– John Ronald Ruel Tolkien, "Hobbit, or there and back"
Somehow a traveler in time, a symbol of power and the guardian spirit, go to the bar, and the bartender will be chopped, and he will set off! Still, not every day you see a real dragon in front of you.
But such lovers of history and magic, like you and I, like the meetings only in the joy. After all, these powerful and mysterious lizards that blaze with fire, ice and not only hide a lot of secrets in themselves – seeing one of these on the monitor, do not always know what to expect further. So let’s find out what is hiding behind a thick scales and sharp fangs!
Yes, I understand that you have been weaned for many years to stand in the fire, but believe me, now is the time to make an exception.
– Alekstraza, keeper of life
As is often the case with fictional creatures, the origin of dragons is difficult to establish. Who appeared earlier – flying snakes in the harvesting of Tripnem or Japanese three -fingered ryu? Or maybe the Aztec god Ketzalcoatl is a lean flying snake, whose name inspired a thrill in many tribes of Mesoamerica? It is difficult to say for sure, but the image of mythical lizards goes deep.
What turned into the son of the great sorcerer Fafnir, who was thrown by the heroic Siegfried in the "Ring of the Nibelung"?
The answer everywhere will be the same – the dragon.
Even found by players in Final Fantasy XV The goddess Leviathan is based on a monster from Jewish legends, counted by sea dragons. Its appearance is more reminiscent of Yermungand-the Scandinavian world snake-but wings-sordates and angular bone muzzle are much closer to winged brothers.
Of course, the fragmentation of the images of winged creatures was simply incredible. Keepers of wisdom in one part of the world, for other peoples, they were crazy creatures that destroyed all living things in their path. Someone dreamed of a meeting with one of these magic wanderers, and someone since childhood was scared by the fact that "you will eat porridge badly – the dragon will take".
Well, if you would like to move on to the single image that is familiar to us all today, you will have to wait until the end of the 19th century. No, they didn’t forget about the dragons at all – folk tales continued to be adapted and published by collectors (such as the brothers Grimm or Charles Perrault), but the fragmentation of traditions was preserved, and the cultural exchange was by no means as fast as today. Different authors also have such images – but they are basically not subjected to rethinking and simply copy existing.
At the turn of the 19-20 centuries, we are finally met by Barmaglot, Smuug and the Justes Dragon turned into a dragon. It was thanks to Carollah, Tolkien and Lewis that the dragons became personalities – and attracted incredible attention. It must be understood that these writers were also researchers of literature – and therefore the images familiar to different peoples were most successfully intertwined.
This period in history becomes real "Dragon Boom" – the development of mass media, whether it is books, cinema or series – is inextricably linked with the image of winged creatures. So their hit in video games becomes only a matter of time ..
Your family – Yorre, or mortals – created weapons against Dov … dragons. Our Hadrimme, our mind cannot even … comprehend this concept.
– Parturnax
Games were a difficult obstacle to dragons. The fact is that they had to go through several stages to appear before us in the game incarnations that we are accustomed to today.
Stage One – enemies, enemies, enemies around!
If you read previous articles in the cycle, then you can easily guess which names you will see now. Yes, the dragons were no exception, and fell into the game world through the desktop Dungeons and Dragons And Wargam Warhammer. However, there was one important nuance compared to many other races.
It was difficult to balance powerful creatures in such a way that they could be entrusted to the player. So, instead of making them a separate important game element, they were simply used as quest enemies – whether it be an open world, or a trip to the dungeon for treasures. Basically, winged lizards were not reasonable and were only larger and dangerous monsters than the rest.
Later, a trend will appear on dragons that give out tasks or help travelers, and in late editions DND A whole race of dragonorbods will arise, but before that there would be many more years, and electron-beam monitors have already begun to shine on the horizon.
Stage second – and these kids you call dragons?
Once in computer games, the volatile reptiles were faced with another problem. Not only were they not presented as a game race, they were also real babies, rarely surpassing ordinary human characters in size.
Starting with Dungeon1974, any nogamstop-casinos.co.uk/ model on a conditional game field often had to occupy a certain space, and it was extremely difficult to move away from this – because it was necessary to maintain a game convention for the convenience of fighting or other goals. The most popular games with dragons at that time (Venture, Dragon Fire and so on) walked along this way.
IN Might and Magic: World of Xeen, uniting the 4th and 5th parts of the game series, the dragons were depicted in Anfas, because of which they looked rather comical and more resembled lizards, and because of the same size with any monsters-from jellyfish to beetles-the feeling of danger simply did not create properly.
There were, of course, and exceptions. For example – the same Loom 1990, the review of which I did some time ago. In it, the dragon is more present in Katsenes and in the role of a lively illustration. Due to the lesser influence on the gameplay, it was possible to convey the scale of the magical creature both in general plans and inside its den.
IN Dragon Fighter We were given the NES to play for the dragon, but the game convention was still above all, and the gameplay for a small static sprite could not give the feeling of controlling a full -fledged winged giant.
Fortunately, the beginning of the two thousandth was not far off, but with it – and the new chapter of history ..
The third stage is stronger than steel, hotter than the sun, higher than our house!
And then, finally, at the dawn of the 21st century, dragons in games approached their literary counterparts, becoming more diverse in ways of interaction, as well as reaching external similarities with analogues in the cinema and description in books.
Just look at the frames from Heroes of Might and Magic 3 and fifth of the series. If in 1999 the dragons look only a little more than the rest of the units on the field, then in 2006 we see real giants covering huge pieces of the battlefield, and the combat chamber, periodically included during the attack, adds immersion to what is happening.
Somewhere, of course, small dragons remain-but this is justified by the characters themselves. For example, a baby Spyro From the series of the same series, appears in front of the player quite a baby in the early parts. From the game to the game, he becomes more mature, which is reflected in his replicas and teaching new abilities. It was a great way for authors from Insomniac Games to grow a whole generation at their games.
The variety of video game dragons begins to gain unprecedented momentum. Serious opponents in strategies like The Battle for Middle-Earth II and role -playing games (Dark Messiah of Might & Magic), they often hid where you did not wait for them, and were much more important than ordinary monsters. Remember the same The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, where the dragon appeared at the very end of the plot, being a transformation of one of the positive characters.
This stage of development continues to this day:
The player is given a choice of a huge spectrum, so everyone can find an adventure to taste.
The Dragon Slirak is sleeping in this armor. And in it, a knight is waiting for. More careful, do not awaken both of them.
– Davion, Dragon Knight
With so many classic dragons in games, the birth of numerous original images based on them was simply inevitable. I will give only a few examples, since all the diversity should be written not a blog, but a book – and then, it is unlikely that it will be possible to meet. Let’s start with those who ..
Hidden in sight
In Divinity II, after the victory over the High Necromancer Liken and the capture of the combat tower, the hero gained the artifact “The Heart of the Dragon”. In combination with the "dragon memory", which the character himself owned, it made it possible to reincarnate in a real dragon. In this mode, the hero acquired a separate set of skills and could wear special armor, which improved various characteristics.
In the game, the process of the path to the form of the dragon is shown quite interestingly, by the time the player is transformed, the feeling is created that this force is not an accident, but a power intended by the hero, which must be wisely disposed of. And the very fact that this energy has always been waiting for its carrier and was given to a specific character is added by the “chosenness” factor, which is important for fantasy setting.
Not what they seem
Here you don’t even need to go far for examples.
Take at least recent Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Any battle in this game is accompanied by some inner experience or testing of the heroine herself, and the beast that appears in the dungeon is no exception. Formally, it is not called a dragon in the game itself, but a similar design allows us to classify it to this category of creatures.
He is the will of Hel, to which the main character moves, and checks for the strength of her intention, trying to deprive her of all hope with his speeches and attack. During the battle and on the way to her, Senua often sees her lover, and these thoughts help her prevail over the monster.
Another example is the archdemon in Dragon Age: Origins. Ancient God, who took the appearance of a mixture of a mighty dragon and the generation of darkness. At first glance, it is not even so easy to distinguish from other dragons – led by instincts of animals inhabiting this world. But the struck by the damage of scales hides much like a greater mind than other dragons, as well as an absolute evil.
Sometimes everything happens exactly the opposite. IN World of Warcraft For a long time, Lady Katran Katran, the press, was known at the court of the Alliance King, known for his intrigues and attempts to seize power. After her next plan, which almost shaken the very existence of the kingdom of people, she was caught red -handed, but immediately transformed into a terrible black dragon, revealing her true essence.
It was the daughter of the crazy black dragon of Neltarion – Onyxia. If it were not for the heroes of Azerot and courage of the ruler Varian Rinn – who knows what would have become a young prince Anduin and the heart of the whole alliance.
Bearing burden
IN The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, In addition to evil dragons resurrected by Alduin, we meet two representatives of the species, each of which is important for the main storyline. The first is Parturnax, – he saw his life not in the enslavement of the world, but in the service of people. His mission is to transmit knowledge about dragons, their mighty screams and the image of thinking to a limited circle of people.
Another dragon – Odading. On his soul, the centuries -old ministry of Alduin hangs on his soul, but, thanks to a conversation with the main character, he rejects his own blind devotion and is disappointed in the former lord. So giving way becomes a finger of fate, which directs the dragon -native, helping him to achieve the ultimate goal.
In the same World of Warcraft Not all dragons are free in choosing a lifestyle. In ancient times, when Azerot was still young, and the peoples did not inhabit the planet’s terrible creatures, the titans intervened in the natural course of events. It was they who locked the dangerous ancient gods and elementals, created the mercenary peoples, but they still had the strength to command various aspects of being.
It was decided to convey these forces to the most powerful and wise creatures – dragons. Five of them received the forces of aspects of the Earth, Magic, Time, Life and Nature, but at the same time – the obligation along with their clans to look after what is happening on the planet.
It often happens that several different features of dragons are combined in one. For example, the main villain Fable: The Lost Chapters -Jack-Az-Teni (or, more correct translation-jack of swords) is transformed into a dragon for the final battle, which makes it a threat hidden in sight, and at the same time more than a dragon-a formidable image only envelops the essence of an ancient and dark creature, repeatedly interfered with history.
The list does not end there, but, as I wrote above, you can continue it endlessly. So I propose to go smoothly to ..
You think you are a dragon killer? Come here and try!
– Shivana, semi -grocery
To understand the scale of the significance of the image of dragons in modern games, it is necessary to evaluate its influence on the fantasy genre. And here it is necessary to distinguish two main points:
1. The image of the dragon significantly dilutes the narrative and complements it. In addition to the fact that magic lizards appear to anyone – from guides to the main tests, they are very often an element of the environment that creates the entire atmosphere of adventure.
2. Dragons, being large creatures, are often hyperbolized and can have unprecedented strength, wisdom or other property, which makes them guides between the world of people and the highest entities.
Due to the fact that a full adventure can be obtained from the knight, dragon and dungeon, during the development of the game you can sometimes pay less attention to the plot and environment, and more experiment. So did, for example, the creators Dragon’s Lair – Unusual Advencura, which was an interactive cartoon for slot machines.
In turn, the dragon’s ability to accept any properties and any role, as well as to appear in the form of an image alone, also positively affects their popularity. We can meet them in the future in Shadowrun or, for example, mechanical similarities of these creatures in alternative reality Saints Row IV.
Thus, dragons are more than another game race. This is a real symbol of fantasy, magic and something great, thanks to which their role in the industry is more multifaceted than many "colleagues in the workshop".