A Dragon has many reasons to rule. They may believe they are the only ones capable or worthy of ruling, their arrogance and stubbornness the forefront of their ambition. They may believe that ruling a kingdom is a milestone of their lifespan, or is worthwhile to have subjects protecting his hoard. Heck, some Dragons might make the Kingdom their hoard, if they are sadistic/delusional enough.
But since a Black Dragon is Evil (in before the "Racist towards Dragons" card, by the way) their intentions are usually malignant and horrible.
Those might be a tough sell. They are notedly anti-social, and they tend to have a highly destructive tendency that prevents advanced rulership.
They can have their fiefs when they are lording over a tribe of creatures like lizard folk, but that can be hard to bring to the proper national level (lizard folk tend towards a tribal structure, and their reproductive rate is noted to be low enough to be a significant problem if you want to nation build).
Maybe you could get away with it if the black dragon is kind of a sponger? Like if he is the consort of some powerful creature (strong enough to survive a relationship with a creature whose courtship looks more like an attempted murder). If you have some competent half dragon children that could act as intermediaries, then you could potentially have them do some nation building 'for their father's/mother's honor'.
Black dragons might work better as a figure head, honestly. Something big and powerful that demands tribute, and it can crush anyone that opposes him... but ultimately, he would not be interested enough to actually manage anything (that 'for my father's honor' thing might just be an excuse by an ambitious prince).
Blues tend to be better choices for rulers. Reds are also destructive, but their might have enough pride to at least work at it.
Greens might be the best choice for chromatic rulers. They are highly active and seek self improvement, and they enjoy both physical regiments and scholarly pursuits. Greens even enjoy a mix of architectural/horticultural pursuits as they shape their lairs into a mix of caves and tree networks. They are about as reasonable as a chromatic can get, really, and they can work with 'lesser races' if they can help with the green's personal pursuits. If they get interested in administrative pursuits, I could totally see a green becoming a powerful ruler just so he can be the 'best' at it.
A green dragon king is little different from a wizard king, except for the fact that he can also just tear you apart barehanded.
Yeah, that’s why I’m having trouble with black. Green is playing a game with his subjects, white is leading a barbaric Viking like clan open to any challenges, Red is the ruler of the largest most civilized nation (taken by force), blue is leading a very structured regime - fighting pits and all.
I was thinking about using religion somehow. It seems the best way to get the black dragon to behave enough to make him work for the campaign.
I have no idea if the following will suit your game. But I enjoyed writing it.
Dahak's Deception (long):
In the old days, we were mighty. In the old days, humanity trembled at the mere mention of our kind. In the old days, we were as gods.
But we were short-sighted, and foolish. We paid no attention as the pitiful man-creatures began to grow. They learned to forge weapons and imbue them with enchantments powerful enough to give us pause. They learned to work together. And one by one, we began to fall before the blades and spells of their greatest champions. Why?
BECAUSE WE WERE FOOLS!
Because we fought alone!
And because we did not run. Ever and again, the dragon-slayers would slog their way into our swampy lairs -- ever and again, we stood and fought, never believing these wretched, tiny, soft creatures could seriously think to slay us, US! Our breath could strip the flesh from their pathetic bones, our claws could rend them asunder -- but not all of them, and not fast enough. And so we fought alone, outnumbered, and died alone with our pride.
As I grew in age and wisdom, I went looking for a mate -- and found none. The swamps lay barren of my kin. Their lairs lay empty, picked clean of the treasures that they had gathered. With every empty fen, with every empty vault, my rage grew, as did the slowly-dawning certainty that I would be the last of my kind.
When I came at last to the final lair and found no mate to take, I raged for three days and nights. Trees shattered beneath my claws, stones melted under the withering acid of my breath, the very waters of the swamp around me grew poisonous and fell from the force of my wrath.
And when I was done, I raised up my eyes to the depths of the night sky and screamed out a prayer, an entreaty, a demand: "DAHAK! In the ancient past Thou madest us in Thine image, that Thou might hunt us for Thy sport. Fie upon Thee, great hunter, for Thou hast let Thy hunting grounds run fallow! Thou hast idly allowed the pathetic creations of lesser gods to empty Thy fold. Fie! No more sport shall Thou gain of us, great hunter, for behold, I am the last Black Dragon. Thou has squandered Thine herds."
"If this be the fate Thou hast laid in store for us, that we be slain one and all by the filthy hands of humans and elves, I will not gainsay Thy will. But I was born worthy to be prey of only one being: Thou art the sole one who can hunt me with impunity. Therefore I demand of Thee a boon in recompense for this insult that Thou hast allowed us to suffer: give to me the power to wreak destruction upon the humans and all filthy two-leggers, that in my death I may send their kind tumbling into the same chaos and ruin they have visited upon us! Do Thou this thing or strike me down where I stand, for I will abide this insult no longer!"
And Dahak answered my call. A sudden wind nearly toppled me from my feet; trees cracked and tore away with the force of it. Dark clouds filled the skies, and from them a vast black head bent low to gaze at me with eyes made of blue fire. His fangs were of lightning, and his voice as the crack of thousand thunderbolts.
"INSOLENT WYRMLING," he said. "THOU HAST NO RIGHT TO JUDGE THY BETTERS. THINKEST THOU THAT THIS ONE MINUSCULE PATCH OF EARTH WAS THE SOLE RESERVE OF THY KIND, OR THAT I HAVE NOT SEEN WHAT HAS PASSED? NAY! I HAVE MADE PREPARATIONS. EVEN NOW MANY HUNDREDS OF THY PATHETIC RACE LIE SLEEPING IN THE DEEPS, LAID AWAY AGAINST A TIME WHEN HUMANITY SHALL HAVE FORGOTTEN THEIR POWER. THY KIND SHALL NOT PERISH FROM THE LAND UNTIL I AND I ALONE SLAY THE LAST OF THEM. STILL, I FIND THY DEMAND AMUSING."
And with that, he opened his jaws and heaved forth an inferno -- fire, and lightning, and acid, and darkness itself somehow entwined with all of them. It boiled over me in the blink of an eye and stripped my very soul from my bones. Everything that I was melted away in a moment of incredible, orgiastic pain beyond anything I had ever dreamed might be possible. I knew myself to be dead, and rejoiced that I was fortunate enough to die by Dahak's divine will directly.
But ... then the moment passed, and I opened my eyes once more. I stood thigh deep in swamp water. I felt ... cold? I swayed a bit and put out a ... a HAND to steady myself. A hand! A clawless, weak, five-fingered HUMAN HAND!
"THUS DO I GRANT THEE THY BOON," Dahak pronounced. "THE BLOOD OF DRAGONS RUNS IN THY VEINS, BUT THOU ART REMADE IN THE VERY IMAGE OF THOSE THOU DESPISETH. IF THOU SEEKEST TO REGAIN MY FAVOR, THEN DO THE THING THOU HAST SWORN TO DO: BRING CHAOS AND DEATH TO THE REALMS OF HUMANS AND ELVES AND ALL THE TWO-LEGGED RACES. LET THEM SUFFER AS THY KIN SUFFERED. DO THOU THIS THING, AND WHEN THY SOUL HATH BATHED IN THE BLOOD OF A THOUSAND THOUSAND OF THINE ENEMIES, THEN THOU SHALT HAVE THY TRUE FORM RETURNED TO THEE. GO NOW, AND RAIN SUFFERING AND DEATH UPON THEM!"
"But Great Hunter," I said in my pathetic, weak human voice, "How can I do this thing with neither claw nor fang nor breath of acid?"
But he did not answer. The clouds dissipated. Stillness returned. And I fell to my unfamiliar knees in the mire, a human, naked and alone in the midst of a great swamp. I could have flown over it in three hours; it might take three days to walk out.
"I will, Great Hunter," I said through gritted teeth. "I will do thy bidding. The great strength of the humans lies in their numbers -- in their 'kingdoms'. Thou hast given me this body -- well, with it I shall make my way to the heart of their power and turn it against itself. At my word, great armies shall march on their neighbors. I shall turn the humans on themselves, and dedicate all their slaughter and suffering to thee!"
And with that I pushed myself to my pathetic human feet and began the long trek out of the swamp ... and into a future I had never imagined.
I am Deception.
And I will see my enemies kill and die at my word, for my amusement, and the honor of Dahak.
I'm kind of envisioning the NPC as a sorcerer going into the Dragon Disciple prestige class and slowly regaining draconic abilities along the way. Possibly retaining the original draconic ability scores. Once the NPC has caused enough death and destruction amongst the humans -- poof! -- back to being a full-blooded dragon, possibly with the sorcerer levels retained.
I deliberately left the gender non-specific.
And of course Dahak has the Deception domain, so it would make sense for one of his followers to work by trickery.
Maybe the kingdom is a total mess. The black dragon attacks whichever region it feels is currently providing the least tribute/service (and anyone it catches trying to leave). There are dead towns and cities scattered around.
It sounds like his motivation is jealousy (if there's a bunch of other dragons running kingdoms). I presume his kingdom consists of his territory and a bunch of people he kidnapped and demanded build him cities and things. Like an angry petulant child. Whenever other dragons do anything he demands his subjects do that. But better. I imagine in practice it's a lot like the River Kingdoms or Galt. Either it's a haven for black markets and anarchists or the "government" is whoever the black dragon likes the most at the moment (or whoever's most effective at turning the black dragons ire to someone else).
Extra protection against any who would want to kill him or steal his hoard.
Another idea:
My favorite third party setting is Dragonstar, which is basically another D&D in space with tech. An interstellar empire 1000 ly wide ruled by dragons. The empire is divided into two, the Metallic dragons and the chromatic each get half, and subdivded into Houses based on color.
This was done because the dragons basically thought "Hey, if we're so damn powerful physically and magically, nigh immortal and ridiculously smart, why do we hang around in caves and let lesser beings steal from us or kill us? Let's all band together and subjugate everyone else."
Each house rules their domain differently, depending on the general mindset of the ruling dragon types, and the black dragons are specialists in intrigue, intelligence and covert operations. They are the sneakiest, most backstabbing of the bunch and rule their domains through fear and uncertainty. The most terrifying police state you can imagine is probably about what they consider ideal.
Black Dragon's being chaotic are not particularly good at building intricate complex structures like a kingdom. They are more likely to 'rule' via direct threat and intimidation than build real government, and that limits how big an area and how many subjects you can control no matter how powerful you are.
If you want a Black ruling a real kingdom, the most reasonable way that I can see is that the Dragon 'conquered' a nation, but was largely then assimilated into it, not unlike the Mongol conquest of China not really replacing or removing Chinese bureaucracy (a simplification).
So the dragon conquers an existing nation, and then largely leaves its government structures alone as long as his whims are met and he is given all deference. For the most part, while anything the dragon orders will happen, he isn't actually much of a factor in how the nation is run. Mostly the bureaucracy will work around him, trying to mitigate the negative effects of his desires, tantrums, and such while making sure to offer no threat to their 'king'.
First off, I wouldn’t think of a black dragon’s kingdom as proper nation state. Rather, because of their territorial and isolationist tendencies and preference for swamps, one would probably lord over an underdeveloped backwater that nobody else wanted. Sort of the draconic equivalent of a hillbilly- he just wants people to stay offa his property. Of course, his “property” includes the swamp folk that serve him out of a combination of reverence and sheer terror. Being melted by acid is a pretty horrifying fate, after all. For henchmen, you might take some inspiration from Haiti’s Tonton Macoute for a shamanistic secret police.
An adult black dragon is a 100+ year old, CR 11 creature that has Int 14, Wis 17 and Cha 14 and throws spells like a 3rd level sorceror. That makes a perfectly respectable king of a small kingdom. If you want to spike him up a little, you can either make him a mature adult (same stats, CR 12) or add some PC levels.
Sure, he's Chaotic Evil, but not all CE characters are the same. Maybe he was the runt of the litter, and his driving passions are resentment and envy. Worthless weakling, was he? He'll show them! He'll show them *all*! -- Thematically, this fits well with a dragon that has some caster levels.
A couple of throwaway ideas:
Give him a couple of levels of witch. That's only +1 CR... but now add the Coven hex and a couple of hags who are his coven-mates and allies. Go and look at the spells available to a hag coven. Control Weather? Force cage? Yeah, there's some good stuff there. Oh, and maybe there's a "princess" who's a changeling with the half-dragon template...
Or, give him four levels of Mesmerist. CR +2, and now he's the Serpent King: his schtick is lots of super convincing lies backed by his stare power + spamming lots of Suggestions. Or, if you want to be really nuts, give him a few levels of Court Bard: he's draped in bling, surrounded by sycophants, and he disses you into -2 on everything before he tears into you.
His kingdom? Yeah, Blackwater is mostly swamp... maybe it includes the delta where a large river meets the sea. The bits that are consistently above water are super fertile, and it's a rich source of fish and timber. But it's always been a backwater, poor and exploited, someone else's colony. The swamps have always been a refuge for the poor and despised, the beggars and half-breeds that nobody else wanted, and the more pleasant parts of the kingdom have always viewed them with contempt.
Think resentful swamp hillbilly. The people of Blackwater have had a chip on their shoulder since forever. You can decide for yourself how much of this fair -- they've absolutely been exploited by a distant, arrogant government -- and how much is sullen resentment from people who are actually thieves, deadbeats and general degenerates. But anyway, the resentment is real, and dominates relations between Blackwater and the world.
Enter the dragon. You know how it's canon that black dragons will dominate tribes of lizardmen or whatever? This one fell in with a clan of particularly vicious and resentful swamp dwellers. (You know who would work great here? The Graul family from Hook Mountain Massacre, way back in PF #9.) They became successful bandits, yadda yadda, then one day something happened and the bandit clan was the core of a rebellion of Blackwater against its parent kingdom. Which the rebels won, in large part because the army sent against them was not expecting a frickin' dragon.
Now Blackwater is an independent kingdom, ruled by a black dragon. And here's a thing: a startling number of the human and humanoid inhabitants are just fine with that. Two reasons. First, resentment and xenophobia! The dragon may be a monster, but he's our monster, he's one of us. And he SHOWED those bastards. Finally, finally, they got what was coming to them. Finally, we're getting some respect.
And second, the dragon is about as good a ruler as a Chaotic Evil monster can be. He's evil, not stupid. He needs the kingdom to function at a basic level, for his own security -- because they'll come after him, oh yes. They'll be jealous, and they'll come. And he has long-term ambitions, as dragons often do. So, he's arguably doing a less bad job running things than the previous rulers. In this scenario, the dragon is basically Huey Long.
And man, that's just the starting point. Go and look up every darn swamp-themed monster. Now find a place for it in the dragon's "court". Marsh giants? Yeah, he found a small clan of them camping out along the coast. Ate half of them, the survivors are his bodyguards. Will'o'wisp? That's Carl, his herald. When Carl shows up, you have to follow him. There's an 80% chance he's summoning you to the dragon for an audience, and a 20% chance he's leading you into some horrible death trap where he'll feed off your life energy as you die in terror and agony. The other theme you can go with is "outcasts and half-breeds". Half the people you meet are half-orcs, tieflings, half-ogres, or some such. The dragon has half-dragon spawn running around. Throw in a swamp owlbear, Ol' Snappy. Oh hell, throw in some voodoo stuff too, this is basically Evil Fantasy Louisiana we're talking here, yeah? Fire up a bunch of those crazy swamp-themed archetypes from Wilderness Adventures. Add an old plantation house, abandoned and decaying, that's haunted by something horrible as it slowly sinks into the swamp. Knock yourself out!
Anyway, yeah, I think you could do a black dragon kingdom and have it be interesting.
Want to run it with lower level PCs, with the dragon a looming menace in the background? Okay, set the action in Stumptown, a small town that's mostly on stilts sticking up out of the swamp. The PCs must go to or through Stumptown in order to [do something]. Maybe one or two of the PCs are from there? Anyway, you can pack the town with low level monsters and antagonists. Like, the local "watch" / toll collectors / tax collectors are a couple of moss trolls named Herp and Sweez (CR 3 each, or you can give them a couple of rogue levels if you like). They spend a lot of time hanging out and spying in tree form. They're dumb as dirt and not too brave, but if you mess with them you'll attract the attention of Boss Hogg.
Boss Hogg is the Mayor of Stumptown. He's obese and corrupt, of course. He's also a wereboar. He's kinda lazy, so you can usually placate him with a gift of money (or delicious food) or by groveling (Diplomacy check) and then doing him a favor (some task he's too lazy to do himself).
So generally Stumptown is a wretched hive of scum, villainy, bad moonshine, and This Night Only Mud Pit Wrestling. Children in this town have names like Gummy Sue and Normal Head Joe. But not everyone in Stumptown is twisted or evil of course! Sure, most people are kinda xenophobic, but most are not actually hateful, and many can be perfectly nice once they get to know you. -- Oh, and there's Joe Dirt. Joe isn't the brightest, but he;s Chaotic Good and somehow he's a midlevel geokineticist. Joe helps people, the Boss mostly ignores him, and he could be a useful ally.
But to bring it back to the OP: everywhere you go in Stumptown, you see the black dragon's sign: a stylized claw print, usually burned or etched into a surface. The dragon is known as "The Kingfish" and people speak his name with awe and respect. Low-level PCs won't meet him, but they might briefly encounter some of his minions... like, they're in a tavern, and Carl the Will'o'wisp shows up and draws someone out of the tavern. "That was Carl." "Yep." "Wonder if Cletus will ever come back." "Dunno."
You could just rewrite the dragon. Sure, Black Dragons are supposed to be Chaotic Evil. Just make this one Lawful Evil. Make him an Alchemist, with his Breath Weapon giving him a ready supply of chemicals for his titration experiments. Make him the CEO of a burgeoning chemical industry that manufactures pesticides and fertilizers for the peasants. Sure, there is the occasional accidental discharge of fumes, and the water tastes funny, and the kids can't swim in the stream anymore because their skin erupts in angry red sores whenever they do.
But crop yields have been going up and up. There are no more bugs: the cancer rate might be up, but their isn't any more malaria, and I almost felt sorry for those Orcs when they invaded after we turned on that acid fog the Dragon taught us how to use...
