(Oxford English Dictionary: Dragon)

NOUN

1 A mythical monster like a giant reptile. In European tradition the dragon is typically fire-breathing and tends to symbolize chaos or evil, whereas in East Asia it is usually a beneficent symbol of fertility, associated with water and the heavens.

1.1 derogatory A fierce and intimidating woman.

‘the geography teacher was a real dragon’

2 another term for flying lizard

2.1 Australian Any lizard of the agama family.

Origin

Middle English (also denoting a large serpent): from Old French, via Latin from Greek drakon ‘serpent’.

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RPG

1 Report program generator, a high-level commercial computer programming language.

2 Rocket-propelled grenade.

3 Role-playing game.

Dragon Mindset

A dragon is natures most perfect predator. They are geared for survival. They are extremely long lived. They are extremely intelligent. Depending on the breed, they have access to various magics. They also have breath weapons, the most common being fire. So what does this mean for a dragon’s mindset… it’s basic view of the world around it?

Start with predator. Dragons focus on the hunt. When on a hunt, they are single minded with an almost tunnel vision. This does not mean that they are not aware of threats around them. While able to focus their vision on a single target, they can use each eye independently as well. When not on the hunt, they are still looking for anything that they can hunt. This tends to lead to a basic food, not food, mentality. This also carries over into their survival instincts, with the view towards threat, not threat.

Now comes the complications. They are extremely long lived and intelligent. As they mature, the intelligence level increases and tends to add views and ideas to the hunting. They come to think of enjoyment in regards to obtaining their next meal. The long life also tends to lead to boredom. So you have a predator that is bored that tends to enjoy killing. No real problem… so long as you are a dragon. If not? Find a deep hole.

Since they are long lived, this tends to make them ignore anything which doesn’t effect them directly, unless it is something that they have personal interest in. This gives them a rather strange perception of time. If nothing new comes into their immediate area, they could go though years as if no time had passed for them at all. The intellect simply goes into idle mode. Even if faced with a long term goal (a rarity) they will only notice things that forward this goal. While this may seem strange. It prevents them from going quite insane with boredom. They bypass it by going on autopilot while the basic intellect sleeps. This is not a simple on off switch however. There is more of a flow between different states.

They can operate on various levels socially without truly coming into full awareness.

Then you have magic. This is what gives dragons their attitude. They are incredibly powerful. This leads to a very arrogant attitude. Not that any of the other race cares to argue the point. It puts a line of greater and lesser races in their mindset. Their goal is more power and do not deal with anything of lesser power. Therefore the one thing that dragons lack more than anything is compassion.