How Different Are Your Dragons?

Well...

• Dragons: big, bad, four-legged, and mean. Used by the Draconian Empire, which is named such because it was founded by a dragon rider's crusade against orcs, ogres and goblins approximately a thousand years before this story took place. Though smaller than their long-gone wild ancestors, modern dragons are massive and fierce. Though they possess massive natural magical reserves in the form of their high-energy souls, dragons are typically unable to tap most of it—only enough to breathe fire and sustain their flight—and usually simply allow their riders to use the majority of it. Dragons have deviated from their old mating patterns—in which a single matriarch would have dozens of male consorts who would impregnate her and guard her roost—to monogamous, lifetime mating standards. When a dragon's mate dies, the dragon will mourn them for around a decade—with or without their rider—taking refuge in the great mountains of the north. After returning, official Imperial policy is that dragons whose mates have died are no longer to go into combat, and are allowed to retire to the Hall of Serpents: a vast underground vault in the Imperial capital of Arcadia where a literal army of servants tend to those dragons who have served out their terms of service with the Empire. Similarly, dragons only ever take a single rider—usually around the dragon's fiftieth year—and when the rider is killed, they likewise are retired to the Hall of Serpents to live out their days. Dragons are not immortal, but they can live for upwards of a thousand years, and riders bonded with a dragon can go up to three hundred. They are intelligent and reasonably cunning, but rarely hostile to non-riders unless warranted.
• Wyverns: Smaller—compared to a jetliner-sized dragon—creatures, wyverns are insect-like serpent creatures, with thin—if magically-reinforced—wings, compound eyes, and almost elephant-like, tough, leathery skin. Wyverns do not have souls, and thus rely on "natural magic," a separate, less powerful energy source which powers their small ability set but is not able to be passed on to another through soul sharing. Wyverns cannot breath fire, but they are naturally venomous and have many sharp spines across their body. They can fly, though they don't have separate arms and wings, and thus must land to use their forearms in battle. Due to their relatively small size—about the same size as an American F-16C fighter jet—they are not able to go toe-to-toe with other riding animals, such as rocs or dragons, but they are still used by the elves as light skirmishing units and scouts. Wyverns are not particularly intelligent, but they are far from stupid; one could draw a rough comparison between dolphins and wyverns, in terms of intelligence levels.

edited 3rd Dec '11 9:36:09 PM by USAF713

I am now known as Flyboy.

I've said before that I don't like putting dragons into my stories, but if I HAD to do it I'd probably go with something more like a naga - a serpent's body with a human's face. I loved the dragons from the new Zelda game (Skyward Sword) for this very reason. I'd keep the breath attacks, reptilian features, and the whole "was already ancient at the dawn of time" aspect. I'd also borrow a bit from Iron Man and Outlaw Star and make the dragons extraterrestrials with advanced technology powered by magic, come to Earth to teach humans their wisdom.

Come to think of it, this really doesn't sound all that bad, I just might work dragons into a story after all...

In one story, dragons are just beasts. Extremely tough, intelligent, and hard-to-kill beasts, but beasts nonetheless. They are divided into six species; salamanders (desert reptiles who resemble your typical European dragon and breathe fire), wyrms (which live in the frozen wastes and are pretty much winged snakes who vomit flash-freezing mucus), wyverns (jungle animals which stand on two legs, arms connected to wings, and immoblize their prey by exhaling intoxicating vapors and poisonous saps), leviathans (aquatic giant lizards with finned limbs that can fire steel-shattering jets of water from their noistrils), and basilisks (blind eight-legged giant lizards who shoot quick-drying cement from what looks like their eyes as a defense mechanism).

In another, dragons are a wild variety of creatures with all kinds of different shapes and sizes and physical traits, sharing only two things: reptilian features, and a connection from birth to their individual parent/sibling/cousin humanoids.

My dragon dresses in polyester, wears an afro and platform shoes. He can also spit flaming mirror balls. Men all over the land of Interio run in fear of the Disco Dragon.

Weird in a Can (updated M-F)

Dragons rarely serve in the military: When they're do, they're either Neutral No Longer or expensive, professional mercenaries. The typical rider is a crossbowman: Its main role is to protect their mount from other dragons. Some sorcerers have also taken that role.

Dragons can fly higher than most arrows and bolts will reach: They're used to spray enemy formations with acid, and to transport important people from point A to point B quickly and safely. Even though dragons aren't rare by any stretch of the imagination, the overwhelming majority of them keep out of human affairs. Only three or four nations employ dragons, and the one with more of those beasts on payroll has 'bout a dozen.

Most armies consider dragons far too expensive to bother trying to hire them.

You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.

The only dragons in my story are either made of flaming chainsaw chains and breathe exploding chainsaws or are fired from guns.

It's a little surreal, yeah.

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

"Surreal" is a special kind of understatement. Please elaborate.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Let me put it this way. Due to the absolutely massive Super Weight of just about every major character in the 'verse, combat is, at best, watching physics go on a bad, bad acid trip. At worst, things begin to look like the product of an unholy threesome between Axe Cop, Dr McNinja, and Saxton Hale.

Shit gets real.

edited 6th Dec '11 3:09:50 PM by KSPAM

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

That sounds... spectacular. Not to mention glorious.

Seriously, my work comes close to that level of crazy on occasion, but it's less often fun than existentially disturbing or thoroughly repulsive (the zeppelin fight excepted). So I welcome that kind of cheerful yet utter disregard for sanity.

edited 6th Dec '11 3:27:21 PM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

In my world, there are only seven dragons, and each one holds power over a particular element: fire, earth, water, wind, flora, dark, and light. They all have features based on the element they have control over, like the fire dragon having a full head of red hair, or the water dragon having fins. They have long necks, and scales the color of there respective elements. All of them are inteligent, and were created by the god of that world, Dalmus, to act as proctors of the various species that live there.

The primary difference between my Wordkeepers 'verse dragons and the regular variety is that they're explicitly birds, as opposed to reptiles. Their scales are actually a kind of specialized feather, and baby dragons are downy like bird chicks are. Also, unlike most dragons, they are explicitly omnivores and the primary dragon we meet (Seamus Pearlback) likes chewing on large bunches of leaves. They also have a different structure to their mage community that humans do, but that's cultural and not biological.

My Suenyaverse dragons, though, are fairly different. For one thing, there are two kinds of creatures that your non-Suenyan might call "dragons:" True dragons and drakes. True dragons are sapient, but drakes have only animal intelligence. They are Wilde, which essentially means they can become Bond Creatures, which essentially bestows Amplified Animal Aptitude upon them.

Appearance-wise, both dragons and drakes are "hexapods," or six-limbed vertebrate animals. They're in the same family as griffins and small terrestrial animals called hexits, which use their foremost limbs as grasping arms and did not evolve wings like dragons and griffins did. Dragons and drakes also have six eyes. Dragons have very ceratopsian faces, with large bony frills guarding their necks and horns both on their faces and extending from their frills. Dragons come in two colors: Black and gold. Black dragons have sharp beaky snouts kind of like ceratopsians, while gold dragons have more blunt snouts. Culturally, they are considered just about the same as any of the other, smaller races, but they tend to keep to themselves more often. Also, golden dragon culture tends to be very Fantastic Racist, while black dragons tend to be more accepting of others. Due to this tendency (and also the fact that they are very large), the more ignorant humans tend to be rather fearful of them as well, though they may make blanket assumptions about all black dragons being goody-two-shoes and talkative and social as well.

This causes problems for a dragon named Dawra in the second Suenyaverse book. Unlike most dragons, he is not black or gold. He is red. There's a reason for this, but most people don't know how to react to him because of this, and at least one person is openly detestful of him because he could "secretly" be gold. He's not the only one. Poor Dawra has it bad.

"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

It basically gives me license to put whatever wonderfully demented shit I can think of onto paper.

For example, the main heroine's weapon of choice is a pair of flaming, jet-powered chainsaw nunchuks that can cut through time and space and destroy entire universes. Said heroine is also a genetically modified werewolf-vampire-ninja-cyborg-wizard.

MY BRAIN IS FULL OF FUCK.

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

But the fuck in your brain is amazing! Nurture that fuck, KSPAM!! It could save the world!!!

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Yes, yes it is...

Anyway, I think that it's about time that I throw in my two cents, considering that I made the thread.

• The dragons are known as Wyrms and are a Mons elemental type in the Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors of the story. Depending on the other elemental type that they are mixed with, the appearance of a Wyrms can vastly vary. For example, if mixed with a Mechanic type (Essentially a steel type), they can have the appearance of a robotic dragon. If they were to be mixed with the Abyss type (Equivalent to the water type), they would look like a draconic sea serpent. Some can talk, but more can communicate telepathically and a majority can fly. Depending on the type, the Breath Weapon will vary. Some of them get really freakin' big, up to the point of the danger of the Wyrm eating it's holder increases. Wild ones do go out and eat livestock and some are actively malicious, a few are sadistic enough to decide to burn an entire area on the whim.

Figured it was about time I ventured back out into this part of the forum.

I really like the sound of that, actually. Do you have a list of them and all their elemental attributes?

The dragons in my (something of an Affectionate Parody) fantasy universe come in two types, one based on European dragons and one based on Asian dragons. I wrote some stuff on them for an "article" of mine I wrote to keep track of all my races, and I'll copy-paste those here:

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EDIT: removed them, since the two "true dragons" aren't all that diffrent (for parody purpouses) and nobody seemed to be reading it

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Someone mentioned the naga-ish dragons from Skyward Sword; would posting my nagas here be OK? I am going to post the different drake species (including wyrms, wyverns, and slamanders) sometime soon. Some of those get really weird - weirder than my true dragons, anyway.

Also, I should mention that my protagonist is a dragon. It's part of the "parody" aspect.

edited 14th Dec '11 6:23:55 PM by Umbramatic

Contact Me!

If I ever write a story with Dragons, they will be nothing short of eldritch abominations.

If you eat a live frog in the morning, nothing worse will happen to either of you for the rest of the day.

Colin Wilson's Return of the Lloigor technically beat you to it. That said, go for it.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Dang. Well, I hope that my reinterpretation goes over well

If you eat a live frog in the morning, nothing worse will happen to either of you for the rest of the day.

Hmmm... in my Old Shame, Dragons were fairly standard appearance and ability wise. Reptilian, winged, fire breathing, intelligent. They looked a bit like a scaly big cat with wings.

And they were natural inter-dimensional travellers who were able to break the square-cube law by only existing as projections onto the world. In reality they were about the size of Labrador, but could appear the traditional gigantic size.

You must agree, my plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity! My Tumblr

Edited: Sorry for the Necro.... I wasn't aware this thread is dead. My attention to detail is severely lacking.

Dragons in one of my story setting took some inspiration/ideas from Kitsune folklore, metamorphosis, and dragons from sources such as Skyrim

In my story, there are numerous kinds of Wyverns. If any of them are lucky or Badass enough to live past a 100 years, they became dragons.

Before, Wyverns are just beasts, probably just as smarts as dolphins or one of those wyverns from Monster Hunter . As dragons, they shed their old body and gain sentience. As they grow older, they start being able to manipulate elements or magic, and their body changes accordingly. Eventually, when they reach 1000 years of age, they become borderline Physical God

So far, I have several ideas for a Dragon characters:

• a Fire Dragon who loves to attack settlements, eats/barbequed sentient races, play tricks, or talk to them and share some knowledge/wisdom.... THEN eat them. or kill them. why? he's bored

• a non-malevolent High Dragon residing in a swamp. Have the personality of a Cool Old Guy with great wisdom but is quite the sloth. Also have plant bodyparts and when he sleeps, he turns the swamp into an Eldritch Location

• a Blood High Dragon who is borderline Eldritch Abomination (what else do you called a being made out of bones and blood?). Share the knowledge of Blood Magic to the races in my story. Could also be classified as a Dracolich

• a sun elemental High Dragon. Friend to All Living Things. Might call her Amaterasu

edited 8th Aug '13 8:59:38 PM by MoodyXander

Its not the Trope that matters in the story, its the execution.

New Dawn's Dragons:

Well, they're big, nasty, and powerful. They're explicitly compared to a natural disaster, even in the modern day. They're treated as Phantasmic Beasts, which means that they have a special factor on them that makes their fire breath able to melt and destroy things it shouldn't be able to, while leaving the land "just" slightly charred, and making their scales tougher than diamonds, and resistant to most modern weapons. The smaller ones take whole armies to defeat.

There are three to six really big ones, depending on who's alive at the moment, which includes the black and red "Scarlet King Dragon", who is essentially an Eldritch Abomination in dragon-like form, and its almost impossible to fully defeat him. Most assume he is an Omnicidal Maniac, when really, he's the Dystopia Justifies the Means type. He just leaves so much death and destruction behind him that you could be forgiven for the mistake. His one weakness is singularly difficult to exploit without getting burnt to a crisp in close range combat. And he has a Healing Factor, meaning you need to finish it quick.

The others include Demon Lesser Duke Caryna Variance. She is mostly content to scheme and plot in her castle, and her motives are inscrutable. She is a silver dragon best known for masterminding the fall from grace of Scatha The Endless.

Speaking of whom, Scatha is a gigantic wyrm who traded his scales to achieve immortality. He is reportedly quite loathsome, but there are just so many rumors about him, it becomes hard to tell the fact from the fiction. He prefers to not be bothered except if someone is challenging his reign as one of the Five Kings. Ostensibly a good guy, but he's done a lot of really, really, really morally dubious and amoral stuff in the past. As in, inspiring Mengele just to see whether his voice could drive a mundane human to madness. As a whole, basically a Mad Scientist Dragon.

Given the kind of story that I am writing, I guess that this is par for the course, but a few very strange dragon-like things do show up, both mythical and purely of my own invention. The most outré are starfish aliens inspired by the Voynich manuscript, time-based thought experiments and theories involving silicon-based life; the least is simply a lindworm.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Heh. The only dragons I've done (aside from a singular, quite bog-standard one in a superhero/fantasy crossover, which is a bit odd, given that the dwarves are actually sentient energy beings inhabiting construct bodies and the elves are parasitic plants that gained sapience and humanoid form feeding on dryad trees) are reasonably standard in terms of composition- winged reptilian fire-breathers the size of small passenger jets, but their personalities are a bit odd.

Basically, the whole fall-from-grace and expulsion from paradise in this world came about because the local version of Satan was able to inhabit the smallest dragon by exploiting the bit of a complex he had because of being so (relatively) tiny. Local Satan-expy is still in there, and given that dragons are more-or-less immortal, they still mourn the loss of their 'baby brother' right into the present day, and as a result, the entire draconic race is, well, kind of depressed and given to slightly gloomy philosophizing.

If they were in my series, they would actually be a fraction of extremely powerful, Made of Magic beings from another dimension. As such, they tend to be resistant to or even absorb a number of forms of magical attack.

When dealing with humans/other races, dragons take on the form of that race so as to not induce any panic. They can still use their breath weapon, except it's fired out from their hands instead.

...eheh

I've been mulling over a Fantasy/Western story with dragons. The idea being that in the Old Kingdom (which represents the European countries in this case) have your standard dragons found in most fantasy stories. They're deadly but due to mankind's expansion there aren't that many left/aren't that big of a deal. However, the New Kingdom (the equivalent of the Wild West) have some seriously nasty dragons that make Eastern dragons look like newts. The worst of which is known as the Diamondback.

Is not impressed.