Let's Talk About Dragons

[glutton]

Ah, but just think about how much of a badass it makes you when for everyone ELSE killing a single dragon would be the highlight of their career.

Or if for everyone else killing a 'small' fifty foot or dragon would be the highlight of your career, but you beat up and subdue (although not kill in the specific example I am thinking of) the five hundred foot apex of their kind. And have multiple wins against similar sized creatures on your resume. Powered by CUTENESS! Stand short and proud XD

 

[Steel Dragon]

I have to disagree with intelligence. To me a dragon should be a force of nature in a scaly body and most of the time intelligence takes more from that than it adds. Now, I'm something of a hypocrite for this since all of my dragons are intelligent, but they all have decidedly inhuman elements to their intelligence.

Actually, I have to disagree with all the rest, though not as much as intelligence. Asian dragons lack wings, whether having a wyvern type body, snake-like body or lamia-like body they don't need four legs, and fangs and poison can be just as dangerous as a breath weapon. It's far more important that it fills the role of a dragon rather than fitting any sort of cookie cutter body shape.

Respectfully disagree. The Asian dragons I'll give a pass to, sort of the exception that proves the rule. But to me, nothing else is a dragon. "The role of a dragon," as you propose it can be filled by any malevolent being. There's no difference in this context between a dragon and a kaiju. And a creature with a wyvren type body is just that: a wyvren. Fangs and poison can be dangerous, I'm not arguing that. However poison usually doesn't evolve into a predator of a certain size, not when the brute strength of the creature is sufficiane (like a bear or a lion).

 

[Steel Dragon]

Hello Steel Dragon!

First of all, Welcome to Mythic Scribes. You must really love dragons if you are called Steel Dragon, I see. I love dragons of various styles, but I understand your love for those four characteristics that you mentioned in particular. That is a really cool type of dragon.

I agree that the Breath Weapon is definitely a must-have for all of our fantastic winged monsters.

Do you have violet dragons, or maybe purple? Colors are very important to me too, not only in dragons but in other things as well. I think that a very dark, nearly blackish brown would be a very intimidating color for a dragon.

How large are your dragons?

I go for the big honking dragons. D&D scale, World of Warcraft scale. Adventurers may run across immature dragons, but, mature dragons should be big leviathans. 10' at the shoulder or bigger. Massive wings. Pure destruction and carnage at their fingertips. I usually make their scales very hard natural armor. (In fact, there is a special alloy in my world that comes from smelting dragon scales into different metals.)

I have colored dragons, metallic dragons, gemstone dragons, elemental dragons...

So far I have plans for Black, white, red, blue, gold, silver, steel (of course), Diamond, and onyx dragons. I might be able to work purple in somewhere.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Hey there, my fellow Dragon lovers =)

Dragon of the Aerie, if you are a fan of smaller dragons that are dangerous anyway you would love the Peruvian Vipertooths. Are you familiar with the world and lore of the Harry Potter series? These dragons in particular are not seen during the series, but they were described by J.K. Rowling anyway in a separate work.

The Peruvian Vipertooths are relatively small (about fifteen feet long from nose to tail), but they are fierce, and their venomous fangs make them particularly dangerous. Also, the fact that they are small helps them to conceal themselves more easily both from Wizards and non-magical people.

They are the fastest of all dragons, and they like to eat people!

At some time of history the Vipertooths reproduced so much that they became a serious threat, so the International Confederation of Wizards sent special teams of Exterminators to lower their numbers. Also, the very widespread magical disease Dragon Pox came originally from the Peruvian Vipertooths.

Steel Dragon: Wow, I love that idea of melting dragon scales together with metals in order to produce a special alloy. I guess that this dragon-enhanced metal is useful for making weapons, but are there other applications for it?

My dragons are large too, but never the size of the Titanic or something like that.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Hey there, my fellow Dragon lovers =)

Dragon of the Aerie, if you are a fan of smaller dragons that are dangerous anyway you would love the Peruvian Vipertooths. Are you familiar with the world and lore of the Harry Potter series? These dragons in particular are not seen during the series, but they were described by J.K. Rowling anyway in a separate work.

The Peruvian Vipertooths are relatively small (about fifteen feet long from nose to tail), but they are fierce, and their venomous fangs make them particularly dangerous. Also, the fact that they are small helps them to conceal themselves more easily both from Wizards and non-magical people.

They are the fastest of all dragons, and they like to eat people!

At some time of history the Vipertooths reproduced so much that they became a serious threat, so the International Confederation of Wizards sent special teams of Exterminators to lower their numbers. Also, the very widespread magical disease Dragon Pox came originally from the Peruvian Vipertooths.

Steel Dragon: Wow, I love that idea of melting dragon scales together with metals in order to produce a special alloy. I guess that this dragon-enhanced metal is useful for making weapons, but are there other applications for it?

My dragons are large too, but never the size of the Titanic or something like that.

Huge Harry Potter fan here

 

[Caged Maiden]

I love dragons. My fantasy series is centered around dragons. In the first novel, the MCs had to fight against the reanimated bones of long-dead dragons, and in the book I'm rewriting right now, the MCs are trying to find a sleeping dragon before an army of conquerors can find it and use it for war.

I have several other places where dragons become central to the plot, and though I tend to use D&D-type dragons, I'd like to think I have some unique elements. For example, one of the goddesses in my world gave part of her immortal soul to a young werewolf in book 5, and the deal they struck was that in exchange for the soul sliver, he'd become the protector of her beloved dragons. In book 7, the one I'm rewriting, he must make some decisions that will impact the world and the future books (they're written already), and the outcome involves several future dragons, too.

In book 8, one of the MCs finds out that he's descended from a dragon who turned into a human, and that he's immune to dragon magic. That becomes a critical point, when he's called upon to destroy an evil relic, and must ask a shadow dragon, a being of death and corruption (it gives off radiation), to destroy the cursed artifact. Later, his wife helps the shadow dragon find its mate, who's been taken hostage by an evil wizard, who's using it to blanket a city in darkness.

Yeah, I'm super in love with dragons. I wrote a MC dragon for a short story that I love, and I have created a whole bunch of lore and history for my fantasy world, revolving around dragons and werewolves, and deities.

 

[SeverinR]

I am a dragon lover.
I have done several short stories and am wanting to do a trilogy(or more).
My stories so far have been around hatching and young dragons.

My Psi series will also have a dragon. Psi-dragons are among the rarest, and most powerful of mentalists. (As with elves, the development of the arcane mental abilities usually overshadows or neglects the ability of psi powers, so the more intelligent the being, the more powerful the psi, the less frequently they are found.)

Also another rarity, unlike D&D, I don't have a unique race of dragons that can change to humanoid form. It is a rare ability of some dragons. They only change to one type of humanoid, they will always look the same in dragon form or human (barring other magic of course).

I think I might have posted the short story of the hatching of a dragon.
http://mythicscribes.com/forums/showcase/2132-dragon-hatching.html
Read the corrected version last two posts.

 

[skip.knox]

OK, I have a question about dragons. For those of who who have intelligent dragons, what do you do to make them something other than humans in costume?

Specifically, how do dragon motives differ from human motives? What elements of dragon society would you not find in human society? What do dragon economics look like? Politics? Do your dragons have a religion? In all these cases, what specific aspects are unique to dragons, not found among dwarves or humans or orcs?

To explain a bit more, I like Naomi Novik's dragons. She does a pretty good job of setting out some distinctive behaviors, particularly between dragons. Even so, they come off (to me) as moody twenty-somethings.

The underlying issue here is how to make non-human, intelligent races who have different characteristics and motivations, yet are not so alien that those characteristics and motivations can still engage a human reader.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Anyone familiar with Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon?

 

[Sheilawisz]

Skip: In most of my Fantasy settings, dragons are not very common. They are rarities, not numerous enough to group together and form societies of their own. Graceland dragons are intelligent and powerful, but most of them prefer to work like lone wolves and they remain (most of the times) under the control of Wizards and Mages.

In some cases, dragons have decided to be independent and they escape. They have sometimes done it together, forming something like a small pack of wolves... However, their intention for doing this is not to form a society but to simply live freely in nature and do whatever that they like without Wizards to boss them around.

This is why Graceland dragons are never to be fully trusted.

The problem when this happens is that dragons' idea of fun often involve setting villages and towns on fire and killing people, so the Monarchs send Wizards or even Mages to hunt them.

Dragons are even rarer in Vallery's world (Violet Riding Hood and Whispers of the Witch). Most of the dragons of that world were quite evil, so they were destroyed at great cost by powerful armies led by Sages. These Sages are kind of powerful with their magic, so after a long time they succeeded in destroying almost all of the dragons of the world.

Shadow is one of the few that remain, but he has no interest either in vengeance or in bringing dragons back to power. All that he wants is to live happily with Princess Starlight, and to protect her from all harm, forever.

I think that a society composed of all dragons with government, economy and everything would be intriguing, but I have never done anything like that.

Dragon of the Aerie: Yeah, I love Toothless! How to Train your Dragon is a super cool movie =)

 

[Steel Dragon]

Steel Dragon: Wow, I love that idea of melting dragon scales together with metals in order to produce a special alloy. I guess that this dragon-enhanced metal is useful for making weapons, but are there other applications for it?

To start with, just weapons and armor. I look at it the way Stargate SG-1 handled the Tau'ri finding Naquadah. At first, all they could figure out to do with it was build nukes. Eventually as the series went on, they found more uses for the stuff.

 

[SeverinR]

I was thinking about Wyverns, imho they would be basically Alligators with claws and wings.
They snatch up their prey and carry it high and drop it. (like the death roll of the gator).
If their powerful bite doesn't end the fight, the death drop would.
They wouldn't be very smart.

My dragons have basic similar dispositions but are able to determine their own "alignment". Red dragon tend to be more chaotic, but have free will to decide for themselves. They span from average intelligence to genius. Basically dragons aren't attention seekers, which keeps them from conquering the world. They do like valuables, though.

 

[Steel Dragon]

Just happened to find this on Pinterest.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Just happened to find this on Pinterest.

Some terms:
Dragon-a dragon with 4 legs and 2 wings
Wyvern-a dragon with 2 legs and 2 wings
Amphiptere/amphithere-a legless dragon with wings
Drake- a wingless dragon
Wyrm/lindworm-a wingless, legless dragon (I've also seen lindworm mean a dragon with 2 legs and no wings that crawls along the ground)

Also there are sea dragons.

These definitions are used differently all the time, though.

 

[Creed]

I also love dragons

In my universe though, they were the First creatures to pull themselves out of Chaos and create form. They understand that being is a choice, and they manipulate their bodies as such. They also have physical and metaphysical forms, which are constrained by different laws (in the metaphysical Deep they can be as large as planets, but not so in the physical world, they're just smaller than a football field).

While they may be some of the most intelligent creatures in existence, they are also ruled by the dogma/creed of Chaos: creation and destruction, as are all living things to some degree in my world. The fact that most of them have been sleeping within Chaos for billions of years has corrupted their minds, and infected them with a hive mind bent on ending the Universe so it can be reborn. The more attuned beings are to Chaos as well, the more time breaks down around them, so dragons can kind of see past/present/future simultaneously. There would be nothing to stop them, but plot complications arise and they have to deal with some interesting individuals, and Fate gets all screwy so they can't tell what's going to happen.

P.S. Look at some of the Greek and Norse "dragons," they're just snakes (and wyrms)! And they may only have bestial intelligence.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I also love dragons

In my universe though, they were the First creatures to pull themselves out of Chaos and create form. They understand that being is a choice, and they manipulate their bodies as such. They also have physical and metaphysical forms, which are constrained by different laws (in the metaphysical Deep they can be as large as planets, but not so in the physical world, they're just smaller than a football field).

While they may be some of the most intelligent creatures in existence, they are also ruled by the dogma/creed of Chaos: creation and destruction, as are all living things to some degree in my world. The fact that most of them have been sleeping within Chaos for billions of years has corrupted their minds, and infected them with a hive mind bent on ending the Universe so it can be reborn. The more attuned beings are to Chaos as well, the more time breaks down around them, so dragons can kind of see past/present/future simultaneously. There would be nothing to stop them, but plot complications arise and they have to deal with some interesting individuals, and Fate gets all screwy so they can't tell what's going to happen.

P.S. Look at some of the Greek and Norse "dragons," they're just snakes (and wyrms)! And they may only have bestial intelligence.

Those dragons sound cool. I guess they're like gods, pretty much.

And yes, dragons in early mythology are all snake-like creatures. The flying and breathing fire didn't come until later, I think the first flying, fire breathing dragon was in Beowulf. And even it is described as writhing and twisting like a snake.

 

[Creed]

And yes, dragons in early mythology are all snake-like creatures. The flying and breathing fire didn't come until later, I think the first flying, fire breathing dragon was in Beowulf. And even it is described as writhing and twisting like a snake.

Though often snake-like, there is evidence to suggest that fire-breathing winged dragons existed in Sumerian and Babylonian mythology in the first millennium BC. There may be a link between one of the world's first fire-breathing dragons and an active volcano of the same name. Tiamat herself is depicted in turn as a woman, a serpent, and a gryphon-like dragon. For the Balbylonians, as well, dragons were literally beings of chaos (you can see a link between my dragons and theirs).

 

[vaiyt]

I love dragons, so they're a big part of any fantasy setting I work on. That also brings a problem: I want dragons to be awe-inspiring, powerful creatures that dominate the situation whenever they appear, but I also want to be able to work on many variations of them without making them too common. My solution was to have the majority of dragons live in a separate plane of existence.

In the world of the map I have shown in this forum, Dragons are some of the eldest creatures in the universe, and feed on mana sources. That makes them the natural predator of every creature born from magic, like monsters, fey and demons. They can show up in a wide variety of forms (variations on a six-limbed, vaguely reptilian body) because their material shape is just a shell surrounding a core of pure power (known as the dragon's "heart").