You, an adventurer, are also the hope of the whole village. For the quest released by the old king next door, you carry sophisticated armor and weapons and walk through the wilderness to hurry. A breeze blows on your face, "Nature is so beautiful," you think. Suddenly, however, Wan Li fell silent, the whole world seemed to have stopped breathing, the shadows shrouded the earth, and you looked up nervously, and a pair of thin flesh wings that seemed to be larger than the sky came into view.
"Dragon!"
You utter this chilling word out of your voice, a fear that comes from the survival instinct, hitting every cell in your body. As a result, you know you have to run away, but your legs are completely out of your control. This creature, which looked like a giant lizard, slowly fell with its wings waved, and its huge feet stomped heavily on the soil. The air currents and vibrations that make you stand unsteadily and fall to the ground, "banging", the crashing sound of armor and stones, attracted the attention of this giant beast.
You know you're finished, even the strongest walls are vulnerable to the Dragon's Breath flames that melt all the metal, not to mention your armor that is less than 3cm thick...
<h1>How dragons are born: Fed humans want to scare themselves</h1>
The opening scene is a very familiar scene for both gamers and fans of magic novels. Between adventurers and dragons, they may be close friends, they may be old enemies, they may even be lovers... In short, the random combination of these two elements has become an enduring topic of the work.
Since the birth of life, the predatory and natural selection have become the only laws of the blue planet's biosphere. Human beings, relying on sophisticated language and organizational skills, have ascended to the top of the earth's food chain at an unprecedented speed to see all sentient beings, and there will be no natural enemies since then. As the saying goes, the human beings who have a panoramic view of the mountains and are invincible in nature fully feel how lonely it is to be invincible.
Maybe it's thinking of danger in times of peace, maybe it's being fed and looking for something to do, maybe it's the fear of the unknown written in DNA — in short, humans standing at the top of the pyramid have begun to study how to find a sense of crisis for themselves. Using the existing beast elements to piece together, and then brain making up a kind of monster that no one has ever seen, incomparably powerful, even with supernatural abilities, has undoubtedly become the best choice.
So in all the cultures of the world, we can almost see the figure of "dragon" creatures. For example, in the opening paragraph, the image of the Western dragon is what many people think of: hard scales, lizard-like slender evil pupils, huge wings, long horns on the top of the head, terrifying fangs and claws, oh yes, and can spew out flames and lightning that can melt everything. This is very different from the dragon in Eastern culture.
Oh, sorry to send the wrong picture, in fact, it is like this:
In East Asia, especially in China, the dragon is a beast. It is often depicted as a serpentine creature with high intelligence, mostly wingless, and multiply legs. However, it must be pointed out that although the image of the "dragon" in the two cultural fields can be described as very different, in any case, in the current era, the image of the "Dragon" as a Western dragon has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
<h1>Stop calling Mother Dragon, she's not raising dragons</h1>
Some time ago, the discussion area of the well-known foreign game website IGN had a controversy, and the fuse was the dragon. An author named "TERRI SCHWARTZ" published an article on IGN and directly spoiled the main theme of the full text into the title: "Whether it is Game of Thrones or Skyrim Province, it is not a dragon that appears in it!" "
The author said in the text that in the long list of titles of the Mother of Dragons, the Mother of Dragons is actually not worthy of the name. Because those raised by the dragon mother are actually not dragons at all. This made many fans feel dissatisfied and began to argue in the comment area. But supporters are not willing to show weakness, and have taken out "dry goods" to punch their faces, such as this hand-painted evolution tree that can be called the level of soul painters-
From the picture, we can see that although the other guys look like dragons, they are actually just subspecies of dragons. By the way, the subspecies mentioned in traditional magic are not biological subspecies. As "Dragon" was translated as "Dragon" in those days, it was specially translated by translators to facilitate the reader's understanding. To this end, the subspecies presented in this paper are all biological meanings, that is, "with other populations within the same species, the geographical distribution is obviously demarcated, there are certain differences in morphological characteristics, but there is no reproductive isolation of the population," thus showing the author's rigorous and pragmatic spirit (manual funny).
So, strictly speaking, these guys who appeared in Game of Thrones and The Elder Scrolls 5 —
Known as the Wyvern, it is significantly more reliable. Bipedal wyverns resemble dragons and are small, with only bipedal feet, claws and toes like birds, wings covered with scales or feathers, and tails with barbs or snakes. Bipedal Wyverns are of dragon and griffin ancestry and can attack any enemy with their sharp claws and teeth. Yes, a careful reader may have discovered that the giant beast that appears in the opening paragraph is actually a bipedal dragon.
Although in more modern works such as Monster Hunter, the bipedal wyvern can use spitting. But in old-school magical settings like Dungeons & Dragons, bipedal wyverns can only use fangs and claws, as well as their stingers that grow on their tails.
Speaking of which, we must seriously point out that although bipedal dragons also appear in Warcraft and World of Warcraft, and the original English text is indeed "Wyvern". But in fact, this thing is Blizzard's own beast, not a bipedal wyvern in the traditional sense.
<h1>St. George the Slayer</h1>
In fact, not only the bipedal wyvern, but also the dragon (Dragon) that appears in the Warcraft series is actually subversive. In the widely popular Western magic culture, "dragons" always have a large, pointed and long tail, and are usually bat-like winged, six-limbed (four-legged and winged) creatures. They may be as inferior in intelligence as ordinary beasts, or they may be much more intelligent than humans, and those who have intelligence usually use magic. In most cases, this giant beast will spew fire or poison, and may also release lightning and fear depending on the direction of the plot.
Among the Stories about "Dragons" in the West, the most well-known is "Saint George's Slaying of the Dragon". Knowing that the king's daughter was very beautiful, the dragon of Serchen actually wanted to take the girl for himself. At the critical moment, St. George rode a horse and carried a spear, and with the power of faith, after a fierce battle, he slaughtered the dragon and saved the beautiful princess.
Although today, the plot of this story is full of irrationality and very cheesy. But for thousands of years, it has left a profound meaning in Western society. In England in particular, Richard I, the Lionheart, led his army on the Third Crusade, winning a battle in the legendary "St. George's Slaying of the Dragon" land. The Lionheart believed that St. George was blessing them and has since regarded him as the patron saint of Britain. Today, the Red Cross flag in England on a white background is called the "Flag of St George".
To this day, in the eyes of Western society, the "dragon" is an evil creature. For example, the dragon in the Dragon Gun Chronicle and the Fire Dragon Empire is the dragon in the general recognition. By the time of Warcraft and The Chronicles of Narnia, dragons are no longer the embodiment of evil.
St. George was originally a Roman cavalry officer born in Palestine around 260 BC. While preventing Christians from being persecuted, he was killed and canonized at the age of 43. According to the story of Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199), we can conclude that the allusion to St. George's dragon slaying was circulated in the West long before the 12th century. But in fact, the word "Dragon" appeared in the 13th century.
Because etymologically, the word "Dragon" originated in French in the 13th century, its Latin origin is 'Draconem' (large venomous snake, dragon), the root of the word is 'Drakon' (poisonous snake, giant sea fish), the Greeks and Romans also used this word to refer to the real large snake -
That is to say, St. George, who was regarded by the English as the patron saint, probably slaughtered not a dragon, but another creature like a snake.
<h1>Dragons, dragons, flying snakes, silly and stupid</h1>
In the setting of Dungeons & Dragons, there is a four-legged dragonoid creature whose original English text is "Drake", which is translated as "Dragon Beast" in modern times. They have no wings and their IQ is equivalent to that of beasts. In 20th-century literature, dragons and beasts would walk on all fours like wolves, but by the 21st century, dragons and beasts had changed to walking on two hind legs like dinosaurs.
Therefore, the earth sand dragon, the dinosaur, the bone hammer dragon, the blast hammer dragon, and the tragic claw dragon that appeared in Monster Hunter: World, although they all have a "dragon" in their names, they actually belong to the category of dragon beasts. Although some of them use supernatural powers, this does not change the nature of them as dragon beasts.
In contrast, there is a kind of "Wyrm" that has appeared in works such as "Dragon's Creed". They have scales and slender bodies like giant pythons in the wind — sounding a bit like Chinese dragons? But in fact, this is not understood in the pot, because "Wyrm" can be more than one. In some works, the ferocious and evil "dragon" preys on all the creatures that appear in their eyes; in others, it is an extremely powerful and intelligent ancient creature.
In the game, wyrm-related races include the dragon-like creature Mana Wyrm, the Frost Wyrm, and the older Wyrm of the Dragon, as well as the Book Wyrm, which appears in Hearthstone.
As a Paleo-English word for dragons or dragon-like creatures, "Wyrm" is mostly used in creeping serpentine creatures, often in Old English folklore and modern fantasy works. But the "Wyrm" in Old English has now evolved into "worm", which is what we often call worms, and the gap between before and after is also too big. In World of Warcraft, "Wyrm" is also a word closely related to dragons, and when used as "dragon", commonly used definitions include dragons, colognes (usually over five hundred years old), dragon-like creatures, and dragons with ice attributes.
However, once the "Wyrm" described as a giant python was added wings, they became a completely new creature called "Amphiptere", which means Diptera in English. The "flying snake" (or "Anfithel" that players often hear about today) is this creature. Although it may seem almost interesting, something like Anfiser is a dragon of the Eight Classics—at least in South and Central Asian cultures.
The blood god Haka, who caused the "Fallen Blood" incident, actually belongs to this species. Although evil creatures in World of Warcraft, Anfiser is an auspicious symbol according to the origin. They are nearly 3 meters long, have forked tongues, and guard the frankincense trees that grow on the Arabian Peninsula and on the banks of the Nile. Amphiser also guards gold, jewelry, and everything precious, and turns lead into gold.
But the most surprising thing is that Anfiser is still a bully, and his favorite thing is to hoard all kinds of knowledge...
<h1>In the new era, please let the dragon fly higher</h1>
In modern times, especially after the development of the Internet, people's cognition of "dragons" has become more general. This allows all kinds of "dragons" to have a broader stage. Some legends that were not considered "dragons" in the past are now also called "dragons", and here is a special example of the Korean movie "Dragon War"...
But the so-called "dragon" in the film is obviously the "Yagi Great Snake" in ancient Japanese legends, and the ghost knows how to dare to call this movie "D-War (Dragon War)".
The dragon Smaug, who appears in the Hobbit trilogy, is not only sinister and cunning, with sharp teeth and claws and a hard skin, but also likes to hoard all kinds of sparkling treasures and spew out terrible flames - almost all traditional literature definitions of "dragon". Unfortunately, Smaug plus wings also only have four limbs, so this cargo can only be regarded as a "bipedal dragon".
The dragon that appears in Harry Potter, in addition to having an IQ close to zero and completely resembling a beast, is actually the closest to a dragon in the true sense. And in Harry Potter, Aunt Rowling also made a lot of interesting subdivisions for various dragons, such as Norwegian Ridgeback Dragon, Hehidean Black Dragon, Hungarian Tree Bee, Peruvian Poisonous Tooth Dragon, Ukrainian Iron Belly and so on.
According to the setting, the Hungarian tree bee is probably the most dangerous of all fire dragons, covered with black scales and resembling a lizard; the Norwegian ridgeback dragon is similar to the tree bee in most respects, although it has no spikes on its tail and a black jade ridge on its back; the Hechdyrian black dragon is 9 meters long, with rough scales, purple eyes, and a row of ridges on its back that are not deep but sharp as a razor.
A variety of detailed and interesting settings make the world of Harry Potter seem more real. It is no wonder that to this day, many young people are looking forward to one morning, an owl with an admission letter, landed in front of their window.
And in other brain-opening works, someone simply makes the dragon fall in love — I'm not talking about Shrek, it's Donkey and Dragon! In the Russian film "He is a Dragon", released in 2015, it tells the story of a cross-racial love between man and dragon. However, in some settings, dragons can indeed transform into human forms, but dragons and humans mate directly... Is there really no reproductive isolation?
Although in some works, there will also be dragon and human hybrids, but there are few cross-racial direct mating. For example, in the setting of League of Legends, although the hero Dragon Blood Takehime Shivana is a mixture of dragons and people, it is caused by a mage who inadvertently mixes magic into the dragon egg.
But in any case, these many games, literature, and film works born in the new era have brought more fresh blood to the ancient legend of "dragons". This also makes the "dragon" still have a good charm in today's society. But we still hope to see more in the future, and the works depicting the "Chinese dragon" can be born.
(Editor-in-charge: Xixia, Ai Ling)