There are lots of ways that you could make dragons different from humans--all you have to do is explore them.
Not really, it's your story anyway, we're just trying to help you realize the potential and start building a more believable world. It's best to have rules laid out, and defined settings that separate your characters. If they aren't going to be humans, then first thing is to think "how would they live, and what would their culture be like". Speech, mannerisms, desires, motivations, I could go on, but all of these things would be different for dragons. One thing I forgot to mention too is anatomy, especially about alcohol which was just discussed. The reason alcohol affects us is because of our liver. Do these dragons even have one? Maybe it would be more interesting to have a different type of drug that they consume, and maybe one that was highly controversial because it severely inhibits flight to the point they have to stay grounded until it wears off. I think I said this before, but your desire to use a different race other than humans is sort of ambitious. That's not to say it's bad, but rather that it first takes a lot of time in the drawing room. I think many of us have this sense that you may not have spent enough time in said room. Bouncing ideas off other people can help a lot too while you're in the creation process. Some things can also come to you as you write, but the main foundations have to be laid and blocked in first.
I completely agree, but also wanted to note is that another option is to give up the dragons. The setting and culture seem to be almost entirely human--maybe it's time to accept that this story wants to be about humans. Edited to add: I just read about a third of the synopsis, and saw many things that made me say, "This doesn't make sense to me with dragons," that would be just fine with humans. They'd have to be humans that can teleport, but that seems easier than dragons that otherwise don't differ in any significant way from humans.
I think I've implied as much on a few occasions. He could still have some dragons, but not for the main characters here, or at least not the way it's currently written. I get the desire to have them, or at least to have a race different from humans...I mean, humans are so overdone...haha
I have other dragon species in my story though. I feel like not having the protagonists be dragons too would be a little jarring. I wonder if making them quadrupeds would help-- but I already have quadrupedal dragons in my book. They're called Idrakagar and If a Khrizan is human-sized, they're bear-sized, not accounting for the tail and wings. They don't affect the first book that much, but: Historically, in a war where Khriza sought to regain its independence from Farazar, the Idrakagar were instrumental in aiding them when the war engulfed the whole continent and got all the other dragon nations involved. In another war between Khriza and Kadresh, the Idrakagar lent the Khrizans ten warriors. These warriors were juggernauts and they helped turn the tide of certain battles when the Khrizans were losing. However, seven of those Idrakagar were brought down and killed over the war's duration. In the second book, one character named Digdit visits his friend Koroon, an Idrakagar. He is visiting his friends in Teradria before the Teradraks migrate to the mountains. Koroon helps ferry his friend to his destination, shortening a journey that would have taken Digdit twice as long, as Idrakagar can fly further distances with their more powerful wings. When Koroon returns two Kenshi who have been tracking Digdit stop by Koroon's and question him. When they corner Digdit in the treetops of Teradria in an incident that leaves Digdit's wing broken, Koroon swoops in and carries him to safety and his next destination, Sharanghar. Later, a friend of Digdit's, Karash, visits Koroon and asks him to fly him to Khriza, as Karash is very old and cannot make the journey. Koroon flies him to Khriza but finds Digdit gone and his house in ruins from a battle in the previous book (book three, where Koroon did not make an appearance.) Koroon helps him catch up to Digdit, who is now travelling with the main characters. Koroon and Karash help take Dav's friend Narta to Port Argash where she can sail to safety to Dakresh with the Vrakardians and the characters' families, who have been sent there to prevent collateral damage. Unfortunately, they are intercepted by Zarakharn who is able to take Narta as a hostage. Koroon helps them rescue Narta but they arrive too late; Narta has escaped and the protagonists are told she is dead. Koroon travels with the group the rest of the way to Mount Kowcye in Farazar where the Elder Swords will be united. (That's another thing-- I can't see quadrupeds using swords. Wyverns, yes, provided they have hands at the corners of their wings, and the dragon like in my avatar (which is the model I use for Khrizans) and raptor-like dragons, I can see using them.) And that's just the Idrakagar. There's also the Teradrians and the Vrakardians and the Dragans. Also the Frazavians. They have a similar build to Khrizans, but they have a physiology that's more adapted to a frozen environment, such as pale scales that are thicker and more jagged, earholes instead of ears like Khrizans, an affinity for mint like the Khrizans' affinity to spice, and the inability to sleep without something heavy weighing on them, among other things. My problem may be that the path to uniquity through differing anatomical builds may be taken by other species in my books.
If you really want dragons, then I think that you may need to seriously consider making them fundamentally different from humans.
Okay, I kinda skimmed through all that, it was a lot of backstory, but I feel like it's not even the issue being discussed. Sounds as if you've put a lot of thought into all this history and even details about physiology, but haven't spent a lot of time on how the characters live in this story. Backstory is great, and it gives depth to your world, but it doesn't cover up the fact that a lot of these dragons live like humans. It doesn't matter if they walk upside down and use their feet as hands, it doesn't change the fact that they're still humans in dragon skin. having a different race means you have to have them act different and live differently. Even if we were talking about elves here, elves are portrayed in LotR, for example, as being very different from humans. Same with Dwarves. With dragons we expect them to live in much more exotic communities, and have a culture that supports their lifestyle and habits. I implore you to read something like LotR, or Spellsinger even, and see what other writers have done when using non human characters. They conjure up the life of these characters, and make them feel very different than humans.
Some examples, in case you're wondering, "How could any sentient species not live just like humans?" - Dragons have scales and thick skins. Do they even need the shelter of fully enclosed homes? - Humans build homes that are big enough to allow them to use their primary mode of locomotion--legs--in the home. In theory, we could live in homes that are only big enough to allow crawling, but we don't. For a dragon to live in a home too small to support flying would, IMO, be not unlike humans building homes that only allow crawling. - So dragons, if they did live indoors, would IMO live in BIG spaces. That's a lot of space and materials. Would it really make sense to mostly live indoors? Maybe they would instead sleep in little hollows, and then fly out into the open as soon as they wake. Like birds' nests. Maybe constructed shelters would primarily be for possessions. Or maybe there would be very few possessions. - If they do live indoors, maybe they wouldn't have private rooms, because a bunch of private rooms large enough to support flying makes big even bigger. - Big spaces require a fair bit of engineering. Therefore, even if dragons do have indoor homes, I would expect them to come into existence rather later in the dragons' history, and/or be built with rather different materials. I would expect dragons to stick near caves and caverns for a fair bit of their history. That's all just about housing, and it's barely a start. It would require a longer analysis, and so would countless other topics.
What I've always enjoyed about dragons, in every story I've ever read them in, is that they are rare. Why do your characters need to be dragons? Why would it be jarring to have your protagonists as not-dragons? Can they not look like humans with scales? Descended from dragons? Perhaps they have deluded dragon-blood and the elder dragons look more like the dragons we know of. Or perhaps an added problem that your main characters have to deal with is that they AREN'T dragons in a world full of them. That would be interesting. There just doesn't seem a need for every character to be dragons regardless of what variations you've included. It hasn't been done before, true, but thousands of dragons take very much away from how special one can be. It also appears that you're operating in a contradiction: your readers (being human) cannot relate to what being a dragon is with no human references. So to counter this, you've very intelligently given your readers politics, settings, social groups, emotions and organizations that are human-like and familiar. But this presents another problem, that your dragons don't feel any different from humans, thus we find ourselves here. I have to agree with Chicken Freak and Dr.Meow: Some of the dragons have to go. It is very apparent that you have put a TON of thought and love into this, but I think you may be so close to it, that it's stopping you from hearing advice, even from your own book.
That's very helpful. (Though for future reference, deluded should diluted.) I did have them descended from larger dragons that could breathe fire, but I could also have them be descended from dragons and not be dragons themselves. I don't know how I feel about that, but it could work. And it's not exactly as though the other dragon species aren't extinct or unknown or such, but they could still lend the sort of dynamic you're suggesting.
I don't think the answer to your question is a complex or complicated one. Dragons simply won't be relateable because they're dragons... You just need to accept that. Why do they have to be dragons anyway? Sorry if this has already been asked. What a story comes down to, in the end, is the theme and the message. Do you really think dragons will be able to send a message to humans when they're dragons and not humans? I don't think so. You really need to start thinking about what you want to accomplish. To have a kid-story that features only dragons and that can't send a realistic message to humans or to change them and make them human and see if you can send your message that way?
That's not exactly true. There are plenty of stories about all sorts of creatures that aren't human, or even some that don't have a single human in them, but are very relatable. It's more in the execution than anything. It's about making the characters believable and making them act like you'd expect them to.
You'd have to ask Trailers but that's not a bad analogue for your current dilemma @rktho. There's a story of nonhuman characters with human emotions and problems that are acted out in their native environment. We'd never once think the Lion King characters were humans wearing animal skins. However, if they wore clothes and lived in castles and taverns we might wonder why they were depicted as lions in the first place.
But, again, why do you seem to not even consider the possibility of making them quite different from humans?
As @Homer Potvin points out, the lions weren't living in houses, swinging swords, wearing capes, and hanging out in taverns. When you make your characters almost, but not quite, exactly like humans, people focus on the differences and can't identify with them. If you made them truly different, it would be easier for people to identify with them. I find myself thinking of the "uncanny valley" concept and wonder if it might be worth Googling. While it's almost entirely visual, some of the discussion, about how we are drawn to things that are kinda-human but not to things that are almost-exactly-but-not-quite-human, may be relevant. Maybe.
Why not make these dragons a hybrid? Dragon-human. By this point these characters can be any kind of creature. Making them human-dragon hybrids would mean that a lot of this world starts making a lot more sense. Even your avatar looks like a human-dragon hybrid. Why make them full dragons?
OK, this is feeling weird. Have you heard the suggestion that you make your dragons more different from humans? Have you realized that it's a completely serious suggestion? Do you intend to respond to it in any way?
I've gotten some strange responses and ignored points in posts from @rktho before, I wouldn't be too worried about it.
Having my posts Liked and then utterly ignored is feeling rather like another poster who said, "OK, thanks," before utterly ignoring posts. I don't like either experience.
Liking your posts and stroking my chin while scrolling through the thread from the beginning isn't enough?
So you have no intention of responding to the advice that you created this thread to ask for? Why, exactly create the thread?
