While I will give you Elspeth using magic to bind the Carmine Dragon that she rides on and even then it is never stated in the lore how exactly she gets the Dragon to work with her. Everyone who knows about her and the Dragon just thinks it's magic and leaves it at that because she is a figure of not a small bit of Terror and so people tend to leave her alone.
But it
is stated.
"enslaved to her will by the Amethyst Magic that ran like blood through its veins".
Karl-Franz on the other hand is noted as having raised DeathClaw himself from when the Griffion was just a egg and to have a amazing bond with him. Hell the 8th edition army book keeps the lore about Deathclaw being trusted to the simply fly around above Altdorf during the day because he can be trusted not to cause trouble. The Emperor does not strike me as the kind of man that would force a sentient creature like the Imperial Dragon to work with him. The man is also noted to be a amazing diplomat and the read of things I have always had when it comes to his relationship with the Imperial is that he is the first human that the Dragon has come to think of as a kind of equal. Dragon's respect power and the Emperor is not just a great warrior but also one of the most intelligent and clever statesman in the Old World.
Yeah, Karl Franz has an amazing bond with Deathclaw, who is a griffon, not a dragon. Dragons are substantially more intelligent and independent than Griffons. At the end of the day Karl Franz is still the master and Deathclaw is still the mount.
The Empire is not some enlightened society, there is no reason to believe Karl Franz considers dragons to be people. He lives in a culture that is perfectly content to disregard fully intelligent beings as not people, why would he think the Imperial Dragon to be a person to be respected, rather than a particularly intelligent beast to be tamed?
In fact we have a lot of reasons to believe he
doesn't, because we know that the Imperial Dragon hates being a zoo animal, but it's kept there anyway. If Karl Franz was friends with it, why would he subject it to something that it "utterly resents"? Or if it was allowed to leave, why would it go through something that it hates?
And again, the lore says "dominate". Not "maintain a relationship of mutual respect and regard each other as equals".
Dominate.
1
: RULE,
CONTROL
an empire that
dominated the world
2
: to exert the supreme determining or guiding influence on
the ambition that has
dominated his life
3
: to overlook from a superior elevation or command because of superior height or position
a hill that
dominates the town
4
a
: to be
predominant in
sugar maples
dominate the forest
b
: to have a
commanding or
preeminent place or position in
name brands
dominate the market
1
: to have or exert mastery, control, or preeminence
his desire to
dominate
a
dominating factor in industrial growth
2
: to occupy a more elevated or superior position
In fact, we know that expanding the Imperial Zoo is one of Karl's personal passions:
Emperor Karl Franz has few eccentricities, but amongst his fervent passions is the furtherance of the Imperial Zoo, a vast complex of beast-pens and mosaic-covered caverns. Within its halls reside strange creatures that have been given as gifts by foreign potentates or hunted and captured from the hidden corners of the world.
-Warhammer Fantasy Core Rulebook (8e) pg.185
Does that sound like the kind of person who'd go "Yes my dragon friend, I see that you would like to break off our partnership and leave. I shall allow you to take your vast hoard of imperial heirlooms with you as you go, and let the millions of gold coins that went into your raising, feeding and housing go to waste, as well as deprive my pet prestige project of its most famous attraction. All because I respect you as a friend and an equal."
The Dragon has his very own horde and as the quite you just mentioned states he only kills human who fuck with him and his stuff.
I really don't think you should be using the End Times as supporting evidence considering that it contradicts the already established lore of the Dragon having his own horde and the ability to kill stewards who fuck by for example treating him as just another dumb animal.
I used the End Times novel because it's one of the only sources on the Imperial Dragon, and far from contradicting the established lore it actively agrees with it.
Just because Martak's narration doesn't mention the hoard doesn't mean it doesn't exist, and the existence of the hoard doesn't prove anything other than that they gave it a hoard to keep it occupied. We give zoo animals toys to enrich them and keep them from trying to damage their enclosures in real life too, doesn't mean we consider them partners or that we'd allow them to leave if they wanted.
And note how it says "incautious", not "foolish" or "dumb". The Imperial Dragon kills stewards who aren't
cautious enough, indicating that it kills anyone who strays too close, not just those that "mess with it". Which Fall of Altdorf agrees with, as it indicates Martak had to pacify the Imperial Dragon with
Ghur to keep it from killing him. But Fall of Altdorf is by no means central to my argument, just a reinforcing facet. It can stand on its own just using the canon material.
No magic being involved means it has to be a partnership of some kind.
Who says there's no magic involved? As the Emperor Karl has unfettered access to the services of eight Colleges of Magic. And even if there isn't, that doesn't mean that their relationship is some sort of shining example of interspecies friendship between equals, considering the Imperial Dragon's hoard is deep within the Imperial Zoo and it can't exactly take it with it when they go flying, so if it decides to disobey Karl's commands he can just go "yeah then say goodbye to your hoard".
And once more, all we know for sure about their relationship is that he
dominates the Imperial Dragon. Not partners or is friends with it.
