Dragons

Dragons (ドラゴン, Doragon) are a race of one of the most powerful creatures which appear in titles all throughout the Tales of series. They are key creatures to the story of Tales of Berseria and Tales of Zestiria.

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 * —About Dragons.

Description
In Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Berseria, when a seraph or a malak is exposed to malevolence due to lacking a pure vessel, they will turn into a Drake (ドラゴンパピー, Doragonpapī; literally meaning "dragon puppy"), which, if exposed constantly to malevolence, may evolve into a fully-fledged dragon. Drakes are invisible to humans lacking enough resonance, manifesting for them as a raging tornado for example, but a dragon is visible to anyone regardless of their spiritual aptitude. Drakes and dragons alike appear as four-legged, winged lizards able to use magic artes. A dragon's sighting is considered to be an ill omen.

The Silver Flame is unable to purify dragons, requiring them to be killed to stop their rampage. In the anime version of Tales of Zestiria, where malevolence is instead absorbed by the Shepherd for purification, no Shepherd is able to purify a dragon. This rule holds true until Sorey, who proves that there simply was no Shepherd capable of purifying a dragon, and he proceeds to do so with the help of his Squires, Rose and Alisha Diphda, though the effort almost kills them.

According to the malak Zui Fuu, who resides in The Heavenly Steppes, the existence of dragons is the result of a curse that was imposed upon humans and malakhim, seraphim who left the heavenly realm to live side by side with humans, by the seraphim who remained in the heavenly realm to ensure that coexistence would never happen.

Drakes are the first state of being exposed to mass levels of malevolence before turning into a complete dragon. Although, some of those effected may turn into a dragon, directly skipping the drake phase of their transition from a seraph or malak to a dragon. Drakes are considered middle class hellions, where as dragons are considered as high class. When a being is exposed constantly to malevolence, may evolve into a fully-fledged dragon. If a vessel is exerted by surrounding malevolence or the pressure of the malevolence that may create a dense atmosphere and further impacts the vessel, then this will also affect any seraph or malak which may dwell in this vessel in. The difference in abilities between a drake and a dragon is in ranks, a dragon is stronger, an evolved form of the drake, and is visible to anyone, including those with no competence for spiritual resonance to perceive any hellion beings. The effect of drakes and dragons can be seen by the human eye, even if the creature itself is not visible due to the lack of resonance. This is seen multiple times throughout all media forms of Tales of Zestiria, where a natural disaster, such as an earthquake, tornado or tsunami is exhibited in the apparent absence of the creature causing them.

Anyone with a sufficient amount of spiritual resonance can view any type of hellions—dragons, seraphim and malakhim alike, as well as the normin creatures. These include regular people, seraphim, malakhim, shepherds, squires and those of the olden age of Desolation.

In Tales of Zestiria, dragons can represent disasters and are often feared by people which is also a reason why people may bring offerings to a dragon's lair as a sign of trepidation, acceptance, and to relieve further protection from them. This is evident at the Rayfalke Spiritcrest where a great dragon resides and some of those bringing offerings were devoured.

Anatomy and Design
Dragons are creatures with reptilian appearance, thus manifesting claws, scale skin, often wings, sharp teeth and long or thick tails. Many creatures fall into the dragon category even if not directly resembling one. This accounts for many regular lizard creatures without wings, general winged-lizards and also some humanoid beings with draconic abilities or limbs. Dragons are four-legged, varying between standing or crawling positions, size, whether they can use spiritual or magic artes, and affinity. Dragons like any other members of any race, can have a good, bad or neutral alignment, as seen with all races—an example being Symonne, a seraphim, creatures of which are almost always aligned with goodness and grace for protecting people, especially the Lord of the Lands.

Tales of Berseria
In Tales of Berseria, Innominat is depicted in a children's book as an eight-headed serpent, a creature similar to a dragon. The shrine in which he lies dormant also appears to host it, both facts hinting that Innominat's true form is an eight-headed serpent. During her escape from Titania, Velvet Crowe fights with a drake that Oscar Dragonia created with the help of one of his malakhim and devours the creature, using its power to blind Oscar in his left eye.

Zaveid's lover, Theodora, turned into a dragon after they took orphans under their care and were affected by the malevolence they generated due to their horrible experiences. As a result, Zaveid began exterminating many hellions as a result of his loss and also created his much more rather aggressive side during Tales of Zestiria.

Silva is turned into the Hellkite dragon under Innominant's malevolence, and when defeated, his bones proceed to infect Hexen Isle and twist the earthpulse in the area. Hexen Isle is also the location of the Abbey's ultimate plans, where dragons are caged there to endlessly generate malevolence, thus providing Innominant with the food to remain active and continuously suppress humanity's free will.

When Velvet seals Innominat, Laphicet assumes the form of a great white dragon, known as "Dragon of Light", and assumes the name "Maotelus", which was given to him by Eleanor Hume when she first made a pact with him.

Tales of Zestiria
In Tales of Zestiria, since some concepts of the game are influence by the Arthurian legends, it is prevalent that the game includes dragons as a theme. In places like Ladylike, and local areas, legend has it that a dragon lives on Rayfalke Spiritcrest. In reality, 800 years ago, Eizen, Edna's elder brother, fought with disastrous figure called the Lord of Calamity and saves the world from destruction by devouring him and turning into a dragon. He later comes to Rayfalke Spiritcrest, a mountainous area on the outskirts of two regions, located closer to the Capital Ladylake of the Hyland Kingdom, as a dragon, where he lived and kills anyone who comes to the mountain from that moment onward ever since.

During the events of Tales of Zestiria, the party had battled twice at a deserted no-man's land called Glaivend Basin twice. The first major battle with a lizard hellion creature. The second battle at Glaivend Basin, a mass surge of malevolence created by those part-taking in the regional wars had caused the local seraph of the terra firma to turn into a large and fierce dragon mentioned in the lore of Tales of Berseria, Tiamat. A leading shepherd called Sorey, his squire Rose, and the seraphim of which were accompanying them to fight it.

During the major battle, the countries of Hyland and Rolance join forces with the Woodsmen, a militia of men, Lukas, Princess Alisha Diphda—the Knights of Hyland and Sergei Strelka—the Imperial Army of Rolance to aid the Shepherd and his group in the battle with the dragon. Later on in the story, the party fight against multiple dragon creatures as optional bosses. Before the pre-final battle, many dragon-related artifacts are seen in the location's various chambers. During the final battle of the storyline, Heldalf armatizes with overseeing Maotelus, assuming a form of a lion-dragon hybrid that is been ultimately severed for good with the help of Siegfried (ジークフリート, Jīkufurīto)—a special gun weapon carried by Zaveid the Wind Seraph, and Sorey's four seraph companions. Maotelus himself being an earthen light dragon.

Etymology
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically scaled or fire-spewing and with serpentine, reptilian or avian traits, that features in the myths of many cultures around world. The two most well-known cultural traditions of dragon are: The two traditions may have evolved separately, but have influenced each other to a certain extent, particularly with the cross-cultural contact of recent centuries. The English word dragon and Latin word draco derives from Greek δράκων (drákōn), "dragon, serpent of huge size, water-snake".
 * The European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Balkans and Western Asian mythologies. Most are depicted as reptilian creatures with animal-level intelligence, and are uniquely six-limbed (four legs and a separate set of wings).
 * The Chinese dragon, with counterparts in Japan (namely the Japanese dragon), Korea and other East Asian and South Asian countries. Most are depicted as serpentine creatures with above-average intelligence, and are quadrupeds (four legs and wingless).