Manbearcat
Legend
When I think of Red Dragons I think more Vlad the Impaler, Atilla the Hun rather than Napoleon Bonaparte or Sun Tzu...or even Alexander of Macedonia. Due to their extraordinary minds, they are capable of extreme calculation. However, their unparalleled might and ferocity makes their keen minds borderline redundant. So instead of shrewd, they are capricious. They are impatient, reactionary...and their god-like physicality affords them such luxury. Even greater than their might and ferocity is their vanity...and vanity leads to wild, flailing vindictiveness if it is not paid proper respect and tribute. They may lay waste to an entire town for no other reason but to prove that they can...some perceived slight that may exist only in their mind...an apex predator's territorial response. However, its just as likely that the same Red would hold that town hostage to fulfill its unprecedented, avaricious desires; perhaps forcing the townsfolk to sacrifice their livestock or first-born, perhaps enslaving their greatest craftsman for constant tributes...merely because the great Red can do it.
Only rarely would they leverage their amazing minds as they would likely look down upon (and rightly so) all usurpers to their crown (typically other Reds). An adventuring party is of little threat...but how dare they enter my lair and challenge ME! They possess the sort of deranged perception of themselves that only a creature that lives on the precipice of Godhood but is shackled by intense human failings could know; a propensity for a blind and raging fury that would give the Queen of Hearts pause and an insatiable vanity that would make Snow White's Queen blush.
They take because they endlessly want (territory, tribute, "stuff"). They take because they can and its because its easy and so rarely are they tested and so tasty is the terror they inflict upon their lessers that getting up close and personal is their most natural response to conflict.
I like the new Red. I don't like the prissy, erudite posture of the former Red. I see a nigh-omnipotent creature waning in detached, bemused disinterest one moment and explosively waxing in a primal fury the next. I think the picture depicts that sudden reaction quite well.
Only rarely would they leverage their amazing minds as they would likely look down upon (and rightly so) all usurpers to their crown (typically other Reds). An adventuring party is of little threat...but how dare they enter my lair and challenge ME! They possess the sort of deranged perception of themselves that only a creature that lives on the precipice of Godhood but is shackled by intense human failings could know; a propensity for a blind and raging fury that would give the Queen of Hearts pause and an insatiable vanity that would make Snow White's Queen blush.
They take because they endlessly want (territory, tribute, "stuff"). They take because they can and its because its easy and so rarely are they tested and so tasty is the terror they inflict upon their lessers that getting up close and personal is their most natural response to conflict.
I like the new Red. I don't like the prissy, erudite posture of the former Red. I see a nigh-omnipotent creature waning in detached, bemused disinterest one moment and explosively waxing in a primal fury the next. I think the picture depicts that sudden reaction quite well.
