History Main / ElementalDragon

*** The classic metallic dragons are gold, silver, copper, bronze, and brass. Gold and brass dragons breathe fire, silver dragons breathe ice and usually live in high mountains, bronze dragons spit lightning, and brass dragons spit acid. The god of metallic dragons is Bahamut, who is known as the platinum dragon and has multiple breath weapons including cold, gas that transforms enemies into a gaseous form, a powerful roar that can disintegrate or deafen enemies, and a healing breath.

* ''VideoGame/DangerousAdventureII'' has dragons corresponding to the five colors (fire for red, plants for green, water for blue, undead for purple, and the NonElemental gold dragon for yellow) with corresponding abilities (the green one blocks progressively larger areas of the field with vines, the blue one immediately counters any use of magic, the red one turns blocks to magma, the purple one uses poison). The final one requires all other dragons to be beaten, is immune to just about every status effect and takes half damage from any source, but is required to get the true ending of the game.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'': The ''Storm of Magic'' supplement describes a number of dragon varieties, each associated with a specific lore of elemental magic, which their eldest members can wield like wizards, and distinguishable by scale color. Red dragons are tied to the Lore of Fire, black dragons to the Lore of Death, white-scaled frost dragons to the Lore of Light, green-scaled forest dragons to the Lore of Life, and blue-scaled storm dragons to the Lore of Heavens. The ''Tamurkhan: The Throne of Chaos'' campaign and the ''Monstrous Arcanum'' bestiary also describe carmine dragons, another variant deeply influenced by Death magic.

Subtrope of OurDragonsAreDifferent; compare UndergroundMonkey (which this can help achieve). Sister trope to ElementalZombie. Subtrope of DragonVarietyPack, which covers general cases of multiple dragon varieties coexisting in a single setting.

** This was even more emphasized in Third Edition and its 3.5 revision, which included elemental subtypes for various creatures, including most dragons. Some of them were obviouse (Reds, Golds, and Brasses were Fire, Whites and Silvers were Cold), some made sense (Blacks and Bronzes were Water because of their enviroments, Browns are flightless dirt-colored burrowers so they get Earth), but some of these associations could get arbitrary - Blue dragons are the color of the sky and have lightning breath, but were given the Earth subtype because they live in deserts, while Green dragons got the Air subtype despite having an earthy color and the ability to control plants (and unlike the Blues their environment can't be an explanation because the equally forest-dwelling Coppers ''do'' get the Earth subtype).

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' features the Red, Blue, and Yellow Dragons, which each correspond to one of the FireIceLightning elements respectively.

*** The classic chromatic dragons are red dragons, which live in volcanic mountains and breathe fire; blue dragons, which live in deserts and spit lightning; green dragons, which live deep forests, breathe poison gas that's sometimes identified as chlorine in particular, and can control plants; black dragons, which live in swamps and spit poison; and white dragons, which live in arctic areas or high peaks and breathe ice. Tiamat, the goddess of chromatic dragons, has the body of a red dragon but also with the heads of the four types of chromatic dragons.
*** ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' Magazine #65 fills out the "color wheel" by working backwards to construct what the "intermediary" elements of other chromatic dragons would be, and ends up with orange dragons, which breathe elemental sodium (which reacts explosively with water); yellow dragons, which breathe molten salt (salt is sodium chloride and yellow is in between orange and green); and purple dragons, who breathe out a beam of energy as a combination of the blue dragon's electricity and a red dragon's fire.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'': The ''Storm of Magic'' supplement describes a number of dragon varieties, each associated with a specific lore of elemental magic, which their eldest members can wield like wizards, and distinguishable by scale color. Red dragons are tied to the Lore of Fire, black dragons to the Lore of Death, white-scaled frost dragons to the Lore of Light, green-scaled forest dragons to the Lore of Life, and blue-scaled storm dragons to the Lore of Heavens.

** The LIGHT-attribute Dragons can roughly be identified for their light/white colouring, like"Albion the Sanctifire Dragon", the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" line and its correlated "Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon" and "Dragon Spirit of White"; and angelic wings, like "Lightsworn's Ultimate Light Dragon", "Light End Dragon" and "Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon".
** LIGHT-attribute Wyrms and Dragons can also be identified by the yellow/golden coloration of their bodies: "Ringowurm, the Dragon Guarding the Hundred Apples", the Tenyi Spirits "Ashuna" and "Sahasrara", and "Aether, the Empowering Dragon."

** The LIGHT-attribute Dragons can roughly be identified for their light/white colouring, like the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" line and "Albion the Sanctifire Dragon"; and angelic wings, like "Lightsworn's Ultimate Light Dragon", "Light End Dragon" and "Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon".

** The LIGHT-attribute Dragons can roughly be identified for their light/white colouring, like the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" line; and angelic wings, like "Lightsworn's Ultimate Light Dragon", "Light End Dragon" and "Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon".

** Among the WIND-attribute dragons, one can count "Lightning, Dragon Ruler of Drafts" (a small skeleton-like dragon inside the eye of a storm) and "Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms" (a giant dragon flying amidst storm clouds and with a thunder column behind itself), which appear in a LightningWindJuxtaposition.

** Gem dragons have the weakest elemental themes, and mostly have psychic and sonic attacks. Amethyst dragons have a cone of non-elemental concussive energy (which is also the same kind of breath weapon that Sardior, the god of gem dragons, uses), emerald dragons a sonic roar (in earlier editions) or a psychic attack (in 5th), sapphire dragons have a supersonic scream that triggers living beings fear responses (in early editions) or just deals sonic damage (in 5th) but also some innate spell-like abilities that let them move and shape earth and stone, topaz dragons have a cone of energy that induces rapid decay in water, metal and organic matter, and crystal dragons have cones and beams of light. Beljuril dragons breath light or magma.

** Chromatic dragons are divided among red dragons, which live in volcanic mountains and breathe fire; blue dragons, which live in deserts and spit lightning; green dragons, which live deep forests, breathe poison gas that's sometimes identified as chlorine in particular, and can control plants; black dragons, which live in swamps and spit poison; and white dragons, which live in arctic areas or high peaks and breathe ice. Tiamat, the goddess of chromatic dragons, has the body of a red dragon but also with the heads of the four types of chromatic dragons.

** The metallic dragons aren't as strongly themed around traditional elements as the chromatic ones are, but some associations are still present. Their theming is more based on the element or alloy they are named after rather than a traditional element. Gold and brass dragons breathe fire, silver dragons breathe ice and usually live in high mountains, bronze dragons spit lightning, and brass dragons spit acid. Metallic dragons based on mercury, cobalt, iron, steel, electrum, chrome, nickel, tungsten, and several FantasyMetals also have appeared throughout the editions. Mercury dragons naturally are TheMadHatter of the metallic dragon family and breathe beams of light. Cobalt dragons breathe a beam of magnetism, and possibly are the progenitors of the kobold race (which is a reference to how the word "cobalt" actually is derived the word "kobold".) Iron dragons are much larger than most other types of metallic dragons and breathe a spray of hot sparks that does both fire and electrical damage. Steel dragons have wings that look like swords and their breath weapon varies depending on the edition and setting but it usually is a poisonous breath. Electrum dragons breathe gas that causes weakness or confusion. Chrome dragons are an evil counterpart to silver dragons and can breathe either a blast of super cold snow or a beam of ice. Nickel dragons are the smallest of metallic dragons and breathe corrosive gas. Tungsten dragons breath hot sand. Song dragons (technically not a true metallic dragon, but resemble silvery copper dragons) breathe electrically-charged gas. The god of metallic dragons is Bahamut, who is known as the platinum dragon and has multiple breath weapons including cold, gas that transforms enemies into a gaseous form, a powerful roar that can disintegrate or deafen enemies, and a healing breath.

** Dragons attuned to secondary elements came about from the interbreeding of primary elemental dragons. Water dragons, with blue scales, fins, fish tails, and a jet of water for a breath weapon, descend from fire and ice dragons; wind dragons, white and slender [[FeatheredDragons and provided with feather-like scales along their spines and tails]], descend from electric and earth dragons. They have their own cities, respectively on the seafloor and on a flying island.

** Chromatic dragons are divided among red dragons, which live in volcanic mountains and breathe fire; blue dragons, which live in deserts and spit lightning; green dragons, which live deep forests, breathe poison gas that's sometimes identified as chlorine in particular, and can control plants; black dragons, which live in swamps and spit poison; and white dragons, which live in arctic areas or high peaks and breathe ice. Tiamat, the goddess of chromatic dragons, has the body of a red dragon but also with the heads of the four types of chromatic dragons. ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' Magazine #65 fills out the "color wheel" by working backwards to construct what the "intermediary" elements of other chromatic dragons would be, and ends up with orange dragons, which breathe elemental sodium (which reacts explosively with water); yellow dragons, which breathe molten salt (salt is sodium chloride and yellow is in between orange and green); and purple dragons, who breathe out a beam of energy as a combination of the blue dragon's electricity and a red dragon's fire. A few other known types are the Pink, Brown, and Grey Dragons. Pink Dragons are a JokeCharacter so their breath is [[BubbleGun a spray of slippery soap bubbles]]. Brown dragons live in deserts and breathe either acid or burning hot sand depending which edition of the game you are playing. There are at least two completely different versions of the grey dragon. One version from 2nd Edition was stronger version of the white dragon that breathes freezing cold air instead of ice, while in 4th edition they are instead derived from Fang Dragons, which previous had a life-draining bite instead of a breath weapon, that were modified to give them the ability to breathe caustic ooze that hardens on contact with air, and the power to turn creatures immobilized by breath or claws to stone.
** The metallic dragons aren't as strongly themed around traditional elements as the chromatic ones are, but some associations are still present. Their theming is more based on the element or alloy they are named after rather than a traditional element. Gold and brass dragons breathe fire, silver dragons breathe ice and usually live in high mountains, bronze dragons spit lightning, and brass dragons spit acid. Metallic Dragons based on Mercury, Cobalt, Iron, Steel, Electrum, Chrome, Nickel, Tungsten, and several FantasyMetals also have appeared throughout the editions. Mercury Dragons naturally are TheMadHatter of the Metallic Dragon family and breathe beams of light. Cobalt Dragons breathe a beam of magnetism, and possibly are the progenitors of the kobold race (which is a reference to how the word "cobalt" actually is derived the word "kobold".) Iron Dragons are much larger than most other types of metallic dragons and breathe a spray of hot sparks that does both fire and electrical damage. Steel Dragons have wings that look like swords and their breath weapon varies depending on the edition and setting but it usually is a poisonous breath. Electrum Dragons breathe gas that causes weakness or confusion. Chrome Dragons are an evil counterpart to silver dragons and can breathe either a blast of super cold snow or a beam of ice. Nickel Dragons are the smallest of metallic dragons and breathe corrosive gas. Tungsten Dragons breath hot sand. Song Dragons (Technically not a true metallic dragon, but resemble silvery Copper dragons) breathe electrically charged gas. The god of Metallic Dragons is Bahamut, who is known as the platinum dragon and has multiple breath weapons including cold, gas that transforms enemies into a gaseous form, a powerful roar that can disintegrate or deafen enemies, and a healing breath.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'': The boss of the Temple of Ice is Gleeok, a dragon whose [[MultipleHeadCase two heads]] respectively breathe fire and ice. Defeating them requires you to use the grappling hook as a slingshot to redirect the projectiles of one head toward the other.

** The metallic dragons aren't as strongly themed around traditional elements as the chromatic ones are, but some associations are still present. Their theming is more based on the element or alloy they are named after rather than a traditional element. Gold and brass dragons breathe fire, silver dragons breathe ice and usually live in high mountains, bronze dragons spit lightning, and brass dragons spit acid. Metallic Dragons based on Mercury, Cobalt, Iron, Steel, Electrum, Chrome, Nickel, Tungsten, and several FantasyMetals also have appeared throughout the editions. Mercury Dragons naturally are TheMadHatter of the Metallic Dragon family and breathe beams of light. Cobalt Dragons breathe a beam of magnetism, and possibly are the progenitors of the kobold race (which is a reference to how the word "cobalt" actually is derived the word "kobold".) Iron Dragons are much larger than most other types of metallic dragons and breathe a spray of hot sparks that does both fire and electrical damage. Steel Dragons have wings that look like swords and their breath weapon varies depending on the edition and setting but it usually is a poisonous breath. Electrum Dragons breathe gas that causes weakness or confusion. Chrome Dragons are an evil counterpart to silver dragons and can breathe either a blast of super cold snow or a beam of ice. Nickel Dragons are the smallest of metallic dragons and breathe corrosive gas. Tungsten Dragons breath hot sand. Song Dragons (Technically not a true metallic dragon, but resemble silvery Copper dragons) breathe electrically charged gas. The god of Metallic Dragons is Bahamut, who is known as the platinum dragon.

** Chromatic dragons are divided among red dragons, which live in volcanic mountains and breathe fire; blue dragons, which live in deserts and spit lightning; green dragons, which live deep forests, breathe poison gas that's sometimes identified as chlorine in particular, and can control plants; black dragons, which live in swamps and spit poison; and white dragons, which live in arctic areas or high peaks and breathe ice. ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' Magazine #65 fills out the "color wheel" by working backwards to construct what the "intermediary" elements of other chromatic dragons would be, and ends up with orange dragons, which breathe explosive elemental sodium; yellow dragons, which breathe molten salt (salt is sodium chloride and yellow is in between orange and green); and purple dragons, who breathe out a beam of energy as a combination of the blue dragon's electricity and a red dragon's fire. A few other known types are the Pink, Brown, and Grey Dragons. Pink Dragons are a JokeCharacter so their breath is [[BubbleGun a stream of slippery soap bubbles]]. Brown dragons live in deserts and breathe either acid or hot sand depending which edition of the game you are playing. There are at least two completely different versions of the grey dragon. One version from 2nd Edition was stronger version of the white dragon that breathes freezing cold air instead of ice, while in 4th edition they are instead derived from Fang dragons, which previous had a life-draining bite instead of a breath weapon, that were modified to give them the ability to breathe caustic ooze that hardens on contact with air, and the power to turn creatures hit with their breath or claws to stone.
** The metallic dragons aren't as strongly themed around traditional elements as the chromatic ones are, but some associations are still present. Their theming is more based on the element or alloy they are named after rather than a traditional element. Gold and brass dragons breathe fire, silver dragons breathe ice and usually live in high mountains, bronze dragons spit lightning, and brass dragons spit acid. Metallic Dragons based on Mercury, Cobalt, Iron, Steel, Electrum, Chrome, Nickel, Tungsten, and several FantasyMetals also have appeared throughout the editions. Mercury Dragons naturally are TheMadHatter of the Metallic Dragon family and breathe beams of light. Cobalt Dragons breathe a beam of magnetism, and possibly are the progenitors of the kobold race (which is a reference to how the word "cobalt" actually is derived the word "kobold".) Iron Dragons are much larger than most other types of metallic dragons and breathe a spray of hot sparks that does both fire and electrical damage. Steel Dragons have wings that look like swords and their breath weapon varies depending on the edition and setting but it usually is a poisonous breath. Chrome Dragons are an evil counterpart to silver dragons and can breathe either a blast of super cold snow or a beam of ice. Song Dragons (Technically not a true metallic dragon, but resemble silvery Copper dragons) breathe electrically charged gas.

** Tiamat, a five-headed dragon goddess who is the progenitor, god and ruler of the chromatic dragons, has various powers for each of her heads. The main head, which is red, breathes fire, the black head breathes acid, the green head exhales poisonous gas, the blue head spits out lightning bolts, and the white head breathes ice, in line with the various evil chromatic dragons.
** Bahamut, the ruler of metallic dragons, has two breath weapons -- cold air and a vapor that turns those caught inside it into gaseous forms.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'': The second-generation Elder Dragons that are introduced in the offline campaign of ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter2Dos'' form an ensemble of powerful quadrupedal dragons, each showcasing a dedicated element in their attacks: Chameleos (a [[PoisonousPerson poison-powered]] chameleon-like monster that can also perform {{Invisibility}} and [[BanditMook steal items from the player's character]]), Kushala Daora (a BlowYouAway steel dragon that protects itself with wind barriers, can shoot tornadoes and [[AnIcePerson imbue its attacks with ice when fought in snowy areas]]), and Teostra (a very dangerous dragon with leonine motifs that can [[PlayingWithFire shoot devastating fire attacks]]). There's also Lunastra, the female companion of Teostra that shares many of its fiery attacks.

* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': Much like how there is an Archon of each element, there is also a dragon referred to as the Sovereign. It is eventually revealed that the authority the Archons hold was taken from the Sovereigns by Celestia. As of right now, the known Sovereigns are Dvalin, an Anemo dragon residing in Mondstadt, Azhdaha, a Geo dragon who is sealed under a tree in Nantianmen in Liyue due to severe mental erosion making him a threat to the world, Apep, a Dendro dragon residing in Sumeru's desert, and Neuvillette, a Hydro dragon who reincarnated into a human and now works as the Chief Justice of Fontaine. The Electro, Pyro, and Cryo dragons have yet to be introduced.