Dragons

[Lawgiver]

How/where have you incorporated them into your games?

Are they unique creatures, one general species or use some of the chromatic/metallic nature of the core D&D rules?

How are they played out? Destructive monsters; contemplative/calculating; aloof;

[Rey]

I hope my memory serves me well, only dragon I've heard about/run into in BR, as a character, was the one in Tuarhievel that taelinri revered as a lore keeper until some party killed him.

The other one was killed by my party to be, but I don't remember what he was like. Besides, back then we didn't have so much books about BR, so DM had a custom BR campaign set in different continent (like Tollanar, perhaps).

The third one was in FR, northwest of ...ummm, that big forest south of Silverymoon.. :D
Party went for a little stroll outside Aebrynis.

[stv2brown1988]

There was a Dragon article about the (red) dragon of volstov peak (sp?). Another (white?) was rumored to be in Drachenward, somewhere in the glacier. I wanted to start expanding the Drachenward stub (but couldn't figure out how to get the template into the wiki stub.:confused:) My idea was to hint that the dragon of Drachenward has access to realm magic (hinted at in the Havens sourcebook) and may even attend the court of Drachenward in disguise as the bard/wizard/druid what's his name that is rumored to be the sole expert of the glacier.

[dunsel]

Birthright dragons were intended to be all of one species, not chromatic or metalic. They can be whatever you want of course, but in the published materials the dragons were their own species, neither good or evil by nature.

In my campaigns I use this as a good guide:
http://www.birthright.net/brwiki/index.php/Cerilian_dragons

Dragons are very rare and very powerful in birthright.

[Lee]

In a message dated 5/29/2008 9:32:17 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, brnetboard@BIRTHRIGHT.NET writes:

Lawgiver wrote: How/where have you incorporated them into your games?

Only in the background for me, so far. My last party (on a voyage around
Cerilia) explored near Vstaive Peak. I played up the earthquakes, and had them
somewhat shaking in their boots. Earlier than that, I had them pop into the
Shadow World for a dungeon crawl (they`re not likely to do *that* again!),
and they found the final resting place of a young dragon. Nothing but
partly-decayed bones, and one PC took some bits as souvenirs. As a cleric of
Sarimie, he sliced up a knuckle for sale to Vos tribesmen, and then sold a pair of
claws to the sorceror-rogue. She wants to make them into a matched pair of
daggers, `cause that would be really cool!

Are they unique creatures, one general species or use some of the chromatic/metallic nature of the core D&D rules?

I use the "Cerilian" species, so they are nearly unique. Somewhere around
here, there should be a census of the dozen or so suspected dragons.

How are they played out? Destructive monsters; contemplative/calculating; aloof;

Very, very aloof. I think they are in hiding, watching and seeking to find
a way to safely return. My own projection will be that they are conspiring
with the sidhe to re-assert their joint rule over humanity. Hatching a few
more dragons should be a big part of this.

[ShadowMoon]

Dragons in my campaign are very aloof, deceptive and mysterious...

Those that live on Cerilia nowadays, were all present at Deismaar, and become sterile in the cataclysm of gods, and since dragons are magical beings they suffered terribly in the energy surge created by gods destruction, so dragons are still regaining their strength, healing their wounds, thats why they don't wander far from their lairs. They have built lairs on potent sources, bound themselves to those primordial magical energies. Some dragons didn't made it, some did, but got forcefully severed from their sources by lesser beings, and they faded away. Of course younger dragons didn't survived the post-cataclysm era, they were just not strong enough to preserve their energies from dissipating...

My party encountered 2 dragons during our play. One was the Dragon, the one that controls Sources of Drachenward, tho only one player realized its nature; and the other was a Shadow Dragon, in Shadow World...

I use standard Cerilian Dragon; to be honest I never liked that core D&D dragon categorization. It works awesome for the Dragonlance, tho...

...

[Lawgiver]

In one of my first campaigns I had a dragon in the Chimaeron which helped explained the low trade between Anuire the East by land. The PCs didn't want anything to do with it. I think I was going to actually make a wyvern. The rumors just made it a bigger/scarier monster.



I hinted at a dragon in the Five Peaks in one campaign, but the PCs never risked finding out if the rumors/sightings/thefts of livestock were true. The plot line had a female dragon being "held hostage" and as used as a tool for chaos/revenge against Beoruine or Ghoere (I forget which) by the Wizard (before I had read the Iron Throne novel and got a greater look at the NPC's personality). The Wizard who had stolen one of her eggs, threatened to destroy it if the mother did not obey. Ultimately, the Wizard hoped the mother would be slain and the infant dragon raised as her own. The intention at some point was for the PCs to thwart the Wizard and set the dragon and offspring free rather than slay the beast.


I've had several ideas of needing to seek a dragon for wisdom/knowledge for an epic campaign that never progressed to the point of need. I'm also fond of the concept of dragons enjoying areas with high magic/source potential; as much for the power within them, as the desire to flee civilization. As those areas disappear and man hunts them, they are slowly becoming extinct. I view the general species/interaction of dragons/humans similar to the concepts of the movie Dragonheart. They have the ability to communicate in a peaceful friendly manner, but prefer to be left alone unless forced and then they are a force to be reckoned with.

[Fearless_Leader]

I generally play them as aloof and wise and not favoring interaction with mortal creatures. Generally they've served as plot points for an epic quest or piece of information. The last time a dragon influenced one of my games, the PCs found some dragon bones and some dried dragon blood in an old underground fortress from eons past. So one of the PCs collected some of the dried blood, researched the necessary processes and to re-constituted it... and then drank it. His body began to slowly warp and transform over the course of the game, all the while the aforementioned dead dragon started speaking to him from beyond in his dreams. By the end of the game he had secretly created a dragon cult. This was all the more shocking since the PCs were ruling Tuarhievel and the cult was created without the knowledge of the rest of the party, including the regent.

[Sorontar]

In our campaign I think we have only encountered 2 dragons in the Shadow World during a lengthy adventure to kill off a SW city of super-ghouls (just like normal ghouls only smarter). The dragons were initially a source of information to the party then they helped the military assault against the ghouls.

The dragons were mainly in their proto-elf form IIRC (i.e. what elves looked like before Aebyrnis and SW split... do we have a name for them?). They only became scaley when the major attack commenced.

That was a strange adventure, especially for my Aebyrnis-loving druid who ended up with a goblin apprentice.... and never wanted to go to the SW again! (but keeps on ending up there somehow)

Sorontar.

[AndrewTall]

The dragons were mainly in their proto-elf form IIRC (i.e. what elves looked like before Aebyrnis and SW split... do we have a name for them?). They only became scaley when the major attack commenced.

Sorontar.

Sie? I get confused though as the shadow world elves are referred to as sidhe which is also used for Cerilian elves.

[kgauck]

SW elves are referred to as Seelie as far as I have ever noticed.

[Fearless_Leader]

The shadow world parallel of the Sidhe are the Seelie, ruled by Queen Titania. They of course have their evil brethren, the Unseelie, ruled by Queen Lussina. Before the the shadow world and the real world split, they were all one race: the Sie.

[Sorontar]

Thank you Fearless and Andrew. And its canon because Carrie Bebris said they are called that: http://www.birthright.net/brwiki/index.php/Interview_Ed_Carrie_Rich. I have started a wiki page on them.

Sorontar

[Rey]

Is this Shadow World entry on wiki a fan fiction or a canon?
Seems somehow out of place, and correlating the fantasy with characters from the Earth's real life is not a good idea. Also, I found some grammar errors, but these are not a problem. The problem is a sentence that has no ending. :D

Besides, I thought that along with the orcs, the race that does not exist in Cerilia are the gnomes. And here it says that they migrate to Cerilia through Shadow Gates. :confused:

[Rey]

Is this Shadow World entry on wiki a fan fiction or a canon?

Bah, now I've scampered through Rich Baker's lost files and see that a part of this one is a canon, although it was not written in any official work and this article has no marking to tell the difference. That entry has to be edited for the sake of consistency with other BR material.

[AndrewTall]

SW elves are referred to as Seelie as far as I have ever noticed.

Whups, knew I should have gone back to source rather than trusting the memory!

[Fearless_Leader]

Thank you Fearless and Andrew. And its canon because Carrie Bebris said they are called that: http://www.birthright.net/brwiki/index.php/Interview_Ed_Carrie_Rich. I have started a wiki page on them.

Sorontar

Yes indeed. Although I was more specifically referring to the Blood Spawn supplement.

[Thorogood Roele]

Pardon my interupting your seguey (sp?) hehe back to the dragons title.... here's some info

Published articles from Dragon Magazine on Birthright dragons
http://www.birthright.net/brwiki/index.php/Birthright_publication

Tarazin the gray
http://www.birthright.net/brwiki/index.php/Fire_on_the_Five_Peaks

Zakhur Lifesbane
http://www.birthright.net/brwiki/index.php/Tarazin_the_Gray

Dragon #248. Dragon of Vstaive Peak (note that I have not edited and posted this last article on here yet, so it may be awhile)
http://www.birthright.net/brwiki/index.php?title=Dragon_of_Vstaive_Peak&action=edit

[irdeggman]

Bah, now I've scampered through Rich Baker's lost files and see that a part of this one is a canon, although it was not written in any official work and this article has no marking to tell the difference. That entry has to be edited for the sake of consistency with other BR material.


Some of it actually was.

Check out Blood Spawn (a free download from WotC - I don't know what the current link is though).

The stuff about Sie and seelie/elves is in there.

Descriptions of how the SW is controlled by the seeming is likewise there.

There are also ways to use information in the novels as a reference, although not good for a rules mechanic they can help explain in literary terminology what is going on there.

[Wilenburg]

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/Blood%20Spawn2.pdf

Is the link irdeggman was refering too