What I mean is that as soon as a mythological creature seems to step into the modern of sci-fi times they tend to gain power and abilities far outstripping what their challengers would have in the medieval times.
Is there any evidence that historical dragons in shadowrun mythology WEREN'T just as god-like?
No I mean the issue is... what confuses me soooo much. Is that the historical dragons WERE just as god like as far as anyone knows in shadowrun.
They are so powerful in Shadowrun that there is no reasonable way anyone from the past could have taken them on... Yet we know they were.
It is why quite a few people in Shadowrun believe that the dragon myths were exactly that... Visions of dragons but not the genuine article. Since a real dragon could take on King Arthur's court... and there is no indication of why a Dragon would be weaker (though it would somewhat explain why they left if their magic waned until they could be taken on by mear mortals)
If you ask me, you're description of Griffin's as mere "flying tanks" seems like an incredibly downgrade in their abilities for a modern audience
They have a certain logic to them. A breaking point that could have been seen within the mythology they were in.
Being able to take anti-tank rockets however and shake it off is something extremely outlandish. Especially since there were possibly over a million of them.
I mean the Nemian Lion's hide was so hard that no weapon could harm it, the Nemian Boar survived a thousand arrows.
seems to have robbed them of their super-speed, right?
No they could still fly and as far as the game is concerned they could reach speeds required to catch up to most aircraft (and were capable of high altitude flight). The protagonist actually had to use super sonic aircraft to avoid them.
As well the "Speed of Lightning" is likely a hyperbole even within the myths it appeared in (especially since they never USE their lightning speed if it was really that fast... In fact the myths even suggest a MUCH slower speed). It likely means they have blinding speed which for the time period is perhaps 300mph minimum.