• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

How Would One Infuse Cloth With Dragon's Scales

ShadeZ

Maester
So in my book a race of dragon slayers called demiduuri are known for infusing scales into their weapons, armor and even common clothes since scales have magic in them and demiduuri are even further strengthened when they are near dragon magic since their anti-magic reacts to dragons' presence or that of dead dragon scales. With armor and weapon they melt scales down and mix it with any metal. It creates a glassy weapon that can cut through dragon's hide. In armor it creates a metal that is the color of the scale and usually strongly resembles scales in that it is shiny and has gemstone like qualities to it. in cloth the cloth shimmers and has vibrant color. However I'm not sure how one would infuse a scale into hide or fiber to make cloth out of it.
 
Hmmmm.... well, if your dragons have the underpinnings of biologic function, maybe a cell structure or other chemical reaction can take place and can be readily exploited?

When you mention smithing and smelting, I think of adding carbon and other metals to iron to make certain grades of steel. Maybe the dragon scales add something very unique to the metals when they are superheated? Or, perhaps they can help draw out impurities in the smelt and clear off slagg?

Reusing scales as-is for armor plating makes sense as long as the scales can be punctured for threading or riveting on to hides (dragon leather?) or if these people have developed a good needle or knotcraft to secure them onto garments, that would probably be the easiest way to produce quality armor.

I do like CupofJoe idea for metal drawing into a useable thread, like gold weaving, but I would suggest wearing metals like that has some iffy implications for practical everyday wear, so I wouldn't make it the foundation of textile industry like wool or cotton. For ceremonial garb or armor embellishments I would say go for it.

Perhaps the raw scales can be split into different layers to harvest materials for different uses? There could be a fiberous layer that could be boiled or extracted, which causes a protein strain to unravel into a useful material; Not unlike how cattepillar casings get boiled to make silk thread.

Maybe one layer could be split like bamboo into long fibers that could then be spun together into a yarn? You'd have to develop splitting, carding, threshing, and spinning technologies/machines like a cotton gin and shuttle looms to make quick/mass production possible.


Maybe pulverizing the scale and using it for a natural dye can infuse qualities into otherwise ordinary fabric?

And, dragon leather: if you're going through the effort of plucking scales, I don't think you'd ignore the valueable hide underneath.

Do they eat the dragons?
 
Hi,

I may be missing the point - but why infuse them? Why not just glue the scales down onto the cloth to get armour? And if you need it to look more clothy, add another lay of material over the top sort of like a gambeson with mail sewn in.

Cheers, Greg.
 

ShadeZ

Maester
And, dragon leather: if you're going through the effort of plucking scales, I don't think you'd ignore the valueable hide underneath. Do they eat the dragons?

I like this dye idea. They do not eat dragons anymore than they eat humans. A dragon slayer can consume life and magical energy with barely more than a touch weakening their prey and strengthening them. This is about as close as they get to 'eating' a dragon. There is a common rumor that the dragons slayers were banished because they are predators that will kill and eat any prey in their way including humans and elves. They get a much greater boost if they 'eat' dragon, monster, or faerie energy as they have a taste for 'eating' magic as they are anti-magical and supernatural in nature.
 
I see. My 'do they eat dragons' question had more to do with other processing techniques for textiles and leather tanning making use of bones, blood and organs. If you don't want to butcher an animal for the practicality of consuming it for sustenance, you'd probably be dis-inclined to go through massive amounts of work to harvest few key components.

For instance, boiling the brain and other organs ( I believe it is the pancreas in mammals) is used for leather tanning chemistry. Usually the hide is then cold-smoke (offset draft) finished and sun cured.

Drained blood can make for an excellent textile dye and paint base. Digestive tracts make for excellent cording and knotworks when they are cured.

The teeth and claws may be of interest for your culture, as decorative objects. Most claws are also a protein mixture that can be useful for chemistry and dyework.

If you have winged dragons, I would imagine the wing leather would be highly prized for its unique properties vs. de-scaled hide leather.

It seems a real shame to waste all that meat, but that is just me... whatever prey they happen to be after.
 

ShadeZ

Maester
That energy drain on magically beasts and faerie generally also eats away the creature. If a slayer devoured all of a dragon's energy then the dragon would be reduced to a pile of scales, bone, blood, and some very old leather. It not only killed the dragon but also makes the corpse seem extremely old. If they devour any other monster it has a similar effect, if they devour faerie energy the faerie is reduced to a pile of ashes and feathers and bones. This doesn't happen with for example a deer or any not magical beast though. As such one of their 'charities' is they will hunt and eat a deer's energy then give the meat to a village or someone who needs it.
 

K.S. Crooks

Maester
I would say whatever treatment is used to turn alligator or snake skin into purses and belt could make the dragon skin into a leather that can be sown. Perhaps it takes a lot longer to condition the scales or the scales must come from a softer part of the dragon (wings, eye lids).
 
With armor and weapon they melt scales down and mix it with any metal. It creates a glassy weapon
If melting the scales is an existing process and it creates a glassy substance then I would go for creating some kind of glass fiber and mix that together with other fibers to create a cloth. It's an existing process and one which (according to wikipedia, Glass fiber - Wikipedia ) has already existed for millennia.

You could then even have different grades of dragon cloth, depending on the mixture of dragon glass fibers and other fibers.
 

subzero22

Acolyte
One could make it into something where the MC would have to gather a lot of rare stuff in a quest like format or buy the expensive rare items. For example having to finding some magical web or silk from a rare worm/spider. Melt the scales down and mix it in from a defeated queen or king slimes mucus that has also been purified in it's own way. Then process the thread weaving and fusing it it into a mixture of melted dragon scale and slime. Where it's then woven into armor like clothing that has better protection yet feels like cloth and depending on how the world mechanics work would in my case, protect great against weapons and magic. But not so much against blunt magic considering it would be like wearing a super endurance shirt not an actual full plated armor.
 
Top