The Dragon Masters is a science fiction novella by American author Jack Vance.

It was first published in Galaxy magazine, August 1962, and in 1963 in book form, as half of Ace Double F-185 (with The Five Gold Bands).

Aerlith is a planet of rocks and wilderness orbiting a distant bright star known as Skene which appears as "an actinic point" in the daytime.

It is so slow that dawn and dusk are accompanied by storms that follow the boundary between day and night around the planet.

During one such raid, a charismatic leader named Kergan Banbeck captures a group of the alien raiders, who are accompanied by their human servants.

He believes the grephs will return soon, and his neighbor, Ervis Carcolo of the ironically named Happy Valley, is forever plotting against him.

The captive grephs have been bred over the years into fighting creatures known as dragons, ranging from the man-sized "Termagant" to the gigantic "Jugger".

They believe that they are beyond human, calling the rest of humankind "Utter Men", who will eventually disappear and leave the universe to them.

Joaz Banbeck tries without success to convince Ervis Carcolo and the Sacerdotes of the need to prepare for the next visit by the grephs.

Ervis Carcolo, far from cooperating, attacks Banbeck Vale, only to have his army routed by Joaz's ingenious tactics.

Taking his torc and making a wig from the man's hair, Joaz attempts to examine the Sacerdotes' cave home.

The leader, known as the Demie, refuses, claiming that to involve himself in the affairs of Utter Men is to destroy the detachment necessary to their lifestyle.

Some of the humans have been bred to track people by smell, and still others are used like horses, like their dragon counterparts, the Spiders.

Carcolo, almost with his last remaining energy and backed by his now demoralized troops, assaults the ship from an unguarded quarter.

He picks up a small round object, a semi-precious stone carved to be a globe of Eden or Tempe or even Earth, the mythical home of humans.

His people, however, live well thanks to well-built dwellings, mostly in freshly-excavated caves, and a well-engineered water supply from a dam.

One is a globe made of marble that depicts a world variously known as Eden, Tempe, or Earth, the original home of humans.

However, he is obsessed with regaining the glory Happy Valley once enjoyed, before the first greph invasion, and the subsequent Dragon wars.

Joaz Banbeck points out that most of his people live in huts rather than caves, leaving them easy prey for the grephs.

Bast Givven is Carcolo's Head Dragon Master, military adviser and to some extent, his conscience.

When Carcolo plots attacks on Banbeck Vale it is Givven who points out the poor quality of their forces, particularly their lack of large Dragons.

Givven has a deep understanding of tactics and knows the limitations of men and Dragons in the peculiar conditions of Aerlith.

Dae Alvonso is an itinerant merchant, and a trafficker in dragon eggs, children, gossip, and anything else that will make him a profit.

Her impressions of Joaz, particularly her inability to understand his personality to apply her training to him, serve to introduce him before he first appears in the story.

It is judged by the senior sacerdotes, and based on their assessment the individual can enjoy promotion within the community, or even be expelled.

Their entire philosophy is predicated on a series of predestined events described in a way similar to the mathematics of quantum mechanics.

The grephs are described as "standing on two legs, with two versatile members at mid-body, a pair of multi-articulated brachs at the neck", indicating that they have six limbs.