D&D had a pretty simple split, colored dragons were evil and metallic ones were not, going back to at least AD&D monster manual 1. I kinda like the theme of different families of drakes having different goals and attitudes towards humanoids. Weis and Hickman expanded on this theme in their dragonlance series, but while they created a new world the lore was from existing sources; AD&D MM1 and Deities and Demogods.

IN addition, the Flights are the titan organized evolution of proto-drakes and the titans seem like the kind of ADD guys that would color code them for easy identification in times of reformatting.

There are coloured dragons in the Witcher universe as well, so it's quite a common thing.

I think you have ADD confused with OCD. ADD eans they get distracted easily. :D

@Deathknighty: No, "AD&D" means "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons".

As of 4.0, even D&D's gotten away from "you're this color dragon so you must be good or evil." Letting sentient beings think and decide for themselves, imagine! Culture may have some strong influence (Drow, for instance), but I like the loosening of the "X race are bad, Z are good" definitions. The different gods they have are set up pretty much the same as they were, if they survived the streamlining conversion.

you are right. They copied the dragonflight colors from original dungeons and dragons. Because world of warcraft if anything is not original in a lot of its concepts. But best watch my tongue lest the fanboys downrate me and start raging and bashing in on me for saying something even remotely negative about wow.

every fantasy game borrows heavily from dungeons and dragons, it's not a question of originality, because under that logic pretty much no fantasy game is original.

Meh, don't really agree with the summary of dragons in today's queue.

-Color coding dragons might be a rather tired trope, they serve a very distinct purpose in WoW. The dragonflights are actually guardians of the planet, and each flight is responsible for different aspects of that planet - so far so that their leaders are actually called Aspects.

-All following dragonflights have also served very distinct purposes. Nether and Twilight dragonflights are part of an evolving storyline rooted in the Black Dragonflight. Protodragons are the precursors to today's dragonflights. Stone and Storm dragons are....well, they're just there. So far. The stone dragons aren't even really obedient to the matriarch/mother of Deepholm - the Stonemother - shy of being beat into obedience. They seems to have absolutely no relation to any other existing dragons, which cannot be said of...any other dragons.

I honestly don't have a problem with Blizzard expanding the dragons and their related storylines, but all previous dragons *actually had storylines*. Also, their role in terms of flying mounts is to the point where finding a non-dragon mount is, well, frustrating.

@ashtin

Basically everything fantasy wise can roll itself on back to Tolkien themes. That's kind of why it's the fantasy genre. There's a difference between copying and taking influence from.

You won't get downvoted by fanboys because saying wow isn't original, you'll be downvoted by people that understand the difference because you're an idiot.

So if the dragonflights are the Power Rangers, does that make Aman'thul the Zordon of WoW?

And if so, then that means that Sargeras is the Lord Zedd of WoW, which I approve of.

Given the topic of conversation, and the mention of chromatic and metallic dragons as used by AD&D and Weiss & Hickman, I felt obligated to comment, just so my name is in the thread.

For those that don't know, Khirsah was the Bronze Dragon that Flint Fireforge and Tas Burrfoot rode into battle, though they knew him only by his common name "Fireflash".

I would also like to give a +1 for those that mentioned Tolkien as the father of the genre. The themes, races, and vision he created inspired so much. Everything from AD&D to Dragonlance to WoW to Harry Potter owes its very existence to Tolkien.

@Jeff

Ah. My apologies for the unnecessary nitpicking.

... and Tolkien borrows from the Norse Sagas and early authors like E Nesbit and general European mythology and... they borrowed from... (this can trick can go for awhile.)

Practically nothing in this world is actually original at this point. Deal with it.

Sometimes things become cliche because we like them, or they work well.

@Jaba... While it is true that very few things are totally original, you can pinpoint certain times, people, and works that mark turning points or shifts in whatever you are talking about.

For example, in philosophy, Socrates marks a clear turning point. In music, most people credit Elvis with being a catalyst of change. And in thr fantasy genre, it is most often attributed to Tolkien for having the most significant influence on modern work.

Obviously, the examples above are just that: examples. There are plenty of those examples in any subject. Einstein, da Vinci, Shakespeare. Basically, the people whose work marks that time between "before" and "after". And I certainly think that Tolkien is one of those people. And, in my opinion, he is the last one we've seen in the fantasy genre.

"D&D had a pretty simple split, colored dragons were evil and metallic ones were not, going back to at least AD&D monster manual 1."

"the titans seem like the kind of ADD guys that would color code them for easy identification in times of reformatting"

"I think you have ADD confused with OCD. ADD eans they get distracted easily. "

"@Deathknighty: No, "AD&D" means "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons"."

@Jeff: Pretty sure Deathknighty was referring to the comment about the Titans, not the one about the monster manual, in which case he is absolutely right and ADD is Attention Deficit Disorder and should have been OCD, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Carry on.

Actually, only four of Shakespeare's plays are believed to be original works. All the others were rewrites or adaptations of existing stories and histories.

The dragonflight lore was created by Richard Knaak (who is also a writer for the Dragonlance series) and Metzen when Knaak wrote Day of the Dragon... one of his few contributions that aren't generally disliked by the majority of Warcraft fans...

Before that (as in warcraft 2) there were just dragons... Alextrasza was queen of the dragons and Deathwing was a powerful rogue dragon that helped the Horde take control of her but all the dragons were shown with green skin and hair/wings that matched their current player's color... Deathwing's unit portrait actually had the top half of his head totally covered in metal and the bottom half had pale skin... Back then dragons were all one race with their own individual pursuits... there was no Ysera, Malygos, or Nozdormu and no concept of the aspects or what their purposes were... so yeah... blame Knaak for the power-ranger-ness...

Let's not forget that all "fantasy" topics are completely ripped off from Norse mythology. Which rocks, don't get me wrong.