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Dragon

2020-07-02T16:41:05Z

2601:203:480:4C60:F8DB:1522:371A:B251: /* Kinds of Dragons */

[[File:Red Dragon.jpg|thumb|right|400px|A red dragon from ''Dungeons & Dragons''. This is pretty much what most people today think of when they hear the word.]]
{{Topquote|I kill where I wish and none dare resist. I laid low the warriors of old and their like is not in the world today. Then I was but young and tender. Now I am old and strong, strong, strong [...] My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!|Smaug, ''[[The Hobbit]]''}}

Dragons are mythical creatures found all around the world (although this is admittedly more due to decisions on the part of early translators than anything else: "hey Jack, what should we designate as the translation of "Qetzacouatl," the feathery serpent thing from mesoamerica?" "I don't know... 'dragon'?"), possibly inspired by various sources such as giant lizards such as varanids, crocodillians and serpents, but also [[dinosaur]] bones and simple tall-tales from travelers in distant lands. Dragons are often portrayed as keepers of vast hordes of treasure, which they accumulate over their very long lifespan and guard covetously - in western mythology, this is often an extension of their use as a metaphor for royal power. They can often fly and breathe fire or poison. Because of their majestic, fantastic nature dragons are a staple of much fantasy fiction and games. One of the most well known dragons is Smaug, from [[Tolkien]]'s ''The Hobbit''. The vast majority of later portrayals of dragons in fiction were based on Smaug, who in turn had been inspired by the dragon Fáfnir, from the Völsunga Saga and the dragon from Beowulf. In modern days dragons, being pretty much the the logo of ''fantasy as a genre'', have a wide variety of natures and depictions. Some are as smart as (if not smarter than) humans, some are no smarter than an iguana. Some are inherently magical, some not. Some are good, some are evil, some neutral. Basically, go nuts.

A surprisingly common feature of dragons in fantasy is the "dragon rider," a warrior who, somehow, is usually harnessed up to a dragon, which actually has two justifications besides "[[Awesome]]": For an intelligent dragon, they offer a slight, but non-trivial edge in combat (spotting threats early, and possibly giving you a new attack if they have a weapon that's effective versus other dragons, at a slight to moderate cost in extreme flight maneuvers); for unintelligent dragons, being able to field them at all in war.
==Mythology==
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===Classical===

There are a bunch of monsters that might be referred to as a "dragon" by modern readers; among them are Apep of Egypt, various beasts from Mesopotamian myths, the Greek [[Hydra]], and the Jewish Leviathan. The fact that so many different cultures across such vast gulfs of time and space all come up with the same general idea of what a dragon is, has generally be attributed to dinosaur fossils which appear all over the earth, or simply scaling lizards and crocodiles up. As for the unusual traits, some of those go way back - such the Leviathan from Jewish tradition has heat breath attributed to, particularly in Scripture - and their origins are harder to discern.

===Medieval Times===

In Medieval lore, the most important dragon story is that of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George_and_the_Dragon Saint George and the Dragon]. Most depictions of dragons descend in some way from it (either directly, or by imitating something that imitated it), especially its generally monstrous character due to it demanding tribute in the form of [[Hot Chicks]]. A few other noteworthy dragons in Western literature include the final antagonist in Beowulf (the first recorded fire-breathing dragon), as well as Fafnir, noted for his intense greed and cursed golden hoard.

===Asia===
Asian Dragons are typically long, snake-like creatures, and are generally less malevolent than their European counterparts. They tend to be associated with water rather than fire. At least one Chinese creator-goddess appeared as a hybrid of woman and dragon, whilst there are Japanese stories of noble men marrying female dragons. They don't usually have wings, flight being accomplished either by magic or riding the wind. Should be noted that in most Asian mythology, dragons are usually depicted as divine beings more on the side of good than evil, not too many stories about dragon-slaying over here.

===Elsewhere===

Aside from broadly "Eastern & Western" dragons, there are other creatures and outliers that don't usually get the amount of attention the former categories do. Among them are:

Quetzalcoatl/Nahuatl - A mesoamerican deity whose name means ''feathered serpent''. He was a god of wind, air and knowledge. Though depicted as an anthropomorphic figure, his name and general form could classify him as an equivalent of a dragon. For some reason, the Japanese keep depicting Quetzalcoatl in various [[anime]] as a [[rule 34|blonde-haired, big-tittied woman]].

Apep - A giant serpent-demon who resides in the Duat, the Egyptian Underworld. Could be considered a ''wyrm'' more than a true dragon.

Vrtra - Another giant serpent, this time form Hindu vedas. There is also Visvarupa - a three-headed variant.

Ušumgallu (''Ushumgallu'') - A mesopotamian "lion-dragon-demon". They often accompanied kings in ancient sumerian myths.

==Dungeons & Dragons==
Dragons are one of the main selling points of the ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' game, to the point that the [[Dungeons_%26_Dragons_4th_Edition|4th edition]] and [[Dungeons_%26_Dragons_5th_Edition|5th edition]] include a draconian race called [[Dragonborn]], intended for players who "want to look like a dragon".

[[Dragon kind]] and [[Half-Dragons]] are basically the confirmation of the rule that dragons can mate with anything, taking their place among the races often referred to as "slut races": [[human]]s, fiends, celestials, [[dryad]]s, [[slaad]]i, [[modron]]s, [[inevitable]]s, [[formian]]s and gribbly abominations from the [[Far Realm]]. We now permit you to take a break to use the brain oxi-clean provided to you by Billy Mays' ghost to scrub any mental images you may have of a [[human]], dragon, [[angel]], [[Tanar'ri|balor]], black slaad, formian queen or-OH SWEET MERCIFUL GOD-EMPEROR THE MENTAL IMAGE!!!!

"True" dragons, meanwhile, come in all shapes and sizes, from the evil Chromatic to the good Metallic, the [[psion]]ic Gem dragons, elemental dragons, plane-aligned dragons (one for each [[Planescape|Outer Plane]] except [[Arcadia]], where dragons are hated), Astral dragons, disaster dragons and even the potent and rare Time Dragons, who are amongst the most dangerous creatures in existence.

There are also 'Dragon Riders'. That's to be taken literally in the overwhelming majority of cases, just in case you didn't use enough brain bleach just 5 nanoseconds ago. They're really just pussy [[knight]]s that stay safe just pointing the dragon in the right direction and let it fight for them, occasionally dismounting to deliver a finishing blow or give a pompous bullshit speech. (Except for [[Viking]] Dragon Riders, hardcore shit right there!) Though it's important to remember that these are rare in D&D, as everyone in this world, dragons themselves especially, will point out that a human having a pet dragon is like a fly having a pet human. [[/d/|This said, if you read what required said brain bleach above, the other kind of ride does happen occasionally as well]]. [[Half-Dragon]]s wouldn't exist otherwise.

===Kinds of Dragons===
There's a boatload of dragons in ''D&D'', many of whom fit into the following groups:

* [[Chromatic Dragon]]s - The original dragons, coming in a variety of colors. They are all some variety of evil and are the children of the dragon goddess [[Tiamat]]. In order of power White, Black, Green, Blue and Red are the five most common colors, but others include yellow, brown, purple and a whole rainbow of other colors.
* [[Metallic Dragon]]s - Starting out with only the gold dragon, in later editions they became linked to [[Bahamut]], the god of good dragons. The most common ones are Brass, Copper, Bronze, Silver and Gold in order of power, with others including Iron, Steel and Adamantine.
** [[Ferrous Dragon]]s - A subgroup of the Metallic Dragons, Ferrous Dragons are made of base metals instead of the noble ones.
* [[Gem Dragon]]s - Adorned with crystal scales, the Gem Dragons have potent [[psionics]] and are usually also the go-to Neutral dragons to the Metallics' Good and Chromatics' Evil.
* [[Catastrophic Dragon]]s - Introduced in [[4e]], these dragons have been infused with [[elemental]] power by the [[Archomental|Primordials]] to make them look like elemental dragons.
* [[Planar Dragon]]s - Dragons linked to the various [[Plane]]s of existence, frequently the [[Outer Planes]] of [[Planescape]]. All of said Outer Planes have their own kind of dragon, except for [[Arcadia]] where dragons are despised.
* [[Oriental Dragon]]s - Based on Asian dragons, the Oriental Dragons are the dragons used in [[weeaboo|such]] settings. They generally have close ties to nature, like forests, the skies, the seas... or [[carp]]! Notable is that the Gold Dragon, the first Metallic Dragon, was stylized as such a dragon, but was changed to a more traditional western design (although they did retain their bitchin' moustache of barbels). Also known as Lung Dragons. [[Pathfinder]] calls them Imperial Dragons.
* [[Dragonet]]s - Miniature dragons more suitable for familiars or high fantasy worlds, featured in ''[[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]]''.
* [[Epic Dragon]]s - Introduced in the [[Epic Level Handbook]]. Epic dragons are much larger and more powerful than regular dragons. They are usually neutral aligned but have more variation in alignment than other kinds of dragons. The first two kinds of Epic Dragons, Force Dragons and Prismatic Dragons, were introduced in the [[Epic Level Handbook]]. A third type called Time Dragons were indroduced in [[Dragon Magazine]].
* [[Linnorm]]s - Nordic-themed dragons who possess wing-less serpentine bodies with only a set of forelimbs. Usually described as being even nastier and crueler than Chromatics.
* [[Song Dragon]]s - Originally called "Weredragons", [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia|an all-female race of dragons who use their ability to assume human form to interact with mortal races and find mortal spouses]].
* [[Wyvern]]s - Dim-witted, feral, more bestial dragons who lack a breath weapon, have wings instead of forelimbs, and a poisonous stinger.
* Undead Dragons - Various kinds of undead dragon have appeared throughout editions, from the famous [[Dracolich]] to less-famous zombie, skeletal and vampire dragons.
* Shadow Dragons - Depending on edition, either a dragon with some elemental affinity to darkness, a planar dragon, or an undead dragon.

There's also a great medley of setting-unique dragons, such as those native to [[Mystara]] and [[Dragonlance]].

Finally, there are the [[Dragon Gods]], a loose pantheon of deities unique to D&D dragons that hasn't traditionally gotten a lot of attention because, well, they only really give a fuck about dragons and dragons don't usually get too religious (they don't like acknowledging something as being bigger than them). The advent of the [[Dragonborn]] as a PC race is likely to change this, however.

{{D&D-Dragons}}

==Shadowrun==
Dragons from [[Shadowrun]] come in four types depending on where they originate from: Western Dragons (European and North American), Eastern Dragons (Asian}, Feathered Serpents (South American and African), and Sea Dragons (any of the oceans}. Despite morphological differences between the different breeds, they all can interbreed, and all share the mentality of highly intelligent, manipulative, avaricious douchebags. In their natural forms, dragons cannot speak verbally but instead use telepathy, which cannot be recorded; most dragons of significance in the setting have metahuman "Voices" who relay their words for them in telecommunication or recorded interviews.

In D&D-descended settings, being a corrupt, amoral, greedy entity that forces less-privileged beings to worship them would make them glorified, if terrifying, bandits at best. In the gritty cyberpunk society of Shadowrun, Dragons can do all of this within the margins of a legitimized and prosperous career, intermingling with metahuman society on the boards of megacorps and in seats of power in the few polities that matter. Although they like to use these newfound levers of power that the mortals built up, they also conform to a draconic culture that exists beside (or more accurately, outside) metahuman society. Draconic society also has a loose hierarchy; the Great Dragons reside at the top, sometimes duking it out and sometimes working with one another as they pursue individual agendas, and the "lesser" dragons doing their own thing are left alone, as long as they don't step on the Greaters' toes and occasionally take orders.

What separates the Greater Dragons from the rest isn't entirely understood. While there's a strong correlation with power and age separating the Greats from the rest, considering the ways they think, what makes a Great isn't quite so crude.

Also due to the gritty cyberpunk setting, dragons aren't entirely good or evil, but exist more along a morally ambiguous spectrum. Unlike D&D, where the dragons are separated into the various flavor of evil chromatics and good metallics, Shadowrun dragons are all individuals with their own motivations and ambitions and personal hopes and fears, even though they are all ancient, alien beings who can't help but see metahumanity as mostly small and ephemeral beings, where some of them can even be considered good. They remain the biggest power players in the Shadowrun setting, driving much of the conflict and intrigue as they fight amongst each other and other powers, but also stand united in protecting the world and metahumanity from the terrors of [[Cthulhu|the Horrors]].

Some of the most notable dragons are:

* Aden: The only known Great Sirrursh (a variant of the Eastern Dragons). He likes to appear to humanity as either a beautiful man or a handsome woman, mostly to fuck with people. He's best known for destroying Tehran after a ''fatwah'' was declared against metahumans and the Awakened, so standing up for the people who weren't normie humans means he'd probably be an okay guy if he weren't so edgy and angry all the fucking time. Currently pulling strings against the various Muslim movements in the Middle East and balancing fending off Lofwyr's attempts to muscle in on his territory.

* Alamais: A Great Western Dragon, Lofwyr's brother and chief rival, and would-be champion of the downtrodden if here weren't a huge fucking prick. Liked to associate with populist movements, like underground political scenes and terrorist organizations to get his work done, and was probably responsible for some of Lofwyr's woes. Also advocated for hunting metahumans for sport. ''Also'' also had an ongoing prank war with Dunkelzahn where they traded a fruitcake for 37 years, mostly through shadowrunners breaching one another's defenses. Died in 2074 in a war that tore apart a section of Italy and left 38 other adult dragons dead.

* Arleesh: A Great Feathered Serpent, known to travel the world to hunt down and destroy magical artifacts that pose a danger to metahumanity. Probably pretty cool if she could let her hair down once in a while.

* Celedyr: A Welsh Great Western Dragon. Less concerned about power and wealth than he is with knowledge, and hence technology, and thus became CTO of NeoNET. He then worked for just enough shares to pursue the avenues of research he wanted to and be left alone, or was outmaneuvered by Machiavellian human CEO Richard Villiers in powerplays over NeoNET, depending on who you listen to. Was the mentor and patron of lesser dragon Eliohan, a Matrix guinea pig, which also kicked off the CFD plotline (which nobody cared about). Also sponsor of the Knights of Rage streetgang, who serves as his agents out in the world.

* Dunkelzahn: Widely and justifiably considered to have been the most gregarious and open-minded of the dragons, particularly when it came to giving metahumanity a fair shake. The Big D was ''the Dude.'' Less of an oligarch and more of an eccentric, Big D didn't put all of his chips into one nation/megacorp like the other dragons did, so he became a broad entrepeneur and collector. He started a public career with a late night talk show and ended up successfully running for President of the UCAS, until a car bomb killed him some ten hours after his swearing in. The who and why is still unclear, though the "consensus" for those in the know is that he committed suicide, making himself into a sacrifice that would rebalance the astral from the Great Ghost Dance from some decades before. The Big D wasn't immune to draconic dickishness though; his will turned much of the established power structures on their heads and continues to influence the plot some 20 years down the line. Lofwyr, going full Tsundere mode, pointed out to some folks that "he wasn't such a great guy" and that he was still a dragon first and foremost, and his will was still enacting plots that furthered his personal goals many years after his death.

* Eliohann: A lesser Western dragon who was notable for being one of the non-Greats who left a noticeable footprint on the world of Shadowrun. He was the dragon equivalent of a teen who was kidnapped and experimented on by Emerging Futures (an Ares subsidiary) and got a datajack installed into him, making him the only known dragon with a meaningful relationship with the Matrix. Despite that this feat should be technically impossible and driving Eliohann nonspecifically insane, he loved the feeling of the Matrix and became a good decker as well as the eventual president of Emerging Futures. By night, he hacked and decked under the Matrix handle of Cerberus, and possibly as the decker Neurosis as well. Emerging Futures was sold off to NeoNET a few years later, which is where he reconnected and started work again for his old mentor Celedyr. It was later indicated that the insanity Eliohann experienced was dissociative personality disorder to compensate for the mind bending contrast of being an awakened creature and also deep diving into the Matrix. Eliohann flatlined in Crash 2.0, but his conscious survived as an E-Ghost (possibly as two, one for each personality), prompting Celedyr to research ways into downloading a conscience into a braindead meat body to restore his apprentice. Despite quite a bit of being fucked about from behind the scenes, including the entirety of the CFD plot, Eliohann was returned to his body, letting him continue to live a normal dragon life.

* Feuerschwinge: A German Great Western Dragon. When she woke up, she went on a bloody rampage that left many thousands of people dead until she was shot down by the German military. It was probably because she had a strong ecological bent, and humanity fucking with the environment drove her crazy. Probably. ''Probably.'' She later made a return appearance in the videogame ''Shadowrun: Dragonfall'', where it's revealed that she "survived" but her physical and astral forms were separated. The player goes out to avenge his/her buddy and thwarts a plot to use her body to spread a biological weapon that targets dragons. Feuerschwinge is either dead or hibernating through to the 8th World, depending on player decisions. Either way, she's not going to be seen again anytime soon.

* Ghostwalker: A Great Western Dragon and Big D's brother. His first act upon awakening was taking control of Denver (or technically, the FRFZ) and banning Aztlan for reasons hardcore Shadowrun fans would understand. He has a thing for spirits' rights, to the point where he is violently against binding or even summoning spirits within his territory.

* Hestaby: A Great Western Dragon from the Pacific Northwest. She first appeared to end the war between California and Tir Tairngire, basically telling the kids to get off her lawn and go home. She cultivated a public persona of an egalitarian guardian of nature and metahumanity, level-headed and moderate in comparison to her brethren. The Great Dragons felt that she was taking metahumanity's side against her own kind and convened a trial that declared her outcast.

* Lofwyr: A Great Western Dragon from Germany, Lofwyr is the richest person on Earth. You know how counterculture people want to stick it to The Man? Yeah, that's Lofwyr. He is The Man. Most of his fortune is a result of his leveraged buyout and subsequent expansion of the Saeder-Krupp industrial corporation; he lives in its headquarters in the Rhine-Ruhr Megaplex arcology. He is probably also the power behind the throne of the Gasperi Mafia family, which controls the criminal underworld in Rhine-Ruhr. His name is known and feared worldwide, and he was the direct inspiration for the Sixth World aphorism "never deal with a dragon".

==Warhammer==
Dragons have appeared since the beginning in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy]]'', but they're ironically one of the most vaguely defined parts of the lore. They will ally themselves with the [[High Elves]] and be used as powerful (and in game terms: expensive) mounts for elven lords. Aside from being intelligent, there's not much stated about them. Some dragons have also been corrupted by [[Chaos]] and fight alongside the [[Warriors of Chaos]]. In both cases, they are made out to be among the most powerful monsters in the setting, and their stats live up to it, with only few models, including [[Daemon#Greater_Daemons|Greater Daemons]], having a chance at beating them.

[[Storm of Magic]] sees the return of "Emperor dragons", huge dragons that are arguably the most powerful units in the book. Emperor dragons not allied with Chaos can also be upgraded all the way up to level four sorcerers, in addition to having nearly all 9s across their statline. This does make them extremely expensive, ruling out their use in all but the highest-point games.

Dragons also have a connection with the [[Vampire Counts|vampires]], the reason being their blood has the power to cure their otherwise ceaseless thirst for blood. [[Abhorash]] and [[Zacharias The Everliving]] being the primary beneficiaries of this, where they defeated the beast either with [[awesome|straight up glorious approach]] or just [[Noobs|cowardly draining their blood in their sleep]]. Abhorash then formed the [[Blood Dragon]]s and tells his disciples if they want some of that sweet dragon ambrosia they have to go out and earn it themselves.

Speaking of dragon slaying, it is a popular hobby in the world of ''Warhammer'', where the reason said slayers participate in such activity is to either [[Bretonnia|prove themselves]], [[Slayer|die gloriously or having the glory to kill it]], [[Blood Dragon|the aforementioned thirst for blood as well as making it serve as a pretty sweet mount in undeath]], [[Ogre Kingdoms|for food]] or [[Gotrek & Felix|just killing them for fun]].

Some prefer to just tame them by rearing them from an egg then riding them into battle when they are big enough. Races or Factions like the [[Empire]] ([[Karl Franz]]'s dragon and Elspeth von Draken's Carmine Dragon are the only example for the human, for now), the High Elves, [[Wood Elves]], Vampire Counts(undead dragon, so is more of a summoning than taming), Warriors of Chaos, and the Dark Elves examples of this.

Like in many settings, Warhammer has a number of different types, beyond the common/Emperor Dragon split.
* Sun Dragon - The youngest and smallest breed of High Elven dragons.
** Moon Dragon - Older and rarer than Sun dragons.
*** Star Dragon - The largest, most powerful, rare and eldest of all dragons.
* Black Dragon - Dragons corrupted by [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dark Elven]] magic. First of their kind was Sulekh, Malekith's second dragon (first black dragon) to replace his old one. After Sulekh's death, some Black Dragons chose to keep aiding the Dark Elves to avenge her. Sulekh was replaced by Seraphon, Malekith's third dragon (second black dragon), who Malekith instantly favored because of her ruthless action of destroying the eggs around her after hatching.
** Sea Dragon - Corrupted dragons which have grown so large they can no longer fly. The Dark Elves now use them to tow their massive ships.
* Forest Dragon - Dragons that have adapted to live in the deep forests, so long that their will now linked to the Athel Loren itself, and fight whenever the forest will. In total war warhammer, It is a forest green beast with antler growing on its head, butterfly pattern on it's wing and leaves, vines growing on its body as a proof of its connection with the forest.
* Shard Dragon - Serpentine dragons that adapted to the [[Underdark|deep places]] of the world. They would attack everything they met no matter how harmless they are. Dwarf miners often encountered and awoke these assholes slumber and were met with not only [[rape|predictable result]], also a shit tons of grudge if there were survivors. Some Runesmiths put a rune collar on them and send them to battle like how the lizard man done to the dread saurian. But knowing the Dwarfs, a few long beards would got off their chair and start bitching at the dishonorable and repugnant idea of bringing monster onto the battlefield and why not just put the trustworthy Dawi axe onto the face of the enemy.
* Chaos Dragon - Dragons perverted by the ruinous powers, typically [[Tzeentch]]. No two are said to be alike, but they tend to have two heads. Galrauch is said to be the first chaos dragon; a High Elf dragon possessed by a lord of change, it wreck peoples shit while earning hundreds of Dwarven grudges on [[Book of Grudges|The Dammaz Kron]]. Egrimm van Horstmann also has a chaos dragon called Baudros.
* [[Carmine Dragon]] - Dragons that are born tied to the amethyst winds of death magic. Elspeth von Draken being the only known to have it as a mount so far.
* [[Toad Dragon]] - Giant lumbering reptilian horrors with insatiable appetites and a frog-like tounge. Oftern serves Nurgle worshipers. Tamurkhan owned a Toad Dragon named Bubebolos and it was the most well known and the greatest of its kind.
* Zombie Dragon - Basically dead dragons raised by Vampires to become their mount.
* The Imperial Dragon - The Empire's only owned dragon (Elspeth's dragon does not count). It was taken from the deepest cave of the black mountain. Only Karl can rode it in battle. It sits in the imperial zoo of Altdorf whenever Karl rodes deathclaw to battle. It is also nameless. The poor dragon just can't be anymore popular than deathclaw huh?
* The Dragon Emperor - Not to be confused with the above entry. [[Cathay]]'s ruler is a dragon capable of taking human form. Not much is known about him, given Cathay's lack of fluff in general. But what we do know about them is that they share the same serpent like appearance like real life Asian dragon and they are awesome at being a magic caster (especially lore heaven), so awesome that they fucked up the ogre tribes living north, created the great maw and sunk a Dark Elf Black Ark. Its is also known that the Dragon Emperor is able to intercourse with human which result in many citizen in Cathay that shares their blood. Shugengan are Cathayian magic users who had Dragon blood in their vein and are talented at magic because of it.

==Warcraft==
Dragons are one of the oldest creatures in Azeroth granted great magical abilities by the Titans that shaped their world. In a reversal of their typical role, dragons in ''Warcraft'' were all originally benevolent, although their way of thinking and doing things didn't always line up with the short-term thinking of some of the mortal races. They were originally a species of proto-dragons that had wyvern-like wings which they used as forelimbs, two puny fore arms and two muscular rear legs and a tail. As a gift for their assistance in defeating the most powerful proto-dragon, Galakrond (Imagine a warhammer Ghorgon but as a dragon whose breath is so bad it literally wakes the dead), during the ordering of Azeroth the Titans altered them to be the larger and more intelligent four-legged dragons. They are segregated into five types called dragonflights each with different roles and abilities bestowed to them by one of the five Titans. Each dragonflight was assigned by a Titan to protect some aspect of their work on Azeroth while they went off to do Titan stuff else where in the universe. The leader of a dragonflight is called an Aspect, and some dragonflights still have their original Aspects.

* Red dragonflight: Led by Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, red dragons are fierce guardians of life. They were also given a degree of dominion over the other dragonflights.
* Blue dragonflight: Originally led by Malygos, and later by Kalecgos. Their domain is the aspect of magic. The blue dragonflight is said to be the least populous flight.
* Green dragonflight: Aspects of nature who have a strong bond to a realm called the [[Feywild|Emerald Dream]]. Said to be the most populous dragonflight, though most rarely venture out of the Dream. Led by Ysera the Dreamer.
**Nightmare dragons: Green dragons and their allies which have been twisted by a corruption in the Emerald Dream called the Emerald Nightmare, they now embody the negative aspects of nature such as decay and rot, and serve the Old Gods.
* Bronze dragonflight: Tasked with watching over time and making sure nobody messes with the timeline, bronze dragons are patient and reclusive. Led by Nozdormu the Timeless.
** Infinite dragonflight: Bronze dragons who go rogue, they intentionally attempt to sabotage history to prevent past calamities. Led by future Nozdormu when he finally goes batshit insane due to seeing all the cataclysms well in advance and not being able to prevent them. [[Grimdark|His current-time self is perfectly aware that will eventually happen to him (it was part of the deal making him the guardian of time to reveal his eventual end to him) but there's nothing he can do about that either!]]
* Black dragonflight: Originally aspects of earth, tasked with keeping watch of the deep places. Which backfired horribly, because that's where the Old Gods hang out! Originally led by Neltharion the Earth-Warder, later known as Deathwing, he fell to evil and the rest of his flight followed suit. Now they are all treacherous assholes and nobody likes them they and take every possible opportunity to kill them, thus they have been hunted nearly to extinction. There are two non-evil black dragons whose minds were freed from the malicious influence of the Old Gods before they were hatched thanks to titan artifacts: Ebyssian, also known as Ebonhorn, a Spirit-Walker of the Highmountain Tribe, and Wrathion, the supposed heir of Deathwing who has taken it upon himself to make sure Azeroth doesn't get fucked.
* Chromatic Dragonflight: A dragonflight created by Nefarian, one of the most prominent black dragons, through gruesome experiments, combining the features and abilities of all five flights. Almost every one of these creations were unstable, deformed, infertile and/or short-lived, with a single exception: [[Tiamat|Chromatus, a five-headed dragon]] who could only be stopped by the combined efforts of the aspects (excluding Deathwing).
* Twilight Dragonflight: Originally created by Sintharia/Sinestra, the twilight dragonflight suffered from similar problems to Nefarian's chromatic dragons. That is, until Deathwing came along and combined the efforts of both to perfect the twilight dragons, successfully creating a powerful breed of dragons that feed vampirically on all forms for energy. The twilight dragonflight was nearly driven to extinction following the Cataclysm.

Things turn bad for the dragonflights when the black dragon aspect Neltharion was corrupted by the Old Gods who were imprisoned by the Titans deep within Azeroth. He plotted to destroy Azeroth to release his new masters when the Burning Legion, an army of demonic invaders led by the fallen Titan Sargeras, began to attack Azeroth. With their world under siege, Neltharion tricked the other four dragons into lending their powers to the Dragon Soul, a powerful artifact of his design, only to betray them and use it against them slaying many dragons. This treachery caused the other dragons to go into hiding away from each other, and although Neltharion (who had now assumed the name Deathwing) was eventually defeated, the world was twice shattered by cataclysms and the Dragon Soul would resurface periodically throughout history to pain the dragonflights until its eventual destruction, which drained the flights of much of their powers, turned them mortal and made them sterile, putting the five dragonflights on the extinction clock.

Additionally, there exist other dragons that didn't ascend alongside the five main flights, but still share a similar physique and level of intelligence. An example of such is the Storm Dragons of Stormheim, and the supposed existence of a violet dragonflight of proto-drakes.

==Warmachine==
The creatures called "dragons" in the [[Iron Kingdoms]] look nothing like dragons in other worlds. Rather than winged serpentine creatures of majesty and power, the "dragons" of Caen are [[Call of Cthulhu|monstrosities of inconsistent form]] and not of this world, capable of altering the bodies and minds of other creatures in horrific ways with an exotic energy they constantly emit, an energy the people of this world simply call "blight." The only thing known about their origin is that the gods did ''not'' create them. They are immortal as long as their athanc (a kind of heartstone) is not destroyed. A dragon reproduces by chipping off a piece of its athanc and letting it generate a new body, but such offspring have an innate urge to recombine their athancs and control all the power within them. There are two dragons of significance in Caen: Dragon Lord Toruk, god and master of the [[Cryx]] faction and "father" to the other known dragons, and Everblight, a shard of Toruk that went off and did its own thing with elves and mutations, eventually creating its [[Legion of Everblight|eponymous faction]].

==Monstergirls==
[[File:The Odd Couple.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Nights out on the town/village usually result in mass panic, chaos, fires, bloodshed and various other forms of shenanigans. Have fun...]]
{{Promotions}}
{{Monstergirls}}
Dragons are large, dangerous, majestic and exotic creatures, so of course people want to fuck them. Dragons, in their normal form or a more human form are of the scaly subgroup of [[Furries]]: furries attracted to things with scales instead of fur. They have a minor reputation of being [[That Guy]] amongst the furries because they have to be so special and fuck mythological creatures instead of dogs, cats, horses, foxes, rabbits and birds like "normal" people.

While dragons in [[beastfolk|a humanoid shape]] (i.e. [[Dragonborn]]) are enjoyed by quite a few people, a large number prefer dragons in their natural shapes. For them it's about the contrast between the large and powerful dragon and their small and fragile frame: the fear makes their boners strong. There's also the perverts who want their dragons to have nonhuman genitals, which is a concept that the infamous Bad Dragon company has capitalized on by selling [[meme|their infamous dragon dildos]], which are often used as the punchline of a joke.

One of the things that dragons in ''D&D'' are infamous for is their ability to breed with just about any creature, and not being shy about it. (Just take a look at for instance the [[Song Dragon]]s.) Only Constructs and Undead can't reproduce with them, and even then it's possible to build or raise a dragon from the dead. This means that you can encounter anything from draconic [[unicorn]]s and [[owlbear]]s to draconic plants, [[slime]]s, [[aberration]]s and far worse (or better, depending on your [[Magical Realm|perspective]])).

Portraying "non-morphic" (ie: no breasts) female dragons on /tg/ in a semi-erotic light is a real act that stirs contention. On the one hand, this is a well-known part of the furry fandom. On the other hand, dragons are '''iconic''' fantasy creatures. Plus, in ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', it's canon that many dragons like to get them some non-draconic loving, with their two patron/creator gods [[Tiamat]] and [[Bahamut]] first in line to nab themselves some quality mortal ass on a regular fashion and setting the example for their progeny. And that's when said progeny hasn't evolved to breed with humanoids in the first place, see aforementioned [[Song Dragon]]s. So people will [[rage|fight bitterly]] whenever they pop up in a thread, you can guarantee.

Naturally, the idea of dragons as sexy quickly was taken up by the [[monstergirls]] crowd - in fact, one of the earliest [[/d/|Ecchi]] OVAs to make it into America was "Dragon Half", in which the main character was the [[Half-Dragon]] daughter of a female dragon and a male human, her father being sent to slay the dragon and forgetting the "s" while underway. Pink appeared as a cute girl with dinky little dragon wings, cute horns, a tail and the ability to breathe fire. In fact, Pink has actually come to be the defining archetype for the dragongirl in MG fandoms; a human girl with horns, wings, a tail and, optionally, scales on the limbs - sometimes with paw-like feet, digitigrade legs, or even paw-like hands. It helps that this tends to be pretty accurate to ''D&D's'' own depiction of half-dragon humanoids (up to the social maladjustment of having such weird parents, played for laughs in the manga). As with any "beastgirl", dragon-girls with full-body scales or weirdly-colored skin are contentious because, no matter how human their face, they may look too furry for some purists to accept.

Dragon-girls are very popular in Japanese fantasy media, especially videogames. [[Final Fantasy]] even has a race, the Gria, who are an entire species of cute dragon-girls native to Ivalice.

Strangely, despite the existence of more "player friendly" dragon races like [[Dragonborn]], [[Dray]] and [[Spellscale]]s - the latter of whom are even supposed to have evolved from [[Half-Dragon]] [[Sorcerer (Dungeons & Dragons)|sorcerers]] - the idea of reskinning these races to present them as dragon-girls never really gets mentioned. This likely has something to do with the fact that these races are less powerful than the half-dragon, and the standard "I want to be a dragon-girl!" player/DM ''also'' wants to have '''all''' of the draconic powers - [[Breath Weapon]], [[Damage Reduction]], and Flight.

===Gallery===
<center>
<gallery>
File:Dragon Housemaid.jpg|At least one of these forms will please some anon out there.
File:Asiatic Dragon Geisha.jpg|Asian dragons are beasts - or beast-girls - of a different color.
File:Red Dragongirl.png|A classic example of the monstergirl dragon.
File:Risque Dragongirl.jpg|The "scale bikini" look is popular for dragon-girls.
File:Dragongirl Princess.png|Well, when a dragon kidnaps a princess, sometimes the kingdom gets an heir out of it.
File:Draconic Shifter.jpg|There's something for everyone.
File:Dragonmorph Sorceress.jpg|Some like their dragons with breasts.
File:Dragon Sorceress.jpg|Some like their dragons au naturale.
File:Athasian Dragongirl.jpg|Even the dread [[Athasian Dragon]] isn't immune to the [[monstergirls]] treatment.
File:Faerie Dragongirl.png|A rare example of the [[Faerie Dragon]] getting the MG treatment.
File:Fem.jpg|Exhibit A in why furries & /tg/ have such a love-hate relationship.
</gallery>
</center>

===Monster Girl Encyclopedia===
Naturally, the ''[[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]]'' has its share of dragon-themed monstergirls.

The actual "Dragon" fits the same kind of style first seen on the setting's Lizardgirl; scaly limbs, paw-like hands and feet, a tail, fin-like ears, horns and wings. They are characterized by their extreme pride; whilst not quite [[tsundere]]s, they're determined to give themselves only to the best possible man.

In a terrible irony, if a Dragon fails to find a husband before she dies, the dark energies permeating the world will reanimate her as a Dragon Zombie, a corpse-colored (blue-gray skin, dark mold-green wings, white hair) dragon with bony scales. In this state, her mind has degenerated, leaving her a horny bimbo obsessed with finding a man and taking him for her mate. These dragon-girls are quite dangerous, because they possess a "rotten breath" attack that can convert human women into undead monstergirls.

The ''Wyvern'' is a dragon-girl with a more [[harpy]]-like body structure, having wings instead of arms. These are far more friendly and easy-going than the standard dragons and readily team up with human adventurers to train them as "dragoons".

The ''Wurm'' is a linnorm-style dragon-girl, essentially a massively strong [[lamia]] with paw-like hands, with an extremely lustful, aggressive personality that sees them going out and chasing after a man.

The ''Jabberwock'' is a lewd, lascivious, depraved dragon-girl from the "Wonderland" region. It can be distinguished by its dark red colors and the presence of two tentacles, each of which bears a slavering maw and lecherous tongue used to pleasure victims and guzzle semen.

Finally, there are the two dragons of Zipangu. The ''Ryu'' is another [[lamia]]-like dragon, a gentle-natured and benevolent mamono with powers to control the weather. The ''Otohime'' is an aquatic dragon-girl who resembles a mermaid with the body of a seahorse (long story; seahorses are believed by the Japanese to be connected to dragons) and clawed hands, who seduces men to join her in her life of eternal partying in her palace under the sea. Have no fear from her seahorse appearance, though; pedophilia and rape aside, the MGE is ''far'' too vanilla to allow even pegging into its setting, never mind male pregnancy.

<center>
<gallery>
File:MGE Dragon.jpg|The original Dragon mamono, proud and haughty and determined to take only the best.
File:MGE Dragon Zombie.jpg|Back from the grave, and now a shameless bimbo.
File:MGE Jabberwock.jpg|She's the Queen Slut, and she's proud of it.
File:MGE Wyvern.jpg|Loyal, steadfast and true, even if she's not the curviest of monstergirls.
File:MGE Wurm.jpg|Don't let her looks fool you; she will punch through mountains to chase you down.
File:MGE Ryu.jpg|Beloved and mystical dragon-girl of Zipangu.
File:MGE Otohime.jpg|Party-girl from below the waves.
</gallery>
</center>

===Life with Monstergirls===
Meanwhile, ''Life with Monstergirls'' has the Dragonewts. They have wings and tails like dragons, as well as some scales on their faces and clawed hands. In the series we meet a Dragonewt named Draco, who tries to steal Miia away from her darling. While initially appearing to be male she's later revealed to be a flat-chested woman who develops an obsession with Miia, and it takes a couple of bullets to her wings from Manako and a [[rape|reprimanding]] from Suu to cool her off. Other variants of the Dragonewt is the Chinese Ryu-jin who has horns and has no wings, and the aggressive but dim-witted [[Wyvern]].

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Dragon rider.jpg
</gallery>
==See Also==
*[[Johnniass Dragonraper]] is known to rape a dragon on occasion.
*[[Toothless Dragon]] the [[Dawww]]-est dragon.
*The [[Periodic Table of Dragons]].

/pol/

2020-07-02T00:29:24Z

2601:203:480:4C60:F8DB:1522:371A:B251: /* What Do? */

{{editwar}}
{{Flamewar}}
{{fail}}
{{heresy}}
{{delete| Lets just delete this and, as its eventually gonna become spammed by /pol/'s many idiotic supporters. Besides, we could always redirect this page to skub. If we don't delete this, then please permanently protect it.}}

[[File:QnVjrKW.jpg|thumb|right|300px]]

{{topquote|Gas the kikes! [[Racial Holy War|Race war]] now!|/pol/'s battlecry}}
{{topquote|1=Gentlemen, I had a vision of the future. One day because we won [[The_World_Wars#The_First_World_War|this war]], a man called Adolf Hitler will take power and he will make a lot of people angry about the Jewry. And also romani. And also the blacks. And the non-whites. Except for the Japanese, they're honorable Aryans, I guess. Also there will be a website called 4chan.org, and there will be a board called /pol/, and it will just be about what I have described. Its kind of a [[My Little Pony|one-trick-pony, except the pony is retarded]].|2=[https://youtu.be/Tj-nCjnVDKM?t=2133 The Fresh Sorcerer's accurate summary of /pol/]}}

[[Skub]]'s OTHER final form, and the polar opposite of [[SJW]].

'''/pol/''' is 4chan's "Politically Incorrect" board, nowadays mostly <s>populated by</s> used for incarcerating <s>people who identify as</s> neo-nazis, alt-righters, ancaps, edgy contrarians, and other colorful characters who rant on Jews, black people, women, Marxists, Muslims, Christians, Atheists, and every variety of white depending on the time of day. This also entails dumb shit such as long passionate debates on whether Slavic or Southern European people count as white, or complaints about Jews causing everything from financial crises to World Wars to hurting your toe on a table leg (the phrase "[[Meme|Baton Roue]]" might come to mind).

If you ask /pol/, they'll claim to be the best and most enlightened board that can see through the lies of society, while everyone from the other boards will call their userbase arguably the most obnoxious and [[cancer]]ous board on the whole site and nothing more than a far-right [[My Little Pony|containment board to prevent them spreading their cancer elsewhere]].

People who frequent /pol/ usually refer to themselves as /pol/lacks, but much more terms have been used to describe them by people outside of /pol/ such as /pol/io, /pol/luters, /pol/tards, /pol/yps, tad/pol/es, /pol/esmokers, and /pol/tergeists. The recently coined-term "alt-right" has quickly become for the right what the term SJW is for the left. On that note, some SJWs and /pol/acks aren't above having similar ''fundamental'' attitudes towards both their ideology and people who don't agree with it, which may seem odd - unless you're familiar with the idea of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory horseshoe theory] as it applies to political radical behavior, though that in itself isn't always the case.

==Origins==
...What, the above wasn't enough?

Do you REALLY want to know more about this?

...alright, fuck it. Put on the helmets and bring the bleach, this is going to be real long and real boring.

4chan's userbase is naturally a product of the industrial society, i.e. it bred a lot of NEETs and frustrated people who are largely kept in line with entertainment and porn and economic welfare, and will [[Roman Empire|gladly support any political party as long as their needs are met, inasmuch as they don't bother thinking about anything beyond their immediate well-being]]. Additionally, /b/ in particular had a history of racial supremacy expressed via memetic bigotry (i.e. using "nigger" as an insult, "faggot" as an endearing word, and "jewgolds" or "shekels" as the term for money) since around 2008, prior to the Anonymous v. Scientology clashes that brought them into more of a "spotlight". Most times it was considered little more than a joke by its userbase, just another way of ensuring that people who couldn't demonstrate thick enough skin to handle the typical level of discourse on /b/ would be driven off.

However, as time went on, people who took such things at face value began to show up more and more often - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1011498 it's been said that] "any community that gets its laughs by pretending to be idiots will eventually be flooded by actual idiots who mistakenly believe that they're in good company." Eventually, some of the aforementioned idiots began espousing positions that couldn't be dismissed as attempts at humor any longer, but were soon seen for the representation of their values that it really was.

...Then along came the economic housing bubble of 2009, and said NEETs found their bread and circuses were not enough in the face of concepts such as "darkening future" and "imminent poverty". And that opened Pandora's box, unleashing the suppressed anger (normally kept in check by porn, cheap entertainment and welfare) of the NEETizens of 4chan. Unsurprisingly, the first mention of the "alternative right" coincides around the bubble, with this "internal" discontent playing a part in their rise alongside the external 'friction' that social justice represented.

People can get defensive about their opinions about Kirk vs Picard or their taste in anime or opinions about Warhammer fluff or berate others for having opinions which they disagree with, but in the end that's just talking about fiction. In contrast politics is about stuff which actually matters to you in the Real World. Political discussions, especially online, are volatile things at the very best of times. Given that 4chan is '''''the''''' place where reasonable discussion goes to die, it was inevitable that even the calmest attempt at discussing politics quickly devolved into extremist arguments. Trolls and fanatics alike, in many points, became impossible to distinguish from one another - they either forgot whatever original aims they may have possessed, or else simply used those aims as a cover for something they now legitimately believed in and gained validation from.

''If I'm damned anyway, then what is my incentive to be "good"?'' - ''Anonymous reacting to [[SJW|Identity Politics]]''

While they gleefully embraced the Nazi accusations that both sides of a debate would make at each other - and invariably decided to supercharge the politically incorrect arguments with shitposting just to enrage their opponents further - they did all of it with only a marginal knowledge of what the issues they were arguing about even entailed at any given time, if they remotely cared at all. Thus many political arguments far too numerous to count here, from immigration to crime and race, began to take root in /b/ and quickly spread elsewhere; Moot, being the [[Tzeentch|Eternal Planner]] that he is, created /n/ (what /pol/ started as) to corral the arguments.

As you can see, [[Not as planned|it's gone swimmingly for everyone involved.]] Sort of like a multilayered monkey's paw of pure [[fail]].

===Containment Board===
[[File:Pol leaves containment.png|thumb|right|200px]]
As stated earlier, /pol/ is meant to contain the population of stormweenies (named for Stormfront, a website that can be considered a precursor to /pol/, and whose community still overlaps with them) on 4chan. Pretty much everyone, including both Moot and most of /pol/ itself, has acknowledged this; Global rule #3 was once 'Keep /pol/ in /pol/'. The rule has since been changed to a more general version saying not to post flames, racism, off-topic replies, uncalled-for catch phrases and other things that are unhelpful to a board, but since that's what /pol/ shitposting essentially IS, the rule is still the same in spirit. Several boards have a sticky at the front page telling people to keep politics in /pol/ as well.

Though /pol/ isn't the only containment board on 4chan, the other containment boards such as /mlp/ and /soc/ are considered to have better userbases - those users have (mostly) less volatile baggage and the sense to leave it ''on'' those boards. When they venture onto another board, they stay on topic and only ''occasionally'' derail threads or start inflammatory ones (complete with /tg/ [[rage|deriving]] [[lulz|entertainment]] from it), but overall aren't ''nearly'' as insufferable in comparison.

Most attempts to curb /pol/, on the other hand, result in them [[Cancer|spreading to other boards]], where they will try to de-rail the threads on those boards to whatever political event that is galvanizing them and spreading around conspiracy theories. Whenever they are told to fuck off and quit derailing threads, they will change the subject, gaslight, and say whatever it takes to counter any arguments to the point of self-contradiction - in short, anything but backing down or even just going on the defense. This hasn't stopped the board from being deleted twice throughout their history, mind, but the inevitable spread forced it to be brought back both times. Even to this day, you'll still get threads here and there that fall victim to politically-based derailing.

==/pol/ using [[Warhammer 40,000]] as propaganda==
{{topquote|Suffer not the [[xenos]] to live!|Battle cry of the [[Deathwatch]]}}

One of the greatest [[RAGE|headaches]] that /tg/ in particular has with /pol/ is the misuse of the [[grimdark]]ness and xenophobic policies of the [[Imperium of Man]] by /pol/'s [[Neckbeard|Trump supporters]], who apparently believe that he is quite possibly a modern day incarnation of [[The Emperor]], and that the Western world should really become an IRL Imperium with zero tolerance against "Xenos" and "[[Tau|Cultural Marxists]]", with lots of conspiracy theories that Trump is fighting an endless battle against the "Ruinous Powers" of Liberalism supposedly led by [[Tzeentch|George Soros]]. It's basically yet another "Jews secretly controlling the world" episode on top of the usual boogeyman of "The All-Powerful Left" already invoked by many of the "cuckservatives" the alt-right railed against at their inception.

Initially, they "helped" him the only way they knew how: shitposting about [[anime]], Pepe the Frog, and [[Touhou|Momiji Inubashiri]] in a MAGA hat. One of their most widespread propaganda involving 40k was the complete stereotyping of all Muslims as [[Ork|ultraviolent savages who reproduce by the thousands and have no other instinct than to kill, maim and pillage]], Mexicans being cast [[Tyranids|an all-consuming swarm migrating to America to consume all of its resources]], and that every single one of them should be subject to [[Exterminatus]]. AS if that wasn't insulting to all parties real and fictional, eventually they finally "invented" a shitty forced meme where [[Heresy|they put Donald Trump's head on images of the great God-Emperor of Mankind]]. Not many people find them funny, even in the rare case of the Photoshop job being decent, and the Trump buzz started to fade anyway as reality promptly ensued and people realized he was largely more of the same checkers-level propaganda volleys designed to sway voters (if "[[Derp|uber-rich American politician claiming to be the champion of the poor]]" sounds familiar to you, anyway).

The new wave of French elections brought a more horrific wave of shitposting, with [[Extra Heresy|Marine le Pen being photoshopped into Sister of Battle pictures]]. However, Le Pen lost the French election by [[Fail|a 30% margin]], much to the [[Butthurt|chagrin]] of various /pol/tards. This was possibly compounded by the fact that Le Pen's campaign partly ran off the idea of a 'Frexit', only for Le Pen to abandon the entire idea post-election; between this and the Trump supporters in the userbase becoming nigh-indistiguishable from the more stereotypical ones, it proves for the umpteenth time that relying on any kind of political figurehead for overall validation is a universally bad idea.

Given 40k had its start as a ''satire'' of dystopian fiction and a bitter, ironic reflection of right-wing 80s Britain (see also: [[Rogue Trader]]), other right-wingers latching onto 40k-memery as a vehicle for demagoguery, propaganda and appeals to emotion, and further conflating it with modern politics is perhaps a schadenfreudish circle finally come complete. Without the original context, they see nothing more than an unironic heroic fantasy that validates their beliefs, rather than the proper mockery that it constitutes. Needless to say, many in /tg/ find such inclusion of real world politics in our 40k to be a sad, idiotic and pathetic phenomenon that should be punished by summary [[Exterminatus|SAGE'ing]].

==Ideology and Methodology (such as it is)==
While the full history of the SJW phenomenon is way too complicated to describe on their page and is usually less relevant to /tg/ (at least far less so than interactions with other boards on the site), suffice to say that while SJWs are the product of modern civil rights movements [[Ultramarines|who blindly adhere to the LETTER of a given progressive political creed's code of conduct without understanding the spirit of it]], /pol/acks essentially aspire to become the uber-racist, sexist, [[Chaotic Stupid|hyper-reactionary]] [[Marines Malevolent|card-carrying degenerates]] they think the other side believes them to be.

That this is (again) close to the same way some SJWs would come to conduct themselves - down to and including the general rudderlessness, the ''typical'' response to anyone who doesn't share their opinion, and the general prevalence of bullshit artists as figureheads - may explain why /pol/, by and large, seem so eager to join them in the race to the bottom. However, the horseshoe theory only holds water if you have the most basic and binary grasp of the political spectrum; everyone likes to think their "side" is the most rational.

Admittedly, badly implemented and ham-fisted progressive policies tend to alienate the people not supported by them, just like any other political policy, and it's not uncommon for social justice narratives (or ANY kind, really, but specifically these) to be astroturfed and exploited by politicians and corporations alike, as well as the grifters out for social currency. Thus, some people feel an instinct to rebel against a status quo that supposedly coddles and encourages "white guilt" and "political correctness gone mad", while others seek out the "rightful" social positioning they couldn't get elsewhere - and still others are looking for fresh marks after their recruitment pool in other activist circles went dry. From these groups, the edgiest and the craziest form the core of /pol/.

However, any analysis going beyond the surface for more than five minutes would recognize progressive lip service to be just that - lip service designed to appease 'SJW' demands rather than actually meet them. In addition, the "horseshoe theory" school of thought seems slightly more merited upon recognizing that, when they're not using it as a thoroughly cynical ploy to draw attention and stir shit, /pol/acks will use eerily similar rhetoric to signal their own virtues of traditional values, being "rational" thinkers, and otherwise acting in defense of "freedom", at least when they're genuinely believing anything beyond what directly benefits them. The words "refuge in audacity" should come to mind for the [[TVTropes|tropers]] in the audience, albeit in a far more disingenuous sense - the right to offend and be irreverent is elevated to a sacred cow, which is about as self-defeating as it sounds.

That said, most /pol/tergeists have no idea how anything actually works - even the basics of their own most common political beliefs are notoriously flimsy (if not OUTRIGHT blatant) myths and lies, often more than the SJWs they denigrate. The average /pol/ user tends to conduct themselves and their approach to politics across the board with all the nuance and subtlety of any given sportsball fandom, even '''before''' the slow bleeding of the glorified sportsball spectacle that is modern mainstream politics into the board itself commenced. While 4chan at large is and always has been something of a self-sustaining shitshow even at its best, /pol/ is (ostensibly) despised even by the rest of the userbase because they take their views to the logical "conclusion" and render themselves little more than bizarre caricatures.

Example of such nonsensical claims include: Stalin being a Jew (he was Georgian and a major anti-Semite to boot; the Jewish influence, of course, was mainly from Trotsky, which makes it all the more ironic); the first reports of Nazi death camps came from the Soviets (it came from Poland); most welfare recipients being unemployed black people (evidencing a misunderstanding of "majority" and "disproportionate number", as most people on welfare are white and only use it for 3 years or less); and the British Empire started declining by 1800 (their Golden Age was from 1816-1915, with Jews very well represented). And the coup de grace theory to rule over them all is another theory, "The Khazar Theory", that the real good Jews are actually all white people (Jacob's sons), while all the stereotypical Jews are [[Mongols|Khazar nomads' descendants]]. [[What|Yes, this is your brain's sound when it shifts without the clutch.]]

This is indicative of one of the biggest problems with /pol/, even more than not staying in their containment board: its denizens suffer from a board-wide Dunning-Kruger effect, believing themselves expert authorities on a multitude of subjects that individually take years of study at minimum, and shitpost and overuse bad memes as a substitute for wit and intelligence, ignoring that even the most casual Googling could debunk most of their narratives. Even Stormfront (which was run by an actual member of the Ku Klux Klan at one point, if it somehow still isn't) had ''slightly'' more principle; gods help you if you enter /pol/ from Israel.

Whenever a meme becomes popular on /pol/, they will begin forcing the meme on every other board, rapidly driving it so far into the ground that it will come out on the other side of the planet before the day is out. The memes they spam tend to be childish insults that will only impress people below 18. It says a lot about their board when getting merged with /mlp/ during an April Fools' joke '''improved''' it.

'''TL;DR:''' Even ignoring their disgusting traits AND putting aside "keep /pol/ in /pol/" talk, /tg/ remembers first and foremost that /pol/ is a containment board for a ''very good'' reason.

===Connections with the Christchurch Mosque Attacks===
<span style='font-size:125%'>{{BLAM|This section concerns the attacks on the Christchurch Mosques in New Zealand, the consequences of which affected the entire board, and by extension /tg/.}}</span>

Brenton Tarrant, the 28-year-old man who attacked two Mosques in Christchurch, NZ, apparently identified as a "/pol/ack" and made a <s>detailed</s> barely literate manifesto mostly in the form of a "Q&A," containing absolutely zero original political thought and nary a trace of coherent ideology besides repetition of the basic White Nationalist complaints of a Western demographic upheaval (the "fourteen words," basically). It is all the more pathetic because he characterizes the poorly-formatted PDF as a ''magnum opus'' of three years' worth of political growth; one critical point of [[Derp|critical fuckstupid]] is his admiration for Communist China, known for its violation of basic human rights, especially free speech, against the Muslim Uyghurs of and even its Han (the dominant Chinese ethnic group) citizens.

Even '''/pol/ itself''', for all its numerous faults, practically worships the concept of the free exchange of ideas: A common point of contention with SJWs, perceived and otherwise, is freedom of debate and free speech at all costs, especially when it's offensive...at least, up until the point where their '''''own''''' views are challenged, of course. Then they suddenly decide that maybe censorship isn't so bad after all, which explains quite a lot about the board's fascist sympathies.

Said manifesto referenced several questionably tasteful memes (prominently, "remove kebab"), and the fucking degenerate actually went so far as to shout out those memes in public and play [[/v/|video game soundtracks]] and songs that /pol/ has turned into memes, while actively shooting people and live-streaming it. Sick fuck. Naturally, this means more conversations about the impact of the Internet/social media and technology in general and its role in the lives of disaffected millennials (and doing it full justice is a tall order and a half); the level of disconnect displayed, even by the expected standards of radical politics, that would allow a person to take a life while joyfully shouting silly sayings from the Internet like he was at an anime convention is disgusting and hard to fathom.

His goal, apparently, was to cause more hysteria and retribution: in his manifesto, he specifically spoke of wanting to stir up shit regarding ''inter alia'', laws regarding the rights of free speech and bearing arms which, in his mind, would lead to civil war and an ultimate victory for his ideology, such as it is. He imagined himself becoming a full martyr for the cause, or else incarcerated and (if the latter) perhaps later to be broken out of jail by a movement inspired by his "noble actions"...and yet few people online seem to consider his actions or their results desirable, even among those who would inevitably be even ''remotely'' 'sympathetic' to his cause. The only ones who would wholeheartedly support him were likely deadset on their ideology to begin with.

This, along with his choice to attack extremely soft targets (including women, children, and mainstream, non-radical places of worship), is enough to demonstrate that he was not a political actor in any real sense, but rather amounts to the perpetrator of an incident far more serious and tragic. Rather than a "proper 'domestic [i.e. white] terrorist'" (say, Timothy McVeigh), he comes across more as an aimless man on a demented rampage.

By virtue of being a white man in a European culture instead of, say, a member of a rival sect in an Islamic country, his attack on a mosque actually makes international headlines for more than five minutes; with his point well out the window, his pathetic attempts at justifying his attack only harmed his cause in the imagination of the general public and even amongst his peers. Needless to say, the consequences of his actions were quite serious: political groups of which he was a member or tangentially related to are being attacked by the government, despite their having no part in the violence, and the blood was not yet dry when the PM said that New Zealand's already highly restrictive gun laws "had to change". Most directly relevant to /tg/, their neighbor Australia [[Exterminatus|banned access]] to 4chan, 8chan and ''even fucking LiveLeak'' for distributing video of the massacre, which indirectly fucks over that entire sector of the userbase(s), likely due to the fact that the shooter, Brenton, is an Australian.

As if that wasn’t enough, the level of irony to Tarrant’s actions defies reality. Tarrant was fixated on mass migration in his manifesto, but thanks to his attack, New Zealand (and possibly other western countries) will accept EVEN MORE migrants from the Middle East and Africa in an effort to show that they’re tolerant of said migrants despite Tarrant’s attack. Way to go.

Though /pol/, with its vulgar and juvenile approach to issues of demography and race, is a tempting target to assign blame for his actions, 4chan might not be the genesis of his personal dissatisfaction; if the manifesto is to be trusted (itself a dicey proposition) he had apparently become interested in racial questions while touring the world and seeing the demographic changes which are afflicting Europe first hand. The problem is that when shitposting manchildren drink their own Kool-Aid and take up their guns alongside to murder innocent people, the average reasonable person can make a connection between the violence and the [[Star Wars|wretched hives of scum and villany]] said bad actors frequent, and so here we are.

This isn't entirely news to these folks, of course: "screw your optics, I'm going in" was how the last significant /pol/ terrorist put it, before attacking a defenseless synagogue which had no remote relation to any of /pol/'s 'concerns'. The inherent cowardice in that aspect of ''that'' attack and the most recent one are only one of the ways in which they are alike, but one of the most telling, not least because it begs the question of why the phrase "the last significant /pol/ terrorist" is even applicable.

Any reasonably well-adjusted person from anywhere on the political spectrum can see that the culture and posters of /pol/ are what give it its unfathomably bad name, which by extension affects already-considered-malignant *chan subculture such that one would be hard-pressed to assert otherwise. Inasmuch as /pol/acks even take their own putative ideas seriously, they don't tend to do themselves any favors - on- OR off-line. In addition, despite 4chan supposedly not being the birthing place for the ideals of Mr. Tarrant, the fact that it can now be tangibly tied to such people AND the resulting Australian lockdown on 4chan/8chan/etc. is certain to impact perception of the board and anyone seen as aligned with them - likely for the worse.

==What Do?==

{{editwar}}

If you encounter a /pol/ack, treat them with love and respect, and politely but firmly tell them to live.. Let's be better than them. Maybe that will teach them some basic decency. They are human beings suffering from a horrible disease called hatred and ignorance. Set a good example of what a human should be like. If you are not capable of remaining calm just avoid them. They are easier to ignore and kick out than [[SJW]]s. If you are good at debating, that is worth nothing here. DO NOT DEBATE THESE PEOPLE, EVER. They claim to be willing to debate but what they actually do has the sole goal of humiliating you. They will use every rhetorical trick in the book - changing the subject, never going on the defense etc. - to avoid ever letting you have a win, ever. Don't even give them the chance.

==See Also==
*[[SJW]]s, the (mostly) left-leaning "contrast" to /pol/'s alt-right twattery, subjected to constant, though often inaccurate, comparisons due to hypocrisy and similar but better justified zealotry. Some major distinctions are that SJWs have much more influence in the media and have produced less violence than /pol/ and generally their goals are more noble (though they go about accomplishing those goals completely the wrong way, which makes them more obnoxious).
*[[/k/]]
*[[Board-tans/pol]]
*[[Racial Holy War]], for what the rest of 4chan thinks would happen if a /pol/ack made an RPG.
*[[MYFAROG]], for when a /pol/ack actually made an RPG.
*[[Nazi]], what these guys ''wish'' they were.
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBpijRDDOxQ An appropriate response] to the forced Trump meme.

==Gallery==
<gallery class="center">
File:First_visit_to_pol.gif
File:1477229948688.jpg
File:Never Relax.jpg
File:1491144651231.png
File:1475903382909.jpg
File:Global Rule -3.jpg
File:Shitpost.png
File:1490344868585.jpg
File:1518620305269.jpg
File:1517880145411.png
File:Srgfd.png|All anyone needs to know.
File:1495590391196.png|Same as before but adapted to new memes.
File:5680446+_b10ddaacb84c03cf89b71c1f1327e25b.jpg|Cap doing what Cap does best.
File:Back_to_pol.jpg|The appropriate dismissal of all /pol/tards.
File:1481725926368.jpg|Some guy on Stormfront planning on using /pol/ as ''agitprop''.
File:1488601566861.jpg|/pol/tards delude themselves into thinking that it's only liberals who dislike them.
</gallery>

[[Category: Meme]][[Category: 4chan]][[Category: RAGE]][[Category:Pure Evil]]