Dragons are basically the same wherever you hear of them, but range in a multitude of shapes and sizes. Dragons can also be seen in ancient scriptures dating back to the time of St. George in medieval England to ancient Chinese tapestries. The main types of dragons are usually limited to medieval or Asian culture; two distinct cultural traditions of dragons are the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern mythologies, and the Chinese dragons, with counterparts in Japan, Korea and other East Asian countries.
But all dragons are incredibly powerful and have very strong and powerful magic, with some of them being able to see into the future. Some dragons are merciful and when a human is injured, they travel to see the dragons for help, often offering them something in return, like treasure, which is often synonymous with dragons like in the first Shrek film.
But if the human is harmed after transaction of the healing, this can also harm the dragon. In the film Dragonheart, the evil prince has his heart shared with the dragon Draco, which is voiced by the wonderful Sean Connery, because he is on his deathbed. But the only way to kill the prince is to kill the dragon. This is similar to the film Eragon, where the dragon rider has a shared link with the dragon Saphira and they can feel each other’s injuries and hear each other's thoughts. Also the death situation is the same but reversed; instead of both of them dying if the dragon is hurt (Dragonheart), only the dragon dies if it is hurt. But if you kill the rider, then you also kill the dragon (Eragon).
The main powers of dragons are their vision and strength. Some dragons cannot hear well though, like in the novel Dragon Keeper by Caroline Wilkinson, the main Chinese dragon character can see incredibly far, but he has to have his ears cleaned out often as his bane are earwigs/centipedes as they like to crawl into the dragons ears and 'eat their brains’. Dragon’s voices are often sonorous and can travel long distances when a call is being made. Their scales are incredibly tough, often used in the linings of armour and shields as they are fireproof and much stronger than metal. Some depictions even say that the dragon scales can be used in potions and medicines. The main and apparently only weakness is their underbellies because they are very soft and don’t have any scales. Their only other weakness is age; they live for an incredibly long time, but when they start to reach their last years, they become more slow moving, trying to preserve their energies and magic or their final moments of flying as they travel to their resting place.There are lots of different types of dragons,though these are some of the most common that you can hear about.
Greek: Dragons in greecian mythology are more serpent like, but are described as a drakon. The Lernaean Hydra would be one main example of this; a dragon-like water serpent with fatally venomous breath, blood and fangs, the creature was said to have anywhere between five and 100 heads, although most sources put the number somewhere between seven and nine. For each head cut off, one or two more grew back in its place, with an immortal head which would remain alive after it was cut off and some accounts claim that the immortal head was made of gold.
Europe: The Wyvern is a legendary winged creature with a dragon's head, which may be said to breathe fire or possess a venomous bite, a reptilian body, two legs (though sometimes none), and a barbed tail. A sea-dwelling variant, termed the sea-wyvern, has a fish tail in place of a barbed dragon's tail. The Wyvern in its various forms is important to heraldry, frequently appears as a mascot of schools and athletic teams (chiefly in the United States and United Kingdom), and occasionally appears in medieval and modern European and British literature as well as a multitude of video games. They are usually depicted as golden creatures on a red background and is a major heraldic factor in the novel Throne of Glass by Sara. J. Mass.
England: The dragons of English depiction have big leathery wings like a bat and have very thick scales, often have a more lizard feel to them, whereas Asian dragons are more snake like. They can also range in the number of legs they have; usually four legs with the wings in the middle of the back behind the shoulders, or two back legs, with the wings being like their front legs, using the hooks on the edges of their wings like hands used for climbing (which is more bat-like). Usually their colours are very dull and only one colour covers their bodies, with their soft underbellies being a lighter shade. These dragons typically breathe fire or ice but only a few could speak in both the dragon and human tongue. It is also said that English dragons can talk in Faery or Elvish languages, but this is disputed and can range based on what the author describing them wants. The tail is often sharp at the end and can be medium to extremely long, depending on the length of the body.
Africa: these dragons are one of the types of dragons that are not as well known as the European dragon or the Oriental dragon. In fact, most of these dragons are not even recognized or thought of as dragons. Most African dragons are more like large serpents or giant snakes, sometimes possessing only two legs,if any at all. These serpent-like dragons were seen several times throughout African culture, including folklore, religion, mythology and tribal stories. They can also be traced back to Egypt.
China/Japan: Dragons of Asian descent don’t have wings, but are instead long and thin. Chinese dragons also have four fingers on each paw, whilst the Japanese has five on each paw. Another way to spot the differences is Chinese dragons are usually depicted holding a Pearl of Wisdom and have bigger or longer head than a Japanese one. Both types tend to have tendrils of keratin or stiff hair coming from their mouth like a beard or moustache, which is usually the same colour as the hair on the ends of their tales, but are usually white. The main colour of their skins can vary in a wide range of colours, often red, green, white, blue or even yellow.
Chinese dragons can shape shift, meaning they are much shorter in length. They can use a kind of ‘glamour’ spell to make them look like an object, animal or even a person, but if you touch them in a glamorised form, then it can cause dizziness and vomiting as the feeling will be of dragon skin, not of the glamour object.
Japanese dragons have a more varied approach in what they do as there are denominations of different gods which the Japanese worship. Some can be river dragons, luck dragons, or even dragons bringing wealth. These dragons are more used to flying than walking, so they have very long bodies which twist and spiral as they fly through the air. The easiest example is in the Studio Ghibli animation Spirited Away.
