As stated in an earlier post about dragons, I realized that I needed to divide the dragons into races or clans. Today’s post will focus on the Imperial dragons, and I will focus on the Baethir and Tatsu in later posts.

I needed a race of dragons that would emerge as leaders. I did some research on dragon myths and lore across the globe and found two main types: those in European mythology and those in Asian mythology. (Disclaimer: there were probably others but I focused on those.) I decided to make the Imperials the most European looking. I wanted them scary and vicious. Here are a few notes I made when I was brainstorming.

“Imperial” (needs a root)

• Biggest
• Five claws
• In minority (2-5%)
• Rule over the dragons (Rhys is one.)
• Royal line of dragons
• Long, thin, snouts
• Long horns that grow out of their heads, like crown. One for every hundred years.
• Thick bodies (like tyrannosaurus rex), thick legs, but front legs are shorter (not at all like T-Rex), can function like arms, too.
• “wisest,” least emotional
• Spikes down back and on tail.
• Blow wide streams of fire
• One fold under chin.

A few things about my notes:

• The “needs a root” was a note to myself to not call them Imperial dragons. I gave up on finding another name.
• In Chinese lore, the 5 clawed dragons were Imperial Dragons–which is where I got the name from.
• I made them the minority because that tends to be the percentage of leaders to non-leaders. (I took far to many business classes to be of any use to anyone in business, lol.)
• Note the streams of fire being wide. This is not important in Out of the Shadows when the dragons have sided with Davian, but it will be very important in Book III when they dragons have a little civil war of their own.
• I don’t remember why they had a fold under their chin… But it sounded cool. 🙂

Wow. I just realized that saying “The Imperials” sounds like some kind of rock band… #HangsHead.

Be sure to click here for more Elysian Chronicles Fun Facts!

Be sure to join in the discussion at M. B. Weston’s Treetop Inn group on Facebook!

Fantasy, steampunk, and paranormal novelist M. B. Weston is the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason. Weston is also the hose of The Final Cut In Movies radio show that airs on TMV Cafe Monday nights at 8:00 EST. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit www.mbweston.com. To receive notification of M. B. Weston’s book releases click here to subscribe to Dark Oak Press & Media’s e-newsletter.