Helluin's page

Dragon culture on Golarion is intentionally kind of 180º from Dragonlance (and maybe 90º from Forgotten Realms). We wanted our dragon game to feel different than D&D's dragon game, so for Golarion, dragons are mostly solitary creatures who play the role of end-boss monsters or mysterious patrons/manipulators or powerful but solitary allies. Dragons in Golarion don't really have "societies" like they do in most D&D settings.

Naming conventions for dragons we use are to give them names that would sound impressive when spoken by a 60-foot-long monster, but specifically avoiding the trap that so many Forgotten Realms dragons fell into, by rolling your knuckles across the keyboard to come up with a 20 character name that's tough to spell and say. :-P

Dragons name their children, yes, but we've never attributed any Draconic meanings to their names. Instead, as they get older, many dragons choose to adopt "nicknames" that are not nonsense words but are meanings, particularly if they want to use those names to strike fear or respect or intrigue into humanity. The dragons Longtooth (whose given dragon name escapes me at the moment, and who we might NEVER have given a dragon name for) and Freezemaw (Arkrhyst) are two examples that come to mind from Rise of the Runelords.

Then there's a dragon like the one from "The Dragon's Demand" who has a birth name he hates so he stole the name of a tougher...

Thanks! I’ll be sure to check out The Dragon’s Demand. In-universe speaking though, can you conjecture (or maybe in other words, make up ;)) how draconic parents come up with names for their children? Do they re-use old names for famous dragons (which in turn come from gods-know-where), other beings of great power, locations, etc? Based on what you have said, I realize that dragons don’t necessarily follow some sort of traditions, but I’d love to hear some examples :) Sorry if this is too specific :p I’m just a bit obsessed over what might inspire a name in a race as ancient and powerful (and prideful) as dragons.

Hey James, thanks for answering my question about monitor outsiders!

I’ve been thinking about (re-)reading some Dragonlance books soon-ish, and thinking about Krynn made me curious about the draconic cultures of Golarion. My biggest question is: What are the naming conventions of the True Dragons of Golarion? i.e. Do dragon parents name their children? If so, how do they come up with names? Taking the names of some iconic dragons from Dragons Revisited and other sources for example: Mengkare (Gold), Terendelev (Silver), Daralathyxl (Red) — do these names mean anything in Draconic?

Hi James!

Do you think if any of the monitor outsiders ever “fall” for doing things that are not exactly antithetical to their nature? We do know one of the four queens of Hell was a Psychopomp Usher and she fell (I presume) because she abandoned her allegiance to Pharasma, as well as her duties as a Psychopomp. Hypothetically, an inevitable can also be “corrupted” by aligning itself with forces of chaos; however, would a Neutral outsider become Good/Evil for actions taken while in pursuit of their duties? For example, if a Zelekhut knowingly slew innocent mortals while pursuing his quarry, does he become LE? I can certainly see an LN character doing this becoming LE right away, but are aligned outsiders bound by the same morality as mortals?