Wistfulness about the word draconity
"Draconity" is a term that doesn't get used much any more, I think
It was what we called the state of Being Dragon, a bit more wieldy than "otherkinness" or therianthropy
I liked that little word. It encompassed a community of people some of whom I knew, some of whom I didn't, but that always seemed to manage to avoid unnecessary conflict. When things went bad, I never saw dragons fight with tooth and claw; they retreated, invisibly, and the community got quieter and quieter until it eventually didn't hold together much any more.
But-- I feel like I sensed a core of something in those dragons that felt common and unique to them. A particular kind of quiet solidity, steadfastness within the longing, and a manifest willingness to stay childlike at heart. They didn't always say much, but when they did it was resonant and felt Real. I see it in people who call themselves dragons today, too. Other people are strong, or stoic, or playful, and in every way as good as dragons at these things, and dragons aren't always all these things; but there is a Vibe I get from them sometimes. Like the way people are protective, but a stone symbolises protection.
Perhaps to be Dragon is to clothe oneself in a certain set of symbols, an archetypal armour that moulds the self to a certain eternal pattern.
Wistfulness about the word draconity
@behemoff @leafnoodle But a lot of media I see using draconic imagery is about raw power and control, even within subcultures like furry where people take representation as identity far more seriously. I’m not sure that was ever much represented in the draconic community (almost by definition, as it’s not a community-friendly trait) but it’s still not foreign: it takes a certain willfulness to identify as something so unusual!
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