Blue Dragon

Acidic Tyrant of the Swamps

The Black Dragon is one of the branches of the chromatic dragons that took root in the 1974 first edition of Dungeons & Dragons by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, a great evil-aligned lizard ruling the rotted seats of swamp and marshland. Scales black as lacquer, two long horns that curve back as they grow, and narrow yellow eyes that gleam through the mist are the clearest mark of one seat, and from its mouth it breathes a single straight line of strong acid that corrodes even a steel harness in a single pass. It knows every seat of its territory exactly, and the sadistic habit of not killing a man at one stroke but tormenting him slowly and drinking in his pain stands out the most among the other chromatic dragons of the same seat. Its lair is a sunken old temple or a narrow, dark cave in the heart of a swamp, where it sets human slaves and lizardfolk to weave the seat of a labyrinth.

The Golden Guardian of Justice

The Gold Dragon is the highest of the five metallic dragons of Dungeons & Dragons (gold, silver, copper, bronze, brass), introduced by Gary Gygax in 'Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry' (TSR, 1976) and codified across the AD&D 'Monster Manual' (1977), 'Deities & Demigods' (1980), 'Draconomicon' (1990), the fifth-edition 'Monster Manual' (2014) and 'Fizban's Treasury of Dragons' (2021). Its alignment is locked Lawful Good, and its signature features are sun-bright gold scales, a pair of elegant rear-swept horns and the wisp of gold barbels hanging beneath the jaw. From the jaws come two breaths, exhaled in a ninety-foot cone: a stream of gold fire and a weakening gas that temporarily drains the strength of those who breathe it. Seven ancient gold dragons stand as the personal guard of Bahamut, the platinum king of the metallic dragons. The Gold Dragon can polymorph at will into a human, elf, dragonborn or other humanoid, and is the most accomplished spellcaster of any dragon, wielding ninth-level magic such as time stop in fifth edition. The same silhouette and lore appear in the Dragonlance Chronicles and in the gold-dragon encounters of Baldur's Gate 3 (2023).

The Tyrant of Flame

The Red Dragon is the apex of the five chromatic (evil) dragons in Dungeons & Dragons and the most iconic dragon image of Western fantasy. Introduced as the volcanic, mountain-dwelling apex in the 1974 D&D original boxed set's 'Monsters & Treasure' booklet by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, it has been locked to Chaotic Evil alignment since the 1977 AD&D Monster Manual. In the 2014 fifth-edition Monster Manual an Adult Red Dragon is 25 to 30 metres long, challenge rating 17, with a sixty-foot cone of fire breath dealing 18d6 damage, while the Ancient Red Dragon is CR 24 with a ninety-foot cone and 26d6 damage. The modern canonical image is Smaug from J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' (1937) — the crimson dragon coiled on the treasure-heap of the Lonely Mountain (Erebor) — and the AD&D colour-coded taxonomy is widely held to take Smaug as its direct visual template. The same lineage carries through Takhisis, the Dark Queen of Dragonlance, the Shivan Dragon of 'Magic: The Gathering' (1993- ) and the Ancient Red Dragon encounters of Baldur's Gate 3 (2023).

Hunter of the Frozen Wastes

The White Dragon is one of the five branches of the chromatic dragons that took root in the 1974 first edition of Dungeons & Dragons by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, a cold hunter that holds the year-round snowfields of the polar seat and the frozen wasteland as its own territory. Scales as white as snow melt into the white seat of glacier and ice without leaving a single shadow, and from its mouth it breathes a single straight line of cold that brings the death of one breath, freezing man and beast at one seat. Among the five chromatic dragons, black, blue, green, red, and white, this one stands at the seat of the lowest intelligence, but the hunting instinct of the beast is set most clearly at the same seat in turn, and once it has fixed a prey, it follows for days at one seat with great patience. Its lair is a cave in a glacier or a deep seat in year-round snow, and within it the figure of the bodies of men and beasts killed in the same hunt, preserved forever in ice, is the clearest mark of one seat.