To many in Aedelor, lohiken are a reminder of a time when dragons dominated much of the world. Attitudes towards them can vary wildly between fear, distrust, respect, and reverence. Lohiken proudly bear the similarities with their draconic origins despite the animosity it sometimes brings them. Though one of the youngest ancestries in the world, their proud, hearty, and clever nature has made them one of the most populous and politically powerful in a short time. They are often called dragonkin by the non-draconic-speaking peoples of the world.

Characteristics

Lohiken bear a striking physical resemblance to dragons in nearly all ways, though they stand erect on two feet and do not possess tails or wings. They generally stand taller than humans with heights of six to seven feet, and their overall build is larger than humans to accommodate their taller size. They have dragon-like snouts and are entirely hairless, instead having frills, horns, or ridges upon their heads in a variety of shapes and sizes. Their eyes are reptillian-like: a solid colour with a vertical elliptical pupil, and may be red, orange, yellow, or green. Lohiken skin colour can range the whole draconic gamut: from black as pitch to white as freshly fallen snow, or from striking silver to glamorous gold. Their skin is also covered with hundreds of small, smooth keratinous scales. Their feet have three toes with a rear dewclaw and their hands have three fingers and a thumb.

Instead of giving birth to live young, lohiken hatch from eggs much like their namesake. Very soon after hatching a lohiken is capable of walking on its own, but is still vulnerable in many other ways. Lohiken are born with a full understanding of the draconic language, but it can take up to a year before they can speak. They physically mature faster than humans and by the time they are fifteen, they will have reached their adult size and stopped growing. Many lohiken, though notably not all, will develop the ability to exhale elemental powers in short bursts, very much like dragons can. Lohiken live up to 100 years naturally and show no visible physical signs of their age. However, lohiken past 70 will begin to weaken and suffer from diminished mental faculties.

A lohiken's skin colouring and features are not determined by their parentage as one might expect. Because of the nature of their creation, lohiken bear the ancestry of all dragon types, and their features are often an amalgamation of draconic features. For example, a lohiken may have black skin but the long whiskers typical of a gold dragon. Their personalities, desires, and dispositions are not influenced by their colour or features unlike a dragon's.

Names and Language

Lohiken names are largely borrowed from human cultures, though over time they have mixed in their own draconic heritage, making their names unique. Their names differentiate between males and females, and they have two names: one that is given to them by their father, and their mother's name which they take as a kind of family name. Their names also distinguish their sex with el- for daughters and al- for sons. For example, a lohiken named Naasif al-Adilah would be Naasif, son of Adilah.

When a lohiken has no parent(s) to provide them with a name, they may be provided it by others in the community or by the ones primarily responsible for raising them. Lohiken may take someone else's name for sentimental reasons as well, for example, to honour someone they hold in higher regard than their parents. A lohiken may also use a gender identifier in their name that is different than their biological sex.

Origins

Lohiken creation was the work of a coalition of dragons, both chromatic and metallic, called the Lohikapen. They worked together in the north of the Dragonspine Mountains, despite the explicit disapproval of other calissae. Their plan to create lohiken began around 2 BDC and would come to fruition at the exact moment of the Withering, which was not intentional. The Lohikapen sought a method of self-preservation in the face of extinction, using their souls to be reincarnated into a draconic-humanoid hybrid. They believed that by stretching the power of their souls, they could multiply their numbers tenfold while maintaining their memories, powers, and personalities.

Because their efforts culminated at the same time as the Withering, the Lohikapen's plans were inadvertently sabotaged. Instead of redistributing their souls across many hundred, the magical interference caused their souls to be redistributed across many hundreds of thousands. Because of this, their memories were lost save for an ingrained understanding of the draconic language. Their powerful magical nature as dragons was also severely diminished such that only a trace of their powerful elemental breaths remained. Their personalities and individualistic draconic features were not wholly lost but combined. The lohiken descended from the Dragonspine Mountains into Lohikdal, Lohikossa, and the Verdant Valley. The mass migration was ill-received by most natives to the areas and within a few years most lohiken were forced to continue looking for a home. They migrated west across the Dala Desert and sailed across the Shimmersea, Emerald Sea, and Stormsea to settle Tizano and western Kamazar. In present-day Aedelor, the lohiken continue to hold dominion over these areas and have grown to be politically powerful people. Lohiken cultures are similar in many ways, but the degree of hardships they faced in their migrations, and the cultures they integrated with along the way, created new ethnicities to call their own.

Lohiken Characters