Ebony Gate is a high-octane urban fantasy full of assassins and dragon magic, and set in San Francisco’s Chinatown. To prepare themselves for this thrilling series-starter, authors Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle had to hit the books before they wrote one. Now they’re here to talk us through some of their dragonic research!
Check it out!
by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle
We went looking for a creature of fire, but what we found was a water god.
When we started writing Ebony Gate we knew we wanted to weave in dragons, but as children of diaspora we also wanted to incorporate the mythology of Asia, and the fantastic worlds that we learned of through our parents. In Chinese literature, Lóng is the closest analog to the Western dragon. Although it is visually similar to the Western dragon, Lóng occupies a different space in Asian myth and took our world-building in new directions.
Researching Chinese dragons presented a few challenges:
- The sources were in Chinese and we couldn’t read them;
- The sources were translated but super expensive university press books;
- The sources were at a university library but it was lockdown; and
- The sources were in the public domain and suffered from orientalism.
So we had to filter quite a bit and what struck us were all the differences between Western and Eastern dragons.
The dragons we grew up with (Dungeons and Dragons, et al) were predominantly fire-breathers, although tabletop gaming brought us ice, poison, and acid breathers as well. Lóng are almost exclusively water and weather gods, with the power to control both. Good and bad weather was often attributed to the moods of dragons.
The research we were able to access was filled with water imagery.
“Like the deities of other countries, the Chinese dragon-god (and the Japanese dragon) may appear in different shapes—as a youth or aged man, as a lovely girl or an old hag, as a rat, a snake, a fish, a tree, a weapon, or an implement. But no matter what its shape may be, the dragon is intimately connected with water. It is a “rain lord” and therefore the thunder-god who causes rain to fall.”
In Western fiction, the dragon is either a terrifying antagonist (Smaug, Maleficent) or a beast companion (Dragonriders of Pern, How to Train Your Dragon). There is no such occurrence in Chinese culture, though. Chinese Dragons are gods and don’t casually interact with mortals. Instead of villains raining fire and swooping in to steal cattle, Chinese dragons were the symbol of the emperor.
In ancient China, the power attributed to the dragon reads as both awesome and lyrical.
“The dragon dwells in pools, it rises to the clouds, it thunders and brings rain, it floods rivers, it is in the ocean, and controls the tides and causes the waters to ebb and flow as do its magic pearls … and it is a symbol of the emperor.”
The Chinese Dragon is typically serpentine, with a long body, four small legs, and sometimes wings. The dragon’s face usually has long whiskers. Chinese dragons are also very specifically referenced by name. The Great Dragon Father has nine offspring who are referenced by name, even before the Ming dynasty. They are fantastical hybrids and they can be seen all over Chinese architecture today.
For Ebony Gate, we loved the imagery of Yázì, which is a wolf/dragon hybrid. Yázì is depicted on a fan that leads our protagonist, Emiko, to a mysterious auction for a lost artifact. Cháofēng is a dragon/phoenix hybrid that is used on rooflines as a protective talisman and adorns the cornices of Emiko’s house as part of her magical security system.
We took all these differences between Western and Eastern dragons and used them as a framework for the worldbuilding of Ebony Gate. One similarity that we found and kept was their trait of hoarding treasure. Instead of distant deities or passive statues, our versions of the Nine Sons of the Dragon were actual gods living amongst their followers. They hoarded people, in addition to treasure, and imbued them all with their various magic. These people call themselves Lóng Jiārén and are living descendants of the dragons they served.
Lóng served as the genesis for our world and the magic of its people. All the rules that Lóng Jiārén live by, and their conduct flows from being in service of Lóng. But it’s the nature of man to twist things, dragon magic or not. After populating our world with dangerous people with the power of dragons, we knew our hero had to break the mold.
Emiko is diaspora, like us, but magical diaspora. Born without dragon powers, she doesn’t fit in either the world of the Lóng Jiārén, or with regular people. She only has her swords and tenacity to survive amongst her deadly peers. And in our world of dragons and monsters, it’s not the dragon who you should be afraid of—it’s Emiko.
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