Discworld dragons
Discworld is a world made by Terry Pratchett where there
there were thought to be two main types of dragons, Draco
vulgaris and Draco nobilis. A recent expendition to the
Disc's moon have discovered a new type of dragon, the 'Moon dragon'.
Draco vulgaris
Also known as the swamp dragons because they originated in the
swamp. These dragons are kept as pets and are about 2 feet long
(about 61 cm) with poorly desinged wings. They have evovled in a
swamp and therefore not fussy in there eating habits. In fact
they are omnivores, eating everything except metal and ignenous
rocks. They have eight stomachs which they can hook up in
different ways to to distil something flamable from what they
have eaten.
"The painstakingly-drawn illustations he looked away from. You could only take so much of innards." Guards! Guards!
They are basically just innards when you take away the flight muscles and the leathery skin. Most of there brain was taken up by controlling there stomach process. Because they kept flamable liquid inside them swamp dragons are likely to explode when frightened, angry or sick.
Lady Ramkin is the main breeder of swamp dragons (of which in 'The Last hero' there were 37 varieties) in Ankh-Morkpork the main city in the Discworld. She is the owner of the Morpork Sunshine Sanctuary for Lost Dragons, and is forever looking after abandoned dragons. This is because swamp dragons cause sootburn dissolved carpets and an unusual chemical smell, not to mention their occasional explosions.
Ramkin is likely to tell you all sorts of interesting facts. Such as a cobb is a male after the age of two.
"Up to the age of eight months he's a pewmet, then he's a cock until fourteen months, and then he's a snood-" Guards!Guards!The females are called hens until their 3rd clutch which after that they are called dams. She also has alot of information on breeding the swamp dragons.
The dragons are vaguely unterested in each other except for once every two months. Then they mate in the air. The males fought with flame but during the the laying season the only the females breathed flame to incubate their egg, while the males gathered firewood.
The females are capable of laying 3 to 4 clutches a year which are then trampled by absent-minded males, so wild swamp dragons are not that common. The bad nesting sites the females choose do not help.
Moon Dragon
An ancestor of the swamp dragon. This can be told due to the fact that a swamp dragon called Errol was thought to be a new mutation but subsequently found to be a throw back.
The live on the moon that circles around the Discworld. The disc's moon unlike Earth's has a thin layer of atmosphere covering it. Silver dust, sand and rocks cover the surface and a metallic silver vegetation grows there. This vegetation absorbs the light from the sun and emitts it during the night as moonlight. This makes this vegetation a very high energy source.
Moon dragons even though they are related to swamp dragons are as "greyhounds resemble those odd yappy dogss with lots of Zs and Xs in their name." Last Hero. They were silver shapes, sleeker and more luxuriant than the common swamp dragon. They also had longer arms and legs.
Flight was helped by the moons low gravity and by flaming like a rocket from the unusual end. A kind of 'fart power'. To achieve this they had large nostrils rather like a big intake. They wings were also small and used more for steering.
They gained their energy for this by eating a few leaves of the mentioned high energy moon vegetation.
Not used to humans the younger ones reacted curiously, while the older ones catiously watched from a distance.
Draco noblis
The so called Noble Dragon. They are the big dragons, and are considered myths. About the size of a barn with a head as tall as a man. This is your typical gold hoarder, arrogant and cunning eater of maidens. The typicals haters and kill because they want to. It is said that Noble dragons have no friends and can not understand that concept.
They can be summoned up from a different dimension using a magical incantation. Using this magic you get the dragon that you imagine.
They are able to communicate by mind and taste gold. They maintain their huge size and fire breathng appartus by eating magic. Due to the lower magic field in the Discworld Draco nobilis has all but disappeared.
Wyrmberg dragons
A subtype of the noble dragon.
These dragons live in wyrmberg, a place unusually high in magic. Owing to the fact that it surferred a direct magic hit during the Mage wars. Wyrmberg in fact is an upside down mountain riddled with caves, where you may find the roosting cave. This is where the dragons rest upside down suspended from the ceiling on rings.
Unlike normal noble dragons can be summoned without the incantation, using only the imagination. A true master can summon many of these dragons at a time. Unfortunately they tend to fade as they get further away from wyrmberg. They only exist close to Wyrmberg and when the summoner is consiously imagining the dragon.
They also differ from normal noble dragons in that they are loyal to their masters and will obey their commands.
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This page was last updated 10/10/02