Dragons, and how they fit into your world.

Cool takes on dragons, both.

On my world of Sheth, there are no dragons! However, there are legendary creatures of varying temperament, ecology and appearance who effectively take their place in Sheth's mythos. They are mostly subterranean (one aquatic type), and strongly resemble the sandworms of Herbert's Dune setting. They appear in all parts of the world, but are exceedingly rare regardless of location.

Enjoyed learning how dragons fit into everyone's campaigns and I am Suprised to find so many different answers to a supposedly easy question about dragons. (Now I think of it, however, Dragons have almost  completely different roles going from especially the more popular fantasy: Eragon to LOTR to Dragonheart). 

How does the fact that there is (was) no dragons effect the Dragonborn as a race? Do people view them differently or are there 'tales' of dragons. If there were tales, do most people believe there were dragons because there are dragonborn?

This is why I love fantasy settings and DnD in general. The shear amount of creative freedom that every has and exercises is incredible. Like this thread for example. My take on dragons in my current setting is different from others, and we can all appreciate that. Not only that, but each idea spurs MORE ideas. I find that when you can generally connect with others that share your passion (and avoid the elitist community like some of those on the 'rpgcrossings' site), the potential is amazing!

I have only been a member of the BLOCKHEAD community for a short while and I am loving every moment and post!
DM Chris and DM Mitch, as well as all of you here are pretty great people! You have definitely created a faithful follower here!

I think that this is the best and "worst" part of the forums. Not only do the forums offer up the chance to discuss the topics you otherwise couldn't tell people (aka can't tell the players despite their vested interest, and other people probably won't care,) they also allow for the fine tuning of every idea we have. Then there is of course the ever growing list of things I wish I could run, or implement, or this, or that but can't! I would need to run a group 5-6 days a week to really handle the amazing influx of ideas that come from the forums.

As for dragons I tend to stick fairly close to whatever source material I am running the game from. I also prefer them more feral than intelligent. I understand the appeal and the awesome stuff you can do if they are transforming into humanoid form, and pulling strings here and there, but just love a beast willing to fight to the death to keep all its shinies! 

The way I run dragons in....hmmmm I don't actually have a name for my world. Lets call it Golarion Version T. I have 3 ages of my world currently, the Growth Age, the Trade Age, and the Broken Age. I haven't fleshed out the Growth Age yet, so I will start in the Trade Age.

The dragonborn had always followed the wishes of the dragons, seeing them as the perfect form of life. However, with dragons constantly feuding among themselves about things like power and treasure, the dragonborn were forced to take sides and war against each other. This lasted until 5 colossal dragons intervened. Ixen the Red, Nao the White, Ingowilel the Blue, Versel the Crystal, and Othokent the Black stopped the dragon feuding and united the dragons and dragonborn into a single Spartan like nation. They were feared and revered as the best military nation in the world, that was until the Forgotten Wars.

The Forgotten Wars were actually a conflict between the former holy Oread warriors and the extremely technologically advanced Revic race vs the gods and everyone else. The war lasted 20 years and deleted most nation's militaries, and only ended when the Kelsh Empire, who had millions of soldiers, stepped in. The dragons and dragonborn were decimated by this war, and Ixen and Versel were severally wounded in the war. So under order of the Guardian Dragons (the 5 I mentioned before) the dragons and dragonborn clammed up in their homelands, the dragon isle (Azlant if you are looking at a Golarion map). While the rest of the world knows about them, it is extremely rare for any dragons or dragonborn to be seen outside the islands, and even fewer outsiders have even seen the dragon isles.

Now this is the same world that has Doctor Tinkernut, the immortal old world scientist that wants to kill the gods and destroy magic. The Broken Age began because Doctor Tinkernut tried to make his move and failed to completely rid the world of magic and the gods. This is important to note when it comes to the dragons because during the Forgotten Wars, the dragon people found and took hold of one few things that could harm Tinkernut, a blue orb that is a physical representation of the Reality of Peace. Tinkernut is physical representation of the Reality of Choas. So at the end of the Trade Age, Tinkernut had his allied forces invade the Dragon Isles to put the orb out of play. In the process practically eradicating the dragonborn race, making the dragons 7 deaths away from becoming extinct, and leaving only one Dragon Guardian alive (Which was Othokent the Black). The rest of what happens doesn't really involved the dragons as they went into hiding when the Isles were invaded.

During the Broken Age, the dragons, including Othokent, flew north and hid amongst the Frosthead islands. While the surviving Dragonborn are just trying to live out their lives. In the entire world, at the start of the Broken Age, there are only about 150 dragonborn left. Most of whom were outcasts to begin with.

I'm currently running a campaign I'm calling Dragonblade! in 5th Edition D&D. It is based on east and south Asian religion and mythology, similarly to how many fantasy settings are based on European religion and mythology. This change in viewpoint has forced me to be creative, as a lot of the base assumptions have to be different. One of those assumptions is what a dragon is. As I'm sure you guys know, dragons in east Asian religion and myth especially tend to be benevolent, or at least wise and enigmatic. They are also usually aquatic types, associated with rivers and the sea, though some do fly, burrow in the ground, etc. But they are more like the Luck Dragon in Neverending Story than they are like Smaug the Golden.

To make this setting work, I've had to rework things like the relationships between the elements, and this has also impacted dragons. Normally, if you meet a fire dragon, you can kind of infer that they will be vulnerable to cold damage - not necessarily true when the elements are based on Daoist philosophy, where there are five elements (earth, metal, water, wood and fire) in stead of four (earth, air, fire, water), and they interact differently, creating one another and also overcoming one another in a complex pattern.

There is also the issue, in Chinese religion and mythology especially, of there being more than one kind of "dragon." The phoenix, for example, is often paired with the dragon, as an equal creature. So in this case, I am essentially treating phoenixes like dragons (they are built on a similar template). There is also a mythological white tiger and black turtle, also in the same category as dragons, and also for my setting built with a similar template. Not all dragons can fly, and not all dragons can breathe underwater. Earth dragons cannot swim or fly, but can burrow very quickly.

Broadly speaking, the way dragons fit in my setting is that they are the pinnacle of living creatures - most dangerous, most wise, most powerful, etc., just shy of the gods. They are not, however, aligned in the usual moral sense, at least not in any predictable way. For example, a green dragon might be associated with the element of wood, and could have any philosophy or agenda imaginable, compared to the green dragon in the MM. A green dragon would be vulnerable to thunder and force damage, but resistant to lightening.

I like that dragons can be surprising again to players, some of whom are more knowledgeable than others about 'traditional' D&D style dragons. It was also a fun challenge to make them fit together and make sense from a DM and worldbuilding point of view.

I wrote more about this here if it's of interest: doughagler.wordpress.com/2015/07/15/5th-edition-dd-dragonblade-dragons-but-not-yet-blades/