Dragon

From Otherkin Wiki

A dragon is a legendary creature found in many world cultures. It is the species identity of many otherkin, therians, and other nonhumans. The dragon community has historically been considered discrete from the otherkin community, as it has a separate origin and culture associated with it.[1] People could be a member of this community on the basis of being otherkin, a therian, a furry, or even sometimes simply a fan of dragons. The words 'draconic' and 'dracanthrope' have been used as labels for members of this community, instead of or alongside other labels. In particular, 'draconic' and 'dragon otherkin' were increasingly used interchangeably over time. In recent years, the dragon community has been almost completely subsumed into the general otherkin community.[1]

Just as in mythology and popular culture, a dragon is defined as being many different things by the many people who identify as one. Despite this diversity, many dragons have expressed a sense of sharing some common essence with other dragons, and this is the basis on which they form a community.

Experiences[edit | edit source]

As the word 'dragon' can be applied to a diversity of forms, many dragons inherently have very little in common with each other,[2] though some resources acknowledge that the traditional Western dragon and Eastern lung are common types for people to identify as.[3] Some dragons have also documented descriptions of remembered forms which they share in common with others.[4] Still, dragons may experience their form as being reptilian, mammalian, avian, or something else entirely. They may feel that their form can breathe fire or has some other kind of elemental affiliation, and their form may or may not have wings.[2][5]

Some draconic writers have argued that it is pointless to try and define what a dragon is at all.[6] KaniS states that the users of the forum site Draconic have frequently debated on a core definition of draconity, "but no set of qualities common to all dragons has ever been found."[7] In spite of this, many dragons agree that there is some kind of essential draconic nature which they recognize in themselves and each other, regardless of form.[2][5][8]

Additionally, while they are far from universal, some experiences are reported more frequently than others. For example, many dragons describe a desire to hoard items.[5][9][10][11] This hoarding instinct may lead a dragon to be posessive in general, including of people.[5][9] The fictional trope of collecting treasure and gemstones also holds true for many, prompting Kiera Ember to write a guide to rockhounding aimed at dragons.[12]

Dragons and non-dragons alike have claimed that dragons tend to have large, distinctive presences.[9][11] Further, draconic communities have garnered a reputation for being arrogant, elitist, and insular.[5][8]

Other common trends observed in an analysis of conversations in the Alt+H Discord server included having cat-like mannerisms, or initially misidtentifying as a cat, and having strange or tense relationships to divine beings.[5]

Community[edit | edit source]

History[edit | edit source]

The dragon community originated on the usenet newsgroup alt.fan.dragons.[13] The group was created on December 1st, 1993 for fans of dragons. Almost immediately, people began posting to the group saying they were dragons, though it was unclear how seriously these early posters meant it. It is also unclear when the group became predominated by dragons and not just dragon fans, but ExistingPhantom, the creator of the newsgroup, reports that it happened around November of 1994.[14] The newsgroup later came to be known as The Dominance, and then Alfandria.[15]

Many draconic websites, groups, and forums emerged in the following years, including several notable ones:[14]

  • dragonfire.org was created as a companion website to alt.fan.dragons on August 6th, 1996.
  • draconic.com, a forum, was created on January 11th, 1998.
  • The Draconity FAQ, an article written by Baxil, partly about alt.fan.dragons, was first published on October 11th, 1998.
  • An Alfandria LiveJournal group was created August 3d, 2001.

AFD continued to host a mix of roleplayers and those who considered themselves dragons, including the following the in an FAQ on dragonfire.org:

Some individuals consider that it is role-playing, and others don't. There are many on the group who are dragons in mind, spirit or body. A.f.d is not considered a typical role-playing game or newsgroup. Individuals place a lot of their emotions and feelings into their post.[16]

Some sites for dragons still run today and there are dedicated message boards for dragons. Otherwise, much of the dragon community has assimilated into the otherkin community.[1] Some dragons lament this change, seeing it as a loss.[5][8]

Terminology[edit | edit source]

The terms 'draconic' and 'draconity' had become the common terms to refer to the people in this community and their experiences by 1995.[14] Draconity was considered a measure of "how much a person relates to dragons", and a person was considered a dragon if they had any meaningful level of it.[3][17] Therefore, these were considered umbrella terms for dragonkin, dragon therians and theriomythics, dragonhearted people, dragon furries, dragon extranthropes or people with dragons headmates,[18] and anyone else who experienced an affinity for dragons who chose to identify this way. For many people, draconic was their only label. The word 'dracanthrope' has also been used by some people, by analogy to 'lycanthrope' and 'therianthrope'.[17]

Members of alt.fan.dragons often referred to humans as 'Georges' or 'greggils'. Rather than greymuzzles, elder members of the dragon community were called 'old fruits'.[19]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 mordecai midas. (30th March, 2018) "You are the sum of your friends"
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Rene. "What dragons are"
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Baxil. (August 17th, 2000) "The Draconity FAQ"
  4. ↑ Fallen in Shadow, Volent Dashee Muth. "Dragon Descriptions" (Archived version)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 mordecai midas. (November 7th, 2022) "6 years of dragons in the Alt+H Discord server"
  6. ↑ Rene. "Dragon definitions"
  7. ↑ KaniS. "Draconic: Help and FAQ"
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 mordecai midas. (10th April, 2018) "Here (were, are, will be) Dragons"
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 asrith. (May 8th, 2011) "Balancing the Trinity Within"
  10. ↑ Kiera Ember. (March 2nd, 2020) "On Collecting Treasure"
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 chaitea. "Otherkin of the Draconic Sort" (Archived version)
  12. ↑ Kiera Ember. (September 3rd, 2019) "Rockhounding for Beginners"
  13. ↑ Orion Scribner. (September 8th, 2012) "Otherkin timeline: The recent history of elfin, fae, and animal people"
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 House of Chimeras. (June 2015) "A History of the Draconic Community - 1993 to 2000"
  15. ↑ ExistingPhantom. "The early history of AFD, as present by ExistingPhantom" (Archived version)
  16. ↑ ExistingPhantom. (2006) "Alt.Fan.Dragons Frequently Asked Questions" (Archived version)
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Tserisa. "Transspeciesism" (Archived version)
  18. ↑ Ts. of the Consortium. "Trans-Speciesed" (Archived version)
  19. ↑ Orion Scriber. (January 21st, 2013) "Otherkin lexicon: A multi-lingual dictionary of jargon used in the communities of otherkin, therianthropes, and other similar peoples"

External links[edit | edit source]

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