Dragons (Saint of Dragons)

In the fantasy novel The Saint of Dragons by Jason Hightman, Dragons, also known as Pyrothraxes, Serpents or Serpentines are portrayed as a malevolent, sadistic race dedicated to causing pain and suffering for human beings and accumulating power for themselves. They are heavily influenced by the stereotypical evil dragons of mythology and faerietayles.

Role in story
In the Saint of Dragons series (which comprises two books so far), the premise is that Dragons have evolved and live among humans. They look much the same as ever but are now bipedal and stand at seven foot tall. They use their magical powers to disguise their appearence in public. Using their magic and superior intellect they have clawed their way up to high-ranking positions in society but are not content to be rich for they also want everyone around them to be poor. Dragons thrive on human misery for their power and are thus dependant on the humans whom they consider inferior to themselves. As a result the Dragons despise humans. Dragons can only be killed by Deathspells, incancations which must be spoken to destroy them. In order to destroy a Dragon one must hold their hand over the Serpent's heart and recite their Deathspell. Every Pyrothrax has a different Deathspell.

Characteristics
Aside from their great intelligence and immense physical strength, Dragons possess immense magical powers. Their magic has a tendency to leak out of them however and attract insects to swarm around them. The malign energy emenating from them can cause severe misery for those around them and supernatural phenomena. Most Dragons are pure evil but the Black Dragon of China is an exception to this although he does have some sadistic tendencies. The second book of the series Samurai shows a more sympathetic portrayal of Dragons with the somewhat pathetic Ice Dragon trying to make a name for himself in the world and the evil but incredibly lonely Tiger Dragon, Issindra.

Most Dragons in the series are very proud and egotistical, the exceptions to this being Russki the Tiger Dragon of Russia, the Black Dragon and the Ice Dragon.

Most of them are also somewhat obsessive compulsive what with Venemon the White Dragon's obsession with the colour white, Brakkesh the Venetian Dragon's obsession with jewellery, Russki's obsession with cats, Najjiko the Japaneze Dragons obsession with keeping things clean and tidy and the Ice Dragon's need to write everything down.

Despite their power however Dragons are quite cowardly, most of them more likely to run away from battle than fight...