Have you ever thought about dragons? I mean really sat down and gave them serious thought.
How could stone age, pre-middle age human society come up with a creature that so resembles your average meat eating dinosaur?
Think about it, you take the basic description of a dragon, compare it to some of the flying dinosaurs and bingo, one dragon.
Next, consider magic.
Magic, as portrayed in myth and legend is more than potions, it is the ability to actually control the basic elements, earth, wind, fire and water. Why does every ancient culture describe wizards and witches in the same basic manner?
Even historic figures, Charlemagne, for example was reputed to have some sort of enchanted sword, as well as the spear of destiny.
In post roman great Britain, there was one ruler, Ambrosius who was said to have an enchanted sword, prior to him was the ruler Macsen, or Maximus, a roman Emperor who, for some reason ended up in England, and when he heard the throne in Rome had been given to another, he gathered an army to retake it, he carried the sword Caliburn, forged by a celtic swordsmith/wizard.
Funny thing about these people, they are known to have existed, with historic records of them, even to the weapons they carried, and yet, today mainstream society dismisses all of this as myth, legend or fairy tales.
Now, the question. When you consider that these items, magic, dragons, enchanted weapons, etc are evident in all cultures, what happened to the belief in them, or more importantly, what happened to the items themselves?
Why, in the middle ages, did it become wrong to believe in all of this, yet to believe in the power of holy relics, miracles performed by pious or holy men or women?
The main difference was that one form of mystical power was god based, the other was nature based. It became a sin, to the point of getting the label of witch to even practice or talk of such things.
Yet, today, those 'pagan' beliefs, traditions, myths, legends cannot be discarded. Even in our modern world, people seem to have the 'gift,' the ability to see what will happen, what is not known. Some have demonstrated some slight control of the elements.
Today we call these people psychics.
I have another theory, I say it is the power of the old magic coming out again. During the Dark Ages, towns were populated by people that were related. Some families were known to have the gift, and they were considered the healers etc.
In the modern world, the genetic code that deals with the gift has had a chance to intermingle with the genetics of countless races, allowing those with the gift to find other abilities.
Would it be so bad to see true magic become common place? Perhaps, when magic is once more accepted and not condemned, we may yet see dragons. Would it be so bad? Keeping technology in some areas, and letting other fields return to the old ways.
