User blog:DreamingOfDragons72x2/Hunters vs. Riders on Helven

How To Twist A Dragon's Tale is the first book to really draw my attention to the fact that there are at least two broad dragon groups in the world of Berk: hunting dragons and riding dragons. I had - indirectly - done the same thing by making three different size groups, although each of the three groups technically have the same dragons in them. Since some of my "Helven Cousin" blogs reference size (the most obvious being the most recent), I am now officially describing the differences between the three groups of Helven dragons. Each size group has a "cap" which technically no dragon within the group actually hits, and a minimum and maximum size under that cap.

Draconis minimus - The Hunting Dragons
The hunting dragons of Helven all have their sizes under a cap of ten pounds; the smallest size available to one is half a pound while the heaviest is nine and a half pounds, and half of the purebreds are at the average of five pounds. This might seem like an awfully small creature, but how big does a creature really need to be to catch fish or pheasants, and how big does it have to be to spook a deer if it has flight or firepower available?

Besides the smaller size, hunting dragons have other differences from their larger counterparts. Their heads are all bigger in relation to their bodies, for instance, and their necks a little shorter. In fact, most of the hunting dragons are built to be rather compact, and there are very few exceptions; they are (for those of you familiar with manga styles) the chibis of the dragon world.

Draconis maximus - The Riding Dragons
I'm jumping straight from smallest to biggest because the biggest is the next one I have designed in any sense of the word. Their cap is ten tons, with the lightest and heaviest being 0.5 tons and 9.5 tons, respectively. Obviously, even a small one can carry a human, and the biggest can carry several - if you can find a safe way to mount around the dorsal spikes. Yeah, they would generally need saddles; only exception would be the bladeless.

If the hunting dragons are chibis, the riding dragons are bishis with few exceptions. Everything about their build is long, lean, majestic, and terrible in beauty even as the hunting dragons are simultaneously cute and ugly. They have the same shot limits as both of their smaller counterparts; the difference is in the strength of the punch and possibly the length of the duration.

Draconis medius - The Miscellaneous Dragons
As you might have guessed by the name, this one is right in between the hunting and riding dragons. I'm less sure about this one's size; the cap is probably 600 pounds, but there's a give-or-take of 200 pounds. Obviously, wherever the cap is exactly, the smallest is 5% of the cap while the biggest is 95%. What jobs they are given is pretty dependant on their exact size.

This one is right in between the other two in terms of appearance: not the ugly-cute chibi-esque of the D. minimus, but not the terribly-beautiful bishi-esque of the D. maximus. They're just dragons - scaly, clawed and toothed, equipped with hoods and hackles like both of the other two. Of course, an average-sized one could probably look you in the eye with little trouble; that's always disconcerting.



That's about it for size. Three types of dragon, three sizes to match. You might think, since all three sizes can hunt (all Helven dragons are omnivorous), that the big ones could bring home the biggest catch and eliminate any risk of Not Enough Food For The Winter. Theoretically, that's true; unfortunately, in the wild the D. maximus creatures are almost totally solitary and don't share catches, and as a result they seem to be impossible to train in the department of Bringing Food Home. Of course, D. minimus don't seem to get the message of Sleeping All Alone, so it evens out.