Wyrmcycle: Money, Power, and Dragons

By: Oovee Norklening

Edited for Contemporary Accuracy by: Hugo Emele

"To your burrows, bunkers, safes, and hideaways. Bring me your gold and wealth in reverence or die for your foolishness and ignorance. Bring it all to me. Or refuse; my breath longs. More, more. Bring it ALL to me and know this:
I am your lord.
I am flawless.
I am dragon."

Poxzillarra, the Drake Tyrant 88 PD

The preceeding quote was taken by an unnamed Moroamian scribe. Imagine a village of farmers, craftsmen, and labormages in an era when society was beginning to rekindle itself. Imagine a shadow the size of a modern city block eclipsing the village, overtaking it even. A wingspan the size of an entire field, a barbed and spiked-end tail longer than Main Street. Horns taken from a devil itself.
Poxzillarra descended on this village, its name was Rents. Oddly ironic considering what followed.
The Green Dragon stole every last cent from the people, along with all their jewelry, all their tools, their pets, their food, their finest clothes, paintings, everything. It did this for a period of two years, over which period the people of Rents grew destitute, starved, and were ultimately worked and exploited close to, or in many cases actual, death. During this time Poxzillarra had this scribe, who was never given a chance to pen their own name, write down many of his decrees and sayings; and from this scholars were able to formulate a beginning understanding of the draconic psyche and their quintessential arrogance.
Poxzillarra's case is one of many from the Null-on (years 0-99 PD) & 100-on (100-199 PD). It is believed that during this time roughly 42% of the world's GDP was stolen and hoarded by dragons. To this day much of that wealth remains lost.
No wonder then, that over the course of the 100-on, Sonnerand waged a collective semi-world war on dragonkind. A widely known fact from this period of fighting is that 85% of all dragons were slain. The ones that survived either did so through lairing in extreme environments away from major civilizations, bowed to certain human groups, or remain hidden/disguised to this day.
Many governments around the world maintain strict dragon elimination policies for the following reasons:

• Dragons are living weapons of mass destruction.
• Dragons are smarter than most people.
• Dragons tank the economy.
• Many dragons act as advisors and generals.
• Killing dragons often grants powers onto those who slay it.

Incidentally, the final point is a recent addition as of the late 300-on to 400-on. This arose due to many descendants of dragonslayers being born with draconic elements to their bodies. These mutations include dragon scales, horns, tails, plating, and often times latent magic abilities and breath magic. This is different than the dragonborn of the Tand, who are direct descendants of Null-on dragons.
What this reveals to us, along with the many observations taken over the years, is that dragons are extremely magically potent. They are perhaps best described as literal embodiments of magic. A dragon flows with more magic than even the greatest of history's archmages.

Where We Speak on the Distinction of Matallic v. Chromatic

A fundamental aspect of dragon culture and history is the marked difference between Metallic and Chromatic subspecies. Dragons have their own religion dedicated to the difference, and it seems ones color has everything to do with how dragons treat one another. Most dragons of either variety have a negative reaction to dragons of a different color, and a fundamental urge to slaughter dragons of a different subspecies.
Various sources erroniously cite that Metallic subspecies are inheriently "more good" than Chromatics. This is false and a dangerous assumption. The real distinction lies in their willingness and attitudes towards interacting with our constructs of society, as well as their methods of engaging with that society and -most important - how they extract wealth from said society.
For example, vicious red dragons embark on rare Dragonflights to quickly decimate targetted civilizations. In one quick, brutal, and (for the most part) painless strike red dragons extract huge amounts of wealth at once. This signifies their general laziness and impatience. With this in mind, evidence shows that red dragons can be appealed to by an ambitious champion who would seek to impress them.
On the other hand, bronze dragons, if given the chance, will formulate tactics for an army that requests their aid, often times planning decades-worth of plans and strategies. However, the bronze dragon will not care about casualties and would likely kill dessenters of their master plan. It would also surely want the lions-share of the spoils-of-war.
Yes a black dragon might attack ships at sea or take a bi-yearly tribute from surrounding villages; but a silver dragon will worm its way up through the social ladder and make an entire city's taxes go to her.
The Woedrakk Desert is home to a cabal of blue dragons that have been in a working relationship with Geneca for centuries. We will have more opinions on this in Chapter 8 (Discussion).
Metallic dragons have a tendency to make themselves masters of a society. Often times the absolution of their rule makes them equivalent to the world's most authoritarian leaders. Their methods of gaining money and power could take many years. Chromatics can do the same, becomming tyrants in their own right. However, their favored way to engage with society often involves far more subversion and, juxtaposingly, necessary direct action.
All dragons value 3 things in this order:

1. Their wealth
2. Their authority
3. Their safety

These values, if visualized, look like an inversed pyramid.
Some dragon's values vary, but 99% adhere to these principles no matter what they look like.

Where we Discuss Dragon Aging and Growth, as well as Spontaneous Creation

A big question among 100-on scholars was why dragons needed gold and wealth in the first place. Dragons have no trade system, the concept is disgusting to them. R. Q. Robinet was a Royalite-scholar who lived in the early 200-on. He was known as a bit of a dandy by his contemporaries and failed out of Roiltravail Arcane Institue twice. However, it was Robinet who had the brilliant idea of taking a cart full of his own gold, his life savings, to a copper dragon named Nuhashomme, the Escapist or just 'Nuha' [New-Ha]. Robinet appealed to the dragon with the coin, and by offering to be the dragon's own debate partner, book-reader, scribe, librarian, and butler for the next 20 years. Nuha gleefully agreed.
From this partnership detailed in the 70-volume mind-throbbing heartbreaking series 'Long Live: Copper Dragons, the Meaning of Life, and what Dying Feels Like' we get a clear understanding on the significance of gold.
Biological age only impacts about 30% of a dragon's growth factor. The other 70% entirely comes from amassing wealth and 'steeping' in it within a secure lair and horde. This is due to gold's quasi-magical properties. Dragons are believed to 'filter' mana through and into their bodies using the gold as a conduit. Other items like fine paintings, gems, and jewlery take on this property within a horde as well as the dragon causes these items to become faintly magical.
The larger a dragon grows its horde, the larger it grows in turn. A 200 year-old dragon with a horde of roughly 4 million gold would be roughly the same size a a 50 year-old dragon with a horde of roughly 10 million gold; for example. A dragon's biological age does appear to carry some signficance though, if only due to the fact one can gain more authority over the course of more years.
The act and process of filtering magic and growing a horde can cause profound impacts on the environment surrounding a lair. It can even generate spontaneous mutations in people and wildlife. As detailed by Robinet, this can also spontaneously create entire magic items. Robinet details a beautiful copper scepter that seemed to "call to" him. Interestingly, Nuha could not seem to see the copper sceptre, as though the item was invisible to the creature.
Later in life, Robinet got the chance to explore a white dragon's former lair. When he entered into the dragon's mostly-plundered horde, his scepter (which he had never parted with) reacted and grew in size. After this, 60 years into his life, Robinet suddenly became a proficient wizard. These 'hoard items' are believed to appear whenever a person and a dragon form a bond within their lairs, perhaps due to a dragon's own emotions at the time.

Where we Discuss Other Dragon Breeds

As our knowledge of the other dimensions of reality increases, we find a troubling phenomena. Dragons appear in roughly every new reality we discover, and are often influenced by the dimension (or plane if you prefer the term, but that seems too flat). Sadly there has not been too much study on these different varieties of dragons.
Girph Montinoita, a dragonborn of the Tand, managed to capture a rogue draconic entity that had escaped from the 'Elemental Fire.' It was far weaker and smaller than most dragons we have encountered and was labled as a 'dragonnel.'
An expedition team led by Sir Jacobi Jasna into the western Gild Wald discovered the smoking heap of what appeared to be a dragon made of crafted clockwork from an unknown origin. The leading guess is it was a Mantel invention gone wrong, or it came from Primus' realm.
The Feywild has dragons too, mainly just like those we could encounter on Sonnerand. Though numerous bedtime rhymes speak of a 'mouse-toothed drake' and for Fey children to "mind the eyes and scream of the Jabberwocky."
A famous example is ongoing at the time of writing. In recent history Geneca has embarked on 'Pushes' into the islands of Iuan. A few leaders have spoken of dragon-people who live deep in the jungles who are different than the dragonborn of the Tand. These same people burned and razed Geneca's intial port on the island and have reportedly killed dozens of explorers.
We tend to believe that we have solved the dragon problem in Moroam and throughout most of Sonnerand. But the prevailence of dragons throughout all areas of space lead us to another conclusion. In that, our complacency may be our undoing. There are plentiful mysteries to dragonkind, and to think that we have seen the last of any species would be erronious. As long as dragons are magic, and Sonnerand flows with magic, they will emerge.

Type

Textbook

Authoring Date

3rd Edition; Revised for the 400-on. Edited 431.