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| 10 | [[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dragons_of_middle_earth_fanart.jpg]]]] |
| 11 | [-[[caption-width-right:350:Yes, they're drawn to [[{{Pun}} scale]].\ |
| 12 | [[https://www.deviantart.com/raikohillust/art/Dragons-of-Middle-Earth-468304042 Artwork]] by [[https://www.deviantart.com/grissaecrim/art/Dragons-of-Middle-Earth-468304042 Grissaecrim]]. Used with permission.]]-] |
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| 17 | * Creator/BettyAdams: Dragons are a fairly standard mix of Eastern and Western mythology, favoring the standard six limbed, one headed variety and tending focus on honor and truth. They recognize humans as useful and essential but are not overly sentimental about relationships with them. |
| 18 | * ''Literature/AgeOfFire'': The dragons are of the Western type and come in a variety of colors and metals. They have two hearts in their necks and an organ that allows them to breathe fire but they must be well fed (fat provides part of the fuel) to use it. Their life stages are hatchlings, who can neither breathe fire nor fly; drakes, who can breathe fire but not fly; and adult dragons, who can do both. They collect hordes of metals in order to eat them and strengthen their armor. A variant are greys who have no armor but who can blend in, chameleon-like, with their surroundings. The lack of armor, while it makes them more vulnerable, also enables them to swim and to fly better because of the lack of weight, and removes their need to hoard and eat metal. |
| 19 | * ''Literature/TheAldabreshinCompass'' has western-style dragons that are a Franchise/{{Godzilla}}-level threat. Even one can devastate a small nation. They are tied to one of the four classic elements (Earth, Wind, Water or Fire) and while they do hoard the gem associated with that element, it is only so they can meld enough gems into a magic egg. True dragons have such a gem for their heart; illusory dragons, summoned by only the most powerful wizards (or at least only by those who get page time), can become real and self aware if they rip out a true dragon's heart and eat it. An easy way to tell if there is a true dragon around is to look at the nearest wizard; if they exploded due to their powers going haywire, [[OhCrap it's a real dragon]]. |
| 20 | * Creator/RobertAsprin created or co-created at least four different types of dragons for his stories: |
| 21 | ** In ''Literature/ThievesWorld'', the first dragon depicted was essentially a flying dinosaur with little magic about it (other than being able to fly) and no real intelligence. |
| 22 | ** In the ''Literature/MythAdventures'' series, Skeeve accidentally buys a dragon in the first book which initially seems loyal but stupid. As the series continued, Gleep's intelligence is shown to be much higher. ''Myth Adventures'' pokes fun at the wide variety of dragons in literature. The market where Gleep is found is the Bazaar at Deva, where goods from across the dimensions are bought and sold. The dragons are described as being every type imaginable, and some that aren't. The Graphic Novel of the first book takes it Up to Eleven. |
| 23 | ** In the ''Duncan and Mallory'' series, Mallory is a man-sized vegetarian dragon shaped like a weasel. He is highly intelligent, basically good, but greedy and conniving. |
| 24 | ** In ''Dragon's Wild'', the protagonist discovers that not only is he an excellent poker player but HE is really a dragon. |
| 25 | * In G. Derek Adams's ''Asteroid made of Dragons'', {{Precursors}} had banished an army of malevolent dragons into a {{Magitek}} spaceship known as the "Shame" where they were held in stasis. An evil cult of dragon worshippers was able to awaken one of the dragons. This dragon, "The Messenger", would survive by absorbing the life-force of other dragons until it could pilot the Shame back to the homeworld. The Messenger could breathe out a magical blast that was a combination of all the various BreathWeapon from dragons he fed on. Additionally all the dragons are telepathic. |
| 26 | * ''Literature/TheAvatarChronicles'': In [[ShowWithinAShow game within the book]] of ''Epic'', dragons are unique and extraordinarily powerful monsters as old as the in-universe world itself, and guard enormous hoards of treasure. Killing one is almost impossible and awards anyone who manages to do it with immense status. |
| 27 | * ''Literature/BazilBroketail'': |
| 28 | ** The series contains flightless, wingless dragons with aquatic ancestry. They are integrated into human society and fight with swords and use tools. There are also wild winged dragons, but neither type breathes fire. |
| 29 | ** Properly only the winged dragons are called dragons in the series. The non-flying ones are referred to as Wyverns. |
| 30 | ** Another note is that the Purple Green, during one particularly strenuous battle [[spoiler:after he later joins up with Bazil's unit]] wishes that he had the fiery breath of his ancestors. Whether that is fact or just a dragon legend is never elaborated on. |
| 31 | ** They are highly resistant to magic, which is useful for withstanding enemy spells but also has the downside that healing ones don't work as well on them. |
| 32 | * ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': There's only one dragon, a female, who's all that's left after the two males killed each other during their first mating season. The dragon in that series is stupid, animalistic and has burning blood, but besides the blood is more of a shot at the Smaug-dragons of the twentieth century. |
| 33 | * The Korean fantasy series ''The Bird that Drinks Tears'' has dragons as ''plant-based'' - they're the roots of a flower. The environment they flower in influences what they become: dragons surrounded by horses can become horse-like, whereas ones in the sea gain webbed feet. They also can shift into a humanoid form. |
| 34 | * ''Literature/Birthright2017'': Dragons are intelligent, having formed a tribal society and organized trade deals with humans. They're born small, bipedal and wingless, but grow wings and gradually become large and quadrupedal as they age, and they're supremely talented shapeshifters and craftsmen. |
| 35 | * ''Literature/BlackDogs'': Full-blooded dragons are extinct, but an anthropomorphic hybrid/subspecies exists that have a close relationship with the local human population. |
| 36 | * ''Literature/TheBookOfDragons'': The stories all focus on dragons, and have a wide variety of different interpretations and visions of the creatures. These come in both Western and Eastern variants, and include clockwork creatures, ravening monsters that reproduce by turning other creatures into dragons, river spirits, nature gods, the living embodiments of humans' ability to feel emotions, invaders from another dimension, eusocial alien animals, metaphors for familial abuse, and dimensional invaders brought to Earth by rainless storms. |
| 37 | * ''Literature/BookOfImaginaryBeings'': |
| 38 | ** Chinese dragons symbolize yang, wisdom, the Emperor (deceased Emperors were said to have ascended to heaven on the back of a dragon), rain and rivers, and are one of the four magic animals alongside phoenixes, unicorns and tortoises. Borges describes them as essentially angels that are also lions. They are horned and with backbones bristling with spines, and carry pearls that are the seat of their power -- if their pearls are taken, they become powerless and easily tamed. The painter Chang Seng-yu once made a wall painting depicting four dragons, but left out the eyes. When people complained about this, the annoyed Chang completed two of the figures, [[ArtInitiatesLife which turned into real dragons with a thunderclap and ascended to Heaven]] while the two eyeless ones remained paintings. |
| 39 | ** Eastern dragons are described separately from the Chinese kind. They have a chimeric mix of features, including the head of a horse or a camel, the horns of a stag, the ears of an ox (although they may lack ears, and hear through their horns instead), the scales of a fish, the talons of an eagle, the tail of a snake and the belly of a clam. They may possess wings or lack them, but can fly in either case. They are migratory, moving into the sky during the spring and into the sea during the fall. Four kinds exist: Celestial Dragons, which carry the palaces of the gods on their backs; Divine Dragons, which create wind and rain; Terrestrial Dragons, which oversee the courses of rivers and streams; and Subterranean Dragons, which watch over treasures forbidden to men. There are also the five Dragon Kings, which are five miles long, live in the sea and can cause mountains to collapse when they move. |
| 40 | ** Western dragons, in the modern day, are heavy-bodied reptiles with wings and claws, and belch forth fire and smoke. In Greek and Roman times, the term was used for any reptile of considerable size. According to Pliny, dragons craved elephant blood, which is said to be very cool, during the summer, which they obtain by coiling around the beast and draining it dry. This spells the dragon's doom, however, as the dead elephant falls over and crushes the dragon under its weight. Pliny also said that Ethiopian dragons sometimes cross the Red Sea to find better hunting grounds, crossing in groups of four or five by coiling themselves into rafts and floating across. They are generally held to be evil creatures and to hoard treasure, and many heroes need to slay a dragon at some point. |
| 41 | ** A dragon is described that lived in a river in France and killed all passers-by; it possessed a long pair of sharp tusks, and was the offspring of Leviathan and a wild ass. |
| 42 | * ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'', being based on Myth/ClassicalMythology, has plenty of draconic beings. Dragons and drakons are depicted as two different albiet very similar species (despite "drakon" just being Greek for "dragon"). Most of them actually have venom as their main weapon. |
| 43 | ** Dragons are typically used to protect magical objects. For example, Peleus guards the fleece at Camp Half-Blood, and the hundred-headed Ladon guards the Garden of the Hesperides and the apples of immortality within. These dragons tend to play a more neutral role. |
| 44 | ** ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'' features a giant robot-dragon that the heroes name Festus. When Festus is broken in a crash landing, his mechanical head is reused as the masthead for the heros' CoolAirship - and when said airship is destroyed Festus gets his dragon body back. |
| 45 | ** Python from ''Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo'' is not only an [[DragonsAreDemonic evil dragon]], but a pretty dam powerful one too. Not only is he as smart as any human, he can grow and discard wings, limbs, and extra heads on a whim, making his appearance variable. He works with [[BigBadDuumvirate Triumvirate Holdings]] and later [[spoiler:is revealed to be [[TheManBehindTheMan The Dragon Behind the Triumvirate]], and is killed in a final battle with the god Apollo]]. |
| 46 | ** Drakons are more often than not malevolent, and work with the Titan Army all throughout ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''. For example, during the FinalBattle at Manhattan in ''The Last Olympian'', Kronos unleashes the Lydian Drakon to harass the heroes and even manages to kill some of them - at least until the BigDamnHeroes led by Clarisse show up. |
| 47 | * ''Literature/CastleHangnail'': No "real" dragons appear, but several animals become the target of a spell that turns animals into dragons for a short period of time. The results show strong MorphicResonance: the donkey dragon is grey with long ears, the bat dragon is small and agile, and the goldfish dragon is a foot long golden sea serpent. |
| 48 | * ''Literature/AChorusOfDragons'': There are precisely eight dragons in the world, which are immortal, the size of hills, and highly intelligent. They're ungodly powerful creatures, and generally treated as living cataclysms more than something that can be fought and killed. They spend most of their time sleeping, hoard treasure, and instead of breathing fire exhale volcanically hot air. It's revealed late in the first book that [[spoiler:they began their lives as a group of humanoids that tried to become gods, and failed very badly]]. |
| 49 | * ''Literature/ChroniclesOfMagravandias'': Some dragons, the fire-drakes, are western dragons, but Foy is more like an eastern dragon. The dragons of air and earth are cockatrices and basilisks respectively. All these [[ElementalEmbodiment dragons]] can take on [[PhysicalGod human form]], and their strength and even personalities [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly reflect the beliefs]] of their followers. |
| 50 | * ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'': Dragons don't show up all that often compared to other species, but they're among the creatures present in the world of Narnia, most often in its more remote corners. Physically they're the giant, fire-breathing, bat-winged reptiles of Western myth, although they elbows are noted to rise above their backs like a spider's. They're immensely greedy, and often amass immense hoards of treasure, and sleeping on a dragon's hoard risks transforming the sleeper into a dragon themselves. |
| 51 | ** ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'': Notably, there's a dragon-turned-to-stone in the Witch's house. When he's restored, he fights on Aslan's side against the Witch. |
| 52 | ** ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'': Eustace sees a dragon die of age. He then discovers the dragon's treasure hoard, and falls asleep on it, thinking "greedy, dragonish thoughts". The next morning, he finds himself [[{{curse}} transformed into a dragon]]. |
| 53 | ** In ''Literature/TheSilverChair'', Eustace and Jill see dragons among the many creatures sleeping under the earth, waiting for [[TheEndOftheWorldAsWeKnowIt the end of the world]]. In ''Literature/TheLastBattle'', when the world ends, these dragons and other creatures awake, eat all Narnia's trees, scorch the earth, then die. |
| 54 | * ''Literature/ChroniclesOfTheEmergedWorld'': Dragons are of the classic European type -- large, winged reptiles capable of breathing fire, and highly intelligent but not sapient. They're [[DragonRider used as mounts]] by elite military forces on both sides of the war, and several types exist: |
| 55 | ** Common dragons, the ones most often seen, are found in most lands. They are typically various shades of green, but some come in other colors such as red. |
| 56 | ** Blue dragons live in the Land of the Sea. Besides their color, they differ from common dragons in their smaller size and elongated, serpentine bodies. |
| 57 | ** Black dragons are ferocious creatures bred by the Tyrant and given to his top lieutenants as weapons, mounts and symbols of status. |
| 58 | * ''Theatre/{{Comus}}'': The younger brother invokes dragons as guards when explaining his fear for his sister. |
| 59 | -->''But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree\ |
| 60 | Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard\ |
| 61 | Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye\ |
| 62 | To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit'' |
| 63 | * ''Literature/TheCosmere'': Creator/BrandonSanderson is very fond of dragons - they are the only "classic" fantasy species which exists within his SharedUniverse, though he still puts a somewhat unique spin on them. Within the Cosmere, dragons are an ancient, sentient species originating from the same world as humanity and the Cosmere's CreatorDeity, Adonalsium, a now desolate world named Yolen. They are ageless creatures that come in a variety of shapes and sizes, not least due to being potent shapeshifters and sorcerers. Their true form is a fairly standard Occidental design - reptillian body, large leathery wings and horns - though they can grow manes and beards akin to those of Oriental longs. Most notably, their bodies are always covered in [[FantasyMetals dragonsteel]], a mysterious, silvery metal of currently unknown properties and immense value to collectors of the arcane. The few dragons seen in the books have a tendancy to live in isolated areas away from mortal settlements, but are willing to grant boons to those mortals who dare to seek them out [[EquivalentExchange for a price of some kind]]; [[Literature/TressOfTheEmeraldSea Xisisrefiel]] makes exchanges for human slaves, while [[Literature/TheStormlightArchive Koravellium Avast]] prefers to give out curses alongside her boons in lieu of taking something. It's also mentioned that dragon myths are extremely common across the Cosmere because dragons like revealing themselves to developing cultures so that they'll have an easily-influenced people in their back pocket if they ever happen to find themselves in need of one. WordOfGod says that the interdimensional city of Silverlight, now populated by worldhoppers from all across the Cosmere, was originally founded by dragons who simply built their palaces near each other, and even now they're very active in the higher echelons of the city (being [[CorporateDragon owners of the major corporations]], for example). |
| 64 | * ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'': In "Red Nails", Valeria and Conan are treed by a dragon that's implied to be a ''[[DinosaursAreDragons Stegosaurus]]''. |
| 65 | * In ''Literature/BoredOfTheRings'', a propane-fueled dragon on roller skates is used to burn down the walls of Minas Troney. |
| 66 | * ''Literature/CouncilWars'': Dragons were genetically engineered by, amusingly, Disney Genegeneers in the early 21st Century. They made two different varieties, the large, sentient Greater Dragons and the smaller Wyverns that were roughly equivalent to horses in intelligence. The only reason they're able to fly at all is because of muscles and bones made from incredibly strong and light 'bioextruded carbon-nanotube'. |
| 67 | * ''Franchise/CthulhuMythos'': The lloigor are invisible alien horrors, but can create reptilian bodies for themselves which are rumored to have inspired the dragons of myth (notably in Wales, where dragon iconography is 'rampant' in the local heraldry). |
| 68 | * ''Literature/DarkShores'': Dragon, the symbol of the Celendor Empire, is basically a lizard. Big as a dog, with yellow scales and golden eyes, it bites its prey and since its mouth is very filthy, the wounds get infected very quickly and it follows its victims until they succumb. Cel farmers treat it as vermin. |
| 69 | * ''Literature/ADealWithADemon:'' Dragons in this series are a species of demon and are humanoid. They are nine feet tall and scaled, with a reptilian head and males have two penises. |
| 70 | * ''Literature/TheDeathGateCycle'': |
| 71 | ** The dragon-snakes and the dragons of Pryan aren't actually dragons, just immensely powerful shapechangers who prefer to appear in draconic form. The former resemble immense, slime-covered, limbless serpents, while the latter are equally large creatures resembling the traditional Western dragon but without wings. |
| 72 | ** Besides them, there are a number of flesh-and-blood dragon species inhabiting the various worlds, which are descended from the true dragons of ancient Earth that were carried to the new worlds by the Sartan: |
| 73 | *** There are a couple of different dragon species on Arianus, which are intelligent but not sapient and often enspelled and trained by humans as flying mounts between the floating islands (they're not domesticated, though, and the spells have to be periodically renewed to make sure they stay tame). Elves, whose magic cannot replicate the necessary spells, instead hunt and kill them, and use their remains to make their flying ships. The quicksilver dragons of the High Realm are wingless but can still fly (for that matter, they're faster fliers than any winged dragon) and are the most intelligent of the Arianus dragons. Quicksilver dragons can only be controlled by the most powerful of wizards, and even then the mage is in constant mental struggle with the dragon. |
| 74 | *** The fire dragons of Abarrach are basically giant, sapient black serpents that live in lava. They're intelligent and telepathic, but have few interactions with civilized beings -- the mensch and Sartan hunted them to near-extinction in the past, and the surviving fire dragons despise them for it. |
| 75 | *** The blood dragons of the Labyrinth are some of the most powerful creatures in the series, the most feared and dangerous natives of the Labyrinth -- which, given the many varieties of monsters that live there, is saying something -- and actively evil and sadistic. They make a point of keeping captured prey alive as long as possible, torturing it all the while for their own enjoyment. In terms of appearance they're fairly classic Western dragons, with blood-red scales. |
| 76 | * ''Literature/{{Delasangre}}'': Dragons are arrogant, amoral, long-lived [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifters]] who are just too awesome to take seriously. |
| 77 | * ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}'': Dragons, aka dragonbirds, lizardbirds and Grikbirds, are a branch of the Grik that evolved for flight rather than intelligence, developing wings rather than arms. They're small as dragons go, being nine or ten feet long including the tails. They're intelligent enough to train, and the Dominion uses them as an airforce and to drop rocks and cannonballs on their enemies. |
| 78 | * Creator/ChretienDeTroyes was a French poet in the 12th century who wrote Arthurian Romances, which were popular at the time. One of his works, ''Literature/YvainTheKnightOfTheLion'' opens with the eponymous Yvain rescuing a lion from a large, fire-breathing serpent. No wings or legs or intelligence, just good old-fashioned Satanic imagery. |
| 79 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' features four distinct types of dragons: |
| 80 | ** Noble dragons are typical Western dragons, but have to feed on high levels of magic [[{{Deconstruction}} to get away with their impossible physiology]]; as such, they are effectively extinct on the Discworld, having migrated to [[SealedEvilInACan a pocket dimension]]. They're used as mounts by the Dragonriders of Wyrmberg (from ''Literature/TheColourOfMagic''), who live in a highly-magical area; these dragons are only real within this high magic field, and become more and more insubstantial towards its edges until they vanish entirely. |
| 81 | ** The far more common swamp dragons, on the other hand, are small, rather friendly Western dragons as they'd have to be ''without'' magic: rather than huge, majestic, and cunning monsters, they're small, ugly, and rather dim creatures that can barely fly, and are only dangerous because they tend to explode when ill or overexcited (due to the complicated internal chemistry set that allows them to breathe fire). |
| 82 | ** ''Literature/TheLastHero'' introduces two more types: |
| 83 | *** When the characters travel to the moon, they find another kind of dragon, similar to the swamp dragons, but much more graceful in the low gravity, and with the fire coming out the other end as a rocket boost, [[spoiler:much like Errol the swamp dragon from ''Literature/GuardsGuards!'']] |
| 84 | *** Also speculated about in ''The Last Hero'' is a space-faring dragon, hundreds of meters long, that looks suspiciously like a [[SpaceWhale certain popular space-faring cetacean...]] |
| 85 | * ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'': |
| 86 | ** The fire-breathing monster Cacus is rendered in Dante's imagination as a centaur with a small dragon on his shoulder who defends his host. Notably, Cacus and his dragon are both subject to the same punishment as human thieves, implying they have souls equivalent to that of a human's. |
| 87 | ** A dragon appears briefly near the end of ''Purgatorio'' to rise up from the ground and sting a chariot (representing the Church) with its venomous tail, which apparently is like the stinger of a wasp. |
| 88 | * ''Literature/DraconisMemoria'': Dragons are native to the Arradsian continent (and ''only'' Arradsia. Taking them off the continent causes them to drop dead), but are more remarkable for their blood. While their blood is usually corrosive when in contact with human skin, certain select individuals (known as Bloodblessed, roughly 0.1% of the population) can safely drink the blood and gain fabulous powers from it. There are four subspecies of drake, Red, Green, Blue and Black. Drinking blood directly from the heart is [[spoiler:usually]] lethal even to bloodblessed. |
| 89 | ** Green drakes seem to be the most common, inhabitting the jungles, praries and rivers and varying in size from 7 feet (jungle greens) to 15 feet (river greens). They can breathe fire and have heightened resistance to fire, but cannot fly. Drinking their blood heightens the physical abilities of bloodblessed to superhuman levels and stimulates the healing process. Small doses can be consumed by normal humans as a panaceum. |
| 90 | ** Red drakes are wyverns, and can grow as large as twenty feet or larger. They live in massive swarms mainly in the Badlands and volcanic areas of the Arradsian interior, but hunt alone. Reds can breathe fire and fly, and drinking their blood gives bloodblessed a form of pyrokinesis. Their blood is also used as a substitute for coal on so-called "Bloodburner" ships. |
| 91 | ** Blue drakes inhabit the oceans east and south of Arradsia, and can grow to a massive 60 feet. They resemble giant sea serpents, and use their serpent bodies to coil around prey which they then kill with their white firebreath. Drinking the blood of blue drakes puts the bloodblessed in a state called Bluetrance, in which they can telepathically communicate over large distances and recall and share their memories with almost photographical precision. |
| 92 | ** Black drakes, the strongest and most majestic of drakes, are solitary hunters and the [[spoiler:second]] rarest kind. Black drakes are usually around 30 feet in length, with massive wingspans and tailends sharp and powerful enough to dismember humans and cut through stone. They are also possibly the most intelligent of drakes. Drinking black drakeblood gives bloodblessed telekinetic powers. |
| 93 | ** [[spoiler:The White is the rarest kind of drake, so rare that only three has been known in the history of Arradsia. White drakes are even larger than blacks, and possess an incredible intelligence. Their most dangerous ability, however, is their power to dominate the minds of red, green and blue drakes, even from entire continents away. This ability also expands to certain bloodblessed. The presence of a white drake has also been known to "spoil" humans, giving them physical deformities and subjugating them to the White's will.]] |
| 94 | * ''Literature/{{Dracopedia}}'', by William O'Connor, divides dragons into thirteen groups, each containing several species. |
| 95 | ** The classic western dragons are simply referred to as "Dragons", with the iconic fire-breathing red dragon being the Welsh species. Similar to them are the Dragonettes, which can stand on their hind legs and are usually domesticated as mounts. There are also the bipedal Wyverns, the serpentine Wyrms, and the wingless Drakes, which are another group of domesticated dragons. |
| 96 | ** Eastern dragons are divided into the scaly, serpentine Asian Dragons and the furry, wingless Arctic Dragons (the latter are stated to have been historically confused with the former). |
| 97 | ** Amphipteres are serpentine dragons that possess wings but no limbs, while Coatls are a feathered offshoot of the group originating from the Americas. There are also the tiny Feydragons, which possess butterfly-like wings. |
| 98 | ** Rounding off the dragon types are the wingless, multi-limbed Basilisks, the sea serpent-inspired Sea Orcs[[note]]the word "orc" is speculated by some to have its origins in the Anglo-Saxon word "orcen", meaning "sea monster" and cognate to "orca"[[/note]], and the multi-headed hydras. |
| 99 | ** Cockatrices are also mentioned as a crossbreed of a rooster and a Dragonette, while Salamanders are considered a species of Basilisk. The Tarasque is in ''Dracopedia: The Bestiary", where it is depicted as a turtle-like beast that eats everything in its path and speculated to have possibly been a giant Basilisk. |
| 100 | * Steven Brust's ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' stories have literal dragons, huge creatures with triangular heads and prehensile tentacles which they can use to get psychic impressions of animals; and [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Dragons, a House of Dragaerans named for the animal]]. There are also jheregs, who look like very small dragons with only two legs and a poisonous bite, and [[ThievesGuild Jheregs, a House of Dragaerans named for the animal]]. |
| 101 | * In Creator/DavPilkey's ''[[Literature/TheDragonSeries Dragon]]'' series, the title character, Dragon, is small, blue, and has a tail and spikes, but exhibits no other traditional characteristics of a dragon, such as fire breathing, flying, magic, or even hoarding gold. |
| 102 | * ''Literature/DragonAmerica'' is an AlternateHistory in which North America, for some reason, is inhabited by many varieties of dragons, which died out long ago in the rest of the world. Some of them seem to be merely surviving dinosaurs ... but there '''are''' firebreathers, too. This comes in handy when George Washington sends Daniel Boone to learn from the Native Americans how to control dragons to help fight the Redcoats. |
| 103 | * In N. R. Eccles-Smith's HighFantasy series, ''Literature/{{DragonCalling}}'', the [[TheHero main protagonist]] and TheLeader of the FiveManBand (plus SixthRanger) of questing companions is a young, green-scaled dragon named Laeka'Draeon. The dragons of [[ConstructedWorld Valadae]] are one of the ruling creature-kinds, governing two of the eleven allied kingdoms. The catalyst of the series' plot is the mysterious disappearance of the dragons (except Laeka'Draeon) and the increasingly disturbing consequences of their vanishment. Valadilian dragons are built similar to the traditional western dragons, complete with [[BreathWeapon fire-breathing]] and flight abilities. They are sentient, intelligent, powerful, with a distinct culture (that includes written language, arts, architecture and a structured monarchy). They are ''not'' treasure-hoarders or mounts for any other species. If anything, they are one of the most [[DragonsAreDivine mysterious and complex]] of the creature-kinds in Valadae. |
| 104 | * ''Literature/{{Dragoncharm}}'': All characters are dragons, and are divided between "Natural" dragons, big flying reptiles with two wings and two legs and without otherwise special traits, and the "Charmed" dragons, which resemble Chinese dragons with small wings, can use magic as they see fit and tend to modify their appearance to suit their needs. |
| 105 | * ''Literature/DragonEyePI'': Dragons look like what what is typically thought of as western dragons, but are androgynous; due to this, there are only a very limited number of them. They cannot die (even if torn to pieces but will regrow from whatever the largest piece of themselves is left), are very self-centered with BlueAndOrangeMorality but not particularly evil, and while they collect hoards they can be much more varied that the usual gold and silver -- there's one dragon that Vern knew who had a marvelous collection of prehistoric fossils. |
| 106 | * ''Literature/DragonFall1984'' has the dragons designed as bipedal in order to make them more relatable. |
| 107 | * ''Literature/{{Dragonhaven}}'' is set in a world with no overt magic, so the dragons are natural animals, but they don't seem to be related to any other kinds of animals, and are rarely seen. And their remains (except for scales) decay very quickly so they can't be studied. They do breathe fire, but it comes from a fire-organ in their stomachs. Also, they are Australian and have pouches, a fact many people like to ignore so they can keep on thinking of dragons as romantic creatures. And it turns out that [[spoiler: they are intelligent, on the same level as humans. They have a language, which is [[StarfishLanguage very, very alien]] and based on what appears to be telepathy. But most people are uncomfortable with that idea, and say, "the T-word."]] |
| 108 | * ''Literature/TheDragonHoard'' has several wildly differing kind of dragon, including (though only in a made-up StoryWithinAStory) one that can't hoard gold because of an allergy. The hoard of the title is actually a human treasury in a sacred grove guarded by a dragon with no particular attachment to the hoard; after the heroes succeed in retrieving the treasure, the dragon just goes on guarding the grove and never even notices the treasure is gone. |
| 109 | * Dragons in ''Literature/{{Dragonkeeper}}'' are heavily based upon Chinese dragons (obviously, given it's set in Ancient China). They have long serpent-like bodies, leonine heads and whiskers, four legs and paws; they're sapient, literate, mostly benevolent, can shapeshift and so on. However, rather than being divine or semi-divine beings, they're presented more as just a rare, highly-intelligent and magic-using species of animal. They have a bit of influence from Western dragons in that they have a pair of leathery wings they use to fly (as opposed to flying with magic); they keep these wings folded close to their bodies when they're not in use, so they can go unnoticed and give the impression they're wingless. |
| 110 | * ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' unsurprisingly has plenty of dragons in it. Originally designed as a D&D setting, they are fairly standard modern Western-style dragons mostly similar to other D&D dragons. Helpfully ColorCodedForYourConvenience, metallic dragons are always good (although not necessarily ''[[GoodIsNotNice nice]]''), while other colours are always evil. They come in matched opposing pairs, with a good and evil version of about the same size and breath weapon -- gold and red dragons being the largest of their respective sides and the only ones to breath fire, while others have a variety of different breath weapons (often two, with one being non-lethal) such as cold and lightning. Dragons are long-lived, but do eventually die of old age; there have only been about four generations, although much time was passed in hibernation. They are the oldest and most magical species and are, or at least were, favoured of the gods, with both the big good and big bad of the setting usually taking the form of dragons. |
| 111 | * ''Literature/{{Dragonlord}}'': Wild magic long ago split all the dragon's [[OurSoulsAreDifferent souls]] in twain. They are now born within human bodies, and at some point in the human's life they discover that they are an [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent immortal were-dragon]] (called a Dragonlord), and are compelled to seek out their "soultwin", the person who has the other half of their dragon soul. When they grow tired of life, the human soul seeks oblivion, and the dragon soul, long dormant, comes to the fore. They lose their ability to [[VoluntaryShapeshifter shapeshift]] and become "truedragons". They are nearly point-for-point classical Western dragons, except for the ability to breathe "Healing Fire", which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. |
| 112 | ** Real dragons (who have never been Dragonlords) do exist; they can also mate and produce ''truedragon'' offspring -- but these are vanishingly rare, and the death of one of these young dragons is treated as a massive catastrophe for the race. |
| 113 | ** Eastern dragons that live in the water and can turn into mist are also present, but they are hatched instead of cursed this way. |
| 114 | * Chris Bunch's ''Literature/{{Dragonmaster}}'' trilogy has dragons very much in the western style, although without the ability to breathe fire. They get used by both sides of a war as aerial scouts and couriers, initially, before the protagonist had the bright idea of taking up crossbowmen and bombs (ranging from incendiaries through to enchanted rocks and ballista bolts), and his nemesis had the smart idea of using them as airlift. It is perhaps worth noting that while the dragons are treated as non-sentient flying cavalry mounts in the first two books, there are hints that they are reasonably intelligent and possibly telepathic. Worth mentioning that that's [[ArtImitatesLife pretty much exactly how the use of planes evolved]] over the course of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. |
| 115 | * ''Literature/DragonQueen'': [[FeatheredDragons Dragons have feathers]], which is not typical of either Eastern or Western mythology. |
| 116 | * ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'': |
| 117 | ** Creator/AnneMcCaffrey is very firm in stating that her dragons are different. Anyone reading the series will be constantly reminded that the empathic, symbiotic dragons are genetically engineered creatures, despite being "classic" Western dragons physically. Even the fire-breathing and [[PsychicPowers telepathy]] have a scientific basis rather than a magical one. This attribute keeps the series firmly in the "ScienceFiction" section of book shops, rather than the "{{fantasy}}" shelves. |
| 118 | ** Her dragons do have at least one characteristic that quite unique--the ability to teleport (called "going ''between'' ") not just through space, but through ''time'' as well. Going ''between'' is dangerous enough, if the rider doesn't have their destination firmly fixed in their mind dragon and rider may end up [[TeleFrag entombed in a mountain]] or even disappear forever. ''Timing'' has the added bonus of causing massive amounts of mental stress if there is more than one of you at that time. Additionally going ''between'' has other effects, such as inducing miscarriages and occasionally kidney damage. So why use it? It kills any Thread that might have landed on you, plus it's a fast way to travel in an otherwise Medieval society. |
| 119 | ** There are two other closely related species: |
| 120 | *** [[ShoulderSizedDragon Firelizards]], the species from which dragon were genetically engineered. They are much smaller, able to sit on your shoulder, and appear to be about as smart as a really smart dog. Due to their weak, constant telepathy with other Firelizards, they also have something of a HiveMind when it comes to memories, being able to remember the landing of the original colonists on Pern. Considering the time between the Thread attacks, the Hive Mind is a powerful survival tool. |
| 121 | *** Watch-whers were the result of a mistake during the development of the dragon species. They are about the size of a very large dog or small pony. They are flightless and photophobic, and while they may develop a liking to certain individuals they do not Impress. They are often chained to a wall and used as guard dogs. Several books do say that they weren't mistakes, but rather they were meant to fly (yes, in the air) and fight Thread at night, when the Weyrs are asleep, and consequently weren't supposed to be chained at all. The Retconned versions ''do'' Impress, but the bond is weaker than with dragons, so a watch-wher sometimes survives the death of its human partner or chooses to switch partners. Other books, usually the older ones, share the conventional opinion. |
| 122 | * ''Literature/TheDragonslayersApprentice'': Dragons are actually not featured much at all, since the story is more about the titular dragonslayer's tribulations trying to deal with his [[TheVoiceless no-talker assistant Ron]] and tomboyish apprentice Jackie, but one chapter does deal with a juvenile dragon. In this story, they're large reptiles that belch a smoke-like vapor, and reports of firebreathing come from the assumption that where there's smoke, there's fire (incidentally, it doesn't get slain either-it gets captured and sold to a circus). |
| 123 | * Creator/ENesbit's "The Dragon Tamers" includes a Western style dragon covered nose to tail in rusty armor plating; after a set of adventures (including a fight with a giant), he ends up befriending the blacksmith's son and the other children in the village, after which the armor falls off and the dragon turns out to be the world's first cat. [[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700681h.html Check it out here]]. |
| 124 | * ''Literature/{{Dragonsbane}}'': The dragons of Creator/BarbaraHambly's ''Winterlands'' series are telepathic, magically endowed, and fairly intelligent, if a little isolated and alien in mindset. They have an honest-to-goodness addiction to gold, which is why they tend to hoard it. |
| 125 | * ''Dragons Can Only Rust'' and ''Dragon Reforged'' by Chrys Cymri are about a robot dragon on a quest to learn [[DoAndroidsDream whether or not he has a soul.]] |
| 126 | * ''Literature/DragonsInOurMidst'': The dragons are Western in looks. They can use human speech, and while they at first appear to be more intelligent then humans, this is revealed to have more to do with their near-immortal life spans than any innate ability. Personality wise, they have about the same range and diversity as humans. |
| 127 | * ''Literature/DragonsLexiconTriumvirate'': Several different subspecies appear: |
| 128 | ** Amphiphipteres have two wings and no limbs. |
| 129 | ** {{Basilisk|AndCockatrice}}s have more than two pairs of appendages. |
| 130 | ** Drakes have four appendages and no wings. |
| 131 | ** FairyDragons are of minuscule size and have insectoid features. |
| 132 | ** [[OurHydrasAreDifferent Hydras]] have more than one head. |
| 133 | ** Lindworms have two legs and no wings. |
| 134 | ** Ouroboroses always keep their tails in their mouths. |
| 135 | ** Pterodrakes have more than one pair of wings. |
| 136 | ** Wurms have no limbs whatsoever. |
| 137 | ** [[OurWyvernsAreDifferent Wyverns]] have two legs and two wings. |
| 138 | * ''Literature/DragonsOfLaton'': Dragons are essentially BondCreatures who bond to the knights that are always present during the hatchings, as is tradition. They will never bond to someone who's evil, and are stated to prefer to die in their eggs than do so. |
| 139 | * Daniel Arenson's ''Literature/DragonsOfRequiem'' has two variations: |
| 140 | ** The Vir Requis are basically "weredragons." All of them can turn into feral Western-like dragons within seconds and still possess the ability to speak. |
| 141 | ** The salvanae, however, are wingless Eastern-like dragons with slender bodies. Unlike the Vir Requis, they consider themselves to be "pure" dragons, and some of them breathe lightning instead of fire. They also have the ability to grow beards and moustaches. |
| 142 | * In ''Literature/{{Dragonvarld}}'', Dragons (of the western variety) have laws which prevent them from having much to do with humanity. |
| 143 | * ''Literature/DragonsWinter'' and ''Dragon's Treasure'' feature were-dragons who are born human (mostly) and ascend into their powers as adults with the aid of a personal talisman. They can't transform without the talisman, but ''can'' summon fire. They're rare nowadays, and considered lords over the other [[VoluntaryShapeshifter shapeshifters]]. They also tend towards violent, short lives with a hint of madness in their veins. |
| 144 | * ''Dragon Temple Saga'' is set in a Southeast Asia-like world and dragons are like overgrown monitor lizards and are seen as sacred beasts (when they're not crippled and used as beast of burden). A squicky aspect of the series is that venom from these dragons is a hallucinogenic, narcotic aphrodisiac and [[spoiler:many of the women in the books end up getting oral sex from the dragons and go into orgasm frenzies]]. |
| 145 | * ''Literature/{{Dragonvarld}}'': Dragons in Dragonvarld have the typical western design, as vast scaly reptilians who fly and breathe fire. They are born in caves, with the babies not even seeing daylight at first. Most only have children once a lifetime, therefore dragons remain pretty rare. Dragons in general make their homes inside caves, being able to constrict themselves surprisingly for this purpose. Their bones are hollow as with birds in order to fly, with their strong scales compensating for otherwise vulnerable bodies because of this. Dragons have a democratic government and more than equal intelligence to most humans. They live very long lives, lasting for centuries. Dragons can breathe not only fire but noxious gas, and do great magic. They have a strong HealingFactor and thus can come back from most injuries. Dragons also can do magic, such as [[MasterOfIllusion creating illusions]] and [[ShockAndAwe casting lightning]]. They can also see heat, and track living beings' this way. Mostly dragons speak to each other via {{telepathy}} and view each others' thoughts as bright, very colorful images. Some even can take human form. |
| 146 | * ''Literature/{{Dragonworld}}'', by Byron Preiss and Michael Reaves, has two types of dragons -- the larger, four-legs-and-two-wings dragons, extremely long lived, intelligent, magical and firebreathing, and the smaller, less intelligent, two-legged colddrakes. [[spoiler: Apparently they can interbreed, though such a thing is Strictly Forbidden.]] |
| 147 | * The titular novella of Louise Searl's ''Literature/TheDreamEatersAndOtherStories'' features dragons, wyverns and drakes as three distinct species. Dragons have four legs and two wings, and breathe fire. Wyverns have two legs and two wings, can't breathe fire, and have stings on their tails. Drakes resemble small, non-sentient dragons - they can't breathe fire, but have volatile blood. |
| 148 | * ''Literature/DreamscapeVoyagerTrilogy'': Dragon bones are made of {{Orichalcum}}, and their fire breath is manifested by stones inside the dragon's stomach, called fireglands, that generate flame when they come into contact with one another. |
| 149 | * ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': |
| 150 | ** Though not much is know about them, there ''are'' dragons in Creator/JimButcher's universe. From what little was shown of Ferrovax in ''Grave Peril'', he's able to [[VoluntaryShapeshifter turn himself into a human]], he's [[MagnificentBastard very intelligent]] and he's incredibly [[CulturedBadass badass]]. WordOfGod says he'll be back for a bigger role sometime in the future. |
| 151 | ** There was also another dragon involved in the background relating to how Michael Carpenter met his wife Charity. It actually involved [[spoiler: the leader of a cult of magic-users trying to sacrifice Charity to the dragon to gain more power.]] Michael, being [[KnightInShiningArmor Michael]], kicked said dragon's ass. |
| 152 | ** WordOfGod also says that Dragons (or at least Ferrovax) are incredibly powerful, Ferrovax being one of the few things he claimed could kill Mab (who is arguably a PhysicalGod herself). |
| 153 | ** The RPG books say, basically, "don't think giant flying fire-breathing lizard. Think force of nature". That pretty much covers just how badass these creatures are and how much ''more'' badass Michael is, although he is only capable of such displays of unparalleled badassery when "on the clock," that is to say, when he's being directly led by God to do so. Otherwise, he's just as vulnerable as any human capable fighter. |
| 154 | ** There are actually two types of dragons. Ferrovax (and the Dragon slayed by Michael) are capital-D, force of nature/PhysicalGod beings that have more in common with the Asian dragons. The more western dragons are their servants and emissaries and, while powerful, not even close to the likes of Ferrovax. |
| 155 | * ''Literature/DuelOfSorceryTrilogy'': Dragons come in a wide variety of sizes, seem to be lighter than air, and communicate by changing the colors of their transparent bodies. |
| 156 | * ''Literatre/DungeonEngineer'': The introductory blurb indicates dragons will be found, and are, by [[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/25361/dungeon-engineer/chapter/370877/chapter-2-arcanasynthesis Chapter 2]]: |
| 157 | -->Ike found himself reincarnated as a handicapped and supposedly-man-eating dungeon core in a fantastic realm of wonder, magic, dragons, and wizards! |
| 158 | * ''Literature/{{Duumvirate}}'': With the amount of genetic engineering thrown around, it was inevitable that someone made a dragon with it. Fire breath, six legs (two of which end in hands), and they have wings in childhood but lose them as they grow up. |
| 159 | * Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Literature/{{Earthsea}}'' has an interesting take on dragons. In the earliest stories and novels they resemble [[Literature/TheHobbit Smaug]] (intelligent, capricious Western Dragons), but gradually become more varied. They are highly magical, and indeed seem to be affected by the geographical limits to magic -- magic in the West Reach, where dragons are huge, cunning, and rich, and rule both the skies and islands, is different from magic in the East Reach, where dragons are very small, unintelligent, and often domesticated as housepets. Although they're highly intelligent, often wise creatures, they're inclined to simply kill most people who get near them. A rare, powerful mage may become a Dragonlord, which Ged (who is one himself), describes as simply someone with whom a dragon will reliably speak rather than eat. Dragons and humans are strongly implied to be descended from the same original species. Also, dragons naturally speak the world's original language, the True Speech, which is significant because in Earthsea, [[LanguageOfMagic magic is in words]] [[IKnowYourTrueName and names]]. Humans have to learn it, and cannot lie in it, while dragons can. There's also the existence of [[spoiler:dragon-people such as Tehanu and Irian]], though how exactly that whole thing works is never fully explained. |
| 160 | * ''Literature/{{Eldraeverse}}'': The particular Precursor species believed to have created the eldrae, the ''trakelpanis trakóras amán'' or "Great Drakes", seem to have been partially silicon-based 500 foot tall scaly beasts with wings spanning hundreds of feet, reality-warping tech, and a bad case of solipsism, leading to the internecine wars that wiped them out. |
| 161 | * ''Literature/TheElricSaga'': Dragons are fairly standard for the "dumb animal" type Western Dragons, except that they don't actually breathe fire. This is a misinterpretation of their ability to spit a caustic venom that tends to burst into flame at the slightest provocation. They also need ''a lot'' of sleep, sleeping months or years after a few weeks of activity. The Dragon Lords of Melnibone use them as mounts, and used to rule the world with their aid. |
| 162 | * ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles'': Seeing how "Dragons" are in every book title of the series, Creator/PatriciaCWrede says quite a good deal about her dragons. Her dragons mostly fit the western stereotype as far as physical looks, but otherwise they act about as human as the rest of the characters. They speak, read, collect stuff, and have their own society and government. They fly and breathe fire, and can do magic because they are creatures born with magic inside (as opposed to the wizards, who must draw out magic from other sources). Dragons are generally more clever and wise than any of the other races, but there are several exceptions. They also die, age (albeit much slower than humans), shed their scales, and produce offspring. There are certain rules that require dragons to act in a noble manner. Because if they stop acting like dragons [[spoiler:they turn into frogs.]] |
| 163 | * ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'': Dragons are incredibly powerful beings that can paralyze most humans just by looking at them. They come in many shapes and forms, although they're typically reptilian and very large, often have multiple breath weapons, and are regarded as some of the most dangerous of the mythical creatures. They view humans almost as we view mice: they aren't particularly tasty and don't pose much of a threat, but they kill them just for being there. Killing one is an incredibly rare feat. They're also unusual in not being creatures of either darkness or light; most magical beings are strictly aligned to one or the other, which informs their species' personality or outlook, but dragons are free-willed in the way that humans are -- their personalities are largely self-determined, and a given dragon may be a wicked monster or a noble being based on its personal outlook. |
| 164 | * The dragon at the end of ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'' is a terrifying red dragon who has captured the kingdom of Eden and eaten many of its inhabitants. It has wings like sails, a tail many fathoms long, and of course fire breath as hot as the flames of {{Hell}}. Notably, the dragon has no hoard of treasure to speak of. |
| 165 | * In ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'', Creator/JKRowling describes all sorts of dragons which possess powerful magic but aren't especially bright. Most are European in design, except for the Chinese Fireball. In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'', Harry also kills a Basilisk ([[OurMonstersAreDifferent here portrayed as a giant, vaguely dragonish snake]]), and nearly dies of its venom. Aside from its size and deadly gaze, this depiction is identical to the basilisks of Graeco-Roman mythology, as J. K. Rowling is supposedly a fan of it, and basilisks as described by Pliny are snakes so poisonous that when a man on horseback once killed one with a spear, the poison traveled up the spear, killing the rider and the horse as well. |
| 166 | * ''Literature/FengshenYanyi'': |
| 167 | ** In his backstory, Nezha ends up accidentally quaking the palace of the Dragon King Ao Guang and ends up fighting and killing his third son Ao Bing and later Ao Guang himself. They are capable of taking human form and are described as having a "main tendon", which is very precious and can be worked into a belt, and extremely sensitive scales (seen when Nezha subdues Ao Guang by ripping off the scales off his sides). Ao Guang and his child are both considered divine beings, but pretty low on the scale, as they don't have important mansions aside from bringing rain. |
| 168 | ** Longxuhu is a one-legged, dragon-like monster who's the son of a dragon and a leopard, though unlike other half-dragon beasts, he's sentient. He has the power of summoning and throwing inordinate amount of rocks with his claws. |
| 169 | ** During the fight between Hong Jin and Princess Longji, the former tries to escape in the North Sea by summoning the "Dragon Whale", represented by a colossal fish with a Dragon's head, scales and limbs. He can summon a massive storm with his very presence, but still loses to the bird-like Shenniu, the master of all seas. |
| 170 | ** Fire-breathing Dragons often appears as part of several Fabao (magic tools), their flames being powerful enough to melt even stone. Of course, they lose all powers in the ocean. |
| 171 | * ''Literature/TheFirebringerTrilogy'' has two types. |
| 172 | ** The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin red dragons]] are mostly wingless, have jewel-encrusted hides, live deep beneath a volcanic mountain range, and spend most of their (very long) lives asleep and [[spoiler: watching the goings-on of the world through their dreams, as the main character discovers to his dismay in the third book]]. The queen and her mate (the only black dragon) are the only dragons to have wings, and a queen loses hers after her mating flight while her erstwhile consort flies off somewhere unknown, although the queen will continue to produce eggs from that one mating for the rest of her life. A male is only born every thousand years, and it's only a queen and her consort who breed; thus, all dragons are closely related sisters (or aunts and nieces depending on the generation(s) living) and [[BrotherSisterIncest a queen's consort is always her brother]]. |
| 173 | ** The wyverns might be called closer to hydra-lindworms. They are serpentine with two legs at the front, grow extra heads in extreme old age, and have venomous stingers on their tails. The wyverns claim they're cousins to the red dragons, but the red dragons deny this relationship. |
| 174 | * ''Literature/TheFireWithin'', the first book of Chris D'Lacey's ''Fire Star'' chronicles, indicates that real dragons disappeared from earth long ago. However, their fire is kept alive in clay models of dragons who serve as helpers to the person they were made for. |
| 175 | * ''Literature/TheFlightOfDragons'' by Creator/PeterDickinson is a "speculative natural history" book, explaining how dragons might have evolved, how everything about them from hoards of gold to breathing fire was based on their flight mechanism (they were essentially living dirigibles), and why there aren't any fossils (once they died, the complicated chemical processes they used to produce hydrogen dissolved their bones). This vaguely inspired elements of [[WesternAnimation/TheFlightOfDragons the cartoon film of the same name]] (including the main character being named Peter Dickinson), although the plot drew some elements from ''Literature/TheDragonAndTheGeorge'' by Creator/GordonRDickson. |
| 176 | * ''Literature/ForestKingdom'': The one featured in book 1 (''Blue Moon Rising''), just called Dragon, is a Reconstruction of the trope -- a RetiredBadass who collects [[CollectorOfTheStrange butterflies]] instead of gold and [[RussianReversal gets rescued from the princess]]. He's also the LastOfHisKind. |
| 177 | * ''Literature/TheForgottenBeastsOfEld'': The Dragon Gyld is a fairly typical western dragon: intelligent, but a rapacious predator, and contemptuous of mankind. But he has not gotten StrongerWithAge. Old and wise, but no longer as strong as in his youth, he is mostly content to live, dreaming, with the rest of Sybel's menagerie. Though he does long for his ancient horde, which ends up causing some trouble. |
| 178 | * Creator/LordDunsany: In ''The Fortress Unvanquishable Save for Sacnoth'', the dragon Tharagavverug is unique. He is a NighInvulnerable dragon-crocodile that has hide of steel on all over its body while the underbelly is made of iron. It's spine is a strip of unearthly steel that can be made into the unrivalled sword Sacnoth. Tharagavverug's only weak spot is a nose made of lead. Tharagavverug is slain when the warrior prince Leothric keeps poking its nose and kept it from eating for 3 days which causes the dragon to starve to death. After death, its eyes still work and one was mounted on Sacnoth to give its wielder warning against danger. |
| 179 | * ''Literature/GarrettPI'': The idea that every fantasy world ''has'' to have its own unique variant of dragons is both subverted and {{Lampshade}}d : dragons are evidently the only fantasy-staple creatures which are ''genuinely'' mythical in that world. Amusingly, dinosaurs (called "thunder lizards") are commonplace in some regions of this world, and statues or paintings of 'dragon-slayers' often depict pterosaurs or dinosaurs in the 'dragon' role (because their artists don't know better). [[spoiler: A later novel reveals that a type of sentient, psychically-active ''fungus'' may have inadvertently inspired legends of treasure-hoarding, fire-breathing dragons, if only because it grows near veins of precious metal and blows up if disturbed.]] |
| 180 | * In David Barnett's ''Gideon Smith'' novels, Apep is clockwork dragon made from brass. It's a {{Magitek}} ultimate weapon from ancient Egypt made under the historical Akhenaten's bidding. Apep's brass body makes it resistant to most weapons in the British army, it can fly at 100 miles per hour (and likely can exceed that speed), and it does not appear to have an upper limit to the height it can fly. It has an unlimited supply of fireballs that are 1949 Celsius and never diminish in intensity until they strike their target. The British would dearly love to copy and mass produce Apep, but they can't replicate the supernatural forces that power it. |
| 181 | * ''Literature/GoblinsInTheCastle'': While on their way to Nilbog in ''Goblins on the Prowl'', Fauna and her group meet the winged lindlings, one of whom explains they are all that is left of the dragons -- most of the great dragons have left for another world, but the lindlings were left behind because they were too small to be noticed. When Fauna finally gets a look at her, she finds that lindlings look pretty much like regular dragons (snaky body, four short legs and two bat-like wings), just much smaller. |
| 182 | * In ''Literature/TheGreatZooOfChina'', the titular park's main attraction is dragons: they're supposedly a kind of dinosaur with extreme hibernation abilities, and the myths and legends about dragons came from individual dragons who left to scout out conditions for reawakening the rest of the nest. They're described as a cross between crocodiles and pterodactyls, they come in three sizes (car-sized "princes", bus-sized "kings" and jumbo jet-sized "emperors") and they're ''crazy'' smart. |
| 183 | * In ''Literature/TheGuardiansMeljeanBrook'', dragons are unintelligent monsters from the Chaos realm. Only one has been released in recorded history, and it rampaged across half the world before it was finally killed. Their blood taints anything it touches with the aura of Chaos. |
| 184 | * ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Dragons in the book are mostly depicted as having the classical "western dragon" traits (four legs, a pair of bat-like wings, and a lizard-esque appearance), although the [[Film/HarryPotter films]] instead give them the four-legged reptilian "wyvern" look. |
| 185 | * ''Literature/{{Havemercy}}'' by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett features dragons that are in fact {{Magitek}} [[RealRobot machines]]. A look at [[http://www.amazon.com/Havemercy-Jaida-Jones/dp/0553806963#reader the cover]] provides but a taste of the awesome. |
| 186 | * ''Literature/HayvenCelestia'': Krakun have a superficial resemblance to wingless western dragons, being quadrupedal reptiles twelve meters tall at the shoulder who live for 12,000 years and tend to be intensely greedy with an economy heavy on slavery. Though they don't breathe fire, just sulfur. |
| 187 | * ''Literature/TheHeartstrikers'': |
| 188 | ** Dragons are all immortal until killed, StrongerWithAge, make their own internal magic (which is referred to as their "fire"), and can shift into a breathtakingly beautiful human form. Ten thousand years ago, they were refugees after they destroyed their native plane through greed and short-sighted power grabs, and the local spirits have never forgiven them for being an "invading species." Dragons consider themselves the apex species, and that the best way to prove that is to control or kill everything they can--including other dragons. Julius, the main protagonist, is often disparagingly referred to as a "nice dragon" for not being a bloodthirsty monster. |
| 189 | ** There are also multiple varieties of dragons. While Western-style scaled lizards are the most well-known, the most common are actually the American feathered serpents descended from the Quetzalcoatl, due to his daughter Bethesda breeding an army of children. The Heartstriker clan consists of over a quarter of all dragons in the world, and Julius is the youngest and weakest of them all. |
| 190 | ** Asian dragons tend to be more benevolent. The Chinese dragons (and China itself) are ruled by the Golden Emperor, a kind and generous soul who strives for nothing but to use his incredible luck magic to rain down blessings on his entire dominion. Chinese dragons usually don't have wings and fly via levitation, and they also often have antlers, lion manes, and other animal features. |
| 191 | ** In ''Literature/{{DFZ}}'' we meet Yong, the Great Dragon of Korea and the ''only'' dragon of Korea. He considers [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch all dragons to be greedy, short-sighted snakes]] [[StupidEvil who would rather burn a field than let someone else reap a profit off it]]. While he is dangerous and short-tempered, he is also generous and magnanimous; one of the first things he did [[TheMagicComesBack after magic returned]] and he could reveal his true nature was to pay for the restoration of a famously polluted river. |
| 192 | * ''Literature/HelenAndTroysEpicRoadQuest'': Dragons are mythical creatures that give off their own ambient magic and are natural kleptomaniacs with a particular fondness for stealing cattle, treasure and virgins. Because their physiology is made entirely of magic, killing them can result in an "ecological disaster just waiting to happen", instantaneously rebooting an ecosystem at the moment of death. |
| 193 | * ''Literature/HellsGate'' features dragons used as weapons of war by the Arcanan Union, though these dragons are the result of a long-running magical bioengineering program and come in several different varieties, including transport and attack versions, the latter divided by their type of breath weapon. They are intelligent, at least on level with horses, seem to have some degree of psionic sensitivity, and for all intents and purposes are living, breathing [=WW2=] combat aircraft-the dragon-riding corps is even named the Arcanan Air Force. |
| 194 | * ''Literature/HicSuntDracones'' has a much darker take on the idea of dragons, making them outright {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and serve as [[GodOfEvil evil gods]] and [[BigBad primary villains]] of the setting. Their very presence causes things around them to [[TheCorruption mutate]] if not [[WalkingWasteland kill them outright]]. They are worshiped by madmen and served by [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]] with the latter being sentient chunks of their own flesh. Dragons also possess a powerful [[HealingFactor Healing Factor]] making them very difficult to kill. The only way to effectively kill a dragon is by damaging its [[AchillesHeel heart]] which will prevent it from regenerating. There are also several types of dragons found in the setting that follow a [[ChessMotif Chess Motif]] and include: |
| 195 | ** [[MookS Pawn]] type dragons: Mindless monsters that are dangerous in the same way that wild animals are dangerous. However, when commanded by a higher caste of dragon, expect things to go [[ZergRush downhill]] really fast. |
| 196 | ** [[TheBrute Rook]] type dragons: Massive and heavily [[ArmoredDragons armored]], there are few things that can actually effectively wound a Rook dragon. Fortunately however, they tend to be [[MightyGlacier slow]] and maneuvering weapons that can penetrate its armor can be easy under most conditions. |
| 197 | ** [[FragileSpeedster Horseman]] type dragons: Quick and deadly, but [[GlassCannon not exactly the toughest of dragons]]. |
| 198 | ** [[EvilSorcerer Bishop]] type dragons: Dragons that can use magic but are [[SquishyWizard not exactly fast or tough.]] |
| 199 | ** [[EvilChancellor Vizier]] type dragons: The most dangerous type of dragon as they possess nearly all the traits of the dragons mentioned above. |
| 200 | ** [[PhysicalGod Monarch]] type dragons: [[LargeAndInCharge Mountain]]-sized dragons that are thankfully very rare. They are, without a doubt, the [[BigBad Big Bads]] of the setting. |
| 201 | * ''[[Literature/HomecomingWalsh Homecoming]]'' has the ''mazor'', one of the three races of Trycanta. They are roughly human-sized and bipedal, with wings and dextrous forelimbs. Females have a different color of scales around their face than on the rest of their body, while males have scales and their wings are further apart. They can use elemental magic like all the races of Trycanta, but they also have the racial gift of Sight: seeing that which is happening a long way off or with a more powerful gift seeing the past or even the future. They are capable of speech, but find spoken language vulgar and communicate amongs themselves with gestures. Mazor can also assume human form with powerful magic, but a maze in human form will suffer severe leg pains that make it very hard to walk. A maze in human form can cross-breed with humans, the hybrid offspring can assume either form without a dedicated spell. |
| 202 | * ''Literature/TheHouseOfShatteredWings'' has Vietnamese dragons, which are Eastern dragons that live underwater (though the non-draconic characters can somehow breathe in their realm) and have ''antlers''. Western dragons are rumored to have been summoned in the past, but probably don't exist, though [[AllMythsAreTrue all myths may well be true]]. |
| 203 | * In ''Literature/HowToTrainYourDragon'', dragons are usually small and trainable (if frequently disobedient). There are also some that look like sharks, that have no eyes, or are teeny-weeny and spark electricity. |
| 204 | ** In the Dreamworks film adaptation, the dragons are rather larger, but similarly diverse. [[spoiler: The Red Death is absolutely ''gigantic''.]] The sequel to the film ups the ante with [[spoiler:the Bewilderbeasts, which are even larger than the Red Death, but swim instead of flying. They are able to mind-control the other dragons]]. |
| 205 | ** The adaptation also adds a unique type of dragon called the Night Fury. Only one is shown, Toothless, and the sequel implies that he may be the LastOfHisKind. The Night Fury has, probably, the most devastating fire-breathing attack of all, launching highly-explosive plasma balls. It can also go supersonic, generating a dive-bomber-like scream before launching its projectile. |
| 206 | * In Creator/PatriciaBriggs' ''Dragon Bones'' and ''Dragon Blood'' (which make up the ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'' duology), the dragons look like Western dragons. They're actually intelligent, magic-using shapeshifters and on at least one occasion have intermarried with humans. [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt This ended badly.]] |
| 207 | * In ''Literature/ImagineSomeday'', "true" dragons died out a long time ago, but wyverns appear in the story. They don't like being mistaken for their four-legged cousins and unlike many of the other examples here have no magic powers to speak of. |
| 208 | * ''Literature/InCryptid'' has pretty standard Western dragons, with the flames and the gold and the gorgeous princesses attending on them. Slightly less standard is that their blood can be used to turn people into reptilian servitors and that [[spoiler:the princesses are actually [[BizarreSexualDimorphism the female of the species]].]] |
| 209 | * ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' has mostly the typical fantasy version -- four-legged, bat-winged, highly intelligent fire-breathing reptiles -- although they can also perform unpredictable and potent magical feats in times of high emotion. They also have a type of [[spoiler:SoulJar, named Eldunarí within their chest, which if regurgitated before death captures their consciousness when they die]]. |
| 210 | ** The dragons bonded to their riders can psychically talk to their partners (or in [[BigBad Galbatorix's]] case, masters) and are quite friendly to humans. Their eggs are enchanted so that they only hatch when they contact the person who they will bond with. A bonded dragon becomes gentler and more civilized, even as the rider becomes more fierce. |
| 211 | ** Wild dragons are intelligent, but have no civilization. [[BigBad Galbatorix]] wiped them all out. The elves mistook them for wild beasts at first, leading to a war that was ended with a peace treaty that established the Riders and linked the fortunes of the two species -- later expanded to include humanity -- together. |
| 212 | * In ''Literature/TheInvisibleLibrary'' dragons are forces of order, whereas TheFairFolk are forces of chaos. This being a book about a library, order is a ''good'' thing, while chaos ... is not. Dragons can shapeshift into human form (Irene once met a dragon whose only dragon-like feature were the scales on his skin) and are hinted to operate on a kind of BlueAndOrangeMorality that is more compatible with human well-being than that of TheFairFolk, but does not always make sense. |
| 213 | * ''Literature/TheIronDragonsDaughter'' has an interesting variation. The dragons in this world are completely mechanical, although sentient and sapient (and homicidally angry), and are used as the in-world equivalent of fighter jets. |
| 214 | * ''Literature/TheIronFey'': There are both the Western frost dragon that helps at the end of the ''Iron Queen'' and the Oriental dragon that Puck catches while fishing in the River of Dreams, which lets him know that is unwise. |
| 215 | * ''Literature/TheIronMan'': Dragons are [[{{Kaiju}} continent-sized]] space-faring extraterrestrials. They call themselves "Star Spirits", singers of the "[[CompellingVoice music of the spheres]]", a powerful harmonious song that [[MindControlMusic soothes the Cosmos' inhabitants]], keeping everything in balance in stable equilibrium. One such dragon, the Space-Bat-Angel-Dragon arrives on Earth, after he experiences excitement about the [[TeachHimAnger ongoing sights and sounds produced by the violent warfare of mankind]]. Despite his frightening immensity, and potential for destruction and death, [[IJustWantToHaveFriends all he simply wanted was to join in]]. |
| 216 | * ''Literature/TheIronTeeth'' web serial has drakes, which are huge flightless feathered lizard-like creatures. They're apex predators that inhabit the forest of the North. |
| 217 | * Literature/{{Jabberwocky}}: The tirular monster is a giant bipedal dragon with ratlike buck teeth, tendrils on its head, and long hairy fingers. It also has a wastecoat in John Tenniel's illustration. |
| 218 | * Creator/JessicaDayGeorge: |
| 219 | ** In ''Literature/DragonskinSlippers'', dragons do not collect gold, jewels, or the standard treasure. Instead, they hoard other things -- for example, dogs, windows, glasswear, poetry, tapestries or shoes. |
| 220 | ** And in ''Literature/DragonSpear'', there's some that collect [[spoiler: people]] |
| 221 | * ''Literature/JimButton'': In ''Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver'' by Creator/MichaelEnde, dragons are an extremely varied species which can look like pretty much anything -- their appearances vary so much, in fact, that the heroes are able to disguise Emma the locomotive as a dragon, and none of the real dragons see through the disguise. They're also implied to be able to mate and breed with any other animal (Nepomuk, one of the major secondary characters, is half dragon and half hippo), though the resulting half-dragons are bullied and discriminated against by the full-blood dragons, who view them as inferior at best and abominations at worst. All dragons are inherently evil, but don't necessarily stay that way; if a hero defeats a dragon but spares its life, the dragon will undergo a transformation in which it turns into a benevolent Golden Dragon of Wisdom. (Since most heroes who defeat dragons also kill them, this isn't exactly a common event.) |
| 222 | * Creator/DianaWynneJones: A few books contained dragons, mostly intelligent Westerns. |
| 223 | ** ''Literature/{{Chrestomanci}}'' has a few minor dragons, most notably the one in ''Charmed Life''. |
| 224 | ** ''Literature/DarkLordOfDerkholm'' contains the immense, drill-sergeant-esque Scales, whose full name is [[spoiler:Deucalion]]. |
| 225 | ** "Dragon Reserve, Home Eight" features semi-intelligent, metal-hoarding (any kind of metal; they tear apart a car) flying dragons. |
| 226 | ** ''Literature/TheGame2007'': There's a dragon constellation that breathes fire at the protagonist in passing. |
| 227 | ** ''Literature/{{Hexwood}}'': Dragons come from another planet. |
| 228 | ** "[=JoBoy=]", published in the anthology ''The Dragon Book'', has dragons as spiritual manifestation of certain people, who apparently need energy taken from sheep or moving trains or something to sustain their dragon selves. Hence the reason medieval dragons "ate" sheep; they drained them for energy. |
| 229 | ** ''Literature/TheMerlinConspiracy'' had an enormous white dragon, symbolizing England. |
| 230 | ** ''Literature/TheToughGuideToFantasyland'': Dragons are parodied alongside other staples of formulaic fantasy novels. They are large winged reptiles, usually red, green or black, that live on offshore islands or in hidden valleys; they usually avoid other people, hoard treasure, and wield a unique form of magic. They apparently fled to Fantasyland from our world to avoid being hunted into extinction due to being thought to be evil monsters. In reality they're aligned with Good, even though they eat people, and heroes sometimes [[DragonRider ride them]]. |
| 231 | * ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'' features the typical Eastern dragons: they are [[PhysicalGod Physical Gods]] overseeing the water realm (the most important ones being the kings of the four seas North, East, South, West), they can cause rain (although when and how much are decided by the Heaven Bureaucracy. A minor dragon god was beheaded because he changed the amount of rain in his territory), they can take human form as well as other animals (the steed of Xuanzang is a dragon prince, how he ends up there is a long story), they can be both good and bad guys. But in story, the dragons tend to receive short ends of the stick: the kings are closely monitored by the Heaven Bureaucracy, their territories are wrecked constantly, and even the great sea kings are bossed around by [[JerkAss Monkey King]] Sun Wukong, who calls them "worms with antlers". |
| 232 | * ''Literature/KingOfTheWaterRoads'': The Ajakara are long, serpentine creatures that are basically grounded, stone dragons, although they are never directly referred to as such. They are very long lived and can grow absolutely massive, stalking their (sometimes human) prey through Markasia's deserts. They have animal-level intelligence and human-level malevolence. |
| 233 | * ''Literature/KronikiDrugiegoKregu'': Dragons are a cross between [[Literature/TheNeverendingStory Falkor]] and a cat. They '''hate''' water. Also, [[VoluntaryShapeshifter they shapeshift]] but not without huge ShapeshifterBaggage. |
| 234 | * Creator/MercedesLackey: |
| 235 | ** The ''Literature/DragonJousters'' quartet, which is set in something like AncientEgypt, has dragons that come in two Western-style types. One is the crocodilian "swamp dragon" which likes water, the other is the more brightly colored, larger "desert dragon". They're established to be as smart as a bright dog (and able to [[EvilDetectingDog sense evil]]), can't breathe fire, and they imprint. Dragons taken from the wild as fledglings are forcibly trained to accept riders who treat them like flying chariots and have to be drugged; dragons raised from the egg are tame and fussed over by the ones who raise them. Riders mostly use them for patrols in which they make the enemy cautious and "joust" against enemy riders, knocking them out of the saddle to fall to their deaths. It's a major plot point that tame dragons can be trained to catch a falling man, and that another use is to pick out a human, snatch him up into the sky, and drop him. |
| 236 | ** In ''Literature/TheHalfbloodChronicles'', co-written with Creator/AndreNorton, sees a half-elven girl be raised by a foster family made up of dragons. The dragons are from another world, are evidently mammalian, have electricity-based powers and poisonous talons[[note]]though apparently only to elves[[/note]], and are supremely talented [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Shapeshifters]]. Dragon 'shaman' are capable of using other abilities as well. |
| 237 | ** ''Literature/SERRAtedEdge'': |
| 238 | *** There is a huge Western-style dragon with a vast, disorganized library, a love of Japanese, and the ability to shapeshift into a human. He wears Armani suits and ''loves'' popping popcorn. He also has a half-brother who is half human. His human apprentice and adopted son (even though he has a perfectly normal relationship with his parents proper) Tannim (meaning "son of Dragons") is the main protagonist of the book in which he first appears. |
| 239 | *** There's also another [[spoiler: very antagonistic]] dragon who has a half ''[[FantasyKitchenSink kitsune]]'' daughter [[spoiler:who becomes Tannim's SO]]. |
| 240 | * ''Literature/LandOfOz'': Dragons make occasional appearances. Creator/LFrankBaum's dragons tend to be extremely long-lived (the dragonettes in ''Literature/DorothyAndTheWizardInOz'' are mere hatchlings but are said to be 66 years old, while their mother is over two thousand), hibernate underground for long periods of time (the dragons Woot the Wanderer meets in ''Literature/TheTinWoodmanOfOz'' sleep for a hundred years and only awaken to eat), and have very long bodies (like Quox in ''Literature/TikTokOfOz''). They don't tend to be kind to humans. |
| 241 | * ''Literature/LegendsOfTheDragonrealm'': The drakes are predominantly of the Western type of dragons, with a small amount of Eastern thrown in, at least among the more intelligent of their kind. They are split into thirteen clans of various colors or elements with their hides denoting their birth clans, each with a ruling "Dragon King" with the leader of clan Gold being the "[[EthnicityMonarch Dragon Emperor]]" of the entire race. Despite ruling over and treating humans as lessers, they're actually not that different from them overall, a fact that becomes clear as their power weakens and they start coexisting with humans rather than ruling them. [[spoiler:In perhaps the greatest irony of all though, drakes and humans actually both have the same common ancestor: [[{{Precursors}} the Vraad]], a powerful race of sorcerers among whom some became drakes due to certain...[[BodyBackupDrive conditions]] arising from when they first arrived in the world ahead of the others]]. |
| 242 | ** Lesser drakes: The lowest of the low, these drakes have about as much intelligence as an average animal and are often used as mounts by their more intelligent cousins. They can use a BreathWeapon, but typically prefer to just try and kill with their claws and teeth. |
| 243 | ** Greater drakes: The rulers of the drake race, they have human-level intelligence and the ability to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shape-shift]] between draconic and humanoid ([[DraconicHumanoid armored knights]] for males, [[TheVamp beautiful elven women]] for females) form. All use magic to various degrees of skill and it is an integral part of their lives, from transforming to even flying. [[InterspeciesRomance They can also have children with humans]]. |
| 244 | ** They can be further organized generally by their {{Breath Weapon}}s: Firedrakes breath, well, fire, and airdrakes breathe out poisonous mist which is also [[StuffBlowingUp highly flammable]]. Two clans, however, have shown variations on this: the Blue Dragon clan can unleash [[MakingASplash extremely powerful bursts of water to destroy stone]] and the Ice Dragon clan can breathe [[AnIcePerson frost]]. The Storm Dragon clan can even use [[ShockAndAwe lightning bolts]]. |
| 245 | * ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'': The Velantians are a species of intelligent dragons with multiple eyes on stalks and multiple arms. They love high-g maneuvers, both when flying under their own power and in spaceships. They're also capable of advanced science and engineering: They're among the races contributing to Civilization's side of the original LensmanArmsRace. Oh, and they have [[{{telepathy}} telepathic powers]], too. Many of them become Lensmen, and Worsel himself becomes one of the five Second Stage Lensmen. |
| 246 | * ''Literature/MagicKingdomForSaleSold'': Strabo appears at first to be a typical Western dragon, but turns out to be quite intelligent and sensitive, having a self-admitted soft spot for pretty girls. It appears that he's decided that since everyone assumes he's evil, he may as well make the most of it. |
| 247 | * The ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' has several kinds: |
| 248 | ** The Eleint, also known as Pure Bloods or Ancients, stem from Starvald Demelain, reportedly the first realm, and are descended from T'iam, the mother of dragons (also known as "the biggest whore of them all"). They seem to be a mix between western and eastern dragons, are sentient and are said to be utterly feral, and when more than a couple gather in one place, their respective [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder blood lusts]] re-inforce each other and they form a Storm, each individual member having lost its identity to the hive mind. Too many in one place, and T'iam herself comes to crash the party. The Eleint fly on and breathe chaotic magic, not fire. They also tend to have their own personalities when not part of a Storm, but run mostly on selfish instinct and whatever catches their fancy, which got quite a few Eleint imprisoned for being power hungry nuissances. Additionally, due to a complicated bargain the Elder God K'rul made with the Eleint, many of them embody one of the [[FunctionalMagic Paths of Magic]] accessible to humans. |
| 249 | ** [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Soletaken Eleint]] (not to be confused with Eleint Soletaken, which go the other way around) are members of other races who have gained the ability the shapeshift into a dragon, usually by killing a pure blooded one and drinking its blood, although the ability can be simply inherited. They are usually smaller dragons than the pure Eleint, but gain a tendency for blood lust even if they hadn't had it before. |
| 250 | ** The Loqui Wyval and Enkar'al are the "mongrels of the dragons", whom nobody wants and who seem to not be sentient, but rather like unwanted, clingy pets to the other two kinds -- the Loqui Wyval more so than the Enkar'al, who have gone native on the world of and are considered a delicacy in the Malazan Empire. Fiddler calls them "Draconic lapdogs". They are also much, much smaller than the Eleint, only about the size of oxen. |
| 251 | ** ''Literature/TheCrippledGod'' also gives us [[spoiler:the Otataral Dragon, Korabas]], who is a WalkingWasteland (well, flying wasteland) because Otataral is AntiMagic and life is magic, meaning that wherever she goes, destruction follows. Notably, she isn't really portrayed as particularly villainous; it's not as if she [[BlessedWithSuck asked to be made the way she was]]. Indeed, she's actually portrayed as wishing to create something for once instead of destroying it. Regardless, she's required to be chained for the good of all other life, whether she likes it or not. As it is explained, she only exists because when K'rul made his bargain with the Eleint to make them into embodiments of magic, an Eleint embodying AntiMagic was needed to preserve the balance. |
| 252 | * Creator/GeorgeRRMartin: |
| 253 | ** ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Dragons have four limbs, with wings attached to their forelimbs. They breath fire and are very closely associated with fire and magic. Their blood is so hot that it burns, and they only eat cooked meat. Their existence makes fire and blood magic more powerful. When born, they are little larger than cats, but they never stop growing and can live for at least 200 years. The largest dragon yet known could swallow a mammoth and cover a town in its shadow. They lay colorful eggs that match the markings of the dragon inside, but they're a OneGenderRace that reproduces by parthenogenesis. Newly-hatched dragons can survive on human breast milk. They seemingly have similar intelligence to that of great apes. |
| 254 | *** The series also has stories of ice dragons, which are supposed to be made of living ice and live in a frozen waste beyond the northern seas, though whether they really exist is as yet unconfirmed. The ironborn also have legends featuring marine monsters known as sea dragons. |
| 255 | *** There are also creatures related to dragons mentioned here and there in the series. Firewyrms, which breathe fire but have no wings and can tunnel through soil and stone, inhabited the volcanoes of Valyria before the doom came, and lived there long before the Valyrians and dragons. There are also wyverns, which resemble dragons but cannot breathe fire, which inhabit the swamps and jungles of Sothoryos. There is speculation in-universe that the Valyrians may have bred dragons from wyvern stock. |
| 256 | ** "Literature/TheIceDragon" contains a depiction of an ice dragon that breathes frost, alongside more traditional firebreathers used as wartime mounts. |
| 257 | * James Maxley's "Bitterwood" represents an combination of traditional and quite different draconic designs. While the books have traditional western-style dragons as the ruling sun dragons, there is also the agile, wyvern-like sky dragons, and the anthropomorphic turtle-like earth dragons. These are implied to be [[spoiler: an set of geneticly engineered game-races, which eventually out-hunted humanity over most the world, driving humans into a slave-caste]] |
| 258 | * In ''Literature/{{Mathemagics}}'' by Margaret Ball, this is subverted in that after a Bookstop Sci-Fi/fantasy section is mathemagically transported to another planet, the peasants there start seeing "Generic Dragons" -- white with bar codes on their sides, which could come from any of a number of series. This also leads to a great line [[CoversAlwaysLie "There's a dragon on the cover of this book, there's a dragon on the cover of this book. He is green, and he has scales, and he is NOWHERE in this tale, but there's a Dragon on the cover of this book!"]]. |
| 259 | * ''Literature/AMemoirByLadyTrent'' is set in a world where non-sapient dragons are a widespread and very diverse animal clade. The first book alone describes a slew of dragons, ranging from the tiny sparklings -- so small that they were at first classified as insects -- to the appropriately wolf-sized Wolf Drake with its vestigial wings on up to Desert Drakes, Rock-wyrms and the noxious fume-spewing Swamp-wyrm. |
| 260 | * ''Literature/MemoriesOfEmpire'', by Creator/DjangoWexler, has dragons that come in two varieties. The most common kind are relatively small, about 12 feet long, fly but don't breath fire and are domesticated animals used by the Khaev mostly for scouting and messenger duty. The other kind are actually [[ElementalEmbodiment elementals]], although they are referred interchangeably as both "demons" and "spirits". The two seen are fire and ice based and breath fire and frost respectively. The ice one seems to be of no more than animal intelligence and has no wings. The fire one is quite intelligent and has wings. |
| 261 | * ''Literature/AMemoryOfFlames'': In Stephen Deas' universe, dragons are at least fifty feet tall -- being either the smaller but agile Hunting Dragon or the far more powerful War Dragon which are twice that size. They were apparently created by magic, don't need to breathe, are capable of mind-raping humans, have immortal souls that [[ResurrectiveImmortality simply recycle bodies]] (which burst into flame when they die), are highly anti-magical and think of humans as nothing more than amusing food. Did we mention they used to rule the world? Did we mention that humans have been keeping them as pets? And it turns out, [[spoiler: the dragons are actually half-gods who were victims of a ForcedTransformation by one of their ambitious brothers.]] |
| 262 | * ''Literature/{{Mithgar}}'' has two types of dragons: the bad kind that breathe gas and burn up in sunlight, and the not-so-bad kind that are still unpleasant but not downright evil. They sleep for half-millennia and make a big mess whenever they wake up, and they ''breed with krakens''. |
| 263 | * ''Literature/TheMoomins'': Dragons are almost extinct. In one short story, Moomintroll finds and captures a tiny dragon. Aside from its size and having six legs, it's pretty standard Western dragon, with animal intelligence. Moomintroll absolutely falls in love with the perfectly beautiful little creature, but it's indifferent and foul-tempered towards him, and anyone else except for the quite uninterested Snufkin, whom it adores. |
| 264 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Mystara}}'': One novel trilogy depicts dragons as unusually civilized, with their own country, settlements, military forces, and even businesses. They also have more manual dexterity than is commonly attributed to dragons, allowing them to use scaled-up versions of books, tools, and crafted weapons ''without'' recourse to shapechanging. |
| 265 | * ''Literature/TheNameOfTheWind'': Western-type dragons in the myths of the world are based on a creature called a Draccus, which is more like a giant iron-scaled, fire-breathing, herbivorous lizard-cow. The iron comes from the absorption of minerals into the draccus's body from ground up gizzard stones, and the fire is caused by a buildup of methane gas that the draccus ignites as a mating display. They are normally harmless, though [[spoiler: the one in the book isn't because it went crazy after swallowing some narcotic trees.]] (ItMakesSenseInContext) |
| 266 | * ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'' |
| 267 | ** Falkor the Luckdragon is an Eastern dragon in an otherwise Western story. Luck dragons are described as creatures of air, warmth, and pure joy, with the most beautiful singing voices. Falkor has pearly pink and white scales, fringes of fur on his tail and limbs, the head of a lion with a white mane, and ruby red eyes. In TheFilmOfTheBook, he looks quite a bit like a flying dog. |
| 268 | ** The book describes regular dragons as snake-like, with noisy bat-like wings. They are said to be wicked or ill-tempered, putrescent creatures which breathe fire or smoke. Smerg, who is one of these, has the body of a mangy rat, slimy wings that spread 100 feet, the tail of a scorpion, the hind legs of a grasshopper, small, shriveled forelegs resembling the hands of a child, a long neck, and a crocodile-like head. His eyes are the heads of an old couple. |
| 269 | * ''Literature/{{Nightrunner}}'' includes dragons who become more sentient as they age. Their bites are also poisonous. The most commonly seen are small finger-sized baby dragons, which are largely harmless. Dog-sized dragons are considered extremely dangerous because they aren't old enough to be able to communicate, but are big enough to kill you with a bite. The first and only fully sentient dragon seen thus far (sixth book) is very ancient, quite intelligent, capable of speech, enormous and cannibalistic. |
| 270 | * ''Literature/NightDragon'': The Conclave of Dragons is an alliance of seven powerful elemental dragons which have sworn not to interfere with the affairs between humans and dragons, until the awakening of the dreaded titular antagonist forces the Conclave to assemble once more, bringing along the human protagonist who is stated as the first human to witness the conclave's gathering. Amongst the group, there's the Red Fire Dragon, Blue Water Dragon, Green Earth Dragon (who will personally seek the hero and offer him a lift to where the Conclave is gathering and, later in the story, pull a HeroicSacrifice to save the human hero) and last but not least, the all-powerful Gold Dragon who controls the Elements, the BigGood of the story who does a BigDamnHeroes towards the ending by saving the hero from the Night Dragon's CollapsingLair once the evil dragon is slain. |
| 271 | * ''Literature/NightsEdge'': Dragons look like the Western dragons and are highly intelligent other-dimensional beings that can manipulate wind, are in a long war against gigantic horse-like creatures and are the genetic cousins to toads. |
| 272 | * ''Literature/NoMoreHeroes'': The Puff Dragons of Avia are gentle creatures, more like giant floating cows. They are so easy to hunt (due to being prone to explosion from methane buildup) that they are considered a protected species in their own nature preserves. |
| 273 | * Creator/IsaacAsimov and Creator/JanetAsimov's ''Literature/TheNorbyChronicles'': The Jamyn dragons are were [[BioAugmentation bioengineered]] from four-limbed lizard-like creatures that breathe fire. The Mentors who [[UpliftedAnimal modified their genes]] gave them wings and [[ArtificialGravity mini-antigrav collars]] to help them fly. They also gave the dragons a language and {{Telepathy}} that they can share by biting other organics. |
| 274 | * Creator/AndreNorton examples: |
| 275 | ** ''Dragon Magic'' has only two actual dragons, featured in different short stories: Fafnir (see Myth/NorseMythology below) and sirrush-lau (a swamp monster captured by the men of Meroe). The latter is nocturnal, has to be kept in water, and eats only plants (although it kills in a scary way when startled or angry). |
| 276 | ** ''Quag Keep'' is a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' novel set in the world of Greyhawk; the Golden Dragon Lichis appears briefly, acting as a consultant to the adventurer protagonists. |
| 277 | * ''Literature/NothingButBlueSkies'', by Creator/TomHolt, is an AffectionateParody of Eastern dragons and the associated mythology, with an emphasis on a) their powers of weather control and b) their ability to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting take human (and other) forms]]. They are frequently stated to have Western dragon style wings and are heavily implied to have also been the inspiration for European as well as Chinese myths. The reason the British summer is usually canceled due to rain is that the main character is a dragon in human form, and doesn't have full control in that form. So it rains whenever she's annoyed. Which happens a lot. The plot concerns another dragon [[ShapeshifterModeLock trapped in the form of a goldfish]]; [[CoversAlwaysLie the cover, naturally]], shows a Western-style dragon crammed into a fishbowl. The cover dragon is a deliberate and rather clever blend of Western and Eastern with both wings and catfish whiskers. |
| 278 | * ''Literature/OlogySeries'': Dragons are, unsurprisingly, described in extensive detail in ''Dragonology''. While they are all large-bodied (usually), LongLived magical reptiles with a strong hoarding instinct and who (usually) capable of speech, they are quite diverse beyond that. In general, a couple of internally uniform families exist: |
| 279 | ** Western dragons are split between three subspecies -- the common European kind (which in artwork is shown as either the usual quadrupeds or as theropod-like bipeds), which live in mountain caves and hoard gold and gems; the smaller [[OurGargoylesRock gargouilles]], adapted for life as arboreal ambush predators but equally at home perching on high buildings; and the arctic dragons, who migrate yearly between the North and South poles and [[AnIcePerson breathe ice]]. There are also knuckers, serpentine dragons with vestigial wings who inhabit wells and deep pools, are highly poisonous, cannot speak, and resemble dragons from European folklore more than any other variety in the books. |
| 280 | ** Eastern dragons are instead split between the five-toed Chinese ''long'' and the four-toed Korean ''yong'', Japanese ''ryu'' and an Indonesian subspecies, while Tibetan dragons are a separate, but physically similar, species adapted for mountain life. |
| 281 | ** Amphiteres are serpentine dragons native to the Americas, with no limbs save their wings and divided into three breeds: North American amphitheres are bat-winged creatures that prey on buffalo and horses on the Great Plains, Mexican amphitheres are classical {{Feathered Serpent}}s that were once worshipped by the local civilizations, and the South American amphitheres are highly theoretical natives of the Amazon rainforest that may or may not even exist. |
| 282 | ** "Ungrouped" dragons include wyverns, which somewhat unusually are native to Africa and the largest flying dragons in existence; the two-limbed, steppe dwelling linnorms of north-central Eurasia; and Australian dragons, marsupials strongly reminiscent of kangaroos. |
| 283 | ** More unusual dragons include the three-headed hydras; the arboreal, koala-like Tasmanian dragons; the tiny and colonial dwarf dragons of Siberia; and the aquatic, finned and ink-spitting Sargasso dragons. |
| 284 | ** There are also pseudo-dragons, creatures similar to but distinct from true dragons, such as [[BasiliskAndCockatrice basilisks and cockatrices]], [[ThePhoenix phoenixes]] and sea serpents. |
| 285 | ** Numerous extinct variants are also described, such as the human-headed nagas, a South American species of sparrow-sized dragons that were used by settlers as handheld lighters, the egg-throwing monkey dragons (whose strategy of pelting predators with their rock-hard eggs backfired when used against explorers who were likelier to keep the eggs as curios), the fireless ''Draconosaurus rex'', which preyed on and was eventually wiped out by prehistoric humans, and ''Megadracosaurus'', a primeval dragon of titanic size. |
| 286 | * ''Literature/TheOrdinaryPrincess'': The titular princess's parents plan to put [[GirlInTheTower her in a tower]] guarded by a dragon and marry her off to the prince that manages to free her. |
| 287 | * In ''Literature/ThePillarsOfReality'', dragons exist as creatures summoned by Mages. They're non-winged and non-flying, and don't breath fire; their danger just comes from their size and strength. And then there's one of the "dragons" encountered at the end of the first book, which seems to have some odd qualities [[spoiler:but turns out to be a Mechanical contraption rather than a Mage summoning]]. |
| 288 | * ''Literature/PitDragonChronicles'': Dragons are of the western four-legs-two-wings type, with burning blood. While elephant-sized, their bones are too light to ride; they're bred for food and [[BeastlyBloodsports fighting]]. They're telepathic and gradually shown to be intelligent, but humans only receive "sendings" as patterns of color unless they've undergone a certain process. |
| 289 | * In ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImASupervillain'', dragons are apparently very rare. They are the natural guardians of the world's magic, and none too fond of humanity. Much of the confusion and mystery around them comes from the fact that other monsters like to disguise themselves as dragons. |
| 290 | * ''Literature/PrincessesOfThePizzaParlor'': |
| 291 | ** From the second episode, dragons are a known type of being in the story of the game, since the map used in the story has a HereThereBeDragons location. |
| 292 | ** Not clear at first, but it's implied in the later books that [[spoiler:Lady Amberyll (who runs the Academy where the titular princesses get their schooling)]] is a dragon, but also somehow can look human. |
| 293 | * ''Literature/ThePrioryOfTheOrangeTree'' prominently features both Eastern and Western dragons. |
| 294 | ** The former are native to [[{{Wutai}} Seiiki and the Empire of the Twelve Lakes]] and strongly associated with water. They grow to vast sizes, live for millennia, and fly by means of a magical organ on their heads called the crown, although some very old specimens grow wings. One dragon, Kwiriki, is revered as a god by the Seiikinese. They allow humans of the High Sea Guard to [[DragonRider ride them]]. |
| 295 | ** The latter are called wyrms, are strongly associated with fire, and are AlwaysChaoticEvil servants of [[SatanicArchetype the Nameless One]]. This variety can be further divided: |
| 296 | *** High Westerns: {{Kaiju}}-sized, winged, four-legged, and sapient. Only five exist [[spoiler:not counting Kalyba the sorceress, whose true form is a sixth High Western]]. |
| 297 | *** Wyverns: {{Mooks}} controlled by High Westerns. Two legs, two wings, eyes resembling burning coals. |
| 298 | *** Cockatrices: Human-sized [[FeatheredFiend chicken-dragon hybrids]]. They're not poisonous or all that intelligent, but highly aggressive. |
| 299 | *** Basilisks: Snake-dragon hybrids. |
| 300 | *** Jaculi: Wolf-dragon hybrids bigger than horses. They're used to pull carriages in [[{{Mordor}} Yscalin]], as they never tire. |
| 301 | *** Ophiotaurs: Bovine-dragon hybrids. |
| 302 | * In ''Literature/QuantumGravity'', no one knows much about dragons. All the readers know is that they fit the standard head, two wings, four legs style, they are intelligent enough to communicate with humans, they are said to prefer places around innocence or powerful sorcery, and they are supposed to be good luck. Important tip: the good luck is ''from a distance''. Anything else and you'll have anyone who knows the first thing about dragons absolutely terrified. They appear to be more intelligent than one would suspect from the above description, judging off this...or it might be the fact that their eye is the size of a normal ''human''. |
| 303 | * ''Literature/TheQueenOfIeflaria'': Like all monsters, dragons are the children of Talcia, who's the Goddess of Magic. They once were intelligent and could speak, but Talcia took those gifts from them as they succumbed to greed. [[spoiler:Actually, while Talcia ''is'' upset with them, they are still intelligent and fully capable of speech. Their Emperor merely ordered them not to. Talcia is considered their mother and viewed as a dragon by them]]. It's revealed they shed their skins like a snake every few years, while mother dragons breathe fire on the eggs to start them hatching. Young dragons can't fly until they're at least a year old. Otherwise they are portrayed as typical Western dragons, massive fire-breathing, flying reptilian beasts. |
| 304 | * ''Literature/TheQuestOfTheUnaligned'': Dragons are fairly standard Western dragons, though with a few twists. They don't seem to breathe fire, their claws are extremely poisonous, they aren't intelligent, there's no indication that they collect princesses or gold, and they don't seem to have any special resistance to magic. Their primary weak spots are their wings, as the rest of their body is coated in razor-edged scales harder than diamonds (Laeshana's father is mentioned to have a dragon-scale saw, which cuts through metal easily and is used the same way RealLife diamond-bladed saws are used). However, Alaric discovers that if you can get up close to a dragon without getting eaten or clawed, you can sometimes find a loose scale that can be pried off. Alaric uses this weakness to take down a dragon with nothing more than a sword. |
| 305 | * ''Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings'', by Creator/RobinHobb: |
| 306 | ** The ''Farseer'' trilogy features human-built dragons made out of stone, imbued with human memories, that are used as allies in a war. |
| 307 | ** The ''Liveship Traders'' trilogy has a backstory of near-extinct serpentine dragons and sees the return of real dragons. |
| 308 | ** The climax of the ''Tawny Man'' trilogy has a battle between two real dragons and an animated stone one. All the books essentially make up one big MythArc that illustrates the gradual return of dragons to the world, made possible by our heroes. Whether that return is really a good thing or bad is a matter of contention. |
| 309 | * ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': Dragons are cold-blooded creatures who are only found near the equator. Only the females are winged, the males are referred to as drakes, and they are venomous rather than fire-breathing. The Glyconese worship them, and believe that the end of the world (by deluge) will be preceded by a mass slaughter carried out by dragons. |
| 310 | * ''Literature/TheRiftwarCycle'': Creator/RaymondEFeist's Riftwar books have dragons which are unintelligent beasts for most of their lives, only becoming sentient in their final (gold) stage of life. Most dragons never make it that far, as they tend to get killed by humans long before then because they're giant flying fire-breathing pests. No one has seen a gold dragon for years, but this isn't because of the hunting: they gain ShapeShifting at the same time as intelligence, so they've all simply started living disguised as humans. They can also travel to other worlds and universes with magic. |
| 311 | * ''Literature/SaintGeorgeAndTheDragon'': The dragon mostly fits the Western motif since it has an evil nature, a scaly, serpentine massive body, horns, huge bat-like wings and forelimbs, but also breathes a poisonous gas, not fire, with a barbed tail as well. |
| 312 | * ''Literature/SecondApocalypse'': Dragons, or wracu, are by far the most powerful of the "weapon races" created by the Inchoroi. They are also the only weapon race to predate the Inchoroi's arrival in Earwa. According to Wutteät, the Father of Dragons, he traveled with the Inchoroi among the stars. They are immortal and never stop growing, but they can eventually suffer infirmities from age. Without direction from their masters, they are lazy and listless, seeing little point in slaughtering humans because more will just replace them. |
| 313 | * ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'': The dragons are western dragons with the added bonus of an ''incredibly'' complex breeding process and rather... annoying upkeep. |
| 314 | * ''Literature/{{Seraphina}}'': |
| 315 | ** Dragons are (mostly) emotionless, overly logical geniuses that can transform into humans and interbreed with them. The title character herself is half-human, half-dragon. Because of the perceived negative effects of intense human emotions, an group called the Censors monitor dragons living as humans and cut out their memories if they become too emotional. |
| 316 | ** Quigutl are a much smaller subspecies of dragon. They are scavengers, and rather more emotionally volatile than full-sized dragons. They have a cylindrical tongue out of which they can shoot a controlled jet of flame that works like a welding torch. This means most Quigutl are [[GadgeteerGenius highly gifted and inventive artisans]]. All Quigutl are intersex and actually undergo several sex changes throughout their lifetimes. For various reasons, Quigutl are mistrusted and marginalized by both full-size dragons and humans. |
| 317 | * ''Literature/TheSerpentOfVenice'': Viv is a Chinese river dragon stolen from China by Marco Polo. Built along the lines of an Eastern dragon, since she is one, she's black, amphibious, although water is her natural habitat and secretes a soporific in her talons. Just how intelligent she is is ambiguous. |
| 318 | * ''Literature/TheSeventhTower'' has just one dragon: the mirror-scaled Sharrakor. He is highly intelligent, and serves as TheDragon (ha!) of sorts to the Chosen Empress, [[spoiler:but in reality is the BigBad]]. Oddly enough, breathing fire is the one thing he ''doesn't'' do, although at one point, in [[LivingShadow shadow form]], he projectile-vomits a piece of himself as an attack, which then recombines with him. He prefers, in battle, to use his tail, claws, and light magic. It's actually revealed in the last book that he [[spoiler: isn't actually a dragon- he's an ancient shapeshifter who just likes that form. True dragons are said to exist, though]]. |
| 319 | * ''Literature/{{Shadowleague}}'': Dragons ''look'' like the standard Western kind, but as they get nourishment from photosynthesis and are filled with oodles of interesting psychic powers, the more conventional fire-breathin', meat-eatin' dragon demographic is actually represented by the firedrakes. (Both varieties -- like most principals in this series -- tend to be telepaths.) |
| 320 | * ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror'': While "dragons" per se do not appear, "drakes" do. They live in shrubs that grow on the underside of the [[WorldInTheSky floating continent]] that the setting takes place on. While their physical appearance has not yet been elaborated on, we do know that they're actually ''herbivores''. |
| 321 | * ''Literature/TheShatteredWorld'': Dragons are of the Western sort, and apparently not sentient. They're also being hunted to extinction for their hides and bones, which are the only known materials from which dragonships, enchanted vessels used to sail between the fragments of [[ShatteredWorld the broken planet]], can be crafted. |
| 322 | * ''Literature/ShatterTheSky'': They are scaly fire-breathing reptiles with wings as per usual, but different in several other ways from common depictions. Dragons have {{telepathy}}, communicate by song and can be controlled with aromatic oils due to a strong sense of smell (they can tell any individual human apart from others easily). They can bond with humans if the conditions are right, by means of an oil, {{telepathy}} or both, and be trained to [[DragonRider carry them]]. As in many examples, they can live for centuries, with Naava being this old. [[spoiler:Their dreams can also see the future, and humans bound to them can telepathically as well.]] They have an immunity to dragon fire too. |
| 323 | * ''Literature/SmokeEater'': An ''astounding'' variety of non-sapient dragons, from electric-filled lizard-types to brutish three-headed flyers to gargantuan sea monsters that gulp down aircraft carriers, emerge from the depths of the Earth. About all they have in common besides scales is an appetite for humans and the ability to create wraiths -- electrified ghost-like entities that guard their ashen nests -- from their victims. |
| 324 | * ''Literature/TheSocietyOnDaRun'': Dragons are from another planet with their own empire and are called Space Dragons. They arrived on Earth in Precambrian times in their own spaceships and have taken other planets. Interestingly enough, they have bipedal soldiers, human-dragon shifters, their own weapons (like the Big Dragon Rocket Launcher (a playtoy for hatchlings), a cylinder weapon that sprays plasma for use by Wyverns only because they lack arms like the Six-Limbers, the atom-collapser handgun, Hol and a lot more), they have eight languages, sub-breeds/species, and dragon gods. More interesting is the fact that their "God" lays the eggs without help from a female (and that has a scientific explanation). |
| 325 | ** Besides the use of technology and a metropolis homeworld, they've learned to build computers and can take human forms (or any form of their birth parent). When in human form, they've built a massive empire in Italy and own major science corporations. |
| 326 | ** There are wild dragons, most fluent in their own language (Hynnody or Drakener). |
| 327 | ** The dragons have their own marriage customs and refer to spouses as "Others." |
| 328 | ** Apparently the Italians and Africans have a strong connection to the Dragons. In one of the romance short stories, Africans are able to train dangerous godlike dragons which has led to the creation of their mini-empire, deemed Skyhouse by the rest of the world. In Italy, the dragons have become an important part of their society, so important to the point Italy lives and breathes dragons. That is mostly due to the fact that the dragon empire is based in Rome and most of the inhabitants are descendants of the Dragons. |
| 329 | ** Hearth Wyrms are [[spoiler: the most powerful biped dragons]] and are used in the dragon military when extreme resistance is present. The Draconizica military itself is varied and certain dragons are used for certain operations. |
| 330 | ** Dragons are capable of breeding with any species, be it in dragon form or human form. However, only the dragon goddess Lementia can birth an actual baby dragon. Other dragons born from humans will come out as a human shifter. |
| 331 | ** America is controlled by a family of dragons whom have set themselves apart from their Italian buddies. |
| 332 | ** Abuse, torture and sexual slavery is common towards dragons of all kinds (mostly because some people view them as big and powerful creatures). |
| 333 | ** A person/alien whom "owns" a lot of dragons for sexual and/or drug-related purposes is called a Dragon Keeper. |
| 334 | ** Because of their presence, a lot of technological advancements happened sooner than they did in the real world. |
| 335 | ** Many things (living preferences, hunting preferences and sometimes personality tropes) differ per species of dragon. |
| 336 | ** There are mechanical war dragons called Annundi. They are now slaves. |
| 337 | ** Some water dragons resemble sea serpents, some do not. |
| 338 | ** The mortal enemies of dragons are Crotonians. Slowly the two races are learning to get along. |
| 339 | ** Dragons who go AxCrazy or Psycho are said to have "the Taint", a mental condition that is responsible for many of the bad things they do/say/think. However, the Taint has plenty of other names, like insanity, dementia, personality disorder, depression, etc. |
| 340 | ** Sometimes Dragon-Human relationships are categorized into four categories: |
| 341 | *** Dornagi: the dragon has to obey the human. A bond of friendship is formed but ultimately the dragon becomes a form of transportation. Also called Restrictive Dragon Riding. Because the author does not use the Dragon Riding trope (because it was established in 1960 and is popular. And the author strives to set her dragons apart from other dragons), this relationship never appears anywhere in the stories and poems. |
| 342 | *** Dorifa: both dragon and human care for each other deeply but the dragon (and sometimes the human) is a weapon of war. |
| 343 | *** Rumeri: a romantic relationship between human and dragons. Rumeri for shifters and Runagi for non-shifters. If relationship becomes more than friendship, it is called Runa. |
| 344 | *** Keeper: the dragon becomes a slave (of labor or passion or both) to a human master (and said human masters are sometimes Dragon Keepers). It is not like Rumeri. |
| 345 | ** Cicadas are very sacred to dragons, and very special dragons can see Cicada Gods (shifter and non shifter Cicadas). |
| 346 | ** Some debate Alma Maters (highly advanced humanoid aliens who enjoy science) are precursors of dragons, but this is not true. |
| 347 | ** Life spans vary per dragon. Some live to be centuries old and some live to eight years (or eight months). Some dragons are cursed/gifted with immortality. |
| 348 | ** Some Draconizicans change their appearance and [[spoiler:SHHHHHH! The other part is a secret!]] |
| 349 | ** Really, there is too much about them to explain here. |
| 350 | * ''Literature/TheSoddit'' (a parody of ''Literature/TheHobbit'') has dragons that are the final stage of the [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarven]] lifecycle, with wizards being the ''instar'' between the two. |
| 351 | * ''Literature/TheSpiderwickChronicles'': The dragons raised by the ogre Mulgarath are serpentine, animistic beasts with several sets of legs and a venomous bite. Despite their lack of wings, they can fly by catching the air currents and "swimming" through them like a sea snake. |
| 352 | * ''Literature/SsaliaAndTheDragonsOfAvienot'': Pelsatian dragons, called Avien, resemble western ones (minus the fire-breathing and coming in a wide variety of colours, shades of blue being the most common), but are among the more civilised races on their planet, living (usually peacefully) in beautiful houses and often being able to speak the [[CommonTongue global tongue]]. They are still big, strong and able to fly, however, as well as having life spans of multiple millennia. |
| 353 | * ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': |
| 354 | ** The Duinuogwuin, or Star Dragons, are sapient and (mostly) peaceful. Their bodies are centipede-like, and they are capable of fire-breathing (allegedly powered by cold fusion) and unassisted interstellar travel. When they mate, there is a high chance that their offspring will be either ravening beasts or outright evil monsters that the parents will have to either destroy or abandon on a planet, which has led to numerous dragon-like species in the galaxy, such as the Krayt dragons of Tatooine, arising from populations of abandoned monstrous Duinuogwuin offspring. |
| 355 | ** There's also a great variety of non-sapient dragon-like animals: |
| 356 | *** The Arkanian dragons are fire-breathers with two legs and two-wings, and probably extinct. |
| 357 | *** The condor dragons of the mountains of the Moon of Endor are mostly of the Western type, but with birdlike heads and no breath weapon. |
| 358 | *** Dragonsnakes are two-limbed, draconic reptiles that live in the swamps of Dagobah. |
| 359 | *** Hssiss, or dark side dragons, are giant wingless reptiles resembling huge carnivorous iguanas. They're attracted to concentrations of Dark Side power, are often used by the Sith as guard monsters, and can make themselves nearly invisible. |
| 360 | *** Mosgoths are four-legged, bat-winged reptiles the size of city buses -- art shows them as both quadrupeds and bipeds -- native to Togoria. They're preyed upon by even larger flying reptiles, called liphons, which also hunt the sapient Togorians. The Togorians learned to camp near mosgoth nests for mutual protection, and eventually learned to domesticate and ride them. |
| 361 | *** Sand dragons, depicted in ''Literature/TheCrystalStar'', are huge, heavyset reptiles with thick legs and tails ending in bony knobs. The story's villain uses one as a guardian beast. |
| 362 | * "Literature/TheStonesAreHatching": The Stoor Worm is referred to as a dragon several times. It actually shares more trait with a dragon than with a worm, such as having teeth and a snout, and laying eggs. |
| 363 | * ''Literature/TheSummerKingChronicles'': Dragons are huge, mindlessly destructive monsters that terrorize the gryfons of the Winderost, only coming out at night. [[BrownNote Their very presence drives all creatures to mindless animal terror.]] [[spoiler:Except [[CallAPegasusAHippogriff they are not called dragons, but wyrms.]] "Real" dragons are Eastern dragons, who are easily the most CivilizedAnimals in the setting, have a general {{Wutai}}/{{Wuxia}} FantasyCounterpartCulture with Japanese names such as Hikaru and Natsumi, live for only one year, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick enslaved the wyrms to mine gems.]]]] |
| 364 | * In ''Literature/TheSummonerTrilogy'', [[DragonsAreDemonic dragons are a type of demon]]. Salamander demons are very much like small wingless dragons, and [[spoiler: they transform into more powerful drakes when submerged in lava, which are dragon-like, fire-breathing creatures large enough to ride. In the final book of the trilogy, it is shown that Khan, the orc warlord and summoner who is the primary antagonist, has somehow transformed a drake into a true dragon, which is immense in both size and power; its fulfillment level (a value human mages use to quantify the amount of power needed to control any given demon) is implied to be far higher than anything humans have ever seen. Though Khan's dragon and Fletcher's salamander/drake Ignatius are both red in color, Khan is also shown to have a large black salamander at an early point, and it is unknown how the two varieties are related or if they have similar powers. It could be that black salamanders turn into dragons rather than drakes, that only red salamanders transform, or that Khan found another salamander/drake that he managed to turn into a dragon; either way, salamanders alone are rare to both humans and orcs, so it remains unclear why the orcs seemed fixated on capturing Ignatius from Fletcher if they could so quickly obtain another.]] |
| 365 | * In ''Literature/TalesOfKaimere'', dragons are descended from Therocephalian ancestors and live exclusively on the Permian Islands. Their breath weapon triggers an allergic reaction in mammals, making them easy prey. While naturally medium sized, they were magically domesticated and used as a steed, growing to gigantic sizes due to the effects of the magic. They have much smaller relatives who have migrated to the mainlands. |
| 366 | * In ''Literature/TalesOfKolmar'', dragons -- who call themselves the Kantri or the Kantrishakrim -- are the oldest sentient race. They seem Western-ish, but are also elongated creatures with shortish limbs, who absolutely cannot walk on two legs and have trouble even going on three. Each one has a soulgem set into his or her forehead; when they die and are consumed by fire the soulgem is left behind and their spirit can be summoned to possess someone. The Kantri have two thousand years of natural life and grow throughout those, every fifty years or so going into a DeepSleep and shedding their lobsterlike nigh-impenetrable armor. They have live births, but because of their formidable claws they can't midwife these effectively at all. Kantri are immune to normal fires, even relaxing into woodfires like they would hot baths, and their internal temperatures are beyond scalding. They have psychic powers, too, though these don't work well on humans; mostly they're there so that Kantri can talk to each other while flying. Instead of hoarding, they naturally turn the ground and rock where they sleep into gold, which they see as [[WorthlessYellowRocks pretty and useful but not valuable]]. Five thousand years before the time the novels are set in, a demon summoner magically removed the soulgems of half the Kantri, reducing those to horse-sized and unintelligent animals. Those soulgems flickered constantly instead of being dark unless summoned, and no one could summon the spirits. By the time of the novels their descendants have doubled their number and half of them "Hollow Ones", still unintelligent and rather savage, half of them are "Heart Speakers" right on the edge of sentience. [[spoiler: The Heart Speakers are brought into full sentience and become basically miniature Kantri with the ability to see the future by the end of the trilogy; the Hollow Ones have had their soulgems returned and went back to their original sizes.]] |
| 367 | * The dragons in Creator/DianeDuane's ''Literature/TheTaleOfTheFive'' are essentially highly intelligent immigrants from outer space, having left their dying homeworld for greener pastures long ago (and apparently under their own power rather than via ships). They also practice a form of racial immortality by letting the spirits of their departed coinhabit the bodies of the living -- which is a major plot point in ''The Door into Shadow'' when [[spoiler:a dying dragon ''and all his ancestors'' end up in the body of the main human protagonist]]. |
| 368 | * ''Literature/TeaWithTheBlackDragon'' by Creator/RAMacAvoy: He's a 2,000 year old Chinese Black Dragon who, after a discussion with a holy man in Taipei, finds himself in the body of an old human. He forms a relationship with a middle-aged woman and becomes involved in her search for her daughter. By the way, don't let the fact that he doesn't have wings or scales fool you. There's no "crouching moron" but there is certainly a "hidden badass!" |
| 369 | * ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' involves an AlternateHistory version of the Napoleanic Wars in which Western dragons are real and have been domesticated since Roman times. Also contains variations on East and West, in that many Chinese dragons are shown to be markedly more powerful than their Western counterparts -- it's hinted that modern dragon breeding techniques originated in China -- and are treated as citizens equal to humans. The ''really'' valuable dragons, of course, are the rarest; the elite class, the Chinese-bred Celestials [[spoiler:which the title dragon is discovered to be]], can't even breed true. |
| 370 | ** These dragons also learn human and other languages while in the egg, and can speak very soon after hatching. In places there are wild dragons living in their own communities with their own languages. The book set in Africa shows us that at least one culture there tends to freshly laid dragon eggs by telling them stories about people who have just died; the belief is that the dragons are reincarnations of their ancestors, and those dragons seem to concur. This lead to a situation where a small, young female dragon is the culture's king. |
| 371 | ** Dragons in the series seem as intelligent as humans overall. It's hard to say for sure, since most of them in Europe have been treated like animals since Roman times if not earlier. But they learn human languages in the shell, Temeraire picks up new languages quickly enough to translate for his human crew as they travel around Europe, Asia and Africa, and he and at least one other dragon are as good at math as any human of the time period. However, like in most stories, dragons do tend to be greedy, impetuous, and always sporting for a fight. |
| 372 | ** Dragons can have any or none of a number of {{Breath Weapon}}s, and those that do are especially prized. The most common are poisonous spit, acid ([[PoisonIsCorrosive apparently a more concentrated form of the poison]]), and of course fire. Rarer abilities include the Divine Wind of the Celestials, a roar so loud it serves as a sonic weapon, and the ability of the Japanese Sui-Rius to swallow and violently expel large volumes of water. |
| 373 | * Jack Kent's Literature/TheresNoSuchThingAsADragon children's book, has a small boy called Billy wake up one morning to find a cute little dragon, the size of a cat, in his room. He shows his new pet to his mother, but [[FlatEarthAtheist she and no one else wants to believe it]]. In response to being ignored, the dragon [[BigEater starts eating everything]] and keeps growing and growing [[SizeShifter until it's so massive]] it's wearing their house [[{{Kaiju}} like an item of clothing]]. Eventually [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom Billy's mother and everyone is forced to notice it]]. The dragon happily shrinks back down to cat-size. |
| 374 | * ''Literature/ThursdayNext'': In ''The Well of Lost Plots'', dragons have been salvaged from fantasy novels before destruction in order to stock Perkins's preserve of fictional creatures. |
| 375 | * ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'': There are five known individual dragons: [[Literature/TheChildrenofHurin Glaurung]] the [[MonsterProgenitor Father of Dragons]], [[Literature/TheSilmarillion Ancalagon the Black]], [[Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth the Beast of Gondolin]], [[http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Scatha Scatha the Worm]] (mentioned in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'') and [[Literature/TheHobbit Smaug the Golden]]. |
| 376 | ** There are three kinds of dragons in Middle-earth -- fire drakes or Urulóki, which can breathe fire; winged fire drakes, like Smaug; and cold drakes, which can neither fly nor breathe fire. All dragons are descended from the ancient fire drake Glaurung, whose origin is never totally revealed, save that it's connected to Morgoth. All the dragons seen on page are evil and also highly intelligent and magically powerful, to the extent that they might be said to have MagnificentBastard as their [[PlanetOfHats hat]]. Glaurung and Smaug are especially intelligent. Glaurung is also described as having hypnotic eyes and is accompanied by a great stench. No other dragons are described as having these qualities (though Smaug is hinted at having them; specifically, he's implied to leave a lingering odor behind, his soft belly had become encrusted with melted treasure which may partly mask his scent, and Bilbo mentions not wanting to get caught in his gaze, even if he is invisible). In his own illustrations, Tolkien always depicted dragons in the medieval style, as very long serpentine creatures, sometimes winged and sometimes not, with proportionally short legs, and lacking horns but possessing external ears. |
| 377 | ** In [[Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth the various background writings]], dragons, like the Balrogs, are described as [[FallenAngel lesser Maiar corrupted by Morgoth]], warped by him into reptilian form. Nearly all the evil races and beings were similarly created by Morgoth, out of corrupted Maiar or Elves. Though unlike the Balrogs, the Dragons appear to be a self-perpetuating race (Glaurung was "the Father of Dragons", and ''Literature/TheHobbit'' makes reference to Dragons "breeding"), so while the original Dragons may have been Maiar, Smaug (as their descendant) most likely was ''not''. |
| 378 | ** It's worth noting that Dragons varied in size rather significantly. The largest Dragon was Ancalagon the Black, and he was so massive that when he died and fell out of the sky, [[RentAZilla he broke three mountains, each the size of Mount Everest, under his weight]]. |
| 379 | ** Although not an official classification, Tolkien also makes a textual distinction between "Great Dragons" such as Smaug and Ancalagon and the lesser dragons breeding in the Withered Heath. Exactly what the difference is between the great dragons and the lesser sort is never really expanded on, other than that Smaug himself was specifically described as the last of the Great Dragons of Middle-earth. |
| 380 | ** Smaug broke from the Western tradition by being intelligent and capable of speech. This was so successful a [[TropeMakers trendsetter]] that the older mindless, animalistic Western dragon is now a decided minority (at least in {{fantasy}} {{literature}}). Tolkien, who was a fan of Myth/NorseMythology, drew his inspiration for Smaug from two famous dragons: Fafnir, of the ''Literature/PoeticEdda'' and ''Literature/VolsungaSaga'', and the unnamed dragon who fought Literature/{{Beowulf}}. Like Fafnir, Smaug is intelligent and can talk, and has a softer underbelly. Like Beowulf's bane, Smaug is winged and breathed fire, and is enraged by the theft of a cup from his hoard and emerges to lay waste to the countryside. (Smaug also shows some original characteristics, like a fondness for riddles and HypnoticEyes.) Their weakpoint is their stomach/chest, which is the only part of them that isn't covered with armored scales. No mention is made of a desire to eat damsels, or at least they don't seem to enjoy them more than anyone else. They do have a DragonHoard, which they typically stole from someone else. This led to a bitter rivalry between Dwarves and Dragons. Interestingly, in the animated version of ''WesternAnimation/TheHobbit'', Smaug has [[http://www.thehobbit-movie-buzz.com/wp-content/uploads/hobbit/large_smaug_dragon_from_thehobbit_animated-r7nn9rsi.jpg a furry back ruff and somewhat lupine/vulpine head,]] but also a large body and wings, a sort of Eastern/Western hybrid. Perhaps this is due to it being a Japanese/American co-production. |
| 381 | ** There's one final category of dragons that only gets the briefest of mention in the Legendarium; Stone Dragons, created by the Valar to guard the Doors of Night, a portal which leads out into the void where [[PredecessorVillain Morgoth]] is imprisoned. The dragons are described as being carved from black stone and have black smoke leaking from their jaws. It's ambiguous whether or not these things are alive or if they're just statues but it's vague enough and bizarre enough[[note]]What would be the purpose of carving statues for a "door" no one is meant to see? Why are they in the shape of Morgoth's creatures?[[/note]] to warrant mentioning. |
| 382 | * ''Literature/ThereIsNoEpicLootHereOnlyPuns'': They've been mentioned a few times in passing, like in the second chapter, [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/there-is-no-epic-loot-here-only-puns-dungeon.590739/post-41665593 "Take off"]], where it's described as "big fire lizard", and from there Delta extrapolates that [[TheDragonslayer dragon-slayers]] exist. Another mention is in [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/there-is-no-epic-loot-here-only-puns-dungeon.590739/post-44138327 "Interlude: Cheesecake"]]. |
| 383 | * ''Literature/ToothAndClaw'': Dragons have several notable Differences, not the least of which is the fact that they have a very rigidly stratified social hierarchy and culture meshing Victorian England with European Feudalism. A prominent, polytheistic Church features parsons acting the role of community vicar, at the expense of flight prohibition through their wings being bound -- though they are immune to being eaten by other dragons. Titles such as Illustrious, August, Exalted, and Eminent denote different rankings, held exclusively by males, while females are either maidens, married, or dinner. Farmers and shepherds work the land and provide both labor and food for the established family of one or more demesnes. Dragon growth and their associated characteristics are dictated almost exclusively by the frequency and quality of other dragonflesh they consume, with weaker dragons and dragonets often being on the menu as a religiously-prescribed manner of culling the population, while stronger dragons are eaten by their family upon death. |
| 384 | * ''Literature/ToShapeADragonsBreath'': Dragons have multiple variations by their location of origin--Native North Markesland dragons like Kasaqua are different from those with origins in Anglish locations such as Frau Kuiper's Gerhard, a kessseldrach; Anequs compares Frau Kuiper's to a bear the first time she sees it (as opposed to the otter-like Kasqua). They may be born small enough to [[ShoulderSizedDragon sit on shoulders]] and grow large enough to [[DragonRider be mounted and ridden]] by those they've bonded to. Most notable is that dragons don't merely breath fire or any other [[BreathWeapon element]] alone, but reshape the world's skilta (elements) into different forms with it--and must be taught and guided how, rather than knowing how innately. |
| 385 | * ''Literature/TortallUniverse'': Creator/TamoraPierce's dragons live in their own realm ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Dragonland]]), are essentially immortal, can [[GiantFlyer fly]], and are both magical and intelligent. Interestingly, they don't have a huge antipathy towards humans unless provoked -- they more or less consider the puny humans to be below their notice. In one book elders dragons are explicitly stated as being significantly stronger than most gods. |
| 386 | * ''Literature/TheTraitorSonCycle'' has two kinds of giant lizards: |
| 387 | ** The more common wyverns are slightly smaller than a barn, two-legged and two-winged, and somewhat sapient, though most aren't terribly bright. |
| 388 | ** The true dragons are quadrupedal, fire-breathing, capable of shapeshifting and, when in their natural form, absolutely ''enormous'', with enough wingspan to cover an entire army -- not to mention immortal and gifted with enough magical power to qualify as {{Physical God}}s. |
| 389 | * ''Literature/TrashOfTheCountsFamily'': There are only about twenty dragons in the world, but they are more intelligent than humans, can live to be about 1000 years old, are instinctively fiercely independent and tend to not get along with other races or with each other, and are also some of the most powerful beings on the planet. Each dragon has their own unique color and special ability (from elemental abilities like "fire" or "water", to more [[BizarroElements conceptual affinities]]). After hatching, they have three growth phases. They can also change into more humanoid forms for convenience. Elves also worship them like gods. |
| 390 | * ''Literature/UnlimitedFafnir'': Dragons are NighInvulnerable monsters that are essentially living natural disasters, and all of them are different. [[GravityMaster Leviathan]] resembles a giant whale, [[FromASingleCell Hekatonkheir]] a humanoid giant, [[DisintegratorRay Basilisk]] a giant lizard with diamond scales, [[SoulPower Hraesvelgr]] a giant bird, [[ShockAndAwe Yggdrasil]] a giant tree, [[ImaginationBasedSuperpower Vritra]] a black Western dragon (being the only one that actually has the traditional appearance), [[{{Antimatter}} Kraken]] a giant cephalopod made of metal, and [[spoiler:[[TheHero Yuu]] and [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Charlotte]]]] are indistinguishable from humans. It's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:they are actually "counterdragons", created by the world itself as a defense against "true dragons". True dragons are defined as any disaster which threatens the world, and they're even stranger than the counterdragons. For example, two of the true dragons are Atlantean civilisation and modern human civilisation.]] |
| 391 | * ''Literature/VainqueurTheDragon'': Big, BreathWeapon of fire, DragonHoard are one way to show their status, along with [[DragonsPreferPrincesses princess]] collections as another status symbol. |
| 392 | * ''Literature/VineartWar'': Being an animated dragon statue, the Guardian combines this trope with OurGargoylesRock |
| 393 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Lord Ebondrake, from the ''Literature/GreyKnights'' novel ''Hammer of Daemons'', takes the form of a large bipedal Western dragon. The effective ruler of Drakaasi, with the necessary intelligence, he's described as [[LightningBruiser having "speed and grace alien to his size"]], wears armour, has flight-capable wings and breathes [[TechnicolorFire black flame]]. |
| 394 | * ''Literature/TalesFromVerania'': Dragons are created from magic whenever the gods/universe senses that one should exist. There are five in Verania, and they have no uniform physical appearance. One is a bat-winged snake, two are feathered quadropeds, and two are more akin to the standard western dragon. The eldest and most powerful of the five isreffered to as being a PhysicalGod as old as the planet itself. |
| 395 | * ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': |
| 396 | ** No actual dragons have yet appeared in Creator/RobertJordan's ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' -- "the Dragon (Reborn)" is a title used by {{The Chosen One}}s. However, a dragon appears on his primary banner, and the name must have come from ''somewhere''. (At one point Rand's previous incarnation/the insane voice in his head snarls that his enemies will learn what it means to "rouse the Dragon", which of course is an old proverb almost everywhere.) Given the cyclical nature of his world, the whole concept of "dragons" might even be a StableTimeLoop situation in which mythological dragons derive from the Dragon's behavior and his banner. |
| 397 | ** Dragons are also a tattoo-like marking that Aiel chieftains have on one arm, and Rand (the Dragon Reborn) has one on each. They appear to be based on Eastern style dragons, being described as a "four-legged serpent." |
| 398 | ** There are also the raken and to'raken. Native to the continent of Seanchan, raken and to'raken are flying lizards. Raken are ridden by one or two people, generally of small stature, while to'raken are large enough to carry at least half a dozen people and probably more. However, there are no signs of intelligence greater than a horse or any kind of breath weapon. To the main characters the raken and to'raken are generally very bizarre, alien monsters, so the readers never get details on appearance and they are never associated with [[TheChosenOne The Dragon]]. |
| 399 | * ''Literature/WhenWomenWereDragons'': Dragons are human women who have transformed. They keep a human mind and the ability to speak, and can die of diseases just like humans. Unlike humans, however, they can fly, breathe fire, and travel the depths of space and the ocean without specialized gear. |
| 400 | * ''Literature/WingsOfFire'': Dragons all use the basic standard for legs, two wings model, but that's where the similarities end. There are seven different clans of dragons, each with their own distinct abilities and cultures. |
| 401 | ** Mudwings: Extremely large, chunky, swamp-dwelling dragons. They can only breathe fire if they're warm enough. [[spoiler: They live with their nest of siblings all their lives, lead by the first of them to hatch, known as the "bigwings." They have little concept of family otherwise. And some of them can resist extreme temperatures, if they're born from the right-colored egg.]] |
| 402 | ** Seawings: Ocean-dwelling dragons with gills. They also have bioluminescent stripes along their bodies which they can use to communicate underwater. [[spoiler: Almost all their dwellings are hidden, either inside islands or deep under the ocean. And their royal family is powerfully magical.]] |
| 403 | ** Skywings: The most "traditional" species, they have large wings, excellent firebreathing abilities, and love to hoard treasure. [[spoiler: And some of them have inner flames so powerful, they literally ''glow'' and melt everything they touch.]] |
| 404 | ** Sandwings: Desert-dwelling dragons that have stinger tails like scorpions. And their whole species is currently at war, because instead of being [[KlingonPromotion properly killed by one of her daughters]], their queen was killed by a human, leaving her children to war over who should be the next queen. |
| 405 | ** Rainwings: Slender, brilliantly-colored dragons who can change color to camoflague and are known for their sleepy demeanor. [[spoiler: They actually gain power from sunlight, which is why they sleep frequently in the daytime. They also possess a terrifyingly powerful acid-spitting attack, the only antidote for which is the poison of a close blood relative. However, they're largely {{Actual Pacifist}}s, to the point where unlike other dragons, they don't fight over their queendom (except through nonviolent sport). Their society is also heavily communal to the point where parents and siblings don't exist--all children are raised together.]] |
| 406 | ** Icewings: White dragons from the freezing north. Rather than fire, they breathe a freezing mist that completely solidifies their opponents. [[spoiler: And the only cure is to ''live within lava.'' But even that only staves off the "poison" of the ice.]] |
| 407 | ** Nightwings: Black dragons that are known for their psychic abilities, being both telepaths and clairvoyant. And for being very mysterious. [[spoiler: Their bite is putrefying, and they gain power from the stars much like Rainwings gain power from the sun. They're also a DyingRace, because their home is an unstable volcano with almost no food or potable water. Also notoriously racist. And trying to take over the Rainwing home.]] |
| 408 | ** In the Lost Continent Arc, three more tribes from the continent [[spoiler: Pantala]] are added to the list. Two of the three have four wings instead of the usual two. |
| 409 | *** Silkwings: Butterfly-like dragons with the same amount of color variety as Rainwings, but with fixed colors. They also have antennae above their eyes, and the adults can produce silk from glands in their wrists. Those younger than six don't have wings -- just little buds -- and need to undergo Metamorphosis within a cocoon to grow their wings and produce silk. Some Silkwings have an ability called [[spoiler:flamesilk, which allows them to basically create actual fire from their silk]]. |
| 410 | *** Hivewings: Always some shade of red, orange, or yellow, with black somewhere in the mix. Also with four wings, like Silkwings, but much more varied in abilities. Mostly relating to poison or toxins via their bites, claws, or stingers in various places on their bodies. [[spoiler: Their [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen evil queen, Wasp,]] has the ability to control most of her Hivewing subjects' minds, but she wasn't necessarily born with that ability.]] |
| 411 | *** Leafwings: The only tribe of the Lost Continent with two leaf-shaped wings, and typically mixed shades of green, brown, and sometimes accented with red or gold. Supposedly extinct, [[spoiler: (they're not)]] Leafwings are said to be able to control plants and perform photosynthesis. [[spoiler: They also know everything there is to know about the Poison Jungle, and weaponize a lot of insects that live there.]] |
| 412 | * ''Literature/TheWitchlands'': Mountain bats are large, winged serpents with bat heads, large enough to bite a man in half. They're carrion eaters that can be found on former battlefields as well as mountainous caves they take their name from, but they're rare enough that many people consider them to be mythical. |
| 413 | * ''Literature/WizardOfTheGrove'', by Creator/TanyaHuff, has dragons that were created by wizards out of the bones and soul of the Earth but TurnedAgainstTheirMasters in a war of mutual annihilation. |
| 414 | * ''Literature/WrongTimeForDragons'': The actual dragons show up very little, despite the name of the book. They are the masters of the [[MagicalLand Trueborn world]] and every so often attempt to conquer the Middle world (where most of the book takes place). There's also the Outworld, a world of humans, where magic doesn't exist (i.e. our Earth), where the protagonist is from. The dragons in the book are [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifters]], able to assume human form and, as revealed later, capable of [[HalfHumanHybrid interbreeding with other races]]. Each time the dragons invade the Middle world, a Dragon Slayer is summoned to stop them. The protagonist is believed to be the next Slayer, who must master the four ElementalPowers in order to be strong enough. At the end of the book, it is revealed that [[spoiler:he is himself a quarter dragon by way of his maternal grandmother, who was raped by the last Dragon Slayer before being banished to the Outworld; he is then able to turn into a dragon to fight the invaders]]. |
| 415 | * ''Literature/XanaduStoryverse'': A few characters are transformed into dragons. Notable examples include Mi'chelwarorn, formerly Michael, who underwent a full physical and mental transformation into a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' silver dragon; a man who came dressed as a human in the first stages of a transformation spell and afterwards transforms over the course of a month into a fire-breathing black dragon around thirty feet long; and a group of dragon dancers who became a Chinese dragon capable of breathing underwater and using magic. |
| 416 | * ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'': Dragons come in three kinds: fire, steam, and water. One of them, who guards the Cap Chasm, gets the name Stanley Steamer. He later marries another steamer named Stacey and they have a son named Steven, and after that alternates guarding Gap Chasm and baby-sitting with Stacey. |
| 417 | * ''Literature/TheYearOfRogueDragons'' trilogy by Richard Lee Byers, set in the Literature/ForgottenRealms, is three novels' worth of Dragon Porn (in the sense of SceneryPorn, mind you). It essentially exists to showcase the insane number of dragon types in 3.5E TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons. Notable dragon characters include a song dragon bard and a vampire smoke drake. |
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