Sarah Frost's recent fan fiction Andraste's Return describes dragon priests performing rituals which got me to thinking: are they really a religion as we know the concept?

They call themselves Dragon Priests, but so far the show has not depicted any of the things that usually go along with a priesthood. For example, they don't seem to have a congregation or followers of any kind, they don't seem to engage in worship or prayer that we've seen, we don't see them performing any rituals or ceremonies, they don't seem to have a belief system (other than the prophecy of the gold dragon) and they don't seem to have a god. You might imagine them worshipping dragons, but they don't seem to do this either. While Mortis/Connor certainly considers Beau to be important, there's no sign that he considers Beau to be sacred or a prophet or messiah or anything like that.

In some ways, Mortis and Dragon Priests appear to be more of a scholarly endeavor. They recognize the importance of dragons in their world, and realize how important it is to keep the history alive and pass on the training of all the special techniques humans can use to release the power of their dragons. Their motivation is therefore to study and learn, with the hope of improving the world for both dragons and humans.

Sarah Frost has also proposed that the Dragon Priests are more like a cabal (perhaps the equivalent of the Illuminati Society in their world) and are attempting to manipulate things behind the scenes to achieve their own ends. The priesthood would then merely be a false front to divert attention.

Another way to look at them is as if they were a dragon fan club of sorts. They do the types of things serious fans do: they learn all there is know about their fandom, decorate with icons of their fandom (e.g., the giant dragon heads that comprise the dragon temple), and even dress up in costumes as fans like to do. They role-play as Dragon Priests because they find it fun. :)

Or maybe they're more like a dragon humane society. They clearly care about the well being of dragons and want to improve their condition.

Religion is a touchy subject of course, and it's not surprising that the writers don't want to delve into that area very deeply, which is probably why we don't see any of the familiar trappings of religion in the show. Personally, I'm kind of surprised they even used the word "priest" at all. It's easier to imagine them wanting to play it super-safe and make up a word like "dragonologist" instead to describe them as scholars of all things dragon-related.

So what do you think? Do the Dragon Priests represent a full-fledged religion with a god or gods, worship, prayer and so on? Or are they some other form of scholarly endeavor and are priests in name only? Are they a secret society trying manipulate the world behind the scenes and the priesthood is merely a front? Are they just a bunch of die-hard dragon fans? Or maybe a dragon humane society?

What do you think?



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By the way: This is my 2000th posting! :dance: :dance:

I can't believe I've posted this much here. Talk about a lot of typing. When I joined a year and half ago, I never imagined being this involved. So thanks everyone for making this such a fun place to hang out. :cookie:

Most of what they're involved in seems rather mystical (sufficiently advanced science, perhaps?), primarily the Prophecy Thing. They do call themselves by a religious term and use techniques and precepts ("believe in yourself", for example) that are less than scientific in nature. They don't seem to worship anything in particular, and they seem to be more like Buddhist-New Age-y-wishy-washy-sorts than believers in an anthropomorphic god (or dragomorphic, I suppose) of some description. It's still religion of a sort--and self-defined as such--and it's certainly got its holy books and meditation techniques. That they're also scholars of a sort doesn't take away from that (Christianity has a respectable enough history of producing scholarship, if you discount opposition to evolution and the modern zealots), though the priests' philosophy on sharing information seems to rather differ from most. Real academics tend to preserve information (and entirely incidentally put food on the table) by publishing.

They also more or less fit the definition of a cabal or a sort of conspiracy theorist's wet dream, by operating behind the scenes with a collection of powerful youngsters being told to fulfil their goals without receiving that much information about them. Whether or not you think they're a good cabal is entirely up to you. :) Almost reminds me of the plot (what there was of it) in a book I read quite recently, Agatha Christie's Passenger to Frankfurt--offspring of a legendary hero, golden youth, Young Siegfried, etc, etc, etc.

I don't think they're calling themselves priests as a sleight-of-hand trick; it's more that they perceive themselves as on a sacred mission of a sort, promoting a particular philosophy and goals. Perhaps the name of 'priests' was passed down from genuine dragon-worshippers or Drakkus-worshippers (we know the moons are named after gods of destruction; perhaps the priests worshipped those, or other gods) or something along those lines, and in respect for their roots and a fetish for odd costumes they kept that name as they delved more into philosophy than religion. Or perhaps they've always been priests peddling a general lifestyle rather than a particular god, which isn't particularly unusual in Eastern circles.

WOA!!!


I n what chaper appears that Drakkus is the god of destruction????

That's a good question. I had always just assumed that they were representitive of the established DB religion - worshiping the Magna Draconis or...what not...It seems much more likely, given what we're shown in the series, that they're an Illuminati of some sort. Then again, during Connor's flashback's, we're shown little Word and Connor being trained. There they looked a lot like one imagines a group of fighting monks in movies. The Dragon Priests could just be an order, sort of a branch of DB's main religion that are there for a very specific purpose.

Religion in children's programs is, indeed, a touchy subject. A Priest or Priestess, however, is present in many religions. As it happens, people just automatically equate it with Christianity.

I vagely remeber that Magna Draconis said that the MAgna Draconis is a philosofic book and that religion is a touchy theme

I think the magna draconis might be a dragon priest bible they used to eduacst new dragon priests.

Magna Draconis told that Magnadraconis is a philosophy book not a religous one

What?

LOL

Magna draconis is the name of one of the members of this forum and he's one of DB's producers ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^


He told us that Magna draconis (The book) is a philosophy book not a religion

Oh, I get it now.