Dragons in my Writing

Here I am, back with another post. I don't know why, but I've been in a bloggy mood this month.

Anyways, I discovered yesterday that today is National Dragon's Appreciation day, which was began by Donita K. Paul, an author whose work I really need to read. And naturally, I have to take part and do something to appreciate dragons.

I could read about them (would be a good reason to finally finish reading Eregon, which has been sitting on my shelf for two years now), but you guys know me. I've got to take it to the next level. I have to write about them.

As Tolkien once said, a story isn't a story if there aren't dragons in it, so naturally I've included them in pretty much every world I've built, in some form or fashion. I have good dragons, I have evil dragons, and I have dragons that can go either way. I have intelligent dragons who can understand, even speak English, and I have dragons who are as dumb as they get.

Allow me to give you the guided tour.

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First of all, Everyone's favorite Bookania. I think most of you know that it's one of Robin's goals to someday fight a dragon. I'm sorry to disappoint, but unfortunately, to my knowledge, that isn't ever going to happen.

However, that doesn't mean that dragons aren't a huge part of this world. It's fairy tales, remember, and dragons are a huge part of many fairy tales. There will be good dragons and bad dragons, a main character is going to get a pet dragon that she'll ride everywhere. I'm not entirely sure yet if they're intelligent yet. I'm thinking that they are, but only once they've passed about 20 years old, or something like that. I have to work out details.

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I think everyone here is aware that the villainess of the first two books of the Rizkaland Legends is the Amber, also known as the Lady Dragon. (And if you didn't, now you do.)

She isn't naturally a dragon, but she possesses a powerful magic that gives her the ability to assume that form. 

However, in book 3, I'll introduce other dragons, natural dragons ... who are much, much worse than she is. I'll also get into how she was corrupted and given the power to assume a dragon's form.

In Rizkaland (and Lintoalintae, since that's the world where these dragons originated), Dragons are thoroughly intelligent. Those whose natural shape is a dragon can speak English quite perfectly. Amber can't, but since she can also take on a human form, she doesn't really need to.

And they're evil. Sorry, but from where I stand right now, I don't see Rizkaland ever getting any good dragons, unless they're escapees from some world other than Lintooalintae. That could happen, seeing as how Rizkaland is, as Laura puts it, a receiving world, but I currently don't have any appearances planned.

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Dragon's weren't a huge element in The Ankulen, unless you were talking to a certain redhead. However, her dragons are the dragons of my WIP Half-Hidden, so I'm going to just go ahead and talk about them.

These dragons are good. (Finally! Good dragons!) While it's true that they have a fallen version known as the Wyrmen (which don't have wings and often don't have legs), Dragons themselves were not corrupted by their world's fall. However, they still live in a fallen, death-stained world. While they don't die of age or disease, they can be slain, in which case their scales are burned away and they join the Hidden.

They're quite intelligent, but cannot speak the human tongue.

They've been terribly fun to world build. They are thoroughly intelligent, though they're naturally more violent than humans. (Not that they're blood-thirsty. That's the wyrmen) I've got all sorts of their culture figured out, from history, politics, family structure, even mating rituals.

Unfortunately, a lot of the world building that I've put into this world involves plot spoilers, so I'll just leave you with this tidbit - in Hidden form, their fire is for healing. If they get cut, even what should be a mortal wound, their blood will burst into flame, and within moments, they will be healed. I'm not sure what would happen if their limbs got severed, but I think their bones are iron hard and impossible to slice through.

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In Mikada, the sci-fi universe that my sister and I are working on together, we have the Madeoffs, which are dragon-like. They'll be introduced in Rise of the Daisy, which is the book where Mikada's main kingdom is formed.

V. is the one who'd done all of the plotting for them, but she's told me a few things about them.

I don't know if they're intelligent or not, but I do know that they're young are in the form of snakes, and that they don't breath air. I don't know what they breath, but they live in the vacuum of space. They're one of the main villains of the two series. Definitely evil.

I'm not sure how, but there's something about their scales that renders the creatures unreadable by any sort of radar. Because of this, their scales are used by the Mixers to coat their space vessels.

And that's about all I know about them. I know much more about the fairies, since they're what I created. Shall we continue on? Let see, what other worlds do I have that involve dragons ...

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In Dialcia, the world that Jack and I have created for the book we're coauthoring, Dragons are the main villains. (Dear me, evil dragons are quite the majority in my writing ...)

We've never actually worked with them, but we do know that King Ossian is friends with them, and it's believed that they were the ones to convince him to kill King Edson and provide him with the tools.

They're the sworn enemies of the Zovorians, the masked people of the book, and it's because Edson had a Zovordian mother that they wanted him dead.

I have gotten to work with the Zovordians, though. They have an interesting culture. They're human, and devout followers of El Shaddai, and they believe that people should be known for their deeds, not their name and appearance. As a result, they all wear masks, and they all go by a 'Z' name. Zara, Zirro, Zidia. They have true names, which don't start with z's, but they're only known by close friends and family.

Let's get back to dragons, now shall we?

Scanning down through my WIP list, I'm not finding many other books that have dragons as huge elements ... oh, wait! The New Division.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of their dragons. (Technically, I stole Dialcia's dragon from Half-Hidden's board).

They aren't intelligent, but they the Harshia revere them as their gods, and sacrifice livestock, sometimes even people to them. They themselves aren't the issue, since they're actually quite majestic (if a bit blood-thirsty) creatures. It's just the misplaced worship.

And there we go. Dragons in my writing. I have more worlds, that I know have dragons, but these are the important ones. I can't talk yet about the dragons I've planned for book two of my secret series (now those, and the wizards, have some interesting dynamics. They're intelligent and about half and half on the goodness scale. The villain's a dragon ... but the heroine rides one). Perhaps I'll have discovered more dragons by next year. Who knows? I really need to work on the good dragon quotia. 

Anyways, I'm off to work on book two of the Rizkaland legends, which has Dragon in the title.