Dragon Interim

As you might have guessed by the lack of activity on here, things are being a bit hectic in real life. I’ve handed in my dissertation proposal and had the marks back (68%, woot!) so now I’m moving onto the actual dissertation itself, and I still have two other bits of coursework due in at the end of the month that I’m working on. That alongside work and the social/gaming events that keep me sane is keeping me busy. Also less sane then I would like, but that’s stress for you.

I did, however, find a very cute picture that I wanted to share. Credit to Fiona Hsieh, whose deviant art account you should definitely check out since it has Pokemon on there as well.

I have a vague idea to go around my flat and photograph all the dragons I find at some point in the nearish future. So if I ever get so stressed I need a break, lots of photos might suddenly appear here. Or I’ll finish Zelda. So close to killing Ganon, so very close.

Hibernation

If I was a dragon, I would very much hibernate. Although I might do it in the summer to avoid the heat. Or just for a hundred years, because sleeping is the best thing to do any time of year.

The Sleeping Dragon by shimhaq98

You probably know what hibernation is – a long sleep over the winter months to help animals get through the period when there isn’t much food available. You basically slow everything down (breathing, heart rate, temperature) so you don’t really need much to survive, just the leftovers from the stuff you ate all summer long.

Do dragon hibernate? Yes, but they tend to do it on the scales of years or decades, rather than just the winter months. Do they do it for similar reasons? Yes and no. Yes, it can be useful when there isn’t much food about, hibernating doesn’t require a lot of energy, so if there isn’t a handy village full of sheep/cows/people nearby, and the adventurers have stopped coming into your lair to defeat you/steal your gold, then sleeping until the human and cattle populations have built themselves up again isn’t a bad choice by any means.

However, it is not the only reason for dragons to hibernate. They are also said to have pretty good healing when they slip into hibernation. It’s not regeneration, so if they’ve lost a limb, then it stays lost, but rents in scales and other such injuries can be healed with a hibernation. Also good for if you need to get rid of some scales and grow some new ones because they’ve gotten old or tarnished. A dragon doesn’t really want to be out and about when there’s a gap in their armour.

An interesting point that has been theorised is connected into the hoards of gold that some dragons collect. If a dragon breaths on the gold, not enough to melt it but enough to heat it, then the dragon has a very good blanket in which to sleep in or on for the hibernation, with occasional top-ups of heat required. This part is thought to depend on the species of dragon, as some dragons do not like heat (frost dragons) and may instead bury themselves in snow to pass their hibernation in.

Mostly I am just slightly jealous, since I love sleeping, and doing it for a number of months/years sounds like a dream. That, and the weather is just about horrible enough that getting out from the covers each morning is a draining experience. I’d much rather be sleeping under a horde of gold. Or blankets, I could very much hoard blankets.

“There He Lay” by Justin & Annie Stegg Gerard

Book Wyrms

The next kickstarter arrived! As followers of this blog will know, I am a big fan of an artist by the name of Jessica Feinburg, and the beautiful book collections she runs through kickstarter. And Book Wyrms has arrived!

As you might be able to tell, I was really excited about this particular project, because I like writing and books and all those surrounding topics and now I have dragons to do with books!

It’s quite a bumper collection, I did splash out a little. The book and cards are there, bookmarks, and prints, but I also got badges and stickers and a ketchain to put on my bag and a larger print of this gorgeous woodland library.

 

Need to find a space on my wall for it, but I love it quite a lot. She’s got another kickstarter live at the moment for another colouring book which I have of course backed. Colouring in is great, especially dragons. That, and her bext project is going to be birthstone dragons, so I’ll have to see what I pick up when that one goes live.

The collection of dragons grows ever larger!

Dragons Race to the Edge Season 3

Season 3! Came out very a fortnight ago and it’s great! Admittedly, I don’t know if there’s anything that the series could do to make me think that it isn’t great, but I really enjoyed it. I will say right now there are going to be some spoilers. I’ll try and coat things in generalities, but some stuff will slip out.

So, we start with a twist surprise, and old enemy turning out to actually have a change of heart! And the new enemy, oh my dragons the new enemy is kind of scary, and dangerous, and really, really clever, which is so nice to see. It’s someone that even Hiccup has trouble pitching his wits against! And just when you think he might have figured him out, bam! Turns out the guy was thinking six steps ahead of them the whole time. Just, so very well done that evil genius.

People and dragons from previous series turn up, along with the customary new dragons introduced, although it’s not quite one an episode as it was with other series. Still, the imagination and creation of these new dragons is amazing, and it’s great to see what they come up with next. I quite liked the episode where Gobber meets Grump (the dragon he has in the second movie), it’s very sweet.

Speaking of old people, Heather! I always like seeing her, and the interaction between her and Astrid. Easily the most competent people in the team. Well, Hiccup and Toothless as well. But having the girls be the main combat force? Excellent.

Overall, I really enjoy this next instalment of the series. 13 new episode in total, and there will be a season 6, so I’m just ready and waiting for that. How do I know there’s a season 6? Well, for one, the internet tells me there will be, and two – they end the series on this AMAZING CLIFFHANGER. Seriously, it pains me that I will have to wait dragons know how long to find out how that’s going to resolve itself, let alone all the other stuff from the series.

All in all, I am very happy, and there is yet another dose of dragons in my life.

Almost Dragons

For this week’s dragon post, I thought that although finding some nice pictures of dragons would be excellent, I wanted to write something about dragons, since I haven’t done that properly since my ‘Dragons of the World’ series at the end of last year. So I rummaged around a little bit and came up with today’s topic – almost dragons.

What do I mean by that? It struck me that in a fair few novels, stories and other media that are around, you can have dragons, but you also have creatures, often small ones, that are related to dragons, but not dragons.

Examples: In the Dragonriders of Pern has fire-lizards, arm length miniature dragons (which the dragons are rumoured to be bred from), Natural History of Dragon series by Marie Brennan has sparklings, again, tiny creatures that resemble dragons but often highly debated as being related to them. The Penneykettle dragons from The Last Dragon Chronicles by Chris d’Lacey are different from the dragons of the old tales.

Of course, these are different from pygmy, tiny, nano, or just generally small or juvenile dragons. Dragons come in a large variety of shapes and sizes. For instance, in How To Train Your Dragon book you have nanodragons, which are almost too small to be seen with the naked eye, and in the TV show you have Fireworms, Smothering Smokebreaths, and Terrible Terrors, but despite being small, all of them are regarded as dragons.

So what’s the point of them? I always viewed almost dragons as some sort of bridge, whether narrative, or biologically, or socially. A narrative bridge would be that you meet the almost dragon, and successful interaction with it can lead you to the larger dragons, or there’s some plot device that the almost dragon fulfils that the dragons don’t. I’ve got, well, a couple of ideas for dragons novels in my head, and they do use almost dragons. The ones in my current idea are almost exactly like dragons, except tiny and they don’t have the elemental breath. I’m also hesitant to write a dragon novel, because I love dragons so much and when I do write the novel I want it to be something I’m really proud of. So, that’s mostly in the background right now.

Biologically, there’s a few stories where dragons evolved from almost dragons, or almost dragons have some sort of genetic link to dragons. Dragonriders of Pern is a good example of this without going into too much detail. Social links sort of cross over with the narrative stuff I mentioned above, dragons are usually intelligent, and almost dragons are often less so, but good interactions with them lay ground work for future interactions with both types.

Actually, having said about novel ideas, I do have an idea where there are almost dragons, and the dragons (or dragon, singular, as is actually the case) can change their size, from the almost dragons, up to the size of mountains, so they can blend in with the almost dragons when they need to. Size changing seems like a cool mechanic to explore as well, and allows for greater plot movement, because if you were the size of a mountain, then there’d only be certain times where that’s useful.

Before I ramble on too much, I’ll finish there. But can you think of any other book or shows or movie that employ almost dragons in them? I’m sure I’ve missed some, and I love getting new books recommendations.

Spirit Dragons

Another Kickstarter had arrived!

As I have featured many times on this blog before, Jessica Feinburg, a supremely talents artist, is doing a series of field guides based around dragons and other rare elemental creatures. Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Clockwork have all come before and proudly sit on my bookshelf. And now, Spirit Dragons joins them!

It’s making the door to my study pretty impressive, as I use the art from the postcards to make a collage:

The one from the spirit dragons is technically a bumper sticker, but it’s so awesome. It says “Don’t make me call the Dragons” ^_^ I love it.

Of course, she’s not stopping here either. Her next book project is going to be Book Wyrms! Literary dragons! I’m so very, very happy. But the project she’s got which is currently live is an Oracle Deck which is not a tarot deck, but is similar, and it features artwork from previous projects on the cards. It looks magnificent, so I have of course placed a pledge for a bunch of stuff from it.

Very much looking forward to seeing the artwork that comes from her next! Book dragons!

Ice & Colouring Dragons

I do love getting parcels in the post, as I am sure that most people do. Especially when said parcels contain lovely dragon goodness!

Jessica Feinburg is continuing on with her series of Elemental Dragons and Other Rare Creatures, and pictured here is Ice Dragons. Actually, it’s two different kickstarters, since she also ran a short one to fund a colouring book that you can see in the middle. It’s got a lot of her previous and current artwork in it, but all black and white, like the two postcards in the top right, for colouring in. And I am very much looking forward to that ^_^

Her next campaign has already gone live as well, and I am particular excited for it – Spirit Dragons! Lots of lovely ethereal dragons and beings. Trying to convince myself that I don’t need to buy all of the things, but I probably do, I am quite excited for this one. And all the time my shelves are growing ever bigger with the weight of dragons on them.

Dragon Loot

So, Christmas was recent, and I know that I’ve shown you a bunch of my dragon kickstarters before now. Add the two together, and what do I have? Lots more dragons for my dragon hoard!

Yes, I have a hoard of dragons.

Firstly, I received, as a present from my partner’s family (they have a lot of family members, so they do this huge secret santa swap instead of individual presents, and I was included) this huge, and I mean huge, cardboard dragon model. Assembly required. I really love that sort of thing, really easy but makes me feel kind of crafty and it looks great when it’s done.

Then today, I had the tricky task of hanging it up. But I think it looks quite good up there, and it definitely frees up space.

Very nice, hanging in the corner of my study. And my ceiling is high, and I am of average height, so no head bumping will occur.

The second part really is a whole package of loot, straight from the lovely artist that I have featured on this blog before – Jessica Feinburg. She’s an American artist who’s done a whole series of kickstarters of dragon and other fantastical creature guides. Water, Fire, Baby, Clockwork, Earth and now, Air.

 

So, you can see, I have the book of Air Dragons & other rare sky creatures, a deck of cards, some art cards and bookmarks. Those are the fairly standard things that I get from her projects. But, this project had quite a few extras. There’s the egg and feathers guides, the mini decks of cards, the feather poster and egg poster (not shown) as well as a set of dragon eggs and official dragon club membership card and badge!

It’s a huge bunch of stuff, and it’s awesomely cool ^_^, she’s a very talented artist. And this wasn’t her last project. Currently active is one for ice and snow dragons, and she has plans to do more unusual breeds in the future. The posters are up on my wall, and the art card has gone up it the remaining space , and the eggs are displayed on my bookcase.

 

Oh, and I also got a huge dragon book, and a dragons shaped cake tin for Christmas, so even more dragons now live in my home.

I hope your hoards are growing as much as mine are!

Merry Winter Holiday

From me, to you, I hope you are enjoying the day, whatever you might or might not be celebrating.

Dragons of the World – South America

Ages ago, I did a short post on Dragons of the World, where I whizzed around the globe, highlighting the different dragons which lived in various parts of the world. This month, I’m going to delve into more depth on the subject. Starting in my home continent of Europe, and travelling east, we shall look, in more detail, at the various kinds of dragon you can expect to find around the world.

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Mexican Amphithere

All Amphithere’s are feathered dragons, and the Mexican’s are no exception, although they have more scales than other Amphithere’s. Along their body they have scales, with heads, wings, and the tip of the tail covered in feathers. Generally the scales are blue-green, with a pale stomach, and the feather are similar in the winter, but in the summer, prime breeding time, they will turn a golden-yellow colour, sometimes even a little purple comes into the plumage.

Typically around 45 feet long, they have wings but no limbs, although the tongue is extraordinarily long and is used to catch prey mid flight. The tail is also used as a constriction device, and this dragon tends to favour mammals as food, both small and large, from monkeys to llamas. Using both tongue and tail, it is hard to escape from it’s grasp once you are caught.

Although they are named after Mexico, where they were originally found, they have migrated and expanded out into South America. These dragons like the sun and the water, and have a tendency to make their homes in the ruins of jungle cities, such as the Mayan Temples. Often they will make a nest of vines and foliage inside the temple, and then spend a good part of the day sunning themselves on the steps outside. If you wish to spot one of these dragons, then visiting the ruins is likely to produce good results.

Incognito Dragon

As the name might suggest, this dragon is shrouded in mystery. It is probable that it exists, as numerous sightings of some species of dragon which does not fit the profile of the Mexican Amphithere have been made, but there are few concrete details on what it might be.

It has an unknown size, sightings seem to indicate that it has wings, limbs and only one head, it is thought it might be silver or gold, but this could be the colour of the light hitting it (depending on whether it’s day or night). Since it lives in the Americas, it is thought that it is probably a feathered dragon, however no sightings confirm or deny this.

It will definitely have feeding and nesting habits, but we no dragonologist so far has ever made note of what these might be. Remote locations seem likely for a nest, but we just don’t know for sure. It is thought that these dragons are very deadly, hence why there are so few sightings of them. Dragonology is a dangerous profession after all.

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And that’s it! Antartica is also considered a continent, but the only dragons that live there are Frost Dragons, and you can find the post I wrote a while ago on them here.

I hope you enjoyed flying around the world with dragons, and that the end of 2015 is treating you well 🙂 Come back in the new year for new dragon posts!