Migratory Dragons

>>53407411
Dragons don't need to migrate.

In a setting I'm more or less working on, dragons are mainly migratory.
In winter, they leave the main continent to go to the south. Some of them also stay and simply hibernate until spring, though.

>>53407411
Are we talking about intelligent dragons?
Because if they are intelligent, they probably just want/need/like to have a little corner of the world to call home. That's their territory. It has everything they need.

They might travel to sightsee or move somewhere else permanently, though.

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>>53407582

Neither do Ducks.

Some creatures are just assholes and do it anyway.

>>53407411
That would imply leaving behind their hoard.

>>53407803
That's why they leave traps and monsters to guard it while they are away.

>>53407411
Dragons migrate for mysteeeeerious reasons.
If you steal from their hoard while they're gone they tend to burn/fry/freeze/dissolve everything for leagues around.

Therefore, if you're hoping to steal from an abandoned hoard, make sure you do it the next count(r)y over, rather than at home. And don't tell anyone about your local dragon's lair, it might be some bastard from over there trying to steal from somewhere where HIS family won't get eaten for it.

>>53407906

Wouldn't this lead to human settlements near dragons waging theft from their neighbouring settlements' dragon hoards in place of war?

>>53407411
So you're suggesting they live in like the Tang emperors of China, moving around all the time because no one place could support the immense demands of the royal entourage for long.

>>53408110
Maybe as cause for war.

>>53407411
>why aren't there migratory dragons?
Because migration doesn't really gel well with their central concept. Dragon's are supposed to be creature of inhuman jealousy; and in order to have a creature that viciously lashes out at anyone who threatens what is theirs, they kind of need something to call their own in the first place. It's not really feasible to have a huge hoard or a lair if you're moving around all the time.

Also, migratory animals tend to be much more likely to flee when confronted compared to territorial animals, which tend to be more likely to fight. A dragonslaying quest wouldn't be very fun if the thing just fucks off and leaves whenever you get near it.

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What do dragons eat? There aren't many gigantic herbivores around.

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>>53409965
>Dragon's are supposed to be creature of inhuman jealousy; and in order to have a creature that viciously lashes out at anyone who threatens what is theirs, they kind of need something to call their own in the first place.

I might regret saying this, but they sound like /v/.

>>53407803
What if hoarding wasn't intrinsic to dragons? If you remove a dragon's attachment to material wealth, migration becomes more plausible. Dragons are no longer pinnacles of greed and jealousy but become inhuman raiders and natural disasters embodied, going where they please in an unpredictable and fearful pattern.

Alternately, if a dragon's hoard is in a central location of an exceptionally large territory, a dragon could be mistaken as being migratory when it in fact has multiple dens over a static territory far wider than a landbound (or much smaller) creature could claim. There's also the possibility of underlings, from kobold tribes to entire cities run by a pupper government that could be used to safeguard multiple hoards. Imagine a dragon with both a summer home and a summer hoard.

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>>53410696
The thing about the human condition that is at once both comforting and terrifying is that it has remained utterly and completely unchanged throughout the ages. The existential adversities that people face nowadays are the very same ones that people faced when these legends were first told.