Just fast travelled to Whiterun and there is a dragon tearing the place up. An elder Dragon at that, and on this character i'm only level 15?!

I don't know , happened to me once , not an elder one of course

Well you're seeing it.. I guess it's possible then.

Never happened with me even though from the very beginning of the game they all have their nipble in a ringer over it. The closest one I've ever seen is at the Western Watchtower.

While it is rare to see high level creatures at lower levels, it is not unknown.

However, if you Fast Travel directly to a town, you dramatically increase the odds of getting a dragon attack on the town. It is better to Fast Travel to a point near the city, wait to see if a dragon shows up, then save and walk or fast travel to the city. The good thing is when the game decides it is time to spawn a dragon, it will do so no matter where you travel to. Note, I am not sure if this is hold specific, so I will travel to some place in the same hold just to be sure.

I think there is a point during the MQ where a dragon will attack each town, but that could also be because I had not figured out that Fast Travel triggered dragons.

Hmm, I know it's rare for higher levels but not impossible, but what's bugged me is my highest level character, an Orc that made it to level 62 before I was bored, fast traveled to Whiterun, waaaaay over 500 times, and never once did a dragon attack, so this has took me by surprise, I just thought it wasn't possible for a dragon to get within the walls, since when you look over the walls, there is no people, structures, or anything else. Just land....

Not sure what all the conditions are, but time is the biggest one. After a certain amount of game time goes by, the game has a random chance to spawn a dragon. What is weird, is once the game decides it is going to spawn one, it is going to spawn one, which is why I can keep them from the towns this way.

Last night I had a dragon attack a settlement and it killed my quest related NPC, so I reloaded and went to a word wall near that I had already killed the dragon at. Well, there was a respawned Ancient there, and then the game spawned the random dragon. So, there were two of them flying around, but only one, the Ancient attacked me. The other one flew off. But, after I could go to the settlement and finish up the quest.

Cheers, I'll keep that one in mind!

Also, by what you have found, have you managed to work out what kind of time period, may be between dragons spawning, or how many fast travels before one spawns, for example, you travel to solitude, a dragon spawns, 7 fast travels later, you go to markarth, another spawns, then the same pattern, every seven?

Thinking of this, I'll try it now.

Just remember to save before you Fast Travel to a town. The autosave created after you get there is too late as that will have the spawn trigger in it.

For me, it seems to be about 1 hour of gaming...then if I fast travel I get a dragon attack. If I just walk everywhere for over an hour...nothing for an hour and a half, then I start seeing dragons in the air...roaring and looking for me.

If I am in stealth mode I usually lose them after 5 minutes, not in stealth mode means a lot of strafing attacks...unless the dragon's AI decides to attack something more dangerous than a 35th level toon. For the last week I have been

fascinated by dragons attacking bears and saber cats...even a thalmor patrol once!

Your mileage may vary.

I can't even fathom how many hours I have playing this game. I would bet it's around 1500, no joke. I have seen 4 dragons inside walled cities, that's it. It seems to be exceptionally rare.

O.O A dragon attack inside of whiteruns walls has never happened to me.

I always get jumped by the farms just outside Whiterun [3 so far], but ihverwood gets the top spot for my random dragon attacks [10 out of 52 so far ! ].

This is very strange. Dragons level with the character. Are you playing on a PC? Do you have any mods installed? Do you have a roommate or a brother who might want to prank you?

I stopped fast-traveling to towns because I didn't want to bring dragons down on them. I had a battle with a dragon near Whiterun after the first one in my first game. I ran it a few times because it was my first game and it never played out the same way twice. Part of it took place where the caravans camp and part of it took place near the stable. It was all over though and lasted a while. One time, when the dragon finally died, it was practically right on top of the carriage wagon...and the man never got out of that wagon. He just sits there, flaming dragon and all. He and the horse were ok though. I think your Elder at Level 15 is pretty amazing. I hope it goes/went well.