The Dreaming Dragon

[treuhavik]

The above picture is of The Dreaming Dragon, the island of Ashpool lake in version 1.0.

Before we get too carried away, perhaps we should first ask if there's actually a dragon there, or if the explorers of the post-calamity Western Coerthas Highlands assumed there was because of the name and the shape of the ice that formed there.

EDIT: My best guess? The jagged spines protruding from the island look like the spiky osteoderms of a dragon, thus leading to rumors of a dragon slumbering beneath the lake. Time passed, the calamity happened, rumor turned to legend, Coerthas was transformed into a frozen wasteland, and the legend of a dragon beneath Ashpool was made all the more real when the same island took on a far more convincing appearance.

[finiteHP]

One of the FATEs in the area mentions that the stench of the dragon rotting is attracting hungry bears (and oddly enough yaks), so we can be pretty sure it is real.

[Dalvy]

I don't think that's actually a dragon, more like an ice formation containing bodies of the dead that were in that lake. (ice aether eruption?)

But then again there are enormous skeletons in a cliff, about a stone throw away

[treuhavik]

What appears to be an island [It most definitely was an island] floating amidst the icy waters of Ashpool is said to have once been a living, breathing dragon─magicked into slumber by the Holy See until ash enveloped its body and its limbs turned nigh unto stone.

Ever since its exposure following the Calamity, the ice encasing the Dreaming Dragon of Ashpool has been slowly melting, releasing into the nearby air the fetid stench of rotting dragon flesh─a stench that is now driving local fauna into a frenzy. Slay the slavering wooly yaks and polar bears drawn to the dragon before they set their sights on you.

It's a tough call. The F.A.T.E. text seems pretty confident, but if "the dragon" was put to sleep and encased in petrified ash, how would it's living flesh be A) rotting and B) exposed only by melting ice? We also have to keep in mind that what in-game texts say aren't necessarily 100% true, as they're provided by Eorzeans, and we all know how reliable NPCs are when it comes to historical facts (hardly ever).

The only hard fact we can pull from these quotes is that the structure was stone-like, as we know it was once a rocky island. It's a very real possibility that the once barely-jutting island rose from the lake with the calamity and froze over along with everything else in Western Coerthas, taking on an appearance even more so befitting its name.

As for what's stirring up the nearby wildlife, that's anyone's guess, the lake perchance? Regardless, I wouldn't naturally peg Yaks as carnivorous.

EDIT: There also stands a pretty good chance that the F.A.T.E. guy mistakenly believed that it was a frozen dragon when creating it.

[TheRogueX]

As was mentioned before, there are TONS of corpses littering Western Coerthas, and I bet the Ashpool had a good many in it. When the Cataclysm hit, the waters could have been thrown into the air and rapidly frozen (due to the sudden and apparently rapid freezing that Coerthas suffered), leading to the shape we now see. Corpses that were in the Ashpool were thrown up into the ice column and are gradually being exposed to the elements.

[Eisen-Zorn]

It very well may be, or some of its flesh may have become necrotic. Puddings are voidsent formed from reanimated blobs of flesh, so it would make sense what with the Gelatos around that area.

Today I Learned.

Does that mean that our character's Pudding Minion is...OH MY GOD.

[RukiaFae]

Today I Learned.

Does that mean that our character's Pudding Minion is...OH MY GOD.

Lmao my thoughts also

[KokoChibata]

Thats actually not true about the puddings if you read the Bite Sized Pudding description: "Unable to reproduce, puddings increase their number solely via mitosis. Because of this, it is widely believed that all Eoreza's puddings descended from a single entity--a proto-pudding, if you will. This, however, leaves us with the question: whence did the first pudding come?" The pudding card states: "These gelatinous creatures spawn in the agglomerations of residual matter that sometimes form in the void. Though able to mimic rudimentary sounds of speech in order to draw forth their prey, they are not thought to be espically intelligent beings. As a relatively low-ranked voidsent, flans occupy the tenth rung of the hierarchy."

[KokoChibata]

From these we can surmise that 1) Flans or at least the first flan formed in the void off residual matter. 2) They reproduce through mitosis and not from blobs of flesh. 3) They are caniverous and eat live prey not dead. As we know however death attracts voidsent of all kinds and the western highlands are a battlefield. So I highly doubt something made of pumice (ash rock) would really emit any putrid odors or have flesh falling off it unless there were corpses already on top of the rock which would explain the F.A.T.E. that occurs there.

[Dreggit]

Assuming that the dragon were alive and somehow revoked would it cause trouble in the current standing peace between species?