I have recently been asked a question that I'm sure most Dragons are by now quite familiar with. I've been asked this question on more then one occation and rather then answer it on an individual basis, I've opted to post my answer here so that other who may be curious as to our reasoning will be informed without having to ask one of us.

The question is: "Why do Dragons eat virgins?"

Now, without going into a great deal of detail about ancient Draconic history or the shifting beleifs about Dragonity's purpose in the world, I will say that it's population control.

Many many years ago, while mankind was still in it's infancy, Dragon's had reached their apex and were already in decline (a process that, alas, has only increased with time).
But still being a rather mighty power in the world, and feeling a responcibility to mange it, it was discussed what, if anything, should be done about 'Men'.

The descision came down to the Dragon Father, who met with his counsil and descided that they didn't have the right to govern Men and that they should be allowed to follow their own destinies uninterfeired with.

This ruling was not universially accepted, and there were (and I beleive, still are) many Dragons who reject it and become involved, directly or indirectly with the actions of Men. Some for good, some less so.

As Men multiplied and grew in power and intellect (but not in wisdom), a significant minority began to feel that the population of Men should be kept in check.
Men didn't seem to have respect for the natural things around them, except for as far as it suited their purposes - and they made constant war with one another and took from the earth but gave nothing back.
So there were individuals who took it upon themselves to cull the human population.
While this was done in many ways by many differant Drakes (some of whome had differant reasoning then this), the idea of virgin-taking seems most remembered, and has become itself a cliche.

The reasoning, as far as I know, was this:

If the men were taken, the exess would only decline in the short term while the rest just made better time ina creating more.

However, the number of babies a woman can bear has limits, and no increase in breeding action will increase that number. So by removing a percentage of woman, a greater percentage of potential humans is also removed.

Yet, Dragons are not monsters; and do not wish to see any unecessary orphans. Also, it's little use taking a woman who has already been bred.
So, it's down to virgins.

While it was never openly condoned amoung the greater castes, it appears to have been widely practised in one form or another. Also, while it's true that many received far too much enjoyment out of culling the human population, it was originally done pragmaticly, and not out of malice.
Indeed, one of the reasons Mankind was left so alone (and continues to be) is that it was reckognized early on that Mankind has the potential to go to great heights in all feilds of thought and deed, and it was felt that they should be given the chance to discover that potential on their own.

So there you have it. There are, or course, other explinations and I'm not going to put this one forward as "The Truth", I just put it out there amongst all the others as an alternative to the largely false: "Evil Dragon eats tastey humans" fable.

D.O.P.R