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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 6802731" data-attributes="member: 6778044">I'm not 'insisting' per se, I'm just going by what's been published. I don't recall in all of the quotes I posted indicating that it's rare for them to work for the Cult of the Dragon - if you could provide that source I'd love to see it. Instead, I find the following:In the 4th edition campaign setting is calls out the Cult of the Dragon of one of three power groups in in Tymanther, see the sidebar.In the same source, the Cult of the Dragon entry indicates that "Dragonborn are also common...their militaristic ideals complementing the cult's ideology."In the Neverwinter campaign setting, dragonborn are only mentioned in two random encounter tables, one for the city, and one for encounters with the Cult of the Dragon.In at least half of the published adventures that have a dragonborn, they are working with the Cult of the Dragon. Note that the vast majority of mentions of a dragonborn in any adventure is a single NPC.The way I look at it, which is also specifically what has been published, is that most people in the Realms never travel much at all, and 'news' is unreliable as such. As cbwjm responded:That is exactly what is described: "Across this vast expanse travel minstrels and peddlers, caravan merchants and guards, soldiers, sailors, and steel-hearted adventurers carrying tales of strange, glorious, faraway places." and"The paramount travelers are merchants, peddlers, mercenaries, and drovers, all of them moving goods or services (their own) from one place to another."That is, the vast majority don't travel. Adventurers are rare, despite them being the focal point of every campaign. It's one of those situations where our focus on the rare makes them seem common. They aren't. This sets the baseline. Most people don't travel far, and thus most of the people they see are locals. This has been repeated in many FR supplements over the years. Merchants and stories about adventurers are more common than the adventurers themselves. Magic exists, but most Realmsfolk has never seen it cast directly, other than simple enchantments like light globes and other useful low-magic items. or felt it cast on them. The new cantrip system stretches this a bit, but even still, if adventurer's are rare, then so are those that cast cantrips. It's not surprising that something magical like the elves have magical ability, they're elves after all.On trade routes and in cities, they see foreigners. But again, the vast majority of those foreigners look a lot like they do. More importantly, regarding the races like elves, dwarves, and such, they even act and speak like they'd expect. Humans vary in appearance, language, and dress from region to region far more than elves, dwarves, halflings, or gnomes. Dragonborn stand out in every way. And it's not really a question as to whether I or you can imagine what it would be like to be a humanoid dragon, it's a question as to whether your average Realmsfolk would, or would even want to. Lizardfolk aren't seen in adventuring parties, and even if they think it's a lizardfolk, that's not good."If it looks like a lizardfolk, it's a lizardfolk." That is, not good. They probably wouldn't be openly hostile and attack a single lizardfolk, but they probably wouldn't welcome it into town either. To me it's a "we don't serve their kind" situation at least, and more likely an aggressive 'move along.'Cities are different, but even Waterdeep has its limits. It is noted that 'evil' races like drow, orcs and other goblinoids, etc. are not welcome. Overcoming that is difficult.There are no big Alexandrian armies or crusades, no large-scale military conflicts. Nor are there large-scale religious pilgrimages or conflicts. So sellswords hire out to caravans, or groups involved in regional conflicts. Groups like the Cult of the Dragon, or in the past, the Zhentarim (another group I'm still on the fence about, incidentally). The dragonborn are non-religious, nor do they have any holy sites obviously. So there are no pilgrimages. We already know that some are out hunting dragons. In addition, there are constant battles with the orcs to the south, the threat (real or percieved) from Murghom, and they have been working on forming relationships with their immediate neighbors. Trade is something that I find interesting. Tymanther is inland, so they have no ports or ships, so caravan travel is coming by land. Can they build ships? Depends on skills and resources. But they won't be a regular stop for merchants by sea, at least until they build a port.They are in a remote section of the world, and a merchant caravan (at least initially) expecting to find Unther instead finds they land overrun by (invading?) dragonborn. In fact, the caravans probably heard about the creatures from the neigboring communities before entering. How long before a merchant is actually willing to risk it? How long before adventurers want to go slay the dragon-people and take their treasure? I've always used the various human languages and such in the Realms, and highly doubt that a creature from another world would speak any of them. But assuming they do, it will take time to establish trade, particularly because they have no coins that are accepted anywhere else, no natural resources. Not to mention potential distrust.Beyond that, this is a nation, or primarily a city, that is dropped into a new world. What little we know about them would indicate that they had a culture of similar sophistication as others in the Realms. So, they've developed armor, weapons, blacksmithing, agriculture, husbandry, art, etc. Based on their implied biology I would question them being omnivorous, but we'll go with it since it mentions farmers.  Sounds great, until you're in a new world. What of your natural resources? The farmers will plant new farms, although the climate and crops may be quite different. Logging can obviously pick up relatively quickly, although there isn't much to be found around Tymanther. They would have to survey and build new mines and quarries, or find some and take them by force. All the while exploring a strange new land, with new monsters and potential enemies or allies.Assuming they use the same gold standard, their coins (should they have some), would be worth their weight, minus any moneychanging discount, which is fine if that equals their value, but it may not. The merchants accepting their coins will either have to melt them down, or hope that other cities will accept this unknown currency. Even the currency of known locations is often worth less outside of the region they are minted (see Waterdhavian and Silverymoon coins). Minting coins requires gold, silver, etc. If this is in short supply, the value of the coins will increase within Tymanther, but not outside of it. That's a problem.So what are they trading? Have they ever traded before? If they were the only nation to arise from the dragon empires as independent, who did they trade with? The dragons? I can see a lot of things that they would need to receive. But for selling? Most likely it would be exotics. Art, trinkets, etc. Perhaps clothes. Something that looks exotic. Remember, natural resources are scarce to begin with, so these can't easily be replaced yet. But a merchant could find a way to sell something that looks exotic, or tastes exotic if they have an unusual spice or something that will travel well (and hopefully will grow in this new land).So their #1 resource is themselves. As guards or mercenaries. So a few hire on as caravan guards. They would be the oddity in each town the caravan comes to. But if they kept their head down and did their job well, they'd build a reputation. Not known throughout the Realms, and certainly not transferring good-will toward an entire race, but it's a start. As for mercenaries, they'd hire out to who needs them. This would again most likely start with neighboring lands, or those typically hiring mercenaries. Cult of the Dragon is one of the big ones. There are other 'evil' organizations that hire mercenaries as well. These are just a few of the hurdles that would confront the new nation. There are an endless number of ways they could be handled. In my view, it would take a long period of time, with distrust on both times, probably decades, to re-establish stability within their own nation, before worrying about exploring the world around them. Once they do, I view progress as quite slow, for a variety of reasons again. The distance from Tymanther to Waterdeep in a straight line is about 2/3 the length of the Silk Road. By land it's going to be at least as long. That's a journey of at least a year. So somebody is going to point out that they have been around plenty long enough to do that. The answer is yes, but. But they are spending considerable time rebuilding their nation, their resources, hopefully not dying from the exotic new diseases they've never experienced, etc. After some time, as trade is being established, some will travel farther and farther, but it will take time. Considerably longer to reach that point in significant numbers my opinion.We don't have any sort of exact comparison, but it took a long time for settlers to move inland in the Americas. A long time. Not only because it was difficult, or the native population, but because they didn't need to. The dragonborn population of Tymanther doesn't have any need[/] to travel. They aren't overpopulated, they aren't expansionists, they aren't interested in starting wars, they aren't attempting to recover holy sites, the only real drive is to slay dragons. I would think the majority of travel would be east, toward Murghom. In fact, any conflict between Murghom and Tymanther would probably strain relationships with High Imaskar since they will likely spill over into their territory. For folks that enjoy dragonborn, there's a campaign waiting to be written (or was, now that Mulhorand is back).Ilbranteloth</blockquote>

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