Just wondering how long it takes. I know they are meant to grow quickly, but how quickly? 6 months? 2 years? before they are ready to fight in the War of the Lance?
And what happens over that timeframe?
Do dracononians speak Common upon being born or do they have to be taught?
Would love to read some detail about this.
Thank you
P.S. I looked at Dragons of Krynn, Races of Ansalon, Bestiary of Krynn, War of the Lance, and "Ecology of the Draconian" in Dragon #339 but could not find any information on this.
There page 17 of War of the Lance sourcebook where they grow up under harsh conditions.
There's page 41 of DL9 Dragons of Deceit. The party comes upon a corruption ritual. 4d12 2-foot sivaks emerge from one egg. The baby Sivaks have 2 HD and cause 1d2 points of damage with each of their three attacks. They have a -2 penalty to hit because of disorientation. So in theory they're "combat ready."
In Dragons of Krynn, draconians hatched by draconian parents reach full adulthood in 15 years (page 80).
From Draconian Measures, the female draconians started reaching combat readiness about 2 years after they were hatched. So I assume the same for the male draconians back in Sanction.
My advice? Once draconians are hatched, they don't speak Common they learn it. They become fluent in 2 years time. (This is based on how the ladies weren't speaking in the short story To Convince the Righteous of the Right" and how they knew some language in Draconian Measures). All draconian babies start out with 2 HD, cause 1d2 damage with the -2 penalty. By age 2, start using the monster class levels in Dragons of Krynn. You could technically accelerate their growth by having draconians kill each other in gladiator-style combat, gain XP and new levels until they reach the end of their monster classes and take on character classes.
Does that help?
I think what you say is believable.
I ask because one of my players wants to play a 1st generation Lightning Draconian spawned from Cacophanax's eggs. We are trying to flesh out those early months/years.
It is said that, at the tail-end of the War of the Lance, the metallic dragon eggs were running out and, in desparation, the Dragonarmy started to spawn draconians from chromatic dragon eggs.
So, if that was at the tail-end - let's say the last couple of months, tops - then, it would stand to reason, that all the noble draconians that were created would not have reached adulthood by the end of the war. And, thus, would not have been pressed into the Dragonarmy.
In Dragons of Krynn, it says:
They began creating draconians from chromatic eggs as quickly as possible, placing the new hatchlings into holding cells until they could be trained as warriors... Eventually they realised something was terribly wrong ... Many of these noble draconians were summarily executed... Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were slaughtered like cattle... Others, especially the more easily controllable frost draconians, were kept as slave labour and sent to mines and labor camps throughout the Khalkist Mountains and Neraka. Most of these unfortunates died in transit or at the whips of their taskmasters, but some survived and escaped. Finally, some noble draconians escaped from the Temple of Luerkhisis, aided by the metallic dragons who raided the city near the end of the war.
So, it looks like those that survive, are pressed into slavery (as juveniles).
To make matters worse, my player's Lightning Draconian is a female. By the way standard female draconians were treated (ie. instantly sent for execution), we can expect female lightning draconians to suffer the same fate. So, she and her sisters would immediately be thrown into holding cells to be executed, I imagine. They wouldn't even be experimented on first like the males.
Perhaps, while she is awaiting execution, a Shadow Person adept rescues her via one of their secret tunnels. She eventually escapes Sanction and makes her way into the Khalkist Mountains. There, she scavenges for a couple of years before she reaches adulthood. Perhaps, toward adulthood, she stumbles upon Godshome and has an epiphany - dedicating herself to Paladine (and picking up the Paladin class at the same time).
How does that sound for a background?
I think that's fine, but I know others are sticklers about it.
How about some suggestions? It seems to me that by dedicating herself to Paladine, there may be a stronger connection, like Paladine watching over her well before her escape and scavanging. She may not have seen it, and her epiphany was that Paladine was with her all along.
Just tossing some ideas.
But I think the authors had this stance on the base draconians at one stage until draconians became cool. They then let in female draconians. I suspect, if the setting was ever picked up again, noble draconians would become cool, too, and all of a sudden there'd be hints of some females escaping from Sanction.
I had a few more questions. I'm sure there's no canon answer on this but would be interesting to hear someone else's thoughts
- Do dragons know whether their eggs are male or female?
I would say, no.
- Or, would Wyrrlish, Dracart and Harkiel the Bender know whether an egg they intend to spawn draconians from is male or female?
I would suspect, no, but that would mean 50% of the time the hatchlings would be female and they'd have to send hundreds off to slaughter. Unless, of course, they could magically divine this.
- How many draconians were produced in total for the war effort?
I know it says in Dragons of Krynn, I think, that there are no female noble draconians but I'm OK with that. Like you say, it's my game, so if it works...
But I think the authors had this stance on the base draconians at one stage until draconians became cool. They then let in female draconians. I suspect, if the setting was ever picked up again, noble draconians would become cool, too, and all of a sudden there'd be hints of some females escaping from Sanction.
I had a few more questions. I'm sure there's no canon answer on this but would be interesting to hear someone else's thoughts
- Do dragons know whether their eggs are male or female?
I would say, no.
- Or, would Wyrrlish, Dracart and Harkiel the Bender know whether an egg they intend to spawn draconians from is male or female?
I would suspect, no, but that would mean 50% of the time the hatchlings would be female and they'd have to send hundreds off to slaughter. Unless, of course, they could magically divine this.
- How many draconians were produced in total for the war effort?
Something to remember, is the noble draconians were originally created in desperation. While I haven't read the original source material and may be missing something, it's believeable that if restrictions like "only use good draggy eggs" were tossed, perhaps they figured they could use females on the frontlines too. Desperate times, lead to desperate actions. Unless there is something that says females were hauled off for immediate execution, there's no reason to believe they were.
- Do dragons know whether their eggs are male or female?
I would say, no.
I would say no for dragons. I have to look up instances in Dragonlance where a baby dragon is born, and whether the parents knew. However, I think gods might be able to know. Afterall they're gods.
- Or, would Wyrrlish, Dracart and Harkiel the Bender know whether an egg they intend to spawn draconians from is male or female?
I would suspect, no, but that would mean 50% of the time the hatchlings would be female and they'd have to send hundreds off to slaughter. Unless, of course, they could magically divine this.
Because I think gods might know, I'm tempted to believe that Takhisis tells the cleric of the group, seperating female eggs from the male eggs.
- How many draconians were produced in total for the war effort?
Honestly I've never tallied it all. I guess we can also ask the folks at the dragonlance nexus forums. We might be able to gather enough data. Personally I've seen books that say at least 50,000. That seems a bit high to me. But then, we could be dealing with a lot of draconians from a lot of eggs, produced over many years before the war of the lance broke out. I guess my question is, how does the number help you?
I guess my question is, how does the number help you?
The number isn't that important - just trying to get an overall picture.
Draconian females must have been created early on or just prior to the war as Dragons of Krynn says:
Dracart was unnerved by the intelligence and spirit demonstrated by the draconians. He slaughtered all female draconians and sent unhatched females to be exterminated. The eggs were captured by dwarves and taken into the bowels of Thorbardin...
Perhaps with Dracart being so unnerved by these females, he henceforth petitions Takhishis to tell them the sex of the egg like you say.
But that would mean my player's female noble draconian PC wouldn't have been born, so I'd have to think of another background... Unless, like crzyhawk says above, they were desparate times when the noble draconians were spawned so perhaps they got lax about checking the sex of the eggs at that stage and a few female eggs slipped through.
I haven't read The Doom Brigade or Draconian Measures. Would these novels help on this subject?
I guess we can also ask the folks at the dragonlance nexus forums.
I'd love to ask the folks on the DL Nexus forums but haven't been able to access that site for a year now.
Crzyhawk has in my opinion has a good idea because it matches what we know. Noble draconians were late choices out of desperation, and in that desperation, they missed a few.
Otherwise, you might want to think about covert actions or experiments. For example, let's say the metallic draconians proved powerful, intelligent and capable. Then it may stand to reason that evil chromatic dragons eggs could produce and even better soldiers.
lastly, evil devours itself. there might be background where a chromatic vengefully used a rival's eggs as a personal attack. There's nothing that says dark vengence then mutating your enemy's children.
dangerous_journeyman wrote: