Greek Mythos does have a few large reptiles that we could consider dragons, but the most remains of dragons we see in game don’t follow the more serpentine appearance dragons have in Greek Mythology
Ecology
Exhibit A - The wyvern of Thrylos Crossing
Found underground which is kinda strange for something with wings. My best guess is that it was lured here or the cave in Thrylos Crossing is where it rests. I think that it’s a possibility that that this dragon was killed by the poison curse user since there’s a very potent cloud of poison inside the cave that shows no sign of dissipating. What’s strange is that there’s only 2 corpses in the room, the corpse of the dragon and a single person. So if the curse user was human, they could’ve evacuated any allies, if they were any to begin with.
The sword embedded in the rock could be the source of poison if the human curse user made the weapon with the use of the sword, which would conflict with the idea that the sword is “contaminated”. If the dragon was the curse user, and the sword just made of arcanium, it could explain why there’s a constant cloud of poison emitting from the sword like how sunken swords constantly emits water. Regardless whether who had the curse, it seems like there are no survivors. This could also mean dragons can become serious threats, potential having a smaller gap in power against curse users than the average warrior.
Lastly, Something important to mention is that the corpse of the dragon is still rotting. Something of that size would probably take longer than a human corpse to completely skeletonize so it might’ve been slain more recently then I thought. Either way, the skeleton of the dragon looks like it was made more for flying rather than swimming.
Exhibit B - The Black Reach Skull
A skull similar to the one inside Thrylos Crossing, but smaller. The rest of the skeletal remains are nowhere to be found and the skull is close enough the the edge of the island, that the rest of the body might’ve fell into the Ocean. Or it was beheaded and the body drifted away. Either way, the most we can get from this is that it might’ve looked similar to the dragon inside Thrylos Crossing
Exhibit C - The Dragon of Drakos Arch
First of all, this thing is massive. If this thing couldn’t swim, there simply would not be enough landmass after the fracture that could contain an environment that this dragon could subsist off of. The amount of time it would take to grow to this size would probably take centuries, but suspension of disbelief can allow this dragon to not have the ecological effect of an elder dragon from monster hunter and grow to a massive size.
An important feature that differentiates this dragon from the previous 2 examples is that it has bones that resemble hands rather than wings. There could be a possibility that it could’ve had webbed fingers if this creature mutated them after the fracture from high exposure to magic, but if it fossilized before the fracture, I doubt it would have aquatic features.
Around the southern end of Drakos Arch, Where the pelvis should be, there are bones that seem to be apart of the legs of this dragon, but there are no foot bones so we can’t know if the legs became vestigial from aquatic mutation/adaptation or remain optimized for walking on land.
My conclusion is that this dragon was most likely a drake that existed before the fracture based on the skeletal remains containing hand and leg bones with the lack of any structure resembling wings
Now for the most Vague part of this topic
The Origin of Dragons
I’mma keep it real, The most we got from any content in the Arcane Universe is that it’s a species from the trello card on the dark sea
The only other instance of that could relate to the origins of dragons I could find was from JTN’s Showcase which is not likely canon (or at minimum a different continuity which I also doubt, but it still has interesting concepts that could be canon) stating that the blood is “cursed by the Gods”.
This image is referring to the dragon blood they’re collecting for research. Problem is that there’s another npc that tells you about someone who had a negative reaction from consuming the dragon blood which is something that’s a bit different from how the dragon blood ritual is described on the trello
This could be because of the corpse belonging to an Atlantean dragon which would probably cause a mutation in the blood that could cause side effects like insanity and (an assumed) reduction in life force, but there aren’t any anomalies on the bones on this dragon. This could also from consuming it rather than just bathing in it (or they drank blood that’s old as dirt and got some kind of bloodborne infection that was previously exclusive to dragons). Either way I’m not sure if this result is even a possibility since this probably isn’t canon or at least in a different continuity but the most believable part is that dragons were made from the Gods cursing someone. Probably somebody who annoyed a God by bathing in the blood of someone they valued in a search for power or one upping a God somehow in a game of who has more glory (If I was to pick a specific Greek God, I would pick Ares since the curse would attract people looking for power or glory).
TLDR: We’ve seen the remains of drakes and wyverns, but we haven’t seen the remains or living specimen of a hydra or other serpentine dragons yet. Dragons probably have been around before the fracture and can grow to massive sizes. As for their origin, we don’t have an official answer for there origin, but the answer I find to be the most believable they were made when the Gods cursed someone.
What theories do you have about Dragons in arcane odyssey? As always,
