During the Age of Ancients, the Dragons were the everlasting rulers of the world until the Lords rose and challenged them. In the end, the Dragons were nearly—but not fully—driven to extinction, beginning a new era known as the Age of Fire.[1]
Lore[]
Age of Ancients[]
In the Age of Ancients, the world was shrouded by fog, filled with grey crags and arch-trees, and ruled by the immortal Everlasting Dragons. The dragons were unmatched, but eventually, subterranean humanoids would discover a great power within the First Flame, giving them the means to challenge the dragons.
Lords War[]
With the birth of the First Flame—the Advent of Fire—the Lords challenged the Dragons for dominion of the world. The war was hard fought, and despite the Lords' new-found power, the Dragons were no easy foe. For every dragon slain, the knights of the lords would lose three score of their own.
The tide was turned when Seath the Scaleless betrayed his own kind, and sided with the Lords. Seath had been born deformed, and lacked the stone scales that gave his brethren their immortality. He revealed the dragons' greatest weakness; lightning, which could peel apart their stone scales.
Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight used his powerful bolts of lightning to destroy the dragons' scales; the Witch of Izalith and her Daughters of Chaos wove great firestorms, burning the Archtrees, and Nito, the First of the Dead unleashed a miasma of death and disease.[2]
The Lords were successful, and claimed dominion of the world.
Age of Fire[]
In the aftermath of the war, The Age of Fire came about, bringing an age of sunlight and prosperity. The Everlasting Dragons were all but extinct, but the race has many descendants throughout the world, some greater and some lesser, with varying degrees of similarity to their progenitors.
Description[]
The Dragons have a few different names throughout the series; Everlasting Dragons, Ancient Dragons, Archdragons, or simply Dragons. From what can be glimpsed in the opening, the Everlasting Dragons were towering beings with a skin covered both by stone scales and bristly dark fur. Their head sported two straight horns and a mouth bearing two rows of sharp teeth on both jaws. Their back ended in a long and heavy tail but they were still able to fly thanks to their wings (which often came in two pairs), leathery and clawed like the ones of a bat. Appropriately for creatures that lived in a world of fog and penumbra, their two eyes had vertical slotted pupils (this kind of eye is the symbol of both the Path of the Dragon and the Dragon Remnants). Aside from these reptilian features, the Everlasting Dragons' body was a lot less beastial than that of their descendants and kin: their arms didn't end in claws but in four-digited prehensile hands while their torso, broader at the shoulders and thinner at the hips, was almost humanoid in appearance.
According to interviews by Miyazaki, the Ancient Dragons are half-living, half-element, and do not feel pain due to them being "beyond human understanding".[3] They are mineral-based lifeforms existing since before humanity's emergence, yet the very emergence of life was capable of corrupting them and causing them to be warped by emotions and desires, to the point where their very bodies adapt and retrogress in pursuit of their survival, such as the Gaping Dragon being warped by greed and the desire to eat.[4]
Seath and the Stone Dragon prove that these beings were capable of higher reasoning and could understand other species' language to at least some degree, via their known contributions to the world (the former, Seath, being the founder of soul sorcery, along with creating the techniques of forging weapons from powerful souls according to Weaponsmith Ornifex).
It is common for the tails of Dragons to be cut off and used in the forging of powerful weapons.
Although the Dragons predate souls and originally did not bear them, over time some would come to possess souls of their own such as Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon, even ones that existed and died just after the Age of Ancients such as the Ancient Dragon. In fact, dragon bones, when imbued with the power of the soul, can be used as an appropriate core to powerful constructs like the Iron Golem, who guards Sen's Fortress and slays countless heroes seeking Anor Londo.[5] Petrified Dragon Bone is said to house great power.
A Dragon Tooth from an Everlasting Dragon is considered harder than stone and as solid as a boulder, and stated to never break; Havel the Rock would use one as a great club. Merely holding one will grant the user resistance to both fire and magic, suggesting that the Everlasting Dragons had a similar if greater resistances, in contrast to their weakness to lightning.
The Dragons' iconic characteristic, their stone scales that gave them immortality, was implied to have a strong connection with their own form to the point where Dragons and their scales were considered "inseperable", though the exact truth of this is undetermined. However, their transcendent apostles, who seek the perpetuity of the ancient dragons, have crossed the very ends of the earth to find them and offer them up to rise above their petty corporeal existence and become Dragons. Touching a Ancient Dragon Scale is said to give a person a glimpse into the Abyss.[6]
Their scales are said to be razor-sharp and cannot burn,[7] but are weak to the power of sunlight, which manifests as the rare lightning, which is very effective against magic, fire, as well as those who are resistant to magic and fire,[8] metal armor, and most of all, Dragons.[2][9][10][11] A variant of the lightning spear, the Lightning Arrow miracle, was said to be used by the few female knights who served Gwyn, with which they would pierce the eyes of Dragons from afar. The Giant Blacksmith of the Gods would also forge arrows and bolts tipped with Gold Pine Resin, a rare type of fungal resin that emits sparks, in order to imbued regular arrows with the power of lightning to help slay Dragons. These were presumably made for those ancient warriors of Gwyn who could not wield Miracles. Hawkeye Gough and his dragonslayers had their own selection of arrows he used for Dragon hunting that were not imbued with lightning, and giant arrows could only be fired from a specialised greatbow, and with enough power to easily puncture human flesh. Gough himself had a personal bow that not even his Dragonslayers could use, and for which he had his own great arrows he crafts himself out of trees and with head tips of stone.
Despite their scales being what grants them immortality, it is stated that even a descendant of an Archdragon does not perish; Dragonhead Shields and Dragonhead Greatshields, heads as hard as a great boulder and made from descendants of an Archdragon, can even briefly have their former strength restored and be returned to life in order to manifest their abilities.
Throughout the series as a whole, draconian qualities and covenants are seen by several characters or are mentioned in item descriptions as being believed to be a way for individuals to transcend their current form, who consider human flesh as their greatest weakness and believe that to be alive is to be vulnerable, even if one is a God; thus they seek to rise above "petty, corporeal existence" and seek the perpetuity of Dragons.[12][6] While some sought to amass Dragon Scales as a path for transcendence, others such as the Drakeblood Knights worshipped the power of the blood of Dragons, and that fresh Dragon's blood was sacrosanct and was what would allow them to gain true understanding of life and transcend their own existence.[13] Their Drakeblood Greatswords would have an insignia chiselled on the hilts and script engraved on the blades that would symbolise dragon's blood and which seemed connected to the swords' ability to inflict both lightning and magic damage, though the specifics are unknown.
Among Dragon worshippers, some zealots would take to conducting rituals in order to imbue stones with the power of dragons, but such claims are considered questionable.[14] These stones, the Dragon Head Stone and the Dragon Torso Stone, would allow the bearer to transform their head and body into an ancient dragon, though such a transformation was incomplete; the bearer would have draconic features but remained humanoid and small in stature without wings. Although they would gain the power of dragons, able to roar like a Dragon and breath fire, they were without the Dragons' immortality and the power they obtained would reverse upon death. A variant of the stones would be created which gifts the bearer the Black Dragon Set, armor crafted from the scales of the Black Dragon that is also linked to the power of the stones. Eventually, for those on the path of perfect imitation, some stones would be imbued with the powers of the Everlasting Dragons themselves. This would only be the first step of the rite: offering the stones to a towering dragon would imbue them with even greater power and turn them into Twinkling Stones and allow them to summoned a mirage of an Archdragon, the illusion the first case achieved of a human imitating the form of an Ancient Dragon but yet reveals the smallness of human existence.[15] Whether the light and power emitted from the Twinkling Stones has any connection with the cosmic event[16] that granted special power to Twinkling Titanite is unknown.
It is still a mystery if the Everlasting Dragons' destructive breath is true fire (as suggested by the Dragon Head Stone) or a flame with arcane properties (like Kalameet's); however Kalameet's flames are at least partially Dark in regards to game mechanics.
Plot[]
Dark Souls[]
The Chosen Undead may encounter many distant descendants and remnants of the Dragons throughout Lordran and Oolacile:
The fire-breathing Hellkite Dragon encountered in Undead Burg is actually a Drake. Drakes are seen as undeveloped imitators of the dragons, but are likely their distant kin.[17] Drakes are likely descendants of the ancient dragons, and although their strength pales in comparison to the what is described in legend, to mere humans they are still mighty beasts. [18] Blue Drakes, who breath lightning instead, may also be of similar origin to the Hellkite Dragon and are found in the Valley of Drakes, though what their exact relation to the Ancient Wyverns is unknown.
Hydras, due to their reptilian appearance, breath attacks, and from dropping Dragon Scales, are implied to also be descendants of the ancient dragons.
The area boss of the Depths is the Gaping Dragon, a distant, warped descendant of the Everlasting Dragons.[19]
In Ash Lake, the Stone Dragon, a descendant of the ancient dragons,[20] initiates the player into the Path of the Dragon Covenant. Domhnall of Zena shares a rumor that the Stone Dragon is not a descendant and is instead, a surviving Ancient Dragon.[21]
Undead Dragons, scattered throughout the land, are corpses of the Ancient Dragons that maintain some spark of life within their rotten form somehow, and can be occasionally stumbled upon as minibosses. They are heavily decomposed, possess no eyes, rotten wings unable to fly, can disgorge a Toxic substance from their mouths, and their hindquarters can easily detach and remain animated by themselves, even capable of standing up by themselves. Bounding Demons of Izalith, due to their resemblance, are inferred to be the bottom halves of Undead Dragons that were bought to life and turned into Demons by the Bed of Chaos.[22]
Crossbreed Priscilla of the Painted World of Ariamis is the result of the interbreeding of Seath and a human.[23] [24]
Seath the Scaleless, the albino dragon, allied with Lord Gwyn and turned upon the Ancient Dragons: for this he was awarded Dukedom and given a fragment of a great soul.[25] It is implied he has some connection to the creation of the Serpent Soldiers and Serpent Mages in his experiments for immortality,[26] though if they have any connection to Dragons is unknown.
One-eyed Black Dragon Kalameet may be encountered as an optional boss in the Royal Wood area of Oolacile and is supposedly the last of the Ancient Dragons.[27][28] After its defeat, the Black Dragon and its final battle would become mere legend, very rarely mentioned and considered by some to be embellishments of the tale of the Pale Dragon. However, proof of it existence would be left in the form of many items made from its body and passed down by Dragon Worshippers: the Calamity Ring, made from and enchanted by Kalameet's orange eye; the Black Dragon Armor, made from its scales; the strangely-shaped Black Dragon Shield, made from its talons, and several oddly-shaped weapons made from its tail, including a Greataxe, a Warpick, and three different swords, one blade of which is still capable of releasing its mystical power when wielded with both hands and unleashing and explosion of the gold and black flames of Kalameet.
Dark Souls II[]
Wyrms(known as Earth Dragons in Japanese)[29] are a type of wingless, two-legged dragon[30] that were once used as mounts by the Dragonriders, who helped King Vendrick found Drangleic.[31] The Dragonriders served as his royal guard[32] and were feared for their unparalleled strength.[33] Aspiring Dragonriders who could not handle their training were killed by their Wyrms, but those who survived gained deific strength.[34]
The Guardian Dragon residing in a cage in Aldia's Keep, is one of Aldia's creations and guards the way to the Dragon Aerie which is filled with the Dragon's kin. Despite its name, this creature is a wyvern (it has two legs and two wings) and its features are both avian and draconic. Being a creation of Aldia, it is possible that the latter interbred the last surviving drakes with some giant avian creatures in order to create a self-sustaining new race of Dragons.
Giant Basilisks can drop both Petrified Dragon Bones and the Dragon Sage Hood, which implies that they were experiments of Aldia and his followers to imbue Basilisks with the great power of the petrified bones.
Magerold of Lanafir will speculate in dialogue that the Petrified Egg is a Dragon Egg, and giving him the egg allows a person to join the Dragon Remnants Covenant. Magerold also states that merely holding the egg makes him feel invigorated, but whether that statement is literal or figurative is unclear.
Enhanced Undead are some of many of Aldia's experimental creations, and were believed to be an attempt at recreating the Dragons. They are either failed examples or merely the first stage of the mutation into a Dragon, as their bones are formed into the shape of a Dragon. Whether they succeeded or failed, though their bodies seem almost half-dragon, their minds are undoubtedly of a Hollow's.[35] They wield Malformed Skulls, which are possibly the skulls of Dragons; a specimen far too rare to be swung about like a giant hammer.
The corpse of a Dragon can be found in the area in which The Duke's Dear Freja is fought, as well as within the Dragon Memories. Furthermore, Freja is suggested to be possessed by a reincarnation of Seath due to dropping the Old Paledrake Soul in NG+, and it can be inferred that its rock-hard shell it developed as it grew from consuming souls is somewhat similar to the scales of the Ancient Dragons.
The Ancient Dragon residing in the Dragon Shrine is said by the Emerald Herald to have watched over the world for "aeons". However, the veracity of this is doubtful, and he may have been resurrected by Lord Aldia than a survivor from the War of Fire, since Aldia attempted to recreate the dragons using giant souls. The former is far more likely as when the Ancient Dragon is slain, the Bearer of the Curse receives a Giant Soul. He gifts the Ashen Mist Heart, a manifestation of ashen mist whose magic can allow one to delve into the memories of the long-deceased, such as dead Giants and even a Dragon, as well as to pull items and souls from those memories into the real world. Whether this is an actual magic of the Dragons that the Ancient Dragon's body manage to inherit or not is unknown, but it something to be in doubt on since the Ancient Dragon may be a false Dragon.
Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon is the only true Dragon encountered in Dark Souls II. He was worshiped in the city of Shulva and was awoken by Sir Yorgh, thus leading to his and the city’s demise.
Imperfects are eyeless horrors with a giant humanoid mouth and the ability to breath dark spheres. While their appearance is far-removed from a dragon, they drop dragon-related items. The meaning of this is unknown.
Dark Souls III[]
Very few true Dragons appear in Dark Souls III, if any at all; as even more time separates the events of Dark Souls III and the Age of Dragons. Wyverns appear in Lothric Castle and the High Wall of Lothric and two Ancient Wyverns reside in Archdragon Peak. However, the Wyverns in Lothric Castle are also afflicted with Pus of Man.
The Knights of Lothric, with their Drakes, once crushed anything that threatened their shores, though such a time was long ago.[36] Although the Knights has since tamed Dragons, in the past they contended and were hunters of Dragons themselves, explaining their special gear such as their swords blessed with the strength of lightning and their shields with suitably high lightning absorption. They also utilised Lightning Urns. Originally crafted in Melfia, a land that flourishes with magic and pyromancy, these explosive lightning urns lack potency, although the Knights still wielded them in their Dragon hunts.[37][38][39]
Oceiros, the Consumed King was formerly the King of Lothric but became obsessed with Seath the Scaleless' work and sought to become more powerful using his royal blood. With the aid of the scholars of the Grand Archives[40], he discovered the research made by Logan, who in turn was inspired by Seath.[41] Much like Logan, Oceiros was driven insane by the work of the paledrake and somehow transformed into a malformed abomination reminiscent to that of Seath. He has survived many assassination attempts, which he claims is due to the divine protection of the dragon scale.[42]
Archdragon Peak is a location accessed through the 'path of the dragon' gesture found behind the location where Oceiros is fought. The enemies there are adherents to the Path of the Dragon, most likely based on the covenant from Dark Souls. Various sizes of these man-serpent hybrids appear, wielding various weapons such as axes on chains, daggers and spears. Man-serpents are said to be descendants of the Ancient Dragons and have lingering, undying traces of them, though they have fallen far from grace.[43] The Ancient Wyvern is also fought here.
Company Captain Yorshka seems to be a dragon crossbreed similar to Priscilla. She has scale-like markings around her eyes, and a tail not unlike that of a dragon's.
Stoneplates are symbols of true knights, and yellow stoneplate rings which boosts defence against lightning and absorbing lightning damage are given those who would become Dragons.
The Wretches found in Irithyll dungeon are a twisted hybrid of a human and dragon who were left in the dungeon to rot, possibly due to being failed experiments. Wielding Tailbone Short Swords and Tailbone Spears crafted from feeble tailbone, these weapons are seen as a sign of the dragons. These weapons can unleash the strength of dragons, similar to an ancient dragon weapon, only with its power tragically faded. Using magic, they can call upon damaging blasts of stormy wind either as a cyclone from the spear or a line of explosive wind that trails across the ground.
The young painter found in the library in the Painted World of Ariandel may be a crossbreed as well, as she appears to have scales on her feet and face, although she is lacking a tail.
The Millwood Knights, guardians of the Ethereal Oak and the fabled Millwood forest, are said to be enemies of "the Abyss Dragon". Wearing antlers believed to grow from the blessed beast of the Ethereal Oak, fighting hand-in-hand with the earth itself using hammers with heads of naturally-formed stone, blessed axes wielded by their mightiest warriors, and with greatbows and heavy arrows made from black oak, they did battle with the Dragon. However, when the forest was discovered, it had become a vacant ruin and the Ethereal Oak left rotten, while the Millwood Knights had disappeared, their corpses missing and their belongings laying neatly on the ground.[44]
The Nameless King is referenced to have sided with the Dragons and is speculated to be the first-born son of Gwyn, indicated by several descriptions on weapons and his boss soul. He is referenced as a dragon-slaying god of war who sacrificed everything to side with the Dragons, and Gwyn's first-born son is said to have been stripped of his stature as punishment for his foolishness and effectively removed from history as a result of that. When encountered, he is riding a Stormdrake, named King of the Storm.
Darkeater Midir is the only remaining archdragon encountered in Dark Souls III who is still alive. Raised by the Gods of Lordran themselves to combat the growing Abyss, Midir's everlasting battle against the darkness has taken its toll on him, and he is slowly being consumed by the dark's influence. Fearing that the darkness within him may drive him mad, the Ashen One is tasked by Shira to put him down before he loses himself.
Dragons[]
Known Dragons, descendants of Dragons and results of experiments, interbreeding with humans, or evolution.
Ancient Dragons[]
(Dragons born after the Disparity)
Lesser Dragons[]
(Descendants of Ancient Dragons)
- Primordial Serpents
- Gaping Dragon
- Hellkite Drake
- Guardian Dragon
- Ancient Wyvern
- Lothric Wyverns
- Blue Drakes
- Hydras
- Undead Dragons
- Wyrms
- Basilisks
Human-Dragons[]
(Creatures that are the result of interbreeding or experiments)
- Crossbreed Priscilla
- Dark Sun Gwyndolin
- Company Captain Yorshka
- The Painter
- Emerald Herald
- Oceiros, the Consumed King
- Ancient Dragon
- Serpent Soldiers
- Man Serpent
- Lizardman
- Imperfects
- Enhanced Undeads
- Wretches
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Souls of Lords description.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Opening narration.
- ↑ Game No Shokutaku Interview
- ↑ From Software (January 21, 2014). Dark Souls: Design Works. Canada: UDON Entertainment Corporation. p. 118. ISBN 978-1-926778-89-1.
- ↑ Dragon Bone Fist
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Dragon Scale and Dragon Scale (Dark Souls II)
- ↑ Dragonscale Armor
- ↑ Lightning Greatarrow
- ↑ Lightning Spear
- ↑ Lightning (Dark Souls III)
- ↑ Sunlight Blade
- ↑ Dragon Eye and Dragon Eye (Dark Souls II)
- ↑ Drakeblood Greatsword
- ↑ Dragon Head Stone (Dark Souls II)
- ↑ Twinkling Dragon Head Stone
- ↑ Twinkling Titanite (Dark Souls II)
- ↑ Drake Sword description.
- ↑ Drakewing Ultra Greatsword
- ↑ Dragon King Greataxe description.
- ↑ Dragon Greatsword description.
- ↑ Domhnall of Zena dialogue.
- ↑ Bed of Chaos' Soul description
- ↑ Soul of Priscilla description.
- ↑ Priscilla's Dagger is an Occult weapon meaning that Priscilla's body naturally contains Darkness
- ↑ Bequeathed Lord Soul Shard description.
- ↑ Archive Tower Cell Key
- ↑ Obsidian Greatsword description.
- ↑ Calamity Ring description.
- ↑ Collection of Japanese Dark Souls Dragon terms
- ↑ Dark Souls 2 Design Works - Dragon Riders
- ↑ Dragonrider Greatshield
- ↑ Dragonrider's Halberd
- ↑ Dragonrider Soul
- ↑ Dragonrider Gauntlets
- ↑ Dark Souls II Collector's Edition Guide description
- ↑ Lothric Knight Sword
- ↑ Lightning Urn (Dark Souls III)
- ↑ Lothric Knight Greatsword
- ↑ Lothric Knight Shield
- ↑ Soul of Consumed Oceiros
- ↑ White Dragon Breath (Dark Souls III)
- ↑ Dragonscale Ring
- ↑ Ancient Dragon Greatshield
- ↑ Millwood Knight Set