nWoD fansplat: Dragon: the Inheritance

[Reshy]

They sound neat, and both very World of Darkness-y. I might end up adding them to the "Inspirational Material" section at the front of the book, when I get around to writing it.

There's also Firelight and Jennifer Scales, also interesting. The third book of Jennifer Scales (Silver Moon Elm) is incredibly bleak, though past that point the series seemingly was trying to wrap itself up as quickly as possibly due to the publisher giving no extensions for additional books. The former book, Firelight, I also adored incredibly as well.

If you want to read a book about dragons being dragons, without any of the shapoeshifty elements to it, read The Age of Fire by E. E. King. It discusses all sorts of interesting things.

I like my dragons, suffice to say. Still haven't read Talon or Heartstrikers yet. Still need to finish the second half of the Dragonbound series and the seemingly endless books from the Requiem series (Which is now at the "Requiem for Dragons" stage, so you can guess what's probably going to happen).

Seraphina is interesting too, and rather unique as well.

Yeah, they'd remember seeing the dragon, and depending on their Mage Sight they might also be able to identify them as a dragon. Dragons don't have a particular reason to care. Honestly, the biggest way that something could go wrong would be if the Mage saw the dragon in their Drakonos form, or using Legacies or anything else that would cause Enkindling, took the Mage's reaction of "not immediately running in terror" to mean that they were a Slayer, and subsequently attacked.

To explain: When normal humans see a dragon assume their true form, whether wholly or in part, an effect called the Enkindling takes place. Most of the time, Enkindling causes normal humans to panic, run, and cower before the dragon, generally not posing a threat to them. Sometimes, however, the Enkindling causes a single onlooker to instead become a Slayer, a human empowered by Fate to slay that particular dragon (and pose a huge risk to all other dragons). The possibility of creating Slayers is the entire reason that dragons hide their existence, and the reality of having to eventually fight Slayers is what drives them to bond with and protect each other.

It's also worth noting that Enkindling has no supernatural effect on the minds of human witnesses. They might not want to believe that they saw a 30 foot long, fire breathing, flying lizard, but they will remember as clearly as they remember any other traumatic event.

Enkindling seems like the (now removed) Rampage mechanic of Beast the Primordial rather than the Lunacy trait that Therianthropes possess. I don't think that's a good mechanic, that mechanic was scrubbed from Beast the Primordial due to the massive backlash that it got. You might want to look for ways to differentiate them from Heroes from Beast the Primordial, which right now they're essentially identical and that's probably not a good thing. The game already runs dangerously close to Beast the Primordial, so I think it probably needs reasons to differentiate itself. Slayers might be a place to start?

Progressively more meta explanations: Partially it's just how the Great Spell works; whether blessing or curse, it prevents dragons from being able to gain their Inheritance on their own. Partially it's a reflection of their status as Transcendent Will: nothing about the draconic condition can change the dragon's own body against their will, even if it might be beneficial for them in the long run. Partially it's a way to bind draconic society together when they might otherwise be a whole bunch of loners off doing their own thing: every dragon starts out on decent terms with (and somewhat indebted to) at least one other dragon. Partially it's a way to reinforce the theme of Inheritance in the game, since you have to Inherit from somebody. And, finally, it's partially a way to differentiate the Inheritance from a Werewolf's First Change, which would wind up being just too similar for our tastes if it happened spontaneously.

There is one exception to normal Inheritances, however...

In a way I kind of don't like that, it kind of seems to detract from it being part of there inherent nature. Less of a part of who they are at their core and more of an ability they possess that happens to manifest that way.

Spurned are introduced in the Merits section, pages 44-45. Their role in draconic society is also discussed further on on page 75.

Again seems to detract from the whole "dragon blood" thing. That's what I think it's a problem, it's not really an inherent part of their being, they gotta jam the square peg into the round hole. I dunno, seems to ring hollow to me and distracts from the flavor.

I kinda like Beast, personally, but that's neither here nor there.

I find Beast rather non-functional. It'd have been more interesting if the Beasts were created by the heroes and not the other way around. I read a couple posts about Beast and I liked them quite a lot.

The Hero needed someone to fight, so the narrative, a corona of violence and self-righteousness and one-sided narrative focus, picked you out of the crowd, declared you someone who Belongs Dead, and warped you, inflicted a hunger for pain and fear upon you, molded you to look like something a Hero could face. But what they forgot, when they gave you scales and black sweat and burning eyes, is that they gave you teeth and claws and radioactive breath, and they made them things you could own. You're living the Monomyth, but this is real life -- and when the Heroes come to kill you in your Lair, you'll be ready.

You wanted a monster? You're getting one.

Beasts are people ruled by lust for power over others, who must either embrace them or sublimate them into socially acceptable forms (dominating others in sporting contests for example). They are so well-entrenched that their enemies can only be mentally disturbed, enemies, who include lonely nerds, stay-at-home mothers, and young women defying abusers.

It's a surprisingly good metaphor for the normalisation of violence in society.

Anyway... I believe Beast missed the whole point of what people wanted, but that's my opinion.

Basically. If there are any defensive measures worked into the Great Spell that keeps dragonkind hidden, they're designed to keep the whole race safe, not just each individual. And, let's face it, if people kept turning into dragons during accidents or fights or other stressful situations, their existence would not remain hidden for long. Better to let thousands of dragons die over the millennia before reaching their potential than risking the eradication of every single dragon in existence. [/IC philosophizing]

Well if it's inherited like it's supposed to be, might that be a reason to remain together? Firelight goes over this in detail, dragons stick together to protect each other and prevent their offspring from risking turning into a dragon on the big screen. Those that have lost their ability to change into a dragon (For example, the protagonist's mother refused to turn into a dragon for so long that her dragon died, so that she could better understand her second daughter who never had the gift and resented everyone because of it) or those who never shown the capacity, would be able to leave and go join with the normal human world. In this sense you're a dragon from the get-go, it's been part of you your whole life. You know they exist, you know you have the blood in your veins, it's just not your time... yet. That's how it operates in Firelight. Some can change from a very young age, others not until they reach puberty, and some just... never do.

That does make me wonder though, if someone considers themselves a dragon as a part of their first identity, how does that work?

No, as far as dragons can tell, their children are normal humans. Or normal dragons-disguised-as-humans. There's not really a way to tell before they are ready for Inheritance. Dragons do know that it's possible for a dragon's child to be a bog standard human. They know this because a downright depressing number of dragons have been killed because they turned their own child into a Slayer. Either that, or it's possible for dragons who haven't had the chance to Inherit yet to become Slayers. If that is the case, then it's most likely that becoming a Slayer locks out the possibility of Inheriting; there are no examples in all of recorded dragon history of a Slayer receiving an Inheritance.

Because it's so difficult to tell the difference between a dragon who hasn't undergone Inheritance and a normal human, dragons just don't have enough information to do more than make educated guesses about how exactly draconic Inheritance works. And since dragons don't know, it's best if we just don't strictly define it.

The exception is dragons who have undergone the Blood of the Heir spell, which guarantees that a child will grow up to become a dragon. Or, if the spell goes too well, the child is actually born in Drakonos. This is the exception I mentioned earlier, which is very rare due to both the rarity of the spell itself and the infrequency with which it is cast.

Sounds identical to mages. The thing though is that you're not answering if "draconic blood" actually means anything or not. Though, if what you're saying is accurate, then it sounds like draconic blood and heritability is a non-factor. Furthermore, if it was the case that a dragon that hadn't had the chance to receive it's inheritance could become a slayer, then how do Spurned work? What's the difference between a Spurned and a Slayer? There doesn't seem to be a good distinction and I believe that's a big problem I think that might need to be looked into.

If a child is born in it's Drakonos, then how would that work mechanically within the game? Say if you wanted to play one.

That's if dragons aren't actually a separate race from humanity. Honestly, I prefer the default explanation, but I also like leaving enough mystery out there for alternate explanations. The New World of Darkness Chronicles of Darkness thrives on the possibility that the PC factions are just plain wrong about some things.

From what I'm reading it seems to be very much the case that dragons are a variant of mage.

Very similar. Very, very similar. Close enough that when we joke about Onyx Path stealing Xallace's ideas, there is a tiny part of us that isn't actually joking.

Why not work on some ways to differentiate them? Also who's Xallace? I don't recognize them, do they not post on here?