Gold dragon

Gold dragons were the strongest and most majestic of the metallic dragons, and were considered the apex of the draconic race. Graceful and wise, they were relentless and dedicated foes of evil, injustice, and foul play. While respected for their fairness and knowledge, they were also grim and reserved, and usually avoided casual contact with other dragons.

Description
A gold dragon's head was characterized by a short face with long and smooth metallic horns that swept back from its nose and brow, as well as the neck frills that adorned both sides of its neck. From the mouth and nostrils descended four pairs of long, flexible muscular spines that resembled whiskers or barbels. Along with the dragon's narrow eyes, these features contributed to give them a look of sagacity. As the dragon aged, its pupils faded away until the eyes acquired an appearance of shiny, liquid gold. Other facial features included a pointed tongue and small cheek horned that grew sideways.

Gold dragons had broad sail-like wings that started from their shoulders and extended all the way to the end of their extremely long tails. During flight, the wings moved in a graceful rippling motion that resembled swimming. This elegant flying motion was considered by many scholars, as well as by the gold dragons themselves, to be the most graceful among true dragons. When on the ground, the wings were kept closed upright over its back if the dragon was at rest, or folded facing back if the dragon was walking or running.

A newly hatched gold dragon had dark yellow scales dotted with metallic specks that increased in size with age, until they totally covered the scales, giving a shiny and radiant golden color to the adult dragon's entire body.

Gold dragons gave off scents of saffron and incense, and sometimes a faint smell of molten metal.

Personality
It was common for gold dragons to appoint themselves with quests to promote good. Those that earned a gold dragon's fury found a relentless enemy who would not rest until the utter and complete subjugation of the evildoers. Either by slaying or by bringing villains to justice, a gold dragon's only acceptable outcome was complete victory over evil.

When looking for a lair, gold dragons usually sought secluded and remote locations. They had a preference for idyllic or picturesque locations, such as rivers or the bottom of lakes, cave complexes, ancient ruins, deep gorges, high plateaus, or mist-covered islands. They also had a preference for rolling hills, open plains, and in some rare cases even within humanoid communities which they have chosen to protect. They were very private creatures, mostly keeping to themselves and their families and rarely fraternizing with other dragons.

Strong believers in the greater good and in the rule of order, gold dragons were sometimes viewed as arrogant and dismissive. Due to their vast superiority with respect to the average humanoid, they often had difficulty in understanding the everyday troubles and needs of communities and in some rare instances might even end up becoming tyrants.

Combat
Gold dragons preferred to talk rather than to fight. They would never engage in combat if they believed it was unnecessary. Once they believed it was necessary, however, they were amazingly powerful opponents. Their ability to breathe fire rivaled that of the eldest red dragons, and they would pour their entire being into a battle against evil. Gold dragons disliked killing, but they did not hesitate to do so if it was necessary in order to defeat an evil foe.

Breath weapon
Gold dragons were powerful combatants, and they had two separate breath weapons. The first was fire. The second was a blast of weakening gas in which the dragon held the fire in its body and, instead of exhaling it, exhaled air over the fire which emitted a cone of hot, dry, dehydrating air that weakened foes.

Society
Unlike many species of dragons, gold dragons had a very firm and hierarchical social structure, encompassing all members of the species. This structure always had one gold dragon as its leader, who served until he/she either died or stepped down. At that time, all gold dragons congregated and chose the next leader of their kind. Sometimes two dragons could be chosen; in such cases, the two would share the duties of leadership. The position of leader, which bore the honorific Your Resplendence, did not so much involve the maintenance of order &mdash; gold dragons were famous for their good behavior &mdash; so much as the dispensing of advice and wisdom to any dragons who asked for it. Gold dragons were voracious learners, and they tended to become very wise and worldly as they aged. They freely shared their knowledge and experience to anyone who asked, dragon or not. In fact, it was not unknown for a gold Great Wyrm to take the form of a scholarly professor in order to spread its knowledge at some human center of higher education.

Gold dragons could sometimes be seen taking human form to experience living in human society, and aiding travelers. They were not, however, oblivious to chaotic and evil plots and would do to their best to thwart said plots whilst remaining within lawful grounds.

Lair
Unlike most other species of dragons, gold dragons devoted immense time and energy to the construction of their lairs. The layout of their lairs often resembled those of elegant human mansions, albeit buried underground. Rooms were well-constructed and elegantly decorated with the many art treasures the gold dragon had collected over its lifetime. Typical rooms in a gold dragon's lair included a main hall, a banquet hall, a resting chamber, a study, a kitchen, a lobby, a storage room, and perhaps even a lavatory. Many gold dragons even had a glass-walled observatory, especially if they lived underwater.

Gold dragons were known to reside in the Serpent Hills, the Earthfast Mountains, the Vast, the Graypeak Mountains, Loudwater, the Orsraun Mountains and Turmish.

Parenting and Development
Gold dragon eggs must be incubated in a nest of open flames. A newly hatched gold wyrmling appeared similar to an adult, except that it lacked horns or tentacle whiskers. At some point, however, the biological parents could send the wyrmling to live with foster parents; this allowed the parents to undertake their own quests, as well as exposing the wyrmling to new experiences.

Wyrmling, very young, young, juvenile, and young adult gold dragons tended to be solitary or lived in a clutch of 2-5 dragons; adults, mature adults, older dragons, wyrms or great wyrms would live solitarily, in a pair, or a family consisting of a couple of adults and several offspring.

Language
Gold dragons were the only species of dragon to have their own language. They could only write this language when in human form as their dragon form claws were not practical.

These dragons even kept records of historical events. The content of these records was mostly useless to human historians however, as they described dragon events like dragon births, trials and deaths, rather than events that affected the non-dragon world.

Notable gold dragons

 * Aerosclughpalar
 * Lareth
 * Oroyalis
 * Palarandusk
 * Protanther
 * Tamarand
 * Valamaradace