I realize there are actually dragons in the beginning Lore of SP, and I know there are quite a few things to do with dragons in SP itself (A search yielding 8 pages with the word Dragon tells me this, the oldest post being waaay back in October 2009, just a few months away from when SP was actually created. Needless to say, Dragons have been around in SP, but there hasn't actually been an actual race for them, or anything related to them to even get information from about these creatures.
When I first thought of bringing an actual Dragon race to SP, I was honestly going with actual dragons that took on a sort of humanoid form. However, upon the realization that Dragons were already in the plot of SP and apparently had a lot of involvement with the plotline, I decided to just make a completely different kind of Dragon that is separate from the plotline.
And like the Solstici, this is a public race. Everyone may make as many as they like, even Hawk (As soon as he gets off request probation, because by the time he's taken off it, he 'should' have learned to make good characters and solid, flexible stuff without making them die every ten seconds and degrading whatever he RPs with. Watch as I regret this decision.). But until he is taken off of his probation, he and all of his characters will have absolutely nothing to do with Blood Dragons.
So, Blood Dragons! What are they?
Blood dragons are humanoid life forms that take on a variety of appearances. Some range from being human-like to two legged furry creatures (Heh, furries.) to actually looking like a dragon on two feet, and sometimes may even take on alien-like properties, like the Novierians. Why? Actually, Blood Dragons can spawn from any race. In fact, some characters may already be Blood Dragons and not even know it! But how is this possible? Blood dragons isn't as much of a race than it is a blood condition, but once these people realize they have this 'condition,' they are universally known as Blood Dragons, no matter what their race was before.
To be qualified to be a possible blood dragon, you require only two things:
1. Be a living being.
2. Have some sort of blood coursing through some part of your body. The amount is irrelevant, but it's better to have more blood than less.
With that being said, that automatically rules out technology or robot-based Races. This also rules out Solstici, as though even if they are living beings, they do not have flesh. They are the products of aura, ether, and the spirit energy of the universe around them. Their wolf form is merely just the first representation given to them.
Once you have a Blood Dragon/your character realizes they're a Blood Dragon, what kind of cool stuff can they do? Blood dragons control their blood to do a variety of things, and can do all sorts of neat stuff with them, as well as generate new blood out of thin air with a combination of Magic and Aura (Blood dragons have no idea they're using aura to make blood, so it's unconsciously used like aura is used in all other magical abilities.). Also, they are able to make use of Blood Magic (I'm surprised there's no iteration of Blood Magic anywhere on SP aside from a few posts from Hawk and that Love Craft Guy.). But what is blood magic?
Blood magic is like regular magic, only difference being is that blood is enchanted with magic, and because of this, magical abilities can be cast from this blood. These abilities greatly differ from actual magic abilities, as these magic attack focus on raw fire power, destruction, and more often than not concerns fire, magma, lava, or burning/extremely hot substances. This also ties into the Embodiment of Heat if I ever decide to make it, but that is an entirely different story. The thing to keep in mind is though is that these hot substances are not actual flames or lava, but are products of a character's spirit. However, these flames are not spirit energy. They cannot be extinguished by anything but the person that produced the flames in the first place. A very good, if not only, comparison to these flames is to compare it to a few statements: "The Flame of life," "He has a enkindled Soul," "I can feel your burning passion!"
In that sense, these are flames that are produced from a character's will alone, and is powered solely through a character's spirit.
Because of this, blood from a blood dragon contains their actual spirit as well as their being. Getting rid of this blood somehow does absolutely nothing to their spirit or spirit energy whatsoever. If you wish to damage a character's Spirit/Spirit energy, you must do so through the same method you would use against a character that isn't a blood dragon.
Flames and magma aren't the only things a Blood Dragon can produce from their spirit. They can produce the other elements as well, but this is quite difficult and it's just much easier to use flames.
Why are Blood Dragons called Blood Dragons? There are a total of three reasons. First, the blood itself and what forms it typically takes. When a Blood Dragon uses their blood, the blood they create or the blood from their own bodies tend to shapeshift into certain shapes outside of their body, more often than not making wings, tails, claws and the like. This blood can also harden to become very, very hard (Hard as Dragon Scales! ... I'll stop with the puns in 3... 2... 1...). As a result, Blood Dragons can quite literally look like Dragons, creating scales all around their body and even increasing their size and everything, or can just make separate parts of their body about them become Dragon-like. Want a tail but not the claws or body? There you go. Feel like having some nifty spikes on your back? Sure. This blood can take other forms as well outside of being a dragon, but most blood dragons find comfort in the shapes they produce with their blood, and more often than not keep with these forms. It's not that they can't, but they most of the time won't.
The Second reason why they're called Blood Dragons is the fact that most of them use flames created from their blood magic, and some of them even start to breath fire or pufts of flames every now and then when they're angry. These flames can even shoot out of these scales themselves and smoke can certainly emanate from Blood Dragons as well.
The Third, Final Reason is because of their alternate forms these Blood Dragons Create.
Next, the alternate forms these Blood Dragons have hidden inside of them. They have two by default, but they can create a lot of others branching off from these two forms. These two 'Root' forms are called ZEAL and Ascension forms.
The ZEAL form is when the Blood Dragon embraces their very existence, and takes their physical boundaries to the very limit. More often than not, this ZEAL form turns the Blood Dragon into a Dragon-Like humanoid form, somewhat resembling their current self in shape and size, yet having Dragon-like features as well. These dragon like features are not created through the blood itself, but are a product of the Blood Dragon's Spirit as well as his physical boundaries. In this form, the Blood Dragon can branch off into a multitude of other forms, these forms ranging from all sorts of different appearances and shapes and are crafted from the Blood Dragon's personality and current state of mind. When in ZEAL, Blood Dragons find themselves extremely powerful, and can produce as much blood as they possibly can or want to. The flames they produce are often pure white because of the exponential heat they produce, and can melt or burn anything. Also in this form, their blood may take on a different appearance, such as looking like ice or visible wind, and sometimes even earth. These blood forms are dependent on their aura and it's forms. Whatever aura the Blood Dragon has more of, the blood takes on the properties of the respective aura.
The Ascension form is different. Rather than embracing their physical Boundaries, the Blood Dragon abandons their limits of their mortal coil and become a completely different form. This form is still reminiscent of a dragon, but instead of changing their actual physical appearance, this ascension form appears as a translucent hologram or a see-through veil of sorts that surrounds the Blood Dragon in question. The Dragon that surrounds them is, again, dependent on their personality and state of mind, but also the form of their spirit, soul, and it takes their tie to existence into account too. The key difference in this form compared to the ZEAL form is that all of their blood/magic/energy/anything is a product of the user's spirit alone. As well as the ZEAL form, this is also extremely powerful, and all of the attacks, magic, and flames in this form are imbued with Spirit energy. There is a difference in attacks as well between these two forms as well. While ZEAL tends to focus on Blood and the flames they produce, Ascension focuses on Magic and Spirit Energy and it's relationship with the Blood Dragon's blood. In fact, Spirit energy practically pours out of an Ascension Form Blood Dragon at alarming rates, almost like a Waterfall. Like the ZEAL form, their blood also takes on the form that is respective to their aura. However, this form takes the aura that is least present and applies it to the blood.
So, what are their relationships with the rest of the Shattered Planes? They are utterly unknown, completely. There are a few Blood Dragons popping up here and there, and quite a few characters already are probably Blood Dragons but have no way of realizing it and using their Blood Dragon abilities unless another Blood Dragon actively unlocked the character's abilities or while the character in question actively searched their own conscious, spirit, and their whole state of being.
A final note concerning current characters realizing that they're Blood Dragons: You MUST ask permission from me if you wish to make one of your current characters a Blood Dragon, because there are certain limits I will impose on every specific character that should match your character. Otherwise, you are free to make a Full dedicated Blood Dragon Character with all of the stuff listed above.
