So, somewhere on the JB forums Jim said that dragons are beings with some kind of authority over part of the universe.

Originally I thought of this in a geographical way. Like, dragons = stars. But then I thought more abstractly, like dragons could represent laws of the universe... or categories of matter.

And then I remembered Ferrovax's name. The "ax" bit is clearly some sort of suffix for dragons, but "ferro" - it's my understanding that "ferro" means something like "relating to metal" (edit: Glernaj tells me it means iron).

So my idea is this: Ferrovax is to metal in the same way that Mab is to Winter/the storm. He's a kind of anthropomorphic personification of it. It also explains why he's so powerful - much of the matter in the universe is metal, and much of human civilisation is based on it. It also explains why Jim listed him as one of those who might be able to take on Mab (beyond his obvious power) - she's allergic to iron.

Ideas?

(Siriothrax I don't know. The star system Sirius? Except Sirius is still there, and Sirothrax was killed.)

 

An interesting speculation. Unfortunately there is absolutely nothing to even remotely suggest you are right.

I am not sure Siriothrax or whatever is on the same level as Ferro. I think there must be Dragons and dragons. Ferro is the former, Sirio was the latter. I mean given what Butcher said about Ferro, it seems rather unlikely that he would bother with sacrificing weak mortal spellcasters or making deals with crazy warlocks. But Sirio did just that. I figure he was a more mundane dragon and not a godlike being like Ferro.

CHANGES SPOILER if a very minor one:

Spoiler

It is interesting that the technique Ferro used to demonstate his power (crushing Harry to the floor with immense pressure) was virtually identical to what a certain other entity did in Changes.

I wonder how the dragons got their position. I seem to recall that Butcher said that Mab&Faeries got their position with an ascencion ritual or somesuch similar to Darkhallow. It has also been suggested that mortal belief and worship can empower you. Which is Ferro I wonder, and how would that affect him.

 

We do know that Fae get bigger and stronger the more influence they got (example: Toot-Toot).

Spoiler

It is also mentioned in Changes that the oldest vampires of the Red Court played the role in Mayan mythology, so it could be either their age that allowed them to have such power (as it is with Black Court) or it indeed was all the faith and sacrifices they'd received over centuries... Unfortunately this line of thought leads us to nowhere, as dragons are also old and receive human sacrifice (Charity was to be given as a payment for power given to the cult leader).

In my opinion Ferrovax to dragons is like Erlking or Mab to Fae: an elder heavyweight with lots of influence and power. He is one of the sides of the Accords, in the end.

 

@Bukay: I think that it's really a combination of both.

@Datakim: I remember seeing Butcher say on his forums that Siriothrax and Ferrovax were in the same league as one another and that when Michael was on the clock that people were very much underestimating what he was capable of.

Changes Spoilers

Spoiler

See Murphy charging the lords at the sacrifice.

 

Where?

I tried searching for Siriothrax and Ferrovax both together with Butchers username, and this is the only message from him that I found:

Basically, Butcher himself confirms that there are two types of dragons. And the way he describes Ferrovax as semi-divine makes him look pretty damn powerfull. Especially since he says that Ferro is on the same power-level as Mab is.

He does not mention Siriothrax, but like I said earlier, does it really seem likely that someone of that power-level would bother with working together with some pathetic little warlock like Gregor was, or bothering with eating practicioners even weaker than that, such as Charity. Seems to me that if Siriothrax was truly on the same level as Ferrovax, he would be after bigger prey (so to speak).

This gives me the impression that Siriothrax was just a dragon with a smaller d, while Ferrovax is a Dragon with a very large D.

 

I'll go and take a look for it and edit this once I find it.

Edit: Bah, can't seem to find it. I skimmed through Butcher's post list at his site and didn't see it but I'm 99% sure I've seen it from him somewhere.
Slight Changes Spoilers

Spoiler

Still even without that we see some of what the knights are capable of in Changes, and even then only one of the three is a true knight and she goes through one of the Lord's of the Outer Night like a hot knife through butter. Also said Lord was noted by Odin/Vadderung to be only slightly lower than him on the power scale.

 

Gonna double post since I just found this that confirms what I had said earlier.

This is from Datakim's awesome online question thread.