The Many Different Dragon Types and Their Misconceptions

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When someone thinks of fantasy, usually, the first thing they think of is dragons. Dragons have almost begun to look like the representant of a mythical being in the Fantasy genre. In any case, there’s only a slight problem with that. Sometimes, the dragons that we see in media, be it from concept art or TV shows, aren't even dragons, to begin with.

While it would be interesting to jump straight to the differences and misconceptions about these mythical beings, we might have to consider another perspective from this. The rules to classify these dragon types are only really relevant to the western style of dragons. Don’t eastern dragons completely break these rules and qualifications?

The most common eastern dragon highly resembles a snake with very short limbs (four, to be exact). They represent beauty and wisdom in their culture. But if we follow the style guide from the western side, doesn’t that technically mean that eastern dragons are actually supposed to be considered drakes? 

Before we get into that confusing rabbit hole, we’ll have to go through the western style misconceptions about dragons.

Dragons

A dragon is a mythical reptile-like creature that has bat-like wings and greatly resembles a lizard or a snake. Overall, it has six limbs. A pair of wings and four legs, which is their biggest distinction.

It should be noted that dragons are quadrupedal. But then, what’s with the other kinds of ‘dragons’?

Wyverns

The most common mistake I've noticed is the difference between wyverns and dragons, with wyverns being bipedal. But despite that, so much of the media is fine with pretending that wyverns are dragons, as long as they're huge, winged reptiles that breathe fire.

So, we’ve described dragons and wyverns, but what about the less unheard of, like drakes or wyrms? They are often considered dragons themselves, if only for having similar characteristics to them.

Drakes

They are easily distinguishable through their lack of wings. Drakes look like nothing more than overgrown lizards.

Wyrms

Wyrms look vastly different from what dragons are meant to look like. They are most likely the least to be considered as dragons due to their lack of limbs and much rather resembling a giant snake. A very common one in media is the basilisk; the giant snake-like creature that petrifies with its eyes.

But to get to the root of all the misconceptions, we must ask ourselves, why is it that the majority of people mistake these different creatures for dragons? The first idea that comes to mind is simply ignorance and misinformation. When we see a lizard breathing fire, we are expected to believe that it is a dragon no matter whether it is the truth or not.

I can understand why so many people easily categorize them as so, but it is also shown that some people simply do not care enough to categorize them properly.

But for those who care, all the dragon subspecies mentioned do not match with their eastern counterpart. As mentioned previously, if we were to classify eastern dragons the way we would normally with western dragons, then what they call a dragon would truthfully be a drake.

The word dragon comes from the Greek definition meaning ‘huge serpent’. Following that, an eastern dragon can be called a dragon even if it does not match the rules the west has established for any subspecies of dragons.

Hell, eastern dragons have their own subspecies as well, but mostly, through their culture, dragons are seen as deity-like beings that can control the weather and the like, therefore they cannot be properly classified using the western way. Culture cannot be overridden by outside influence, anyway.

So with that said, while many misconceptions are done towards western dragons, those rules cannot be applied to the eastern ones: dragons are truthfully nothing more than a social construct.

CHLOÉ LANDRY - Writer by day, artist by night. I’m a student at Algonquin College and currently writing blogs for my course, Writing For the Web. I’ll be writing a few fantasy-related stuff here, so go check it out whenever you have the time.