Dragalia sideblog

The main story, at least in the beginning chapters, doesn’t really shed too much light on the specifics of dragons, but we do know that dragons can make pacts with certain people that allows those people to shapeshift into them. In addition, making pacts with multiple dragons is basically unheard of since Alberius the Founder; that’s what makes Euden so special.

In the third chapter, while Brunhilda is being attacked, the following two statements are made by Cleo:

Cleo:  There's a disturbance in the mana here. Some ill has befallen the dragon. We may already be too late.

Cleo:  We should make haste. The Flamewyrm is a fearsome beast, but she also presides over the volcano and holds its fury in check. Were she to be silenced, the result would be nothing less than catastrophic.

The implication of these is that dragons and mana are intrinsically intertwined, as well as dragons have an influence on the forces of nature. Sophie’s character story provides invaluable insight on what mana actually is and how it works as well:

Magic and mana are linked to each other, and humans are connected to them both.

The teachings of the Church say as much:

＂Thus did humanity use the magic which springs forth from mana to develop the land and advance their civilization.＂

If not for mana, we might still be painting cave walls and hunting with knives made of stone and flint.

So basically, mana is a tangential energy that is absorbed by spellcasters and helps civilization progress. Handy!

In Chapter Three we can also draw conclusions from a few lines of dialogue in An Impassioned Ally:

Euden: I didn't know dragons could shapeshift.

Brunhilda: Not all can. I just happen to be more resourceful than most. You may shower me with praise at any time now.

Brunhilda:  Leaving the volcano will drain some of my power, but so be it.

So, not all dragons can shapeshift into a more humanoid form, but some can. Additionally, the reason Brunhilda is so powerful is because she lives in a volcano, which is rife with fire mana.

There are also a few VERY interesting points brought up in Chapter Four, in the stories A Faint Presence and The Paladyn’s Calling. In the first, Mym complains of smelling a nearby dragon, but not knowing which it is. Notte reveals that it’s probably her:

Don't you know that faeries are distant kin to the dragons? So if you smell dragon, that's me you're sniffing, sister!

The reason faeries are distant relatives to dragons is because of the mana they carry; therefore, we can finally define dragons as creatures that can absorb and use mana. We also know that they are affected by the mana’s weakness from a line of dialogue in The Paladyn’s Calling:

Will you be all right, Mym? I imagine high altitudes like these are exceptionally difficult for a fire dragon.

Mym, being a fire dragon, doesn’t do well in the cold. Makes sense. That’s also why Jupiter makes his home up on a mountain; he’s associated more with lightning rather than light itself, and he can generate plenty of that on a mountain top.

But there’s more! It takes seven whole-ass story chapters to get any character to state the exact definition of “dragon,” in Chapter Seven’s History of a Continent, where Cleo comments on the ruins surrounding them and Mym explains that they were destroyed by dragons:

Cleo: Did these structures pose some threat to dragonkind?

Mym: Perhaps not, but look there. See those metal cogs and wheels lying about? Such things disrupt the flow of mana. Dragons are avatars of nature itself, and don't take kindly to humanity's tinkering. Especially not in the past, when relations between our people were rocky at best. You can see their anger in how thoroughly they tore this place apart.

We don’t actually learn how they mess with mana until Chapter Twelve, though:

Cleo: I heard tales of mana kilns long ago.

Cleo: They are devices that absorb natural mana in order to create a kind of artificial mana. However, I have never seen one with my own two eyes before this day.

Creatures that are so heavily reliant on mana to survive don’t like devices that absorb mana and make it into something different? Makes sense.

(Laxi has a mana kiln in her but that’s a rabbit hole for another day.)

So, to summarize:

Dragons are powerful creatures that heavily rely on specific types of mana, depending on the dragon. Some dragons can shapeshift into a more humanoid form, but the requirements for this aren’t exactly known. (Mym DOES specifically say she’s borrowing the appearance of one of Alberius’s retainers, so... maybe they need a blueprint first?) Since they’re so reliant on certain mana, certain dragons will inhabit certain environments, such as Brunhilda living in a volcano and Mercury drawing her power from the sea. (Which is why they set up the water dracolith in Chapter Seven!) Machines that interrupt the world’s natural flow of mana are extremely bad for dragons, and when they existed in the past they would often band together to destroy such devices.