On Worldbuilding: Dragons [ The Last Airbender l Smaug l Game of Thrones ] PART ONE

when we're world-building there is a host of things to consider culture religion politics warfare geography and you know I think that's about it sorry I just have to interject because you know when we're writing these wonderful stories in the veins of say Tolkien Sanderson or Martin we get to have so much fun with incredible magic systems gods and really in-depth diverse you know strange and mysterious world settings yet with all that in mind we cannot forget the most important question what about dragons that is a fantastic point shed of the shed adversity channel who makes awesome videos on medieval history fantasy weapons and ancient warfare check em out down in the description below what about dragons a few days ago I sat down to write a single simple short video on dragons which of course it was because I'm great at writing concisely just kidding it was 6,000 words long so here's part one on world-building dragons with part to being on writing dragons we will be breaking it down into four topics types of dragons had dragons interact with people had dragons interact with the world and had dragons interact with one another if you like this kind of educational content and want to help me stop having to do things like sponsorships because it would be amazing if that happened they throw in literally any amount over on my patreon link down below these kinds of videos are definitely the ones that I have to throw the most time and effort and work at and I love doing them plus these perks like the discord I'm on there every day and it's full of nerds and Geeks just like me link down below firstly types of dragons they've been a staple of the fantasy genre as far back as the genre itself and the Dragons we see in modern literature tend to draw from one of three different archetypes that have evolved across the ages in the common consciousness these archetypes are made up of a bunch of dragon tropes that you'll recognized and they're important to consider when writing because each archetype of bigs different world building questions so what are they one is the Western Beast we see this type in the likes of drogon vissarion and Rhaegar in George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series or the dragon that st. George slays in his famous tale this is the the people most commonly need a hero to save them from this archetype is the one most commonly associated with fire-breathing their ferocious forces of nature by themselves they're apex predators they cannot be negotiated with though they can sometimes be tamed and while they might be intelligent for animals they're usually not as smart as humans the second archetype is the Western thinker this archetype draws on dragons like fifteen and other particularly northern and Eastern European legends they are intelligent beings of human or even extra human intelligence usually able to speak and sometimes have less conventional powers like hypnosis poison or mind-reading and these powers are holdovers from ancient stories like the Persian book of kings or the 12 labors of historically this archetype has been malevolent greedy and manipulative like tokens glutton who orchestrated the doom of the children of húrin in the last two decades they have been a number of the neutral or good dragons that fit this archetype like Tweety Sutherlands wings of fire series or Ursula Gwen's wizard of Earthsea series most importantly what distinguishes the Western thinker from the Western beast is its intelligence it can be negotiated with reasoned with this archetype is also most commonly associated with curses or the hoarding gold trope thirdly the eastern sage the cultural idea of dragons has been dominated by Western tropes but the eastern sage has found its niche we can see its iconic and distinctive mane serpentine design in characters like ran and Shore in Avatar The Last Airbender or Shinran in Dragon Ball Z unlike the first and second archetypes though the eastern sage is distinctively wise ancient even benign and sometimes close to the divine like Haku in Ghibli's spirited away who comes from the spirit world in a way that the Western thinker is not this archetype is actually most commonly associated with water rather than fire that's a Western thing and often has an intelligence far beyond that of a humans your dragons may draw a little from each of these archetypes like the eldest causes Alduin somewhat divine intelligent but immensely beastly more heavily from one type like CS Lewis's voyage of the Dawn Treader and Eustace being a greedy dragon once a person just like Fafnir or have a dragon entirely outside these Terps all of which is okay but in world building the design of the Dragons met is less than three things how dragons interact with people how dragons interact with the world and how dragons interact with each other firstly what is their relationship with people our Dragons used as wartime steeds in army Novak's his majesty's dragon and eastern sage called temeraire radically changes warfare in the 18th century by shifting the focus from holding naval superiority to holding aerial superiority it's their speed their versatility and the threat they posed to conventional warfare tactics that create something of a dragon arms race and in world-building when dragons are magical super weapons who controls them and where they are matters if numerous factions control them then these factions will naturally become the dominant powers vying for supremacy like a naomi novik's black powder war where the ottomans French British and Chinese become geopolitical superpowers over states like Spain through controlling hosts of dragons constantly competing with one another however if a single faction controls them then that faction is likely to exert itself and to do so quite successfully in A Song of Ice and Fire the tiger Ian's were the only house to control dragons with them they brought the mighty castle of Harrenhal low that would have stood against a hundred thousand men but could not stand against balerion the dread they were really warfare and Westeros was so changed that when Aegon began his initial conquest Torrance stark bent the knee and gave up his crown rather than face balerion that inequality of military power reshapes the geopolitical landscape by elevating one faction above others as a sidenote you think Dragon Riders are cool right well in talking Silmarillion bell walls ride to dragon age this the fiery giant monsters from the depths of hell right other giant fiery monsters are dragons worshipped revered or seen as otherworldly now let's not forget that and you should check out my video on designing polytheistic religions but religions tend to focus around any of three questions how did the world come to be how should we act towards one another and what happens when we die in our world dragons often play a role in the first or second question the ancient Babylonian Tiamat is a primordial goddess of creation and chaos the dragon queen no not that one but in figuring out the place of dragons in your religion consider which elements of their design people would naturally emphasize which things were the people narrow in on or which Christians might they look to answer animals have a long history of religious iconography like how the Eagle represented the sky and Zeus Vishnu Krishna indra are all associated with bees as the nick Taborn ones and horses show up in Mongolian mythology all the freakin time and these particular animals became symbols in a given Society for a reason the eagle is the ultimate hunter in the skies of Greece Hindus recognized how beasts spread flowers which are also critical symbols and Hindu stories and horses were the lifeblood of the mongol nomadic society there are clear connections between the makeup of that specific society and which animals they choose and what they emphasize consider what your society relies on economically geographically and politically and how do your dragons relate to it sustaining it or destroying it in any way that might help color their place in that religion and it's critical to remember that symbols are not restricted to religion but they can extend into culture and politics in erina houses the dragon Prince dragons are naturally Noble and good and they defend the elven lands from the humans it makes sense that they become cultural and political icons revered as Guardians elves used draconic imagery to denote principles of faith loyalty guardianship and leadership though avatar the last airbender has an interesting subversion of this revere or reviled dichotomy that we sometimes fall into in writing dragons Renan sure our revered as dragons the original firebenders they're a symbol of the Fire Nation and seen as a role model of a good leader they're powerful a bender and eternally wise even able to see into the minds of mortals this reverence though ironically led to them being nearly wiped out if you revere a dragon what about the man who slays it slaying them became a mark of honor because it put you on their level on the level of the Dragons earning people the title of Dragon like iro was known as the dragon of the West you can make how people revere or a viola dragon more interesting and more multi-dimensional than just bow down before me or Christ compare they are dragons beasts that roam the land killing and terrorizing well if your dragons are hostile and territorial been to questions emerge which territories do dragons control and how do people respond to this hostility typically dragons have a bit of a fetish for caves and mountaintops and bothering me when all I want to do get to a damp dungeon leaf hello losing territory means losing resources and space for people to live and that could be something really interesting to play with in Rob Bowman's 2002 film rain of fire a subplot involves hunting down the dragon that wiped out their very limited crop supply after dragons came to dominate the planet humans are forced mostly underground for safety if dragons inhabit the coastal or ocean regions then maritime trade will become both more expensive and dangerous while mainland trade would boom in the same way that humans have spread to all regions of earth and pushed animals out of their natural habitat how would your monolithic fire-breathing death lizards change how and where humans elves dwarves or other animals inhabit the land in Ursula Gwynn's wizard of Earthsea when a dragon comes to inhabit an island and the archipelago the people flee and it becomes a bit of a no-go zone but societies do develop mechanisms to defend against constant threats or they die how does your society respond to hostile dragons especially if they are somewhat common [Music] to kill that damn lizard if they are a new force in the world then a lot of tension will naturally arise in your story from people attempting to grapple with this threat never encountered before how do we face town against them this is precisely the story of Guild Wars 2 with tario facing down against six ancient primordial dragons that have risen from slumber and if they are not a new force in the world then consider the established mechanisms for facing them say a class of specialist dragon slayers like in Dragon Age or specific wartime strategies like count dawn used scorpion to kill more axes and would utilize guerrilla tactics rather than fight in an open field because a society does not survive with huge threats around them by chance there are always specific mechanisms that evolve in response and good world building will show what they are otherwise they might just feel like how if we survived with like six dragons just living around the town a wizard did it our dragons beasts of burden incra seed across wells how to train your dragon dragons are like pits with close friendly and loving relationships in the story we see how this changes the industry of that world because essentially dragons are walking flying breathing fuel sources as a point of note the discovery of coal as a fuel source was key to kicking off the Industrial Revolution amid manufacturing was faster more efficient and more mobile because it didn't need to draw on nearby water sources dragons in this world assist in mittelwerk there leads to the creation of durable alloy metals able to resist powerful attacks of dragons and humans alike it also made carrying heavy loads long distances a lot easier a preliminary form of the rail network then mobilized to the British economy consider how faster transport extra manpower extra fuel sources and a possibly more volatile workforce affects the economy it might be higher returns but it's definitely higher risks if you're relying on giant fire-breathing reptiles to do all your work for you and they are too happy with being turned into furnace cows secondly consider how dragons interact with world what I mean here is that every creature has a place in the ecology and the food chain and they affect the environment in different ways so in New Zealand we have birds lots of birds so many damn birds and they used to be able to fly but then when they came to New Zealand they found out that there were no foxes or cats to kill them and it was food on the ground for them to eat it was a paradise so they got lazy and ended up like this thing and now they can't fly which isn't great because now we do have things like cats and possums that are constantly wanting to kill them they're always in danger and they're always if dragons are the apex predator without needing to spend the energy required for these huge hefty wings then why would they have them if fire-breathing evolved as a means to take care of young in the Arctic then what happens when they move away from that region perhaps your dragons are still evolving towards that traditional dragon look maybe they can only glide for short distances or they aren't the apex predator there's something bigger and badder that they need to escape from - there could be a really interesting idea to play with now while us New Zealanders might have a whole host of flightless chickens hanging about we also once had the terror of the skies dead from above our hostel with a wingspan of three metres and capable of tearing up your children these were huge predatory birds but when the native Marnie arrived they killed off most of the mower the hostages main prey and so after a time the hostel dwindled out and died off two creatures gain or lose abilities in response to evolutionary pressures around them who are your dragons main evolutionary competitors the humans who hunt them other dragons or another mythological beast entirely which natural obstacles do they face and how do these act as evolutionary pressures controlling their design and abilities look at the pressures your world creates and consider how this would affect their evolution thirdly consider how dragons interact with one another we can break this up into social structure culture hobbies and dragon morality firstly consider drankin social structure the cliche is that dragons are lone wolves or lone dragons who hoard treasure and rarely interact with one another except to sink their teeth or something else into them but you could write them as communal beings living in cities like the lava dome give them a hive mind a caste system a matriarchy a patriarchy a strict meritocratic alpha hierarchy or they could be loners in constant competition for magical dominance but one mistake that world builders sometimes make in creating intelligent reasoning Western thinker or Eastern sage dragons is not giving them a culture just having them exist hanging out holding out but here's the thing even if a dragon spends most of their life alone intelligence does not evolve in a vacuum these dragons will have a history of their people stories and fables they've passed down religious beliefs of their own in EE Knights Age of Fire series Dragons reflect on the civil wars from ages past Drake's have to recite philosophical proverbs in their education and certain cultural tales of Honor and determination have taken root in the community consciousness and within this the Dragons social structure that we talked about before will impact which ideas stories and philosophies survive in the common consciousness dragons with a communal social structure are more likely to develop stories of cooperation and philosophies like see as the means of production while lone dragons are less likely to consider these ideas instead possibly developing philosophies of Stoicism and personal enlightenment the communal social structure we see in the Age of Fire series is why they have proverbs that preach against hoarding all of the wealth to yourself yes you could write about communist dragons the Revolution never came so quick and as animals grow more intelligent they develop more complex hobbies to occupy themselves dragons are no different in age of fire dragons don't just hunt and pillage but they have circuses athletic competitions and gladiatorial contests once again these hobbies partly come out of the social structure that encourages communal activity lone dragons on the other hand and other stories might be more inclined towards art or exploration or looking longingly into the horizon and woven into all of this is another world building pitfall dragon morality I spoke before about how we tend to either have mythologies or fantasy worlds that revile or revere dragons there often isn't that much of an in-between and in the same way that it's common to depict all elves as these lofty wordy tree huggers and dwarves as all of these hot-tempered beards who love mining it is all too common to see dragons that are either good or all evil unless you have a damn good Metta world building reason like tokine's Reagan's were created by the Dark Lord Morgoth to be inherently greedy and evil it can read as pretty lazy especially if they're intelligent and capable of reason and change then there's nothing to suggest that all of them would have developed the same moral compass they're not simply driven by instinct and instinct isn't just do evil things or do good things it's a lot more complex than that to assume otherwise would mean that only one kind of philosophy or one interpretation of history ever developed in their culture which calls into question both how intelligent they can be and how good the author is at writing cultural elements like stories philosophies and interpretations of history take root for a reason if a species can reason and argue then they will have hobbies and opinions on things that are beyond their base instincts and Dragons won't all have the same morals depending on how you design your dragons and the world that they inhabit their natural habitat social structure cultural background different ideas and hobbies will more naturally evolve with them so to summarize firstly dragons and fiction tend to fall into one of three categories more than others the Western beast-like dragon wisten think alike Smaug and the Eastern sage link Haku if dragons are beasts of burden then consider how fast a transport extra manpower or extra fuel sources affect industry and the economy if dragons are wartime steeds consider how they change conventional warfare and how who controls them will determine the geopolitics of your world if dragons are revered or worshiped consider which elements of their design people would naturally emphasize in which religious questions they become associated with and their place as symbols if dragons are hostile consider the defense mechanisms they would naturally develop in response and how this impacts things like city planning and city placement thirdly creatures gain or lose abilities in response to evolutionary pressures who are their main evolutionary competitors what natural obstacles arise in their life and how do these two things act as pressures in their evolution fourthly if dragons are intelligent then they will have a vast and complicated culture hobbies religions philosophies histories societal institutions even and a wide variance in morality consider which ideas which stories and social norms make sense for your dragons and how their social structure would influence these and that is it for part one in part two we will be looking at writing dragons like how do you write a dragon protagonist and how do you write an original dragon story because quite fairly many people are bored of them they've been around for a long time if you want to support the channel there's a link to my patreon down below seriously if you do thank you to all of my patrons it's the most amazing thing that you can do for me because obviously this job is incredible and I want to keep doing it and their support makes it possible so thank you so much especially to all my mods and to all of my people who kind of get involved in the discord it's great to talk with you and I love doing that every day it's it's genuinely a highlight that community this is my first video in my new house I'm still working on some audio kinks so if it sounds a little weird or echoey I'm currently making a wall of blankets to try and stop that I'm looking into it I'll see you in part two not quite sure when that's coming but there's a huge series of videos coming up so and involving ones on civil wars mint all characters because you guys are excited for that as well as ones on azula's psychology and hopefully a dragon Prince season to review because I realized a lot of people in this community watched it and I also come follow me over on Twitter that's where I talk the most and it's where I'm probably more likely to respond to your questions email and everything down below and stay nerdy and I'll see you in the future

Channel: Hello Future Me

Views: 498,838

Keywords: explained, theory, lore, analysis, how to, worldbuilding, world anvil, writing, smaug, hobbit, lord of the rings, avatar, legend of korra, atla, aang, sokka, katara, zuko, firebending masters, firebending, beowulf, chinese dragon, western dragon, reign of fire, Guild Wars 2, Fafnir, God of War, Hercules, I need a hero, shrek, silmarillion, wings of fire, spirited away, ghibli, haku, narnia, eragon, inheritance cycle, httyd, how to train your dragon, Dragon Age

Id: JwGiJpS4IME

Length: 23min 6sec (1386 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 23 2019