It’s Tor Books’ annual DRAGON WEEK - and as I love a) dragons and b) bandwagons, I simply had to quickly pull together an unplanned Craft Sequence dragon article about every single dragon reference in the series. So let’s jump on band-dragon and take a look at dragons, cross-continental commercial air travel, and weapons of mass destruction in the Craft Sequence.

That list contains a single item. Dragons are vast and contain multitudes.

Let’s go.

Minor spoilers for all books but I kept all the plot-related commentary to a minimum. Article 2 will have some big spoilers for the climax of Last First Snow, but this one should be ok for you.

Also, disclaimer - my ereader has messed up page counts in some of the books so at times I can only cite chapters. Thank goodness this isn’t an academic paper.

Dragons and their place in the Craft Sequence world are explored in more depth in Last First Snow and Four Roads Cross (part 2 will cover this properly), but they’re referenced in every single book. Admittedly, in Three Parts Dead it’s a single line to explain the amount of power channelled through Kos but it’s still a reference!

Though I confess that I do wonder, given what we later learn about dragons’ strength and power, if this is either an exaggeration or a soft retcon - sure, it’s a hell of a lot of power but Craft Sequence dragons are colossal, ancient, unspeakably powerful creatures so I’m a bit conflicted about this.

We get a tiny bit more in Two Serpents Rise, though it’s largely figurative. Whilst Caleb is undergoing an extreme experience channelling a ton of power towards the end of the book (vague description to keep this largely spoiler free), we see the following descriptions:

Shortly afterwards (three pages to be precise) we get our first reference to actual dragons in the series - yay! Though it’s still a background reference rather than anything plotty.

The actual worldbuilding of dragonkind is initially* introduced in Full Fathom Five (*initially, so long as you read publication order, the order we’re following in this article) but the references are still one-offs rather than part of longer scenes or key plot points. 

We get two references to dragons as a mode of transportation, first as a reference to the present day and later in a description of the God Wars:

This reframes the reference in Two Serpents Rise to dragons flying over Dresediel Lex en route to the Shining Empire - instead of simply being a draconic migration pattern, we see that this regular journey could instead be part of transit planning.

Dragons are also referenced as a feature of novels, though it’s unclear how accurate the depiction of dragons in these books may be. 

Don’t know about you, but I read this as an in-universe joke at real world fantasy novel sub-categories - perhaps Velasquez is more Tolkein-esque, with the equivalent of Smaug and Gandalf’s fireworks, while Cawleigh is analogous to Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. Murder at parties is a very specific reference, and Gladstone loves to weave cameos, homages and references into his work.

The final mention of dragons in Full Fathom Five is an off-hand reference during a discussion of creation myths and the origins of life in the world of the Craft Sequence:

Now this is interesting, because it’s the first time we hear of dragons being sentient in the Craft Sequence. We learn later, particularly during Four Roads Cross, the level of this sentience but for now it’s enough to know that they are sentient enough to communicate and make claims about their own origins.

Last First Snow tells us a lot more about dragons but that’s for part 2. Before we get to THAT SCENE (iykyk), we get some more casual references to dragons.

Early on, Elayne describes Dresediel Lex’s layout, saying:

We also get a few references to smoke dragons in Zack the golem’s two scenes:

Does this mean anything given the aforementioned Super Important Dragon Scene? Not going to lie, I’m writing this article off the cuff to a tight deadline so I haven’t had time to go into all the literary and figurative potential meanings so for now we’ll just say it’s a very evocative description.

Tangentially, I’d very much like to see Zack the golem return in the Craft Wars trilogy if anyone reading this has sway to make that happens, thanks.

We get more another dragons-as-similes-slash-metaphors(-is-there-a-blanket-term-for-this) to build tension in the build up to peace talks in Chakal Square:

And something that is either a true description of how one becomes a Deathless King, or an exaggeration that amuses Kopil:

I vote for the latter almost solely because there are a lot of Deathless Kings around and unless dragons have a lottery to draw the shortest straw or something I don’t see how this would feasibly work.

Our final pre Super Important Deagon Scene reference is, in hindsight, some extreme foreshadowing:

Oh Major, you sweet summer child </3

Moving swiftly on to Four Roads Cross, we get some more background dragon references:

This reinforces that dragons are a totally normal part of the world - at least, to Craftsfolk - and have infiltrated idiom.

We also learn that, as in many other fantasy series, a dragon’s body parts have potent magical properties - though quite what they’re used for remains for the imagination.

Ethical alternatives to dragonscale! Vegans of the Craft Sequence unite!

Unfortunately for dragons and vegans alike, in Ruin of Angels we come across another use for a dragon’s body parts:

Ley uses the dragonheart solution in the God Wastes to clear their passage. We also hear of dragonbone being used for decoration, though the reference is a childhood imagining rather than something we factually come across, so who knows the truth of its usage.

Back in the God Wastes (no spoilers, you’ll have to read the book if you’re not sure what’s going on here) we also come across a dragon-shaped being in the sand.

Gods, I love Gladstone’s descriptions. 

Speaking of descriptions, we have more of them! The sheer scale of the Rectification Authority tower-slash-living-squid-(???), and then a Gavreaux Junction train car, are compared to dragons - which, by this point in the series, we have seen in more detail than yet referenced in this article. 

This post is titled EVERY reference to dragons, after all. Keep going, y’all, there’s a lot more to come. 

And then there’s some more smoke / steam as dragon breath imagery, bringing us back to Last First Snow (I can’t see a literary connection here but comment if you do!)

Ruin of Angels throws in a few more dragon references in the worldbuilding for good measure:

I particularly enjoy that last quote. Who are dragon jockeys? Are they the equivalent of airline captains, or are there dragon races somewhere in the world?

Interestingly, there’s a reference to old stained glass in faux-European churches, which includes a mention of giant spiders that I think I missed from the space spider article:

And finally, in Ruin of Angels we get some of my favourite references to dragons - not necessarily because of the dragon of it all, but the lampooning of the Knights of Camlaan / chivalric tradition / the crusaders and imperialism / the UK:

If you want more about the Knights of Camlaan and Gal, check out this article!

We’re nearly done with part one, I promise. But before that, let’s jump into the newest Craft Sequence novel, Dead Country. First we get another metaphor, in the form of Tara arguing with Grafton Cavanaugh:

Later we get more of Gladstone’s incredible descriptions as the Raiders move towards Edgemont with an alarming sandstorm:

Every time we get descriptions of something connected to the God Wars I become more and more desperate for a God Wars set story. Literal shivers down my spine - truly some of Gladstone’s best writing, and that’s a high bar.

Though on second thoughts, the tension of a God Wars setting would probably make me far too anxious and depressed, so maybe it’s best we just stick to the brief and ominous references we get in the main series.

Finally, we get a charming reminder of Tara as a child, and the big dreams that led to her embarking on her journey of the Craft: 

Keep an eye out for our next Tara Abernathy article, focused on her childhood and upbringing, coming (hopefully) soon!

And now, over 2000 words into this gods-damned article (why did I do this to myself), we’re going to bring this one to a close. Tune in next time for the two biggest dragon moments of the series: dragons as jumbo jets, and dragons as God Wars weapons.

Which dragon reference do you like the most? Are you partial to the Camlaander slander (Camslaander?) like me, or are you more into Caleb’s dreaming? Let me know in the comments, on Twitter, or on Tumblr!