Dragons reduced to ponies and pack mules?

[Ropeway]

I know that people are excited for the Dragon riding feature in the new expansion. Also even before Dragonflight, WoW has had Dragon mounts. But it's awfully inconsistent with the lore, isn't it? Like bordering on awkward levels.

We know that Dragons are sentient, intelligent creatures, intensely so in fact. Even if you leave aside their preminent, "august" position among the beings of Azeroth, would any self respecting sentient race of beings agree to serve as beasts of burden for other races?

Dragons have willingly carried mortals on their back in past occassions, true, but these were special occassions, far from being a normalized practice, with the rider dictating terms.

Add in to that the absolute charlie foxtrot of horror that was the experience of the Red Dragonflight while they under enslavement by the Dragonmaw clan, who used them as beasts of burden and war. What makes one think that Alexstrasza would react in any way that was friendly, to this proposition? Or even the other ex-Aspects for that matter.

[Aucald]

Since we're there directly to aid the dragons and their Aspects in regaining their lost power and contending with their direct threats, I think the least they can do is taxi us around occasionally while we run errands for them.

[Redwyrm]

Way over thinking it

[VinceVega]

Dragons are not created equal.

Some are intelligent and some are a stupid as a horse. That is it.

Considering what else is happening in this unvierse this is a rather.... tame conondrum.


And if the are intelligent: Maybe they are friends.

Should be a bit more concerning that we have enslaved a child in the tournament in WOTLK and keep it forever young to carry our flag in battle.

[Maljinwo]

We know that Dragons are sentient, intelligent creatures, intensely so in fact. Even if you leave aside their preminent, "august" position among the beings of Azeroth, would any self respecting sentient race of beings agree to serve as beasts of burden for other races?
.

I dunno, let me ask all my previous dragon mounts that I keep around but neglect because I find them cumbersome and prefer a cool bat

[loras]

I know that people are excited for the Dragon riding feature in the new expansion. Also even before Dragonflight, WoW has had Dragon mounts. But it's awfully inconsistent with the lore, isn't it? Like bordering on awkward levels.

We know that Dragons are sentient, intelligent creatures, intensely so in fact. Even if you leave aside their preminent, "august" position among the beings of Azeroth, would any self respecting sentient race of beings agree to serve as beasts of burden for other races?

Dragons have willingly carried mortals on their back in past occassions, true, but these were special occassions, far from being a normalized practice, with the rider dictating terms.

Add in to that the absolute charlie foxtrot of horror that was the experience of the Red Dragonflight while they under enslavement by the Dragonmaw clan, who used them as beasts of burden and war. What makes one think that Alexstrasza would react in any way that was friendly, to this proposition? Or even the other ex-Aspects for that matter.

I believe i've had dragon mounts since TBC, following an extensive quest explaining why they would humor me in particular.
Then in WotLK we had the wyrmrest accord where i got budfy-ish with most flights, also we learned a lot about the more beastly protodrakes and even befriended some of those. All normal dragon mounts acquired still carried some explicit or implicit explanation regarding the "Why" of them serving you; Sartharion's drakes were captured from eggs, Malygos' drakes saw you literally take down their aspect, you saved the bronze one from death, the read one after becoming exalted with wyrmrest and the green drake i don't remember.

Later on us being "special" enough became implicit.
Now we, and all those in the expedition, have been invited by the dragonqueen herself to their otherwise unaccessible ancestral home.

It's pretty safe to say that all those riding on drakes are not exactly common people.

[Jaggler]

Not every dragon is the same. There are Tauren, yet there are still cows around, that are used as cattle.

[loras]

Though this does raise another question of my own: Will they introduce something so that our own characters could transform into a dragon?
We already have that legendary staff that lets you take a dragon form, as well as that sandstone drake potion.
Plus there's already drac'thyr and we're able to regularly "customise" our dragon already. And we can already turn into a whelp to tag along for dragonriding.

Just thinking aloud here, but what would happen if you just shoved a gnome into one of those transformation things? Gnom'thyr? Drac'nome?
Only downside would be the jokes about furries.

[Kyphael]

I thought that's what they always were. Look at Dragonblight way back in Wrath. Their main function is ferrying us up and down the tower. Occasionally they'll show up and breathe on a bad guy but most of the time mortals are the heroes and they carry us around.

[CalamityHeart]

We know that Dragons are sentient, intelligent creatures, intensely so in fact. Even if you leave aside their preminent, "august" position among the beings of Azeroth, would any self respecting sentient race of beings agree to serve as beasts of burden for other races?

Some dragons might not. Some might have too much pride to allow flightless races onto their backs.

Some dragons might not necessarily stake their pride on that, and would have no trouble allowing allies who don't have wings to ride them to some place they need or want to be, either out of necessity or speed and convenience, any more than you would have an issue driving your buds somewhere, if you had a car and they didn't.

There's more layers to this than you're letting on, I think. I don't think it's really that much of an issue that we ride on dragonback every now and again.

[The Stormbringer]

Drake mounts go back to the Netherwings, possibly even before then. I know the Fel Drake also came out in TBC (I think). Loads of drakes in Wrath... including one you get from Wyrmrest Accord for Exalted. We've been riding dragons around for ages.

[baskev]

I know that people are excited for the Dragon riding feature in the new expansion. Also even before Dragonflight, WoW has had Dragon mounts. But it's awfully inconsistent with the lore, isn't it? Like bordering on awkward levels.

We know that Dragons are sentient, intelligent creatures, intensely so in fact. Even if you leave aside their preminent, "august" position among the beings of Azeroth, would any self respecting sentient race of beings agree to serve as beasts of burden for other races?

Dragons have willingly carried mortals on their back in past occassions, true, but these were special occassions, far from being a normalized practice, with the rider dictating terms.

Add in to that the absolute charlie foxtrot of horror that was the experience of the Red Dragonflight while they under enslavement by the Dragonmaw clan, who used them as beasts of burden and war. What makes one think that Alexstrasza would react in any way that was friendly, to this proposition? Or even the other ex-Aspects for that matter.

euuuhh did you ever read the lore or play the games. Or hell even watch any of the new dragonflight lore?

you have 3 major types of dragons ( we have seen):

Titan enhanced: Alexstraza etc . can take human form and have brain power to form words etc
Elemental enhanced dragons: like the new big bad. Again smart enough to talk etc.
And the wild untouched dragons: like our current mounts.

So what is so weird about it? its clear that part of the dragon race is sentient and part is not?

[Aucald]

And the wild untouched dragons: like our current mounts.

Members of the five dragonflights, even drakes, are intelligent and fully sentient - that includes mounts of that type, as well. The Netherdrake mounts in Shattrath City speak to you when you choose one of them, as well as several other drakes like Brazen, Dreamscythe, Shadron, and so forth. Proto-drakes aren't very intelligent but are capable of speech in some cases, usually halting or guttural common, but tend to be a bit more primitive (analogous to cavemen but for dragons, kind of). According to Wrathion, dragons are fully sentient even within their eggs - when they're born it's with full cognizance and a developed personality, even in the whelping stage of their existence.

[The Stormbringer]

Members of the five dragonflights, even drakes, are intelligent and fully sentient - that includes mounts of that type, as well. The Netherdrake mounts in Shattrath City speak to you when you choose one of them, as well as several other drakes like Brazen, Dreamscythe, Shadron, and so forth. Proto-drakes aren't very intelligent but are capable of speech in some cases, usually halting or guttural common, but tend to be a bit more primitive (analogous to cavemen but for dragons, kind of). According to Wrathion, dragons are fully sentient even within their eggs - when they're born it's with full cognizance and a developed personality, even in the whelping stage of their existence.

This. The closest we get to 'simple animal' dragons are the domesticated proto-drakes. And even then it's a grey area.

[melzas]

Add in to that the absolute charlie foxtrot of horror that was the experience of the Red Dragonflight while they under enslavement by the Dragonmaw clan, who used them as beasts of burden and war. What makes one think that Alexstrasza would react in any way that was friendly, to this proposition? Or even the other ex-Aspects for that matter.

This bit was actually addressed in Twilight Highlands quest chain where you work with red dragons who aren't too excited about working with mortals for this very reason. Lirastrasza was very pissed about it until we pretty much save the day.

[Loveliest]

No, it's normalized. We were flying on drakes since forever.

[Kralljin]

Drake mounts go back to the Netherwings, possibly even before then. I know the Fel Drake also came out in TBC (I think). Loads of drakes in Wrath... including one you get from Wyrmrest Accord for Exalted. We've been riding dragons around for ages.

I mean, with the Netherwing they at least pretended that you actually form a bond with them, as you received only one who also had a unique name and agreed to fly you around for helping out the Netherwing.
If you wanted the other ones, you had to buy them from the ones who are actually enslaving them.

So in TBC, they at least gave some reason how a being clearly capable of reasonable thought agrees to serve as a mount.

But with Wotlk, they pretty much stopped doing that, from Red Dragons selling Red Drakes, to the player just riding Blue, Azure, Black and Twilight Drakes because we killed a bigger drake of their kind.

[Super Dickmann]

As people have said already, the last time the game pretended that you had to have a meaningful bond with the dragon or qualified what kind of dragon it was was TBC. Since then dragons have been an all purpose cab service and quest fodder.

[Ropeway]

Drake mounts go back to the Netherwings, possibly even before then. I know the Fel Drake also came out in TBC (I think). Loads of drakes in Wrath... including one you get from Wyrmrest Accord for Exalted. We've been riding dragons around for ages.

People in this thread keep mentioning how we've had dragon mounts since long before Dragonflight. This is something I mentioned in the post itself. My question isn't about the fact that we have them in game, rather my question is about it being inconsistent with the lore.

- - - Updated - - -

euuuhh did you ever read the lore or play the games. Or hell even watch any of the new dragonflight lore?

you have 3 major types of dragons ( we have seen):

Titan enhanced: Alexstraza etc . can take human form and have brain power to form words etc
Elemental enhanced dragons: like the new big bad. Again smart enough to talk etc.
And the wild untouched dragons: like our current mounts.

So what is so weird about it? its clear that part of the dragon race is sentient and part is not?

First off, "elemental enhanced dragons" aren't a separate species of dragon.

There are dragons from the 5 dragon flights, and then there are proto dragons (nether drakes etc. were derived from the former later on, specifically the Black dragons).

"elemental enhanced dragons" are a number of proto-dragons who have been inflated to high levels of power by elemental enhancement, just like the Aspects are specific dragons who were empowered especially by Titan power.

You're the one who needs to pay attention to the lore, instead of babbling ridiculous bullshit here.

[Aucald]

People in this thread keep mentioning how we've had dragon mounts since long before Dragonflight. This is something I mentioned in the post itself. My question isn't about the fact that we have them in game, rather my question is about it being inconsistent with the lore.

It's not inconsistent, because there is no lore circumscribing it. The only mounts with real lore behind them are the netherdrake mounts, products of a lengthy quest chain in which you basically save the entire Netherwing flight and get the mount as a token of your hard work in doing so. But as of WotLK, drake mounts became rather ubiquitous with no real lore to speak of, being dropped by bosses, handed out as achievements, and bought through rep. vendors. This isn't new to Dragonflight or Dragonriding, it's been the way of things since 2008.