Sources of art on this subject have been indexed.

Bronze dragon

From PathfinderWiki
Bronze dragon
(Creature)

Bronze dragons are usually found near temperate coastlines, befitting their mastery of water. They are able to exhale electricity as a weapon. As lawful good creatures, bronze dragons have been known to ally with travelers and adventurers if the cause and reward are both right and just.1

Appearance

Bronze dragons lack the horns and bony growths common to other draconic species, instead they have a pair of large, fanlike frills growing behind their jaws and further membranes over the rest of their bodies. Bronzes often have webbed toes, as well as rudder-like fins growing from their tails. They also possess the smallest wing-to-body ratio among true dragons, and consequently need to exert the most energy during flight.2

Habitat

Bronze dragons dislike extremes of climate, and preferentially inhabit temperate areas. They usually live in hilly areas and close to large bodies of water, whether the ocean or large lakes.3

Ecology

Bronze dragons are highly adapted for aquatic life. Their stout bodies and numerous fins make them efficient swimmers, and they possess a primitive set of gills protected by their large facial frills. Their fins serve a secondary purpose on land, where they help keep the dragons cool by helping to disperse heat from the blood circulating within them.3

Bronze dragons subsist primarily on seafood, favoring items such as fish, clams, and crabs as sustenance, although they also eat fruits, tubers, and tree nuts. They have highly efficient metabolisms, and a single day's haul of fish can, when properly preserved, sustain a bronze dragon for a year.3

Society and culture

Bronze dragons are the least sociable of the metallics, and often remain in isolation for years or decades before returning to society. These social forays are often done for the purpose of acquiring fresh reading material, as bronzes are also voracious readers. They are also given to scholarly pursuits, and tend to be particularly attracted to mathematics and to history. Most bronzes assemble large libraries over their lives; as they also prefer to lair near water, this creates an inherent risk when storing and transporting their acquisitions, and consequently bronzes typically store their possessions in waterproof containers or in dry chambers away from standing water. On occasion, more socially minded bronze dragons live within humanoid societies, typically within libraries, temples, or other places of learning.3

Some bronzes, rather than becoming scholars, pursue lives of contemplation and asceticism instead. These dragons often come to inhabit monasteries, often becoming teachers, guardians, or advisors there but rarely ascending to full leadership.3

The bronzes' patient natures make them ideal guardians, and they are often employed by humanoids and other dragons in this capacity. Those seeking a bronze's services as a guardian typically repay them with interesting books for the dragon to read while fulfilling their duty, although bronzes will occasionally take up protective duties out of a sense of moral duty. Bronzes are highly protective of the items they guard, and will do anything short of sacrificing their own lives to ensure their safety.3

In addition to the love of coinage and precious metals common to all dragons, bronzes are strongly attracted to beautiful objects of natural, and especially marine, origin, and often collect large quantities of seashells, coral, strangely shaped driftwood, and rocks with water-worn holes. On occasion, they may also collect such things as pressed flowers or pinned insects. They also tend to value items that aid them in gathering and recording information, such as crystal balls and animated quills.3

Bronze dragons usually gravitate towards divination magic, which suits both their hunger for knowledge and their traditional role as guardians, and are often skilled seers and diviners.3

On Golarion

See also: Category:Bronze dragon/Inhabitants

Bronze dragons can be found in most parts of Golarion, apart from infernal Cheliax and undead-rife Geb. They are particularly common in Taldor, which holds the largest population of bronze dragons in the Inner Sea region, probably because of the Royal Proclamation of the Draconic Banking, issued in 1941 AR, which allows bronze dragons to set up banking operations in the cities of Cassomir, Maheto, Oppara, and Zimar without having to pay taxes.4 In Qadira bronze dragons are most common across the Alavah Peninsula and some even believe that the Sisters of Bronze, who guard the city of Ushumgal, are in fact just a disguise used by a group of bronze dragons.5

Numerous monasteries in Tian Xia and Jalmeray are home to monastically-minded bronzes. This practice is rarer in Avistan, but the Vythded Monastery in Lastwall and the Palace of Virtue in Molthune are both known to house bronze dragon monks.6

Bronzes, followed by a large minority of green dragons, make up the majority of the Bryemirites, a peculiar tradition named after Bryemir, a dragon of unknown kind that announced 2,000 years that dragonkind needed to calculate the "perfect number" to prevent an unknown but supposedly terrible calamity. The Bryemirites subsequently devoted themselves to trying to determine what this number would be, and although detractors consider theirs to be wasted effort, their research has led to considerable advances in the field of mathematics.7

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.