Well, Fizban's Treasury of Dragons lists a few states of dragon undeath; there's also dracoliches, of course. Beyond that you're mostly just looking at plot devices; the area isn't explored much in a hard mechanical context because on the player end you're not really supposed to linger in a disembodied state as an active participant in a campaign, you're supposed to roll a new character or wait for the party to revive you.
Assuming a dragon old enough to have a lair and therefore have lair actions and regional effects you could have the dragon shuffle off its mortal coil and infuse its soul into the land, the lair and surrouding area have various statues which the dragons soul can animate as per the Eidolon or Stone Cursed creatures and it can also use these statues to communicate with people it deems friendly so that it can watch over an area. This could be quite unnerving for PC's as they see lots of statues coming to life and even more so if the dragon in question is/was evil and now has some medusa followers occupying the area so teh statues in question used to be living people. If it needs to manifest in a moe powerful draconic form then you culd give it a avatar similar to a shadow dragon.
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Looking for ideas on how to preserve a dragons soul, memory, heart. Similar to how the Eldunari work in Eragon.
Well, Fizban's Treasury of Dragons lists a few states of dragon undeath; there's also dracoliches, of course. Beyond that you're mostly just looking at plot devices; the area isn't explored much in a hard mechanical context because on the player end you're not really supposed to linger in a disembodied state as an active participant in a campaign, you're supposed to roll a new character or wait for the party to revive you.
Check out the orbs of dragonkind in the DMG! I'm about to use one in a game, and they seem like a super fun way for a dragon to outlive its body.
A good way, to preserve a dragon mind could be in a sentient magic item.
Assuming a dragon old enough to have a lair and therefore have lair actions and regional effects you could have the dragon shuffle off its mortal coil and infuse its soul into the land, the lair and surrouding area have various statues which the dragons soul can animate as per the Eidolon or Stone Cursed creatures and it can also use these statues to communicate with people it deems friendly so that it can watch over an area. This could be quite unnerving for PC's as they see lots of statues coming to life and even more so if the dragon in question is/was evil and now has some medusa followers occupying the area so teh statues in question used to be living people. If it needs to manifest in a moe powerful draconic form then you culd give it a avatar similar to a shadow dragon.