Kra'alak Dragon

Image by Caiomm

Biology: Pseudo-reptilian creatures whose physiology resembles a meld of serpentine and feline traits, Kra'alak Du'uogwuins (or Kra'alak Dragons) are distantly related to Duinuogwuins and the krayt dragons of Tatooine. They have six limbs - two forelegs, two bat-like wings, and two hind legs - a long tail, and a horned head perched atop a serpentine neck. Mutations are relatively common at about one in tend Dragons; some have extra limbs (such as four wings or eight legs), some have missing limbs (such as missing the forelegs, the hind legs, or the wings), and some have extra heads - or any combination of the above. Their jaws are powerful, with rows of razor-sharp fangs lining their lipless mouths. They have twin tongues that flick in and out, tasting the air like a snake. Their thick leathery hides are covered in jagged scales, giving rise to large spikes and segmented armored plates running down their spines from the bases of their skulls to the tips of their tails. Kra'alak Du'uogwuins have large, sharp talons on each limb. Their forepaws are adapted to grasping, with opposable thumbs and three clawed fingers ill-suited for any but the crudest work. Their wingclaws are adapted to halfway between walking and grasping, though they lack an opposable thumb. Their hindpaws, however, are adapted solely for walking with three talons splayed out front and one to the rear, though able to walk on either two legs or four (or six). Kra'alak Du'uogwuins' scales and claws are all composed of a material similar to low-grade steel, making them quite difficult for other creatures to harm without advanced weaponry or clever exploitation. They walk on their hind legs and their wingclaws almost like a bat, holding their forelegs up, but when they run they use their fore and hind legs, balancing with their wings and flapping to give an extra boost of speed. They drag their tails while walking, but raise them to the horizontal when excited or running. Old or tired dragons will move on all six limbs. Their bestial visages bely their powerful intellects, as Kra'alak Du'uogwuins are highly intelligent creatures easily on par with the more conventional species of the Galaxy.

Kra'alak Du'uogwuin coloration typically includes red, green, black, gold, and brown - often all on the same dragon. For example, a common pattern among dragons is a black hide with red scales tipped in brown, gold spikes and horns, and green-tinged wings. Blue, purple, and white are almost unheard-of shades among them. Their eyes are commonly golden-yellow or red, but some are shades of green or brown.

For their size, Kra'alak Du'uogwuins are adept and agile flyers. Their internal organs grant them a natural repulsorlift capability, an adaptation that enabled them to survive quite well in their homeworld's high gravity. Though they can survive exposure to vacuum, up to about half an hour, they cannot fly in space under their own power. Some dragons have the ability to exhale searing gouts of liquid fire, a napalm-like chemical mixture that ignites not on exposure to air but when an electricity-generating organ in the Kra'alak Dragon's jaws sparks to set it ablaze. The chemical is extremely corrosive when heated, and produces toxic fumes potent enough to poison even the Kra'alak Dragons themselves. Kra'alak Du'uogwuins are practically impossible to poison due to their exotic biologies, and their digestive tracts are truly omnivorous.

Kra'alak Du'uogwuins have keen senses. Their eyes are adapted to seeing extraordinarily sharply, but they tend to be farsighted and have difficulty seeing small things up close. They have excellent night vision as well, and their eyes glow luminously in the dark. They can see in the near-infrared spectrum as well as in the visible light spectrum, enabling them to see live prey very well. Dragons also have a keen sense of smell, and are able to identify familiar scents the way humans do familiar sights; they not only know someone on sight, but on scent as well. They can even pinpoint something's location by scent much like a human could by hearing, though that's naturally subject to environmental conditions. Their sense of taste is likewise highly refined, making many dragons connoisseurs of gourmet cooking from across the galaxy. Kra'alak Du'uogwuins have a natural empathic ability, able to read and experience the surface emotions of other creatures; for this reason they often prefer the company of droids, and deeply dislike being around those who are afraid of them. Kra'alak Du'uogwuins have very good senses of hearing, as their horns serve not only as weapons and displays but also as the outer part of their ears. Dragons have a sense of combined touch and hearing that's much like echolocation, enabling them to navigate not only when flying about at night but also in their cavern homes in the dark in the same way as a cat's whiskers.

Kra'alak Du'uogwuins are native to a volcanic world, and as such are quite used to its polluted atmosphere. They prefer a methane-rich, sulfur-rich, high-carbon dioxide, oxygen-based atmosphere, though of those gasses only oxygen is completely necessary. A dragon deprived of its native atmosphere (say, one breathing standard atmosphere) will eventually lose its ability to breathe fire after a an hour or so, and within three days will lapse into a coma and die after a week. They are preferentially lithotrophs who oxidize sulphur into sulfuric acid as an energy source in their respiration, though they can also undergo aerobic respiration (a process requiring lowering their internal temperatures, which inhibits cell growth and many biological processes). Their internal temperatures are a steady 92.4 degrees C, almost hot enough to boil water - 'boiling mad' is not a figure of speech for them. They can withstand extreme temperature ranges, but are uncomfortable at temperatures below forty degrees or above five hundred degrees. This discomfort becomes terminal at temperatures below fifteen degrees or above six hundred and fifty-five degrees.

Kra'alak Du'uogwuins can live for up to five thousand years, though most last only about twelve to fifteen hundred years; they are extraordinarily resilient, but accidents do happen. Dragons mate for centuries, with mated pairs remaining together long enough to hatch and raise a handful of broods before splitting up to seek out new mates due to mutual boredom. Newborn dragons hatch from eggs, emerging as meter-long hatchlings and taking about thirty years to reach their adult size of about four meters long from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail, with the tail being another six meters or so, standing three and a half meters tall at the shoulder, and the wingspan being about two and a half times the length of the body with a weight of about two and a half tons. Kra'alak Du'uogwuins continue to grow throughout their lives at a rate of roughly a meter every thirty years, with some of their eldest reaching lengths of thirty-five meters or more after a millennium. Once they reach a thousand years old, their growth slows down significantly to a meter a century after that.

Subspecies: Technically they are a subspecies of Duinuogwuin. There are four major subspecies of Kra'alak Du'uogwuin, named for their place of origin and their ancestral sire. The main one, the Gygax brood, is described above; they compose one-third of the dragon population, and generally have primarily red scales.

• The Kanein brood is just about one in five dragons. They have primarily gold and tan scales. While fire-breathing is rare among them, they are much wiser to the ways of the Force than their brethren. Kanein dragons are also generally the smallest, with an average maximum length of twenty meters and a mature length of just six meters. Of all the Kra'alak Du'uogwuin broods, the Kanein dragons have shown the most aptitude for the Jedi arts.
  
• The Garyx brood is the second-largest, at one-quarter of the Kra'alak Du'uogwuin population. They have primarily green scales. They tend to get along best with humanoids, as they live among the humanoid colonists on their world.
  
• The Lakhisis brood is just less numerous than the Kanein brood, just under one in five dragons. They have primarily black scales. Many of the Lakhisis brood have envenomed stingers at the tips of their tails.

Sentience: Yes.

Strengths: Kra'alak Du'uogwuins are super-predators, easily outfitted to be the apex predator on nearly any world. Their hides are covered in what amounts to bone-bronze metallic armor, and their natural weapons are as well. Their scales and claws alike are essentially a honeycomb of bone with the metallic deposits lining them, the concentrations thickest on the exterior surfaces of the scales and nearly solid in the claws and fangs. They have claws and teeth that can tear through armored troopers, spiked tails, and some can even spit gouts of corrosive, venomous, flaming gel. Their strength is tremendous, befitting creatures their size native to a high-gravity planet. Kra'alak Du'uogwuins are also cunning, intelligent, and long-lived creatures, which gives them natural advantages over others.

Weaknesses: For all their strengths, Kra'alak Dragons do have some weaknesses. They are prone to sleeping for months or even years at a time, with some of the eldest dragons taking naps that last a decade or so. Even when awake they are loathe to exert themselves more than absolutely necessary. Kra'alak Du'uogwuins are also farsighted, with sensitive eyes that are vulnerable to bright light, particularly rapidly-flashing light - the neon-lit streets of Coruscant and the searing daylight of Tatooine are all but intolerable to them. Likewise, they are also vulnerable to loud noises - particularly high-frequency sounds. High-pitched shrieks actually induce crippling pain in them.

Their size makes them vulnerable to attack, and they have difficulty maneuvering around in structures and ships designed for smaller creatures - to say nothing of their problems using tools, armor, and weapons designed for more humanoid creatures. Kra'alak Dragons also lack the ability to manipulate small objects, being that their paws are quite large and ill-suited for delicate work. Kra'alak Dragons deeply dislike the use of armor and can't stand to wear it, despite the fact that their natural armor is quite naturally ill-suited for standing against modern weaponry. While more than adequate against the slugthrowers they've restrained the local population to, their scaly hides provide little protection against blaster-fire. Their scales are roughly as sensitive as thick hide, interspersed with whisker-like hairs that leave them just as reactive to pain as most large creatures.

They require unusual minerals in their diets, including many that have more industrial uses than nutritional. Kra'alak Du'uogwuins also need a high concentration of sulphur, carbon dioxide, and methane in their atmosphere. While they can tolerate standard atmosphere for several hours or even days at a time, they dislike it and maintain something approximating their home atmospheres in their lairs. They intensely dislike breathing in high-humidity atmospheres, as they find the water stifling and have been known to drown just from breathing in a sauna. Humidity and water in general also tends to itch, as it reacts with the metal in their scales and begins to make them rust. Freshwater is toxic to them, as it reacts poorly with many of the elements in their bodies and leaches them of vital minerals. Kra'alak Dragons must drink saltwater laced with iron supplements, as is found on their homeworld, or begin to suffer the effects of hyponatremia and with prolonged deprivation anemia, scale loss, and death.

While many Kra'alak Dragons are Force-sensitive, they have extraordinary difficulty learning new powers. If they were not born with the instinctive knowledge of it, the odds are extraordinarily against the dragon learning new talents. In a thousand years, a dedicated student of the Force might learn a handful of powers related to the few he was born with.

Diet: Kra'alak Du'uogwuins consume not only meat, but also vegetation (mostly wood-analogs native to Gygax, but also fruits and vegetables) and certain minerals. They eat a great deal of iron and silicon, but also require platinum - and the fire-breathers need a lot more platinum than the non-fiery dragons. When they shed their scales (which happens once a decade or so for adult dragons), they need even more iron, but also copper, tin, zinc, cerium, coltan, and zersium as well. Though these materials are easy to find on their homeworld, Kra'alak Du'uogwuins out of the Gygax system often need to consume special dietary supplements, though eating the materials in their unrefined ore and crystal forms is best. A Kra'alak Du'uogwuin's second stomach more closely resembles a blast furnace than an organic sack of digestive enzymes.

Behavior/Temperament: Kra'alak Du'uogwuins are not only rather intelligent, averaging at gifted intellects, but also alarmingly perceptive. Their long lives, propensity for deep contemplation, and most of all their empathic talents give them a certain insight into others' minds. Unfortunately, they also tend to dramatically underestimate the capabilities of humanoids out of an instinctive understanding that anything smaller than them must be incapable and inadequate on all counts.

Kra'alak Du'uogwuins are gluttons and hedonists. They have the refined senses of a predator, but have little need to hunt; they thus turn their keen sight to art, their senses of taste and smell to cooking, their discerning hearing to music, and their clever minds to a certain bon vivant lifestyle. They do nothing in moderation. Kra'alak Dragons enjoy life, and in big bites - but they are just as happy alone as they are with others. Every century or so, after their companions and the children of their companions have grown old and died off, many dragons will seclude themselves for years at a time to think, reflect, and brood. Once they grow bored with that, though, they will often emerge again from their lairs to seek new challenges, new experiences, new pleasures and interesting new companions to share them with. They are not simply self-indulgent libertines, however, as most Kra'alak Du'uogwuins feel a certain noblesse oblige towards the lesser species. At worst this can turn into something little better than self-righteous and well-intentioned slaveholding, but few dragons have either the inclination or the patience to rule. It is, after all, really quite boring.

Inordinately fond of shiny things, Kra'alak Du'uogwuins enjoy hoarding their wealth more than spending it - and enjoy showing it off best of all. They are acquisitive and greedy creatures by nature, but they are also prone to extravagant shows of generosity for those they favor.

Though patient as only the truly long-lived can be, Kra'alak Dragons are atavistic monsters when drawn to wrath. When sufficiently provoked, such as by an outsider killing one of their own, Kra'alak Dragons will go genocidal on their foes.

Communication: Though Kra'alak Du'uogwuins can communicate verbally, they much prefer telepathic communication. All dragons are empaths, though their powerful minds are easily able to stonewall out not only each other but other intruders as well. They regard non-empaths as social cripples able to only halfway communicate with each other.

Kra'alak Dragons have little in the way of expression or body language that directly parallels Humans; their closest analogues are felines. An observant person can note the dragon's general mood by watching its eyes, as - unlike with Humans - they are the best indicator of its emotional state. Narrow pupils indicate fear, hate, or anger, while wide pupils indicate interest, relaxation, or a good mood. Slitted eyelids indicate extreme fear, hatred, or anger, while relaxed, half-lidded eyes indicate sleepiness or comfort. If the dragon's tail switches back and forth it is irritated, but a gentle, languid movement indicates good humor. Steam rising from the dragon's skin and nostrils is the most dangerous sign, as that is an indication that the dragon is angry and ready to attack.

Planet: The Kra'alak Du'uogwuin homeworld is a massive, mineral-rich volcanic planet named Gygax, in the system of the same name. The world is roughly three times the size of Coruscant, with a similar increase in gravitational pull and an atmosphere toxic to most creatures. Much of their commerce is conducted on the planet's three moons, Kanein, Garyx, and Lakhisis, which have gravity that other creatures are better-equipped to survive.

Culture: Though it may seem the mostly-solitary Kra'alak Du'uogwuins lack a culture, they simply have one rather different and much slower-paced than that of the smaller species. They are all sovereigns of their own little dominions, in much the same way as the Hutts, but of a somewhat different character. Where Hutts are unscrupulous, greedy, money-grubbing criminals, Kra'alak Du'uogwuins are moral, honorable, greedy, money-grubbing criminals. Kra'alak Dragons regard laws as being something that apply to other peoples, but hold strongly to their own moral codes. They each belong to one of several clans, and the heads of the clans all sit on the Congress of Elders. The moons of Gygax as well as the planet itself are named for the semi-mythical founders of the current Kra'alak Du'uogwuin civilization, who are believed to have been the first Duinuogwuins to mutate into something that could be properly termed Kra'alak Du'uogwuins. All extant Kra'alak Dragons are descended from them.

Kra'alak Du'uogwuins know of the Force, and indeed nearly all of the species is Force-sensitive. They regard those who cannot sense the Force as being half-living creatures, and find them mildly repulsive - as if inability to touch the Force were somehow contagious. Their employment of the Force is innate and instinctive, and Kra'alak Dragons actually find it very difficult to learn powers they were not born with the talent for; they tend to select mates for, among other things, useful or potent Force powers. Kra'alak Dragons commonly have talents with Force powers based around augmenting their bodies and manipulating the world around them. Pyrokinesis and metamorphosis are both powers common to them that are much rarer among other species, but they much more rarely have Sense-based powers and Force-based healing is all but unknown among them. Transformations tend to take time - an hour to transform into something the size and shape of a humanoid, but about ten minutes for something of different shape than the Dragon but of similar size, and as little as a minute for relatively minor transformations.

Kra'alak Du'uogwuins do not war, at least not in the way that other species do. They are loathe to kill each other, but instead prefer to destroy an enemy's holdings and wealth - and the less violence they use in their conflicts, the more prestige they gain. When Kra'alak Dragons do fight, they by far prefer to use their natural weapons and their natural weapons alone, disdaining manufactured weapons and armor as crutches of the weak. They see nothing wrong with augmenting their own bodies, however, and employ both traditional Force combat techniques as well as something very similar to Sith alchemy and a talent almost unique to them for Force-based shapeshifting.

Many Kra'alak Du'uogwuins have droid attendants, and even the poorest Kra'alak Dragons has at least one protocol or servant droid. They find droids an adequate, if unstylish, substitute for their preferred organic servants as they can attend to the 'small' tasks that the big-bodied Kra'alak Dragons have trouble with - and droids can survive longer on Gygax. Wealthy Kra'alak Dragons homes are practically crawling with droids, including a surprising number of independent droids who have either sought employment with the Kra'alak Dragons or simply remained with a former master. Because of their fondness for the exotic, Kra'alak Dragons prefer custom-designed droids to stock models, and they much prefer organic replicants to metal-bodied droids.

Technology: Curiously, Kra'alak Du'uogwuin are rather disinterested in most of the technology other species prefer. They regard many of the tools others use as crutches to compensate for being born without claws, wings, fiery breath, or any of the dragon's other physiological advantages. They are very rarely interested in weaponry and armor, though they will make use of deflector shields; a dragon disdains artificial weapons and armor as crutches, something only the weak use. Kra'alak Dragons are, however, quite interested in droids, spacecraft, and (especially) holo-art. They purchase and sometimes even manufacture large numbers of droids designed to serve their every need, fleets of spacecraft to transport them and their wealth, and decorate their cavelike homes with treasured exotic art.

History: Kra'alak Du'uogwuins are a new addition to the galactic scene, having only been officially discovered in 491 ABY. They knew of other species, however, as a Sith ship had crash-landed on the largest moon of Gygax, Garyx, about five millennia before the Battle of Yavin. Encountering their new neighbors as they sought to escape the moon, Kra'alak Dragons soon discovered the delights of their technological culture. Though unable to repair their damaged hyperdrive, the Kra'alak Dragons and humanoids alike had relatively advanced spacefaring technology. However, the humanoids brought with them a startling new revelation: Droids. Kra'alak Du'uogwuins had never thought to employ machines to make their lives easier as droids could, but once introduced into their society the big reptiles were hooked. Thanks to cunning negotiations on behalf of the unwilling colony's Sith leaders, the Kra'alak Dragons entered into a trade partnership with the humanoids wherein they provided resources and helped terraform the moons in exchange for supplies of droids. They prospered together for almost a thousand years, though the Kra'alak Dragons saw with some concern that the Sith were becoming a bit of a nuisance and demanding more and more power on Garyx.

Unfortunately, the Sith played true to their nature - and the Garyx brood decided to rid themselves of the annoying Force-wielders once and for all. The Sith had made the mistake of killing a Kra'alak Du'uogwuin, underestimating the risks of infuriating the 'primitive' natives. In a single night, the Kra'alak Dragons descended on every settlement known to contain a Sith Lord and wiped them from the face of the moon. All that remained were refugee populations and small villages, those settlements too small to attract the interest of the reigning Sith. Reduced to a primitive post-apocalyptic culture and getting little help from the dragons, the now 'free' humanoids were deprived of their technology and forced to eke out a living in the shadows of dragons' wings. Only a select few, a society of learned Force-sensitive scholars and technicians who attended to the Kra'alak Du'uogwuins and crafted their droids for them, knew anything of science beyond the basic pre-industrial levels the humanoids developed - the Kra'alak Dragons did not offer their aid. This dark age lasted until a Galactic Alliance explorer chanced upon the Gygax system, accidentally charting a relatively safe and navigable route through the hyperspace bramble surrounding Gygax.

The Kra'alak Du'uogwuin are an old species, with their earliest historical records dating back over a hundred thousand years. Their origins and early history are shrouded in mystery, as much myth and legend as they are historical facts. What is known is that they are distantly related to the Duinuogwuin star dragons. Millennia of isolation in the Gygax system have led to them radically diverging from their ancestors, much like the krayt dragons diverged from them. Unlike the Tatooinian monsters, the Kra'alak Dragons retained their sapience - they'd simply lost the ability to travel through space or faster than light. Over time they began losing or mutating other of the star dragons' fantastic abilities, reducing in size as they slowly developed something approximating a civilization on their hellish world. The Kra'alak Dragons eventually became so adapted to Gygax's poisoned atmosphere that they required it, even as they learned new technological advances to replace some of their lost abilities. They spread over the moons of their homeworld, but they never developed hyperspace travel, advanced computers, or three-dimensional projection before making contact with outlanders.