NationStates Jolt Archive

Well, Dragons are a mighty diverse mythical species. They come in all sorts of flavors, sizes, shapes, and intelligences. There is a thread right now asking for your favorite fantasy/D&D teacher, and this is a thread asking for your favorite breed of Dragon.


I am going to do my best to put out all of the basic breeds of dragons, and if I miss any, I'm sorry. Here's my main list:

Classical Western Dragon: Big, generally fire breathing, Wings. The type most of you are familiar with. They can be mindless beasts or extremely intelligence, and they almost always are really rich bastards.

Classical Chinese Dragon: Big, long, and generally tied to events in an area they are fond of. They come in all colors, and represent the physical elements, elements, and states of society. It is best to respect them, for they are extremely powerful beings.

Drakes: Bite-sized versions of the classical western dragon. They have all the same attributes, and they are often major annoyances to everyone around them, if untrained. If trained, they are often the greatest pets a mage ever had.

Guyvers/Wurms: Huge. No legs, no wings, but still HUGE. They often like to hang out in sewers and kidnap princesses. They are usually just mindless, mostrous, and do bad things.

Amphitere: Most often hamongous, and only have wings, usually feathered, not bat-like. They are the only American dragon that I know of, but, here's a famous one that I bet most of you know... Quetzalcoatl! Yay for Mexican gods!

Draconian: Humanoid dragons, iksars, lizard-men, what have you. Most often seen as lizard men, with a tendancy to pretty much be pirates, though the mythology of them is not as expansive as it is for other dragon breeds.

Hydra: What really needs to be said to describe a hydra?

Komodo: Same deal as Hydra, only real. This section will also include all real lizards and dinosaurs and such.

Sea Serpent: Sea dwelling serpentine creatures, notorious for completely demolishing boats on the high seas. Similar to guyvers in all most every aspect, except, of course, location.


(There are 10 spots on the poll, and the first 9 are used up by the above breeds. If you love any different breeds, you will have to choose other and explain, sorry! And if you disagree with any of my given mythology of any dragon breeds, I'm sorry. It was only to the best of my knowledge. If you want to add or change anything there, also ask)

(Oh, and my favorite is the Draconian)

Sea-dwelling. Never heard of 'em before. That's cool..

I'm with sea serpent. Just cuase they seem so much more real than the others. I like the old maps that show sea sepents in the great waters.

I'm with sea serpent. Just cuase they seem so much more real than the others. I like the old maps that show sea sepents in the great waters.


Ah, yes. HERE BE DRAGONS!

I'm with sea serpent. Just cuase they seem so much more real than the others. I like the old maps that show sea sepents in the great waters.

Yeah.. my parents have this OLD map from Olde England.. with sea serpents all over, ships in the water, and the clouds are personified.. blowing wind down onto the ships. Sea Serpents rock. :D

I'm going with drakes. I get this picture of training one to jump on the faces of my heighthist oppressors, and it gives me this warm giggly feeling.

Miniature Dragons -- Terry Pratchet

I voted for the draconians. The other varieties are all very cool, but none have quite the implications as a group of intelligent humanoid species looking you right in the face. Major kobold lover, right here.

Damn, I never really though about my favourite dragon and that's half my name........proabably the Classical Chinese Dragon, but I'm not to sure on that.

My favourite breed of dragon is Godzilla.

kinda weird that every culture on every continent has crated a dragon that shares certain elements (reptile, big eyes, some kind of beard, horns, wings, etc.) IIRC, they're even found in polynesia, which doesn't even have snakes.

anyway, I prefer eastern dragons..traditional Japanese and Chinese are awesome.

kinda weird that every culture on every continent has crated a dragon that shares certain elements (reptile, big eyes, some kind of beard, horns, wings, etc.) IIRC, they're even found in polynesia, which doesn't even have snakes.

Not really. Dinosaur fossils can be found all over the world, and no doubt most peoples carried tales of crocodiles and gigantic snakes out of Africa and India. Humans have an instinctive fear of snakes and other reptiles that's stayed with us since we were tree-swinking monkeys that were often preyed upon by snakes; it's not so surprising that everyone has tales of really big, scary lizards and snakes.

Not really. Dinosaur fossils can be found all over the world, and no doubt most peoples carried tales of crocodiles and gigantic snakes out of Africa and India. Humans have an instinctive fear of snakes and other reptiles that's stayed with us since we were tree-swinking monkeys that were often preyed upon by snakes; it's not so surprising that everyone has tales of really big, scary lizards and snakes.
not so much the fact that they take a big scary lizard, but more the eyes being very similar, wings, horns, etc. Also, the islands that had them strike me as the weird places, as many are nowhere near reptiles.

not so much the fact that they take a big scary lizard, but more the eyes being very similar, wings, horns, etc. Also, the islands that had them strike me as the weird places, as many are nowhere near reptiles.

Big scary lizards are one thing; big scary lizards that can fly and have horns are quite another; those are universal human fears (eagles used to pick our ancestors out of trees, too). The islanders with those myths have two sources of inspiration: sea snakes or other reptiles that show up once in a while (say, a croc corpse that washes up on shore), and tales they brought with them when they came to their island. The Pacific islanders all came from some older set of islands, remember, and some of those islands are the most snake-infested in the world.

komodos, i think the real dragons get short shift from alot of people. what more do you want out of a real dragon in the real world than better than 4 meters of man eating poison jawed carnage living on as close to kong island as you are ever gonna get.

Big scary lizards are one thing; big scary lizards that can fly and have horns are quite another; those are universal human fears (eagles used to pick our ancestors out of trees, too). The islanders with those myths have two sources of inspiration: sea snakes or other reptiles that show up once in a while (say, a croc corpse that washes up on shore), and tales they brought with them when they came to their island. The Pacific islanders all came from some older set of islands, remember, and some of those islands are the most snake-infested in the world.
hmm...hadn't considered sea snakes. I would assume that they were left over from their previous cultures before they moved, but even then, it is pretty remarkable that it hardly changed (demons and beasts tend to look like local fauna). Granted, a giant scaled beast is pretty damn creepy.

Classical western style for me. :) I love the image of a huge, super-intelligent, nearly invincible scaly being who enjoys sleeping even more than I do... and only leaves when their stomachs grumble and they need to eat a few herd of cattle. :P

Classical Western.


Nothin cooler than a big honkin' red dragon, all shiny and nearly metallic looking, imposing doom and destruction about the countryside...becuase its Tuesday.

Also partial to Trogdor The Burninator.

Classical Western.


Nothin cooler than a big honkin' red dragon, all shiny and nearly metallic looking, imposing doom and destruction about the countryside...becuase its Tuesday.

Also partial to Trogdor The Burninator.
damn simple but addictive flash games... i'll never get that half hour of my life back!!!! its gone, squandered squishing peasants.

What about Welsh dragons? They're a type, no?

While I do like the Western Dragons.... I've been partial to three types.

Psudo Dragon (D&D)
Fire Lizard (Anne McCaffery's DragonRiders of Pern series Harpercraft trilogy)
and a short story about a dragon who found the wonder and magics of books. because of that, he forsaken the hoarding of gold and hunting.... causing him to shrink to the size of paperback book. the story ends with him living in a library/bookstore and he spends his nights reading and defending the store from theives and vandals.

(There are 10 spots on the poll, and the first 9 are used up by the above breeds. If you love any different breeds, you will have to choose other and explain, sorry! And if you disagree with any of my given mythology of any dragon breeds, I'm sorry. It was only to the best of my knowledge. If you want to add or change anything there, also ask)

(Oh, and my favorite is the Draconian)

I like the dragons in the Discworld. Kinda like Drakes but bigger. They have a tendency to build up to much methane inside 'em and then :eek: BOOOOOOOOM !!!:D

One of them even managed to turn himself into a super-sonic powered beastie!!! Whohoo!

i'd have to go for the drakes, because there's everything you'd ever want in a dragon: the firebreathing, the flying etc, but in a smaller and more manageable package than all of the others. Who could say it wouldn't be cool to have a little drake perched upon your shoulder, looking menacingly at everyone, with you looking like a falconer or something

Also who's do say that size is preportional to intelligence, remember that some of the smallest disnosaurs were some of the smartest, so a smart, small dragon is just as likely as a smart big one.

I like the dragons in the Discworld. Kinda like Drakes but bigger. They have a tendency to build up to much methane inside 'em and then :eek: BOOOOOOOOM !!!:D

One of them even managed to turn himself into a super-sonic powered beastie!!! Whohoo!
"This is Lord Mountjoy Quickfang Winterforth IV, the hottest dragon in the city. It could burn your head clean off."

I like the Draconian. All the good parts of dragons, but in a practical medium-sized two-legged package. I like the classic western dragon a lot, too, but they often tend to be rather arrogant and reclusive.

Classical Western Dragons like in the film 'Dragon Heart'

What? no robot dragons?

www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3061 :D

I was gonna go for the little dragons, but you said the magic word, PIRATES!

so draconians it is

My favourite is the eastern dragon! :D

What about Welsh dragons? They're a type, no?

Odd looking Dragons. They look like scaley dogs.

I'm gonna randomly pick sea serpants. I just like the whole lurking in the depths vibe they have, as well as the fact that depended on who's designing it, they can be incredibly beautiful and graceful looking. Also, I just like the ocean.

I was gonna go for the little dragons, but you said the magic word, PIRATES!

so draconians it is
so what's wrong with a pirate with a little dragon on their shoulder instead of a parrot?

so what's wrong with a pirate with a little dragon on their shoulder instead of a parrot?

oooohhhh!!!!!:D

i dont have a favourite, they all taste like chicken.

My favourite breed of dragon is Godzilla.


http://www.badmovies.org/movies/monsterzero/monsterzerovid1-ic.jpg
godzilla owns

Smaug is the best... and he's a western type Tolkein dragon. He is followed by Anne McCaffrey's Pern dragons and firelizards which are semi-western dragons, but friendly to humans.

I was wondering wether to include the Pernese Dragons and Fire Lizards, but I figured that they counted well enough under classical western.

http://www.badmovies.org/movies/monsterzero/monsterzerovid1-ic.jpg
godzilla owns
I just watched Godzilla: Final War last night. Actually, I watched that and Doom. Minute-for-minute, Godzilla delivered more solid entertainment than the Rock and a buncha creepy 24-chromosone beasties.

What particularly rocked was when Godzilla squares off against, and kicks the ass of, an unnamed monster who just happens to look identical to the unsuccessful American version of Godzilla from a few years back.

Raaaaaawwwwr!!

I was wondering wether to include the Pernese Dragons and Fire Lizards, but I figured that they counted well enough under classical western.
except the Perneses dragons are genetically altered Fire Lizards. and they need to artificially induce the flaming effect by chewing on firestones.

but what the hey... I love those little bundles of Emotions. wouldn't mind a fair or two... :D