This month I'm going to look at the ins and outs of working with dragon characters, with all that entails. Most dragons are described as hatching from an egg rather than being born, meaning that their in utero experience would be different from ours, and mum may or may not be close by when they're born (which again, is unlike us), so they're likely to be more capable of independence even as a newborn. Add to that the idea that they're reptiles who may be living in a mammalian world, with all the marginalisation that implies; they may look fabulous or they may look drab (although the less aesthetically-pleasing dragons tend not to be called dragons so may be called something else, like "drakes"); they may be noted for being dangerous. They may or may not be able to cast magic, which adds an interesting extra complication to them being a dragon - isn't being a dragon emblematic of enough power, without being able to potentially use magic?

I've got a few dragons in my back-catalogue who are suitable as case studies, but I decided to go with the first dragon I worked on through TCC: Arix Ordragc! Arix is a red dragon (so a 'fabulous' subtype!), is magicless in a world where he would be expected to have magical abilities, and may have been enslaved when he was first hatched. Let's talk about all of that.

Like I said in April about werewolves, there's always a meta quality to the work I do. I wasn't just working on a red dragon here, I was working with a story that resonated with ArixO, Arix's creator. While writing Arix's story I noted how much the concept of physical appearance, how to live life without 'magic' that everyone else seems to have, abandonment, and the experience of feeling indentured to a cruel other person meant to him, because by exploring Arix's experience with these issues, I was effectively working with ArixO's on a once-removed basis. That isn't to say that ArixO himself is necessarily as visually impressive as his dragon, but it does mean that the concept of looking so impressive resonates with him (and don't we all wonder what it would be like if we were stunningly attractive? How would people relate to us differently? What doors would be opened up to us? What would the consequences be?). 'Magic' could mean anything through this lens: talent, being born rich, or something else entirely. Who knows? I don't always, and interpreting isn't always helpful, but there is clearly some symbolic significance going on here. There's probably a reason ArixO didn't make a character who's an elderly ferret mathematician in a flat cap.

But it's the enslavement part of Arix's story that really stood out to me. Now, I should say that when I originally worked on Arix, he didn't yet have this part of his story. It was only when I approached ArixO to ask permission to make this post that he told me of some updates to Arix. He warned me that the updates weren't complete as he hadn't yet woven them into a cohesive story, but that he had so far worked out that Arix was captured as a hatchling. He escapes once he's a little older, and as a result of all this, he becomes even more "disdainful of authority figures like gods and kings", and values personal freedom all the more for it. The lowest point for Arix in all of this is being 'branded' with a set of permanent claw-marks across his chest, and while he's raging at the injustice of this, a demon or some similar dark force offers him the chance at vengeance, which he takes. But when he uses this power to free himself, he hurts or possibly kills some of his fellow slaves. This is what leads him to be so passionate about protecting others - which is something the earlier version of Arix already cared about. Yet, while the earlier version of Arix seems to just be having a nice time picking up bodyguard work here and there, the newer version of Arix does so as a form of atonement.

If I were working with Arix now I'd ask, "how long will that atonement need to go on for? What exactly does Arix need to achieve for his atonement to be complete, so that he can move on?"

I've always known ArixO to enjoy creating and using Arix. A good number of his Arix artworks have a fun side, such as the one where he's riding a unicorn. I try to be careful when working with characters that have a darker side to their story such as Arix's enslavement, as people put their stories onto a character to remove the story a little from themselves, and they do so for a reason. It can make it easier to explore the themes that they use, but exploring them also risks that they end up identifying more closely with that one, dreaded detail.

We seem to have moved from talking about dragons to talking about dramatic stories. Perhaps they're intrinsically linked, given the drama associated with dragons. What do you think?


Credits

Character creator: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/arixo
Character: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/30034550/
Artist: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/biggoodwolf/
Analysis and wording: https://www.thecharacterconsultancy.co.uk/