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Dragons: Simple monsters in Runeterra, or will they actually have story?

darkdill·2/6/2015, 5:18:15 AM·12 votes·1,677 views

You wanna know one reason I loved Skyrim? Because of how Bethesda portrayed the Dragons as powerful, sentient beings who used language as a means of fighting. For a Dovah, there is no difference between debating and fighting. Their fire came from their words, and you had to match their voice to defeat them (or at the very least slam a Daedric Warhammer into their skull).

But in League? The only thing dragon-related we have so far is Shyvana, with Ao Shin being on the bench because of "technical difficulties". Shyvana doesn't really represent dragons too well, though, and obviously the SR dragon isn't anything to go by either. It's just an elite mook you kill to give your team a benefit.

Personally, I'm hoping that the dragons in Runeterra won't only appear as wild beasts, but will be a race of their own just like humans, Yordles, etc. Heck, I'd absolutely LOVE IT if we could see something like a dragon society somewhere in Valoran. That would be epic.

Unfortunately, I'll bet that giving the dragons anything beyond a few wordless roars is going to be too much for Riot to come up with. They'll simply ask "where's the profit?" and then ignore the idea since it's not related to LCS. Sad, really...

Let's prevent them from ignoring this, shall we?

17 Comments

Knalxz2/6/2015, 10:56:10 AM6 votes

I really hope they go along the Skyrim route too, even thought Skyrim wasn't the first to portray dragons in that light IK but it is the most modern example.

Anyways from Shys lore they seem to be pretty aware, even capable of breeding with humans. Hopefully with some form of magic and not just well...you know. Shy's father was the dragon, i could see it happening if the dragon was the mother but you still have to..never mind, but yeah they seem pretty aware but maybe its the old dragon tales (shutup) where they just love gold because of its magical affiliation and have an uncontrollable urge to seek it out.

Some act like Pharthunax and are very content with their mountains and caves rarely leaving them just to explore. For all we know there could be dragons out there working with the people of Valoran too bad Riot's Lore Department looks like Pompeii

A Superb Villain2/6/2015, 3:54:43 PM3 votes

Shyvana is regarded as an abomination by dragons, according to her lore, which implies dragons have a very poor opinion of humanity. Her father was exiled, suggesting a society of dragons exists, otherwise there would have been nothing to exile him from. In fact, some dragons have such a strong distaste for humans, that another dragon murdered Shyvana's father out of spite. Everything in Shyvana's lore points to the dragons of Runeterra as intelligent creatures.

Now why Shyvana is so hated by dragons is another matter entirely, but considering "dragonslayers" exist in the world of Runeterra, who wear the remains of their kills as armor and weapons, dragons may have some justification for hating humans. After all, I doubt an intelligent species appreciates lesser creatures treating them like beasts, much less being worn as trophies.

libraryseraph 2/6/2015, 10:50:37 PM1 votes

well, we know there are sapient dragons from Shyvana's lore, since she's a half dragon (I mean, I ASSUME that means there are sapient dragons since this is a T game)

GreenLore2/7/2015, 12:45:41 AM1 votes

I think it is possible that there are sapient and non-sapient dragons. The dragon on SR is probably a lesser dragon,while some of the stronger ones are at least as intelligent as humans(like ao shin or shyvanas dad)

Embertine2/7/2015, 2:26:05 AM1 votes

I fully agree with you here. I love dragons, and I love the idea of them being sentient beings. Obviously according to Shyvana's lore, dragons are just that. However because they retconned the lore there's no telling what the dragons are like in Runeterra now.

I have created a champion concept based on the idea of dragons being more than just mindless creatures bent on killing and burning. If you feel like seeing what My view of dragons is like, just type in Sharosh in the search. His lore isn't finished yet, ,so you wont get the complete view of him as who he is yet.

Tesla Effect2/9/2015, 10:56:26 PM1 votes

Ao Shin will explain everything, my child....soon.

Halofire2/10/2015, 6:46:19 PM1 votes

It seems to me that there's some precedent to believe that dragons in Runeterra are intelligent creatures,and capable of speech; Shyvana speaks even in dragon form, and I would prefer to believe that relations between her parents were consensual, pointing towards dragons having distinct personalities like people, and being reasonable and not all bloodthirsty. Then again, it would seem that the dragons of Runeterra are distasteful towards humans and reject even others of their own kind to have peaceful or intimate relationships with humans.

In the Fablehaven series of books, dragons were able to take on a human form, though the way they thought was so vastly different from humans that they would have trouble actually integrating into normal human society. This could have been the way that a dragon was able to have a relationship with a human, without killing her in the process. It could also help explain the way Shyvana is able to transform from being mostly human-looking to a dragon.

Or rather, a wyvern. Shyvana's front legs are her wings so she only has four limbs, unlike the Dragon on Summoner's Rift. As always, there are several explanations to this, but two come straight to mind; either it's on account of the fact that she is a half-dragon, so she doesn't grow and lose limbs upon transforming, because she is not fully a dragon, or it supports that there are multiple kinds of dragons in Runeterra. Shyvana's dragon form certainly does look very different from the Dragon, and that can't be explained too well by her being a half-dragon. Humans don't exactly have armor plating naturally, after all, and neither does the Dragon.

Also Ao Shin. Whenever he exists.