Our Dragons Are Different/Literature: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* With the amount of genetic engineering thrown around in ''[[Duumvirate]]'', it was inevitable that someone made a dragon with it. Fire breath, six legs (two of which end in hands), and they have wings in childhood but lose them as they grow up.

* [[Tamora Pierce]]'s [[Tortall Universe|dragons]] live in their own realm (imaginatively named [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Dragonland]]), are essentially immortal, can [[Giant Flyer|fly]], and are both magical and absurdly intelligent. Interestingly, they don't have a huge antipathy towards humans unless provoked - they more or less consider the puny humans to be below their notice. In one book elders dragons are explicitly stated as being significantly stronger than most gods.

* No actual dragons have yet appeared in [[Robert Jordan]]'s ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' -- "the Dragon (Reborn)" is a title used by [[The Chosen One]]s. However, a dragon appears on his primary banner, and the name must have come from ''somewhere''. (At one point Rand's previous incarnation/the insane voice in his head snarls that his enemies will learn what it means to "rouse the Dragon", which of course is an old proverb almost everywhere.) Given the cyclical nature of his world, the whole concept of "dragons" might even be a [[Stable Time Loop]] situation in which mythological dragons derive from the Dragon's behavior and his banner.

** There are also the raken and to'raken. Native to the continent of Seanchan, raken and to'raken are flying lizards. Raken are ridden by one or two people, generally of small stature, while to'raken are large enough to carry at least half a dozen people and probably more. However, there are no signs of intelligence greater than a horse or any kind of breath weapon. To the main characters the raken and to'raken are generally very bizarre, alien monsters, so we never get details on appearance and they are never associated with [[The Chosen One|The Dragon]].

** There's also another {{spoiler|very antagonistic}} dragon who has a half ''[[Fantasy Kitchen Sink|kitsune]]'' daughter {{spoiler|who becomes Tannim's SO}}.

* Another [[Mercedes Lackey]] example is the [[Dragon Jousters]] quartet, which is set in something like [[Ancient Egypt]]. These dragons come in two Western-style types. One is the crocodilian "swamp dragon" which likes water, the other is the more brightly colored, larger "desert dragon". They're established to be as smart as a bright dog (and able to [[Evil-Detecting Dog|sense evil]]), can't breathe fire, and they imprint. Dragons taken from the wild as fledglings are forcibly trained to accept riders who treat them like flying chariots and have to be drugged; dragons raised from the egg are tame and fussed over by the ones who raise them. Riders mostly use them for patrols in which they make the enemy cautious and "joust" against enemy riders, knocking them out of the saddle to fall to their deaths. It's a major plot point that tame dragons can be trained to catch a falling man, and that another use is to pick out a human, snatch him up into the sky, and drop him.

** Dragons and humans are strongly implied to be descended from the same original species. Also, dragons naturally speak the world's original language, the True Speech, which is significant because in [[Earthsea]], [[Language of Magic|magic is in words]] [[I Know Your True Name|and names]]. Humans have to learn it, and cannot lie in it, while dragons can. There's also the existence of {{spoiler|dragon-people such as Tehanu and Irian}}, though how exactly that whole thing works is never fully explained.

* Elizabeth A. Lynn's ''[[Dragon's Winter|Dragons Winter]]'' and ''Dragon's Treasure'' features were-dragons who are born human (mostly) and ascend into their powers as adults with the aid of a personal talisman. They can't transform without the talisman, but ''can'' summon fire. They're rare nowadays, and considered lords over the other [[Voluntary Shapeshifter|shapeshifters]]. They also tend towards violent, short lives with a hint of madness in their veins.

* Dragons in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' are mostly stereotypical Western dragons, although it is specified that they are a [[One-Gender Race]] that reproduce by parthenogenesis and strengthen magic just by existing (or at least, Fire and Blood Magic; the magic of the Others and the Old Gods were shown to be operating fine before the dragons' rebirth). It remains to be seen just how intelligent they become. In addition, George R. R. Martin, has [[Word of God|specified that they have only four limbs]]; that is, the forelegs are part of the wings.

** Martin's short story "The Ice Dragon" contains a very early depiction of an ice dragon that breathes frost, possibly the first to appear [[Trope Overdosed|outside of]] ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''.

* James Maxley's "Bitterwood" represents an combination of traditional and quite different draconic designs. While the books have traditional western-style dragons as the ruling sun dragons, there is also the agile, wyvern-like sky dragons, and the anthropomorphic turtle-like earth dragons. These are implied to be {{spoiler|an set of geneticly engineered game-races, which eventually out-hunted humanity over most the world, driving humans into a slave-caste}}

* Juliet E. Mckenna's ''[[The Aldabreshin Compass]]'' novels feature western style dragons that are a [[Godzilla]] level threat. Even one can devastate a small nation. They are tied to one of the four classic elements (Earth, Wind, Water or Fire) and while they do hoard the gem associated with that element, it is only so they can meld enough gems into a magic egg. True dragons have such a gem for their heart, illusory dragons summoned by only the most powerful wizards (or at least only by those who get page time) can become real and self aware if they rip out a true dragon's heart and eat it, [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|remind you of anything?]]. An easy way to tell if there is a true dragon around is to look at the nearest wizard, if they exploded due to their powers going haywire, [[Oh Crap|it's a real dragon]].

* Dennis L. McKiernan's ''[[Mithgar]]'' series has two types of dragons: the bad kind that breathe gas and burn up in sunlight, and the not-so-bad kind that's still unpleasant but not downright evil. They sleep for half-millennia and make a big mess whenever they wake up. And they ''breed with krakens''.

** The wild dragons are intelligent, but have no civilization. However, a magical contract exists between the dragons, the elves and the humans. The fortunes of all three races are tied together. Also, some dragon eggs are enchanted so that they only hatch when they contact the person who they will [[Mental Fusion|bond with]]. A bonded dragon becomes gentler and more civilized, even as the rider becomes more fierce. (Not to mention becoming [[Super Strength|super-strong]], [[The Call Twinks You|magically powerful]] and [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|immortal]]. Woot!)

* The [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|red dragons]] of Meredith Ann Pierce's ''[[Firebringer Trilogy]]'' are wingless, have jewel-encrusted hides, live deep beneath a volcanic mountain range, and spend most of their (very long) lives asleep and {{spoiler|watching the goings-on of the world through their dreams, as the main character discovers to his dismay in the third book.}} The queen and her mate (the only black dragon) are the only dragons to have wings, and a queen loses hers after her mating flight while her erstwhile consort flies off somewhere unknown, though the queen will continue to produce eggs from that one mating for the rest of her life. A male is only born every thousand years, and it's only a queen and her consort who breed; thus, all dragons are closely related sisters (or aunts and nieces depending on the generation(s) living) and [[Brother-Sister Incest|a queen's consort is always her brother.]]

* Dragons in Michael Reaves' ''The Shattered World'' are of the Western sort, and apparently not sentient. They're also being hunted to extinction for their hides and bones, which are the only known materials from which dragonships, enchanted vessels used to sail between the fragments of [[Shattered World|the broken planet]], can be crafted.

* Mike Resnick's ''[[Dragon America]]'' is an [[Alternate History]] in which North America, for some reason, is inhabited by many varieties of dragons, which died out long ago in the rest of the world. Some of them seem to be merely surviving dinosaurs ... but there '''are''' firebreathers, too. This comes in handy when George Washington sends Daniel Boone to learn from the Native Americans how to control dragons to help fight the Redcoats.

** Properly only the winged dragons are called dragons in the series. The non-flying ones are referred to as Wyverns.

** Another note is that 'The Wild Purple-Green', during one particularly strenuous battle {{spoiler|after he joins up with Basil's unit}} wishes he had the fiery breath of his ancestors. Whether that is fact or just a dragon legend is never elaborated on.

** On the other hand, [[J. K. Rowling]] is supposedly a fan of Graeco-Roman mythology, and basilisks as described by Pliny are so poisonous that when a man on horseback once killed one with a spear, the poison traveled up the spear, killing the rider and the horse as well.

* The dragons in Alan F. Troop's ''Delasangre'' series are arrogant, amoral, long-lived [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshifters]] who are [[Mary Sue|just too awesome to take seriously]].

* [[Andre Norton]] and [[Mercedes Lackey]] teamed up to write ''[[The Halfblood Chronicles]]'', in which a half-elven girl is raised by a foster family made up of dragons. Together with her Dragon foster brother, the heroine fights for freedom and subverts almost every worn-out fantasy trope you can think of. The dragons are from another world, are evidently mammalian, have electricity-based powers and poisonous talons, and are supremely talented [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|Shapeshifters]]. Quite a few of them also seem to have the [[Xanatos Roulette]] power...

* In 'Dragonworld' by Byron Preiss and Michael Reaves, there are two types of dragons—the larger, four-legs-and-two-wings dragons, extremely long lived, intelligent, magical and firebreathing, and the smaller, less intelligent, two-legged colddrakes. {{spoiler|Apparently they can interbreed, though such a thing is Strictly Forbidden.}}

* In the world of [[The Moomins]], dragons are almost extinct. In one short story, Moomintroll finds and captures a tiny dragon. Aside from its size and having six legs, it's pretty standard Western dragon, with animal intelligence. Moomintroll absolutely falls in love with the perfectly beautiful little creature, but it's indifferent and foul-tempered towards him, and anyone else except for the quite uninterested Snufkin, whom it adores.