That would depend on the evolution of dragons. If they're descended from Senators, then their caloric needs probably wouldn't be exceptional, since they're mostly giant gasbags.
*nod* It does tend to show when an author has or hasn't put much thought into worldbuilding outside of the 'here's a map, this is the history, here's some different races and magical races, let's go!'
One of the things I like in the Temeraire books is that consideration is given to the diets and accomodation of ther dragons, how fair they can fly and in some countries their state of mental wellbeing. There was a decent amount of thought put into the 'how' in those books which I think contributed greatly to my liking them.
It's not even something you have to lay down as law or in detail; worldbuilding of that kind will usually show itself naturally through the course of the books, and so I don't think CP has actually given it very much thought. Kind of like going back to the mainstay of horses in fantasy being used as cars; the dragons seem to just be big scaly horses with 'cool' powers.
I haven't read Deltora; I know of the books, but they've never been actually recommended to me, and I don't know much about them. Any good?
Deltora Quest's a good series. Unlike Inheritance, it actually manages to do dragons and many archetypal fantasy things very well. Also unlike Inheritance, it manages to have a villain who doesn't actually really appear at all and succeed in not making the reader frustrated by this, because it's emphasised, if I remember, that said villain is in fact waaaaay too powerful to directly confront-so the heroes simply work to root out the evil that works for him and sets his plans in motion.
An important thing to note is that as animals get larger, they tend to need a lower percentage of their body weight in food. Compare small rodents such as shrews to large mammals such as elephants, and while the absolute amount of food required increases, the percentage as a matter of body weight drops sharply. Compound that with the traditional idea that dragons spend a lot of their time sleeping and that plenty of reptiles eat infrequently, and you might end up with a creature that might need to eat every two weeks or so, but gorges like mad when it does--which might lead to the traditional rampages.
Of course, with sentience all bets are off. E. E. Knight's Age of Fire has the dragon society have some knowledge of agriculture to support themselves, and they're depicted as omnivorous anyways. My own works? Nefarious Industries is the main and only producer of dragon kibble, and Nef-Mart's the sole distributor--Victor's rolling in the dough.
In fact, there's something like that in the Dragonlance series. The stronger dragons feed upon the weaker dragons, sucking up their souls and becoming stronger and more powerful in the process. The only problem is that the countryside might be ravaged on a regular basis when the dragons fight each other...
I seem to recall reading that the largest dinosaurs were close to the limits of how large an animal can get and still move. Ok, so dragons get to cheat a bit so they can fly, but my feeling is that "small hill" is beyond even that (so they could only barely move
( ... )
'kay, now in my mind there is a hill-size winged lizard, flying like a HUMMINGBIRD to catch with natural laws. Funny.
I like the cannibal dragons idea, it sounds... right. But you can insert a "larval dragon" parasites-under-the-skin theory. Yay, Analgesia like a B horror movie!
In regard to death-before-breeding, there is the fact that Blue-Sparking-Flying-CP9 is very big and (we are told so) dangerous in less than a year, and ready to mate between 2 and 3 years (less, if you watch the never-ending pregnancy...). Like giant scaled rabbits, if rabbits could hide high in the mountains or slay elves.
Death-before-breeding, yep, fighting starts the moment they hatch. They stop to eat and lick their wounds. Dragons are so overpowered because fights are the main cause of death, leading to an evolutionary arms race optimising for dragon-slaying ability. When they breed, they're like ninja rapists. Otherwise any male would get attacked (and have his equipment shredded) before he starts the deed, let alone finishes. Wild dragons are the gods of rage.
Larval parasites is a good one. Pre-elvish-meddling, female dragons would lay their eggs atop weak spots on those vast mounds of free (still conscious!) food. The surviving hatchling indeed burrows into the hill-sized dragon, eating a nice little crater until it bothers to try flying (this invariably gets it into a fight with another dragon).
For what happens with riders and wild dragons bonding (Paopao says elves mucked about with dragon temperament), it's easiest to just say "omnicidal maniac".
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Sorry, couldn't help myself!
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One of the things I like in the Temeraire books is that consideration is given to the diets and accomodation of ther dragons, how fair they can fly and in some countries their state of mental wellbeing. There was a decent amount of thought put into the 'how' in those books which I think contributed greatly to my liking them.
It's not even something you have to lay down as law or in detail; worldbuilding of that kind will usually show itself naturally through the course of the books, and so I don't think CP has actually given it very much thought. Kind of like going back to the mainstay of horses in fantasy being used as cars; the dragons seem to just be big scaly horses with 'cool' powers.
I haven't read Deltora; I know of the books, but they've never been actually recommended to me, and I don't know much about them. Any good?
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Of course, with sentience all bets are off. E. E. Knight's Age of Fire has the dragon society have some knowledge of agriculture to support themselves, and they're depicted as omnivorous anyways. My own works? Nefarious Industries is the main and only producer of dragon kibble, and Nef-Mart's the sole distributor--Victor's rolling in the dough.
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The only problem is that the countryside might be ravaged on a regular basis when the dragons fight each other...
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I like the cannibal dragons idea, it sounds... right. But you can insert a "larval dragon" parasites-under-the-skin theory. Yay, Analgesia like a B horror movie!
In regard to death-before-breeding, there is the fact that Blue-Sparking-Flying-CP9 is very big and (we are told so) dangerous in less than a year, and ready to mate between 2 and 3 years (less, if you watch the never-ending pregnancy...). Like giant scaled rabbits, if rabbits could hide high in the mountains or slay elves.
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Larval parasites is a good one. Pre-elvish-meddling, female dragons would lay their eggs atop weak spots on those vast mounds of free (still conscious!) food. The surviving hatchling indeed burrows into the hill-sized dragon, eating a nice little crater until it bothers to try flying (this invariably gets it into a fight with another dragon).
For what happens with riders and wild dragons bonding (Paopao says elves mucked about with dragon temperament), it's easiest to just say "omnicidal maniac".
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Are there kids reading? I hope not, this is pure "Nightmare fuel"!
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