Identifying Criteria

Throughout Marie Brennan’s Lady Trent books, there are frequent mentions of an important book. A Natural History of Dragons, by Sir Richard Edgeworth, is a fictitious tome read by Isabella Camherst while a child. As the only scientific study of dragons in its time, it propelled Our Heroine into her early fascination with dragons.

A signal feature of this book is its list of Identifying Criteria, which are meant to separate dragons from other sorts of beasts or birds. Isabella frequently refers to the Identifying Criteria in her memoirs, but alas — I can’t find an actual list of what those criteria are.

Still, the very idea of Identifying Criteria is so interesting that I’ve attempted to tease them out. Most of my list is based on Brennan’s books, and part is based on universal dragon lore. Although this isn’t Edgeworth’s own list of defining characteristics, I hope I’ve come pretty close.

6) Extraordinary breath. This is frequently mentioned in the books. Every true dragon has some sort of breath weapon, from flame to noxious fumes to jets of water.

5) Rapid decomposition. Brennan doesn’t explain why, but every type of dragon crumbles into ash upon death. A major plot running through the series begins when a scientist discovers a method to preserve dragon bones. As a naturalist, Isabella wants to study these bones. Others just want to make weapons with them.

4) Flight. Functional wings are key, along with other anatomical features such as a flexible tail, crest or frill on the head and neck, and four limbs. (Land-dwelling dragons have paws, while water-dwellers have flippers.) In an early chapter, Isabella encounters a wolf-drake, which is considered less than a true dragon because its wings are too small to carry it aloft.

3) Great size. Another early dragon encounter is with sparklings, which are no more than a few inches long. Because they are so small, sparklings have traditionally been classified as insects rather than dragons.

2) Reptilian. Scaly skin is implied to be a dragon characteristic, even in amphibious varieties.

1) ??? Here’s where I get stuck. Dragons have several more common descriptors. They are predatory, for instance, and often seem to have human or nearly-human intelligence. However, both of these could also apply to any number of other creatures. Lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) are all predators. Whales and wolves seem to have a high order of intelligence. None of these would be confused with a dragon.

At this point, I’ll open it up to you, my friends in blog-land. What do you think the final Identifying Criteria for a dragon could be?