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<blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 7250872" data-attributes="member: 58172">The Dragonborn Paladin is an ironic type. This the perspective I am speaking from.The knight-versus-dragon archetype is thousands of years old, deriving from concepts about the storm spirit trampling on the sea spirit. It shows up variously in many cultures: Norse Thorr versus Midgardr Serpent, Canaanite Hadad versus the 7-headed sea, Hindu Vishnu sleeping on the many headed serpent, Christianity walking on water, and the angel Michael defeating the serpent that rises out of the sea, and the medieval romance novels of the knight defeating a more animal-like dragon.D&amp;D 3e created the Dragonborn that subverts this ancient archetype by conflating both the knight and the dragon into a single person. Perhaps 4e subverted the archetype further by making this Dragon-Knight blend a heroic good guy: the Dragonborn Paladin. Archetypally, the cosmic seaserpent qua dragon is the villain, but by the process of dreamlike conflation becomes − ironically − the noble knight hero who saves the people from the dragon.To some degree, the Dragonborn Paladin type resonates a deep and ancient archetype, and to some degree this subversion is successful, whence some traction in popularity.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Yaarel, post: 7250872, member: 58172"] The Dragonborn Paladin is an ironic type. This the perspective I am speaking from. The knight-versus-dragon archetype is thousands of years old, deriving from concepts about the storm spirit trampling on the sea spirit. It shows up variously in many cultures: Norse Thorr versus Midgardr Serpent, Canaanite Hadad versus the 7-headed sea, Hindu Vishnu sleeping on the many headed serpent, Christianity walking on water, and the angel Michael defeating the serpent that rises out of the sea, and the medieval romance novels of the knight defeating a more animal-like dragon. D&D 3e created the Dragonborn that subverts this ancient archetype by conflating both the knight and the dragon into a single person. Perhaps 4e subverted the archetype further by making this Dragon-Knight blend a heroic good guy: the Dragonborn Paladin. Archetypally, the cosmic seaserpent qua dragon is the villain, but by the process of dreamlike conflation becomes − ironically − the noble knight hero who saves the people from the dragon. To some degree, the Dragonborn Paladin type resonates a deep and ancient archetype, and to some degree this subversion is successful, whence some traction in popularity. [/QUOTE]

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