#Dragon Age Retribution

[higheverweave]

Yall im sorry I cant get Corrupted Inquisitor (Elgarnan’s champion of vengance.) out of my head

Elgarnaan once free purposefully goes after Lavellan after hearing about the skyweaver who lost everything on so many occasions

Elgarnaan uses magic to repress everything that makes the Inquisitor a hero. Elgarnaan removes regret ,remorse, guilt and sets The Inquisitor loose as his champion of Vengeance (Bonus points if mage,female or non-binary,or non human race.)

The first place the Inquisitor goes for Vengeance?… The chantry that took the most prevalent trauma of their life and exploited it for a hero story thrusting them in a position they did not ask for or consent to… derailing the life they had and replacing it with an uncertain one under public scrutiny (Again bonus points if they have their own gods.)

For corrupted Lavellan specific The Second target would be the Duke of Wycome and everyone who works for him a Clan for a Clan. (Justice under the influence of Elgarnaan.)and corrupted Lavellan is the opposite of Inquisitor Lavellan they don’t forgive the Duke of Wycome, they don’t move on they camp out in the ruins once belonging to clan Lavellan where the bodies of all they knew and loved are buried and they hunt every one of the Duke of Wycome’s men down slowly. Corrupted Lavellan makes them feel every inch of what Lavellan believed their clan would have…. corrupted Lavellan is cold tactics only… and the Duke of Wycomes men are killed on by one brutally in a way that is the opposite of the Lavellan The Inquisition knew.

For Qunari Inquisitor this would be them going after the Qun who used them as a puppet their whole lives who stripped them of thought of choice of will… Now Corrupted Inquisitor will strip them of the exact same an eye for an eye

Now Regular Human super privilege Inquisitor would go after the Exalted Council next forcibly thrust into a position they didn’t ask for to gain eyes on them they never asked for only to have these people strip it away as soon as it was given toying with the Inquisitors life again?! Then having the audacity to say that They gave the inquisition too much power…. Maybe they should learn what too much power actually is? What it feels like to have your entire life subjected to the puppet strings of another unseen hand

Corrupted Inquisitor the champion of Elgarnaan then turns their Vengeful gaze on Their shared “Enemy.” Solas/Fenharel. The corrupted Inquisitor under the influence of Elgarnaan confronts Solas on every repressed thought and memory they had on his betrayal.

For Corrupted Lavellan its worse it is so much worse because either Solas sees the love of his life or one of his closest/only friends corrupted into the opposite of everything they stood for and acting in a way that would horrify and disgust normal Lavellan It is like looking into the eyes of a stranger and he is forced to be in the position he put the Inquisitor in. Kill them to save everyone or make them remember who they are through great effort

in freeing The Inquisitor from Elgarnaans influence Solas has to confront all his own shit to help them confront theirs and break Elgarnaans hold over them

Im sorry Im a little obsessed with corrupted Inquisitor

UwU

Yall realize Solas let out Elgarnan out most likely …. Elgarnan is the god of revenge Which character in this series would have the most reason to get revenge on a large amount of people?

The Inquisitor and it works for almost every origin

Warrior Inquisitor getting revenge on mages

Qunari Inquisitor taking out years of pent up frustration at the Qun

Dwarf Inquisitor getting revenge on the cartels and gangs of the deeproads

Mage Inquisitor hunting Templars

And elvhen specific is juicy ….

Imagine Elgarnan using magic to alter Lavellan’s morals based on their pain and trauma …. Imagine Elgarnan taking away the one thing holding Lavellan back their Empathy…and ability to feel remorse

Now imagine the roles are reversed and the Inquisitor is the big bad and Solas has to stop them

[abyssal-ilk]

elgar'nan razed the island to the ground with fire for ghilan'nain's death. his anger was so strong he lashed out not only at rook and their team, but his own forces as well. he got the dagger he needed, but at what cost? the price of his sister's life? the sister that he needed to make their dream come true, for without her the dagger is simply a weapon and not an artist's tool? will be thinking about this forever.

[triaelf9]

Some doodles from today ^__^

Princess Retribution (from my comic) and Teia (from veilguard)

[scribeofmorpheus]

Chapter Update!

“Please,” Solas pleaded, “stop this.”

“I have no power here,” Felassan said. “I never did, did I? It was always Mythal or the People. What of her, your Dalish bride? What of me? What of my story? Did I matter at all?"

[x]

[citrusai]

gareth david-lloyd is such a wonderful voice actor. i keep rethinking of his reading of the line "i will always go where you go." and it sounds so resigned and pained, like already solas knows he is going down a path that will lead to death and horror but his friend needs him, the people need him. they need his wisdom and guidance, and he knows taking on a physical form will not only be his undoing, but that of the world as he knows it. but still he goes, because duty comes above all.

[rivilu]

One side effect of the autistic sense of justice for me is going insane over justice and vengeance as concepts in themselves whenever applicable in media.

Which unfortunately means that thinking about justice dragon age for too long (especially with the post inq takes on spirits) makes me want to rip my hair out.

[nerdsandqueens]

Thinking about Mythal again.

Last year, I started to get interested in the history of "Mother Goddesses" in mythology. In part due to learning about dnd Tiamat and her real life mythological counterpart. How a Mother Creator becomes World Destroyer fascinates me greatly. Especially because it echoes my own journey from over-responsible white knight people pleaser, into someone free from the narratives I've been spoon fed. But it''s led to me feeling deeply betrayed. I poured my heart out to people for years, only to realize they were bleeding me dry.

Imagine out of the kindness of your heart, you gave life and sustenance and love to others. You loved love and life, and so it was no worry to give to those in need. You made the world a better place. You made all feel cherished from your love, and you loved to give that love.

But imagine you did not get love. Or even worse, they hurt you instead. After all you'd done for them. After all the trust you had given them.

In my struggle with people depending on me when I never asked them to be, it feels like I let them nurse from me. Then when I realize they drain me, they feel like parasites. Insects crawling all over me. Invading me. Infecting me.

Imagine if Mother Earth was sentient, and one day felt like every living creature growing out of her skin were crawling parasites. She'd seek to wipe the face of the earth clean. How dare they hurt and infect her.

Flood myths. The sea seen as the birthplace of life, suddenly swallowing up the world it had brought forth.

Benevolence turning into Retribution. Suddenly your very existence is a grand sin to the mother who gave you everything. The life you live. The air you breathe. The world you exist in. What a terrifying reckoning for the muliebrious universe to decide to take her gifts back.

[oakthcrn-a]

doot doot smol starter call for Lark in her DRAGON AGE VERSE.

moots only pls, and multis pls specify muse.

[arrenkae]

Anyway my dragon age conspiracy theory is that Mythal was originally meant to be a spirit of Justice/Vengeance but devs were so committed to erasing all traces of Anders from this franchise that they had to change that as well

[hungee-boy]

i know its not the best quality of hair physics out there but just the fact that bioware can do this..... huge

[antiqua-lugar]

sorry I got mythal brainrot, does the game ever say anything explicit about her relationship with elgar'nan except her telling to solas "don't worry I am just doing it for the greater good trust me"

like I am to assume all the stories about them being married are folktales doing their thing or am I free to imagine maybe they did bang. this is not at all because I want this to be as messy and heartbreaking for everyone involved I promise.

(because I also assumed it was a folk tale whatever elgar'nan did with the sun BUT LO AND BEHOLD)

[roookery]

Not to complain or something but I think mythals crossroads essence should've been possesing an inquisitor who drank from the well of sorrows actually

[herald-divine-hell]

In 9:41, the Herald of Andraste, Alexandra Caera Trevelyan, began to preach her new Chants to southern Thedas. With the crippling of Chantry authority due to the Mage Rebellion, Orlais' fall into civil war, and Divine Justinia V's assassination, many in Thedas turned to the Herald as their new guiding light, and held fast to her as Andraste's blessed daughter, even with the passing of the Mark.

"Praise be to Your Lord and His Bride, and Their Herald, who bears the Mark, and peace be unto the Believers, who bear witness. They ask of you [Alexandra], 'Surely our Maker would not send a mage, a child nearer to damnation. Surely, he would not send the blood of the murderer that slain His Bride.' Ah, that is but only their desires! Wise is your Lord, who would send a daughter, a daughter who is blood of the two Realms, of Andraste and ancient Elvhenan, of this world and the Unseen." Wise is your Lord, who bore witness to the death of His Chosen, and has arisen something greater, more precious, and has given to all Worlds [to all the people], a gentle Mercy, a fierce Reminder." - [The Disputation, 2:1-21]1

"O', you who Believe, when you come across one of the Elvhen, be of the Dalish or of the Alienage, greet them with Peace, and say onto them, 'Our Lady remembers the Blood of Shartan, and sends Her Love onto her Daughter and onto you. Truly, she [Alexandra] is among the Blood.' [or, truly she is a part of you; or, she is part of the Elves.] Forbidden are the Believers to drink the wine of injustice. When you were of the oppress and among the lost, did your Maker not sent Guidance? Ordained onto Our Herald verily is this: when you see oppression, slay it utterly, and cast it into the Flame, so not even it's ashes can be reborn anew. A covenant is granted, to the elves and Andraste's Daughter. Restored are the Dales, and protected in trust by Andraste's Chosen, to the children of Elvhenan. Forbidden are the Lesser Thrones [Orlais, Ferelden, etc.] and Sanctified Seats [the White and Black Divines] to deny the Throne [the Maker] of anything, which They have revealed onto you [Alexandra]. Among the Elves who ascend such a covenant, with their hands clasped onto Our Herald, Our Hands are clasped onto theirs, and Truly We know what is in their hearts. So let all broken oaths before you [Alexandra] become fallen leaves cast away by the wind, and let any who make oaths, unto the Maker, and unto the Flame-veiled Bride, and Her Blessed Daughter [the Herald], and whose heart is free and aware, retain their oaths, evermore. Love and Peace and Justice and Compassion, We have ordained onto those who believe. This is the near insurmountable pass, of which we have revealed onto you. Engraved this into your hearts, for your Lord is All-Aware, All-Knowing." - [The Covenant of the Elves, 10:1-43]2

_

Note 1: The Disputation occurs when the Herald of Andraste first arrives at Val Royeux to meet and treat with the remaining Grand Clerics, which ultimately leads to the Chantry's condemnation of the Inquisition and Alexandra as heretics. Alexandra denies their claims and condemns the Chantry for denying her divinely-sanctioned role, citing the wisdom in Andraste choosing a half-elf mage to be her Herald, especially after the Mage Rebellion.

Note 2: The Covenant of the Elves occurs after the Inquisition establishes control over the Exalted Plains. Here, Alexandra reaffirms to the Dalish, and elves in southern Thedas, that the Dales belong to them, and that no nation or religious authority outside of Alexandra, as Andraste's Herald, has any right to remove the Elvish claims to the Dales, or have any right to dispute Alexandra's decisions. Alexandra also forgives any broken oaths that were made before her Heraldship, especially the commitments of the Mages to aid the Chantry and reside in the Circles. She also tactfully installs the theological belief that she must also be called upon when oaths are made. Pledging onto the Maker and Andraste is not enough. Pledging onto her as Andraste's living representative is also significant. Alexandra also discusses, briefly, on matters of ethics, referred to as the "near insurmountable pass", such as being compassionate and following justice, and that creation will struggle to follow through, but will overcome it in time.

[beeapocalypse]

do not think i have talked abt cholla here either. sphinx who was made a knight of ve-corpsis (basically just showed up demanding it and nobody was brave enough to say no because of the threat of fluisau hovering right behind them) and then went on a meandering countryside murder spree where nobody dared to strike them down for fear of divine retribution until belrath eventually confronted them + beheaded them despite fluisaus rage. had genuinely believed themself unkillable and accepted belraths challenge to a duel with a smile

[mythalism]

You seem to be both a solavellan and mythal fan so maybe I won’t get shot for this question lol

Veilguard was my first game. I kept default settings, which meant solavellan world state.

I genuinely wonder: what makes people think Solas loves Lavellan? Or that if being with Mythal possible, he still would choose Lavellan?

He is so clearly not over Mythal. Last game is filled with references to their connection, she herself confirms that both still love each other. He is very protective of her while arguing with Elgarnan. Statues of them everywhere, him painting and playing songs about her, his very own room having statues of Mythal… In the end he discloses he does it all for her, refuses to stop after Lavellan’s appeals, and only does so after Mythal shows up.

In comparison, Solas describes what he had with Lavellan as “entanglement he selfishly grow close to” he both regrets and cherishes. Most of the romance is carried on Inquisitor’s shoulders, as she both explicitly tells what he means to her, reaches out to him and ultimately shares his burden of atonement.

I couldn’t understand why this ship was so popular, so I watched solavellan romance in DAI. And while it was beautifully done, having the context of Veilguard, I just keep seeing Mythal in every “we shouldn’t”/his face after balcony kiss/ultimately abandoning her in the end. It feels almost unfair and cruel for him to enter another relationship while his heart isn’t free. And to visit Lavellan’s dreams afterwards

What am I missing?

a lot of people would shoot you for this. but dont worry i am not one of them. be careful out there tho

i think the first thing i would say is that instead of watching a video, you would need to do play a full solavellan playthrough of the game if you do want to genuinely understand the relationship and why it is so beloved. im not sure which compilation you watched, but even one that includes all their conversations (rather than just the cutscenes, of which there are very few) cannot do the relationship justice. so much of understanding solas as a character and how he loves people, by extension, is wrapped up in how he reacts to the world at large, its people, its history, its institutions, and its metaphysics. assuming you're new to DA and wouldn't know this, solas's romance in inquisition is the shortest, most sparse romance in the game, and was added later in development. as a result, much of his essential characterization happens outside the bounds of romance content, but still adds deeper meaning, context, and depth to the relationship. even in terms of romance specific content, some of my favorite content occurs in banter that probably was not included in the video you watched. the solas romance is less a standalone love story, in the way many of the romances are, and more of a big juicy delicious cherry on top that helps you better understand the overall dragon age solas plot/cake you're eating.

theres a couple non-romance specific scenes that shed significant light on solas & mythal's dynamic from his perspective that i am not sure if you have seen and honestly i wouldnt recommend watching them because, again, i think you should just play inquisition and experience them in the proper context. but solas's companion personal quest is directly about his corruption at the hands of mythal, though we didn't know that until veilguard came out and contextualized it. and this quest pretty explicitly demonstrates how he feels about what she did to him: rage, beyond forgiveness, deserving of death. he also comments on her at the temple of mythal, and his comments are mostly neutral but verging on judgemental, and do illuminate that while he may have loved her, he certainly did not trust her. it is he who first clarifies that she was a goddess of vengeance, rather than justice. which i cant think about too long or else i'll get angry that they ret-conned it to benevolence -> retribution or whatever the fuck and erased the anders/justice/vengeance parallel... anyway

but i think more telling is his absolute refusal to drink from the well if asked, and most telling; how he fears for an inquisitor who drank.

he specifically calls mythal dangerous, arrogant, and fickle, absolutely refuses to submit to her will once again via the drinking of the well, and begs an inquisitor he loves not to do the same lest she suffer the same fate. he loves mythal, of course, but he also fears her. he is critical of her behavior and wary of her motivations. his love for her exists alongside his recognition of what she was.

another fairly vital bit of information is how according to trespasser (cole banter), solas used to wear mythal vallaslin until he burnt it off his own face when he developed his vallaslin removal spell. its how he got the little scar above his eyebrow. meaning, if vallaslin were slave markings, that solas was effectively enslaved to her. this is... pretty important context, obviously. but we never find out what it might have been like for him. veilguard.... didnt forget but rather deliberately ignored this because it wasnt willing to interrogate the issue of slavery which had been vital to solas as the leader of a slave rebellion. ugh. anyway.

this leads into my next point which is that veilguard really drastically changes solas's motivations to be far more mythal-centric than what was set up in inquisition/trespasser. we always knew something was up with them, and people always wondered if they might have been lovers, but veilguard goes in on this idea in a way that many people would actually call out-of-character compared to how he behaves in inquisition. veilguard itself though does present their relationship as rather complex though, in my opinion its one of the best parts of the game. the two moments that i chew on most frequently are the letter from felassan in mythal's weird little dragon pit that reveals how he made that island for her but locked it away when she was killed. and my ultimate fave is how she reveals that in the literal thousands of years she has been sitting there alone since her murder, many of which he was alive and fighting a rebellion partly in her name, and in the 12 years since he woke up from uthenera, he never went to visit her. not once. its giving jane eyre and i fucking love it. in this same conversation, she also says that when he killed flemeth, he wept. this, i think, is the crux of how he feels about her. he can barely look at her. he resents her. he will use her like he did anyone else. he loves her. he feels lost without her. he will never forgive her. he misses her. all of these things are true at once, and mythal seems to feel similarly; she loathes him. she understands him better than anyone. she resents him for betraying her and abandoning her. she calls him a pathetic little crybaby pussy ass bitch. she loves him.

i dont think anything you said in your message is necessarily wrong. i do think he loves mythal still. i think he always will. i think mythal is valid when she says that they have a bond that no one will ever understand. i agree he is protective over her. i also interpret their relationship as romantic though a lot of people do not. i just love drama. but i think you are misinterpreting his reluctance to be with lavellan as coming from his attachment to mythal as a person, rather than his attachment to his duty to what mythal represents - the world he ruined, everything he's ever done wrong. to say that solas would actually consciously choose mythal over lavellan if they were the final two contestants on the bachelorette is honestly, absurd. sorry. because actually he would choose neither, he would dramatically let the rose fall to the ground and run off to restore the elven people while chris hansen (felassan) dramatically runs after him. both women are secondary to him when it comes to the good of the entire world, and fixing what he broke. he has had plenty of moments to choose mythal and run away with her if he wanted. he has literally had her bertha-ing out in his crossroads attic for 10 years. he also literally does kill her via flemeth. which isnt to say that he wouldn't kill lavellan if forced to, i think he would. but the point here is that its not mythal vs. lavellan. its mythal vs. the world, and lavellan vs. the world. he should have chosen the world over mythal. he didnt. he created the blight instead. he destroyed everything. he cannot make the same mistake again, so he will choose the world every. single. time.

regardless, every time solas turns away from lavellan in the romance, he is not thinking "i wish you were her". he is thinking "if i do this to you, i have become her". prioritizing his own desires over the good of the world, stringing her along, using her as a tool to do his bidding (getting the orb back), are all things mythal did to him. he told her he would follow her anywhere. and when he begins to realize that lavellan would follow him anywhere (as she says in veilguard), he freaks out and has to end it. he knows he will have to continue to kill and cause destruction to bring his world back, so if he did allow her to join him in walking the dinan'shiral, or did anything other than break her heart and leave her, he would be corrupting her the way mythal corrupted him; a weapon to achieve his goal. but he refuses. in his mind, he already destroyed the world for love once; at mythal's behest. if he abandons the world for lavellan, he is destroying the world for love again, and making her an accomplice. so, every time he leaves her it is an act of love.

the way the inquisitor is the driving force of their romance is partly just... gameplay lol but its also consistent with the overarching theme of consent in a relationship that is fundamentally unethical and unequal. lavellan has to be the initiator or else solas becomes a predator. some would say he is anyway lol, but its clear much of the writing was designed to avoid this with the way he is constantly denying himself, backing away, trying not to give in. it might have been juicy, but for him to knowingly romantically and sexually pursue a young woman 10,000 years younger while lying to her about his identity and using her for his plans would make him an entirely different character. a character that would be a hit on romantasy booktok, but not solas. consent and ethics are so central to not only the relationship thematically, but to solas himself, and some of that is because of mythal and the inequality of their own past dynamic. solas is so passive in the romance not because he doesnt like this weird clingy bitch who wont leave him alone, but because he does not want to recreate the same dynamic that corrupted him into pride and uhhhh literally destroyed the world. i'll leave you with another essential quote that you may not have encountered yet:

Cole: It isn’t abuse if I ask! Solas: Not always true.

in trespasser, solas's duty to bring down the veil was more unambiguously to the elven people and the alleviation of his own crushing guilt, while mythal was collateral damage in his way and he used her like he would use anyone else (including lavellan loool) as a tool to achieve his goals. we see this when he kills flemeth and takes mythal's power. in veilguard they had to obscure this slightly to make him "less sympathetic", to use the devs own words. and they did this by shifting the crux of his motivations to mythal. i dont think his lap dog devotion is out of character, i adore it, but i hate that it came at the expense of his more complex and sympathetic motivations of saving the elven people and spirits from the damage of the veil. as a result, when looking at his behavior in the context of inquisition + trespasser + veilguard, i interpret it as mythal being symbolic of the destruction of the world at his hands. and not to toot my own horn but trick's interpretation that they shared on bluesky does support this, when they said that to solas, mythal represents the past and lavellan represents the future. ive written about his statement that it was all for mythal, and the tldr is that i think it is also supposed to be interpreted as symbolic and reflective of his psyche. but even if he did do it all for her, i dont think that necessarily negates his relationship with lavellan. he needs mythal to break the cognitive dissonance, alleviate his guilt, and release him, because she is the source of all of those things in the first place. lavellan could never break them because she is frankly irrelevant to those things. he is so caught up in his sunk-cost fallacy that he feels the only way is through. lavellan may not be able to break the hold the past has on him because she is separate from it, but she can offer him another path once it has been broken, a fork in the road he thought was straight; her, their future.

i think to say solas's heart is not free is a misunderstanding. he denies his heart's desire over and over, we see this clearly in the letter he sends to lavellan in veilguard that expresses how badly he wanted to put down his burden and stay with her. in his expressed reluctance to leave her in crestwood, how he refuses to lie and tell her it meant nothing. in "no matter what happens, i want you to know that what we had was real". his indulgent final kiss in trespasser. in "i will never forget you". its especially apt that you worded it this way and that vhenan means "my heart". if anything, his heart is the most free part of him. it is everything else that belongs to mythal: his body, created at her command. his path of destruction and ruin, which she set him on. his purpose, which she distorted from wisdom to pride. she, then, is the only one who can give it all back to him. and as soon as she does, he is free to prioritize his heart. and he quite literally does.

tldr; play inquisition <3

[serpentface]

Dragon folklore in the Imperial Wardin region

A dragon as depicted in Wardi, Wogan, and Cholemdinae folklore

Dragon folklore is broadly similar between the three collections of human peoples who have inhabited the region since prehistory. The details of their description vary somewhat, but the core traits are the same. These dragons are described as very large birdlike creatures (standing as tall or taller than a human) with bodies like eagles, a reptilian head (usually that of a crocodile or lizard), black feathers, and trailing tail plumage. They are sometimes horned, and Wardi variants are specified as having wattles like roosters.

All variants of this folklore associates them with storms, lightning, and wildfires. They are said to only emerge during lightning storms and intentionally set grass fires in order to hunt. Some sources ascribe them power over lightning itself, which they capture in the clouds and send to the ground with the beating of their wings. Others state that they are simply immune to it. In either case, they set their tail feathers ablaze in lightning strikes, and then fly low over the ground to strategically spread the fire. They completely surround their prey with wildfire, and then circle overhead in wait until it has succumbed to the smoke and flames.

They are usually characterized as killing indiscriminately as fire itself, eating anything they can capture whether it be wild animals, livestock, or people. They have no appetite for raw meat, and will only eat burnt flesh.

These dragons rarely come down to the ground, spending most of their lives in storm clouds. They migrate along with the rains and breed in grasslands during the peak of the wet season, with female dragons laying their eggs hidden in tall grass. Dragon chicks are born with completely white feathers, which are gradually singed black with every hunt. The darker a dragon, the older and more dangerous it is.

They are generally non-personified and regarded as wild beasts, though are sometimes given a particularly vengeful nature. Stories of mother dragons burning down entire villages or towns in retribution for the death of their chicks can be found region-wide.

Wogan folklore is an exception (though this is more an aspect of a broader animistic worldview rather than a unique quality of dragons themselves), in which the dragon is personified and credited with first teaching the people how to practice controlled burns for agricultural purposes. The Wogan dragon is a very powerful and dangerous spirit and communion with it requires wisdom and caution. Many stories describe people enslaving dragons or capturing their chicks order to utilize their power to destroy enemies, only to be annihilated with fire themselves.

A dragon as depicted in the folklore of the Hill Tribes, ft. an unfortunate horse

The dragon folklore of the Highlands has some connection to the aforementioned (particularly in their association with storms) as a product of centuries of cultural interchange, but stems from a wholly separate tradition brought from overseas, bearing much in common with analogous legendary creatures in Finn and Royal Dain culture.

These dragons are heavily personified, being wholly sapient and capable of speech, and are said to be either extremely long-lived or completely immune to aging (though not immune to being killed). They are described as very large birds with the wings and bodies of eagles, the spurred legs of pheasants, the wrinkled necks of vultures, and the head and tail of a snake. Dragons are almost always red, brown, and yellow in color, resembling golden eagles (like their father). They kill prey with their venomous bite, said to be the deadliest of all animals. They are uniquely menacing to people, having little to no interest in wild prey in favor of the tender, domesticated meat of horses and cattle (or humans themselves)

Dragons are all males, and all brothers. They are the progeny of the goddess Ariakh and her spirit husband, the King of Eagles. Ariakh reproduced with her husband twice- first in the form of a human, in which she gave birth to the Winds, her four eldest sons, and second in the form of an eagle, in which she laid a clutch of eggs that hatched all dragons. These dragons are smaller and less powerful beings than their older brothers, and they're ascribed a sense of profound bitterness about this.

They are jealous and vain in nature, constantly squabbling amongst themselves for rank and admiration and menacing humans to gain recognition. Folktales often center on heroes taking advantage of their competitiveness and insecurity in order to defeat them. They occasionally play neutral or positive roles in tales, where they assist human protagonists in exchange for sabotaging one of their brothers, gifts of horsemeat, or excessive flattery.