I love the idea of a dragon baby sitting a convoy. "Ummm, mystical powerful beast as old as time and powerful as a country, we appreciate your kindness but how will we every repay you for protecting us?" "Repay? I'm the majority shareholder in this venture, now get back on the road before I cut your salaries for delaying us too long"

I have to disagree with dragon-controlled markets bubbling like our markets do. Dragons live for thousands of years and so they would likely go for long term income over short term spikes. And the first CEO to sugest gutting the company to boost their stock price would probably get eaten .

The peasants fear chromatic dragons and the rich folk fear the metallic dragons

I could see a turn of phrase developing around Silver Dragons, "Don't rely on the kindness of Silver," which would be to say, that a Silver Dragon's protection and prosperity may be welcomed, but it should not be the bedrock of your kingdom.

I’ve always liked the idea that Silver Dragons are the Gandalfs of the world. Ancient, wise, and immensely powerful beings mingling with mortals in an unassuming form, to advice and guide heroes to succeed against evil, rather than being the one leading the charge

A BBEG taking the form of an ancient dragon wreaking havoc manipulating markets and instigating wars could be potentially terrifying, as slaying a dragon that is so entrenched in the world markets might result in a worldwide economic collapse… whether by absence, or via contingencies to screw over competitors in case of an assassination.

If being in humanoid form gives you a humanoid metabolism, it wouldn't surprise me if some dragons spend a lot of time in that smaller form just to save money on food, or just to be able to be full after one standard person's meal

id love to hear gem dragons/other random spells like druidic that can tell the weather

also as a shapechanging intelligent dragon, you can easily have your starting capital, you just have to sell your old scales or teeth that comme loose of your body, these stuffs have a high price

A few thoughts that came up in this description. The difference in east and west views on good dragons could make for an interesting story if due to travel difficulties no metallic dragons have been to the local continent or part of the continent and as such the locals only know dragons that want to kill them, the very first metallic dragon doing market research may be difficult to play due to the power level but it certainly wouldn't be boring. In a more established setting with dragon merchant princes, I could imagine it be common for ships and caravans to fly the heraldry of an associated dragon to warn others to back off much like merchants have flown national colours, as in real life it is possible this could bring more danger depending on the patron especially in this care if there is more violent competition between dragons that find destroyed their competitors ships a less dangerous means of confrontation than a straight up fight. For the local Silver dragon dying and leaving the region undefended, I could only imagine the local authority issuing the vital quest for a matchmaker to set up this dragon and produce an heir, although I guess working out how to manage any territoriality disputes between the parent and offspring until the parent dies whilst keeping the offspring nearby might be a challenge.

I have two funny images in mind: • a brass dragon similar to the granny from Majora's Mask who is inadvertently putting to sleep anyone to whom it speaks • a gold dragon similar to the Hungry Tiger from Oz which is too Good to eat the treasure it needs

Could you make a video on Chromatic Dragons that is as comprehensive as this one? the "Your Dragons are Bland" vid is more about how dragons influence your worldbuilding, not the dragons themselves. The idea of good vampires is also alluring.

This discussion makes me think of a dragon NPC who serves as a financial advisor to other Dragons and runs a company that just manages wealth. But that dragon is "work averse" as well, so they employ a bunch of Humanoids (and a few young Dragons) that do the busy work and book keeping. Lots of adventure-adjacent plot hooks there!

I loved this. All I could think as I watched this was: all this assumes that dragons must be intensely averse to working together. Of course, many dragons are, but it only takes one example or two or more dragons developing true trust for one another and agreeing to a full partnership, and the game changes completely. Imagine a dragon that is great at organising and managing sitting at the centre of a vast trading empire, with another dragon protecting the most lucrative ventures in person. Their lairs are adjacent, even perhaps built as a single vast building with a wing each (no pun intended). Anyone opposing them has to face not one, but two of the most powerful creatures in existence. Not only does this make it less likely for humanoids adversaries to come against, it also acts as a fabulous defence against chromatic dragons. And then imagine what happens if those two dragons mate, and hatch a few eggs together. And educate those dragons in the family business. Suddenly you have a guild run by the a whole lineage of powerful beings who will each individually outlive almost every humanoid working for them. and when the family head dies? The next dragon in line simply steps up to take over. With centuries (or millennia if you use older lore) to prepare for this, and with the oldest dragons being so much stronger than the younger ones, succession wars should be a rare thing - although when they did occur, that would be a global event. And if one group of dragons can do it, others might seek to emulate them, to varying degrees of success. The differing strategies of each group could lead to many different kinds of stories, from dragon mafias and corporate wars, to courtly intrigue as the only successful draconic family business carefully vets potential mates for their children. And the different ways that humanoid societies can or can't interact with the different dragon families could lead to whole different set of worldbuilding questions.

Crazy how you pump out a long and thoughtful video every week. Keep it going, I’ve been loving these

Even if a country is completely taken over the new owner often pays off the old country's debt to stay on the creditors' good side

Dragons already spend most of their time organizing their hoard. So with the culture of dragons also focusing on building and maintaining the hoard above all else. Combine that with hundreds of years of experience and the fact that the hoard itself is magical and can turn items magical. I think they can handle it

I once had the thought of a story about a Steel Dragon, which are known for living among humanoids, preferring plains, and their curiosity. They try their hand at different occupations to learn new skills, not just adventurer classes but civilian ones like tanners, bakers, etc. And libraries. They'd own massive libraries as part of their hoard, maybe running a printing business and keeping a handful of copies of each new book they make. My favorite idea however, was them being open about being a Dragon, and running a dungeon as a sort of gauntlet training challenge for adventurers, a safe distance from their actual lair. Perhaps allowing wargear and trinkets to mature into magical items in their hoard, then selling them for profit. Or maybe training manuals that turned into skill books while in the hoard.

Metal armor would actually be more effective against lightning breath than non-metal armor. As the metal surrounding your body is more conductive than your body and will therefore direct the current around you, rather than through you: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m7Sod8qVmKrDkok.htmlsi=3O9gW9-BwBCGpX3i Today, faraday suits (a modern analog to chain mail) are worn by those working on power lines.

Well thought-out. A friend and I ran a campaign with a similar theme: dragons began taking an active interest in human / demihuman society. One of the first things they did was pool their resources and create a bank / investment company.

Thank you once more. Confirms more of my own worldbuilding.

In my homebrew setting, Draconic is the language of academia, in part due to its association with magic and ancient knowledge, much like how Latin was used (and to an extent, still is, particularly in legal and scientific terminology) in our world. The idea of it being common among bards and poets too just makes this seem more likely.

Always love how your explanations give me more than a few ideas! I appreciate your work!

I love this idea. You could set up a dichotomy where the Metallic Dragons are the Captains of Industry compared to the Chromatic Dragons' Robber Barons, and the two have conflicts both subtle and massive. Like if Joseph Whitworth and John Jacob Astor decided to beat the shit out of each other.

This is brilliant. I have never included metallic dragons in any campaign but this seems like a cool way to incorporate a few of them in the future 🤩

Nations starting a dragon crusade to avoid paying back loans sounds like a fun idea.

I once built a homebrew where the dwarven nobility were all hald-dragons, and the dwarven cities were all ruled by a dynasty of dragons in dwarven polymorph form. Sort of a secret version of the landed gentry concept describedbin the video.

you should do this with the oddity dragons, ie Song Dragons (my favorite D&D race btw)

In a world I'm currently building, there is this narrow strait (think along the lines of Bosporus) and its surroundings, dividing two power-hungry empires (think along the lines of Romans and Persians). As such, it would obviously be a strategically important point. Now, here is the catch - neither of the empires goes all in to seize the strait and they actually trade through it rather peacefully and don't wage wars through that one. The reason being - a (mating) pair of dragons (a Gold and a Bronze - both amphibious) reside there and enforce the peace and the trade by their draconic might, mostly just taking a toll from the passing traders, but protecting "the other empire" viciously. Both of the empires tried to mount an attack on their neighbor through the strait. Both lost their fleet to the dragon pair and remember those times as some of the tougher ones. By now, the pair controls a small area around the strait as well, having the toll-taking being done by the local Dragonborns, far offsrpings of them. Also, when they have a "small partner argument", the trade tends to stop, because such an argument, while still generally good-natured, still means there are two dragons p!ssed at each other.

Now I just wanna make a port city with a goofy fisherman wearing dungarees and sandals that dives into the ocean and disappears under the surface and transforms into a bronze dragon when he's done fishing for the day

Sensational adaptive conception of the oriental archetype in urban environments! It complements her mythologically inspired bases quite well! I loved your review of the details of the repercussions of its subtle influence on the socio-cultural, the different habits of each specimen and that in a certain way they resemble the chromatics, only with very peculiar differences in charisma! Great visualization as bank merchants, charlatans poets and empowered warriors!! I don't even want to imagine in the case of Giants, fairy entities and other entities with magical links!

“Dragons would make one heck of a collections agent.” I don’t care who the IRS sends, I’m not paying any taxes

One other aspect of bronze dragons is that they're more than willing to accompany armies into battle if the cause is just and the pay is good. Such a disposition would be amenable to a mercenary captain who may have enough coin, clout, natural charisma and military experience to finance and lead very... lucrative campaigns to that end.

I love the idea of a 'dynasty' of wealthy merchants, nobles or even kings developing. Traveling merchant makes a fortune does some nice things then wonders of comes back decades later claiming to be his son. Or Imagine it could explain the existence of extraordinarily long lived kings or emperors. Maybe people think their wise entrepreneurial ruler who founded an empire rules for centuries and has an odd habit of hoarding wealth is blessed by gods. Then when he 'dies' he is put in a mountain tomb. The adventurers decide to 'explore' his tomb to find that the emperor isn't dead but a massive metallic dragon

I share your every video with my players even before I can watch it myself-never disappointed. Keep up a great work, man!

Why do people always underestimate the experience factor when fighting things that were old before you were born. Any immortal would have the insane prowess at basically anything that is best demonstrated by time loop guys (if you've read pale then Ted is a terrifying example). A great example of this is in the mummy WoD game where you start out with 3x as much dots as characters from other game lines because the mummy is so old and experienced.

In today's episode of Accountants & Actuaries... Markets & Mercantilists... Undead & Underwriters...

This is such a good channel, man. Keep it up.

I'm surprised I'm not already subscribed to you. I just watched your video about Christmas in fantasy and picked this one as another one to watch while I finished walking the dog and making breakfast. Then at the end of the video I realized that I had not subscribed even though your stuff is consistently good. Don't worry that's been remedied.

I really like your videoes, they've given me a lot of inspiration to create for my D&D campaign

If a dragon immerses itself THAT much in the lives of humans, some questions arise. What about elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc.? And if they spend so much time shapeshifted, are there half dragons running around somewhere?

Spoilers for Curse of Strahd. The concept behind that module's silver dragon Lord Argynvost as the head of a knightly order akin to the Templars or Hospitallers is intensely interesting to me. In real life, such knightly orders were obscenely wealthy because not only did the noblemen who joined their ranks donate everything they owned to the order as a prerequisite to join, but also the orders received massive amounts of what we call today "large quantity small donor" donations from common folk who supported their cause (protecting pilgrims to the Holy Land). The Templars literally became some of the most powerful bankers of their time, while the Hospitallers spent some of their excess capital running hospitals (origin of the name). And this is all before the plunder that these organizations, ahem, liberated while on campaign. Lord Argynvost probably would have had a mind-boggling hoard as the leader of such an organization.

One thing I think about a lot is how cloud giants in particular would meddle with dragons and their mutual interest in humanoid markets and wealth. Dragons arent without competition, and building wealth is exactly what cloud giants specialize in within The Ordning. Giants typically don't like dragons very much, and I can imagine cloud giants being very petty about it, especially if a dragon influences a market away from their favor. Cloud giants might not live as long as dragons, but 400 years is still quite a bit of time to build experience; especially when it's a family business they dedicate their entire craft into. A dragon could help fund a countries war effort, but a cloud giant could do the same for the other side. Reports of a dragon guarding trade caravans or merchant ships, giants may take a very vested interest in that. Cloud giants might even compete in contests with other cloud giants on wether or not they could undermine a dragons finances. Cloud giants would likely be just as protective of their business investments as dragons might be, which puts them in direct competition with something makes dragons a good idea to work with. I can imagine there being a lot of businessmen who might consider working with a dragon to be too great a risk if it was ever found out, which creates an interesting dynamic with competing factions.

This is a great video. I have a setting I've been developing that is described as "Mad Max, but ruled by dragons" so this will be quite usefull.

Your videos are just awsome. Glad I found them. ❤😊

I always assume Metallic Dragons manifest their shapeshifting from viewing mortals and getting that yearning to mingle with them. Like a bird pushed off the nest to fly for the first time it just comes to them. Minus the bird possibly just falling and dying part.

The Dragon as a wealth hoarding powerful business owner plays out in Shadowrun. At least one of the global conglomerates has a Dragon at the head of it.

New BBEG idea: An orphan brass dragon that got taken in by a purple dragon family (yes they actually do have families) that now monologues when ever they capture the party.

You never escape the IRS. Especially when the IRS is a dragon

It would be great if you made a similar video on gem dragons, I want to build world of my DnD campain around dragons and your work helps me very much

I would like to point out lazy is a good chromatic dragon personality, especially if you do good imitations of house cats. The party is the mice.

This was a very thoughful and inspiring video!

I'm playing a drow draconic sorceror with a silver dragon bloodline. Long ago a silver dragon helped a group of Eilistraean drow escape the Underdark and settle on the surface. He spent many decades living among them in drow form and took many lovers, siring many children. These surface drow have a sorceror's guild to train those that are born with the gift.

Dragon kings, then, are almost inevitable.

Years ago, I had a silver dragon PC that reached max level and "retired" into NPC status. I had him start an adventurer's guild. lol So I agree 100% with your assessment of silver dragons and their activities! I would love to see a gem dragon version of this still, as well.

Dragons in several versions of d&d note that they can eat anything

Thanks, now any player is going to automatically suspect that every inexplicably wealthy merchant is a dragon in disguise.

Patron a band of adventures with 'pocket change'. Metallic Dragon mafioso

I LOVE the bronze Dragons too

An idea I thought of was metallic dragons Because. They're usually good aligned. Would help people? And as a result, those individuals could become. nobles or merchants or even monarchs, depending on. how much help they get from said metallic dragon. For example, let's say a warrior Whether they are aware of it or not, the. befriends a silver dragon Because the Warrior saved their life or. some other reason. So the silver dragon gives them some gold from their horde And because of that the. warrior in question. effectively ascends to noble status. and as a result, that noble house Would have a draconic motif. like a dragon on the coat of arms and A lot of draconic imagery within the estate.

In most fantasy dragons are considered intelligent. Very intelligent. Which means they are intelligent enough to know that causing attention will only attract adventurers to want to slay it. Dragons are also typically very rich. How do they get there? Do they rob people of gold? Combining that would mean a dragon should know of their power and just deal with the nearby village. Not going there to steal cows for a snack, but buy them. And the village gives cows in return for protection. And since the dragon is seen as a protector, no call goes to to "save us from the dragon". Sure, any dragon of respectable size could just force the villagers to give up the cows, but why alienate your neighbors if you can be profitable together. In fact, the village with a nearby dragon should be safe from bandits and orc warbands. The villagers give food and the promise not to call for knights to slay the dragon, and the dragon protects the village from dangers. Sounds like a pretty good deal.

I have had an idea for a silver dragon pc for a while now but I don’t think it’ll be particularly balanced.

Sounds like how Dragons are handled in "Prince Division". It's not the focus of this modern fantasy campaign and the DM departed from the chromatic/metallic alignment and personality confinements. it's up on youtube to check out

Love this video

I'd love to hear more from you about Sphynxes, actually

Love the idea of the unique friendship between a human(oid) bard who was the only one with the courage to speak up against a copper's bullshit and said dragon, impressed by the audacity.

I'd like to see Gem dragons and, although not officially in 5e, ferrus and specifically Obsidian dragons. I find it difficult to wrap my head around just how intelligent Obsidian dragons are and how I could implement them

Copper dragons are my favorite of the metallic dragons. I like using Ferris dragons and gem dragons the most.

The banking dragon decides to cause rapid inflation by consuming some of the gold in the Bank's vault.

I'd love a video on gem dragons, though given they live in the Underdark it's unlikely they have a huge impact. Also, silver dragons probably invented musems.

Perhaps Dragons have existed for long enough that ancient civilization, say similar to our world's bronze age, had significant involvement from metallics in that era, and the destabilization they wrought was so thorough, and determined by the majority of metallics to be somewhat detrimental to the mortal races, that they have established laws among their own kind as to how much interference is considered acceptable. Perhaps clauses for a duration of an identity, or perhaps a need to divest from certain markets before their power becomes too outsized in a mortal society. These laws would likely be unknown to mortals, but perhaps strictly enforced by certain metallics, and likely, followed within a certain margin of error by others.

Its true that draconic politics could shape the world. But also, its should be noted until couple centuries ago, all dragons were subjected to dracorage mithal. Draconic civilization was anahilated, and dragons were forced to solitary life style, until very recently. And slowly, they begin their rise back. Hense, Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat adventures.

I would love to hear about gem dragons, I see so little about them.

The more noble and trustworthy of metallic dragons could also serve as long-term guardians and trustees of other people’s funds. For example, in my world of Firma, after the prophet Imredim won a great war against a neighboring empire, he ordered a university built and handed the spoils of battle over to a mated pair of silver dragons as an endowment to keep the university running in perpetuity. The dragons invest the horde in camel caravans and merchant shipping, much as you described, so it generates enough wealth to pay the professors and maintain the lecture halls and library without diminishing the hoard. Imredim ordered that students who passed the entrance exam should not have to pay any tuition. In the centuries since Imredim died, the dragons have held to the letter of this decree, but they started allowing students who failed the exam to study too, if they paid a “contribution” to the hoard first. Now many students accuse the dragons of raising the exam standards too high so as to get more students to fail the exams and get more contributions.

What about the rarely mentioned platinum dragon?

I wonder if gold dragons will discover how to make gems artificially, or build giant pearl farms

Imagine a fuddly old dragon that doesn't quite trust or understand new technology. And by new, I mean anything that was invented in the last 500 years. Or a dragon that's just a bit thick. Perhaps the best they can offer is transport. Hauling a cargo of spices back and forth between distant lands.

Imagine unraveling a massive conspiracy pulled right out of James Bond and the boss named Gold finger is literal description. lol.

obviously lightning breath in D&D does whatever it does. I will say I'm not convinced by the idea that metal armor is weak to electrical attacks. If anything, it should act like a Faraday cage. Cars and even bicycles offer a degree of protection from electrical hazards because they redirect the current around them and equilibrate the current across their metal exterior, leaving everyone inside or on them typically unharmed. A bicycle wouldn't help against a direct strike, but a suit of metal armor actually might, and a car almost completely neutralizes the threat of direct lightning strikes.

Before 5e all dragons can eat treasure and in a pinch they can eat dirt and stone but for optimal health and pleasure sll want a mix of meat treasure and often plant material. Not to mention obscure things like morning dew in a dessert.

Only thing I don't like about this is the idea of metallic dragons doing anything remotely shady, untoward, or cruel, to gain their wealth. As said, they are good. They are not greedy individuals nor malicious. They would not be loan sharks that will eat you for not paying back your debts, because that would be more akin to evil and Bahamut, their creator and king, would not be pleased. Additionally this is also ignoring that metallics tend to be more isolated, save for Silvers.

I nominate a few names for said companies; Adventure Capital Investments Relic Investments Baggs Holdings Inc. Goldson & Squire's Derrick's Dungeoneering Consolidated Kobold Dynamics Holy Wood Light and Magic Djinnetic Engineering PTY LTD DemonDyne

I always characterise dragons as almost eldritch beings, immortals just wouldn't have the same priorities as mortals, they have all the time in the world to do things so why wait?

I’m imagining a silver dragon acting like Trazyn the Infinite

I do still thing that removing the "colour coded for your convenience" trope only makes dragons more interesting.

Just imagine an "open" dragon that a community trusts, having half-breed children to enrich the population with sorcerers because mages are valuable. And an adventuring party's bard sees the woman they were flirting with walk up to the local dragon with no fear and call it "Grandpa". His buddies proceed to tackle and tie him up, all the way to the blacksmith to ask for a chastity belt.

Human civilization as an rts played by Dragons

I'm just trying to get an apartment but Palarandusk says my DRACO credit score is insufficient as I only have 30years credit history smh

Silver dragons are my favourite. That is all.

This view of Metallics would also very much serve to heighten the superstition and repute of the 'cruel, alien, unstoppable' Giant. Storm Giants and Hill Giants regardless of their own nurtured kindness have a cultural biological disdain and wish to hunt *all* Dragons. Crushing young influencial Silvers, Coppers, and Bronzes. Creating Horde bubbles and adventuresome investments that warrant the existence of lv16+ Dungeons.

When a copper dragon gets really old, do they turn green?

I interpreted the chromatic personalities as: xenophobic (black), manipulative/controlling (green), vain (blue), tyrannical/destructive (red) and feral/instinctual (white). While these things still all bleed into each other a bit there are some opposites. Black dragons are least likely to play well with others, while green dragons are most likely. A blue dragon is prideful of its looks even more so than it's power, as opposed to a red dragon. White dragons are bullies because they are used to being low on the food chain (considering other dragons and giants), while red dragons are tyrannical because they know they have the power to back it up.

I'm a super talkative dude so might just roll copper dragonborn so I can play on my obnoxiousness xP

Not the dragon depression and rise of dragon communism and a dragon cold war

I love a lot of these ideas, but I think a lot of them require breaking away from the assigned "alignment" of dragons. You say that altruism and goodness are not the same thing, but I would seriously challenge that - I think altruism is the closest thing we have to a philosophy of "good", just as objectivisim is the closest thing to a philosophy of "evil". While a metallic dragon may be psychologically compelled to amass a hoard, if it were to do so through predatory and harmful means (such as lending for personal profit), it would no longer be a "good" creature. For-profit rentiers are Neutral at best!

Good.

Man, brass dragons sound like me when I am being socially unaware from being within the autism spectrum. Lol

I really feel like the World of Warcraft dragons were heavily designed upon the metallic dragons, as most of them are good aligned and the ones that werent were black dragons corrupted by the Old Gods. Up until Dragonflight, all the protodragons (chromatics) were enemies and generally regarded as either unintelligent or so far above the mortal races that they regarded us as not worth speaking to.

Actually an interesting element of early banking was the banning of Christians charging interest (investing apparently didn't count along with other work arounds) and also the habit of kings just abolishing the banks. A successful bank could just have their assets seized by the king or just refusing to pay (and unfortunately pogromed if they were jewish). This also made putting money with banks very risky. Id imagine thats not as easy to do with a dragon lol

Dragons could be the easiest "quest givers": adventurers could be tasked with salvaging a failing investment or collecting on a debt on behalf of her dragon. Likewise, the party could systematically "pitch" their ideas in a literal _dragon's den_ to get funding and protection on their quests. Heck, it would be an original way to start a game: instead of meeting in a tavern, the players' characters are all hired by a dragon banker as a task force to retrieve some treasure, investigate an insurance claim or impact a market. Logically, States should exist primarily around dragons. The first duty of a country is defence: political power stems from protection first and foremost.