New screenshots! Let's look at some dragons!

[Mikey Dowling]

Today's batch of screenshots is going to let you take a look at the various dragonkind in Pillars of Eternity.

 

Wurms: Young dragons begin as wurms, though most never develop beyond that stage. Wurms are clever and sly, if not actually intelligent. To develop into a drake (and, eventually, a dragon), a wurm must have ample space and ample resources (food). They will not develop if they live near drakes and dragons - they must seek out a habitat that has not already been claimed by a larger counterpart.

 

Since the chances of further development are low, most wurms will band together in covens for survival. They are bold and highly aggressive - both competition for food among other coven members and claiming territory for further development demand this.

 

 

 

Drakes: Drakes are the intermediary form between wurms and adult dragons. While wurms have the intelligence of a cat (i.e., mostly basic instincts) and dragons are often much more intelligent than humans, drakes are in-between, possessing cunning rivaling primates. They are clearly not dumb beasts and their eyes/faces should reflect their higher intelligence. In contrast to wurms, drakes have longer torsos with a broader chest. Their most prominent fangs are longer, as are the claws on their forelegs. Their other features tend to vary by subtype. During this period of a drake's life, they are starting the first stages of becoming "real" dragons. This means their colors start shifting, both overall and more strongly in patches. Some drakes have solid coats of scales, but others have multi-toned or even mottled coats. Because they are relatively young, their scales grow and heal fast, so they don't show much wear and tear (unlike dragons).

 

The variation in their heads, mouths, spines, bumps, wings, all reflect the drake's home climate. A drake from the swamp may be shades of green, brown, and black with yellow eyes, nictitating membranes, and a long, flat snout featuring raised nostrils. A drake that spends most of its time in the sky may be blue and white with scales that seem feather-like, a slender body, and wings that assist with sustained gliding. A drake who lives underground may have earth-tone scales, wide eyes, a compact body, small wings, and powerful forelegs with oversized claws. While all drakes can breathe fire, many also have developed limited alternative breath attacks - lightning, acid, steam, etc. This can also be reflected somewhere on their bodies.

 

Drakes have developed from wurms but have not reached (and may never reach) the dragon stage. They aggressively defend their territory and, when needed, seek out more. Their coloration reflects the territory they have claimed, and they are most hostile with other drakes, their territorial rivals.

 

 

Dragons: Dragons have reached the mature stage of their lifecycle. Like drakes, they have adapted to fit in their environment, but even more extensively. Their coloration, ornamentation, and (to a limited degree) body structure will reflect their chosen territory, as will some of their attacks and defenses. Because they have already claimed territory and rarely face a threat from other dragons or drakes, they are more conservative in nature and will not seek unnecessary conflict.

 

Only dragons can mate. This is generally the only occasion that will cause a dragon to leave its lands or seek out others of its kind. Upon reaching the dragon stage, these creatures will assume a sex. However, if surrounding populations are too heavily skewed one way or the other, individual dragons can change their sex. As creatures that reach this stage are so rare, this ability is critical to the survival of the species.

 

They are more intelligent than most other sentient beings, but their solitary nature prevents them from meaningfully interacting with others. 

 

 

That's it for the screens for now. 21 days away from launch!

[Elerond]

Dragons look fantastic

[bigsun123]

Are these dragons capable of speech or magic? I agree they do look awesome.

[rjshae]

Yes, do mature Dragons have soul-based powers and are they subject to reincarnation? I'm also wondering what they do with their heightened intelligence. Perhaps they meddle in the affairs of others?

 

It looks great. Thanks for the lore as well.

[Naith1]

What we can see on this pictures is that wurms and drakes definitely can fly, but dragons can't... If it's true, it really (really) makes me sad.   Hope I'm wrong - look at that beautiful wings!

[Lychnidos]

Well that dragons wing membranes look damaged, and he has a rather large legs, especially the hind ones. Though, with them supposedly being so adaptable, maybe his legs grew larger after his wings were damaged. /wacko mod off   

Edited March 5, 2015 by Lychnidos

[Valmy]

What we can see on this pictures is that wurms and drakes definitely can fly, but dragons can't... If it's true, it really (really) makes me sad.   Hope I'm wrong - look at that beautiful wings!

 

Nah I think it depends on the Dragon's territory.  Maybe a few that live underground cannot fly but I bet most of them can.

[Lephys]

That image file name is "PoE-Sky-Dragon.jpg," though... so it makes you wonder. If that's a sky dragon, it probably should possess the ability to fly, if ANY dragons do.

[GreyFox]

Now give one of them a Draconis like script and yea!

[Quadrone]

The second pic with the drake makes me wonder about something else altogether.

There's a huge pile of gold there. Will we be able to loot that after we deal with the dragon?

I'd guess not, since even if that was copper pieces that still would be at least 20.000 cp. So,... how would that go over?

Guy A: "The drake's dead, lets grab all his treasure and be filthy rich! Guy B: "Nah, lets just leave it. It smells of dragon and I can't fit all that into my pockets anyway."

Guy A: "Uh, how about we just take as much as we can? That'd be still enough to..." Guy B: "Don't be silly! Now come on, we have to turn in this quest and get our reward."

Edited March 6, 2015 by Quadrone

[Lephys]

Guy A: "The drake's dead, lets grab all his treasure and be filthy rich! Guy B: "Nah, lets just leave it. It smells of dragon and I can't fit all that into my pockets anyway."

Hairy Adventurer: ":Luckily, I've got this infinite stache!"

 

6_u

[Nonek]

I love the smell of dragonfire in the morning!

[MasterPrudent]

The second pic with the drake makes me wonder about something else altogether.

There's a huge pile of gold there. Will we be able to loot that after we deal with the dragon?

I'd guess not, since even if that was copper pieces that still would be at least 20.000 cp. So,... how would that go over?

Guy A: "The drake's dead, lets grab all his treasure and be filthy rich! Guy B: "Nah, lets just leave it. It smells of dragon and I can't fit all that into my pockets anyway."

Guy A: "Uh, how about we just take as much as we can? That'd be still enough to..." Guy B: "Don't be silly! Now come on, we have to turn in this quest and get our reward."

I must be going blind because I cannot, for the life of me, see any gold whatsoever in the drake pic.

[Elzarath]

Nailed it.

[Lephys]

I must be going blind because I cannot, for the life of me, see any gold whatsoever in the drake pic.

Hmmm... I didn't actually check when I read that. Just assumed there was a pile of gold in that picture.

 

Now that I actually look at it, I don't see one. BUT, that sort of mound of rocks and rockish debris in the southern portion of the... cul-de-sac? Kinda looks like gold in dingy light. The smallish rock debris sort of looks like little coins spilling down a mound. *shrug*. Maybe that's what he saw?

[happyelf]

The bottom left is clearly a pile of coins imo.

[MasterPrudent]

The bottom left is clearly a pile of coins imo.

Oh right, I see it now. (It's obvious in the enlarged image.) I'd guess that we can loot it but its value isn't going to be as high as might be expected from the size of it.

Edited March 6, 2015 by MasterPrudent

[Lephys]

Ohhhhhh. By Zeus, I think you're right. The dingy light just kinda makes it look like rubble, 8P

[ManifestedISO]

Very nice, it's great to see a preview of that which will wipe the floor with my hapless party. 

 

Interestingly, my last name is literally drake, so, I guess I'm all up in this game like an intermediary creature boss. 

[LordCrash]

And again, great pics. The release can't come soon enough! 

[Suhiir]

Bad Obsidian ... bad, bad, bad.

Feeding hapless adventurers (who happen to be paying customers) to your pet dragons!

[Osvir]

 

The bottom left is clearly a pile of coins imo.

Oh right, I see it now. (It's obvious in the enlarged image.) I'd guess that we can loot it but its value isn't going to be as high as might be expected from the size of it.

What if dragons gold isn't actually gold but a pile of dragons/drake poo?

 

Guy A: "Look at the gold!! Ungh but what's that smell?"

Guy B: "That's not gold bro"

Guy A: "What are you talking about... look!" *takes some gold, it starts to melt in his hand and smells even more* "Huek.... huk..." *runs off to vomit*

Guy B: "Told ya, we ain't getting rich from that drake dung"

 

Of course, it's probably a pile of loot that the MC can use to get somewhat rich. If we have a stronghold, will we be able to "mine" it and bring it back to base by using minions/slaves or other means?

Edited March 6, 2015 by Osvir

[Shiroco]

Would be nice if Mikey told us if he would answer any questions otherwise it is pointless to formulate any >.< Anyway... What about the lifespan of that species? Can dragons talk, shapeshift, fly?

 

If the wings of the dragon are really damaged.... maybe that is the second phase of the fight? (probably not but hey!)

Edited March 6, 2015 by Shiroco

[Messier-31]

I am fire, I am DEATH.

 

Good guys at Obsidian. Now that's what I call a dragon - with both front and back legs, and not the front ones being one with the wings as if it were some kind of a huge wyvern.

 

Carry on.

[Osvir]

I totally forgot in my post. I will remain skeptical. The wurm, drake and dragon evolution is interesting and all but yeah, too many games handle dragons poorly (according to my tastes/preferences, most games makes dragons into drooling monsters that you fight and battle with). Firkraag is pretty cool... and so is Shadowrun dragons, and also Odin Sphere (and, of course), Tolkien's Smaug.

I am curious if dragons in Pillars of Eternity are capable of possession or transformation (Taking the form of a human, or other races, like the ones from Shadowrun or Firkraag in Baldur's Gate II), but I don't want that to be answered here (I want to find out in-game).

Regardless, I will remain skeptical of their narrative value until I've experienced it first hand in-game.