A large, non-sentient therapsid living in the deserts south of Alastari. Mere dragons are about the size of a small horse, four-legged and reptilian in appearance, though their hides have coarse, sparse hair rather than scales. Though slow, their heavy claws and whip-like tails make them formidable foes, and their bite is poisonous. The poison flows from glands located behind the incisors, and is not "injected" as most snake venom is. Mere dragons must get a good bite on their victim and grind the venom into the wound.

Mere dragons were tamed and trained as mounts by the Folstom Empire ages ago, before the Folstom mastered the art of enslaving true dragons. Vicious in a fight, the mere dragon cavalry is still remembered with a shudder in some of the more southerly Alastarian cities, though in most places legends of the Folstrom invasion focus on the devastation wrought by the true dragons. (See Dragon)

Modern mere dragons do not seem to correspond with ancient descriptions of the animal; there are definite indications that mere dragons as a species may at one time have been intelligent, and closer in abilities to the "true" dragons. It is speculated that the large number of mere dragons who were present at the last battle of the Folstrom, when the destruction magic was released, suffered some sort of genetic damage as a result. On the other hand, records of the ages between the Folstrom wars and the present are quite incomplete, and it is possible that the ancient accounts are speaking of an entirely different animal, since extinct.

Most of what is sold as dragon steak, dragon hide, dragon bone, and so on in Alastari is mere-dragon products.

Encyclopedia Alastaria

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