Power Multiplied

Dragons--East, West and Imaginary

Would Roebor, the dragonpanther of the Power Rising series look like this? Uh no. This statue, which I saw outside Jakarta, Indonesia, is a depiction of "dragon" as it exists in the Far East, a more snake-like, wide-faced creature than the scaled, lizard-ish dragons of the European variety. And certainly nothing like the cat-featured, fur-covered creature that is Roebor. Eastern dragons were often very human, if not very nice, in their interactions with humans. This, at least, the eastern dragons have in common with Roebor, whose ancestors developed language and personalities not so different from those of humans--unlike the dragons of Game of Thrones, which were terrifying precisely because they were so unfamiliar and unknowable, so very NOT human. If you worshipped eastern dragons appropriately and didn't cross them they could bring great fortune--and if you didn't, they could bring great misfortune. In this they were like ancient gods, conjured by people struggling to explain and control the elements around them--the weather, the crops, sickness and death. Roebor is not worshipped--certainly not by protagonist Shannon!--because he is not a creature of mythology but rather simply a different species on a planet far, far away. In this respect he is a very modern idea of a dragon. And lovable, I hope, unlike this guy on the right.