This is post is for last month's RPG Blog Carnival topic: hosted on Sea of Stars. The gods have continued to laugh at my plans, so I'm a little late.
Nobody is sure what dragons really are.
Some believe they are related to demons: that they are merely agents required for the creation of the universe. As evidence of this, they posit:
- A common language they are all born understanding, even if the least of them are incapable of speaking that tongue.
- The universal pride and avarice even the most virtuous of their kind demonstrate.
- Their incredible affinity with certain forms of magic that dragons have, and
- Their fecundity with creatures of other kinds.
In contrast, others, including most of the scholars of the Southern Sands, argue that unlike demons or other outsiders, dragons
- Can breed true amongst themselves. The most powerful of them lay small clutches of eggs incredibly rarely, while the more common kinds frequently lay eggs, to the point that their young are frustrating pests.
- Cannot be summoned and bound in the manner of outsiders.
- Are compelled to collect something physical, rather than metaphysical.
- Grow old and die, eventually.
Common dragons breed prodigiously, and prey upon each other as much as anything else that moves. They have some intelligence, but are overwhelmed by hunger and avarice. Their lairs resemble giant crows' nests, strewn with shiny metal and the odd precious stones, but also lots of refuse in the form of shredded clothing, old bones, and so on. The females lay a clutch of one to six eggs as often as once a season, ready to hatch six months later. They change to female if there aren't already females around, and females change to males if there are older females around. If there are no males around, females lay unfertilized eggs which still hatch. Sages don't agree on what the unfertilized eggs hatch into. Some say kobolds, others say dragonkin or saurians, still others proclaim that they hatch as younger twins of their mother.
While they grow quite fierce, they have no subtlety, and always leave a trail of destruction going back to their lairs. They may have breath attacks, but these are always inferior and infrequently available for use compared to the breath attacks of their more powerful kin. While the elders of these dragons can be deadly, they are essentially no more than savage beasts, and can be dealt with as such.
That said, their remains are also no more than animal carcasses, having few and faint alchemical benefits.
Thinking dragons are more powerful, and have developed access to basic magical abilities. The least of them have enough stores of energy that they can go for months without eating, provided they are sleeping. Even asleep, they are capable of planning and dreaming, and have a strange awareness of their physical locations, including being able to detect all gold, lead, and platinum within one hundred twenty feet of their bodies.
It is not clear if thinking dragons are merely common dragons that have survived for a long enough time that they have mastered their animal selves, or if they are a completely different class of beings. Some claim that those guarding lairs often have dragon eggs in them in addition to their hoards, but none have yet found any evidence of a child form of thinking dragons.
They sometimes form alliances with groups of affiliated peoples, or with groups of other thinking beings. Unlike their common kin, they are capable of extended flight, and of strange and magical attacks expelled from their mouths. Some can learn spells like those used by wizards or enchanters. They can learn from us and in exchange will sometimes teach us.
They plan their lairs to make them difficult to access, and embed them with traps that they are unaffected by, but which can trap thieves and other lesser creatures. While they may form relationships with other creatures, these relationships are predominantly to the dragon's benefit.
Great dragons are truly interesting, and a study in contrasts. The ones most seen by our affiliated peoples act as agents of the Law, others as the gods of Change. They hold a constant tension between guarding their precious hordes, and steering the paths of what they perceive as "lesser creatures". (Note that they never refer to the affiliated peoples or other thinking creatures as "mortals" without a need to do so.) It is as though these particular dragons are tied to us in some way, or that they need to impress their will upon our societies for some reason, in favor of one side or the other of the great metacosmic struggle.
Those dragons acting as agents of Law can generally be trusted if their word is given, to the limits of their word, and they are powerful enough that it is wise not to test those limits.
Dragons acting as agents of Change are far more volatile. The benefit, at least, is that the fundamental motivations of their hearts can be teased out, and anyone acting in alignment with those motivations can chart a reasonable course to safety.
That said, there are occasional reports of other great dragons, wise and powerful, who obey the adage of old: might makes right. These dragons care nothing for the lives of affiliated peoples, or of titans or anything else. They care for only one thing: precious metals. While they collect spell books and magical items, and sometimes even magical creatures, all those things are just means to an end: accumulating and protecting their horde.
Whatever happens, it is advised that affiliated peoples make no compacts with them, for they hold no vow sacred over their own strength and desires. Nothing can be worse than to fall into their clutches, for your life will last only so long as you are of use to them.
From the the works of Pliny the Diviner, in a treatise shared with the affiliated peoples in the Library of Alexander.
"Nice story, bro," as the kids say, "but what does this have to do with my game?"
Well, first, that dragons are interesting creatures. For a game title that only has two words connected by an ampersand, they should appear pretty often, and they rarely appear as often as the other word.
Second, I'll admit, is that I'm grinding through this to see what I can find.
Third, they are a flexible monster trope. They can be anything from brutish beasts (as what I'm calling "common dragons" are) to unusual NPCs that influence, lead, or are factions (as what I'm calling "thinking dragons" are), to--basically--implacable forces of nature, like what I'm calling "great dragons".
Examples of each from mythology, fiction, and other gaming works:
- Common dragons:
- The Worms of Lambtom and Linton.
- The dragon killed by Beowulf.
- Basically all the dragons in Fred Saberhagen's Books of Swords series.
- Thinking dragons:
- St. George's Dragon, who eventually took human sacrifices from the locals.
- Dunkelzahn, from Shadowrun lore.
- Haku from Spirited Away
- Great dragons:
Dragons in Korean folklore are divided into those with four claws (one being opposable), and three clawed. The former are also capable of being wise and powerful enough to wield an orb (or orbs) called Yeouiju (여의주). Interestingly, the Crown Prince's robe was embroidered with four-clawed dragons, while the King's robes were embroidered with five-clawed dragons.
Korean lore also suggest that giant serpents called Imugis (이무기), or "lesser dragons" which aspired to become full-fledged dragons, possibly if they caught another creature falling from heaven. Other stories suggest that they were cursed to prevent them from becoming true dragons. Possibly some adventures might be hired to similarly curse a common or thinking dragon to prevent it from becoming a great dragon. That might explain thinking dragons getting involved in human affairs, to take revenge on whomever cursed them.
Dragons are interesting creatures in D&D-esque games, in that they can be found in any environment. Common dragon hatchlings will explore anywhere, looking to expand into territories not held by older dragons, to extradimensional spaces formed or taken over by ancient thinking dragons, who have built up incredible amounts of power.
So what can we do with all of this information?
- We can use the concept of common dragons to model immature dragons. They have only developed surface predatory cunning, without experience or the advantages that come with it.
- We can also use this to model cursed, stricken, or otherwise damaged thinking dragons that need help, from the draconic version of feeblemind to being in overwhelming pain, to being disassociated from their identity in some way. Relieving such a dragon of their malady would eventually lead to it becoming a thinking dragon, and also potentially have a debt to those who healed it.
- Haku from Spirited Away isn't quite bestial, but is much diminished to the point that he has forgotten his name, because he is a river dragon, but the river to which he was bound has been filled in, and no longer exists.
- They are on the tough side, and have better than average magical resistance. They don't have much treasure, in part because any lair they have is probably little more than a hole in the ground, and in part because they're generally moving and searching for prey. Their value probably comes from their corpses, and from the gratitude of those who were threatened by them.
- Thinking dragons can potentially buy the co-operation of other characters with their strength or other talents. Being magical creatures, it might be easier for them to identify the nature of magical equipment, or their superior senses might make it easier for them to gain information. The greatest of them are most likely exceptional information brokers.
- Even the least of them will have significant resources, and can most likely pass themselves off as something other than a dragon, at least for limited amounts of time.
- On the other hand, being non-mortal, there might be some forms of magic they are unable to effect, or places they are unable to go. They could conceivably have different but comparable limits to genies.
- If you have the time, and can get a hold of it, check out Jack L. Chalker's Quintara Marathon, which in part presents the concept that geometry works differently for demons than it does for mortals. I wouldn't advocate the same sort of limits for dragons, but there's certainly room for exploration on other ways that dragons might interact with the metaverse in different ways than mortals. It's definitely a product of its time, though.
- They will generally be disguised or hidden, to avoid being hunted down by those who want to limit the population of dragons as much as possible. The more powerful they are, the more likely they are to manipulate events rather than act personally, both to protect their lairs, and to reduce the chances of their deaths.
- Their homes will be rife with traps of various sorts, difficult to reach, and difficult to enter. They will probably also have protectors of some sort.
- What separates common dragons from thinking dragons is the ability to delay or completely resist reaching for something they want.
- The greatest of great dragons are sheer forces of nature, capable of averting some other facet of nature, like a drought or a flood, or causing tsunamis, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions from their slightest inadvertent movements. They potentially justify changes to the environment.
- Even lesser great dragons can eliminate major settlements with almost no way to stop them.
- Smaug destroyed both the Dwarven town of Lonely Mountain the home of the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield's people, and the human town of Dale, just outside of it. When Thorin along with the other dwarves of his company and Bilbo Baggins return to reclaim Lonely Mountain, Smaug goes out and destroys Rivertown, the settlement that the refugees of Dale built on the lake. He does this with little more effort than some of us would put into doing yard work.
- Jörmungandr, the great serpent that encircles the world in Norse mythology, will slay and be slain by Thor during Ragnarök.
- The dividing line between the least of great dragons and the greatest of thinking dragons is fear. Great dragons are confident that nothing in the world could possibly pose a threat to them, while thinking dragons are convinced there are still things that could.
To sum up, dragons can be categorized in this way:
- Common dragons: bestial creatures, driven by hunger, or gluttony.
- Thinking dragons: creatures which are mastering their baser instincts, driven by a need for control.
- Great dragons: creatures which are at or near the acme of their ability, driven by sloth and pride.
General References
- Wikipedia: Dragons (Korean, British, and Biblical dragons): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon
- Wikipedia: Dragons of Mythology and Folklore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dragons_in_mythology_and_folklore
- The Children of Loki in Norse Mythology: https://www.norsevk.com/2024/09/the-children-of-loki-in-norse-mythology.html
- The Mythology of Loki's Monster Children Explained: https://www.grunge.com/644251/the-mythology-of-lokis-monster-children-explained/
- Haku: https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Haku
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