NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8605594" data-attributes="member: 6790260">For a hypothetical setting I've drafted up, I decided to make a "dragons are divine" cosmology/theogony.As a preliminary note: gender in general is...a difficult thing with dragons, even the lesser, "ordinary" dragons (which hold a position similar to angels--loyal or fallen--in other cosmologies). That is, in a very real sense, every dragon is both male and female, and neither and both, and more and less than any of those options, and all of them and none of them, all at the same time. Any given dragon may choose to use particular forms or expressions, but these things are just that, choices, closer to liking a certain color when deciding what clothes to wear. I will sometimes use gendered terms, but formally speaking this is an error, I'm just doing it because it's easier or smoother English.Io is the Allfather(/Allmother), the Last who became First, the final and original seed.The cycle of creation is one of great division and diversity, through which knowledge, magic, wisdom, skill, and power rise and accumulate, until in the end, a transcendent final form is achieved, encompassing all that the universe has achieved, whether united by force, diplomacy, or mere survival. Io is that being from the previous universe, the Ultimate Wyrm, vast and "complete." But Great Io knew that it was still possible that something was missed, something left out, that true perfection might still elude. So, carved from his(/her) own flesh, Io crafted the universe anew, to see, to discover, to build, to be, because Io alone could not grow or change anymore.Greatest among Dead Io's creations were Tiamat and Bahamut, her chosen children, leaders among those carved-off parts of himself of greatest power, the dragons. Tiamat, Whose-Guile-Is-Power, was the leader of the two, set to be Child, Hunter, Ruler (or, as Tiamat often chooses a female aspect, Daughter, Huntress, Queen); the second, the advisor, the guide, Sibling, Teacher, Priest, Bahamut, Whose-Might-Is-Wisdom, made to match Tiamat just as Tiamat was made to match Bahamut. Tiamat, leader of the Prismatic brood, glittering gems, supported and protected by Bahamut, leader of the Metallic brood. Their younger siblings, the other gods, in colors and materials beautiful and brilliant.Unfortunately, some horrible rift tore open between Monarch and Priest, some utterly unbridgeable gap. In the fall, Tiamat was twisted and corrupted, mind shattered into the seven colored pieces of her likewise-fallen brood: no longer ruby and emerald and diamond, but red, green, white, black, and blue. Whence her Topaz and Amethyst children--and, indeed, those facets of herself--have gone, none can say. In her madness and grief, she has torn great gashes across the world birthed from Io, and Bahamut has struggled mightily to lead the other dragons in her absence, filling a role that he was never meant to fill, aching always for the love he was designed to cherish and be held by.That is why the world is rent, why evil claws at its edges, why wisdom quails before the enormity of its task, why the line of queens and princes shall ever be tempted to darkness.=====I actually have a ton of incidental details written about these gods, but since I doubt much of that will be very interesting (stuff like magic numbers and such) I'll keep it relatively brief. In each case, the "Whose-X-Is/Are-Y" is in some sense their "true" name, while the other name is more like a "personal" or "courtesy" name. (I have my own alternate names for Io, Tiamat, and Bahamut, should I ever decide to publish anything.)[SPOILER="Dragon Things"]Io, Whose-One-Is-All, all domains. (Material: all. Literally, Io's body was the material from which the universe was [re]created.)Tiamat, Whose-Guile-Is-Power, former (pre-fall) domains: Ambition, wealth, individuality, passion, freedom, space, and home. (Material: crystals.)Post-fall, domains: Pride, greed, selfishness, destruction, entropy, prison. (Material: none, just colors.)Bahamut, Whose-Wisdom-Is-Might, domains: Luck, justice/law, magic, protection, glory, time, and adventure. (Material: metals.)Atalesh, Whose-Laugh-Is-Cutting, domains: Joy, independence, luck, death, plant. (Material: amber.)Kereska, Whose-Eyes-Are-Dorways, domains: Magic, travel, knowledge, transformation, industry. (Material: opal.)Narex, Whose-Fire-Is-Change, domains: Fire, earth, death, life, sun. (Material: tektite, sometimes molten.)Llydenne, Whose-Culling-Is-Kind, domains: Death, justice, wealth, redemption, shadow. (Material: ivory.)Korr, Whose-Breath-Is-Storm, domains: Air, water, weather, war, strength. (Material: smoky agate.)Oridas, Whose-Light-Is-Guiding, domains: Light, shadow, air, stars, knowledge. (Material: glass.)Neriph, Whose-Law-Is-Wild, domains: Animal, protection, strength, freedom, moon. (Material: moonstone.)Pavask, Whose-Labor-Is-Forever, domains: Industry, fire, home/hearth, war, time. (Material: flint.)Xyllona, Whose-Soul-Is-Music, domains: Art, medicine, language, friendship, whimsy. (Material: sunstone.)Urunak, Whose-Step-Is-Regal, domains: Nobility, ancestors, deception, mind, loyalty. (Material: iolite.)Most domains should be represented by two deities, offering different perspectives on the core concept.[/SPOILER]</blockquote>

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