History BreathWeapon / Literature

** In "Literature/TheLongWalk2020", demons can exhale clouds of mist hot enough to boil anything caught in to death.

* Dragons in ''Literature/ToShapeADragonsBreath'' don't breath any specific element, not even fire. Their undirected breath renders whatever it hits into the raw athers of vetna and kolfni (hydrogen and carbon); directed, it can fuse, unfuse, and create athers via skiltakraft. Some breeds, such as velikolepni, are bred specifically for higher skill in skiltakraft.

** When fully grown, Temeraire himself can [[MakeMeWannaShout roar]] with enough force to shatter objects and raise mini-tsunamis, which [[spoiler:reveals him to be a Chinese Celestial dragon, the rarest of all breeds]].

* ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'': The {{Fairy Dragon|s}}, Raxtus, feels useless because his breath makes flowers grow. Compared to his father [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Celebrant]], who has at least five separate breath weapons. We see a few dragons breathe fire, but there are also ones that breathe poison or TruthSerum.

* ''Literature/AMemoirByLadyTrent'': Such a weapon, referred to in-universe as "extraordinary breath", is one of the diagnostic characteristics of [[OurDragonsAreDifferent true dragons]] -- other draconic creatures do not possess it. Fire is the most iconic, but other variants exist -- Moulish swamp-wyrms, for instance, breathe a corrosive gas, while the exhalations of Vystrani ''balaur'' are laced with icy particles.

* ''Literature/TheBible'':
** The ''Literature/BookOfJob'' describes the Leviathan, a fire-breathing sea dragon.
** The ''Literature/BookOfRevelation'' has the Two Witnesses (who are about as uncorrupted as mere mortals could be), who stand around outside the Temple and breathe fire on anyone who tries to harm them. They're two olive trees and [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast two candlesticks]]. With ''mouths''. Symbolically.
* ''Literature/TheIliad'': The [[MixAndMatchCritters Chimera]] is described as "a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire" (VI. 179-182).
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Lord Ebondrake from the ''Literature/GreyKnights'' novel ''Hammer of Daemons'' takes a draconic form and can breathe black flame.
* In ''Literature/TheCycleOfFire'', the Mharg demons have a breath weapon that reduces all life to slime, and leaves the land barren for decades afterwards.
* Madame d'Aulnoy's fairy tale ''Literature/TheYellowDwarf'' includes two ''giant turkeys'' that can breathe fire. These turkeys pull the cart of the titular dwarf and the Fairy of the Desert.
* ''Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings'': Dragons breathe a mist of strong acid.

* In ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'', the fairy dragon, Raxtus, feels useless because his breath makes flowers grow. Compared to his father [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Celebrant]], who has at least five separate breath weapons. We see a few dragons breathe fire, but there are also ones that breathe poison or TruthSerum.
* ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'': Dragons breathe flammable gases, and their first breath is also flammable.
* ''Literature/TalesOfKolmar'': To the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Kantri]], fire breaths are something sacred, used to consecrate things, though this doesn't stop them from using it to light [[FireOfComfort comforting fires]] and expelling it in bursts of emotion, analogous to human laughter and tears.
* In ''Literature/TrappedOnDraconica'' and ''Literature/LegacyOfTheDragokin'' there are a race of humans called Dragonkin, who were granted powers of the dragons. They have different breath attacks (fire, ice, wind, etc) depending on the dragon they were based on.
* In ''Literature/{{Seraphina}}'' dragons spew flames.

* In ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'', most dragon breeds have no breath weapon, so the ones that do are especially prized:

** Fire breath is exclusive to a few rare breeds like the Kaziliks and the Flamme-de-Gloires, none of which the British possess. It's so powerful an ability that the British Crown pays an unheard-of sum for three Kazilik eggs in ''Black Powder War''.

* In ''{{Literature/Tadgifauna}}'', Marcy's Tadgifaun Barghest can spew flames intense enough to melt steel.
* ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'': The Nundu, an African beast resembling a gigantic leopard, spreads virulent disease with its breath.
* In ''Literature/TheIronTeeth'' web serial, Myagnoir the Great Drake is basically a flightless dragon, and has ice breath. He uses it destroy an entire city and the people in it.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** Discworld's noble dragons breath gouts of flame, which would be impossible if they weren't powered by magic and the beliefs of their summoners. Discworld's swamp dragons, on the other hand, breath a gas that ignites once it's safely away from their snouts (or, depressingly frequently, causes them to blow up).
** The Discworld version of the Chimera has, according to the standard bestiary, "the breathe of a furnace and the temperament of a rubber balloon in a hurricane".
* Literature/OlogySeries:
** European dragons have the classic fire breath, and marsupial dragons have a weaker flame of their own. Arctic dragons breathe frost instead, while Sargasso dragons spit ink.
** Among non-dragons, cockatrices can breathe out a fine mist of deadly poison.
* ''Literature/{{Miranda}}'', a Norwegian children's book (and its sequel, ''The King Is Coming''), has a ''smoke''-breathing dragon as the {{Deuteragonist}}. He explains that the classic fire breath is only done by meat-eating dragons because the meat gives them indigestion. Since this particular dragon is a vegetarian, he only breathes smoke.
* ''Literature/AMemoirByLadyTrent'': Such a weapon, referred to in-universe as "extraordinary breath", is one of the diagnostic characteristics of [[OurDragonsAreDifferent true dragons]] -- other draconic creatures do not possess it. Fire is the most iconic, but other variants exist -- Moulish swamp-wyrms, for instance, breathe a corrosive gas, while the exhalations of Vystrani ''balaur'' are laced with icy particles.
* ''Literature/DragonAndDamsel'': Most dragons, including Azrael, are able to breathe fire. And a painting Bernadette discovers implies that other subspecies of dragon may have different breath weapons, showing a white dragon breathing frost and a yellow dragon breathing lightning.
* In ''Literature/AnnoDracula'' story ''One Thousand Monsters'', the vampire murderess Clare Mallinger is eaten from within by a [[{{Youkai}} jorogumo]] larva. However she ends up controlling the creature and evolves into a [[TheJuggernaut powerhouse]] GiantSpider with the ability to breathe out swarms of flesh-ripping vampire butterflies.
* ''Literature/VainqueurTheDragon'': [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragon]]: Same as the element of the dragon. Fire, Ice, Acid are among the elements that have been seen.

* ''Literature/CradleSeries'': Dragons can of course expel fire from their mouths. However, since dragons are sapient and use the [[SupernaturalMartialArts sacred arts]] to improve themselves, they rarely ''breathe'' their fire. Instead, they condense their power into a beam, a [[ProjectileSpell Striker technique]] that even humans can learn. They also typically expel this technique from their hands; a dragon mentions in ''Wintersteel'' that she hates expelling it from her mouth because it looks crass, but it does tend to catch humans off-guard because they're so used to dragons avoiding that.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': The chief trait of dragons is that they can breathe fire. Aegon I and his sisters rode three dragons to conquer an entire continent. After Daenerys hatches her three dragons, she begins training them to breathe fire at her command using the TriggerPhrase ''dracarys''. Since they are [[ShoulderSizedDragon shoulder-sized]] at birth, the fire is only capable of burning a single person, but by ''Literature/ADanceWithDragons'' it is powerful enough to set multiple people on fire. The dragons ridden by Aegon and his sisters could destroy a town-sized castle, though, so Daenerys' dragons may be able to do the same eventually. According to ''Literature/TheWorldOfIceAndFire'', the dragons' fire-breathing ability is the result of a hybridization between wyverns (winged reptiles who cannot breathe fire) and firewyrms (wingless reptiles who can breathe fire).
* ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfStrongVanya'': Och, a dragon-like monster nicknamed the "Green Devil", can expel out hurricane-force blasts of air. They are powerful enough to uproot trees and bring entire villages down.
* The dragon from ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'' temporarily defeats the Redcrosse Knight by breathing hellish fire on him, filling him with what the author calls a thousand pains worse than the sufferings Hercules felt before his death.

* In Creator/RobinHobb's fantasy world, the Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings, dragons breathe a mist of strong acid.

* Literature/TheBible:
** The book of Job describes the Leviathan, a fire-breathing sea dragon.
** The Literature/BookOfRevelation has the Two Witnesses (who are about as uncorrupted as mere mortals could be), who stand around outside the Temple and breathe fire on anyone who tries to harm them. They're two olive trees and [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast two candlesticks]]. With ''mouths''. Symbolically.

* Madame d'Aulnoy's fairy tale ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/aulnoy/1892/yellowdwarf.html The Yellow Dwarf]]'' includes two ''giant turkeys'' that can breathe fire. These turkeys pull the cart of the titular dwarf and the Fairy of the Desert.

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': From [[http://whateleyacademy.net/index.php/content_page/item/748-small-mercies "Small Mercies"]], Daryl, thanks to the power of the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragon]] spirit Steamer,
--> can lift heavy objects, breathe fire, and when I’m really focused I can turn into a thirty-foot-long dragon for a while.