Dragonets
Dragonets are intelligent, winged creatures who resemble miniature dragons. Typically about three to four feet in size, they have wings, dexterous hands, and legs. They fly with confidence and often carry themselves with a certainty of their own dominance and place in the world, despite their small stature.
Dragonets love fish and are excellent swimmers. They readily dive from the air into the water, play in and around the water, and swim beneath the surface with ease.
Society and Competition
Dragonet society is organized less by fixed institutions than by playful competition. Prominent dragonets attract shifting entourages of companions and admirers, while ambitious challengers seek status by testing themselves against established stars. These contests can involve stories and songs, acrobatics, flying, diving, or almost any other skill that can be performed before an audience. Winning matters, but performing well matters too: a dragonet who challenges a famous champion may improve their standing even in defeat.
Dragonets can magically sense which competitor has the greater support of an audience; this shared awareness makes the result of a contest clear to all participants and watchers. Though competition can be fierce, it is rarely a source of resentment, with winners and losers typically returning to friendly lives together until the next challenge.
Dragonets have no structures that would appear to outsiders to be a permanent government. When a community must judge a serious crime or make a decision that affects everyone, it gathers for a more solemn use of the same audience-support magic. These proceedings retain the performative and collective character of ordinary competition, but their tone and consequences are much more serious.
Treasures and Stories
Dragonets delight in shiny objects, but their appreciation is often as much a social game as a desire to possess something valuable. A glittering stone or polished trinket can become the center of an extravagant invented mythology, with dragonets competing to tell the most compelling story about its origin and significance. Teller and audience alike often understand that the object is not truly important: the pleasure lies in the story, the performance, and the shared pretense that this particular bauble is a relic of tremendous consequence.
History
Tentative, might change
Dragonets are first known as inhabitants of Hkar, where they were common in cities, particularly in urban centers of magic. Whether they were created alongside humanity or came to Hkar from elsewhere in its early history remains unknown.
After the destruction of Hkar, dragonet communities scattered. Dragonets remained common in Drankor, while other groups fled into the Feywild or far to the east. The relationship between the refugees who entered the Feywild and the fey creatures now known as pseudodragons is uncertain. The fall of Drankor brought another catastrophe in which many dragonets died or fled, leaving their surviving communities widely dispersed.