RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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(I just found this, it somehow ended up on the work computer, I wanted to post it before I delete it for posterity. also to see what people think)
See, I think "Dragons, colour coded for your convenience" is one of the staples of D&D. For the Chromatics though, I see them more as certain roles that their alignments fit, rather than their alignments dictate the roles they take. Here’s how dragons fit in my worlds.
In order of least to most important:
Whites: Chaotic Evil, simple hunters and predators, prone to blast first, eat second and catch a nap, questions aren't important.
Variants: A neutral evil dragon may see itself as the ultimate predator, enjoying the simplicity of the hunt more than the actual kill. Think of a car sized flying housecat.
A chaotic neutral white dragon may see itself as a prankster, though its 'jokes' may not be appreciated by everyone. a prankster white may find it a great joke to blast a lone guard with his breath weapon, freezing him solid so a pack of winter wolves can sneak in undetected. He might then amuse himself encasing the guard in a block of ice, knowing that it will make a great mystery for the next band to come across him.
Blacks: Chaotic Evil, defilers, corruptors, more likely to subtly poison a foe, weakening him before going in breath weapon melting. Such dragons often like lairing in abandoned cities in marshy areas, if they cause the abandoning, so much the better.
Variants: A chaotic neutral black dragon may be a druid, working to expand the natural decay of the swamp to surrounding areas. such dragons would believe that decay and rebirth are all part of the cycle. Once the world is reduced to a swampy marsh, then it may be reborn anew.
Neutral evil black dragons can be preservers. Not in the environmental sense, or even the stasis sense. Rather a preserver black dragon is likely to take an abandoned town and fill it with various undead, programmed to go about their previous routines so that the dragon may study 'his' town, like a watchmaker.
Green: Lawful Evil, territorial preservers. Green dragons often claim a section of natural woodland as their domain and expect tribute from any who use it, or pass through. All the resources in that area are theirs to use, including the sentient beings. After all, to a dragon with an intelligence of 18, just how sentient is a human with an intelligence of 10?
Variants: A neutral evil green dragon is more likely to be xenophobic, having few reservations about turning the land to his use, even if it destroys the land. After all, the green dragon can fly elsewhere, and to such a long lived creature so what if it takes 20, 30, 100 years for the land to recover? Such a dragon is more likely to have awakened plants or plant enlightened animals (see Eldrich Sorcery) as allies, since they do not compete for the same resources.
A lawful neutral dragon is often more controlling of 'their' land than even their lawful evil brethren. What separates them is that the guardian green dragon will be more likely to negotiate, and be more fair in his judgments. Fair does not always equal kind. Someone who kills one of 'his' deer may be sentenced to be polymorphed into a deer, to replace that which he took. For short lived races (humans, orcs, halflings) a guardian green may become something of a forest deity or spirit, to be honoured, worshiped and placated. More than one self proclaimed 'dragon slayer' has wound up bound and gagged at the dragon's feet, courtesy of a meal given by the town he came to 'liberate'.
Red: Chaotic Evil, red dragons are commonly seen as similar to whites in outlook, hunters and destroyers. The reasoning though is completely different. While Whites often rely on feral cunning, a red dragon’s disregard for others comes from their superiority and contempt of lesser beings. While they are more likely to be found in their lairs, counting their gold or sleeping, when active a red dragon is a raw force of nature, a living storm of fire guided by a genius intellect. Subtlety is not a common trait, a red dragon will have no qualms about razing a caravan to seize a religious artifact, or burning a town to acquire a rare book.
Variants: The chaotic neutral red dragon is a rare breed, often being eliminated not only by ‘heroes’ but by their own kind as a threat. Red dragon drifters will move through territory, stealth or destruction as their whim suits them. Ironically it is the chaotic neutral red that gives rise to the ‘rescue the maiden from the fire breathing monster’ archetype. Drifting reds will sometimes capture a humanoid or two for a variety of reasons. Rescuing heroes may find the damsel has already been made into dinner, or she’s chained to a rock “because of tradition” or playing chess with the dragon. One recorded account states that the red dragon kidnapped the farmer’s daughter because he had an itch he couldn’t scratch!
Neutral evil red dragons are, if possible, more terrifying than their chaotic evil brethren. While still a storm of destruction, neutral evil reds are warlords, having a trait that the majority lacks, patience. Warlord reds scheme, often breeding their own half dragon and draconic kin to do their bidding, so they don’t reveal themselves. The red dragon in Margaret Weis’ ‘The Best’ is an example of this kind of dragon.
Blue:* Blues are more familial than most dragons. Their ‘Me against my brother, us against our cousin, we three against the world’ mentality leads them to place a high value on oaths and loyalty. Blue dragons may carve out swaths of terrain as their own domains, and fight hard against other dragons to keep them out, but more than one adventurer has died not at the claws of the dragon he killed, but rather the call of the dragons coming to aid their brother. Blues are also more likely to keep ‘pets’ than other dragons and taking (or just plain hiring) lesser creatures for their skills. Many a bard tells a tale of being set free after giving a dragon a masterful performance, those tales based in fact often have blue dragons to credit. As organized, structured creatures, blue dragons are another breed willing to take a ‘long view’ often extracting generational promises. Like some greens, blue dragons can have followers and even towns built around them. While the green dragon relies on onerous laws to give it ways to get ‘out’ of their promises, blues lay down simple laws and punish violators as simply.
Variants: The neutral evil blue is rare, often having been driven from his clan. Retaining the plotting nature and desire for order of his more traditional brethren, the vengeful blue is likely to lead warbands from the rear, sacrificing his pawns for short term positioning, with a long term goal. Lacking kinship, everything, from his followers to his own family is an expendable resource.
Lawful neutral blues are often judges or scholars. A judge will treat her domain harshly but fairly, often using her own resources to benefit ‘her’ community. Such a dragon may breed her own enforcers of her law, or use mercenaries. She may even be a patron to an adventuring party; overtly or covertly hiring them to go retrieve a lawbreaker or a stolen item. One such blue is feared for his ‘court of glass’ an open plaza in a ruined city where the judged are transformed into glass statues and displayed. Scholarly blues often are convinced that the shorter lived races will have insights that the longer lived dragons may overlook, and can be found collecting human libraries, and sometimes human sages as well. If the blue acquires magic to take human form, he may actually be an active member of the community, funding and helping with research. One such blue was known for asking for a ‘tribute’ of a maiden a year. The rescuing hero was surprised to learn, in the brief final moments of his life, that he was taking the ‘unwanted’ women and using them as librarians, going so far as to send them to distant lands to collect lore.
*Yes, Blue dragons are more important than Reds, you have a problem with that?
Well, I like the high estimation of blue dragons. I prefer both the color blue over the color red, and lightning over fire as an attack. Than being said, I don't like this approach to dragons. In fact, I don't like most of D&D's approach to dragons. I don't see why, just because they are intelligent and mighty, people assume they would be such active political figures. If they were, dragons would conquer the world in about .2475 seconds. Besides, I think having political dragons misses the most powerful archetypal role for such creatures. I use dragons as the ultimate guardians, sitting upon wondrous treasures within their lairs on distant mountain sides and deep in the hearts of ancient forests. Evil dragons seize treasures and hoard them out of greed and envy, while good dragons watch over their treasures out of a sense of duty, safeguarding objects of power which lesser races cannot be trusted with. Such powerful and ancient beings are totally unconcerned with the affairs of mere mortals, unless those mortals should be foolish enough to take something from the dragon's hoard. Then villages, castles, cities, and even kingdoms may quake and fall to the rampage of an angered wyrm.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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I understand Saern, and my reds, blacks, and whites definately aren't the society builders. even the neutral evil ones.
As to the blues and the greens, well they are lawful evil. dragons-as-cult-leaders go back to the 2e draconomicon, and when you have that size, power, and time, why not try short term investments? I mean to a being that lives centuries, sponsoring an adventuring party, using them to manipulate rivals, then killing them and taking their stuff is the draconic equivelant of 'day trading'
I had a blue wrymling I was playing in a Greyhawk campaign, Estheriniusa. She had dreams of her lair having a horse ranch. Both because of the blue's love of horseflesh, and for investment. She could breed horses, sell the successful lines for breeding, and eat the losers. As a player/DM I liked the image of in 50 or 100 years a band of 'heroes' going to slay the evil blue that lived outside town, only to have said town go "No! Do you know what losing her horse farm will do to our economy? Plus, she defends this town because we help supply her farm!"
I do see Blues as tribal, and territorial. Two blues with bordering domains will launch assaults against each other, it may even evolve into a game. but the first time a 3rd blue moves against either one, they'll support the other "Better the devil I know" and all three will team up to beat up on that red, or silver, that wants to move in.
Greens may curry worship, or they may be worshipped without caring, or knowing. If the green dragon wipes out an invading orc warband who is burning down 'his' forest, killing 'his' animals (including that ferral halfling tribe) then said halflings may pay tribute to the dragon while he takes a brief decade long nap. He wakes up and his cave has all these trinkets outside it. He goes and captures a halfling, interrogates it, then eats it. Still hungry (it was one halfling after all) he flies to the villiage. He's not met by psycho halflings with slings, but with tributes and food. To his 18 int, these 10 int halflings are like your housecat who brings you his kill, or your dog who sees you're pack alpha. He thinks it's cute, maybe just takes the tributes, maybe just kills one or two halflings and goes back to bed. He's woke up a few days later, the halflings are being terrorized by the orcs, and they're appealing to him to save them. Mad the orcs are back in 'his' woods, he goes and kills them. The halflings have their saviour affirmed, and the fact that he ate the ones who woke him up, teaches the halflings that their guardian is not to be disturbed lightly. a couple of generations go by, and the dragon is a god to the halflings.
I need to sit down and write up how the metalics work in my world.
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I was always unhappy with 'dragon bloat' and have only used the five chromatic dragons in my games. There are no metallic dragons, although any dragon can be any alignment (although they have tendencies, and few of them are nice people by human standards).
The Green Dragons saw the biggest change, as I replaced their sorcerer spellcasting with bardic spellcasting and music, and their acid/venom breath weapon with a sonic breath weapon.
Each dragon type was insanely rare. Only one red dragon was known to exist, and he was the fire tyrant of a mountain kingdom of hobgoblin mamelukes and their fire giant masters (and kobolds and azer and other races). The only commonly known white dragon had a castle of ice fashioned by frost giants whom he thought of as his worshippers (they, in turn, thought of him as a very dangerous and fairly stupid pet), and was in the grip of eternal hunger, so that he spent much of his time hunting over the arctic seas, plucking forth whales to feed upon. The blue dragon flew alone over the seas in a permanant storm made by her own magic, to raid ships and devour their crews. She was followed by opportunistic scavengers, but didn't have 'minions' like the other dragons. The green dragon wasn't known to exist at all, since she lived in human(oid) form as the elven queen of the Singing Woods, served by thousands of elves, long since corrupted by her rule into decadence and courtly intrigue. The black dragon wasn't widely known to exist, but it was well-known to avoid the fetid marshes, which were overrun with the shambling bloated dead, as their draconic master had long ago itself succumbed to undeath as well.
Each dragon would be, in more modern terms, the end of an Adventure Path in it's own right. They weren't something that would ever appear on a random encounter chart, and you wouldn't find dragonhide armor in even the best-stocked magic shop (although I had equivalent armor made from wyvern scales, since I didn't want to penalize the Druid players just because I was changing one of the assumptions of the game).
It's all a matter of taste, of course. I'm well aware that I'm out of the mainstream in my interpretation of dragons and their roles (at least to judge by most of what I see posted and discussed on the matter here, and printed in adventure paths).
I find I like my dragon population at an implied middle ground. Chromatic and metalic dragons both exist in my campaign, and in "significant" numbers, though they are still very rare. However, I don't like the thought of, to re-use the phrase, political dragons. It implies, to some extent, there are a great number of these creatures running around; the more there are in a world, the less "fantastic" they feel to me. I also can't escape the question of "If dragons are so active with their agendas and things, why aren't they controlling the whole world?" Even limited to just greens and blues, they would be nearly unstoppable. Perhaps the explanation is the bigger fish ("There's always a bigger fish"), but that seems cheap to me. At some point, a being becomes so powerful it has to have some effect on the world around it. Any being or collection of beings powerful enough to keep the dragons from overrunning the world should have a wide-srpead and widely felt influence, which has never been addressed adequetely to me. Further, such figures would only once more raise the question, "Why aren't they running everything?" So on and so forth. It would also take dragons out of their position of primacy, which definitely doesn't feel right to me.
All those are various reasons I don't like political dragons in terms of what I see as the long-range implications. Moreover, I just don't like the feel of it. Having a dragon heading a business, or even a cult or, I dare say, a kingdom, feels to me like they are stooping. Dragons are sentient, raw forces of nature. In my eyes, they don't give a flying fiend what the mortals do. The lesser creatures don't even register enough to make the dragons seek their adulation. It would be like a human organizing a gang of toddlers to do his bidding; bizarre and trite.
I like my dragons in the tradition of Beowulf. They are the ultimate danger, the ultimate monster. In narrative and literary terms, they are synonymous with all the fears and perils and trials mankind has to endure; the pure, concentrated essence of whatever darkness humanity must fight and overcome.
Of course, that doesn't work so well for the metallics. But I can't even see them getting involved in the affairs of mortals. What would happen if a paladin came to the lair of a gold dragon requesting aid? Here's how I think it would play out:
Paladin: "Great one, my kingdom is in dire need of your aid. The forces of the demons and undead are threatening to overwhelm and destroy our land and our people. The nation has long been a force of good in this troubled world. Its loss would be a tragedy. You must aid us!"
Gold Dragon: "No."
Paladin: "What? How can you refuse my plea?"
Gold Dragon: "If I spare you now, how much longer will you endure in this world? Twenty years? Fifty? I will delay your death but the blinking of my eye. And of your kingdom: even the most noble must one day fall. How much time will I buy your land if I intervene? A century? Three? Five? A thousand years? Even then, I will be here long after your castles and cities have crumbled into dust, just as the kingdoms I beheld a thousand winters ago have now faded. It is the nature of good and evil. They rise and fall in the currents of time. Even should the powers of darkness win out for an age, it will be but a brief sleep to me before some new champion of the light rises to sweep aside the shadow. I am the closest thing to eternity you will ever know. I am not of your world or its struggles anymore than you are of the world and struggles of the mice in the field."
Blackguard: "Mighty lord of fire! I beseach you to grant me aid! My strength in arms is measured great amongst my kind, and my armies have conquered cities and kingdoms. We wish for you to fly at the front of the battles, to breathe fire and death upon our foes."
Red Dragon: "...."
Blackguard: "There is much treasure to be plundered, and we would give you fully half of all that is taken! As a token, take these chests of coins and gems and know there is far more to be had where this came from!"
Red Dragon: "An interesting proposition, mortal. Here is my counter offer: I kill and eat you and your servants this very instant and keep the treasure you have brought anyway. How dare you attempt to bribe me like some wretched king amongst your infantile race? How dare you even think if I were to fly before your banner it would be in service to you, or that I would surrender half of the wealth plundered to your kind, chattel? If I so choose to bring forth my fire and wrath in this trite war you are fighting, I will lay waste to both sides with equal fervor, and I will keep all that I may desire for myself."
I don't agree with your assessment of the gold dragon, acting indifferent and comparing men to mice, since mice can't come and ask the man for help.
I would find it more likely that the dragon would read of a laundry list of things it was doing to help, but with a much longer view on improving the world that one kingdom did not matter,
Gold Dragon: Sigh, youngling, I have given you a crankshaft driven chain water pump and a bridge mill just 80 years ago, so that your people will not go hungry, and educated most of your teachers so that all of your kingdom read and write the same language (who do you think spread the common tongue?) I even gave you an analog computer which would have advanced you civilization a thousand years within your life time and your church destroyed it as heresy. I did help you and your kind, but the amount of good you can accomplish has reached its limit, because you forsaken me, no tyranny lasts forever perhaps the next enlightened kingdom will heed my wisdom.