Dragon

Dragons are Others made from involutions, as in snarls or recursive loops, perhaps Visceral Knots. They rarely occur, needing "the stars align[ing] right" and something feeds into itself, be it deific, Elemental, Spiritual.<ref name=":0">[Dragons] were a side note in something else I was researching for Rose.  About vestiges, and spirits.  For Evan, and for you two. [...] they’re sometimes called snags, or recursive loops, or um, shoot, can’t remember the word.”

“Problems,” Peter said.  “Problematic.”

“Um.  Sure.  Most are.  Some think dragons are what happens when something feeds into itself.  Every dragon is different, and some are more elemental, or mostly elemental, or spirit, or deific.  Something like a lesser god that worships itself, or an elemental that takes in more than it puts out.  They happen only when the stars align right, and attempts to produce them tends to turn out…”

“Problems,” Peter said, again.  “That’s what this stuff mostly boils down to, right?”

“Um.  Not exactly, I’m not saying you’re wrong, but-”

“I’m right.”

“Yeah,” Tiff said.

“Yeah,” Peter said.

“It went wrong.  So they’re rare and they’re unique and they tend to be feral, not always reptilian, but there’s something to be said for memory and the world remembering the dinosaurs or whatever, so it’s more common, as a given snarl needs to find a reference point, but-” - Excerpt from Sine Die 14.3</ref> Feral and powerful, they are more akin to wild animals and take an enormous amount of effort to defeat. Kind of thing a Dragonslayer would hunt among others.

Types

Every dragon is different, and some are more elemental, or mostly elemental, or spirit, or deific. Something like a lesser god that worships itself, or an elemental that takes in more than it puts out. They happen only when the stars align right, and attempts to produce them tends to turn out wrong. They’re rare and they’re unique and they tend to be feral, not always reptilian, but there’s something to be said for memory and the world remembering the dinosaurs or whatever, so it’s more common, as a given snarl needs to find a reference point,.<ref name=":1">“I’ve played lots of video games,” Evan said.  “Dragons, uh…”

“They aren’t like they are in the video games,” Tiff said.  “Generally speaking, you don’t deal with dragons.  For one thing, they barely exist anymore, for another…”
[...]
“Dragons are so like they are in video games,” Evan said.

“No,” Tiff said.  “Um, in video games, a guy with a sword can kill a dragon.  Only way that happens here is if a god intervenes, or you’re drawing on some similar degree of power.”
[...]
I said.  “Tiff, you know something about dragons?”

“A little bit.  They were a side note in something else I was researching for Rose.  About vestiges, and spirits.  For Evan, and for you two.” - Excerpt from Sine Die 14.3</ref>

However, purportedly, dragon eggs also exist. Dragon eggs can absorb a limitless amount of heat, as well as "just about anything you put in them", and this can theoretically affect the eventual form and behaviour of the hatched dragon.<ref>“I heard a dragon egg couldn’t be heated up too much.  They absorb the heat, absorb just about anything you put in them,” Mr. Knox said.  “I think someone heated that one’s egg up a little too much.  Baked something in that noggin.” Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.3</ref>

Dracoform

There are also creatures that resemble and are called Dragons but it is unknown if they follow the rules of the above "Dragons".<ref name="gb">“You’re settled awfully close to that thing.”

“Sure.  Killed whoever lived where we’re at, we set up there, do what we can t’keep the thing going, fish the trough.  If it stops turning, it might hear us and decide t’pay a visit.  Lost two before we learned.”

I nodded slowly.  “What is it?  A goblin?”

He gave me a dark, suspicious look.

“What?” I asked.

“Yeh, it’s a goblin, or so we’ve heard.  Not what most people would guess.  Dragon?  Sure.  Bat?  Yeh.  But goblin?” - Excerpt from Null 9.2</ref>

Uses

Dragons are dangerous but not inherently a feral entity, akin to wild animals that can be tamed.

There’s no polar opposite when it comes to dealing with them. Most are amalgams of elemental and spirit and animal and nightmares, on top of whatever else. You have to beat them at their own game. You get the dragons that are all poison, to the point that one drop of venom can clear out a lake. Then you have to just out-poison them. You get the dragons in some areas of the East that are more spirit and elemental, like dragons of the mountains and it’s like you have to destroy a mountain by hitting it with a bigger.

Whatever element or similar that they embody will be multifaceted and potent<ref>“Don’t get burned!”  Tiff said.  “Dragonstuff is potent.  I don’t think that fire ever goes out!”
[...]
“There’s no guarantee the fire will go out if she passes on.  With dragon’s breath, it could burn her spirit, even.”
[...]
You get the dragons that are all poison, to the point that one drop of venom can clear out a lake. - Excerpt from Sine Die 14.3</ref> further the snarl or knot that they're devoid of any weakness when it comes.<ref name="defeat">“How do we stop them?” I interrupted.

“Uh.  You don’t.  Or you don’t easily stop them.” [...] Tiff’s voice dropped a notch in volume.  “Most Others, they have weak points.  As Blake just evidenced.  He wasn’t even directly hit, and we nearly lost him.  Faerie, you hit them with something  crude, and they can’t deal, on a lot of levels.  Goblins, you hit them with refinement, with cunning ideas and passive means.  But Dragons are different.  Like I said they’re a snarl.”

“Clarify,” I said.  I realized how tense I was, after what had nearly happened to Green Eyes, and added, “Please.”

“There’s no polar opposite.  Most are amalgams of elemental and spirit and animal and nightmares, on top of whatever else.  You have to beat them at their own game.  You get the dragons that are all poison, to the point that one drop of venom can clear out a lake.  Then you have to just out-poison them.  You get the dragons in some areas of the East that are more spirit and elemental, like dragons of the mountains and… it’s like you have to destroy a mountain by hitting it with a bigger mountain.”

“How do you-” I started.  “Nevermind.  You’re saying the only way to kill ol’ firebreath there is hotter fire?”

“No,” she said.  Her voice dropped to be even quieter, as we approached the end of the street.  “There’s another way.  Most are violent, killing machines.  So… if you’re brave enough, you can try the conventional means.  Facing them in battle.  Eventually someone succeeds.  Usually with the backing of some major power.  Usually a god.  Which makes them rare.” - Excerpt from Sine Die 14.3</ref>

They can be killed through ordinary violence, though this is best accomplished through the right Magic Items and the favor of a deity.<ref name="defeat"/>

As with many Others having the right information when dealing with them is key, the Thorburn Library does not have much information on them for example.<ref name=":1"/><ref> - Excerpt from Sine Die 14.3</ref>

For size and longevity, they been compared unfavorably to Primevals.<ref>“You talk so casually about facing down monsters bigger and more enduring than dragons.  I’ll think on it.  For now, tell me about this space the complex seven-E was in.” - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.x</ref>

Known Examples

• Goblin Dragon
• Fire Dragon pet of Giant
  • Weak Dragon Wretch<ref> - Excerpt from Judgment 16.10</ref>
  • Feral Dragon Wretch<ref> - Excerpt from Judgment 16.11</ref>
• Tashlit's Twinned Brother (possibly)<ref>“I visited other siblings. Our whole deal, I’m not sure if anyone’s explained, Montague, is we’re like the bloodlines of Echidna, or Minos of Crete, or Jormungandr. Sometimes you get a girl who has snakes instead of bodily fluids, sometimes you have a boy with sapphire skin who kills anyone who hears his voice, and sometimes that egg hatches and you have two dragons sharing one mind. Mom found knotted places for them to reside, so you can only find them if you go looking.” - Excerpt from Shaking Hands 9.z</ref>
• Candy Dragon<ref>Discussion Question: A witch prepared her gingerbread house as a lure to entrap children, arranging magics in the form of candy that the children would eat until they were too lethargic and weighed down to move. She secured it further, ironically, by being on the local PTA and managing a campaign about the dangers of sugar- this served as a warning and made the sugar-starved youth all that much more wide-eyed at the nature of the candy house. Not very original, but the classics are classics for a reason.
  
  She dressed it up with a bit of panache and a streak of cruelty, so the kids with stomachs distended from the sugary treats they'd eaten would be gradually swallowed up by the ground and dragged into the cellars of the house, where they would be candied. Each child became the source of production for a special custom treat- a cookie, a chocolate, a candy, or something in that vein. One jerk of a kid became black licorice, even, but maybe that was a blessing.
  
  Every bite taken out of the candy was felt by the child who'd created that candy, and so they were cursed, trapped below, told they would only escape if someone else ate every last bite of their particular candy on the premises. That person would be their soulmate, with a 'taste' for them in particular and they'd run off free and happy. Or free and rather traumatized, but hey. Things generally didn't get that far- incoming victims would inevitably want to try the next amazing treat.
  
  Enter Bernhard. This little boy had met a mean-spirited goblin years ago, who had given him a magic. He could eat anything. So he won his pie eating contest and he could eat his aunt's awful cooking, and that seemed well and good, except there was a catch. He had to eat everything offered to him. You can imagine what the goblin fed to him after that. But he eventually won with a trick of words, ate the goblin and carried on for a few years, until he found the aforementioned candy house.
  
  That on its own wouldn't be enough, but the witch had to be away for a few months to look after a sick relative, and she'd rigged things to manage themselves, infinitely (or effectively infinitely) replenishing candy. She'd even asked local powers to look after her place and make sure things kept running.
  
  So the boy who could eat anything ate everything and everything was functionally infinite. By the time anyone realized what was happening, things were in a pretty bad way. They couldn't get in contact with the witch, Bernhard became a hefty little dragon egg, a knot of infinite loops, patterns, and established recursions.
  
  And that's how the powers of that region got forsworn, the witch came back to find a dragon wedged into her little pocket world with what had been a candy house, and the candy-cursed children who were trapped got free when the dragon dug for and ate all the candy in one swallow. They didn't get their soulmates, but they didn't really complain. They fed the witch to the dragon, and hung around for a while, keeping the dragon company for a bit, until the magic sustaining them eventually crumbled.
  
  Bernhard is more or less gone. There's only a candy dragon now. He grows, bit by bit, and strains the boundaries of the pocket world, and who knows what will happen when those walls shatter? Nobody knows where he is, nobody listens to the forsworn who were supposed to care for the space, and so nobody has warded it or secured the borders. One day it will go free and nobody will really have any idea how it happened. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref>

References

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