Hey guys,

Newbie here. I think this is the right place to post this....hope so.

So in my one and only actually really fantasy story (like magic and dragons and shape-changers and elves and all that fun stuff), dragons are called wyrms.

And they have this weird life-cycle. Well, not all of them. Just the Faeldryke, which are the Great Wyrms of Legend.

They are only male. That is, their reproductive system works in such a way that they can only produce male offspring.
Obviously, we run into a problem right from the start here because if there's only male dragons, then how are there any offspring born anyway?
Answer: the Faeldryke are also shape-changers. So they change into human form and take human wives.

The offspring (again, they are only male) are born fully human(looking). However, they will have a much higher body heat than a normal human, when they are angry their eyes glow (which are a reddish-brown color, like coals). Also, they can cast wrimes on others.
A wrime is cobha - a spell, basically - that dragons exert on the minds of those around them. They can manipulate other people's minds with this power. This rises from the fire within them, which is the 'source' of their power and abilities. They could all in the same five minutes make someone love, hate, be envious of, adore, worship, or fear them.
In human form, the casting of wrimes can only be done on someone whom the wyrm is looking at (I say wyrm whether they're in human or dragon form...), but in dragon form the wyrm has a much great range of wrime influence.
They can speak inside people's minds, etc.....

But back to their life-cycle. They are born human, and until puberty they will not really be any different from other humans, except as they get older more and more wrym-like features start to pop up. Like the ability to cast wrimes, higher body heat, glowing eyes, etc.
In order to change into a dragon, a young wyrm must become very very emotionally charged in some way. Great grief, anger, etc., will trigger the first change from human to dragon. Kinda like a Hulk effect. The younger this first switch occurs, the more honor the young wyrm has.
The wyrms view their dragon-shape as their true form and see their need to mate with human women as a sort of curse (I'm pretty sure). They could mate with normal dragons (who are not sentient), but the offspring would no longer be Faeldryke. The only way a Faeldryke can have a Faeldryke son is if he mates with a human woman.
So although they don't mistreat their wives, they really don't like them that much except as, regrettably, objects and baby-makers.

Subsequent to the very first shape-shifting, the wyrm will find it much easier to switch between human and dragon forms at will.
In dragon form, a mature wyrm will be very large (not sure exactly how large yet), have huge wings, breathe fire, super-strong scales - but not by any means colorful. Their scales are generally earth-tones. They have horny projections on their heads.
[They breath fire by releasing two jets of different chemicals that when mixed in a high-oxygen environment like air combust quite violently.] Or, because their fire is the source of their magic, maybe it doesn't have a biological source... not sure about that yet.

Now. This male-only life-cycle is not known to exist among humans. What the dragons do is go to a city and demand that a beautiful virgin be 'sacrificed' to them every year (the humans eventually make a tradition and call it the Wyrming Heith on the day that they select a virgin for the dragons). Obviously, if the city doesn't comply, the dragons would just destroy them. So the humans oblige out of fear and self-preservation, and every year choose a beautiful maiden, take her to a special place outside the city, and leave her there as the sacrifice for the dragon.
They sorta worship the dragons, btw.
Anyway, they think the dragon comes and eats the maiden. But they're wrong. He comes and marries her.
Well, he actually casts a wrime upon her that makes her fall in love with him (whether in human or dragon form) and takes her away to a city far away in the mountains where no human has ever come.
There is the village without fathers.
Well, the village with dragons-dads, more properly.
Here the wyrm's wives raise their little boys up into good little dragons like their daddies before them.
Good isn't exactly a word that I'd really describe the Faeldryke, though, because technically they're evil. Not pure evil, but very much prone to it.
I mean, for one they're dragons, so they have a huge dose of the more violent emotions of sentient beings, and second they can get pretty much whatever they want, whenever they want it.
They can cast a wrime on somoene and make them do what they want, essentially.
There are different levels of wrimes, actually, but that would be getting into the magic system of this world. And to do that, I'd have to bring in the dragon hunters (the wyrm-dum; magicians), who hunt and bind dragons with cold wrimes (the wyrm's wrimes are always hot, because they get their power from their fire).
I'm still sketchy about where the wyrm-dum get their power to make cold wrimes, but again, that's getting into the magic system, and this post is about the Faeldryke.

Oh! I almost forgot. You know how these wyrms get their wives? Doesn't that sound like St. George and the Dragon? I like the parallel between that and yet how the twist comes in to completely change our perspective about the possibility of stories and legends like that.

Soooo...those are my wyrms!

Any questions, suggestions, etc??

Oh wow. I didn't realize I wrote so much.

Ooooooooooh. This is neat!

Your Wyrms are really neat! You have put a lot of thought and creativity into them.
I can only begin to imagine all the great stories you could develop around these dragon people. Like what would it be like if a village ran out of maidens... Ah!

Is it a different Faeldryke who comes to claim a bride every time? How do they work out who is the next to get a bride? What do they do with the wives who are unable to have children, or too old to have children?

Keep it up!
Nicole

I've never wanted to write a fan fiction more than when reading this post. I'd be really curious if you have any finished stories in this world. I would like to check it out. Good job.

Exactly!

You've clearly put a lot of thought and development into these! Very original ideas!

Can they naturally be aggressive towards other humans, or are they relatively happy to live in a somewhat stable relationship with them? The people who give up the virgin to the dragon think that said dragon eats the maiden - is that completely built off fable, or have the dragons been known to eat people before? I know they don't eat the maidens, as you said, but would be interested to know what they do eat, and if they are ever known to prey on humans?

Thanks guys!
@Nicole: So far no villages have run out...the wyrms choose well-established villages to take their brides from.
Ok wow. One of you other question got me thinking and I had a big breakthrough. So the wyrms have a pool of several cities that they draw wives from. On a certain day of the year (before the Wyrming Heith of the humans) all the newly mature wyrms (they are considered mature as soon as they make their first transition) have a contest of some kind (whether bloody or not I don't know yet) and the qualifiers get to choose a city where they will find their bride. This contest is to weed down the numbers until it is the same as the number of cities...and thus maidens. If there are fewer young wyrms than cities, already married wyrms will go and "rescue" the maiden (in his human form, of course) and return her to her father's house, unharmed.
This hasn't happened for a while, but there is still a legend of the great warrior that rescues maidens from the clutches of dragons...aka...St. George (not by that name!). It is every chosen maidens secret hope that she will be rescued by this mysterious warrior. As it turms out, the girls always think it is this warrior because the wyrms always show up in human form, and the first thing the girls think it that it's 'St. George'...and he rescues them from their nowsuddenlydull lives and takes them away to be happy with him forever (the wyrms are using wrimes on them).

The wyrms do not marry twice. Their wife's life is prolonged, but they themselves live far longer. When the wife dies (which is very soon after childbearing age ends...which also is prolonged), they grieve a little and from then on live rather alone-ish. The older a wyrm is, the more likely he is to be violent against humans (and the more cunning his wrimes become...). Young wyrms with boys and a wife don't like it, but if roused they can be very violent against humans. This is not about peaceful coexistence.
The dragons steal maidens every year and humans (the wyrm-dum) hunt dragons all the year. So it's not really a very happy place.

Oh, one other thing. A wyrm's wrimes fade if he is not personally present. So the one he uses to bind his wife to his will can be broken if he leaves the village for long periods of time. However, the wrimes work in such a way that even when it is broken you have the memory of wanting to do what the wrime was making you want. So the women always remember loving their wyrm husbands even when the wrime is not in force. And they have no idea where the village is in relation to other places, so they don't leave the 'wyrm-nursery' village even if their wyrm goes far away and his wrime fades. Except one woman did, once upon a time....

A barren woman would be killed by older Faeldryke and the young wyrm would be given the opportunity to choose another wife at the following Heith, if he so desired.

The wyrms are meat-eaters, but in human form they can eat any human foods. The village has lots of vegetable gardens, but the primary food source is meat that the wyrms kill. A full meal in human form translates into a full dragon meal...so it makes more sense to eat as a human for them. But after their wives die, they stay in dragom form uness they're up to something. Btw, they can shape-shift into many other creatures, but that's more with wrimes than a natural ability. Their human/dragon shape-shift is the only 'natural' one.

To be totally clear, yes, old wyrms will eat humans. They have also been known to enslave humans and make them do their will through wrimes...

I think/hope that answered everyone's questions. Thanks so much! Just thinking through this stuff adds so much worldbuilding! I love Holy Worlds! <3

Areth,

Karthmin

Mmm, this is good.
You know, I've read my way around a lot of posts, made up a fair number of systems, and read a little bit, and this is by far my favorite development of draconic creatures I have read. I like it better than my own original one for the Red World.
I most particularly like that you have recaptured some of Tolkien's dragons; cunning, lordly, and with manipulative powers, and not just big bodies, tails, and fire-breath. In a way, these dragons seem much more human than animal, which is nice. You can imagine these dragons having personality, plans, and devious ideas. I also like your relatively unique vocabulary. I do hope you post over in Magic and Cobha about your wrimes, or otherwise in Peoples/Races/Tribes about the wyrm-dum (which is probably a slightly better fit than cultures. Not sure we ever figured out what exactly went in Culture and what went in P/R/T...)
Makes me want to write my fantasy stuff again... but with better dragons.

Wow! Thanks, Reiyen!

I especially like that you feel that they are Tolkienesque! That's high praise to a Tolkien-lover as I am. Now that I think about it (I hadn't made the comparison before this), I can definitely see some of Tolkien shining through in my wyrms. *dance of triumph*

I made up the word 'wrime' more or less as a play on words that an occultist from my other fantasy world used in the title of his book of poetry titled "Witch-Wrimes. Thus the connection between the word 'wrime' and magic was laid in that other world, and then I decided to carry it over into this other fantasy world. It reminds me of the old-English flavor that I'm trying to capture in the language of the wyrm-world.

I'm glad you like it!

Areth,

Karthmin

This is really interesting! Thanks for sharing.

So you say that a young wyrm's first transformation into a dragon happens when he gets very emotionally charged, and that the earlier this happens the better. So do wyrms value strong emotion, then? You also mentioned that their magic is hot, unlike the cold wrimes of the wyrm-dum. Is strong emotion, then, tied to the wyrms' magic? And if so, does lack of emotion play a part in the cold wrimes of the wyrm-dum...?

Ooooh! Great question. I think you just solved the difference between a wyrm-wrime and a dragon-killler wrime.

I had wondered what the difference between hot and cold magic would be because they are really just two aspects of the same type of magic.
So this is a wrime: A wrime is a warp of reality in some way. It is an illusion. Changing people's emotions, changing the appearance of your surroundings, yourself, others. But the fact that it is an illusion doesn't mean it's not real. A wrime causes a warp of reality so reality becomes what it is not normally. But it's still real, in the sense of occupying space and time, or being an actual emotion (depending on the wrime, of course).
Wrimes are not spells. They are thoughts. Thoughts whereby one can change or adjust reality. They are, because of the word wrime, generally coceived as being poetic or song-like by nature...it's almost like you have to let your thoughts become song for them to be a wrime. Not conscious crafting of song, but that special category of thought that always comes out naturally as rhymes...and thus wrimes. (So not every thought is or can be a wrime.)
Now.
Wyrms create hot wrimes, whereas wyrm-dum create cold wrimes. The difference is one of both emotion and intent. While wyrms don't 'value' strong emotion...but they certainly always have strong emotions. That's just their nature, who they are. They are not impulsive but they are definitely boiling pots of passions. A dragon can be patient for a very long time, but that doesn't mean he's not inwardly roaring with eagerness for whatever he desires to do. So hot wrimes are wrought by emotionally intense beings. The fire of wyrms may have something to do with their fiery passionate natures.
But the intent of the wrime is another way to classify it. A hot wrime makes a change to reality. A cold wrimes make a change to any existing wrime - revealing its presence and the true reality it has changed. A cold wrime counteracts a hot wrime.
For this reason, the temperament of all wyrm-dum must be cold. One can have extreme emotions, eg anger or hatred, but its basic essence is still cold, because you do not allow it much room in your heart, and never allow it to show on the outside. Nothing makes its way past the grim face of a wyrm-dum. The wyrm-dum feel that all strong emotions are illusory - they promote illusion within, making a wyrm's job that much easier.
So although driven by deep anger, all wyrm-dum suppress this and act on cold logic. Their entire lifestyle and attitude, although not devoid of emotion, suppresses and denies it access to their course of action.
But in the sense that a cold wrime just reveals hot wrimes, a wyrm can make a cold wrime on other wyrms.
But the only wrimes wyrm-dum are capable of are cold.

Thank you, sheesania! This is a pretty big breakthrough for me! And I can already see themes coming through that I could sow into the world...like the place of emotion in our life...ruling passion? Or suppressed and ignored? Maybe the final defeater of the wrms is someone who is a balance of both...!!!

I think that answered your question. Wyrms don't 'value' strong emotion, they just are strongly passionate...so the younger a wyrm makes that first transition, the more manly he is, basically, because he's acting like a real wyrm. It's basically like growing a beard really young.

Areth.

I see! Thanks! I'm glad I could help you


Actually, I was thinking about the thematic implications of a world with creatures and magic like this when I initially thought of the question! I had just read a book that did a great job of seamlessly integrating fantastic phenomena with the themes of the story, and so I was thinking about how to write stories that do so...