Dragons

Dragons are mythical winged creatures that fly in the sky. They are included in many legends and are said to breathe fire. Some have wings while others might be more serpentine, as Eastern dragons are.

## Commonly known types of dragons

### Eastern Dragons

Serpentine and wingless, Eastern Dragons have long, sinewy bodies, four limbs, and no wings. They are commonly known to bring weather changes and fortune.

### Western Dragons

These dragons are usually the first thing to pop into mind when people think of dragons, these dragons have large wings, with breath weapons, such as fire and ice. They're known to have hoards of treasure and short tempers.

## In History

Dragons are the one of the most iconic fantasy creatures, and they are practically in all cultures and many religions in history. No one knows their origin, and almost nobody can give a satisfactory explanation, but it doesn't make them less impressive. They are universal, and around the world they have different versions. Here we have some of the most commonly known types of dragons.

### Celtic Europe

In the pre-romantic Celtic Europe we have some of the first dragons of the continent, these dragons were different than the dragons we know today. They were deities of the forest, able to communicate with sorcerers and druids with experience. They were a symbol of independence. In terms of characteristics they had bat wings instead of frontal legs (as modern dragons have), they didn't breath fire, as most dragons are known for today. They were intelligent enough to know how to talk, and they were similar to green snakes, they were kind, (excluding culebre, also called Cuélebre) so they wouldn’t be seen attacking someone.

Most of this data comes from archaeologists and roman chroniclers (some Wikipedia was used as well), because this culture didn't have a writing system (at least a standard system, as some specifics wrote using the rune system).

### Norse Europe

Near the other side, at the north of the continent, Norse people had a completely different concept of dragons. For them (according to the references about their folklore on various websites) most dragons weren't beings of villainy or evil, they weren't deities, spirits nor animals, they were practically their own category of neutral beings. These norse dragons were usually giant, and looked like large snakes, sometimes represented with wings and other times with legs. They were magic creatures, but didn't breath fire (like the ones from Skyrim). According an interpretation of Beowulf epic poem they were able to reproduce with humans (maybe as an incubus), as of the viking writing we have no reference about gender, so they were probably hermaphrodites.

Even though most Norse dragons weren’t evil, tales of villainous dragons were still told. These dragons were against the gods, like Nidhug, others had great treasures (these were the inspiration of medieval classic tales featuring/of dragons). The kind dragons were able to protect people from evil spirits, and protect coasts.

### Greek mythology

In Greece and the mediterranean coasts, we have the first notion of modern west dragons. Dragon (and its equivalents in some other languages) comes from the latin word DRACO, that comes from greek δράκων, that means sneak, used to refer to snake-like monsters and vipers. In greek mythology, dragons cannot fly, they were usually represented as giant snake with different abilities and two frontal legs, the most popular of these snake-dragons are the hydra, the python, Colchis' dragon, and Ladon.

### Roman Mythology

The roman dragons were a reinterpretation of greek dragons, with elements of other cultures, adding the four legs and the occasional wings. They were a symbol of power, but weren't used frequently, as eagles represented a similar thing. Some common Roman “dragons” were the Chimera (a hybrid), the Cetus, and the Arimanius.

### Christian Europe (in middle age)

When christianity started its expansion around Europe with the help of the roman empire, it became official in many ancient territories on the domain of other cultures. The christian religion already had dragons of jew origin, like the leviathan and the beast of the apocalypse, but their presence was ignored until the expansion of the religion. When it expanded, it merged with roman dragons. Later the catholic church noticed that the cults of Europe gave tribute to dragons instead of Jehovah (a christian God). Then the authorities of the organization decided to make them real, but with some differences, these dragons became red, breathed fire, looked more reptilian than snake-like, and had horns. They still had the characteristics of most of the ancient dragons, but these dragons were known as evil. They were no longer ancient mystic beings. They had become dark creatures of evil, that had to be hunted.

Fun fact: Some merchants used to take dead iguanas and stitch the wings of bats to their backs, and falsely sell them as baby dragons.

#### Sea Serpents

In some maps and bestiaries it's possible to find some giant aquatic snakes and/or dinosaur-like lake creatures, like Nessie, for example. Those are considered as dragons of water (or sea serpents), they cannot breath fire, an are enormous, and can quite possibly be aggressive.

### Dragons in Persia

In Persia, dragons were known as evil spirits that could set courses in the lands near their nests. They looked quite like Griffons.

### Arabic dragons

In the Arabic empire (and Andalucía) the idea of the dragons had less impact than in Europe, but they had dragons, these dragons were morphologically similar to the Persian dragons. As in christianity, they were creatures of evil, they were poisonous, they also had breath of fire, but used their poison abilities more frequently. They used their tail and wings as weapons to use their poison. There aren’t a lot of tales about them, therefore it’s difficult to find information in them

### Far Eastern Dragons

In East Asia dragons were spirits of water and air, they had the ability to talk with gods, so they deserved (and deserve) respect, these magical creatures were wise and strong, a symbol of China's unity, anatomically they have many variations, but typically they had horns, representing their link with nature, the head of a horse or a sneak with feathers, ears of bull, a mustache-like thing on their face, they were usually blue (or green). They had long body similar to fish/snakes and a tail full of feathers, sometimes legs and hands with claws.

Based on an interpretation of the legend of Sun Wukong (the king Monkey) these dragons were intelligent enough to make an underwater society and to battle against other dragons. They didn't use their strength, instead, they used weapons and their knowledge of magic. In Far East Asia, if you find a dragon, you are considered a lucky person, or a person that shall be lucky.

### Between Bantu people

In Bantu beliefs there are two different types of dragons, and as in vikings' mythology they could (possibly) reproduce with humans, creating hybrids.