so, with the new year fast approaching, something hooked a cranny in my skull and I started thinking about a different basis for dragons.

Wood Dragons: Pine, Oak, Maple, Cherry, Walnut, Ironwood, Acacia, Mesquite

Metal Dragons: 

Fire Dragons: 

Water Dragons: Spring, Stream, Pond, River, Sea, Bay, Ocean

Earth Dragons: Soil, Stone, Lava

Now, I wouldn’t use the western structure quite as much — I would have wood dragons be literally wooden, fire dragons be fire, and so forth. Closer to elementals in one sense, but holding on to the underlying concept of Wuxing, in particular the cycle of them and the astrological nature, such that every dozen years, a dragon molts into a new form, from wood to fire to earth to metal to water to wood.

And I would alternate their form between Eastern and western as well.

just thinking aloud with an idea in case anyone else found it interesting.

I like it! I may use a form of this in my next campaign.

Would fire dragons have different colors depending on their strength? Red is the weakest of the fire dragons, white is strong, blue is the strongest, like the temperatures of real fire.