The mysterious dragon
The mysterious dragon is an unofficial name for the unidentified, golden dragon that appears in Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation. The details of the creature are never outright explained, but several subtle clues allow players to put the pieces together and uncover the truth.
Appearances
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation
The dragon appears along with the Hero, Carver, Milly, and Mortamor on the cover art of the super famicom version of the game. Within the title itself, the dragon appears twice at Murdaw's Keep to fly the cast over the untrekable crags and into the castle itself. In both instances it is called forth by Milly playing a melody on her ocarina.
Connections to Ashlynn
The dragon is in fact the missing body of Ashlynn, and this is supported by three points in the game and in a 2014 interview with Yūji Horii:
- When Mortamor destroyed Sorceria fifty years ago, Ashlynn's soul fled into the dream world along with those of the other citizens, but her body was never stated to have been destroyed unlike her peers who all felt the loss of their physical forms.
- Ashlynn refuses to land on the island of Murdaw, stating that something doesn't feel right about doing so. This is typically chalked up to her being frightened of the upcoming battle, but Ashlynn had already journeyed with the cast and fought against the false Murdaw--she would have no reason to fear the fiend in the real world. Rubiss states that the island Murdaw lurks on has a history of attracting evil, and that she created the ocarina to allow heroes to penetrate the unscalable cliffsides and strike at the heart of darkness. Even with her amnesia, Ashlynn would not totally forget the instructions of a Goddess and subconsciously knew to withdraw from the party to carry them to the battleground. when the ocarina is played.
- This point is reinforced in the Nintendo DS remake, where the dragon will never reappear at the cliffside camp after Murdaw's death and Ashlynn rejoining the party. In the SF version, the dragon would always appear when players reached the precipice even with Ashlynn present--such a small detail would not have been edited if it did not have a deeper meaning.
- When the party defeats Gracos and unseals Sorceria in the dream world, a woman inside the central building of the town explains that sorcerians have the power to detach their souls from their physical bodies. Those with enough magical strength can even transform their bodies, and the woman states that as Ashlynn is the descendant of the great sorceress who founded the village, she could transform her body into anything and specifically mentions a dragon.
"We Sorcerians have the power to detatch our souls from our physical forms. If we're blessed with enough magical might, we can even transform our bodies. Ashlynn the Acolyte has the blood of Sorceress Ashmerelda coursing through her veins. I bet she could turn into anything...even a dragon!"
The golden dragon has noticeably softer and more feminine facial features than is typical for Akira Toriyama's dragon designs, even Lizzie, and the presence of a seemingly minor NPC being placed front and center with a large portion of the main cast on the original box art is highly conspicuous if the dragon was only meant to appear in two brief cutscenes.
In addition to the evidence within the game, Yūji Horii has stated in a May 27th, 2014 interview for DQX-TV, a program based on the tenth game, that the hints indeed allude to Ashlynn and the dragon being one in the same. He further elaborates, explaining that the dragon, Rubiss, and the ocarina were to have been more fleshed out in the final product but this was set aside due to time constraints with the game's development and his simultaneous obligations with Chrono Trigger. With this revelation being made on public television after being only hinted towards for nearly tow decades, it may be that the situation is further clarified in a future remake of the title.
Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road
The dragon appears as part of Milly's special move, carrying her and assailing the enemy monster team.
