Now far as I can tell the other three models; the velocidrake, the protodrake, and the wylderdrake are all basically just animals, right? I don’t know the exact levels of intellect but none of them strike me as having a humanoid level capacity for thought.
But, and correct me if I’m wrong, the Highland Drake is actually a sapient creature. It’s described as having a code of honor at any rate which would suggest it has a capacity for abstract thought strong enough to come up with a sense of morality.
So what’s that like?
Because most mounts are animals I don’t figure would be much different from horses or maybe large dogs, cats or rats. I write my plaguebat Heidi as basically a massive, winged fancy rat with all the cheer and terror that would imply.
But my Highland Drake is just basically a person, right?
Wouldn’t that be a bit weird?
Like far as I can tell I’m not paying them anything. And I guess they’re new to the islands too but do you really want to explore it with me, someone who is going to make you land constantly so I can pick every rare flower we come across?
This is less like being a taxi driver and more like being in the passenger seat of your own car, saying nothing as a tourist runs out the gas or floors it into a tree. I just can’t see what they’d be getting out of this.
Wait a minute.
They’re Blue. Kalecgo’s flight. And mortals are putting saddles on them and straddling the back of their necks…
That’s kinda always been an issue with how Blizz writes dragons, ESPECIALLY when extra details get involved.
Take for instance, the classic drake mounts: every drake in your collection from the previous expansion is a sentient creature. Get exalted with Wyrmrest? A vendor will sell you what is essentially just a guy to fly on whenever you feel like it.
Or whelps and eggs: as a whelp Wrathion was an intelligent and sentient being who could speak and make plans; as an egg he could think clearly and know what was going on outside his egg. Then consider all the times we nonchalantly kill whelps and break eggs with the same level of non-consideration as killing wild beasts.
There are more examples, like how Dawn of the Aspects sets the precedent of proto-drakes being sentient as well (although that may have been due to the waters as of Dragonflight) and we kill them even more indiscriminately and for even less meaningful reasons.
At the end of the day, dragons have a history of being written as either a sentient creature or a wild animal depending on when it is convenient for the story, to an extent that honestly surpasses kobolds, gnolls, or even murlocs at times.
True but with the exception of the Netherdrake I took a lot of those as vanity mounts you’re not supposed to think about that hard. Like I’ve that mini Deathwing Drake from the 15th year anniversary and I never took that as like a serious part of the lore. It’s just a neat thing to add to your collection and you figure it out if you want a serious RP reason for why your dude’s on that thing.
Otherwise for the expansions I’ve played the only other dragon mount awarded via story context I can think of is the Deathlord’s. And I’m pretty sure that’s just either just animated meat or ya know, a slave.
This though has three animalistic dragonkin creatures being offered as rides. And then one dragon which is a whole butt person also there ready to be ridden like a pony despite presumably having thoughts and dreams.
Now from a gameplay and marketing perspective I get this. You call something dragonflight you better offer a legit dragon without much fuss or the people still insisting the Dovah from Skyrim are wyverns as if you can have a zoological misconception about the imaginary would get really cross with you.
But, and I’m not saying they should’ve done this, I think from a story perspective this being the type of mount you get from the Black Dragonflight after supporting Wrathion or Sabellian would’ve made a lot more sense.
Like hey you’ve proven to be a real one, one of my boys is at your beck and call 24/7 now.
Fair point, honestly every dragon-riding mount this expansion past the initial proto-drake barely felt “canon” for lack of better term. If I recall, there is no real story to you getting the other three, it’s just a non-mentioned quest reward.
If I had to take a guess, I think what they were going for was essentially supposed to be in the same vein as the Netherwing, but with like 99% of the overt details going unspoken. Just something along the lines of “You helped the Blue Dragonflight and this one decided he wants to help you out by being your transportation” in a story sense.
From a gameplay perspective, Blizz probably just thought it felt weird to have an expansion where one of the main selling points is riding dragons, then not let you ride any of the traditional Warcraft dragons.
It’s really not a massive complaint and for 3/4ths of them it works fine. The protos are the only one with real story oomph to it but I took the rest as being rewarded for helping out the other flight’s with their MS problems.
Didn’t really need it spelled out. You did the greens a solid so here’s a dino drake. You did the bronze a solid so here’s a ’ totally not a wyvern’ drake. But then you help out the Blues and here’s Kevin, happy to be propelled face first into solid rock despite presumably having some concerns about this sort of thing.
Again it’s not a huge issue and it doesn’t bother me. But I do think it might’ve been a touch more interesting if we got the velicodrake ftom the Blue flight, a more bug like faerie dragon from the Green, and then the highland drake was a reward from the Black Dragonflight after you did them a solid.
Because at that point the dragon would be essentially a subordinate. It lets you make the calls for much the same reason a private listens to their sergeant.
Again not even really an issue. Just could’ve made it a bit more interesting that way I think.
Mine is just a dragon named Viacagos who wanted to learn more about healing and psychic magic. Via for short which is Latin for road.
The Rogue’s velocidrake however is blinded and lobotimized. Given their capacity to breathe both noxious gas and corrosive acid she hypothesizes they could eventually be reliable airborne blight bleacher. It’s name is 004. Wasn’t, as the name implies, the first attempt.
Ever had alligator? Not dissimilar to poultry in taste but is very rich and greasy in a not unpleasant way. Fried alligator tail in my experience at least can both prevent and cure all hangovers. If it doesn’t immediately get you right go to the hospital as you’re in alcohol poisoning range now.
Alright, so the “lore” as it were is we are actually riding dragons. As in actual regular thinking dragons. But due to the fact having all the models for the dragon riding mounts be nearly exactly the same is no bueno they gave us the proto-drake/wyrm model/perodactyl model mounts(with specious lore to explain it)
But ultimately all four of them were suppose to represent the four flights(hence why the colors are red, blue, yellow and green). The dragon riding NPC even mentions only the black dragons are the one who did not have a representative that was willing to work with players/be our mounts.
They are fully aware of who is riding them. I’ve got 3 Aspects on my kill tally already. When I tell the drake I want it to be Yellow and to grow different horns and scales, it gets the job done with a smile.
Are they ? At the end of the Azure Span storyline, among the Blue who answer Kalec’s call at the Azure Archives are a Velocidrake and a Wylderdrake, both bearing typical Blue Dragon names with a -gos suffix. If I had to make a guess, I’d definitely suspect that they are sentient.
Anyway, that would be nowhere near the first time we use sentient beings as mere mounts. There are Gronn, Gronnling, Ancient and Wyvern mounts (okay lorewise Wyverns have somewhat joined the Horde and have actually expressed the will to help us but still), and probably plenty other that I can’t remember rn
Come to think of it, even the good old regular Troll Raptors may be a bit more than just beasts… idk if you guys remember that questline, but the Barren Raptors are clearly becoming more and more sentient
During the cutscene where Senegos and the blue dragons appear, one (maybe two?) of the blue dragons is using the not-a-wyvern base, too. I think he appears as a named dragon NPC afterwards, too, though I can’t remember the name.
I don’t think he gets mentioned at all, but it seems Blizz was thinking of diversifying the basic form that a dragon could have. (I think the current default dragon body is fine, though, so I’m just as happy if this thread doesn’t get elaborated on.)
All this talk about blue drakes and none mentions my girl Emmigosa is all grown up now. She’s the one who lands in front of Kalecgos mind you
But seriously, I think all the drakes use we use are sentient though. Because even the Proto Drake description says As the Isles awaken, these proto drakes answer the call to soar the skies alongside mortals
How intelligent they are is another matter entirely though
I feel like, at this point, people (including dragons) gotta understand that the usually mute “champion” who has ended entire civilizations in pursuit of pocket change and the WoW equivalent of thrift store hand-me-downs is best catered to.