Well, I finally cracked.

What started as a strange "I want my very own corny half-dragon fantasy protag" tangent turned into "I am the sudden owner of an elaborate quest story and a setting that combines sci fi futurism and historical fantasy AT THE SAME TIME and also LOOK I CAN PUT EYEBALLS ON ANYTHING I WANT TO LOOK AT ALL THESE GODDAMN EYEBALLS."

So anyway, this is Ugnak, and he is the vessel for the soul of a dragon named Lyrocal. Dragons are sort of an otherworldly power/eldritch abomination hybrid in this setting--whenever a dragon is about to die, they seek out a human settlement and take a vessel, "hosting" their soul inside the vessel's body. This is part of their life cycle, and although they won't take a vessel that doesn't present as willing, they generally only take adolescents, since their bodies are in a state of change anyway. The dragon's soul incubates in the human's body, where it can be drawn on for great power, but it will eventually consume the human soul... and the more you draw on that power, the faster your soul is cannibalised into the dragon's. Once the dragon's soul is revitalisated, the dragon "sheds" the human body, casting the husk aside in a manner reminiscent of a cicada, although rather more dramatic.

This is a really elaborate way of saying the dragon bursts out of your useless body and kills you.

Dragons do not reproduce, meaning that if (for some reason) the dragon cannot find any humans or the vessel is killed before incubation is complete... well, the world just has one less dragon. The dragons themselves are something of an enigma--common knowledge is that they emerged from a vast crevasse in the earth, but no one can really find the crevasse, so it might just be a lot of bunk.

That being said, dragons live for so long that people can go for generations--hundreds of years--without ever seeing one. Ugnak/Lyrocal is the first one anyone around has heard of or sighted in centuries.

At least that proves there still are some. Or at least one.

Art by Itsubun!