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Message: <blockquote data-quote="doctorbadwolf" data-source="post: 6800073" data-attributes="member: 6704184">So, I'm not sure how you can read all that and conclude anything other than that DB are widely known, probably respected and sought after as mercenaries (after all, even if that one passage refers to a specific group, there are a lot of DB merc npcs in published encounters), and have a habit of leaving their homeland to explore the Realms. I mean, some of those literally prove that by canon people (either in general, or in a given area) are used to seeing dragonborn and other foreigners. "Search for the Diamond Staff: One comment:'Dragonborn, Tieflings, and Others: In general "these races aren’t from  around here" People in the Dales are used to seeing outlandish  foreigners wander through and so they rarely give such individuals  notice.'" That is an explicit statement that while the newer races don't live in the Dales in any big numbers, folk are used to seeing them, to the point where they don't even make much note of them. Another explicit statement that they, until very, very recently, travelled far and wide, worked to build good relations with other nations, and gained a strong and widely known rep as good guys: "Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide: 'Some of Tymanther's dragonborn have spread across Faerun and gained  reputations at competent, highly sought-after mercenaries.' and 'For a time, the dragonborn of Tymanther sought to integrate with their  new world while maintaining their own traditions and culture. These  efforts gave the nation and its people a reputation for being honorable  and worthy of respect.There are also explicit statements that DB in service to evil organizations is rare, and that list them as a common race. Those statements outweigh and completely negate weird considerations like how often they appear as NPCs of a given time in published adventures. As for how stable their homeland was before the sundering (which is what I was talking about), it was stable enough for them to build large cities, and for their people to develop the habit of seeking fortunes elsewhere and then coming back, rather than emigrating elsewhere for better opportunities, which rarely involves going back to one's homeland. It may not make sense to you that they have a stable homeland, but they almost inarguably do. OR did. Before the proverbial hacksaw hit the proverbial bone. Random side question: why is it weird for you that they aren't quadrupeds? Just the fact that dragons are? Did half dragons become quadrupedal? Draconians? IIRC, none of DnD's dragon people have even been, so why should the Dragonborn be? "The elven/human connections are well documented in Realms supplements."Sure. But not in any novels I've ever read, including a lot of the most popular ones, like the Drizzt and Elminster books, The Cleric Quintet, Paul Kemp's stuff, and lots of short stories by various people. SO, I very easily might be missing some, but it's just not something I think of as a big important part of FR. It's interesting history, but that's different. "how far into the Americas did Europeans travel in the first 100 years  after Columbus? How many Europeans traveled to the Middle East (other  than Crusaders) or China in the Dark Ages? Or Africa? India, perhaps?" Not sure how the first is a relevant comparison? The DB aren't trying to expand colonies, take other people's lands, spread an ideology, etc. They want to trade, and make friends. ANd the setting books explicitly say that they made great efforts to do so. Therefor, they did, as long as we're talking about non houseruled/homebrewed DB. So, again, this isn't an issue with dragonborn, as such. There's no inconsistency there, it just differs from your realms. WHich is fine, I don't use a lot of what I view as cheap retcons in the sundering. Netheril is still a viable, albeit reduced, nation. People still resent Sembia, so there is no "and they went back to their old trading habits" nonsense. Myth Drannor is still there, because Netheril's floating cities were grounded after the war with the Heartlands, and their magic turned to keeping the desert livable in spite of the old curse coming back. So now Netheril is a nation rebuilding, free of the Princes of Shade and the Shar cult, but still mistrusted by most other nations. Sembia continues to trade with them, but the relationship is much more equal now, and they need eachother because many nations distrust them both. Calimshan is still full of Genasi, and is the midst of a struggle over whether slavery will continue there, as Memnon is dead, and Calim is bound by a bargain of his own making to serve as a protecter of the nation, and advisor, and recieve tribute yearly. Another nation in a transitional, and thus much more interesting, state, rather than just retconned back to how it was before the ToT and SP. There's other stuff, and some changes that have made sense for my campaigns, like a 20 year time jump, and the creation of a multinational knighthood made up of people from various places, including Netheril, Cormyr, The Dales, Sembia, and accepting recruits from pretty much anywhere, dedicated to ensuring that the people of Toril will decide their own fate, not gods and chosen and dragon cults. Also, a great library on the Dragon Coast, connected to a large school set up by my group's characters from a 4e campaign. There's other stuff, but those are the biggest. point is, I'm not a canon grognard or anything. I'm just saying, there's no canon reason for Dragonborn to be treated poorly, cause alarm, etc, in most places.</blockquote>

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