Crystal Dragon

When they hatch, crystal dragons have dull gray scales, with a few white or clear crystalline points, allowing the wyrmlings to blend in to rocky terrain in the face of danger. As they age, their scales turn snow white, then slowly fade to transparency. The oldest crystal dragons have scales of perfect clarity that bend and refract light, sometimes making them difficult to see clearly.

The radiant energy of the Positive Plane shimmers in crystal dragons’ scales. It glows like starlight between their bodies and the spines and horns that hover close to their heads and backs. These horns shift with the dragon’s mood: bristling with anger, lying back with fear or suspicion, and rippling in side-to-side waves with amusement or joy.

Wyrmlings

Dragons in their first five years of life are still figuring out their capabilities and their place in the world. Thus, wyrmlings often rely on adult dragons or other companion creatures for safety. Wyrmlings most often think on a local scale—an area no larger than might be covered by a few farmsteads or villages.

Young Dragons

Dragons in their first century of life are beginning to come into their own among the most powerful creatures of the Material Plane. This stage is when most dragons first establish their own territory and lair. A young dragon’s territory covers an area about 50 miles across. This is also when dragons start to form the magical ties that bind them to both their hoards and the regions around their lairs.

Adult Dragons

After their first century of life, dragons are mighty beings whose influence can extend across a whole region or continent. Most adult dragons establish additional lairs to expand their territory. These lairs are usually set 50 to 75 miles apart, so the dragon can fly from one to the next in a single day’s travel. An adult dragon typically hunts the area around one lair for a month or more, then moves on to another lair. The dragon’s magical connection to a lair can transform the surrounding region, as represented by regional effects.

Ancient Dragons

Dragons are considered ancient once they reach eight hundred years of life, and many live for centuries more. Ancient dragons are among the mightiest creatures in the multiverse, powerful enough to alter the fate of the world and upset the balance of power across the planes of existence. An ancient dragon typically has several lairs, each one suffused with powerful magic. The regional effects surrounding each of an ancient dragon’s lairs can combine to make that dragon’s influence felt in the natural world for hundreds of miles. In addition to these magical effects, the dragon’s ongoing presence can have a profound impact on the region’s ecosystems, populations, and politics.

Crystal dragons seek out frigid, picturesque locations with clear views of the sky above to build their lairs. Then, like gem cutters seeking the perfect diamond, they spend much of their lives refining, polishing, and enhancing the beauty of their lairs.

Crystal dragons’ lairs are often found in polar expanses, dizzying mountain peaks, and glacial floes. Some resemble icy palaces, with numerous balconies offering plentiful opportunities for sky gazing. Though ice and snow are the most common materials they use in the construction of a lair, crystal and other precious minerals feature prominently in certain areas. In this way, crystal dragons’ hoards literally become the fabric of their homes.

Crystal dragons are among the most social and hospitable of dragons. They are equal parts mysterious, contemplative, and mischievous, making it difficult to know what to expect of them.

Many crystal dragons study the stars, recording their observations of the night sky and tracking the signs written in starlight. They read these signs as omens, giving them glimpses of what is to come, and they eagerly examine the potential futures of any creatures who come to them in peace.

Crystal dragons’ connection to the radiant forces of the Positive Plane fosters a nurturing, optimistic attitude in most of these dragons. They sometimes adopt the abandoned eggs or hatchlings of other dragons; many a white wyrmling has been raised in the caring environment of a crystal dragon’s lair. But they fiercely oppose destructive forces in their home territories, which sometimes leads nearby frost giants and white dragons to put aside their mutual enmity to hunt them.

For their treasure hoards, crystal dragons prize diamonds and baubles that refract light, collections of prophecy, works on astronomy, and star charts. When it comes to magical treasure, they seek items and spells that predict the future, create or manipulate light, or channel positive energy for healing and nurturing.

Crystal dragons covet bright, opulent objects; baubles and trinkets that remind them of the stars, sky, sun, or heavens; and relics that aid in the divinatory arts. They prioritize beauty over value, so while they adore gemstones of all kinds, they prize fine quartz as highly as cut diamonds.

Crystal dragons enhance the natural beauty of their lairs with the treasures they collect, always trying to display those items they consider most precious in a tasteful and interesting way and recounting their elaborate histories to visitors whenever possible. Indeed, crystal dragons also see amassing such wonderful hoards as a way to attract new friends to the remote locations they inhabit.