Quote:

and unicorns must pierce whomever they wish to communicate with, with their horn

My response:
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Heck yes! Didn't you know unicorns only like talking to bleeding corpses?

oooh first post for ages

I've decided to put a dragon in my story. But it's your typical swords and magic style dragon i.e. ferocious beast that is in need of slaying. I can bet that anyone who's read the frist coupla chapters of my ole story is dead confused now

I usually think of my dragons as intelligent, but not sociable. They're apex predators, and flying around breathing fire would be a colossal energy drain. My dragons need large swaths of territory to sustain themselves, and know that should their fellow apex predators infringe on their territory, they'd likely starve after a season or two, so they'll fiercely defend their claims. Attitudes like that aren't productive to civilization building, but would work just fine for ancient, primordial carnivores comfortably sitting at the top of the food chain.

Intelligence is more of a stretch, but it could very well be selected for if dragon vs. dragon competition was the primary inhibitor among the species. It makes things interesting as mortal races push into the wilderness, restricting dragon's hunting territories, and forcing the beasts to choose between starving, raiding the country farms and provoking a military response it's not likely to survive, or trying to manipulate the new apex predators. If dragons can breathe fire and fly (despite all physical constraints with every single design I've ever seen, ever), then it's not impossible that they might be able to observe and mimic human language in regions where prolonged contact with humans is inevitable. Still, even if they find ways beyond the communication barrier, I'd imagine they'd act byzantine, always looking to secure their hunger or safety with a minimal amount of interaction.

As for diversity... I like the "color-coded dragons". I'll admit, the trend gets ridiculous at points (bronze dragons that shoot lightning?), but it makes sense that geographic conditions could breed multiple versions of the same successful design. Someone mentioned how Tyrannosaurus Rex decimated the Albertosaurus population towards the end of the Cretaceous. While these two neigh-identical species competed for the same niche (and one ultimately competed better), other variations were still alive and kicking elsewhere. Smaller versions of Allosaurus, a Jurassic era ancestor of the two, survived up through the Cretaceous in the isolated Australia-Antarctica region, where its smaller size gave it a competitive advantage in a climate that didn't support as much bio-mass. I can very easily see different species of dragons developing for different ecosystems; would the classic scourge of the forests and game-lands fare so well if it were forced to hunt over vast stretches of open ocean, or would something smaller with larger wings better suited for sustained flight be able to sustain itself better in such conditions?