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Let's talk Drakes and Dragons in the Story

Piltover Customs·11/22/2016, 10:05:47 PM·1 votes·657 views

With Shyvana's recent update I wanted to try and get the reasoning from the Developers on Dragon vs Drake.

So lets point out first that Shyvana's passive ( Fury of the Dragonborn) and ultimate ( Dragon's Descent) call on the fact that she's related to Dragon's. People have taken to calling the elemental dragon's Drake's and they even have changed the text to refer to them as such in game (Cloud Drake, Infernal Drake etc.)

Dragon comes from the roman work Draconem (also has a greek word for drakon, both of which mean serpent) Drake originates from drakon.

Using D&D, Magic and other fantasy along with myths as a reference: Dragons have different colors which designate their power, attitude, magical ability, alignment and so forth. Drakes are smaller than dragons (but can still fly and breathe fire BUT have NO magical abilities)

Drakes are sometimes used to refer to immature dragons. Drakes sometimes are seen as without having wings. Drakes size is usually described as: between a small pony to the size of four oxen.

Also, usually a Wyrm is referred to as an Elder Dragon that has grown in size and lost it's wings.

3 Comments

Sharjo11/22/2016, 10:18:19 PM4 votes

In the league universe, dragons are creatures that owe their form to a celestial entity that forged all of the stars in the heavens because matter mimics energy. This implies that dragons could possibly be found on other planets since life is matter and is also subject to mimicing energy. Case in point, snails and logarithmic spirals.

Some drakes and dragons could owe their origins to the elements, given the existence of Mountain Drakes and their seemingly completely stone bodies. With that in mind beings like dragons and the brackern could've been among Runeterra's first sentient organisms if life started out from elemental roots.

I imagine drake's probably a term for more primitive, bestial reptilian fliers while dragons like Shyvana's father and his kin are wholly sentient. Same class of creatures, different species and sub species.