The Dragons of Fields of Mistria - Caldarus and the Unknown Dragon
At first glance, I thought Caldarus was the only dragon represented by the statues in Mistria, and now I'm convinced there were at least two dragons (one that is unnamed atm but has several occurrences). There are also a bunch of paintings and mini statues all over, which are interesting to compare, so here you go!
It's Galena writing a good chunk of this and bc I haven't written in a while, I'm probably a bit caldarus-ty! (ty petra for also writing and fixing it). Spoilers for up to level 60 of the mine (post breaking seal)!
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Caldarus vs The Other Dragon: Using Caldarus as the reference to point out differences between him and the Other Dragon, we can see how the game portrays the two as consistent between themselves.
The essence statues, one on the farm and one in the mines, are the easiest to look at because they're the biggest and most detailed. Traits from them apply to the smaller versions.
Caldarus is typically a warm shade of gray, Unknown is typically a cool shade of gray.
Caldarus's horns have a gradual curve, Unknown's horns have a sharper and more pointed curve.
Caldarus's legs are more stocky, Unknown's legs are more defined and slimmer.
Caldarus's snout seems to be a small bit broader, Unknown's snout is thinner.
Caldarus's eyes are more rounded, Unknown's eyes are longer.
As an aside, it is worth noting that Caldarus's skill perks are for farming, fishing, and generally more overworld tasks, Unknown's skill perks are for mining and combat which apply to the mines. There are probably bigger implications to this but that's for a different theory post.
As a museum prize, you can craft a dragon statue (furniture) in two variations; warm-toned (caldarus) and cool-toned (Unknown). The dragon statue furniture item has both an inventory icon and the actual furniture. Smaller and less detailed than the full versions, we can still see some differences.
Caldarus has horns that point almost directly up, Unknown has horns that curve outward first.
Caldarus's eyes are smaller and a bit more defined, Unknown's eyes are longer.
The shading on the legs makes it seem that Caldarus's legs remain stocky with visible claws, Unknown's legs remain more curved with softer paws.
Unknown's wing pointy tips are longer.
Caldarus appears rounder with rounded lighting on his head and chest, Unknown appears a bit more angled with sharp highlights.
Caldarus's snout is wider.
The inventory icons for the dragon statue furniture are the smallest and identical to the dragon statuette artifacts. The first two images are the furniture, the second two are the artifacts.
Statuette of Caldarus: Eiland comments on the Statuette of Caldarus artifact as being similar to the statue on the farm and that there must be a link between them. The Statuette of Caldarus is categorized in the Caldosian set in the museum.
The Unknown Dragon Statuette: The description explicitly states "This doesn't appear to be Caldarus." Eiland says that the Unknown Dragon Statuette looks different than other dragon statues and wonders if it is a stylistic difference. When given to Caldarus, he can't explain why he is unsettled by it. It's categorized in the Oopart (out-of-place-artifact) set in the museum.
Caldarus is warm toned, Unknown is cool toned.
Caldarus's horns point wider, Unknown's horns are curved inwards.
Caldarus's snout appears to be wider, Unknown's snout is a little slimmer.
The back legs and front paws are different than each other.
The last statue that we have confirmation on is the teleportation statue in Caldarus's house. In his dialogue, he describes how the dragon priestesses found a rock that naturally looked a bit like a dragon and slowly carved it into his likeness. - which explains the stoney expression. The gold ring is an item that Caldarus says he adds on and changes as he cleans it.
Now, for the parts that don't fit in - our own Oopart set! At this point I only have guesses as to what the following dragons are, but I've done my best to find every example that there is so far so we can try anyways.
Lets Call-Dozy-In (caldosian) because we're heading to the bathhouse to look at the dragons in there!
ok for real now, let's claw our way back to the real subject.
When taking a bath, a full body dragon surrounds the tub. The only other time we see a full body dragon in a similar pose is Caldarus himself when he saves the player. While there are some general similarities, the large bathhouse dragon seems to be a simplified version of whatever it is based off of - or it's a statue not meant to look like any dragon in particular. Some details to note though:
Caldarus's tail has many long, pointed scales/spikes. The bathhouse dragon has 3-4, but they don't match the pattern or length of Caldarus's.
Caldarus also has spikes on his wings, which isn't depicted in any of the statues (except the dragon urn).
The dragon's eyes are closed, which will mimic the next few we go over.
It has cute little paws.
We don't know how old the bathhouse is originally or how much was changed when Juniper took over, but Eiland comments that he would like to study the dragon statue as it looks extremely old.
In the side room of the bathhouse, there is a smaller bathhouse dragon statue. Also simplified, this dragon is hard to place as Caldarus or Unknown. It could be the same dragon as the full body dragon statue at the tub, or some other generic version of a dragon.
I will also point out the dragon urn found on the ritual levels in the mine. It has, unusually enough, horns that curve outward, not matching any of the other designs we have seen so far. It is also the only statue that has spikes on the lower edges of its wings as Caldarus himself has.
Scaling up to the top of the fountain at the center, we have a fountain dragon statue that stylistically looks different from every other dragon.
Its wings are outstretched
Its tail is wrapped around the front
It has the simplest horns and ears
Its eyes are closed, like the bathhouse dragons.
As a town rank prize, you get the stone dragon figure (furniture) recipe, which has three variations. None of the color variations change characteristics, but they are all nearly identical to the fountain statue.
And while I will inevitably post a long rant about all the paintings in Mistria, none of the paintings that depict dragons have identifiable markers.
Caldarus mentions in passing that dragons are solitary creatures, and he never speaks of any other dragon in Mistria (maybe it was a tHORNy subject for him). Caldarus's temple in the east mirrors the western temple (possibly a temple for Unknown), so potentially if both Caldarus and Unknown lived in Mistria at the same time that they avoided each other.
Except... that one painting...
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Well, I hope that this has been informative! What's the deal with that second dragon, and why does Caldarus never mention them? Are all of these other dragon statues around town just as old, or did Mistrians keep using dragons as a town symbol even as they forgot the specific dragons they used to worship?
Alright that's all! Thank you to everyone following so far, it really feels like we carved out a nice little niche here (carved - like a statue? We're running out of puns here).
⯌Petra and Galena⯎
