Are your dragons sages or savages?
>>47155295
savage (young) adults, sage great wyrms
>>47155318
What happens? Do they simply mature psychologically?
>>47155295
Sage dragons are fucking retarded
>>47155295
Animals, generally extremely destructive, though potentially useful if raised from birth
>>47155295
lunch
>>47155295
I haven't decided yet, I'm learning toward Biblical "The Dragon" (i.e. allegory for satan).
>>47155295
>dualism
Dragons are as varied as your or I, if not more, for the most part.
>>47155295
Sage, all-raping murderbeasts that spread horror and hellfire wherever they fly.
Wise, but conniving in most cases. Only a few are legitimately good, and half of those are relatively dumb and trusting.
>>47156158
The concept of a naïve, gullible dragon seems quite cute and adorable to me.
>>47155295
>>47155904
Guardians and sages. There are no strict "gods" in my setting, so clerics worship or follow powerful beings. In many cases, these are dragons.
The villain behind who the players believe to be the main antagonist is a dragon known as the Betrayer of All. He's my Satan allegory.
>>47155295
Incomprehensible abominations from beyond reality, or, in case of one very unfortunate dragon, sacred texts of a major religion.
There are also lesser dragons, who are at least made of normal, comprehensible flesh. They are intelligent, cunning and clever, but prone to hoarding - younger and dumber ones settle for traditional piles of treasure, older dragons prefer hoarding kingdoms, organizatons, one even fancies secret societies.
>>47156199
It's actually become a bit of a plot point - the party's trying to help a guy who claims to be a bastard prince get his father's throne over a few other claimants. But there's an ancient law that you have to get a dragon to support your claim, which is meant to ensure its legitimacy (since most dragons aren't dumb enough to support a false claimant). Since the party's prince's claim was so tenuous, and most of the dragons had other political allies that left them aligned with the other claimants, they just did some digging and tracked down a young dragon famed for his 'lack of wisdom,' as it was politely put.
I think I made them feel a little guilty though, since they went through a few fun little side-quests to earn this dragon's friendship and now he always refers to them as his friends and unquestioningly does just about everything they ask, and even lets them ride on his back if they want.
My dragons are the remnants of a past universe, utterly alien in mind and magic. They are intelligent, but their priorities and thought patterns do not follow our own. This dimensional "language barrier" makes it difficult for dragons to communicate with or understand humans (and vice versa), and few care to try. So while dragons carry uncounted secrets, most humans believe they are simply insane monsters that destroy without purpose.
To a human, a dragon's speech is the sound of thunder and the voice of an avalanche, and to those who do not know Draconic it is a terrifying, incoherent roar. Those scholars who know that it is actually a language and learn to understand it fare little better, because though they understand what the dragon is saying, they can rarely understand why it is saying it. The dragon's perception of time is different: the border between the past, present, and future is blurred. For their part, dragons find humans nearly as strange as humans find dragons (though dragons find humans ridiculous rather than scary).
tl;dr: they appear to be savages that attack at random, but are in fact highly intelligent and attack according to plans made using information that humans cannot understand.
>>47155845
That's some Next-Level Irony right there.
>>47155295
Semi-divine feudal lords in a giant merchant council with massive amounts of political intrigue carried out by their mortal servants who all plot to kill each other and seize control of The People's Grand Mercantile Republic of Asia. Until someone fucks with their hoard/favored slaves. Then they go all Smaug on a bitch.
They're more like Savage Sages, than Sage Savages.
>>47155295
Yes
Both. considered as gods to the mortal races really.
One made man and is considered one of pacifism and enlightenment while the other is of strength and ruling over others via their strength.
The first died the second is in a coma from his wounds while the "evil races" made their civilization beneath it.
Straight forces of nature
So... Savages?
>>47156784
How is it ironic to want dragons to be what they're supposed to be instead of
>Muh ancient race of wise misunderstood victims on the verge of extinction ?
We already have elves
>>47155295
The big dragons are kinda-sorta sages, but it depends on the individual. Some dragons are benevolent and compassionate and like to help out the mortals who worship them, some dragons just wanna do their own thing and don't give a shit about mortals, and a few explicitly dislike mortals.
The only ones that are savages are the degenerate lesser dragons, the drakes, which are the result of proper dragon dividing its life-force too much. Instead of creating lesser but still magnificent and powerful creatures, they end up creating creatures little better than beasts that barely understand their own language and are driven by primitive urges.
>>47159823
>sages
>retarded
That's the irony.
>>47155295
Depends on the kind of dragon. None of the really big ones that exist in the current age are anything but beasts, but mid-size to small species vary wildly in intellect and temperament.
My dragons are basically eldritch gods that operate outside of normal time and space, completely incomprehensible to lesser beings.
They are extremely clever and manipulative, but they are violent and instinctively seek to destroy and conquer.
However they live in a world where there are powerful entities that seek to wipe them all out.
Savage by nature but sagely by nurture.
>>47155295
Both at different times with different individuals, just like us.
>>47155809
actually they mature elementally. originally, they are creatures of fire and air, making them ambitious and free respectively. they start gathering treasure here. then they mature to fire and earth, the earth in them making them sluggish, and hide away their treasure and themselves in caves. Then, they become creatures of earth and water. water is the complacent element and at this point they stop caring about almost everything and start resembling small hills. if you can contact hill dragons, they are rather like a kind grampa. they then die and become nexuses of air and water containing powerful magic (tapping into this magic is how dragon sorcerers happen. they follow the same general life cycle). The nexuses then birth new dragons starting the cycle again. these phases take thousands of years.
A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B. "Dragon" is a term describing the most powerful of demons. The nine greatest of these are the Guardian Dragons of the Circles, each serving as an arbiter of their own circle of Hell. Dragons outclass the strongest devils and rival most of the fallen. Appearances range from the red-haired ogre that is Orcus, to Crown-Prince Leviathan's serpentine mate Tiamat, to the dog-like mass of offal Cerberus.
>>47155295
They are either and neither and both depending on their needs and purposes.
Both, depending on which order they follow (if they follow one)
>>47155295
Are humans sages or savages?
Depends. There's variation within a species.
>>47155295
My campaign once had a trio of young dragons send the party on a quest to obtain the blueprints for a mighty weapon, then take said blueprints to the greatest blacksmith in the land to have it made.Turns out it was just a picture of a dragon dick, no-one bothered to check it and the dragons were just fucking with them.
Reptiles.
>>47155295
Neither. They're servitors.
They have the potential to be intelligent, if they don't go insane from pain in the process of becoming one.
In my setting, dragonborn are actually invaders from outerspace, who have no knowledge of magic. When they get exposed to it however, (via suit tears, or magic being cast at them) they painfully transform into a dragon. Only one dragon so far has gone through this without breaking mentally, but the party hasn't met her yet.
>>47155295
It's hard to differentiate a dragon from a human by measuring intelligence. They're still long-lived, so more experienced than your average human.
Dreamers. Dragons do nothing but sleep. They have access to great wisdom from the dreamworld and only a skilled Dragontender knows how to communicate with a dragon while they're in trance. You never wake a dragon. They go beyond savage while awake. There's a reason they sleep all the time.
So both. Savage and Sagy.
>>47155295
Sage in the boardroom. Savage in the hoard-room.
Mine are dickish snobs for the most part that see everything as below them, some are more savage others less so. Most of them just like to fuck with the mortal races cos they can.
Pretty much at war with the other three major 'monstrous' powers: a cabaal of illithids, a syndicate of beholders and a magocracy of liches. It's the standard political backdrop I use with all the standard races always caught in between, all of the four are either outsiders or beings whose power stems from unknown and alien sources (undead) I usually have only one or two powers in any given adventure. However the others are always referenced, it gives the PCs a different context for their adventures based on which society they start in.
>>47155295
Easy, they're definitely allfucking dead
>>47164903
What were they like when they werealive?
>>47164912
Really they were a sort of middle-ground. They went out of their way to exhibit savagery, but they never had anything enlightening to say either. They just took for granted being given every advantage as a species until the shifting dynamics of the burgeoning world suddenly turned their stagnant societies on their head.
Dragons are a kind of evil outsider. What succubi are to "I want your dick", dragons are to "I want your loot".
True dragons are aliens from another world, with similar levels of lifeforce or soul power to the gods. The titans that preceded the gods waged war on the dragons in ancient times and set their world in fire, but little is known of them because they're very rare. They perceive reality differently, just like all beings with significantly more lifeforce than average mortals. They're just another form of gods.
Dragonspawn derived from the great life force of true dragons, however, are numerous. There are humanoid races that are basically long-degenerated larval states of dragonkin and a host of different serpentine, lizardlike or other beasts. The dragonspawn with humanoid shapes tend to be at least somewhat sentient, others are just animals, although possibly smart animals.
So wyverns and drakes and the like do exist, although they have been hunted out from many areas in the mortal world.
>>47155295
Savages, but old enough to remember secrets long lost, making many assume they are sages.
Dragons are the eldest of serpents, ancient before men or elves or dwarves were even considered by the gods. Some say that dragons even predate the gods themselves. Their patient, lidless gaze has seen all of history, and while they began as mere beasts, their immortal lifespans have allowed them to build up memories, to learn and for some, to even speak. Much knowledge has been lost across the ages, names and deeds that might change the course of time, now remembered only by primeval reptiles with no use for it aside from a cunning, predatory recognition that mortals might value it.
Some dragons were once worshiped as deities, and these are the sort to keep hoards, though more in the sense that they viciously guard their territory, typically the ruins of their odn temple and surrounding regions, still filled with offerings of their long deceased faithful. The minds of dragons are strange to men, cold and calculating, without passion or ambition. They are what they are, ageless predators of unthinkable power, and see no reason to muck about in anything unless it directly concerns them at that very moment. A dragon will watch kingdoms fall with a dispassionate gaze, mortals being so temporary after all, but if inconvenienced itself is likely to lash out with sudden wrath, a display of unimaginable fury, primal and inhumanlyvicious.
Yet there are still those who risk audiences with dragons, often offering up a dozen oxen to sate their appetites and buy time while the beast gulps them down. Dragons don't really understand the whole virgin thing, but another bite is never refused. Whatever the offering, onehad best be quick in asking, and even quicker to agree to whatever price a dragon might demand for its knowledge.
