They are the dragons of TES lore. See, they have their own versions of many things for example steel and quick silver in TES are not like they are in real world. Neither are the elves even close to the elves we have in real life mythologies. Besides Wyverns are just one type of dragons. Many European languages doesn't even have different words for dragon and wyvern.

That picture of the Japanese dragon you showed me has 4 legs still you know just no wings. To the people saying wyverns are dragons still I guess you can call them that whatever wyverns are dragon like.

Bethesda aren't the only ones to do dragons like this, George R. Martin's dragons are rather similar in style as well as a few of the dragons in Harry Potter. The Dovah are very different to the stereotypical dragons, for one thing they don't breath fire they create it using the Thu'um, I also read in one of the in-game books (not sure which one) that they fly using magic and not their wings (it was a fictional book by the games standards so don't take that as fact for the dovah). I personally prefer the Dovah over any other depiction of dragons in other media, wasn't of the dragons in Dragon Dogma or Deathwing for that matter.

I don't mind the dragons (wyverns) (LOL I am gonna call them wyverns in parentheses now) using magic to fly in The Elder Scrolls video games that have them.

Deathwing are you referring to Deathing as in the dragon boss from one of the raids in World of Warcraft? Because he breathes fire, has 4 legs, and has wings.

You may be technically correct but since we are all talking about mythical or fictional beasts creatures races there cannot be a right and wrong i mean who is to say giants are mentally challenged? Your definition of what is right or wrong may not be someone elses and neither of you would be right and neither of you would be wrong.

I never said anyone is right or wrong that's why it's in a question mark in my topic's title. I however prefer dragons to have 4 legs don't care if they do or don't breath fire or are missing wings or missing a tail it's just that breathing fire + with 4 legs + a arrow shape at the end of their tail + wings make them look so much more amazing. Heck I don't even care if the dragons breath cold, frost, ice, snow or water .

But 2 legs or 4 legs or 10 legs (If it looks like a dragon with 10 legs then call it a dragon) if it looks like a dragon then call it a dragon or wyvern whatever you like.

I like the TES dragons have four limbs. Having six limbs as you suggest would make them insects. Seeing very good looking dragon like beings in TES is much better than have high fantasy insects which are looking silly.

Sorry I meant that I wasn't keen on those types of dragons. The point is that Bethesda have always taken liberties with The Elder Scrolls, makes it more interesting and unique among the several other fantasy novels, games, shows, films etc...

Orcs was monsters in Beowolf who was one of the inspirations for Lords Of the Ring.

Hobit is an Tolkien invention and is copyrighted, halfing is the public version.

TES elves are more like the Tolkien elves than the mythological ones as both is actual races of humanoids, however the TES version is more like humans, much the same for TES Orcs.

For dragons, an four legged one might actually be easier to animate on ground as its an normal four legged creature, however the long tail an neck might create problems.

The proportions however would create lots of problems.

For one we expect an decent amount of wing area, yes the dragons in Skyrim has to small wings to fly in real world, however twice as large would create problems while half as large would look fake.

You can actually have the dragons have 4 legs, a bigger tail, and bigger wings and animations to go with it and look nice at the same time in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim I downloaded a mod for the PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim a year ago that does this and the modder who made that made did a good job. I don't know if the consoles could handle the extra rendering of the model and animations but it works on the PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

I don't remember the name of the mod since I downloaded it a year ago I have not uninstalled any mods and I have not uninstalled The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim off of my PC ever since 11.11.11 it has been installed since and all the mods have been installed since then as well when I download mods I make sure they are mods that are in working conditions and if there are updates to that mod I uninstall them unless the moddders tell me the new updated versions of those mods requires you to delete the older versions of those mods.

This is the correct answer.

Well, no. Dragons do not exist and never have. To say that a fictional creature must look or behave a certain way is always wrong. It's akin to saying that all vampires must sparkle.

Dagons exist in many mytologies all over the world and vary wildly in size and shape. In European culture dragon mostly means 'great beast' and they can have all sorts of forms.

From a gigantic worm (wyrm) to a wingless beast to the classical winged form we know from Disney.

Logically, reptiles have four limbs. If two of them are used for flight, he'll have two left.

I never said dragons existed. But from mythology in all the books, movies, paintings, statues that I have seen traveling the world (I traveled in 4 states in the US and 5 countries in Europe), and video games I have seen dragons have 4 legs and I even asked people and every person I asked said dragons are with 4 legs. Those people did tell me in their language it's said differently though. Like one of the person who commented here said there isn't a word for wyvern in their (That) language.

But whatever I don't care anymore 2 legs or 4 legs call it a dragon if you like.

That must mean all the stone furniture in their ruins was designed for their children

Anyway, OP is correct, and this has been brought up before. Still, Wyverns are usually counted as lesser dragons. Which would explain why they are so puny

Personally i prefer human-shaped dragons, like Bahamut in Final Fantasy :http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120506200051/finalfantasy/images/9/9e/FF8_Bahamut.png

There are many, many depictions of dragons that do not fit the stereotypical Disney portrayal.

Such as the http://www.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-607F_6X69zI/UW42Uwpwr8I/AAAAAAAACtk/y2wwcoHjBMM/s400/wyrm2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://shirosrpg.blogspot.com/2013/04/solo-gpc-539-runaway-squires.html&h=550&w=864&sz=127&tbnid=aNf9PlGVDmHLHM:&tbnh=73&tbnw=115&zoom=1&usg=__IbaBD7qoT9QFwFRFAojCRNrTtRc=&docid=2dailG7ylLuACM&sa=X&ei=0dwyUqCjG8fQtAaLroHICg&ved=0CEwQ9QEwCg&dur=1141 I mentioned. Note that most the dragons on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_dragon page have two legs.

Fortunately, despite Disney's insistence, culture and mythology are far more varied and interesting than the terrible butchery they like to call entertainment.

The whole 2 legs vs 4 legs deal is not something a lot of people care about. When you say dragon most people picture the shape of a head, wings and the body and tail. Most people dont think about the number of teeth, the number of legs, or the color of its eyes. Those are all minor details when compared to the other stuff.

Plus, people who write books, movies or games will always try to add their own creative spin to things. Vampires for example...how does our mythology describe them? now look at what we have in books and whatnot. Bram Stoker, Count Chocula, Legacy of Kain, Twilight, Sesame Street, TeS, Fright Night, The Lost Boys...whatever. They may have a few major things in common such as blood svcking or pointy teeth, but for various reasons whether it is artistic, target audience, or game balance they will add or change a few minor things. Your 4 vs 2 legs argument, is one of those minor things.

OP you do realize that dragons aren't really creatures and , diffrent cultures have diffrent image of dragons, I am actually happy that Bethesda didn;t go with four legged dragon and created something mildly orginal and where even able to keep it consistent for four games,

lets settle for three legs, that'll make everyone happy

I love the tes dragon design

Question about dwemer? Do you think based on the statues in skyrim that the dwemer may be as tall as dunmer but that they tend to favor beards and the beards seem to be closer to human thick beards as opposed to elven beards.

Yikes! this is the most pedantic thread I've seen in a long time....

That reminds me, where is the traditional "Really? Have people run out of things to complain about?" post?

Loved the Skyrim dragons.

Elder Scrolls is a fantasy world created by Bethesda, they can make their dragons how ever they want to.

Dragons were made up of human imagination they can look like what ever the [censored] you want them to look like. If I want to create a dragon with angel wings and candy corn for teeth then I will do that! Wyvern is a type of dragon not just the four legged dragon type is the only one. If it breaths fire and of reptillian origin then its a [censored] dragon! The only thing I didn't like about dragons in skyrim was there is only one kind I was hoping for how to train your dragon type of thing going on. But whatever.

Some speculate that dragon myths stem from discoveries of dinosaur bones, medieval man just couldn't explain it other then calling them " dragons " which means great beast, oddly enough dinosaur means terrible lizard.

Anyway OP step back and look at this from a " scientific " point of view.....

Wyrms would be a subspecies of the Dragon species, just as with most life there's slight and sometimes prominent differences with in the one species. So when you say dragon you are referring to a species as a whole but when you say Wyrm or Wyvern you are referring to a specific subclass of the dragon species. .....

It's like the difference between wolves and dogs, both are of the K-9 family BUT there's slight differences in how each has evolved and changed over time.

Sigh do people even read anymore? I did not say that a wyvern is not a dragon a wyvern is a type of dragon even in the quote from Wikipedia I put it in there. A dragon-like creature with wings but only a single pair of legs is known as a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyvern.

A wyvern is a different species of dragon it's still a dragon though but the ones in The Elder Scrolls video games should be called wyverns not dragons or just call them wyvern dragon because the dragon wyvern species have 2 legs only not 4 legs.

The dragon that you made up in your imagination that you described to have angel wing and candy corn teeth is still a dragon and I think I came up with a new name for it Heavenly candy corned tooth dragon now we have a 3rd dragon species people. .

That could be because not too many people know what a Wyvern is in the first place, but everyone knows what a dragon is

Myself, for example. When someone says dragon the first image to pop into my head is that of a Wyvern, not because I only know the Skyrim version of dragons cause I know of most of the different types of dragons. It's because me personally prefer the Wyvern look over the traditional 4 legged dragon look. It looks more dargonish to me, the 4 legs and a pair of wings is too cartoonish to me. The " bat like " look of the Wyvern looks more natural, something that actually would evolve over time.