Richard S.

On 3/31/2022 at 5:35 AM, JRE said:

Probably just a nitpick, and it is a great idea, but I would have the cults refer to a false dragon rune, rather than the true dragon rune. Something like Godunya's rune, or even the Dragonewt rune, as going that path you get easy power, but you deviate from the true draconic path. Alternately you might need a mechanic where you lose 1% of your Dragon rune each time you roll for a spell or power.

Reflecting a moment, the Dragonewt rune seems more appropiate for Dragon Pass, as it is a recognized rune but clearly not the direct approach. Lacking reincarnation, humans cannot follow the Dragonewt path to its conclusion, but they can yet get power out of it. That keeps Godunya's rune and its potential false dragon status to Kralorela.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Godunya's rune and the Dragon rune the same thing? Or at least the shape that I know as the Dragon rune was repurposed into Godunya's in later canon.

You make a good case for using the Dragonewt rune instead, and that would also lean into the idea of how draconic hero cults spiritually stunted the empire. I used Dragon mostly because I wanted Orlanth Dragonfriends to be able to use their Dragon rune if they joined any of them, but maybe Dragonfriends also actually use their Dragonewt rune instead of Dragon. It'd still give them a leg up on entering the mystic paths, but they'd need to develop a new form of connection to the Draconic Absolute, not bound in undeveloped and terrestrial understanding.

I didn't include any sort of rune-reducing mechanic since, in my eyes, that's only a risk to the actual mystics. People who wield false theistic dragon powers don't suffer the same paradox of gaining power over the world while struggling to leave it behind. That's another point for having dragon cults use Dragonewt instead, I suppose.

2 hours ago, Ian Thomson said:

This is awesome work. I love it. Not sure how I got here when doing a search for Praxian spirits, but glad I did.

I am in the process of trying to create something like this for the 'How to turn the Rough Guide to Pavis' into a campaign. I'd love to use this, with some slight adaptations, and with you credited as primary source, if that was OK for you?

That is a-ok with me! Thank you!

3 hours ago, Soccercalle said:

Interesting and very well written. But isn't the Draconic thing more about summoning dragons and maybe communicating with them. Isn't this what happened at the Dragonrise and in the late Hero Wars when Argrath sent the dragons to attack the red moon. This write up seems more to be a way of becoming a dragon thru rune spells.

There's certainly a lot of examples of dragon magic being used to communicate with or summon draconic beings, but there's also many references towards things like transformation and using powers like firebreath or antimagic. And in any case, this isn't true dragon magic, these cults merely emulate dragon powers through rune spells.