If "magic does not exist in this world", then where do the large, flying, fire-breathing creatures come from? You either have have both magic and dragons, or you have neither magic nor dragons. There is no third option; or at least, there no self-consistent third option. Anyway, no matter how intelligent and adaptable those creatures may be, humans are even more intelligent and adaptable. For example, I am sure that drakon eggs are delicious...

@AlexP it is not accessible to humans for the purposes of this question.

@dreamforge Quick question. Are their wings scaled as well because as depicted in popular culture they rarely are. Normally the wings are depicted as being 'bat' like i.e a flexible membrane. If this is the case with your dragons then that is distinct vulnerability. And weapons like crossbows & longbows firing barbed or rope cutters arrows heads would cut/tear through the wings. You said 15th century so primitive hand guns and cannons are also an option. The hand guns could even be loaded with shot.

Does this help answering your question? Ah, and this one, too! I don't mark your question as duplicate of the first one as yours is much more focused and detailed as the old one : exact time-period, clear dragon description, etc...

It seems to me humans might never progress past hunter-gatherer societies with these around, unless drakons are 'new world' creatures from a different continent that only recently found their way to human inhabited areas. Advanced societies rely on agriculture, something drakons would easily be able to spot and destroy, effectively starving any established cities. If these drakons are intelligent enough to reason with, humans would likely need to establish some sort of truce, perhaps providing drakons with something only humans can easily produce in exchange for not being murdered

Then after establishing a truce, poison the fuck out of them, destroy their nests, and hunt down the few that remain

@MS If you think you have an answer to the question, answer it, even if it contains a frame-challenge :). Comments are only here to request improvements (details, ...), explain/prevent closures or add minor points to the question.

This reminds me somewhat of The Reign of Fire film.

@LorenzoDonatisupportUkraine Yeah, and in that film modern guns, aircraft, and nukes lost. So these people have no chance. OP's dragons sound like they're even smarter than the ones in the movie. But at least that means you have a better chance of negotiating.

@DKNguyen - As much as I love that film - the idea that modern weaponary wouldn't annihilate any Dragons is laughable. I mean sure - Cities would get munched on as the average city dweller is unlikely to be armed - but once people realize there are giant winged lizards that are a threat - we would tool up very quickly. We'd see a shift to bigger bore projectiles designed to take down the biggest threat.

@TheDemonLord I imagine those dragons bred like mice. I should rewatch some old B films like that again.

@DKNguyen Yep. Maybe addict them to gourmet cuisine humans can do so well. After all roasted humans are sooo boring flavor after a while. What about finely seasoned hippo filet? :-)

@LorenzoDonatisupportUkraine Hippos are viscous. Possibly worse than dragons. The world in the end will be ruled by dragons and hippos.

@DKNguyen - Humans have successfully wiped out breeding populations, even in rapidly breeding species.

@DKNguyen The keyword is finely seasoned :-) Once they acquire this exotic taste, no way the Drakons will risk alienating our army of Masterchefs :-D

@TheDemonLord Well, in Australia they had a hard time against rabbits, and they didn't spit fire.

@LorenzoDonatisupportUkraine - Smaller animals are harder to eradicate - I mean, we have the means - the question is whether we are willing to do it. For example - burning all the fields to the ground to wipe out the Rabbits does more damage than the rabbits. That and Australia banned Semi-Autos. a 22lr 10/22 is great for rabbits.

@LorenzoDonatisupportUkraine There were no rabbits in Australia in the 15th century either ;)

@TheDemonLord Well, at the time there was no Australia either. ;-) Everyone knows that Earth was flat until the "spherical Earth" lobby built the other half of the planet to support their absurd claims :-D

@TheDemonLord What about the Emu War?

@DKNguyen - Emus are pretty tough opponents... but jokes aside - a few guys and a lewis gun isn't enough. It's about the cost/benefit.

Are the Drakons merely Intelligent or do they have a Civilisation?

@Criggie simply intelligent; no real civilization (let's be real, humans would have about zero chance if they did)

@dreamforge okay - so more like a pack of feral dogs or wild horses than something that thinks and plans.