Dragons, dragons and-you guessed it, dragons! discussion

A little teaser. I have a blind dragon in my work-in-progress book and I wondered if you had any ideas for how a blind dragon would be able to fly, navigate and land? I thought immediately of echo location (how a bat flies) but I wondered if someone might have a more elegant and magical solution?

instead of a bark like a dragon using echo location might use maybe it could swoon (or let out a long winded note that expands through the surrounding air.

Hmm, that's useful thanks, Ariel. So you're also thinking of an audible frequency? I was researching radar as well - what about a magical radar? Dragon emits [some sort of magic] in a detectable spectrum, it reflects back and the reflection can be interpreted?

Is there some sort of visual pattern of the magical radar that's observed by humans. Something like northern lights?

That's a very cool idea. I discovered that a bat is pretty limited in range, although they have a fascinating set of abilities related to aerial navigation and pursuit of prey. I love the idea of northern lights :-)

What I love about writing and reading fantasy is that you are not bound by reality. You can make your range as far as it needs to be. But if it is a specific distance, that would give the magic a limitation that you could play with to create unwanted or dangerous situations for your dragons.
Instead of just the glimmer of one dragon's passage, a flock or wing of them would light up the sky. Wahoo!

I'm very much one for limitation of magic/powers (where's the tension otherwise?). I'm looking to use this power in two ways, one for a dragon character who becomes blind, and secondly for a set of land dragons (really huge) who live at the base of the islands in my world, in a realm of permanent darkness and high pressure. They are blind in our sense of the world but see through a magical equivalent of sonar.

You should link me to your author page :-) love to read your work if you're writing something. Such a beautiful idea.

Awesome! Do the land dragons pass through matter? Alas, I don't have an author page. Yeah, I know get on the ball. It was on my to do list last summer and didn't get to do. I'm cold querying a dragon novel so I really need one like yesterday. I'm pitching a YA time travel fantasy (no dragons - except if you count pythea - not sure of spelling now- who is the defender of the oracle at Delphi) at the DFWWW Writers' Conference the end of July. Going through critique with another, a fantasy adventure. I've been focused on improving my craft instead of being on social media, This site is my big foray into that world and I've enjoyed it immensely.

Well ya need to get that author page going before pitching, I'd say :-) hope that goes well for you.

Yes, I fondly all them 'Island biters' ... the world is an impact crater half-filled with toxic gases, and the land dragons live beneath the permanent gas clouds, in volcanoes/magma, water and rock. The ancient dragons raised islands above the clouds and populated them with 'lesser' dragons and humans.

Nice creation mythos. So does that mean that all humans have a little of the creator in them? Do we all have a bit of dragon within?

I'm working with humans, dragons and shapeshifters (limited to human/dragon shifting), but some humans have dragon-like magical capabilities. Yes, in this world everyone would have a touch of dragon and there's a fair bit of exploration around the ideas of soul (fire soul for dragons), returning to the eternal fires of the dragonkind, creation, creativity, the truths underlying the physical world, and so on, but primarily they're adventure / coming of age stories. Clean and hopefully uplifting :-). This is one of mine: Aranya

Originally dragons travelled between the stars but that ability has been forgotten. Well, I'm working with a type of dragon called 'star dragon' but they're more a keeper of balance at this point. Dragons are the main scientists and philosophers but humans are growing into that.

Sounds like great world building. Congrats. I clicked on Aranya and added it to my to read list. The blurb is very enticing.

Thanks :-)

I've sold a short story that will be out the end of June in issue 15 of "4 Star Stories" - It is an on-line magazine you can google on. The name of the story is: Sky Worm.

It's not a dragon but huge worms live in the sky in a layer of pink breathable air along with air fish and other creatures. On rare occasions, the ribbon-like layers of pink air descend to the planet's surface and the sky worms eat the villagers' cattle. Young protag must save the day.

That sounds fascinating. Will check it out! So are these worms evil? Mindless? (Like the 'thread' that falls on Pern) or is there more going on under the surface?

Thanks. Worms are pretty mindless. They just want to eat. It's a pretty short story, so there is not much world building. I've written a short before that become the basis of a novel.