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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
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| Jun 25 2009, 9:08 PM EDT | Zephyru | 178 words added, 35 words deleted |
| Jun 13 2009, 8:02 PM EDT | freedragon10022 | 201 words added, 1 word deleted |
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The definition of Dragons:- A mythical beast usually represented as a huge, winged, fire-breathing reptile that is often warm-blooded. For centuries the dragon has been prominent in the folklore of many peoples; thus, its physical characteristics vary greatly and include combinations of numerous animals. The dragon has often been associated with evil. In many legends a dragon had the ability to wreak havoc upon a land and therefore had to be either propitiated by a human sacrifice, or killed; it was also often the guardian of a treasure or a maiden. 
The highest achievement of a hero in medieval legend was the slaying of a dragon, as in the story of St. George. King Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon (dragon's head), also killed a dragon. The giant red dragon of the Apocalypse gave rise to the use of the beast as symbolic of Satan in Christian art and literature. In ancient China the dragon was associated with fertility and prosperity. Many of the beliefs connected with the dragon are echoed in snake worship. Dragons deserve a category all their own because they are beasts found all over the world. But there are two distinct types of dragon: the dragon of the Western world and the dragon of the Eastern world. Western Dragons
| Native Americans believed in snake dragons, supernatural wisdom. |
These enormous, fire-breathing serpents have scaly green bodies and huge red wings. Greedy creatures, they hoard gold treasure in dens under the earth. Fierce and always hungry, a Western dragon will eat anything but especially likes weak, young, human flesh. Dragons live in caves, mountains, or lakes. They were particularly active in the Middle Ages, when brave knights challenged them to battle. Eastern Dragons Compared to Western dragons, these beasts are quite small. Their bodies are long, and they have two horns for ears. They have no wings, and their soft breath is said to form clouds. They do not roar; instead they make the sounds of beating gongs and jingling bells. Chinese dragons dine on sparrows. They live wherever there is water. They are kind and wise friends of human beings. The western and eastern dragons are some of the most referred to of the dragon species. Many trans-breed dragons have derived from these two types. In a few instances, some Dragons will take livestock from nearby farms. Many times the missing will be sheep.
Dragons: Real or Myth? Dragons are one of man's greatest achievements of fiction: right? WRONG. Dragons may have been real. Think about this: Many people believe dinosaurs didn't die out, they evolved. Some people even say that T-Rex evolved into chickens! What if in-between this evolution was a reptile bird? A flying lizard? A dragon?! But that would mean that humans were alive during an evolution: right? What if a handful of dinosaurs survived? Nessie: The Last Plesiosaur. Mokèlé-mbèmbé. Are all these dinosaur sightings ironic NO! Dinosaurs are among us! We must find them! Before they find us... No dragons are much too different from dinosaurs, some dragons who don't have wings use air ripples to fly, like lungs,and are more airowdinamicaerodynamics (So?) than most dragons and dinosaurs,for they glide in a air space without need to catch air with their wings.This is caused by their special scales in which they can catch air ripples inside,then release them.
Rather than thinking if they're real, we need to talk about how they would hide. Because , seriously, I don't think anyone will ever go into a cave and be like "Oh, I found a beautiful dragon hiding in a damp ugly cave, trying to hide from humans who try to pierce it with nasty little pellets, but guess what? It's now my friend." Be realistic. A real dragon would be living on some deserted island full of wild game, and with a huge natural deposit of magnetic ores (the only way an island would be able to hide itself from satellites) it would also need huge acreage in which to roam and fly.
The island would also have to be terribly isolated, otherwise people would have found it or, obviously, the dragon would have flown away in search of a better place.
Dragons: Thories,Theories, Ideas,Stuff, etc.
Before I properly start I want to apologise in advance if any of this of which I have writenwritten you find offensive (although I doubt it). -freedragon10022 Dragons there are many, and many are their forms. Dragons can be divided into many different categories, but every dragon HAS HIS OWN PERSONALITY much like humans, so I can't realyreally generalise and assure you 100% what they are like, but I can help.
Before I properly start let me just make a quick note on a Dragon's body. As you may or may not know Dragons in general do not "fit" exactly into the hierarchy of the biological classification method (Life,Kingdom, phylium,phylum, class, orders, families, genus, and species), thatsthat's because the system is incomplete. New species are discovered often and some times the herarchyhierarchy has to be updated to fit them in. Same goes for Dragons.
First of "DRAGONS" is a big term. A "True"/"Pure" Dragon is smart, REAL smart. We will call this dragons Main Dragons. There are dragons that are only as smart a child (human) of 7 years of age 10 at best, at this time we shall refer to as Branch Dragons. This terminology is in comparison to a tree, were the main body is the true part of the tree and the branches are not as. . .um. . .impresiveimpressive. There are also what we could call Sub-Dragons which are sub-species of dragons which are inferior to even Branch Dragons , that is to say that they are bearlybarely more than animals (that is to say can barlybarely think more than an animal, they are they still smarter than dogs, elephants, or dolphins but are not at the human level. They are only VERY distanltydistantly related to even branch dragons)
So firstly to most dragon means huge, gargantuan, gigantic, massive, etc. Well, guess what? They are . But not to the popular dramatic extent. Dragons are usually anywereanywhere from 1 1/2 feet tall to 26 feet tall (*Note: 1 foot =0.3048 meters, so anywereanywhere from 0.4572 meters to 7.9248 meters) when standing (depending on eage,age, type, and parentage (the dragons' parent(s)). Most dragons grow VERY quickly like most animals that are wild (no offence intended by comparing dragons to animals), and lead long lives (unless "ineventualities""in-eventualities" occur. Ex: knight kills the dragon. Although highly unlikely). Usually those that have the shortest life span and are the smallest still live more than 100 years. Some are even immortal.
Sub-dragons are usually small, anywereanywhere from 1 1/2 feet tall to 5, maybe 6 feet tall at most. Though they are considerably smaller than other dragons and about half of their breeds are wingless, they still are surprisingly fast and strong.
Branch dragons are usualyusually smaller, and less powerful than Main Dragons, they never reach more than 20 feet but are still formidable. Leaf dragons are usually small being from 6 1/2 to 13 feet tall, some don't have wings, but they are still strong, they can be worthy companions to, but above a regualarregular pet. Breath weapons are also variable like fire, acid, poison, ice, petrifingpetrifying gas, sleeping gas, lightning, corrosive liquids (some times even gas but rare), and so forth.
Main Dragons are absobloodylutly amazing. They have IntelligenseIntelligence that is at human level or above, and their strength (physically and magically) are stunning (and that's a huge understatement). Main Dragons have are usually the largest of the three categories ranging from 14 to 26 feet tall. However there a couple of breeds that are considered Main dragons that are smaller, one of them been the Fairy Dragon who is in between 3 to 6 1/2 feet tall. They are truly beautiful creatures.
Dragons can also use magic, and are VERY good at it usualy.usually. They also have amazingly strong scales that resist most physical atacks;attacks; these scales cover most of the creatures body, though they tend to soften and be smaller at the breast/chest and right below the jaw were the neck and head connect making the most vulurablevulnerable parts, and bigger and stronger at the head. The scales also contain some special magical properties. The scales are strong enough to withstand arrows, swords, hand guns, large guns, and even some cannon bullets/missiles. Dragon teeth and claws are amazingly sturdy, strong, and light, they are second only to diamond in strength and are more resistant than diamond (that is to say they can take more hits with out scaring or breaking). The claws are made of a material similar to that of our nails, but much more concentrated and fortified.
Dragons usually have attributes or specialties. So, as you are now aware of, dragons can use magic, and breath weapons. However some dragons are born with the ability to breath fire, others with poison or Ice or maybe shadows or maybe even sound. Dragons can controllcontrol Fire, Ice, Water, Lightning, Earth, Wind, Metal, Poison, wood, light, shadows, acid, and sound (to name a few). It all depends on the dragon of course. ImpresiveImpressive right? Well it gets better, they are not limited to just one power/attribute/speciality. Dragons can have many abilities and powers and a legion of magics. Be it that the Dragon attained the other powers through training or magic or sheer will power they can learn new abilities. A dragon that breaths fire naturally might not very easily use water but he can certainly learn to manipulated to a certain extent with enough practice and time.
Just remember the saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" does not apply to Dragons in general. After all they keep developing untilluntil the final stage of their life.
Dragon bones are one of the dragons' most amaizingamazing features, they are superbly light, and yet strong enough to hold a creature of several tons in weight. A sword made out of dragon bone was said to be a warriors dream, as it was stronger than all other swords of metal, much less heavy, able to cut through steel as if it was wood, resistant to heat and cold in extremes, resistant to magic, and even (in some cases) loyal to the owner, and had some magic of their own, which manifested itself in different ways to the owner of the sword. There were some rumors and leyendslegends that Excalibur was made of dragon bone.
Dragons also like to hoard treasure and know were everything is and how much its worth. Stealing even one grain of gold from a dragon is not recommended, since A) the dragon will notice B) the dragon will be VEEERRRRYYY irritated (if you are VERY,VERY,VERY LUCKY) and C) he will hunt you down to the ends of the earth if catches even a hint of your smell, breath, voice, or anything which can lead it towards you. Dragons have Amazing eye sight, sense of smell, superb hearing, excelentexcellent sencesense of taste and movement, and a Truly magnificent knack/gift to feel if magical items or spells/curses/charms/incantations or traps or trinkets are around (or underground!).
All dragons can swim (as far as I know anyways and I know a good lot about them), but not all can breathe under water;only some. They all can swim at very fast velocities, and those who can fly can also fly at amazingly fast velocities. Dragons are also amazingly flexible and agile in water, air, or on land, and very quick moving on all of them too.
I am guessing some of you wonder how can a Dragon, a creauturecreature of such large size fly or even glide on the air. Well even though I haven't had the pleasure to study to a length the body of a live specimen, I believe that they have (like birds) air sacks which not only make their body more suitable for flying but also gives them some natural buoyancy too. The wings do not end like many people believe in their shoulders, the membrane of the wings extends from the start of the wing to near the thigh. This allows them to have a larger area upon which the air can exert the force of lift. The bones are also superbly light and strong, and they have very powerful muscles that work the wings.
Lastly (because my fingers are rapidly getinggetting tired) I salute any who have met or will meet any dragons in their life time. And bow to any dragon who might read this. Any dragon person I salute also. I wish I could talk with a dragon once more, they are simply facinating.fascinating. TrullyTruly amazing creatures they are. Though if anyone reading this does come into contact with one I would suggest not getting on its bad side. Not even if you are a warlock, wizard, witch, or mighty warrior. There is a reason why until now defeating even a Leaf Dragon was considered a great deed, or the greatest act of strength and bravery for knights.
And as you may have (or not) noticed, the knights/person that survive a mortal encounter or a fight with a dragon (it matters not if Leaf, Branch, or Main Dragon) very,very,very rarely survives, and those who do survive was because A) they had a trick or two (or more) under their sleeve (usualy)(usually) B) they are usually fighting Leaf and Branch dragons, C) they catch the creature unaware or distracted, and D) there's usually more than one person involved helping the other. And many times they just survive because they got lucky and ran away, or convinced the creature to go away and go home telling tall tales of how they "killed a dragon". I've given you all the warning and help I can for now. Good luck.
DRAGONS - A FANTASY MADE REAL
With the help of stonepony83 I was able to locate this interesting program on Animal Planet. Sadly I cannot embed them here, however here are the links for each part:PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 PART 6 PART 7 PART 8 PART 9 PART 10
