How many different sub-types of dragons do you know about?

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

the hydra isn't draconic, it is a snake.

 

[Poleg]

View attachment 16329

Idgi.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

Idgi.

Where is the line between serpent and dragon? I don't really see one, might as well include hydra as a kind of dragon. I've seen snake hydras and more dragon-y hydras. The greek origin might not be explicitly a dragon but is close enough.

 

[Bartun]

People call him a "dragon"

 

[Jemini]

I mean, the mother of dragons aka Tiamet is a hydra... wtf?

That's D&D's abuse of the lore. In the original Babylonian lore, Tiamat is still the mother of all dragons, but she is certainly not a hydra. She definitely has only 1 head.

However, she IS a Leviathan class dragon. The most simplistic way to describe a Leviathan is "like a sea serpent but bigger." The more illustrative explanation would be to say that a sea serpent is to a Leviathan as a squid is to a giant squid. The more definitionally accurate explanation of what a Leviathan is though would be to say it's a sea-serpent on a cosmic scale.

What do I mean cosmic scale? Literally as big as the Earth. They are planet-size dragons. A large Leviathan could literally eat a planet. They are the top class among Dragons in all of Dragon lore. #2 spot would go to feathered serpents, also capable of swallowing a planet. #3 spot goes to Wyrms. To better explain what a Wyrm is, they are from Germanic lore. Germanic lore is basically identical to Norse mythology, except they call everything by a different name. In other words, the Norse world serpent Jormungandur is a Wyrm. That would be the world serpent that wraps around the entire Earth. No longer on the "swallow the earth" scale, but he could still probably destroy it if he decided to play the constrictor game.

EDIT: (Fun fact on the notion of Germanic lore essentially being just Norse mythology with a bunch of things named differently. Dark Elves are just Germanic lore's name for what the Norse call dwarves. You can also see this represented in the Ring saga (Der Ring des Nibelungen) where Alberich is called a "Dark Elf" due to the Opera being originally written in German. He gets referred to as a Dwarf and a Dark Elf interchangeably throughout the performance. The opera being based on the German lore instead of the Norse is also the reason why Oden is called Woten, Thor is called Donner, and Loki is called Loge.)

EDIT 2: (Also, Bahamut from Hindu lore is very clearly referred to as a fish, and never really has his features described. However, his cosmic-level scale (He is depicted as larger than the earth, and the elephants who hold up the earth apparently walk across his back while, in turn, carrying the earth on their backs) has resulted in a lot of the people categorizing these mythical creatures to sort Bahamut into the Leviathan class of dragons along side Tiamat. I'm sure the similarity between their names held no significance at all in this decision... this DOES also imply though that Bahamut is a far bigger Leviathan that Tiamat. Tiamat's body was used to create the earth. Bahamut is so big that he is regarded as the "ground" by the thing that holds up the earth. Bahamut would have to be approaching the scale of gas-giants in terms of size for that to work out. He would be an example of a Leviathan large enough to swallow a planet whole.)

 

[RepresentingCaution]

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