Dragons: an alternate origin - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

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#1 yrogerg Sep 13, 2009 22:02:22	(here's hoping this is the appropriate subforum for edition-neutral setting concept ideas) Basically, someone mentioned an idea over in an rpg.net thread, and it got me thinking. The idea was, what if the various chromatic dragons aren't different subspecies as such, but are simply the result of adaptation to the particular terrain that they reside in? Thinking about it a bit more, I rather liked this idea, and wanted to flesh it out and expand on it: What if we play up elemental nature of dragons, and perhaps suggest that they might be the missing link between elementals and fey: powerful, intensely magical creatures, with certain elemental qualities, but bound in particular to the elements as found in the material plane. After hatching, they quickly take on the traits that of the environment they find themselves in: hatchlings born in the forests develop into green dragons, swamps and marshlands: black. And so on. Those of you familiar with Guild Wars might recognize this as a not-terribly-original idea, as it's roughly akin to how that game's Titans work- when found in a volcanic region, they're creatures of fire and ash, in lush jungle, their earthy beings, made of vegetation and soil, and when encountered on mountaintops, they're creature of snow, wind, and ice. As these dragons age, they become more and more connected to these locales, eventually merging with the terrain itself, in a manner similar to that proposed as a form of apotheosis in 3.5's Draconomicon. They become the volcanic caldera, the ice flow, every creature in the swamp, every leaf in the forest. Obviously, this idea's still half-formed, and needs some refinement, but one reason it appeals to me particularly is that it gives me a place, personality, and all sorts of flavor for Green dragons where before I struggled. Green dragons as forest lords, flitting amongst the trees and undergrowth, controling and speaking through the plants, confounding interlopers and separating trespassers, and generally giving voice to our deepest fears of getting lost in the woods: well, that's suddenly something I can work with.
#2 yrogerg Sep 13, 2009 22:03:04	So, the next question is, what are metallics or gem dragons (if you use them), given this origin? I would submit that the metallic origins are "rarified" versions of their chromatic 'cousins'. Once again, they're all dragons, but some dragons, rather than accept their fate to eventually meld with the earth itself, seek to separate themselves from it. This is the true origin of dragons' hoards: rather than born of some instinctual avarice, these hoards are formed specifically to change the dragon's "environment", to evolve beyond their earthy forms. As such, one notices that every dragon that forms a hoard restricts it to one single type of metal, which represents the specific path of apotheosis along which their motive lies. Obviously, one confound here is that we'd have to throw out a lot of the default alignments of these dragons. Unaligned and/or shades of neutral would be the most common, but the biggest change would come to metallics: clearly, this sort of goal- a reach at immortality, smacks of upsetting the natural order, and while there's no hard-and-fast rules about who would choose this path, there'd probably be more than a fair share of evil dragons who would choose this route. This is emphatically not a direction to go if you want your dragons color-coded by alignment. On the other hand, it might be an interesting thing to introduce to a game if you want to throw some players who are a bit too accustomed to the metal==good, colors==evil paradigm for a bit of a loop.
#3 Book5 Sep 13, 2009 23:47:10	Throwing out nearly everything I know about dragons other than what you have above written, you could look at things this way - simply speculating mind you. The metalic versions of the dragons are the natural form of the beast. They are all "lain metalic" but the territory of their birth defines their chromatic, metalic, or crystaline state. There are probably a couple of ways that you could apply environment and metal values to generate an array of metalic and crystaline results. For example, Golds are naturally hatched in deserts, but if they are hatched in water they are green. Silvers are naturally aquatic, but if hatched on land they are blue. Effectively saying that the chromatics and crystalines are "corruted" durring incubation.

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yrogerg

Sep 13, 2009 22:02:22

(here's hoping this is the appropriate subforum for edition-neutral setting concept ideas)

Basically, someone mentioned an idea over in an rpg.net thread, and it got me thinking. The idea was, what if the various chromatic dragons aren't different subspecies as such, but are simply the result of adaptation to the particular terrain that they reside in?

Thinking about it a bit more, I rather liked this idea, and wanted to flesh it out and expand on it:

What if we play up elemental nature of dragons, and perhaps suggest that they might be the missing link between elementals and fey: powerful, intensely magical creatures, with certain elemental qualities, but bound in particular to the elements as found in the material plane. After hatching, they quickly take on the traits that of the environment they find themselves in: hatchlings born in the forests develop into green dragons, swamps and marshlands: black. And so on. Those of you familiar with Guild Wars might recognize this as a not-terribly-original idea, as it's roughly akin to how that game's Titans work- when found in a volcanic region, they're creatures of fire and ash, in lush jungle, their earthy beings, made of vegetation and soil, and when encountered on mountaintops, they're creature of snow, wind, and ice. As these dragons age, they become more and more connected to these locales, eventually merging with the terrain itself, in a manner similar to that proposed as a form of apotheosis in 3.5's Draconomicon. They become the volcanic caldera, the ice flow, every creature in the swamp, every leaf in the forest.

Obviously, this idea's still half-formed, and needs some refinement, but one reason it appeals to me particularly is that it gives me a place, personality, and all sorts of flavor for Green dragons where before I struggled. Green dragons as forest lords, flitting amongst the trees and undergrowth, controling and speaking through the plants, confounding interlopers and separating trespassers, and generally giving voice to our deepest fears of getting lost in the woods: well, that's suddenly something I can work with.

yrogerg

Sep 13, 2009 22:03:04

So, the next question is, what are metallics or gem dragons (if you use them), given this origin?

I would submit that the metallic origins are "rarified" versions of their chromatic 'cousins'. Once again, they're all dragons, but some dragons, rather than accept their fate to eventually meld with the earth itself, seek to separate themselves from it. This is the true origin of dragons' hoards: rather than born of some instinctual avarice, these hoards are formed specifically to change the dragon's "environment", to evolve beyond their earthy forms. As such, one notices that every dragon that forms a hoard restricts it to one single type of metal, which represents the specific path of apotheosis along which their motive lies.

Obviously, one confound here is that we'd have to throw out a lot of the default alignments of these dragons. Unaligned and/or shades of neutral would be the most common, but the biggest change would come to metallics: clearly, this sort of goal- a reach at immortality, smacks of upsetting the natural order, and while there's no hard-and-fast rules about who would choose this path, there'd probably be more than a fair share of evil dragons who would choose this route. This is emphatically not a direction to go if you want your dragons color-coded by alignment. On the other hand, it might be an interesting thing to introduce to a game if you want to throw some players who are a bit too accustomed to the metal==good, colors==evil paradigm for a bit of a loop.

Book5

Sep 13, 2009 23:47:10

Throwing out nearly everything I know about dragons other than what you have above written, you could look at things this way - simply speculating mind you.

The metalic versions of the dragons are the natural form of the beast. They are all "lain metalic" but the territory of their birth defines their chromatic, metalic, or crystaline state. There are probably a couple of ways that you could apply environment and metal values to generate an array of metalic and crystaline results. For example,

Golds are naturally hatched in deserts, but if they are hatched in water they are green.

Silvers are naturally aquatic, but if hatched on land they are blue.

Effectively saying that the chromatics and crystalines are "corruted" durring incubation.