Here’s a little more on the PATHROS setting (which is the one I am considering the most for the story I would like to write). Enjoy!
Dragoons:
Each ruling house, if it has any prestige at all, will have Dragoons. The Dragoons are the elite warriors of Pathros, the special forces. They are feared and reverenced, mysterious and renowned. Legends say that a small force of Dragoons can assault a fortress alone. Facts may not be too far different. Used only for the most critical of tasks, the Dragoons are at the top tier of any military force. What makes a Dragoon so prized? They have tamed the dragons.
Riding on the back of a fearsome species of aiexyreptilia, Dragoons soar through the mists and skies above, doing the will of their House rulers. More than simply having an unparalleled mount, the Dragoon’s are in top physical condition, equipped with the most advanced gear, armor, and weaponry, and enhanced by Pathros’ most valuable asset: aiex.
Aiex, primarily, is used in three different ways. The first is for the extraction of the miracle chemical, which is then used for medical purposes, and so on. The second is as the hardest of hard drugs. Pure aiex, ingested into the body in any way, is usually lethal. When mixed with a few other chemicals, though, it can be injected into the bloodstream to give a sort of super-high, more powerful than any drugs ever created on the Earth-Relic, twenty-fold. The side effects, though, are devastating, if not lethal. Just about the only way one can tolerate the after-effects of injecting aiex as a drug is to inject more, forcing its users to maintain a constant high. The third way aiex is used is in Dragoons. While injecting raw aiex is almost always lethal, there are a very small few individuals whose bodies can tolerate it. Those few, less than 0.5% of the population of Pathros, have just the right genetic code to tolerate raw aiex. They need to take it in very small amounts, gradually building up to doses that will have a noticeable effect. And that effect? It is similar to the effects of aiexyn gases that have been utilized to the many creatures that are indigenous to Pathros. The aiex will enhance the human body; strength, endurance, focus, and speed are just a few of the areas that can be enhanced by aiex injections. In greater doses, the enhancements are immense.
Dragoons possess superhuman traits.
That is not the only way the Dragoons use aiex. Much of their gear and weaponry is enhanced by aiex as well. The technology that utilized the powers found in aiex took almost two centuries to develop, but in the last decade or so, Dragoons have been equipped with aiex powered weaponry.
The third and final use for aiex in Dragoons is the most pivotal. It is in the taming of their dragon. In Pathros, there is a species of dragon classified as magnasauria varanus aves: Great Dragons. Of all the rare spectacles Pathros is home to, these are the rarest. They most fit the traditional view of a dragon held by Earth-Relic legends: massive reptilian form, immense wings, as well as the ability to breath out more than just air (due to the aiexyn mists they ingest). There is more to the great dragons, though, than their physical characteristics. They have an additional tie to aiex that other dragons lack.
When a human has been recently injected with a large dose of aiex, the great dragons sense that, and it triggers something within them: something that tames them.
The great dragons live in packs, scattered about Pathros. When a man who has recently injected aiex approaches them, they will come to greet him. Each member of the pack will line up in a ring, encircling the man. After a moment of silence, the dragons individually examining the man, any number of them may step forward. Doing so, whether it is an act of submission, or simply seeing an opportunity to utilize this person, they make a declaration of their desire to accompany this man.
If more than one dragon has stepped forth, they will then fight over the right to go with the man. The fights are rarely fatal, but more until one dragon is found superior to the others. The victor then approaches the man, and bows before it, indicating that the man should mount. The man mounts the dragon that has been tamed, and from that time forward, the great dragon is infinitely loyal.
It is an enigma, the reasons behind the behaviors of the great dragons. No scientific studies have found an explanation for it. The event is almost ceremonial, as if the dragons had been trained for it. No other species of dragon will do the same. The great dragons stand alone in their ritualistic submission to those who would become their riders. Whatever its origins are, the spectacle remains as the catalyst for the emergence of the Dragoons, the most feared warriors of all the galaxy.
-Scott Krammer
Next release on PATHROS: Ruling Houses
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