Are Dracthyr true Dragons? Examining the Evidence

Community General Discussion
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Elephant in the room: Dracthyr clearly aren’t the exact same thing as the massive, quadrupedal Warcraft dragons we’ve known for years. But are they meant to be viewed and experienced as a new take on those traditional dragons, or more as “dragonmen” or dragonkin which are different from and subservient to the true dragons of the various flights before in WoW? While dragons are part of the technical dragonkin umbrella term, distinctions in lore have been made between the “true dragons” and other forms of “dragonkin”.

It’s difficult to say for certain because minor spoilers even the Dracthyr starting zone of Forbidden Reach on the alpha doesn’t tell us anything about their creation or where they came from. We’ve been told that they’re experiments of Neltharion combining the powers of the dragonflights with the essence of mortal races. But, does that mean that Dracthyr were originally mortal races who were coerced/willingly volunteered to be infused with dragon powers, similar to Drakonids? Were they actual dragon whelplings that were then combined with mortal dna/essence? Or were they nothing before Neltharion’s experimentation, simply being born in a figurative science lab?

We don’t know yet, but I thought I’d look at information that currently exists to try and figure out whether we’re meant to view Dracthyr as bone fide dragons, or more as “dragon-men” or dragon-adjacent sorcerers similar to dragonspawn and drakonids.

Evidence that they’re not true dragons, but a type of dragonkin:

  1. They are bipedal rather than quadrupedal like traditional dragons

  2. We haven’t yet seen them follow the typical lifecycle of true dragons (egg/whelp/drake/dragon/wyrm)

  3. They often wear extensive armor and weapons in dracthyr form, something we haven’t seen true dragons typically do, and much of the armor they use is reminiscent of existing Drakonids

  4. Alpha spoilers
    Quests and lore books in the forbidden reach indicate that they were created to protect the dragonflights as soldiers, implying that they may or may not be equals with those dragons. Additionally, when Wrathion and Ebyssian arrive in the Forbidden Reach, the Dracthyr commanders regard them suspiciously because they are dragons.
    End Alpha spoilers

  5. The Dragonflight announcement video has conflicting information, but one segment suggests Dracthyr are not true dragons:
    “We have an all-new playable race, the Dracthyr race. This is a drakonid, draconic race…” -Ion Hazzikostas
    (‘https://youtu.be/c3nPloFgHkM?t=1404’)

Evidence that they’re meant to be true dragons:

  1. Different segments of the same Dragonflight announcement video listed above also supports the idea of Dracthyr being true dragons rather than mere dragonkin:
    John Hight: “Alright, you know I’m gonna ask. Can I be a dragon?”
    Ion Hazzikostas: “…Yes, we have an all-new playable race: the Dracthyr race.”
    John Hight: “What classes can they be?”
    Ion Hazzikostas: “They have unique abilities as literally a dragon…”
    ‘https://youtu.be/c3nPloFgHkM?t=1393’

  2. Official Blizzard Dragonflight announcement deep dive:
    “Dragonflight introduces a new race and class in one known as the dracthyr Evoker, allowing players to play as a dragon (one that can still fit in a raid without crushing your allies.)”
    ‘https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/23785116/world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-deep-dive’

  3. Alpha spoilers
    When exploring Stormwind/Orgrimmar after the Forbidden Reach starting zone, npc’s refer to the player explicitly as a “dragon”
    End Alpha spoilers

  4. They are able to take a visage form, something no other form of dragonkin has been shown to do - other than the true dragons. “Dragons in warcraft have the ability to take on a humanoid form.” -Ion Hazzikostas (in the above announcement video)

  5. They share the exact same physical features as true dragons, except they walk upright rather than on all fours. Other forms of dragonkin often lack typical draconic features such as wings.

  6. Dracthyr fight differently than any form of dragonkin other than the true dragons. They breathe fire & spellfrost, soar with their wings, and use magical claw attacks. Other forms of dragonkin seem to use weapons exclusively (drakonids) or cast typical mage spells (dragonspawn) or even use alchemical concoctions (dragonmen like Maloriak). Dracthyr instead fight like “real” dragons.

Final thoughts:
Until we receive more official lore on the Dracthyr, I could understand perspectives on any side of the issue. However, based on the evidence I was able to find, it seems that Dracthyr were clearly meant to be literal playable dragons, not just scaly humanoids with draconic flavor such as other dragonkin. They may not walk on four legs, and they may have had their genetics influenced by Neltharion, but Blizzard seems to intend for them to be viewed as literal dragons.

The deep-dive post especially lends credence to the idea that any differences between them and traditional dragons (being small, standing on two legs, etc.) is simply for technical reasons so as to not take up to much space/visually block others. My view on this could change with more evidence and with additions to the lore, and I look forward to seeing how the race is elaborated on in further phases of alpha/beta and throughout the course of the expansion. I’m very excited for the race, which is why I feel so invested in defining exactly what they are. For now, I feel like I have a foundation for viewing them as true dragons.

What about you? Do you think they feel more like true dragons or other forms of dragonkin?

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Got wings, got scales, got spicy breath.
They’s dragons in my book.

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I don’t think there’s any elephant. Blizz already explained that they’re an experiment by Neltharion to help protect by smashing together the mortal races of the time using Aspect magic.

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My current guess is Dragon whelps/eggs infused with whatever Deathwing wanted from the morals. I would like to know for sure, though. I would also love to know their lifespan. See reason below in spoiler.

During one of the quests it's mentioned that the rations which have decayed should have lasted a lifetime. This means either their lives are really quite short, or those rations are *super* good. I would like to know at least a ballpark age. :(

Edits: Just me trying to properly figure out spoiler tags, and failing. Nothing to see here. Got it right eventually. :slight_smile:

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There’s nothing to guess. We’ve already been specifically told what they are. :woman_shrugging:t4:

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We’ve been told they’re a combination. We haven’t been told how that combination came about. Was it mortals plucked up and infused with Dragon magic, or Dragon babies infused with mortal whatever. No one has specified other them being a mixture of both. I would like to specifically know the base state before alterations.

So, hence the guess.

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This is what they originally told us.

We’ll see if that sticks, considering they went from one bad excuse for visage form to another worse one.

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Where did they say that, specifically? I would like a source, please. Because all I ever recall was something about the power of Dragons infused with whatever the heck the essence of mortals is. They, so far as any media I have seen, have never said what they started as.

I will happily eat my words if I am wrong, but I would like an official quote, please.

Edit: Sorry, the exactly quote was " the essence of dragons was combined with the adaptability of the mortal races."

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One of the interviews.

It’s a mash up of all the mortal races with Aspect magic. There is no “started as.” It’s essentially a test tube baby, most likely. Get a bunch of essences and magic and poof.

Well, I’m not going to go through a bunch of boring videos to find it. Sorry. There were way too many.

My suggestion is just wait to see what they explain in the starter zone. Again, they already changed the visage form excuse.

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Nothing has been explained in the starter zone, thus far. They wake up, weirdness happens, and they go to the cities. You saying test tube babies is fine, but what was the template? You think mortal, but it could have been Dragon. I would just like to know for sure.

Er, for that it’s worth, I did find the source I was using. I mislike asking of others what I am not willing to do myself, so I went and found it.

So, did he start with mortals and go from there? Did he start with Dragons and go from there? Did he create entirely from scratch by adding the magical equivalent of DNA and growing them in a Azerothian cloning facility? I don’t have hopes for Blizz actually answering, but I would still love to know.

Edit: There are older ones that say much the same thing, but I picked that one because it was released recently, and not like 2 months ago.

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Pretty sure there isn’t one. I think y’all are overthinking this.

Get bunch of mortals. Extract essence. Add Aspect magic. Get experiment thing. Done. :woman_shrugging:t4:

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I wouldn’t be at all surprised if
A. There is encrypted content that is part of their starting zone that we haven’t seen yet that actually explains it a bit more. Like, an intro cutscene, etc.
B. Their origins are meant to be a mystery upon DF launch, and we are meant to learn more during the expansion. I can’t find a source, but for some reason I seem to remember Blizzard saying that forbidden reach will be a max level zone for everyone in addition to being the Dracthyr starting zone. We also know that one of the Dracthyr quest givers remains behind in the Forbidden Reach specifically to delve into the race’s past. Maybe we’ll learn more later in the expansion?

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I honestly just don’t think there’s that much to learn. Mortal essences + Aspect power = experiment thingy that has a billion colorations.

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Lore is fun to speculate on. Concrete lore is nice to have. Sides, previous Black Dragon experiments have had start points. Usually eggs and whelps, but sometimes they’re mutated mortals.

Some people like to talk about raid and dungeon strategy, for me it’s game lore.

Aye, I remember this too. I am hoping we will see more later, or that you are correct in the inclusion of additional starter cutscenes. Want to see some more in depth origin reveals. :slight_smile:

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That is completely and entirely valid!

But keep in mind that was after they were all corrupted.

It’s possible these things are just one of those essence and magic amalgamations. Anveena was the amalgamation of what was left of the Sunwell.

And these things can be almost any color under the sun. That’s a lot of different stuff if they came from something.

That’s just my thoughts.

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Aye, and a magical game of combining many piles of playdough into one giant multicoloured lump would be fine with me too. I just would like to know. See into the process.

Seriously, I am the girl that spends hours reading lore articles and such for games like ESO (and TES in general). I read every single quest fully in every game I play, and do all the sidequests. Kinda makes me sad that most of Blizz’s writing has not much thought beyond “oh, that sounds cool, let’s do that.” I can always hope they do better, though. :frowning:

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They’re drakonids/drakonaar “completed” with the essence of mortals, and bearing the powers of the dragonflights to a notable extent.

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Well they were in stasis for 10K years, I doubt they were meant to be sleeping anywhere near that long?

As for what they are. They’ve been stated to be the closest they could give us to playable dragons without letting the player turn into a full size dragon form and cause all forms of trollish mischief, and we know drakonids/dragonspawn are (at first generation-wise) mortals mutated either over time into more draconic forms via exposure to their patron flight’s magic or directly transformed (whether drakonids/dragonspawn can reproduce among themselves once transformed is another matter).

The other flights didn’t know the Dracthyr existed (even Alexstrasza), and they were created before Neltharion went crazy/corrupted, so unless he got some members of his flight to willingly donate eggs to use as a template, mutating eggs/whelps is a bit morally sketchy for a pre-evil Aspect.

Using some kind of artifact/titan machine, pouring ‘mortal essence’ magic and ‘dragonflight essence’ magic into said device and pressing ‘blend’ could work with far less morality problems.

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That’s kinda it really. I am curious what they define as a lifetime. Yeh, rations turning to dust after 10k years is to be expected, but when it’s said they should last a lifetime that’s odd too. Normal preserved foods wouldn’t last a human lifetime in most cases. We could assume that these are magical and would last longer, but it could also be that these are normal foods and these guys were basically bred to be short lived, disposable soldiers.

Would just be neat to know if we’re looking at a max age of decades, centuries, or millennia. :slight_smile:

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I’d go with magically long-preserved foods as deliberately creating your ‘ultimate soldiers combined with the magic of all the dragonflights’ to be short-lived doesn’t seem morally good. I’d say if not immortal (due to the infusion of mortal essence), dracthyr probably can expect very long lives. Draenei for example are ‘mortal’ but we have some that have been alive since they fled Argus. Likewise, high/blood elves aren’t immortal but we know Anasterian was 3K+. I’d say being reptillian (reptiles tend to be long-lived) and having the essence of all the dragonflights would give them at least an elf-like lifespan.

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