Questions of dragons everywhere

I hope this isn't too off topic, but I'm doing research on dragons. I thought people here probably know a lot, so my general questions for you are: have you ever seen any kind of proof for dragons being real? Is there anything else you know about historical or scientific evidence? How do the dragons in GW2 relate to reality? Is there any basis for the concept of guild wars in mythology? Basically I'm trying to learn things and anything anybody knows would be appreciated

I'm not entirely sure I understand your question the way you're phrasing it, but considering that we've killed 2 dragons and seen a third try to murder Aurene (who is a dragon herself), I'd say dragons are pretty real... on Tyria. On Earth, the closest we have is the kimono dragon, assuming we didn't eradicate the species ages ago. Otherwise, can you clarify your questions?

There is no evidence that dragons have existed in the real world. At least no evidence that has been backed by actual professionals in the relevant fields with peer review and all that good stuff. We do (as Rognik mentioned) have Komodo Dragons, which are of course, not real dragons. And we have some small lizards that looks remarkably close. Like the armadillo lizard. But again, they're just lizards.

To the more game relevant part of the question, the dragons in GW2 are about as close to the typical dragon archetype as any other. Large saurian things with an odd assortment of magical abilities. In real world history, folk tales with dragons usually kept their powers limited to things like "Breaths fire" or "really good at riddles" but fantasy stories and settings often use dragons as god-like beings of immense world altering power. GW2 is probably on the upper end of that spectrum. The good thing about dragons having never been real is that you can pretty much make them look and act however you want. As long as people get the general idea.

The Dragon myths in the real world originated with people making up stories to explain these crazy huge animal skeletons they would encounter every once in a great while.

Nowadays we know them as Dinosaurs.

for dragon's in real life, you should maybe look up Aron Ra and a video called Draxonomy, he there has a lecture about him talking about dragon and classifing fictionional dragons into a system.

he also explaisn that dragon myths not only come from dinosaur bones, but also from european people drawing a lizard while having never seen the creature in real life, transforming a forked tongue into a multiforked tongue and into fire.

Dragons in western culture usually infer an otherworldly evil, most likely due to the image of the Serpent tempting Adam and Eve to commit the original sin. Then occasionally medieval people found dinosaur bones and the most clever people of the era, the priests came up with the dragon image. Cue in Saint George the dragonslayer. and his legend, and you get the origin of the knight in shining armor defeating the evil dragons, a story structure that survived to this day and thrived significantly in the rise of Fantasy.

Now as for this dragon image connecting GW2 and the real world issues, consider that Elder dragons are forces of nature, like natural disasters the likes of which are the only things capable of scaring modern humans (more than we scare ourselves that is). Elder dragons are not evil in the sense of the biblical serpent, but beyond and above moral contemplations, and are suggested to be the natural part of a system that unfortunately doesn't care about the wellbeing of sentient races as long as the world/planet itself remains intact. This kind of disposition is probably meant to be the reflection of modern humanity's struggle with climate change, the new evil of a more sophyisticated and wiser world.

I have little to add to what is already mentioned, but if you want something based in fictional literature, I'll leave this recommendation here. Whilst the premise is different, it uses the idea of an immense Dragon, so big it is like being it's own mountain range (sounds familiar..)

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Dragon_Griaule.html?id=YWCtAAAAQBAJ&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y

@"Amanda Whitemoon.6173" said:for dragon's in real life, you should maybe look up Aron Ra and a video called Draxonomy

My time to shine, finally!

yes, that one, he explains iut very well:D

as for dragons in guild wars, i have a feeling all dragons come from the Elder Dragons.

i guess, dragons being god-like and have "domains" it come from Chinese mythology. in other cultures dragons are just physical creatures that breath fire.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_dragon

There is a book - "An Instinct for Dragons" - that makes the argument that dragons are a kind of composite of all the things that gave monkeys nightmares (birds of prey, big cats, and snakes). I'm not convinced, though - the book kind of rests on using the modern Western image of the dragon, while if you trace the development of the myths back, dragon-equivalents in pretty much every culture started off as giant serpents or possibly crocodiles.

@lakdav.3694 said:Dragons in western culture usually infer an otherworldly evil, most likely due to the image of the Serpent tempting Adam and Eve to commit the original sin. Then occasionally medieval people found dinosaur bones and the most clever people of the era, the priests came up with the dragon image. Cue in Saint George the dragonslayer. and his legend, and you get the origin of the knight in shining armor defeating the evil dragons, a story structure that survived to this day and thrived significantly in the rise of Fantasy.

Now as for this dragon image connecting GW2 and the real world issues, consider that Elder dragons are forces of nature, like natural disasters the likes of which are the only things capable of scaring modern humans (more than we scare ourselves that is). Elder dragons are not evil in the sense of the biblical serpent, but beyond and above moral contemplations, and are suggested to be the natural part of a system that unfortunately doesn't care about the wellbeing of sentient races as long as the world/planet itself remains intact. This kind of disposition is probably meant to be the reflection of modern humanity's struggle with climate change, the new evil of a more sophyisticated and wiser world.

That 'usually' is a 'since the rise of Christianity'. Pre-Christian beliefs had benign dragons mixed in, but they all got demonised by Christianity.

The word Dragon comes from the Greek word for large Snakes and other monsters: Drakōn

Boas, Pythons, the legendary Chimera(who is mostly a mammal), the Seraphim/Nachash and other such monstrosities are all Dragons.

Infact the Greeks broad use of the word Drakōn is why we assume Satan appeared before Eve as a Snake and not a Nachash/Seraphim! It's also why we assume Moses turned his staff into a Snake in front of the Hebrews when convincing them he was sent by the most high god and why we assume the Seraphim were fiery snakes biting Israelites in the desert before Moses made a statue of one on a pole. The bite of a Nachash is compared to both the sting of an asp and the effects of Alcohol in the same sentence which means it's obviously not a snake.

The word Dragon even referred to the Leviathan who is likely a Hebrew reference to Sumer Myth's Kur who in turn is very similar to Hades(what with the kidnapping of a Goddess to rule the Afterlife) and Apophis(what with him constantly fighting Ra just as Kur fought Enki himself) although in the form of Kur he had two forms: one a snake and the second a reverse griffin(lion paws and head and a eagle body, hind legs and tail).

@"Rognik.2579" said:I'm not entirely sure I understand your question the way you're phrasing it, but considering that we've killed 2 dragons and seen a third try to murder Aurene (who is a dragon herself), I'd say dragons are pretty real... on Tyria. On Earth, the closest we have is the kimono dragon, assuming we didn't eradicate the species ages ago. Otherwise, can you clarify your questions?

Unfortunately they, or their culture, got lost with the expansion of modern man.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

@"Fenom.9457" said:I hope this isn't too off topic, but I'm doing research on dragons. I thought people here probably know a lot, so my general questions for you are: have you ever seen any kind of proof for dragons being real? Is there anything else you know about historical or scientific evidence? How do the dragons in GW2 relate to reality? Is there any basis for the concept of guild wars in mythology? Basically I'm trying to learn things and anything anybody knows would be appreciated

Most western dragon concepts originate from the nordic cultures (as do dwarves and elves, in fact). So if you're wanting to look to the reality of dragons, delve into nordic myth and history. Both geographical and cultural.

As for the dragons of GW2. They don't at all. Though they tend to match the typical fantasy "tied to elements and becomes more tied with more age" concept and drives most of its inspiration from fantasy genre rather than mythology.; they don't match actual mythological dragons in the least, which are typically just giant, winged, fire-breathing lizards. Animals that are strong but nothing special beyond that.

@Crinn.7864 said:The Dragon myths in the real world originated with people making up stories to explain these crazy huge animal skeletons they would encounter every once in a great while.

Nowadays we know them as Dinosaurs.

That is one leading theory. Similar to the theory that the belief of giant cyclopean monsters or giant tusked monsters come from mammoth bones (where the hole for the trunk/nose was mistaken as an eye socket). Not proven, however.

It could be as simple as someone seeing a lizard, and thought it'd be cool if their stories had heroes facing giant winged versions of them.

Though that is specifically accounting for western dragons. If we go to other cultures - middle eastern, far eastern, and new world cultures that is - the appearance of dragons differs drastically, and not always matching local bones.

@lakdav.3694 said:Dragons in western culture usually infer an otherworldly evil, most likely due to the image of the Serpent tempting Adam and Eve to commit the original sin. Then occasionally medieval people found dinosaur bones and the most clever people of the era, the priests came up with the dragon image. Cue in Saint George the dragonslayer. and his legend, and you get the origin of the knight in shining armor defeating the evil dragons, a story structure that survived to this day and thrived significantly in the rise of Fantasy.

The idea of a "knight in shining armor slaying the dragon" long predates Saint George. Beowulf and Siegfried of nordic mythology could easily classify as this, and I think that Siegfried was the true origin of it all. And, as draxynnic said, pre-Christian era had plenty of "good dragons", though such were far, far more common among non-western cultures.

Dragons in ancient myths are less "otherworldly evil" and more "pure primal ferocity".