Devican

Resembling a serpentine version of most true dragons, the devican race has six limbs, two legs, two arms, and two wings. Their bodies are lithe but strong, capable of great feats of strength. Large skulls and wings are their most prominent features, but combine with several other distinct features.   Their skulls have a traditionally draconian build with several jutting spikes coming from the chin, jaw, brow, and crown. Chin spikes are the key feature to identify males from females, as females will completely lack these spikes. Each horn will flow backwards and can vary in length from a few inches to over a foot for the largest crown horns.   Devican eyes are either brown or green, often so dark to appear black at a distance. The pupil's are rounded and can dilate to nearly the full extent of the visible portion of the eye. They posses a fully functioning nicitating membrane, used most often during flight.   Their necks are long and thick, being the second strongest part of their bodies. Though usually curled into an "S" shape while sitting still, walking, or gliding, the vertebrate a very flexible and allow them to twist their necks into a 270° angle either left of right, and roughly 200° backwards. In total, the average neck stretches 3 feet.   Connected directly to the shoulder are the incredibly dense and powerful shoulder, breast, and back muscles. Devican front arms are structurally very similar to drasonic arms, including muscle tone and opposable thumbs. These limbs are, on average, longer however, reaching about three feet in length.   The shoulder have additional joints for their wings, which can reach an impressive lengths averaging 33 feet. These wings are structurally very similar to other dragons, including the palm "spike" often confused for fingers, similar to bats. Of great interest is a larger-than-normal Haluss Organ on each wing. The glands are visible, as bumps, on their backs, and provide them with additional lift for flight.   Devican torsos are well developed, thick with muscle, but tapers off quickly as the chest gives way to the abdomen. The stomach thins out significantly before the pelvic bone and back legs come in. Their back legs are positioned under them, like all dragons, with their weight distributed onto their toes.   Each limb has five digits, with opposable thumbs on the arm limbs. When walking on all four, the thumb will move to back, acting almost like a heel to bear weight.   Finishing their long bodies is their tail. Devican tails can reach up to six fee in length, making up nearly half of the body length. The tail is highly flexible; more so even than the neck. On the tips of the tail are small ridges coming out of the sides that appear similar to fins. They do not aid in locomotion and instead seem to be used for social interactions and courtship.   As a last note on the devican form, their scales are dark with earthy green shades. Their scales are small, independent, with thick centers that can give them a "bumped" look up close. Young devican are born with a shimmering silver color that will quickly fade with age. There also exists a common scale affliction that results in the scales continuing to darken their entire lives, to a deep black. Outside of the possibility of overheating, there is no other health condition associated with this. It occurs in roughly 1:80 devicans born.

Egg-bearers, like all dragons, devican's store their eggs internally until fertilized. When a female conceives, the internal egg sac will grow rapidly and harden, with the fetus growing inside. From the point of conception, it will take approximately three weeks before the egg sac is ready to be deposited. The mother will lay a clutch of six to twelve eggs. Gender ratio can vary, but usually sits around 3:1 favoring males.   Eggs will incubate for an incredibly long time. These eggs are large, and incubates for approximately eight months. Once hatched, the young devican is virtually fully formed and spans a foot in length. These young devicans will spend the first six months clinging to their mothers backs and being fed portions she serves them.   At six months, most devicans will experiment with personal flight and begin exploring alone. At a length of two feet, there are generally few predators that will go for a child, allowing them a degree of freedom from their families. Brood-bonding is fairly common as well, as the siblings will explore together and discover the world as a group.   From this point until they reach three, they will show a proportionally equivalent development cycle as a human growing to the age of five. They will experiment with speech, social interactions, and begin testing their place in the world. By three, a devican child will be approximately five feet long, 1/3 of their adult size, and begin their traditional path towards adulthood.   At eight years of age, devican develop sexually. Their bodies will experience spurts of growth as their bodies finish their maturation process. Males will experience rapid development of their horns and both sexes will begin to fully develop their Zudav Glands. During this stage, both genders tend to become much more aggressive.   Physical adulthood is reached between 14 to 18 years of age. Their brains will not stop their growth cycle for another ten years on average. Their bodies will have reached their peak length and size.   Courtship, with cultural differences aside, will often look more brutal than other species. Females will begin courting males, getting their attention then turning them away, until they have a small collection of males competing for her attention. The males will then compete with each other for courtship rights, the winner being selected by the female.   While males and females will form tribes together, generally the males are independent, preferring privacy when not working towards a goal. Females however will group together into family units.

Devican's are carnivores, but not strict ones. While capable of digesting simple plant materials, they cannot eat it in large quantities. Most plant material consumed is used as seasoning for meat dishes, and not as a large part of the meal itself.   Though eating traditions vary from tribe to tribe, most devicans will consume one large meal a day, often as a large group. A significant portion of their meat comes from vast fields of raised livestock, but hunting non-domesticated animals still plays a very large part of their diets. Agriculture is limited to mostly providing medicinal plants or seasoning plants.