Sathyran Monster Hunter
Abilities and Equipment
Sathyran monster hunters are highly variable in equipment and abilities, though they typically favor heavy-handed powerful weapons with the strength to pierce deep into a monsters hide. Large forward-weighted swordstaves, warpicks, and long slender spears are typical weapons, favored for their ability to pierce deep inside of an armored monster. Axes and maces are also common, however.
Universal to all monster hunters is a basic grasp of ritual magic, as ritual is necessary to avoid corruption from constant exposure to Abyssal Resonance. Over time, monster hunters build up a resistance to their foes malefic aura's. Many monster hunters, if they live long enough, eventually develop magical talents.
Monster hunters are usually well armored, although not in any way that restricts mobility or awareness. This usually means scale or lamellar armor, or sometimes mixed scale and plate armor.
The Abyss of Khora is a constant threat to the eastern badlands, a threat largely kept at bay by the constant vigilance of Dragari monster hunters. Monster hunters are skilled individual combatants, often wielding unusual weapons and combat styles to fight powerful foes. Most often monster hunters fight in groups of three to five, encircling their prey, having one hunter distract it while the others close in for the kill, but individual monster hunters have been known to fight on their own.
Attrition rate is high among the monster hunters, as skill alone is not sufficient to guarantee survival when faced with the horrid monsters of the Abyss of Khora.
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Wyvern Knight
Abilities and Equipment
Wyvern Knights come from diverse backgrounds and as a result have diverse fighting styles. However, they are somewhat constrained to what functions well from wyvern back. Halberds are a common pick, as are war-axes and longswords. Spears are typically not preferred, as it can be awkward to thrust in mid flight.
Wyvern Knights frequently fight dismounted, supported by their ally the wyvern. Even on its own the Wyvern is a dangerous foe, capable of resonant breathe attacks and with magical scales.
Wyvern knights may use the armor they were already used to, but it is also typical for them to wear scale armor crafted from the shed scales of their mounts; wyverns shed rarely, so these coats of magical armor are rare and valuable.
Wyvern knights are very likely to develop magical powers, either before or after becoming a wyvern knight, to the degree that more wyvern knights have magic than those that dont. However, this is not a requirement to be a wyvern knight.
Most typical to the Kingdom of Sathyras, but not entirely unheard of in other large Dragari tribes, Wyvern Knights are dragar that fight astride wyverns.
Wyverns are fully sentient divine creatures, every bit their riders equal or better. Wyverns and their riders closely bond, becoming firm friends.
Wyvern Knights, despite their name, are not a hereditary position, or even a formal hierarchy. Most typically, they are simply the natural conclusion to the friendship between a monster hunter, mage, or champion and a wyvern.
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Sathyran Infantry
Abilities and Equipment
Not formally trained nor equipped, Sathyran infantry relies more on zeal, strength, and cunning. Axes, spears and broadswords are typical for hand to hand combat, while wooden bows, javelins, and slings are all used at range. Sathyran dragar use shields with axes or swords, but not typically with spears. The shields they do use are small metal bucklers, rather than larger shields.
When equipped for war, even basic Sathyran infantry may be surprisingly well armored, many of them sporting coats of scale-mail or makeshift armor made of monsters hides or shells. Such armor is common wear while hunting for Dragar, owing to the hostility of the lands they live in.
All Sathyran dragar are somewhat familiar with fighting; they hunt in the badlands for most sustenance, and in cases of larger threats band together into warbands. While not professional military by any means, the natural strength and longevity of the Dragari lend themselves well to developing the skills of a warrior. Since the prime of a Dragar's life lasts far longer than most other races, they remain in fighting form for longer as well.
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Dragar Mercenaries
Abilities and Equipment
Dragar mercenaries are typically equipped with some of the best equipment that skilled Dragari craftsmanship can make. Some of the most primitive dragar, especially nomadic groups, may end up with only mediocre equipment, but most dragar mercenaries are well equipped with Dragar steel or bronze scale armor, helmets, and weapons- halberds, broadswords, axes, and swordstaves being typical. Because these mercenaries most often fight for bloodlust or desire for glory, ranged weapons are atypical though certainly not unheard of.
Dragar mercenaries fight with an instinctive cunning, and are usually highly experienced combatants who got their first taste of battle fighting with their tribe at a young age. What they lack in formal training is more than made up with talent and ferocity. They fight with traditional dragari techniques, favoring clean, powerful blows that knock their opponents off-balance.
It is an odd paradox that despite being a highly martial culture that respects combat prowess above most else, the Dragari rarely find themselves at war. On one hand, they possess little territory and population, while being a truly ferocious foe, meaning few external nations will dare invade them; conversely, they do not have the numbers to take and hold territory even if the inclination struck them.
Instead, Dragari with a lust for fighting men rather than monsters become mercenaries, selling their sword to the highest bidder. Some Dragar show some honor, only selling themselves to what they deign noble causes; others care only about the prize, and still others go where they believe they will find challenging opponents.
Dragari mercenaries are extremely well regarded as some of the strongest infantry on Auria, not only for their talent honed over a longer span of time than other races have, but also because they come equipped in full dragari steel.
Dragari being a communal society, the wealth they make frequently goes back to their home tribe or clan. Just as often however, the Dragar turn their back on their origins entirely, seeking personal enrichment.
Of course, these Dragar will usually return to fight for their tribe if needed, and every Dragari tribe usually has a handful of ex-mercenaries who still keep their skills sharp.
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Drake Knights
Abilities and Equipment
Drake knights are typically among the strongest of all Dragari, and nearly universally possess some magical talent. Matching these talents, they are equipped with the finest weapons and armor the Dragar can provide; finely smithed dragari steel, enchanted with draconic runes, and armor wrought of drakescales adorned with magical gemstones.
The drakes they ride are equally impressive, their natural scales far outstripping the protective capabilities of steel plate, their divine presence alone overwhelming the minds of lesser creatures. Claws and teeth, imbued with resonant energy, hack and chew through any defense.
Truly, few things in the world can be said to be more terrifying than a drake-mounted dragari.
Unlike the relatively gregarious wyverns, Drakes are not sociable creatures. Aloof and solitary, they spend their time isolated some ways away from the tribes they coexist with. That is not to say the drakes are disrespectful; far from it, they are well aware of the value the dragari have to them, and are typically curteous and diligent in their service to the tribe. But they are not accustumed to forming long-lasting emotional bonds.
So it is that it is quite rare for a drake to form a friendship with a Dragari, that they might fight together as a team. Should they do so, it is likely a particularly valiant Dragar that they have settled on, a true exemplar of martial virtue.
Drakes are not as fast as wyverns, and their divine sorcery is typically not as well honed, but they are far more powerful in the melee. Rather than fighting in the sky, they crash to the ground, a whirlwind of raking claws and gnashing teeth as they rip apart anything in their way, be they armored knights, corrupted monsters, or shielded spearmen.
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Dragar Hunters
Abilities and Equipment
Dragar hunters use bows and javelins, the same tools used when hunting. They usually will have axes or spears for close-quarters combat, but are more accustumed to shooting from a distance.
Unlike the massed volley tactics of more sedentary civilizations, Dragar hunters will usually engage in a loose formation, each hunter aiming for a specific target. As a result they fire slower and are more vulnerable to cavalry, but are at the least more accurate.
When at war Dragar hunters wear the same equipment typical of most dragar. Depending on affiliation this may mean scale armor, leather, or nothing at all.
A large proportion of any Dragar tribe are hunters- not of monsters, but normal beasts. The skills of a hunter- the pursuit, the ambush, the use of bow and javelin- are the skills of a warrior, and Dragar hunters make for fine combatants when pressed.
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Drakwuld
Abilities and Equipment
Drakwuld have thick scales, sharp fangs, and powerful claws. Well muscled and fast, they are quite dangerous, though they lack any divine powers of sorcery or resonant breathe weapons like greater dragonkin.
A lesser draconid with no wings and a quadrupedal stance, Drakwuld are about the size of a draft horse. They have thick muscular necks and powerful hind legs, while the front legs are only used while sprinting. In combat they are able to slash with the front legs and bite with their large mouths. Generally their stance is comparable to a utahraptor or allosaurus.
These are not divine creatures, though they do possess a reasonably strong resonance. Lacking inherent magical power they do not have resonant breath, making them little more than strong animals. They are fairly intelligent however, and well suited to domestication. Some dragar tribes make use of them as mounts, as well as for their milk.
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Agility: 60-90
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Resilience: 75-110
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Strength: 170-200
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Intelligence: 30-50
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Focus: 30-60
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Endurance: 70-90
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