WBM Oh-Three, Dragons

[pompe]

It can be argued some fantasy ecology is in the realm of the fundamentally bizarre. So let's try to fix it a bit.

Comments

[onyxrising]

What are ra and vittra?

[pompe]

Fey. There are many kinds of rå, but the "skogsrå" - forest rå - is the most known. Vittra is related to "huldra" - ask Sven - and were often considered as a separate, hidden, people.

[onyxrising]

Huldra I'm moderately familiar with. I shall have to pester Sven. Or, now that his grandmother's taken a sudden interest in me, borrow some books.

[mylescorcoran]

I never assumed the food chains were as long as you describe in fantasy worlds. Dragons eat cows, for the most part, as portrayed in most of the fantasy literature I can think of off the top of my head.

I take your point about diversity, however, and question the profusion of essentially man-like species in most fantasy settings.

[pompe]

Sure, but if dragons eat cows, why are they so big? If they ate mammoths, it might make sense.

[pompe]

...what I mean is that in order to justify dragon predator potential, the prey has to be big and dangeous. Like say, giants.

[mylescorcoran]

Oh yes, I agree they should be smaller. I was just quibbling that you don't see dragons eating giants much in the literature.

Now of course, you've got me picturing a sort of filter-feeding dragon, majestically sweeping over the fields of man, scooping up hundreds of cattle at a time in their massive jaws.

[pompe]

I think the problem is that given a dragon's size they pretty much have to feed on plants a lot of the time, and then the teeth, well, and the hunting skills, would not really support the lifestyle well. I could imagine dragons being essentially carrion eaters in a megafauna world, though.