Dragons

Dragons are fearsome magical creatures. They're the manifestion of the most intense feelings of the inhabitants of the world.

Creation
Dragons are unlike other beings in that they're not born. Rather, dragons manifest - out of thin air - when a large enough number of people experience the same emotion intensely enough or for long enough time. Once these criteria are met a dragon will manifest somewhere in the vicinity of the people who cause it.

Depending on how much the required criteria are exceeded the size of the dragon varies. If the criteria are barely met the dragon will be small and potentially even feeble. If the criteria are greatly exceeded the dragon will be enormous.

Historically, most dragons have appeared at the scenes of great battles. The fear and the rage of the soldiers fighting and dying on the field easily reaches a level capable of manifesting a dragon. There are records of multiple dragons appearing during a few particularly large battles.

Upon manifestation the dragon is a mindless force, experiencing only the feeling that caused it. Only through surviving long enough does the dragon achieve sentience and becomes something other than a force of nature.

Expiration
Once manifest a dragon rarely remains alive for long. The feelings that create the dragons is also the source of power that keeps it alive. Once the emotional intensity subsides the dragon must find some other way of sustaining itself. The emotional residue will keep the dragon alive for a short while, usually between a couple of hours and a day. This is only very rarely long enough for the dragon to compose itself, achieve sentience and realize it needs to eat. What this means is that even if not killed the life-span of a dragon is unlikely to exceed 24 hours.

Living dragons
A living dragon is one that has managed to survive long enough to achieve sentience and figure out how to sustain and defend itself. Living dragons are extremely rare and at this time only a handful are known to exist in the world.

Living dragons become intelligent creatures and easily learn to speak the languages of those brave enough to seek them out and talk to them. The older a dragon gets the less likely it is to speak to those who seek them out. Experience teaches them not to trust anyone. The price for not learning fast enough is death.

The reason for this mistrust is caused by the very nature of dragons. The heart of a dragon is one of the most powerful magical artefacts a weaver can get their hands on. The blood and the other organs are also items of great power but it is the heart that is the grand prize. It is not known how long a dragon will live if not killed. The theory is that they, like the elves, are immortal.

Fast and Slow dragons
A dragon being fast or slow does not refer to what speed it flies or runs at. Rather it is a measure of how long it takes for it to manifest. A fast dragon is one that manifests in a short period of time, sometimes as quickly as just a few seconds during earthquakes or other such disasters.

Slow dragons take longer to manifest. As a general rule everything over a few days is considered slow.

Colours
Dragons come in many different colors, corresponding to the feelings that spawned them. Most of these are well documented while some are but rumors with no confirmed manifestations at all.

Black
There are two types of black dragons: The black dragon of fear and the black dragon of sorrow. The black dragon of fear is the more common one and is often seen during wars. In the modern day, with people flocking to the cities, black dragons often appear during natural catastrophies such as earthquakes or tsunamis.

The black dragon of fear is violent and aggressive by nature. The black dragon of sorrow can be aggressive when provoked, but is just as likely to roll over and let itself be killed.

Red
The red dragon is one of rage and destruction. It is extremely violent and hostile. The red dragon is, like the black dragon of fear, most common during wars at scenes of battles. It has also been known to manifest during revolutions and riots.

Gold
The golden dragon is the symbol of joy and happiness. It can manifest at events of great joy such as at the end of a war or at the marriage of beloved royalty. There are also records of little golden dragons appearing during large rock concerts or music festivals.

A golden dragon is neither aggressive nor hostile. However, if large enough it may end up hurting people by accident.

Yellow
The existence of yellow dragons is unconfirmed. The records of them are few and unreliable. It is believed that the aspect of yellow dragons is the feeling of anticipation and excitement. One of the mentions of them claim they manifested shortly before a solar eclipse was due. However, modern science has calculated that no solar eclipse occured anywhere near the time or place given in the record.

White
White dragons are symbols of peace and relaxation. They are exceedingly rare but are confirmed to exist.

One of the currently known living dragons is a white one. It manifested at the site of a small anfylk temple of relaxation and has been sleeping there for the last 800 years. The temple is one of the oldest ones still active and anfylk monks had been relaxing there for over a thousand years befor the dragon manifested. It has not yet woken up and it is believed that the continuous vigil of the relaxing monks is what keeps it alive.

The site of the temple is nowadays heavily guarded and any visitor must first submit to rigorous screening and background checks before being admitted.

Grey
The grey dragon is the slowest one to manifest. Its aspect is the feelings of despair and depression. Throughout history it has mostly appeared at times of famine or during periods of great and widespread powerty.

In the modern day the grey dragon is commonly associated with economic depression and high levels of unemployment. This has turned out to be a reliable and accurate measure of the economic situation in a country or city. Economists are referring to a Grey Dragon Index (GDI) to predict the likelihood of a grey dragon manifesting.

The grey dragon of despair is much like the black dragon of sorrow in its behaviour. Occasionally they may go on a mad murderous rampage, but usually they just lie down and wait for the end to come. Grey dragons who survive long enough to achieve sentience often commit suicide.

Pink
The pink dragon of love is widely considered to be a myth. No historical records of its existence have stood up to scrutiny. It features heavily in romantic fiction and sightings of it are often reported by young women and teenage girls. Most scientists hold that, while romantic, the love of a single person merely decades old is not strong enough to cause a dragon to manifest.

It's theoretically possible that very old elves might have been able to manifest a pink dragon, but whether or not it has actually happened is not known.
 * Pink Dragon is the name of a cocktail and of a certain type of fireworks.
 * Riding the pink dragon is an expression for being under the influence of psychedelic drugs or for having sex while intoxicated
 * There is a small pink flower named Pink Dragon.
 * Elves have managed to breed pink lizards that can grow to over two meter in length. They're called Pink Dragons, but they're not real dragons.