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here-there-were-dragons · 19 days ago

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The Sounds & Voices of Dragon Breeds

each individual breed has their own unique speaking voices as well as natural sounds that they make and are capable of making. everything from "hey hi how's it going" to the little things you don't think about-the way you grunt when you're hit, or hiss from pain.

in all of sornieth there is not one single dragon breed in which all of these sounds and voices are identical-or even particularly comparable-to that of a human. no dragon's voice sounds human-like at all-not even the ones who could be said to "sound (gender) by human standards". these are very inaccurate approximations purely for closest comparison. the ability to shape some kind of sound into recognizable words, does not a human voice make.

if a breed is omitted here, it's because i haven't thought of any ideas for how they could work.

Guardians-

guardians are the most "generic dragon" of all the breeds. their voices are deep, booming, extremely inhuman, and wildly varied in presentation. this is were you'd put your skyrim dragons, your peter jackson smaugs, almost any generic beastly-voiced speaking dragon you've seen in media would probably fit here, especially masculine or ungendered ones. they can also produce and perceive some amount of infrasound, but not enough to make much use of it for speaking outside of adding emphasis to some emotional tone.

their natural sounds are mostly what you would expect-booms, rumbles, roars, the like.

guardians voices are all unisex, and there is no observable statistical difference between the voices of males and females. all have the same vaguely masculine, deep, booming bestial quality with expected amounts of reverb. dimorphism shows only in beards.

Fae-

FLUDD from mario sunshine, every single one of them. there might be slightly noticeable differences by individual but they all fundamentally sound like a knockoff or cousin of FLUDD.

fae are unusual among most dragons in that they don't, by anyone else's estimation, even make non-speech sounds. a fae won't hiss in pain, they'll say "Ow" in a deadpan voice while flaring their fins. they do this for everything. they don't have a natural roar, or threat-call, or whatever you might think, if they don't talk then they display with their fins and if they don't display with their fins they just shoot you with magic and if they don't do anything of that then they just don't do anything at all.

fae actually tend to be slightly deaf to lower-pitched sounds, but can perceive them through vibrations in their bodies and the little dangly nubs on their external fins (which also function slightly as whiskers to pick up currents in the air, and also magic as well).

Aberrations-

as a highly variable breed their voices vary wildly by individual, but on average they tend towards a hissy, screechy, rough, sickly sound, and trend androgynous to very slightly feminine to the human ear. when they do have more masc-esque sounds, their voices tend to be gargly and phlegmy, ragged, unpleasant affairs.

as for roars and other sounds? usually, something like cynder from tlos:anb, raspy hisses and ragged, chittering shrieks.

Auraboa-

snakes, just snakes. big giant snakes that learned to say words and do creepy little synchronized chants with a tone or progression or whatever the word for it is that sways slowly back and forth even in normal speaking-though that's a bit pointless to say because this is normal speaking for them. their voices are also unisex and, by human standards, would come off as entirely genderless. even unlooped individuals are often struck with a slight urge to attempt to pronounce many words as palindromes, and tend to use a rising-falling-rising or falling-rising-falling tone that has them ending a word or sentence in the same tone that they started it.

Bogsneaks-

their voices are-once again-unisex and generally trend slightly masculine (but more just Genderless Beast) by human standards (though less so that most other breeds who's voices "trend in x direction to human ear"-you'll find more bogsneaks with vaguely "woman" voices than you will aberrations with clearly masc-like ones, for example, it just won't be limited or even statistically tied to only female bogsneaks), and occupy a somewhat broad but clear category of voice types that are somewhat difficult to define. the only thing i can think to do is compare it to things like the mouth of sauron from the peter jackson movies, emperor skekso, or malefor with less overdone distortion effects. bogsneak type of voices tend to bring to mind words like wet and gargly and sly (but in a large, blunt, bullying kind of way).

as for non-speech sounds, think "giant crocodile". rather than roar, bogsneaks bellow and hiss. however, they do not have much in the way of "ouch i am in pain" type sounds, as they are not particularly social or given to helping eachother (being far more likely to take advantage of eachother's weakened state to finish off or steal from a territorial rival in fact), so there is little reason for the instinct to make distress noises to develop-instead, if they make any sound at all, it's more "Get back! i can still fuck you up!" threat sounds. not many social noises. slight infrasound perception, a bit better that guardians can, and their bellows (meant to carry over long distances) range a bit into it as well.

Coatl-

while i don't have any ideas for what coatl speaking voices are like in common draconic, in their native tongue, they sound like an extremely bizarre combination of multiple different swarms of buzzing bees heard through a towel. their hearing is extremely unusual for dragon standards-they lack true external ears, and rely more heavily on changes in tone and vibration to make sense of anything than other dragons do.

their natural sounds are almost mechanical humming and buzzing, with a scaled-up viperlike hiss as a pain sound and a threat display.

Fathoms-

Deafening bellows, a groaning voice, and underwater, whale-like noises, but different and wrong. fathoms are massive and heavy beings, with inconceivably deep voices, yet comprehensible, and with an inhuman singsong quality. clearer than you would expect them to be given how deep they are.

whale song, especially, is what their noises sound most like underwater. singing bellows and rumbles, intercut with growls. their hearing ranges are much wider than typical dragons are, but work best only when underwater, and they have more difficulty comprehending a certain level of ultrasound.

Gaolers-

deep and ominous, often almost whispery in presentation, sometimes eerily emotionless and quiet. possibly the closest in general to guardian's voices, but leaning distinctly a little more high-pitched and humanlike-or less humanlike depending. gaoler often do not talk much if they do not believe something needs to be said. as with most breeds males and females also do not have different voices. for comparison, try something like grigori of dragon's dogma.

gaolers, otherwise, sound like what would happen if there was a legendary giant predatory goat that hates everything and wants the apocalypse to come and make everyone die. they don't roar so much as scream so deep and hard it sounds like a roar anyway.

Obelisks-

imagine if the metro-goldwyn-mayer logo lion could talk and weighed 12+ tons and you have a pretty good idea. even when speaking comprehensible words, it's in a distinctly growling, roaring-big-cat-like tone. males and females are the same.

all of their sounds are roaring big cat sounds scaled up by hundreds of times. hearing their voices in genuine anger would freeze you in place so hard your bones would crack from the tensing of your own muscles. some infrasound is within the edges of their perception, but they have difficulty comprehending it.

Ridgebacks-

a bit more difficult to explain but sort of like a combination of a zipper being zipped really fast, a giant dolphin screeching on land, a toothless roar, some sort of grunting growling animal, a roll of thunder, and several other similar things. the word that most prominently comes to mind hearing their voices is "zipperlike". as well as very definitely NOT human, but in more of a giant specbio hard sf alien kind of way than in a fantasy monster way. their voices are both higher-pitched than typical large dragons and very large and loud, yet not ever quite entirely sharp. females actually tend to have deeper voices, while males sound higher and less-for lack of a better term to compare-masculine.

many of their sounds build from a sound like nails being run over fine fabric quickly scaled up by hundreds of times. that distinct, building almost distorted "zzzzzZZZZZOUPH" sound. they shriek, grunt, growl, chitter, cackle, make nearly every high-pitched porpoise sound you would expect a cetacean-like voice to, range frequently into (and can also perceive) infrasound, make weird dragged-out grunts that build into equally strange zipper-y barks, end many sounds by trailing into a distinct crackling rolling thundery growl, and their roars are multilayered things somewhere halfway between a high-pitched roar and an electronic cetacean scream. truly, a ridgeback's sounds are never flat.

Sandsurges-

sandsurges do sound like stereotypical dragons. but specifically, stereotypical female dragons. you know that vaguely sexualized hissy voice movies and games always give to speaking female dragons because It A Woman We Can't Have It Not Sound Like A Woman How Can Be Woman If Not Sound Like Sexy Human Lady? yeah that's what they sound like generally speaking. nearly all of them. even the males.

the roars/noises they make sound like that very specific ceramic-y shrieky mechanical chittering engine sound some things make in the star wars prequels, and they like to make them while running/gliding along at high speeds in pursuit. they can perceive and range sometimes into lower ultrasonic frequencies, and use this ability, much like ridgebacks in the opposite direction, to diagnose structural instabilities and flaws in machinery.

Skydancers-

skydancers aren't the only dragons to be able to make multi-toned sounds-ridgebacks come to mind-but they are fairly unique in doing so in the style of birds. skydancers possess a syrinx and a dual-toned voice; the Breath of Words and the Breath of Song, and those who adhere more closely to the teachings of the windsinger sometimes hold belief that the Breath of Song is a sacred second voice granted to them for the purpose of singing his glory in all words. in general, their voices are androgynous-to-effeminate and similar to a cross between a stereotypical mystical snake character-the sort that usually hypnotize people with their soft voices-and cait blanchett galadriel as a giant bird. with two overlapping singsong voices.

their noises are bird noises. big, deep bird noises. they're like a combination of if a deer and/or horse sounded as graceful and ethereal as some people think they look (without entirely NOT sounding like an actual deer/horse), and just a really big deep-voiced singing bird. somehow they make it work. their hearing ranges in both directions trend outside of human average, but not by much, and lean more towards higher tones.

Undertides-

the typical undertide individual has spent their entire life at the bottom of the sea relying on a combination of deep drums, creaks, and whale-screams along with visual signalling using chromataphors, bioluminescence, and body language sign, and has never spoken a verbal word in their life. their cultural isolationism and disdain for other dragons renders contact between them even less likely, and by extension, punctures in the language barrier vanishingly rare. this contributes to a fearful perception of them as something distinctly more beastly and primal than typical dragons, perhaps not even fully dragon at all, and has them both rendered more mysterious in the public eye and derided as shipbreakers and leviathans (not helped by their frequent, as stated before, genuine disdain for the inhabitants of Above). the average undertide is deeply unused to speaking with their lungs (or hearing in the air for that matter), and when they do, it usually ends up something like jormungandr of gow:ragnarok. especially for far larger, older individuals benefiting(?) from the phenomenon of deep-sea gigantism.

Veilspun-

creepy, whispery little inhuman children voices. they like chanting creepy synchronized rhymes.

the hearing range and sound-producing range of veilspun actually ranges far wider than many other dragons (quite a few of which already have notably different hearing ranges from humans). they use this ability, as you might expect, to keep secrets from the other breeds. veilspun have a reputation for moving and acting in eerie synchronicity-as well as detecting and arranging the apprehension of intruders without communication and through seemingly no magical or normal means-but the truth is far more simple; they heard you coming the moment you set foot in their domain, and in what sounds to most dragon's ears like the eerie silence of the woods, the veilspun are chattering wildly over infrasonic and ultrasonic frequencies, loudly coordinating their every movement as a group. this, of course, is not something they will ever admit to other breeds lightly-the wild rumors of their "secret psychic powers" it has gained them suit their tastes just fine.

most veilspun's non-speech sounds are in the areas beyond human/typical dragon sound perception in fact. it could almost be said that more of veilspun's hearing/speech range is outside of typical human perception than in it- it is even not unheard of for some individuals to be partially deaf to the typical draconic/human sonic range. not as much of a handicap as you might think, with how far their perception extends outside of it. some small few veil courts even elevate such individuals as mystics, protected by the shadowbinder's grace from the speaking of forbidden knowledge the likes of which their kind guards from view.

Feel free to suggest things, i am very open to additions and ideas.

and also please tell me if i'm using any of these terms wildly wrong. i am no scientist and it's literally midnight, and i wrote this in pure stream-of-consciousness, all in one go, with almost no editing

#as always i am not a biologist so it is very possible that i have gotten something here wildly wrong #because i came up with and wrote all of this in one sitting with no rough drafts #flight rising #flight rising headcanons

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