Dahlia_Briarflame

Height: 6' 2"
Age: 484

The Briarflames, one of the four clans of Swamp Dragons that are known to exist, including those known only to other Swamp Dragons, that have rarely if ever had contact with other races outside of their swamps. As one of only four familial clans, it is naturally required to shoulder a great burden regarding the regulation, maintenance, support, and growth of the Swamp Dragon species, and as such, requires a strong, capable matriarch to govern over it...this is where Dahlia comes in. Dahlia Briarflame is the matriarch of the clan, and has been for over a century, since the previous matriarch passed away. She takes her duties quite seriously, in every aspect. She is quite respected among the other clan leaders for her level head, and bold forward thinking plans, and has given birth to many offspring, swelling her clan's numbers.



However, one should not take this to mean that she just pops out hatchlings whenever she can. No, she is no Blackwater to just focus on numbers, she focuses on quality. She doesn't just put out a child whenever she can, but hatches a child, and then ensures that they are well trained, she figures out where their talents lie, and send them on that path. As a result she tends to only hatch one offspring every ten years or so, sometimes a few extra decades for more troublesome children. Like for example, her second youngest child, the troublesome lass known as Rose_Briarflame. Honestly, just what is she to do with that child? Assuming the clan ever manages to track her down.

So just what is a Swamp Dragon? Well that's simple.

First off Swamp Dragons aren't technically dragons in the classical sense, they do not have wings, and have several different distinctions in biology. In fact they're more similar to lizards than dragons. Much as a Komodo Dragon merely resembles a dragon Swamp Dragons are similar. However, they do share two other distinct traits with normal dragons, a long life span, into the hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of years, and a high affinity for magic, slightly higher than most other races, to where just about every member of their species has some form of potential with it. Now onto the more specifics of their biology.

A Swamp Dragon's scales are very fine, very small on average to the point where it almost looks like just very smooth skin, if oddly coloured, this is part of why the scales are water tight, keeping water and other fluids from slipping in and feels remarkably slick as if they're constantly wet. It feels slick even while completely dry however. Next, is their high acidic production, they can produce acid at quite a fast rate, and even spit it up in a high powered spray, a kind of breath weapon. It is quite painful and very effective, their acid is quite strong, more similar to Hydroflouric acid than hydrochloric acid. In fact some Swamp dragons eat in this way, ripping chunks from their victim, and then spitting acid up into their closed mouth to dissolve the morsel before swallowing, thus ensuring they have a nice, easily slurped down slurry rather than bony chunks that might choke them.

In addition to that they can take in portions many times larger than their throat. For example, a swamp dragon with a neck roughly the size of your average human's could stretch enough to fit around an object three feet in width, and they can hold objects many times their size in their stomachs, or other orifices. As for breeding, Swamp Dragons have a 'breeding season' that usually comes once or twice a year, based on climate and heat. For this a male swamp dragon basically has sex with a female, giving out semen, which fertilizes the female, much as sex with most other creatures. From here though the female will, over the course of roughly four to eight weeks, grow bigger and bigger as an egg grows within them. Eventually they will lay the egg, and it will then be cared for normally by the female until it hatches usually anywhere from eight to ten months later, for a total breeding cycle of around a year on average. It is not uncommon for a second breeding season to afflict the female while she is caring for that egg, thus adding a second close onto it. However, it is very rare for a swamp dragon to have more than two eggs at one time. As one final note, Swamp Dragons are highly resistant to diseases and poisons.

Now, what is Swamp Dragon society like? Well the Swamp Dragon species as a whole is largely located within four swamps, each one belonging to a different 'clan.' There are four clans, the Briarflames, the Blackwaters, the Creepers, and the Quickbogs. While the four clans enjoy peaceful relations and constantly send members to and fro to keep their gene pools strong and healthy, and to encourage growth and learning, there is some competition. They do work together to make decisions on the governance of the species as a whole, and thus the clans that are larger or stronger have more say than others. As of present, the Briarflames and the Blackwaters are the two strongest clans, the Briarflames tend to have the strongest members, but there are a LOT of Blackwaters, keeping them at a sort of stalemate in terms of species sway.

As a whole the Swamp Dragons don't usually leave their swamps, of which all four swamps have been named by outsiders in other lands across the world, by the clan that resides within it, or rather the clan that has the strongest presence in it, since they largely have at least a few family members or even small families in each swamp per clan. They have a strong focus on music and oral s torytelling with many oral traditions passed down, with a flair for learning how to think and speak quickly to avoid 'um's' and 'uhhhs' in storytelling. While they aren't against books, the problem is that in swamps, such things as books are really hard to keep intact and safe given the wet, muddy, marshy landscape, whereas oral traditions are a much more standby method, even if the tales do run the risk of being changed and distorted over time.