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[Velociraptarts]

So I'm writing a speculative research paper on dragons in Thedas. I'll be posting it on Archive Of Our Own when I'm done, but right now I'm at 70% on the rough draft (17 pages, whoa) and I have some important questions. Some of them can't be answered with any finality unless canon chimes in, but they're fun to think about. I'm focusing mainly on the Inquisition redesigns and only putting things in the final draft that are official facts or can be reasonably extrapolated.

 

If you have answers or fun theories for any of these questions please let me know!

 

1) There were Drakes to fight in Origins. Jesse the dragon slayer reminds me there were drakes in DA2. There are none in Inquisition. What happened to all the male dragons?

 

2) If you were an adolescent female dragon, what would your stages of wing growth be? (which bones form first?)

 

3) How do dragons learn to fly? We know the Mature and High dragon mothers don't exactly have maternal instincts, given they reproduce with a quantity strategy and (Origins spoilers) may prefer napping on a cliff to fighting you even if you've just slaughtered all their offspring.

 

4) Dragons obviously do not have the lift to fly with physics, so how much of their flight is dragon magic? They are extremely tough, so I doubt they'd have hollow bones. Air sacs are a vague possibility, which may either support or complicate breath attacks.

 

5) Where do you think the extra collarbones and scapulae go for muscle support of their wing limbs?

 

6) Inquisition Jaws of Hakkon spoilers: Is the Hakkon dragon confirmed as a canon Great Dragon?

 

7) Does anyone have a canon source for the heights of any Inquisition characters so that I can finally calculate High Dragon sizes in something more substantial than Iron Bull Units?

 

8) Are Great Dragons generally capable of speech? 

 

9) Has anyone counted the average number of dragonlings/drakes encountered in Mature Dragon nests vs High Dragon nests?

 

10) Do dragons have teeth with deep roots like most mammals, or replace their looser teeth routinely like crocodiles and sharks?

 

11) Why do dragons hoard?

 

Also if you just wanna talk about dragons I'm down for that.

[Jesse the dragon slayer]

1 yes in the bone pit during act 1.

 

2 no clue maybe the tips or all at once

 

3 probably naturally birds don't necessarily need taught otherwise there'd be a lot more splats from birds being pushed out of the nest

 

4 I don't have any clue too much over thinking about dragon flight when I'd rather be thinking about dragon fight

 

5 No clue I prefer dragon lore compared to how dragon bodies work

 

6 Jaws of Hakon spoilers they said that Hakon was a spirit bound to a dragon so I assume it's sort of like an abomination dragon templars must really hate that idea

 

7 I don't but I think humans are regular size so I would assume 5 foot something and qunari are a head taller so six foot something

 

8 If so they're smart enough to hide it around those who would record it but I don't think they are

 

9 I didn't count them but I'm pretty sure it's random

 

10 I would assume deep roots that also grow back have you ever been fighting one and been picked up they'd surely have to be deep rooted to handle the shaking and need to grow back because the teeth would still be torn out on occasion

 

11 It's just present in almost all dragon lore all kinds of theories I prefer the one of them liking shiny objects but probably designed into video games to make it worth fighting dragons

[Velociraptarts]

1 yes in the bone pit during act 1.

 

Thank you! It's just Inquisition where they're missing, then.

 

 

 

2 no clue maybe the tips or all at once

(I see what you did there)

 

 

4 I don't have any clue too much over thinking about dragon flight when I'd rather be thinking about dragon fight

 

5 No clue I prefer dragon lore compared to how dragon bodies work

 

Yeah there's no real way to figure out the physiology because the answer to like 50% of things is "magic", it's just a thing I like to think about. Lore is so interesting though!

 

I really want to know what dragons were like before the Veil? Yavanna once said they "Ruled the skies" and that just sounds really cool to me. Dragons, lords and ladies of the sky. If they have this much magic and awesome post-Veil, how much MORE magic and awesome did they have PRE-Veil?

 

Most of the time the hoarding thing is just described as a sort of magpie instinct, but sometimes different universes are like "dragons here gain nutritional materials from gold" or "dragons here roll in valuable gems to plate themselves in an extra layer of armor". I'd be cool with the magpie explanation, it's just that no codex entry has ever mentioned it? Like, ever. I've read all dragon-related codex entries that are on the DA wiki. So I guess I'm just hungry for some canon on the subject.

 

Okay so you're a dragon slayer, you've got some experience- why is it that dragons never pick you up, launch, and drop you from height? That's totally something they could do! Or breathe fire/etc when they've got you in their mouths? (video game mechanics I guess) but how cool would it be if dragons did fall damage to people.

[Lusey]

Did somebody say dragon behavior and biology?

 

I'd love to contribute, I love creature development!

 

1. Seeing as the drakes and dragons we fight in the previous two games, aside from the two high dragons that are either summoned or attacked in their nest, we can assume that Drakes are kept at the High Dragon's nesting site, and function as something as a harem, hoping to get their queen's favor so that they can contribute to the genetic pool of future generations. They likely also take care of the younger dragons when the high dragon is asleep or out hunting.
    
2. I imagine that all the bones in a female dragonling would already be formed at hatching, but given their stumpy appearance, they would appear similar and almost unmistakable to a male's shoulder spikes... that is until they age and the bones begin to lengthen and stretch. It's likely that the "fingers" are kept within the stumps at birth, and over time separate and grow, which contributes to the membranes. This is soley based on speculation from the in game models.
    
3. I imagine there's an instinct that has developed strongly over time to combat the mother's unwillingness to teach. On the other hand, each high dragon has a different temperament, so there may yet be high dragons out there that are willing to teach their first offspring to fly, who in turn teach their younger siblings when they come of age. It's the only bonding they'd get before being forced to find their own territories and likely fight each other to the death for it. A dragon that doesn't learn to fly will not get a territory of their own.
    
4. Honestly, I just like to pretend that they fly like bees do, swinging their wings in circular motions to get their fat butts off the ground. They fly via pure BS, and that's that.
    
5. Their collarbones and scapulae are likely built and integrated into the body a lot differently than a four limbed creature. Technically a six limbed creature with an endoskeleton is physically impossible as far as we know right now, but I think given the in game models, the collar and shoulderblades are set in front of those of their forelimbs.
    
6. *shrug* Seeing as I took it down faster than the Fereldan Frostback (arguably the most difficult dragon in the game next to the Visnomer), it's probably just a High dragon.
    
7. While it's not canon, I've always coined The Iron Bull in at somewhere close to 7', since he's supposedly a larger than average Qunari. That's purely based on the height I gave my inquisitor though, and the in game comparison between her and him.
    
8. Probably not. Dragons are likely highly intelligent creatures, but physiologically they probably lack the vocal chords required for speech, and they likely have an intelligence level closer to that of a crow or raven.
    
9. Sadly not. I should do that sometime!
    
10. I like to think they routinely lose their teeth, while still regrowing them almost infinitely like a shark. This would make for some interesting lore in terms of dragon tooth fashion and the likes
     
11. Jesse answered it pretty well, but if we wanted to dive into it a bit more, it's likely for the same reason Magpies and Crows like to collect shiny objects. They want to decorate their nests, they want to be attractive to potential mates. the better your hoard, the more males that will flock to you, the more males you have, the more eggs you will have, and more chances of your bloodline surviving.
     

I hope that answers stuff! Sorry if I got a little long winded there, I'm very passionate about my dragons ;P

[AlleluiaElizabeth]

7) Does anyone have a canon source for the heights of any Inquisition characters so that I can finally calculate High Dragon sizes in something more substantial than Iron Bull Units?

 

You owe me a new keyboard. 

 

To actually contribute here:

You should ask that height question in the twitter thread. I have this vague recollection that the question has been asked before (height of a character I mean, not dragons) and someone in there with a better memeory/archive than me might be able to point you to the relevant info. Or tweet it to the devs for you. Matt Rhodes, Weekes, or Gaider might be able and willing to answer about height of the characters and/or the dragons.

[Velociraptarts]

 

Seeing as the drakes and dragons we fight in the previous two games, aside from the two high dragons that are either summoned or attacked in their nest, we can assume that Drakes are kept at the High Dragon's nesting site, and function as something as a harem, hoping to get their queen's favor so that they can contribute to the genetic pool of future generations. They likely also take care of the younger dragons when the high dragon is asleep or out hunting.
 

I imagine that all the bones in a female dragonling would already be formed at hatching, but given their stumpy appearance, they would appear similar and almost unmistakable to a male's shoulder spikes... that is until they age and the bones begin to lengthen and stretch. It's likely that the "fingers" are kept within the stumps at birth, and over time separate and grow, which contributes to the membranes. This is soley based on speculation from the in game models.

 

I like to think they routinely lose their teeth, while still regrowing them almost infinitely like a shark. This would make for some interesting lore in terms of dragon tooth fashion and the likes

 

Jesse answered it pretty well, but if we wanted to dive into it a bit more, it's likely for the same reason Magpies and Crows like to collect shiny objects. They want to decorate their nests, they want to be attractive to potential mates. the better your hoard, the more males that will flock to you, the more males you have, the more eggs you will have, and more chances of your bloodline surviving.
 

I hope that answers stuff! Sorry if I got a little long winded there, I'm very passionate about my dragons ;P

I definitely agree with you on the Drakes as caretakers and harems point- that's something supported by Codex entries and everything. I guess I was just wondering where all the adolescent ones are? In Inquisition all the dragonlings have wing membranes starting to grow, which should mean they're all female, so maybe the species is just really gender-skewed? I mean, it's possible, for maximum offspring you need more females than males, it just seems kind of weird. Unless the males also grow some membrane?

 

The idea of the bones being little nubby stubs inside the shoulder protrusions and slowly growing out is a good one! I think that's what I'm going to go with for my hypothesis.

 

Constantly regrowing and losing teeth would be really cool, agreed, also it would explain why so many of the High Dragons have different numbers of teeth. (Ice dragons are particularly weird, they have secondary rows in the front of their mouths)

 

Hoarding as a mating behavior is the most likely explanation I've heard so far.

 

Don't be afraid to be passionate about dragons! They're DRAGONS. Go for it. I posted a discussion topic for speculative biology, be as nerd-passionate as you want! 

 

You owe me a new keyboard. 

 

To actually contribute here:

You should ask that height question in the twitter thread. I have this vague recollection that the question has been asked before (height of a character I mean, not dragons) and someone in there with a better memeory/archive than me might be able to point you to the relevant info. Or tweet it to the devs for you. Matt Rhodes, Weekes, or Gaider might be able and willing to answer about height of the characters and/or the dragons.

 

I'm glad you find the IBU amusing

 

(FYI, most High Dragons open their mouths at 75% of Dorian Pavus to use their breath attacks.)

 

That's a really good suggestion! I will definitely go find the Twitter thread.

 

Ooh, actually, I should look for a screencap thread too, maybe some people will have better images of characters and dragons equidistant from the camera.