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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 4488035" data-attributes="member: 42582">I think the relationship between dragonhood and godhood in Asian mythology is best seen in a similar way to the relationship between gianthood and godhood, or dwarf/elfhood and godhood, in Norse mythology or Irish mythology. Given that giants are worthy foes for Thor, and Thor is a god, it seems to follow that all giants are godlike in power and therefore unworthy foes for PCs. (A similar point could be made about many giants in Greek myth.) D&amp;D has never taken that approach. It's hill giants are drawn more from stories like Jack and the Beanstalk.Likewise in Asian myth and fairytale there are different stories with different sorts of approaches to dragons&nbsp; (one example well known to many Australians of my generation - in the 1980s our national broadcaster used to broadcast the Japanese television show &quot;Monkey&quot;, dubbed by the BBC in English, in which a dragon joins Monkey as one of his companions - I don't think the original Japanese audience thought that they were seeing a god being made a companion on the quest for enlightenment).In my campaign I like to use a hierarchy of dragons - following Kara-Tur the 9 immortals and the Celestial (Jade) Emperor can be regarded as dragons, and then there are the chief Sea Lords and Storm Lords, and then there are the many dragons (river dragons, storm dragons, sea dragons and so on) that are the spirits of various local elemental phenomena.Conflict with various of these dragons has come up from time to time in the campaign. I don't think it has remotely detracted from its &quot;oriental&quot; character. (And if you are assuming that any conflict with a dragon must resemble the encounter with Smaug in The Hobbit, then I think you're wrong. The only loot that's ever been taken from a dragon in my campaign is the magical pearl in its brain which permits it to fly. And I don't think that the notion of making magical substances using the body parts of dead animals is particularly non-oriental.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 4488035, member: 42582"] I think the relationship between dragonhood and godhood in Asian mythology is best seen in a similar way to the relationship between gianthood and godhood, or dwarf/elfhood and godhood, in Norse mythology or Irish mythology. Given that giants are worthy foes for Thor, and Thor is a god, it seems to follow that all giants are godlike in power and therefore unworthy foes for PCs. (A similar point could be made about many giants in Greek myth.) D&D has never taken that approach. It's hill giants are drawn more from stories like Jack and the Beanstalk. Likewise in Asian myth and fairytale there are different stories with different sorts of approaches to dragons (one example well known to many Australians of my generation - in the 1980s our national broadcaster used to broadcast the Japanese television show "Monkey", dubbed by the BBC in English, in which a dragon joins Monkey as one of his companions - I don't think the original Japanese audience thought that they were seeing a god being made a companion on the quest for enlightenment). In my campaign I like to use a hierarchy of dragons - following Kara-Tur the 9 immortals and the Celestial (Jade) Emperor can be regarded as dragons, and then there are the chief Sea Lords and Storm Lords, and then there are the many dragons (river dragons, storm dragons, sea dragons and so on) that are the spirits of various local elemental phenomena. Conflict with various of these dragons has come up from time to time in the campaign. I don't think it has remotely detracted from its "oriental" character. (And if you are assuming that any conflict with a dragon must resemble the encounter with Smaug in The Hobbit, then I think you're wrong. The only loot that's ever been taken from a dragon in my campaign is the magical pearl in its brain which permits it to fly. And I don't think that the notion of making magical substances using the body parts of dead animals is particularly non-oriental.) [/QUOTE]

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