Dragon pics

[busterthefox]

I've heard of all the different TYPES of dragons, but I can't look at a dragon and tell what type it is. for example, what would we call these ones: (Images from images.google.com)

The point of all this is, whenever the type of dragon is mention in an RP or some such, I always get lost. So, any wisdom to share? ^_^

[dragonsahara]

The first is a western dragon, the second is either a white western dragon or a frost dragon, and the third is most likely an asian lung.

[Dragon Spirit]

Yeah, as she said, first one is a western dragon, also known as a european. These dragons Always have four legs, two wings, and a serpentine neck. They are the ones normally pictured when people think of knights slaying dragons or a dragon with its hoard of gold. In addition to hoarding, they're know to enjoy asking riddles. They can also breathe fire. Also known for cruelty and eating people in legends - more or less, a malevolent breed of a dragon.

The so-called 'frost dragon' is actually a fairly new idea that I simply see popping up in different places. I don't think there is any mythological background to them. They normally have the body shape of a european/western dragon, but have either white to pale blue fur or similarly colored scales. Some sources claim that they have a sort of ice breath attack, which freezes what it hits. I've also heard fire breath. As I said, it is a fairly new dragon to my knowledge, and thus not really built on hundreds of years of myths and legends and stories.

The third one is indeed an asian lung, as dragonsahara said. They usually have a long, flowing, serpentine body with four fairly small legs in comparison.They are the mythical beasts of Asia, especially China and Japan and those surrounding countries. These are believed to be very wise and benevolent, bring rain to help crops and sometimes passing on knowledge to select people. There are a couple types, though I can't remember exactly: one is Imperial and one is something else, the difference being their number of toes. I also believe that these dragons are also supposedly spirits in major Chinese rivers like the Yangtze and Huang He.

I'll go ahead and post more dragon info with pics later. Sorry I never clarified this more - probably should've been one of the first things I should have done when starting this site.

[Dragon Spirit]

First of all, I want to mention that my dragon knowledge (nor the sites that I go to) is not absolute. These are simply my descriptions of dragons as my memory and understanding goes, which could very well be wrong. but most of this is hopefully fairly accurate.

Okay, continuing on with the types. The next dragon that comes to mind for me is the wyvern. (I've also seen it spelled 'wyvernn') monsters.ffxi-atlas.com/monsters/imgs/wyvern.jpg That is a basic picture of the general idea of the wyvern. More or less, it simply has the tail, two rear legs, two wings (as in the anatomy of the bird) and the long, serpentine neck leading up to the head. I normally see these depicted with skin rather than scales, but that could just be artistic interpretation. They supposedly live in Africa, and I've heard them called the largest of dragons - legends of the area tell of wyverns picking up elephants as prey and dropping them from great heights to kill them, which would indicate a massive creature. This is about all I know concerning wyverns.

Digressing from mainstream dragons and going to other dragon-like mythical beasts, the feathered serpent is another that I've often heard used (I've also heard it called an ampithere, or something like that). Originally from Incan culture (or maybe Mayan... not sure), this was said to be a god named Quetzalcoatl who would bring peace to the normally warlike peoples of the area. www.staten-illustration.com/images/Pieces/Quetzalcoatl/Quetzalcoatl_web900.jpg there is a basic picture of one. Basically, imagine a giant snake with wings and you've got the image in your head. I believe that Coronado (or one of those Spanish explorers that I always confuse with each other) was hailed as a human embodiment of Quetzalcoatl. That is, until he tried to convert them all to Christianity and conquered them when they refused to submit. They probably didn't think he was any sort of god of peace then. But those are just my thoughts on the matter.

Those are the basic types of dragons. There are more (like the feathered serpent) that I consider to be in that same mythological giant scaly creature family, which I may go into later if anyone would be interested in hearing about Cockatrices, Basilisks, and the like.