Appendix
North American Dragon Breeds
Native Northern Breeds - Canada and the Northern United States is home to a wide range of dragons in terms of size, temperament and appearance. The indigenous native American population consider dragons as valuable members of their societies and have never engaged in organised breeding, therefore nothing resembling a typical breed exists on the continent. Despite plentiful food, in particular the vast bison hordes of the North American plains dragons any larger than large middleweights are also extremely rare, in fact it is believed that no heavyweight exists north of the Incan empire. Native dragons do however have many adaptations that could make them desirable to European breeders. Most famously North American dragons are renowned for their fierceness and willingness to fight, in addition most dragons are much better adapted for extreme weather conditions than their European counterparts. Dragons living on either side of the U.S/Upper Canadian border exhibit cold weather adaptations such as pale colouring for camouflage, narrower nostrils and thicker scales to retain heat, double layered eyelids to improve vision during heavy snowfall and greater blood flow to the wing edges rather than membranes to minimise heat loss from the larger area whilst preventing ice buildup on the edge.
Marbled Patriot - The pride of the fledgling United States Aerial Corps, the Marbled Patriot is the result of a breeding program devised with the assistance of french breeders and their Chanson-de-Guerre. The aim of the program was to produce a breed approaching the size of a European heavyweight but with the hardiness and ferocity of the dragons native to North America. The result is a decent sized heavyweight of 20-22 tonnes with the marbled yellow and brown colouration of it's French progenitor and the constitution, ferocity and heavy, swept back horns from the native side of its parentage. The breed is therefore able to both fight through the cold winters that ground European dragons and outfight the smaller native dragons that can defy the low temperatures and harsh weather.
Eastern Knight - Another breed produced with French assistance, the Eastern Knight was bred by mixing French Petit-Chevaliers with a rare venomous native middleweight. Grey with brown streaked wings, the Eastern Knight is small for a heavyweight with a top weight of 20 tonnes and a minimum of 16 which sees the smaller examples dropping into the middleweight range. The danger of the breed regardless of size shouldn't be underrated however as its defining ability is the venomous bite inherited from its native parent which will kill a man instantly and cripple a dragon. Like the Marbled Patriot this breed is equally able to withstand the bitter cold of Northern Winters.
Ghost Reaper - Breeders in British Canada have so far been unable to produce a Canadian heavyweight breed due to the difficulty in moving British heavyweights to the continent whilst they are so desperately required at home. They have however had some success breeding the more expendable British Yellow Reaper with the best native middleweights available. The resulting Ghost Reaper has retained the white stripes of the Yellow Reaper but lost the yellow in favour of the pale grey common amongst native Canadian dragons and weighs in between a range of 13-16 tonnes. No other recognised breed is as mildly affected by cold weather conditions and the Ghost was inadvertently named so by British infantrymen for its disconcerting ability to appear from the midst of blizzards when even native dragons would be grounded.