Worldbuilding and Lore Discussion: Dragons

[jonthefox]

Something I'm curious about. In your game world, what is the context for Dragons? Specificially....

-What is their origin? Are Dragons immortal creatures, or at least pre-dating other sentient life? Or were they created somehow through magic? Or, did they evolve naturally just like other biological creatures?

-Are they evil, neutral, or good?

-For the very large powerful dragons, why do they stay within their caves and dens, and not go out and wreak havoc and destruction upon the world?

 

[bgillisp]

In mine, the dragons work in harmony with the humans, as long as you leave them alone too. Many races ride them for a fast mode of transport, and the dragons will comply for a nice juicy deer or two in return.

Though some do believe dragons eat humans, and I had one dragon address it this way: "Besides you aren't worth eating. You all got too little meat, and you fight back too much going down."

 

[Hermoni]

For my actual project, dragons are just all dead.
There some story about them, but nothing really sure like a legend.

I dont really like when dragons are alive and like gods or whatever.

 

[MushroomCake28]

In my world, there are 4 big species (with different sub-species inside each species):

1. Humans
2. Angels: from low tier to archangels, gods ,etc. Basically everything that comes from the above/heaven
3. Devils: includes demons, undeads, vampires, etc. Basically everything underworld/hell
4. Natural Beings: everything that is a magically being that comes from nature (so neither heaven or hell).

Inside each species there are sub-species, and inside each sub-species there are families. Dragons are one of the ultimate sub-species of the Natural Beings family. They are the most powerful/highest rank of all the sub-species in the Natural Beings species. They are big and extremely powerful (a full army of thousands of man wouldn't be able to defeat one dragon), and are also creatures with a lot of pride. However, they aren't wicked and won't attack humans unless they are attacked. Most dragons live on the tallest mountain of my world, and they aren't many of them.

 

[Zyphli]

My dragons are an ancient race of long lived beings with a close bond to the natural world. They do have a very limited reproduction. Even though she may live for 5000 years, each female will only lay a single egg in her lifetime. This has kept their numbers limited, and with the prolific breeding of other more aggressive races, most have taken to a life of seclusion.

They spend most of their lives hibernating in hidden places where they will be left alone. Younger dragons are more active, but ancient ones can slumber for a century between feedings.

They aren't "good" or "evil", they just have their own needs that don't always match up with the lesser races. The ancient dragon that eats a villages cattle and the farmer out with them isn't evil, he's just hungry. Things happen, but usually if you don't bother them, they wont bother you.

You also won't find many treasure hordes in my world. While one dragon that made a pact with a past Necromancer accumulated a horde of jewels and artifacts during that time, a dragon's lair is more likely to contain intricate carvings in stone or tree, or be a place of untouched natural beauty.

My world currently has one active Juvenile dragon that is amusing himself "playing" with the lesser beings by ruling their kingdom from the shadows. While his kingdom has prospered, he is also expanding it, which will soon lead to conflict with neighboring civilizations.

 

[Paladin-Cleric of Awesome]

In my game universe the dragons were supposidly all killed off by heroes weiding the Storm Weapons, thus ending the firestorm that had taken over the world when the dragons went mad, burning everything they could. However some dragons, who had not gone mad like the others went to ground in volcanos, others used their magic to take on humanoid form, interbreeding with various races of my gameworld and creating the Cattai, or Dragonblood, who have humanoid form, but dragonlike features.

Because of that there are very few dragons in my gameworld, and it is very unlikely that any adventurer would find them unless they stumbled apon them, or the dragon was infected by the madness and reveals itself. Tthe Cattai on the other hand are quite plentiful, and split into three groups, Traditional (those most like the dragons of old, very clan orintated and very concious of bloodlines), Urbane (those more like the humanoids, who intermarry with other races more frequently and live among them) and the Cannibals (those who are infected by the madness of their predessors, not as massively destructive, but infinately more twisted thanks to the humanoid influence). And also, one of the Gods that is worshiped in the gameworld is Oblivion, the Dragon of the Abyss.

Not sure what that all says about my gameworld, but I do like the history of it anyway. lol.

 

[TWings]

-What is their origin? Are Dragons immortal creatures, or at least pre-dating other sentient life? Or were they created somehow through magic? Or, did they evolve naturally just like other biological creatures?

In my game they are part of the 8 main sentient races populating the world. They evolved naturally as the others and don't predate them. Since they can live very long, some of them are obviously very ancient, but there are 3 other races with a similar long life span.

-Are they evil, neutral, or good?

It depends from who's point of view. Although they're neutral from their own perspective.

-For the very large powerful dragons, why do they stay within their caves and dens, and not go out and wreak havoc and destruction upon the world?

They don't live in caves (not anymore), and as a neutral race, they tend to stay away from the others. They also are more scholars than warriors.

 

[flynnmichael81]

There are so many creative ideas here. I've only ever use dragons as enemies but it is impressive to see the depth of imagination and the variety of different uses to which people ahve put the mighty beasts!

 

[Tai_MT]

I'm bored, so I'll bite.

Something I'm curious about. In your game world, what is the context for Dragons? Specificially....

They no longer exist. If they ever existed at all. A passing memory. Sort of. Maybe. Who knows?

-What is their origin?

Hard to elaborate on that without spoiling a lot of my game. But, let's say that they exist for the same reason any other monster exists. The same reason magic exists. The island the game takes place on. Do they exist outside of the island? The people who live there can no longer remember. They had words for Dragons before they were shipwrecked on the island, but nobody knows for sure if they ever existed outside of the island.

They know for sure Magic never existed anywhere else in the world, as it's relatively recent even on the island. They know for sure many of the monsters that exist on the island didn't exist anywhere else, as records indicate that many of them are entirely new and didn't even have legends associated with them (like sentient slime puddles!). Diary entries from the first people shipwrecked essentially list monsters that they named or ran across that they'd never seen before. Some old legends from before the island talk of creatures like Elves and Dragons and Chimera. But, were they ever real outside of the island?

Who knows? Hard to say.

Are Dragons immortal creatures, or at least pre-dating other sentient life?

Nope. Very much not immortal. In fact, by the time the game takes place, the Legends of the island state that they'd been hunted to extinction. That is... if they ever existed at all and weren't mere tails of fancy and derring-do. Their legends predate the Island. Do the creatures themselves predate humanity? Who knows?

Or were they created somehow through magic?

It's hard to explain. From a narrative perspective, nobody knows where they came from. From a "behind the scenes" perspective... They existed before Magic did. Though, they were created by the same thing Magic is being created by. Along with... lots of other things...

Or, did they evolve naturally just like other biological creatures?

None of the creatures of The Island were evolved. Several aren't even biological in nature. They just... exist.

-Are they evil, neutral, or good?

They're just animals. Just like any other creature. They hoard shiny things 'cause the shimmer attracts their eyes and helps them also attract mates. Sort of like those birds that just collect blue things to attract a mate. Dragons just collect anything that shines. They eat when hungry, sleep when tired, and defend themselves if adventurers come into their dens.

Dragons also notably put their shiny stuff at the entrance to their caves. Because... well... can't attract mates if they can't see it.

-For the very large powerful dragons, why do they stay within their caves and dens, and not go out and wreak havoc and destruction upon the world?

They don't consider it "wreaking havoc". They just go out and eat smaller animals when hungry. They don't really burn things down or kill people if they can avoid doing so. Claws, Breath, and Tail are used primarily in self-defense. Though, there have been recorded cases of "mad dragons" that just went crazy and attacked anyone and everyone. They lack the sense to stay alive very long, however. They're more akin to animals who have gotten rabies.

As for why they stay in their dens... Well, it's safe in there. It's also a good place to raise a family, where other predators might fear to tread. If they perched atop a mountain or castle, some birds or other animals might try to eat their babies or their eggs.

 

[Eschaton]

Dragons are a metaphor for billionaires.

 

[somenick]

Im making mostly a scifi space game with many planets. There are a few dragons somewhere, considered mostly an alien species. The smaller ones actually have high intellect, meaning they have some sort of civilization (optional location ingame, hidden away).

 

[Wavelength]

In How Badly (the only game of mine that includes Dragons), Dragons are simply a type of powerful monster. Monsters, in turn, are creatures that have a significant amount of malicious energies in them (separating them from regular animals, etc.) - so I guess they'd be considered vaguely 'evil'. These dragons don't stay in their dens (they go out and wreak a bit of havoc, especially in the wild), but they also don't tend to grow so large or powerful that they can terrorize entire towns - humans' magic and (military) technology can kill a dragon pretty easily in How Badly's human-dominated world.

Probably the best use of Dragons I've ever seen in gaming was @Shaz's The Dragons Among Us. I believe this game still hasn't been released publicly, so I'll leave it to Shaz whether she wants to spill any of the worldbuilding here, but I thought the whole setup, and the way it was presented throughout the game, was very cool.

Finally, since @Eschaton's comment had me (irrationally) in stitches of laughter, let's try completing the metaphor by rewriting the original post:

Something I'm curious about. In your game world, what is the context for Billionaires? Specificially....

-What is their origin? Are Billionaires immortal creatures, or at least pre-dating other sentient life? Or were Billionaires created somehow through magic? Or, did they evolve naturally just like other biological creatures?

-Are Billionaires evil, neutral, or good?

-For the very large powerful Billionaires, why do they stay within their caves and dens, and not go out and wreak havoc and destruction upon the world?

 

[Shaz]

Probably the best use of Dragons I've ever seen in gaming was @Shaz's The Dragons Among Us. I believe this game still hasn't been released publicly, so I'll leave it to Shaz whether she wants to spill any of the worldbuilding here, but I thought the whole setup, and the way it was presented throughout the game, was very cool.

Aww, thank you. That's very encouraging to hear! All credit goes to my amazing writer, and none to me. So I would be making some assumptions here with my answers.

-What is their origin? Are Dragons immortal creatures, or at least pre-dating other sentient life? Or were they created somehow through magic? Or, did they evolve naturally just like other biological creatures?
They are natural creatures, not immortal, but are ancient and very long lived.

-Are they evil, neutral, or good?
It depends on who you are and what you want. This question cannot be answered by choosing one of those words, and to answer it more fully would give away a lot of what the player should discover on his/her own (as in my signature ... who really is the enemy?)

-For the very large powerful dragons, why do they stay within their caves and dens, and not go out and wreak havoc and destruction upon the world?
They don't really do either, but they like to keep to themselves unless they have a reason to do otherwise.

 

[ave36]

In Legend of Terra Firma, dragons are just big monsters, occasionally bosses, with useful blue magic to learn. In lore, they, along with all other monsters, were made by the Dark Gods.

 

[Mystic_Enigma]

-What is their origin? Are Dragons immortal creatures, or at least pre-dating other sentient life? Or were they created somehow through magic? Or, did they evolve naturally just like other biological creatures?
In my game, Dragons are their very own species, classifying mostly as reptiles but are bipedal. They vary in size and color, and don't always bear scales. Sometimes they will have fur, feathers, or foam-like hides. Some specimens possess naturally developed pocket or pouches, which they have a habit of designing themselves. They are just fine with eating fruit, or gem rocks, if the former's not available. Oh, and they are better at channeling their natural energy better than others, so they are usually pretty strong.

-Are they evil, neutral, or good?
They're inherently good-natured, but their temperament can change depending on who they are. Like anyone else they may pull some not-so-good deeds, but none are by any means "evil".

-For the very large powerful dragons, why do they stay within their caves and dens, and not go out and wreak havoc and destruction upon the world?
Caves are more like hangouts and hiding spots for them rather than homes. They will usually have a house or a big hideout they call their own.
As for wreaking havoc, not gonna happen! It seriously just isn't in them to do that. If they had a problem, they'll take it out on whoever or whatever is causing it, rather than the whole world!