Dragons

**Dragons** (竜, *Ryū*), are an ancient race that are shown throughout the many worlds, and beyond. They are supernatural, extremely powerful, magical, and intelligent reptilian creatures. While depicted as huge, their exact shape varies depending on the source.

These legendary creatures have appeared in the myths and folklore of many cultures over the centuries and have appeared in all aspects of modern media as well.

"*The **Dragon**... These soldiers... They're all dead! This world, in all my studies it was just swords and sorcery.*"

—Zatanna.

## Description

In *Tales of RWBY*, when a spirit or a malak is exposed to malevolence due to lacking a pure vessel, they will turn into a **Drake** (ドラゴンパピー, *Doragon Papī*; literally meaning "dragon puppy"), which, if exposed constantly to malevolence, may evolve into a fully-fledged dragon. Drakes are invisible to humans lacking enough resonance, manifesting for them as a raging tornado for example, but a dragon is visible to anyone regardless of their spiritual aptitude.

The Silver Flame is unable to purify dragons, requiring them to be killed to stop their rampage. In the 4th volume of *Tales of Zestiria*, where malevolence is instead absorbed by the Shepherd for purification, no Shepherd is able to purify a dragon. This rule holds true until Sorey, who proves that there simply was no Shepherd capable of purifying a dragon, and he proceeds to do so with the help of his Squires, Rose and Alisha Diphda, though the effort almost kills them.

According to the malak Zui Fuu, who resides in The Heavenly Steppes, the existence of dragons is the result of a curse that was imposed upon humans and malakhim, seraphim who left the heavenly realm to live side by side with humans, by the seraphim who remained in the heavenly realm to ensure that coexistence would never happen. Drakes and dragons alike appear as four-legged, winged lizards able to use magic artes. A dragon's sighting is considered to be an ill omen.

Drakes are the first state of being exposed to mass levels of malevolence before turning into a complete dragon. Although, some of those effected may turn into a dragon, directly skipping the drake phase of their transition from a spirit or malak to a dragon. Drakes are considered middle class hellions, or monster, where as dragons are considered as high class. When a being is exposed constantly to malevolence, may evolve into a fully-fledged dragon.

If a vessel is exerted by surrounding malevolence or the pressure of the malevolence that may create a dense atmosphere and further impacts the vessel, then this will also affect any seraph or malak which may dwell in this vessel in. The difference in abilities between a drake and a dragon is in ranks, a dragon is stronger, an evolved form of the drake, and is visible to anyone, including those with no competence for spiritual resonance to perceive any hellion beings.

The effect of drakes and dragons can be seen by the human eye, even if the creature itself is not visible due to the lack of resonance. This is seen multiple times throughout all media forms of *Tales of RWBY*, where a natural disaster, such as an earthquake, tornado or tsunami is exhibited in the apparent absence of the creature causing them. Anyone with a sufficient amount of spiritual resonance can view any type of hellions—dragons, seraphim and malakhim alike, as well as the normin creatures.

These include regular people, spirits, malakhim, shepherds, squires and those of the olden age of Desolation. Dragons can represent disasters and are often feared by people which is also a reason why people may bring offerings to a dragon's lair as a sign of trepidation, acceptance, and to relieve further protection from them. This is evident at the Rayfalke Spiritcrest where a great dragon resides and some of those bringing offerings were devoured.

### Anatomy and Design

Dragons are creatures with reptilian appearance, thus manifesting claws, scale skin, often wings, sharp teeth and long or thick tails. Many creatures fall into the dragon category even if not directly resembling one. This accounts for many regular lizard creatures without wings, general winged-lizards and also some humanoid beings with draconic abilities or limbs. Dragons are four-legged, varying between standing or crawling positions, size, whether they can use spiritual or magic artes, and affinity.

Dragons like any other members of any race, can have a good, bad or neutral alignment, as seen with all races—an example being Symonne, a seraphim, creatures of which are almost always aligned with goodness and grace for protecting people, especially the *Lord of the Lands*.

### Characteristics and Culture

#### Subspecies

##### Miniature Dragons

**Miniature Dragons** (小型ドラゴン, *Kogata Doragon*) are small Dragons of questionable intelligence that originate from the abdomen of the Dragon Motherglare. They lack eyes, do not have discernible teeth (rather, their bodies appear to be made of metallic scales, which run along the "gums" of their mouth in the form of jagged edges), are bidepal instead of quadrupedal; they additionally lack wings, however their claws are extremely sharp.

###### Magic and Abilities

**Enhanced Strength**: Miniature Dragons are very strong, as they are able to overwhelm average to above-average strength Mages without much difficulty.

**Laser Beam**: An ability not seen in regular Dragons, Miniature Dragons are able to fire laser beams from their mouths in place of a typical Dragon's Roar associated with the larger, more common variation of their species; the lasers are capable of piercing solid objects, as well as flesh, and leave clean, round holes in their wake. The lasers can also be fired in rapid succession.

### Dragons and Humans

To the events of the year X784, society does not believe in the existence of Dragons. However, the destruction of Tenrou Island caused by one of them, called Acnologia, changed society's view on this issue. In the Kingdom of Dragnof, 400 years ago, Dragons and humans were known to be living in peace, while western Dragons lacked intelligence that the eastern possessed and actively sought after humans as food.

Despite their destructive nature, some Dragons, such as Igneel, Grandeeney, and Metalicana have been said to care for humans to the point where they raise orphaned human children as their own. While raising the human, they teach them Dragon Slayer Magic to make the human more like them.

The situation is somewhat different for other Dragons such as Acnologia, who view humans as nothing more than mere insects, and Zirconis, who hates humans and views the races merely as a food source. Acnologia has been described to be "the enemy of humanity," as confirmed by his subsequent behavior, when without warning and any particular reason, he appeared on Tenrou Island and tried to destroy it.

### Powers and Abilities

Dragons are extremely powerful creatures, so powerful, in fact, that a form of Magic had to be created to combat them; their scales are so strong that, aside from Dragon Slayer Magic, no other form of Magic can pierce through them. This conceived notion does not, however, apply to Acnologia, who was unaffected by both regular and Dragon Slayer Magic. Dragons can also be wounded by their fellow Dragons.

Dragons are extremely intelligent; they are able to speak the language of humans and can thus impart upon them their knowledge, as well as communicate with them. Some, however, do not seem to be happy with making contact with humans, who they consider to be inferior, and ignore altogether. Some Dragons even think of humans as one of their food sources. Dragons also all possess the basic ability to perform Enchantments, which they do to bestow Dragon Slayer Magic upon humans as well as an ability to use Transformation Magic to an extent, although the Five Dragon Gods are able to fully exploit Magic to form human appearances at will.

## Etymology

* A dragon is a legendary creature, typically scaled or fire-spewing and with serpentine, reptilian or avian traits, that features in the myths of many cultures around world. The two most well-known cultural traditions of dragon are:
	+ The European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Balkans and Western Asian mythologies. Most are depicted as reptilian creatures with animal-level intelligence, and are uniquely six-limbed (four legs and a separate set of wings).
	+ The Chinese dragon, with counterparts in Japan (namely the Japanese dragon), Korea and other East Asian and South Asian countries. Most are depicted as serpentine creatures with above-average intelligence, and are quadrupeds (four legs and wingless).

The two traditions may have evolved separately, but have influenced each other to a certain extent, particularly with the cross-cultural contact of recent centuries. The English word dragon and Latin word draco derives from Greek δράκων (drákōn), "dragon, serpent of huge size, water-snake".

## External links

* Dragons *Wikipedia*
* Dragons *Aselia, the Tales Wiki*
* Dragons *DC Database*
* Dragons *The Dragon Prince Wiki*
* Dragons *Fairy Tail Wiki*
* Dragons *God of War Wiki*
* Dragons *Marvel Database*
* Dragons *My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Wiki*
* Dragons *Myths and Folklore Wiki*
* Dragons *One Piece Encyclopedia*
* Dragons *Sonic News Network*
* Dragons *Spyro Wiki*
* Dragons *Skylanders Wiki*
* Dragons *Tales of Wiki*

## Notes & Trivia

* According to the Rogue that appeared inside of Natsu while he was unconscious, when the scales of a dragon are removed, they lose their pigment and turn white, and are also able to be handled by humans. This is shown when Anna Heartfilia used some of Igneel's scales to make a scarf for Natsu, handling them like they were fabric.