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Saturday, April 05, 2014

D is for: Dragonlore (#AtoZchallenge)

On Termag, dragons fall into three broad categories.

Elemental Dragons

The rarest and most powerful of all dragons—perhaps of all living creatures. At one time, Elemental Dragons may have roamed wild; but historically, they can only be awakened by magic. As the name implies, Elemental Dragons are associated with one of the four sorcerous elements:
  • Earth: Cave Wyrm
  • Air: Cloud Dragon
  • Fire: Firedrake
  • Water: Ice Dragon
The binding spells, required to keep the awakened dragon under control, were lost (with a great deal more knowledge) during The Lost Years (see Age of Heroes). One who awakens such a dragon with pure motives may survive, but the usual result is fatal to everyone nearby.

Greater Dragons

Greater Dragons are extinct on Termag. While they could not breathe fire, they were highly intelligent and could speak human languages (if they cared to). However, they would not willingly work together or tolerate each other outside of mating season. Humans may not have set out to exterminate Greater Dragons; but hunting them (and their eggs) disrupted their ability to breed, and they died out.

Lesser Dragons

There are several species of Lesser Dragons still living on Termag. Like their larger cousins, they are intelligent, but do not speak human languages (although some believe they have an innate understanding of all speech). A superstition among many rural folk is that they house the souls of humans who died before their time.


And now, you know at least as much about dragons as most folk.

Next: E is for: Elements

9 comments:

  1. Ooo, dragon lore is always a fun read. Love it. :)

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  2. So Lesser Dragons are a lot like the family dog?

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  3. D...

    And then Earth dragons, Fire dragons, Great dragons... Why, you have the next three days in the bag!

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  4. Always love a post on dragons. And a story that has them.

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  5. Awesome description of your dragons. I'm a big fan of dragons as well and I like how you have them broken down by element. For some reason Cave Wyrm scares me the most!

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  6. Thanks, Stephanie!

    Cathy, they're a lot smarter than dogs, and (also) like cats, aren't too easy to train. The Desert Dwarf of Accidental Sorcerers was a Lesser Dragon; Bailar told the apprentices that they always have their own agenda, and are nobody's pet. ;-)

    John, if I hadn't written a bunch of others in advance, I might have gone that way!

    Thanks, Patricia. I think the sixth story (half-plotted) might feature some dragons…

    Thanks, Helen!

    Philip, the Cave Wyrm looks like a gigantic lamprey, or maybe the sand worms from Dune. Mik also considers them the most frightening, just because they look so alien.

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  7. Oooo dragons! I adore dragons. You describe them very well.

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  8. Interesting explanation of the elemental dragons. I wish I had a cool title like Dragonrider. :)

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