Dawn of Hope: On Dragons

[PhoenixPhyre]

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)?

All organized spellcasting (doing magic rather than being magic) requires a seed of talent. And different people have this capability in different ways, letting them learn and use certain patterns (spells) but not others. So if a random urchin steals a spell-book it will likely not benefit him at all even if he can decipher the way it is written. Many people can (eventually, with training or selection) learn to cast one 1st level spell per day, as well as some cantrips (basically at will). But that spell is fixed--that's the only one they know, and casting it takes effort. Others learn ritual magic (slow, but less energy-costly).

But in general, knowing magic and casting spells are different. Some of the greatest magical scholars are pretty lousy spell-casters (if they can cast at all). Wizardry, in particular, used to be tied to the High Elven bloodline (because they invented it and weeded out anyone who couldn't use it). That changed in the last 200 years because the current God of Magic doesn't like that way of doing things, but only slowly. Dragons and giants particularly don't like wizardry, because of its role in the downfall of their ancestors. Long memories and all that.

Dragons, when they learn magic, do so in a way that's outside the "mortal" traditions. Basically they force the patterns into existence by force of will (casting using CHA, like sorcerers), but only "resonate" with patterns linked to their way of life. So a sneaky, tricksy dragon would find himself able to learn illusions and such, while a crusading dragon might learn spells that look more like those of a paladin. All of this happens by experimentation and personal introspection rather than book learning.

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?

Growth is governed by a few factors--
* Intake of energy. The small ones can pull in enough to survive by eating normal food, the big ones can't. They need the power from their hoard to survive.
* Soul capacity. More specifically, the interplay of body and spark through the nimbus (spirit). Dragons necessarily have large sparks. So big in fact that their hatchling bodies can't handle it after just a short time and start breaking down. It takes a huge influx of outside energy (usually elemental because that's what they're most attuned to from their creation) to bridge the gap, to rebuild the body into something that can handle the spark.
* Personal factors. Not all dragons are the same or have the same limits. Some barely make it to adult status, some are effectively unbounded. Many (those with weak body-spirit-spark connections) get broken by the transition (happens too fast, is too violent, or whatever) and lose most of their mental faculties (wyverns, drakes, etc). The "civilized" flights know that when a First Molt happens using the energy from a dragon graveyard (the crystallized, high-power remains of dead adult dragons), the Molt is most likely to be a success and most survive. That's why they protect those graveyards ferociously.

But in general, the first two stages happen pretty quick. The hatchlings can, likely, delay the First Molt, but sooner or later it's molt or die. And then wyrmlings are on a ticking clock themselves. And even if they're not actively searching, once they find their hoard, the process is automatic and involuntary.

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)?

Brains make you smarter. Make it easier to know and remember things. If you're one of those wizarding types (ie have the necessary connection for wizardry), it makes it so you can have more spells ready at a time and use them better. Being smart doesn't mean you can be a wizard though. Nor does being stupid prevent being a wizard. There are some moronic high elves who have the talent but only use it to dress up pretty.

Wisdom (the ability score) has nothing to do with any such thing in 5e. It's about being perceptive and attuned to things around you, nothing more. It has nothing to do with willpower (per se). Wisdom saving throws are about realizing that it's an outside influence. Charisma is more force of will, IMO. And changes in wisdom doesn't have anything to do with soul capacity or potential either.

Not wanting to molt is a guaranteed form of suicide, because a hatchling is in an unstable state. Yes, the molt is risky. But not molting is a sure death sentence, barring divine (or demonic) intervention. And that only works by leaving you something else entirely. If you prevent a caterpillar from spinning its cocoon, it dies. So for the hatchlings (except the aberrant ones), the First Molt urge is seen as an opportunity. A chance to prove your strength.

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.

To be a cleric (ie cast cleric spells) requires two things. First, it requires the generic "has spell slots" soul trait. Second, it requires a god to choose them, effectively giving them user accounts on the Great Mechanism. Most of a cleric's spells come straight from that connection (ie `sudo heal($target)`) rather than from the god in some direct sense. Many of the other cleric features (channel divinity, etc.) are more directed divine blessings.

For those many who can't be autonomous clerics, they get miracles direct from the god (or usually from the god's agents) when and if the god decides to grant them. A cleric actually gets to choose for most effects. Basically, most priests can use Divine Intervention, except instead of a percentage chance it's a "when the god feels like it." Which isn't often, since most people aren't attuned to the god's will enough to channel that energy very well at all. Like trying to drain a river through a straw.

This makes true clerics a hot commodity. In fact, there are several factions who think they're getting power by worshiping god X but are really sponsored by god Y (in one known case Y is doing it for kicks and giggles, because he's the god of practical jokes).

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.

Resurrection requires building a body that can house the spark and then pulling the spark down into that. As I said above, hatchlings are unstable. So putting them back into a hatchling body would be instantly fatal--the hatchling died effectively of old age (body/spark mismatch, same as anyone else dying of old age). So they have to be a wyrmling at that point...but wyrmlings are attuned to one of the elements (or the abyss or the astral plane). So depending on who is doing the resurrection and what "color" the magic is, you're most likely to get a black (demonic-influence but not inherently evil) dragon or a gold (astral-influence but not inherently good) wyrmling. The ones that die during the molt generally don't leave bodies behind and don't have names enough to use True Resurrection on. So that's a really really rare case that would probably happen on a case-by-case basis.

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.

Dragons' souls are very similar in basic nature to other beings. I'm not sure where I said otherwise--everybody follows those same rules. They're different in size and complexity. Remember that the soul (for me) is a combination of body, spark (identity), and spirit (the connection between the other two and the world). So a dragon's soul includes their body. Just like a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, but are the same type of being, so does a hatchling become a wyrmling or die trying.

Reincarnate asks the local kami (nature spirits) to build a body for the person whose spark you have claimed as the target. Kami are...well...not very good with the differences between types of "mortal" (ie non-kami) beings. They're also known for being flighty and not listening to people very well. So what you get is a bit random. Has nothing to do with the Spark itself--that's the same. But the body (and thus the soul) changes. Some might reject the change (with usually fatal consequences as they reject themselves), others might find it freeing.

Using reincarnate on a being like a dragon is, well, fraught with interesting possibilities. It'd likely work, but what comes out the other side is anybody's guess. Likely, the spark reflows to meet the new body's potential. So a "capped" hatchling might fit comfortably into a goblin's space (bigger body usually means bigger capacity). Whether that would work is another question. The kami might think that the only valid form of a dragon is another dragon. But since reincarnate makes adult forms, you'd end up with a hatchling mind in an adults' body. And without a hoard, that adult is going to starve very quickly (probably while also being a destructive menace as it fruitlessly tries to slake its hunger by eating everything around it).

Note: for game purposes I would always rule that people keep their capabilities (spell-casting, potential, etc) when reincarnated. Whether that's a setting fact is another matter.

True polymorph doesn't alter the spark of a living being. Note that you can't TP a living being into something stronger than it already is (the system mapping for higher CR). If you use it on an object, however, you end up with a soul that wasn't that kind of being before. I could see this working in a bunch of ways (and I don't think it has to be only one way for all cases)--you might bind a kami to this new body that you created with the spell, giving it life in that way. All things have a kami associated with them. You might summon a new spark from wherever sparks come from (in-universe, that's an unanswered question. Not even the gods know). Whatever the result, the new creation is only as durable as the spell--if it is disrupted (either by losing concentration before 1 hr or by dispel magic or hitting 0 HP, later), the new body is gone and the object reverts.

True polymorph, being a 9th level spell, gets to break some of the rules. It can graft on spell-casting potential if needed. You're making a root-level system call to the universe's OS, and it sets the rules. Same with wish.

Simulacrum, as part of its structure, creates a body + spirit (but lacking a spark). It can't learn, it can't grow (as those are functions of a spark), and it can't refresh the energy it has. So it has whatever the source creature had at the time of creation. It doesn't really have a soul. As it's an edge case, I'd say that TP on a simulacrum has the same implications as TP on an object, except limited by the simulacrum's source for CR.

As for TP into a dragon--that's a known thing. Marci, one of the more commonly known ones, used to be a dragonborn sorcerer. She was granted a boon by a god (sort-of, it's complicated) that effectively transformed her into a young dragon, skipping the previous stages. The change in the body built in time as a buffer but unless she had found her hoard quickly, she'd have been subject to the same fate as any dragon that can't complete the stages of growth.

So TP of an object (or creature) into a hatchling would produce something that's bound by all the rules of a hatchling dragon. Except that if it dies by hit point loss, it pops back to its original form (because the spell has a safety valve in it). Dying by other means wouldn't trigger that.

Souls aren't racist (if I understand what you mean, which I must admit I'm very fuzzy on), but the spark adapts to the body and the body to the spark. Together they are the soul. Change either one and the set changes.