Worldbuilding Wednesday 2/15/23: House of the Dragon (Dragons)

“I’m a horny toad? Really?”

The dragons of House of the Dragon are equivalent to B-52 bombers and almost as large, with unprecedented, literal firepower. They are what the Valyrians used to dominate the continent of Essos in ages past, building up an empire that was Roman-like in its scope. But unlike the jets, Valyrian dragons are sentient, and bonded to their owners who have the power to communicate with and control them. In that, they may be thought of as kaiju who serve certain families instead of all mankind, as in the 1970s version of the Godzilla where he went up against Hedorah, Megalon and Gigan who were mankind’s enemies.

The dragon design follows Hollywood standard for the new century, which means giant reptiles heavily influenced by the dinos of Jurassic Park, forever roaring with open mouths and armored like Texas horny toads. Which doesn’t break new ground, but serves the story well enough. The Valyrian dragons are more snaky, however, particularly when they fly — they seem to slither through the air. Like Smaug in the Hobbit trilogy, they are technically wyverns — meaning they have four limbs. The front pair are winged while the rear are for walking, which makes sense biologically as reptiles are quadrupeds not hexapeds. But unlikethe  wyverns Valyrian dragons also use their wings for locomotion on the ground, shuffling along on the knuckles of their “hands” where their fingers crook and become supports for their wings. In that, they are like Azhdarchid pterosaurs, also a very cool creature.

Valyrian dragons are venerated when they die, their skulls being preserved for prosperity.

Dragons’ names mean something in Old Valyrian. This is most evident in Vermithrax, which is literal Latin meaning “like a worm” — worm being a synonym for dragon way back when in Old Medieval texts. This name was included as homage to the forgotten 1981 Disney movie Dragonslayer, which also — surprise! — included a character named Valerian. Other dragon names in House of the Dragon are hippyish, like Seasmoke and Sunfyre, which has the added flourish of a special snowflake spelling. This type, I’ve chosen to ignore. There’s also a tradition of naming dragons after people, like how Danaerys named two of her dragons after her dead husband and brother.

These names here I’ve randomgenned out of common elements of the names and don’t mean anything.

Valyrian Dragon Names

Since there’s a Valyrian translator available now, I thought it would be fun to name some dragons on the results. (I’m assuming that Old Valyrian keeps the -ax and -axes suffixes from Latin.)

Valyrian Dragon Names derived from Old Valyrian