Dragons in stories

[Saigonnus]

The idea of different varients of dragons bassed on the elements is a bit old-school but it is good, make sure you include special features, like if it is a cold place, give the dragon thick fur, it would be different, and maybe do about naming them something other then dragons, for example, I took the concept of dragons, beefed it up in my image and named them Ravens unstead.

If they look like dragons, only with fur... why change the name? Readers already have a mental picture of what dragons look like and the presence of fur... or butterfly wings etc. will only augment that picture but not really throw it off completely. That is like calling a rabbit a smeerp, unnecessary to change the name since it looks exactly like a rabbit. Also, when I think of "ravens" I think of a black bird related to a crow, not a creature that resembles a dragon.

 

[Eeirail]

If they look like dragons, only with fur... why change the name? Readers already have a mental picture of what dragons look like and the presence of fur... or butterfly wings etc. will only augment that picture but not really throw it off completely. That is like calling a rabbit a smeerp, unnecessary to change the name since it looks exactly like a rabbit. Also, when I think of "ravens" I think of a black bird related to a crow, not a creature that resembles a dragon.

I was reffering to the name change just as a thought, and the Raven thing is explained in the novel I am writing, but yes as it stands, I do understand why it would not make much sense, I chose the name due to the fear of both dragons and Ravens in superstition. I see it as an open minded concept, it may be flawed but I did not want to use the word dragon, and I have desribed them enough for people to know what the basic design of the creatures are. If I take your example of calling a rabbit a Smeerp, you are right, but is I said something like

"The Smeerp hopped across the trail, its puffball like tail bouncing with it as it disappeared into its hole it calls home"
You can imagine it well enough to get the sense that it is a rabbit. And with mine I could say;

"with mighty talons the mighty raven thrashed at its foes, its scales gleaming out from under the blood. The battle was far from over but the raven knew it was a hopeless battle. There were too many demons to fight off, so with one massive beat of the beasts wings it soared up and spat an incinerating flame down upon the ground at its rivals, now mear cinders on the ground"

Do not pay attention to how sketchy the writing is, I came up with that off the top of my head within a matter of a few minutes, but you can sense what I am trying to depict to you and that is all that matters to me with this.

 

[Saigonnus]

I was reffering to the name change just as a thought, and the Raven thing is explained in the novel I am writing, but yes as it stands, I do understand why it would not make much sense, I chose the name due to the fear of both dragons and Ravens in superstition. I see it as an open minded concept, it may be flawed but I did not want to use the word dragon, and I have desribed them enough for people to know what the basic design of the creatures are. If I take your example of calling a rabbit a Smeerp, you are right, but is I said something like

"The Smeerp hopped across the trail, its puffball like tail bouncing with it as it disappeared into its hole it calls home"
You can imagine it well enough to get the sense that it is a rabbit. And with mine I could say;

"with mighty talons the mighty raven thrashed at its foes, its scales gleaming out from under the blood. The battle was far from over but the raven knew it was a hopeless battle. There were too many demons to fight off, so with one massive beat of the beasts wings it soared up and spat an incinerating flame down upon the ground at its rivals, now mear cinders on the ground"

Do not pay attention to how sketchy the writing is, I came up with that off the top of my head within a matter of a few minutes, but you can sense what I am trying to depict to you and that is all that matters to me with this.

No worries, I wasn't criticizing your style, just giving my observations. Have you thought about giving the creature (especially if it's important to the story) a name? Even relatively unintelligent creatures would have a way of differentiating one from another especially if they look the same. With a name, you could avoid using the word "raven or dragon" all the time.

 

[Eeirail]

No worries, I wasn't criticizing your style, just giving my observations. Have you thought about giving the creature (especially if it's important to the story) a name? Even relatively unintelligent creatures would have a way of differentiating one from another especially if they look the same. With a name, you could avoid using the word "raven or dragon" all the time.

You mean, like Maybe actually name them as if it were a charecter right?

If that is what you mean, then yes, I have actually thought about it, and I am making something of the sort in my novel as we sit and spin our observations back and forth, you bring up some well written arguments.

 

[Saigonnus]

Yeah, Like Rivhan the Raven...

*The raven looks down silently into the canyon from his perch far overhead, seeing the humans making their way through the treacherous ground to the cave that will serve as the venue for their inevitable meeting. They've pursued him for days now and Rivhan decided to set the stage for this encounter so he will have the advantage over them.*

Just an idea of a way to keep you from overusing the name of the creature in the book.

 

[Anders Ämting]

I don't think dragons necessarily need to be original - they are, after all, one of the most classic components of fantasy literature. Rather, one must keep in mind what they represent. Dragons aren't just smart, flying, fire-breathing dinosaurs; they generally have a symbolic meaning.

In the west, dragons traditionally represent adversity - a big monsterous antagonist that the hero must "slay" in order to achieve his ambitions. (Note that in trope-speak, "The Dragon" is the whichever antagonist the hero must defeat directly.) In Asia, dragons tend to represent natural forces like storms and floods - forces that are not necessarily evil but never the less dangerous, demanding respect.

Fantasy tends to use a bit of both depending on the story or make up its own symbolism. Point is, I think it's more important to ask what the dragons actually mean to your story rather than trying to make them different from all other dragons. At any rate, you shouldn't just have dragons for the sake of having dragons.

 

[Lavender]

In an earlier draft of my novel I had a dragon that helped my protagonists out of a tight spot - (depressed because it was one of the last of its kind and also because in reality it was friendly and social but society viewed it as a menace and thus kept a distance or "ran away screaming," as the dragon put it!!) However, I disliked this concept... I was aiming to write a fantasy story that wasn't entirely "cliche" and ultimately decided to create an entirely new species of my own. This made it a lot more fun for me and I invested more interest in the character, it was very enjoyable to envisage an entirely unique creature.
However, this is your story and if it needs dragons, well, it needs dragons! Go with what you think is best for your tale. Sit down and do some thinking and jot down a list of ideas, and even include the rubbish ones then read through it and see if it helps you come to a decision - that's my advice

 

[Saigonnus]

I had one of those exceptionally vivid dreams of flying as a dragon... and after munching a cow (I knew they were owned by the Aerie) landed on a ledge and transformed into human form because the entrance was too small to accommodate my larger dragon form. Inside were lavishly decorated halls and other dragons in different forms and it got me thinking that it would be an interesting concept to have a completedragon society in plain sight of other races, but concealed at the same time.

Each young dragon can shapeshift at will into humanoid forms, but this process goes away as they get older. Once they are basically like teenagers reaching puberty the shifting becomes more focused... mostly one or two guises until it becomes impossible to transform to more than one; though there are a few that can still shapeshift at will but it's a rare. Some aeries by necessity have to be all dwarves (the halls and rooms are too short for anything else) or Elves (like near other elven communities). Mostly they are a "metropolitan polyglot" structure with most of the races present in any aerie.

 

[Jabrosky]

I generally prefer my dragons to be simply wild animals without anthropomorphic intelligence, speech, or supernatural abilities. At most my dragons would have a feral sort of intelligence analogous to the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park. They wouldn't care about hoarding gold because wild animals have practically no use for human currency anyway. Nor would they breathe actual fire, as that would burn themselves up from the inside. Some might spit venom though.

I picture my dragons as occupying a variety of ecological niches. There would be flying dragons, herbivorous dragons, aquatic and amphibious dragons, pack-hunting and intelligent dragons, and large carnivorous dragons that function as their ecosystems' apex predators. However, most of these dragon species would reside within the world's tropical and subtropical regions which are more hospitable to large, scaly reptiles.

 

[Queshire]

In my setting, dragons are a type of physical spirit along with other legendary beasts such as pheonixes, and unicorns. As physical spirits, Dragons litterally embody the concept of the "king of the beasts" their exact form various from place to place depending on what the idea of an what the king of the beasts looks like in that location, but it always combines features of the greatest animals in the land. Should the dragon move somewhere where the concept of king of the beasts is different or should the concept of king of the beasts where they live change then their body will slowly change to fit the new ideal.

Dragons tend to be just a bit smarter then the smartest sentient being living in their territory, and similiarily are just a bit more magical then the most magical creature in their territory.

Just like other races, dragons run the gamut morality-wise, some are good, some are bad. Hell, one of the most successful kingdoms in the land has a dragon for a king! (Though he's only king because he fell in love with and married the princess he was supposed to kidnap and eat as part of his dragonic rite of passage)