Drake

Drakes are gargantuan, reptilian beasts that trace their heritage back to the elemental planes. Now dwelling on Athas, they have come to view their adoptive home as their personal hunting grounds. Cunning and ferocious and sporting powerful psionic abilities, the drakes are considered by many on Athas to be second only to the Dragon in power. The first drakes were not natives of Athas and used tremendous psionic powers to travel from their home elemental planes to Athas, where they found a world much to their liking. Many generations of drakes have been born on Athas since that time.

Striking at their foes with claws, a savage bite and a sweeping tail attack, drakes share many combat techniques with draconic creatures of other worlds. Drakes are large enough to swallow some opponents whole and will use this attack option in preference to all others if the target is of a suitable size. All drakes enhance their physical prowess with psionic powers, and those of the four classic elements (air, earth, fire and water) are also capable of launching elemental attacks against their targets.

Despite their power, drakes are nevertheless accorded an almost legendary status by most Athasians. Few people believe they really exist. Even fewer have ever seen one, and very few of those have lived to tell about the experience. This is not least because drakes prey largely on humans and humanoids (although they will eat inix and mekillots when available and erdlu if necessary). Drakes prefer the taste of carnivore flesh over any other type of meat.

Other elementals look down on drakes as deserters or creatures who abandoned the pure elements for this lesser plane and encounters between drakes and other elemental beings are always tense, often unpleasant, and sometimes violent. It is almost unheard of for drakes to return to their native planes and most, in fact, have never been there, being the descendants of drakes who immigrated to the prime material plane centuries ago. Only the oldest of Athas' drakes still recall the days when they forsook the elements for the world of the dark sun.

A drake's hide can fetch an enormous price on the trading market but can also result in a death penalty as the hides, teeth, claws, and blood are of such value thatsome sorcerer-kings forbid their sale. They have instructed their templars to confiscate any such items that appear in the market in the name of their sorcerer-king. Elves, of course, defy these edicts at every turn, and make a fair profit selling drake materials while just one step ahead of their templar pursuers.

Drake hide makes outstanding armor, the teeth and claws make excellent weapons and the blood of the beast is also valuable as it is used in certain alchemical solutions. Beyond these truly useful items, folklore holds that just about any portion of a drake's carcass holds a great deal of magical luck, a belief that is often relied upon by disreputable elven hawkers who push a variety of lucky tokens, allegedly fashioned from drake parts.

Drakes mate when the urge strikes them and swiftly separate after pairing. No more than two eggs are laid, hatching after six months, and the resulting drakelings are almost always hungry and need constant care. Young drakes grow from two to twenty feet in the first year, then five feet each year thereafter until they reach full size for their species.


 * Air Drake
 * Earth Drake
 * Fire Drake
 * Magma Drake
 * Rain Drake
 * Silt Drake
 * Sun Drake
 * Water Drake