Time dragons were a species of epic dragon, a group of exceedingly rare and powerful dragons. They were sometimes called chronology dragons, ageless dragons, or epoch dragons.[2]
Description[]
Even wyrmling time dragons were huge creatures, with silvery-white scales that lay close to the body; the lack of ridges made the epoch dragons look unusually smooth. They had a single spike that protruded from the back of the head, nearly doubling the length of the cranium, and two spikes that attached to the end of the tail, giving it a forked appearance. The wings were triangular in shape, with the narrowest points where they attached to the back; fully spread, it gave the wings an hourglass-like shape.[2]
As time dragons aged, their scales darkened to charcoal black, and they developed a black, hourglass-shaped mask over their eyes and twelve black, unevenly-spaced stripes along their body. These stripes gradually moved down the body as the dragon aged, with a new stripe appearing by the mask when one disappeared off the end of the tail.[2]
Personality[]
Epoch dragons were aloof and solitary individuals; they were typically neutral in regards to good or evil, law or chaos.[2]
Abilities[]
Like other species of dragons, time dragons spoke the Draconic language and possessed blindsense, low-light vision, and darkvision. They had two breath weapons: a line of "ravaging time" that aged creatures and objects struck by it, and a cone of "time expulsion" that made creatures caught within it disappear for some seconds, even minutes, before reappearing.[2]
Ageless dragons also possessed innate spellcasting abilities: they could cast time stop at will even as wyrmlings and slow thrice each day as juveniles and older, though naturally older time dragons were more skilled with the spells. Even more deadly, time dragons hatched with an innate ability to control time, and could accelerate their own actions as if under the effects of haste for up to a minute each day, an ability that additionally rendered them immune to slow and similar effects.[2]
As they aged, this faculty with time only increased: a very young time dragon gained the ability to, once each day, borrow time from the future to further accelerate their actions; an old time dragon could do this twice each day. Adult and older epoch dragons operated as if under the effects of haste continuously rather than just for a minute- an ability they could not suppress and which could not be dispelled for long. Ancient time dragons developed an aura of slow up to 50 ft (15 m) in radius that they could emanate for a full (nonconsecutive) minute, and great wyrms were rumored to be able to move forwards and backwards through time with some preparation.[2]
Combat[]
Time dragons felt they had better things to do than fight, thus using all of their abilities to disable their enemy or end combat as quickly as possible, and were willing to flee rather than fight if necessary. Often, they started with their most powerful spells and then fell back on their breath weapon to weaken those who survived the initial onslaught. They relied on their time stop ability to move around the battlefield quickly.[2]
Ecology[]
A time dragon youth.
Time dragons could live anywhere there was air for them to breathe and food for them to eat- and as dragons, they could eat just about anything. Moreover, they could go months without eating, though doing so made them lethargic. They were semi-nomadic and rarely stayed in their lair for more than a few years; such lairs were always in remote locations.[2]
They did not have a society as such, spending their lives largely in solitude. Once every millennium, a group of four to ten epoch dragons would congregate for the purposes of reproduction. As soon as all the females in the group had conceived, they departed from each other.[2]
Unlike many other species, time dragons did not put much effort into their hoards and often abandoned and rebuilt their hoard several times over the course of their lifetime. As with other epic dragons, what they did hoard tended to be less coin and more lore, magic, and exquisite art. However, they most prized and zealously guarded any device in their hoard that measured time, from simple sundials to complex waterclocks.[2]
Time dragons did not die of old age, only to disaster or other creatures. Moreover, they could age erratically, and their apparent biological age did not always match their age in years.[2]
No significant number of time dragons lived on Toril; in fact, they seemed to shun the Realms for unknown reasons. They had been briefly studied by mages to investigate the effects of their presence on gates, mythals, wards, and certain other long-term enchantments; said effects were uniformly deleterious, making the enchantments unstable, and sometimes triggering built-in reactions meant to respond to certain events that hadn't occurred. These effects were unintentional by the time dragons and due solely to their mere proximity.[3]
Appendix[]
Video Games
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Justice Arman, F. Wesley Schneider (October 2023). “Morte's Planar Parade”. Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 48–51. ISBN 978-0-7869-6904-3.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 Mike McArtor (September 2007). “Time Dragon: A Wyrm For The Ages”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #359 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), pp. 36–41.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, The Hooded One (2011-12-06). Questions for Ed Greenwood (2011). Candlekeep Forum. Retrieved on 2023-07-08.
Connections[]
Chromatic dragons: Black • Blue • Brown • Gray • Green • Orange • Pink • Purple • Red • Salt • White • Yellow
Gem dragons: Amethyst • Beljuril • Crystal • Emerald • Obsidian • Sapphire • Topaz • Ruby
Neutral dragons: Amber • Jacinth • Moonstone • Pearl
Lung dragons: Chiang lung • Li lung • Lung wang • Pan lung • Shen lung • T'ien lung • Tun mi lung • Yu lung
Ferrous dragons: • Cobalt • Iron
Planar dragons: Adamantine • Astral • Battle • Blight • Chaos • Ethereal • Hellfire wyrm • Howling • Mirage • Oceanus • Pyroclastic • Radiant • Rust • Shadow • Styx • Tarterian
Spelljamming dragons: Moon/lunar • Radiant • Sun/solar
Epic dragons: Force • Prismatic • Time
Catastrophic dragons: Blizzard • Earthquake • Volcanic
Miscellaneous dragons: Cobra • Dzalmus • Mist • Rattelyr • Song • Vishap
Linnorms: Corpse tearer • Dread • Stygian
Drakes: Ambush • Black firedrake • Dragonne • Elemental (Earth • Fire • Ice • Magma • Ooze • Smoke • Water) • Felldrake (Crested • Spitting) • Greater • Guard • Mind • Portal • Rage • Space • Storm • Vulture
Dragonbloods: Draconic creature • Dragonborn of Bahamut • Dragonspawn
Drow-dragon (shadow) • Drow-dragon (deep) • Half-dragon • Kobold (Dragonwrought • Urd) • Weredragon • Zar'ithra • Zekyl
Hybrid monsters: Dracimera • Dracolisk • Mantidrake • Wyvern drake