Frequently Asked Questions - All FAQs

Many people's first exposure to draconity is through a larger group collectively known as "furries," which is a gathering of people who are (or are interested in) anthropomorphic animals. Dragons are furries by default, since the term applies to all beings possessing both human qualities and non-human shape (whether or not they possess fur).

 

However, draconity did not grow out of the furry community. It is not a "new" idea, and it was not developed by any one person or group, much less furries. Although dragons and furries are under the same umbrella, they are not causally connected.

Estimates vary. It is certain that there are at least 500 to 1,000 worldwide -- that many alone are participants in the online dragon community, mostly from the United States but found anywhere that Internet cabling has been lain.

 

As new dragons show up all the time, it seems reasonable to assume that this figure is far low of the mark. One of the more intriguing estimates I've heard is that up to 600,000 people on Earth may be dragons, most unaware of it. This figure may seem high, but keep in mind that this is only one-tenth of one percent of the world's population, and if they all moved to the United States it would still be less than 3 percent of America.

All "Dragon Union" jokes aside, there is no person or group which claims (or can claim) to represent all dragons or all "real" dragons. One can be a dragon independent of any organization, and in fact, one has to be.

 

In an effort to provide a centralized gathering place for dragons on the Internet, most dragons recognize alt.fan.dragons, #afd, Alfandria, and the like (see "How do I join the dragon community?" above) to be "official" gathering places. This simply means that the online dragon community has agreed to support a set of standard meeting forums in an attempt to keep the group unified. There is nothing canonical about AFD/#afd/Alfandria except that they are places where you will find more dragons than elsewhere.

The dragon community, in the physical world, is spread out so broadly and so thinly that it is almost impossible to maintain a physical network. (For the first three to four years of my personal experiences with draconity, for example, I thought I was alone in my belief and probably crazy. See "How did you discover your draconity?" below, for details.)

 

To put it bluntly, the Internet magnifies the visibility of "fringe" groups, those with nonstandard beliefs. It is far easier for those with similar opinions to find each other and gather together. (Draconity is nothing if not a nonstandard belief.) The result is that people who might never see another dragon in the years before the Information Age are suddenly discovering dozens, scores, even hundreds of fellow draconics -- online. Although this often leads to increased physical networking, such as regional "Dragon Gathers," the simplest way to maintain contact with such a far-flung group is through the Internet.

Often, dragons feel that their beliefs and attitudes are misunderstood by everyone except the dragon community -- a feeling that is unfortunately grounded in reality, since many people find draconity very difficult to accept. Since the dragon community is so overwhelmingly online (see previous question), those parts of the Internet that are dragon-friendly can start feeling, in a very real sense, like home.

 

If you are a physical-life friend or relative of a dragon that you are concerned is spending too much time on the Internet, the first step to a solution is to show increased tolerance, interest and understanding of their draconity. The more understood and loved they feel offline, the less they will need to fill that void on the Internet. (Do not expect them to completely do without, though. Being a dragon is a very real and profound force in their life, and cutting off close friendships by denying them Net access can create intense alienation that destroys the rest of your work.) I also recommend taking more interest in what they do online -- perhaps you will discover that you approve of how they use their online time. With patience and support, a happy medium can be reached.

No. All races are welcome. The dragon community runs the gamut from dragons to humans to wolves to gryphons, shapeshifters, fish, etc. (See "How do I join the dragon community?" above.)

 

Even among the dragons themselves, though, there will be the unfortunate but inevitable contingent of wanna-be's -- the people who don't believe they are dragons, but say they are. The reasons for this vary from inaccurate understanding of draconity to the need for peer acceptance to belief that dragons are all role-playing anyway (which we aren't). The biggest cause of user turnover in the dragon community is when people pretending to be dragons are suddenly confronted by the realization that We're Not Kidding Around and quickly decide that they don't need to hang out with people whose beliefs they can't accept (see "Are you crazy?" above).

(Also see "How do I know if I'm a dragon?" above.)

 

The question of sincerity often boils down to earnestness -- people pretending to be dragons haven't got as big of an investment in their identity as the true dragons do. Staying power is the biggest indicator.

 

Of course, it's a lot easier to tell which dragons are "fakes" after one knows what "real" dragons are like. Hanging around the dragon community for a few months and getting to know many dragons will be invaluable in helping you to form your own guidelines for dragon evaluation.

 

For some idea of the sort of things that you can notice with sufficient exposure to draconity, you can see my list at http://www.draconity.com/faq/true-dragons.txt.

The Dragon Purity Test (aka Draconity Corruption Test, Draconity Test), which was developed by Dymus in 1995 and can be found at [http://www.armory.com/tests/draconity.html], is designed to measure and rank one's inner dragon through a series of questions such as "Have you ever answered faster to your draconic name than your human one?"

 

The test itself states at the top: "This test is purely for fun and entertainment. If you do not feel that your score is relative to your draconity then ignore it ... I warn you now that the validity of the test isn't exactly real high, just fun."

 

While it's true that in general dragons score higher than humans, the test is also unbalanced so that long-time alt.fan.dragons residents score higher than newbies, even if the long-timers are non-dragons. Additionally, scoring higher does not make one "more" of a dragon, nor is there a clearly defined cut-off point below which no dragon can score. So, "the chief benefit of test results is living in a world where they are overrated" (to paraphrase H.L. Mencken).

Dragon magic, outlined by D.J. Conway in her book Dancing With Dragons (Llewellyn Publications, 1994), involves the invocation of dragon spirits to aid one in one's magical work. "Invoke their ageless wisdom and power!" says one of the book's cover blurbs.

 

As both a dragon and a practicing mage, I find Dancing With Dragons' promises rather silly -- all I have to do to harness the ageless wisdom and power of the dragon is to look inside myself. Still, the book's target audience is, I'm sure, human, and for those people who are not themselves dragons I can understand how it could aid their work.

Be forewarned that I can't claim to speak for anyone but myself on this one. Everyone's story is different.

 

I grew up for over a decade as a human, came to realize gradually that I wasn't normal, came to realize that draconity explained that lack of normality very well, and gathered evidence and experiences for many years before I came to the conclusion that being a dragon was the only explanation that made sense in a self-consistent way. 

 

A more detailed version of the story (and a self-analysis) are at http://www.draconity.com/faq/history.html. Happy reading, and best wishes in your continued encounters with draconity!