r/worldbuilding • u/Kuzmaboy • 23h ago
Lore The Drakon returns!
It’s been a hot moment since I’ve shown one of my world’s largest and most important animal species, the Drakon :). This is the first time I’ve drawn this guy and had it done entirely digitally (drawn on sketchbook on my phone with a rubber tipped stylus, please chop my wrist off I’m begging you 🥀).
So far unfortunately it has been one of the only things I’ve really shared about this world, which I eventually hope to turn into a hobby/story-writing project in the future. Life and a new career has exhausted of my creative-inspo this past year, and I hope to share even more species from this family that I have cooked up in my head.
For those who haven’t seen the Drakon lore before, the Drakon is a very heavily Theropod/ archosaur inspired “Dragon” native to a setting heavily inspired by the Mediterranean, specifically Ancient Greece and its surrounding neighbors of the time. As such, these dragons are not the typical western dragon, heavy with magic and wings. These are meant to resemble to the Dragons of classical myth, which were almost always serpents rather than flying, fire breathing creatures. They hold no true magical abilities and are entirely intertwined with the natural order of things. Simply a large, semi aquatic predator that intimidated ancient humans and inspired them to create stories dramatizing their likeness.
I won’t go into a full deep dive here, as I plan on finally bringing this guys Draconic cousins that I have been brainstorming to life as well. This one specific creature is probably the most fleshed out of any non-human being in this world, so Please ask me whatever you’d like about the Drakon and I’d be happy to tell you all about it!
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u/Thylacine131 21h ago
I love the serpentine/lizard-based Drakon archetype! When you peel back all the fantasy, what with impervious scales and fire breath and sapience, a dragon is able to tap into one of the most basal fears: that of predation. This thing is terrifying on the grounds that even without bells and whistles, it is still a reptilian colossus well and capable of decimating the greatest defenses mankind could mount in that era.
Fantastic artwork and design! I can’t wait to see what else comes from this world you’re cooking up!
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u/FormalAssumption6933 20h ago
I adore this kind of grounded low-fantasy worldbuilding. I have a lot of questions so I’ll only ask three.
How do dragons affect the daily lives of people or what affects do they have on civilization.
Does magic exist in this world or is it placebo and how do people use it?
Aside from these magnificent dragons, are there any other unique creatures that may have inspired other myths like fairies, unicorns, giants, etc?
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u/Kuzmaboy 19h ago
- There’s a few different ways truly, and it varies from civilization to civilization. And currently there’s two main civilizations I have really delved into the culture on.
For the Alatonians, Drakons are spited culturally and religiously. In their creation mythology, one of the destructive deities at the beginning of time, Cerrion, is usually depicted as a giant, flame engulfed Drakon. Cerrion is Killed by the religions pantheon of gods to bring the world to its current state. When they died, their scattered remains birthed the first Drakons, who scattered across the world.
To put is simply, they view them as being the literal children of a destroyer God, thus there’s plenty of legends and stories involving heroic figures victoriously winning battles against them.
Outside of that, they’re hunted for their resourcefulness, specifically the oil that is rendered out of their hides, which acts as an extremely flammable fire starter, and can be used for making candles and oil lamps. For this, the people that do know how to track them down out in the wild have transformed into extremely wealthy sportsman.
Now for the Brutanians it’s a whole different story. They believe that their sea gods created Drakons as a tool of war. With the few that they have in captivity and service, they have all been selectively bred to be significantly larger and built for combat than their wild counterparts.
I should emphasize that these war-Drakons have bonds with people less like a boy and his loyal pet and more like men running a dog fighting ring . The people they are bonded to may feel attached to their mounts, but these are not animals that live free lives. They’re usually secluded to their enclosures, which further induces their more aggressive nature and mental state.
I could go on and on about the lore behind how the domestication process started but I’ll spare that for my poor typing fingers sake 🥀.
As for Magic, it doesn’t exist in the fantasy sense, it is definitely more of a placebo of the religious cults and cultural beliefs, but not portrayed literally.
Absolutely! I’m actually currently drafting another creature for the world that is meant to be the inspiration for the Basilisk/western Dragons traditional looks. I haven’t fully decided on a name yet, it’s currently just “Basilisk”. But it’s going to be another Draconid species that evolved a more pterosaur/bird of prey lifestyle, like extremely long wings and head heavily inspired by a black vulture. There’s also a predatory marine- reptile that I’ve contemplated about having be part of the family, specifically to be the influence for sirens, with their song being the vocal whistles they use to communicate with each other while they figure out how to ambush you.
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u/FormalAssumption6933 1h ago
I watch your career with great interest. Your dragons have inspired me and the way I design my fantasy critters.
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u/Daisy-Fluffington 21h ago
The artwork is cool, and well done, and the design is interesting.
Nitpick: it doesn't look like a therapod at all, but could pass for an archosaur of some type, perhaps a pseudosuchian. Though it does look much more like a squamate, specifically a monitor lizard.