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Newer editions of D&D and literary inspirations (post-Appendix N)
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8780881" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>Definitely think <em>Harry Potter</em> should be on this list, as should <em>Dragonriders of Pern</em> by Anne McCaffrey. The latter were a HUGE influence on the idea of dragons as mounts, which has become something of a staple of modern fantasy fiction, and pushed several other concepts into the overall zeitgeist, like "bonding" to special creatures/pets, revealing a lost sceintific past (the computer AIVAS), and certain aspects of telepathy/psionics. The former...it was a defining fiction <em>thing</em> for my generation, I grew up with these books as they were coming out and read all of them. An absolute TON of the new blood coming into 5e have brought with them ideas of what magic is like influenced by Harry Potter. I would say, for example, that the "runechild" Sorcerer archetype is influenced by Harry Potter's more flamboyant, colorful, audacious mages.</p><p></p><p>Believe it or not, draconic humanoids actually have a significantly <em>older</em> source than Dragonlance's draconians, though those origins are a bit more obscure. Specifically, there are three <em>mythic</em> sources that could be interpreted as inspiring openly dragon-looking human-shaped beings: the <em>Spartoi</em> (not to be confused with the Spartans--"Spartoi" means "the sown ones"), the Ophiogenes (descendents of the <em>Drakon Ophiogeneikos</em>) and other children of <em>drakones</em> or (more commonly) <em>drakainai</em> (specifically <em>female</em> dragons/draconic spirits), and Erichthonius the autochthonous "son" of Athena/Gaia and Hephaestus. </p><p></p><p>The Spartoi were part of the myths of Cadmus and Jason. Both men sowed the earth with a portion of a dragon's teeth, and warriors sprang from the ground the next day. Those sown by Jason were induced to kill one another by his cleverness (under Medea's guidance), while at least some of those sown by Cadmus lived, and allegedly went on to become the ancestors of Thebes and its ruling family.</p><p></p><p>The Ophiogenes, <em>literally "serpent-born</em>," were said to have resulted from the <em>Drakon Ophiogeneikos</em> (Dragon of the Serpent-born) mating with the woman(/nymph?) Halia. They were believed to come from Phrygia, what is now west-central Turkey, and had various supernatural powers ascribed to them, mostly dealing with poison and the ability to generate or quell it (especially quelling/curing snake bites.)</p><p></p><p>Finally, Erichthonius was...well. Some depictions make him look like a straight-up <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Erichthonius_Released_from_His_Basket_LACMA_65.37.98.jpg/1024px-Erichthonius_Released_from_His_Basket_LACMA_65.37.98.jpg" target="_blank">reptile from the waist down</a>, or otherwise <em>openly</em> half-reptile. He was one of the mythical founder-kings of Athens, and (as noted above) autochthonous: literally "self-born," in this case, born from the earth rather than having a proper mother. This resulted from the time when Hephaestus tried to...<em>assault</em> Athena, and she rebuffed him. He didn't, shall we say, <em>hit the mark</em>, and Athena wiped the result off of her thigh and onto the earth--Gaia. As a result, Erichthonius had <em>three</em> parents, Hephaestus, Athena (in spirit), and Gaia, and Athena at least partially raised him as "her son," even though she remained properly virgin.</p><p></p><p>From these three things, there's already plenty of mythic precedent for humanoids related to or created by dragons/"divine serpents," even without digging into stuff like Asian mythology where dragons are a lot friendlier and a lot more likely to be amenable to romance. Likewise it doesn't consider things like Quetzalcoatl, who was simultaneously a "feathered serpent" and, apparently, capable of taking human form (e.g. his Yucatec Mayan parallel, Kukulkan, was often depicted as a human), implying the possibility of offspring sired with mortals.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 8780881, member: 6790260"] Definitely think [I]Harry Potter[/I] should be on this list, as should [I]Dragonriders of Pern[/I] by Anne McCaffrey. The latter were a HUGE influence on the idea of dragons as mounts, which has become something of a staple of modern fantasy fiction, and pushed several other concepts into the overall zeitgeist, like "bonding" to special creatures/pets, revealing a lost sceintific past (the computer AIVAS), and certain aspects of telepathy/psionics. The former...it was a defining fiction [I]thing[/I] for my generation, I grew up with these books as they were coming out and read all of them. An absolute TON of the new blood coming into 5e have brought with them ideas of what magic is like influenced by Harry Potter. I would say, for example, that the "runechild" Sorcerer archetype is influenced by Harry Potter's more flamboyant, colorful, audacious mages. Believe it or not, draconic humanoids actually have a significantly [I]older[/I] source than Dragonlance's draconians, though those origins are a bit more obscure. Specifically, there are three [I]mythic[/I] sources that could be interpreted as inspiring openly dragon-looking human-shaped beings: the [I]Spartoi[/I] (not to be confused with the Spartans--"Spartoi" means "the sown ones"), the Ophiogenes (descendents of the [I]Drakon Ophiogeneikos[/I]) and other children of [I]drakones[/I] or (more commonly) [I]drakainai[/I] (specifically [I]female[/I] dragons/draconic spirits), and Erichthonius the autochthonous "son" of Athena/Gaia and Hephaestus. The Spartoi were part of the myths of Cadmus and Jason. Both men sowed the earth with a portion of a dragon's teeth, and warriors sprang from the ground the next day. Those sown by Jason were induced to kill one another by his cleverness (under Medea's guidance), while at least some of those sown by Cadmus lived, and allegedly went on to become the ancestors of Thebes and its ruling family. The Ophiogenes, [I]literally "serpent-born[/I]," were said to have resulted from the [I]Drakon Ophiogeneikos[/I] (Dragon of the Serpent-born) mating with the woman(/nymph?) Halia. They were believed to come from Phrygia, what is now west-central Turkey, and had various supernatural powers ascribed to them, mostly dealing with poison and the ability to generate or quell it (especially quelling/curing snake bites.) Finally, Erichthonius was...well. Some depictions make him look like a straight-up [URL='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Erichthonius_Released_from_His_Basket_LACMA_65.37.98.jpg/1024px-Erichthonius_Released_from_His_Basket_LACMA_65.37.98.jpg']reptile from the waist down[/URL], or otherwise [I]openly[/I] half-reptile. He was one of the mythical founder-kings of Athens, and (as noted above) autochthonous: literally "self-born," in this case, born from the earth rather than having a proper mother. This resulted from the time when Hephaestus tried to...[I]assault[/I] Athena, and she rebuffed him. He didn't, shall we say, [I]hit the mark[/I], and Athena wiped the result off of her thigh and onto the earth--Gaia. As a result, Erichthonius had [I]three[/I] parents, Hephaestus, Athena (in spirit), and Gaia, and Athena at least partially raised him as "her son," even though she remained properly virgin. From these three things, there's already plenty of mythic precedent for humanoids related to or created by dragons/"divine serpents," even without digging into stuff like Asian mythology where dragons are a lot friendlier and a lot more likely to be amenable to romance. Likewise it doesn't consider things like Quetzalcoatl, who was simultaneously a "feathered serpent" and, apparently, capable of taking human form (e.g. his Yucatec Mayan parallel, Kukulkan, was often depicted as a human), implying the possibility of offspring sired with mortals. [/QUOTE]
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