Dragon thread

Post pictures of Dragons, the weirder the better.

Also discuss dragons, I guess. Dragon General

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Hah, it's a Ring Wyrm.

I ain't got no dragon pictures, but I got me some dragon talk.

I'm working on dragons in my setting, non-DnD fantasy. Dragons were about the second race tossed down by the gods, starting with a big ol' immortal meant to keep an eye on things while the big dude in the sky focused on making sure the formerly dying planet kept spinning. Of course, he came second fiddle to humans in the eyes of the big guy.

Didn't much like that.

So he made his own race of dragonfolk like humans, and waged war. Good old 'you ain't shit so we'll replace you'. Humans being humans, managed to squeak a dude through the oppression who slung a foot into the old dragon's sack and made him rethink things. The thinking bit came after the smattering the dude across the floor bit, sure but maybe they're not bad.

So this old, ornery dragon fella kiboshes the war. The lizardpeople, born and bred to fight in the harshest of climates got suddenly cut loose. Cue horrible tribal infighting, the birth of perverse rituals and worship to their former leader and still-god. He didn't care much for it, but they didn't bother him too much, so this too was fine.

Course, the big fella up top wiped his brow, looked over from his work, and saw in sum, 'y'done fucked up what I did'.

That was a spankin' punctuated by divine fury from above.

So what do you do when you plonk out a kid and he's acting a whole ton of stupid while you're busy? You get a nanny, a babysitter, some checks and balances. Ol' Scaley got company in a spirit of absolute law clad in shining armor, a spirit of the seas who liked to forget the word urgency was ever a thing when he was slitherin' about the depths, and a spirit of war to keep things in check if they absolutely had to make a mess again. Course, the whole sibling rivalry thing came about, but that's a whole other story.

When was the last time someone in your session got killed by cosmic dragon sex?

We fought a bog-standard big red dragon recently in my campaign, and while I'm fine with that it got me thinking about dragon variation.
How varied do you prefer the dragons to be in your setting? How much do you deviate from the "big scaly flying lizard" idea?

Personally I'd like to see more weird dragons inspired from various folklore, something like a feathered serpent. Not strictly a dragon maybe, but it would still be fun, and it can fill the same role.

If you beg XS she might redo your dragon lore.

Her githyanki re-vamp is top notch.

Though she did write elan on dragon rape. As in the girl raped the dragon.

A good while into the sub-divine tussling with his brothers, big scaly and angry realized when they all huffed away to their corners to square up for the next round, he kept doing the same thing. Hell, they all did. They left angry, they came back angry, fought, repeat. Didn't make him any more sensible though.

Pride stopped him from talkin' it out reasonably, but his pride had already been put low in one place. Craned his head over the mountains, looked low, and lo, there were humans. Humans and his abandoned race, even, if he squinted a bit.

They huddled for warmth, they shared one another, in cold winter and harsh desert. But scales for tail didn't have anything like that. Sure as hell wasn't counting the midgets, I mean some of 'em even thought to get to business with humans! But he figured if they can have it, so can he!

Makin' a wife didn't go so hot. The whole 'him but female' template he snorted out quickly had both getting fed up and her actually going proper insane. Quick hole a couple thousand or so miles deep and some crafty work later, no one really had to know about that mistake. The furious roaring and screaming when the moons were about right? Ghosts. The wind. You're going crazy.

So he settled on kids. Proper kids. Definitely not like him (though maybe a couple with his rugged good looks...) but dragon enough that they'd look up to him. Long-bodied noble dragons with whiskers that pulled the wind into strong gales from his tail, who stole crystals into storms and made beauty from them. From claws and fang came titanic serpents content to coil through earth and bare precious ores and gems to place true gleams in their hearts.

From horns and crest came those who looked most similar watching their peers from atop the mountains, their treasures as their own scales forged into shining treasures from bolts of lightning and magical care.

He'd never admit it, but he would've killed to had children of the sea. Stupid sea slitherer.

Slowly but surely, the numbers of his children grew, spreading across the world. As their model, his pride stained them, and they refused for the most part to consort with the lesser races. The sight of their prosperity tempered the big lumbering hill of scales, and in time he drew court with his would-be siblings.

His young spread wide and quickly, taking domains. Stories began to be told as they matured. Of the fearsome things that poured forth from maws, how their wings rippled the world's weave itself, and how their precious hoards were the very things that allowed the humans their first, and for a long time ONLY grasp of magic.

Hunt a dragon, and you'd be set for life. But ware the many winged, ware the thick winged and the heavy horned, for their magic was true and mighty. Ware the large bodied and sharp fanged, for they tore the land asunder recklessly and supped on misery. Ware those that dance in the sky with impunity, for their storms ruined cities and travelers, old and young alike for moons.

Tales too, were told of the dragon who grew potent enough to take his father's side as aide and knight. And softly, murmurs of his madness, and how he brutally tore peace from the world of men. The tale of the fall of Midgardsormr was one of many.

I vary my dragons by running with the idea that they slowly assimilate to the surrounding area over hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

>go into hibernation in a area with high bismuth saturation
>wake up 500 years later looking like pic related

I like dragons as much as any fa/tg/uy but I like to treat them as pets rather than over-intelligent creatures that are so powerful-please-nerf-gold-dragon.

No I like them better as pets and cattle. Powerful because they live very old and grow to be very strong, but pets nonetheless, that form a bond with their owner if they're nice and that can run away if treated badly.

In my fantasy setting, only the richest have dragons, because the eggs are pretty fucking expensive and buying a female dragon costs the equivalent of an entire fucking castle since they are so hard to catch alive (bigger and fiercer than males).

Usually males are tamed and used as parade decoration and way of transportation, while the rare owners of female dragons prefer to use them to breed. Usually, the rich merchants who start dragon-breeding face an uphill battle. (most of the egss are retrieved from wild dragons). Female dragons are fussy, just like big felines IRL, they choose their mates with very specific and often obscure criterias.

So the quest of a dragon merchant is to look for a male his dragon will like enough to breed with. When they finally find one the purchase goes "OK I'll take your full-grown male dragon and I'll give you one egg per hatching for the first ten." and then people agree because come on ten guaranteed dragon eggs how cool is that.