There is not a race of men or elf, or of dwarven-brow, that does not owe their existence to a dragon; benevolent or foul.
Introduction: I have been wanting to rework the worldbuilding of D&D for some time. I watch a lot of videos such as Grungeon Master or AJ Pickett or Skullsplitter Dice and I love their work. But, I don't think any of it goes quite far enough. I started thinking about my "First World" campaign, but more broadly wanted to just game-theory what a world dominated by Dragons would actually look like and to build upon that. I can't world build such a Dragon world without incorporating the underwater for reasons that will become more apparent as I fill out this thread, and I call this world "Dragonslayer", because I love the concept of dragonslaying and I think it's simply impossible with sword and shield or bow. To slay a dragon should require massive equipment. Ballistae or cannons, powerful magics, armies and teams of skilled warriors who work together to take down a dragon. A dragon in its lair should be neigh undefeatable by a band of heroes, even a party of level 20. Just the sheer size of a dragon alone would make it formidable, and then in its lair the breath weapons should have even more impact as a lot of them are in enclosed spaces. An acid weapon that hits a stream of 90 feet by 10 feet should fill a room and create an un-saveable situation where the players simply have to tank the damage.
An ancient red dragon's breath should not even be avoidable if you're in the center of it as your player's movement speed would be too low to dodge.
Goals: I want to provide campaign builders with enough framework after reading this that they can make dragons anything from distant "forces of nature" constantly in the background of their players' minds; to direct influencers of their campaigns.
I want to provide enough context that this extends to all biomes and I want to challenge a Dungeon Master's concepts of civilization in their campaigns. I won't undo published worlds like Forgotten Realms or Eberron and etc; but at the least I'd challenge their existence.
Chapter 1: the Dragon's world
In DnD cosmology the Dragon's world is the material plane; whatever campaign setting you're in this tends to be true. Manuals such as Fizban's Treasury of Dragons explain the pervasive existence of Dragons. Building upon the challenge ratings, the possible reproduction methods, and the general territorialism of dragons, and also building upon the motivation of dragons to basically be food, shelter and treasure, here are the foundations of the Dragon's world as I see them.
Dragon politics: Dragons are divided into two primary camps, Tiamat's and Bahamut's. I would think over time these two camps would coexist much like Gryffindor and Slytherin do in Harry Potter. The foremost obvious difference is that Bahamut almost always is seen in humanoid avatars and Tiamat is never seen in a humanoid avatar. Chromatic Dragons are not evil, and Metallic Dragons are not good. In these concepts "evil and good" are humanoid expressions of favoritism. Humanoids favor Metallic Dragons who favor Bahamut and tend toward humanoid avatars. Thus those dragons are "good". Chromatic dragons are elitist, purist, racist. They look down at Bahamut and think of him as a race-traitor. Bahamut betrays the draco-form that is the best form to be. This doesn't mean that all Chromatics will outright destroy humanoids; and they have uses for dragonborn like any other dragon does. But it does mean that Chromatics have a tendency to suppress or oppress humanoids.
Dragon Patrons: Any humanoid civilization, human, elf, dwarf, etc., almost certainly needs a Dragon patron. Without such a patron, most Chromatic dragons would not tolerate their existence. Because this is the case, most humanoids would fear or fight Dragons and thus reinforce the decision making of Chromatics to exterminate them. For whatever reason humanoids exist in your world; maybe gods created them to challenge Dragons, maybe Dragons cultivated their existence to be a form of "opposable thumbs" to compliment their claws, the humanoids would exist at the pleasure and prejudice of Dragons. They would never have been allowed to reach power enough to challenge the existence of Dragons.
Humanoids as servants: I think it would be difficult for any humanoid society to achieve high-metallurgy. Plate armor would be non-existent. Many societies would need to remain nomadic to avoid the instant destruction of all their hard work that a Dragon burning down a city could do in a single day. But, especially the Bahamut-serving Dragons, there's a case to be made that humanoids like elves, humans, etc., would be developed to serve a Dragon's interest or a collective of Dragons' interests. Dwarves to mine gold, humans to trade, elves to cultivate forests and enchant. Whatever the case may be. But this would be at odds with Chromatics who need very little use of humanoids.
Chromatic Humanoids: Chromatics would have kobolds or dragonborn to serve them or outright worship them. Much like house elves were so powerfully dominated by Slytherin-type wizards in Harry Potter. Sure, with magic these purebloods really didn't have much use for house elves or even for manual labor you often see at the ministry of magic. But the exercise of power simply brought the pure bloods joy. In a similar way the Chromatics may find use for humanoids; but often they'd be a limited usefulness, and they'd be at direct odds to what we consider to be "civilization".
An exception to the rule: I think Blue dragons, ruling over sources of water in a desert, would prove to be a powerful exception to the rule. The very nature of them having mastery over life itself would cause them to become tyrants of desert dwelling civilizations. Unlike the rest of their Chromatic kin who tend to inhabit desolate and destroyed places; the blue Dragons might cultivate Sumerian type civilizations and distribute water to those that bring them the most treasure. In doing so, in a lapse of strategic thought, the Blue Dragon might cultivate its own demise by allowing humanoids to become too powerful to be adequately defeated by a single Dragon.
Underwater realms; the contrary circumstance: Underwater would play so importantly in draconic world building because there's really only one Dragon to patrol the seas. The Dragon Turtle. And the various monster manual, DMG, or FtoD and etc don't really suggest that there's any Dragons to patrol the abyss whatsoever. The primary sea Dragons are the Dragon Turtle, Bronze and Topaz Dragons. Together they would have mastery over the coast and continental shelfs. This creates a situation where Sahuagin and Triton exist outside of the natural domain of Dragons and represent a legitimate source of civilization apart from Dragon Patrons.
Chapter 2: The Humanoid's World Underwater as the cradle of civilization
I talked a bit about how I see the Dragons' world and so let's theorize what a humanoid world would look like. First; as I left off, the source of civilization is largely dependent upon the allowance by Dragons. For it to exist anywhere else would require a domain apart from Dragons. Here's where the underwater is so much more important than it has ever been addressed in DnD before.
Elves, to me, tend to be an "adaptive race", meaning they adapt to their biomes. Humans are an example of a non-adaptive race. Humans tend to change their biomes to suit their needs. Thus we find aquatic elves. Aquatic elves simply were elves, who running from tree-to-tree for their lives from their Green and Black Dragon overlords, or begging for some savior; some end up in the shallow seas, dodging Dragon Turtles and the whims of Bronze and Topaz Dragons. These Aquatic Elves, maybe having some respite from Dragons since the oceans themselves area little less patrolled, would come into contact with civilized deep sea races.
Thus Aquatic Elves learn magic, establish some form of technology and architecture, and through their land-based kin can smuggle civilized concept into the surface world.
A period of time would exist, much like Conan the Barbarian, where there really aren't much civilizations anywhere to be found, but like from Atlantis ancient knowledge makes its way into the barbaric tribes and nomads who avoid direct destruction by Dragons and they begin to develop the tools to defend themselves.
Chapter 3: Orcs first, pass the torch to elves who then pass it to humans.
Though Elves might smuggle in civilization; it would be the predatory nature between orcs and elves that Orcs would be able to use this the most. They'd already excel at barbarian combat; utilizing the bare bones of civilization. They'd be able to make the most of dragonscale armor. They'd be the most risk taking. It would make sense that orcs would be the first movers in freeing themselves from direct Dragon oppression.
Freeing themselves would give them a strong dominance of the surface world; but would free other areas like elven forests or humans in their plains to develop more on their own. As orcs become the first Dragonslayers, Dragons would spend more and more time dealing with uppity orc hordes that have little treasure to offer, that may even reject the concept of treasure due to how in their verbal histories they knew that treasure brought the ire of dragons upon them, the orc hordes would become a big problem as they never congregate into too large a settlement.
Eventually elves who adapt to their environments but excel at magic would become powerful enough in magics and enchantments to directly challenge Dragons. Thus putting further pressure on Dragons.
Lastly I would see Humans becoming "imperialist" as the whole Draconic system falls apart. So a long time span of Elves learning civilization from their aquatic kin; passing it to orcs through tribal conflicts, the orcs run with it and become a major problem for Dragons being so diffuse, nomadic and bare-bone minimalists, allowing elves to free themselves more magically and parlay with Dragons more willing to cooperate or build political ties to humanoids, lastly humans the most opportunistic would be able to maybe form empires.
Chapter 4: Dwarves
I'd see Dwarves as the least likely race to free themselves. Their covetousness of treasure makes them a target for Dragons, their desire to live in mines and underground makes them exceedingly difficult to defend. Like a castle they might withstand a siege for a time; but eventually they'd be totally wiped out with little to no survivors. This is problematic for civilization. They'd be little more than cave dwellers for a time, constantly burrowed out by a Dragon seeking an easy lair and a treasure of gems and gold. But as Dwarves still do interact, they might first interact with elves who share with them metallurgies like mithril and give them a better concept of how to defend their homes. An insult that they were not first to do this, and being stubborn gives a strong possible animosity between elves and dwarves, but they have more in common than with evil humanoids like orcs and such.
Chapter 5: Civilizational developments
Previously I enumerated what I think the developments would be but I want to expand on them here. The undersea, especially the deep sea, would be the most civilizationally developed regions as they would be the furthest from direct Dragon influence. Unless you want direct Dragon influence to develop civilization themselves such as Bahamut and the Metallics growing civilizations themselves. I just don't see this going unnoticed enough by Chromatics for any civilization to become some independent kingdom, not without a source of civilizational growth which owed to its remoteness, is the undersea.
Next, elves seem the most likely candidate; they are a healthy mix of "non-urban"; adaptive, and magically inclined to spread knowledge, retain knowledge owed to their long lifespans, and be fluid enough to avoid many of the Dragons. Orcs may be a more likely candidate to be the first movers as Dragonslayers, but elves would become a repository of civilizational knowledge. Like a living library of Alexandria.
Humans are resilient enough and transform their settings enough that when they are finally able to take off and hold their own as Dragonslayers, then the era of Dragons would really be underthreat.
As a DM you'd have to decide if that's ever taken place or if all your humans are still barbaric and low on the organizational totem making livings as either serving Dragon lords, or avoiding Dragon domains altogether.
I'll expand more on this later; I have to take a break. Thanks for reading!
This...sounds a lot like a combination of Harry Potter with D&D, adding a dash of Tolkien's "Here comes the Age of Men" schtick. The thing is that Slytherin didn't really make sense in Potter-verse either. If it was that easy to distinguish the "likely to turn evil" children from the "likely to turn good" children, why did the founders of Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor not get rid of Slytherin as a house a long time ago? I see a similar problem with Chromatic dragons in this world where the Chromatics and the Metallics are obvis going to clash violently as soon as humanoids show up. Color-coding dragons for their political stance towards humanoids makes it easier to write obvis villains, but it also constricts your world-building into very predictable demarcations and expectations.
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Dragonslayer: Worldbuilding
There is not a race of men or elf, or of dwarven-brow, that does not owe their existence to a dragon; benevolent or foul.
Introduction:
I have been wanting to rework the worldbuilding of D&D for some time. I watch a lot of videos such as Grungeon Master or AJ Pickett or Skullsplitter Dice and I love their work. But, I don't think any of it goes quite far enough. I started thinking about my "First World" campaign, but more broadly wanted to just game-theory what a world dominated by Dragons would actually look like and to build upon that. I can't world build such a Dragon world without incorporating the underwater for reasons that will become more apparent as I fill out this thread, and I call this world "Dragonslayer", because I love the concept of dragonslaying and I think it's simply impossible with sword and shield or bow. To slay a dragon should require massive equipment. Ballistae or cannons, powerful magics, armies and teams of skilled warriors who work together to take down a dragon. A dragon in its lair should be neigh undefeatable by a band of heroes, even a party of level 20. Just the sheer size of a dragon alone would make it formidable, and then in its lair the breath weapons should have even more impact as a lot of them are in enclosed spaces. An acid weapon that hits a stream of 90 feet by 10 feet should fill a room and create an un-saveable situation where the players simply have to tank the damage.
An ancient red dragon's breath should not even be avoidable if you're in the center of it as your player's movement speed would be too low to dodge.
Goals:
I want to provide campaign builders with enough framework after reading this that they can make dragons anything from distant "forces of nature" constantly in the background of their players' minds; to direct influencers of their campaigns.
I want to provide enough context that this extends to all biomes and I want to challenge a Dungeon Master's concepts of civilization in their campaigns. I won't undo published worlds like Forgotten Realms or Eberron and etc; but at the least I'd challenge their existence.
Chapter 1: the Dragon's world
In DnD cosmology the Dragon's world is the material plane; whatever campaign setting you're in this tends to be true. Manuals such as Fizban's Treasury of Dragons explain the pervasive existence of Dragons. Building upon the challenge ratings, the possible reproduction methods, and the general territorialism of dragons, and also building upon the motivation of dragons to basically be food, shelter and treasure, here are the foundations of the Dragon's world as I see them.
Chapter 2: The Humanoid's World
Underwater as the cradle of civilization
I talked a bit about how I see the Dragons' world and so let's theorize what a humanoid world would look like. First; as I left off, the source of civilization is largely dependent upon the allowance by Dragons. For it to exist anywhere else would require a domain apart from Dragons. Here's where the underwater is so much more important than it has ever been addressed in DnD before.
Chapter 3: Orcs first, pass the torch to elves who then pass it to humans.
Chapter 4: Dwarves
I'd see Dwarves as the least likely race to free themselves. Their covetousness of treasure makes them a target for Dragons, their desire to live in mines and underground makes them exceedingly difficult to defend. Like a castle they might withstand a siege for a time; but eventually they'd be totally wiped out with little to no survivors. This is problematic for civilization. They'd be little more than cave dwellers for a time, constantly burrowed out by a Dragon seeking an easy lair and a treasure of gems and gold. But as Dwarves still do interact, they might first interact with elves who share with them metallurgies like mithril and give them a better concept of how to defend their homes. An insult that they were not first to do this, and being stubborn gives a strong possible animosity between elves and dwarves, but they have more in common than with evil humanoids like orcs and such.
Chapter 5: Civilizational developments
Previously I enumerated what I think the developments would be but I want to expand on them here. The undersea, especially the deep sea, would be the most civilizationally developed regions as they would be the furthest from direct Dragon influence. Unless you want direct Dragon influence to develop civilization themselves such as Bahamut and the Metallics growing civilizations themselves. I just don't see this going unnoticed enough by Chromatics for any civilization to become some independent kingdom, not without a source of civilizational growth which owed to its remoteness, is the undersea.
Next, elves seem the most likely candidate; they are a healthy mix of "non-urban"; adaptive, and magically inclined to spread knowledge, retain knowledge owed to their long lifespans, and be fluid enough to avoid many of the Dragons. Orcs may be a more likely candidate to be the first movers as Dragonslayers, but elves would become a repository of civilizational knowledge. Like a living library of Alexandria.
Humans are resilient enough and transform their settings enough that when they are finally able to take off and hold their own as Dragonslayers, then the era of Dragons would really be underthreat.
As a DM you'd have to decide if that's ever taken place or if all your humans are still barbaric and low on the organizational totem making livings as either serving Dragon lords, or avoiding Dragon domains altogether.
I'll expand more on this later; I have to take a break. Thanks for reading!
This...sounds a lot like a combination of Harry Potter with D&D, adding a dash of Tolkien's "Here comes the Age of Men" schtick. The thing is that Slytherin didn't really make sense in Potter-verse either. If it was that easy to distinguish the "likely to turn evil" children from the "likely to turn good" children, why did the founders of Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor not get rid of Slytherin as a house a long time ago? I see a similar problem with Chromatic dragons in this world where the Chromatics and the Metallics are obvis going to clash violently as soon as humanoids show up. Color-coding dragons for their political stance towards humanoids makes it easier to write obvis villains, but it also constricts your world-building into very predictable demarcations and expectations.