Maegwyn
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Why We Like Fiery, Bad-Tempered Killing Machines
By Elnaith
Dragons - you might have noticed 'em around here and there. You know, in just about every fantasy game you play, or book you read; sometimes even in science fiction books. Basically, you find them rather a lot, and you might wonder, "Why?" Because, sure, they are decent creatures but one can't vary much with them, now, don't you think? Generally they are grumpy lizards, prone to burning you, hoarding treasure and stealing some young noblewomen. Now, that's not leaving many options for one to go to when writing a story or script. (The smart ones of you have now figured out I'm going to disprove this notion, otherwise there wouldn't be much article left to write. And they'd be right.)
Historically, Dragons are already kind of diverse - and I'm not talking the AQ kind of diverse, consisting of a different paint-job and a different sort of bad breath. No, I'm talking about the basic characteristics, whether the dragon was benevolent or evil, protected or defended (From a human standpoint that is ... well, at least from the viewpoint of the people writing the story down.), had 4 legs or less, ate humans or cattle, etc. When just looking at European history one sees many variations of a big lizard prone to breathing fire or venom, and generally very good at killing things.
One of the more classic examples, and closest to the modern portrayal of a dragon, is probably derived from the French legends: 2 big hind legs, and 2 talon like front legs, small (well, when compared to the rest of the dragon), but nevertheless used to stabilize himself and for cutting people down. Generally evil, although he can be benevolent when needed, like when it's to his own benefit. Proud and - here comes something weird - noble. A noble evil creature, as in, "Yes, he burned my house down, killed my children and ate all my cattle, but at least he was polite about it." The 'noble' part probably came from some legends portraying the dragons as wise and intelligent creatures, who had the slightly negative tendency to burn everything around them. And - well, they liked gold; a creature which knew the worth of gold couldn't not be a 'gentleman,' right?
Examples of benevolent dragons can be found in other European mythologies. For example Slovenia's capital, Ljubljana (Yes, that's really the name; don't worry, Slovenians themselves can't agree how the name came to be.) has a protector dragon, currently residing in the Ljubljana coat of arms. Ironically enough, it's honouring a dragon killed by Jason, (Y'know, Golden Fleece, Argonauts) so calling it 'protection' is all fine, as long as the dragon is dead first. Another example is found in Bulgarian and Serbian folklore, where the dragons are actually defending people from the Demon Ala. Other dragons just hunt cattle, and sometimes humans, but are evil in the same way a shark killing a human is evil: sure, they do it, but hey - they just want food.
Another distinguishing feature dragons have is the number of legs/paws, which can be 0,2 or 4. (And on highly specialized occasions, more than 4.) A dragon with 2 of them is generally called a wyvern, although they are allowed to have eagle-like claws on the tips of their wings. There are dragons who look a lot like snakes, who have no paws; they sometimes have wings, but mostly can just spew fire/venom and look at you in a menacing way. The four-taloned ones are the ones we are most familiar with in the AE games.
Of course, there are also the Oriental dragons. Generally they are less bulky and more snake-like than European dragons, and often benevolent. Some cultures see them more as an embodiment of forces of nature than as creatures per se. The most famous of these would be the Chinese dragon, which some of you might see bobbing over the street, celebrating New Years quite late indeed (from the view of other cultures). The Chinese Dragon has a number of uses, most prominently not being the a national symbol. Sure, the dragon is used as a symbol in China, but mostly to depict the Imperial Family, and in myths they are the ones controlling the water. But the national emblem is generally thought to be the Giant Panda, who surprisingly doesn't have the tendency to breathe fire (Although I could see one lying on a hoard of gold, it being quite lazy sometimes). It is however part of the Chinese ethnic identity.
Now that you've seen some examples of diversity (There are of course a lot more, but hey - I haven't got all the time in the world like some of the dragons, them being immortal and all.) you might wonder how it all came to be. Well, no one really knows, considering it all happened long ago, and people didn't write down stuff as much as we do, but the general guess is that the different kind of dragons are co-evolved, meaning that there isn't one 'proto-dragon' from whom all other ones are derived. The most likely explanation is that dragons symbolise the human fear of snakes, claws, big things, huge teeth and dangerous things that could fly with wildfire and venom. Add this to the fact that after these monsters were thought up, huge lizardlike bones were found in the ground (which of course were dinosaurs), and you have yourself a new fearsome creature.
All this is exactly why the dragon is such a successful creature: it embodies fear, power and diversity, and leaves writers enough liberty to give it some other characteristics. Basically the dragon is one of man's best inventions.
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