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7[[quoteright:350:[[TabletopGame/GURPSDragons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thedragonsreturn.jpg]]]]
8->''"The Elder Scrolls told of their return. Their defeat was merely a delay... 'til the time after Oblivion opened, when the sons of Skyrim would spill their own blood. But no one wanted to believe... believe they even existed. And when the truth finally dawns... It dawns in fire!"''
9-->-- '''Esbern''', narrating the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGMOMkACtn4 teaser trailer]] for ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim''
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11HereThereWereDragons, and [[TheMagicGoesAway then they left]] for somewhere else... and [[TheMagicComesBack now they are coming back]], [[OurDragonsAreDifferent for better or for worse]]. As the natural apex predator species, their return inevitably upsets the status quo of the setting, kicking off a variety of {{conflict}}s, such as:
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13* The dragons are here and proceed to carve out a place for themselves in the setting, waging war on the other species.
14* The dragons' return is imminent and one camp aims to assist it, while the other prepares to fight them and their supporters.
15* The returning dragons are non-sapient and one faction tries to control them and conquer all the others.
16* The dragons are benevolent and return ''because'' a conflict is afoot that [[GodzillaThreshold requires their near-divine intervention]].
17* The dragons' return is just the first, symbolic portent of other calamities that are about to befall the world.
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19[[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible Also included]] are mythical species that occupy a similar position in their respective settings' [[FoodChainOfEvil supernatural food chain]] (e.g. some types of gryphons). If they are present, a conspicuous absence of actual dragons in the setting may be expected.
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21Contrast LastOfHisKind (a single specimen is more of an oddity than an existential threat to other species). Subtrope of TheMagicComesBack and NotSoExtinct. May or may not involve FossilRevival.
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23----
24!!Examples:
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26[[foldercontrol]]
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28[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
29* ''Manga/FairyTail'' has this as a very important part of the TimeTravel plot in the Grand Magic Games and to some degree the MythArc of the whole series.
30** 400 years ago, dragons ruled the world and saw humans as food or pests. Then a self-war broke out between these dragons and those that wanted to co-exist with humans. Because of this war, humans learned how to fight dragons and even defeat them. Dragons became more rare and reclusive, and humans became the dominating species. However, dragons were still known to exist until July 7th 14 years ago (7 years ago pre-TimeSkip) when they for unknown reasons disappeared completely (though they still reside in some place inaccessible or not discovered by humans).
31** Back to the time travel: In order to defeat the evilest dark wizard of all time, Zeref, the Kingdom of Fiore wants to go 400 years back in time, via a special gate to the past, and kill Zeref when he originally appeared. Unfortunately, when they open the gate, some dragons appear and wander into the present. Thanks to the complexity of time travel, at least three different timelines start from here: In the first, a thousand dragons destroy most of the world and a few humans survive, living a miserable life. In the second, dragons also destroy a lot of the world, but more humans survive. However, the world is ruled by the strongest dragon of them all, Acnologia, and a certain evil human (Rogue) who can control dragons. In the third, the gate is closed before more than seven dragons can get through. These dragons come close to killing a lot of people and causing destruction, but are fortunately forced to return to the past before any actual tragedy can happen, and [[EarnYourHappyEnding the happy ending is earned]].
32** Acnologia, on the other hand, never vanished with the others because he's the only one who's lived through the past and all the way to the present, [[WhereIWasBornAndRazed having been the human-turned-dragon who slaughtered many of them himself]]. He's spent the last few centuries flying around the world, occasionally wrecking stuff on the way and searching for any remaining dragons or the occasional strong human to fight and kill. Unfortunately, he's become a lot more active [[spoiler:likely due to Zeref ending his self-imposed exile.]]
33** In the Tartaros arc, the five Dragon parents of the 1st and 3rd generation Dragon Slayers return all of a sudden to stop [[TheMagicGoesAway the superweapon Face]] from activating and draining the world of all magic. [[spoiler:Natsu's dad Igneel gets into a fight with Acnologia and dies, and the remaining dragons reveal that they've [[LivingOnBorrowedTime been dead for some time thanks to Acnologia reaping their souls, only surviving thanks to their remaining power and sealing themselves inside their children]] to prevent them from becoming omnicidal dragons like Acnologia. The original plan was to unseal themselves once the process was done and face Acnologia alongside their children, but Face forced them to act early and the weakened Igneel chose to fight Acnologia to both buy them time and get a shot at revenge himself. The dragons fade away afterwards giving parting words to their children.]] It's later revealed in the final arc [[spoiler:that the 1st and 3rd Generation Slayers are in fact from 400 years ago, having had their parents sealed inside them and been sent into the future via the Eclipse Gate by a plan with Zeref and Anna Heartfilia to stop Acnologia, and the date of July 7th is when they arrived in the present timeline. Unfortunately, a screw-up during the process scattered the kids across Earth-land and scrambled their memories on top of their young ages, which is why they don't remember much of this at all in the present]].
34** In ''Anime/FairyTailDragonCry'' (which is considered canonical to the manga), the BigBad Animus [[spoiler:is actually [[ThereIsAnother another dragon from the ancient days]] fatally injured by Acnologia who used a similar technique as the Dragon Slayers' parents to seal himself inside a young girl named Sonya (who happened to be someone he was planning on eating until Acnologia came along). Because Sonya isn't a Slayer, however, he can't leave her body. His goal is to obtain the [[MacGuffin Dragon Cry]], a mystical artifact powered by the sorrow and rage of all the dragons slain during the Dragon King Festival, which would allow him to survive outside of Sonya as well as empower him so that he can attempt to reestablish the dragons as the dominant race again (and try and kill Acnologia since he's the biggest threat to the dragons' return). Ultimately, he does get the Dragon Cry, but despite the power boost he's fatally injured fighting Natsu, fading away after Sonya destroys the Dragon Cry with some measure of regret to how he treated her. Also, he and Sonya are the SpannerInTheWorks that caused the Dragon Slayer children to get scattered when they went through the Eclipse Gate, as they followed after them and screwed up the calculations, with Sonya suffering similar memory problems.]]
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37[[folder:Card Games]]
38* ''Tabletopgame/MagicTheGathering'': The Tarkir block is based around this idea, chronicling the plane's dragons returning, overthrowing the clans that had ruled the plane, and conquering it for themselves. Tarkir's Dragons are born from supernatural storms created by the Spirit Dragon Ugin, and the storms died off when Ugin was killed. With no new Dragons born, humans were eventually able to render them extinct. However, after going through a rare portal in time, Sarkhan Vol was able to save Ugin's life, rendering him NotQuiteDead. The storms continued unabated, and in this timeline, the dragons won and absorbed the surrendering human clan into their broods as servants. So to Sarkhan, who has a RippleEffectProofMemory (plus all the players), it appears to be this trope, but no one else in-universe knows of a time where there weren't dragons.
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41[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
42* ''WesternAnimation/RayaAndTheLastDragon'' is set in the fantasy Southeast Asian world of Kumandra, which used to be united, fertile, and defended by dragons. The arrival of the monstrous Druun drove them to extinction. [[spoiler:In the end, Raya and Sisu, the titular last dragon, and the allies they pick up along the way are able to bring them back.]]
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45[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
46* ''Film/DragonheartANewBeginning'': The dragons have been extinct since the [[Film/{{Dragonheart}} last movie]], however, Sir Bowen discovered a dragon egg in Draco’s cave and placed it in the care of Gilbert’s monastery.
47* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' sees the Titans awaken from their millennia of hibernation.
48* In ''Film/ReignOfFire'', dragons come back from hibernation in the modern day and soon destroy civilization, with few survivors left decades later.
49* Though they aren't dragons, the ending of ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'' (and the premise of the following film, ''Film/JurassicWorldDominion'') carries the spirit of this trope. The dinosaurs of Isla Nublar escape onto the mainland and spread across the earth, leading to clashes with humanity.
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52[[folder:Literature]]
53* ''Literature/{{Cygnet}}'': In ''The Cygnet and the Firebird'', both the mage Rad Ilex and the villain [[spoiler:Draken Saphier]] are attempting to invoke this trope and release the ancient dragons of their homeland Saphier from the {{Pocket Dimension}}s in which they have hidden themselves away. At the end of the book, [[spoiler:Draken]] manages it, and drags dozens of dragons into existence hoping to swell his army.
54* ''Literature/ADayOfFallenNight'', prequel to ''Literature/ThePrioryOfTheOrangeTree'', covers a period known in the first book as "the Grief of Ages," when draconic creatures erupted from the Dreadmount (and other geologically-active sites) worldwide to cause great devastation. When the book begins, the benevolent Eastern dragons are ''also'' asleep due to their source of power--a periodic comet--having been absent for some time. They emerge when Dumai of Seiiki rings a bell that wakes them all from their slumber.
55* In the ''Literature/DeltoraQuest'' series, the plot of the third set of books revolves around awakening the last of Deltora's dragons, who went to slumber because their kind was getting killed off by the Shadow Lord. They are required to destroy the Four Sisters, which were planted by the Shadow Lord.
56* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': In ''Literature/GuardsGuards'', the ''Draco nobilis'' is believed to be extinct... until someone summons one right into Ankh-Morpork. It then proceeds to take over the city through fear and fire breathing.
57* ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'': ''Almost'' happens in the original trilogy. The dragon population had shrunk to a (probably unsustainable) size where they couldn't protect humanity from the Thread, so the protagonists have to find a way to bring back hundreds more. [[spoiler:Lessa does it via ''TimeTravel'', incidentally causing the original population decline by bringing most of the dragons from a few centuries ago into the present.]]
58* In ''Literature/TheDragonsOfNoor'' by Creator/JanetLeeCarey, this is pretty much the main plot.
59* In Creator/RobertReed's short story ''The Dragons of Summer Gulch'', dragons went extinct thousands of years ago and all that is left are their fossilized and preserved bodies, which are extremely prized as their organs are a source of great medical interest. Local legend tells that the dragons will rise up and resume their rule of the earth, with only those that support them being spared. A treasure hunter uncovers eight live dragon eggs in the preserved body of an adult, which he intends to raise.
60* ''Literature/TheElricSaga'': Dragons tend to spend almost all of their time sleeping (they have to, so as to recharge their energies, as in 1 day requires something like 10 years of sleep), only coming out of their caves during extreme crises.
61* ''Literature/{{Gate}}'' by Takumi Yanai tells the story of a magical portal appearing in Tokyo's Ginza district. From this portal emerge a host of human footsoldiers and fantasy creatures that proceed to ravage and plunder, terrorizing the civilian populace. There are even some flying dragons with riders that smash, burn, and abscond some people as trophies. When the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force (JSDF) arrives, they are able to repel these invaders, but the magical portal remains. It is decided that an advance contingent should enter the portal (called The Gate) to secure a perimeter to prevent any further incursions.
62* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'': Not dragons, but in the present of the series gryphons are seen as near-mythical, even if the descendants of gryphons' allies pass down accounts and legends of them being good. In the first trilogy one savages a Herald offscreen but this seems to be EarlyInstallmentWeirdness as otherwise gryphons are AlwaysLawfulGood. A mated pair showing up as advance scouts/diplomats, then, is a great shock to everyone.
63* {{Literature/How To Train Your Dragon}} is a {{downplayed}} example. In narration, Hiccup predicts that the dragons may some day return but the actual stories {{invert|ed trope}} this trope making the books about the disappearance of the dragons.
64* ''Literature/TheImmortals'': Centuries before the events of the quartet, human mages managed to seal all manner of Immortals (mythical creatures, including dragons) into the Divine Realms, only for Ozorne and his ilk, studying those spells, to learn how to bring them back. They're not interested in dragons because dragons, being intelligent and powerful mages themselves, are no one's pawns, but one gets accidentally caught up in a summoning spell anyway in ''Wild Magic''. She dies, and her newborn dragonet is adopted by Daine. At the end of the quartet many Immortals remain in the Mortal Realms, but (aside from the baby dragon) the dragons stay in the Dragonlands, though they rather haughtily say that they can cross the worlds at any time regardless.
65** ''Dragons'' may have elected not to return but the impact of the other species' return is comparable with if not bigger than in other examples, and the quartet that comes after ''The Immortals'', ''Literature/ProtectorOfTheSmall'', deals heavily with the effects of this change in the world. Monsters are about, and strange people who may be dealt with ''as'' people but also have their own strange customs and criminals. In ''Literature/TortallASpysGuide'' a breakdown of the demographics of Tortall has ''one in ten people'' be a sapient, talking Immortal.
66* ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'': At the beginning of the story, it's generally thought that dragons are extinct, other than King Galbatorix's enormous and menacing black dragon Shruikan, three eggs, and perhaps any dragons that may live across the sea, far from where the events of the story take place. But the protagonist happens to accidentally obtain and hatch the one dragon egg free from Galbatorix's control. ([[spoiler:Though you later find out that there was little accidental about it -- the Eldunari (consciousness) of the hidden dragons altered the flow of magic to send the egg to him.]]) Later, another egg in the king's possession hatched. In the final book, it was revealed that there was [[spoiler:a whole cache of secret dragon eggs, which were re-claimed once Galbatorix was defeated]].
67* ''Literature/KharkanasTrilogy'': At the end of the first book, ''Forge of Darkness'', the portal to Starvald Demelain, the first realm, is opened and the Eleint (also known as dragons), rumored to be creatures of myth, come flying in. Since they are creatures of Chaos, this is very bad news, although the exact consequences are relegated to the second book.
68* ''Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings'': All the component series revolve to a greater or lesser extent around the return of dragons and their Elderling servants. The Fool in particular works towards this happening, claiming that the dragons will serve as a counterpoint to human arrogance and thus prevent the humans from destroying themselves. It is a long and arduous process, as the dragons' reproduction cycle is dependent on many factors and only one male and female dragon respectively are left.
69* ''Literature/{{Seraphina}}'': Played with. After humans moved south and the herds died off, dragons retreated to mountains and declined in numbers due to reduced resources. This all happened around two thousand years before ''Seraphina'', and at an unspecified point in the interval the dragons returned and war was waged. After the peace treaty dragons return in saarantrai, mainly to study.
70* In Sean Grigsby's "Smoke Eater" series, hordes of non-sapient man-eating dragons emerge ''en masse'' from the depths of the Earth in 2113, reducing cities to ruins and most of the landscape to ashes.
71* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Dragons have been functionally extinct for hundreds of years as of the beginning of the series, but at the end of the first book Daenerys Targaryen hatches three apparently-fossilized dragon eggs, gaining her the title "Mother of Dragons". They are accompanied by a distinctive comet in the sky and either cause or are symptomatic of (the TV show strongly implies the former) [[TheMagicComesBack The Magic Coming Back]] in the setting. As hatchlings, they are a curiosity and a MacGuffin. Full-grown, they could be vastly powerful engines of war (the better part of a continent was conquered by Daenerys's ancestor, three dragons, and little else), but they also don't exactly come with an owner's manual, making them nearly as dangerous to their allies as their enemies.
72* In ''Literature/WrongTimeForTheDragons'' by Creator/SergeyLukyanenko and Creator/NickPerumov, the last dragons (who also double as RoyalBlood) of a parallel universe have been exterminated a few decades ago, but now several factions are trying to bring them back. Specifically, the main conflict comes from the fact that the former [[TheDragonslayer Dragonslayer]] believes that he made a grave mistake by ridding his world of the dragons, who protected the world from invasion from yet another parallel world. His opponents are more than happy to be rid of the tyrannical Winged Masters and believe that they can fight off invasions on their own. Even worse, the invaders are planning on creating a dragon of their own to lead the invasion. The former Dragonslayer wants to facilitate the rebirth of the Winged Masters to counter the Created Dragon, while his opponents summon a new Dragonslayer to kill both the reborn and the created dragons.
73* In Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''The Rule Of Names'', we are introduced to Mr. Underhill, a cheerful old man who lives on Sattins Island on {{Series/Earthsea}} and adheres, as does everyone else, to the titular rule: never tell anyone your ''true'' name or they will have power over you. A stranger by the name of Blackbeard comes to town, looking for an ancestral treasure stolen from his family by a dragon, and believes Mr. Underhill to be the wizard who defeated the dragon, stole the treasure, and used it to part-fund his retirement. Compelling him by the name "Yevaud", he orders Underhill to assume his true form. Unfortunately for him, that form is not a wizard, but a dragon. Blackbeard protests that they found dragon bones by the creature's cave; "That was another dragon," replies Yevaud, before eating him and beginning a new reign of terror on the Island.
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76[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
77* As with the [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire books]], in ''Series/GameOfThrones'' Daenerys Targaryen hatches three apparently-fossilized dragon eggs, gaining her the title "Mother of Dragons". They went from ten dragons about 200 years earlier in ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'' to extinction.
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80[[folder:Music]]
81* Music/TheKovenant song "Dragonstorms" off of their ''Music/InTimesBeforeTheLight'' album involves dragons rising again to conquer for the night, bringing about TheNightThatNeverEnds.
82* Music/RunningWild's aptly titled "Return of the Dragon" from ''The Rivalry'' prophetically speaks of this happening after "the last dragonslayer has been laid by the heels" and involves the eponymous dragons immolating tyrants and liberating the world from oppression.
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85[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
86* ''Tabletopgame/DungeonsAndDragons'': In the Literature/{{Dragonlance}} setting, the events of the War of the Lance include the return of both Good and Evil dragons.
87* ''Tabletopgame/{{Fireborn}}'' has this as the game's schtick. Once dragons ruled in an age of magic and generic ''D&D''-esque fantasy. Then the magic and dragons vanished as a cataclysm reshaped the world. In the modern day, magic has begun to return, and dragons with it. Except that their souls have stayed around and reincarnated as humans all along. Guess what you get to play?
88* ''TabletopGame/GURPSDragons'', a whole book about handling almost the whole range of DragonTropes in the game, has a full sample campaign setting and some short example setting descriptions built around the idea of dragons returning to the game world.
89** In the main scenario, dragons appear in 1878 for reasons no one -- including the dragons -- understands. Between a few hundred and a few thousand dragons simply wake into existence with a knowledge of language, a strong self-preservation instinct, and no idea of what or where they might have been beforehand. These dragons can take human forms and live in secret to avoid the attention of humanity, and several conspiracies develop to expose or study the dragons or to keep them hidden -- several of the latter run by the dragons themselves. Theories on their origins range from them having emerged from a magical hibernation to their being {{Tulpa}}s manifested from humanity's collective thoughts, [[DinosaursAreDragons ghosts of ancient dinosaurs]] released from the mining of fossil fuels, or [[DragonsAreDemonic demons clad in flesh]].
90** Secondary scenarios project the same basic premise into later epochs such as the '20s, World War II, the Cold War, and the modern day. Story prompts include Pulp-style conflicts between lantern-jawed heroes and dragons seeking world conquest, spy stories against secret string-pulling draconic masterminds, and modern-day stories where the dragons have successfully gone underground behind layers of secrecy, obfuscation, and historical revisionism to hide from human scrutiny.
91** Another setting, while without actual dragons, describes a world where [[TheMagicGoesAway magic quietly vanished in the late middle ages]], taking with it most of the totem spirits that had fueled magic beforehand. This lasts until the '90s when a scholar stumbles upon a scroll describing the Dragon totem. This one appears to be the only totem left in existence, and its knowledge quickly spreads across the world to fuel a new age of dragon-powered magic.
92* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': The Tarkir block, both for better and for worse. On the plane of Tarkir, dragons were once abundant, born of the great dragon storms. The storms were caused by the Elder Dragon Ugin, but when Ugin was killed by his brother, Bolas, the storms ceased, and the dragons were hunted to extinction. In their place rose five great clans, ruled over by khans. Each clan was unique and interesting, reflecting both the worst and best nature of their respective colors. Then, the dragon-worshipping planeswalker Sarkhan Vol travelled back in time and saved Ugin. The dragon storms continued, and dragons became the dominant species on Tarkir. While Ugin's survival is ultimately the best for the multiverse, and Sarkhan is overjoyed, the clans suffered. Each clan was subjugated by a great Dragonlord, becoming nothing but vassals beneath them. Their greatest champions and khans in the old Tarkir were either made into pathetic shadows of their former selves or cast out for resisting the dragon lords.
93** In the new timeline, the Abzan Clan, originally a group of ancestor worshippers who put focus on the family, were forced to submit to dragon lord Dromoka. Since Dromoka viewed necromancy, however benevolent, as an abomination, the Abzan had to abandon their ancestor-worshipping ways and burn the kin-trees that contained their ancestor's spirits. Dromoka's servants take children away from their parents and raise them in a SocialDarwinist society. And Dromoka is one of the ''nicer'' ones.
94** The Jeskai, originally a group of monks focused on attaining knowledge, had to submit to dragon lord Ojutai. Under Ojutai, the Jeskai's history is edited in his favor, dragons can do whatever they want without consequence, and dissenters are executed as blasphemers.
95** The Mardu were originally fierce warriors who, despite being ruthless raiders, still valued altruism and had a strict code of honor. Under dragon lord Kolaghan, they've degraded into cannibalistic savages, mere punching bags for Kolaghan.
96** The Temur were once a clan who valued survival over all else but were fiercely loyal to their family and community. To survive the bottomless hunger of dragon lord Atarka, the Temur had to become her personal waiters, dedicating their entire life to hunt her prey and feed almost everything to her, leaving barely enough for their own survival.
97* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': One of the first signs in the setting's backstory that the sixth world had arrived and magic returned was when the dragons reappeared. The first was the Great Dragon Ryumyo, who awoke from his lair on Mount Fuji on Christmas eve of 2011 and were spotted by passengers aboard a nearby ''Shinkansen'' bullet train. The great dragon Dunkelzahn would later devote a section of his will to jokingly cuss out Ryumyo for stealing the spotlight by being the first amongst them to be revealed to the world. Some forty years later, the dragons are now a part of the Sixth World's GambitPileup of politics, with the oldest of their number being power-players that control [[MegaCorp megas]], large-scale criminal organizations or nation-states.
98* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'': The dragons of Caledor who fought alongside the High Elves started falling asleep about 3,000 years before the End Times, and then started waking up again as the End Times approached.
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101[[folder:Video Games]]
102* ''VideoGame/SeventhDragon'' and its sequel ''7th Dragon 2020'': Dragons appear and wage war against humanity. It doesn't help that the dragons cause the world ecosystem to shift to their liking, which is deadly for humans.
103* In ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', the ancient Everlasting Dragons with stone scales were supposedly "no more" once the Age of Fire began (excluding Seathe, who is scaleless, betrayed the other dragons, and was consequently rewarded with a position in the new regime). However it is clear many of them survive until the present time, some as unchanging as ever (the Stone Dragon on the Ash Lake) while others descended from them and mutated to a greater or lesser degree, becoming wyverns, drakes and basilisks. It is also shown that through a Covenant with the dragons, lesser beings can even mutate into a type of dragons themselves, such as man-serpents. The archdragons even breed with other races, as seen with Priscilla the dragon half-breed.
104** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' has the Ancient Dragon, said to be another one of the Everlasting Dragons, who seems intent on restoring its species in Drangleic. [[spoiler:However, numerous evidences, like how it drops a Giant's Soul and Nashandra describing it as a "false idol", indicate the Ancient Dragon is actually an artificial creature constructed by Aldia.]] Another also appears in ''Crown of the Sunken King'' DownloadableContent: Sinh the Slumbering Dragon resides in the depths of the sunken city of Shulva, and woe to anyone foolish enough to disturb his sleep. [[spoiler:Unlike the Ancient Dragon, there doesn't seem to be any doubt that Sinh is an Everlasting Dragon.]] WordOfGod also states the Everlasting Dragons are part "force of nature", so it may be that they can never truly be killed, and will always come back in some form.
105** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' curiously shows a few dead stone dragons at various locations in addition to dragon descendants from the previous games. Another Everlasting Dragon is also introduced in the ''Ringed City'' DownloadableContent, Darkeater Midir. The archdragon was raised by the gods, tasked to eternally battle against the creatures of the Abyss. However, despite its immortality, Midir too is slowly being corrupted by it, which is why the protagonist is tasked to kill him before he completely succumbs to the Abyss and turns against his allies.
106* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': One of the playable characters, the Red Prince of the LizardFolk, is [[TheProphecy prophesied]] to bring back the great red dragons from which the Lizards are descended. His enemies are bent on preventing this in the belief that the other races would unite against them. If his personal quest is completed, [[spoiler:his first dragon child hatches and serves him as a {{Bond Creature|s}}.]]
107* The ''Franchise/DragonAge'' series takes its name from the current in-universe age, named thus because dragons, believed extinct for centuries in the setting, suddenly began appearing sporadically. Their return is taken as an omen of violence and upheaval in the new age -- and, indeed, the first few decades of it were marked by a Blight (unseen in centuries) ''and'' the collapse of centuries-old Circle of Magi system, leading to a civil war. Oddly, the only form of Dragon thought to have been gone for good is the High Dragon, the eldest of their female metamorphoses. The smaller ones were known to still exist, and in fact, the protagonists butcher dozens of them to no consequence. Furthermore, the supplemental comic ''ComicBook/TheSilentGrove'' hints at an underground refuge for dragons, waiting to come back.
108* In ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'', the Dragon's return causes Gransys to be overrun with monsters, symbolizing a period of strife after the long peace that the world has enjoyed for generations. With that, it's up to an Arisen to fulfill their destiny and face the dragon. [[spoiler:That or make a deal with him so that he'll bugger off for a while and leave you an immortal, in the case of Edmun Dragonbane.]]
109* ''VideoGame/{{Drakan}}: The Ancients' Gates'' sees Rynn and Arokh bringing back the dragons TrappedInAnotherWorld in order to [[OrderReborn re-establish the ancient Order of the Flame]], pushing back the forces of evil that have almost subjugated humanity in the meanwhile.
110* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, dragons were thought to have been rendered extinct in a concerted effort by the [[{{Wutai}} Akaviri]] [[CreatureHunterOrganization Dragonguard]] and their successors, the [[AncientOrderOfProtectors Blades]], in the late 1st Era. However, at the start of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]] return along with the return of Alduin, the [[DragonsAreDemonic draconic]] BeastOfTheApocalypse who had been [[SealedEvilInACan cast out of the stream of time]] thousands of years in the past by the ancient Nords using the power of an [[TomeOfEldritchLore Elder Scroll]]. As it turns out, save for a few who went into ''deep'' hiding[[note]]Mirmulnir is stated to be this in one of the in-game books[[/note]], received protection from mortals[[note]]Nafaalilargus from ''[[GaidenGame The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard]]''[[/note]], or both[[note]]Paarthurnax, leader of the [[OldMaster Greybeards]] who resides at the peak of the tallest mountain in Tamriel[[/note]], the dragons really were extinct, and Alduin is activating their inherent ResurrectiveImmortality to [[RiseFromYourGrave bring them back to life]] as his minions. The plot of ''Skyrim'' revolves around the return of the dragons and the [[PlayerCharacter Dragonborn]] being the only one who can stop them.
111* ''Videogame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade Blazing Blade]]'': The backstory has it that dragons and men used to live in peace, but then a war broke out 1000 years ago, and mankind sealed dragons away. In Eliwood's game, the plot eventually grows to the point where they have to stop [[BigBad Nergal]] from bringing dragons back into the world, because that would bring about another war between species that humanity isn't prepared for and, thus, the extinction of mankind.
112* ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' has the dragons coming back in the 250-year gap from the first game and spawning alliances of evil creatures with their mere presence. In response, the five major races have banded together, and defeating them is the overarching plot of the game.
113* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'': The backstory mentions the Great Dragon who helped create Gensokyo before departing for parts unknown; his return would be a sign that Gensokyo has gotten [[GodzillaThreshold way out of hand]]. Iku Nagae is his messenger, who intervenes before things reach that point. [[spoiler: Some fans speculate that the BrilliantButLazy gatekeeper Hong Meiling may be [[KingIncognito the Great Dragon in disguise]], as her surname "Hong" refers to the rainbow dragon of Chinese mythology, and unusually for a ''Touhou'' character she has neither her species nor her unique power identified.]]
114* The ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' series deals with this on a semi-regular basis. Yes, Elder Dragons capable of doing apocalyptic damage to society are a known and present threat, but that doesn't stop new ones periodically crawling out of the woodwork, sending the nearby guild outposts scrambling to comb local myths and legends for some clue as to what they're dealing with and how to contain it.
115* ''Videogame/WorldOfWarcraft'' never had the dragons go ''away'' per se, but after the ''[[WorldSundering Cataclysm]]'', the four remaining [[TouchedByVorlons titan-blessed]] dragon [[FirstOfItsKind aspects]], charged with safeguarding the world, used most of their power to prevent it from [[EarthShatteringKaboom going kaput]] entirely, heralding in an age of mortals while the dragons began figuring out what to do in a world that they no longer had the power to truly be stewards of. Fast track ten years and the age of mortals has been a violent one; seeing an AlienInvasion by Demons, several major continent and Timeline-spanning wars, and at least one attempt by the [[LovecraftLite Old Gods]] to TakeOverTheWorld -- and with their ancient homeland of the Dragon Isles being rediscovered after it was sealed away, the five titan-blessed flights decide "You know what? Leaving the fate of the world to mortals was a ''terrible'' idea." And return to the forefront, seeking to reclaim their lost power so they can be stewards once more.
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119* ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'': The dragons in the comic are {{Ultraterrestrials}} descended from Triassic lizards who really don't want anything to do with humanity after leaving Earth, but their attention gets drawn back here when scientists uncover a [[NeglectfulPrecursors superweapon from the war that wiped out dragon civilization]] and [[PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs killed off the dinosaurs]].
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123* [[Website/SCPFoundation SCP-]][[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3844/offset/1 3844]] "To Kill A Dragon", is mostly about how TheMagicGoesAway as humanity stops seeing the beauty and wonder in the unexplained, and becomes more skeptical, as recounted through the descriptions of the dragon Tharnock and his friend, a Foundation researcher (and later O5). At the end of the article, Tharnock decides that he has had enough of containment, telling the O5 that he can hear his kin call from the mountains. Tharnock is killed in the escape, and, while it looks like a DownerEnding, the final revision of the article describes a race of dragons that have recently begun appearing in mountains around the world.
124-->'''O5-2''': Dragons. There are still dragons in the mountains.
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128* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragonTheHiddenWorld'', all the remaining dragons flee into [[HollowEarth an underground sanctuary]] when it becomes increasing clear that man and dragon simply can not coexist. In ''WesternAnimation/DragonsTheNineRealms'', set centuries after the fact, a comet-induced earthquake creates a fissure that opens into the aforementioned sanctuary, giving way for dragons to return. Downplayed in that the only ones who know of this are a small group of kids trying to keep it secret from the rest of the world.
129* At the end of the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyMakeYourMark'' premiere, the egg Hitch found hatches into a dragon, which haven't been seen in Equestria for centuries. [[spoiler:Later the rest of them awaken from their century long slumber due to magic retuning.]]
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