Dawn of Hope: On Dragons

[noob]

Yeah, I saw that part later and added a bit.



Most hatchlings don't leave the lair or the supervision of their parents until they set out on their Molt journey. So they're thoroughly indoctrinated. Remember that they don't even have individual names at this point--their society pushes them toward the Molt pretty heavily. But I guess such a thing could happen.

I'd still bet that the parents would consider them aberrant and cast-out or kill them as soon as it became apparent that they weren't heading toward their Molt.



As far as wizardry, my setting sees things a bit differently (departing from the "stock" lore pretty heavily here). No matter how much you learn, not everyone (even smart ones) may not be able to actually cast spells (ie spend spell slots). And even those that can often cap out early--99% of people who can cast spells cap at about 2nd level spells, no matter how hard they try and learn. That is, spell-casting requires an innate talent and experience. Even for wizards or clerics. It's why most priests are not clerics--they get miracles sometimes when they pray but can't really reallocate their spells like a PC could.

Dragons descend from Wyrm, who wielded True Sorcery (basically will-and-word-based elemental magic, a la Skyrim). Wizardry is an elvish invention (due to a root intervention on the basic framework of reality) that mixed Titan runes and Wyrm sorcery and in doing so diminished both of them and broke those races. So dragons that learn human magic systems really act more like sorcerers--their spell patterns are inherent in their nature rather than learned intellectually. And that capacity doesn't develop until they grow in power (which requires Molting) anyway.

Maturation and growth in power is locked behind the Molts. And that's part of the soul--the Molt is triggered when the hatchling's soul hits its "full" capacity (like a snake shedding its skin when it outgrows it).

So a "unmolted" hatchling would be a stunted thing--forever unable (barring outside intervention) to grow beyond its current state. It would be a hatchling forever, forever unable to become anything else.

So dragons that learn human magic systems really act more like sorcerers--their spell patterns are inherent in their nature rather than learned intellectually. And that capacity doesn't develop until they grow in power (which requires Molting) anyway.

Except that wizardry is based on titan runes as well so a dragon which starts reading wizardry books and applying the recipes to the letter would somehow still not be using titan runes and yet obtain non elemental results(like casting detect magic)?

the Molt is triggered when the hatchling's soul hits its "full" capacity (like a snake shedding its skin when it outgrows it).


So a "unmolted" hatchling would be a stunted thing--forever unable (barring outside intervention) to grow beyond its current state. It would be a hatchling forever, forever unable to become anything else.

It would be a hatchling but clearly growth is not based on knowledge at least for the next steps otherwise the next steps would not be based on hoard.
So does hatchlings have capped amount of learning and then can not learn more?
Would the hatchling forget old stuff when they learn new stuff?
Does brains actually do anything in your setting?
Does willforce depends on the soul?
Is wisdom capped for a hatchling and does reducing the wisdom of the hatchling means you empty their soul(in which case you would be able to stay in a state of not wanting to suicide forever by taking periodically poisons that reduce wisdom which would mean that wisdom reduction would make you wiser ironically)?
Also do you mean clericking is based on inner magic?
Then it means gods are just scamming clerics in believing they actually get something from them.

And if a hatchling that died of molting(or of not molting) gets resurrected why does it transforms in something that have nothing to do with what killed them them while they had no cocooning time.

Also if souls are race based(since you said that dragons did not have the same kind of souls as the other creatures) what does reincarnate does in your setting?
And for True polymorph what does it do to the soul?
Could I true polymorph someone unable to cast spells into an "human with a soul able to learn spells up to the ninth level"
And if I reincarnate someone who had the potential to cast ninth level spells would that person risk to lose that.
If I reincarnate a hatchling into a goblin does it souls stays capped in capacity in the same way?

Does simulacrums have souls made out of snow that like the rest of them can not evolve?(or else how do they cast)
(I also wonder: what happens to the simulacrum soul if I cast true polymorph on the simulacrum)

Honestly soul racism immediately create megatons of rule complexity.