You know how often I hear the saying 'time to poke the Dragon'? Every single day! All people want me to do is hurry up not knowing how dangerous some of the stuff is I need to do! Have you actually tried to poke a Dragon? If you want stuff to go faster than you can do it and we will see if you manage without getting killed!— Dragon Keeper who has had enough
The Raitin are very dependent on their
Raitin Dragons to recharge their power sources. However, keeping them alive and getting them to create their electricity takes quite a bit of work. That is where the Dragonkeepers come in. It is a job that no one wants to do but is notheless vital to Raitin society.
Job Content
Dragon Care
Making the Dragons comfortable is not the highest priority of a Dragonkeeper. After all the Dragons the Raitin keep are often chained up and muzzled for the majority of the time. The Raitin want to use the Dragons for one thing only, as a powersource. They blame Dragons for killing their god the Crystal Dragons and have no intention of treating them well.
But of course to keep the electricity flowing they need to be kept alive. A Dragonkeeper therefore needs to feed them and regulary check their health, a dangerous task. Any time the muzzle of a Dragon is removed, the Keeper needs to watch out to not get bitten or even worse hit with the electricity breath.
Electric Dragon Wyrmling by Wizards of the Coast
Poking the Dragon
Most of the time the Dragons are not very keen on producing their electricity on command. The Raitin needed a method to get them to use their lightning since the delays can become quite big because of it.
Their solution was actually poking the Dragons with sharp sticks which causes them to produce the Electricity. Over time this pratice even gain rise to the Raitin saying : 'It is time to poke the Dragon'. A saying which to this day is a common way of telling people to hurry up in Raiting society.
Charging Crystals
The main task of the Dragonkeeper is of course using the Dragons for their electricty. All the devices of the Raitin such as airships, golems and weapons function by using Cloud Crystals. These crystals supply the device with the necessary energy to function. However, over time the energy in these diminishes. Other nations solve this problem by having casters recharge them. Since casters are not that common outside Elven populations, and because there is a limit to the energy a caster can provide daily, the Raitin opted for something different.
The electricty that the Dragons produce is used to charge the Cloud Crystals. To do this the Dragonkeeper has to remove the muzzle and ensure that the head of the Dragon is placed right at the crystal that needs to be charged. This is the main reason as to why the job is so dangerous and undesirable. The time that the muzzle is removed and the head is moved in position is short but very prone to accidents.
Those poor dragons :( I like the quote at the beginning :D