Paksworld

In the original Paks books,  dragons were believed to have existed at one time, but to have been vanquished (some said by Camwyn Dragonmaster.)    No dragons had been seen in human lands for a long, long, very long time.    In this lack of direct evidence, imagination flourished, and the Sinyi, many of whom had in fact seen dragons in their living memory, did not dispel any of the notions that humans came up with.  Nor did the rockfolk, who had–if not living memory–at least a closer tie to dragons.   In fact…they found human stories about dragons amusing.   Even the gnomes, who find very little amusing.   Still, though the legends attached to dragons have little basis in fact, they are of interest in how they shape humans’  ideas about dragons.

Dragon Colors.    Humans have long classified dragons by color, and assigned meaning to the colors (as they have with horses, cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, cats…)   Elves also assign meaning to colors, but not always the same ones, and they have never said anything to humans about the colors of dragons.    Humans consider that all dragons are dangerous in some way (not always in the same way) and that all dragons have some transformative power–of themselves and/or of some aspect of the world.

In Sheepfarmer’s Daughter and in Oath of Fealty, there’s an inn in Valdaire named the White Dragon,  so this is where we’ll start.   I think it’s the only overt mention of dragon color in any of the books so far.  In Aarenis, the color white is associated with cold (snow more than ice, but also ice) and clouds.  Thus white dragons are thought to belong to mountain peaks, and to travel within blizzards–in fact, to be, in some way, the blizzard: to be “snow dragons.”   A very strong snowstorm is locally called “a snow dragon” in northwestern Aarenis, but not in the west center, next to the Westmounts (Pliuni, Horngard) where it’s called “death-snow.”   Calling a dragon by what might be its actual tribal name (“snow dragon”) is considered very dangerous–the westerners won’t even use the term “snow-dragon” for the storm, and the north-westerners would never use that term for a business, like the inn.   Hence, “White Dragon.”    White dragons are believed to transform themselves into innocent appearing snow, ice (on mountains) and clouds, so it’s important to be wary and respectful of these.

Red dragons are considered to be more fiery than any other dragon (white dragons, though they may be surrounded by an eerie blue flame, or emit a blue flame, are thought to be the essence of cold.)   Depictions of red dragons show them breathing yellow flame.    In southern Aarenis, they’re thought to live in the deserts of Old Aare, and to be servants of  Ibbirun, the Sandlord.   When volcanoes erupt (there are some volcanic islands in the Immerhoft Sea, and some volcanoes in coastal areas) they’re believed to be birthing red dragons.    When rounded lumps of pumice are emitted from volcanoes, the locals think these are dragons’ eggs.    Poisonous gases emitted from volcanoes are “the breath of an angry dragon.”   Those who live near volcanoes attempt to propitiate the resident dragon.   Red dragons are believed to transform anything to flame, and to become entirely flame themselves (and then transform from flame to dragon.)   Thus it’s important to respect fire in all its forms,  and speak respectfully to the fire on one’s hearth.

Yellow dragons (gold dragons)  are thought to be “rock dragons” that live in stone and create the veins of desirable metals  needed to make things…and, because they’re inherently dishonest, they also make the minerals that fool men into thinking they’re valuable.   (So yellow dragons are responsible for both veins of gold and veins of fool’s gold.)    There are competing legends that make them servants of Sertig the Maker (because of their ability to transform rock to gold)  or servants of Simyits, in the aspect of Trickster (because of their transforming rock to fool’s gold and other less desirable substances.)  In mines, any suspicion of “dragon’s breath” is a signal that the miners have gone too far, and certain hills (like Blackbone Hill in Gird’s book) are believed to be formed of dead dragons and  especially dangerous to miners.

Blue dragons are traditionally thought of as ice dragons–living in the far north, and bringing winter with them when they fly.   However, a splinter legend is that they’re water dragons, sea-dragons.     They’re still dangerous, either way, and are not associated at all with heat–they don’t flame anything.  An angry blue dragon (made angry by someone cursing winter, for instance) can bring winter out of season: can become Winter.   The horse nomads, who live farthest north,  are very careful to speak softly of winter, and thank it for its gifts.

Green dragons are the ones about whom most tales are told (assuming that there is such a thing.)    Green dragons are the ones who are thought to have lived most among humans at one time, and in legend they are crafty, highly intelligent, and peculiarly interested in specific virtues.    They are thought to prefer living in woodland, where they can blend in with the leaves.   In some stories they judge humans they meet and burn those who do not satisfy them.   Their transformative power is believed to be shape-shifting into other living things (including humans, elves, dwarves, etc.)

Some humans have considered  how dragons reproduce, and some have even speculated that snow dragons and ice dragons (or water dragons) mate, because they are, at base, made of the same stuff, but the phases are different.   “Like male and female” says that story.    Thus red and yellow dragons also mate, they say.    And that leaves the green…a puzzle.   How do green dragons reproduce?   There are stories about that, too, pairing green dragons with every other color to produce…new colors, of course.    Or assuming that green dragons are the offspring of blue dragons and yellow dragons (painters thought that one up) , water or ice and rock being a pairing that makes sense to some.

When an actual dragon shows up in the world again…many ideas about dragons will be shown to have been wrong.  But a good story takes a lot of killing, so errors won’t disappear immediately.  Maybe this is how it is now, but back in the old days, surely this tale and that one were true.