It seems to me, the Wyrm being intelligent, if it suffers itself to be saddled and ridden by a human, surely there must be some element of self-interest as far as the dragon is concerned to allow the sort of close symbiotic/working relationship which you suggest. I'm wondering what's in it for the fire-breathing beastie? What's the dragon's motivation? A quick, easy meal (the bodies of the protagonist's slain foes, perhaps)? Invasion of its traditional homelands by marauders bent on plundering its hoard?

Oh, I wouldn't toss aside the idea of the heroine wielding some sort of polearm. As an assassin type, she must have received some sort of training with staves and such. Consider: she's walking though the woods, looking for all the world like your average traveller, long hooded cloak, no visible weapons such as a long sword; perhaps the only thing that comes close to a weapon is a small knife tucked behind her pouch. And her walking staff, shod with an iron ferule to keep the wood from splitting and to provide better purchase on the path. Very non-threatening. But she isn't out for a country stroll. Oh no. She's on a mission, a rendezvous, because her "mark" is supposed to be on the very same path as she, going the other way. And there he is! They pass, nodding as strangers are like to do and quick as you please, she whips the staff around and twack! The iron tip connects with the back of her victim's skull - and fractures it like a dropped egg shell. Her victim collapses without so much as a groan, and she continues on her merry way. Mission accomplished!

You mentioned modeling the dragons after real large predators got me thinking. Typically predators chase things that run away instead of taking on things that stand there ground. For some its almost a compulsion, cats seems to be particularly bad about that. Some can be very territorial (as I grumble about the dogs barking at passing traffic again).

What happens when dragons meet? If they are rare then a meeting of two intelligent dragons could be a charged event.
Does it have something like a mane that is used primarily as protection from other dragons? Particularly one of the same gender. And on that note which gender does the preening and showboating to attract mates?

Ok so most likely this isn't anything revolutionary but I like the idea of looking at real animals for clues on behavior and give a sense of not-humanness to it.

Wow- this is tremendous!

Jean- in earlier books she carried a bigger range of weapons, including an axe with a spike back for use against armour, and a range of other nasties. But she inherited a magical sword from her father which allows her to cut through any armour that an axe with a spike would, so she discarded that.

The eating knife is something I hadn't thought of. I'll see if I can work it in in my re-writes of earlier stories- it makes perfect sense. She used to carry two long-bladed daggers that were nearly the size of short swords, for use in tight places and as a parrying dagger with her sword, but she now carries something more like a falcata, though I am unhappy with this, and could see her using something like a sai, though this makes her too much like Elektra of comic book fame.

She has a shape-shifting friend based loosely on a Zulu woman who does scouting and so on, but in this book she got chewed up by a man-crab thingie and is out of action. Funny you say about the dog- I originally had envisioned her with a big wolf, and I even had hr rescue one from a pack of highly evolved meat-eating apes, but then I decided to leave him out, because much of the story occurs in cities, which are not wolf friendly. She often travels with a small force of retainers/mercenaries/friends, who cover her back.

You should take a whirl at writing Jean- it is fun, if time-consuming!

Craig I agree 100% on making it awkward to ride. I've yet to work out the details of it- I wish I was an artist- it would help heaps. This, for me, is what makes writing fantasy and sci-fi so fun. Creating fantastical and sometimes ridiculous problems, and then trying to work them out using the technology and know-how limitations of my characters.

I had considered an atlatl, but I thought it might be awkward on a heaving dragon. It is a logical choice though. But they require a lot of bodily motion to be used effectively, and I'm not sure how good one would be from the back of a dragon, confined to a saddle with a seat belt of some sort. I figured a bow would be better, as it gains all of its force from the structure of the bow itself, and not from the kinetic motion of the user. Do you agree, or not? It's been years since I've used an atlatl.

Carl If I get published, you can look for that egg trick. That's excellent!

Brad What about a flail-staff? The recoil would be negated by the chain.

As for the thing's intelligence, I had thought of three ways to deal with this. 1) It owes the heroine a debt (she saves it's life), 2) It is made to serve by Mahaliat, Queen of Dragons (In Book 7) or 3) It gets a kick out of kicking butt with a puny human, and likes the steady diet of bad guys. I personally like #1 and #3 together, so that the rider and the dragon have a two-way, interactive and changeable relationship.

JoelAs for the dragon's limitation, I might design it so that it had vision like an owl's which can lock onto something at great distances but then blanks out the periphery, or maybe it will only go for moving targets, for some reason or another. I agree with you about using modern predators as a basis for the dragon. Maybe a bit of tiger, grizzly bear and great white shark tossed in. With non-human, intelligent species, which I have tried to keep away from the hackneyed orcs and goblins, I have worked hard to keep their psychology non-human. One of my favorite beasties are the Carna-ith, or cat-people, who are superior to humans but can't resist playing with their food, rather than killing it outright.

As for the meeting of dragons- I hadn't thought of that. I've had three different dragons so far in these books, each of a different race, so that will be a definite. Maybe the races hate each other, or even hunt each other.

Also, I'd like to put in chinese-style dragons, magical things that morph into human shape when they want.

As for limiting the breath thing- my dear wife came up with something a while back that I had forgotten. Instead of making it breathe fire, have it superheat water in a crop and breathe steam like a geyser. Then it is limited by availability of water.

Folks, once again, that you all so very much for this help!

I have never actually shot an atlatl, so my comment is mostly supposition! I figured a kneeling position on the back of the dragon would allow the most upper-body mobility,

That geyser thing is a neat idea, but do reptiles also produce methane while digesting like mammals do? Than you might have a problem with exploding dragons. But that is just a technicality and is far, far away from the original point about weaponry.
What about something like a flail, but bigger. Or a ball and chain for the dragon. Just heavy enough so it can still fly - at least at low altitude. That would just mow down approaching enemies, but would make the dragon prone to archers and such.
Personally, I would stay away from humans turning into dragons if the dragon is meant to be ridden.
It makes for a rather awkward relationship between the two people if one is merely the mount of the other one, it is the same problem I see with a quite intelligent dragon but there less so because.. well it is still some kind of animal, it feels less strange than a human submitting himself like that.

One thing about having Dragons is that they would perform a valuable role when it came to scouting. A medieval commander would have given his right and most of the fingers on the left for Aerial Recon. And you'll lose a lot less men to ambushes and the unexpected army if those Dragon Riders can land to let your men know what's going on.

You could also carry troops (Perhaps some sort of enclosed howdah gripped in the dragon's claws? Or one of those big ship things like Temeraire), you also 'air-lift' wounded and extract people from difficult situations.

As mentioned Dragons could carry huge incendiary grenades and rocks and they have an organic flamethrower in their mouth.

Finally you could do all sorts of unpleasant envelopment maneuvers to the enemy. Like say detaching a few hundred dragons to fly behind the enemy pikes, land and then charge the enemy pikemen in the rear. As others have said Dragons would be most useful on the ground with their size, flame, and ability to fly over stuff and then attack the flanks or rear. Swooping down on a pike block or a group of knights with lances would equal a lot whiplash and a shish-kabobbing.


By the way. What are common Anti-Dragon weapons? Besides other Dragons of course. After all if the enemy has Dragons you might want some sort of ballista with a high elevation.

Do you have different kinds of Dragon?

My two cents. Take this with a grain of salt and keep in mind I may be assuming to much about your Universe.

I'll shut up now :P

Have no fear Ben- I'm after your two cents worth!

I had thought of a weighted net too- like a cast net.

The incendiary grenade idea is great.

As for the ball and chain- I was up until the wee hours last night researching rope darts, whips and meteor balls. A meteor ball could be good too. Then I came up with the idea of a flail on a staff, which would be less risky to use, as the meteor ball could tangle in an opponent and pull her out of her seat.

For that matter, a bolo would be a great weapon, and she's encountered them before (got knocked cold by one actually)

I still think the dragon should have a gun of some sort.

Perhaps a serpentine cannon!

Good stuff Ben. I really like the hollow eggs too. In the first book she squared off against an assassin who threw balls of magic powder, and she's used the same. Dust that ignites when it enters the nose/mouth, things like that.

The heroine isn't really a heroine- she's more of an anti-heroine :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenade#Europe


Here you go. I look forward to reading those books!

I wonder how they used to ignite the oil bombs???

Some sort of dry, powdery acid would be very nasty too.

I'll send you an excerpt of the first one if you like Ben- what I've proofread so far. It's by far the weakest of the lot, as it was the one I first wrote, but folks seem to enjoy it.

Thanks!

Dude that would be great. Thanks :)

I wonder if some dragons can shoot fire from both ends This could be a potent weapon if the back end projectile was of a different or more concentrated form. Hmmm. . . .

LOL- gives a new meaning to afterburners, hey? LOL

I put some pretty gross/gritty things in my book, but if I wanted to be really nasty I could have it do the classic reptile defense- cover itself with extra-smelly excreta to make itself unpalatable. Now that's something no one's had a dragon do in a book!