Elder dragons from a lore perspective

[Maximumpkin]

How do they even decide who is an elder dragon and who is not? Why is a unicorn an elder dragon, but a pair of flying, fire-breathing, dragon-like monsters with poisonous tails are wywerns?
They certainly said something like, elder dragons are impossible to understand/know and catch. But in my opinion, a horse with a horn is much more understandable than a monkey that shoots a death ray from its mouth and eats the electric horn of a unicorn to enter a rage mode.
Elders certainly change the weather in the biome with their presence and all that. But is a minor storm really a reason to call a unicorn an elder dragon?

[Lochlann]

tranq bombs and traps don't work on them

[Popcorn]

They're all based on natural disasters or a sort:
Kushala is hurricanes and tornadoes
Teostra is forest fires along side Lunesta
Vaal is death
There are some questionable ones, which I would say is Chameleos, but Kirin is moreso lightning storms

[ciel]

if it has 4 legs and we don't know what the ♥♥♥♥ it is, it's an elder dragon. that's all.

[Pendergast891]

Its less 'power' and more 'cant be classified'

kirin is harder for them to classify compared to rajang, which is very similar to many of the other fanged beasts, and it just so happens its strong enough to beat up elder dragons

they do not use the classical definitions of 'dragon' 'wyvern' etc, dragon is for an unknown and rare being, wyvern is for creatures (whether they're the apex predator or just chilling) that are part of any place's ecosystem. Winged wyverns, given they can fly, are able to spread much farther unless they have a highly specialized adaptations to a certain biome (paolumu for instance)

Many elder dragons feel like they should 'just' be classified as winged wyverns but they have certain capabilities that make each individual effectively its own species, hence 'elder dragon' classification.

Thats why capturing is a preferable ending due to giving the researchers a live specimen to record behavioral tendencies, and in-game (and in lore i believe) no elder dragon has been able to be 'captured' so at best some very brave and lucky scouts could record some behaviors from a distance.

[PyroShark_]

This isn't a thing you can see in World. But Kirin are supposed to be very powerful, although he was a menace before master rank to be fair. Kirin can run at speeds that make them appear to be teleporting and the lightning strikes it summons would easily kill Rathalos and Rathians, it's just the ingame representation isn't exactly 100% to the lore.

[Mr. September]

They are basically walking natural disasters that can't be captured or contained. Not all monsters are a hazard to everything around them, you know. Elder Dragons are so strong that merely existing causes destruction to the environment, animals and other monsters.

The only way to deal with them is to slay them.

Also, lore-wise, we kill a lot of the stuff exactly once. We're actually the good guys in the story, because we cull the monsters (or slay extra dangerous mutated/variation monsters) to prevent the damn island from getting wiped out by a few bizarre walking natural disasters.

[Isaacorion Ceres]

Messaggio originale di Pendergast891:

Its less 'power' and more 'cant be classified'

It's been years, but I think I recall one of the ingame lines about a creature being along these lines.
"What do you do with a creature that defies all normal category conventions? Dump it in the Elder Dragon pile."

I can't speak for in-depth analysis on the world lore, but my understanding was that anything that goes above and beyond the normal capabilities of the established "category" or is simply too alien to fit in anywhere is labeled an Elder Dragon.

[Omnicide]

One thing that's obvious is that normal wyverns may have some affinity for elements but it's clearly tied to their bodies, they breathe fire via some mechanism or spit electified mucus on you etc.

The elder dragons aside from Nergi (and maybe Fatalis honestly) all seem to be able to control the ambient elements in the air. They are basically magic for as much as anyone really understands it.

[DAVOS CENSORSHIP 2030 FTW!!!]

Messaggio originale di Mr. September:

They are basically walking natural disasters that can't be captured or contained. Not all monsters are a hazard to everything around them, you know. Elder Dragons are so strong that merely existing causes destruction to the environment, animals and other monsters.

Except Kirin, Donkey Kong just drops a Beat and humiliates it.

Just like Donkey Kong HBG floors it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6tTKX6Qh1s

They should give the "Spirit Bomb" back in Wilds.

[meikyuu]

Elder dragons are a "wastebin taxon" which is a real life thing worth looking up. In short, the researchers don't know wtf the elder dragons are, and since they can't be classified as normal wyverns or beasts then they just get shoehorned into the big ol' elder dragon category.

[ᔑᓭ∴ᔑリ⊣]

i found a good video that explains it a while ago, i think this was the one
https://youtu.be/RzXF9jfjlHM
12:30 is when he starts mentioning elder dragons
maybe it wasn't this video that i'm thinking of... its still a great video though going into how the classifications of monsters work

most elder dragons are monsters considered powerful enough to be walking natural disasters, capable of unintentionally changing the weather and destroying ecosystems just with their presence alone, but it is mostly a 'wastebin taxon' as comments above reference for why they are all called the same thing

Also, i believe its pretty classic mythology that wyverns are dragons with barbed toxic tails (or at least just poisonous in general, i forget the specific stories), and its also classic mythology that a kirin IRL is a type of mystical dragon. so there's a fun fact for that comment

[KaoBoi]

You joining the Scholar/Researcher squad in MonHun? XD

Tbf you are right. Never questioned it before. I just accept whatever the Research squad tells me at face value. Maybe their age? lol

[TormentedSalad]

Messaggio originale di KaoBoi:

You joining the Scholar/Researcher squad in MonHun? XD

Tbf you are right. Never questioned it before. I just accept whatever the Research squad tells me at face value. Maybe their age? lol

It's just that they are rare and mysterious most of them are also actual dragons or they are based on some folklore thing like kirin.

[Maximumpkin]

Thank you