Forums » RP Discussion » Help with dragon sizes.

I've been working on this dragon character tonight for an rp idea I'll be posting once it's done. Although I love dragons, I've never been good at sizing things, so I was hoping I could get a little help judging sizes for the types of dragons I'm working on. I have modern references, but I need to either convert this into units of length or find medieval substitutes as references. Either way, I'm a bit stumped and was hoping for a helping hand. That said, the dragon types are below.

Abyssal & Aether Dragons
Abyssal and Aether dragons range from large house to mansion sized.

Brood Dragon
Brood dragons are about 25%-50% larger than Saphira in the movie Eragon.

Elder Dragon
Elder dragons range are aroud the size of small mountains.

Forest & Plains Dragons
These are your typical dragons from medieval movies. A person can stand under it, have to reach up to stab it with a sword.

Myth Dragon
These are about the size of Saphira, from the Eragon movie.

Ice & Swamp Dragons
Ice dragons are only a little smaller than Forest and Plains dragons.

Rock Dragons
Rock dragons are the fourth largest dragons, going behind Abyssal and Aether dragons. They are a little smaller than Abyssal and Aether dragons.

Wyverns
I'm actually going to look this up, but if anyone has any interesting and/or helpful information on them then feel free to share! These are the ones I'm going to try to keep a little more true to lore. Though, they're more like animals than dragons here (not sure if it's like that elsewhere).

P.S.- Still with me? Great! You should get a virtual high five. Thank you so much for your time and help!

Okay, when I'm trying to think up size I use the Titans from Attack on Titan as a sort of measuring stick.

For instance, the Abyssal and Aether dragons seem like they would stand between maybe 20 or 15 meters. An Elder dragon would prolly be anywhere from 60 to possibly 80 meters.

And as for Wyverns, were you wanting to know what a wyvern was, or what a good size for it would be?

One thing I might mention is mountain sized dragons might be pushing it. You do realize how much food such a creature would need to eat right. xD

As for wyverns, they are generally considered to be smaller then true dragons. Probably put it near the bottom of the dragon sizes. Maybe not the absolute bottom, but close to it or at least below average. For a little info on them, Wyverns don't have front legs/arms instead only a pair of legs, wings and tail. In some myths wyverns are also incapable of breathing fire, but some can spew poison.

That was just an extra in case anyone had any special knowledge on it. I know wyverns are two legs and two wings, but I didn't know if there was anything special beyond it.

Oh, indeed! The elder dragons are the first dragons, and created all subsequent dragons. They are very close to immortal and sleep most of the time (asleep a few hundred years, awake for a little bit, back to sleeping). You don't want to be next to one when it wakes up. Then again, it feeds on a magic as well.

Like Katia said, Wyverns don't often breathe fire. Now, I read that the yhad a poisoned stinger rather than spewing poison, but that could work too. Maybe they could have a bite like a Komodo dragon's. The Saliva is laden with deadly bacteria that the wyvern had built and immunity to.

As for the Wyvern size, I'd say maybe the size of a small therapod so around like, eight feet at the shoulder. Maybe ten.

And on the idea of an Elder Dragon's appetite, maybe they feed off Magic alone? Which in a fantasy setting might be plentiful enough to survive off of.

I should note that when I said mountain I was thinking more smaller mountains such as Enchanted Rock in Fredericksburg, TX. Still really big, but not the huge mountains. I edited this in my op.

To be fair tho, in some works, like lotr and the elder scrolls, dragons have the appearance of wyverns.

Very true. I also made the Rock dragons as such, as they dwell in the mountains. I decided to keep with a more traditional look.

Going to have any Chinese/Japanese style dragons?

The general challenge with creatures like dragons and wyverns is that while there are some loose rules and standards that most literature sets and meets, many authors take creative freedoms. As Katia pointed out, some of the LoTR dragons have more wyvern-like traits. I'm not sure about Skyrim as much, but maybe they do as well. But LoTR dragons tend to breathe fire, from what I know.
The sticky part is then Dungeons and Dragons dragons. They have all kinds of classifications, variations, and breeds. Some of them breathe fire, others ice, poison, or other things. Some have more metallic scales while others don't. And sometimes the colors of their scales determine general personality/disposition and culture.

@Katia
I might add them later, I have a lot of dragons to deal with at the moment and a lot of sizes to figure out. I did leave out a few types on purpose, only entering the ones to be brought up in the RP.

@Lyingsmile
This is very true, but that's what also makes dragons so great! I'm taking my own creative freedom in the creation of these. It's a blast.

If it'd be helpful, I could go digging through my old computer to try to find my Dungeons and Dragons PDFs and pass some of them onto you so you can read what is there about dragons. Just to help you with coming up with ideas and such.

@Lyingsmile

I might take you up on that offer later. I actually have most of the dragons figured out, I'm just working on their sizes. I know what drago has what abilities, where they are found, where try came from, etc.

I just want to put in a vote for keeping the modern reference points, even if you also add other units of measure. Most people's brains don't really do a good job of imagining how big something is past about 6 feet, but if you give them an object to compare to, they can get it instantly! Also, most people in the US will not be able to imagine what a "castle sized" dragon is with any kind of accuracy, because they have probably never seen one. Ditto really any kind of medieval reference points.

Although I might avoid using stuff that requires people to do mental math and also to compare to less common things, like "25% smaller than the dragon from Eragon." I've seen that movie but I don't remember the dragon in question one little bit, much less what 25% smaller than her might look like.