Interestingly I realise that even after talking through the cultural mores of a bunch of the inhabitants of my menagerie world setting (NPC mannerisms: d66 animal-folk attitudes) I missed off one of the more fleshed out ones - the dragonbloods that the PC's are all part of. I obliquely mentioned it in a previous Blog Carnival: On creating elements for a setting but then never went into it in detail
Functionally, they are human - elves, humans and dragons mixed so often and so far back in time that the traces are mostly just that. The original inspiration was the Dragon Kings of Atlas Games 2004 "Seven Civilizations" - traditionally they judge each other by the richness of their draconic heritage, the subtlety of their signs - grading the thin-ness of their blood into Regal, Noble, Cadet and Trace. Practically this is nothing more than reason to be snooty at one another, perhaps manifesting as talons in place of nails, sharper teeth, slitted eyes, a sheen of scales or bony ridges, small signs. For most of the party it manifests around the eyes - the cleric has slitted pupils, the sorcerer has bright orange irises and a sheen to their skin, the bard mostly passes for human/half-elf.
Portraits of the party, three typical dragonblood nobles, by the bard
Should these recessive traits ever combine to bring forth an actual dragonborn as happens now and then, that is just unbearably vulgar and the much bigger, unsubtle dragonborn is typically shunned and cast out.
They also have the particular draconic traits of their heritage; with things getting strange as noble houses have intermarried over long millenia meaning that practically anything can be expected to crop up and various personality types have just gotten tagged as that draconic bloodline whether or not the people are descended from those dragons at all.
One thing that is true is that dragonbloods are sensitive to the natures of old dragons - those that live near the lair of a great wyrm will adopt its traits, regardless of their own heritage. The same draconic aspect that allowed dragonbloods to meld with so many different heritages are malleable to the influences of big, living dragons. Particularly ancient dragon bones can also have the same effect. Woe betide the court that finds itself over the bones of an ancient red dragon - politics will get cut-throat in short order.
d16 Draconic bloodline traits
1. Bronze - Duty bound, honourable
2. Green - Lazy, duplicitous
3. Silver - Gregarious, nurturing
4. Copper - Devious, clever
5. Brass - Mercenary, adaptable
6. Black - Cruel, covetous
7. Red - Dominating, ambitious, driven
8. Gold - Dedicated, honour bound
9. Purple - Scheming, entitled
10. Blue - Manipulative, puppet masters
11. White - Fierce, prideful, bitter
12. Topaz - Clannish, self-seeking
13. Emerald - Lore keepers, observers
14. Crystal - Hedonistic
15. Amethyst - Honourable, regal
16. Sapphire - Militaristic, defenders
Altogether culturally, this makes dragonbloods more chaotic than typical elves, with huge regional variations depending on the terrain and the influence of dragons that live in and around that terrain. The longer life of typical dragonbloods acts as a partial stabilising influence, with dragonbloods living longer than most bar dwarves and elves.
Dragonbloods are longer lived than most with 250 years being an elder dragonblood and 40 being perceived as reaching majority. Whether or not they lay eggs or live young depends on the particular mix of heritages of a given dragonblood. This long life and slower maturity leads to siblings spaced out over 50-100 years - more typically closer to 50. For many larger dragonblooded houses this can lead to the top end of one generation overlapping with the bottom of the previous one and age being a poor marker for who is in which generation.
No matter their bloodline, all have a dragons hoarding urge, though what exactly they hoard can get very esoteric. Because the range of obsessions is so wide, dragonbloods can live together in much higher densities than dragons because they are all focussed on different things; the 'hoard' of one being perceived as worthless nonsense by others. Recognising this, few dragonblood bother bragging about their hoards, the mostly manifest as deep personal obsessions.
d12 Obsessions of this dragonblooded noble
1. Might of arms - manifesting as over-strength forces of soldiers in their domain
2. Temporal power - often supported by strength of arms but also secrets, allies, whatever else it takes
3. Coin - manifesting as a keen interest in taxes, trade and the industry of their subjects
4. Artists - patronising new artists and sponsoring great works
5. Honour - seeking accolades and opportunities to demonstrate virtue
6. Magical power - gathers books, tutors, magical reagents for their studies
7. Religious relics - their home rivals the heart of their religion itself
8. Forbidden lore - dark, light or dangerous they seek to know all about things that catch their attention
9. Secrets - with the important part being that noone else knows
10. Works of art - the further away it originates, the better
11. Vassals - that they tend like a gardener, cultivating those that please, pruning those that do not
12. Peasantry - that they lord it over, human capital taken most literally
Another common factor for all dragonbloods is the draconic furnace of a metabolism - for a true dragon this fuels breath-weapons and the mighty musculature to lift a dragon into the air. For dragonbloods it means they can survive cold temperatures for longer than a human or elf but they have a higher body temperature and feel hungry more quickly. This makes for frequent and prolonged feasting in dragonblooded houses and bitter complaints about the table that does not provide enough.
A side effect of this is tabaxi, lizardfolk and other warmth-loving groups prizing dragonblooded paramours as being really warm and cosy to curl up with.
And finally, just to be very sure I've paid my Joesky tax - Dragon Diving - a festival game for dragonbloods.
- Up to 6 challengers are brought up to a height with a carved wooden 'dragon' - really looks like a crocodile with handles
- Everyone gets a potion of feather-fall.
- At a height of (7 rounds of falling) the thing is dropped. Make sure people say where their potion is.
- Every round, check strength to keep your grip on the handle. If everyone passes, person who passed by least is flung off.
- If you are off, you get 1 chance (dex test) to dive back within grabbing distance, then can strength check to grab on - after that you are too far off.
- If anyone ends up last person clinging on, they have won, the just need to drink their potion to land safely.
- Glory if they can do that and then hang onto the dragon (a last STR check).
- If it is round 7 and multiple people are attached you can a) ride it into the ground, win and die in glory or b) drink your potion and contest strength directly against anyone else hanging on to wrench the dragon from their grip.
- The dragon is carved with holes that after round 2 make an loud howling noise and render conversation impossible
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