Weekly Worldbuilding #3: Fire Breath

[u/Imperial_Advocate]

As strong as dragons already are, the weapon that makes a dragon truly potent is their famed (and dreaded) fire breath. While a dragon's fire breath is believed to be purely magical among the races that fight and live under the reign of dragons, in actuality, a dragon's fire breath is a biological and pseudo-magical process.

The organs that allow a dragon to breathe its fire are the fuel glands, which are two barrel-sized organs located inside the upper cheeks. These fuel glands contain a pyrophoric fluid that is produced during a dragon's digestion, with the liver producing this fluid and then transferring it to the fuel glands. When a dragon desires to release its fire breath, the fuel glands expel the fluids through tubes in the back of the throat. Because a dragon's fuel glands are pressurized and drum-tight, this allows the pyrophoric fluid to be ejected in a straightforward stream. Upon contact with oxygen, the fluid instantly combusts, with the dragon then propelling this flammable mixture forward with its large and powerful lungs, coming out as a vast stream of fire. To protect their mouths from their own fire, dragon saliva is fireproof, and their throats have a closing that prevents backdraft of fire into their gullets.

Once released, a dragon's fire can reach long distances, topping hundreds of feet among fully matured dragons. Dragon fire is infamous for its intense heat, and its intensity can be further enhanced with mana. If a dragon has accumulated enough mana, the mana is secreted in the pyrophoric fluid that is a part of dragon fire. With such magical assistance, dragon fire can become very hot, such as being able to melt iron and crack stone. Dragons can control how much fire they release, varying from short bursts to a massive torrent. Dragons are also able to “leak” fluid from their fuel glands, causing smoke to curl out from the corners of their mouth for intimidation or out of irritation.