After a long skim of the concepts thread, some things have dawned on me:

1. The level of inferences which often go, without citation or education, into the presumptions of a draconic mindset when a player is considering the creation of a Draconic/Dragon/Halfdragon character.

2. The dismissiveness often held for the concepts - which outshines even pure embodiments of an alignment (such as planers) - as somehow robotic, or daunting beyond the comprehension/responsibility of players.

3. The lack of widespread draconic information on the Amian forums as a whole.

So - to form the seeds for Tormak's eternal spite in making a compiled source for Draconic lore, I feel like it's important to set out an educated thesis on Draconic creatures/dragons in general - for all future aspiring create-ees!

DISCLAIMER: I can not actively pretend to guarantee the success of any information here in getting anyone over 'the hump' that is approval; however, all sources are cited from reliable Faerun/Forgotten Realms sourcebooks/sites, with all discussion and inferences credited toward myself and credible sociological sources/evidence, and should certainly be considered.

It's worth noting, still, that I have said there 'will' be inferences where lore has gaps, formed to the best of my rationalization.




The majestic, literal namesakes of the forgotten realms universe; they are the boss battles of many a dungeon, the political leaders of some cities in guise, and legends on the tongue of regions they both touch and don't. Concentrated heavily in Northernmost regions, as well as those far inland, of note in the Southern coastal areas, and often in Mountainous regions - but hardly unheard of in others, such as the Silver Marches and the Cormyrian outskirts and Lowlands; and bolstering a scant few tyrants of the Underdark even Matrons bow beneath, assuming they might not very well be that Matron. There is no doubt to any mind these are easily well among the most adaptable race in the Forgotten Realms cannon. Staunch survivalists would hardly be the right term, though; since it'd well imply Dragons needed much a stretch in effort to do just that.

The Dungeons and Dragons depiction, and particularly the Forgotten Realms offshoot, may very well be the most famed in western culture - bar Tolkien, from whence the template for each Wyrm was very blatantly inspired. Too often, though, the fame comes 'for granted'. Dragons in a forgotten realms context are mystic for more reasons than 'simply being'.

In this article, I intend to focus on a few key points too often neglected:













Perhaps beyond the usual calling of creatures in Forgotten Realms, Dragons are beasts of brain as much as brawn. Often, though, it's under-written just how much; people fail to understand that the creature they look at isn't merely beyond their intelligence in a way they can't comprehend (which is -- too often -- exactly what leads to such bland inferences as "Dragons are emotionless").

For those familiar with the ever-popular British TV series 'Doctor Who' - the protagonist, known simply as The Doctor, would actually very nearly fit the angle sought here. It's not a lack of empathy, nor of emotion. They think in an entirely different, even alien, perspective.

The scope of a Dragon's mental stats at adulthood is often hard to get a grasp of; even Wyrmlings often have pretty good non physicals at conception. Perhaps the best idea we can get of a Dragon's mindset is to consider the following: The average NPC humanoid Commoner in Forgotten Realms will be generated with no more than 12 in any given stat, and no less than 8.

Think about what you, as a by-and-large 'average' human, can comprehend. IQ questions aside, and however well you did at school, we take way too much about just what our minds do for granted. You probably do a lot with it, actually; you understand basic mathematic concepts - often applying them without even thinking, you understand complex algebra with some work, you retain the needs in a day, you read facial expressions/body language, you completely distinguish various forms of fauna by a preconceived idea, and you're completely capable of socialization with other humans through the use of anywhere from 1-4 spoken languages. Oh -- I forgot to mention, this is all still just subconsciously; with no more than 12 Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.

To properly analyze from there - let's source the Pathfinder article on the statistics for a sample, Gold Dragon Adult:



Consider the Bolded statistics. Your average gold dragon is nothing less than a walking thesaurus, dictionary, history book, innate politician; and to top it off? He has twice your intelligence, perceptiveness, intuition, and social grace. Let's not even go into the ability to literally 'sense' the senses of another dragon, and its perception.

What people fail to get is that a Dragon isn't a computer. That wouldn't even be adequate. Literally just for being an adult, our very 'average' Adult Gold Dragon is downright premonisive; capable of predicting social responses, flawlessly calculating comebacks to them -- typically with a firm grasp on how they'll be received, with an extensive ability to observe the subject, more than enough capacity to do both twice as much as we can passively and twice as much in general, while topping it off with an implied ability to read the complex nuances of bodily language on another species.


The latter is important, because it emphasizes my point; a Dragon is often completely capable of identifying the emotions latent in beings of pretty much everything it can reproduce with (which is a lot - see the biology section for more), and therefore capable of empathy by virtue if it chooses. It also logically dictates it can tell different people apart by appearance, but that's just an aside.


-but maybe you're not sold yet. Enter the rules of Dragon Mounts,


-of Draconic Familiars,



-the personality Habits of Bronze Dragons.



-and those of the Silver, where -- while their reasoning for forming companionship units with humans is often simply because they believe they've something to learn from the species' approach to life,




All of the above imply a Dragon is capable of not only emotion; but of attachment, forming cross-species fixations and relationships, and even friendship. It's not impossible to believe that a Dragon could also feel empathy, and more than one Dragon breed demonstrates virtues among its Mate/Offspring that are characteristic of Compassion -- shy of the most animalistic (the White), and the most Xenophobic (the Red). It is rare that both mating and rearing are indelicate, casual affairs for Dragonkind; and most will either promise themselves to a single mate, or hold a staunch dedication to the growth and education of their child. In fact, the same sourcebook contains multiple entries under 'Mating' which readily imply that most older dragons mate out of love rather than for reproductive purposes 'for the sake of reproduction'.

Dragons are, therefore, completely capable of feeling emotion as fluidly as any human; simply more often capable of controlling or rationalizing it due to their extensive Wisdom in perception and logic (which develops faster than their intelligence -- if we go by score values). Their expression may vary, however. A Human might demonstrate infatuation by professing it toward their would-be love alongside a gift; where a Dragon might attribute a tithe of their own, but attempt to demonstrate their worth (such as their pride would only demand).

Still, to say a dragon is anything shy of emotionally fluid, or to imply they're pigeonholed into a zero-tolerance alignment adherence (as long as it doesn't tip them away from their point of tendency) would be shortsighted. A silver dragon might far sooner scorn someone they'd bonded with for being near evil than outright kill them, and a well-bonded red wyrm is far more likely to grumble and skulk after being asked to spare that lowly village maiden than outright belch flames in the face of their long-time 'fond' acquaintance.


The prior mentioned Silver Dragon approach to humans implies something a bit deeper though - and I believe it's pertinent to address it. Dragonkind is completely aware of humanoids' advancement as a society - and they're probably pretty damned impressed, to the point of either admiring fascination (if good/neutral) or jealous obsession (if evil). Themselves, a Dragon will never deign to understand why a Human tries to accomplish so much in such small frames of time; but it will also scarce comprehend how they are able to actually do it, since time is often considered a plentiful resource where 'doing it tomorrow' is just as fine -- and won't hinder much progress.

It raises the question, too: If they know humans are so capable, why are they so proud when their own domains fell thousands of years ago - and Draconic rule hasn't been large scale since? Even Chessenta is a bunch of loose, warring city states that Tchzaar 'barely' keeps under talon.


The answer is actually rather simple -- but also complicated. Dragons are expressed to understand the Human social mind better than it understands itself - as said before. This is an understanding that refines gradually with years of experience, and often is accompanied by a fair grasp of perception toward them as a whole. As well, it is assumed a Dragon is likewise acquainted with a concept of how to view other intelligent races, and is more-or-less capable of understanding emotions latent in each.

What needs to be remembered, individually, is the mundanity of humans. Returning to that comparison of statistics, a Dragon's level of self-awareness is such that knowing the creatures it observes, it doesn't need to boast or convince itself of superiority. Consider the prior facts in reading this: even a smaller dragon will completely understand that - as a member of a 'lesser' species, you have slight mental differences. Besides being very much physically small, you're individually part of a race that -- for all that could be nearly 'hive mind'-esque about it -- is individually without comparison in stability. You, as a Dragon, are collected -- and lacking in psychoses, the chance for a significantly smaller intellect than your racial equals (a variation difference of 2 points in either direction on intelligence is only 1/10 on a dragon, where it's 1/5th for a human); but to top it off, you don't have such a 'loose and irrational' grasp on your emotional processes. No -- you, ser Dragon, know 'exactly' what you intend for your actions to do, have the patience to make it happen; and while you don't know for certain if that's enough to guarantee desired outcomes, you're completely aware that almost every other creature you've seen doesn't.

The result is simple: You're above everything else, because you're better than everything else individually. Surprise, Sherlock; Humans are 'flawed'. Meanwhile, you and your kind know how the others work -- and can't manipulate one another nearly as easily; you're the accredited masters of innate Arcane magic, rarely precedented in size and scale, and your kind are more 'attractive' from your eyes. It makes it pretty easy to develop something 'less' narcissistic (though a Dragon could, assuredly, 'be' narcissistic, even among its own kind (canon, too: it happens)), and more short of a 'superiority complex'.

Hence, their pride is born.

The metallics will often take this in granted and see it as their duty to use their gifts for the better of those around them. Chromatics will often see this as a means to boast of their own glory for the sake of furthering that ego -- after all, if those things that are lesser will validate your views, aren't they only more true?

Their pride can just as often be their downfall, though. Every Dragon is just as apt to think themselves the best among even their race and color (shy of a White, who is well aware of their place on 'the totem pole'); and so as a race will often face off against 'anything' they hold confidence in their chances of survival against. Often, their fanatic level of affirmation in their individual might will lead to boasts of it; and just as often, it will suit a Dragon to strive to show their worth above the rest to levels which defy self preservation.

The least understandable facet of their behavior, perhaps, is also one of the most extensively famed: Their compulsion to hoard.

To gather, to seek, to expand their vast sums of material wealth, and to fill their coffers to the point of a mound is the greatest joy most Dragons can experience.



It's not completely easy to convey why a Dragon has the sixth sense it does for worth, nor why a Dragon desires it; but it's just as easily possible that it shares the compulsion many real world compulsive hoarders do among humans.

The psychology of it isn't so black and white as 'greed', nor so simple as that it is 'shiny' or even beautiful. The idea and concept that any given item might be needed later, or that any coin less might leave the Dragon a coin shorter in a case of need, can simply only be satisfied through fulfillment; in the form of gathering and holding on to the largest amount of excess possible with little more rationalization than 'in case'. The full and utter insurance of a Dragon's quality of life (and perhaps the instinctual value to securing a good afterlife (as draconic evasion of the twilight involves the consumption of its hoard)) is the only thing which will bring satisfaction.


It's also entirely possible that it's just as instinctual to marking territory as a cat's spraying, but slightly more civil, by demonstrating that the area is almost all actually used anyway. It'd be right in line with the territorial, often isolationist nature of Dragons.

In contrast with humans, dragons typically long for solitude at large; forming lose societies anywhere from nonexistent to globally spanning, acknowledging them, and keeping to themselves by way of either doctrine (good) or violence (evil).

Wether they do this out of a respect for the strength of others, an overconfidence in their own, a simple lack of desire, hardcore xenophobia (or simple distrust), or frequency of clashing varies between subtypes. A Red will respond to every entry into its domain as though it was both a potential threat with the initiative, and an insult by believing it could obtain that initiative; whereas a Silver Dragon simply sees a lack of value in socializing among its own kind; and a Copper just doesn't like having something that makes its match in wit.

Likewise; wether they are capable of loneliness, specifically, is neither specified nor implicated. It's entirely possible that -- in its vast intelligence -- a dragon should quickly run out of things beyond other wyrms, or more favorably those 'ever fascinating' people, with-which to occupy its mind, if not become emotionally 'starved' in the absence of social gratification; and it's just as possible that with the socialite nature some wyrms take, it isn't a given or a negative by virtue of the all-encompassing racial definition, and will also vary between the color.


Lastly, as mentioned sometime back, the draconic perspective on time varies from that of the shorter lived humanoid races. Where mankind often worries and mutters about what we might accomplish tomorrow, a Dragon will scarce give it a second thought; often making long-term goals with loosely established plans, pressing forth to achieve agendas of grandeur it sees as fitting toward itself -- composed of a shorter term agenda that is constructed to make the most out of what time it does spend -- and often over a great span of time.

Adventuring dragons will often become bored of travel, particularly with the rate at which their companions advance over them. They either hop from party to party, or depart for long periods of slumber in between; and yet rarely do these glory-and-wealth-seeking dragons leave any stone unturned in their expeditions -- perfectionists and completionists by natural trade as much as anything else, since they wouldn't dare prove their dominance wrong to themselves.






Draconic interaction is a delicate affair -- far more complicated, contrary to popular belief, than a lot of struggling reptilian jackdaws vying for territory and isolated hoards. Draconic 'communities', if they can be called that, actually are quite often defined between even the most chaotic of breeds; and however fickle interaction between individual Wyrms may be, each understands a few simple values and respects (or precautions) due to the others of its kind.

For most breeds, the consensus in sources seems to be that each race's species actually keeps in close contact with itself as a more-or-less globalized network -- with Gold Dragons even having an elected headman of the entire social hierarchy. This network 'doesn't' exist to keep contact and socialize, though. Draconic social behavior is a far more race individualized affair; which typically amounts to exchanges of information, territorial disputes, a few scant Draconic traditions/affairs (see: Xorvintaal), boastful standoff exchanges for superiority, or delicately coordinated plans in a manner according to alignment.

These networks, instead, seem to function solely as a way for each type of Dragon to define itself upon a hierarchy; either out of competitive instinct, to see who they're up against for supremacy in their form; or out of a desire to minimize the above interactions -- which can turn unpleasant even for metallics after a few exchanges (see: Copper meeting a Copper). This can be accredited to a Dragon's self-absorbed perspectives, as well as to their inability to quite so easily manipulate one another -- whose social skills wouldn't need a miracle to be appealing to someone with twenty natural charisma, after all?

These hierarchies are sometimes loose displays of power, as is the case with Green Wyrms -- whom know one another far too well to bother with a society and yet wouldn't be caught dead knowing who they can speak above (their breed often holds their sharp tongue around those they perceive as more powerful); occasionally rigid -- such as the Gold Dragons' paladin-esque, cross-Faerunian 'order', which suspiciously aligns itself to the ways of feudal knights; and occasionally just Drow-esque images of who is to be overthrown the moment they grow senile -- the brutal natural selection of the red.

Generally, though; they establish a definite concept of three things -- if only among individual subspecies:
1. What territory is whose
2. Who is the 'Alpha Wyrm' of the bunch, and holds the most power/sway over their kind by virtue of either force or mutual respect
3. The valued worth of the domain each wyrm holds in general

In a way, it's almost comparable to a Corporate environment: Where defined sub-bosses either follow the agenda of a benevolent CEO, or work around the agendas of one for whom it's hardly quite as much the case. Regardless of how it's viewed, though; it should be established that territory is one of the most important aspects of Draconic social behavior. Their domain houses them and their hoard after all, and both are undeniably the most important thing on Toril; so why shouldn't it be?

Tresspassing a domain as another species of Wyrm is often viewed as a threat -- and even among metallics, it's considered an insult to not respectively clear the space soon after the discovery; for Dragons are, to an extent, paranoid of their own kind for the sake of both their hoard and a lessened ability to 'think ahead' of another Dragon. Some go to further extremes than others -- such as reds, who will actively hunt down other wyrms that dwell within so much as a few miles of their vast, volcanic layers.


In spite of the above, it should come as no shock that Dragons do still mate. Such is often described as a sort of Courtship; not to be compared, except in a few cases (I.e: more Lawful wyrms, such as Blues, Silvers, and Golds may make an agreed single-relationship out of either affection or ideal breeding; and Greens and Brass wyrms make delicate, polyamorous mate-for-life bonds with those they deem a favorite) with marriage.

Instead, Dragons merely agree to mate -- and it's a far less depthful affair than Human mating, as their ways deem necessary due to the potential of a disagreement. This is, at least, the traditional case; though the cause is actually far more varied than simply a drive to breed.

It can be that, yes; but multiple sources rather specifically state that to the contrary, it's often for far more esoteric purposes. Young chromatic wyrms will mate out of a desire for experimentation or pleasure, and even metallics are often helpless romantics in this emotionally charged state; driven by both the emotional changes of a rapidly maturing brain which is already 'doubly' more vast than a human's, and a desire to quickly accomplish and experiment with potential goals. (These are the periods that most often lead to Halfbreeds -- besides arranged courtships, they are actually just about the only cause; since the Halforc 'conception stereotype' doesn't work when the thing that's plundering destroys small villages with its breath.)

Even more curious -- there seems to, in fact, be an emotional link with almost every courtship made past a certain point in a Dragon's life; where the desire to mate for the sake of it has waned, but the imminence of death doesn't prompt a frantic search for means to continue one's lineage. Dragons assuredly connect and agree to their mating periods out of actual affection -- and though it is often just as lose as other means of acquiring a mate, and they seldom trust one another to share a lair; it's entirely likely for a Dragon to find the ideal traits of their mate ones worth valuing them as more than a mere reproductive company for.

They can theoretically find this inclination to find attraction among a member of another draconic breed; which is painfully unlikely, but if it happens, can lead to a cross subspecies mating of roughly the same bond strength. Children from two distinct draconic parents receive the Half Dragon template twice, and inherit select properties of each.

Death for dragons is often a feared thing -- even moreso than humans, due to their nature of deteriorating violently the moment they start. The Twilight is a thing many dragons will try to avoid, and few other dragons would blame them or be offended. Those that don't often try to hide in their last few years; moving en masse toward certain parts of the world they rather literally go to die.

More to come when I have the patience!~

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Playing: Tanar'i Shit Disturbers

While I did not read this entirely. One matter I would like to say. Shame this was not made as an IC book in library forum. Could offer a great premises for IC interaction and discussion for those who might need information or disagree in role play.

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http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/spells.htm

@#StraightOutaAvernus
If you wanna do it it as an IC book lemme know.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Login: Narkudauman

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ╬ Join the Magisterium Mortis ╬

This seems aimed at the request process, rather than actual IC lore, given that there are IC books on dragons already (Crow has a signed copy of Zelly's book, which I assume is nearly the Draconomicon), and many characters know quite a bit about dragons. Magiros got it right though, it's a good suggestion.

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I doubt a PC has the knowledge base to recreate the draconomicon ICly.

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Davion Telemos - Monk of the Four Winds
Korthan Isharnos - Dragon Shaman of Thunder Spirit Zamasham

Only the Gods do... Zelly. That's why they let her die! She was getting too close to the truth. <.<

#amianconspiracytheories

There is a treasure book that's essentially an artifact that's the draconomicon- It lets you learn about dragons in great detail. It requires ritualistic study.

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Isn't there also a book you can get ig or is that the one you mean?

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ANT ALARM

ANT ALARM

Not sure if we have one in game. But I don't think its the same Its referenced in the draconomicon.

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Yeah, but definitely an artifact with an unknown location that could be anywhere in Faerun. To actually get something like that would likely require some god-level intervention or something, I'd imagine.

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This.

There's stuff in this that's rather literally incomprehensible, even imperceptible, to any race without having quite literally been a Dragon; and a Dragon wouldn't, themselves, even think of some of these as worth writing about, any more than you'd think to write about how you have bad morning breath.

Also -- more up! Kinda less than happy with this one, it's a bit short but w/e

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Playing: Tanar'i Shit Disturbers