posted
What might you call a dragon...well something like a dragon, but more like asian dragons, small and serpenty. Small, as in the mass of a medium human, serpenty, long, but has arms and legs and wings. Stealthy, magical, flies in the night, steals dreams, causes dreams. May or may not have the ability to take human form--no is actually summoned from an orb, buy the user of the orb. It is the only magical creature in this Fantasy World.
Posts: 1888 | Registered: Jan 2008
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posted
Thanks all. Good leads, I like Theodore. It sounds more proper than simply Ted.
I am having trouble with this one. The characteristics, I think are more like an Asian dragon, but the world would likely come across Europian, with French tones. The French name is Vouivre, but I hate it, and I don't want the world to feel too french.
I really like ouroboros though. aren't they percieved as ancient African? Pharoas...etc? I don't read enough Fantasy to understand fully the implications or trends in naming one way over the other.
posted
Ouroboros is an ancient iconic myth, sometimes worm, snake, or dragon eating its tail. The Ouroboros legends are widespread in creation myths of many primitive and not-so-primitive cultures. Some speculations on the origins suggest that Ouroboros is a representation of the Milky Way galaxy as perceived in the geocentric model of the universe.
[This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited June 23, 2008).]
posted
Don't get too fancy, as a reader I prefer a spade to be called a spade. I think there are enough different kinds of dragons in fiction (including asian dragons) that the reader will listen to what your dragons are like.
Completely just my opinion, just thought I would throw it in there, good luck,
posted
How does this sound? Ophia, the basilisk, is the product of the orb, which is the source of magic in the story. I like the idea of the little dragon consuming itself, and was tinkering with the idea of incorporating that into the way Ophia enters and exits the orb. In Her full sized self she lies around the pestle on which the orb sits, begins consuming her tail and shrinks into a glowing halo around the orb. Of course the process is reversed when the basilisk is summoned. Does this sound like it could work? or just a hodgepodge of junky tactics?
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posted
The dragon consuming itself, chasing its tail, shows the magical nature of the being rather than explaining the method of the magic. I think that is the ideal manner to incorporate imaginative premises in fantasy. By the time readers have realized the magic is in operation, they've passed beyond the phase where suspension of disbelief is most vulnerable. Magic is shown, it's taken as a given. However, showing the magic doesn't explain, summarize, or provide the backstory of the object's mythology. Developing the mythology of the orb might be tricky, but it's far less problematic when its influence is shown first. Excalibur is an example of an object's mythology that's admirably related in the various renditions of the Arthurian legends.
[This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited June 23, 2008).]
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