How do I portray...

[Andor]

I have a game world brewing up in my head, tentatively for a game to be run in a few months when I'm done moving.

Io, God of all dragons got sick of the constant fighting among his children and sent unto them a prophet. A mighty leader who managed to unite dragonkind. Who taught that the unity of all dragons was more important than minor philosophical differences. Dragons divided had been prey for humanoid adventurers. Dragons united were a force unstoppable. It took less than 100 years for them to conquer the world.

That was 10,000 years ago. The world has been ruled by the dragons for all this time. Each city, town and village has a dragon lord, the lords and their staff rotate amongst the various cities every so often. (The number of years per rotation cycles varies by the size of the cities so promotion to a better city can only take place when the cycles line up.)

All the civilizable races live in the cities, the wilderness is a lawless area where the dragons hunt at their own whim. While the smallest hamlets may be occupied by only a single race any thing larger will have multiple races. The dragons do not distinguish between monster races and the normal pc humanoids.

I have more worked up, but the question is how do I portray a society that has been relatively stable for 10 millennia? Even among the dragons no living memory recalls a time when they did not rule.

Fashions come and go. Petty feuds and rivalries will be commonplace, but society as a whole has been basically stable for the last 9000 years. What does that mean, exactly?

I have my own ideas on the repercussions of this but I'm curious to know what you can come up with.

-Andor

 

[Crothian]

People very set in their ways. Technology and magic discover mighgt have reached a plateau

 

[Nifft]

People very set in their ways. Technology and magic discover mighgt have reached a plateau

... or the Dragons might know exactly what would jolt society out of its rut, and they hunt it down and kill it without mercy.

-- Nifft

PS: Obviously, until the PCs come along...

 

[Breakstone]

People very set in their ways. Technology and magic discover mighgt have reached a plateau

Actually, that's a very good point. Seeing as how there have been no big problems... ever... there really would be no point in technological advancement.

Also, if all the dragons are ruling in peace, it means that there would be no wars, correct? So would there be weapons? Weaponsmiths? Armor shops?

Also, some cities would be vast (think of an entire state, but filled with city) because of unlimited expansion (unless the dragons limited expansion, that is). Some cities might be built upon other cities, which might be built upon other cities. These could create deep, expansive dungeons which are just about impossible for dragons to access.

Maybe there's another race, growing in the dark?

Hm...

 

[mistergone]

I have more worked up, but the question is how do I portray a society that has been relatively stable for 10 millennia? Even among the dragons no living memory recalls a time when they did not rule.

Fashions come and go. Petty feuds and rivalries will be commonplace, but society as a whole has been basically stable for the last 9000 years. What does that mean, exactly?



-Andor

It means your game will be BORING.

Heh, Just kidding. Sure, building on the "race in the dark" idea, say a new type of being has been on the rise in recent times. Something that could challenge the power of the dragons. Say, for the first time ever, beings are being born amongst the cilivized races that are Planetouched. Maybe this is due to the secret intervention of ancient gods who are miffed at Ao for letting his followers rule over all of their former followers. So the elder gods get together and decide to start sneaking in some of their old influence in the form of ablities similar to what a planetouched character might have. Subtle enough so as to not draw too much notice, but powerful enough of an edge to light a spark in the hearts and souls of the people. These planetouched don't have to literally be of the "planetouched" races, but they could be. You could have planetouched elves, dwarves, gnomes... everything. These are the new heroes of the world, the champions to rise up against the dragons and become the new leaders of Men (or elves, or... whoever). Maybe throw in that certain types of magic are unique to them, and especially powerful against dragons.

Alternately, you could take a page similar to one I used in my own game world. These same elder gods seed the world with.. oh let's say 7 weapons of awesome power. These weapons, when weilded by the right person, can defeat the dragons and free the people under thier rule.

Er.. okay, reading your original post again, I see that I got overzealous and instead of positing how the society might be like now, I suggested how to change it. Well, my ideas still stand. I say that, if things have been this way for yonks and the dragons rule everything and hunt indescriminately, there would most likely be a lot of people unhappy with this, and a rising up against the dragons would be inevitable.

 

[dave_o]

Why would they rise up? It seems they have a fair government, at least, nothing points to the fact that they wouldn't. So, for the past ten thousand years, all have been cared for, happy, and prosperous.

Of course, there will exist a class of Disenfranchised, but they would most likely rise up against the rich rather than the dragons (also, because dragons are SLIGHTLY intimidating).

It'd be pretty rad to play Disenfranchised (really, really f'in poor) folks trying to rise up and make a place for themselves. Forced to plan and train in the dragon-hunted wilds, aching for funds, treasuring each arrow and sling bullet, gradually building a power base...

Ah. But it could be so cool.

 

[Klaus]

In Earth we've had two cultures that lasted almost as long: Egypt and China.

Both cultures came to value ritual and tradition, and were very resitant to change. An immense bureaucracy backed by military might and the belief that their respective rulers were divine kept things going.

In Egypt, people had to ask for permission before changing towns, and they had to ask for permission before changing careers (like, from balcksmith to soldier or farmer), to ensure that every village had appropriate resources.

Both societies placed an enourmous importance upon their ancestors.

Both societies had dozens of gods that reflected the eartlhy society.

Both societies had to contend with foerign barbarism (Hittites, Lybians, Mongols).

Both societies were self-sufficient (not importing grain, meat, iron or something).

That ought to give you ideas.

 

[Angcuru]

BORING! BORING BORING BORING BORING BORING! As well as BORING!

Throw in a twist. Have a party of 1/2 doppleganger 1/2 illithid NPCs (or an alternate group of PCs) who plan to infiltrate the ruling faction of dragons and inject them with illithid tadpoles as they sleep, slowly but surely turning the dragons into illithid dragons under the control of the illithid bit brain thingy. Trick is, only the PCs know about it and the Dragons won't believe a word they say.

You could get two gaming groups out of this. One tries to cause the chaos as the doppleganger iliithids, the other group tries to thwart them. Genius.

 

[Andor]

I don't need ideas for what the players can do. I know what they're going to do.

What I'm looking for are ways to convey to my players the depth of history behind the current system. It's a hard thing for americans in general to grasp.

Yes there are rebels and the desperate in the wilderness. Among other uses the ability to flee into the wilderness serves as the saftey valve for the society.

Cilivilization is organized into cities, each surrounded by a marked territory used for hunting/herding/farming. Beyond that there is no law except on the roads and not every village or even city is on the roads.

There is a great deal of regionalism and most people will think of themselves as citizens of their city rather than of the dragon empire. The upper classes (which are in large part half-dragons or dragon blooded (a +1 la template akin to Teifling or Aasimar)) have magical means of communication and sometimes transportation and fashion and thought in these circles is fairly uniform world wide. Middle and lower classes are more locally centered and custom and dress will vary from city to city.

Classes available, and variations on the base classes will also vary from region to region.

As for what the players will be doing about 120 years ago an incredibly virulent and deadly psionic plauge swept the world. Most anything practicing psi was wiped out. Even the crystal dragons were impacted, and the illithids were wiped out utterly.

The dwarves and drow are expanding explosively without the pressure of the illithids to keep them in check. The dwarves in fact wil soon have secure routes of underground transportation to most major communities and are only a few decades away from connecting to everywhere. This will allow a radical change in patterns of trade, it remains to be scene how the gov't will react.

The players are in the employ of one of the few remaining Psionic communities, and are being hired to travel the world and to gather and destroy psionically empowered items, which still serve as resevoirs of the disease. Backed by the Senior Amethyst Dragon on the ruling Council.

-Andor

 

[Andor]

Current ideas

My current thoughts on how to portray the age of the society include some laws, customs, skills and the frequency of magic.

Sumptuary laws for example require all mages to wear a distinctive sash about their waist. The color of the sash and how it's knots are tied will vary from one magic tradition to another, and one properly educated can tell a great deal about a mage from his sash. It is left to the mages guilds to police the fraudulent wearing of sashes.

Magic items are (barring more powerfull magic) indestructible. Dragons will tend to discourage the destruction of magic in any event. Over the last 10,000 years this has led to an accumulation of magic. This does not mean you can buy anything you like in any city. It does mean that empire wide the guards at the city gates bear flaming spears. Candle making is practically a lost art, but woven covers for continual flame torches are commonplace. Decanters of endless water power public fountains and new construction (which is rare) will have Golem-cranes to do the lifting.

-Andor