The Scales are a race of sentient, reptilian draconic quadrupeds indigenous to the Dread Dimensions. They prefer the warm environs of volcanic areas, but are broadly adaptable. They are lawful by nature, but usually considered inclined toward evil by other species, tending to be violent with outsiders. That said, they are known to engage in peaceful relations in some cases. They are eusocial and colonial. They are often preyed upon by Shadhavar.
Scales have primitive magic, associated with their warrior class. Scales proliferate rapidly and are tenacious despite their small size. They are mostly shades of red, yellow and orange and are about 50cm high. All adult Scales have vestigial wings, but only the adolescents of their breeding class, whose appearance in quantity defines the beginning of the Great Swarming, are capable of sustained flight. A colony of Scales is ruled by a Scale Queen, who lays all the eggs for the colony. The Scale Queen is a tremendous creature, many meters high, who typically lives in a large chamber, hanging from the ceiling.
Although the Scales are eusocial with biologically-defined castes, they do not have a hive mind, and must communicate and deliberate by talking, within the framework of a basically ordinary (though extremely natural for them) command structure.
Scales resist fire, though not absolutely. They are vulnerable to piercing and stabbing attacks that can slip between their scales, but quite resistant to slashing damage. They are very weak to cold, and become extremely sluggish in low temperatures (although a cold attack does not immediately render a Scale sluggish, as they are large enough to have substantial heat capacity.) Scales’ lifespan varies according to their cast. Workers and warriors live about forty years, efficiently perishing before significant senescence renders them useless. Thinking castes, on the other hand, can live hundreds of years, accruing vast experience. Scale Queens live indefinitely, assuming they survive the high mortality associated with being a Winged Princess and leaving their mother colony in the Great Swarming.
The Scale warrior class has magic which is largely innate, although it may be honed with practice. Their magic is mainly to enhance their physical attacks (i.e. consists of physical buffs) and speed. They do not have a cultural recognition of this as a distinct phenomenon from their other activities, but it is nonetheless magic from an in-universe and game-mechanical point of view (e.g. unicorns are sensate to it and can attempt to dispel it as with other kinds of magic.) Some Scale specialists may have additional minor magic relating to their occupation. Scales are faster and more agile on four legs than on two, but, like dragons, they can walk as bipeds and use their foreclaws as hands.
The ruins of the Arcane Helix were colonized by Scales. The Helix became the center for a cultural sea change among the scales in that part of the Dread Dimensions, mostly due to the work of a young and particularly bright thinker named sSs!sh. She became the first Scale to speak, read and write Equestrian, which enabled her to access the Helix's library, and eventually led to a technological revolution. Once armed only with primitive metal weapons, spears and bows, the Scales now field a variety of units armed with repeating crossbows, hand cannon, flamethrowers, poison gases selective for various enemy species, and with explosives, of which they have become particularly fond.
During the Equestrian colonization of the Dread Dimensions, changelings infiltrated the Scales and promoted a federation of Scale colonies, with the intention of using them as a buffer state to protect the Equestrian settlements. This led to an era of scale dominance in the region, at the expense of the Shadhavar. However, during the Extirpation by En-Netsusep in the 21st century, the Scales suffered nearly as much as the Equestrian colonists. In some cases, scale colonies were destroyed completely. However, they have since become common and relatively prosperous again. Of note, Scales farther from the Equestrian Colonies were never infiltrated by changelings, and were little affected by the extirpation. These colonies also tended to be less technologically advanced, however.
Scale Castes
Breeding (female):
- The are two types of breeding females: Queens and Winged Princesses. Queens both provide a colony with eggs and act as its ruler; Winged Princesses are adolescent queens sent out to found new colonies. Adolescent breeders are the only scales with flight-capable wings.
Breeding (male):
- Most members of the breeding caste are male, and their job consists of fertilizing and tending to the eggs. If a group of scales has no breeding females, either due to the death of a colony’s queen or to a swarm lacking a Winged Princess for one reason or another, a male breeder may undergo a change in sex (which male breeder it is depends on complex sociobiological factors). Male breeders are the only males in a scale colony, though non-breeders are sterile anyway. Adolescent breeders are the only scales with flight-capable wings.
Worker:
- Workers tend to make up the bulk of scale colonies. They are strong, tough, and have minds suited to labor. The differences between workers and warriors are relatively minor, and workers may change into warriors if the colony is under appropriate stress (an insufficient quantity of immediately needed defenders).
Warrior:
- Warriors, like workers, are strong and tough. Their minds are suited to combat, though (think “boredom punctuated by frantic activity” vs. “doing a complex task relatively steadily without active opposition”), and their hides and scales are tougher. Warriors can change into workers if the colony is under appropriate stress (resource shortages, since workers require less than warriors).
Thinker:
- Aside from warriors, the other castes tend to not be terribly creative, and the creativity of warriors is limited to tactics and some basic strategy. Thinkers are the ones who advise the queens (who tend to be conservative unless the colony is faring badly), pick good spots for new colonies, plan work for the workers, etc. They are, however, the frailest caste.
Scales Outside Colonies
Scales are able to survive outside a colony, though they generally find this stressful and rarely do so, outside the case of the winged breeding caste establishing a new colony.
Scale Workers are sometimes enslaved by other species, and will eventually give up trying to return to their colony if their modest material needs are provided for by their captors. Warriors, by contrast, will generally not give up on escaping and will usually fight to the death rather than be captured in the first place. Thinkers are rarely captured.
Occasionally, a member of the winged breeding caste will "go rogue" and not breed, prolonging their swarming flight "indefinitely."