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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 5509906" data-attributes="member: 52734">The word you're looking for is "Draconian Law".  Paladins would rarely act in such a vengeful manner.Some ideas for you;  Another being/force instigated the uprising against the dragon.  It goaded the leaders into believing the dragon was being meddlesome and that their heirs would be puppets of the dragon.   Conspiring with this being they slew the dragon, and locked the dragon's soul into a statue, which was sealed by a magical amulet.  Each of the kings was given a part of the amulet, though some have lost their peice over time.After the dragon was slain, the evil entity tricked the kings into feasting on the dragon's blood and fleshed, thinking it would grant them draconic powers and agelessness.  It did make them mighty, but also transformed them into vampire-like creatures.  To retain their power, they must continue to feed on flesh and blood.Unlike regular vampires, though they disdain sunlight (it dazzles them like the glint off the gold dragon's scales), it doesn't harm them.  However, "holy" symbols fashioned from the gold dragon's scales can keep them at bay.  Unfortunately, only a handful of rebels have access to such scales, and the vampire kings are keen to slay any individual who would openly brandish such a tool of the "dragon tyrant".  Propaganda is such that most individuals would believe a wielder of the golden scales is in league with the evil dragon that demands sacrifice of treasure and the populace, and willingly turn such a traitor over to the king's men.Perhaps a good number of the kings men themselves are on the path of wickedness.  Those in the know of the true tyranny of the kings could have ghoulish appetites (being ghouls with class levels), wights or other corporeal undead in service to the vampire kings.  Perhaps the most feared are the Black Riders - dressed in black scale mail with their faces hidden behing cloth-wrapped helms.  These blackguards ride from town to town, serving out the draconic justice of the dragon kings, and are on an (un)holy crusade to root out rebels and traitors.  They use their black magics openly to reveal, capture and publicly execute foes of the crown.  The fact their "detection" is use of detect good goes unnoticed by the populace, and their combat magic is seen as justified punishment instead of the torture it is meant to be.</blockquote>

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