Welcome to my Draconic ID profile!

"Laat niets en niemand het vuur in jouw drakenhart ooit doven."

I'm Bluefire, a charcoal-black European dragon with a blue fire breath. I'm the creator of Draconic ID, a passion project I've poured a lot of love and time into. Welcome to my profile, and thank you for using the site!

Bluefire & Ven

Love you with heart and soul, Ven. 💙

Awakening

"If I find myself a desire no human experience can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was not meant to be one."

For as long as I remember I always imagined turning into different creatures at night. From dolphins, to robots, to birds, there was something deeply comfortable about escaping my body this way, a way of putting myself to sleep every night. I have questioned why, only to come to the simply conclusion that it is because it is.

At some point, I acquired a fascination for dragons. Not one I can explain, however. No source — a movie, a game or a book — I can blame for planting the idea in my head. Simply a love that came from deep inside of myself. They are beautiful and powerful, yes, but even without these things there was a feeling that dragons capture that pull me closer towards them.

With that fascination also came a curiosity. What would it be like to be one? Beginning with creatures that were dragon-like, since the day I imagined myself as a fully-fledged dragon I have not imagined myself as anything else ever since.

A Fateful Event

"A Fateful Event", drawn by Rhaeloth.

During this time, I decided to join a role-playing forum to collaboratively writes stories. I had created a dragon character to play with, the one I imagined myself being every night, one that I felt comfortable with and slowly grew more fond of over time. Writing from a dragon's point of view gave me an ever deeper connection to dragon life. The attempts to play as other characters with different species and background were to no avail.

Bluefire (By Tooth and Claw Dragons)

First art piece of Bluefire commissioned, drawn by R8A-creations, originally for By Tooth and Claw Dragons.

One day, it clicked. I wasn't playing so much this dragon character. Rather, this dragon character was playing me. It took me a while to understand what exactly that meant. Logically, that idea was outrageous. And yet, what I would do to be that dragon given every other circumstance about my current life stays the same. I was too scared to give into these feelings and kept telling myself it must be mere escapism.

I halted my self-exploration for a while until I discovered alt.fan.dragons, a Usenet discussion group about dragons. Little did I know it was home to people identifying as dragons too. Someone had posted a link to a private Discord server, and I joined not knowing what was waiting me there. I assumed that these people were role-playing as dragons — what else could they be doing? But as I spent spent time on this server, it dawned on me that these people were being, rather than playing dragons. I learned it was a server for dragonkin, and when I researched this topic, I felt a strange combination of shock, validation and feeling of belonging. This is the place where I got to meet dragons for the very first time, and no longer was I scared to tackle my feelings regarding being a dragon now knowing I was not on my own.

Ever since I continued my journey of self-exploration, joining several dragon communities and meeting friends for life along the way. Nowadays, I tend to be active on Dragonkin.EU, a community I started with a group of friends for dragonkin living in Europe. We regularly organise events both online and in-dragon. It is thanks to this community I met the love of my life, Ven. 💙

A New Dawn

"A New Dawn", drawn by Ven.

After getting Dragonkin.EU off the ground, I started work on Draconic ID in an effort the bring the wider dragon(kin) community together. I could not have been happier with the result. It has been incredibly heart-warming to see the world map come to life, being inhabited by the many wonderful dragons around the world. I am looking forward to the many adventures to come, the many places to explore and the many dragons to meet!

Hobbies

"As the soul is shaped for a certain life, life's experiences shape the soul."

Writing

I love to exchange letters with friends. Yup, the handwritten kind. It is a moment to relax, unplug from the chaos of daily life and solely focus on the way you feel, putting these on paper and sharing these with a dear friend. With time, you begin to add personal flourishes, like custom made stamps in my case. And then, when you get a reply, it is a little wonderful surprise in your letterbox.

Stamp 1 Stamp 2 Stamp 3 Stamp 4 Stamp 5

I am also writing in that I am working on my own novel. I don't want to spoil too much yet, but it is a way for me to give my personal life experience form. The form of a story that is fantasy yet feels so real.

Translated fragment (English)

Help me escape

Standing at the edge, I breathed in the thin air deeply through my nose. We were high in the mountains, lightly covered in snow, but it was clear that greenery was beginning to reclaim its territory. Around our mountain, a veil of leaves, pine trees, and grass colored the surface. Unlike less than a week ago, the murmurs of awakened animals echoed in the distance and the lush scent of spring overwhelmed my senses. I glanced back, where I saw my parents standing, their white figures nearly fading into the snow. 'Don't go too far,' I heard them say, without them actually saying a word. A loving warmth radiated from their gaze. I turned around again and glanced at the cliff that had been tempting me all this time. I made myself tall. The caressing fresh breeze, the inviting clear blue sky, the rays of sunlight invigorating me, the urge to embrace the horizon and leave everything behind. How I'd missed this feeling.

Adrenaline surged through my body and my heartbeat quickened. I tensed my muscles and took a deep breath before instinct took over. I knew this feeling intimately. It propelled me to run forward and brave the abyss, let me feel how the wind lifted me, and before I knew it, I was airborn.

…

The blaring sound of my alarm startled me out of bed. I struggled to open my eyes. Confused and disoriented, I stared at my hands and the room around me. With a groan, I managed to turn off the alarm. The drowsiness I felt massaged away the last fragments of my vivid, energetic dream from memory.

Original fragment (Dutch)

Help me ontsnappen

Aan de afgrond staande ademde ik de ijle lucht diep door mijn neus. We zaten hoog in de bergen, waar het licht besneeuwd was, maar het was duidelijk te zien dat groen weer zijn plek begon op te eisen. Om onze berg kleurde een sluier van bladeren, dennen en gras het oppervlak. Anders dan nog geen week geleden, was geroezemoes te horen van dieren die zich hadden ontwaken. De weelderige geur van lente overrompelde mijn zintuigen. Ik keek achter me, waar ik mijn ouders zag staan, hun witte gestalte nog net niet verdwijnend in de sneeuw. 'Ga niet te ver,' hoorde ik ze nog zeggen, zonder dat ze iets zeiden. Een liefdevolle warmte was in hun blik te zien. Ik draaide me weer om, en gluurde naar de klif die me al deze tijd had liggen te verleiden. Ik maakte me groot. De strelende frisse bries, de uitnodigende helderblauwe lucht, de zonnestralen die me tot leven werkten, de drang de horizon te omhelzen en alles achter je laten. Wat heb ik dit gevoel gemist.

Adrenaline gierde door mijn lijf en mijn hartslag versnelde. Ik spande mijn spieren aan, en nam een diepe teug adem voordat instinct overnam. Het gevoel kende ik door en door. Het liet me naar de afgrond rennen, liet me voelen hoe de wind me optilde, en voordat ik het wist, was ik in de lucht.

…

Het blèrende geluid van mijn alarm liet mij uit bed schieten. Ik deed een poging mijn ogen te openen. Verward en gedesoriënteerd keek ik naar mijn handen en de kamer om me heen. Met een kreun wist ik het alarm uit te zetten. De slaperigheid die ik voelde, masseerde de laatste stukjes van mijn gefragmenteerde herinneringen aan de energieke, levendige droom weg.

Geocaching

Geocaching can be seen as a real-world, outdoor treasure-hunting game. You use a GPS device such as your phone to hide or seek containers called "geocaches" or "caches" hidden all over the world. The coordinates of geocaches around you can be found online.

It is a great excuse to get outside. Geocaches are hidden in places you would never think to look, perfectly embodying the phrase "it's about the journey, not the destination": hidden parts of a city not mentioned in any tour guide, a forest in your neighbourhood you did not know exist or a hill with a beautiful panorama view you would not have climbed otherwise.

The Dragon Cache

I have also hidden my own "Dragon Cache". Not very hidden, but the difficulty is in convincing the dragon you are worthy of his hoard. It is namely an interactive mobile game experience involving a story and a puzzle. Only when you successfully complete this game will the locker unlock. Did I spend way too much time making this? Absolutely.

Amateur Radio

I'm a licensed operator! My go-to hardware is the AnyTone AT-D878UVII Plus radio, with the Baofeng UV-5R as my secondary radio for long-distance trips. A Raspberry Pi Model 3B running W0CHP-PiStar-Dash (WPSD) combined with the MMDVM_HS_Dual_Hat serve as a DMR hostpot, connected to the Brandmeister network.

I also do QSL cards! These are a way to acknowledge a connection took place between two people. Many aspire to collect QSL cards from operators all over the world. In my case, I send physical cards which tend to include a custom stamp and a photo of the area.

QSL card

Special thanks to Phobos for introducing me to this hobby!

Media Collecting

Dragons hoarding things is a persistent stereotype. A stereotype which, regrettably, is true in my case. I love collecting media, physical dragon-themed movies, music, games and books in particular. I have them proudly on display in my bookcase.

Bookcases

Movies I tend to collection 4K Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray, standard Blu-ray and DVD, depending on what is available. They are great to archive as well, as it digital data (as opposed to formats such as VHS, where quality loss occurs when digitalising it due to its analogue nature). The quality tends to be better than streaming services, which is great, but the real value add for me is the bonus content: behind the scenes, mini-documentaries, deleted scenes, mini-games and what not. Some of my crown jewels include:

The German version of "The NeverEnding Story" (Die Unendliche Geschichte), released in 4K UHD with extended scenes and a different soundtrack as opposed to international releases.
Ripped extras
A alternate music video for "The NeverEnding Story" that differs from the official upload on YouTube. It is an iconic song by Limahl that accompanied the international (non-German) releases of the movie.
The making of NeverEnding Story in German. My favourite part is around 3:35, where they show the mechanics and puppetry behind Fuchur, a dragon that appears in the movie.
The Flight of Dragons on Blu-ray, which contains an unreleased theatrical version of the movie in high-definition widescreen whereas the movie was typically watched in 4:3 as a TV broadcast back when it released.
Ripped extras
The title song performed by Don McLean extracted at recording quality, accompanied by visuals from the theatrical release.
Famous scene where the biology of dragons is explained.
The 3D release of I Am Dragon. It was released in very limited quantities in Germany, and having this obscure movie in an obscure format makes watching the movie in novel ways like VR quite magical.

Music I tend to collect on CD. Collecting music on vinyl is lovely as well, but I opted for discs as they are more affordable and have greater ease-of-use. The audio quality is great, while its physicality provides a deeper connection with the music you listen to when you choose to go out of your way to insert a disc into an audio player. Lyrics, bonus songs, additional art, extra DVDs and backstories are also often included with albums.

When it comes to books, I always opt for physical versions. Nothing beats holding the paper in your very claws. While I like to get a hold of anything dragon-themed, there are a few categories I enjoy in particular.

Books written by dragonkin. There is nothing quite like a story that just gets you. These stories do just that, on a very personal level. It is also lovely to meet other dragons this way — through stories near and dear to their heart that they decided to share with the world.

Dutch dragon fantasy books. There are very few in available in my native tongue, and the prospect of potentially owning every single book ever released is quite exciting. Since the genre is quite new as well, you will find most writers at conventions such as Fantastic Reads in Tilburg. You can have a chat with them, get your copy personally signed and enjoy the sense of community.

Strasbourg