Shen-Lung
Dragon Breed Data
| Breed Name: | Shen-Lung (Possibly Spirit/Spiritual - see below) |
| National Loyalty: | China |
| Physical Characteristics: | Various shades of blue-grey, sometimes with a spiked spine; variable sizes |
| Special Abilities: | |
| Known Members: | Lung Shen Li*, Lung Shen Gai*, Lung Shen Lao, Lung Shen Mei, Lung Shen Shi, Lung Shen Chi |
Species Notes
The Shen-lung was an extremely common breed of dragon. Many superior Chinese dragons originated from this breed, in a design similar to the British Yellow Reaper. Their appearance and size varied greatly, but their blue-grey coloring seemed to be their main common point.
Like humans, some Shen-lung were clever and some were lazy. They worked at a wide variety of occupations: providing mass transit for humans, carrying freight, nursemaiding dragonets, and entering the civil service. Shen-lung in the civil service wore colored silk collars indicating their ranks. The wisest among the Shen-lung were sometimes granted the privilege of mating with an Imperial.
In traditional Chinese folklore, shen-lung is the Wade-Giles romanization of 神龍, for which the pinyin equivalent is shénlóng. The word 神 (shén) describes a general concept of "supernatural spirit" or "conscious awareness".
* "Long-winged" Shen-Lung Breed
In Tongues of Serpents, two extremely long-winged dragons appear, named as Lung Shen Li and Lung Shen Gai. Their breed is by no way new, and is stated to be a cross that dates from the Ming Dynasty, but the breeding of them was discontinued.
The Chinese names indicate that their breed is called Shen, but since they are also described as "a completely new breed", it could be that unless a new dragon is a visibly different breed from the last one, it keeps the name of one of its forebears or the one that the dragon look the most alike, instead of coming up with an entirely new breed name (if that happened, there'd be thousands of different middle names).
