Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ssvegeta555 03-30-05, 03:12 PM	I hvae seen many drakes and wyrms in 3.x and I can't for the life of me find out what makes these two types of dragons different from each other. At first I thought wyrms are wingless dragons, since the wyrms in draconomicon have no wings. Also in the same book the drakes have wings and look very similer to their True Dragon counterparts. So I'm thinking smaller version of true dragons, most seem not to have a breath weapon. Now I get to FF and MM2. My ideas to identify the two are blown out the window. Felldrakes (MM2) have no wings, they should be wyrms based on my assumptions. Sea drakes also have no wings (FF). Now the Hellfire Wyrm (MM2) has wings, another contadiction to my wyrm assupmtion. Same goes with the Sun Wyrm (FF). Does anyone know whats the difference between drakes and wyrms? Or do they have no difference and the names are thrown out to sound cool?
ieattrollsforbreakfast 03-30-05, 03:16 PM	I don't know if this is true to real-life folklore, but I gathered that a wyrm is just another name for any dragon, and a drake is a dragon with only 4 limb rather than 6 (most have 2 wings and 2 legs, like wyverns and all the drakes from the Draconomicon).
Derren S. 03-31-05, 01:55 AM	Simple answer: There might have been a system behind it once, but the writers then just took which names sounded good ignoring it.
Vaalingrade Ashland 03-31-05, 02:51 AM	Also: Orms are Dragons with no legs, no wings and no play in DnD.
RavinRay 03-31-05, 05:02 AM	...I gathered that a wyrm is just another name for any dragon, and a drake is a dragon with only 4 limb rather than 6... I second this. Elemental drakes have the wyvern body type. Wyrm is just a generic term. Now where did they come up with "wurm" for the Dragon magazine critters? Just a re-spelling of wyrm? And what about the temporal and mind drakes from Wizards' website? The wyvern, as a heraldic figure, is often portrayed as bipedal, rearing on its legs.
howlingwolf 03-31-05, 05:37 AM	I personally think it's a variety thing. After all, calling every lizardy critter that vaguely looks like a dragon a dragon will probably get dull. It's kinda like the magic-magick thing. Same stuff, different spelling.
Wyrd Bearer 03-31-05, 10:43 AM	I second this. Elemental drakes have the wyvern body type. Wyrm is just a generic term. Now where did they come up with "wurm" for the Dragon magazine critters? Just a re-spelling of wyrm? And what about the temporal and mind drakes from Wizards' website? The wyvern, as a heraldic figure, is often portrayed as bipedal, rearing on its legs. Hee hee, I've always seen the use of wurm, or better yet, a very delibrate pronuciation of 'worm,' to be a way of insulting a dragon to its face (if you've never done that, you don't know the fun your missing out on). Now, lets see here, I remember back when I played MtG, wyrms were just that, a big snake-like creature with no limbs or wings. Drakes had hind-legs and wings but no arms, and dragons had four legs a a set of wings. However, I think the authors just go with what sounds appropriate now.
ssvegeta555 03-31-05, 07:41 PM	I second this. Elemental drakes have the wyvern body type. Wyrm is just a generic term. Now where did they come up with "wurm" for the Dragon magazine critters? Just a re-spelling of wyrm? And what about the temporal and mind drakes from Wizards' website? The wyvern, as a heraldic figure, is often portrayed as bipedal, rearing on its legs. Though some elemental drakes have 6 limbs. I think the ice drake has 6. and the earth has no wings yet is has a fly speed. go figure. :P
RavinRay 04-01-05, 05:32 AM	Though some elemental drakes have 6 limbs. I think the ice drake has 6. and the earth has no wings yet is has a fly speed. go figure. :P I kinda question the depiction of the first four elemental drakes in the Draconomicon (air, earth, fire, ice), because they ought to have the wyvern body plan, with no front legs, just wings and legs, and yet they appear to have front legs aside from wings. The latter four, OTOH (magma, ooze, smoke, water), conform to the wyvern body type.
draxynnic 04-01-05, 09:16 AM	According to one of my mythology books: "The kind known as a Worm resembled a giant snake, sometimes with four legs. A Firedrake was a four-legged cave Dragon, often with batlike wings. A Wyvern was also winged, but had only two legs." -Encyclopedia of Legendary Creatures, Tom McGowen The dragon book in the Time-Life series on mythology, if you can get hold of one, has the full range of names for various draconic body types, including amphipteres (no legs, wings, and in some cases feathers) and linnorms (two legs, no wings, see the MM2). Unfortunately, I don't have one of those, I just had the privilige to flip through one a few years back. I don't think it's exactly a hanging offense to blur the line between the categories, however... what I expect happened is that different regions had different names, and that some scholar collected all the names together afterwards and set the categories according to the most common body form associated with each term. Besides, there is something to be said for poetic license. "Elemental drake" and "hellwyrm" do sound a lot better than "elemental wyvern" and "helldrake", don'tya think? :D
urial angel of death 04-01-05, 05:06 PM	Also: Orms are Dragons with no legs, no wings and no play in DnD. sea drake
Vaalingrade Ashland 04-01-05, 08:33 PM	Which they called a drake and not an orm. Orms get no respect :(
Aricandor 04-02-05, 01:42 PM	It's almost outrageous how many D&D names that are stolen from my native tongue (I prefer to refer to it as Ignan, despite what the rest of the world say... "Swedish"... Pfeh...) :P "Orm" means snake. "Drake" is dragon. "Duergar" is pronounced almost exactly as we say "dwarves" (yes, plural form). No recognition for us... :nonono: