Dragons (ドラゴン Doragon?) are a race of creatures which appear in titles all throughout the Tales of series. They are key creatures to the story of Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Berseria.
Description[]
Appearance[]
Dragons are creatures with reptilian appearance, thus manifesting claws, scale skin, often wings, sharp teeth and long or thick tails. Many creatures fall into the dragon category even if not directly resembling one. This accounts for many regular lizard creatures without wings, general winged-lizards and also some humanoid beings with draconic abilities or limbs. Dragons are four-legged, varying between standing or crawling positions, size, whether they can use spiritual or magic artes, and affinity. Dragons like any other members of any race, can have a good, bad or neutral alignment, as seen with all races—an example being Symonne, a seraphim, creatures of which are almost always aligned with goodness and grace for protecting people, especially the Lord of the Lands.
Desolation Series[]
In Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Berseria, when a seraph or a malak is exposed to malevolence due to lacking a pure vessel, they turn into a drake (ドラゴンパピー doragonpapii?, "dragon puppy"). Drakes are the first state of being exposed to mass levels of malevolence before turning into a complete dragon. Although, some of those effected may turn into a dragon, directly skipping the drake phase of their transition from a seraph or malak to a dragon. Drakes are considered middle class hellions, where as dragons are considered as high class. When a being is exposed constantly to malevolence, may evolve into a fully-fledged dragon. If a vessel is exerted by surrounding malevolence or the pressure of the malevolence that may create a dense atmosphere and further impacts the vessel, then this will also affect any seraph or malak which may dwell in this vessel in. The difference in abilities between a drake and a dragon is in ranks, a dragon is stronger, an evolved form of the drake, and is visible to anyone, including those with no competence for spiritual resonance to perceive any hellion beings. The effect of drakes and dragons can be seen by the human eye, even if the creature itself is not visible due to the lack of resonance. This is seen multiple times throughout all media forms of Tales of Zestiria, where a natural disaster, such as an earthquake, tornado or tsunami is exhibited in the apparent absence of the creature causing them.
Anyone with a sufficient amount of spiritual resonance can view any type of hellions—dragons, seraphim and malakhim alike, as well as the normin creatures. These include regular people, seraphim, malakhim, shepherds, squires and those of the olden age of Desolation.
In Tales of Zestiria, dragons can represent disasters and are often feared by people which is also a reason why people may bring offerings to a dragon's lair as a sign of trepidation, acceptance, and to relieve further protection from them. This is evident at the Rayfalke Spiritcrest where a great dragon resides and some of those bringing offerings were devoured.
History[]
Tales of Zestiria[]
In Tales of Zestiria, since some concepts of the game are influence by Arthurian legends, it is prevalent that the game includes dragons as a theme. In places like Ladylike, and local areas, legend has it that a dragon lives on Rayfalke Spiritcrest. In reality, 800 years ago, during Tales of Berseria's main story, Eizen, Edna's elder brother, fought with disastrous figure called the Lord of Calamity and saved the world from destruction by devouring him and turning into a dragon. He later went to live at Rayfalke Spiritcrest, a mountainous area on the outskirts of two regions, located closer to the Capital Ladylake of the Hyland Kingdom, as a dragon, where he lived and kills anyone who comes to the mountain from that moment onward ever since. This was mentioned by Edna a few times during the story. Eizen also refrained from killing Edna in his draconic and mass malevolent state for many years, as was mentioned by the Guidebook that Edna has also suppressed him constantly and almost daily when she could, but would sometimes get away with killing humans, being which Edna personally despised but still grieved for them, knowing that many were innocent.
During the events of Tales of Zestiria, the party had battled twice at a deserted no-man's land called Glaivend Basin twice. The first major battle with a lizard hellion creature. The second battle at Glaivend Basin, a mass surge of malevolence created by those part-taking in the regional wars had caused the local seraph of the terra firma to turn into a large and fierce dragon mentioned in the lore of Tales of Berseria, Tiamat. A leading shepherd called Sorey, his squire Rose, and the seraphim of which were accompanying them to fight it.
During the major battle, the countries of Hyland and Rolance join forces with the Woodsmen, a militia of men, Lukas, Princess Alisha Diphda—the Knights of Hyland and Sergei Strelka—the Imperial Army of Rolance to aid the Shepherd and his group in the battle with the dragon. Later on in the story, the party fight against multiple dragon creatures as optional bosses. Before the pre-final battle, many dragon-related artifacts are seen in the location's various chambers. During the pre-final battle of the game, Heldalf armatizes with overseeing Maotelus, assuming a form of a lion-dragon hybrid that is ultimately severed with Siegfried (ジークフリート Jiikufuriito?)—a special gun weapon carried by Zaveid the Wind Seraph. Maotelus himself being an earthen light dragon.
Tales of Berseria[]
In Tales of Berseria, during Velvet Crowe's escape from Titania, she fights with a drake that Oscar Dragonia created with the help of one of his malakhim and devours the creature, using its power to blind and scar Oscar in his left eye. Innominat is depicted in a children's book as an eight-headed serpent, a creature similar to a dragon. Innominat's image description is also seen in Tales of Zestiria. The shrine in which he lies dormant also appears to host it, both facts hinting that Innominat's true form is an eight-headed serpent.
Zaveid, who also appears in the game as a key character, had a lover, Theodora, turned into a dragon after they took orphans under their care and were affected by the malevolence they generated due to their horrible experiences. As a result, Zaveid began exterminating many hellions as a result of his loss and also created his much more rather aggressive side during Tales of Zestiria.
Etymology[]
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically scaled or fire-spewing and with serpentine, reptilian or avian traits, that features in the myths of many cultures around world. The two most well-known cultural traditions of dragon are:
- The European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Balkans and Western Asian mythologies. Most are depicted as reptilian creatures with animal-level intelligence, and are uniquely six-limbed (four legs and a separate set of wings).
- The Chinese dragon, with counterparts in Japan (namely the Japanese dragon), Korea and other East Asian and South Asian countries. Most are depicted as serpentine creatures with above-average intelligence, and are quadrupeds (four legs and wingless).
The two traditions may have evolved separately, but have influenced each other to a certain extent, particularly with the cross-cultural contact of recent centuries. The English word dragon and Latin word draco derives from Greek δράκων (drákōn), "dragon, serpent of huge size, water-snake".