2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Dragon

2022-12-25T02:47:41Z

2601:602:C900:884:2853:492C:23F7:C6E7: /* Pokemon */

[[File:Red Dragon.jpg|thumb|right|400px|A red dragon from ''Dungeons & Dragons''. This is pretty much what most westerners today think of when they hear the word.]]
{{Topquote|I kill where I wish and none dare resist. I laid low the warriors of old and their like is not in the world today. Then I was but young and tender. Now I am old and strong, strong, strong [...] My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!|Smaug, ''[[The Hobbit]]''}}

Dragons are an obscure mythical creature that you've probably never heard of before. They're found all around the world (although this is admittedly more due to decisions on the part of early translators than anything else: "hey Jack, what should we designate as the translation of "Qetzacouatl," the feathery serpent thing from mesoamerica?" "I don't know... 'dragon'?"), possibly inspired by various sources such as giant lizards such as varanids, crocodillians and serpents, but also [[dinosaur]] bones and simple tall-tales from travelers in distant lands. Dragons are often portrayed as keepers of vast hoards of treasure, which they accumulate over their very long lifespan and guard covetously - in western mythology, this is often an extension of their use as a metaphor for royal power (or for Capitalism in modern works, though it's worth noting that a capitalist lizard in a sea of Medieval Feudal humans would actually be the most ''progressive'' one around). They can often fly and breathe fire or poison. Because of their majestic, fantastic nature dragons are a staple of much fantasy fiction and games. One of the most well known dragons is Smaug, from [[Tolkien]]'s ''The Hobbit''. The vast majority of later portrayals of dragons in fiction were based on Smaug, who in turn had been inspired by the dragon Fáfnir, from the Völsunga Saga and the dragon from Beowulf. In modern days dragons, being pretty much the the logo of ''fantasy as a genre'', have a wide variety of natures and depictions. Some are as smart as (if not smarter than) humans, some are no smarter than an iguana. Some are inherently magical, some not. Some are good, some are evil, some neutral. Basically, go nuts.

==Mythology==
{{stub}}

===Origins & Inspiration===

The fact that many [[Human]] cultures the world and time over have some from of a dragon or dragon-equivalent suggests that the concept or the inspiration for them is millennia old, possibly dating to before there even was a civilization. That being said and as the sections below demonstrate - the concept of a "dragon" evolved from a relatively humble origin to later become the majestic beast we all know and love.

There are many theories on how the concept of dragons came about, the most common one being that we inherited a fear of large predators and snakes, the latter of which is especially significant since the earliest myths featuring dragons have the hero or gods battling serpentine beings of great strength. This would also explain how the Asian, Mesoamerican, early European and Egyptian dragons are serpentine in appearance.

Another theory suggests that humans may have seen dinosaur bones (especially skulls) and confused them for being the remnants of dragons. This may have likely happened early in humanity's developmental history though with the advent of civilization and recorded history & mythology may have served to refine the beasties further.

Lastly, though a bit of a stretch, there is the Stoned Ape Theory which suggests that a crucial leap to consciousness that occurred around 70.000-30.000 BC (Cognitive Revolution) was due to our ancestors getting high and the resulting hallucinations kickstarted our mind development. During these seances it is possible that the subconscious fear of snakes may have lead to hallucinations that eventually resulted in dragons.

===Classical===

There are a bunch of monsters that might be referred to as a "dragon" by modern readers; among them are Apep of Egypt, various beasts from Mesopotamian myths, the Greek [[Hydra]], and the Jewish Leviathan. The fact that so many different cultures across such vast gulfs of time and space all come up with the same general idea of what a dragon is, has generally be attributed to dinosaur fossils which appear all over the earth, or simply scaling lizards and crocodiles up. As for the unusual traits, some of those go way back - such the Leviathan from Jewish tradition has heat breath attributed to, particularly in Scripture - and their origins are harder to discern.

===Medieval Times===

In Medieval lore, the most important dragon story is that of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George_and_the_Dragon Saint George and the Dragon]. Most depictions of dragons descend in some way from it (either directly, or by imitating something that imitated it), especially its generally monstrous character due to it demanding tribute in the form of [[Hot Chicks]]. A few other noteworthy dragons in Western literature include the final antagonist in Beowulf (the first recorded fire-breathing dragon), as well as Fafnir, noted for his intense greed and cursed golden hoard. Special mention needs to go to the slavs however, since their dragons had greater penchant for benevolence than those of other european nations and bulgarian folk legends outright have dragons getting it on with humans.

===Asia===
Asian Dragons are typically long (in fact the Chinse word for dragon is literally just "Long," pronounced exactly like the English word long, all by pure coincidence), snake-like creatures with thin limbs, and are generally less malevolent than their European counterparts. They tend to be associated with water, specifically rivers, rather than fire; a generally accepted theory was that East Asian dragons were based on Chinese Alligators (Chinese alligators have very short snouts), which used to be a lot more common. At least one Chinese creator-goddess appeared as a hybrid of woman and dragon, whilst there are Japanese stories of noble men marrying female dragons.

They don't usually have wings, flight being accomplished either by magic or "swimming" through the wind. Should be noted that in most Asian mythologies, dragons are usually depicted as divine beings more on the side of good than evil, not too many stories about dragon-slaying over here. That said there are a handful of tales of individual Longs being less-than-ideal heavenly citizens; ''Journey to the West,'' for example, has a brief moment where a long is arrested for aiding a trio of conmen.

Southeast Asian dragons are often called "[[Naga]]", but are distinct from Indian Nagas, they share a name because of centuries of Buddhist influence, with Southeast Asian cultures syncretizing the Indian Nagas as the same thing as theirs. In India, the Naga are the mythic half-human, half-snake inhabitants of the underworld; they're the mortal enemies of the flying ''Garuda'', associated with mountains and the wind, but are otherwise just another race, like the [[Deva]]. Southeast Asian ''Naga'', on the other hand, are more like god-dragons/sea-serpents, associated with specific rivers and lakes like Chinese dragons. Being a region of frequent rain and flooding (and the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naga_fireball occasional swamp-gas fire<s>works</s>balls-at-the-lake show]), Southeast Asian Nagas are ''very'' important in their mythos, and they are often portrayed as the patrons of ancient kingdoms. In the Philippines, the [[The Islands of Sina Una|Bakunawa]] is entirely malevolent, being responsible for earthquakes and [[Morrslieb|eating the Sun]] during Solar Eclipses.

===Elsewhere===

Aside from broadly "Eastern & Western" dragons, there are other creatures and outliers that don't usually get the amount of attention the former categories do. Among them are:

*'''Quetzalcoatl/Nahuatl''' - A mesoamerican deity whose name means ''feathered serpent''. He was a god of wind, air and knowledge. Though depicted as an anthropomorphic figure, his name and general form could classify him as an equivalent of a dragon. For some reason, the Japanese keep depicting Quetzalcoatl in various [[anime]] as a [[rule 34|blonde-haired, big-tittied woman]] (though at least [[Nasuverse|one of those depictions]] is an [[Amazon]] luchadora).
*'''Apep''' - A giant serpent-demon who resides in the Duat, the Egyptian Underworld. Could be considered a ''wyrm'' more than a true dragon.
*'''Vrtra''' (''Vritra'') - Another giant serpent, this time form Hindu vedas. There is also Visvarupa - a three-headed variant.
*'''Ušumgallu''' (''Ushumgallu'') - A mesopotamian "lion-dragon-demon". They often accompanied kings in ancient sumerian myths.

==Dungeons & Dragons==
Dragons are one of the main selling points of the ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' game, to the point that the [[Dungeons_%26_Dragons_4th_Edition|4th edition]] and [[Dungeons_%26_Dragons_5th_Edition|5th edition]] include a draconian race called [[Dragonborn]], intended for players who "want to look like a dragon".

[[Dragon kind]] and [[Half-Dragons]] are basically the confirmation of the rule that dragons (and/or humans) can mate with anything, taking their place among the races often referred to as "slut races": [[human]]s, fiends, celestials, [[dryad]]s, [[slaad]]i, [[modron]]s, [[inevitable]]s, [[formian]]s and gribbly abominations from the [[Far Realm]]. We now permit you to take a break to use the brain oxi-clean provided to you by Billy Mays' ghost to scrub any mental images you may have of a [[human]], dragon, [[angel]], [[Tanar'ri|balor]], black slaad, formian queen or-OH SWEET MERCIFUL GOD-EMPEROR THE MENTAL IMAGE!!!!

"True" dragons, meanwhile, come in all shapes and sizes, from the evil Chromatic to the good Metallic, the [[psion]]ic Gem dragons, elemental dragons, plane-aligned dragons (one for each [[Planescape|Outer Plane]] except [[Arcadia]], where dragons are hated), Astral dragons, disaster dragons and even the potent and rare Time Dragons, who are amongst the most dangerous creatures in existence.

As of 5e, it has been pushed dragons are divine on par with Angels and Demons on top of being Engines of bringers of death and Super geniuses. ''Fizban's Treasury of Dragons'' establishes that they have the strongest connection over the [[prime material plane]], on their own ancient accounts that the prime was their home first before the gods busted in (Bahamut and Tiamat being retconned into very god-like primordial beings native to the Prime Material rather than the afterlives), seeded their half-[[Outsider]] creations in it ([[Humanoids]]), and then broke the plane into parallel universes. This is an explanation of how Dragons have multiple versions of themselves, plus copies of [[Orb of Dragonkind|Objects]] and [[Tomb of Horrors|dungeons]] relating to dragons appear in multiple planes and can Develop ''Dragonsight'' to interact with them. Dragons gain vast Power from their hoards, with their presence and death to reshape the landscape and inhabitants to their draconic likings. In the end, this is all just extra flavor for DM you could ignore like the [[Blood war]], and give a lore excuse to [[That Guy]] why the their character are going through [[White Plume Mountain]] is in a [[Dark Sun]] game with [[Izzet League#Guild Master|Niv-Mizzet]] waiting at the end.

Interestingly, the same book also offers DMs the idea that dragons in their particular world could procreate in methods more exotic than [[PROMOTIONS| the standard one]], such as their eggs forming naturally in volcanoes, gem deposits, ore veins, etc.

===Kinds of Dragons===
There's a boatload of dragons in ''D&D'', many of whom fit into the following groups:

* [[Chromatic Dragon]]s - The original dragons, coming in a variety of colors. They are all some variety of evil and are the children of the dragon goddess [[Tiamat]]. In order of power White, Black, Green, Blue and Red are the five most common colors, but others include yellow, brown, purple and a whole rainbow of other colors.
* [[Metallic Dragon]]s - Starting out with only the gold dragon, in later editions they became linked to [[Bahamut]], the god of good dragons. The most common ones are Brass, Copper, Bronze, Silver and Gold in order of power, with others including Iron, Steel and Adamantine.
** [[Ferrous Dragon]]s - A subgroup of the Metallic Dragons, Ferrous Dragons are made of base metals instead of the noble ones.
* [[Gem Dragon]]s - Adorned with crystal scales, the Gem Dragons have potent [[psionics]] and are usually also the go-to Neutral dragons to the Metallics' Good and Chromatics' Evil.
* [[Catastrophic Dragon]]s - Introduced in [[4e]], these dragons have been infused with [[elemental]] power by the [[Archomental|Primordials]] to make them look like elemental dragons.
* [[Planar Dragon]]s - Dragons linked to the various [[Plane]]s of existence, frequently the [[Outer Planes]] of [[Planescape]]. All of said Outer Planes have their own kind of dragon, except for [[Arcadia]] where dragons are despised.
* [[Oriental Dragon]]s - Based on Asian dragons, the Oriental Dragons are the dragons used in [[weeaboo|such]] settings. They generally have close ties to nature, like forests, the skies, the seas... or [[carp]]! Notable is that the Gold Dragon, the first Metallic Dragon, was stylized as such a dragon, but was changed to a more traditional western design (although they did retain their bitchin' moustache of barbels). Also known as Lung Dragons. [[Pathfinder]] calls them Imperial Dragons.
* [[Dragonet]]s - Miniature dragons more suitable for familiars or high fantasy worlds, featured in ''[[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]]''.
* [[Epic Dragon]]s - Introduced in the [[Epic Level Handbook]]. Epic dragons are much larger and more powerful than regular dragons. They are usually neutral aligned but have more variation in alignment than other kinds of dragons. The first two kinds of Epic Dragons, Force Dragons and Prismatic Dragons, were introduced in the [[Epic Level Handbook]]. A third type called Time Dragons were introduced in [[Dragon Magazine]].
* [[Linnorm]]s - Nordic-themed dragons who possess wing-less serpentine bodies with only a set of forelimbs. Usually described as being even nastier and crueler than Chromatics.
* [[Song Dragon]]s - Originally called "Weredragons", [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia|an all-female race of dragons who use their ability to assume human form to interact with mortal races and find mortal spouses]].
* [[Wyvern]]s - Dim-witted, feral, more bestial dragons who lack a breath weapon, have wings instead of forelimbs, and a poisonous stinger.
* Undead Dragons - Various kinds of undead dragon have appeared throughout editions, from the famous [[Dracolich]] to less-famous zombie, skeletal and vampire dragons.
* Shadow Dragons - Depending on edition, either a dragon with some elemental affinity to darkness, a planar dragon, or an undead dragon.

There's also a great medley of setting-unique dragons, such as those native to [[Mystara]] and [[Dragonlance]].

Finally, there are the [[Dragon Gods]], a loose pantheon of deities unique to D&D dragons that hasn't traditionally gotten a lot of attention because, well, they only really give a fuck about dragons and dragons don't usually get too religious (they don't like acknowledging something as being bigger than them). The advent of the [[Dragonborn]] as a PC race is likely to change this, however.

{{D&D-Dragons}}

==[[World of Darkness]]==
Being that the [[World of Darkness]] is a [[Gothic Horror]] meets Punk [[Urban Fantasy]] [[multiverse]], there isn't a lot of room for dragons in it on a conceptal level, one would thing. But, some madlad fanboys decided they wanted to challenge that notion, and thus [[Dragon: The Embers]] was born... and promptly died. Only to be reborn as "Dragon: Rekindled", so who knows how things will turn out.

==[[Scion]]==
Ironically, Onyx Path Publishing would decide to do a dragon [[splatbook]] in ''another'' of their [[Urban Fantasy]] gamelines, [[Scion]] 2nd Edition. Called simply "Scion: Dragon", it takes the basic premise of Scion with players being the half-human offspring of [[god]]s and instead flips it to let you play the half-human offspring of dragons (or human-looking-for-convenience weak pureblood dragon hatchlings, if you prefer). Be default, the dragons are presented as a third faction in the Cosmic Conflict, standing on equal footing with and yet seperate from both Gods and Titans, though they can be adopted into Pantheons (and become Gods) or choose to serve as Titans.

Scion Dragons are organized into six Pantheon-esque factions known as "Flights", which the splat describes thusly:
* '''Draqs''' – A Flight of Dragons primarily formed of those descended from Tiamat, the mother of dragons. They accept any who seek vengeance against the Gods, specifically for the death of their “Mother of Dragons.”
* '''Joka''' – Immense Dragons who are more in tune with draconic memories than any other. They are known for their intense hunger which has driven them toward ambitions, and a return to a time before Gods.
* '''Lindwurms''' – Considered the first Flight by many, these Dragons have grouped together based on the desire to share knowledge and stories long before the advent of humanity. They seek knowledge and power in lieu of lost memories.
* '''Lóng''' – Easily the largest and most disparate Flight, these Dragons are the most at peace with the Gods. They do not fear or hate them, though they do seek their own fame and glory, and wouldn’t mind replacing the pantheons in humanity’s worship.
* '''Naga''' – Dragons with many heads born through conceptual relationships with the world, Naga are split between those trapped in The World, and those trapped in their special Terra Incognita. Those in The World seek knowledge, and a way to reopen their home safely.
* '''Serpents''' – A group of Dragons who care about the natural world and are the most connected to humanity. They seek to teach and uplift humanity in hopes that together they can cleanse The World.

Until they fully transform into a Dragon by reaching the God tier, a Dragon PC is known as an "Heir" until their Inheritance (power stat) hits 5, wherepon they become a "Lesser Wyrm". The supernatural abilities that Dragons and their Heirs can wield are known as "Dragon Magic". Heirs are governed by their Remembrance, a set of polar opposite goals - the Cipher (aligning yourself with a Flight's goals) and the Defection (direct opposition to a Cipher).

==[[Final Fantasy]]==
Final Fantasy commonly features dragons as bosses and powerful late game enemies though that is typically the extent of their role in the game's story, with the exception Final Fantasy 14. In this game dragons are aliens who reproduce asexually, they immortal unless their eyes are destroyed and they change shape depending on their environment. There are no set rules for what the dragons look like aside from having some type of reptilian appearance, with some looking exactly like dinosaurs.

The main dragon of note in the series is recurring summon named Bahamut (a reference to [[Bahamut]] in D&D), who is always among the strongest summons in whatever game where you can use him, which means you generally have to fight him to get him. Bahamut's design varies from game to game though he's always a biped Western style dragon. Rather than breathing fire, he causes a big explosion. FF14 gave him an expanded role where he's actually a villain, and also served as a plot device who allowed for the game to be revamped due to him ravaging the world.

Aside from Bahamut there is a recurring dragon made of crystal named Shinryu who has the snakelike body of a Eastern Dragon, but the overall beast like features of a Western one, on top of having wings. In remakes of the 2D games Shinryu pops up as a recurring superboss, that is a boss who is more powerful than the final boss. Shinryu has the interesting distinction of appearing as the main villain in Final Fantasy's crossover fighting series Dissidia where he orchestrate a war between two gods, and his power dwarfs both of them. Nothing is explained about his origin between his debut in Final Fantasy V saying that along with a machine called Omega, Shinyru was sealed in an inter-dimensional rift because there was no known way to defeat him.

==[[Pokemon]]==
Dragon is one of the 18 Pokemon types. Dragon-type Pokemon are among the rarest types of Pokemon and are among the strongest. Originially weak only against other Dragon-type and Ice-type moves, their high stats and impressive movepools mean they can easily counter types they are supposed to be weak against to the point where the Generation 6 games introduced the Fairy-type, which are immune to damage from Dragon type attacks and strong in attacking them to help balance them. Even with the Fairy-type there are still Dragon Pokemon that can effectively counter Fairy-types (especially since some Dragons are part Steel which removes their weakness to Fairy attacks). The appearance of Dragon Pokemon varies considerably, ranging from your traditional Western dragons, to Eastern-style ones, and designs that are more esoteric (*SNAILS?!*). If you want to see these dragons, Bulbapedia is a thing that exists.

==[[Magic: The Gathering]]==
Dragons in Magic the Gathering are mostly creatures assoicated with Red, though they have appeared with other colors. They have appeared across many planes, mostly taking the traditional western dragon appearance though some have a few twists to fit with the plane's theme. All dragons are descended from an entity called the Ur Dragon, with the oldest and most powerful being the Elder Dragons, most of whom killed each other in a war with only two; [[Ugin]] and [[Nicol Bolas]].

One of the planes with the more unique dragons is [[Tarkir]], where they are born out of elemental storms created by Ugin. Originally Ugin was killed by Bolas, causing an end to the storms and the dragons being wiped out since they stopped reproducing. When [[Sarkhan Vol]] changed history and prevented Ugin's death, the storms continued and the numbers of the dragons kept increasing and the five Dragonlords each leading broods of other dragons to become the dominant force on the plane.

Another dragon of note named Niv-Mizzet leads the [[Izzet League]] on [[Ravnica]]. He is a super genius who thinks very highly of himself (he did name his guild after himself after all). He is a combination of Red & Blue so he's displayed magic associated with both colors.

==Shadowrun==
Dragons from [[Shadowrun]] come in four types depending on where they originate from: Western Dragons (European and North American), Eastern Dragons (Asian}, Feathered Serpents (South American and African), and Sea Dragons (any of the oceans}. Despite morphological differences between the different breeds, they all can interbreed, and all share the mentality of highly intelligent, manipulative, avaricious douchebags (with a few high-profile exceptions). In their natural forms, dragons cannot speak verbally but instead use telepathy, which cannot be recorded; most dragons of significance in the setting have metahuman "Voices" who relay their words for them in telecommunication or recorded interviews.

In D&D-descended settings, being a corrupt, amoral, greedy entity that forces less-privileged beings to worship them would make them glorified, if terrifying, bandits at best. In the gritty cyberpunk society of Shadowrun, Dragons can do all of this within the margins of a legitimized and prosperous career, intermingling with metahuman society on the boards of megacorps and in seats of power in the few polities that matter. Although they like to use these newfound levers of power that the mortals built up, they also conform to a draconic culture that exists beside (or more accurately, outside) metahuman society. Draconic society also has a loose hierarchy; the Great Dragons reside at the top, sometimes duking it out and sometimes working with one another as they pursue individual agendas, and the "lesser" dragons doing their own thing are left alone, as long as they don't step on the Greaters' toes and occasionally take orders.

What separates the Greater Dragons from the rest isn't entirely understood. While there's a strong correlation with power and age separating the Greats from the rest, considering the ways they think, what makes a Great isn't quite so crude.

Also due to the gritty cyberpunk setting, dragons aren't entirely good or evil, but exist more along a morally ambiguous spectrum. Unlike D&D, where the dragons are separated into the various flavor of evil chromatics and good metallics, Shadowrun dragons are all individuals with their own motivations and ambitions and personal hopes and fears, even though they are all ancient, alien beings who can't help but see metahumanity as mostly small and ephemeral beings, where some of them can even be considered good. They remain the biggest power players in the Shadowrun setting, driving much of the conflict and intrigue as they fight amongst each other and other powers, but also stand united in protecting the world and metahumanity from the terrors of [[Cthulhu|the Horrors]].

Some of the most notable dragons are:

* Aden: The only known Great Sirrursh (a variant of the Eastern Dragons). He likes to appear to humanity as either a handsome man or a beautiful woman, mostly to fuck with people. He's best known for destroying Tehran after a ''fatwah'' was declared against metahumans and the Awakened, so standing up for the people who weren't normie humans means he'd probably be an okay guy if he weren't so edgy and angry all the fucking time. Currently pulling strings against the various Muslim movements in the Middle East and balancing fending off Lofwyr's attempts to muscle in on his territory.

* Alamais: A Great Western Dragon, Lofwyr's brother and chief rival, and would-be champion of the downtrodden if he wasn't a huge fucking prick. Liked to associate with populist movements, like underground political scenes and terrorist organizations to get his work done, and was probably responsible for some of Lofwyr's woes. Also advocated for hunting metahumans for sport. ''Also'' also had an ongoing prank war with Dunkelzahn where they traded a fruitcake for 37 years, mostly through shadowrunners breaching one another's defenses. Died in 2074 in a war that tore apart a section of Italy and left 38 other adult dragons dead.

* Arleesh: A Great Feathered Serpent, known to travel the world to hunt down and destroy magical artifacts that pose a danger to metahumanity. Probably pretty cool if she could let her hair down once in a while.

* Celedyr: A Welsh Great Western Dragon. Less concerned about power and wealth than he is with knowledge, and hence technology, and thus became CTO of NeoNET. He then worked for just enough shares to pursue the avenues of research he wanted to and be left alone, or was outmaneuvered by Machiavellian human CEO Richard Villiers in powerplays over NeoNET, depending on who you listen to. Was the mentor and patron of lesser dragon Eliohan, a Matrix guinea pig, which also kicked off the CFD plotline (which nobody cared about). Also sponsor of the Knights of Rage streetgang, who serves as his agents out in the world.

* Dunkelzahn: Widely and justifiably considered to have been the most gregarious and open-minded of the dragons, particularly when it came to giving metahumanity a fair shake. The Big D was ''the Dude.'' Less of an oligarch and more of an eccentric, Big D didn't put all of his chips into one nation/megacorp like the other dragons did, so he became a broad entrepeneur and collector. He started a public career with a late night talk show and ended up successfully running for President of the UCAS, until a car bomb killed him some ten hours after his swearing in. The who and why is still unclear, though the "consensus" for those in the know is that he committed suicide, making himself into a sacrifice that would rebalance the astral from the Great Ghost Dance from some decades before. The Big D wasn't immune to draconic dickishness though; his will turned much of the established power structures on their heads and continues to influence the plot some 20 years down the line. Lofwyr, going full Tsundere mode, pointed out to some folks that "he wasn't such a great guy" and that he was still a dragon first and foremost, and his will was still enacting plots that furthered his personal goals many years after his death.

* Eliohann: A lesser Western dragon who was notable for being one of the non-Greats who left a noticeable footprint on the world of Shadowrun. He was the dragon equivalent of a teen who was kidnapped and experimented on by Emerging Futures (an Ares subsidiary) and got a datajack installed into him, making him the only known dragon with a meaningful relationship with the Matrix. Despite that this feat should be technically impossible and driving Eliohann nonspecifically insane, he loved the feeling of the Matrix and became a good decker as well as the eventual president of Emerging Futures. By night, he hacked and decked under the Matrix handle of Cerberus, and possibly as the decker Neurosis as well. Emerging Futures was sold off to NeoNET a few years later, which is where he reconnected and started work again for his old mentor Celedyr. It was later indicated that the insanity Eliohann experienced was dissociative personality disorder to compensate for the mind bending contrast of being an awakened creature and also deep diving into the Matrix. Eliohann flatlined in Crash 2.0, but his conscious survived as an E-Ghost (possibly as two, one for each personality), prompting Celedyr to research ways into downloading a conscience into a braindead meat body to restore his apprentice. Despite quite a bit of being fucked about from behind the scenes, including the entirety of the CFD plot, Eliohann was returned to his body, letting him continue to live a normal dragon life.

* Feuerschwinge: A German Great Western Dragon. When she woke up, she went on a bloody rampage that left many thousands of people dead until she was shot down by the German military. It was probably because she had a strong ecological bent, and humanity fucking with the environment drove her crazy. Probably. ''Probably.'' She later made a return appearance in the videogame ''Shadowrun: Dragonfall'', where it's revealed that she "survived" but her physical and astral forms were separated. The player goes out to avenge his/her buddy and thwarts a plot to use her body to spread a biological weapon that targets dragons. Feuerschwinge is either dead or hibernating through to the 8th World, depending on player decisions. Either way, she's not going to be seen again anytime soon.

* Ghostwalker: A Great Western Dragon and Big D's brother. His first act upon awakening was taking control of Denver (or technically, the FRFZ) and banning Aztlan for reasons hardcore Shadowrun fans would understand. He has a thing for spirits' rights, to the point where he is violently against binding or even summoning spirits within his territory.

* Hestaby: A Great Western Dragon from the Pacific Northwest. She first appeared to end the war between California and Tir Tairngire, basically telling the kids to get off her lawn and go home. She cultivated a public persona of an egalitarian guardian of nature and metahumanity, level-headed and moderate in comparison to her brethren. The Great Dragons felt that she was taking metahumanity's side against her own kind and convened a trial that declared her outcast.

* Lofwyr: A Great Western Dragon from Germany, Lofwyr is the richest person on Earth. You know how counterculture people want to stick it to The Man? Yeah, that's Lofwyr. He is The Man. Most of his fortune is a result of his leveraged buyout and subsequent expansion of the Saeder-Krupp industrial corporation; he lives in its headquarters in the Rhine-Ruhr Megaplex arcology. He is probably also the power behind the throne of the Gasperi Mafia family, which controls the criminal underworld in Rhine-Ruhr. His name is known and feared worldwide, and he was the direct inspiration for the Sixth World aphorism "never deal with a dragon".

==[[Star Wars]]==
In the original Star Wars movie we see the skeleton of a creature called a krayt dragon on Tatoonie. They come in multiple subspecies, the skeleton is stated to belong to a greater krayt dragon, a creature that is over a hundred meters long and resembles a western dragon, minus the wings, and it has around a dozen legs. The krayt dragon is the top carnivore on Tatoonie, traveling through the sand like a giant worm and feeding on anything it finds. Tusken Raiders are terrified of them, with Obi-Wan scaring a group off by mimicking a krayt dragon's roar. A smaller but still large subspecies called a canyon krayt also exists. These resemble your standard quadraped western dragon.

Since all the details on what a krayt dragon looked like in canon were limited to reference books when a live one appeared in [[Star Wars:The Mandalorian| The Mandalorian]], while the greater krayt dragon draws traits from artwork in Legends, the design is changed to make the dragon look more alien. Its body is covered in armor, more snake like while its head more resembles that of a shark. In source books it is confirmed to still have legs which is how it propels itself through the sand, they simply weren't visible because all we see of the dragon are its head and neck. While this krayt dragon has a mouth full of teeth, it's so big that it simply swallows prey hole. Despite their size the krayt dragon actually prefers to retreat when threatened. If still attacked when corned it can spit up acid flesh melting acid akin to how a typical dragon breaths fire.

The Dark Forces video game introduced a a smaller relative called a kell dragon because it wasn't possible to depict a krayt dragon at its proper size.

==Warhammer==
Dragons have appeared since the beginning in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy]]'', but they're ironically one of the most vaguely defined parts of the lore. They will ally themselves with the [[High Elves]] and be used as powerful (and in game terms: expensive) mounts for elven lords. Aside from being intelligent, there's not much stated about them. Some dragons have also been corrupted by [[Chaos]] and fight alongside the [[Warriors of Chaos]]. In both cases, they are made out to be among the most powerful monsters in the setting, and their stats live up to it, with only few models, including [[Daemon#Greater_Daemons|Greater Daemons]], having a chance at beating them.

According to the Caledor novel and the recent revelation about Cathay, Dragons of all kind are not fond of the [[Old Ones]] and their creations (except Elves, because they are somehow nicer than the others), blaming them for bringing [[chaos]]' attention to their world, and freely terraforming their world (which it was akin the scenery of Jurassic period, many volcanoes and colder temperatures) as they pleased. Some dragons prefer to fight against the intruders, only to get fucking owned by their Slann servant's magic and the Lizardmen's forces in their prime. Only the smarter and wiser dragons survive by fleeing and nesting in the deepest caverns or ocean. The dragons are also not fond of the [[Dragon Ogres]] and the [[Fimir]](it had a huge empire in ancient Norsca at that time), and had fought against them many times.

[[Storm of Magic]] sees the return of "Emperor Dragons", huge dragons that are arguably the most powerful units in the book. Emperor Dragons not allied with Chaos can also be upgraded all the way up to level four sorcerers, in addition to having nearly all 9s across their statline. This does make them extremely expensive, ruling out their use in all but the highest-point games.

Dragons also have a connection with the [[Vampire Counts|vampires]], the reason being their blood has the power to cure their otherwise ceaseless thirst for blood. [[Abhorash]] and [[Zacharias The Everliving]] being the primary beneficiaries of this, where they defeated the beast either with [[awesome|straight up glorious approach]] or just [[Noobs|cowardly draining their blood in their sleep]]. Abhorash then formed the [[Blood Dragon]]s and tells his disciples if they want some of that sweet dragon ambrosia they have to go out and earn it themselves.

Speaking of dragon slaying, it is a popular hobby in the world of ''Warhammer'', where the reason said slayers participate in such activity is to either [[Bretonnia|prove themselves]], [[Slayer|die gloriously or having the glory to kill it]], [[Blood Dragon|the aforementioned thirst for blood as well as making it serve as a pretty sweet mount in undeath]], [[Ogre Kingdoms|for food]] or [[Gotrek & Felix|just killing them for fun]].

Some prefer to just tame them by rearing them from an egg then riding them into battle when they are big enough. Races or Factions like the [[Empire]] ([[Karl Franz]]'s dragon and Elspeth von Draken's Carmine Dragon are the only example for the human, for now), the High Elves, [[Wood Elves]], Vampire Counts(undead dragon, so is more of a summoning than taming), Warriors of Chaos, and the Dark Elves examples of this. And with the Monstrous Arcanum even the Dwarfs became this with shackling Shard Dragons with runic collars that their ancestors taught how to make and use them as expendable giant attack dogs.

Like in many settings, Warhammer has a number of different types, beyond the common/Emperor Dragon split.
*'''[[Merwyrms]]''' - Ancestor race of the dragon kind. Four legged sea serpents who answered only to the High Elves. [[Amanar]] is the greatest of them all.
*'''Caledorian Dragons''' - Dragons that originate from Ulthuan and who are de-facto the original dragon breeds. Just like the Asur that look down on the younger races, the Caledorian Dragons do the same towards other dragons. There are two renown ancient dragon introduced in the Caledor novel and are considered to be the progenitor of the Caledorian Dragons: '''Maedrethnir''', '''Caledor I''''s mount and his father '''Indraugnir''' aka '''Aenarion''''s mount.
**'''Sun Dragon''' - The youngest and smallest breed of High Elven dragons.
***'''Moon Dragon''' - Older and rarer than Sun dragons.
****'''Star Dragon''' - The largest, most powerful, rare and eldest of all dragons.
*'''Black Dragon''' - Dragons corrupted by [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dark Elven]] magic. First of their kind was Sulekh, Malekith's second dragon (first black dragon) to replace his old one. After Sulekh's death, some Black Dragons chose to keep aiding the Dark Elves to avenge her. Sulekh was replaced by Seraphon, Malekith's third dragon (second black dragon), who Malekith instantly favored because of her ruthless action of destroying the eggs around her after hatching.
**'''Sea Dragon''' - Corrupted dragons which have grown so large they can no longer fly. The Dark Elves now use them to tow their massive ships. This also pisses off the ancient sea demi-god Triton who hates the Dark Elves for using the Sea Dragons as glorified sea donkeys.
*'''Forest Dragon''' - Dragons that have adapted to live in the deep forests, so long that their will now linked to the Athel Loren itself, and fight whenever the forest will. In [[Total War: WARHAMMER]], It's appearance compare to other dragons is more leaning towards the forest it lives: antlers growing on its head, butterfly pattern on it's wing and leaves, vines growing on its body as a proof of its connection with the forest.
**'''Venom Dragon''' - A Forest Dragon on steroids. They are so oversaturated with poisons and toxins that even touching any body part or organ will end up fatally for the one touching them. Those Venom Dragons that can cast magic are naturally attuned to the winds of Ghyran.
*'''Shard Dragon''' - Wingless serpentine dragons that adapted to the [[Underdark|deep places]] of the world. They would attack everything they met no matter how harmless or dangerous it is and pursue it with a stubbornness only a Dwarf with a massive grudge would match. Dwarf miners often encountered and awoke these assholes slumber and were met with [[rape|predictable result]], also a shit tons of grudge if there were survivors. Same goes when a Shard Dragon looks for food and somehow gets into contact with a Dwarf Hold, Goblin Cave or a Skaven Burrow...and [[rape|the results are also predictable]] with the addition of massive collateral damage. Only the most skilled Runelord would put a rune collar on them and send them to battle like how the [[Lizardmen]] done to the Dread Saurian, making them the only monster option for the Dwafs (Rune Golems and Rune Guardians are constructs so they do not count as monsters). Knowing the Dwarfs however, a few long-beards might get off their chair and starts to bitching about the dishonorable and repugnant idea of bringing monster onto the battlefield, whereas a proper Dawi could just plant their trustworthy axe onto their wazzock's face. Then again, since their eldest ancestors came up with shackling Shard Dragons, then any Dawi wouldn't say no to it because you don't argue with your ancestors...not to mention that the collar completely eliminates the unpredictability factor and using them as expendable living weapons would be seen as a creative way of settling grudges. Biologically, they have razor-sharp spike scales (kinda like a Razordon, but their spikes are many and thin like an animal fur that would covered their entire body, not to mention the scales becoming as hard as gromlir with age as some Dwarfs discovered), have a venom that is both corrosive and poisonous, a breathe that causes hallucinations so horrifying that everyone dies from heart attacks and fights in absolute frenzy (even more so if they get wounded) on top of having the same magical protection Dwarfs have thanks to the runic collars. They also look like a black ferret, nicknamed: "murder ferret".
*'''Chaos Dragon''' - Dragons perverted by the ruinous powers, typically [[Tzeentch]]. No two are said to be alike, but they tend to have two heads. [[Galrauch]] is said to be the first chaos dragon; a High Elf dragon possessed by a lord of change, it wreck peoples shit while earning hundreds of Dwarven grudges on [[Book of Grudges|The Dammaz Kron]]. Egrimm van Horstmann has a chaos dragon called '''Baudros'''.
**'''Frost Wyrm''' - A sub-species of Chaos Dragon that appeared in the first Total War: Warhammer game with its final DLC that made Norsca a playable faction. Lore-wise it is speculated that Frost Wyrms used to be Ice Dragons that mutated over time by Chaos.
*'''Warpfire Dragon''' - A mutant Dragon that almost exclusively feeds on Warpstone. Has a devastating breathe attack yet at the same time it's limited to the Northern polar caps of the Warhammer world, so people luckily will rarely see this monstrosity. Skaven understandingly hate those things because burrows to the northern part of the world were always attacked by hungry Warpfire Dragons who did literally everything to break into a Clan's warpstone reserve.
*'''[[Carmine Dragon]]''' - Dragons that are born tied to the amethyst winds of death magic, Shyish. [[Elspeth von Draken]] being the only known person in both the Empire and the Warhammer world to have one as a mount so far.
**'''Nightmare Dragon''' - Said to not be true dragons but the winds of Shyish given life and form, these creatures have a breathe attack similar to that of Black Dragons yet far more potent. The most famous one of them is Omdra the Dreaded. A giant of a dragon that was gravely wounded by a massive combined force of Chaos Dwarfs, Warriors of Chaos and other Chaos monstrosities. However it came at a terribly high price and she simply slid back into her lair to heal.
*'''[[Toad Dragon]]''' - Giant lumbering reptilian horrors with insatiable appetites and a frog-like tounge. Oftern serves Nurgle worshipers. Tamurkhan owned a Toad Dragon named Bubebolos and it was the most well known and the greatest of its kind.
*'''Zombie Dragon''' - Basically dead dragons raised by Vampires to become their mount.
*'''Fire Dragon''' - A hotblooded, short-tempered dragon species. Rarely seen and are synonymous with flaming destruction.
**'''Doomfire Dragon''' - Even more hotblooded and short-tempered than Fire Dragons. Love to set whole cities on fire and are a whole species of pyromaniac arsonists. Are heavily attuned to the winds of Aqshy and those that can use magic can cast Lore of Fire spells. The most famous Doomfire Dragon was Malathrax the Mighty who was personally slain by [[Markus Wulfhart]].
***'''Magma Dragon''' - The single most evilest of dragons and arguably far more powerful than even the Star Dragon. A obsidian black and shiny monstrous dragon with a ton of malevolence and bad temper. Its breathe attack isn't just a normal flaming breathe, but it mixes in sulphur and poison to further weaken its prey in a most painful manner (game-wise, every successful wound resulted in the model loosing a point in Toughness...WHICH WOULD STACK if the dragon managed to wound the model multiple consecutive times). Only known to live in Naggaroth's Blackspine Mountains and among the volcanic ranges of the Dark Lands. Needless to say, the Chaos Dwarfs have a lot of relations with the Magma Dragons. Especially with the case of the eldest of them, Hadgar. Once a simple Fire Dragon, Hadgar was taken captive by the Chaos Dwarfs and experimented on by them with daemonic possession techniques that would be used to create their trademark K'Daai. This turned him into a Magma Dragon who eventually broke his chains and exacted disproportionate retribution on the Chaos Stunties. Not only most of the Tower of Gorgoth was obliterated by the dragon, but everything around it too (especially the multitude of slave camps). These days Hadgar comes out of his lair near Gorgoth to either beat some wannabe challenger or to answer the summons of powerful wizards. The Dawi-Zharr that observe from very afar note that parts of his scales turned to stone, meaning that with his transformation he inherited the same deadly curse that turns the Sorcerer Prophets into stone statues.
*'''Frost Dragon''' - A rare dragon species that is ice and winter incarnate with a freezing breathe. Due to its nature it's very slow to anger actually. Lives exclusively in the Mountains of Mourn. While certainly powerful, it will avoid adult bull Mammoths or stampeding Rhinoxes.
**'''Ice Dragons''' - Even rarer than Frost Dragons, but in this case adult bull Mammoths and Rhinox stampedes don't make it chicken out. They are all FROSTBITE. Just like the Frost Dragons, it has a freezing breathe. Unlike Frost Dragons, this breathe attack is significantly more powerful. The two most famous Ice Dragons are Jaugrel and Ymirdrak. The former being slain personally by [[Greasus Goldtooth]] while the latter freezing a whole Ogre Tribe with a single blast of his freezing breathe. For some reason they are attuned to the winds of Hysh, meaning those that can use magic can cast Lore of Light spells. The Frost Wyrms may be their Chaos-mutated cousins.
*'''The Imperial Dragon''' - The Empire's only owned dragon (Elspeth's dragon does not count). It was taken from the deepest cave of the black mountain. Only [[Karl Franz]] can ride it in battle. Otherwise, it just sits in the imperial zoo of Altdorf whenever Karl rides Deathclaw to battle. It is also nameless. The poor dragon just can't be anymore popular than Deathclaw huh? On the other hand it did get some piece of the action when during the End Times it slew the Bray Shaman known as The Harbinger and its horde of Beastmen in the Altdorf Palace with its fiery breathe.
*'''Cathayan Dragon''' - Like the real life Eastern Dragons, they are serpent-like and have the ability to cast magic and transform into smaller humanoid forms. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5G5v4W7omc The word is overused within the Cathay roster] as if they were [[Space Wolves]]. They also rules [[Cathay]]. Although they were mysterious in the past due to the lack of Cathay fluff, the recent revelations from [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] and the [[Warhammer: The Old World]] has revealed that there are only 7 of them ruling that damn place There's the original grandaddy Dragon Emperor [[Lord Kroak|(who is said to be about as strong, if not stronger than a fucking old world god like Ulric)]], and the newly addition of his wife, an equally powerful Dragon Moon Empress. The said power couples has 9 children with the same dragon abilities defending the borders of Cathay, with only 4 missing. In the older fluff, these dragon are awesome at being magic casters (especially lore heaven). So awesome that they fucked up the ogre tribes living north, created the great maw, and sunk a Dark Elf Black Ark. That said power is still true in recent canon, for the lore of heaven (aka Azyr) is the Dragon Emperor's most favored lore of magic. Its is also known that the offspring of the Dragon Emperor are able to have intercourse with humans which results in many citizens in Cathay sharing their blood.
**'''Dragon-blooded Shugengan Lord''' - Sons and Daughters of the Dragon Children. They are half-dragon, half-man commander who are like Vampire Lords (AKA: good at doing everything, be it fighting, casting magic or leading an army...OR ALL THREE ALTOGETHER). With these kind of special snowflake privileges, they grow up into becoming spoiled, arrogant arses, probably more so than a typical Elf (but less than Settra) due to their superior physiology. As a result, many mortal commanders resents them with jealousy, and yet are unable to do anything to them due to their noble birthright.

=== [[Age of Sigmar]] ===
In [[Age of Sigmar]], there are still dragons, albeit with a lesser variety.

*'''Draconith''': Age of Sigmar's attempt at bringing back dragons. The Draconith are the progeny of the legendary dragon god [[Dracothion]] and used to populate the realms in the days before the Age of Chaos. Once Chaos became an overwhelming threat and most of the Draconith were slain, the [[Slann]] managed to hide away what few eggs they could gather into a pocket dimension and kept vigil on them. Now that [[Kragnos]], one of the mightier gods of destruction, has awakened, the Slann have finally seen progress with the Draconith and have begun unleashing them...into the pens of the [[Stormcast Eternals|Sigmarines]], so they can have even more fucking pets. Also look like they are straight out of Eragon (fyi: ERAGON WAS NOT GOOD '''*BLAM*''' Ok the films sucked but the books are decent). Their leaders are Krondys and Kharzai, legendary dragons who claim to be the direct sons of Dracothion and serve as Sigmar's trusted generals.

[[Category: Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category: Age of Sigmar]]

==Warcraft==
Dragons debuted in ''Warcraft'' II as the flying attack unit for the Orcs, during which they were standard western fire breathing dragons. They are described as normally reclusive until the Orc Horde enslaved the queen Alexstrasza, forcing her progeny to fight for them. During the Beyond the Dark Portal expansion a group of truly evil dragons under the command one wearing armor called Deathwing. Like a lot of things introduced in the first two games the lore around them was heavily retconed.

Dragons are one of the oldest creatures in Azeroth granted great magical abilities by the Titans that shaped their world. In a reversal of their typical role, dragons in Warcraft were all originally benevolent, although their way of thinking and doing things didn't always line up with the short-term thinking of some of the mortal races. They were originally a species of proto-dragons that had wyvern-like wings which they used as forelimbs, two puny fore arms and two muscular rear legs and a tail. As a gift for their assistance in defeating the most powerful proto-dragon, Galakrond (Imagine a warhammer Ghorgon but as a dragon whose breath is so bad it literally wakes the dead), during the ordering of Azeroth the Titans altered them to be the larger and more intelligent four-legged dragons. They are segregated into five types called dragonflights each with different roles and abilities bestowed to them by one of the five Titans. Each dragonflight was assigned by a Titan to protect some aspect of their work on Azeroth while they went off to do Titan stuff else where in the universe. The leader of a dragonflight is called an Aspect, and some dragonflights still have their original Aspects.

* Red dragonflight: Led by Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, red dragons are fierce guardians of life. They were also given a degree of dominion over the other dragonflights. They breath fire.
* Blue dragonflight: Originally led by Malygos, and later by Kalecgos. Their domain is the aspect of magic. The blue dragonflight is said to be the least populous flight. They have ice breath.
* Green dragonflight: Aspects of nature who have a strong bond to a realm called the [[Feywild|Emerald Dream]]. Said to be the most populous dragonflight, though most rarely venture out of the Dream. Led by Ysera the Dreamer. They breath poison
**Nightmare dragons: Green dragons and their allies which have been twisted by a corruption in the Emerald Dream called the Emerald Nightmare, they now embody the negative aspects of nature such as decay and rot, and serve the Old Gods.
* Bronze dragonflight: Tasked with watching over time and making sure nobody messes with the timeline, bronze dragons are patient and reclusive. Led by Nozdormu the Timeless. They breath lightning.
** Infinite dragonflight: Bronze dragons who go rogue, they intentionally attempt to sabotage history to prevent past calamities. Led by future Nozdormu when he finally goes batshit insane due to seeing all the cataclysms well in advance and not being able to prevent them. [[Grimdark|His current-time self is perfectly aware that will eventually happen to him (it was part of the deal making him the guardian of time to reveal his eventual end to him) but there's nothing he can do about that either!]]
* Black dragonflight: Originally aspects of earth, tasked with keeping watch of the deep places. Which backfired horribly, because that's where the Old Gods hang out! Originally led by Neltharion the Earth-Warder, later known as Deathwing, he fell to evil and the rest of his flight followed suit. Now they are all treacherous assholes and nobody likes them they and take every possible opportunity to kill them, thus they have been hunted nearly to extinction. There are two non-evil black dragons whose minds were freed from the malicious influence of the Old Gods before they were hatched thanks to titan artifacts: Ebyssian, also known as Ebonhorn, a Spirit-Walker of the Highmountain Tribe, and Wrathion, the supposed heir of Deathwing who has taken it upon himself to make sure Azeroth doesn't get fucked. These dragons breath yets of lava.
* Chromatic Dragonflight: A dragonflight created by Nefarian, one of the most prominent black dragons, through gruesome experiments, combining the features and abilities of all five flights. Almost every one of these creations were unstable, deformed, infertile and/or short-lived, with a single exception: [[Tiamat|Chromatus, a five-headed dragon]] who could only be stopped by the combined efforts of the aspects (excluding Deathwing).
* Twilight Dragonflight: Originally created by Sintharia/Sinestra, the twilight dragonflight suffered from similar problems to Nefarian's chromatic dragons. That is, until Deathwing came along and combined the efforts of both to perfect the twilight dragons, successfully creating a powerful breed of dragons that feed vampirically on all forms for energy. The twilight dragonflight was nearly driven to extinction following the Cataclysm.

Things turn bad for the dragonflights when the black dragon aspect Neltharion was corrupted by the Old Gods who were imprisoned by the Titans deep within Azeroth. He plotted to destroy Azeroth to release his new masters when the Burning Legion, an army of demonic invaders led by the fallen Titan Sargeras, began to attack Azeroth. With their world under siege, Neltharion tricked the other four dragons into lending their powers to the Dragon Soul, a powerful artifact of his design, only to betray them and use it against them slaying many dragons. This treachery caused the other dragons to go into hiding away from each other, and although Neltharion (who had now assumed the name Deathwing) was eventually defeated, the world was twice shattered by cataclysms and the Dragon Soul would resurface periodically throughout history to pain the dragonflights until its eventual destruction, which drained the flights of much of their powers, turned them mortal and made them sterile, putting the five dragonflights on the extinction clock.

Additionally, there exist other dragons that didn't ascend alongside the five main flights, but still share a similar physique and level of intelligence. An example of such is the Storm Dragons of Stormheim, and the supposed existence of a violet dragonflight of proto-drakes.

==Warmachine==
The creatures called "dragons" in the [[Iron Kingdoms]] look nothing like dragons in other worlds. Rather than winged serpentine creatures of majesty and power, the "dragons" of Caen are [[Call of Cthulhu|monstrosities of inconsistent form]] and not of this world, capable of altering the bodies and minds of other creatures in horrific ways with an exotic energy they constantly emit, an energy the people of this world simply call "blight." The only thing known about their origin is that the gods did ''not'' create them. They are immortal as long as their athanc (a kind of heartstone) is not destroyed. A dragon reproduces by chipping off a piece of its athanc and letting it generate a new body, but such offspring have an innate urge to recombine their athancs and control all the power within them. Between their ability to regenerate from any amount of damage and their athanc being next to impossible to destroy, dragons are nigh unkillable. While the residents of Caen have sometimes managed to defeat a dragon in combat the only known way for one to die is another dragon consumes their athanc.

There are two dragons of significance in Caen.

* Dragon Lord Toruk, god and master of the [[Cryx]] faction and "father" to the other known dragons. He created the other dragons so he could have servants in his image, they proved to be a bit too much like him and he's been plotting to kill them ever since. Toruk is the most powerful known entity on Caen. The only thing keeping him in check is because the other dragons are so afraid of him that they have a deal to set aside their differences if Toruk starts acting up. As such Toruk has been working to create an undead from the inhabitants of Caen to help kill the other dragons and consume their athanc, only getting his hands dirty if he has no other options.

* Everblight, a shard of Toruk that went off and did its own thing with elves and mutations, eventually taking a page from his old man's book by creating his [[Legion of Everblight|eponymous faction]] to help kill the other dragons. Everblight is the smallest of the dragons in Caen, so much so that in order to hide from his enemies he choses not to regenerate his body and simply hides as an athanc since none of his enemies expect it. Thus far he's suceeded in killing two of other dragons.

==[[Yugioh]]==
Dragons are one of the types of monsters in Yuigoh and likely its most popular. Since the franchise's iconic Blue Eyes White Dragon was the first "boss monster," dragons tend to have very high attack points on top of some strong effects. As a rule the animes have the rival to the hero who uses a dragon type monster as their signature card. Many archtypes have dragons as their strongest monster, and many archtypes are built around dragons entirely.

Yugioh's dragons tend to be bipedal Western style in appearance, with a few exceptions. Aside from that their traits can include most anything, such being made of fire, made of ice, being part plant, or being mechanical while still being considered dragons as opposed to machine type monsters. There is even an archtype of dragon monsters who take the form of cute anime maids.

==The topic of dragon riders==
A surprisingly common feature of dragons in fantasy is the "dragon rider," a warrior who, well, rides a dragon. It looks awesome, until you realize they're really just pussies that stay safe just pointing the dragon in the right direction and let it fight for them, occasionally dismounting to deliver a finishing blow or give a pompous bullshit speech, not to mention preventing the dragon from doing some more extreme flight maneuvers. Characters with magic, divine powers or ranged weapons get a pass by actually helping the dragon in a fight.

Some may call their dragon a pet. Everyone in this world, dragons themselves especially, will sometimes point out that a human having a pet dragon is like a fly having a pet human.

==Monstergirls==
[[File:The Odd Couple.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Nights out on the town/village usually result in mass panic, chaos, fires, bloodshed and various other forms of shenanigans. Have fun...]]
{{Promotions}}
{{Monstergirls}}
Dragons are large, dangerous, majestic and exotic creatures, so of course people want to fuck them. Dragons, in their normal form or a more human form are of the scaly subgroup of [[Furries]]: furries attracted to things with scales instead of fur. They have a minor reputation of being [[That Guy]] amongst the furries because they have to be so special and fuck mythological creatures instead of dogs, cats, horses, foxes, rabbits and birds like "normal" people.

While dragons in [[Beastfolk|a humanoid shape]] (i.e. [[Dragonborn]]) are enjoyed by quite a few people, a large number prefer dragons in their natural shapes. For them it's about the contrast between the large and powerful dragon and their small and fragile frame: the fear makes their boners strong. There's also the perverts who want their dragons to have nonhuman genitals, which is a concept that the infamous Bad Dragon company has capitalized on by selling [[meme|their infamous dragon dildos]], which are often used as the punchline of a joke.

One of the things that dragons in ''D&D'' are infamous for is their ability to breed with just about any creature, and not being shy about it. (Just take a look at for instance the [[Song Dragon]]s.) Only Constructs and Undead can't reproduce with them, and even then it's possible to build or raise a dragon from the dead. This means that you can encounter anything from draconic [[unicorn]]s and [[owlbear]]s to draconic plants, [[slime]]s, [[aberration]]s and far worse (or better, depending on your [[Magical Realm|perspective]])).

Portraying "non-morphic" (i.e. no breasts) female dragons on /tg/ in a semi-erotic light is a real act that stirs contention. On the one hand, this is a well-known part of the furry fandom. On the other hand, dragons are '''iconic''' fantasy creatures. Plus, in ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', it's canon that many dragons like to get them some non-draconic loving, with their two patron/creator gods [[Tiamat]] and [[Bahamut]] first in line to nab themselves some quality mortal ass on a regular fashion and setting the example for their progeny. And that's when said progeny hasn't evolved to breed with humanoids in the first place, see aforementioned [[Song Dragon]]s. So people will [[rage|fight bitterly]] whenever they pop up in a thread, you can guarantee.

Naturally, the idea of dragons as sexy was quickly taken up by the [[Monstergirls]] crowd - in fact, one of the earliest [[/d/|Ecchi]] OVAs to make it into America was "Dragon Half", in which the main character was the [[Half-Dragon]] daughter of a female dragon and a male human, her father being sent to slay the dragon and forgetting the "s" while underway. Pink appeared as a cute girl with dinky little dragon wings, cute horns, a tail and the ability to breathe fire. In fact, Pink has actually come to be the defining archetype for the dragon-girl in MG fandoms; a human girl with horns, wings, a tail and, optionally, scales on the limbs - sometimes with paw-like feet, digitigrade legs, or even paw-like hands. It helps that this tends to be pretty accurate to ''D&D's'' own depiction of half-dragon humanoids (up to the social maladjustment of having such weird parents, played for laughs in the manga). As with any "beast-girl", dragon-girls with full-body scales or weirdly-colored skin are contentious because, no matter how human their face, they may look too furry for some purists to accept.

Dragon-girls are very popular in Japanese fantasy media, especially videogames. [[Final Fantasy]] even has a race, the Gria, who are an entire species of cute dragon-girls native to Ivalice.

Strangely, despite the existence of more "player friendly" dragon races like [[Dragonborn]], [[Dray]] and [[Spellscale|Spellscales]] - the latter of whom are even supposed to have evolved from [[Half-Dragon]] [[Sorcerer (Dungeons & Dragons)|sorcerers]] - the idea of reskinning these races to present them as dragon-girls never really gets mentioned. This likely has something to do with the fact that these races are less powerful than the half-dragon, and the standard "I want to be a dragon-girl!" player/DM ''also'' wants to have '''all''' of the draconic powers - [[Breath Weapon]], [[Damage Reduction]], and Flight.

===Gallery===
<center>
<gallery>
File:Dragon Housemaid.jpg|At least one of these forms will please some anon out there.
File:Asiatic Dragon Geisha.jpg|Asian dragons are beasts - or beast-girls - of a different color.
File:Red Dragongirl.png|A classic example of the Monstergirl dragon.
File:Risque Dragongirl.jpg|The "scale bikini" look is popular for dragon-girls.
File:Dragongirl Princess.png|Well, when a dragon kidnaps a princess, sometimes the kingdom gets an heir out of it.
File:Draconic Shifter.jpg|There's something for everyone.
File:Dragonmorph Sorceress.jpg|Some like their dragons with breasts.
File:Dragon Sorceress.jpg|Some like their dragons au naturale.
File:Athasian Dragongirl.jpg|Even the dread [[Athasian Dragon]] isn't immune to the [[Monstergirls]] treatment.
File:Faerie Dragongirl.png|A rare example of the [[Faerie Dragon]] getting the MG treatment.
File:Fem.jpg|Exhibit A in why furries & /tg/ have such a love-hate relationship.
</gallery>
</center>

===Monster Girl Encyclopedia===
Naturally, the ''[[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]]'' has its share of dragon-themed Monstergirls.

The actual '''Dragon''' fits the same kind of style first seen on the setting's Lizardgirl; scaly limbs, paw-like hands and feet, a tail, fin-like ears, horns and wings. They are characterized by their extreme pride; whilst not quite Tsunderes, they're determined to give themselves only to the best possible man, this pride and arrogance however can reach heights that leave them unable to find a husband that either they could tolerate or any man that could tolerate [[Bitch|them]], thus leading to...

In a terrible irony, if a Dragon fails to find a husband before she dies, the dark energies permeating the world will heed her unspoken desires and regrets over dying alone, and reanimate her as a '''Dragon Zombie''', a corpse-colored (blue-gray skin, dark mold-green wings, white hair) dragon with bony scales. In this state, her mind has degenerated, leaving her a horny bimbo obsessed with finding a man and taking him as her mate. These dragon-girls are quite dangerous, because they possess a "rotten breath" attack that can convert human women into undead Monstergirls.

The '''Wyvern''' is a dragon-girl with a more [[Harpy|harpy-like]] body structure, having wings instead of arms. These Monstergirls are far more friendly and easy-going than the standard dragons and readily team up with human adventurers to train with them as "dragoons". Needless to say, this "training" is merely a more adventurous form of courtship, as all dragoons end up married to their "mounts".

The '''Wurm''' is a linnorm-style dragon-girl, essentially a massively strong [[Lamia]] with paw-like hands, with an extremely lustful, aggressive personality that sees them going out and chasing after a man. They are however rather dim-witted, a little dopey, and easy-going (well ''after'' [[Rape|the fact]]) compared to the other dragon types, which has its own [[waifu]] appeal despite their [[Skub|arguable status]] as dragons.

The '''Jabberwock''' is a lewd, lascivious, depraved dragon-girl from the "Wonderland" region. It can be distinguished by its dark red colors and the presence of two tentacles, each of which bears a slavering maw and lecherous tongue used to pleasure victims and guzzle semen. Unlike regular Dragons, Jabberwocks are extremely direct in their affections, and do not pride themselves on being "powerful" or their "draconic superiority", instead they pride themselves on being sexy and being able to overpower a man in a sexual manner. [[Meme|If they like you, and they want you, then things will be happening either the easy way]] or [[Rape|the hard way.]]

Finally, there are the two dragons of Zipangu. The '''Ryu''' is another [[lamia]]-like dragon, but this time based on the Eastern Dragons of myth rather than the Western myths; a gentle-natured and benevolent Mamono with the power to influence the weather, in particular rainy weather.
The '''Otohime''' is an aquatic dragon-girl princess of the deeps who resembles a mermaid with the body of a seahorse (long story; seahorses are believed by the Japanese to be connected to dragons) and clawed hands, who seduces men to join her in her life of eternal partying in her palace under the sea. Have no fear from her seahorse appearance, though; [[Skub|pedophilia and rape]] aside, the MGE is ''far'' too vanilla to <s>allow</s> ''explicitly'' advertise pegging as part of its setting, never mind [[Heresy|male pregnancy]], which not even heterodox fanons dare to touch.

<center>
<gallery>
File:MGE Dragon.jpg|The original Dragon mamono, proud and haughty and determined to take only the best.
File:MGE Dragon Zombie.jpg|Back from the grave, and now a shameless bimbo.
File:MGE Jabberwock.jpg|She's the Queen Slut, and she's proud of it.
File:MGE Wyvern.jpg|Loyal, steadfast and true, even if she's not the curviest of monstergirls.
File:MGE Wurm.jpg|Don't let her looks fool you; she will punch through mountains to chase you down.
File:MGE Ryu.jpg|Beloved and mystical dragon-girl of Zipangu.
File:MGE Otohime.jpg|Party-girl from below the waves.
</gallery>
</center>

===Life with Monstergirls===
Meanwhile, ''Life with Monstergirls'' has the Dragonewts. They have wings and tails like dragons, as well as some scales on their faces and clawed hands. In the series we meet a Dragonewt named Draco, who tries to steal Miia away from her darling. While initially appearing to be male she's later revealed to be a flat-chested woman who develops an obsession with Miia, and it takes a couple of bullets to her wings from Manako and a [[rape|reprimanding]] from Suu to cool her off. Other variants of the Dragonewt is the Chinese Ryu-jin who has horns and has no wings, and the aggressive but dim-witted [[Wyvern]].

The manga takes time to explain [[Derp|just how much commonly-depicted dragongirl traits would suck in real life]]; bulletproof scales that require regular maintenance and clipping to prevent clothing snags, a big, muscular tail that needs specially-designed pants and undies on top of making it impossible to sleep on your back, and wings that only allow you to glide at best, which is further exacerbated by their weak chest muscles, generate air resistance while you're on foot, and are just plain in the way (Wyverns get past the wing issue, but again, they're dummies so they break even).

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Dragon rider.jpg
</gallery>
==See Also==
*[[Johnniass Dragonraper]] is known to rape a dragon on occasion.
*[[Toothless Dragon]] the [[Dawww]]-est dragon.
*The [[Periodic Table of Dragons]].

Forgotten Realms

2022-12-19T03:21:46Z

2601:602:C900:884:2853:492C:23F7:C6E7: /* Glyth */

[[Image:3EFRlogo.gif|center]]
'''Forgotten Realms''' is an official [[Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings|Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting]] created by [[Ed Greenwood]] circa 1967 for his little stories, but was not part of the official [[TSR Games]]/[[Wizards of the Coast]] lineup until 1987 and has since been supported by TSR/WotC through all five editions of the game. The setting is supported by hundreds of novels' worth of lore by dozens of authors ([[R.A. Salvatore]] being a standout), and is notable for prominently featuring the [[Planetouched]].

==Setting==
[[File:Toril-3e.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Deja vu, I've been in this place before..]]
Set on the planet Abeir-Toril, most of the Forgotten Realms source material focuses on the continent Faerûn. Faerûn is pretty similar to pre-industrial Europe, with the exceptions of all of that crazy fantasy stuff. At the low end, Wizards and Sorcerers make up 1% of the typical human population, and half of them are actually good at it. It seems to think that's a small number, despite being substantially more than MDs in the modern world (0.29%), most of whom are in very niche specialties. Multiple Clerics, "often" mid-level, can be found "in virtually every thorp and hamlet", and are common enough that people tend to die of old age, rather than injury their body can't heal naturally or disease. Despite a serious percentage of the population being casters, many of some skill, outside of Thay none of them do anything but maintain the status quo, try to violently conquer the world, or violently put an end to those trying to conquer the world. (That's the player's and villains' job)

Here are a plethora of nations, kingdoms, organizations, deities, and fully fleshed-out NPCs who are ripe with political intrigue and conflict.

As [[Lorraine Williams|You Know Who]] tightened her grip on TSR, and pushed [[Greyhawk]] and [[Mystara|The Known World]] into the margins, Forgotten Realms annexed some other authors' work. [[Douglas Niles]]' [[Bloodstone Pass]] and R.A. Salvatore's [[Icewind Dale]] both got retconned in. And then Niles did [[Maztica]]. Each time this happened, that pushed the boundaries of ''others''' creativity that much further away. You know. Those others, who don't have contracts with bigshot publishers. ''Us.''

By the end of 2e little left on Toril was left worth a DM's time to flesh out that had not been fleshed out. There was very, very little room for an incomer's own stuff.

Even WoTC thought that this had gotten really out of hand: when 4th edition rolled along, they decided to give the place a reboot. Hey, the Time of Troubles worked for the 1e-to-2e shift, right? They came up with the idea of "the Spellplague": killing [[Mystra]] off through the machinations of her long-time enemy [[Cyric]] and triggering another massive magical upheaval, similar to the one that had ended the Age of Magic when Mystryl had been killed off. They then skipped time forward a century, to add icing to the cake, presenting a rebuilding world and retconning Abeir-Toril from being the planet's almost never used full name (so it'd be first in the setting encyclopedia) to being twin planets, with [[Abeir]], under the dominion of the [[Archomental|Primordials]], serving as an origin for 4th edition races.

Unfortunately... the result was an absolute PR ''nightmare''. The dramatic changes in everything from geology to cosmology, with the [[World Tree]] replaced by the [[World Axis]], just infuriated the setting's fandom, who have something of a reputation as obsessive-compulsive [[grognard]]s even by the standards of the D&D fandom.

Not surprisingly, when the edition change rolled out, a new apocalyptic makeover, the Sundering, was used alongside a 10 year skip to change things more back to the way they were. Although, on the plus side, a lot of the uber-NPCs who didn't have huge fanbases actually stayed dead - they even killed off some more of Mystra's Chosen during the Sundering.

All in all, Forgotten Realms is the ultimate [[skub]] setting of D&D, with people still bitching over every little change from 1st edition onwards. Yes, even more than 2e/3e [[Greyhawk]]: at least there, the grognards enjoy a consensus, that what ''[[From The Ashes]]'' did was a blip, a Late Unpleasantness in the past. Ironically, 5e's attempt at focusing attention on the Realms has begun making it even less popular, as by this point most of the fandom is getting well and truly sick that one setting is getting all the 5e love.

You'll notice going down that a lot of the sub-settings, in particular, seem to rip-off of real-world places and people. Well, that's intentional: Forgotten Realms was designed with the idea that it has long had secret portals to our real-world throughout history - which may or may not have anything to do with the D&D Cartoon. So, a lot of shit in Forgotten Realms is literally supposed to have either been brought there from earth, or inspired earth by slipping through the portals. Mulhorand, for example, is not only "Ancient Egypt in D&D with the Egyptian Gods ruling it", but is by its fluff actually populated ''by'' the descendants of Ancient Egyptians who were sucked through portals into the Realms and enslaved by evil wizards.

===[[Faerûn]]===
{{dnd-stub}}
Medieval/Renaissance Europe/Near East/Africa. The setting of the vast majority of D&D stories, including those of a certain dark elf, to top it all off with the center of attention in D&D videogames to boot. This setting provided inspiration for most of the 3e [[splatbook|splatbooks]]. Most of the attention Faerûn gets is centered on its west coast, the Swordcoast, and [[Dalelands]].

A common theme of the continent, (as the others like [[Kara-Tur]] and [[Zakhara]] were original and currently treated as separate D&D worlds), is how littered the region is with the remains of long-dead temples, towns, cities, and civilizations whose existence has mostly washed from memory with the passing of time (Forgotten Realms TM). Rarely does this happen by mundane real-life means like profits drying up or being conquered by a neighbor. It always has to be the fault of some Fiend, power-hungry Mage(s), and/or adventuring party, with a notable percentage of the previous occupants dying in some horrific manner, often with a Horde of orcs being somehow involved that has come to raid and raze the place before, during or after the incident. [[grimdark|So remember when exploring some ruins, never will the original inhabitants just abandon a place willingly, minute residue from their dusty dried blood must still stain the walls]].

<gallery>
Faerun political.jpeg|full Faerûn map
Faerûn map.jpeg|the 5e map of the western Faerûn focused on Sword Coast with the immediate lands around it.
Faerun 1e.jpeg|1e
1479-faerun low-res 4e.jpeg|4e map, mostly outdated so use older ones.
YearofOathsForsakenMap.jpeg
</gallery>

====[[Sword Coast]]====
{{dnd-stub}}
As a continent is still a Dizzying vast place, Sword Coast is the main location for adventures or at least the start, with the majority of 5e modules assuming this. In terms of operation area, the Sword Coast is the areas surrounding cities that are part of the [[Lords' Alliance]]. This is your Usual sandbox fantasy location, with cities-states Overlooking smaller Towns, instead of classical Kingdoms. Still tons of monsters and ruins of past civilizations.
<gallery>
The-sword-coast-campaign-map.jpeg| the Sword Coast, the place most of your official 5e Forgotten Realms games will happen.
Faerûn map.jpeg|The Sword Coast with the Heartlands, so [[Baldur's Gate]] can feel included.
Skt03-thenorth.jpeg|the North, the place most 5E modules take place.
</gallery>

====[[Icewind Dale]]====
Your Artic setting is just north of the [[Sword Coast]]. Here be Frostbite, frost giants, isolation, and eldritch horrors.

====Western Heartlands====
Here be [[Baldur's Gate (City)|Baldur's Gate]] and every other existential threat the city (more accurately the [[Baldur's Gate (Games)|main character of the video games]]) has to deal with.

You have Warlock's Crypt, home to the powerful Netherese lich [[Larloch]], who hate it when you misspronounce his name as Warlock.

To the east is the Grand protectorate of [[Elturel]], a theocracy of goodness that attracts a lot of [[paladin]] types. The highest honor of the nation is being a hellrider, named after the brave that rode with [[Zariel]] into [[Hell]] (you know before they bravely noped back out, shut the portal on Zariel, and causing her to fall and become a [[Archdevil]]). Zariel now hates Elturel for some reason. Depending on what time you play the holy city is either secretly ruled by a vampire lord, has a second sun over the city, and is controlled by a seemly benevolent man who secretly sold the city to Zariel, Zariel had come collecting and dragged the city into [[Avernus]], or some ending for Descent into Avernus you and your friends made up.

You got Trielta Hills, where the [[Gnome]]s and [[Halfling]]s live like the footnotes they like to be.

Najara is the evil nation that is openly-not-secretly ruled by [[yuan-ti|snake people]].

Evereska in the Greycloak Hills is another secluded place where the dying elf race lives, especially with a recent influx of refugees from [[Cormanther]].

South of Baldur's Gate we Got [[Candlekeep]] where the nerds live. Can't enter the Library fortress unless you give them a scribble of paper they don't already own.

And then finally we have the Far Hills in the far southeast, the base of the military arm of the [[Zhentarim]] and its main headquarters as of 5e.

<gallery>
SCA-WesternHeartlands5e.png| if you play [[Baldur's Gate (Games)]], some places may sound familiar.
</gallery>

====Eastern Heartlands====
Although the Swordcoast gets the most focus, the Western Heartlands is More of [[Ed Greenwood]]'s babies, where he and his players spend most of their own time.

We have [[The Dalelands]], a loose confederation of independent small towns that were given this land by the elves of Cormanthor as a pact in hopes that these common farming folk will act as a buffer against approaching evils. Ed's OC [[Elminster]]'s hometown, Shadowdale, is here. The Dalelands is always under threat of plots by its more nationalize neighbors to break up these close nit rural communities to annex their lands in addition to other D&D baddies.

To the Southeast is [[Cormyr]] one of the very few classical fantasy kingdoms that exist in the Forgotten Realms. Nobility is important, and the only way to really get in is through political marriages. Commoners and adventures with remarkable skills that want to get their family's foot in the door could join the purple dragon knights or the War Wizards; though not a hereditary title, it's still your best way to start schmoozing with nobility.

Sembia is your conglomeration of capitalist port towns, a place where to get trade goods without the taxation or quality control of Cormyrs ports.There's always merchants willing to sell or searching for a new source of revenue to milk.

Westgate is somehow an even seedier cesspool of crime and villainy that makes Amn and Sembia look like ethical and orderly governments by comparison. Bribery and profits are only what matter.

The Moonsea is a region filled with independent cities constantly rising and falling, this is where [[Zhentill Keep]] is found, the birthplace of the [[Zhentarim]]. With the founder, the now ancient archmage Manshoom, falling out of favor, and an ill-advised alliance with the [[phaerimm]] causing a devastating shadow war with the returned Netherese, the Zhentarim's current main base of operations is now in the West but still looking to reclaim their birthplace.

Cormanthor is your classic big ass forest containing the remains of an ancient elven empire. The main city was [[Myth Drannor]], a relatively recent city by eleven standards, attempting to preserve the few vestiges of elven civilization by opening up to other races and giving way land to the Dalelands. but like more things Elven, haters going to hate, and demons going to demon, after several incursions, the straw that broke the elven back was a idiot elf High Mage, Khyssoun Ammath, created and reared a red dragon that never known evil. Apparently the ruling counsel forgot or lacked the heart tell poor Ammath that taking this red dragon on joy rides was the impossibility required to destroy the city's protective wards, and released three imprisoned [[yugoloth|yugoloths]] that proceeded to build an army of darkness and razed Myth Drannor, one of the last real elven cities. Around the transition to 4e, ancient Elf Cambions finally conquered the ruin of Myth Drannor, only for a crusade to take it back and decide to seriously try to rebuild the city this time.

Myth Drannor was returning to power until The Second Sundering, where Sembia invaded the Dalelands. Calling on allies, it was a war between the alliance of The Dalelands, Cormyr, and Myth Drannor vs the Netherese and their puppets, ending with the last Netherese flying capital city crashing into Myth Drannor, once again destroying the remains of two once grand empires.

This war started about 6 to 16 years ago between 4e and 5e, With the status quote returning to how it was before in 3e.

<gallery>
Eastern Heartlands3e.png
</gallery>

====[[The Lands of Intrigue]]====
South of the [[Sword Coast]] and [[Baldur's Gate]] is basically Faerûn's slice of [[Al-Qadim|Zakhara]]. Long ago the [[Genie]] lord Calim swept into the area with his lackeys and created his slave empire. Eventually, his [[Genie]] generals tried to take a slice of Caliym's pie for themselves, resulting in a brief war that absolutely ended with the local angry tree-hugging elves High mages Fusing much of the Genie across the nation into a giant floating crystal, taking care to also shatter Calim's and his former head righthand, Memnon, minds across the land, but transforming the surrounding area into a desert as a byproduct. and then the elves pat themselves on the back and called it a day instead of finishing the job like they usually do.

After their master was imprisoned, the humans created their own empire of [[Calimshan]], with eventually the land of Tethyr rebelling for independence, resulting in the merchant nation of [[Amn]] also getting some breathing room.

Amn the northern plutocratic nation of trade ruled by a council of once 6 now 5 wealthy families. Ships from every land on Toril make port in Athkatla, the city of a coin whose marketplace is twice the size of [[Waterdeep]]s. From magic items to your [[slavery|kidnapped grandma]] this is the best place to find, buy and sell those kinds of things. Wealth is expected to be flaunted and the only major government setback to committing most crimes is paying a fine for getting caught. The only death penalty is being an Arcane caster who has not paid the secretive Cowled Wizards' steep membership fee.

In the south, not so obsessed with acquiring wealth as Calimshan receives about as much trade as Amn. Like Amn, wealth determines power in Calimshan movement class hierarchies, with the Syl-pasha, the "chief guildmaster" of the city of Calimport being usually the most important. Calimshan is defined by how prevalent magic is in everyday life and sees itself as the greatest of nations as they accept and are willing to evoke any and all gods in the Faerûn pantheon and have at least one still working temple dedicated to each one. Nothing can go wrong when a public temple to [[Tyr|Ty]][[Lawful Stupid|r]], [[Bhaal|Bha]][[Murderhobos|al]], and [[Cyric|Cy]][[Stupid Evil|ric]] are in the same city.

Sandwiched between the two nations is the kingdom of Tethyr. The Spanish Constitutional monarchy, with landholding being important with gods that enrich it the most important. Tethyr's history has long been defined by the many secret coups and the peasants' viva la revolutions.

Muranndin is a nation of monsters and bandits that carved its place between Tethyr and Amn, just south of the Small Teeth mountain range, in 1371 DR. The Great Mur has only nominal control over the chieftains and bandit lords, who spend their time raiding the neighbouring contries and each other.

Cape Velen used to be a duchy of Tethyr, but declared indepence after getting cut off from them by Muranndin several years prior. Ghost sightings are super common here, to the point that the locals just ignore them entirely.

====[[The Old Empires]]====
South of the sea of falling stars you got your pre-Islamic middle eastern nations. Long ago some human tribs discovered the portal network of a creator race and used it to conquer a massive portion of Eastern Faerûn, with outposts even in the endless wastes. The Imaskar Empire became master artificer wizards and relied on magic items for day to day life. They still needed slave labor so they went to the actual planet Earth and kidnapped pre-bronze age humans near the Fertile Crescent and Nile River. This went bad for the Imaskari, despite being anti-theists and taking precautions to create a barrier to block divine magic, they didn't expect the slaves pantheons to bypass it with a host of Avatars.

Imaskar wizards were not immediately wiped out, but the Mesopotamian [[Mulhorand]] and Egyptian [[Unther]] people were freed, established thier own empires ruled by god-kings that battled the remains of Imaskar artificers for years until they were mostly driven off-world or underground.

The new empire ran smoothly, but Imaskar pregiguce placed harsh restrictions on arcane magic, which [[wizard|wizards, having no sense of right or wrong]], rebelled and formed their own magocracy they named [[Thay]] (and they have been a nuisance to everyone ever since). Their first order of business was open a portal to an orc dominated planet (which the leader of the revolution was executed before he could do something), having the world overrun with orcs while [[Gruumsh]] probably massacred all of [[Mulhorand]] pantheon that didn't peace out. After that was resolved nothing much happened until 4e.

[[Mulhorand]].

[[Unther]].

[[Chessenta]] bunch of city-states that broke away from Mulhorand under the leadership of a Red Dragon and God-king of Tiamat named [[Tchazzar]].

[[Tymanther]] during 4e, the chunk that replaced Mulhorand was filled with Dragonborn that were really sick of being ruled by dragons. They were on peaceful terms with the returned Imiskar, but when Mulhorand came back between 4e and 5e, they were also sick of dragons (including Dragonborn). Wanting to reclaim all lost lands [[Gilgeam]] had declared two wars on the new nation, which only halted for now by his father [[Enlil]], making the Dragonborn his new chosen people.

====[[Shining South]]====
Pseudo-Africa and Pseudo-India, in that it's mostly covered in tropical jungles and swamps, with one huge-ass desert. Notable regions include Halruaa, an isolationist [[magocracy]], [[Dambrath]], a nation of horse-riding, [[Loviatar]]-worshipping black [[amazons]] (of the "women run things, men obey" variety) ruled over the by [[Crinti]] (a matriarchal mixture of [[half-elves]], [[drow]], and half-drow), and the halfling homeland of [[Luiren]]. Is home to Faerun's native population of [[thri-kreen]], as well as a race of [[spelljammer|alien]] [[beastfolk|elephant people]] called [[Loxo]]s.

Despite the Shining South's lack of any major influence or pronounced interaction with the rest of the Forgotten Realms, the damage this region suffered as a result of the 4E [[Spellplague]] - which, amongst other things, saw [[Halruaa]] blow up, [[Luiren]] sank underwater, and Dambrath's Crinti rulers be deposed by a human uprising that brought about a restoration of their pre-Crinti culture - was hugely unpopular. Some of that is inexplicable - Halruaa blowing up makes perfect sense, since the place was literally as magical as [[Eberron]] and the Spellplague's whole thing was making magic dangerously unstable - but other complaints are more reasonable; if such an "old ways" movement against the Crinti had ever been explicitly mentioned in 3e or 2e lore, Dambrath's civil uprising would have made sense - especially in light of the baked-in drow tendency towards slave raids - but with no explicit pretext, it seemingly comes out of nowhere.

5E brought [[Halruaa]] back from death. with foresight foreseeing the all-consuming blue fire that followed Mystra’s death, and used it to displace itself in Abeir (while displacing part of that world into the [[Plane of Shadow]]). Now they're back to spread the joys of Airships.

Because [[halfling]]s luck, they treated their entire nation being underwater like their basement was flooded. After calling a plumber off-screen, Luiren now returns to being the land of hobbits everyone forgets about.

Dambrath are still are horse-riding nomads and hate the Crinti. They take [[lycanthropy]] as a showing reverence to a favored deity and honoring their heritage.

====[[Chult]]====
{{dnd-stub}}

====[[Nimbral]]====
{{dnd-stub}}
southwest of Chult is A mysterious island nation populated by mostly half-elves, supposedly once ruled by the church of [[Leira]], goddess of illusions and lies before being taken over by a group of also super secretive illusionist archmages during the Time of Troubles. [[Alpha Legion|By the nation's very nature this is all we know about them and this may also be a very elaborate lie]].

You can't teleport to the island and they have invisible [[hippogriff]] knights that will sink uninvited ships.

This secrecy probably also hides the fact also has [[Spelljammer]] ports, within 2e there is a secret "the resort" where crews go for vacation. The second time Nimbral did anything was in 5e where the Spelljammer Academy is located, an also secret place where recruits across the Forgotten Realms learn how to Spelljam.

====[[Unapproachable East]]====
Eastern Asia, a blend of Mongolian, Russian, Indian, and Chinese traits. Most famous for being the lands covering [[Thay]], the biggest civilization of evil wizards in the setting, and the more obscure land of [[Rashemen]], which is sort of Russian [[berserker]] country ruled by masked witches but which everyone knows because it's the homeland of [[Minsc]]. It's the setting for ''Mask of the Betrayer'', the first expansion pack for ''[[Neverwinter Nights]] 2'', since they decided to set a Forgotten Realms video game somewhere interesting for once.

====[[Cold Lands]]====
Your other Russian/Slavic nations sandwich between the Anauroch, [[Unapproachable East]], and the Great Glacier; this is as far north you can go before getting into [[Icewind dale]] territory, but somehow the Great Glacier is even colder and more dangerous.

You have [[Damara]], a kingdom run by incompetent nobles, and is starting to have a demon infestation problem. This is the best setting if you want to run a game in feudal Russia or [[Kislev]].

To its east is [[Narfell]], the remains of a demon-worshiping empire that conquered much of the Cold Lands and the east before that was destroyed in a protracted war with the predecessors of Rashemi. (Says devils in 5e Sword coast adventure guide, although it was demons in older sources and under the Nar peoples' description, [[durp|feel like a typo]])

To the west is [[Vaasa]], a place once destroyed by a lich before being defeated by Damara, that is now watched over by the iron-fisted Warlock Knights who are currently debating if they should break from their charge and invade their neighbors again.

Finally, there is [[Sossal]], founded what a group from [[Rasheman]] who believed they could create a kingdom in the Great Glacier near the Sea of Ice (different from the Sea of Moving Ice), the equivalent of medieval Russians following a river north and settled down in [[Conan]] [[Hyborian Age|fantasy Siberia]].

===[[The Horde|Hordelands]]===
The Eurasian Steppes, with Tibet thrown in as well, and yes they had their own version of [[Genghis motherfucking Khan]] and Mongol invasions. Didn't get updated for [[3e]], but bits got included in a Dragon article for 4e.

===[[Kara-Tur]]===
Ancient China/Japan/Korea. Updated for 3e with the ''[[Weeaboo Fightan Magic|Book of Weeaboo Fightan Magic]]'' and ''Oriental Adventures'', but never updated for 4e as a setting. Little bits of it were included in Dragon for 4e, covering [[Weeaboo|Samurai and Ninja]] and horde themes as well as new monk stuff and [[Hengeyokai]] as a race.

====[[Malatra]]====
Ancient India/Southeast Asia. Got its own living campaign at the end of [[2e]] and the beginning of 3e, and was soon forgotten afterward.

===[[Maztica]]===
Pre-Columbian South/Central America, the subject of the eponymous splatbook for AD&D. Was not updated for [[3e|3rd Edition]], but skipped a generation and got an update for [[4e|4th Edition]]. In the form of being replaced by the continent of [[Abeir]] and having everything about it shunted into another universe. Wasn't in [[3e]] either so fuck them. Manages to be the skubbiest aspect of the setting; some adore it for being South American Fantasy, a rare thing, others hate it for being so transparently "the Aztec world shunted into the Forgotten Realms". Some madlads at the [[DM's_Guild|DM's Guild]] went and wrote a full translation to [[5e|5th Edition]] with a "the Aztec world shunted into the Forgotten Realms, but this time the Aztecs won and gave [[Lolth]] and to a lesser extent [[Helm]] the finger before integrating the surviving colonists" feeling. Also, they're back where Abeir used to be because why the fuck not.

====[[Anchorome]]====
Pre-Columbian North America. What's written about is based on the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestral_Puebloans Native Americans of the Four Corners] cultures.

====[[Katashaka]]====
Despite being located south of not!Central America, it's supposed to be based on Pre-Colonial Africa, and that is literally all that is known.

===[[Osse]]===
Pre-Colonial Australia. Outside the pun, that's largely all that's known.

===[[Al-Qadim|Zakhara]]===
Medieval Middle East/Hollywood Arabia. Left to hang in the wind after 2e ended, save some 3e articles in [[Dragon Magazine]], and probably not likely to come back any time soon. But 5e did bring back the yakmen.

===Realmspace===
[[File:Realmspace.jpg|right|500px]]
{{dnd-stub}}
{{NeedsImages}}
Because [[Spelljammer]], Toril is part of a solar system with planets you can fly to.

====The Crystal Sphere====
Back in 2e, when the [[Phlogiston]] was a thing and every [[wildspace]] system was enclosed by a Crystal sphere, The inside of Realmspace's Crystal sphere was covered in colossal spell Glyph, which the occasional wizard will get Nuked by a spell upcasted to 10th level+ as they foolishly try to decipher them. Portals into and out of the sphere open and close randomly, with an estimated 3,200 portals existing at a time. Also, the stars in Realmspace are portals of versus sizes to the [[Inner_Planes#Radiance|Quasielemental of Radiance]].

Another unique feature inside the Realmspace Crystal Sphere is the hundreds of thousands of humanoids from a mix of races, marching in a line around the sphere's meridian; all have the mark of [[Torm]] on their palms, silent chant, and wave hands like they are casting spells. Legends say that they are the evilest souls that die each quinquennial, so they are punished by gods to eternally open portals so spelljammers can get in and out. [[derp|This duty/curse doesn't stop them from falling into the Phlogiston when a portal opens on the meridian]].

With 5e Officially abolishing the [[Phlogiston]] and Crystal Spheres, consider this all [[retcon|retconed]] away factoids.

====The Sun====
The hottest place in the system, which may be the result or as a byproduct, the sun has many portals to the [[Inner_Planes#Fire|Plane of Fire]], so fire [[elemental]]s, [[efreeti]], [[Helian]], [[firenewt]], [[salamander]]s, Giant Lavaworms, and other creatures of flame like it here (many scholars think they are here because the like the smell of nuclear fusion). As you would expect, the surface is covered with lakes of molten earth and liquid flame, with fire pillars erupting millions of miles up - helians like to ride them, bronco rider style. This may be the most obvious way to get into the plane of fire, but there are many dangers as we are talking about 2e's plane of fire. You're basically trying to get close to a plasma-filled star, and the best you have is old-school fire immunity which will not only not protect your clothes from turning ash, but also that ring of fire immunity also has limits as it will melt in your hands with you along with it. Another problem is making sure to avoid the 12 100,000-mile diameter dead magic zones orbiting the sun, called sargassos. They also have to contend with the Helians, who will shoot down any ship that gets close enough to prevent other races from exploiting their home planet.

====Anadia====
The closest planet to the sun, so 70% of the planet is a barren wasteland filled with the biggest canyons in Realmspace and predators that would feel at home in [[Dark Sun]]. The exception to this are the poles, where massive glaciers produce rivers of meltwater that nourish fertile hill-country.

The dominant race of Andia is an unnamed [[halfling]] subrace, distinguished by their dark sin, smaller eyes and ears, and visual adaptation to a naturally brighter world - these guys basically have the opposite of darkvision, having a hard time seeing when it's ''not'' lit up like a neon Christmas tree. They also are noted for being very emotionally extreme, though it's unclear if this is a personality trait or a cultural trait; if they like something, then they love it, but when they don't like it, they abhor it.

The Northern Polearate is a constitutional democracy made up of 13 counties, of which only four are safe to visit for outsiders on spelljammers, as the other nine violently discourage visitors with primed anti-air batteries. Well, for a given value of being "safe". See, the Northern Polearates are not only violently paranoid about outsiders stealing their precious water reserves, but also militant halfling supremacists; they believe halflings are the intellectually dominant race of [[Wildspace]], and other races should be shepherded into reserves under their control "for their own wellbeing". Don't mean they won’t accept business with outsiders, just stay <s>outside the segregated</s> inside the visitor-allowed zone and don't get left behind by your vessel.

The Southern Polearate, in contrast, is a parody of the violently warring Italian city-states from the age of Shakespeare. Seriously, these guys are ridiculously aggro compared to your regular halfling; most halflings here ''die'' around age 25 due to being murdered in some clan-feud or another. It doesn't help that a; the pole's cultural motto is literally "Anything worth fighting over is worth dying for", and b; social standing is literally determined by how valuable the stuff you own is. Even minor details of one's personal properties, such as the size of your land in inches or the kind of fences you use to mark your borders, is stuff that these halflings will stab each other for. Spelljammers wisely stay the fuck away from these bumblefucks, lest they be swarmed by loot-crazed blood-vendetta-swearing halflings. Even [[orc]]s or [[goblin]]s would probably be more hospitable.

In the wasteland areas, the dominant sapient race (because, remember, they technically ''are'' sapient) are the [[Umber Hulk]]s, the feral descendants of [[Neogi]] fighting slaves abandoned here when the neogi tried to invade, only to get so sick of getting their shit kicked in that they cut their losses and left. The local halflings like to credit this to their racial luck and ingenuity. Outsiders suspect the '''real''' reason has to lie with two of Anadia's dominant predators; the [[gremlin]]-like [[Painsjan]], which are voracious carnivores that swarm the wastes in huge hordes, and the [[Anadjiin]], a race of large, humanoid dino-bugs with genius-level intellects who have taken on the personal responsibility of balancing Anadia's ecosystem. Evidently, they've decided that crazy halflings and burrowing beetle-apes are a decent choice for dominant sapient lifeforms, so their tastes are obviously quite questionable, though they do eat a lot of them.

====Coliar====

A warm Gas Giant filled with hundreds of earth and water islands orbiting inside the planet a various altitudes.

The planet is primarily inhabatied by [[Lizardfolk]], [[aarakocra]], and [[dragon]]s.

Thunderstorms happen a lot near the top, so the aarakocra prefer living in on the lower islands. The aarakocra have 100 separate democratic governments, which happened to be all matriarchal for the last 1,200 years by popular vote. They often trade spelljammer gems they mine for Gun to deal with Lizardfolk expansion.

The [[Lizardfolk]] are [[communist]]s, making sure everything is shared equally amongst them selves. At their ports, they sell aarakocra meat and feathers, overpriced water, and include the air tax as a docking fee. They have an interest in spelljammers, specifically buying or renting them so they (and some dragons) can get their eggs as close as possible to the sun to produce superior children. The section on the Sun explains the inherent dangers of getting so close to that ball of fire.

Finally, acting as a neutral party are the dragons. Having a more neutral alignment leaning than the chromatic and metallics on most other worlds, not going into open conflict with each other, and even some more willing to interbreed. Being more cooperative, they scheme together to increase their hoards. Acting as a neutral party between lizardfolk and aarakocra, they will lean towards whichever side they can profit from more but will come to the of either side if they notice them being attacked by outsiders (which some shadier folk take advantage to destroy vessels that flee their ports without <s>getting all their money rung out</s> pay all the dock fees). All dragons also have an agreement with the two races to be able to use any spelljamming at any time.

====Toril====
See top of page
=====[[Selune]]=====
From Toril, Selune looks like a glowing Tidal-locked wheel of cheese, and that is what moon people want the people of Toril to think. Despite being named after the goddess of the moon, the native palled-skinned humans and elves actually worship and named their world [[Leira]], the goddess of illusions and trickery. The moon is very earth-like. The moon people have a culture that values aesthetics and intense passions, with the average citizen buying art, fine foods, and fancy furniture. The moon people import silk and pay fine gold for the safe travel of foreign artists (who tend to survive only for a few days or weeks on Selune before getting stabbed by another artist). They also buy deadly magical items...

The people of Selune are mostly open with everyone except the people of Toril. The Reson is that they are culturally paranoid that Toril will invade them (a not unreasonable conclusion given how many [[Yuan-ti|clandestine]] [[Zhentarim|expansionist]], [[Thay|power-hungry mages]], and [[Elder Evils|world-ending threats]] only kept in check by the stumbling of [[Player Character|exceptional samaritans]]. In this paranoia, the Toril facing side of the moon is shrouded in an illusion to hide the cities and habitability. All citizens are traned from a young age in guerrilla warfare and made hundreds of secret underground bunkers. All spelljammer must dock on the Darkside of the moon to hide geographical and trade information from most Toril onlookers. Toril inhabitants are allowed on Selune but will be treated as potential spies with the executioner axe ready within the hour as soon as they stumble on a military or trade secret.

=====Tears of Selune=====
Circa −3500 DR, this asteroid field trailing behind the moon of Selune had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Many groundings have their own self-centered interpretations, but many space people point to the mysterious castle at the center of the cluster as the main puzzle piece, though knowone has yet to return from that Brown Pudding-filled castle.

Many asteroids have been converted into spelljammer ports like the Dragon Rock or pirate hideouts where Mind flayers, neogi, and Githyanki hide out and plan their future raids on Toril. Also, The Citadel is a fortress where groundling dwarfs in the system find their spacelegs before becoming entrepreneurial space dwarves. The [[Rock of Bral]] is heavily hinted at being canonically here until outright stated in the 5e release.

====Karpri====
A planet covered only by water, a water world if you may, but you are not invited. It doesn't even have a solid planetary core. The world is divided into three sections; each one is hostile to spelljammers in different ways.

The warmest it will ever at the Poles get is -10 degrees during the hottest summer days. Your are losing your landing gear at best if you make the mistake of letting your ship touch the ice. You will find any creature that would be at home in the [[Inner_Planes#Ice|Frostfell]] like polar bears, [[Homunculus]] (bets me why they here), [[Hydra|cryohydra]], [[Slime|white pudding]], [[remorhaz]], ice toad, [[winter wolf]], and [[yeti]]. Their also a group of marooned gnomes on the southern pole.

The equator sargasso is covered in a massive seaweed forest. There are leaves large enough to support a landing spelljammer, but The giant hungry insects mean the only reason to land here is for quick emergency repairs (or have heavy-duty bug repellent).

In between the two is only open water with telepathic dolphins and xenophobic Sea elves that had immigrated from Toril. They hate whalers, and all foreigners are whalers.

Orbiting the planet is a hunted military space station made of seven archaic man-o-war ships. it was placed there by the [[Elven Imperial Fleet|Elven Imperial Navy]] to oversee the relocation of the Sea elves but mind flayers attack, and now it floats dialectic with elven ghost guarding it.

====Chandos====
In contrast to Karpri, Chandos is covered with islands but just as unfriendly to Spelljammers.

Chandos is described to be comprised of earth motes, that shift and move like marble in a jar. About every 48 hours, Everything moves, with mountains and land masses suddenly rising or sinking back under the water. Landing something as heavy as a spelljammer always has a chance of the island suddenly shifting.

There are tribes of Humans, dwarves, and orcs that eke out a nomadic lifestyle, searching for food while betting on which land mass will be safe to stay when the islands start changing. They are the survivors of a spelljammer cracking on Chandos generations ago. The orcs are the friendliest and most civilized, while the Humans and dwarves have become very debased from their time surviving on Chandos.

====Glyth====
A ringed, seeming barren, [[Far Realms]]-touched, inhospitable planet, which actually houses a thriving community of Mind Flyers and their 'skull cattle' farms.

To prevent the cattle from hiding on the surface, the Mind Flyers periodically burn down their own forests which causes the atmosphere to smell like a charnel house and rain acid. There is a drinkable gelatin ocean which is kept clean by slurping everything from the surface down to the sea floor.

Underground is the Mind Flayer cities, raising Oortling and other varieties of humanoids as child geniuses for culinary brains, while any offworlder or slave bred for muscle are put to hard labor. Still, several slaves escape and rebel on Glyth, with the Free Thinkers Union hiding deeper underground (an Under-Underdark, if you will) being the largest group the Mind Flyers are desperate to find.

Most Realm spacers (except most of Toril) are aware, just like Neogi, that you shouldn’t trust or deal with Mind Flyers directly. Rational people avoid Glyth, but they still keep seminally active spelljammer ports just so they can trade with off-world Mind Flayers and other aberrations, or occasionally trick the odd foreign Spelljammer into delivering its crew as new slaves.

Glyth has three moons: Haven Illithid is the only neutral ground between rival cities and the base of the Glyth Security and raiding fleet; the frozen moon Mingabwe is one of the only friendly ports in the region to land and plan raids against the Mind Flyers; it's still living founder, the pirate turned paladin, Justin "Do Good" Demonslayer, went to the third moon Polluter to hide two evil magic items but settled on Mingabwe to found one of the few sanctuaries on Glyth.

Given how optional the lore of the Spelljammer and Elder Evil Books were, it is questionable if The Elder evil [[Atropus]], the World Born Dead, ever destroyed all life on Glyth with its necromantic presence. As of 5e we do know the mind flyers are still doing fine. By the late 15th century DR, Captain N'ghathrod in [[Dungeon of the Mad Mage]] had left his underground city to be a space pirate. So the bulk of the Illithid cities were fine, assuming the Atropus scenario is canon. Some also have also headcanon that the reason why the Realms Space stopped being a major center Spelljamming (outside Spelljammer was never meant to be part of the main continuity) was that this is an alternate timeline where everyone else except the protagonists (PCs) drove off Atropus at the last minute, thus destroying the space economy in the process and why only until recently why there was a secret academy to train Spelljammers being a thing again.

====Garden====
====H'catha====

====[[Abeir]]====
The counter-Toril is a parallel planet no one knew about before because it occurred in the same dimensional space until the spellplague screwed with reality.
Home to the [[Dragonborn]] and primordial elementals, as well as all the new sub-giant races and whatever else was introduced in 4e. Ruled over by evil draconic overlords, barring a few kingdoms founded by rebellious giants and humans. Oh, and some weird undead empire that has magical undead-only portals connecting to all graveyards and mausoleums and crypts on Toril, which they claim as their territory.

==Abridged History==
===Creation===
[[Ao]] creates the twin sister deities [[Shar]] and [[Selûne]]. Shar is darkity darkness levels of evil and Selûne isn't. So naturally, they hate each other. They swirl around in the void that is Realmspace for gods know how long until via catfighting, they accidentally create Toril and create a couple of gods, mainly [[Chauntea]] and [[Mystryl]]. The latter going on to die several times and become [[Mystra]] because she couldn't fucking balance the byproduct of her creation, the Weave, which is the source of all magic, both Arcane and Divine. Things just got out of hand after that and next thing you know, you've got your campaign setting.

===Karsus's Folly===
[[Netheril]], the Empire of Magic, ruled most of Faerûn long before Dale Reckoning. Netherese archmages were capable of obscene displays of magical power, such as the ''mythallar'' magic engines that enabled their signature floating cities to exist. The innately magical [[phaerimm]] opposed Netheril's heavy use of magic and retaliated, starting a war for the control of magic that created the [[Anauroch Desert]].

In -339 DR, the archwizard [[Karsus]] attempted to save the empire by becoming a god. He created what is likely the only 12th-level spell in existence, ''Karsus's avatar'', and used it to steal the power of [[Mystryl]], goddess of the Weave. His last thought before the spell turned him to stone was probably "I have made a huge mistake." The Weave, damaged by the Netheril-phaerimm war, finally collapsed without Mystryl's constant intervention, causing all magic to fail. That included the ''mythallars''. The majestic floating cities of Netheril plummeted to the ground.

In short, Karsus ruined everything for everybody on that day. Fortunately, Mystryl reincarnated herself and rose again as [[Mystra]], marking the first in the goddess's long line of deaths and rebirths. She repaired the Weave, managed to save three Netherese enclaves, and restructured the arcane magic of the Realms, cutting off mortal mages from spells above ninth level and requiring them to prepare their spells in advance.

This sparked all the shit that went down in the game [[Neverwinter Nights]] 2, and is the reason why magic sort of meets a cap.

===Times of Troubles===
The Times of Troubles, also known as the Avatar Crisis, started in 1358 DR when the two deities [[Bane]] and [[Myrkul]] thought it would be a great idea to steal the Tablets of Fate from the overdeity [[Ao]]. As punishment Ao banishes all of the gods to walk on Toril as mortals (except for [[Helm]] who was to guard the gateway back into the heavens) until whoever stole them felt bad and returned them. During this time [[Mystra]] got some of her power back and thought it would be a brilliant idea to challenge Helm to get back into the heavens. Helm wouldn't have any of it and bitch slapped her down the Celestial Stairway. She hit the bottom and died in an explosion of magic. Eventually, some mortals, Midnight (who went on to be the next Mystra), [[Kelemvor]], [[Cyric]], and [[Adon of Sune]], fixed everything and they got be gods for a reward. Except for Adon of Sune, he really got the short end of the stick on the loot table for that encounter. He lost faith in Mystra, committed suicide, then got his faith back and went on to frolic in the brothel in the sky. This signaled the change from AD&D 1e to the second edition and magic changed in real-time in correspondence to these events, depicted in the canon Forgotten Realms Comic book series, featuring [[Bruce Campell]] as an Ex-drug addict [[halfling]], an ex-alcoholic [[Paladin]], an Elf with expressions that would put the Laughing elf to shame, a hot golem, and other goodies.

Keep in mind these are relatively recent events, being about 150 years before 5e modern times, 3 to 4 generations ago, where you could ask an older Dwarf or Elf what it was like during that chaos when gods walked the world.

===The Spellplague===
In 1385 DR the goddess [[Shar]] had the god [[Cyric]] stab the goddess of magic Mystra. This caused giant pillars of blue fire to ravage Toril, killing untold masses and driving most wizards to madness. One of the few wizards to be unaffected by the event is [[Szass Tam]], who continues to be a badass by turning into an uber-powerful [[lich]], seizing control over Thay, and killing off almost everybody there to create a fuck-huge kingdom of the undead. To make matters worse, unlike the previous times Mystra has died she couldn't reincarnate, a stunning development that "changes the rules of magic" which translates as another real-time spell-casting change for [[4e]] rules, just like what happened in the Time of Trouble. Parts of the planet end up either destroyed or switching places with parts of the land from [[Abeir]]. [[Elminster]] lost his special status and all his powers, and most of his Chosen buddies wound up dead. The Pantheon was reshuffled, [[Tiefling]]s changed to match the new unified tiefling look, and the [[World Tree]] was reshaped into the [[World Axis]]. It was a huge upheaval, with insurmountable [[rage]] from its critics.

===The Sundering===
In 1485, the worlds of [[Abeir]] and Toril split apart again, as WoTC tried to desperately bring back the Faerun grognards by [[retcon|retconning]] the Spellplague. It turns out being stabbed wasn't in fact enough to kill Mystra, she was just hungry and had wandered off to find a cheeseburger made of her own children. Abeir went back to where it belonged and several other dead gods who were deemed superfluous suddenly came back to life.

This event was known as the 'Sundering' but the writers didn't want to piss off the fans, so they held off explaining what the fuck happened until the fans could tell them what, in their opinion, should have happened. While waiting to be told how to do their jobs, dragons attacked everyone, trying to rescue [[Tiamat]] from [[Baator|Hell]] where she had in fact NOT been since before the Spellplague but because she was there in every other setting, we're all supposed to pretend that she was, so mighty adventurers can stop her from escaping in a linear story which was easier than the likes of the first time this asspull was pulled with Bloodstone Pass,''' Fuck you [[Bahamut]]'''.

From there, various other intersecting adventure modules happened at roughly the same time, and since things were mostly back to the pre-4e days everyone was happy. Except for [[dragonborn]] fans (and Dragonborn, whatever you think of them, are still a damn core race), as the writers quickly killed almost all of them off, or crammed them into a tiny corner of the world. Nonetheless, many grognards still balk at the return of several 4th edition era elements, such as cramming the [[Shadowfell]] and the [[Feywild]] in the Great Wheel. But, appeasing the old guard is ridiculously hard anyway. As much as the old guard wants a full reboot back to the Old Gray Box era (or some other era which can't be agreed on), the Sundering made it pretty clear that there is "One Canon, One Story, One Realms". Given the popularity of this new Realms among new players, it's unlikely that any major reboot or alteration will happen any time soon.

==The Appeal of Forgotten Realms==
In 1975 Sony released the Betamax video cassette system as a system of playing recorded TV shows and similar on your TV. A year later, JVC released the first VHS system and there was a competition between these two formats. Both of these systems had their pros and cons comparatively with Betamax having among other benefits higher image quality. But ultimately VHS won the competition, mostly because it was more accessible to consumers and movie studios and as such established itself as the standard. Everyone had a VHS VCR, so everyone was buying VHS tapes and since everyone was buying VHS tapes people bought VHS VCRs and similar until DVDs and Blu Rays showed up.

Similarly, Dungeons and Dragons have become the standard for what people think of when someone brings up a tabletop RPG and Forgotten Realms has become that for the DnD setting. People may not have read the lore books 100% through but nowadays most people could imagine the broad strokes of the setting going in. Parties of Human Bards and Paladins, Dwarf Warriors, High Elven Mages, Wood Elven Archers and Halfling Rogues and Bards wandering the countryside and delving dungeons dealing with orcs, kobolds, bandits, beholders, skellingtons, necromancers, and various monsters leading up to the many flavors of dragons. When you see someone doing a tabletop campaign in fiction, it's usually based on Forgotten Realms more often than not. For better or worse, Forgotten Realms is the Archetype. As it's the thing that most people are familiar with and as such is something that is easy for a tabletop group to get into. You may think the whole Tolkien Knockoff world thing is overdone. You may desire something with fresh ideas in a novel setting built largely from the ground up. Fully valid positions to hold which encourage creativity. But the ability to get into a familiar setting without having to look through a whole bunch of homework is convenient and lets you shake things up if you want to using that common framework.

==Interesting Side Notes==
*[[Drizzt]] will outlive all of his friends and he cries about this often until they fixed it.
*There was a time Drizzt was bearable until all of his adventures amounted to the power of friendship and his magical power of secretly Lolth's blessing empowering him into a [[murderhobo]] [[edge]] lord that got so broken he BEAT FUCKING [[Demogorgon|DEMOGORGON]] with the power of an anime power-up one-shot asspull to SAVE THE [[Underdark|UNDERDARK]]
*The Neverwinter Online scenario of this event had the Demon Prince smack him and his party straight into an Abyssal rift, after the generic shounen speech of the power of friendship which is a great way to retcon this entire event for a ranger beating a monster so hard to kill based on how much it can throw at a party in summon-spam alone, nevermind the threat the creature itself actually poses.
*[[Elminster]] has sex with Elvira who is polymorphed into a man. He also was turned into a woman once, he's effectively, [[Heresy|a massive fucking degenerate]] that hasn't been killed off because plot Armour and horribly oppressive "good" organization of spies, scouts, and adventurers he tricks into doing his work for him, he also advertises Faerun as anything but a clusterfuck continent so full, it feels more like the description of the endless murderfest an MMORPG provides over an actual living setting.
*[[Szass Tam]] is fucking awesome and basically Ming the Merciless in D&D.
*[[Larloch]], Feared Master of the Warlock's Crypt, is one of the few statted NPCs representatives of a finalized epic-level minmaxed PC wizard, with so much shit in his arsenal he ranks as a DMPC in his own right. He's also (with a little bit of Szass Tam) the inspiration for the character of Ainz Ooal Gown from [[Approved anime|Overlord.]]
*[[Tempus]], the badass bro jock god of battle.
*The world goes to hell in the [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition|4th edition]].
*After apparently being killed by one of his only friends, the god Helm survived the Spellplague in the form of a goat.
*The first 3-D CRPG was set in FR.
*[[This Guy|Jarlaxle the dashing drow mercenary]] had a [[Monstergirls|three way with twin copper dragon sisters]] named Tazmikella and Ilnezhra.
*[[Khelben Blackstaff]] has a fear of Lawyers and will do ANYTHING in his powers to avoid them, even resorting to elaborate illusions of unwanted marital scenarios to avoid lawsuits from extraplanar entities (I am not making this up)
*The setting is so high magic that even before the current established era in 3.5 and onward, even back in Ancient Netheril, there were FUCKING LICHES EVERYWHERE.
*The God of Vampires does not give a fuck, do not try to make him, he will just try to eat you and fuck with you on his layer of the Abyss.
*His high priest fucks Lolth, and this is the reason why Drow like vampires so much
*The last time a vampire gave a shit in FR, he nearly conquered [[Baldur's Gate]] itself solo, but got his ass kicked because he went ahead of a forty-thousand undead strong army with a [[macguffin]] that literally made him an [[Elder Evil]], by technicality of demigod level strength which would have been even more broken anyway as he was a base vampire + vampire Lord
*[[Minsc]] was petrified, turned into stone, and kept preserved until [[Wizards of the Coast|marketing]] would call upon him again for a lackluster comic book series that is only good for shilling 5th edition products as bad as Neverwinter Online and [[Baldur%27s_Gate_(Games)#Siege_of_Dragonspear|Siege of Dragonspear]].
*[[Doomed Forgotten Realms]] exists.

===Forgotten Realms And Sex===
The current Forgotten Realms material is highly sanitized from Ed's original vision. In FR as created by Ed:

*Bi-sexuality is normal (and yes, this means the [[Elf|men]] as well as the [[Amazon|women]])
*Transgenderism is encouraged by several deities so that priests can experience life as the other sex
*"Revels" (some of which involve sex) are normal
*"Festhalls" (many of which employ prostitutes as staff) are relatively common and visiting them is the normal way to spend evening.
*Prostitution is a core industry of Forgotten Realms; "sex workers" are all over and there are about 40 different names for different kinds of prostitutes.
*Incest is a normal way for noble families to "indulge feelings of mutual affection" (poor people don't as they can't afford the contraception)
*Pretty much all of the immortal NPCs in the Realms have come to believe that accepted sexual norms such as temperance are bullshit, so they flout them. Constantly.

All of this is confirmed by [[Ed Greenwood]] himself, from Ed's responses to fan queries on the Candlekeep forum.
[http://www.candlekeep.com/library/articles/sse/so_saith_ed.htm So Saith Ed here,] [https://pastebin.com/hEVadYsN here,] [https://pastebin.com/1MuQ6wFt and here.] It's also all completely, 100% canon thanks to Ed's ludicrously favorable contract.

Of course, this isn't exactly out of place in certain historical periods and cultures (Per example the Greeks, the Etruscans, were particularly known for having frequent orgies, Canaanite religion frequently involved cross-dressing (which may be why the Bible forbids it) and the nobility of many cultures like Hawaiians and the Ptolemy Egyptians practiced sibling incest so as to avoid muddling the bloodline with peasant genome; Rome had all of the above at various points), so some individual cultures or nations with this going on probably wouldn't be off the mark, and notably, the post that included the stuff about incest also included that Ed himself is against incest... but when the whole damn world is into this stuff, it's not treated as a problem, no one questions it and there's no sign of things changing, then clearly the author has something on his mind.

In short, the Forgotten Realms are [[Ed Greenwood]]'s [[magical realm]] cleaned up by [[TSR]] and later [[Hasbro]] for general consumption, and the Romantic Encounters mod for [[Baldur's_Gate_(Games)|Baldur's Gate]] is probably canon.

As of 5E, WoTC has decided to embrace the first bullet-point, there are random bits of homosexuality everywhere. Two men sharing a bed, a married pair of male porters and married pair of homesteaders, a gnome settlement with two kings, and a shopkeeper with nonbinary pronouns all appear in 5e adventures. An attempt to [[Retcon]] the massively corrupt and crime-ridden city of Waterdeep into "Seattle during Pride" was actually met with significant backlash.

No regular orgies in every village yet, but [[Rime of the Frostmaiden]] does feature a completely inbred town.

{{D&D-Settings}}

[[Category:Forgotten Realms]]