Quill and Compass, Entry 15: Silver Dragons

The polar reaches are some of the most breathtaking places I have ever traveled. Light skims across the ice in sheets of pale blue and gold, the snow sparkles like powdered gemstones, and the stillness carries a serenity found nowhere else in the Realm. Yet beneath that beauty lies an unmistakable danger; the arctic is as deadly as it is dazzling. Every so often, a shadow glides beneath drifting snow, a gust of wind cuts across the silence without warning, or a hauntingly beautiful note rises from the endless expanse. In those moments, one must beware the comfort of false serenity or security. You are not alone; more often than not, you are trespassing in the domain of a Silver Dragon.

Silvers are beautiful in a way that feels almost unfair. Their bodies are thick and broad beneath the feathers that patch their shoulders and tails. Their scales range from glimmering silver to deep stormy gray, catching the faintest light like stars in the night sky. Their wings are feathered, vast, and unnervingly quiet as they slice through the polar air with barely a whisper. Their eyes are the most captivating of all: black as obsidian with white irises that seem to glow faintly, like torchlight reflecting on a blade in the dark. Female Silvers grow significantly larger than males, giving rise to what little matriarchal structure exists among them; though “society” is a generous term for such isolated creatures.

Their homes are carved from snow and ice, dug deep into glaciers or packed beneath drifts that would swallow most creatures whole. These caverns are breathtaking, gleaming with frozen arches and walls polished smooth by centuries of care. Silvers require cold the way others require air; warmth weakens them, and intense heat can quickly kill them outright. Their lairs are their sanctuaries, kept frigid enough that even a torch would sputter out from the cold alone. Venture too close and you may hear their warning: a single, echoing note that seems to vibrate through every bone. Ignore it, and the cold becomes the least of your concerns.

Their courtship was particularly difficult to document as males wander nigh endlessly across the ice and snow in search of a willing mate; risking intense blizzards, starvation, and the claws of other hungry, desperate arctic predators. They sing to announce themselves, lest they incur the matriarch's wrath as a trespasser; though calling that eerie sound singing hardly feels adequate. It echoes across the frozen plains like ghostly wails on the wind, rising and falling in a pattern that is haunting, strangely mournful, but astoundingly beautiful if you have the ear for it. If the female is receptive, she sings back, guiding him toward her lair in a duet that rises like two sirens calling to one another. If she is not, the male is quickly ousted from her territory if she's feeling generous, or turned into a meal if not. Their act of mating is an expedient one with little tenderness, and once the act is done the male is driven from her territory with no room for negotiation… or mercy. Though it does not seem to come from a place of cruelty, but rather instinct and survival; resources in the arctic are rare at best and he has served his purpose.

Their eggs lie directly on beds of packed snow and shaped ice, kept deliberately frozen. If they warm even slightly, the egg, and the life inside, rots extraordinarily quickly. For about half a year, the mother watches over her clutch, guarding them fiercely from the rare intruder foolish enough to invade her home. When the Dragonlings hatch, they are small, pale, and almost entirely feathered. They stay with their mothers just long enough to learn how to hunt, hide, and fly; their lessons are swift, and as harsh and unforgiving as their arctic home. Once they can fend for themselves, they are pushed from their mother's territory to carve their own path.

Their hoards are bursts of color against the endless white. Blues, reds, yellows, purples, anything that stands out against the snow. They collect gemstones, fabrics, stained glass, paintings, and even mundane cloth if the hue pleases them. I once saw a Silver Dragon perched at the mouth of her cave of glittering treasures, the whole mound glowing in the dim arctic light like an aurora trapped in the ice. For creatures who live in the colorless wastes of the arctic, color is a kind of salvation.

We mortals are curiosities to them, at least until we misstep. They respect Ikozra’s decree, but they follow it with a cold precision. They will give one, singular warning. If you disregard it, they assume you've chosen death, and believe me when I say, dear reader, they will happily oblige that choice; the line between being a tolerated guest and trespassing prey is very thin. The ice and snow preserve the countless remains of those who did not understand the distinction.

I find myself thinking about Silver Dragons more often than I expected to. There is something profoundly moving about a creature that not only survives the most merciless landscape on Gaiaxia, but finds ways to make it beautiful. Their songs rise over the ice like Solis' ribbons of light, their hoards gleam with color in a world starved of it, and every choice they make feels as though it's been weighed a thousand times over. In their presence, I sensed a strange echo of my own wanderings; kindred Souls shaped by the Realm around them, choosing to kindle beauty where others see only desolation. If you ever cross their path, remember that nothing thrives in the polar wastes without purpose. Treat them with the respect their world demands, and perhaps the ice will let you leave with a story instead of not at all.

May you find beauty even in the most barren of places
Yours, ever truly,
— Tobias Elanor, Bard, Scholar, Explorer Extraordinaire

© DracTheDrake

Hello hello!

Silvers were born from the idea that every environment has some sort of an apex predator, most of which in Gaiaxia are Dragons, so how would a Dragon be successful in one of the most harsh and unforgiving environments? We also wanted to lean away from the tradition of the bestial white dragons of the arctic trope without dismissing it entirely. Afterall, tropes are tropes for a reason.

Their appearance and demeanor were heavily inspired by a combination of snow owls and skuas, with a touch of tarantulas for their mating rituals. Having tarantulas myself, I've always been fascinated with the tapping and little dances males do to attract a female from her burrow and (hopefully) avoid becoming lunch, so we adapted that into Silvers' singing to announce themselves.

I also just like the imagery of Tobias being in the arctic and hearing the hauntingly beautiful duet of two Silvers calling to each other through the endless expanse. Him being a "Bard Extraordinaire", he'd be able to find the beauty in their song.

Thanks again for reading Entry 15, hard to believe we're almost through the Dragons now as well, just one left to go: White Dragons. If there is anything you'd like Tobias to write about next, please let me know! I have plans, but will absolutely shift them around if interest is expressed.