Stories of the Star Dragons
Not everything in Iron Horizons is as simple as they seem...
Humans simply cannot resist the symbolic existence of dragons- no matter what age. From the earliest days of our species when we first told tales around campfires to the chivalric romances of the medieval era to the starships of today, dragons are rooted deep in our collective psyche.
Psychoanalysts and comparative folklorists take this as some sort of collective memory, tracinag back to some long-forgotten era in which man and dragon clashed. This, of course, is absurd. Dinosaurs, the great and terrible lizards are certainly a possible origin for this tale, but that means little when dinosaurs were extinct long before humanity evolved into anything remotely resembling intelligent.
That, however, has not stopped the spacers on the fringes of our space from concocting wild tales. Like the sailors of old, boredom and routine provide potent fertilizer for imagination. And as written by Solomon, nothing is new under the sun. We see this in the existence of these legends of so-called Star Dragons among the Ship Clans and the frontier traders who most frequently engage with them. The details vary by the storyteller of course, but the concepts are all the same- there are dragons who dwell, or dwelled at one point, in space, and these are highly intelligent and sensitive creatures that can either be benign or malevolent, slain either by cunning or valor for kidnapping and devouring maidens unless rescued by some Odysseus of the heavenes.
Excerpt of a lecture by Professor George Westmarch at the University of Mars, 2417
Summary
At the most fundamental level, this category of folk tales refers to any story that relates to the existence of a dragon or other lizard-like creatures in space. They are wide-ranging and varied with no clear continuity beyond the existence of star dragons- giant, reptile-like creatures who live in the voids between star systems. For the most part, these dragons are claimed to be gargantuan creatures that dwarf even the largest fleet carrier built by the Terran governments, often crystalline or metallic in appearance, and are always viewed as intelligent, thinking beings.
Historical Basis
The oldest proto-reference to the star dragon legend comes from the first colonists charting the surface of Mars. Deep beneath the surface, while looking for pockets of water within the planet's crust, one of the geologist team members spotted a stone formation that they claimed resembled the remnants of fossils they had seen on Terra, although far larger than anything ever discovered. Further investigative expeditions eventually concluded they were a result of ancient geologic activity. The theory hung around on Mars extensively but didn't spread much beyond the Martian Human communities.
It wasn't until much later, with the rediscovery of the Ship Clans that the star dragon stories began to spread dramatically across the fringes of the Diskward Marches. These generation ships had spent several hundred years moving at sublight speed toward their eventual destinations but had been forgotten after the destruction of the First Solarian Nazi Suppression Conflict. In the meantime, they had experienced large parts of space that later explorers had bypassed using faster-than-light travel.
In that time, they encountered several derelicts from earlier and later interstellar explorers who had disappeared in their attempts to chart the stars and never returned to Terra. In some of these wrecks, they studied the captain's log. In one of the vessels, the ship's last survivor saw something gazing at him in the porthole. He claimed it was a massive, reptilian eye followed by an indeterminate time in which he watched a glowing scaly hide slide past. The man was hypoxic even as he was writing, unfortunately, and nothing about the final log entry can be considered particularly reliable.
After rediscovery, these log records were shared with the rest of the humans, which sparked a furor of interest across the academic, conspiratorial, and artistic communities, quickly dying down again over the next few years. It wasn't until several decades later that a surviving spacer tells her story at a dockside bar where a journalist picks it up. This survivor reports being saved by a giant, lizard-like creature in deep space after her safety tether snapped while on a spacewalk.
That example is the closest to being credible, but again, she was likely hypoxic at the time. Nothing since then has ever been first-hand or eyewitness accounts.
It wasn't until much later, with the rediscovery of the Ship Clans that the star dragon stories began to spread dramatically across the fringes of the Diskward Marches. These generation ships had spent several hundred years moving at sublight speed toward their eventual destinations but had been forgotten after the destruction of the First Solarian Nazi Suppression Conflict. In the meantime, they had experienced large parts of space that later explorers had bypassed using faster-than-light travel.
In that time, they encountered several derelicts from earlier and later interstellar explorers who had disappeared in their attempts to chart the stars and never returned to Terra. In some of these wrecks, they studied the captain's log. In one of the vessels, the ship's last survivor saw something gazing at him in the porthole. He claimed it was a massive, reptilian eye followed by an indeterminate time in which he watched a glowing scaly hide slide past. The man was hypoxic even as he was writing, unfortunately, and nothing about the final log entry can be considered particularly reliable.
After rediscovery, these log records were shared with the rest of the humans, which sparked a furor of interest across the academic, conspiratorial, and artistic communities, quickly dying down again over the next few years. It wasn't until several decades later that a surviving spacer tells her story at a dockside bar where a journalist picks it up. This survivor reports being saved by a giant, lizard-like creature in deep space after her safety tether snapped while on a spacewalk.
That example is the closest to being credible, but again, she was likely hypoxic at the time. Nothing since then has ever been first-hand or eyewitness accounts.
Spread
Following the publication of the newspaper and radio broadcasts about the survivor's story of being saved by a space dragon, the tale spread like wildfire through the frontiers of human-settled space. More and more tales began to spread through the spacers' bars, captain's unions, and mercantile consortiums. Most were second and third-hand accounts of barside stories. It took only a year for these tales to be tied to the first findings on Mars and then the account from the Ship Clans.
That began a new school of thought across all of human space. The existence of petroleum deposits on many settled worlds indicated that there had to have been some life in the galaxy outside of humans. Still, inorganic origins were considered the typical cause of extraterrestrial oil. With these records of star dragons being the first major hint at possible alien life, theories began to abound as humans seriously considered the possibility that they might discover life out in the stars. Soon, new religious cults and theories began to build off these legends and expounding the possibility of a galactic society.
For the most part, that was dismissed as idealism and improbabilities, but it became a widespread story from the Diskward Marches to Terra itself, viewed much as the same as the legends and stories of Atlantis. Well known and famous with various degrees of credibility, but few take it seriously.
That began a new school of thought across all of human space. The existence of petroleum deposits on many settled worlds indicated that there had to have been some life in the galaxy outside of humans. Still, inorganic origins were considered the typical cause of extraterrestrial oil. With these records of star dragons being the first major hint at possible alien life, theories began to abound as humans seriously considered the possibility that they might discover life out in the stars. Soon, new religious cults and theories began to build off these legends and expounding the possibility of a galactic society.
For the most part, that was dismissed as idealism and improbabilities, but it became a widespread story from the Diskward Marches to Terra itself, viewed much as the same as the legends and stories of Atlantis. Well known and famous with various degrees of credibility, but few take it seriously.
Variations & Mutation
Like the Terran Atlantean myth, there are as many variations to the star dragon legends as there are tellers, and often even more than one version of the legend per teller, depending on how embellished the storyteller felt it needed. However, they can generally be arranged into four categories: those that say star dragons currently exist, those that say they used to exist, those that say star dragons are good, and those that say star dragons are evil.
1. Star Dragons Currently Exist: These legends are generally told by spacers who push the edges of the frontier, either trading between Cupertinan monasteries and settled worlds, space scouts, smugglers, or others who live on the fringes of known space. This is the least common version of the story and usually only emerges after disasters.
2. Star Dragons Used to Exist: This is the most frequently cited example of the legend. In it, star dragons used to exist at some indeterminate time, but no longer do. This one has the original Martian discovery as its origin with many other anomalous geological findings being taken as evidence to support the claim. Most scholars and scientists still reject this claim but don't rule out the possibility of extrasolar life somewhere in the galaxy at some point in history.
3. Star Dragons Are Good: These are the ones that generally occur from spacers in trouble who were fortunate to survive a catastrophe, frequently considered miraculous escapes. Rescues by star dragons are not uncommon legends and stories to hear from old spacers either past their prime or trying to explain why they survived when the rest of the crews did not. Many of these stories are explained by psychotherapists as manifestations of survivors guilt or other ways of making sense of trauma.
4. Star Dragons Are Monsters: These do not generally come from spacers, but generally rather from planet dwellers and colonists, along with writers and storytellers in need of drama. Fairly common in pulp literature as well as radio and film serials, there have only been a handful of accounts of star dragons being evil from spacers. In those cases, they often feature lone and isolated ships being hunted by something. Not all the descriptions match that of a star dragon and often nothing visible is ever seen, but they feel like they're being stalked, much as shipwrecked sailors might feel the presence of sharks even if they cannot see them.
There are other variations within the legends, but those are often embellishments created by individual storytellers. Sometimes the star dragons breath out clouds of icy blue fire or swells of plasma in much the same way stars sometimes eject plasmatic material. Other times, they speak telepathically or in deep, rumbling voices despite the vacuum in beautiful, alien languages that sound like music.
1. Star Dragons Currently Exist: These legends are generally told by spacers who push the edges of the frontier, either trading between Cupertinan monasteries and settled worlds, space scouts, smugglers, or others who live on the fringes of known space. This is the least common version of the story and usually only emerges after disasters.
2. Star Dragons Used to Exist: This is the most frequently cited example of the legend. In it, star dragons used to exist at some indeterminate time, but no longer do. This one has the original Martian discovery as its origin with many other anomalous geological findings being taken as evidence to support the claim. Most scholars and scientists still reject this claim but don't rule out the possibility of extrasolar life somewhere in the galaxy at some point in history.
3. Star Dragons Are Good: These are the ones that generally occur from spacers in trouble who were fortunate to survive a catastrophe, frequently considered miraculous escapes. Rescues by star dragons are not uncommon legends and stories to hear from old spacers either past their prime or trying to explain why they survived when the rest of the crews did not. Many of these stories are explained by psychotherapists as manifestations of survivors guilt or other ways of making sense of trauma.
4. Star Dragons Are Monsters: These do not generally come from spacers, but generally rather from planet dwellers and colonists, along with writers and storytellers in need of drama. Fairly common in pulp literature as well as radio and film serials, there have only been a handful of accounts of star dragons being evil from spacers. In those cases, they often feature lone and isolated ships being hunted by something. Not all the descriptions match that of a star dragon and often nothing visible is ever seen, but they feel like they're being stalked, much as shipwrecked sailors might feel the presence of sharks even if they cannot see them.
There are other variations within the legends, but those are often embellishments created by individual storytellers. Sometimes the star dragons breath out clouds of icy blue fire or swells of plasma in much the same way stars sometimes eject plasmatic material. Other times, they speak telepathically or in deep, rumbling voices despite the vacuum in beautiful, alien languages that sound like music.
Cultural Reception
Among the many legends and myths that have developed since the advent of interstellar travel, star dragons are among the most popular across the myriad cultures that have spread across the stars. They're rejected mainly by those who consider themselves serious scholars but embraced by people who love the mystery and story that the idea of star dragons embodies. However, some scholars are unafraid of the stigma and have made it the focus of their studies.
Frequently, these scholars are in the humanities field- folklorists, mythologists, psychologists, literary scholars, and critical theorists. They're less interested in the existence of the star dragons and more in the effects of the stories about them, the creation of the stories, and the evolution of the stories as they travel among the rapidly divergent space cultures.
There are, however, some physical scientists and exopaleontologists who are considered fringe scientists and seek the answers to the biggest question of whether star dragons exist. The evidence they've gathered is scanty, contradictory, and generally not held to be reliable or reputable. However, it is gaining more credibility as humans have spread further away from the Terran system and more and more examples that were considered abnormal have been found. The galaxy is a big place, and even the tiny fragment explored by humanity has constantly led to revisions of all assumptions about how natural forces work.
Most people across human space do not believe in the existence of star dragons, either, although many might wish they existed somewhere out in the universe. The exceptions are a few religious cults that take the star dragons as a form of divine or supernatural appearance. Much like earlier religious cults, they believe that only the pure of heart and mind will eventually see the return of the star dragons or be able to commune with them across the dimensions. These groups are generally viewed as being fringe, eccentric, and deeply strange believers.
Taken as a whole, humanity views the stories of the star dragons much along the lines of the older stories of dragons. Legends and stories created by imagination, perhaps based on some physical evidence, but ultimately imaginative rather than realistic.
Frequently, these scholars are in the humanities field- folklorists, mythologists, psychologists, literary scholars, and critical theorists. They're less interested in the existence of the star dragons and more in the effects of the stories about them, the creation of the stories, and the evolution of the stories as they travel among the rapidly divergent space cultures.
There are, however, some physical scientists and exopaleontologists who are considered fringe scientists and seek the answers to the biggest question of whether star dragons exist. The evidence they've gathered is scanty, contradictory, and generally not held to be reliable or reputable. However, it is gaining more credibility as humans have spread further away from the Terran system and more and more examples that were considered abnormal have been found. The galaxy is a big place, and even the tiny fragment explored by humanity has constantly led to revisions of all assumptions about how natural forces work.
Most people across human space do not believe in the existence of star dragons, either, although many might wish they existed somewhere out in the universe. The exceptions are a few religious cults that take the star dragons as a form of divine or supernatural appearance. Much like earlier religious cults, they believe that only the pure of heart and mind will eventually see the return of the star dragons or be able to commune with them across the dimensions. These groups are generally viewed as being fringe, eccentric, and deeply strange believers.
Taken as a whole, humanity views the stories of the star dragons much along the lines of the older stories of dragons. Legends and stories created by imagination, perhaps based on some physical evidence, but ultimately imaginative rather than realistic.
In Literature
Star dragons frequently appear in literature across human space- primarily in mass commercial literature. Pulp literature, radio serials, and film serials have the highest rate of star dragon appearances, but there are a few in more high-brow forms of literature. They regularly appear in magical-realism literature to symbolize potential lost to colonialism in Latin and South America.
Poetry is the next most common form of literature in which it appears. It often symbolizes the wonder and mysteries of the universe that have and will always elude the grasp of researchers, investigators, and the human instinct to understand everything.
Poetry is the next most common form of literature in which it appears. It often symbolizes the wonder and mysteries of the universe that have and will always elude the grasp of researchers, investigators, and the human instinct to understand everything.
In Art
Star dragons most frequently appear in music, from the non-literary art forms. They are most often present as elements in space shanties and folk songs from across human-settled space, as well as the long historic epic songs composed over generations within the Ship Clans, as well as some of the tapestries they created in the process of the centuries-long travel. Recently, Cupertinan monasteries have also begun to utilize the star dragon motif in their stained glass windows and settlement decorations.
Date of First Recording
2297
Date of Setting
2097
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