There are countless legends in which human beings are transformed into
monsters, evidence that originally they were young dragons who had not
completely mastered their magic powers and unable to maintain their
illusory form. Enormous powers of concentration are required
to maintain a disguise for a long time and young dragons often lack the
necessary application. Adult males, however, are able to preserve their
chosen disguise for many days at a time, although they do need to rest
at night, while the great dragon wizards are able to maintain an illusory
form for months on end with only brief rest periods. These
dragon wizards hate the clumsy human wizards who, with no respect for the
laws of nature, alter and often corrupt the life forces of the planet.
The animosity is mutual. Human apprentices of magic envy the dragon his
superiority in the occult sciences. Indeed, the superior wisdom
and tremendous power of the dragon aroused the hatred of medieval necromancers
and priests, who taught people that dragons were the incarnation of evil
and the devil. Tn medieval bestiaries, the figure of the dragon represented
depravity and the diabolical, thus the dragon was often represented as
a gargoyle.
Young female dragons, who are expert magicians, sometimes change
themselves into women of great beauty. As they are able to sustain this
illusory personality for longer than the males, they have been known
to enter human society without revealing their true identity, and to preserve
their human form for a considerable length of time.
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