On Dragons

[Imperialus]

Doing some 'big picture' stuff for my campaign here. The idea is that the PC's are born in an age when Dragons are just beginning to reappear on the world. The overall plot arch will have them eventually (at the epic tier) traveling to the Abyss to deal with something going on there. It's still very much at the outline stage right now. It'll change as the campaign progresses but I like having an overall goal for most campaigns.

*edit* By way of explanation Syrrianus is an ancient silver dragon who quite literally just dropped out of the sky one day, brokered a peace deal between two factions in a human civil war and set himself up as the big cheese over what became known as "The Protectorate of the Dragon"

Please let me know what you think.

*edit 2* I'm very interested in any ideas people might have as to how the rest of the cosmology fits into the world. Right now I'm thinking that perhaps the 'mortal' gods Pelor, Kord, Loth, ect were at one point extremely powerful mortals who managed to carve out their own fiefdoms on the other planes but I'm definitely open to suggestions.

On Dragons

Dragons have an extraordinarily different life cycle than any other species. As their life cycle is measured in thousands of years they do not breed in the same manner as anything else.

Dragons of all varieties have very distinct ‘generations’ and their influence on the world waxes and wanes according to them. Wyrmlings must be born on, and reach maturity on the prime material plane but upon reaching adulthood dragons almost always leave the prime material plane and live much of their adult lives on the planes of Bahumat and Tiamat where they battle each other over control of the plane which once belonged to Io. They become reproductively active upon reaching ‘venerable’ however and return to the prime material plane to breed.

Most interestingly however, all dragons reproduce at roughly the same time. This means that once per generation, or every few thousand years the few remaining ancient dragons who survived the battles on their home planes will return en-mass to the prime material plane and give birth to their young. The process of breeding will often take several hundred, if not a thousand years in and of itself and during that time, the battlefield between Bahumat and Tiamat is transferred to the prime material plane. The return to the prime material plane is a one-way trip for dragons however, they remain on the Prime Material plane to help mentor their wyrmlings and hone them into a weapon that can be used against their ancient enemies.

Until the appearance of Syrrianus the world had not seen a living dragon for almost 700 years, it had been even longer than that since they were a common sight. The last time dragons had any major influence on the affairs of mortals was during the war between the Dragonborn and Teifling empires where dragons on the cusp of maturity were a common sight on battlefields and courts alike.

Mortals are an extremely useful tool in the unending war between the draconic gods. Mortals can pass much more freely between the planes than dragons are capable of and a major aspect of the war on the prime material plane involves seeking out those with talent and capabilities who can bridge the gap between the planes and strike at the heart of their enemies power.

When initially returning, typically after the first wyrmlings begin to stand on their own a few of the most powerful ancient dragons, generals among their kind, will attempt to gain influence among the mortal powers of the world and actively begin seeking mortals to recruit to their cause. Some are honest and forthright about their motivations while others cloak themselves and their great war in intrigue and mystery. One thing that is constant however is that all dragons view the mortal races as tools to be used, and although they may befriend or in rare cases even grow to love mortals they never loose sight of their great goal. Other dragons concern themselves with rearing and training their young wyrmlings preparing them for the battles they will face and leading them in the initial skirmishes on the prime material battlefield.

Whenever a generation leaves the prime material plane however, they always set up organizations, typically religious ones to carry the torch for them while they are gone. This provides them with a small power base and limited information network that keeps them informed of what is going on in their absence.