Dragon

A deceased dragon.

**Dragons** (竜、龍、飂爬王 (ドラゴン) *doragon*) are a highly diverse saurian race inhabiting the Other World. They feature prominently in human folklore on Terra Mater as creatures of legend.

## Evolution

Dragons "are a kind that individually evolve to the extreme" and therefore exhibit incredibly broad variations in their anatomy, abilities, attitudinal characteristics, and even intelligence. It is implied that they only develop intelligence after living for a long time.

## Characteristics

### Anatomy

Dragons resemble both Terra Mater's western and eastern cultural concepts of them. The three with visual depictions appear to be four-legged lizard-like creatures with tails, reptilian scaly skin, claws, long snouts, and pronounced cutting teeth in service of their carnivorous diet. Two of the three have visible wings. One of them sports horns, which are more typical of Terran western concepts of dragons than eastern concepts.

Dragons range massively in size. Pirawizzo, who is only as big as perhaps an ox or bicycle, is considered particularly "miniature" for their kind, while the Dragon Emperor's "castle-like" size has been called 'giant.' Some dragons are even the size of mountains.

Little can be presently inferred of dragons' unique physiology, in part because it is not obvious whether one dragon's characteristics are characteristic of *all* dragons or ones that the dragon independently evolved. That the blue dragon's eyeball in Chapter 1 has three irises, for example, is not evidence that most or all dragons's eyes have three irises. When it comes to bizarre or 'unnatural' physiological traits like Pirawizzo's poisonous blood and autohaemorrhaging capabilities, it is *generally* reasonable to *assume* such traits were independently evolved—which is true, in Pirawizzo's case—one should still wait for explicit confirmation like that which was also given in Pirawizzo's case.

### Abilities

Humans consider the "dragon race" to be the "epitome of unreasonable power," with 'power' meaning that which can—and has—alter(ed) the course of world history.

Many dragons are capable of using magic spells. Those who wish to assume a human form do so using the Humanize spell.

## Behavior and Culture

Shagrua Lugrid has heard that most dragons have fickle dispositions. About half of dragons "aggressively [do] harm" to humans, usually at the rate that any hungry carnivore wanting food would attack. Out of the dragons who have lived long enough to develop intelligence, only "a miniscule handful . . . . [harm] humans with purely malicious intent."

### Gender

Pirawizzo claims that dragons "have as many genders as there are dragons," for, unlike humans and lizards, they individually evolve to the extreme and have little to do with humanity's limited number of gender attributes. When Pirawizzo assumes a human form while speaking with Shagrua, that human form is a "child of indeterminate gender."

## Relationship with Humans

### Other World

The few malicious intelligent dragons who have attacked humans did so with such extreme aggression as to leave scars that alter the course of human history. Numerous religious texts condemn dragons as altogether evil; those whom mankind deems as allies are exceptionally rare. At a dire best, most humans liken dragons to natural disasters. Some humans study dragons, i.e. dragon scholars, others worship them, and others fear them, though fear is not mutually exclusive with academic interest or divine worship. Others still commodify dragons and sell their parts at high prices. If a necromancer wants a 'dragon zombie,' they must buy a whole dragon carcass. This could have been how the necromancer supposedly acting on Geldwood's behalf acquired the corpse of Blokadow, whose undead self the necromancer commands to eliminate Easlies Swordfrail.

Throughout the continent of Bol, Dragons are broadly, but not ubiquitously, treated as wicked divine messengers or monsters due to the actions of dangerously strong powers. A number of polytheistic countries in Bol's northern tip, such as the Republic of Lannis, worship numerous dragons as gods. The Holy Dragon Nirai, who is worshipped by the Truss Holy Society—a group that "divide[s] its power with the Geldwood Church"—has made a pact of peace with humans, or at least the ones who worship Nirai, and is considered the Society's ally against other dragons. Nirai has never been called upon to act in an offensive capacity.

A continent that is unified by the Michelo Crimson Tree Kingdom reveres the Mother Dragon Frenes Larx. Like Nirai, Frenes Larx maintains a peace agreement with humans and as their ally passively dissuades other dragons from attacking them. She, too, has never had to act in an offensive capacity.

### Earth

Dragons were at least conceptually introduced to Earth due to the bidirectional 'fissure' connecting Earth and the Other World, one allegedly created by the dragon Ordom by bending the laws of space. After the path's closure, which took place around a thousand years prior to Corpse God's reincarnation, dragons became relegated to human mythology. This could change if Ordom succeeds in boring open a new path between the planets.

## Notes

* Dragons are referred to as a *species* in Volume 5, Episode 5, then as a *race* in Volume 6, Episode 6.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 5, Episode 5.
2. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 6, Episode 6.
3. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Anime): Episode 08.
4. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 4, Chapter 28.
5. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 8, Episode 8.