinn race and that forces them to grant the wishes of whoever finds their prison-lamps. For how much khafron despise his god and for how much he forced himself to change his nature , perhaps some of the pious and generous nature of the creator still resides in him.

 p.s. as usual, the original file and its high res version are in the attached file!