>Another thing to keep in mind in the rampaging debate
>on the Kralorelan emperors and dragons is that to the
>Kralorelans, dragonhood is a _spiritual_ state. The
>emperor could probably turn into a huge winged lizard
>if he wanted to, but that's _not_ what his being a
>dragon is about.
I think this difference (ie Dragonhood is a spiritual status) primarily arises from Kralori practice more than anything else. Since Dragons are such vast powerful beings, their capacity for intervening in the mortal world is limited. When one is in direct communion with the Cosmic Dragon, events in the mortal world become insignificant. A good example of this would be the August Dragon who sleeps virtually all the time and has only been awake four times.
To become more effective, Kralori dragons voluntarily accept restrictions on their being that make them much less powerful - such as never assume true form or somesuch. This gives them a much greater opportunity to affect the mortal world at the expense of forsaking unusable power. Because of these restrictions, most Kralori Dragons appear human and thus Dragonhood is seen as a spiritual status. A good parallel with the Western Dragonewts would be the Inhuman King who would be a True Dragon but has decided not to advance to this status to protect his kin.
Naturally once a dragon ages, they get more powerful and thus the Kralori have to keep accepting more restrictions in order to remain in the world of mortals. When these restrictions get too burdensome, a Kralori Dragon performs utuma and is released from his restrictions to soar into the realm of the Cosmic Dragon.
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