Quote Originally Posted by Bulldog Psion View Post
The reason for the age categories, of course, is so that dragons can be used as monsters/bosses at various levels. Adult dragons are so powerful they would seldom appear in games. The younger age categories enable actual game use of the creatures, while maintaining the idea that dragons are some of the most powerful beings in the game.
Yes, this is basically it. Imagine the Oots as a group of players in the forest looking for the starmetal, and they encounter the ancient black dragon as the final boss. Probably a total party kill, even if V is not turned into a lizard at that point. A level-appropriate boss is a dragon that isn't so powerful, which in this system means a youth dragon. The system is basically set up so that dragons of all ages can be opponents in a D&D campaign, as I understand it, but that naturally begs the question of where a young dragon's parents are.