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Dragons
Perhaps the most awe inspiring of all creatures, dragons can instil a deep sense of fear simply by their very presence. While not invincible, their intelligence, size and sheer power make them terrifying opponents. Believed to live
for centuries, these huge reptiles come in a variety of shapes, sizes and
colours but there are traits that are common to all individuals.
These include four legs, wings and a long neck and
tail. They have a great
love of The oldest and most powerful of the species may be so self-assured that they won't even acknowledge the presence of "lesser beings". This doesn't mean they will have gone unnoticed however, and caution is still to be advised. Sometimes a dragon's high degree of self importance can make it possible for the more quick-witted of individuals to get the better of the creature. Not surprisingly, this is a highly dangerous practise and, if it starts to believe that it no longer has the upper hand (or even if the conversation no longer holds the dragon's interest), things can get ugly very quickly. The most notorious of a dragon's powers has to be its breath weapon. While an impressive talent in its own right, when combined with their skill in the air it becomes a weapon of devastating proportions. Although it is well documented that these creatures breath fire, this is only true of dragons of certain colours. Red dragons in particular are renowned for reducing things to cinders, while black dragons can send forth a jet of highly corrosive acid. Other breath weapons that have been encountered include cones of freezing cold, clouds of poisonous gas and bolts of lightning. The word amongst dragon-slayers (a dangerous and often short-lived profession) is that the potency of a dragon's breath weapon is linked to its health. The theory being that, the closer one of these things is to death, the less danger there is if it breaths on you. Assuming there is any truth to this line of thought, of what use is such information? and to whom? After all, dragons have plenty of other physical weapons at their disposal. They can bite, claw, kick, attack with their wings and tail or simply make use of their bulk and crush anything too slow to get out of the way. If caught and subdued at an early age (within about a hundred years of their hatching) it is possible to bend a dragon's will to become a servant to a master. This is something only attempted by the most powerful of warriors and mages, but success has its obvious rewards, not least that of becoming a Dragon Rider.
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The European dragon In European folklore, a dragon is a serpentine legendary creature. The Latin word draco, as in the constellation Draco, comes directly from Greek d?????, drákon. The word for dragon in Germanic mythology and its descendants is worm (Old English: wyrm, Old High German: wurm, Old Norse: ormr), meaning snake or serpent. In Old English wyrm means "serpent", draca means "dragon". Finnish lohikäärme means directly "salmon-snake", but the word lohi- was originally louhi- meaning crags or rocks, a "mountain snake". Though a winged creature, the dragon is generally to be found in its underground lair, a cave that identifies it as an ancient creature of earth. Likely, the dragons of European and Mid Eastern mythology stem from the cult of snakes found in religions throughout the world. The dragon of the modern period is typically depicted as a huge fire-breathing, scaly and horned dinosaur-like creature, with leathery wings, with four legs and a long muscular tail. It is sometimes shown with feathered wings, crests, fiery manes, and various exotic colorations. Iconically it has at last combined the Chinese dragon with the western one. Asian dragons are long serpent like creatures which possess the scales of a carp, horns of a deer, feet of an eagle, the body of a snake, a feathery mane, large eyes, and can be holding a pearl to control lightning. They usually have no wings. Imperial dragons that were sewn on to silk had five claws (for a king), or four for a prince, or three for courtiers of a lower ranking. The dragons were bringers of rain and lived in and governed bodies of water (e.g lakes, rivers, oceans, or seas). Asian dragons were benevolent, but bossy (this strict behavior is why one of China's nicknames is "the Dragon"). In Western folklore, dragons are usually portrayed as evil, with exceptions mainly in modern fiction. Many modern stories represent dragons as extremely intelligent creatures who can talk, associated with (and sometimes in control of) powerful magic. Dragon's blood often has magical properties: for example it let Siegfried understand the language of the Forest Bird. The typical dragon protects a cavern or castle filled with gold and treasure and is often associated with a great hero who tries to slay it, but dragons can be written into a story in as many ways as a human character. This includes the monster being used as a wise being whom heroes could approach for help and advice, so much so that they resembled Asian dragons rather than European dragons of myth. For example, when German author Michael Ende created a "Luckdragon" in his fantasy novel "The Neverending Story" and a movie was made based on it, many western audiences were confused as to why a "Luckdragon" had no wings and looked like a giant flying dog.
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The Chinese dragon The Chinese dragon (spelled Long in transliteration), is a mythical Chinese creature that also appears in other East Asian cultures, and is also sometimes called the Oriental (or Eastern) dragon. Depicted as a long, snake-like creature with four claws, in contrast to the Western dragon which stands on two legs and which is usually portrayed as evil, it has long been a potent symbol of auspicious power in Chinese folklore and art. Like real world reptiles living in water, Chinese dragon controls water in an agricultural water-driven nation. This is the contrast of the western dragon, which controls fire to show its mythical power. The dragon is also the embodiment of the concept of yang (male) and associated with the weather as the bringer of rain and water in general. Its female counterpart is the Chinese phoenix.
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