To respond to this, Well Done. Yes, I was quit vague in my description of this dragon, as it is more of a phantom of an idea within my mind, and I feel I require critique to further develop it. Though ‘Power Fantasy’ is a most excellent way to describe it. Mostly, and if my chosen moniker did not say this already, dragons are my MOST FAVORITE fantasy race, and in my (in this subject) not so humble opinion, the absolute pinnacle of the fantasy genre, but I digress.
I too love dragons, so we are not too different on that front, at least. I find the pinnacle of fantasy is in the variety, what we can
do with such vast horizons, but certainly dragons are one of the great products of fantasy fiction.
This dragon started as most dragons do, with his innate magic, sorcery, which is a mix of fire and ice magics. Also, for clarity this dragon is of the chaotic good bent, so mix a silver and copper dragon together, and you would be quite close to my dragon. He is fond of other races, and quite quick to defend them, but, he has a philosophy, which is “ while I shall fight evil wherever I find it in my travels, I do not seek out evil,” . This of course means that my dragon loves to travel, and does so quite often.
Ah, so he leans a little bit more Chaotic than Good? That is, he'll fight problems when he comes across them, but he won't seek out problems to solve. That opens opportunities for interesting storytelling, because one of the best ways to add depth to a freewheeling character is for them to start growing
attachments to people (or groups of people), places, ideals, or causes.
But again, to the magic, he first began to learn and practice sorcery, mastering it to a respectable degree. Arlin his 50th year he began to learn wizardly magics and learned that alongside his sorcery. And at his 100th year he began to learn psionics. Again, a bit fast, but there IS precedent for this. In a MrRhexx video he showed a young dragon who was quite powerful in magic at a young age, one who he implied was all but guaranteed to become an ancient dragon. So, we’ve described the how, but what about the WHEN. As I am sure you know a great wyrm is over 1,000 years old, so he has had copious time to master his three disciplines of power.
Well, the two big issues with power are (1) that it easily goes to your head--especially for
dragons, given how easy it is for them to think themselves better than anyone else--and (2) that it can make you feel
more fragile, not less.
So, the why? Well, it is more like, ‘why not’ , this dragon sought a god like existence, because, 1st, he wanted to see if it could be done, 2nd, there are things that only a god can see, do, and experience, so gaining this power would allow for this. And 3rd this dragon LOVES magic with such a joy and passion that, the puzzle of gaining this power, the time, research, resource accusation, and raw power create a arcane puzzle that would entertain him for years.
The problem with "why not" is that it doesn't really tell us much about the character, their motives, their personality, or what they've grown or struggled through. Instead, it leaves the character opaque and difficult to relate to. Generally, if one wants to create something compelling for others, you have to give the character motivations that make sense (they can be wrong, foolish, bad, or otherwise--it just needs to make sense that the character would do that thing.)
"To see if it could be done" is of a similar type--it's a more pro-active version of "why not"--but the other two are much more useful. The first speaks of someone with a genuinely insatiable appetite for novelty. That's a useful and interesting character trait, because it provides motivations (as discussed),
and it provides clear opportunities for the character to do stuff that is wrong, foolish, bad, or otherwise negative, for reasons that make sense. So, for example, your dragon might get really impatient about learning about anything that he doesn't think very important (e.g., not magic), which might mean that even though he's very smart, he's actually hobbled himself intellectually by neglecting anything but his special fixations. Or for another example, he might have difficulties processing his emotions, and thus runs away from any meaningful relationships not because he doesn't want them, but because he's afraid of experiencing his feelings. Or for a third example, perhaps he is kind of superficial and shallow--his hunger for absolute novelty means he never gets more than a superficial taste of anything he's gone through, leaving him ill-informed and prone to impulsive behavior or naivete.
Now, for the power, that is both simple and complicated. So, he absorbs the essence of divinity, primordial, and psionics, in absurd amounts.
I'm not really sure I understand what that entails, and more importantly, why Mr. dragon is the only person who has figured this out. If it's as simple as "lifespan" and "needing power", then creatures like liches, ancient vampires, elves, demons, celestials, etc. would all be doing the same thing--such beings have been around for millennia before Mr. dragon hatched.
He searched for and found the corpses of dozens of primordials, to gain the essence of fire, water, earth, air, light and dark, and from them all other elements. For the divine he sought the divinity’s of freedom, magic, magical creatures, and dragons. And yes, I know that these portfolios are in the hands of other gods, but this dragon is not a NORMAL god, or rather, a normal god level being. I know this is uncharted territory but still. As for the psionics, that is simply pure power attuned to his mental landscape.
I think it would serve you better to actually tell
this story, rather than telling the story of the impressive power at his command and what he does with it. This sounds like a long, challenging experience, where he had to learn from his mistakes, overcome his limitations, avoid dangers or rivals along the way, etc. Consider expanding on this significantly. This will, almost surely, be the most interesting part of your dragon's life.
Now I know this does not fully explain the power, but this will. To do this he created a ritual that spawned the cosmic wheel, the astral and elemental chaos, all centering in this dragon. The RAW power, leading to his rank, power from endless realms of PURE MAGICAL POWER. Imagine that, all that power, funneling into a single being, what could that lead to if not an intermediate god.
I await your response
I don't think it would lead to a "god" at all, at least in any of the senses D&D uses the term. That much arcane power concentrated in one place would produce some kind of self-sustaining magic elemental, a being of raw arcane power, functionally an infant consciousness of magic itself. Collecting primal essences, I would expect that to spontaneously manifest a new plane of existence, again in its infancy, slowly becoming some particular world with its own set of rules. For all of this power to be shackled and controlled by one person, even a dragon, I would think the danger of losing control would dissuade them from doing it at all--and that this dragon, if this is what he did, should definitely add "arrogance" to his list of flaws, for doing something so dangerous without any proof that it wouldn't kill him...or worse.
