I'm gonna play a drakewarden in a one shot where backstory really doesn't matter but I like to have something going on in my head anyways to inform my playstyle. It'll be a higher-level one shot, if that matters. 

I've come up with *most* of a backstory where my character is one of a pair of knights sent to kill a dragon-- possibly one or both the knights are scions of an important noble family-- and during the course of the battle one of the knights (my character) is mortally wounded, but so is the dragon. The other knight, instead of staying to aid their fallen comrade, leaves me for dead to go home and claim sole credit for killing the dragon. 

As they both lay dying, the spirit of the dragon reaches out to the fallen knight and offers to bind it's spirit to his, ensuring both of their continued existence as the excess energy of the dragon's soul saves the knight in the short term to the point of not immediately dying, and saves the dragon in the long term as it is able to slowly recover while tethered to the world by the knight's spirit. The knight accepts, but enters an exile from his home and wanders the wilderness away from civilization for a time, feeling the spirit of it within him and worrying should it ever gain control. 

Over the years, he's forced in various ways to use the dragon's power to survive, which accelerates its recovery to the point it can manifest a rudimentary physical form for itself for short times, and the two are forced by circumstances to work together-- even come to trust each other after a fashion. Over time the knight notices that the longer he remains bound to the dragon, the more human it seems; no longer the evil wyrm that terrorized his home but now more complex and even at times empathetic. Meanwhile, he finds himself having more and more difficulty relating to other mortals, finds himself at times lusting after riches, needing to remind himself to do good, rather than simply *being* good as he was before. With their souls bound, it seems they're imparting pieces of themselves on the other until in the end they each might find themselves caught somewhere halfway between mortal and dragon rather than one or the other. 

Now, the unresolved question I have that I thought might be fun to submit to the internet for feedback: why is the dragon so desperate to cling to life as do bind its spirit to a supposed "lesser creature"? What kind of unfinished business might it have that it has to see through? Or is it simply a last mad scramble to stay alive? 

Same for the knight? I was thinking the kingdom he's from has a bad history with dragons (hence the self-imposed exile after bonding to one), so would the knight need to have a better reason than "I don't want to die" to go to such lengths to save himself (such as vengeance against the other knight or some more pure kingdom-related motive), or do you think it's a better story for this arrangement to come from a place of mutual vulnerability and fear of death? 

Ideas were that maybe the dragon was the guardian of some great knowledge it had promised to protect and it cannot be lost at any cost, or was guarding a powerful artifact (possibly stolen by the other knight?).

For the knight, I was thinking maybe their former partner reveals some wicked plans for their shared noble house now that the other one is out of the way (a la Sozin to the dying Roku in AtLA) and the knight can't bring himself to let it happen. 

Or again, maybe just in this moment, both the terrible dragon and the strong knight are equally weak, and frightened in the face of oblivion and clutching for any way to stay in the light? 

What do people think? 

Some more unneeded background info but my original character concept was inspired by (read: stolen from) the into to Drakengard, where a wounded warrior and dragon need to forge a pact to save both their lives. 

What an amazing idea you have created! I truly love it. 

As I was reading your story about two knights going to slay a dragon, with one knight leaving the other for dead, with the dragon offering the dying knight a bargain to live, many things come to mind. 

I think you are looking for complexity to ignite motive, when there is actually already motive!  Knights are “honorable” elite warriors, doling out justice on behalf of their kingdom. And here, your character’s partner is betraying the oaths to get ahead!  How infuriating!  He is supposed to be a knight, acting like an Arthurian (or whatever) legend and setting an example for the common folk. Think of what that betraying knight recounts about the battle? He probably says something to the peasants and nobles like, “oh yes, I tried to save my companions, but his foolishness was his downfall when he didn’t listen to my wisdom and I had to slay the dragon alone, alas!” This guy needs to get spanked. He needs some Indigo Montoya style “you killed my father prepare to die” vengance!  I think the knight’s motive could easily lean into the morals, code and betrayal.  (BTW check out the novel, The Fireborne Blade, as I think this story will inspire your current ideas a bit.)

The dragon may simply be opportunistic. Yet, both your knight and the dragon seek one common goal, vengance!  Remember when Indigo Montoya fought The Dread Pirate Robert’s on the Cliffs of Insanity? At first they were enemies, but then they realized they needed to be allies!  Remember when Vin from Cyberpunk got  the talking cyber-virus that gave her power, Johnny Silverhand and they worked together in a hopeless battle to seek vengance on the evil corps of Night City? Or what about Tyler Durden and the narrator (Edward Norton) and their split personality, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation?  These are all things I think about when I read the back story for your character and the dragon. Plus its just such a cool idea to have the dragon, a common nemesis of the knight, to suddenly combine powers with the knight and end up in a critical psychological situation where both of the characters have an opportunity to learn from one another… personally I don’t think you need anything else, I think the complexity will evolve by looking at how these simple components you have crafted will flourish when you pay attention to how the details begin to matter as they encounter other aspects of the story your character travels through on their journey!

Great story! Can’t wait to hear more. 

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! I hadn't thought of giving them a V/Johnny vibe so that's a good way of looking at it, and it also hadn't occurred to me that they could have the same motivation of vengeance/justice against the same guy, so that does put a nice little bow on motivation. 

The only question would be: why don't the knight and dragon immediately seek to carry out their goal rather than the self-imposed exile (which I think of as kind of crucial to the idea of this character becoming an adventurer rather than just a professional vengeance-seeker like Inigo)?

The way I figure, it's either 1) the knight knows he doesn't have the strength to stop his former brother-in-arms so is seeking support abroad, or 2) he doesn't find out just the extent of the other knight's plans until much later, so while he knows the other knight is bad and harbors ill-will, the time pressure to act isn't there until later maybe when news of his home country reaches the knight's ears and the former partner is leading some bloodthirsty reign of terror and Must Be Stopped.

Any thoughts? 

I feel like there is a natural story development here with the way that your knight could perhaps feel shame for being allied with an enemy, or maybe a sense of protection to keep the dragon away from their home (and where your betrayer lives). In addition, you could consider that your character could be afraid that being bound to the dragon could give further credence to the assumed lies that your character’s betrayer is telling about how he killed the dragon and your demise. Maybe your character does try to go home and someone reacts to him being bound by the dragon and then your character runs away! When a celebrity has a catastrophic event in their life, what do they do? They hide for a while until everyone forgets and then they try to make a comeback! Your character could be doing personal PR to figure out the best way to A) deal with their new relationship with power and the dragon and B) figuring out the best way to approach that while thinking about their honor and former life at home. Perhaps they begin by hopelessly thinking there is no choice but to abandon their former life since they have become an ally of their greatest enemy, and wander aimlessly like a masterless samurai on the roads. And then an encounter (like saving a farmer from bandits using their new power) makes them reconsider and philosophize on their purpose. There they might see the spark of hope and feel spurred on. The road home, psychologically maybe more than physically, will be long in creating the best solution to return home. But maybe it isn’t about revenge. Maybe their old self is really dead and they consider who they are now as someone else. 

Just depends on what you want I think. But I hope this helps you come up with that. 

Yeah I definitely feel like he would start from a perspective of having dishonored himself and proven himself no better than his betrayer, and his adventuring career would be a long crawl back to feeling like he can be a force for good in the world again as he learns to use his new power to benefit others, and only at the culmination of this character arc would he finally feel ready to return home. I think that contextualizes his character as someone who it would make sense for them to become an adventurer nicely. 

Thanks Skywise, this was pretty constructive!

Glad to be of help!