Oriental Dragon Mythology

Note: I tweaked the actual mythology for my own storytelling purposes, and added some Western mythology. So I guess I’ll tell you my version.

There are four immortal dragon kings, over each Sea, East, West, South, and North, and they have specific elements that they may control.

East king: Water

West king: Fire

South king: Earth

North king: Wind

Huangdi, the First Emperor of China who was immortalized and granted rule over Heaven (turned into a dragon and called the Jade Emperor), appointed a dragon King to rule over the first four, settle disputes between them, and maintain peace. However, the first dragon King grew corrupted, and Huangdi was forced to curse the dragon King line, so that when each King reached his prime, he would be killed by his son, and the cycle would start over again. So, this dragon King is more powerful than the four kings of the Seas, but he is mortal and the Sea kings are not. Also, the kings of the Seas live in their respective waters, in crystal palaces underwater guarded by the marine life there. The dragon King lives on the continent, in the middle of the Seas.

It didn’t matter whom dragon Kings married. Regardless of whether they were human, demon, dragon, or animal, the brides would always bear a dragon, soon to be a dragon King. They would have to be marked, especially the weaker species, so that they could be protected from harm. The mark would also symbolize the marriage.

Dragons have human forms, like demons. The more powerful the dragon, the more humanoid is his form.

I got all my mythology ideas from like, a billion different books/myths including the Hollow Kingdom trilogy, Inuyasha the manga (obviously), the actual Chinese myth about Huangdi, and general Western and Chinese mythology.

Name Meanings:

This was just too juicy. I had to include them

Meihua: Beautiful flower
Meishan: Beautiful mountain
Shanyue: Mountain moon
Shanhe: Mountain river
Shanhuo: Mountain fire

Any OC names I didn't include were either random Chinese/Japanese phonemes or I forgot them.