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Elemental Dragons and Associated Habitats


Soleater
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So

A common (and fairly understandable) trend I've noticed among fantasy incorporating dragons tend to live in habitats that correspond with their associated element - Ice Dragons live in Tundras and Polar Icecaps, Fire Dragons live in or outside of volcanoes or on mountains, Lightning dragons either live in the desert (for some reason) or open fields, etc.  Now, I'm not talking about like, dragons that, say, live in the water primarily, and may or may not have a water-based elemental affinity - it's basically a fish dragon, so I'm fine with that.  I'm more talking about a creature that has the ability to warm itself very easily living in a volcano, or vice versa, where a dragon that is very good at cooling it's surroundings down living in sub-zero temperatures; the latter being a bit more frustrating to me than the former.  While I'm not saying don't make dragons that live in the tundra not white to blend in with their surroundings, I'm just saying that wouldn't it be more useful for a creature like a dragon to have an internal combustion for keeping itself warm in harsh blizzards or melting holes in the ice caps to catch prey or something?  Or an Ice Dragon living in a blistering environment and taking advantage of the fact that it can freeze things on a whim and cool them down - like idk a very moist, humid area with lots of water to make the most of it's abilities?  Because how much more damage could a Fire Dragon do to a landscape already scorched by fire?  And how useful would Ice Breath be in a land covered in ice?  Just because you have mastery over a thing doesn't mean you have immunity to it (snakes can poison themselves - so I think it stands to reason that dragons could burn themselves too, in the face of the argument that they'd probably be resistant to the cold/heat or otherwise)

But what do other people think?  Do you think the elemental correlation of Fire dragons living in fiery places makes sense?  Or would you prefer to see them living in Boreal Woods and using their wooded environment to their advantage?

EDIT: Rephrased something that was kind of confusing ^^"

Edited by Soleater
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Those are good points, yeah. Somehow I think the ice dragon would do worse in a fire area than a fire one in an ice area, just because it would take more of its energy to freeze things and cool itself down if it's a volcano. I'd assume? Also why would the fire dragon want to wreck its habitat like you implied?

Never really gave it much thought honestly. Wings of Fire by Tui Sutherland is a great dragon series and yeah, it does have the ice dragons living in a tundra, but the majority of the types that have breath elements have fire, and there are four different habitats for the four different fire dragons: mountains, desert, volcano, and a swamp. Yes, a swamp. So I give the books credit for that.

The Legend of Spyro trilogy appears to have all the elemental dragons living in the same areas.

This shit is right up my alley xD

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On 5/17/2018 at 3:00 AM, Dragoncat said:

Those are good points, yeah. Somehow I think the ice dragon would do worse in a fire area than a fire one in an ice area, just because it would take more of its energy to freeze things and cool itself down if it's a volcano. I'd assume? Also why would the fire dragon want to wreck its habitat like you implied?

Never really gave it much thought honestly. Wings of Fire by Tui Sutherland is a great dragon series and yeah, it does have the ice dragons living in a tundra, but the majority of the types that have breath elements have fire, and there are four different habitats for the four different fire dragons: mountains, desert, volcano, and a swamp. Yes, a swamp. So I give the books credit for that.

The Legend of Spyro trilogy appears to have all the elemental dragons living in the same areas.

This shit is right up my alley xD

Well, by warmer environment, I meant like...Desert, or Tropical islands more than volcano, and I rephrased the whole "fire dragons tearing up their environment" line to make more sense - I meant like being able to set things on f i r e to fight and hunt.  I was also going with the idea of more...the way Fire Emblem depicts dragons, where they would be able to make impassable walls of flame with the forests to kill their enemies.  But for more traditional dragons, they could use it to show of their power and scare of competitors.

I've read Wings of Fire - I liked the depictions of the characters, but I thought the ending of the second series gave a very mixed message to me; but more on topic, I DO like their depictions of the dragon species.  The closes they have to "Fire Dragons", I feel, are the Skywings, but they can also double as "Wind Dragons" because of their natural affinity for the sky and mountains.  Fire-Breathing Desert dragons (like Sandwings) make sense to me since their flames would actually be effective, since the desert, A: gets REALLY cold at night, and would be effective towards keeping ones self warm, and B: wouldn't be made negligible by the fact the environment would literally be spitting fire frequently, according to most fiction that depict Fire Dragons in volcanoes.  Icewings feel very well thought out, since their claws are designed to grip slippery ground and they have camouflage...actually, now that I think about it, a Dragon with low body temperate might actually do good in a Glacial habitat (not necessarily something like, Boral Woods, but still) - they wouldn't melt the ice and slip.   If the dragon in question could control their body heat, that could be really useful - stay cold when traveling on ground, get warm and blast fire when it needs to melt something and, say, start ice fishing.  (So long as it had some form of anti-freeze in it's body to keep it's body from fulling freezing when lowering it's body temperature, or it was like one of these lovely fish who require oxygen to be pumped into them due to their lack of red blood cells [this is assuming this is an Icy Sea Dragon])  So I can see Icewings (And some Icy dragons) working in Icy areas, so long as they had some form of blubber...however, I still don't see Ice Breath being that useful in an arctic environment - unless you want to create more ice to cross water, but even then the dragon probably wouldn't be able to breathe enough to create reliable crossing without tiring itself out.  (Idk though)

The Mudwings felt the most grounded (ha) to me, with them lacking an internal combustion system, and needing to be warm.  Actually, I like all of the dragons, save for maybe Nightwings, as I thought the reveal of them actually having powers was a bit...like, I like weird powers in fiction, but I also like the idea of the fear mongering and spreading rumors that caused them to be feared, rather then them actually having powers.  Idk, I like Moonwatcher, Winter, Kinkajou, Darkstalker, Peril (although I think they played up her exuberance too much when it was in her perspective...I liked her better in the first series), but I felt like the second series was just sort of...It dropped the ball for me is all I'm saying, though I do like the world building quite a bit.  Seawings using bioluminescence to communicate underwater, the Rainwings having one of the most terrifying biological weapons of all the dragons, and also just Rainforest dragons in general.  I can go about my issues over WoF and Warrior cats (which Tui used to/still writes for, I'm not sure) on some other forum, but either way, I digress ^^"

Never played Spyro, so I wouldnt't know...Idk the gist of this is that, unless the dragons are directly taking the element from their environment like the Archer Fish (like, say a dragon maybe "absorbing" the heat to be able to shoot fire kind of thing), instead generating it like an electric eel (I keep referencing fish and I don't know why), I just think they would be more useful in an environment that wouldn't be used to that element.  Deserts, tropical or humid habitats, those kind of things for an Ice dragon; and frigid, but not icy wastelands, Boral woods, snowy mountain tops, those would be the kind of places for a Fire dragon, imo.

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Hmm, interesting. Personally, I've never really put much thought into this either. Even so, I don't really find it much weird if their elemental type matches their habitat. It may seem redundant, but if it's not an actual detriment, it might not even matter. Perhaps it's not about the dragon shaping its enviroment, but the enviroment shaping the dragon? I don't know, adaptability and all that...

On the subject of Spyro, I'd like to point out I like the way it's done in the classic trilogy. All dragons are standard fire-breathers, but their "habitats" are actually tied to their class/job. The Artisans living mainly in lush green valleys, the Peace Keepers mainly in deserts, the Magic Crafters mainly in isolated mountaintops, the Beast Makers mainly in swamps, and the Dreamweavers mainly in floating islands. Even the cut classes, the Machinists and Aquifers, would've also had home enviroments suited for their jobs. I think it was an interesting aspect of their setting.

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1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Hmm, interesting. Personally, I've never really put much thought into this either. Even so, I don't really find it much weird if their elemental type matches their habitat. It may seem redundant, but if it's not an actual detriment, it might not even matter. Perhaps it's not about the dragon shaping its enviroment, but the enviroment shaping the dragon? I don't know, adaptability and all that...

On the subject of Spyro, I'd like to point out I like the way it's done in the classic trilogy. All dragons are standard fire-breathers, but their "habitats" are actually tied to their class/job. The Artisans living mainly in lush green valleys, the Peace Keepers mainly in deserts, the Magic Crafters mainly in isolated mountaintops, the Beast Makers mainly in swamps, and the Dreamweavers mainly in floating islands. Even the cut classes, the Machinists and Aquifers, would've also had home enviroments suited for their jobs. I think it was an interesting aspect of their setting.

That's a possibility - I'd love to see a story that world builds dragons as being malleable and affected by their surroundings as they grow (maybe they're attuned to the physical characteristic of their surroundings?...I'd love to see an urban dragon ngl).  I mean like, very rapid evolution as the dragon ages, rather than the gradual, more normal kind.  I think that would be cool ^^

Do the dragons of OG trilogy of Spyro develop magic based on their jobs?  Like, as a learnable practice?  To help them do better at their jobs?  Otherwise though, that's actually pretty cool, and makes the dragons as they're like actual citizens, as each dragon of each area has a primary craft they do and pass down to the next generation (I think - I never played a single Spyro game, no matter how good the OG Spyro games look ;-;).

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On 19/5/2018 at 2:55 PM, Soleater said:

Do the dragons of OG trilogy of Spyro develop magic based on their jobs?  Like, as a learnable practice?  To help them do better at their jobs?  Otherwise though, that's actually pretty cool, and makes the dragons as they're like actual citizens, as each dragon of each area has a primary craft they do and pass down to the next generation (I think - I never played a single Spyro game, no matter how good the OG Spyro games look ;-;).

Well, outside of the Magic Crafters and Dreamweavers, who would definitely need magic to do their jobs, I don't think it's really stated magic is used by the other classes. Though since it's definitely true that the dragons of the Spyro series can use magic, perhaps some could and do. Like, I could think there could be some Peace Keepers that rely on spellcasting instead of just brute strength or fire breath (though iirc, Peace Keeper dragons all leaned on the heavy side, design-wise).

Who knows, perhaps this could be something that the Reignited Trilogy (the Spyro trilogy remake) could expand into. Last I saw, some detail is being added to the levels, design-wise, to make them fit more what they're suppose to represent (like how one Artisans level has a section that is being turned into a library, where the original had no such indication it was one).

Speaking of, perhaps you could try the Reignited Trilogy once its released, if you want to try out Spyro. If not, there's always the original trilogy. If you have a PS3 or PS4, it shouldn't be hard to get the original trilogy from the PSN. And then the Reignited Trilogy is going to be multi-platform.

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On 5/20/2018 at 10:36 PM, Acacia Sgt said:

Well, outside of the Magic Crafters and Dreamweavers, who would definitely need magic to do their jobs, I don't think it's really stated magic is used by the other classes. Though since it's definitely true that the dragons of the Spyro series can use magic, perhaps some could and do. Like, I could think there could be some Peace Keepers that rely on spellcasting instead of just brute strength or fire breath (though iirc, Peace Keeper dragons all leaned on the heavy side, design-wise).

Who knows, perhaps this could be something that the Reignited Trilogy (the Spyro trilogy remake) could expand into. Last I saw, some detail is being added to the levels, design-wise, to make them fit more what they're suppose to represent (like how one Artisans level has a section that is being turned into a library, where the original had no such indication it was one).

Speaking of, perhaps you could try the Reignited Trilogy once its released, if you want to try out Spyro. If not, there's always the original trilogy. If you have a PS3 or PS4, it shouldn't be hard to get the original trilogy from the PSN. And then the Reignited Trilogy is going to be multi-platform.

Okay then if they aren't like explicitly elemental, then, like, is that relevant to the conversation??  I mean, if their element = jobs, than that's kind of cool, but I'm not sure if that's the case?  Idk I think I'm a bit confused by your points.  ^^"

If they expanded it, that could be really interesting - obviously it shouldn't distract from the lighter tone, but what if say, an earth-based dragon, who, in this example, usually makes pottery and the like, wanted to work in a forge?  Or a "wind" dragon, who makes kites, wanted to fish or something?  I think that could be p interesting honestly ^^

I think I'd want to try the Reignited Trilogy, just because of how GOOD Spyro looks in that game and just EVERYTHING is SO pretty!!  I do have the systems for Spyro, it's just that I think that I'd rather wait for Spyro to be sexily reimagined in HD :D

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