March 2, 2020
*Adapted from this Tumblr post
I was asked recently why dragons are often associated with treasure and treasure hoarding, and why it seems that dragonkin frequently pick up hoarding or collecting objects (usually crystals or rocks) as a hobby. Unfortunately, I don’t know that much about draconic lore (but I really should learn!), but dragons collecting shiny things or treasure is certainly a common theme in most stories or other pieces of media I’ve encountered that involve dragons (although not all…or at least it’s not mentioned). I'm sure the reasoning varies from dragon to dragon, and this is all conjecture on my part, based on what I feel and other opinions I've encountered. Here are some possibilities:
If you think about dragons as an animal, it may just be a similar behavior to what we see in some bird species, where they are attracted to shiny or aesthetically pleasing materials, whether that’s personal or for mate attraction. As a biologist/ecologist, I think about where dragons would fit in the animal kingdom far too often, and I’m generally of the opinion that they’d fall somewhere off the bird/avian dinosaur clade, and would therefore probably exhibit some similar behaviors. Collecting objects for mate attraction or personal aesthetics seems completely reasonable, and considering dragons are often thought of as intelligent beings, a penchant for investigating new items and collecting things just for decoration/fun doesn't seem out of the question.
Dragons are often associated with magic, and depending on the magic practice, crystals and certain minerals are used to channel and/or store magic. In this case, all these rocks and crystals may be somehow associated with whatever magic a dragon is doing, or will be used for something of that ilk in the future.
Some folks feel dragons eat treasure, although why, I don’t personally know...I'm not a treasure eater myself. There are three general categories I feel like hoarding treasure for consumption could fall under:
Food
If this is the case, a collection of treasure could just be a food cache, where dragons are going out and collecting treasure to eat later when food might be scarce. I mean, rocks and metals don’t really go bad like human food does, so hoarding treasure seems reasonable if it’s going to keep indefinitely.
Essential vitamin or mineral source
In nature, we occasionally see animals going to certain mineral-rich areas to consume the clay or other rocks/soil there (I crave that mineral meme, anyone?). Eating these non-food materials can provide essential nutrients that would be hard to find elsewhere, or, in the case of clay, may prevent animals that have eaten toxic plants from getting sick, while still allowing them to digest the toxic food they've eaten. Somehow, rocks, gems, and precious metals may have some dietary benefit, and that's why some dragons may go out of their way to collect them for consumption later.
Digestion aid
Finally, rocks and gems may be consumed as a digestion aid. For instance, we know crocodiles and some birds will eat stones or grit to help them digest the food they've eaten, so consuming rocks and hunks of metal may not be out of the question in this regard.
Finally, maybe we just wanna be rich, baby. 😎
These aren’t mutually exclusive explanations, but for me at least, I definitely fall into the first camp (although being rich would be nice too!). Surrounding myself with aesthetically pleasing items makes me happy, and the process of finding something pretty/interesting that I feel is high enough quality to keep is exciting. I’m extremely visual, so populating my environment with shinies is important to me, and as a result, I have lots of monetarily valueless rocks that just look nice or have an interesting story associated with them.