Dracocracy.
Do you have any Dragons that rule kingdoms or Empires in your setting? If so, what are they like? Does the world see them as a wise ancient leader, or a great greedy tyrant, or anything else in between?
If you don't have a setting, discuss ideas for dracocracies: positives and negatives, hoe it would effect worldbuilding and player interactions, etc.
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I had one. She flew in, declared herself in charge, and asked who wanted to argue.
Then once the wind had blown the ash away she asked who else objected.
She was basically a dumb, ambitious, teenager, but she had style. Shame the PCs chose to side against her.
Had a blue dragon in a setting that lorded over a region about the size of a few kingdoms, but he ended up being pissed off by the PCs for stealing a few of his favorite tomes and destroyed the better half of a kingdom before the players righted their wrongs the bard rolled a nat 20 on a dragon with transfiguration and essentially became a blue dragon's bitch alongside rare sapphires from a fallen dwarven kingdom
Positive: Assasination becomes significantly more difficult, No fear of age or disease taking away the ruler, guarenteed wisdom (if an Adult), swifter criminal justice system, Stronger military might.
One Negative: potential for great greed (traditionally), so likely high taxes, debate against his/her ideas or laws will likely never occur even with a parliment (unless they WANT to be eaten by an angry dragon), excessive architecture to accomodate his/her size, possibly high casualty rate among castle staff.
I had a setting that involved a major Wyrmocracy/Dragocracy (I don't care much for your "dracocracy" term, it doesn't roll off the tongue) that rose to power following the birth of a two-headed dragon. Pretty sure it was either Red/Gold or Red/Blue.
His birth healed the metallic/chromatic rift that had split the dragon race as well as concentrate their populace into a single (small) continent rather than spread across the entire world. Despite the continued tension between the two groups, the organization of the Dragon Court prevented dragons from spending much time with their own specific color so that any organization was political rather than racial.
The new dragon empire conquered the people that lived there, but instead of destroying the government/church/merchantry, the dragons inserted themselves at the top of each branch of society.
Dragons had little understanding of civilization before they conquered several and consolidated them into an empire, but soon learned that the promise of marriage into draconic bloodlines was a good intensive for those seeking power, but the strict superiority of their civilization meant even the lowliest full-blooded dragon was politically/legally/religiously more important and influential than anyone else, even high-status half-dragons or dragon-blooded humanoids. Basically the more dragon-blooded someone was the more society favored them and their dealings, though relation to certain dragons was more valuable than others.
The two-headed dragon emperor had a harem of dragon brides of each color/metal, who are each in charge of a major province of the empire. He tightly monitors the hatching of his mixed-blood children, making sure to destroy any that bear their father's twin-headedness. He knows that the Empire he has established will not bestow the Mandate of Heaven to any of his sires that do not bear his trait, so he prevents their eventual coup by eating them before they hatch
>guarenteed wisdom (if an Adult),
I think it's less 'wisdom' and more 'long game'.
Nobles are petty squabblers and will machinate and maneuver to put X Y or Z on the throne. An old king is weaker as he could die any time.
A dragon has like, 10x the scale and so is presumed to be aiming for several generations beyond yours. More stable and shit.
Sort of in a post apoc game. Whole worled turned shitty, only some few really powerful entities were able to survive (some dragons included) and scratch through the rubble for commoner survivors.
My guy ended up under the protection of a dragon, viciously guarding him close for being one of the very few, possibly last humans left alive.
Because the dragon cared about humans existing, or because rare=valuable=hoardable? The former occurred to me first and seemed kind of cute, but then I thought of the latter possibility...
The dragon will probably just become a puppet for a long-lived evil elfish spellcaster and advisor anyway because of draconic apathy and hibernation.
Bit of both. Basically the idea that "They may be lesser than me, but if they all die out then there won't be anything lesser than me left." and an acceptance that humans and other lesser beings have a part to play in the grand scheme. The dragon himself was actually evil but facing down armageddon, could at least be a responsible steward.
Besides, it was all part of his plan. Enough that he butted heads with a lich (another powerful survivor) in order to get a woman said lich similarly had as a rare survivor. Dragon's plan was to shove us together and crown us king and queen of the ashes (world) basically, in the hopes of drawing more lowly survivors overtime, and possibly starting over again.
how'd that work out user? sounds like a genuinely interesting plot
Sort of. Every nation or empire in my setting has some sort of super powered protector, some of the have dragons. They're usually not involved in the day to day business of rule though, they just get a really comfortable palace for themselves and their dragonspawn brothers.
Very complicated. The way the DM did it, each player got to indirectly play one of the powerful surviving entities while directly playing as a more normal character. The player had the dragon basically trying to reform human society from the ruins, but other players had their own goals for other powerful entities so there was often struggle in an already blasted world.
Despite setbacks though, the plan sort-of worked to what his main goal was.
They used to rule the new world in a council with the elves and the completely deleted mystery race after the old country was fucked over by the ancient evil.
Then the majority of elves fucked off, leaving their dangerous and intelligent constructs to realize they don't have to take any shit anymore, so while the dragons and the mystery race duked it out the totally not robots rolled in with their super elf tech and killed both until dragons became rare anti-social loners, living with stone age technology in small(not small) tribes.
Sounds like a hell of a time man but did you enjoy yourself?
Oh yes it was very fun and interesting, a lot in part because it was a continuation game of a former one which took place *during* the apocalypse. I said complicated but not in a bad way, all sorts of plans and actions going on, made for a very complex (in a cool way) setting. Despite basically being destroyed.
sounds like your DM is a baws. Glad you had fun
Oh please, Oculocracy is where it's at.
>Dragons
>demons of pride sent from the pain/hell dimension
>dragons left hell because hell was full of bullshit and dragons wanted to have feelings for their subjects
>come to setting
>setting doesn't like them because they're fucking demons
>human tribe of war declares war on them for being monsters, like they do with all monsters
>dragons hate all humanity because of this now
>form dragon cults where people seek subjugation by dragons due to their superior intellect and magic
>dragons keep to themselves, setting is a Europe sized continent with a bunch of biomes
>they stay inside a single crest of mountains, declared "Dragon Keep"
>dracocracy leaders are determined with a contest of intellect, skill, and strength every 100 years
>only the winner of all 3 contests will be leader
>they repeat the entire event ad infinitum until a single dragon rules all 3 contests
>sometimes these leadership contests take forever
>most of the time they end sooner rather than later due to other dragons conceding that another is better than them and more fit to lead, due to whatever circumstances
>dracocracy is generally ruled as being a military position
>because they're in peacetime, leadership largely does nothing
>dragons do as they please, few laws pertaining to foreign affairs are present
>dragons herald a "might makes right" rule over other dragons, ownership is generally considered something that goes to whoever can retain ownership rather than a right
>marriage and love is now completely a "do as thou wilt" form of lechery, especially because a continent wide curse has rendered the dragons unable to breed
>most society is very outcast from one another, hunting grounds are shared due to desperation and times are bleak
>newcomer leader comes to the fray
>the only humanoid dragon, many suspect her to be a dragonborn halfbreed, and uneligible to practice leadership positions
>she is, but uses advanced magics and relics in order to win the leadership
>cont'd
>about 3 dragons know about this, but keep quiet due to her promises for power, and more importantly
>she promises to end the curse of nonbreeding against her people
>she begins making draconic cults across the land
>Lords come under her rule around the neighboring mountain range, the Spine of the World
>which also houses the Dwarves, which recently won a huge war against the humans and elves for dominion over the continent
>uses superior tech combined with infernal magic in order to make more cults
>her plan is going well and the only thing that could stop her is the exposing of her non-dragon nature
>everyone literally thinks she's a tiny ass fucking midget, or some kind of dragon cursed to always live as a child sized dragon
>she is my waifu
>she is also basically granberia from MGQ
>mfw I inserted my fetish into the game and it actually made for good storytelling
Bumping for more interest, love these so far.
Also, Just to contribute, I think one huge benefit to a Dragon Ruler would have to be the protection it can offer it's land. Even if we go with greedy dragon, it will still unfailingly go out and burn down invading forces just to make sure it's domain remains in it's ownership.
No, but all the dragons of the world (there's ~100 of them, probably less) usually get together for an althing to discuss their dracopolitics every hundred years or so.
Wasn't there a DnD supplement where the players were all dragons?
I'm currently playing a Dragonborn in a D&D game whose homeland is like that. A large number of city-states, each ruled by a Dragon.
She's often a bit of a fish out of water when it comes to things on the more regular eurofantasy continent they're currently adventuring in, and blames many of the continent ills on a clear lack of Dragons.
It is interesting, playing a good character with a fundamentally non-equal worldview. She absolutely believes that Dragons are a higher form of life, and that Dragonborn are the first amongst equals of mortal races, with the responsibility to help uplift the others to follow the example set by Dragons and, in her specific case, Bahamut.
A friend coined a good turn of phrase to describe the whole thing, 'The Platinum Dragon's Burden'
wow that was actually pretty cool right up until your oc was thrown into the mix
This is why the elfs created the dragon rage mythal in Faerum.
Dragons aren't the rulers, but they advise the rulers of all the major countries. They provide magic and counseling, and in exchange get to nap and eat undisturbed.
I am now Imagining 5000 years later, and Dragon /pol/ is formed.
An obvious waifu NPC is still bad storytelling.
Except in my execution I never address that the Dragon Lord is my waifu, just a secret I dispersed here on Veeky Forums.
Writers do that all the time with their characters- hold secret loves for them while not telling anyone. Usually doesn't show up in the presentation.
Council of Wyrms
Well, I obviously have no idea how you're handling it, but our DM thinks he's being subtle about his waifu NPC, forgetting that none of the rest of us are dumb.
I don't really give the Dragon Lord any special treatment. This is all apart of the setting, it's not apart of a campaign plot or anything so I make sure to handle it in a way that's told like a story, the history of how she got her stature, her goals and how she accomplishes them.
If the party interacts with her I'm pretty malleable and willing to let her die, but she's incredibly powerful to have gotten where she is so it's no small task. Nothing short of a level 20 would have an equal fight, and a level 18 has a fighting chance, 1 on 1.
Yep, got a Dragon Emperor who rules over an Empire that's not unlike that of Warhammer Fantasy's. Other dragons rule the eight archduchies. However, due to their small number (from being refugees from a blasted plane), their time is nearing an end and they don't want that little factiod to get out.
yeah but i'm saying the writing is good right up until that character comes into the scene at all B)
Not really.
A great city made by his creations however has sprung up amidst his sleeping form. It's said though that the some of the more magically inclined oligarchs speak with him as he dreams and makes policy accordingly.
>Oligarch at the "not politburo" informs his peers that the new farming plan has been made
>"Oh that's great brother, may we have the details?"
>"I have spoken to the great sleeper and he informs me to spread the seeds in the south this year."
>"Thats great head of agriculture will do."
Usually, level 20 villains aren't someone that you would want to meet
usually if you can, anyone with any sense with them would run away ASAP, since I don't run narratives, I run sandboxes.
Or at least I do since the old days of playing
Dragons are basically just big, dangerous animals in my setting, so no.
Now that its not 2330;
She was a young adult red with levels in bard to complement her crazy charisma. She liked rubbing her superiority in humamoids faces. She liked basically staring her subjects down and going, "yeah? Whatcha gonna *do* about it?" When they complained about this or that edict.
And to be fair : if you were polite and respectful, she LIKED it when people stood their ground and didn't back down just because the tyrannical dragon-queen was needling them. That was a decent way to earn her respect. You were still inferior to her, she was still in charge and had the final say, and is course you were expected to behave- but if you displayed some gumption she didn't *totally* disregard you or your opinion.
She liked picking on people who she considered full of themselves. Nobles, etc who were torn between trying to ingratiate themselves to preserve their status and discreetly putting out the call for dragonslayers to liberate them from this dictator got her special attention. She wound up becoming BFFs with a fast-talking tiefling ex-slave who, through sheer chutzpah and bluff, conned an audience with the dragon and totally hit it off- stood her ground and didn't cower, did flatter and genuflect where appropriate, even made her laugh.
Said BFF was given position as her personal voice/representative. They both delighted in the way having to bow and scrape to some commoner humiliated the nobility and kept them off balance.
I like this.
Was it any good?
now fight
No clue m80, I just remembered the name.
Thanks.
Tiefling had been saved by the PCs at some point- trying to do them a good turn and show off her new job, she introduced them to her boss and tried to throw some work their way. Alas, PCs are bad at being polite and swallowing their pride and it went poorly.
If they had wound up siding with the dragon, they'd have been in positions to be a new order of nobility and a moderating influence (along with the Tiefling) on the red dragon. Maybe even neutral her with the power of friendship, if they were clever, sold it as enlightened self-interest, and were careful to keep their moralizing from boring her.
Eventually she'd have gotten bored and have left them in charge of her city.
>Evil dragoness flies around the continent
>Forcing commoners, farmers, to bang her (because no shape changing), basically "Do it or I burn down your life"
>Leaves them with the egg to raise
>Waits to see which of these offspring end up rising to greatness depsite low beginnings
>Returns later to reap the rewards accomplished by said offspring
>Rinse and repeat the process every so often, end up with significant portions of the continent under control in some way
>In a twisted way, vaguely similar to a dragon version of Maria Theresa
Thanks DM for stealing my idea and making it magical realm.
Yep, there's big chunk of the Not!Middle East that got conquered by dragons centuries ago. Turns out that being the central hub of numerous, highly prosperous trade routes can draw all sorts of attention.
A militant plutocracy, the nation continues to deal in trade, they just have dragons at the top now. All non-dragons are effectively born Citizen-slaves, though children are granted significant leeway up until they turn 15 and must choose between becoming someone's property entirely or joining the army so that they may become Citizens. While many certainly do join the military, others take advantage of laws allowing slaves to own wealth, and sufficiently wealthy slaves to own other slaves, resulting a fair number serving their own family or close friends, though such schemes still inevitably lead to dragons in control of the family. Having a relative or friend who is a full Citizen own you is considered a significantly better option.
While the enslaved population has ways to avoid abuse due to such a station, any who are less than fabulously wealthy are vulnerable to a legal system that openly accepts bribes and favors to the point that simply being better dressed can leverage a great deal of power in even the most petty of arguments. Court cases tend to involve few lawyers and many stacks of gold bars being offered to judges, while a poorer person might find themselves in a pillory just for being seen by one of the wealthy and thus "insulting their eyes."
The dragons of course reign supreme, the royal family building monumental lairs for themselves across the city, the half-dragon lineages formed by their occasional dalliances making up the majority of their courts and heads of government departments.
The rest of the world sees the situation as stable. Certainly not a good place to live without being a merchant prince or the like, and they do make their neighbors nervous, but for now, they're better than a war or something.
I presume the party slew her?
Naturally. It was supposed to be a grey-on-grey pick between backing the dragon or siding with the nobility. No wrong answers, just show your reasoning.
Then they got off on the wrong foot on first meeting to the tune of two pc deaths and one of the survivors went "she's a red dragon, those are evil, i'm good, ergo she has to die." Then the one PC actually trying to get in good with the dread mistress and persuade her to not be evil decided they wanted to swap their pc out for something else. Rip in piece etc.
A wonderful drawfag drew her humanoid form for me back in the day. When I get home I'll post it. She used a halfling for her primary humanoid guise because she liked confusing and unsettling people- making people fear something so small and quail before her despite literally looking down on her.
>If so, what are they like?
They're a bit draconian.
No, dragons don't have kingdoms since they can't into agriculture (due to being obligate carnivores) and therefore struggle to form large-scale societies. Dragon chieftains are feared and respected by their peers, though.
I've played around with this idea in settings. Since dragons are so long-lived, they create very stable monarchies... part of the issue, though, is their by-blows. So you have half-dragon children of the monarch (and lots of them, probably through concubines, since dragons aren't likely to be monogamous), and then grandchildren who are kinda draconic in some ways, then regular people below that. And in a few hundred years said dragon genes can propagate down the family tree and you have a decent percentage of the population being dragon-blooded.
Then you have monarch dragon subjugating other dragons, making them dukes under his kingship, and equivalent dragon lines being descended from them.
What if the percentage of your noble blood was easily apparent from your appearance (i.e. how draconic you looked?) and what if it actually made you stronger, smarter, etc?
...
So you are saying the dragon got turned into a bitch by the bard and joined this bards harem of dorf lesbians?
I would be kind of aroused by that but something about it scares me.
I parsed it as the bard becoming the dragon's bitch, after turning into a dragon.
no, the dragon had the polymorh skill and and basically fucked him in the ass to his dying day
Man. I guess you don't piss of them dragons.
Be the dragon.
that was fun.
The ancient Dragon had his lair on the continent millenia before humans first settled there. They inhabit the land on sufferage and the local governments are little more than protection rackets run by the oldest families in. Any village or settlement that doesn‘t pay it‘s annual tributes gets razed.
The Dragons have their seperate internal hierarchy and often use their sworn human clans for turf wars.
Dragon rules a small but wealthy nation as both King and Master of the Royal Bank. The vaults basically serve as his hoard; he was initially a little miffed at the idea of giving out loans, but the prior Master of the Royal Bank convinced him that usury was a far more effective means of acquiring wealth long-term that would also see the kingdom prosper. He keeps a portait of the guy on the wall to remind himself that humans can have good ideas.
Aside from sitting on his pile of treasure, he doesn't do much. The actual day-to-day of the kingdom is run by a Citizens' Council consisting of various nobility and guild masters; he technically qualifies as Master of the Royal Bank but usually doesn't bother to show up. Growing big and lazy has likewise made him fairly relaxed; occasionally he'll just sit outside in the sun, which over time has made people less terrified of him and more just wary, like one might be around a docile elephant. He's effectively a great big mascot for a nation of people who, having grown up with him and benefited from the rule of a creature that thinks long-term, would gladly fight to protect the creature they associate with their country.
an old 2nd ed setting Council of wyrms was about this, I think it only had one source book and maybe 1-2 adventures. Still an interesting small setting
gods I miss the setting shitting of 90s sometimes, nowadays everything must be "homebrew" and people mock you for doing otherwise