Draconic Opinions of Half-Dragons [Archive] - Wizards Community

Draconic Opinions of Half-Dragons [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
jaw4ever
03-08-07, 01:48 PM Something, I've been thinking about concerning half-dragons. I know that dragons have the ability to procreate with just about any race or animal,and the products of these unions are half-dragons.

What do you think the mindset of a dragon would be coming into contact with a half-dragon that he/she sired? Happy to see? Overwhelming embarassed?

What about a dragon coming to into contact with a half-dragon not sired by him/her, but of the same type of dragon (i.e. a gold dragon meeting the gold half-dragon child of a different gold dragon she/he knows, or a red dragon meeting a another red dragon's half-dragon offspring)? Disgusted? Indifferent?

I'm sure if a red dragon met a gold half-dragon (or vice versa), the dragon would think the half-dragon to be an abomination!

Within the draconic mindset, this question must be swirling around their horned heads: Just because you can create offspring from "creatures" that you and all of your kind consider "beneath you", should you?

Your thoughts...
Ozzymandias
03-08-07, 02:02 PM I've often wondered exactly how a dragon sires offspring. I know that the silver dragon can take a humanoid form; I can't recall off-hand if other metallic dragons can or not. I know that not all dragons can, so how do they 'do the deed?' Polymorph or shapechange works, I suppose.

Either way, we know that there are dragon-born out there. I would imagine that a dragon's attitude toward its half-breed offspring is probably not that much different than it would be toward its full-bred offspring. This would naturally vary with each type of dragon, the alignment of said dragon, and the individual personality of the parent.

Silver dragons, with their humanoid form ability, make a candidate for half-dragon parents. They have an inborn ability to assume the form of humanoids; they enjoy interacting with humanoids; it's logical to assume that they would sire half-breeds on purpose. Red dragons, with their chaotic evil alignment and (generally speaking) dominating personalities, would probably only engage in relations that could result in a half-breed child for the purpose of controlling said child and advancing their own agendas. If they don't have a purpose for the offspring, they may consider them adversaries.

The attitude of a dragon toward the half-breed children of another dragon requires more thought. Say a gold dragon meets with a bronze half-dragon. I'm sure the gold might consider conversing with the individual to learn of their parentage. If it turns out that the half-dragon's father (or mother) is a rival, an ally, or an indifferent party relative (no pun intended) to the gold dragon, that information in the hands of the gold may direct its future actions.

All in all, this is a good thing to consider in any game where half-dragons are common enough to make a significant impact. It certainly makes knowing your character's familiar background that much more important.
Domriso
03-08-07, 02:43 PM Alright, first off, all dragons can sire half-dragons because all true dragons have the ability to cast spells as a sorcerer. That gives rise to polymorph and, therefore, half-dragons.

As for the feelings of dragons to half-dragons, I would guess that individual dragons would have different feelings. I'm sure that certain dragons didn't mean to have children, and that some just had huge numbers of children for the sake of children. It's hard to say what they would feel.
Sildatorak
03-08-07, 03:24 PM What do you think the mindset of a dragon would be coming into contact with a half-dragon that he/she sired? Happy to see? Overwhelming embarassed?Heh. I'm reminded of a very...amorous...black dragon NPC that I had in my last campaign. He was a young adult, and the horse never said "no." Seriously, though, my PC's never put together that they were running into black half-dragons because daddy was a free love kind of guy.

To answer the question regarding his opinion of his progeny, it depends on their type.

Half-dragon animals are not really that different than the animal that spawned them. If other dragons found out about these and could trace their ancestory back to him he would have been embarrassed.

Half-dragon humanoids were considered tools or potential allies. The exact treatment they received depended a lot on how useful they were.
Derren S.
03-08-07, 05:03 PM There would be two big groups in the draconic society. One group which uses half dragons extensivly as they consider them to be better than races without draconic blood. The other group of dragons would abhor half dragons, seeing them as corruption of the majestetic draconic bloodline. Those dragons would be extremly hostile to half dragons, so I will discuss only the first group below.

I don't think that dragons would have the same relation to their half-bred offspring than to the pure dragon offspring.
To evil dragons, half dragons are tools. Nothing more than pawns ins a big chess game and that is how they will be treated. Only well enough so that they can server their function and when they have no use anymore they will be killed. As tools, it doesn't matter if the half dragons are sentient or not. That depends on the function they have to fulfill. If a dragon wants cheap lair guardians it mates with the local predators to create more powerfull hazzards. If it wants a agent or a political puppet it will mate with a suitable humanoid.

Good dragons also will sometimes use half dragons as tools and while they will treat them better than the evil ones, the relationship will still be far from a normal parent-offspring relation. It probably will be more of a commander-soldier relation or at best a master-apprentice relations.

Generally dragons would be distant to their half dragon children as they probably have no clue what to do with them. Dragons have an ancestral memory so is no need to rear their offspring. Half dragons probably lack this memory and as dragons normally no knowledge about rearing children they would always be left with the other parent to grow up with. A dragon might visit a half dragon "love child" periodically but would still be distant to it.

When meeting foreign half dragons (who are not known agents of a dragon) dragons of all colors will probably be rather hostile as they do not know if the half dragon follows the draconic "color code" or if he is not bound by alignment through his heritage. Some evil dragons might kill half dragons on sight "just to be sure" unless they know that the half dragon is working for another dragon. Good dragons would still be wary and, if the half dragon is chromatic, might refuse to meet with it at all and instead issue a "leave or die" ultimatum unless the half dragon has proven himself to be not evil.
oracle71
03-08-07, 11:05 PM The Council of Wyrms boxed set for 2E goes into some detail on this, but according to that source, most true dragon types are either cold and aloof toward them, or hostile toward them. I never particularly understood why the metallics had so much disregard, since they were the ones making the half dragons in the first palce.

My take on subject is that a true dragon's reaction toward half dragons depends a great deal on the nature of the dragon itself. In general, they view half dragons similarly to how they view the base creature.

Chromatics tend to view half dragons with a great deal of contempt. Of course, chromatic dragons tend to be comtemptuous of everything, including other dragons. Those that created a half dragon for a specific purpose would probably view that particular offspring of theirs as either a prized possession or a valuable servant, but they would never be considered on the same level as the dragon's true dragon offspring. All others would be viewed the same as they view the base creature. In other words, they're just some exotic meat.

Metallics, unlike the chromatics, tend to care about their half dragon offspring, albeit from a distance. They may never fully embrace their half-dragon children, but they usually have some measure of genuine fondness for them. Metallics in general view half dragons that aren't their own offspring as lesser creatures, just like everything else, but being creatures of good, would be just as respectful towards them as they would be to any other sentient. They would probably look upon half-chromatics with more than the usual suspicion, and be a bit extra cautious around them, however.

Gemstone dragons usually find some beauty and value in anything draconic. They tend to think of all half-dragons (even their own offspring) as if they were more magnificent than their base creature, but a bit less glorious than the true dragons, of course.
El_Machinae
03-09-07, 11:07 AM Mostly as pets. Clever pets, probably, but still pets.

I'd think that dragons could easily create kingdoms, if they used half-dragon offspring as royalty.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
jaw4ever 03-08-07, 01:48 PM	Something, I've been thinking about concerning half-dragons. I know that dragons have the ability to procreate with just about any race or animal,and the products of these unions are half-dragons. What do you think the mindset of a dragon would be coming into contact with a half-dragon that he/she sired? Happy to see? Overwhelming embarassed? What about a dragon coming to into contact with a half-dragon not sired by him/her, but of the same type of dragon (i.e. a gold dragon meeting the gold half-dragon child of a different gold dragon she/he knows, or a red dragon meeting a another red dragon's half-dragon offspring)? Disgusted? Indifferent? I'm sure if a red dragon met a gold half-dragon (or vice versa), the dragon would think the half-dragon to be an abomination! Within the draconic mindset, this question must be swirling around their horned heads: Just because you can create offspring from "creatures" that you and all of your kind consider "beneath you", should you? Your thoughts...
Ozzymandias 03-08-07, 02:02 PM	I've often wondered exactly how a dragon sires offspring. I know that the silver dragon can take a humanoid form; I can't recall off-hand if other metallic dragons can or not. I know that not all dragons can, so how do they 'do the deed?' Polymorph or shapechange works, I suppose. Either way, we know that there are dragon-born out there. I would imagine that a dragon's attitude toward its half-breed offspring is probably not that much different than it would be toward its full-bred offspring. This would naturally vary with each type of dragon, the alignment of said dragon, and the individual personality of the parent. Silver dragons, with their humanoid form ability, make a candidate for half-dragon parents. They have an inborn ability to assume the form of humanoids; they enjoy interacting with humanoids; it's logical to assume that they would sire half-breeds on purpose. Red dragons, with their chaotic evil alignment and (generally speaking) dominating personalities, would probably only engage in relations that could result in a half-breed child for the purpose of controlling said child and advancing their own agendas. If they don't have a purpose for the offspring, they may consider them adversaries. The attitude of a dragon toward the half-breed children of another dragon requires more thought. Say a gold dragon meets with a bronze half-dragon. I'm sure the gold might consider conversing with the individual to learn of their parentage. If it turns out that the half-dragon's father (or mother) is a rival, an ally, or an indifferent party relative (no pun intended) to the gold dragon, that information in the hands of the gold may direct its future actions. All in all, this is a good thing to consider in any game where half-dragons are common enough to make a significant impact. It certainly makes knowing your character's familiar background that much more important.
Domriso 03-08-07, 02:43 PM	Alright, first off, all dragons can sire half-dragons because all true dragons have the ability to cast spells as a sorcerer. That gives rise to polymorph and, therefore, half-dragons. As for the feelings of dragons to half-dragons, I would guess that individual dragons would have different feelings. I'm sure that certain dragons didn't mean to have children, and that some just had huge numbers of children for the sake of children. It's hard to say what they would feel.
Sildatorak 03-08-07, 03:24 PM	What do you think the mindset of a dragon would be coming into contact with a half-dragon that he/she sired? Happy to see? Overwhelming embarassed?Heh. I'm reminded of a very...amorous...black dragon NPC that I had in my last campaign. He was a young adult, and the horse never said "no." Seriously, though, my PC's never put together that they were running into black half-dragons because daddy was a free love kind of guy. To answer the question regarding his opinion of his progeny, it depends on their type. Half-dragon animals are not really that different than the animal that spawned them. If other dragons found out about these and could trace their ancestory back to him he would have been embarrassed. Half-dragon humanoids were considered tools or potential allies. The exact treatment they received depended a lot on how useful they were.
Derren S. 03-08-07, 05:03 PM	There would be two big groups in the draconic society. One group which uses half dragons extensivly as they consider them to be better than races without draconic blood. The other group of dragons would abhor half dragons, seeing them as corruption of the majestetic draconic bloodline. Those dragons would be extremly hostile to half dragons, so I will discuss only the first group below. I don't think that dragons would have the same relation to their half-bred offspring than to the pure dragon offspring. To evil dragons, half dragons are tools. Nothing more than pawns ins a big chess game and that is how they will be treated. Only well enough so that they can server their function and when they have no use anymore they will be killed. As tools, it doesn't matter if the half dragons are sentient or not. That depends on the function they have to fulfill. If a dragon wants cheap lair guardians it mates with the local predators to create more powerfull hazzards. If it wants a agent or a political puppet it will mate with a suitable humanoid. Good dragons also will sometimes use half dragons as tools and while they will treat them better than the evil ones, the relationship will still be far from a normal parent-offspring relation. It probably will be more of a commander-soldier relation or at best a master-apprentice relations. Generally dragons would be distant to their half dragon children as they probably have no clue what to do with them. Dragons have an ancestral memory so is no need to rear their offspring. Half dragons probably lack this memory and as dragons normally no knowledge about rearing children they would always be left with the other parent to grow up with. A dragon might visit a half dragon "love child" periodically but would still be distant to it. When meeting foreign half dragons (who are not known agents of a dragon) dragons of all colors will probably be rather hostile as they do not know if the half dragon follows the draconic "color code" or if he is not bound by alignment through his heritage. Some evil dragons might kill half dragons on sight "just to be sure" unless they know that the half dragon is working for another dragon. Good dragons would still be wary and, if the half dragon is chromatic, might refuse to meet with it at all and instead issue a "leave or die" ultimatum unless the half dragon has proven himself to be not evil.
oracle71 03-08-07, 11:05 PM	The Council of Wyrms boxed set for 2E goes into some detail on this, but according to that source, most true dragon types are either cold and aloof toward them, or hostile toward them. I never particularly understood why the metallics had so much disregard, since they were the ones making the half dragons in the first palce. My take on subject is that a true dragon's reaction toward half dragons depends a great deal on the nature of the dragon itself. In general, they view half dragons similarly to how they view the base creature. Chromatics tend to view half dragons with a great deal of contempt. Of course, chromatic dragons tend to be comtemptuous of everything, including other dragons. Those that created a half dragon for a specific purpose would probably view that particular offspring of theirs as either a prized possession or a valuable servant, but they would never be considered on the same level as the dragon's true dragon offspring. All others would be viewed the same as they view the base creature. In other words, they're just some exotic meat. Metallics, unlike the chromatics, tend to care about their half dragon offspring, albeit from a distance. They may never fully embrace their half-dragon children, but they usually have some measure of genuine fondness for them. Metallics in general view half dragons that aren't their own offspring as lesser creatures, just like everything else, but being creatures of good, would be just as respectful towards them as they would be to any other sentient. They would probably look upon half-chromatics with more than the usual suspicion, and be a bit extra cautious around them, however. Gemstone dragons usually find some beauty and value in anything draconic. They tend to think of all half-dragons (even their own offspring) as if they were more magnificent than their base creature, but a bit less glorious than the true dragons, of course.
El_Machinae 03-09-07, 11:07 AM	Mostly as pets. Clever pets, probably, but still pets. I'd think that dragons could easily create kingdoms, if they used half-dragon offspring as royalty.