Futuristic world with Dragons?

[DragonRhapsody]

So, I have this idea, because I really want to write about my Dragon character, Rhapsody {yes, his name is based off my name, or vise-versa}; but the problem is that most stories with Dragons are based in medieval times.

I'm wondering if anyone has any comments on some story plots and ideas I had for the "origins" of the Dragons in a futuristic setting....

- Dragons are genetically modified creatures. {The two reasons I thought they might be 'created' were: by accident and then used for gaming, or the rich as large pets, or even as really cheap slaves for companies or wars; or they were created for specifically being slaves, fight wars, doing dirty work, etc.}
- If they are slaves, they wouldn't be able to have a community and would be sterile as breeding would encourage growth that was not monitored. {Other questions: why would they use Dragons and not people, etc?}
- If they were accidently created, and left to their own devices, why would anyone let them do that? Would there be a pact between humans and Dragons? Why kind of pact?
- Maybe the Dragons are evolved from another species? Maybe their evolution was monitored but they are considered endangered species, but because they are intellegent they do not attack humans, etc.
- I want there to be an aspect of the Dragons being hunted, because that will be a sub-plot in the whole thing. The other plot{s} will be Rhapsody's survival, and he's supposed to be a Prince of the Dragons, but I dunno if I should {the whole "Gary-Stu" thing, where your main character has royalty and "omg" they are sooo important...}

Anyway, anyone have anyhting else to add? I have two other characters involved in this story, a half-human, half-cyborg that was genetically modified by the government, for "reasons unknown" and she is being hunted as well.

My boyfriend, the almighty writer that he is, has suggested that I come up with a good theme for the story and work with it. I am having troubles with that, too. Normally I'm good at working with theme's {a lot of short stories of mine were worked with themes} and the only problem I have with this is that my main character is a Dragon.

How do you get people/readers to relate to a Dragon? o___o

[Strolen]

Caught my attention. Brainstorming on...

I am thinking Jurassic parkish type thing with some genetic engineering thrown in the mix. They couldn't get the true dinosaurs to live so they continued to modify the DNA to try and get a surviveable species out of the mix. They perhaps got a little too creative?

Loch Ness monster angle. There have always been hidden monstrosities hiding, unknown, in the depths of the seas. Current climate or geographic change has brought them to the surface. Maybe coinciding with the Jurassic Park thing and this monster from the depths mates with a genetically enhanced dinosaur and creates a hybrid dragon creature from the mix.

Asteroid with mystical powers dropping from the sky. Created an entire host of mutated creatures of all types, to include human, in an isolated area that has been deemed 'off limits.' After all, there could be valuable information there for the current gov't to exploit somehow. So they escape or whatever. You could work the mutation/evolution anyway you want then, creature+human = intelligent dragon or whatever. Or it could mutate by itself with alien type intelligence which would be foreign and misunderstood in the current location. Then you could have a sort of mutant/alien intelligence in all different shapes and sizes for more of a theme instead of dragons being one of the only unique creatures.

They were creatures captured from an alien planet and bred on your planet for some purpose. Didn't quite work out or maybe a war broke out sending the once domesticated animals into the wild. Then you can have the domesticated and wild dragons with many opportunities for conflict and/or cooperation between the two types.

[Feraltetsuo]

I've always been hesitant at mixing science fiction and fantasy. This is mostly because I've only seen it done well twice. Typically it ends in a mix that is wholly unbelievable in my humble opinion. Whatever you choose to go with though I wish you good luck and would love to see the final product.

[Ria Hawk]

This seems a good point to state that sci-fantasy can work well... if you define magic as science you don't understand yet.  That being said, if you don't like Strolen's suggestions, you could always consider time and/or dimensional travel.  Also, just because they've never been seen before doesn't mean that they weren't around.

[Scrasamax]

The Dracid Genome Project

Due to itermitant bursts of high frequency radiation, high technology becomes unreliable. Computers that arent hardened and protected by feet on plast-crete are fried on a regular basis, causing major problems in transportation, communication and law military enforcement. THe answer lies in resorting to biological means.

Using resilient reptilian DNA hybridized with mammalian and insect genomes, the Dracid Genome is fashioned and synthesized in breeder facilities built deep underground, protected by radiation defeating boron plating and water tanks.Going Jurassic park, the new breed of mutagenic resistant reptiles is hatched and provide powerful flying mounts capable of deploying heavy weaponry that isnt 100% slaved to a computer.

plop

[manfred]

It was the aliens!

Actually, the dragons were set out by an alien species that secretly studies Earth.

Umm, but why?
 - highly advanced ecological research - they want to see the impact of a foreign species appearing in an ecosystem. They may introduce other, more innocent(-looking) creatures and plants.
 - they want to have humanity killed off in some entertaining way, or just start an amazing spectacle of 'survival of the fittest'
 - by creating a completely alien intelligent race, it is an exotic test of human morals. The question is, what happen if humans fail (or loose)?
 - they came to like human legends of dragons, and have simply created some

OK, there is some weirdness inside - take it or leave it!


An interesting topic.

[DragonRhapsody]

Wow, how did I know this was the best place to take my idea? XD

I still like the alien thought, but I'm going to work with the idea a bit more, see if it pans out in my head as it does on paper! XD

WOW! Thanks for all the interest and ideas! This is fantastic! I am totally ready to start brainstorming even more, my creative-juices are on the go! <3

Yay! ^__^

[MoonHunter]

Search the settings forums for Kerren for some ideas.

The big question for a future dragon setting is, "where did they come from" and if appropriate, "why did someone make them or let them in?".

Why would anyone genemash a dragon? Did they stop showing Jurrasic Park in the future? Or any of those awful Dragon Movies from the early 2000s?

The Dragons could be aliens from other places who traveled here either by a gate system, a starship, or their own unique ability to jump.

Are they animals we picked up who make good companion/ pets for a space faring people?

Maybe the dragons have an innate ability to work in space, so people would ride these organic space ships.

You could go ShadowRun... if you don't know shadow run, do a search for Shadow Run PRG. That means the magic comes back.

[DragonRhapsody]

Awesome, thank you MoonHunter! ^__^ You gave me some great questions to ponder on! <3

[CaptainPenguin]

This is easy.

Billionaire romantic creates the creatures of his dreams for an amusement park, a la Jurassic Park, except instead of retrovolution he uses genetic engineering on reptiles and dinosaur DNA. Park gets busted ass, dragon thingies escape into the wild, and, devoid of natural predators and equipped with every advantage, kick Nature's ass and become the vast black hole at the center of food web.

[Strolen]

Maybe they were mining for ore and broke into a cavern of some sort. Send a small boy in to investigate and find that you have awoken a nest of dragons that start to terrorize the world and turn it into ash. You realize from this that it was dragons, not some far fetched meteor story, that actually made the dinosaurs extinct.

[CaptainPenguin]

Oh boy, and then you can have a heroic American jump into the dragon's mouth with his manly axe.

[DragonRhapsody]

Ooooh! Manly axe! XD

LOL thanks for the ideas, I like them all. I watched Jurassic park, one and three yesterday and I totally am on the genetic bandwagon. I dunno if I'll use it, as I"m still trying to formulate how Dragons would work. I'm certain that no matter what, they would be considered a threat to mankind. So I have something to work with ^__^

[Feraltetsuo]

I'm anxious to see the progress on this. Looks like a lot of ideas floating around here.

[MoonHunter]

Might I suggest you read the books?  While the movies are good and fun to play with, the books are actually worth reading and expand on things directly.

[DragonRhapsody]

Oh, yes, I loved the first book, I read most of it, but I have to get my own copy and start re-reading. My ex-boyfriend stole my copy - the looser - but I loved the books, much more explination and depth than the movies! ^__^