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Maquise
2012-01-01, 03:46 PM
Dragons. Half the name of the game.

The most awesome of all creatures(or so they say. But really, are you going to argue with them?) So special, they get their own creature type.

Which brings me to my question: What are they? Why are they here? And why are they so special? What connection do they have with magic itself?

What role do dragons play in the mythologies and histories of your games? Are they the firstborn of the gods? Immortal spirits taken the form of flesh? Just some monster that lucked out in the biology department?

I'm asking because I'm trying to flesh out the role dragons play in my setting, and was wondering what other people had come up with.

Roxxy
2012-01-01, 04:06 PM
firstborn of the godsI'ma take this and use it in my campaign setting. I've been looking for a role for dragons, and I like this one.

Machinekng
2012-01-01, 04:49 PM
It depends.

In my Aestuava campaign settings, dragons rule over the great draconic Tiberan Empire. Dragons were the captains and commandos of the invading gods during the Autumn war, where the gods attempted to conquer the world of Aestuava from the Spirits and the Titans. The gods were defeated, but the Spirits, weakened by the war, could not expel the gods' mortal servants. Dragons came to be overlords over the other mortal soldiers that the gods brought to Aestuava, but it was not until Tiberus, a Gold Dragon, united the dragons by ascending and becoming God-Emperor. Dragonkind has been somewhat forced into an uncharacteristic civility by Tiberus. Sometimes, a dragon will simply snap and go feral, returning to the sterotypical dragon way of lfe.

Morty
2012-01-01, 04:53 PM
Dead and not coming back, present only in vague legends. This has two reasons: first, this is a low-powered setting, so dragons would be somewhat out of place. Second, I really don't like dragons. Now, back when they were still around, they were powerful fey of wind and fire. They went extinct because the world's connection to the Fairest of Lands grew weaker. They were your typical scaly, winged and firebreathing lizards, with no sapience or spellcasting abilities.

Zale
2012-01-01, 04:55 PM
Dragons could be powerful elemental entities that were trapped on the material plane early in the world's creation.

They took the form of the current reptilian creatures they saw.

It would explain breath weapons somewhat..

Melayl
2012-01-01, 05:23 PM
Also using the "Firstborn of the Gods" tack, along with Trolls. Not your average Trolls, mind you...

My dragons are the originators of Divine magic use, powerful semi-godlike beings. Very few in number now (due to the war with the Trolls and the risks in reproducing True dragons), and with rare exception, almost never heard from.

Dragon-kin, however, are more numerous. Most are animal- or semi-intelligent, and not nearly as powerful as their progenitors. Some are your traditional dragon-body creatures, others are bred with horses, lions, birds, humans, etc.

THEChanger
2012-01-01, 05:27 PM
In my world, the existance of the mortal races is divided into three ages, each seperated by a grand apocalypse. The current one is known as the Age of Brethren. All your standard races have finally come to the fore, and expanded through most of the world.
The age before the Brethren is called the Age of Elementals. The people of that time were embodiments of the lands they lived in. Little remains of that time, or the people that lived then.
The first age is the one that is pertinent to this thread however. Refered to the Brethern simply as the First Age, this is when the Dragons lived. Immensely powerful, the Dragons were directly connected to The Source, where from all Arcane magic flows. But they grew vain, and though the true source of their downfall is not known, most of the Brethren hold they brought it upon themselves. The Elves, who worship the Dragonic Gods and claim to be their descendants, say that the Gods grew jealous of the mortal Dragons, and struck them down. But the Dragons' works were difficult to erase. Many ruins of the First Age still remain, particularly in the deserts of Har-Shadan and the icy wastes of the Vanir Islands. Those who wish to plumb the depths of those ruins can find many secrets of the Dragons of old. But those powers are perhaps best left hidden.

The Dragons of my world are semi-mythical powers of an ancient age that inspire the imaginations and devotions of many people in the present. Whether or not they actually existed is up for grabs-but the places attributed to them have power, and the Gods they supposedly worshipped (Bahumet and Tiamat) do give their Clerics strength.

jackattack
2012-01-01, 06:05 PM
For a novel that never got written:

Scattered around the world there were areas of raw, unadulterated magic called weyrds. (Back off, I was fourteen.) Any creature that entered one risked being changed by its own self-perception and subconscious.

A thousand or so years ago, two elf knights chased an evil elf knight (still fourteen) into a weyrd and were changed into the first dragons, from whom all dragons were descended.

-----

More recently, I saw a piece of artwork with dragons around and emerging from a portal in the mountains. I like the idea that dragons come from somewhere else, through one or more gateways on the edge of the world. An epic campaign goal might be to get to one of these gates and close it.

Fouredged Sword
2012-01-01, 06:51 PM
They are those that hunt you in the dark jungle.

horngeek
2012-01-01, 07:01 PM
Hmmm… not sure, but I think I'd go for Firstborn of the Gods. In addition, progenitors of arcane magic, to the point where their language is the language of magic.

Vknight
2012-01-01, 07:53 PM
My favorite idea for dragons is more a combination of elemental power, with divine magic as a guiding rod with whatever type of magic a dragon calling on influencing what there form grows into. A white dragon is still white but if he pulls energy from chaos to enhance the cold he becomes more of a living blizzard(Primordial of cold). A dragon that pulls divine power becomes a combination of angel and dragon and eventually turning into a god.

kieza
2012-01-01, 08:56 PM
In my main setting, they're some of the world's caretakers and custodians, left behind to keep an eye on things when the gods finished and moved on. They're self-perpetuating biological constructs with a strong psychological imperative to acquire and disseminate knowledge.

This world is only one of many that the gods have worked on. The gods are, in reality, the survivors of a civilization with powerful technology and magic, which tore itself apart in a civil war. The survivors are infertile, and they aren't immortal--just unaging and very, very powerful--and they know that they will eventually die out. Their purpose in creating worlds is to try and develop a successor race to inherit their knowledge and the responsibility of containing the Far Realms. To this end, they have shaped thousands of worlds, each of them slightly different to maximise the chances of at least one developing a suitable successor race. The dragons are part of this world's experimental setup, responsible for accelerating magical and scientific advances.

At least, that's the idea. Unfortunately, long before recorded history, one of the higher echelons of the gods' caretakers underwent a schism, and the infighting damaged some of the divine mechanisms that regulated, among other things, the dragons. In the millennia since, the many generations of dragons have sort of lost their way. They retain the imperative to collect knowledge, but they manifest a variety of related psychoses. The most common is that they get ever more selective about who they will pass knowledge on to, but they also commonly develop paranoia, megalomania, and OCD.

They have a couple of other quirks that separate them from standard D&D dragons:
-They're all metallic, mostly in the iron-silver range, but this has no bearing on their alignment, or their breath--they're all firebreathers.
-They can create spawn from their blood: generally, the spawn are infertile and just serve as extensions of their creator's mind, body, and senses, but dragonborn and kobolds are thought to be very complex, self-replicating dragonspawn.
-The older they get, the more powerful they get--to a point. After they reach a certain size, they start having to use their magic to get around the square-cube law. Eventually, the reliance on magic makes them retreat to a lair, and they eventually get so large that their heart gives out despite the magic.

One Tin Soldier
2012-01-01, 10:49 PM
In the campaign I'm running, (which, granted, is still in its very early stages) dragons follow the "monster that happened to luck out in the magic biology department" mold. Granted, I only decided this much because the BBEG is a dragon, one of the few who lives in the area the campaign takes place in.
(Spoilered for slight off-topic)
The setting history is based heavily on Gold Rush era America. Dragons, like every long-lived race ever, do not adapt to change very quickly, so only a few younger dragons have crossed the ocean to live there. Same deal with elves: my PCs haven't met a single elf yet.

Morithias
2012-01-01, 11:02 PM
Dragons where one of the first 4 intelligent races created in my setting. The first 4 races were the angels, the devils, dragons, and the humans (that's right in my setting the elves evolved from the humans).

The Dragons jobs were to watch over the primitive humans and protect them from the animals and plants that were places over the world. Now however, since the humanoids have evolved and learned to the point where they basically own the world, the dragons have stopped being such public figures and are now wanderers and sitting in caves (it doesn't help that due to slow reproduction they're only on the 4th generation of dragons seriously they went obsolete VERY quickly).

However when a half-dragon and a humanoid breed it will occassionally produce a "dracovian" which by passing the dragon god's trials can evolve into a true dragon again. This is where a lot of the new true dragons are coming from now.

Kyberwulf
2012-01-02, 12:18 AM
So, in your world... Elves are what humans turn into?

Morithias
2012-01-02, 01:22 AM
So, in your world... Elves are what humans turn into?

And dwarves, and changlings, and so on.

Basically every race that's humanoid happened due to evolution or due to SCIENCE/MAGIC!

For example the shambling mound was created by a druid looking to defend his domain better. The minotaur was created by a mad wizard crossing a bull with a human. And so on.

And then even later we get other breeds. Living in the underdark evolved the high elves into drow. Orcs in the desert grew into desert orcs and so on.

But yes, the Human was the first non-outsider, non-dragon, non-animal, non-plant race in all of my setting.

Mastikator
2012-01-02, 02:22 AM
Dragons are beings of wonder and magic, not divine, but not really mortal either.

GenericGuy
2012-01-02, 03:25 AM
It depends on what you consider dragons in my setting, as I have both “dumb, but powerful, animal” and “super intelligent demi-god,” and neither are called dragons flat out.

The wyverns are the dumb animals, unique only by being immortal and able to breath fire. They’re a huge nuisance cause they hibernate at random(sometimes they sleep for thousands of years, while others for only a century), and when they awaken its apocalyptic for all the surface races as the beasts gorge on all things edible and destroy cities and forests as part of mating displays.

The Dra’Khauns (yeah I know not that clever:smalltongue:) have more in common with high tier demons than dragons, but they base their appearances loosely on the wyverns. When the ancient Dra’Khaun (essentially lizard folk) empires ruled before the humanoid races came into being (and a little after), some of their most powerful mages used wyvern blood and powerful magic to give themselves shapechanging abilities, with no consideration for conservation of mass. There are only less than a dozen of these guys in existence, they’re all named and have unique dragonish forms, and amuse themselves by slaughtering, being worshiped, sleeping with, and having children with the humanoid races.

P.S. My Elves are also “evolved” from humans, but that was more of a case of divine uplifting, the rest of the humanoid race evolved naturally, with one or two exceptions.

Morithias
2012-01-02, 03:31 AM
P.S. My Elves are also “evolved” from humans, but that was more of a case of divine uplifting, the rest of the humanoid race evolved naturally, with one or two exceptions.

I'm starting to think the backlash against elves is causing more and more people doing this sort of thing.

Wow you put a lot more detail into your dragons than I did. I stole most of my concepts from a videogame (DragonQuest 8).

GenericGuy
2012-01-02, 03:41 AM
I'm starting to think the backlash against elves is causing more and more people doing this sort of thing.

Oh, I am a self-admitted Elf hater, and include them in my campaigns or setting for the sole purpose of making them the antagonists and then having them suffer defeat after defeat after defeat:smallamused::smallbiggrin:.



Wow you put a lot more detail into your dragons than I did. I stole most of my concepts from a videogame (DragonQuest 8).

Thanks, but most people get their inspiration from somewhere (I just dont remember where I got mine for my "dragons").

DigoDragon
2012-01-02, 09:06 AM
I always like to make dragons the masterminds behind secret "Illuminati"-like organizations, whether its to amass great wealth, power, or to just maintain control/stability of an area by manipulating the politics and economy of the area.

Think Elan and Nale's dad as a dragon. :smallbiggrin:

Delvin Darkwood
2012-01-02, 09:32 AM
My campaigns usually feature dragons as a sentient race, almost in the same sense as dwarves, halflings, elves, and humans. The only difference between dragons and the other races however, is that their tyrannical civilization was broken centuries ago, and thus the remaining dragons of the world have forced to retreat to deep hidden caverns, or mountainside lairs, waiting for the day when they can retake their empire and enslave the mortal races of the world. In the mean time, they serve as a hefty bag of treasure and experience, with the occasional plot significance thrown in

Yora
2012-01-02, 10:11 AM
Since in my setting characters are considered as "epic" at 11th level and are very rare, I cut the dragon age progressions down to end at Ancient. That's still ultra powerful enough.

Since there also is no alignment, I reduced the number of types to five: Black (swamp), bronze (water), green (forest), red (mountain, fire), and silver (mountain, cold).

Except for demon lords and demigods, dragons are the biggest fishes when it comes to monsters. But most are only adult or old and so still within the range that groups of higher level characters can defeat.

Dragons are relatively frequent, but become increasingly rare with higher age categories. Ancient and old dragons usually have some dozens or a few hundred lesser creatures under their command and are quite similar to local warlords. They have their territories and usually claim rulership over any people who settle there. However, a small handful of older dragons are actually pretty much the lords of their own principalities, with their own courts of humanoids and half-dragons.

CrazedPachyderm
2012-01-02, 10:26 AM
In my first campaign setting, the dragons were important by being absent; legends told of a war between the dragons and devils, and once the civilized races were coerced to join the devils (a duke of hell and one of the human gods struck a deal in order to secure a monopoly on the plane), Bahamut was banished from the plane and the dragons were sealed away. At the end of the campaign, the party defeated the duke for good, breaking the seal. When they returned home, dragons were flying back through tears in the sky, and pick up their game of xorvintaal where they left off.

In my current setting, the continent is ruled by a blue dracolich who has been turning the land to desert. Blue dragons are all family members and placed in positions of power. Metallic dragons are few in number, but are the only ones actively fighting back after centuries of subjugation. The chromatic dragons mostly mind their own business, except for the black dragons, who are displeased with their swamps drying up.

Roxxy
2012-01-02, 12:06 PM
I'm starting to think the backlash against elves is causing more and more people doing this sort of thing.Yea. I actually quite like elves, but I hate the whole "elves are the best at everything and the oldest, smartest, and best educated race" thing, so I changed things up a bit in my Pathfinder campaign setting:

Elves are a race on the rise. Historically, elves have mostly been a primitive tribal people who lived on the fringes of the civilizations of other races, deep in the wilderness, or as nomads, depending on the tribe in question. They have always been skilled in the use of arcane magic, but until around eighty years ago, when the discovery of new spellcasting methods finally made casting spells quickly practical, this didn't mean much. Elves were mostly seen as barbarians with a penchant for witchcraft. Due to this penchant for witchcraft elves have historically had a lot of trouble with other races, which occasionally resulted in violence. Now that arcane magic is practical, however, they are quickly gaining in power and influence. A great many have left the backwoods and the wilderness they have so long called home for the cities of other races, where they hope they can write the next chapter of elven history with their newfound arcane might, while a large number of others choose to take modern civilization and technology and incorporate it into their wilderness lifestyle. Sill others vehemently oppose all modernization and cling desperately to the old ways.

They produce more sorcerers than anyone else, as well as a great many witches, and also have a fair number of bards, alchemists, maguses, and wizards. Elves have historically been more accepting of witches than other races, and elven communities are the only ones in which a witch would dare be open about it, but witches would often become scapegoats when something bad happen. Barbarians and rangers are the most common types of elven warrior, and druids are by far the most common divine spellcaster, taking up the traditional role of a cleric alongside their role as protectors of nature. Clerics are very rare, oracles slightly less so. Elven witch hunts did occur in the past, although they were less common that witch hunts by other races. These witch hunts were most often led by druids do to the lack of clerics and oracles.

Their ears are, on average, 1 1/2 to 2 inches long and mobile, showing emotion like a cat's. They have a very wide range of possible hair, eye, and skin colors (Many more than any other race. If you can think of a color, there is probably an elf that has it as a skin, hair, or eye color somewhere.), and stripes and spots are naturally occurring features (though not every elf has them). The average height of elves is about 2 or 3 inches less than that of humans, and they are usually slightly slimmer.

These elves are still good at arcane magic and still love nature, but they don't have the typical D&D infallibility. They can be bullheaded, cruel, and shockingly violent if the mood strikes them. They have historically been very primitive and barbaric, and are just now changing this, though many would rather not. Their culture is split down the middle, and in some regions elves have fought brutal civil wars with each other over modernization.

Of course, this isn't to say these elves are bad. Like humans, they have the capacity to be good people or bad people. It's just more pronounced because of how D&D elves are usually good guys, but it this setting are no better or worse than humans, and are working through massive cultural upheaval. The same applies to dwarves, where I borrowed some ideas from Dragon Age (the corruption and backstabbing).



Back on topic, one of the things I am doing in my campaign is removing the idea that chromatic dragons are evil and metallic dragons are good. I don't like that idea at all.

Howler Dagger
2012-01-02, 01:30 PM
In my setting they are one of the four "Original" Races (all others are descended from elves), which were Dragons, Elves, Humans and Orcs. There invasions of the Elves caused two things: The forming of the Empire of Old, and the Elve's learning of Arcane magic. They also are responisble for the dragonborn who were elves who fled to the Dragon Lands nand made a pact with dragons.

Altair_the_Vexed
2012-01-02, 04:20 PM
Dragons are elemental beings, created by the World's permanent planar conjunction with the four elemental planes. They embody one of the four elements (I only have four dragon types in my setting - hate all those colour-coded proliferations).
Treasure powers their magic.

Kymme
2012-01-02, 06:47 PM
In my campaign setting, dragons have almost entirely faded into obscurity, at least from the common races perspective. Now, the dragons play xorvintaal with empires and kingdoms, controled through a complex web of exarchs and manipulation, rarely coming out of the shadows. However, a few of the more impatient young dragons will try to influence the world by force, and these are the dragons that the common races know of. The castle sized scaly monsters of myth and legend are the young, impatient dragons. :smalleek:

Wiwaxia
2012-01-02, 08:10 PM
Dragons were born of the world itself, eons before the first gods appeared. Originally, they were one race, immortal and extremely rare, with only about two dozen in existence. These dragons' scales bore a color that has not been seen in the world before or since, and each could raise mountains out of flat plans or open seas with but a breath. Over millions of years, the dragons' power dispersed back into the world from which it had come, and the dragons grew old and tired. They would have faded away into eternal slumber, had it not been for the arrival of of the mortal races and the awakening of the first gods. The dragons were unsure of how to handle this development, and so called a great meeting, Dragonmoot, to decide their course of action. The meeting was a disaster. Disagreement became dissent, dissent became anger, anger became hatred, and the great race of dragons was forever split. As each dragon raged against its erstwhile kin, it's scales lost their unique hue and took on a color according to that dragon's temperament and beliefs, and their breath likewise took a single power. Save for the three slain in battle at Dragonmoot, these changed dragons dispersed across the world and birthed races of lesser, mortal dragons. Since dragons inherit some of their parents' attitudes, temperament and inclinations through their birth, most dragons share the same general philosophy as the founder of their race (there are, of course, exceptions, and these are inherited too), though they often differ on specifics and execution. Chromatic dragons are descendants of those who thought that dragons should ignore the mortal races, and continue living as they always had, while metallic dragons descended from those who preferred to interact with the mortal races. Either can be good or evil, but chromatic dragons are most often True Neutral.

Gemini Lupus
2012-01-02, 09:22 PM
I have eschewed the color coded for your convenience of dragons for my campaign setting, but there are still thematically red, white, blue, silver, gold dragons, etc. There are also three "breeds" of dragons in my setting also: There are the bestial dragons, who have only animal level sentience and no magical ability whatsoever, then there are two breeds of "True Dragons," those who have minimal magic in their dragon form, but are able to transform into humanoids, which they spend most of their time in and those that are the standard D&D dragons that have lots o' magic in their dragon form.

Alleran
2012-01-02, 11:35 PM
They're a bit like Dresden Files in my homebrew setting - closer to cosmic entities than regular creatures. They were the first race to arise (well, as far as the current mortals know...) in the multiverse (not counting the gods). They fought each other (metallic/chromatic/gem/arcane) as dragons do for a while, but eventually grew beyond it and settled down to their respective territories, their culture, art and architecture (as well as their magic) growing to vast heights. The kobolds were and are the keepers of much of their lore, lesser beings forged from magic to help administrate the world (who still fill that role in the present time period - any kobold you see is almost undoubtedly going to be a loremaster of some sort, and they are often sought after to advise kings and queens). Kobolds were the first practitioners of divine magic, while dragons were the first practitioners of arcane magic, born from it (in the stories, anyway) when it was young and wild in nature.

See, there is a "mantle" of power in the world, existing all across the Sphere. Arcane magic taps this power, but over time, if a single individual continually draws a lot of power in the one place, the magic will become twisted and wild - essentially, wild magic. This can be mild effects, or really major effects, powering up arcane magic at a cost of potentially backfiring horribly (or not working at all, depending on the twisted nature of the magic). Divine magic (which requires the worship of a deity... or a dragon god-hero, for that matter) has the odd property of soothing the mantle when employed, so using a lot of divine magic in the area will calm it (and places where a lot of divine magic has been used, such as a temple to a deity, will be so calm that a wizard would give his right leg to live there, since there'd be effectively zero chance of any misfiring magic). There have been wizard purges from time to time throughout history, and most wizard communities roam around a lot, never staying in the one place. Psionics are an oddity, since they're purely mental power, but tap the mantle through the individual, calming it by exposure to the natural currents of energy flow in a body (though there do exist some rather nasty stories of what happens when a psionicist has tried to draw too much mental energy).

Anyway, back to the dragons. They eventually became aware of another universe, a distant realm inhabited by beings of pure madness (the Far Realm), and in a long and bitter war managed to seal it off from the multiverse (at great cost to themselves). Then, just as the first elves were taking form, they all began taking levels of Dragon Ascendant, becoming quasi-deities, and departed the Material Plane to be with the gods (who are also anthropomorphic representations of the cosmic force that is their portfolio or portfolios - a new Dragon Ascendant will take up an aspect of a portfolio in becoming a quasi-deity). The first dragon to do this was Io, and the next three were Bahamut, Tiamat and Chronepsis (exactly which one was first has caused wars...).

Just what happens after becoming a quasi-deity is unknown (some scholars theorise that it's a "pathway to the Ultimate" but most people think they're just stringing words together to make themselves sound more intelligent than they actually are, claiming there's some sort of vast god-force that never makes itself known but exists all the same). The elves were around just as they were getting ready to depart forever, so their older tales can still give some reference to what they were (and the dragons themselves left their own records, which can be pieced together from many different sources to outline the process of becoming one and joining them). The first dwarves were a little bit after the elves, and also have some extremely early records dealing with the dragons.

Some mortals attempt to reach the same heights (I structured it as taking all the levels of the Dragon-King of Athas class and then starting in on Dragon Ascendant), but to date only a few have done so (less than a hundred in thousands upon thousands of years), and their names will live on forever (the final apotheosis into a dragon and then later on the completion of the Dragon Ascendant class are things that everybody will notice, since it's essentially the ascension of a new god). The first one to reach it was an elf, praised as a god-hero (which he basically is) by elven society, though there are also dwarves who have done so, and a few humans. The elves in fact believe that it is their manifest destiny to undergo this apotheosis, and have become increasingly segregated from the other races as they attempt to reach it. Some elves have attempted to "force" it with some very nasty magic in the past, leading to the worst tyrants the world has ever known. To even greater annoyance, it was usually humans and orcs (with help from dwarves and kobolds) working together that threw down those same tyrants.

There are only two races who have yet to have a member reach it, one being the orcs, whose shamans decry the entire process as being heresy ("what foolish mortal would dare attempt to raise themselves to the level of a god?!"), and as a result a lot of orc tribes tend to war on the other races for their perceived insolence. For this reason a druid will also be opposed to the process, since they are also connected to the natural world (the druidic traditions are thought to have originated with either the orcs or the elves, and there is much blood shed over that debate, to say nothing of the first mortal-turned-dragon being an elf) and would not attempt to gain mastery over it in such a fashion, preferring to live in accordance with its ebb and flow. That their magic is divine is another point to this.

The other race is the halflings, who are much too concerned with the finer things in this life to ascend to immortality. They just don't care enough about it.

Only two of the mortal-turned-dragons (none of the original dragons do) are still actually hanging around in the Material Plane, which is actually a big issue in the case of one (who is not yet a full Dragon Ascendant, but he's already being praised as a god-king, and that might be going to his head...). The other is a potential plot point that I haven't quite figured out what to do with yet, though it'll involve the Far Realm in some fashion.

There are also lesser dragons, such as wyverns and so on. They're just dumb beasts (more or less), though. Most half-dragons and draconic bloodlines come from them.

Anderlith
2012-01-02, 11:46 PM
My dragons vary depending on cosmology.

They way I would like dragons to be is as apex predators that are not magical & do not talk. They are not intelligent like human but they are very smart, like in Reign of Fire

Another is as the first creations by the gods & as pillars of creation. To kill a dragon is to kill a piece of the universe. A dragon's presence could cause a land to become fertile & with the death of the dragon the land will wither. On the other hand an active volcano could be caused by the presence of a dragon

I have one campaign in a world of floating islands in a big empty sky, dragons are half worshiped by barbarians & sorcerers of one nation-state & they take tribute from the people & let their younger offspring gain knowledge of the world by ferrying people & goods from one floating island to another.

Seharvepernfan
2012-01-03, 05:44 AM
In my world, they are monsters that lucked out in the biology department.

They were the first race, and they existed on the material plane before magic. They were godlike in their control of their own evolution, a kind of built-in bio-engineering, and each one was kind of like an entire city or population on its own. They terraformed the planet to their liking and eventually developed worm holes to other planets in the universe. However, the warped space inside these wormholes was weaker than its supposed to have been, which made a dimensional/planar breach easier.

Before these wormholes, the outerplanes were unaware of the material plane, because it had no magic, it "didn't exist". In one of the heavens, a group of angels led by an archangel were banished from the heavens for growing corrupt. They were banished to this newly opened "neutral" plane with no planar alignment as punishment.

These outcast angels and the elder dragons fought, and both races eventually devolved into the dragons of today and man, respectively. Dragons were quick to master magic and adapt it into their genetics, though they lost much of their original power. Actually, the angels devolved to almost caveman/neanderthall levels before rising back up to where they are now, and the original elves interloped into the world and built their empires after the dragons were weakened and before man rose.

The dragons that exist now are roughly equivalent to the MM dragons, with their own creature type and progression, but I've made a few changes.

Firstly, they don't get as big. The largest flying dragon will be gargantuan, though those are snakelike, the largest flying limbed-dragons are huge, the largest non-flying land dragons are gargantuan (bulky and slow, less intelligent, less magically capable), and only sea serpent dragons grow to collosal size, and again, these are snakelike.

Second, they don't come color-coded. Since they were such a genetically diverse/superior species, each and every dragon is different, even those of the same "litter", though directly related dragons will have some notable similarities despite their differences. Dragons come in many shapes and sizes, with many different abilities and defense mechanisms.

Put simply, they are raw elements/natural chaos (not in the alignement sense). In many ways they are top of the food chain, but since they are such a threat to every other species, they are often ganged up on and hunted, so they stick to their extradimensional nodes (the wormhole "gates" - the "domains of the dragons") and the planets that some of those connect to. The "nodes" are another thing I came up with. Extradimensional regions of the world that are smaller on the outside than on the inside, and more extreme in terrain/weather/fauna/flora. Many have planar traits due to the weaker planar boundaries. A few actually have an open hole in the middle that leads to another planet, which will be a planet similar to the node (an ice planet, like Hoth, through an arctic node). The dragons that adapted to these regions are not only comfortable here, they are perfectly adapted masters-of-their-domains, and humans and other races have a very difficult time finding/traversing/and engaging the dragons in these nodes.

Many monsters originate from these nodes. Notably, most dire animals live in them, and normal terrestrial animals avoid them. Many of these monsters were created by the dragons as guards/servants/cattle/etc.

Every peice of a dragon is valuable. Similar to skyrim, they can be harvested for armor, but also weapons (claws, teeth, dragonbone bows), their bile is poison (in addition to any poison they may have, such as a venomous bite), their blood is used in the creation of every magic item (potions, scrolls, magic weapons, everything), and their other body parts are either eaten as delicacies or used in alchemy, so they are frequently hunted for their bodies.

They are still just as intelligent and skilled, however, and many still interact with other species in many ways, some for evil, some for their self, some for good.

I use the usual shtick, "dragons came first, elves came second, man rose third." Dragons are big bads hiding out in the most dangerous, hard-to-reach areas (a dungeon, if you will) and are the biggest single threats and sources of wealth in the world (note: "in the world" - the gods and planar powers and at least as powerful).

Talakeal
2012-01-03, 07:48 PM
Before the birth of the world the primordial spirit of Fire and of Rage attempted to set fire to the heavens. In an attempt to maintain the balance the spirit of Gold and of Pride rose up to challenge the spirit of Fire, and finally consumed it, and was transformed into the first Dragon.
Eons later when the Titans were overthrown by the Gods they needed a creature with the might and the lifespan to guard the most potent of their secret places and treasures, but with a mortal body so that it would be untouchable by the blade's of their enemies in the spirit world. Thus did they imbue the essence of the Dragon into the mightiest of the dinosaurs who roamed Pangaea in those ancient times, and from this union were created the true Dragons.
The Dragons were for a time the lords of the world, content to be worshipped as gods and lounge about their lairs, guarding the treasures they were tasked to guard. But eventually the world grew dark, and magic began to dwindle, and the chill of banality began to cool the fire in their bellies. To survive the dragons began to hoard gold, hoping that the magic contained within the metal would keep their connection with their divine source lit.
Of course, this lust for gold brought dragons into conflict with the lesser races, and when the human Imperium began to hunt the dragons down the great creatures refused to band together against the Templar, for they were creatures of Pride and refused to acknowledge defeat by such small and pitiful foes.
Now the Imperium is gone, but the dragons who survived the purge still thirst for gold and for vengeance against mankind, and thus they wait in their lairs in the far corners of the Wild waiting for an opportunity to slake their thirsts.

DropsonExistanc
2012-01-04, 12:09 AM
The dragons in my campaign world are mostly straight out of Eberron: alignment is a cultural suggestion, rather than the rule, and they're mostly preoccupied with the Draconic Prophesy. However, with no visible stars in my Dyson-sphere world, the Prophesy manifests itself in other ways, namely by observing planar interactions and the "lesser races". The older dragons of the Chamber prefer to sit back and peer into the weave of the cosmos, but many of the younger dragons, lacking the patience of their elders, have taken to meddling with the affairs of the young races, though it's a rare few humanoids who actually know it.

Their main adversaries on this field are the fey, a diverse faction with a similarly long foresight. Though mostly bitter adversaries, not all members are as allied with their faction as they lead others to believe, resulting in secret alliances and plots.

They're pretty stuck-up blokes, and irritatingly secretive. As intelligent dragons should be... :smallamused:

horngeek
2012-01-04, 12:21 AM
In one setting I'm toying around with making (desert setting where the God of Life has been dying for almost a thousand years) dragons would be legends, with the last sighting five hundred years ago.

Because they've pretty much all dealt with the desertification of the world by going into hibernation or evacuating to other planes, so that after the God of Life died and was replaced, they'd be able to help restore civilisation.

Otherwise, they'd be a lot like my previous post, with some changes specific to the setting (listed below).

Basically, they've got multiple gods as 'Patrons'. In this setting, each race would have a 'Patron' god, who not only represents them, but is mystically tied to them. The race tends (to a degree varying by race/god pair) towards the alignment of the god. Most races have one. The dragons have no less than three- two of which are equivalent to Bahamut and Tiamat (and may or may not end up named as such). Each is more strongly bound to a particular type of dragon, but all three are tied to a degree to all dragons.

Chromatic dragons tend to be territorial or outright domineering, Metallic dragons tend towards aiding other races through guidance, and Imperial Dragons vary most of all, but tend towards outright ruling others, whether openly or behind the scenes.

olthar
2012-01-04, 09:01 PM
The only campaign that I really thought about it in had dragons as essentially the "ultimate evil." The mortal races (elves included) and dragons were in a constant state of war. The whole of mortals society was structured as a way to get people powerful enough to fight the dragons who were slowly winning the war. The godkings (it wasn't dark sun, but I created it after reading some dark sun) had all banded together and agreed that anyone of any race that made it to a certain level of power (10) would be conscripted into the armies to fight the dragons.

The player's role in the campaign was actually to help the dragons because it turned out that the godkings had decided that they wanted to ascend to actual godhood. The only way to do that was to drain to soul of an immensely powerful creature (ancient dragons). Since no one godking would allow another to ascend first they agreed to work together to capture 10 dragons and ascend as one to oust the current gods. After they had captured four dragons the gods intervened and told the dragons of their plans. The dragons gave up their own internal struggles to attack those who were trying to drain their souls.

The first attack by the dragons killed the godking who was holding the four dragons in magical prisons, but also killed all four dragons. Because the dragons were working for the gods, the gods also banded together and revived the ancient dragons as their collective avatars.

The godkings used their essentially limitless power to make most mortal races band together to fight the dragons and make it seem as though the dragons were the ultimate evil. The dragons, with their godly avatars, showed the more than mortal races and some of the classic evil races, what the godkings were doing and got them to help them. It basically fit the MM except that I added a faction to the alignment system and the factions were kind of meta-good and meta-evil with all of the classic evil races as meta-good and the normal pc (and stuff like goblin) as meta-evil.

Sadly, my players only made it to level 10 and they had just fought off the first of the godkings' "recruiters" when we stopped playing that campaign.

hamishspence
2012-01-05, 03:24 PM
In one of the heavens, a group of angels led by an archangel were banished from the heavens for growing corrupt. They were banished to this newly opened "neutral" plane with no planar alignment as punishment.

Actually, the angels devolved to almost caveman/neanderthall levels before rising back up to where they are now,

This makes me think of Terry Pratchett's Discworld character Death, characterizing of humanity as "where the falling angel meets the rising ape".

Seharvepernfan
2012-01-07, 04:49 AM
This makes me think of Terry Pratchett's Discworld character Death, characterizing of humanity as "where the falling angel meets the rising ape".

I figure humans couldn't evolve on a planet owned by giant super genius dragon gods. I also wanted a way to explain how every un-injured person is defect free.

Niek
2012-01-07, 11:24 PM
When the Creator first ascended from the world of his birth to begin his own, there was born A, Figment of Perfection. The world of his making was clear, and grand, and fitting of his most exacting specifications. Through untold ages the world progressed according to the order he had laid out, and would continue that way if not for the interference of another.
Luca, Figment of Origin, who had lain dormant within the Creator while he was yet mortal, saw the world of A and found it stifling, rigid and lifeless before her eyes. Summoning her power as the prime mover, she smashed A's hollow artifice and bound him to sleep. Without his guiding hand, however, she found it an impossible task to craft a world to her liking, abandoning each to die of neglect as she moved to the next.
Appalled by this callousness, Sellind, the Figment of Eternity, arose from the memory of the world to confront her. The nature of his being meant it was not as easy for Luca to bind his power, and during the battle she was broken into three pieces, and each took on the aspect of one of the defeated powers.
The first of these, Amastheyrys, assumed the vacant role of Sellind, and became the Figment of Remembrance. The past, to her, contained all that was good, and the future could only hope to emulate what had already come before. The second, Roesgeni, closest to her mother, became the Figment of Impulse. She cared not for the unchanging past, nor for the fleeting present, but only for the infinite expanse of future possibility.
Inevitably, the came into conflict much as their predecessors. Their power was lesser, however, and rather than further destruction their battle caused the genesis of a new world, the twin planes of Disl and Aum, linked by the souls their share between themselves, one life embodied in two selves.
Encircling each of the planes, where few mortals have ever traveled, are mountains taller than any others, dropping sharply off the side into the dark Horizon which separates the planes.
It is on those perilous ridges that the sisters' battle is carried on to this day, though they personally have long since moved on. It is waged in their stead by dragons, echoes of the cosmic imprint left by the world's creation. The god dragons of Amastheyrys fight to preserve the mountains as they have been since they were formed, while the red dragons of Roesgeni seek to reshape the terrain for the sake of change.
It is rare for a dragon to appear to mortals, as they normally live far from those regions livable to humans. Even fewer are recognized for what they are, as they can change their appearance at will, though they always retain their distinctive color.
It is this caveat that most bewilders those who believe in the legends. For there are several accounts of a third dragon breed with pitch black scales, far rarer than even its red and gold cousins. And the few who have walked to the edge of the world and returned tell stories of immense sculptures carved out of the mountains, depicting things which occurred long ago, or have yet to pass. Such formations should not occur, they argue, from the acts of red and gold alone.
The only possibility is that they must be made by the servants of the third sister, who did not partake in the creation of the world, but now pulls the strings from within its darkest recesses. She is Evangeline, Figment of Direction and successor to A.

TL;DR: Dragons in my setting are echoes of cosmic power made flesh, and come in three varieties, each corresponding to one of their major traits. Gold dragons emphasize their hoarding mentality, red dragons their capacity for destruction, and black dragons their scheming natures. For the most part they don't get involved in human affairs, but when they do it is usually very important.

Rorrik
2012-01-09, 12:38 PM
I have eschewed the color coded for your convenience of dragons for my campaign setting, but there are still thematically red, white, blue, silver, gold dragons, etc. There are also three "breeds" of dragons in my setting also: There are the bestial dragons, who have only animal level sentience and no magical ability whatsoever, then there are two breeds of "True Dragons," those who have minimal magic in their dragon form, but are able to transform into humanoids, which they spend most of their time in and those that are the standard D&D dragons that have lots o' magic in their dragon form.

I likewise have introduced what I call Drakes, bestial intelligence dragonoids I've homebrewed to be a lot like the How to Train Your Dragon dragons. The "True Dragons" are a warring race of good versus evil who hail from a different plane of existence known as the dragon realms whose war spilled into the Prime Material plane before the forces of good could close off the gates to it.

Gensh
2012-01-09, 03:15 PM
As others have said before, my dragons are just the same as any other creature with the exception of incredible evolutionary luck (or sometimes divine interference, depending on the game). They're the most physically powerful race native to the Prime Material and perhaps the most intelligent (again, depending on game). In ancient times, they possessed a mighty civilization the likes of which the world has not seen since. Of course, since each individual was extremely powerful, most tended towards being jerks, and their civilization collapsed upon itself within a few centuries with dragonkind breaking up into factions and killing each other until nearly the whole race was extinct. From that point on, it became an unwritten rule that dragons should never gather again, as their slow-breeding race could never recover from another such war. For the most part, dragons just went about their business as individuals. An enterprising family of blue dragons made a pact with a group of dark elves, and they formed what is essentially Magical Egypt, but even that eventually fell.

DonDuckie
2012-01-09, 03:55 PM
I'm of the same idea as many here - the "first children" thing. I like world building, and in the world I'm just started on recently, true dragons are descendants of one of four great races. Celestials, Fiends, Dragons, and the Fourth Race(it's kinda obvious, but it's also a major plot point, so secret stuff). Created by the first overdeities, blah-blah-blah

These four races are much purer than the ones descendant from each. A Solar or Balor would have ancestry with ur-celestials and ur-fiends respectively, but only contain a single aspect of their ancestor, eg. a Star Archon or Pit Fiend would contain another aspect. In fact, each race(like Angels or Daemons) is the result of a single ur-being choosing to become them.

Dragons are special because they are the most fragmented by no longer being outsiders, but still have some of the outsider traits - body and soul is one, for example.

Moofaa
2012-01-10, 05:23 AM
In my setting dragons are little more than a myth. The exist in childrens tales. In fact, pretty much all monster-type races in my setting are considered myths or half-truths, with only scholars and some people living on the frontier knowing the truth. Isk, Bolgrast, and other creatures (my versions of goblins and ogres sort of) actually DO exist but haven't been a significant danger for hundreds of years (obviously until a campaign starts lol).

But dragons are even older, completely lost to time. Theres some historical accounts of various people using Dragon as a moniker (stuff like King Bolgar the Dragon, etc).

IF a real dragon were ever to appear, it would probably be a cataclysmic event. I figure if I were to put such a creature into the world it would be one of those types of things where there are no stats. It just kills X # of PC's per round.

Gnoman
2012-01-11, 07:11 PM
In my world, dragons are Kobolds that were warped by divine magic either before (for chromatics) the apocalyptic Godwar or after (mettalics) the deicidal Titan War. The True God that started the Godwar (initially she inteded to exterminate all other gods, but had to settle for just imprisoning the surviving ones in Heaven while she ruled everything else) created the chromatics to lead her to victory. After a human killed her in the Titan war, one of her sisters turned the kobolds who died in the First Battle into metallic dragons to counter-balance the the chromatics that ignored the call to arms and were thus not destroyed.

boomwolf
2012-01-11, 07:56 PM
My games usually runs dragons as a singular race of unique, rarer-then-diamond ridiculously powerful being.

This translate to:

You got about 100 living dragons worldwide, while they all share the same "base" (reptilian body, wings, claws, breath, etc) they are each unique and completely different from each other, in fact finding two with identical breath is nearly impossible (I use a few non-traditional breath attacks), each got different magic, different resistances (all quite magic resistant though) making each dragon require very different tactics to fight.
As they are all the same race, there is no problem with the breeding most worlds stick them, they don't need to find an identical dragon, any dragon will do, and the kids could be anything.
And as for power, while they are born at normal weakling level, they grow rather quickly, under mom's supervision, and leave the "nest" (cave, temple, palace, quite versatile) only as young adults, already quite a threat...

As for origin, they CLAIM to be the favored of the gods, but in fact the original dragons were made as an experiment of a transmuter to be made as new war beast, too bad he didn't favor some divination as well to see what his "invention" will become.

Gemini Lupus
2012-01-12, 02:45 AM
My games usually runs dragons as a singular race of unique, rarer-then-diamond ridiculously powerful being.


A little off topic, but diamonds aren't actually that rare and with the supply that we have, they should actually be comparable in price to high grade cubic zirconium. (Yes, that is a bit of an exaggeration.:smalltongue:) Just thought that that made your comparison a bit comical. :smallbiggrin:

alchemyprime
2012-01-12, 03:02 AM
Well, that depends on where you are, and what kind of dragons.

Dragons come in families: The Chromatics, Metallics, Primals, Gems, Celestials, Imperials, Ferrous and Planar. The standard bits, right?

Okay. In most of the lands, dragons are known as fierce beings, that have a rage unlike any other. They were made by the dragon gods to kill off the terrible fiends called the Qlippoths, but all they could do was force them back into the Abyss and close the gate, but they could not force them back into the Plane of Insanity. The touch of the Qlippoths broke the minds of the dragons, and the Rage set into them. It instilled in them a great greed, a distrust of their fellow dragons, and a tendency to fly into random bouts of anger and destruction. Only the Metallics and Celestials were able to suppress the bouts of anger, but the other parts held true.

And so, dragons settled into roles. The Primals became dragons known for destruction, the Chromatics for theft and bullying, the Metallics for protecting the lesser races from their kin, the Ferrous for adherring to routines to try to stave off the effects, the Gems for turning to meditation to find a cure, and the other three breeds fled. The Planars fled to the Planes, being warped by them. The Celestials, or Lungs, fled to the lands far west of their compatriots. The Imperials, cousins to the Celestials but without the Yu Lung stage they shared, settled on a small archipelago to live and guide humans, however they wished to guide them. Some lesser realized families of dragons also sprung up, the Serpents appeared to live in the oceans, and the Linnwyrms to live in the land that would eventually be called Lutgarn, but not dwelling near the lairs of the Silver, Chrome and White dragons.

But in the land of Altieriet, about a millenia ago, something peculiar happened. The dragons found that they had lost most of their Rage. A Silver discovered it first, but soon gathered his others around him. Soon, six courts were formed. The Chromatics, the Gems, the Primals, the Metallics, the Ferrous and the Serpents all rule this land with a vast, magical kingdom, but they cannot venture too far from it, or the Rage will catch up to them. With accrued interest.

TheThan
2012-01-12, 03:15 AM
I once had an oriental adventures setting which used the “twelve dragon gods”. While mighty and powerful they were primarily in charge of running the celestial bureaucracy. They are the ruling council of the celestial realm.

Each of the dragon gods ruled over the celestial bureaucracy for a month. The powers that manipulate the heavens and the earth perform their tasks according the wishes of whoever happens to be in charge at the time.

This is the reason for the change in seasons, as well as weather patterns such as storms (monsoons, typhoons etc) and other weather effects. Naturally each dragon god has a distinct personality, and shares some similarities with some others (which is why seasons last for more than a single month).

boomwolf
2012-01-12, 04:41 AM
A little off topic, but diamonds aren't actually that rare and with the supply that we have, they should actually be comparable in price to high grade cubic zirconium. (Yes, that is a bit of an exaggeration.:smalltongue:) Just thought that that made your comparison a bit comical. :smallbiggrin:

You ARE aware that "rarer-then-diamond" is a figure of speech, right?

Deepbluediver
2012-01-12, 09:07 AM
Personally, I always thought that dragons where a bit overblown.

My favorite campaign that used them tuned down their size and power significantly, so that the eldest ones where only about as smart as a human and they didn't get any bigger than a grizzly bear (they weighed about the same, though they tended to appear larger because they where lithe and slender, more like a big cat).
The small young ones where occasionally kept as pets, with intelligence ranging between a dog's and a goblins.

When full grown, they where still apex predators in most environments and if you found a friendly one it would offer advice and profound insight, but they where more like the classical fantasy version of elves than the minor-diety/flying-dinosaur status they've attained in D&D 3.5 and other systems.

I think it's the kind of thing that's helpful if you want dragons in a low level or low power campaign, where anything older than a the dragon equivalent of a child could lay waste to a significant portion of your party.

Gemini Lupus
2012-01-12, 05:48 PM
You ARE aware that "rarer-then-diamond" is a figure of speech, right?

Oh yeah, it's just a bit of personal snark, I like to sometimes point out the flaws in figures of speech, like the phrase: "Easy as Pie," which pie can actually be a very challenging dessert to make. :smallbiggrin:

Shalist
2012-01-12, 08:13 PM
Which brings me to my question: What are they? Why are they here? And why are they so special? What connection do they have with magic itself?

Are they the firstborn of the gods? Immortal spirits taken the form of flesh? Just some monster that lucked out in the biology department?

And more importantly, which came first, the dragon or the egg?

big teej
2012-01-12, 08:52 PM
this is going to seem rather mundane in comparison I feel.

BUT, dragons came to be in the same manner of every other thing.

before creation, The One and The Many formed Fernius, and he saw fit to populate his world with many different kinds of creatures.

blah blah blah world backstory

bam, dragons.

The One and The Many just created the dragons diffferently,

/hyper short version


EDIT: I suppose, to expand slightly and more fully answer the question.

Dragons serve various purposes in my setting, some are sleepers, snoozing away the aeons atop their horde, rising to feed every few centuries or millenia.

others take a far more active roll, manipulating hordes of greenskins or other monstrous creatures.

lets see..... the occaisional dragon is also an advisor to kingdoms, my setting is very much in flux as I refuse to set anything in stone until I have collected every single 3.0 and 3.5 book published.

Beowulf DW
2012-01-17, 01:46 PM
Hmmm… not sure, but I think I'd go for Firstborn of the Gods. In addition, progenitors of arcane magic, to the point where their language is the language of magic.

"There is no difference in the dragon tongue between debating and fighting."

Sorry, but the whole "language of magic" thing and the OP's avatar has me thinking of lines from Skyrim.

In the world that my friends and I are currently running a couple of campaigns in (one of my friends did most of the work, and the rest of us have made various contributions), dragons are the "children" of the primal spirits that helped to create the world. Technically, the species as a whole is older than the gods.

boomwolf
2012-01-17, 04:32 PM
Oh yeah, it's just a bit of personal snark, I like to sometimes point out the flaws in figures of speech, like the phrase: "Easy as Pie," which pie can actually be a very challenging dessert to make. :smallbiggrin:

I think "easy-as-pie" refers to the act of EATING it, and thats very easy indeed.

Solaris
2012-01-17, 04:33 PM
They're not the firstborn of the gods, they are the gods. They're also hermaphrodites who tinker with their eggs to make dragonspawn rather than risk a usurper. Humans haven't killed a dragon since time began, and all the dragons left are tens thousands of years old.

Of course, back before the Golden Empire fell a dozen millennia ago, a bunch of tiefling wizard/pharaohs went around binding living dragons into underground engines below massive ziggurats to fuel their arcane power. Thus, they're also the source of all magic, albeit unwillingly. The remaining dragons are surprisingly cool with it, as they siphon off a lot of the power for themselves now that the empire's fallen.

Beowulf DW
2012-01-17, 05:33 PM
I think "easy-as-pie" refers to the act of EATING it, and thats very easy indeed.

I'd certainly hope so. My sister once got so frustrated making pie crust that she suddenly cried out, "Pies are made with hate! I can make cookies and cakes with love, but I can only make pies with HAAAATE!"

It was rather frightening.

Illithilich
2012-01-17, 06:56 PM
Right, so dragons have quite a bit to do with my campaign world's creation and history, so this may take a while.

Dragons and the Material Plane (In General):
Before the creation of the worlds of the Material Plane, the two Ancestor Dragon races existed in the infinite expanse of the Astral plane. These two were the Prismatic Dragons and the Time Dragons. This went on for an age, until one day a dragon was born. It was the bastard offspring of a dragon of each race. This dragon had the combined abilities of both species, and as it aged it became a Dragon Ascendent, making him into a minor deity. Using the power of his combined heritage and godhood he was able to create himself a demiplane. This plane existed outside of the rest of time, and the dragon spent an eternity learning all there was to know. When he emerged he had more power than any other being, mortal or immortal (basicly, Divine Rank 21+, Overdeity level). His first act was to erase the prismatic dragons from existance, destroying their past, present and future. Only his sheer power as a overdeity was enough to keep the paradox of this act from consuming reality. His next step was to kill most of the time dragons, and the remaining ones were bound to his service. The remaining ones were given greater control over time, and became his tools throughout time and the planes. His first real act of creation was to create the Gem Dragons. He sent every gem dragon into the empty Material Plane. Each one flew until they reached an appropriate location, where they each became the seed of a new world. With his power each world was given life, and so he became The Creator. On each world the most powerful life form were the Dragons.

Dragons in My Campaign World:
The first age of the world my campaign takes on was the Age of Dragons. The dragons are the most powerful lifeforms in the world, and so they rule. The other sentient creatures of the world live as servants to the dragons. The Creator sends his two greatest children, Bahmut and Tiamet to guide and rule the dragons on this world. Over time hatred begins to spread between the races. This leads into the first Age of Strife. War breaks out between all of the races. This war lasts for even longer than the Age of Dragons. The final battle of the Age takes place in the center of the dragon's home continent. The most powerful beings of every race converge at this battle. The sheer amount of power released by these beings tears a rift in the boundary between the planes. This energy ravages the entire continent and kills all of those fighting in the battle, including Tiamet and Bahmut. Ages pass with dragons existing as normal D&D dragons do, killing looting and being generally unorganized. With the loss of The Creator's children to guide them the dragons slowly drift towards a midpoint between the two extremes (essentially the Dragons start to become closer to neutral then evil or good). Meanwhile 4 Ages of Creation and 3 Ages of Strife pass. During the 4th Age of Strife many dragons are killed due to their solitary lives, being overwhelmed by the hordes of enemies. After that most of the remaining dragons agree that to survive them must unite. They formed the Empire of the Wrym, where they and their followers live. Many dragon-worshippers flock to this empire, in addition to dragon kin, as both are welcomed as long as they agree to the Empires rules. In the world there are now three types of Dragons: 1. Empire Dragons, the dragons who live in the Empire of the Wrym. They are the largest group. 2. Master Dragons, these dragons are older dragons who either felt secure enough in their own power or did not want to join with the Empire. They are not savage and most have their own territories. 3. Wild Dragons, these are outcast dragons who live in the world as pillagers and despoilers, most were banished from the Empire for various crimes and do not have large holdings.

horngeek
2012-01-18, 03:38 PM
"There is no difference in the dragon tongue between debating and fighting."

Sorry, but the whole "language of magic" thing and the OP's avatar has me thinking of lines from Skyrim.

I see nothing wrong with this. :smalltongue:

Whybird
2012-01-22, 10:44 AM
There's nothing metaphysically special about them at all. They're big damn flying lizards that breathe fire and grow to the size of a carthorse, about the equal of twenty or so trained soldiers in a fight. Like most nonhuman creatures, they've been hunted down and killed in droves by the Empire: partially out of xenophobia, partially because dragons liked to amass big piles of treasure, and partially because they're distinctly unreliable allies.

So although dragons are generally smarter and stronger than people (they've even turned out to be better at engineering if they're given the chance) they have to hide in the wilderness for their own safety. They're capable of intelligent conversation, but pretty much every dragon has lost a lot of its -- well, they're not the kind of creature to make friends easily, so let's say 'acquaintances' to humans, so they're generally unfriendly if not out-and-out hostile, and looking for a way to pay humanity back -- either out of vengeance, or just out of the belief that they won't be safe until the Empire is dissolved.