[khorboth]

I appreciate the feedback everyone. I've been digesting.

My current thinking is:

Dragons start as eggs laid singlely, hatch as wingless wyrmlings. They're pretty dumb in this state. Lizard-dumb. In the wild, they'd need care and bond with their parents/caretakers. In the Kingdom, humans with dragon-empathy can bond with them and convince the parents to move on rather than doing full-time care.

After about 5 years, they Elevate. This is a magical process. In the wild, this is done with the help of the full adults which don't exist in the Kingdom. In the Kingdom, the Dragon Altar calls the wyrmlings on the exact 5-year anniversary of their hatching. The human they're bonded to can guide them to one side of the Altar (design pending) where their next form is determined.

Then, they are in their adolescent form. There are 4: Earth, Air, Fire, Water. Any male/female pair can breed together to create an egg. They are the same species. In the Kingdom, this is believed to be the adult form. These are large enough to ride and are smarter than dogs, though have about the same intelligence range. This form lasts about 10 years. In the Kingdom, on the 10th anniversary of the Elevation, they fly up higher than any can follow and are believed to fly to heaven. In reality, they are flying North to join the adults.

In adult form, they are changed once again in a kind of continuing metamorphosis. A chain of continued specialization. Earth to metal or stone or whatnot. Fire to lava or heat or whatnot. I won't need specifics for a bit. But I'm looking at a large variety here. These are also human-smart and highly magical. They are responsible for the Elevation steps in the wild and can, to a certain degree, control the younger dragons.

I'm thinking that after a few introductory adventures, the deal will expire, and the PCs will have to trek to the dragons and find out what is happening. Then convince the adult dragons to enter into a new deal. This won't be too hard because dragons are physically unsuited to crafts and building. Predators like dragon eggs which they spend much of their effort protecting. This has also forced them to lay eggs in less-than-ideal conditions forcing them to expend magic keeping the eggs warm which requires extra vigilance. The human design for the hatchery is something that the dragons could never make. Therefore, they have really flourished with the influx of adolescents from the Kingdom.

This should sate the kids' desire to be heroic, not be too bloody, get lots of wonder, and still be engaging enough. I'm working on a magic system which will be collaborative between them and handle the problem-solving fun without the need for 37,000 dragons like in the show.

Thoughts?

While I appreciate the feedback on stat-blocks, that's too much crunch. I probably won't even have a single stat-block. General comparisons are all I'm looking at. All dragons can breathe fire, but fire dragons can shape it differently. Water dragons have weaker armor. That's as deep as I'm gunna go.