why dragons really collect riches

[Shiari]

sounds just like the use for metals in E. Knights books, Dragon Avenger, Dragon Champion, and Dragon Outcast.

Pure theory at this point, especially since... what would dragons have done before humans began smelting metals? That is, if they even existed here at all?

[dragia]

Well it makes sense, doesn't it?

[Shiari]

actually, no it doesn't. Again because... metals have only been purified and thus in useful concentrations once humans passed from stone age to copper/bronze... which was no more than 6 thousand years ago. And even then there wasn't much of it. So, we've got dragons running around (if they existed!) before that without scales? Also, thanks to physics, 'dragons' on earth would be about the size of a german shepherd... MAYBE Great Dane, if they hoped to be able to fly at all. And metals are incredibly heavy, which would drop the size down to labrador. Which is perfectly easy for a sing knight to take on. In fact, most old paintings of knights show large-dog sized dragons.

So metal for use in scales actually doesn't make much sense.

[Hyraxylos]

I was lucky if I ever picked up metals. Most of the junk I collected consisted of quartz, mica, and whatever other "sparkly" material I could find regardless of whether humans considered it valuable or not. There wasn't any real reason for any of it.
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[SkieFireYokana]

All of the above, but on Earth it's just ridiculous to think that eating gold and copper and such would strengthen their scales. Gold and copper are soft, and yet that's what they supposedly hoarded. Gold is actually so soft you can dent it with your teeth. If a dragon's scales are made from the metals they ingest, why are they never portrayed with armor in their hoards? Or swords? Or anything else made from steel? The reason is this: there wasn't enough of the steel for them to get it. Steel was extremely valuable; not a scrap was wasted. That means that if they had to people would go out after the dragon just to get a sword back. Aside from this, there's always the argument that dragons didn't exist on Earth at the time (if at all), but I'm going with the highly unlikely possibility that they did. In fact, I'm going to say that if they were as huge as they supposedly were, there wasn't enough metal made by the humans to supply them with scales. Hey, try covering a mountain in steel two feet thick. What, not enough steel? We have more now than they ever did. If there was ever more than one dragon it can't have been that big or can't have eaten the steel. Did I mention that it being that big was ridiculous? Anyway, laying on gold and gemstones and such is also ridiculous. I think that one probably started with J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" but we all know how reliable a source that is for mythology and "facts" about dragons. :P Have you ever stuck a gemstone or a piece of glass to your finger? Leave it there for a little while. Oh, look, it fell off. Dragons had scales, if I'm not mistaken, on their belly. We have soft skin, with ridges, and it's relatively wet with oils that would cause the gem to stick to it. And yet it falls right off after a few minutes, and that if you're lucky. Then there's this point. Stick a diamond to your finger. Stick lots of them to it, in fact. Now, poke it with a pin. Hey, you just jabbed a hole in your finger! It slides right off the gems, because it can't cut them. That's how a lance would work, and that weapon is what knights are originally shown using against dragons.

Now, don't get me wrong. Somewhere, somewhen, the physics permit it. Somewhere, somewhen, even if the physics don't permit it, it's going to happen. It's just probability and the whole thing with parallel universes. But my point has been that even if dragons existed on earth, none of the above theories are plausible. I think it's more likely that they collected the metals because they were pretty, the way Hyraxylos said he collected stuff that looked cool whether it was "valuable" or not. Or, if they were intelligent, they had a hoard not for themselves but for the humans. Whenever a knight came around, they would bribe him and he'd go off with a bunch of treasure saying he'd slain a dragon, ensuring that the dragon would be never bothered again because he'd already killed it. :P Not really.
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[Jasriella]

[SkieFireYokana]

There are several possible answers, one of which being that they didn't exist. :P Another is that perhaps they burned their dead and rather than going extinct--as many assume--they left the solar system. After all, people seem to be intent on making them intelligent, maybe they had the technology to leave and got fed up with these little humans. Or maybe none have died yet. Or, perhaps, the remains we call dinosaurs are the bones that inspired dragon legends in other cultures. There are myriad different explanations.
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Happy Fourth of July everybody! The funniest thing about this signature is that I wrote it on the fourth of July, 2010, and it's probably going to be here for several months.

[Namhias]

As a mod, I'd like to add that it's not allowed to make empty posts, nor double posts because it doesn't contribute to the forum. The first page of this topic is a fine example of how it's not supposed to look like.