At the risk of sounding Adamsesque, "what do we mean by real?" A philosopher might say that the dragon is more real than most things, as measured by its permanence, and its 'vitalism'.
> I propose that this change in perception is at the heart of fighting (or
> understanding) a True Dragon. When the hero can make the shift in
> perception he/she is able to fight the dragon. Parhaps the hero
> identifies with Orlanth, and fights the dragon as a towering, mile high
> apparition of himself (what a sight!).
That does seem to be an image that recurs. OTOH some sort of shift of perception is involved in any 'Heroquesting' type of activity, so it could perhaps be seen in that light. Unless fighting dragons requires adopting to some degree draconic perceptions oneself...?
> Either way, I plan to run a dragon-fight (for the hero) pretty much like
> the hero was fighting a dream-dragon. A dream-dragon is big, but one can
> fight one with sword and spear. The hero fighting a hill-range sized
> dragon in hand-to-hand just doesn't work for me.
Another image that recurs is that of being bitten by it, and forcing apart its jaws. Or of being swallowed by it, and fighting one's way out...
> Of course getting to this stage requires relevant magic (worhipping
> alakoring is a good start), and the resistances are high.
Aye, there's the rub. I don't have AR to hand, but aren't they in the W6 sorta range?
> In the same logic the gigantic true-dragon can actually be hurt or
> driven off by the archers and magicians of an army. It's not a simple
> case of elephant vs. a handful of ants (meaning that if the dragon was
> as large and invulnerable as it seems, there would never be any
> contest).
Hrm, good luck with that... The Dragonkill seems to strongly imply that it really is about as futile as that...
Cheers,
Alex.
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