Dragon/human relations

[Ireth]

A brief bit of backstory: In one of my WIPs, the world the main plot takes place in is one that was created by two dragon deities, the Parents, for their offspring to inhabit. These offspring later went on to create humanity. But the first humans were not sentient, as the young dragons wished, so they asked the Parents to give their creations sentience.

Here's where I'm stuck. The Parents do of course give humans sentience, but I have no idea how the relationship between humans and dragons should play out at first. My first idea was that the Parents should be displeased at their children's presumption to be able to create life; they should give the humans sentience, but also aggression and strong wills, so they would not worship the young dragons as gods. This would give rise to strife and bloodshed between the two species, which the Parents would later regret, but be unable to rectify. (I'm still trying to work out how essentially Stone Age humans would even be able to kill dragons in the first place, but that's a matter for another thread.)

I'm no entirely pleased with that idea, and I wonder whether having the humans initially worship the dragons as gods and demi-gods would be better. But that would lead to the questions of how that arrangement would devolve to how things are in the present, where dragons are seen alternately as bearers of wisdom and guidance, or as savage beasts to be killed, depending on a number of factors from the dragon's physical sex (not necessarily their gender identity; many dragons as well as humans are transgender and intersex) to the human's upbringing. It's typically the female-bodied dragons who are seen as wise, and the male-bodied who are seen as savage. (The former resemble the Eastern dragons of our world, and the latter resemble the Western dragons; this is due to sexual dimorphism, not regional origin.) The main dragon character is MtF transgender, and takes great pains to not be seen as the monster humans think she is.

Thoughts on these ideas, and which one I should go with? Or is there a way I could combine them somehow?

 

[FifthView]

Well you could always aim for variety.

So, for instance, there may be different sects of humanity which each view the dragons differently. At the same time, you haven't said how many of the young dragons there are, or whether they themselves are segregated into different groups. Perhaps not all the young were involved in creating humans; or, not all wanted the humans to be made sentient. If you consider a variety of factions or sects in both, human and young dragon society, you can play around with having "all of the above" from your post.

As for your idea that the Parents would make the sentient humans troublesome for their young: Very interesting. You could further plot that by saying the Parents, who are extremely wise and also very proficient in what they do, have planned for the troublesome nature of the humans to come only after many generations of humans. So the young get their wish, and it would seem at first to them that's all they got; but later, the Parents' real purpose becomes apparent. It's interesting, because the whole thing could be posed as a learning exercise for the young devised by the Parents.

 

[Gurkhal]

here dragons are seen alternately as bearers of wisdom and guidance, or as savage beasts to be killed, depending on a number of factors from the dragon's physical sex (not necessarily their gender identity; many dragons as well as humans are transgender and intersex) to the human's upbringing. It's typically the female-bodied dragons who are seen as wise, and the male-bodied who are seen as savage. (The former resemble the Eastern dragons of our world, and the latter resemble the Western dragons; this is due to sexual dimorphism, not regional origin.) The main dragon character is MtF transgender, and takes great pains to not be seen as the monster humans think she is.

Thoughts on these ideas, and which one I should go with? Or is there a way I could combine them somehow?

To me, the present is always the key to write a backstory that is useful to the story and thus of interest to know for the average reader. For this I would suggest that maybe you have some iconic events in your backstory that features female dragons aiding mankind and male dragons brutalizing mankind. There might have been savage female dragons and nurturing male dragons but these should not have become as iconic in popular consciousness as the dominant ideas.

For examaple if there are stories about female dragons being noble and nurturing being told over and over again in society then that should shape the human attitude that nurturing is the normal thing for female dragons. Sure you might run into a wild and savage female dragon, that's weird, the nurture is the norm. Likewise with the male dragons, and then let it grow and be told from generation to generation and I think you can fix almost any stereotype you want in regards to almost whatever you want.

That's my idea which might not make much sense due to English not being my native language, but there you have it.

 

[Feo Takahari]

It seems like the dragons would be destined to mess this up. Humans began as their pets! The dragons would still want to "guide" them from a superior position and overrule their wills to do "what's better for them," and that's a perfect recipe for White Man's Burden-style paternalism. In that light, the nurturer and the tyrant are two aspects of the same truth.

Edit: you've said what humans think of dragons, but what do dragons think of the Parents? There's an opportunity for some very toxic cycles here.

 

[Ireth]

I haven't really thought of it, honestly. Post-creation, and especially after the creation of humans, the Parents are fairly passive, just filling their roles as the sun and moon. I'll definitely have to give it more consideration, now that you bring it up. ^^

 

[Miskatonic]

I liked how they portrayed dragons in the Record Of Lodoss War anime (the first one, not the second one with the lame blue-haired hero). They had their human alliances (both good and evil) and some were basically rogues that did what they wanted with any ties to humans. Usually those ones would kill anything that bothered them.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

What if the dragons and humans had a parent-child relationship. Early in human history the humans would differ to whatever the dragons tell them to do, but as humanity advances they will become more defiant (enter their teenage years) and want to do things their own way, even if the dragons know better. The dragons my force their way or allow the humans to fail and suffer the repercussions from their decisions. Humans may come to resent the dragons for letting them suffer or become dependent again, lots of ways to go from here. Hope this sparks a few ideas.