Look up the story of Fafnir and Andvari's ring. Its one of the first dragon stories which we have in full. It's part of Volsungasaga. The dwarf literally turns into a dragon because of his greed. Andvaranaut is the inspiration behind Tolkien's "One Ring", as well.
this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2026
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ShowerThoughts
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Precisely. If I remember correctly, it is speculated that since story tellers couldn't write anything to criticise the monarchy, they used allegories, like dragons.
What are dragons going to buy anyway? They don’t even wear clothes.
Donkeys
Yeah.
Unfortunately, many people today are cheering for the dragons.
This is the lore of the Shadowrun games. The dragons even do the billionaire thing where they create cultural narratives surrounding themselves that they are a necessary evil to stave off even worse evils from beyond.
Heartily agree about the origin, altho modern 'dragons' additionally want to use their hoard to warp reality around them to conform to their vision & tastes.
Meanwhile, their wealth tends to provide huge insulating effects from reality, meaning it's super easy for them to go off track in to batshit-crazy territory. Or at least territory that's essentially toxic for most other life around them.
No, because dragons are cool
Well... A bit like pirates, the styling and fantasy is cool but when you think through the realities of it there's nothing romantic about them at all
yes. Maybe not some of the stories from antiquity, I think there's some interpretations of like St George and the Dragon where the dragon is meant to represent sin, but in the modern era they are near exclusively an allegory for greed.