The Natural World
Of Amor, Armor, and Alchemy
Amora is full of all manner of strange and wonderful beasts. spirits, plants, and other strange things. Here I will talk about some of the more noteworthy elements of this.
The rise of the sentient races has come slowly to amora, in part because there are so many powerful creations there able to hold their own against the races. Of course, in every generation there are great heroes who, either through their own might or their ability to unify and lead have managed to slay such beasts, but the task is certainly far from finished.
Beasts, like the people or the items of Amora, can draw power into themselves through the accomplishment of great deeds. Such power affects different creatures in different ways: some simply get bigger and fiercer, or tougher, while others get more cunning, or live longer, or even gain certain innate magical powers. As such, creatures that live near places of great magical powers are often extremely fiercesome, both because of the power they are able to draw upon, and because many powerful beings come against whom they must test their might.
The most powerful of the creatures on Amora are the dragons. Closely attuned to magical energies, dragons gain in strength, cunning, and magical craft quickly. Although dragons are technically intelligent, meaning that they can set traps, speak (often), etc, it is unclear whether their intelligence is the same as other races. Sometimes they behave like animals, other times they have complex, far reaching plans. In general, they are perhaps closest to the fae in terms of their minds: ie, utterly incomprehensible.
Oryxys, grandfather flame: There are perhaps two dozen dragons that have made an appearance throughout the history of amora. They disappear and reappear at great intervals, so it is difficult to say which have been killed and which have been "replaced". Regardless, the three that are generally considered the most powerful are Kraal, The Black Bane, Ixymion, the watchmaker (vanquished, though not necessarily killed, by the three heroes Tom the Fool, Balanor the Pure, and Eras, all three of whom lost their lives in the process), and Oryxys. Although as large as the next elder dragon, Oryxys is notable for his ferocity and his breath, which all who study such things agree is the hottest flame in all of Amora. Other than the legendary Ruby Shield Ignus, nothing is known that will not be reduced to molten slag by its heat.
