# Famous Black Dragons



## tennyson (Feb 22, 2010)

The BBEG in my current campaign is on a path to create an artifact which will give him control over a black dragon.  While this won't happen for quite some time, I was wondering if there were any notable black dragons (books, movies, etc) that I could draw some inspiration from.

Any ideas?


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## Squizzle (Feb 22, 2010)

While the effort at a non-traditional observance is appreciated, this is unfortunately not truly in the spirit of Black History Month educational goals.


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## Nifft (Feb 22, 2010)

Squizzle said:


> While the effort at a non-traditional observance is appreciated, this is unfortunately not truly in the spirit of Black History Month educational goals.



 Darn, I came in here specifically to make this joke.

- - -

Anyway, I think you'll find that color-coded differently-breathing dragons are a D&D-ism, and not a general draconic feature. So if you want something about an acid-spitting black dragon, you're limited to things inspired by D&D's acid-spitting black dragon.

If you merely wish for large, flying lizards who happen to be black -- even if they spit fire or whatever -- the field may be more open.

Cheers, -- N


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## Badwe (Feb 22, 2010)

If you're willing to consider world of warcraft, the majority of their villainous dragons are, in fact, black dragons: Onyxia, Nefarion, Sartharion, and of course Deathwing will be making a return in the new expansion.


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## Pbartender (Feb 22, 2010)

Draconomicon Excerpts: Famous Dragons

Of particular interest to you...

*Khisanth*
A massive, sinuous black dragon, Khisanth guarded a fabulous treasure called the Disks of Mishakal in the ruined city of Xak Tasroth. In her underground lair in the sunken, ruined city, Khisanth gathered many other treasures to her besides the Disks, including a spellbook of Fistandantilus. Khisanth appears in _DL1: Dragons of Despair_.

*Aulicus*
In forgotten barrows in a lonely swamp lurks a vampiric lizardfolk whose grasp on power is aided and abetted by the black dragon Aulicus. This black dragon appears in the adventure _I2: Tomb of the Lizard King_.

*Nightscale*
This young black dragon lairs beneath the fallen dwarfhold of Khundrukar in a sunken cavern called the Black Lake. The dwarves are long gone, but various goblin and orc bands now inhabit the tunnels, but view visit Nightscale, because the black dragon is always hungry. Nightscale appears in the adventure _Forge of Fury_.

*Daurgothoth, “The Creeping Doom”*
This male black dragon has embraced undeath, and hunts the world as a dracolich. This great dragon lairs not too far from Waterdeep, and through bribes and threat of death, “employs” several agents to purchase or steal interesting items in the City of Splendors to continue building his hoard.

*Voaraghamanthar, “The Black Death”*
This elder black dragon has learned something of sorcery. It lairs in the Mere of Dead Men, a salt water swamp. Rumored to have the ability to be in two places at one time, in truth Voaraghamanthar and its clutch sibling, Waervaerendor, fool the incredulous by posing as each other as need demands. No one suspects the flitting black ghost of claws and jaws that strikes out of nowhere, that lives in black swamp waters that hide the bodies of victims soon to be dined upon, is really a team of two.


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## Quartz (Feb 22, 2010)

How can anyone forget Ancalagon the Black from The Silmarillion?


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## Nebten (Feb 22, 2010)

*List of Greyhawk Dragon*

Here is a list of famous dragons from Greyhawk. I came upon it when I was looking for the Shadow Dragon from the Dim Forest: Hasforenes.

Canonfire! - Dragons of Oerth


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## Chris Knapp (Feb 22, 2010)

Pbartender said:


> http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ex/20081103b*Khisanth*
> A massive, sinuous black dragon, Khisanth guarded a fabulous treasure called the Disks of Mishakal in the ruined city of Xak Tasroth. In her underground lair in the sunken, ruined city, Khisanth gathered many other treasures to her besides the Disks, including a spellbook of Fistandantilus. Khisanth appears in _DL1: Dragons of Despair_.



In addition, she has her own novel (The Black Wing) that details her pre-DL1 days. Its pretty entertaining even if you aren't a Dragonlance fan. Easy to find on Ebay.


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## Dausuul (Feb 22, 2010)

Nifft said:


> Anyway, I think you'll find that color-coded differently-breathing dragons are a D&D-ism, and not a general draconic feature. So if you want something about an acid-spitting black dragon, you're limited to things inspired by D&D's acid-spitting black dragon.




Yeah, I was about to say this. Dragons that spit acid--or, really, anything other than fire--are fairly rare outside D&D and its derivatives. I have a vague recollection of a fictional (non-D&D) dragon that spat hot, caustic liquid, but can't remember where it was from. (Edit: Looks like it's the Melnibonéan dragons in Michael Moorcock's Elric saga.)

I think the real question here is, what do you regard as the essence of a _black_ dragon? Is it that it spits acid? That it lives in a swamp? Or just that it has black scales?

The first is very rare in non-D&D fiction, the second marginally less so. The third is quite common.  Clothing your dragon in black has much the same effect as doing it to your hero; it signals that this particular dragon is a Supreme Bad-Ass and not to be trifled with. Any time you want to make a dragon extra scary, just slap a sobriquet on it along the lines of "the Black" or "the Black <something>," and the audience knows that this is a dragon to fear... well, to fear more.

Examples of bad-ass black dragons in fiction:


*Maur, the Black Dragon*, from "The Hero and the Crown." A dragon so utterly malevolent that even after it dies, its _severed head_ can crush the spirit of an entire kingdom.
*Ancalagon the Black*, from "The Silmarillion." The most feared and powerful dragon ever to walk Middle-Earth. His recorded career was quite short--a single battle--but that battle was Ancalagon leading his fellow dragons against the gods themselves.
*Balerion, the Black Dread*, in George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire." (See what I mean about the sobriquets?) Died three centuries before the events of the novels, but its skull is preserved in the bowels of the Red Keep and is described as "large enough to swallow an aurochs whole." Of Dany's three fledgeling dragons, the largest and fiercest is Drogon, the black one.
*Kalessin the Eldest*, from Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy. The oldest (though not the mightiest) of all dragons, described as "the color of iron." Presumably this indicates Kalessin is black. Other dragons are described as grey or grey-black. In a later book, it's suggested that Kalessin is in fact a manifestation of Segoy, the creator deity.
*Black dragons* in the strategy game "Heroes of Might and Magic." The black dragon is the most powerful unit in the game; incredibly tough, with a devastating area attack, highly mobile, and totally immune to magic. (The last item is not an entirely unalloyed good, since buff spells don't work on them either... but they don't generally need buffing.)
*Deathwing the Destroyer*, leader of the evil Black Dragonflight in the Warcraft universe. I'll leave it to someone who knows more Warcraft lore than I do to flesh out the details.
*Nicol Bolas* from the CCG "Magic: The Gathering." The Legends set introduced the five Elder Dragon Legends, one for each color. They cost far too much mana for their mediocre abilities, and four of them faded into obscurity. The exception was the black-themed (though not actually black-scaled) Nicol Bolas. Though still not tournament-grade material, Bolas was a much stronger card than the other four, and became a major villain in M:tG lore. He was reprinted no less than three times, and finally got promoted to planeswalker status, with a new card to match.
*The Hungarian Horntail*, in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." When each champion is tasked with getting past a dragon, Harry gets the Horntail, which is stated to be the nastiest of the lot. Guess what color it is.


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## Dragonhelm (Feb 22, 2010)

For more information on Dragonlance's black dragons, you can check out the Dragonlance Nexus Lexicon's black dragon page.

Of particular interest might be Onysablet (Sable), the black dragon overlord.  She was kind of a mad scientist.


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## Mark Chance (Feb 23, 2010)

Squizzle said:


> While the effort at a non-traditional observance is appreciated, this is unfortunately not truly in the spirit of Black History Month educational goals.




It could be if he opted for the Black Dragon himself: Ron Van Clief!


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## Dannyalcatraz (Feb 23, 2010)

Don't forget Wesley Snipes and  Samuel L. Jackson!

Sure...they may not look it, but I have it on good authority they have rings of shapechange...


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## Whimsical (Feb 23, 2010)

We love it when Dragon Dronet comes up to RadCon every year to show and tell us the awesome things he does in movies and TV. He's famous to Sci Fi/Fantasy con goers around here.





He's who came to mind when I read the title of this thread. So, here I am expressing my admiration and gratitude for this very cool man.  Dragon Rocks!


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## Mark (Feb 23, 2010)

Whimsical said:


> We love it when Dragon Dronet comes up to RadCon every year to show and tell us the awesome things he does in movies and TV. He's famous to Sci Fi/Fantasy con goers around here.
> 
> 
> He's who came to mind when I read the title of this thread. So, here I am expressing my admiration and gratitude for this very cool man.  Dragon Rocks!





Dragon Dronet


He was a Pit Fighter in the first Conan movie.


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## Sanzuo (Feb 23, 2010)

This is only tangentially related but to this day I think the most awesome dragon battle sequence on film is the fight at the end of Disney's Sleeping Beauty.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPntwvkoH7I]YouTube - Sleeping Beauty Platinum Edition- Fighting the Dragon[/ame]


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## unan oranis (Feb 23, 2010)

Mergandevinasander of Chult, found in FR, Dragons of Faerûn, elsewhere?

This dragon had purple eyes, and the famous Drizzt once impersonated him (pretending to be polymorphed) to trick a red dragon.  In... "sojourn" I think.


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## tuxgeo (Feb 23, 2010)

Apparently less famous than some others (and only badass in terms of competence): 

*Mayland Long*, the title character of R. A. MacAvoy's _Tea with the Black Dragon_ (1983) -- Ancient; shapechanging to human form; quite large hands suitable for playing keyboard instruments.


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## MonkeyDragon (Feb 23, 2010)

Malificent, the wicked fairy in Sleeping Beauty.  In traditional stories, she's just the wicked fairy or sorceress, but in the Disney movie, she turned into a black dragon at the end.  So who's to say that she hasn't been a shapechanged black dragon all along?  That could be fun.


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## Voadam (Feb 23, 2010)

In Monte Cook's Banewarrens and Ptolus there is a black dragon known as Father Claw who ascended and is worshipped by kobolds and lizard men, I think one of his lieutenants rose up against him and became a lesser god as well.

In Monte's Module for Atlas Games there is the black dragon Storamere [sblock]who went insane bred with lots of different things to make half dragons (drow, umber hulk, carrion crawlers) and returned as a ghost after dying.[/sblock]


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## Dr. Confoundo (Feb 23, 2010)

Whimsical said:


> We love it when Dragon Dronet comes up to RadCon every year to show and tell us the awesome things he does in movies and TV. He's famous to Sci Fi/Fantasy con goers around here.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Heh. I worked with Dragon for about 4 months on Tim Burton's 'Planet of the Apes'. He was a great guy.


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## TheAuldGrump (Feb 24, 2010)

Oo Long (Wayland Long) from R.A. MacAvoy's Tea with the Black Dragon - pretty much a Gold Dragon that has been around long enough that his scales have darkened to black, spends the entirety of the book in human form. 







Morkeleb the Black from Barbara Hambly's Dragonsbane. A very old dragon that has been caught by what amounts to an orb of dragonkind.






The Auld Grump


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## Joshua Randall (Feb 26, 2010)

Pbartender said:


> *Aulicus*
> In forgotten barrows in a lonely swamp lurks a vampiric lizardfolk whose grasp on power is aided and abetted by the black dragon Aulicus. This black dragon appears in the adventure _I2: Tomb of the Lizard King_.



This is who I thought of as soon as I saw this thread. That entire module is amazing.



Dausuul said:


> Yeah, I was about to say this. Dragons that spit acid--or, really, anything other than fire--are fairly rare outside D&D and its derivatives.



True.

I believe that the dragons in Reign of Fire (the crappy movie with Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale) are acid-spitters.



			
				Dausuul said:
			
		

> *Maur, the Black Dragon*, from "The Hero and the Crown."



Another great dragon, and a great book.



			
				Dausuul said:
			
		

> *Nicol Bolas* from the CCG "Magic: The Gathering."



His name is a little goofy, though.


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## Festivus (Feb 28, 2010)

In Age of Worms there was Ilthane the Black.  Not sure how famous, but to my group she was.


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## JohnRTroy (Feb 28, 2010)

Dunno if this counts, but my Favorite Black Dragon is "The Black Dragon",which is the Graphic Novel by Chris Claremont and John Bolton from the 1980s.

Amazon.com: The Black Dragon (9781569710425): Chris Claremont, John Bolton: Books

(Hey, if we can talk about Kung-Fu, this counts too  ...)


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## Corsair (Feb 28, 2010)

Joshua Randall said:


> His name is a little goofy, though.




Have you read any of the other names in this thread?


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## Nymrohd (Feb 28, 2010)

Just to fill in on Deathwing, he was once Neltharion, the Earth Warden, aspect of the Earth. An enormous black dragon tasked by the Titans to preserve Azeroth he was the most respected until the sinister Old Gods trapped in the depths of Azeroth drove him mad. During the War of the Ancients he convinced the other 4 aspects to lend part of their flight's power in a single object called the Dragon Soul which he then used to destroy the the Blue Dragonflight almost to a drake (and which was intented to be used by the Old Gods to escape their prison). Currently Deathwing is a creature of literal burning fury and seething hatred, his flesh turned to volatile magma that is only contained because of the adamantine plating riveted over his entire body.


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## Mouseferatu (Feb 28, 2010)

Sanzuo said:


> This is only tangentially related but to this day I think the most awesome dragon battle sequence on film is the fight at the end of Disney's Sleeping Beauty.




Just as a quick aside, I miss the old Disney. Can you imagine any of their cartoons ending a battle like that, or using the phrase "...and all the powers of Hell!" in this day and age?


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## M.L. Martin (Mar 1, 2010)

Mouseferatu said:


> Just as a quick aside, I miss the old Disney. Can you imagine any of their cartoons ending a battle like that, or using the phrase "...and all the powers of Hell!" in this day and age?




   Given that _The Princess and the Frog_ climaxes with the villain 



Spoiler



being dragged down under the earth of a cemetery by the voodoo spirits he bargains with, in what struck me as very much a "dragged down to Hell" analog


, I'm not sure it's completely lost.

  Now, what system for a somewhat darker/more serious take on things like Disney's _Snow White_ and _Sleeping Beauty_? There's some great villains and magic in there.


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## Mouseferatu (Mar 1, 2010)

Matthew L. Martin said:


> Given that _The Princess and the Frog_ climaxes with the villain
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Really? Hm. I haven't been paying much attention to the more recent movies, but now I may need to check that one out.


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## M.L. Martin (Mar 1, 2010)

Mouseferatu said:


> Really? Hm. I haven't been paying much attention to the more recent movies, but now I may need to check that one out.




   You may be one of the people who'd understand when I say that Dr. Facilier struck me as Chicken Bone's (RLMCII) younger, city-dwelling, smooth-talking cousin.


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## Tauric (Mar 1, 2010)

There are also the Longwing dragons from the Temeraire series of books br Naomi Novik.  They have black scales and shoot acid out of bones that protrude from their chin.


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