The first thing you have to know about dragons is they are not at all like the nasty versions so often portrayed in fairy tales, movies and books. Dragons can often not only be helpful and kind, but also smart. They are of a race centuries old, who developed language and true feelings long before humans ever walked the Earth. The following information has been passed down from dragon to dragon (and even the occasional human) for millenia.
Amphitere: This type of dragon can be found in Britan, the Middle East, and Egypt. Their appearance is similar to a gigantic snake with one pair of legs and a pair of wings. Their wings are usually feathered, and sometimes their bodies as well. They have been worshipped as Quetzecoatls in many South American countries, and are rumored to have all sorts of magical powers. They also are thought to know all the secrets of the world save one.
Wyvern: A huge lithe killing machine, wyverns love fighting,especially with other dragons. Their squabbles have laid entire countrysides to ruin, and there is nothing they like to eat better than each other (and an occasional knight). They boast gleaming teeth twice as long as your hand (sometimes longer) a tail with a sharp poisoned horn upon it and tough, saw-edged scales. Wyverns are usually a dirty red or sickly green. They range in size from human to gigantic.
Lindworm: This is a really long, worm-like dragon that has no wings nor back legs. It's just about the only dragon from the Americas, and Marco Polo described them in detail in his journals while exploring the "New World". The have powerful front legs which they use to push themselves across the soil, and a long, muscular tail which they often use to unhorse riders and then eat their mounts. Horses are one of their favorite foods, and once in a while you find one residing near a stable. Living in tunnels and streams when they are very young, and moving to rivers and caves later on, they have very sharp eyesight and can see in the dark like a cat. They also grow at a faster rate than other dragons, about the same speed as people, where other dragons live hundreds of years. Many believe that the Lindworm is only a semi-dragon, and that it's ancestors may have bred with a serpent or other reptile long ago.
Chinese Dragon: These dragons are believed to have a camel head, cow ears, demon eyes, a snake neck, clam belly, tiger feet, eagle claws, 117 carp scales which have 81 of them yang essence and 31 ying. Males often have a pearl under the skin and scales on their necks. They go through a lot of changes taking 3,000 years, for a total of 7 forms. Most people see or think of them in their 6th form. Many of these Eastern dragons will freely bless you happiness and wealth, and they are often found in bodies of water, even a raindrop. They are invisible, and their voice is the sound of gongs and jingling coins, but they can become visible by turning into a newt or snake to visit our world. They have no wings, for they fly by riding on the earth's magnetic current. Celestial Chinese dragons have five claws on each paw, and are said to live in and guard the palaces of dead nobility and the gods.
Leviathan: When God made life, he made a Leviathan and counterparted it with Behemoth, who lives in the desert because it is extremely large. On Doomsday, the Christian Bible says that God will kill them both, therefore ending the earth.
Serpent Whale: Similar to the Legendary Loch Ness Monster, but witout a neck. Basically a whale or large dolphin with a dragon head. They are water-dwelling.
Tiamat: Before Earth was populated with humans, ther were only two dragons, Tiamat and Aspu. Tiamat was ruler of the salt water and Aspu of the fresh. Tiamat became pregnant, and she and Aspu had not dragons but human shaped gods. One named Marduk killed his father and then killed his mother by cutting her in half and making land out of one halfand sky out of the other.
Tatzelworm: This dragon has the appearance of a snake and the forearms of a cat. Many Sicilian farmers have seen it, and a few have even claimed to kill it. They consider it a great threat to both themselves and their farms. It has not yet been formally discovered by science.
Bunyip: The Bunyip lives in Austrailia. It has the body of a cow, the tail of a whale, the head of the bulldog, horns and is considered one of the largest types of dragons. The Bunyip is thought to have created the first black swans from a human tribe.
Sirrush of Babylon: The Sirrush was first found painted on the walls of on buildings in Babylon. Unlike most mythological animals, the image wasn't painted differently over time. Many believe that it was modeled after a living dinosaur in a swamp. It is called mokele-mbembe by the natives, and resembles a brontosaurus with claws that is twice the size of a human. Since the swamp it lives in is almost inaccesable, it hasn't been formally discovered but it has seen by a lot of people on many ocasions. It looked the same to all of them.
Dragonet/Dragonlet: This is a full grown dragon about the legnth of your finger that is exteremly poisonous to the touch and can breathe flames or spit acid. The Dragonlet is a baby dragon that was very recently hatched from the egg. They are *extremely* similar in appearance, and some say that there is really no difference between the two except for age.
Peluda: A neo-dragon with a back like a porcupine. They behave very much like wyverns, except the fact that they cannot fly and their back is covered with *extremely* sharp quills.
Hydra: According to Greek Legend, the Hydra was a type of dragon with nine heads, one of which was immortal. The others were just as bad to an ambitious hero, because as one was cut off, two more grew in it's place. Hercules' second labor was to slay one which lived in a swamp in Lerna. He finally suceeded by searing the neck of each mortal head as it was chopped off, and burying the immortal one under a rock.
Salamander: Salamanders really exist, but there is a legendary kind that was thought to be immune to fire. They lived in the center of the Earth, and their voices were the popping and hissing of flames. Every once in awhile, they were believed to do a ceremonial dance within the flames. During the time of colonial witch hunts, "witches" were believed to be able to turn into salamanders to escape the flame of the stake if the wished. It was another lose-lose test; if you escaped alive, you were a witch and were killed another way, if you died, you weren't a witch, but you were dead so it didn't really matter to you anyways.